Anthony shook his head. “I didn’t…”
Son of a bitch.
Joan Bateman was going to have him fired. No. Joan Bateman was going to have him killed. The only thing she’d asked in all these years was that Anthony protect her true identity.
Stephen pulled back in obvious surprise. “It wasn’t you?”
Anthony’s voice went up an undignified octave. “Of course it wasn’t me.”
Stephen hesitated. “Maybe it was Joan.”
“Not a chance in hell.” Then Anthony’s brain suddenly engaged. Clarista. Clarista must have found a way to access the confidential files.
“I fired Clarista on Friday,” he told Stephen, squeezing his eyes shut for a split second and pinching the bridge of his nose.
His boss raised a bushy eyebrow. “What for?”
“Inappropriate use of the interoffice mail.”
“That’s a firing offense?”
“It was on Friday.” Anthony quickly scanned the rest of the article.
“And you think…”
“Of course I think. She swore up and down I’d regret it.”
Stephen snorted. “Well, I don’t regret it one little bit. The woman did us a favor.”
“This is not a favor.”
“Sales are skyrocketing.”
“And Joan’s going to fire me. In fact, Joan’s going to fire the whole damn agency.”
Stephen’s expressive brows knit together. “You know you can’t let that happen.”
As if Anthony would be able to stop it.
“Anthony?”
“I don’t control her, Stephen.”
“Well, you’d better figure out how to control her. Get your ass to Indigo.”
“So she can flip me off in person?”
“So you can put those good looks and charm to use.”
Right. Stephen was really scraping the bottom of the barrel with that strategy.
He snapped the paper from Anthony’s hands. “Don’t think I don’t see the admins panting after you.”
“Nobody’s panting after anybody.” Well, except for Clarista. And Anthony didn’t get the impression Clarista was particularly selective.
“Fix this,” said Stephen, an edge coming into his voice. “Charm her. Flirt with her. Sleep with her, for all I care.” His dark eyes turned to flints, and Anthony was instantly reminded that he was talking to the senior partner, and that Stephen hadn’t got there by accident.
“This is one of those moments, Verdun.” Stephen’s voice was gruff with warning. “You can prove your worth to this firm, or you can make us a laughingstock.”
Anthony swallowed. He got the message. He was going to Indigo, where he was to move heaven and earth to keep Joan in the fold.
AFTER TEN YEARS in Indigo, Louisiana, Joan Bateman was still considered a newcomer. Most days, that was a minor inconvenience. Today it was an out-and-out problem.
Back in Boston, she knew how to wield influence. She knew who was who and how to get to them. The Bateman family could call up a senator, sway a congressman or suggest when and where a newspaper editor should send a reporter.
But Indigo was different. She had no family here, no political connections. Cultivating influence, and doing it quickly, was her only hope of saving her beloved town.
Sitting at the dining room table in her neat little stilted Creole cottage, she puzzled over the guest list for Sunday’s tea. The mayor, certainly, and perhaps the matriarch, Yvonne Valois.
Officially, everyone in town had expressed support for the plans to increase tourism. But Joan knew that couldn’t possibly be true. Like her, others must be opposed to ruining the quiet serenity of Indigo. Her strategy was to quietly get to those who were opposed and give them the courage to speak up.
Trouble was, she had no idea who they were. Worse, she didn’t know the interests or the histories of the town players, and what would motivate whom.
Her primary adversaries were obvious-Alain Boudreaux and Marjo Savoy. A strong supporter of the music festival, Alain was influential because of his deep family roots and his position as chief of the police department. Marjo, the funeral director, was head of the committee to restore the opera house-the centerpiece of the tourism push. The town had already agreed to fund emergency roof repairs to the building while they tried to get permission for a full restoration.
Joan tucked her shoulder-length hair behind her ears, as she laid out sheets of embossed card stock. Then she carefully opened her wooden box of calligraphy pens and stretched out her fingers to make them limber. She was going to do this right. A classy invitation to half a dozen influential people, salmon mousse, fine champagne, possibly caviar, then she’d pepper the event with subtle messages on the wisdom of keeping Indigo small and quiet-just the way it was.
That would be the beginning.
She opened a bottle of black ink, dipped her pen and began the lettering.
Halfway through addressing her first invitation, her telephone rang. She wasn’t expecting any calls, so she let the machine pick it up while she kept working.
“Joan?” A familiar voice came over the speaker. “This is Heather.”
Joan kept writing. She could call her sister back any old time.
Heather’s tone rose half an octave. “You have to tell me if it’s true.”
Joan stilled the pen and glanced over her shoulder.
“And if it’s true,” Heather continued as the machine tape whirred, “tell me what you were thinking. Call me. Soon.”
“What?” Joan voiced the question out loud.
For Heather to sound so rattled, it had to be something big.
Of course, big in Heather’s world wasn’t necessarily life-and-death in anyone else’s. A catering mix-up or a fashion disaster could wait a few hours.
Joan went back to writing, but the phone rang again.
It figured.
She finished the word attendance, wiped off her pen and rose from her chair, heading across the room as the greeting played.
She reached for the receiver.
“Joan?” came an unfamiliar, masculine voice.
She snapped her hand back.
“This is Alain Boudreaux.”
Alain Boudreaux? The police chief had never called her at home before. Had he heard she was whipping up support against the music festival?
“I’d appreciate a call when you get this message.”
As the machine clicked off, Joan’s heart thunked. She quickly went over who she’d spoken to in the past week. She hadn’t made a secret of not wanting to increase tourism. But she thought she’d been fairly circumspect.
Suddenly, there was a pounding at her front door.
She jumped.
Could it be Chief Boudreaux that quickly? Was he upset? Had he brought a posse? She debated whether to answer it, stay quiet or bail out the back way.
Whoever it was pounded again.
Curiosity got the better of her survival instincts, and she crept up to the small, beveled-glass window, squinting at the disjointed figure on her porch.
Anthony? What on earth was Anthony doing in Indigo?
“Joan?” he called, stepping back to gaze up at the white, two-story cottage.
“Anthony?” she called back.
He moved closer, squinting into the small window. “Let me in, Joan.”
“What are you doing here?”
“I need to talk to you.”
“About what?”
“Are you upset?”
“No.” She wasn’t upset. She was confused and getting a little jumpy. In fact, she was starting to hope this was all some kind of a bizarre dream.
He rattled the doorknob, and the catch gave way. No surprise in that; there weren’t a lot of locks in Indigo. Just one of the things she was trying to protect by opposing the music festival and renovation of the opera house.
The painted door swung open to reveal the man who was her literary agent and lawyer. As always, the sight of Anthony took her breath away. Dressed in a very well-cut suit, he was an urbane, startlingly handsome man, with deep blue eyes, thick dark blond hair, a strong chin and a body that made women sit up and take notice.