Sunrise in a Garden of Love & Evil Read Online Free PDF Page B

mind. Once you got past the incredible sex, she'd undoubtedly be a bore. Dogs, beer, steak. That was the life.
    "Get a private detective," he said, when Violet took a breath. "Some guy asking nosy questions at your club isn't a job for the police. He hasn't done anything disruptive or illegal, so start with a background check." He reached for the door handle of his Mercedes.
    "We already did that," Violet said. "His story checks out. I hope he's not a Fed. They're such a nuisance, and we do so much better without them." She slipped her fingers through the crook in Gideon's arm and steered him back up the driveway.
    That was for damn sure. Gideon didn't know by what means, fair or foul, the underworld had convinced the Feds to mind their own business. The arrangement with the local police was comfortable enough, although the chief still vacillated between unease at cooperating with Leopard and his goons and pride in Bayou Gavotte's reputation for safety.
    "There's definitely something phony about him," Violet was saying.
    "We're experts at spotting phonies," Zelda spoke up. "Like, you're not a phony. Like Ophelia's not. Like Lep's not. Like Mom acts like one but isn't. Like I bet preppy Joanna Wyler wishes she didn't have to be. Like Constantine is, but he's okay underneath."
    Christ. Teenyboppers hanging with vigilantes and rock stars. "You know Leopard and Constantine Dufray?"
    "All the club owners do," Violet said. "And Lep does a wonderful job of keeping the clubs safe for tourists, but his idea of helping Ophelia would be to have that poor Wyler beaten up and thrown out of town. And no one in their right mind would ask Constantine for help."
    "Actually," Zelda said, "it depends on the kind of help. He let me use him once for show-and-tell at school. That was a nonviolent activity, of course. We don't approve of violence, except when absolutely necessary." She spied Psyche under the truck and made kissy noises.
    "That's why Ophelia called you," Violet told Gideon. "After Lep's thugs finished with Willy Wyler, they'd prowl around Ophelia's place, driving her crazy until they caught whoever did the cat thing"--she shuddered--"and do something terrible to him, which is probably what will happen now."
    "He deserves to have something terrible done to him," Gideon said.
    "I know, but you don't understand the effect Ophelia has on men!" Violet giggled. "Well, of course you do, but you're a stable person, not the type to get obsessed and violent and stupid about it." She sighed. "Ophelia's a sweet girl, although I suppose that's hard for you to believe, considering how she's treated you, but she's had some lousy experiences with men, and now she's moved out to the sticks with almost no neighbors and bought all these dreadful guns, and although I don't think she's ever actually shot anyone, I live in desperate fear that someday she will. And that would probably destroy her."
    "Not to mention the dumbass she shoots," Gideon said. He guided Violet back down the driveway toward his car. And hers, which would have to be moved so he could get the hell out.
    Violet stopped and cocked her head to one side. "No, she's an excellent shot. She'd just hit the poor guy in the foot or something, but she's naturally such a gentle person that...Try not to think too unkindly of her." She dimpled up at him. "Or to think of her at all. She's very stubborn. When she says no, she means it."
    So am I stubborn, thought Gideon, moving inexorably toward the Mercedes. Not that stubbornness was likely to get him anywhere with Ophelia. Not that he wanted to get anywhere with her. Beer, dogs...oh, hell. He almost snarled, and Psyche hissed at him from the safety of Zelda's arms.
    "Let me apologize on her behalf, too, because she won't. You can be sure of that." Violet let go of his sleeve and got in her car. "Please drop by the club as soon as you can. Take care of your sister's friend's blackmailer first, though. She's much worse off than we are."
    "Right,"