He inclines his chin. “I am. My family started out in New Orleans, but I was born in Biloxi and raised by my grand-mère. She was a woman with strong opinions like you.”
Bernadette harrumphs. “You’ve got that right. There’s nothing wrong with a matriarch having a strong moral compass. No one knows how hard it is overseeing a family that doesn’t want to take direction.” At this, Bernadette looks at me. “This one was impossible to control.”
Moses rises and puts an arm around my shoulders. “She’s got spirit, all right, and that’s my favorite thing about her. You raised a hell of a woman . . . pardon my French, Ms. Maison.”
Bernadette looks from Moses to me and back again. “Maybe you can finally straighten her out. She’s taken the wrong path.”
I open my mouth to snap out something, but Moses speaks first.
“I beg to differ. She took a path that led her straight back to me, and I wouldn’t change a thing. I’m sure you wouldn’t either.”
Bernadette doesn’t know what to say. Moses put her on the spot, and she’s struggling. I can see she wants to contradict him, but she can’t get it out.
“She’s done right by me. I guess I can’t argue that.”
I can’t believe Bernadette doesn’t expire on the spot after making the admission, but something I never realized was tangled in my chest suddenly unknots. “And I’ll keep doing right by you, Bernie. You took me in when you didn’t have to. I’d like to keep you around a while.”
Bernadette’s gaze cuts to me, and I see something there I haven’t seen before . . . maybe ever. Affection.
“I’ll be around as long as the good Lord bids. Now, I suppose I could make an appointment with the doctor, just to make sure.”
“All right. I’ll have Norma give him a call,” I say, watching Norma nod in the reflection of a mirror across the room.
“Now it’s time for my stories. Thank y’all for stopping by.”
Moses crouches back down in front of her. “It was a pleasure, Ms. Maison. I look forward to seeing you again.”
Fifty-Seven
Magnolia
“You worked a goddamned miracle,” I tell Moses as Norma shuts the door behind us and we walk down the steps. “I don’t know how you did it, but you did.” I shake my head, still shocked that Bernadette didn’t slice him to ribbons with her sharp tongue.
“What can I say? I’ve got a way with the . . . what the hell?”
I turn to follow Moses’s gaze, which is caught on a fancy stretched black car parked behind his Rolls Royce. As the window rolls down, I see a familiar face.
Mount.
“Get in,” he orders before rolling the window up again.
“Fuck,” Moses whispers under his breath.
“What the hell does he want?” I ask him, but Moses just shakes his head.
My heart picks up, thudding harder as we walk toward the car, and I don’t know why. I calmed my fears about Mount after he and Keira got together, and I know he won’t hurt me because she’d kill him.
But still . . . something about this is unsettling.
Moses’s posture is rigid as V comes around to open the back door for us. I thank him and slide in first, taking the seat closest to the other side of the vehicle, opposite Mount. Moses takes the seat directly across from him.
“Is Keira okay?” I ask as soon as the door shuts. “Rory?”
“They’re fine,” Mount replies, and my pulse calms a little. “But Alberto Brandon’s wife was found murdered in their home yesterday. Her throat was slit.”
Goose bumps rise on my arms. “Jesus Christ.” I turn to Moses. “He’s the one the FBI was watching the house for.”
“I remember.” Moses is stiff and still where he sits across from Mount. “Who did it?”
Mount shakes his head. “I don’t know, but I heard the police determined that human blood was used to write on Magnolia’s condo wall later that same night. Makes a person wonder whose blood it was, and if the same person committed both crimes.”
Moses’s tone is clipped when he asks, “You having whoever you got inside the department running that down?”
“I’ve made the suggestion.”
Suggestion. Right. He gave an order.
“That means Cavender is going to come knocking again. And he’ll try to tie this to me too somehow.”
Mount nods. “He’s determined to take you out for that murder in your building. You kill the guy?”
“It was self-defense. He tried to stab me, but only sliced my side. Took me by surprise. I was trapped in the elevator. It was me or him, and I picked me.” Hearing myself say it out loud, I realize it’s the absolute truth. Life is like that sometimes. Kill or be killed.
“As one does.” Mount is quiet for a long moment. “Brandon’s in the wind. Know any reason why his wife might want you dead bad enough to pay someone to do it?”
My mouth drops open. “You think . . . you think she paid a hit man to kill me? I don’t even know the woman. I barely know who her husband is.”
“A woman scorned is dangerous and unpredictable,” Mount says.
“It’s not on me if her husband was fucking one of the girls. I don’t have shit to do with it anymore.”
The king crosses his legs. “Yet you still own the house. Maybe she assumed.”
I glance at Moses, who is being uncharacteristically quiet. I ask him, “You think that’s possible?”
Moses shrugs. “I don’t know. Anything’s possible. But we can’t ask either of them now. We just gotta find the motherfucker who killed her.”
“Good plan.” Mount’s attention goes back to Moses. “Now, have you told Magnolia everything yet?”
Moses’s face goes blank and he exhales, filling the cabin with this strange, thick pressure.
“Told me what?” I ask, something twisting in the pit of my stomach.
Mount shakes his head. “We made a deal, Gaspard. And just like last time . . . you’re too damn slow to hold up your end of the bargain.”
“I’m working on it,” Moses says, and the words sound like he’s speaking through gritted teeth. “Let me do this my way, Mount. It’s not your concern.”
Mount taps his index finger against his lips, moving his gaze between us. “You forget, this is my city, and Magnolia’s under my protection. You don’t give me orders. You never did seem to understand that very well.”
“What the hell are you two talking about? Tell me what?” I look from Mount to Moses and back again.
Mount stares long and hard at Moses before turning to face me head-on. “That he’s been lying to you since the moment you met him, and it’s about fucking time he tells you the truth about why he was in your house fifteen years ago to begin with. Because it sure as hell wasn’t to save you.”
Moses and Magnolia’s story continues in Madam Temptress, the second book of the Magnolia Duet, which is now available for preorder by tapping on the title. You do not want to miss the EPIC conclusion to this incredible duet. I can't wait for you to read it! Also, if you haven't met Mount and Keira before Creole Kingpin, you can meet them for free right now in Ruthless King. Tap the title to download or keep reading for a sneak peek. But before you click away, I have another important question—did you meet Moses before he came back for Magnolia? If not, you need the Legend Trilogy! The first chapter of The Fall of Legend is right after the Ruthless King sneak peek and you won't want to miss that one either. It. Is. Everything! Don't worry, the entire trilogy is out now so you can binge it all.