Midnight in Ruby Bayou

Author:Lowell, Elizabeth [Lowell, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Contemporary, General, Romance, Suspense, Thrillers, Fiction
ISBN: 9780380789894
Publisher: Avon
Published: 2009-03-17T07:00:00+00:00

19

Ruby Bayou

Jefferson Montegeau was worried, and nothing his father said was making him feel better.

“Wait,” Jeff said, cutting off Davis Montegeau. “You said you were going to explain why the wedding had to be moved from town to here and rushed through to Valentine’s Day. Well, explain. Faith and her boyfriend will arrive any minute, and I damn well want to know what was so important that you felt you could ruin the beautiful wedding Mel wanted.”

Davis Montegeau looked longingly at the nineteenth-century mahogany library table where a whiskey decanter waited. The Montegeaus had acquired many decanters in two or three centuries of drinking, but this one was special. This one was filled with Davis’s favorite bourbon.

His fingertips tingled. He could almost feel the slight hesitation as crystal rubbed over crystal in the instant before the stopper came free. The cool liquid sound as whiskey splashed into more gleaming crystal. Then the hot bite as liquor burned down his throat and into his brain, a sweet red haze that veiled a blinding world.

“Dad?”

Sighing, Davis rubbed his face. He hadn’t shaved today. Bad form. When he was a boy, he had known the old man was on a drunk when he showed up with gray whiskers at the breakfast table. Davis patted his thinning thatch of white hair with fingers he couldn’t keep from trembling. His hair was a little mussed, but not bad. Like his clothes. No one could tell that he hadn’t bathed today, could they? Or that he had slept in the clothes he was still wearing?

“Dad!”

Fuck it, Davis thought. He needed that drink.

Abruptly he stood up, went to the mahogany table, and yanked out the crystal stopper. The decanter clashed against the rim of the glass as he poured, but he didn’t care. All he cared about was the numbing burn of high-test whiskey. It hit his throat and then his brain like Lucifer’s own benediction.

When Davis started to pour another, Jeff’s hand clamped around his father’s wrist. “That’s enough.”

Davis focused on the tall, blond son who had once been a towheaded toddler hardly able to navigate across the library’s thick rug. “Wha’ chu—” He stopped and carefully untangled his tongue. “What are you talking about?” he asked with great precision.

“Liquor. You’ve had enough.”

“No such thing, boy. If I’m breathing, I haven’t had nearly enough. Leggo—let go of my wrist.”

Jeff looked at his father’s bloodshot gray eyes. They glittered with more than booze. There was an animal kind of fear. Jeff had been uneasy about his father’s condition for weeks. Now that nagging premonition crystallized into certainty. It settled in his gut like a ragged ball of ice.

“Talk to me, Dad. For once, treat me like an adult. Let me help with whatever is bothering you.”

His father’s laughter was worse than his smile. “Sure thing, boy. Got a half million dollars, cash?”

Jeff’s clear gray eyes widened. “You’re joking.”

“I’m fixin’ to die laughing.”

“You’re not making sense.”

Fiercely Davis rubbed his face. “I’m making too damned much sense. I need another drink.

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