Free Soldiers of Fortune by Jana DeLeon Page A

my acquisition. Salesmen stopped at the café all the time. It wouldn’t be a stretch for one of them to talk to me. In fact, I’d been offered deals on a number of items, including salesmen themselves. And Hebert was so common in Louisiana. Unless Bob was a known crime lord, no one was going to put together him and my association with Big and Little.
    I hopped out of the boat and headed for the house, eager to get Gertie and Ida Belle over here to see what we had to work with. With any luck, one of them knew how to drive the thing. With good luck, it would be Ida Belle.
    My cell phone was signaling that I had a text message waiting and when I looked at the display, I saw it was from Carter. I picked up the phone to read the message, hoping he didn’t want to hang out today. While I was happy that he seemed to actually be resting, as Dr. Stewart ordered, if he insisted on spending most of his resting time with me, it would seriously cramp our investigation. Not to mention that I wasn’t comfortable with a full-time relationship. Hell, I wasn’t comfortable with any relationship, but I could manage part-time. I just wasn’t ready to have all my waking hours under scrutiny.  
    Going to watch movies at Walter’s. Will call you this afternoon.
    I smiled. Good. The two of them sitting in recliners was perfect. They’d get some rest, Emmaline would get a break from supervising, and Ida Belle, Gertie, and I could sneak out into the bayou without drawing attention to ourselves. With Ally off to New Orleans, that left no one to witness our complete disregard for the law.
    I sent a text to Gertie and Ida Belle.
    Get over here as soon as you can. Have solved the boat problem.
    I slid my phone onto the counter and poured myself a glass of milk. I probably had time to polish off the last of the cookies before they got here. I sat down at the kitchen table and opened my laptop. The first thing I did was Google the boat retailer listed on the lease. A banner with a bass boat and a face that looked like a combination of Big and Little popped up. Good Lord, that was a strong family gene. I hoped the women didn’t have it. The look wasn’t all that great for men, but for women, it would be a cat-lady sentence.
    I clicked on the list of boats for sale and scanned it until I found the one that looked like my lease. Holy crap! Sixty thousand dollars. That cost more than a really nice car. Big and Little weren’t exaggerating their hatred for hard drugs. They probably made plenty of money, but given my track record—which they also knew plenty about—they couldn’t really hope to get the boat back in the same condition it was delivered. Heck, given our history with boats, I’d be thrilled if it was still floating when we were done with it.
    I closed the boat website and clicked over to email to see if I’d gotten a reply from Harrison. I was more than a little worried about the attack on Morrow. I still hadn’t put my finger on what they thought it would accomplish. If someone was looking for me, then killing him wasn’t the way to get an answer, but then if I assumed it was the CIA mole that ordered the hit, then maybe they thought killing Morrow would draw me out of hiding.  
    It was a sobering thought that someone I worked with—who received paychecks from the same office and made the same promises of service to the country that I did—could have allegiance with one of the worst people in the world. I knew money and power were a big draw, but to sell out not only your comrade but the safety of future generations was a scumbag move beyond the limits of my understanding.
    I logged on to email and saw a message from Harrison. I grabbed a cookie and clicked to open the message.

    To: [email protected]
    From: [email protected]
    Glad to hear things are going well at the farm. I know that could change at any minute, but it’s nice to have a turn of good luck. Speaking of which, the forecast is calling for cooler weather