“This will be fine.”
He pulled the chair out for Caroline and just as her butt hit the seat, one of the men at the next table said, “Well, Brantley Anderson. How's it going?”
Brantley turned, and his mouth stretched into smile. Max carefully ducked behind him so the men couldn’t get a look at her, not that they’d pay much attention to the hostess anyway. She gave Caroline a little thumbs up behind Brantley’s back.
Yeah, this was going well. So far.
Brantley chuckled and approached the table with his hand outstretched. “Good evening, gentlemen.” He shook each man’s hand, greeting them all with familiarity.
Max and Caroline exchanged a look and then Max looked in the direction of Zander and Spencer's table. After a moment, Caroline also glanced in their direction as well. Both men were watching every move.
Brantley stood chatting with the men at the table and Caroline breathed a sigh of relief.
“Let me know if I can get you anything, Ms. Holland,” Max said. She lifted a brow.
“We’re fine. Thank you,” Caroline assured her.
Max moved off, but Caroline knew she’d only go as far as the front.
Caroline reached for her tiny purse and pulled her phone out. She flipped through the various apps until she got to the recording app and hit record. Then she stood, smoothed her skirt, and approached Brantley.
She ran her hand up his arm. “Honey, I need to go to the ladies’ room. Would you hold this for me?” She showed him her phone with the screen turned down.
Slightly distracted, he nodded. “Yeah, okay.”
She slipped it into his jacket pocket and then kissed his cheek, giving the other men a quick smile. “I'll be right back.”
She headed for the restrooms by way of the front foyer, where she passed Max and said quietly, “I have no idea what I’m doing.”
“You’re fucking amazing,” Max whispered back, not lifting her head from her phone. The real hostess had returned to her station.
Caroline made her way to the ladies’ room. She stood, staring at the mirror, taking deep breaths.
Max joined her a moment later. She checked the stalls and found them all empty.
“Okay, record as much as you can of any and all conversations Brantley has, then get him to go with you to my apartment,” Max said.
Caroline nodded. Max lived within walking distance of Octavia’s and it would be easy enough to convince Brantley that’s where Caroline was staying now that she’d left home.
Max continued. “That way, he’ll be there willingly. Spencer can’t enter any of Brantley’s properties, or any of his friends’ homes or offices, without a warrant, but he can definitely enter a property where the owner lets him in. And it will be a private place where Spencer can assure him it’s safe to talk.”
Caroline smiled. “Got it. You’ll make sure the guys are there?”
“We’ll be right behind you, don’t worry.”
Caroline nodded. “I’m going to tell him he can have the list but it’s at your place. I don’t know how else to get him there.”
“You could have promised him sex,” Max said, with a shrug. “But yeah, the list works.”
Caroline wrinkled her nose. Either way, the whole thing felt…manipulative. Because it was. She sighed. This was what she did. It’s what she’d been doing for years. She played a part so that people would tell her things or do things she wanted them to do. No one ever confided in her or was influenced by her just being real. Would she even be able to convince someone of something without tricking them?
She thought back to the painting and redecorating they’d done at Ellie’s. That was small. It wasn’t significant in a national or global sense. But it had mattered to the Landry family. And it had happened because she’d been real and honest. And they’d listened.
What would it feel like to be open and genuine with someone in a truly impactful way? To really influence someone to do something that made a difference on a grander scale?
“Well, I think he wants the list more than sex with me,” Caroline said with a shrug.
“I don’t know. You look hot in that dress,” Max told her.
Caroline smoothed her hand down the dress. “Zander likes it.”
Max laughed. “Yeah, that guy is about to burn this place down and take you to his remote bayou cabin as his sex hostage or something, so you’d better get this thing with Brantley moving.”
The idea that Zander was a little jealous gave Caroline a surge of bayou-sex-hostage-could-be-fun, but the mention of a remote bayou cabin made her think about his major concern for his family and town and she took a deep breath. “Yeah, let’s get this over with. So my plan is to tell Brantley that I regret turning the lion cub over to the animal park and that I want another. I’m going to convince him that I want to buy another cub. I’m hoping that if I become a buyer, he’ll tell me more about what’s going on. Or, if he doesn’t know, it can lead to me getting connected to sellers.”
Max blew out a breath. “I don’t have a better plan so let’s try it. It’s as convincing as anything else. We’re kind of stuck here.”
When Caroline got back to the table, Brantley had pulled a chair up to the table next to the four men and had a cocktail in hand. When he saw her, he laughed and said to the men, “My fiancée is back, gentlemen, and I have another type of business to take care of. It was nice to see you all.”
“You too, Anderson,” one of them said. “We'll be in touch.”
Brantley moved his chair back to the table he was sharing with Caroline and gave her a smile.
“Who are they?” she asked as they settled in.
“Just some business associates.”
“Should I know any of them?”
He shook his head. “I doubt it. Chris and I've been working with them more independently. Well, more me than Chris now. He's bailed.”
She leaned in. “Does it have to do with the animals?” she asked quietly. “Because that's one of the things I wanted to talk to you about.”
He frowned. “What about them?”
She took a breath. Time to put the plan in motion. But just then she glanced toward Zander and Spencer’s table.
Her gaze met Zander’s.
And she couldn’t do it.
She’d been real in Autre. She’d been able to let go. Be herself. Be accepted and appreciated and…loved for her real self. She hadn’t had to trick or manipulate anyone there into trusting her or sharing their stories or bringing her into their inner circle. Zander had shared things with her that she knew he didn’t tell many people. No, those people didn’t have deep, dark, corrupt intentions and secrets, but…that was part of it too. They were good people. Doing good, honest work that did make the world better. Even in a tiny town in Louisiana, they were using their talents and hearts and support network to make a sanctuary for animals.
And people.
She wasn’t the only one who’d come to Autre a little lost and alone and in need of a place where she could be her true self.
She felt her eyes stinging as that all hit her. She couldn’t go back to lying and manipulating and playing these deceptive games with these people.