Page 51 of The Syphon King

Sahvrin got out and hurried around the truck, opening her door. “Move over Ma Petite.” She slid across the seat and he climbed in. “Seatbelt.”

Her hands shook as she put it on, feeling like such an idiot loser as he drove off. She realized he was leaving the parallel parking hell block and her whole body sagged right as a gush of estrogen blasted from her mouth in a stupid sob.

“Aww, Ma sucre ange,” Bishop sighed, pulling off the road as she fought to get her crap together. He pulled her against him, and she suddenly just wanted to climb inside him while he spoke soothing French and petted her. “I’m an idiot for not listening to you.” She nodded, pressing her mouth against his warm neck. “I should be bat-tied for making Ma Petite Belle Eveque cry, oui?”

She shook her head with a gasp.

“No?” He held her face, kissing her mouth and she pushed him off.

“I’m gross now,” she croaked, sucking in jagged breaths.

“What if I make it up to you and bring you home later?” He caressed her womb, and she held his hand on it, looking at him.

“Home?” Hope and longing made her tears return.

“Where you fell in lust with me, and I fell in love with you?”

She wrapped her arms around his neck with another sob. “I would like that so much. I miss our little house.”

His mouth took hers without warning or mercy. “Yes,” he swore as he kissed her. “And I will make love to my beautiful wife.”

“And...make me some gumbo?”

He smiled on her lips. “You miss my cooking?”

“So much,” she whispered, stroking his beautiful face. “And how you fed me.” She gasped with a smile, wiping her tears. “I’m being sochildish,” she forced past her tight throat. “You spoiled me, and I never loved anything so much,” she sobbed, back to strangling his neck as his French erupted again with much caressing and soft face kissing.

“I will surely take you home and do all these things you say, yes? I love you so much, my beautiful angel. My perfect wife. My best best friend in all the world?”

She nodded a lot.

He got back on the road. “We’ll get you a bite to eat before we go to our next appointment, oui?”

She looked at him. “What appointment?”

“With Bullets. He’s going to let me use his firing range to teach you how to handle weapons.” He regarded her with a look of mischief and regret. “Ineedyou to know these things more than ever now. I don’t know what’s coming and—”

“It’s fine,” she cut in. “I want to learn whatever you think I need to.”

He reached over and took her hand in his, squeezing it. “There’s my angel.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

“So, we’ve got two months to pull this off,” Bishop said, pacing the floor next to the table in the Basilique. “I’m gonna need a full list of every job we’ll be doing. Every leader of every hatch—that’s all of you—will report to me with a daily update and in turn inform our Northern Brothers via the Kings Guard Network as per their request. Jek, you’re in charge of keeping the books on the overall of everything financial along with the who what when where and how of jobs and their respective timelines.”

“You got it,” he said, writing in his notebook.

“Bart, you’ll still be over the Marsh Matrix. Keep a damn close eye on that.”

“Can do more than that,” he said.

“You can be crazy glue. Patch any weak spots you see.” He regarded Zep, still trying to figure out a job for him.

“How much are we telling the families in the swamp?” Mah-Mah wondered.

“Theleastpossible. Zep, I need you to get with the Keepums and give me a listof all able-bodied men of all trades. And resources. Find out what all we have. August, I would like a chart onthiswall,” he pointed behind him, “detailing every aspect of the project. Get with Jek for that.”

“You got it.”

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