Bitter Spirits Part 22

"He got a.s.signed to a cantonment in Virginia. He was there for six months, and was due to be deployed overseas when America entered the war. He was shot during a training exercise. Just a fluke accident." In a blink, her eyes became bleary. "I didn't take it well. We were inseparable. He was my only real family-you know, flesh and blood."

"I'm sorry."

She gave him a tight smile. "The Lanes were killed in a train derailment a month later. I was seventeen. They had some money-not a lot, but they weren't poor. Only, they never officially adopted us. They thought they had, but Sam and I kept our surname. We called them Aunt and Uncle since we were little. And I think the surname confusion was mishandled in the paperwork. I don't think they ever knew. Mr. Lane's brother showed up for the funeral, and within two weeks, he'd fired the staff, sold the house, and dumped me off at an orphanage. This photograph is the only thing I was allowed to take with me. That and the clothes on my back."

"Christ alive, Aida."

"Good old Emmett Lane. Lovely man," she said sourly. "I'd only met him once before. He never gave a d.a.m.n about his own family, much less Sam and me, so it wasn't a big surprise in hindsight." She snapped the locket shut. "Anyway, I lived in the orphanage until I finished school. It wasn't pleasant. When I turned eighteen, I got out of there as fast as I could and struck out on my own. Sam always told me to be independent, count on myself, no one else. And he never was afraid of my talents-he encouraged them."

"Could he . . . do what you can do?"

She shook her head. "I started seeing ghosts when we moved to Baltimore. The Lanes just thought I was having nightmares about the earthquake, but Sam believed me. I didn't know I had channeling skills until he introduced me to another medium before he joined the army. Mrs. Stone. She took me under her wing after I left the orphanage. Gave me a room for a few months, showed me how to make money with my talents. Got me on my feet."

"And you've been on your own for ten years?"

"Never look back, always move forward-that's what Sam always said. He wouldn't want me feeling sorry for myself, so I don't. I just keep getting up every day and moving along." She smiled again, this time more genuinely.

"Live in the moment," he said, repeating her sentiment from the night before.

"Exactly. Sam believed in the value of independence, and I honor his memory by appreciating today."

So confident. But anyone could see the sadness beneath her bravado.

They were alike in a way. Both had lost their parents, and though he'd lost Paulina, Aida had not only lost a second set of parents, but her brother.

And then she was forced to support herself with no family help?

He tried to imagine Astrid in the same predicament and wondered how she'd fare. It made him feel ill to think about her utterly on her own. And even without the bootlegging fortune, even when they were just a fishing family, no man in his household would abandon a female. Not Astrid, not his mother, not Greta . . . not even Paulina. What kind of man does that? Not a real one.

Winter suddenly felt both more pity and respect for Aida.

"There. Now you know the story of my life," she said.

He pushed her bangs back from her forehead and kissed her there, softly, lingering. When he pulled back, she met his gaze and something pa.s.sed between them. Something that made his chest tighten. He just wasn't sure what it was.

She quickly redirected the subject. "So, you were about to tell me what happened last night with the raids."

Oh . . . that again. He'd only known Aida for a couple of weeks, and already he'd violated all sorts of rules with her-his father was probably rolling over in his grave. But when she looked up at him with those big brown eyes, all he could hear was her angry accusation during their fight on the ride back from Ju's: I told you things about me.

And now she'd told him even more.

His father had been right, no doubt. It was a sensible warning. But Winter was tired of being sensible. He'd tell her everything, give her the combination to his bas.e.m.e.nt vault and all his bank account numbers if she'd meet him in this hotel room every day. As long as she'd look up at him like this, trustful and expectant, genuinely curious about his work-not plugging her ears and pretending he was somebody other than he really was, like Paulina had.

"You haven't seen the headlines?" he asked.

"You might recall waking me up," she said, lifting the sheet to cover her breast. "I came straight here, because I apparently have no self-control around you."

His heart leapfrogged joyfully. He dropped a kiss on her nose and sat up to fetch the newspaper from the cart. "There were five raids at five hotels last night," he said, pointing out the Chronicle's headline. "All of them were executed within minutes of one another. The Feds were tipped off that this man would be personally delivering a big shipment to one of the hotels."

Aida skimmed the article, reading aloud under her breath. Her fingernail traced the caption below the old man's photo. "Adrian St. Laurent. He looks like a nice old grandfather."

Winter snorted. "I've known him for years. His operation is smaller than mine, though he used to be part of the Big Three in the Bay Area-and before you ask, yes, I'm one of them."

"Oh, I seriously doubt any of them are as big as you," she teased, circling a finger around his thumb as she continued to read the article.

"Keep talking like that and I'm going to be forced to call up the desk and beg them for a bellboy to go out to the druggist for another tin."

"And I won't be able to walk out of here. Tell me more about the bust."

He slipped an arm beneath her head and settled his leg across hers. "St. Laurent does a lot of cheap deals, but he also has half the hotel business in the city. Had, rather. The Feds' tip was on the nose. They found him in the Whitcomb, eating dinner in the kitchen while his crew unloaded a quarter million in rum for a big fund-raiser party. Had enough evidence to haul him in. Just like that, he's gone."

Winter was shocked when he got wind of the bust last night. If he had any lingering worries about St. Laurent being responsible for his hauntings, those doubts were now gone.

"But why did the Feds show up at the Palace if they're your client?"

Winter folded the newspaper and tossed it on the floor. "They weren't three years ago. Used to be St. Laurent's, but he made a deal with my father when he thought the Feds were after him back then."

"So last night the Feds thought the Palace was one of his."

"Yep."

"They weren't after you."

"Nope." He ran his fingers over the curve of her shoulder. Her skin was so soft, he almost worried his calloused fingers would sc.r.a.pe it, but he couldn't stop himself from tracing random lines of freckles that led to the ridge of her clavicle.

"Do you think that this has any connection with what's going on with you?"

"Raids happen all the time, and there's no indication of anything supernatural going on with this one. But there are two things that worry me. On that first night when I was poisoned, St. Laurent told me something was changing in Chinatown. The tongs who control the booze there are getting pushed out of business."

"And the second thing?"

"Rumor is that the Feds were tipped off by someone in Chinatown."

"O-oh."

"Odd that there's unrest in Chinatown's booze distribution, and someone's attacking me from Chinatown, and now St. Laurent gets hauled away on a tip from Chinatown."

"More than odd." She stared out the balcony doors. "I was thinking about the ghost last night, and those dragon b.u.t.tons. You think it's a coincidence that they were sewed on, and you know someone in Chinatown with a sewing factory . . ."

"Ju? No. Couldn't be him. That truly has to be coincidence."

"Are you sure? What if Sook-Yin is upset that you haven't been seeing her? What if Ju takes your rejection of her as a rejection of him? And at that lunch, he did make a point about how successful you've become-warned you people would be jealous of that success."

As much as he hated to admit it, things had been more relaxed between him and Ju back when he was still visiting Sook-Yin. "I don't know. Ju isn't a big tong leader, but he's not stupid, either. Besides, if he wanted me dead, he's had plenty of opportunities to kill me. Why all the hocus-pocus with the magical poison and the hauntings? Doesn't add up."

"Maybe you're right." She gave him a thoughtful look. "The hotel we're in now wasn't raided. Were they one of St. Laurent's customers?"

"They were raided."

"Why aren't they shut down like the Palace?"

"Prohis didn't find any booze. I talked to the manager this morning. Apparently St. Laurent was behind on shipments. Regardless, they are now without a supplier, and in light of everything I just told you, I think it's possible whoever ratted out St. Laurent did so because they either wanted him out of business, or they want his business."

Intelligent eyes squinted up at him; he liked the way her nostrils flared when she did that. "Is that why you got this room? You waiting to see if anyone shows up to offer the hotel booze?"

"Believe me, I was thinking about you when I checked in."

She hooked her leg around his while her fingers toyed with the line of hair that bisected his stomach. Christ, she was just as bad as he was-they couldn't stop touching each other. "But . . ." she prompted.

"But I might've taken last night's events into consideration when I choose the Fairmont specifically. So I'm going to be nice to the hotel manager, and wait and see what transpires."

Her fingers walked up his breastbone. "And if you can discover who ratted out St. Laurent while helping out the Fairmont with deliveries in their time of need, all the better, yes?"

"Just being a good neighbor."

She laughed, and the sound made his b.a.l.l.s tighten. "Winter Magnusson: friendliest man in the city."

"You should've seen the concierge. Nearly p.i.s.sed his pants when I walked up. I'm nothing if not recognizable," he said, winking his bad eye.

She craned her neck and kissed him there-right on his eyelid-and trailed two more kisses over his scar, then fell back against the pillow, grinning at him prettily. Jesus. Did she know what that did to him? It felt as if she'd poked a hole inside his chest. If she didn't stop, he'd be telling her how he rode around last night in a daze, thinking of the way she trembled beneath his tongue. How much he'd hated leaving her, and how he had to stop himself from calling her at three in the morning when he'd finished his work.

How he couldn't get enough of her, even now. Even after he'd just had her twice, he was getting hard. And not because she was trying to seduce him. Not because she'd been trained for pleasure, like Sook-Yin, and knew exactly what to do to turn him on. But because she was so easy to talk to. Because she laughed and smiled at him without wanting anything in return. Because she made the past disappear.

And because she accepted him freely, scars and all.

"Only one left, huh?" she said, running tiny fingers up the ridge of his c.o.c.k. "And, let's see . . . four hours before I have to leave. This is very unfair. If you're going to insist on using those things, you better bring more next time."

He laughed and pulled her close, until he felt the peaks of her nipples against his chest. "Let's be creative and see what we can do without using the last one just yet."

"Creative." She stroked him leisurely, up and down. "Like this?"

He groaned in pleasure. "Exactly like that."

"What about this?" Her fingers strayed lower to his b.a.l.l.s, sending soothing shivers through his groin.

"Christ alive, cheetah. That feels nice."

"It does?" She cupped him. "Like this?"

"G.o.d, yes. Be gentle, though. Whatever you do, for the love of G.o.d, don't squeeze."

"How do you walk around with all this?"

"The same way you walk around with these," he said, ma.s.saging one breast.

She made a little moan, then whispered dreamily, "I'm so glad we're having an affair."

"Best idea I ever had," he agreed, and inhaled the scent of violets in her hair.

Aida's performance at Gris-Gris later that night was one of her finest-dramatic, emotional, and enthusiastically applauded. When she left the stage, she wondered if her confidence had been increased since her afternoon with Winter. The sinful burn of well-used flesh lingered as she strolled to her dressing room, and this gave her a puzzling sort of satisfaction.

What was even more puzzling was how happy it made her. Not just the s.e.x, but the experience of being so close to him when his guard was down. What would it be like to have a man like that all the time? Someone to confide in? It seemed like an impossible luxury, to know someone for more than a handful of months. Best to be sensible about things and just enjoy what she had in the moment, not worry about things she couldn't control.

But her future caught up to her as she approached her dressing room door. The club manager, Daniels, was waiting there for her with a tall, slender man dressed in a cream-colored suit. His skin was darkly tanned, as if he spent every daylight hour in the sun, and the sides of his dark blond hair were streaked with silver.

"Miss Palmer, I have someone here to see you," Daniels said formally. "Mr. Bradley Bix from New Orleans. Mr. Bix, this is Miss Palmer."

The speakeasy owner. Of course. He said he'd be here visiting his cousin, but she'd put him out of her mind. Still, it was surprising to see him standing before her now. She shook away a sense of foreboding and picked her manners off the floor. "Mr. Bix, how do you do," she said, extending her arm. "I thought you were coming in another week. I hope your travel was pleasant."

"Three days of jostled sleep, but I made it in one piece," he said with a kind smile, his hand warm and leathery on hers. "I've had some changes to my summer bookings so I thought I'd come see you earlier. I hope you don't mind." He smiled, flashing her a smile. "Your show was spectacular. Just astounding. I'd heard things from people who'd seen you perform on the East Coast, but to watch it in person was a treat."

"Thank you," she said.

"I'd like to offer you an official invitation to perform at the Limbo Room," Mr. Bix said. "We'll buy your train ticket, of course, and my business partner owns a hotel next to the club, so we can also provide a temporary apartment for the duration of your stay in our city."

No one had ever offered her as much. She was immediately wary that the hotel he spoke of was a brothel of some sort. Velma had friends in New Orleans; perhaps she could check on it.

"Is there somewhere we could speak about salary and other details?" Mr. Bix asked.

"Daniels, if you wouldn't mind, please show the gentleman to the bar." He nodded a curt response. "Mr. Bix, it will only take me a few minutes to get ready. I'll meet you out there when I'm done."

Mr. Bix canted his head politely before setting a pale straw Panama hat on his head. "I should mention that I'd like to have your decision rather quickly. I'd need your debut performance to coincide with a spiritualism convention in the French Quarter."

"And when would that be?"

"July 15."

She'd have to be on a train the day after her last night at Gris-Gris if Mr. Bix wanted her onstage that soon.

She should be elated. None of her previous bookings had dovetailed so nicely to provide her with a steady income, so hard to come by in this business. But as Daniels escorted the man back out to the club floor, it was all Aida could do to fight images of Winter's big hand curving around her naked breast, and the lazy satisfaction she'd felt dozing in his arms.

She'd known it wasn't permanent, but now they had less time than she thought.

TWENTY-TWO.

WINTER TOOK A TAXI TO THE FAIRMONT THE NEXT DAY. WHEN HE left Aida the night before, he'd asked her to meet him there at the same time today, but he half expected her to change her mind-maybe she'd have regrets about the things they did with each other. It seemed too good to be true.

A rap on the hotel door made his pulse jump. He rushed to answer it too quickly, but when he threw open the door, it was only an attendant from the kitchen with a cart. The boy cowered under Winter's glare and waved a gloved hand at the pitcher of orange juice and coffee service. "Your order, sir?"