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Rick was gonna be pissed off. Jace had let the kid go.
No, he’d made the kid go.
Corey was... Jace shuddered at what Corey was going to do to them. Don’t think about that. Just drive.
1
The Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 9:00 A.M.
MORNING, JOY,” VAL Sorensen singsonged.
Their office manager was at her desk in the lobby of Broussard Investigations, frowning at her computer monitor. “Welcome back, Val,” she said without looking up. “How was your assignment?”
“Boring. Some CEO said that someone was threatening his wife, but he was just worried that she was getting some from the pool boy on the side and wanted a chaperone.”
Joy glanced up. “Was she getting some from the pool boy?”
“Not my job to know,” Val said, then laughed. “But yeah, she totally was.” Waving the box she held, she was rewarded when Joy’s normally stoic expression became rapturous. Val gestured to the box like it was a game show prize. “See something you like?”
Joy’s lips twitched. “Depends. Does that box in your hands contain Marica’s cupcakes?”
Val smirked. Her pals MaryBeth and Jessica owned one of the best bakeries in the Quarter. “They were Marica’s, but then I paid for them, so now they’re mine.” She put the box on Joy’s desk, centering it carefully on the blotter, because a crookedly placed anything was annoying as hell. “And now they’re yours. Happy birthday, Joy.”
Joy grinned. “You stood in that ridiculous line for me?”
“I did indeed.” She propped her hip on the corner of Joy’s desk. “I didn’t have to, because MaryBeth already had these set aside for me and told me to just come to the front of the line to pick them up. But the crowd looked unruly, so I decided it would be safer to wait.”
Besides, it was a beautiful fall morning and she’d wanted to breathe it in before getting stuck behind her desk all day. She loved her job at Broussard Investigations—except for the paperwork, and she had a ton of it waiting for her.
“Well, thank you,” Joy said. “Although you could have hip-checked anyone who gave you any shit, Miss Roller Derby Queen.”
Val rolled her eyes. “I don’t hip-check random strangers. Plus, there were a few old ladies in front of me who must have come from morning mass. They were clutching rosaries and didn’t look scared to use them.”
“Such foolishness.” Joy lifted the box’s lid, sniffed deeply, then sighed. “Chocolate.”
“Of course. I’m not stupid.”
“No, you’re not.” Joy tilted her head in a speculative way that had Val sliding off the desk and taking a wary step back.
“What?”
Joy smiled up at her. “Nothing.” She took two of the cupcakes from the box and handed them to Val. “One for you and one for the child.”
Val frowned. “What child?”
The door to their boss’s office opened and Burke Broussard appeared. A big and brawny retired Marine, Burke was somewhere in his midforties. A very handsome man, he turned heads everywhere.
Just not mine.
Burke was perfect as a friend, but she’d never even considered anything more. He was... too big. Way too big. Val had to swallow back the memories of the others who’d been too big, all while keeping a smile plastered on her face.
Burke knew her history, and he’d never been anything but kind and respectful of her boundaries. She trusted him implicitly, and that was a big deal for her. She’d been lucky the day he’d asked her to join his team. Broussard Investigations was a tightly knit group, and everyone was protective of the others. They were as close to a family as one could get without blood ties, and Val found the love and comfort here that her own broken family could no longer provide.
“Morning, Val,” Burke rumbled in that deep Cajun drawl of his. “You have a new client. Bring a cupcake for him.”
Okaaaay. Holding the two cupcakes, Val walked to Burke’s office door, hearing the whir of Joy’s motorized wheelchair as the older woman followed her, unabashedly curious. A shiver of trepidation raced down Val’s spine.
