Trouble in Mudbug (25 page)

She looked like a hybrid raccoon strung out on acid.

Although she knew her appearance should be the least of her concerns at the moment, Maryse also knew that unless she managed to pull off a semblance of control, she’d never convince Mildred and Sabine she should stay in Mudbug. Or if she did, they’d never want her to leave the hotel, and that just wasn’t an option since it put Mildred at risk.

And then there was Luc.

A whole other problem and definitely an enigma. She knew he was more than a little troubled, especially with Helena in the mix, but if he had any thoughts or opinions on the situation, he’d held them in last night, instead choosing to listen for a change. Which made Maryse more than a little nervous. What was going on in that head of his? His revelation about seeing Helena had thrown her for a loop but also made her feel closer to him, something she’d definitely been trying to avoid.

Realizing she wasn’t going to solve all her problems or get a decent cup of coffee standing in front of the bathroom mirror, she shrugged off the T-shirt Mildred had loaned her to sleep in and made a quick pass through the shower. Sabine, in her infinite wisdom, had started off Maryse’s replacement wardrobe with loose-fitting sweats and T-shirts from Wal-Mart.

Given the bruises and the overall soreness, Maryse was happy with Sabine’s choices. The sweats were a light, thin fabric and wouldn’t be hot at all, and they were much less restrictive than the jeans Maryse usually wore. Probably wouldn’t stand up very well to a day in the bayou, but at the moment, it appeared her days in the bayou were coming to a screeching halt. She fluffed her damp hair, pulled on her tennis shoes, then headed to Mildred’s office, hoping the woman had taken mercy on her and picked up some donuts.

Mildred was in her office, but she wasn’t alone. Sabine sat across the desk from her, and surprisingly enough, Luc occupied the other chair. Conversation ceased the moment Maryse entered the room, and she immediately knew that the three had been plotting some way to “take care” of her. She looked from face to face, but no one met her gaze. It seemed that the floor was far more interesting.

“It’s a little early for a booster club meeting, isn’t it?” Maryse asked. “And don’t even bother making excuses. Sabine hasn’t been out of bed before eight o’clock since high school.”

Apparently, they hadn’t prepared for her to wake so early, and no one had a ready excuse for their treason. Mildred cast a guilty look at Sabine, and Sabine and Luc stared at the wall past Mildred’s shoulder. Maryse raised her eyebrows and stared at them one at a time, waiting for a response. “Cat got your tongues?” she finally asked.

“Now, Maryse,” Mildred said, obviously going to take a shot at the peacemaker role. “We’re just worried about you is all. This whole situation has gotten out of hand. And don’t tell me you can handle it yourself. It’s just too big for one person.”

Maryse turned her back to them and poured a cup of coffee, making note that the coffeepot was the old one that Mildred had claimed was broken. Not that it surprised her.

She stalled for another couple of seconds, not yet ready reply. The truth was Mildred was right. This situation
was
too big for her to handle alone. But the last thing she wanted to do was involve people she cared about in her mess—people she considered family. Which left only Luc, and Maryse was too scared to have the sexy zoologist that close too her. She didn’t need her attraction to him confusing things even more.

She stirred some sugar in her coffee and turned back to them with a sigh, easing herself into a chair next to Mildred’s desk. “Look, I appreciate what y’all are trying to do, really, I do. But don’t you see that I can’t risk anyone else being involved? I’ve already lost too much. I can’t afford to lose anything else. Surely you understand that.”

They all looked at her for a moment, but no one said a word. Finally, Sabine blurted out, “I’ve lost a lot, too. You’re the only family I have left, Maryse. Don’t ask me to leave you alone, or you’re going to piss me off.” Sabine stared defiantly at Maryse, and Maryse knew it was hopeless. This was one of those areas where she and Sabine were cut from the same cloth.

Hurt one, you hurt the other.

And Maryse was forced to admit that if the situation were reversed, it would take her own death to peel her off protecting her friend. She shook her head at the impossibility of the situation, not having a clue how to proceed. “Well, did you geniuses come up with any way to get me out of this?”

They all shook their heads. Finally, Luc cleared his throat and spoke, his voice barely disguising his anger. “This entire situation is ridiculous. What the hell was that woman thinking? It’s no wonder everyone hated her.”

“Got that one right,” Mildred agreed, and gave Luc a nod.

Maryse sighed. “I don’t know what Helena was thinking.”
Even though I talk to her on a semi-regular basis.
“Probably she just thought that the land would remain in the care of the state. And as long as I owned it, Mudbug wouldn’t become one big oil field.”

Mildred wasn’t convinced. “Helena or her attorney should have known that worthless son and husband of hers wouldn’t let you keep something so valuable.”

Maryse stared at the wall for a moment, casting her mind back to the will reading. “I got the impression that all the ‘rules’ of the inheritance weren’t exactly in the forefront of Wheeler’s mind. He even said he needed to review everything again before we talked because it had been so long since he’d read everything over. Probably Helena forgot too, since she inherited everything as a child.”

Luc shook his head. “Well, Helena should have reread the rules before she handed you a death sentence.”

“There’s nothing that can be done about this clause?” Mildred asked. “Can’t you just give the land back?”

Maryse shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. I’ve never asked.”

Mildred looked at the others and gave them a nod. “Then I say your first order of business is getting in touch with that attorney of Helena’s and finding out what your options are. He’s got to be able to do something to protect you.”

“Maybe,” Maryse said. It was a thought, anyway, and better than anything Maryse had come up with so far. “I’ll call him as soon as his office opens.”

Sabine nodded to Mildred, then looked over at Maryse. “And what do you plan on doing today? We don’t think you should be alone. One of us should be with you at all times, and we don’t think you should be in the bayou at all.”

Maryse stared at them. “You’ve got to be kidding me. You can’t spend your entire day following me around. Mildred, you have a hotel to run. Sabine, you have a business, and Luc…” What the hell
did
Luc do exactly? “Luc has to do whatever it is he does for the state. Besides, I’d like to know what any of you could have done to protect me from that explosion. More likely, you’d have been hurt as much or more than I was.”

“I can stick with you,” Luc said. “I have a ton of vacation accrued. Long overdue, as a matter of fact. I can take a couple of days until the attorney can figure something else out.”

Maryse stared at Luc in disbelief. “You actually want me to spend every waking hour of my day with you? Take you everywhere I go? We don’t get along all that great in the few minutes a day we’re in contact at the office. How the heck do you think we can manage an entire day?”

Luc shrugged. “I get along just fine. You’re the one with the problem.”

Maryse felt her pulse quicken. Luc was right. She was the one with the problem. The main problem being that even a small amount of time around Luc LeJeune led to thoughts that she had no business thinking. How in the world was she supposed to manage an entire day? “I am not going clothes shopping with him,” Maryse said finally, “and that’s my first order of business for today.”

“Oh, c’mon, Maryse,” Sabine pleaded. “What’s the big deal? It’s not like he’s going to follow you into the dressing room.”

Luc perked up a bit and smiled, and Maryse felt a flush start at the base of her neck and slowly creep up her face. She shot him a dirty look that should have cut him to his knees, but it only made him smile more. “I am not selecting undergarments with a man.”

Sabine laughed. “You don’t even wear underwear, Maryse.”

“I do on Sundays,” Maryse grumbled, feeling her independence slipping away even as she made her futile arguments.

“It’s only Friday,” Luc said, and grinned. “You’ve still got time to change your mind.”

Chapter Twelve

Shopping with Luc wasn’t quite as bad as Maryse had originally imagined and probably not near as sexual as Luc had hoped. But given her slightly rough condition and the fact that her job didn’t exactly involve tailored dresswear, Maryse saw absolutely no reason to shop for anything cute or nice at the moment. Even if she was back in the bayou sometime soon, alligators and nutria didn’t appreciate fashion.

So a trip to Wal-Mart was as much shopping as Luc was going to see.

Maryse walked right into the women’s athletic section and pulled shorts, sweats, and T-shirts off the racks and shoved them into the cart she’d conned Luc into pushing. That was it. No tube tops, no spandex, no sexy lingerie—no dressing rooms. Then it was off to find some sports bras.

Luc stared wistfully at the rows of lacy, multi-colored underwear and reached up to finger a pair in girly pink. Maryse hid a grin. He was barking up the wrong tree with her. Not only was underwear purely optional, but Luc LeJeune was the last person she wanted getting a view of anything she might wear in that area. There were some temptations you just avoided altogether.

Apparently deciding Maryse wasn’t going to contemplate anything even remotely sexy, Luc gave up and yanked out his cell phone. Maryse ignored him and continued looking over her selection of activewear. She had just narrowed her choice down to two different crossed-back sports bras when Luc snapped the phone shut and gave her a curious look.

“There was a message on the office phone from someone named Aaron. He said that the mice cruised through the trial and he was moving on but he’s going to need more of the sample before he can go any further after that. What does that mean? What is he testing?”

Maryse tried to appear completely normal, even though she wanted to jump and shout, head injury not withstanding. “It’s nothing,” she said, and waved a hand in dismissal.
Nothing but a successful Trial 3, which you’ve never made it through before now.
“Just some different stuff I’m trying out—you know, herbal remedies and such.”

Luc narrowed his eyes. “What kind of remedies?”

Maryse turned away from him and concentrated on the bras. “Nothing that would interest you. Although two weeks ago, I found a natural cure for gas.” She looked back at him with a broad smile.

Luc shook his head and shot her a disbelieving look, but thankfully he dropped the subject and took up position at the edge of the department where he could scan the magazines.
A successful Trial 3.
It was all she could do to keep from dancing in the aisles. She was close to the answer, she could just feel it. And for now, at least, that thrill totally overrode all the bad things going on.

Maryse picked a couple of sports bras from the rack and tossed them in the basket, then pushed her cart down the aisle, whistling as she went. She was just about to leave the section altogether when the pink, lacy underwear that Luc had been studying earlier caught her eye. She glanced down the aisle at Luc, who had a magazine open and was concentrating intently on whatever he was reading. Looking back at the underwear, she bit her lip, knowing that even looking at the underwear was trouble. Buying them was even worse. It was the equivalent of purchasing a ticket to the “Sleep With Luc” concert.

But then there was that whole death thing to consider, and that was the clincher.

If she died today, the last man she would have slept with was Hank. Hell, the
only
man she’d slept with was Hank, and on so many levels, that was just wrong. She glanced over at Luc once more. Before she could change her mind, she snatched the underwear off the rack, tugged them off the hanger, yanked off the tag, and stuffed them in her pocket. No way was she letting Luc see her buy those panties. That was just asking for it. At least this way, she was still in control. Unless of course, she was arrested for shoplifting before she could get through checkout and use the underwear tag to pay for her secret bounty.