Page 37 of Into the Blue (Shades of Vengeance #1)

“This is where you take me for a first date? Should I expect the Met Gala next time?”

Blue chuckles, swirling his wine that the sommelier brought us with the third course. “Just a step above Off Topz, huh?”

I nod my head, placing a tender slice of the pork into my mouth.

Dinner’s been going well. I haven’t had any French-Creole food since I have been in Louisiana, which is a tragedy in itself. La Récolte was only open on the evenings for the weekends with a reservation list that spanned months–in Clayton Terrace–color me completely impressed.

The lighting here was low, warm and intimate. The wall to ceiling window overlooked the wrap around deck that sat just above the water. There were others in this restaurant, but I couldn’t hear them and I could barely see them. For all I knew, it was just the two of us.

“Another good investment, then,” he comments.

My jaw drops for a moment before I gather my composure. Dabbing my napkin to my lips, I ask, “This is yours?”

His head tilts, “Why the surprise?”

“This is not the kind of investment , I’d picture you making.”

“Fair,” he says, sitting up a little straighter. “My real estate agent was the one to suggest it. I was skeptical. Restaurants aren’t as lastin’ in this economy. Too high a turn-over. Fine dining, different story.”

I wish that I could actually talk business with him.

A formal education only offers you so much. Learning in real life and becoming successful is something else entirely. I could learn so much from this man–could show him a thing or two as well .

In another life, I could ask him the questions I truly wanted and not the ones that I must to keep my cover.

I bite my lip to refrain from doing that and he continues to tell me about a few other restaurants that he has in his portfolio.

Somewhere between the fourth and fifth course, I excuse myself to the bathroom with Lidia as my guard, thank goodness. I had almost forgotten that the guards were here. I don’t think I could do what I was planning if it had been Marcell or Benito.

I nod my head toward the exit that leads to the opposite deck and Lidia follows. She stands guard at the door so that I can get my burner phone out of my bag.

Questions on top of more questions all assault me as I finally get to dial the number I know by heart. When it clicks over, I rush out, “How did you manage to pull this off?”

“Oh, hi. How are you? I’m good, thanks for asking.”

“Lee,” I hiss. “Don’t sass me! I only have like five minutes to even talk.”

Liezel clears her throat. “By this , I’m guessing you mean Lidia.”

“Yea. Thank you for my new personal bodyguard.”

Lidia snorts a laugh, but is quick to return her focus to the door. She may not be a true part of Dupont, but I’m still in danger. Blue’s claim on me was not without its own repercussions. I’m grateful that Lidia is actually qualified to protect me if anything were to go down.

“To answer your question, we’ve just been following the plan. Infiltration is easy when they’re scrambling. They needed people, we were there to step in. Lidia is very well qualified, and highly recommended.”

“By us?” I question.

“By us,” she confirms. “Now, we have one of our own to protect you should anything go down.”

“Incoming,” Lidia says, moving to the door to open it for Blue.

“I gotta go. This is brilliant work. Talk soon!” I quickly end the call, stuff my burner away and pick up my dummy phone that Blue gave me instead. I snap a picture of the waterfront now that the sun is beginning to set.

His energy whips around the space as I look out onto the water .

“Thinking of jumping?” He asks in his deep tone at my ear.

“No,” I respond, tucking the phone back into my purse.

“Good. Wouldn’t advise it.” His body presses mine to the railing, hard and imposing behind me. Blue points off into the distance and I follow where he’s showing me. A small light flickers in the horizon among cypress, tall grasses and more dense plants.

“What am I looking at?”

“Tell me what you know about the bayou.”

My brows pinch, unsure about this line of questioning. “I don’t know…” My voice waivers. “There’s a lot of them here.”

“Know what lives in them?”

Despite his warmth still pressing close to me, a chill slips down my back.

He flicks his wrists and there’s an ominous plonk in the water before us.

“What was that?” I say, turning to face him but he doesn’t give me space.

“Look,” he says and my eyes try to see what he’s showing me.

Then I see it.

Obscure shapes begin to move in the distance.

“Milo…”

He runs a hand down my arm over the goosebumps. “That was a chicken breast that I just threw. It’s been some time since I’ve needed to come out here. Chicken is good, but I know they prefer somethin’ a lil’ different. Lil’ bigger.”

“Milo…” The shapes are moving just as slowly as before but there are far too many of them.

A warm palm dips under my skirt to run over my calf and up to my thigh. Kneeling behind me, his face is eye level with my ass. “You see it yet?”

I squint at the shapes. I don’t know for sure, but I figure there are only so many things it could be.

“Milooo,” I whine when his tongue dips into my puckered hole. He’s tentative, a soft brush of his warm tongue exploring me there .

“Blue,” he corrects.

Oh, fuck.

No.

I tense and he smacks my ass, now fully exposed with my dress over my hips. He stands, covering me from anyone who could be walking past in the restaurant and thankfully from Lidia. I’ve been lucky that no one is on the deck–that could change at any moment.

“Hands on the railin’.” With two of his fingers at my lips, he commands, “Suck. Get ‘em nice and wet.”

“I don’t want to play this game. We were having such a nice dinner. The last course is gonna be ready soon.”

He hums, the sound vibrating against my back with how close he is to me again.

Wet fingers slide over my hole. I jerk from shock, but he holds me in place with his body pressed to mine.

“I’d like a lil’ dessert with my answers.

That a course you can serve me?” He says into my ear, lips brushing over the shell and nipping the small gold hoops I chose for the evening.

If he asks what I think he will, then I’m taking this next step with him. I can’t tell him what he wants to hear.

I’m positive that those are gators that continue to move toward us. “Better hurry ‘fore they get here.”

“Why?” My back is ramrod straight against him as I try to look for all the signs I missed. There are signs leading to this in my memory and I can’t parse through them quick enough.

I had no idea.

My guard was down. He’s charmed me. I felt like I was in the clear with Lidia protecting me. But there is not much that Lidia can do to protect me right now without jeopardizing my position.

Even with my position being compromised.

“Relax, Racquelle. You have nothin’ to worry about if you just tell me the truth.”

My voice is as quiet as a whisper with my eyes on the shapes still making their way toward us. “I’ve told you everything.”

“Who were you talkin’ to on the phone just now? ”

The persistent thump-thump-thump of my heart in my ears begins to overshadow my hearing. “I-I wasn’t–”

“You were.” A single one of his fingers slides into my ass and I gasp out a breath. Tightening and then relaxing myself. I know it will only hurt me to resist.

But relaxing brings an entirely different feeling.

The fear of what he would do to know the truth doesn’t dampen the excitement from what he’s threatening either.

Consequences of what I’ve done are the least of my worries. I have to face them if I expect to make it out of Blue’s grasp to show the Lafayettes what I’m capable of.

Blue is testing me. He’s too smart to miss the signs of my suspicious behavior. I shouldn’t have chanced that phone call.

I just have to last long enough to find a way out.

I just–

“Maybe I should stop takin’ it easy on you, huh? You think one is enough?” He practically snarls into my ear as I press into him. With my hands on the railing, I try to back away from the edge.

“Blue, please,” I beg. My mind is a jumbled mess of should and should nots.

Should not be begging him for what he thinks will be enough.

Should be finding a way to not find out what he thinks is enough.

“Ohhh,” I moan when a second finger enters me.

I’ve been here before. He’s used two before and I know how good it is.

He bites my earlobe, shocking me out of the hazy feeling of being breached this way. So publicly. So out in the open. So close to the edge where his monsters are still heading this way. “Remember how many I’d need to fit?”

Trying to control my breathing, I nod, eyes never leaving the water. “Need your words, Racquelle. Tell me how many.”

“Four. You need at least four.”

“Good girl. Now, it’s been a minute so you might have forgotten the question that burns in my brain. The one that makes me hold on to my doubts about you and want to keep you close all in the same breath. Know you won’t answer it. So, who were you on the phone with just now?”

Fuck.

It had been a while since he questioned me. My core tightens in preparation for what my body can sense is coming. Sweat rolls down my back at his proximity and also with trepidation.

I was so close to just telling him.

To let him know that Senior is my dad and why I’m here.

Tell him all about my plan and his role in it.

Especially if it means we can go back to how we were before I came out here.

But I can’t do that at all when I know the lengths he’s willing to go.

Taken off guard, I thought we had moved past this.

He was waiting.

He was patient in setting this trap for me.

The evening was going so well. I could have even been fooled into thinking that this date was real.

Blue never said this was a date.

He never agreed when I suggested either. Only redirected.

And I missed all of that.