“Well, he found an unrecognizable body that was his height and weight and coloring, and made sure his wallet was in the pocket and his signet ring on the finger. Left it in his house, which was flooded.”
“What was he running from?” Mount asks.
“Alimony payments,” I say with a snicker. “Bastard had an ex-wife who hated his guts and swore she’d never, ever remarry because she wanted that check from him every month. He was sick and tired of working his ass off only to pay her a huge chunk of the money. So he decided to run and start over.”
Keira bursts into laughter. “Leave it to a man to decide that faking his own death was better than paying his ex-wife.”
As everyone at the table laughs along with her, several people come out of the door I assume leads to the kitchen, carrying massive platters of food that fill the air with the scent of Creole cuisine. For the most part, conversation stays remarkably light for the remainder of the meal, and just seeing Magnolia relax and fucking breathe easy for a few minutes feeds me in ways the plates upon plates of food could never do.
After dinner is cleared away and Keira is lifting the baby out of her seat, Mount shifts toward me.
“Join me in the library for a drink,” he says, not a request so much as a command.
Instead of agreeing immediately, I glance over at Magnolia.
Keira jumps in and says, “Mags, I’d love to steal you away for a few minutes too. I just need to put Rory down first.”
Magnolia pushes her chair away from the table. “I’ll help you with your baby girl. I could use an impossibly sweet distraction.”
As the women rise, Mount kisses his daughter good night and says something to his wife.
I toss my napkin down on the table and stretch. As soon as I do, I remember the box of shit I took from Ortiz’s apartment.
“Jules. Trey. Go through the box I took from Ricardo’s apartment. See what you can find. There was a picture of him and another kid, a similar-looking older one. Could be a brother.”
Trey’s eyes light up. “If it’s a decent picture, I can age the guy up and get an idea of what he might look like now. It’d at least give us something to run through facial recognition to find out where he might be now.Ifthat’s who’s doing this.”
Mount’s attention follows the conversation between me and Trey. “Do it. No matter who he is, we’ll find him and bring him in. Even if he’s not the person behind this, he might be able to give us intel on who is. I can be very persuasive.”
Trey opens his mouth to reply, but closes it before he says a word. I can only imagine he was going to say something like, “You think we’ll be able to find him?” or “Do you think he’ll really tell us anything?” But Trey clearly remembered whose table he’s sitting at. Our operation may be smooth and sophisticated when we’re running normally, but Mount and his empire are on a whole different level.
“Good plan,” Trey says instead.
Mount rises from the table and heads for the door, not waiting to see if I’m following him. I give both Trey and Jules a chin lift. I don’t need to say anything more, because they know what the goal is here.
Magnolia safe. End of story.
I trail Mount out of the room, through his maze of hallways, and into the library where I met with him before. He goes to the sideboard and pours us both a drink without asking my preference. Naturally, in this house, Seven Sinners whiskey is always the liquor of choice.
After he pours three fingers in two tumblers, Mount hands me one and then settles in one of the leather armchairs. I take the other.
“How bad was it?” he asks after taking a sip.
“Desiree?”
He doesn’t correct me, which is answer enough.
“Fucked up.Reallyfucked up. Shit I never wanted to see and hope never to again.”
His face is grim. “She was tortured?”
I find it hard to swallow the smooth liquid with visions of the scene in my mind. “Yes. And it wasn’t quick.”
A muscle ticks in Mount’s jaw. “If he gets his hands on Magnolia—”
“He won’t.” I cut him off with a hard stare. “Not gonna fucking happen.”
“Then we find him,” Mount says, nodding in agreement. “Whatever it takes. This is my city, and he’s trespassing.”