Blown Away (8 page)

Cari couldn’t quit looking at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. The haircut had so changed her appearance that she hardly recognized herself. Without the curtain of dark hair framing her face, her eyes looked even larger and her cheekbones more pronounced. And her wound was barely noticeable. The bruises on her face and neck were beginning to fade into lighter shades of purples and greens. Wearing Susan’s clothes only added to the confusion. Satisfied that she’d done all she could to disguise herself before going back to Bordelaise tomorrow, she made her way downstairs.

Songee was carrying an arrangement of fresh flowers into the foyer as Cari came down. She paused and looked up, then nodded approvingly at Cari’s transformation.

“Mmm-hmm…you are a woman to be reckoned with, aren’t you, missy?”

Cari’s smile was little more than a shift of the muscles. “So you think this will work?”

Songee placed the bouquet on the hall table, then put her hands on her hips and gave Cari her full attention.

“Well, you sure don’t look like the same woman I saw yesterday,” she said.

“Good.”

Songee shrugged, thankful she wasn’t in Cari North’s shoes. “I’m thinkin’ you’re puttin’ yourself in some danger by going to that funeral tomorrow.”

A muscle jerked in Cari’s jaw. “I’m burying my family tomorrow. Danger will have to wait.”

Songee nodded approvingly. “You’re gonna be all right.”

Cari sighed. “I don’t feel like anything is ever going to be all right again.”

Songee’s dark eyes softened with understanding. “I know, honey, I know. I buried my man and my only child more than twenty years ago. Wanted to die with them and was mad as all get out at God for leaving me behind.”

Suddenly Cari felt humbled. She’d been so wrapped up in her misery she’d forgotten the world did not just revolve around her.

“I’m so sorry,” she said.

Songee shrugged. “Shoot, honey. It wasn’t your fault. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, really. The house was old. It caught on fire while I was at work. They died. I didn’t. What you have to remember is that God still has a plan for you or you wouldn’t be standing here talkin’ to me right now.”

Cari’s shoulders slumped. “I guess.”

“No. You don’t guess nothin’. You’re a smart
woman. You know what you gotta do. Just get your head wrapped around it and do it. In the meantime, come on into the kitchen with me. I just took a pecan pie out of the oven. Mr. Mike does like my pecan pies.”

“Thanks, Songee, but I’m not all that hungry.”

“That’s no excuse,” Songee said, then headed for the kitchen. She paused in the doorway then turned around. “Well…you comin’ or not? Mr. Mike won’t be back for a couple of hours. I’ll make sure we leave some for him.”

Cari sighed. Time had to pass somehow. She might as well pass it with Songee and a piece of pie.

Mike’s morning at the office had been awkward and full of discord. He had wasted half an hour looking for information that Susan would have been able to give him in minutes, which only aggravated his sadness and sense of loss. Finally he’d found what he needed and the conference call had gone as planned. Now he was on his way home, but with an unusual sense of anticipation.

He even found himself accelerating as he pulled into his driveway. He loved his home. He loved coming home. But this was the first time he’d had someone besides the housekeeper waiting for his arrival. Even though the situation was full of despair, he was becoming more and more intrigued by his unexpected guest.

He drove around to the back of the property and
parked under the shade of a live oak, unloaded two sacks of potting soil and carried them to the shed, then headed for the back door.

It was the sound of laughter that Mike first heard as he walked up on the porch. In the short time they’d known each other, he’d seen Carolina North run through a gamut of emotions, none of which had been joy. A shiver ran through him as he listened, and he suddenly wished he’d been the one to make her laugh. Choosing not to decipher why he’d thought that, he grabbed the doorknob and entered just as Cari laughed again.

The door swung shut behind him.

At the sound, Cari turned, still wearing the smile.

Breath caught in the back of Mike’s throat. Not once in the seven years he’d known Susan Blackwell had he ever had an urge to take her to bed. He would have felt a little easier if he could say the same about Carolina, but that was no longer the case.

“Speak of the devil,” Songee said, as she got a dessert plate from the cabinet.

Mike grinned. “So, Songee, since you were obviously talking about me, I deserve to know what beans you just spilled.”

His housekeeper smiled. “I was just tellin’ Miss Cari about the night the skunk came into the kitchen through the dog door.”

Mike chuckled. “You notice I no longer have a dog—or a dog door.”

Cari shuddered sympathetically. “I can only imagine how long it took for the smell to go away.”

Mike squinted slightly, then looked at Songee. “I’d guess it was at least a month, right?”

Songee rolled her eyes. “Seemed longer to me,” she muttered.

Cari laughed again, and then almost immediately felt guilty. How could she be laughing when everything was so awful? She ducked her head and looked away.

Mike sighed. How quickly joy could end.

“I made pie,” Songee said.

“Could I talk you out of a piece?”

Songee snorted softly. “You know you got a silver tongue when it comes to gettin’ what you want.”

Mike winked at Cari, trying to tease her back into the conversation. “Don’t listen to her. She’s totally in charge of this house, and of me, too.”

“The pie was wonderful,” Cari said.

Mike pretended indignation. “You mean to tell me you two have already cut it?”

“Oh, stop your fussin’ and grab a fork.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Mike said, and slid into a chair on the opposite side of the table from Cari.

He eyed the shadows in her eyes and wished she would smile again. Just once.

“I’m really liking that haircut,” he said.

She tucked a stray lock behind one ear and then ran her fingers through the sides, trying to fill the awkward moment and ignore the glitter in his eyes.

“Thanks. It’s definitely different.”

“Wasn’t that the point?” he said, then looked up at Songee as she slid a piece of pie in front of him. “Thank you very much.”

Songee smiled. “You’re very welcome.”

“Yum,” Mike said, as he dug into the pie.

Cari sat quietly, remembering how she and her parents had shared moments like this and wondering if she would ever know that kind of joy again.

“So, do you have everything you need before we head to Bordelaise tomorrow?” Mike asked.

Cari hesitated.

He looked up. “What?”

“I might need to go back to Susan’s. I didn’t bring anything that would be proper for the services.”

Mike swallowed the bite he was chewing, then said, “I could take you back there to see if there’s anything that would work…or we could go for something completely new.”

Not having to go back to Susan’s would be a blessing.

“Something new, please,” Cari said softly.

Mike nodded. “Yeah, I vote for that, too. If you’re up to it, I’ll take you into Baton Rouge just as soon as I finish my pie.”

“That would be great,” Cari said. “I’m just going to go change my shoes.”

“I’ll be ready when you are,” Mike said.

Cari left the kitchen, unaware that Mike was watching every step she took.

Songee saw him and smiled to herself as she turned away. Out of sorrow, sometimes comes joy. Maybe this was going to be one of those times.

Detective Sandy Smith was beginning to believe she had a tiger by the tail. According to the information she’d been able to gather, on Sunday morning Austin Ball had boarded a plane at 6:00 a.m. in Chicago, bound for Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His office verified that he’d rented a car at the Baton Rouge airport later that morning, because the information had come through from his corporate credit card. But that seemed to have become Austin Ball’s last act. No one had heard from him since.

Sandy might not have been so suspicious about his fate except that he’d been on business for Dominic Martinelli. Even though Martinelli appeared to operate his businesses on the up-and-up, the Chicago P.D. had long suspected he was into a lot more than met the eye.

She had a call in to Martinelli and was waiting to see what he had to say before she called Marcey Ball, but she was beginning to believe Mrs. Ball had reason for concern. According to everyone Sandy had talked to, Austin Ball had been impatiently awaiting the day he would become a father. It didn’t seem likely that all that would change overnight. Ad
ditionally his reputation as a lawyer was on the line. Again, something he wasn’t likely to ignore.

Her gut feeling was that this wouldn’t have a positive outcome, but she’d been mistaken before. She thought of Marcey Ball, only weeks from delivering her first child, and hoped this was one of those times.

C
ari was sitting in the dressing room of the boutique where Mike had taken her, wearing nothing but her bra and panties and trying to gather her emotions. There were a half-dozen rejected black dresses hanging on the hook, and she was beginning to think it wasn’t the dresses that were wrong so much as the reason for wearing one.

The first one she’d tried on had been too big. The second one, too sexy for the occasion. Then she discarded the other four, one after the other, without a specific reason other than that they just didn’t feel right. Exhausted from the whole affair, she’d turned down the last one the salesclerk brought to the dressing room without even looking at it, then locked the door and broke into tears.

Now her head was throbbing, and once again, her eyes were red and swollen. If only this were a night
mare from which she could wake, not the living, breathing hell it had become.

When she heard a knock on the door, she expected it to be the attendant, back with yet another dress, and was startled to hear Mike’s voice, instead. His voice was gruff, but the delivery was tender.

“Hey, tough stuff, please tell me you’re not crying.”

Cari blew her nose. The truth was obvious.

Mike winced, then leaned his forehead against the door, wishing there was something he could do for her other than pay for a black dress.

“I’m fine…just waiting for the lady to bring back some other styles,” Cari said.

“Uh-huh,” Mike said. “Do you need my handkerchief?”

She looked down at the shreds of tissue in her fingers and sighed. There was no need to pretend.

“Yes, please.”

“Coming over,” Mike said, then reached over the partition and dropped the handkerchief into the dressing area.

“Thank you,” Cari said as she caught it, then promptly blew her nose again.

“Do you mind if I have a go at choosing a dress?” he asked.

A little surprised by the offer, she agreed. “Knock yourself out,” she said, and listened as his footsteps faded away.

She leaned her head against the wall and closed
her eyes while she waited, and as she did, suddenly realized she had yet to address a whole other facet of her life.

Her agent.

Her publisher.

The manuscript she’d mailed off the day before the tornado.

They would all think she was dead.

She was beginning to see the full scope of the tangled web she continued to weave. At least, if she ever managed to undo this mess, she would have one hell of a story to tell.

When she heard Mike’s footsteps again, accompanied by the clerk’s shorter strides, she quickly stood up.

“I’m back,” Mike said. “Are you decent?”

She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and grimaced. “No.”

“Ah, the images that just shot through my mind,” he drawled.

Cari laughed before she thought. God, but he was good for her soul.

“Just give them to the clerk. I promise your wait is almost over,” Cari said.

“Waiting for you is my pleasure,” Mike said softly, then handed the dresses to the clerk, who looked enthralled by the fact that she was only inches away from
Baton Rouge Magazine
’s most eligible bachelor.

For Cari, the gentle rumble of his voice edged yet another tiny bit of sorrow to the side. By the time she
was zipping up the first dress he’d chosen, she had her first positive reaction.

It was a perfect fit. Not too short. Not too revealing, but still stylish. And the knit fabric was so soft against her battered body. She turned and looked at herself in the mirror.

How had he known?

Her lower lip trembled.

“Mike?”

“Yes?”

Impulsively she flattened the palm of her hand against the door, as if reaching out to touch him.

“I wasn’t sure you’d still be out there,” she said.

Unaware he was mimicking her action, he flattened his hand against the door, wishing he could touch her.

“I made you a promise, Carolina. I’m here for as long as you need me.”

“I really like this one,” Cari said.

“Show me,” Mike said.

Cari’s heart began to pound. What was the matter with her? All she was going to do was open the door, not go to bed with the man. And the moment that thought went through her mind, she shoved it aside. This was nothing but momentary weakness from her grief. Nothing but a need to feel something besides pain. It would go away.

Surely it would go away.

The lock clicked as she turned the doorknob.

Mike’s heart skipped a beat. What in hell was
wrong with him? This wasn’t an occasion for contemplating sex. She was in mourning.

Then she opened the door, and all the breath went out of his body as he saw her framed in the doorway, wearing that dress like a second skin.

“What do you think?” she asked.

Mike’s nostrils flared. The words came out before he thought.

“You don’t want to know.”

Cari’s eyes widened. “Is it that bad?”

“Not from where I’m standing,” he muttered, then pulled himself together. “Sorry. That was uncalled for. Let me try that again. I think the dress is perfect for the occasion, and it looks good on you.”

Cari’s pulse skipped a beat. Had he just made a pass? “I really like this one, so there’s no need trying on the other one you brought.”

“Ditto,” Mike drawled.

Cari eyed him curiously.

“Look. I’ve already stuck my foot in my mouth,” he said. “I’m just playing it safe by keeping the rest of my opinions to myself.”

A little embarrassed, Cari stepped back. “I’ll get dressed now,” she said, and closed the door between them.

It wasn’t until Mike heard the lock that he realized he’d been holding his breath.

“Holy…” Mike shoved a hand through his hair and walked away before he let his mind wander into
forbidden territory and picture Carolina North naked behind that damned door.

By the time Cari came out with the dress over her arm, Mike had himself together and was all smiles, charming the salesclerk as he handed her his credit card.

“How are you fixed for shoes?” Mike asked, as the clerk rang up the purchase.

“I have a pair of Susan’s I can wear, but I do need some sunglasses.”

“Oh. We have some right over there,” the clerk said, pointing to a display of accessories near the front of the store.

“Okay, thanks,” Cari said, and headed for the table.

Choosing a pair with large lenses that would cover more of her features, she quickly handed them over to the clerk.

“Will there be anything else?” the woman asked.

Cari shook her head.

Mike frowned. “Yes, actually there will be,” he said, and headed for a shelf displaying small clutch purses. He scanned them briefly, choosing one with clean lines and a small gold clasp, then paused at a jewelry display.

“That’s enough,” Cari said, but Mike wasn’t listening.

Finally he chose a small cameo on a silver chain and brought it back, as well.

When he laid the stuff down on the counter, Cari
couldn’t help but gasp. The cameo was exquisite—and it was black.

“My grandmother had one like this, only it was a brooch,” Mike said. “I never saw her without it. Didn’t know for years that she’d bought it to wear at Granddad’s funeral and had worn it in honor of him ever since. I think they call it mourning jewelry. Hope you approve.” Then he glanced at Cari, taking note of the fierce glint in her eyes and added, “She would have liked you.”

“Thank you,” Cari said.

“You’re very welcome,” he said softly, then slid an arm across her shoulders and gave her a gentle hug.

Cari leaned into his strength, telling herself it was only because she was tired from all the stress, but the truth was far more involved. She liked being around this man. She admired his patience, and the fact that he seemed to understand without asking when she had reached the limit of her endurance.

He also qualified as a hunk, but that totally didn’t count.

She inhaled quietly, then added one silent addendum to the list of reasons why Mike Boudreaux was special. He smelled good—really, really good.

Mike signed the credit card slip, pocketed the copy, then picked up their purchases and offered Cari his elbow.

She slid her hand in the crook, and let him lead her out of the boutique and to the car. The butter-soft
leather of the Cadillac’s seats was warm from the sunshine coming through the windows, soothing her achy muscles as she sat down. She buckled her seat belt as Mike put the purchases in the back, then got into the car.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

“I’m okay,” she said.

“Not too sore? Not feeling sick in any way?”

“No. I took a pain pill before we left, why?”

“I already told Songee we wouldn’t be home for lunch, so we can either grab a quick bite at one of the local restaurants or pick something up at a drive-thru and take it home to eat. It’s your call.”

“If there’s a place nearby, I think I’d like some soup,” Cari said.

Mike smiled approvingly. “Good call, and I know just the spot.”

Within a few minutes they were pulling into the parking lot of a chic little sandwich shop called Croissant.

“I went to high school with the owner,” Mike said. “I think you’ll be able to find something tasty here.”

“Sounds good,” Cari said.

Mike parked and then helped her out of the car. As they started into the shop, he slipped his hand beneath her elbow.

Cari couldn’t help but notice the perfect manners and constant consideration. She could almost hear her mother’s voice saying, “Someone raised
him right.” A quick shaft of pain shot through her as she realized she would never hear her mother’s voice again, but then she checked herself. There was no need to dwell on the depths of her loss. Life without her family would be a rude enough reminder.

The aroma that greeted them as they entered the shop quickly changed her focus. The comforting smell of freshly baked bread melding with the scents of cheese and spices made her hungry. The dining area was more than half full, adding a low rumble of conversation, as well as the occasional clink of china and flatware. Before they could seat themselves, a great big man came bursting out of the kitchens with his arms outstretched and a happy smile on his face.

“Mike! Susan! Long time no see!”

The moment Cari realized he thought she was Susan, she panicked. Any second he would figure out it was a ruse, and then questions would follow. And then…

Mike saw the look on her face and gave her hand a quick squeeze.

“Easy,” Mike said softly. “Let it ride.”

Then he shifted the focus by stepping in front of her just before the burly giant enveloped him in a hug.

“Welcome! Welcome!” the man said.

Mike quickly backed out of the hug before his ribs cracked.

“Good to see you, Maurice! How is the family?”

“Growing,” Maurice said. “Polly is expecting twins.”

Mike thumped him on the shoulder. “Great to hear. What will that make…four?”

“Five,” Maurice countered, then immediately turned to Cari, eyeing her hair and face with an appreciative smile, while politely ignoring all the bruises.

“I like the new look.”

“Thank you,” she said.

“Sit! Sit!” Maurice said, waving toward the tables. “I have a new lobster salad you need to try…and a corn chowder so good it will make you cry. I need to get back to the kitchen, but I’ll send a waitress right over.”

“Thanks,” Mike said, and quickly seated Cari as his old friend left. He slid into the seat opposite her, then lowered his voice. “Hang with me, tough stuff. Maurice didn’t know Susan well, so he won’t notice anything.”

Cari nodded briefly, then picked up a menu and began reading, needing time to let the panic subside. She made her choice, then kept reading so she wouldn’t have to talk. It was one thing that she’d been mistaken for Susan in the hospital, but it was a bit different to intentionally impersonate her out in the world. Obviously she hadn’t been as well prepared as she thought. Her heart was still thumping, and she had to keep swallowing past the lump in her throat to keep from crying.

“See anything you like?” Mike asked.

She looked up, and the first thing that went
through her mind was
yes, you,
then she quickly looked away, horrified by the wayward thought.

“The lobster bisque?”

“Great choice,” Mike said, then smiled at the little waitress who arrived with an elegantly appointed tray bearing a white-and-gold teapot with two matching bone-china cups.

“Hi, ya’ll. My name is Melanie. May I pour you some tea? It’s lemon chai today. Really yummy.”

“Yes, please,” Mike said, and handed Cari the first cup, then took the second one for himself. “Sugar or cream?” he asked.

“No, thank you,” Cari said, then lifted the cup to her lips and took a small sip. The flavor was as perfect as the place itself, and she soon began to relax.

“Have you decided what you’d like to order?” Melanie asked.

“She would like the lobster bisque, and I’ll have some of Maurice’s lobster salad on a croissant and a bowl of that corn chowder.”

“Coming up,” Melanie said, and hurried away to turn in the order.

“It’s going to be okay,” Mike said.

Looking into Mike Boudreaux’s eyes, Cari could almost believe him. But there was so much to be done.

“I don’t know how,” she said. “For sure not now, and not tomorrow. The last thing I want to do is show up in Bordelaise, but I have to do this for my parents…and Susan. Once that’s behind me, I can
focus on finding out who Lance killed and where he hid the body so I can have my life back.”

“First things first, which means we eat the wonderful lunch we just ordered. Then I take you back to the house, where you will try to get some rest.”

When she started to argue, Mike held up a finger. “Doctor’s orders.”

Cari smiled. It wasn’t much as smiles went, but Mike would take it.

“That’s better,” he said. “You’re a very beautiful woman, especially when you smile.”

A kind of longing shifted within, and before Cari thought, she felt the need to put a mental wall between them.