Her gut swirled with a sickening sense of unease at the thought, but she told herself to put the question away, and she handed Ray the leash and let him lead the way to the salon. The first drop of rain landed on her head so she fell in step behind him. She quickly fired off atext.
Rainey:Sorry! Met RC. We are walking in together! Whatnow?!?
As if thelast place he wanted to be was outside, Archie made a beeline for the salon, likely following Jacques’s scent. Ray had to run to keep up with the dog, so Rainey had to run to keep up with Ray. Rain started to peck at the pavement beneath them as they ran. Ray reached the salon, flung the door wide, stepped in, and held it open forher.
“Ray, honey? Is that you? Sounds like it’s getting rough out there.” Rainey heard what had to be Gloria call from a hidden corner of the salon. She could hear water running. Gloria must have been washing Jacques’shair.
“Yeah, Mom.” Ray disappeared around the corner, but Rainey stayed near the front of the salon out of sight like the coward she was. “Look, Mom, this isArchie.”
“Oh!” Gloria gave a startled cry. “Hello, Archie. Son, who does he belong to?” Rainey heard Gloria ask, and at that moment, her stomach plummeted as she realized what she’ddone.
Ray turned to face her with a beckoning smile. “He belongs to your next client, Rainey,” he offered helpfully, and Rainey’s blood turnedarctic.
The water shut off. “Wh-what did you say, Ray?” Gloria’s voice was almost hushed with an eeriedisbelief.
“I said Archie belongs to Rainey, your next client,” Ray jabbered on, but as he did, Rainey froze because she heard the distinct clop of high-heeled shoes. “She was going to leave him in the car but, I toldher…”
Rainey lost the sense of Ray’s words as soon as Gloria rounded the corner. A flash of lightning lit the salon’s windows. For an instant, she saw how the woman’s face was screwed into a frown of confusion until she laid eyes on her, and the kaleidoscope of emotions spun rapidly from confusion to shock torage.
“Howdareyou?!” Gloria roared. She looked exactly like her Facebook profile picture, down to her Beyoncé waves sun-kissed with highlights. Except she wasn’t smiling as she had in the profile. No, her brown eyes blazed with fury, and the plunging neckline of her sleeveless, button-down blouse revealed bulging veins in the base of her throat that forewarned of violence. “How dare you speak to myson!”
Ray had reared back at his mother’s attack. “Mom—” His own confusion made him step forward and raise a hand to stop Gloria’s advance on Rainey. “It’s okay. She’snice—”
“Ray!” Gloria nearly shouted at her son. At that moment, with his hair dripping water, Jacques came around the corner with alarm in his eyes. “Go to the back roomrightnow.”
“But, Mama, what’s wrong?” He gestured toward Rainey in a way that pierced her heart. She didn’t deserve his kindness or his protection. “Why are you yelling at her? You don’t even knowher.”
Gloria never took her eyes from Rainey, and all of Rainey’s carefully planned words blew out of her mind like dandelion wisps in agale.
“Oh,” Gloria spoke through clenched teeth, her eyes narrowing on Rainey as she advanced on her, “I know who sheis.”
Rainey swallowed as she prepared to be thrown — maybe even bodily — out of the salon. But it wasn’t Gloria’s angry voice that filled theroom.
It wasJacques’s.
“She’s your sister, Ray Charles.” His deep baritone bass rumbled around them. “And she’s here for yourhelp.”
Chapter 23
Jacques knewwhen both women turned to him with identical looks of stunned horror that he’d probably botched everything, but they were dead wrong if they thought he was going to stand by in silence. He wasn’t about to watch anyone light into Rainey the way Gloria Lopez-Craine had, and in his split-second decision, he’d determined that the only way they had a chance of getting what they came for was to let Rainey’s little brother know that he was, in fact, her littlebrother.
As for Ray Charles — or Ray, as his mother addressed him — he wore a stunned expression, but it noticeably lacked any taint of horror as his gaze bounced among the three adults in the three full seconds after Jacques’s declaration silencedeveryone.
And to Jacques’s relief, the kid was the first to speakup.
“Mom, is that true?” His voice didn’t waver as he looked at his mother, and Jacques liked the kidimmediately.
Gloria Lopez-Craine’s mouth hung in anO, and she opened and closed it twice before any sound came out. “You heard me, Ray,” her voice shaking audibly. “Go to theback.”
Ray ignored her and turned his hazel eyes — identical to his sister’s — to Rainey. “No wonder I thought you looked familiar,” he said, pushing his glasses up hisnose.
Gloria turned back to face Jacques with a narrowed stare. “I don’t know who you are,” she growled at him. “But I want you out of my salon now, and you can take that no-good Reeves woman with you. You’renotwelcome here. Leave now before I call thepolice.”
Jacques was about to try to reason with the irate woman when Rainey spoke softly toRay.
“We have another sister, too. Her name is Holi. And she’ssick—”
“Stop!” Gloria screamed, lunging toward Rainey with menace in hereyes.
