Chapter 6
Grace
Captain Simone Baptiste ran the homicide department like she owned it, which, in a way, she did. It threw some folks for a loop that a black, gay woman could climb so high in the NOPD, but Captain Baptiste had bulldozed through every barrier thrown her way. She didn’t mess around and had a way of putting me in check whenever I stepped out of line. I was still learning the ropes and had nothing but respect for her.
”I want to be sure what we”re after with this task force.” Captain stood at the edge of the room, rocking on her heels, her hands in her pockets.
The head of the organized crime department, Captain Lazare Fontenot, who was seated, quirked an eyebrow. ”I thought we were goin” to bring down the Russian mob workin” N”awlins.”
Fontenot was not a happy man. He”d recently discovered that a few of his men were dirty and on the payroll of what his team had identified as the Volkov Syndicate, part of the Russian Bratva, working out of the southern United States with a base in Dallas. They were establishing their presence in New Orleans with the work they had been doing with Rufus Stark, Camille Doucet”s deceased husband and the former CFO of Bayou Belle Holdings.
But it looked like several members of the Doucet family were involved in laundering money for the Volkovs.
”Let”s get more specific,” I suggested.
This was a preliminary task force meeting that my boss, Joshua Brady, had called. In attendance in the DA”s conference room were Agent Joel Bloom of the FBI, Nick and Ash, their captain, and Captain Fontenot.
”And I”m not particularly excited about havin” the DA”s office run this operation,” Fontenot added.
I didn”t know the steel-eyed man who exuded silent authority well, but he was infamous for being a hard ass. As Joshua put it, ”sumbitch”s got some murky depths, just like the Mississippi.”
Fontenot was a third-generation NOPD—and was New Orleans through and through. He was cunning and resilient, a bulldog who never gave up, which had helped propel him to the upper echelons of the organized crime department. Despite his polished exterior, there was a coldness to him, a calculated detachment that made him both respected and feared in equal measure.
”You don”t have to like it,” Joshua said lazily. ”As ADA Carta laid out at the start of the meeting, the goal is to find the evidence we need to bring down VK Corporation…the Volkov Syndicate or whatever the fuck they call themselves.”
”Why the fuck we doin” the feebs” dirty work?” Fontenot was cranky as hell, and I didn”t blame him. His department was in turmoil, and everyone was looking at him, wondering if there were more dirty cops in his squad.
”We”d have preferred NOPD OC to take over, but we understand you”re short-staffed,” Joel drawled.
Hell! I didn”t need this meeting to turn into a pissing contest with the Feds vs. the NOPD. I needed Joel and the federal resources to make this work.
”Let”s get back to our scope,” I spoke calmly to direct everyone”s attention back to me and away from Joel, who Fontenot looked like he was ready to murder. ”The Feds have been trying to get evidence to nail down the Volkovs for three years. We have an opportunity. We know they approached Blaze Doucet. We can, through BBH, get the evidence we need to put them away.”
Fontenot tapped his fingers on the table. ”And Blaze is ready to work with the NOPD?”
”Yes,” I informed him.
He ran a hand through his blond hair. ”Fuckin” hell! I arrested that asshole on a regular basis…was on patrol when he was pulled over for that DUI.”
”Cher, you”re aging yourself by sayin” you were arrestin” Blaze,” Captain Baptiste said dryly.
”And Baptiste, I am fuckin” old, sha. And workin” OC is makin” me older than the Goddamn bayou.” He gave out a harsh laugh. ”Alright, ADA Carta, lay out the plan.”
I nodded at Nick and Ash. We”d spent the morning formulating various options and settled on one that we felt would give us the best results.
”Now, everyone knows that Blaze is sitting on the Bayou Belle Holdings board, and Zephyr and Gaia have recently joined as well. Since the Volkovs tried to kill Blaze, it is probably safe to say that when they approached him, they were trying to scare him.”
Ash sat lazily as he always did, sprawled on a chair. He used to play for the New Orleans Saints before an injury killed his football career. I knew he spent some years in his native home of Texas before his family moved to New Orleans—and according to the grapevine, the Matthew McConaughey swagger was not an act, but the ”I”m so relaxed, I”m almost always falling asleep” attitude was. The man gained a reputation for having more one-night stands than a hooker on Bourbon Street, especially since he played for all sides; he was pansexual. He also had the reputation for being the coolest head when it came to running ops. He and Nick had the highest close rate in homicide; and it was common knowledge that they worked well as a team.
”We want to use Zephyr as bait,” I added.
”Blaze is known to be a hot head…Zephyr, he”s the quiet one,” Nick said stiffly. She wasn”t happy that any member of her fiancée”s family was being used for an op. I got that. But she also had said that she wanted this closed so her future husband would stop being so wound up and afraid for his family.
”Zephyr Doucet?” Fontenot scoffed. ”For all the time he and Rome Decuir spent drying up in lock up, that boy is the nice Doucet. Can”t see him gettin” tangled up with da mob, sha.”
”The problem is that he owes some very bad people a whole hell of a lot of money,” I supplied.
Everyone except Ash and Nick looked at me in shock.
”What?” Joel narrowed his eyes.
I shook my head, and Nick handed out documents to everyone at the table. ”According to our information, Zephyr Doucet lost a lot of money along with Lucien Doucet, his grandfather, when they invested in crypto and some other deals.”
”And he has that nasty habit of whoring,” Ash continued. ”Big Daddy don”t come cheap. He”s up to his eyeballs.”
Joel looked through the report and shook his head. ”Does Blaze know? Does Rome? Both of them will sell everything they own to take care of him.”
”Nah, you see, Zephyr”s going to have a very public falling out with his siblings and his best friend,” I grinned. ”Making him very susceptible to being influenced.”
Everyone nodded and leaned back, almost relieved that the good Doucet boy was not a loser after all.
”The Doucets will go along with this charade?” Captain asked.
”We brought it to you first, but yes, I think they will.” I crossed my fingers that they would. Nick hadn”t been sure, though Ash was confident that Zephyr would love to play bait.
”But no one but us in this room, Blaze, Rome, and Gaia can know,” I said firmly.
”The chief told Henri Allard and some others about there being a dirty cop in the OC squad before the masquerade ball.” Nick leaned against a wall, her long model legs crossed at the ankles. ”That got Lemmo killed, Detective Broussard hurt, and got a woman who dressed like Camille Doucet dead. We run this op; we do it with as few people as possible.”
”Henri is trustworthy,” Joshua protested.
”The Chief running his mouth is not,” I retorted.
”The Chief does talk,” Fontenot agreed. ”And, yeah, we keep this tighter than a virgin”s cunny.”
”Shit, Fontenot, you need to take some ”em sensitivity classes.” Captain Baptiste slapped his shoulder.
”Me? I”m the epitome of fuckin” sensitivity, sha,” Fontenot joked. ”Let”s walk through this plan and fine-tune before we bring any civilians into it.”
It was the end of the shift for Nick and Ash by the time the meeting ended.
”We”re dropping by Jazz Sessions for dinner and some jazz. You wanna join?” Nick winked at me as we walked out of the conference room.
A part of me wanted to stay far, far away from Jazz Sessions and the Doucets and another was thrilled that I”d be working closely with Zephyr for this op.
I knew he was the pinnacle of everything that was not my type, and yet…. Every time I thought about how he”d watched me orgasm, how he”d continued to stroke me when his brother had interrupted us as if he didn”t give a shit. It made me hotter than leather seats in a black car in July.
I was not an exhibitionist…actually, I had no idea what my sexual proclivities, if any, were.
I”d had sex with one man, my former husband—so I didn”t even know whether he was shit in bed or not. It was decent sex. I came at least once every three to four times if we decided to let me use a vibrator. When Liam insisted that he was a man and he could do it with his dick…well, it didn”t happen. I”d tried to explain the concept of a clitoris to him, but Liam was too used to hearing every woman he”d ever fucked tell him what a god he was in bed, so he didn”t think he needed to learn anything. The fact that I had to become one of those women who stroked his ego to survive still grated on me.
”I”m addicted to Chef Maurice”s crab cakes,” I confessed. ”I could eat that and wash it down with a Sazerac.”
”Blaze is going to play tonight.” Nick”s eyes went all bright and gooey every time she talked about her husband. It was cheesy and cute.
I drove with Ash while Nick went on her motorcycle. I was a little in awe of her. She”d been with the FBI. She was a top NOPD homicide detective. She was engaged to the scariest and hottest man alive, and she had a motorbike. Added to all that were her absolutely stunning good looks and supermodel hotness. Compared to her, I always felt like an inferior product. Sure, I”d used Liam”s money to polish myself up—but it always felt like a mask. I”d been wearing one mask or the other for so long now that I didn”t know what my real face looked like anymore.