Page 7

Chapter 6

“I’ve got to grab this,” Colin murmured to his two partners and their potential new client across from him in the quiet conference room. Normally he would never take a phone call during a meeting like this, but when he saw Mari’s name on his screen, his heart kicked up.

She never called. He only had her phone number because of Evan—and now he was wondering if this was an emergency about her family. It was the only reason he could think for her to call him.

“Is everything okay?” he asked by way of greeting as he stepped out into the hallway.

“I don’t know.” There was a tremble in her voice that instantly had him on high alert.

“What’s going on?”

“I…honestly don’t know.” She let out a sigh. “Probably nothing. I just…could you meet up with me? I know it’s Saturday and you’re likely working, so just later, whenever you can.”

“I can meet you now.” His partners and client might be annoyed, but he could hear worry, if not fear, in her voice.

“Thank you.” Yep, that was definite relief, and it surprised him even more. “I’m at the Crawfish Station.”

He knew it. A tiny restaurant in the Quarter that was ridiculously loud. “I’ll be there in half an hour.”

“I’m in the rear, in one of the booths.”

Instead of ducking back into the conference room, he shot off a text to Gino and Ollie telling them a family emergency had come up. Which was close enough to the truth.

With traffic and parking it took way too long for him to make it to the restaurant, but almost forty minutes later he found Mari where she said, sitting in a back booth.

A half-eaten basket of long, soggy french fries sat in the middle of the table and her glass of water was still full.

And she looked actually relieved to see him, a definite first. Now he was really worried.

“Thank you for coming. I’m really sorry to bother you on a Saturday.”

He understood her apology because it was one of his busy days. Was likely one of her busy days too. People tended to book intro flights on Saturday to see if they wanted to take lessons or hire his company on a contract basis. Had to be the same for her. “It’s no problem. What’s going on?”

A server appeared out of nowhere, a pad in hand. “Would you like to order a drink?” The college-aged guy eyed her water and mostly uneaten fries disapprovingly. Probably because she was taking up a table during the busy lunch hour.

“Whatever your specialty beer is,” Colin said, pulling out the menu from the holding rack. “And I’ll take a BBQ shrimp po’boy, a bowl of gumbo and fries. Can I get it to go though?” Mari was clearly stressed and he wanted to continue this somewhere quieter.

“Of course. Be right back with your drink. ”

“I feel like a jerk for taking up this table,” she said above the noise from the speaker blasting nearby. “I’ll leave him a nice tip.”

Colin waved it away. “I’ve got this. Now what’s going on?” He couldn’t stop his overprotectiveness of her even if he wanted to. She might not like him, but the feeling had never been mutual.

“I flew Ackerman yesterday, my third flight with him since our trial contract.”

“Did he do something?” Colin knew that asshole was no good.

She shook her head. “Not exactly. I overheard him talking to someone at this hangar. Nothing really terrible but the guy he was talking to sounded terrifying. Then Ackerman was really weird on the return flight. Didn’t talk the entire way back. He made it clear that I shouldn’t be walking around that airport at all, which is just weird. Since you said you’d looked into him, I thought you’d have more insight than me.”

“Is that the only thing that happened?”

She hesitated, then shook her head. “Okay, this is going to sound paranoid, but this morning when I headed out to work I felt like I was being followed. I had an early intro flight, but not much else on the books since a couple people canceled. When I headed home I felt like I was being followed again. Then at home it kind of looked like some of my stuff had been moved. Nothing overt but I’m particular about my things.”

“And put it all together and it definitely feels like something is off.”

She shoved out a breath, nodded. “Yeah, it’s why I picked this place to meet,” she said as the server dropped the beer off, then left. “I asked for this table because of the speaker. I feel like I’m being really paranoid but I also don’t want to ignore my gut instinct. So…what did you find out about him? Because my guy made it sound like he was nothing to worry about.”

Colin wondered what she meant by “my guy” but ignored that for now. “That he was smuggling drugs to smaller airports, in addition to his legit business.”

She blinked once, twice, then groaned. “That’s not what I was told. I thought he was investigated for not filling out the right transport forms for antiquities. Really low-level nonsense. Sounded like a competitor trying to jam up his business.”

“That’s true too. So your guy…?”

“Ah, someone I use to do background checks on potential clients. The ones I fly for contract work. Apparently he didn’t dig deep enough.”

“To be fair, I used someone who has government contacts.”

She cursed under her breath. “The conversation I overheard could definitely have been about drugs. At least we’re still on a trial basis. I’ll just end things, tell him it doesn’t work for my schedule.”

Good. “Sometimes guys involved in drugs, even peripherally, can be violent.”

She sat back in her seat as the server dropped off his to-go bag and the check. She went to reach for it, but he snagged it and handed it back to the guy along with his card.

“I asked you here,” Mari said.

He shrugged. “Now I have dinner for later.”

“At least let me pay for my—”

“Just stop. You don’t care whether I pay.”

“No, I don’t.” She rubbed her hands over her face. “God, I feel so stupid. And angry! I’ve been so careful over the last few years not to work with people like this. I should’ve…”

“What?”

“I have a friend who’s essentially in private investigation. She’s offered so many times to be my point of contact for potential new clients. But I guess I just got comfortable using the same person and I didn’t want to mix friendship and business and… Gah, I’ve made a mess of things. ”

“You haven’t made a mess of anything. Chances are this won’t amount to anything. But I don’t like that you think you were followed, or that it felt like someone was in your home. I’m going to follow you back to your place and we’ll do a precautionary check, see if we find any listening devices.”

Her eyes widened. “You really think that’s a possibility?”

“With drug runners? Yeah.”

She was silent for a long moment, then was quiet as the server came back with their bill and left again. “Okay, let’s check out my place I guess for…whatever might be there.”

“We should probably check your car too.”

She blinked again and god, he really wanted to kiss her. The thought wasn’t exactly out of the blue—he’d had the impulse too many times to count over the years—but it sure as hell wasn’t the time.

“Okay. Thank you,” she murmured so low he almost didn’t hear her over the music.

Once they were outside on the street, he slung an arm around her shoulders.

She jerked slightly, looking up at him warily. “What are you doing?”

“You said it felt like someone followed you home and to work. So if someone did follow you, I want this to look like we’re dating.”

“Oh. Okay.” She was stiff as they walked down the street.

Despite the situation he laughed slightly. “Might work better if you wrap your arm around me too.”

“Fine.” She might as well be chewing glass as she gritted out the word, but she leaned into him and slid her arm around his waist.

And he liked the feel of her up against him way too much. Didn’t matter that the timing sucked.

“I’m at the parking lot off Dauphine.”

“I’m not too far from that one. I’ll walk you to yours first.” He kept an eye out for anyone who looked off, though in New Orleans that could be anyone.

It was a Saturday afternoon so there were more people than normal out and a whole lot of tourists on the streets. Especially since they were in the Quarter. Big band music blasted from a nearby bar and restaurant. A woman at the next shop selling T-shirts, shot glasses and any number of souvenir items was passing out flyers.

Colin kept Mari tucked up against him, glad when people seemed to be giving them a wide berth. Likely because of his screw with me and find out expression.

“Did you see anyone who looked strange?” she murmured as they reached her Jeep.

“Define strange.” His tone was dry.

She looked up at him in surprise and laughed, and god, he loved the sound. “Like that guy with the creepy harlequin mask?” She mock shuddered. “That’s the kind of stuff that needs to be outlawed, not nudity.”

He grinned. “You don’t have to convince me. I say we need more naked people walking down the streets.”

She snickered, her shoulders relaxing with her laughter. It had been a long time since she’d been so relaxed around him and he liked it. But they still had to deal with her current situation. “Drop your keys,” he said.

“Uh, what?”

“So I can check the undercarriage.”

“Oh… Jeez. Okay.” She pulled her keys from her small bag and dropped them.

He ducked down, did a quick visual sweep, then another with his phone video.

“You seem really prepared for this kind of thing,” she said as he stood.

“Military stuff.” He held out his phone so they could both watch the short video. “No devices that I can see.” He was talking about explosive ones, though he decided to not say that out loud. If there was an AirTag or something equivalent, he might not have caught it. “We can check more once we get back to your place.”

“Okay, and thank you again.”

“You don’t have to thank me.”

“Pretty sure I do.”

She could thank him by telling him why the hell she had such a personal grudge against him, but he wouldn’t pressure her for an answer when she needed his help. He just hoped that after this she’d finally realize he wasn’t the enemy and open up to him.

But more than that, he wanted to make sure that she wasn’t in any real danger.

***

At her place an hour later, Colin motioned for Mari to step out on her front porch with him. They’d checked her home, looking for any potential listening devices or small cameras. She needed a security system, not just a sign outside that said she had one. Something he would push for later.

“I didn’t see anything.” He stood in front of her on the small walkway that led from the sidewalk to her front porch and patio.

She lived in a quiet neighborhood with limited off-street parking, as was normal in a lot of areas around the city.

“But I don’t think it would hurt to have someone come through and check more thoroughly,” he added.

Sighing, she shoved her hands in her pockets. “I’m starting to feel really foolish. What if I’m just overreacting to a weird incident? ”

He lifted a shoulder. “So what if it’s an overreaction? Better that than just ignoring something that could be serious.”

“Thank you,” she muttered.

“For what?”

“For not making me feel crazy.”

He frowned at that. “It’s smart that you’re trusting your instincts…” He trailed off as she frowned at something behind him. Turning, he saw a dark SUV with tinted windows slowly cruising down her street. “You know them?”

“No, but there’s a house for sale at the end of the—”

“Weapon!” He moved into action, scooping her up and running just as the muzzle of a rifle slid out the cracked window.

He sprinted around the side of the house as gunfire splintered the quiet afternoon air, diving behind the air-conditioning unit with her curled up against him. Not much cover but it was all they had as the rapid fire continued.

When there was a pause, he didn’t waste time. “Come on.” He peered around the edge of the unit, didn’t see the SUV anymore so he grabbed her hand. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

Dark eyes wide, she took his hand. They raced through her gated backyard toward the back fence just as another round of gunfire erupted.