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Eric and I were having a lazy afternoon, watching movies on my laptop and periodically making out with no real goal other than to tease each other. We’d just started The Bourne Identity when my phone began to buzz. It was Dax.
I grabbed it from the coffee table and took the call. “You better have a good reason for bothering me.”
“It’s time.”
“Already?”
Dax laughed. “It’s been two days.”
I knew that, but I wanted more time.
“I thought you were anxious to do away with this son of a bitch.”
“I am.”
“But?”
I scowled at the phone. “It’s nice here.”
“Nice?”
“With Eric.” I tried to keep my voice low, but I could tell by the way his lips quirked up—despite the tense action scene he pretended to be absorbed in—that he’d heard.
“You like being alone with him.”
“I do.”
“Are you at your cabin?”
I glanced around. “I’m at an undisclosed location.”
“You better not have taken him too far. Remy wants us to gather in an hour.”
“Where is this meetup taking place?”
“There’s an abandoned barn about five miles from the shed LePlatt used. Down the Fontenot.”
“I’ve seen it.”
“Good. Be there.”
I sighed. I didn’t want to go to a stupid family meeting, but I could tell Dax really needed me to agree to this, so I did it for him. He’d given up the trip he’d been planning for ages to come home because I needed him.
“Is it time to go?” Eric asked as soon as I ended the call.
“It is. We’ve been summoned.”
“Right. Should I get my things?”
“No, we’re coming back here when this is over.” Hadn’t he said he wanted—
“I know, but I wasn’t sure how long we’d be gone. There might be a lot of things that need taking care of.”
“No. I’ll need to bring you here.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do.”
24
Eric
“You ready?” Ambrose asked as we approached the meeting location.
“I’ve already met your family.”
“Yes, but you’ve never been in a room with everyone.”
“It’s a barn. I doubt we’ll be particularly confined. I can handle it.” I spoke with far more confidence than I felt. I’d held my own around plenty of dangerous men as a homicide detective, but the Theriots all together were decidedly intimidating, even to someone with the kind of background I had.
I took a deep breath as Ambrose eased open the barn door, and we stepped inside. I’d suspected we were late since Ambrose had insisted on a quickie before we left. Remington had started without us.
“I just got word that our informant has been extracted,” he was saying as we joined the circle of Theriot men. “He’s on his way to Texas now.”
“Where will he be staying?” Lance asked. “You’ve been way too cagey about it.”
“He’s going to The Ranch.”
Dax frowned. “I didn’t think they were in business anymore.”
“They’re under new management,” Remington said. “A man X knew from the military was looking for a new career and happened to know his way around a horse.”
I started to wonder if I was hearing things. “What have horses got to do with a place to hide?”
“It’s a horse ranch,” Ambrose said as if that cleared everything up. I’d assumed ranch was a code word. Why the hell would they send the informant to an actual working ranch? “Where are we meeting Carlotti?”
“Same place we took out LePlatt.”
That surprised the hell out of me. “He agreed to meet there even though we know the territory well and it’s in my jurisdiction?”
Remington smiled. “I convinced him it would be easier to bring you to him if we met in Albertine Parish, and I reminded him he also knew the terrain well. He hated the insinuation he couldn’t fight on his own turf, and he said it would be the last time we set foot there.”
“His turf?” I protested. “That land—”
Ambrose laid a hand on my arm. “I hope to hell I don’t have to see the place again after tonight.”
“We can’t just—”
Remington interrupted me. “Carlotti won’t live long enough to give the citizens of your parish any more trouble. You have my word.”
I nodded. “Thank you.” Remington might have done a lot of things I wouldn’t agree with, but I knew he didn’t give his word lightly. I also knew how seriously he took family loyalty. If Ambrose had claimed me, he wouldn’t fuck me over.
Ambrose and I barely spoke as we drove toward the confrontation with Carlotti, but he clasped my hand so tightly it ached. I wasn’t about to pull away from him, though. We both needed the contact.
When we were as close as we were going to get in our vehicles, Ambrose parked at the edge of the tree line. He circled the front of my truck and blocked me from approaching his brother and cousins.
“No matter what happens tonight, I want you to know I love you.”
I pulled him to me and pressed a kiss to his forehead. “I love you too.”
