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I LOVED THE IDEA OF acting as the ringleader in this latest rendition of the Sinful Circus. However, the day after proclaiming that I was in charge, I realized that I had no idea what we should do next. To clarify, I knew what steps to take to prepare the ladies for the actual wedding ceremony and reception. But when it came to the question of how to investigate which of the Masters family was involved in illegal activities, there I was stumped. Charm school hadn’t prepared me for this type of task.
It was time to eat humble pie.
“Would you like a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream with this?” I asked as I slid a generously cut slice of Ally’s Dutch Apple pie in front of the one person who could help me decide how to proceed. “Or would you prefer a cold glass of milk?”
Kase arched an eyebrow. “Seriously? You’re offering me milk?”
“Oh, right, sorry.” I pulled out a chair and sat across from him. We hadn’t had a moment alone since our group meeting the day before. I’d called him to come over when Aunt Ida Belle went to meet Fortune and Gertie for lunch. “Surely you don’t believe that I would drug you, do you?”
The few seconds he took to frame an answer could have offended a less confident woman.
“I don’t know what to believe in this town.”
“It was Fortune who drugged you, not me. Besides, I need your help, and that means I need you conscious.”
“Fair enough.” He picked up his fork and took another bite of pie. “This is unbelievably good,” he said somewhere between the third and fourth bites. “You make it?”
I shook my head. “Ally did. The kitchen isn’t the room where my particular talents shine.” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I realized how they sounded. Was I blushing again? I was. “I mean, I’m not—”
Kase held up his fork. “I got ya.” He took a last bite of pie and pushed away his plate. “I just wondered, darlin’, since we’re dating and all, when can I expect a homemade meal?”
“I’ll cook you the gourmet meal of your choice once you give me some advice on what to do next.”
He leaned back in his chair and stretched his arms overhead. When he flexed his muscles, I swear the snake tattoo looked alive. “I thought you were taking the lead on this one.”
“Smug doesn’t suit you, Agent Mayeux.”
“Did you ask your aunt and her friends for ideas?”
I bit my lip. If only humble pie went down as easily as Ally’s did. “No. I’m honestly too embarrassed after the way I grandstanded about being in charge.”
To my surprise, not to mention my immense relief, he didn’t use my confession against me. Instead, he nodded. “I wouldn’t exactly use the term grandstanded. You are the expert when it comes to etiquette, you weren’t having one over on them there. Besides, even if you had a plan and laid it out for them, they’d still end up doing whatever they wanted.”
“True.” I blew out a long breath. “You have their number.”
“Numbers that don’t add up.” His gaze was piercing, as if he expected me to understand what he wasn’t saying as much as what he was. “I get the feeling that the unholy trinity aren’t quite what they appear on the surface.”
“Really? What makes you say that?”
“You haven’t noticed anything different about them?” He leaned forward and rested his arms on the table. “Think, Stephanie.”
I thought. And then it dawned on me what he meant. “Are you talking about Gertie’s claims that Fortune was in the CIA?” I waved my hand. “I assure you that is simply the byproduct of Gertie’s wild imagination. Fortune in the CIA? Please, nothing about that woman says ‘federal agent’.”
“You’re sure?”
I nodded emphatically. “Look, Kase, my great-aunt and Gertie are elderly ladies who have led very sheltered lives. Considering that they’ve always lived in Sinful, it’s amazing that they’ve stayed as sane as they have. I think it’s only natural that Gertie may sometimes exaggerate or that Aunt Ida Belle likes to act tough. But I assure you, they are what they seem.”
“And Fortune?” he asked. “What’s your take on her?”
I paused, not because I didn’t have an opinion of her, but because I knew to tread carefully. It would be too easy to share that I thought she was a show-off who longed for attention. But there was nothing ladylike about discrediting someone behind her back. “I think that Fortune misses the beauty pageant circuit. Perhaps life as a librarian is a tad more boring than she expected it to be. To go from having so many people’s eyes on you to being stuck in the book stacks can’t be an easy transition.”
He didn’t respond but the way he watched me was unnerving.
“So you can see my dilemma about what to do with the three of them while we investigate. I mean, while you investigate and I assist.”
He drummed his fingers on the table while he considered my words. “We need to throw them off track somehow. The spotlight should be on your Miss Prim and Proper persona—”
“It’s not a persona,” I cut him off. “It’s who I am.”
“All the time?”
I nodded.
“No periods of wild abandonment in your life?”
I sat up straight and squared my shoulders. “Most certainly not.”
“You’re not ever driven by passion? Don’t you ever want to let your hair down and do something just because it feels good?”
I swallowed. His words, perhaps innocent enough on the surface, still managed to fuel a surge of warmth that shot through me. “No,” I finally managed to say.
“If you say so, darlin’.”
“What were you saying about the spotlight?” I attempted to nudge him back toward the safer subject of drug dealers.
“Making sure the focus is on Miss Prim and Proper is the best way to distract the Masters family. All I want to do is lurk around and see what I can pick up on, that’s it. But to do that, we need to get you in over there and keep your friends out.”
“But keeping them out, as you say, is going to be virtually impossible now that they know what we’re up to.” I experienced a stab of contriteness. “Which is all my fault for blurting out your plans.”
“Don’t blame yourself,” he said. “They’d have hounded us until they pieced it together anyway, so maybe it’s for the best they know.”
“Are they going to ruin your chances of finding something out?”
“Not if we keep them on a short leash.”
“Oh, well, if that’s all.” I couldn’t help but smile at the very tall order. “We’re going to have to keep our wits about us.”
Agent Mayeux nodded. “You’re not kidding.” He gestured to the empty dessert plate. “How about another slice of that pie?”
“Certainly.” I stood and picked up the plate. “Ice cream this time?”
“A glass of milk, I think.” He waited until I had taken a glass from the cupboard before he spoke again. “Stephanie, darlin?”
I glanced over my shoulder. “Yes?”
“I take my coffee black and my milk without sedatives.”
***
“NO FISHNET STOCKINGS. I mean it Gertie.” I settled my hands on my hips, ready to do battle over this edict if it came to that. I wasn’t going to budge. “I’ll wrestle them off of you myself if I have to.”
Gertie’s expression was petulant. “Why does Fortune get to wear black leather?”
Because she’s thirty plus years younger than you and can pull it off was my first thought. I left this unsaid. Instead, I voiced my second thought, “Because it supports her mission.”
Aunt Ida Belle rolled her eyes. “Since when is getting hit on by a twenty-something-year old punk with a drug habit considered a mission?”
I drew myself up to my full height. Kase had advised me to appear unwavering in my command of the situation, and I was doing my best to follow his instructions. But these ladies weren’t making it easy. I tapped my watch. “We need to leave for the bridal shower in less than ten minutes. Agent Mayeux should be here with the car soon, so let’s finish getting ready. Gertie, strip those stockings off. Now.”
While she clearly wasn’t happy about following my directions, she did as I bid. To show my appreciation, I ignored her mumbled comment about uppity Yankee whippersnappers. I gave my great-aunt a cursory going over. She passed muster. She’d refused to wear a skirt but had at least ditched her blue jeans for a pair of dark slacks. A white blouse completed her look. Simple but acceptable. Fortune, who’d been assigned to cozy up to Shawn, wore a short black leather skirt paired with a simple scoop-necked black t-shirt. It wasn’t a look that screamed ‘bridal shower’, but hopefully it would be enough to loosen Shawn’s tongue.
“Well, ladies,” I said, stretching that last word to within the very limits of its definition, “it’s show time. You have your instructions. Please stick to my plan. This is a reconnaissance mission only.” I held up three fingers and ticked them off as I spoke. “Therefore, no one should put anyone in a headlock, no one should brandish a weapon, and, above all else, no one should do anything that might get them disinvited from the wedding. Am I clear?”
After I’d secured a reluctant agreement from each of them, I ushered them downstairs. Adrenaline coursed through my body. I’d managed to whip together an impromptu bridal shower within the space of seventy-two hours. On top of that, I’d secured invitations for Gertie, Fortune and Ida Belle to the wedding on Saturday. Truly, we lived in a time of miracles.
“Please don’t forget your gifts.” I handed each of them a present as they headed for the front door. I’d personally selected gifts for the bride and had wrapped them in elegant black and silver paper with a light pink bow made of French ribbon.
True to his promise, Agent Mayeux had somehow procured a town car spacious enough for all of us. I thanked him as I slipped into the front seat. His only response was to wink as he shut my door.
The drive to the Masters house passed surprisingly quickly and quietly. I felt a sudden surge of confidence that everything would go along today just as we’d planned. I would keep an eye on the bride-to-be, her mother, and her step-mother. Gertie was supposed to circulate among the guests and see if she could pick up any gossip that might be a clue that would help Kase. “Listen, don’t talk,” I’d advised her several times, but I suspected that advice fell on deaf ears. My great-aunt was meant to keep an eye on Lenora. “An eye,” I’d reminded her, “not a hand.” Fortune, for her part, was tasked with seeing what she could find out from Cassandra’s brother.
If all went according to plan, this would allow Agent Mayeux to loiter around, as he put it. When I’d pressed him for details he’d simply said, “The less you know, darlin’, the better.” Fine. It wasn’t like I didn’t have my own part to play in all of this. Lenora had readily agreed to host the shower at her home, and in return I had promised her to take on the role of hostess so that she could relax and enjoy the day.
I looked over my shoulder. “Remember that it’s as simple as mix, mingle, smile, and listen.”
Kase shot me a skeptical look. Oh, right. This was Sinful. The town where nothing was ever as simple as one, two, three. Silly me.