The Isle Of Sin And Shadows - Keri Lake Page 0,167

he warned me not to go snooping around here. He must’ve known they’d find me, eventually. “Promise me you’ll talk to Brie.”

“I promise.”

Snuggling closer, I wrap my leg over his and let out an easy breath, feeling safe here, but I know that feeling won’t last long. History has shown me it never does. “We should go. Sail away. Far from here. We’ll take Frannie and go.”

“Julio is back in town. My plan is to deliver Verónica to him and see about cutting a deal. I have a feeling he wants what’s on that chip. I believe that’s his only interest in you. If I can hand it over, he might be willing to leave you alone.”

An unpleasant feeling gurgles in my stomach, just as it did when he told me he was going out of town for this man. “I don’t trust him. Why bother to deliver her, at all? Why not just have him fetch her himself, and we’ll get the hell out of here.”

“Because she’s with Luc. I don’t need to put my cousin on Julio’s radar. At the moment, he has no reason to distrust me. I’ll deliver her safely and cut a deal with him. Then we’ll go.”

“Really? You, me, and Frannie?”

“Yes. I’ll unhitch the boat, and we’ll head south. I just want to get Verónica off Luc’s hands first.”

I still don’t like the idea of him meeting with this Julio guy, but there’s no telling Thierry what he should, or shouldn’t, do. The man does what he wants. “Fine. After that? We leave this place.”

Another couple of hours sleep, and Thierry is yanking me out of bed to shower with him. No sex. Just warm, wet embraces and caressing touches. In the lukewarm water, he massages my head while washing my hair, and plants kisses across my skin where he’s washed me clean.

Wrapped in his robe, I sit on the edge of the bed watching him dress, and push up onto my knees to help him with his tie. “Did I dream it last night, or did you leave this bed? I feel like I woke up at some point, and you were gone.”

“I couldn’t go back to sleep, so I decided to finish up on some work.”

“What kind of work?”

“The dirty kind.” He takes me down to the mattress with a deep passionate kiss, the sort that makes me want to tear off his clothes, but he breaks it before things get too heavy. Staring down at me, he draws a line down my temple with his fingertip. “What black magic do you weave, woman?”

With a smile, I lift up to kiss him again. “The unbreakable variety. Now, hurry. Before I cast a slave spell and keep you imprisoned on this bed for eternity.”

“That doesn’t sound like prison to me.”

Chuckling, I kiss him one more time, tugging at his perfectly proper tie.

Unhooking my hands, he presses my wrists into the mattress and smiles against my lips. “I’ll be back soon. Behave.”

“That’s Valir for be naked and ready later, right?”

“Right,” he says, releasing me.

“Aye, aye.”

Sitting up in bed, I watch his easy stride toward the door, elbows stuck out at either side of him while he adjusts his cuffs. The man is pure pornography in the flesh. The kind of viewing pleasure that liquefies a woman’s panties.

Once the door clicks behind him, I fall back on the bed, and in the silence, my thoughts flip back to my nightmare. To Marcelle, and my attack the night before.

Shooting upright, I shake my head. “Nope. Not doing that today.”

I dress quickly and grab a cup of coffee, before heading out to the dock. Plopping down in my usual spot, I stare out over the gorgeous sun-kissed water of the bayou. Admittedly, the place is growing on me. Not even the mosquitos seem to be as annoying as before.

At the buzzing sound, I slap my arm, coffee spilling over the mug’s rim and just missing my leg. As I watch where it trickles down in the cracks of the deck planks, something catches my eye. Movement beneath. Frowning, I set my coffee to the side and stare down at a flicker of something beneath the deck.

Thumping sounds confirm my suspicions, and I crawl toward the edge of the dock, where I find a rope stretched over the water’s surface, out toward the middle of the swamp. Glancing around for any sign of Moses, I reach down and take hold of it, yanking it hand over fist. As