Chapter 4
Grace
”What”s it with you and the Doucets?” my boss, District Attorney Joshua Brady, demanded. ”Already, Blaze has been rainin” hell on me ”cause you wanted to put his baby brother behind bars.”
Baby brother? The same baby brother who had his hands up my…? Well, if that ever came out, my reputation would be completely ruined. Which meant I had to stay far away from Zephyr. Doucets and gossip were a match made in heaven in the Big Easy.
”I”m helping them here,” I protested. ”And it”s an election year, Josh; it”ll be good to have a RICO case under your belt.”
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO) cases were hard to make and harder to prosecute. But when you did win one, you brought organized outfits down and got a career boost. I wanted to do both.
He nodded. ”I”ve looked into this VK Corporation. They”re based out of Dallas but are buying up properties in Louisiana using shell companies.”
I raised my eyebrows.
”I had lunch with an FBI agent attached to the Baton Rouge field office,” he explained. ”They”ve been lookin” into them. Alina Volkov is supposed to be the fixer for the outfit, and they”ve got absolutely nothin” on any of them to get a warrant for a search.”
”Imagine what we could get if we get them laundering money through BBH?” I tempted him.
Josh ran a hand through his dark, curly hair. Josh”s mama was Louisiana royalty, while his father had been one of the first few African-American police chiefs on the force, raised through the ranks. It wasn”t like races didn”t mix in New Orleans, hell, I was mixed race myself—but when races mixed with socioeconomic statuses, everyone knew about it. No one cared if my mother was black or my father was unknown and probably white, but Joshua Brady was well known because of his parentage and his prowess in the courtroom. As a young lawyer he”d won a large judgment against a pharmaceutical company, which had set him up for success. A case that brought down a Russian mob outfit could do the same for me.
”We need a task force for this,” Josh contemplated. ”I think you need to bring in the Feds.”
I groaned.
”Just an agent who knows his shit,” Josh offered.
”How about Joel Bloom?”
Josh nodded. ”Yeah, he”s good people, did good work with the whole Rufus Stark and Will James fuck up. The Doucets like him. He went to university with Rome Decuir.”
Everyone knew everyone in New Orleans—it was a disease. The city lived on gossip and scandal.
”I”m assuming you want to lead this task force,” he mentioned dryly.
”Hell, yeah.”
”Well then, ADA Carta, you better get it goin” and soon. But remember, you fuck up, this will stink all the way to high heaven.”
”I know.”
”You fuck up with the Doucets. You have no career in Louisiana…probably the South. Lucien Doucet was a ruthless bastard, but Blaze makes him look like a Sunday school teacher. You get my drift?”
The Blaze I”d seen who was cuddling his fiancée, sinking into her like she was a lifeline, didn”t seem all that dangerous—but the man who had confronted me a couple of times earlier did. I was no fool. I knew the Doucets were powerful. They played nice when they wanted to—and when they didn”t, they got dirty real fast.
”I get it.”
”He likes you, though.”
I cocked an eyebrow.
”Blaze thinks you”re a spitfire.””You gossiping about me with Blaze Doucet, Josh?” I drawled.
He gave out a full-throated laugh. ”So, I”m going to assume you”re not after Zephyr”s fine ass.”
Not the way you”re thinking! ”I know he had nothing to do with Yves Noel”s murder,” I said noncommittally.
”He seems like the easygoing Doucet, I know, but he”s fuckin” tenacious, and when it comes to his family and people he cares about, he”ll burn da city down.”
”I can handle Zephyr.”
Josh laughed. ”Everyone thinks that. I know Z. Known him for a long time. Don”t get fooled by the I”m-just-a-jazz-bar-owner routine. Boy has an MBA from Harvard and an IQ that would get him into MENSA if he cared about that shit.”
Everyone in New Orleans was in love, in awe, and afraid of the Doucets. But I”d handled worse with the Carta family. I knew what I was doing.
”I can handle Zephyr,” I repeated more forcefully.
”We”ll see what we”ll see.” Josh steepled his hands in front of him, resting his elbows on his desk. ”I want daily reports and weekly briefings. Captain Simone Baptiste will want them, too. I”m assumin” you”ll have Detective Renault and Steele on this task force.”
”Do I need both?”
”Yeah. They”re partners and damn good. Best clearance in the homicide bullpen.”
”You know Nick is in a relationship with Blaze Doucet.”
”Never thought that motherfucker would settle down. Yeah, Grace, everyone knows they”re together.”
”You don”t think there”s a conflict of interest?”
He shrugged. ”I hear you”ve been…ah…spending time with Zephyr, you see a conflict?”
My cheeks heated. ”Excuse me?”
”This is a small town, Grace.” Josh was amused. ”You can”t fart in the Quarter without someone tellin” someone about it.”
I left Josh”s office, my heart ready to leap out of my chest. I kissed Zephyr like once at the Masquerade Ball. Made out with him once in his bar. How the hell did my boss know about it? Who else knew about it? Oh God, this would ruin me. I had to stay the hell away from Zephyr. I”d vowed to myself that I wouldn”t let a man mess up my life. I didn”t let Liam do it; I sure as hell would not allow a Doucet to do that.
As I made those promises, the object of said promises was leaning against my desk, facing the door.
”Who did you tell about what happened?” I rage-whispered and shut my office door behind me.
”You”ve got to be a little more specific, doll.”
”Doll? Little Tempest? What”s it with you, Doucets?”
He cocked an eyebrow. ”Now, now, don”t be gettin” your panties in a twist. I may have called you a Little Tempest. I call everyone doll.”
”Did you tell anyone about what…we…what we did in your office?” I demanded.
I couldn”t be sure, but I saw something akin to hurt and anger flash through him. ”I don”t kiss n” tell, darlin”.”
I believed him. I let out a deep breath. ”What do you want?”
He grinned, and my heart stuttered. Teenage me had had a crush on teenage Zephyr, but the man he”d become…holy hell, all my lady parts were tingling.
”Your pussy tastes like heaven, Little Tempest.” I could still hear the guttural tone of his voice, his hardness, and the way his fingers had strummed my clitoris just as he did his guitar.
”Now that”s a loaded question, doll.”
”You can call me Grace, or you can call me ADA Carta. I prefer ADA Carta.”
His whole face broke into a smile as he walked up to me. He slid a finger down the vee of my sheath dress. ”ADA Carta, you wet for me?”
I pushed him. ”Hands off.”
He laughed as I went past him and sat down on the other side of the desk, where I was in charge, and where he couldn”t see that my legs were shaking.
”I”m going to be your point person for the investigation.” He came around to my side of the desk and hitched his hip over it. ”Blaze”s orders. I”m not seen as a traditional Doucet. And I”m about to be the newest member of the BBH board, making me, ah, ripe for corruption.”
”I believe I”m running this op and not Blaze or any Doucet.” I wanted to push him away. He smelled earthy—a combination of musky cologne, clean sweat, and man. All man!
Why was he even interested in me? Maybe I was a challenge, so different from the bimbos and hookers he always had around him. Zephyr”s alibi, for God”s sake, for his cousin”s murder had been the Big Daddy whorehouse. His friend, Angela, and a few of her colleagues, were entertaining him there.
”Sha, Z is here all the time,” Angela told me when I talked to her with my investigator. ”He was here…Cookie, how long was Z here?” She gave her the date.
Cookie chuckled. ”All night long, cher.”
Yeah, so Zephyr was a bit of a man whore…okay, so a whole hell of a lot of it. He liked his women loose and skanky. And from what I could see, blonde. He liked them blonde and stacked. Whenever I”d seen him around town, he always had a playmate with him. I”d heard from one of the women whom I met at the Better Bureau of Business luncheon who knew from another woman that Zephyr Doucet loved his threesomes.
The woman told me in a hushed whisper, ”He makes it worth your while. Now, I”ve only had him one-on-one, and I can tell you, when they say it”s not the size but how he uses it…the man has the size, and he knows how to use it.”
”And he plays the guitar like a god,” another stacked blonde told me. ”And he plays other things just as well. Bless his heart!”
”Misty and Bella had him once…together.”
That would be prim and proper twenty-year-old Misty Jarvais, who was engaged to old money Nashville, and Bella was…ugh…married to some paper company heir.
”I heard about that. Neither of those girls were able to walk straight the next day. But he won”t touch Bella no more cause she”s married,” another woman piped up.
”Z is such a gentleman,” the woman who”d started the whole shitty conversation said as she fanned herself.
Yeah, you”d expect women who met at the Better Business of Bureaus to have more class. Absolutely not. They talked about how good Zephyr Doucet”s fucking skills were. The shame of it? I ate that up like Rocky Road ice cream from Sweet Saint in the Quarter.
”Come on, cher, don”t be like that,” the man who loved his threesomes coaxed, wrapping one of my loose curls in his finger.
”If this is going to work, no touching.”
”You breakin” my heart here, Little Tempest. Especially after what a good time we had at my sister”s wedding party.”
”You think you”re so slick, don”t you? Well, it”s not working for me. Get over it. It was just an orgasm, and I”ve had better.” Liar, liar, pants on fire.
”Give me another chance, Gracie, and I”ll make it worth your while.”
”Don”t call me Gracie,” I screamed, my heart suddenly pounding and not in a good way. Liam called me that. It was a horrible trigger. And now I”d just told him a weakness, and I knew he”d use it against me. I just knew it. Asshole.
He straightened; his face suddenly serious.
”Just let me know what you need from me and how you want to play this, alright?” He walked to the door and then turned around. ”I”m sorry about calling you…I won”t call you that again. Okay?”
My eyes narrowed. What was he up to now?
”You won”t be doing much of anything with me,” I barked, angry that he”d seen me vulnerable.
”Now, cher, you know that ain”t the truth. But I got to go to the BBH office. Today”s my lucky day; I get dragged the fuck back into hell.”
”What do you mean?”
”I told you I”m joining the board.”
I quirked an eyebrow. ”It”s your family company; I thought you”d be all excited.”
He laughed, but it was not a happy one. ”Yeah. Anyway. Be seein” you, Little Tempest.”
He was gone before I could tell him to stop calling me Little Tempest. When he called me that, it did things to me.