Hot and Irresistible (6 page)

“Eat?”

“Eating would have been fine, except not food, and now all you can think about is food?” She flung a sandal at him. “I hope you choke on that chicken. I hope you get a big old bellyache, Beau Cleveland, because then something will be aching on you as much as I am all over.”

She ran her finger inside her waistband and pulled out the silver key, then tossed it to him. “Here. I’m going into that cabin and sleep all by myself and don’t you dare wake me up till we can get out of here. And then I’m going to get you out of my life for good if I have to move all the way to New Orleans to do it.”

Beau undid the handcuffs as Brie stormed off…if five feet to the cabin could be considered off. The storming part she had down pat. He forked a heap of potato salad. He and BrieAnn had chemistry; he could feel it when she walked into a room. She lit up his life like no woman ever had. But when it came to sex and him thinking about her being naked and him the same way…That combination left him lifeless as a wet noodle. But why? BrieAnn was perfect. What more could he want? He absently rubbed his left thigh and knee; the dull throb was always worse at night, not that he was complaining. Hell, he still had his leg.

He wouldn’t sleep tonight, no matter what. This branch of waterway was out of the main channels leading out to sea. With its sandbars and shallows, no one came back here. This was all Ray’s territory, sure enough, but people still got robbed now and then and boats stolen especially if there was no one around to witness. Pirates weren’t just from the past, and Beau sure as hell wasn’t taking any chances of anything happening with BrieAnn on board.

Leaning back, he crooked his arm under his head and gazed up at the Big Dipper. He remembered looking up to that same sky in Afghanistan, the Milky Way far away and so bright it made a dazzling smear across the sky. That was the good part about that place. The not-so-good parts included roadside bombs, and he knew about those up close and personal.

Gripping the car steering wheel and clenching her teeth in terminal frustration, Brie drove her Audi down State Street, then swung into the driveway behind her brownstone. Not only had she run Beau’s boat aground last night, it took almost the whole blessed day to get unstuck because no one could find them and then she had to watch a hot hunky Beau at work with all those lovely muscles bunching and unbunching and not do one thing about it. And oh how she wanted to do something! She was so horny at this moment she could mount a fence post. Just how much worse could this day get?

A lot worse, Brie realized as she watched Mama stomping Brie’s way. Aldeen Montgomery would not be paying a visit in her new lavender suit from Macy’s at six o’clock on a Saturday night if things were peachy. She’d be home over on Jones Street having a second martini with Daddy on the veranda then heading off to Savannah Bistro or the country club or a benefit at the Mansion. Brie kissed Aldeen’s cheek. “’Evening, Mama. It’s a mighty beautiful evening, don’t you think?”

Aldeen’s red lips thinned and her gray eyes got a little beady. Brie knew this look, the same one she got when committing such cardinal sins as ordering a beer instead of white wine or wearing jeans out in public or taking Alvin Holman to the high school senior prom. Public school boys did not attend private school dances, no matter how nice they were.

“Lord have mercy,” Aldeen started. “And Saint Peter save us all, BrieAnn. I think you’re trying to put me in the grave, I swear I do.” Mama fanned herself with her hand and sat down on the little stone bench by the azaleas. “What do you mean by being out all night and most of the day on the river with that Beau Cleveland person? Tongues are wagging all over Savannah. This will ruin you to the core. How are you ever going to align yourself to a respectable man, a respectable family like the Laskins, when you associate yourself with the likes of the local gangster?”

Aldeen’s brow furrowed, trapping her perfect makeup into little creases across her forehead. “And look at you now, not a speck of color anywhere. Beige is not a color. And your hair is flat as a pancake and you don’t have on lipstick. And have you been sweating? Do I see perspiration? Have I not taught you better than this? You’re not getting any younger, you know. Thirty is borderline old-maid status.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about Beau, Mama. He and I are ancient history.”

“Well bless the heavens for that much.” She let out an exaggerated sigh. “Your father is a judge and up for reelection, for crying out loud, and you simply cannot go running around with the local riffraff. I’m going to the club tonight and I’ll simply tell everyone you were out at the Cove getting a donation for the Telfair Museum auction next month. No one will say anything, heaven knows all their daughters have more sordid pasts than this and I’ll be expecting you for supper Sunday night at the usual time and don’t be late.” She started to get up and Brie pulled her back to the bench.

“Mama, what was that last part you sneaked in there? You got that look in your eye. Did you go and invite Lamont? For God’s sake tell me you didn’t invite Lamont without even asking me!”

Aldeen tossed her head. “He may just drop by and you need to be thanking me instead of getting all huffy. The man’s a prize. You give him a chance now, you hear. Your children would be smart and rich and you’d be living in the biggest house in Savannah, just consider that.”

Aldeen’s tirade faded, but the children reference was loud and clear. Children meant BrieAnn Montgomery would have to be in bed or another such intimate position with Lamont to have those children. Oh dear God! Sex with Lamont! “Mama—”

“Do not Mama me, young lady. You be on time Sunday and wear that new blue dress with the sweetheart neckline and the pearls your daddy gave you for Cotillion. And speaking of your daddy, he’d be pleased as punch to have you with Lamont and married into the Laskin family. Your daddy nearly had a coronary when he heard you were spending time with a common crook, and Beau Cleveland is that and then some.”

“But—”

“No buts,” Aldeen cut in. “You know I’m right and you know your daddy only wants what is best for you. He may look the other way to what goes on out at the Cove because of the charitable good that comes from it, but he most certainly does not want his daughter involved in any way.”

Brie watched Aldeen head for Jones Street. Deep down, Brie knew Beau was not the man her daddy would have picked for his little princess and no matter how old she was, she’d always be his princess. They had a bond, as if Daddy could almost tell what she was thinking, that he knew her better than she knew herself. And maybe since Brie was adopted and Daddy had been the one who brought her home to Aldeen, he did know Brie better. He and Mama never talked about that time or her life before she came to be BrieAnn Montgomery. Still…sometimes she wondered why she preferred beer to white wine and what made her such a neatnik about her clothes and why was she so driven and why there was a hint of rebellion that sometimes seemed to hum in her veins and wouldn’t go away.

Brie took the picnic basket from the backseat of her convertible, the handcuffs rattling around in the bottom a reminder of what could have been. But now Mama was playing matchmaker and—

“Mercy!” Brie gasped, dropping the basket. A young woman sat on the bench she and Mama had just occupied. “I…I didn’t hear you come up the walk. You scared me to death.” A chilling breeze not fit for an April evening in Savannah swirled around the yard, stirring the grass and bushes and making Brie rub her arms for warmth.

“Heavenly days now, I think you’re quite a ways from death.” The young girl gave a tired smile. She had her auburn hair pulled back into a tight bun, her frame thin and overworked. “It’s going to be a lovely night. Don’t you agree? I just had to get out of the hotel for a spell to enjoy the weather. And I wanted…needed to meet you.”

“The Magnolia House?” Brie nodded at the stone wall and the line of Savannah Blues separating her backyard from the hotel. “I didn’t recognize your uniform.”

“Upstairs maid.” The girl fluffed the white apron over the black cotton dress and adjusted her maid’s cap. “Sure wish Mr. Parish would let us wear pants, but I suppose that’s not the thing to do in such a fancy establishment.” She bit at her bottom lip and put her hand to her stomach. “Though just because a place is all ritzy-like doesn’t mean it’s without its own set of problems.”

She looked Brie in the eyes; the maid’s own were dull and lifeless. “You need to be staying away from that hotel. It’s no good for you. There are folks there not to be trusted. You could be in danger. That’s why I came here, you see, to warn you.” She suddenly looked sad. “It’s a shame how people change. They don’t start out bad, but they just end up that way.” She gave Brie a loving smile, her face suddenly radiant instead of pasty. “You are a lovely girl. Any mama would be proud to have you for a daughter. The judge and Aldeen are fortunate indeed.”

Brie felt the urge to touch the girl, give her a reassuring hug. “Maybe next time you want to get away you can come over here for dinner.”

“My, my, I’d like that more than you can imagine.” She stood. “I best be getting back, but mark my words, there’s trouble brewing over at Magnolia House, no one knows that better than me. You and your friends need to keep a good distance.” She headed toward the wall.

“Wait. What kind of trouble?”

The woman glanced back. “I can’t be saying. Sometimes there’s no need to have all the facts. What’s done is done and better left that way, but you must take care of yourself now. I’ll be looking out for you as best I can.” She suddenly giggled. “And don’t be giving up on Beau Cleveland just because things aren’t exactly the way you want them to be. The man loves you like crazy.” The woman disappeared though the narrow archway barely visible through the growth of trees.

“Okay, what in the world was that all about?” Brie said out loud, feeling a little creepy. How’d the woman know so much about her and what was this danger? The missing jewelry that belonged to Charlotte’s parents? Their unsolved murders at the morgue all those years ago? Was the trouble that Donovan McCabe guy who had already turned Bebe’s life upside down? Was he going to hurt her? Bebe had enough hurt for two lifetimes and Brie was not going to let anything else happen and just why in blazes shouldn’t she give up on Beau?

Because she couldn’t. She was plum crazy about the big undersexed oaf and had to figure out what was holding him back from being crazy about her. She also needed to figure out what was going on with her friends and where was this danger. She felt a bit faint. Danger was not her thing at all. BrieAnn Montgomery threw fund-raising galas and arranged the best social events in Savannah and had fine manners and good hair and knew how to be a belle…except she couldn’t twirl a baton for spit.

Brie headed for the back yard of Magnolia House. She needed a Bloody Mary, then shivered over the bloody part. Lordy, all this commotion was no way to start a fine spring evening. She pushed her way through the tangle of blue flowers and white dogwood at the archway. How’d that woman get through this jungle so easily?

Circumventing the hotel patio, which was adorned in glittering candlelight, fine china, crisp linens, and lucky guests dining on yummy Magnolia House cuisine, she entered the back door of the hotel. The familiar narrow hallway of cherrywood paneling lined with vintage hotel pictures usually made her feel welcome; this time it didn’t. Something was different about the place, something was…wrong. A bad feeling, dangerous even. There was that horrid word again.

“And just what are you doing sneaking in my hotel,” said Charlotte soon-to-be-Missus Griffin Parish. She linked arms with Brie. “Trying to keep a low profile after your day of sex and seduction out there on the water with a certain guy? Well, I want every teeny little detail. I want the vava-voom.”

“Right now I’d settle for a vava and to top it off Lamont Laskin’s coming to Mama’s for dinner and one of your maids just paid me a visit and said we’re all headed for a big mess of trouble around here. She has amber hair and blue eyes, a black uniform dress, and white apron, and I think I’m having an attack of the vapors and I have no idea whatsoever what vapors even are.”

Charlotte stopped dead in the middle of the hallway halting Brie with her. “Breathe, honey, breathe. You’re going to pass out cold. I’m sorry about Beau and even sorrier about Lamont and dinner. That uniform you described isn’t ours, but we’ll find Mr. Rutledge. Being the manager, he’ll know where to find this woman.”

“Did I just hear my name,” said Daemon Rutledge from behind Brie. He smiled, looking much younger than his sixty-plus years, and took Brie’s hand. “How are you these days? And your mama and the judge? You give them my best, now, you hear?” He smoothed back his neat salt-and-pepper hair. Any hotel in Savannah would give five of their present employees for just this one.

“I’m trying to find a certain maid. She’s my coloring, black cotton dress with white lacy apron and matching maid’s cap.”

Daemon pointed to a picture hanging with a group of hotel photos on the wall. “There it is, the very clothes you described, but of course these pictures were from a long time ago. Was the lady you met going to a vintage party? See, that there’s a picture of our first staff here at Magnolia House in just such a uniform. And there I am.” Mr. Rutledge tapped a younger version of himself, complete with rose in his lapel.

“Holy mother in heaven!” Brie put her hand to her heart to keep it from leaping right out of her chest. “And that’s the girl I was talking to. The girl who warned me there was trouble.” She touched the maid beside the young Rutledge. “She’s the one who visited me no more than twenty minutes…” Brie’s gaze fused with Charlotte’s and Daemon turned the color of mashed potatoes.