into the city, off to do whatever she did there. I was just glad it’d keep her from filling the Huxleys’s heads with even more bullshit before I could talk to them.
At the end of my first lesson, however, I was walking back to the stable with Melodee and Starbright when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. It was Nyx, walking back to the big house, a bag in hand. A rectangle sort of bag that looked like it probably held a laptop and some papers. Shit. She was up to something, and I had no idea what it was. No way to find out, either. Not without making a bigger mess of things.
Deserting my work and interrupting something I hadn’t been invited to wouldn’t do any good for anyone, which meant I stayed where I was. Even so, I couldn’t stop myself from looking over at the house all morning, waiting for her to come out.
I really needed to get this damn woman out of my mind.
“Thank you for this, sugar,” Shadae said as she settled into her seat next to Brew. “How’d you know I’ve been cravin’ seafood all week?”
“You know you didn’t need to do this,” Brew said, even as he opened up the expansive menu. “You’ve become more than just an employee while you’ve been with us.”
We chatted about mundane things, and I waited until we’d gotten our meals and taken a few bites before bringing up the first reason we were here.
“I have to be honest. I can’t say my motives for dinner were completely selfless. I really did need a job when I came to the ranch, but I’ve also been working on a new film, and I think you both could be important contributors.”
“Us?” Shadae looked surprised. “What sort of things could Brew and I contribute to a movie?”
“For the past two years, I’ve been gathering information for a documentary about Savannah’s oldest and most prominent families, but I want to show the truth of who they are, not just the face they present to the public.”
Brew wiped his mouth and chin with his napkin. “Now, we might both come from people who’ve been here for a long time, but I don’t think we can be called one of the city’s most prominent families.”
“That’s actually kinda my point,” I said. “Your families have done more for this city than some of the other ones that get all the credit. And I think some – if not the majority – hide the…less savory bits of their past to make themselves look better, my own family included.”
Shadae sniffed. “I imagine your daddy doesn’t think too much of that.”
“He doesn’t,” I agreed. Without even knowing it, she’d given me the perfect in-road to talk about Nyx. My parents had denied having anything to do with the PI’s presence in Savannah, but no matter how much sense their denials had made, I knew there were things Nyx was keeping from me.
“Speaking of your family,” Shadae and Brew exchanged a strange look, “Brew and I need to talk to you about somethin’.”
I considered asking if I could bring something up first, but manners had been one of the few good things my parents had drilled into me as a child. I disagreed with them on a lot, including when and where to abandon social niceties, but this is one time I would’ve agreed with them that interrupting would’ve been unnecessarily rude.
“Nyx came to us yesterday to talk to us about the reason she was in Savannah,” Shadae began.
Now, I was glad I’d waited. With them taking the initiative, I’d be able to learn what she’d told them without coming across like I was making baseless accusations. There was one thing I wanted to know first, though.
“I thought she couldn’t talk about her case.”
“She got permission from her clients,” Brew said. He glanced at Shadae. “Turns out, we’re related. Her clients and me.”
I frowned. That wasn’t the direction I saw things going.
Shadae picked the conversation up. “We can’t give you all the details ‘cuz it’s not all our story to tell. But we told the Douglasses – that’d be the clients – that we had to tell you at least part of it. You’re a good man, Bradyn, and it wouldn’t be right, springin’ this on you or you hearin’ it from someone else.”
So, Nyx had brought up my family. I hadn’t been completely off base about the meaning behind that phone conversation I’d heard