“Brought back your phone,” Sebastian said as he handed it to her.
She smiled as she took it.
“You didn’t have to leave,” he said.
“Oh, okay.”
Sebastian got the feeling that she would leave in the future too. Somebody had taught her courtesy. She hadn’t talked about her mother; he wondered what she was like.
“Did you find out the combination?”
Sebastian grimaced. “Don’t need it. Armand has the drill somewhere in the house. Neil gave it to him. Gotta go wake him up again,” Sebastian said with disgust.
“Again?”
“I already woke him up once to ask him the combination. Dumbass should have known I needed the drill.”
Gianna’s lips twitched.
This was definitely a mystery; why in the hell was she cozying up to a man who was a drunk and a fool? Well, he didn’t have time to figure this shit out now, he needed to get the shutters closed. He’d have plenty of time to work on that tomorrow. In the meantime, he’d focus on trying to get his uncle to remember what in the hell a drill was, let alone where it was.
“Are you safe?” Jada asked.
“I’m fine,” Gianna assured her friend over their video call on her computer. She pulled up the extra blankets so that her legs were covered, and was happy that she was wearing her hoodie. It was warm and humid, but there was something about the sound of wind and rain that made her feel cold.
“Seriously, babe, I’m hearing this could turn into a Category Five hurricane, and you’re in the middle of bumfuck Louisiana with the drunk, handsy-assed clown. Are. You. Safe?”
Gianna snickered as she turned down the volume on her computer. She would’ve worn her headphones, but then she’d have no idea how loud she was, and Jada had a tendency to make her laugh really loud.
“Turn up your volume, because I’m going to whisper,” she told her best friend.
“What, are you telling me that the boozed-up Cajun isn’t passed out tonight and might actually hear us? Or does the Crypt Creeper have his hearing aids in?”
Gianna giggled even louder. “You gotta stop making me laugh, Sebastian will hear me.” Then her head whipped up as she heard another piercing howl of wind coming from behind the shuttered windows. “Scratch that, nobody’s going to hear anything above the wind.”
“That goes back to my original question. Are you safe?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Sebastian made me come stay at the big house when he realized that the carriage house didn’t have storm shutters.”
Jada’s brown eyes got wide. “Sebastian is there? As in Navy SEAL Sebastian Lazar Durand the Fourth?”
“That’d be the one,” Gianna confirmed.
“Holy shit. What is he doing there? According to everything I sourced he left at eighteen and has never shown back up.”
“You’re my information guru, go find out.”
Jada shook her head, her curls bouncing. “I will get you everything you need, you know that, after you answer my damned question. Are you safe?”
“Oh my God. You are not my keeper,” Gianna glared at her computer screen.
“Gianna, you’re a babe in the woods. If you hadn’t had me to take care of you at New York University you would have been eaten alive. Damn good thing you got me as your roommate our freshman year.”
Gianna rolled her eyes in protest, but Jada was speaking the absolute truth. She might have lived the first four-and-a-half years of her life surrounded by pimps, drugs, and whores, but after that, she’d been a sheltered girl who had lived in a small Kentucky town surrounded by grandparents who did everything they could to shield her from all of life’s harshness. They’d hated it when she’d received a scholarship to NYU, but in the end, they had supported her choice to follow her dream.
“I’m safe. I’m safe. You’d think that Sebastian was some kind of broody hen and I was one of his baby chicks. He couldn’t get my butt up to the big house fast enough. Then he threw a fit because the storm shutters weren’t locked down on the first floor on this house, and he was going to go out there in the middle of the storm with a darned screwdriver to secure them.” Gianna gave her friend the ‘eek’ face.
“You’re freaking kidding me.”
“I told him I had Ophelia’s number so he could get ahold of Neil; that way he could get into the toolshed and get the drill. Then he was sooo darned sweet.” Gianna bit her lip and sighed.
“Well, don’t leave me hanging; how was he sweet?”
“He called Ophelia, Philly, and his voice was so soft and caring, it made my heart melt.”
“What all did he say to her?” Jada demanded to know.
“I don’t know. I left the room to give them some privacy.
“Didn’t you eavesdrop? Tell me you eavesdropped. I would have.”
“You would not have.”
“You know I would have.”
Gianna laughed. It was so true, Jada would totally have listened in on the conversation.
“All I know is that when he was done, he stormed into Armand’s room and rousted him out of bed and made him go room by room until the fool could put his hands on the drill. Apparently, Neil had given it to him before he had left. God knows why, I can’t believe Neil thought that Armand was going to actually lock the shutters down on the first floor. The man is useless.”
Jada threw back her head and laughed. “That had to have been a sight to see. Did you manage not to laugh?”
“For real, I actually drew blood because I bit my lip so hard. But…”
Jada stared at her, cocking her head to the side, and waited. When Gianna didn’t say anything for over a minute, she finally prodded.
“But what?”
“There’s something about Sebastian. I can’t explain it.”
A slow grin spread over Jada’s face. “Describe him to me. Is he one of those hot blonde white boys?”
Gianna shook her head. “He’s tall. At least six foot two. He had dark scruff and longer hair than I would have expected for a military man. His jaw was square and he has the thickest eyelashes I’ve ever seen on a man.”
“Jesus.” Jada leaned back against her headboard. “What color are his eyes?”
“Green, but not like emerald green. They’re more like the color of sea glass.”
“What about his body? It has to be good, what with him being a Navy SEAL and all.”
“He was wearing a Henley and it was tight. His muscles had muscles. Seriously, Jada, I might have had a spontaneous orgasm when I saw him take off his jacket.”
“I have got to come visit. Do you think the Lazar could handle a smart-mouthed, brown girl from Queens?”
“How could he not love my best friend? But I call dibs on Sebastian,” Gianna said in a teasing voice.
“I kind of caught that, honey.” Jada smiled. “Now, for the important stuff. I’ve come up with something interesting on Armand. I don’t know if it is anything, but it might pertain.”
“Hit me.” Gianna relaxed against the pillows she had piled behind her.
“You know that Sebastian Lazar Durand the Third was the old man’s golden boy. He was supposed to follow his daddy’s footsteps into politics. I figured it would be smart to check into Armand and see what he was doing around the time of Number Three’s death, and this is where the fun begins.”