Page 12 of Lord Have Mercy Part Four: Big Son

Alex nodded his thanks. “If Boyle grew up here, he left some sort of trail. When we figure out what the hell he wants with Mercy, maybe we’ll figure out where to find the bastard.”

Five

As the one with the most undercover operative experience, Tenny had declared himself in charge of all major strategic decisions. He’d been the one to insist that they get a hotel room – or three, rather – as a base of operations, arguing they would need a place to shower, change, eat, and rest in relative safety, no matter what greeted them in New Orleans. But the very low-profile, nondescript Holiday Inn he selected was half-closed thanks to construction, and the rest of it booked up. It was too far from the action, anyway. So Maggie scored them two rooms in one of the very charming, French-inspired hotels on the Rue St. Anne. Their rooms faced the street on one side, and the doors let out onto a gallery that overlooked a courtyard with a fountain and grove of banana trees. It was charming, and creaky-floored, decked out in gold tassels, and satin wallpaper, the bathrooms equipped with claw-foot tubs and old-fashioned toilets with pull-chains.

Had she been in the mood to appreciate aesthetics, Ava would have found it utterly charming. Given the circumstances, she was grateful for the proximity to downtown, and their view of the street. It felt like hiding in plain sight, and that was a good thing.

Worried that Alex and Colin would grow short-tempered – that was putting it mildly – with Tenny’s…essential Tennyness, they’d given the brothers one room, and Maggie and Ava were sharing one of the full-size beds in the other room, Reese and Tenny with the other. Not that any of them had slept.

Ava attempted to do something with her hair in front of the bathroom mirror, gave up, and scraped it all back up into a sloppy bun again.

Out in the room, Colin said, “I think we should wait.”

Ava sighed at her reflection – sallow, droopy with exhaustion – and walked out of the bathroom to find him pacing back and forth in the open alley of carpet between the beds and the TV stand. Maggie sat on the end of one bed, Reese on the other, both of them watching his progress with the lazy interest of unhungry cats observing a trapped bird.

A very big trapped bird.

Ava said, “Why should we wait?” Not because she wanted to know, but because if Colin was going to wimp out, they needed to get it over with. He’d been cool and collected during the shootout, but now he vibrated with tension, hands tensing and flexing on his hips as he paced.

“Ten won’t care,” Reese said, like an offering. “I’ll text him where we’re going.”

Colin rounded on him, scoffing. “I don’t give a shit what Ten thinks. He’s not the boss of anybody here, ‘cept maybe you.”

Reese shrugged, unbothered. “He’s not my boss, either.”

“Oh, well, thank Christ forthat.”

“Colin,” Maggie said, using the same voice she used on Ash when he was at his most recalcitrant. “What are you worried about?”

He scrubbed a hand through his hair and let it trail down his jaw before it swung down at his side, limp with fatigue. He glanced first at Maggie, then at Ava. “Gee, I wonder.” Resumed pacing.

“You think an extra two guys will keep us safer?” Ava asked.

“Yes.”

“You know we’re not helpless, right?”

He stopped propped his hands back on his hips, and sent her a look half-dark with anger, and half-pleading. “It’s dangerous enough that you’re here in the first place–”

“Really?”

“But if something happens to you–”

“Colin,” Ava said, and pinched the bridge of her nose to keep from biting his head off. “I’m not taking us into the swamp, or a – a fucking Roadhouse honky-tonk. She’s a little old lady who lives alone.”

“Or so you think.”

“Colin–”

“Ava,” he said, low, and deep, and dark in a way he never was. It startled her. Maggie, too, judging by the way she jerked upright, absently swinging foot going still. Colin had stopped pacing, and turned to face her. With his hands on his hips, his shoulders were rolled back, emphasizing their width, and he’d never looked more like Mercy – though Mercy certainly never looked at her like she was a wayward child, the way Colin was doing now.

It was so jarring, seeing that expression on a face so familiar, so close to the one she wanted, but not quite, that her jaw snapped shut, teeth clicking together.

Colin said, “Mercy’s already gonna be pissed that we let you come. He’s gonna be somewhere way, way beyond pissed. One time, in high school, he gave me a dead arm so bad I couldn’t reach up over my head for three days. He’s gonna put me in the fucking hospital for this,” he said, wholly serious, eyes flashing. “What do you think happens if we” – he made a circular gesture to include himself and Reese – “let you get hurt? Or…” He didn’t saykilled, but the twitch of his brows said it for him.

“How touching that your biggest concern is Mercy not knocking all your teeth out,” she snapped.

“Oh my…” He pushed both hands through his hair and started walking again. Stopped. Stared her down, even angrier than before. “Obviously I’m worried aboutyou. Fuckingobviously.”

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