Dark Perception: The Corde Noire Series (12 page)

“
Good. I think the less
contact you have with that man the better. He’s too protective of
you.”

Melinda noticed the odd change in
Nathan’s voice. It sounded uncharacteristically dangerous. “You
make that sound like a bad thing, Nathan.”

“
I just don’t like
obstacles, Melinda.”

She quizzically tilted her head to the
side. “What obstacles?”

The door to the conference room opened
and two older gentlemen in dark suits entered.

“
Harry, George,” Nathan
said, greeting the men. “I’d like you to meet my assistant, Melinda
Harris.” Nathan waved to the gentlemen entering the room. “Melinda,
this is Harry Rutgers and George Meyer, my architects for the
Market Street project.”

Melinda nodded to the two men. “It’s a
pleasure to meet you both.”

Just then, a short, sinewy man in a
black suit, with thick black hair and coal black eyes, ambled into
the room. As soon as she saw him, Melinda instantly disliked the
man. But when he spotted Melinda, his eyes hungrily devoured her
curves.

“
Let’s get this show on the
road, boys,” the man dressed in black announced in a heavy Texas
drawl.

“
This should be fun,”
Nathan murmured next to her.

Melinda lowered her head, hiding her
grin. As she began to field impressions from the abrupt Texan, she
sagged with relief. This was going to be a lot easier than she’d
thought.

* * *

An hour later, Melinda was sitting in
Nathan’s Jaguar XK as he pulled the car out of the garage located
next door to the gray skyscraper.

“
I can guess what you’re
going to say about that Texas tycoon, Bud Moore,” Nathan surmised
as he merged his car into the street traffic.

“
If you already know, then
why do you need me?”

“
Because sometimes I need
reassurance that my gut feeling was right.”

She eyed the other cars around them.
“Your Bud Moore came across as garish, loud, and obnoxious as hell,
but you can trust him, Nathan. I didn’t like him from the minute he
walked in the door, but he’s trustworthy and very interested in
your deal.”

Nathan gave her a cautious
side-glance. “He didn’t appear interested, and he put up more
resistance than I expected to my proposal.”

“
He’s interested, but he
didn’t want to appear too eager. That whole macho act in the office
was merely for show. On the inside, he’s a savvy businessman with a
lot of confidence, and from what I can see, a lot of
cash.”

Nathan chuckled as he looked ahead to
the street. “I’m impressed. You got all that in what … half an hour
with the guy?”

Melinda shrugged, nonplussed by his
skeptical tone. “Some people I can read pretty easily. Others can
take me a while.”

“
Why is that?”

Melinda sighed, wishing she had an
answer. “I have no idea. It’s not like I can control any of this
stuff. I can focus my thoughts on a person or situation and get
impressions or visions. Then there are times when I get nothing at
all.”

“
I hope that doesn’t happen
too often. I’m counting on your ability to help me, especially in
meetings like the one we just left.”

Melinda browsed the passing buildings.
“I have to admit I was pretty nervous this morning, and that does
interfere with my impressions. But once we got started, I settled
down and got quite a bit from Bud Moore.”

“
What do you see when you
read a person?” Nathan asked, glancing over at her. “I know you
said you get visions, but what kind of visions? Is it like a movie
or looking at a snapshot?”

“
They’re just pictures,
really. Like photographs flashing across my brain. Sometimes I get
a lot of detail about a person, and then sometimes just shadows.
Like with your ghost on the fifth floor. I can’t see any detail
about the woman’s looks, I just get feelings from her.”

“
What kind of
feelings?”

Melinda rubbed her hands together,
overcome by a chill. “She’s frightened, very
frightened.”

Nathan pulled his Jaguar in front of a
slow-moving Lexus. “I stayed in that apartment for several weeks. I
never felt anything.”

“
She sticks to that small
room with the metal door,” Melinda divulged. “What did you use that
room for?”

“
An office.”

“
Kind of small for an
office,” Melinda commented.

“
It originally housed the
air conditioning units for the building. I had the units moved to
the attic and had the area enclosed when I bought the
building.”

“
Odd you never saw or felt
anything in there. She seems very insistent.”

“
But I’m not psychic.” He
became distracted by a sign on the sidewalk. “Hey, are you
hungry?”

“
It’s kind of early for
lunch.”

“
But not for breakfast,”
Nathan cheerily affirmed. “I know the best place in the world for
breakfast.”

* * *

Mother’s Restaurant was a landmark for
food aficionados in the city. The skinny red-bricked building on
the corner of Poydras and Tchoupitoulas Streets always had a long
line out front during the breakfast and lunch rush, but today the
front dining room was only half-f.

Nathan escorted Melinda to a short
line of people standing before a metal food prep counter. Melinda
gleaned the menu board posted behind the counter as the smell of
savory caramelized ham lingered in the air.

“
Do you know what you
want?” Nathan questioned while they waited in line.

“
Biscuits, scrambled eggs,
and coffee.”

Nathan viewed the assortment of meats
and dressings housed behind the counter while they slowly moved
closer to the cashier at the end of the line.

“
This is one of my favorite
restaurants. It’s down-home cooking served without pretense or
fancy china. I even love the luncheonette decor.” He waved his hand
over the assortment of black and chrome tables set against a wall
covered with photos of patrons and fans.

Melinda eyed the tray of ham and eggs
a passing waiter was carrying. “When I first came to New Orleans, I
used to come here and buy biscuits for Josh by the
dozen.”

“
Josh?” Nathan arched one
eyebrow. “Was that the man Jack mentioned?”

“
Yes. We met at Ole Miss. I
studied music and he was in pre-med.”

He rested his hip against the metal
counter next to them. “So what happened to Josh?”

Melinda shrugged, hoping to appear
coy. “When he got into LSU Medical School, I decided to come to New
Orleans with him. Right after we moved here, he had to relocate to
the dorms—some kind of school requirement. I had to stay in our
apartment.” Melinda paused and lowered her eyes from his gaze. “A
short time after that, he found someone else.”

Nathan was quiet for a moment. “How
many have there been since Josh?”

She stopped moving in the line and
faced him. “What?”

He motioned her along the service
counter. “Most women try to get over one man by quickly finding
another. Are you one of those women?”

Rattled, Melinda didn’t know how to
respond. Was she like that? She didn’t want to give him the wrong
impression, but she also didn’t want to lie.

“
No, I’m not like that … or
at least, I hope I’m not,” she eventually admitted.

“
What about the baseball
player? Why were you with him?”

Melinda took a moment to formulate her
answer. “I guess I hoped he could make my life better, but …” She
shrugged.

“
You never really wanted to
be with him, did you, Melinda?” Nathan’s cocky grin made her
stomach tighten. “I think there has been a series of men in your
life who you’ve had no interest in whatsoever.”

Melinda rallied to keep up her stoic
countenance. “What makes you say such a thing?”

He inched closer to her, the grin
never leaving his handsome face. “Because a man you truly wanted,
you would never have given up on. And that includes Mr.
Love-of-my-life-Josh.”

She was bowled over by his appraisal.
Was she that obvious when it came to men?

“
What happened after Josh
left?” Nathan continued. “What did you do?”

“
It was rough, at first. I
didn’t know anyone in the city, and I needed to pay the rent. Then
I was walking through Jackson Square one day and met my friend
Ellie.”

“
The older woman with the
pink hair and tattoos?”

Melinda nodded. “She got me started on
the Square. I began by just doing readings, and then I built up the
courage to play my music for the tourists. After a while, I met
some more people, and then I got some gigs playing in a few
hotels.”

“
Why didn’t you go back to
Mississippi after Josh left?”

“
No way.” Melinda
vehemently cut her hand through the air. “When I left my father’s
farm to go to college, I vowed never to go back. I would die before
I’d ever go back home.”

The line ahead of them began to
thin.

“
Did you hate your home
that much?”

Melinda’s mouth watered when a waiter
carrying a tray of biscuits walked by. “No, I just never wanted
that life. To be a farmer’s wife, married to a man who stinks of
cattle, working from sun up to sun down. I watched it destroy my
mother. I may have just been a kid, but even I knew she wasn’t
happy. My father never saw it. He and my brothers always loved the
farm, but I couldn’t stand it.”

“
Perhaps coming to New
Orleans was more about leaving your home and less about your
feelings for Josh. Have you ever considered that?”

She was about to open her mouth to
refute his suggestion when a round woman sitting on a stool behind
a cash register smiled at them.
“Y’all know what ya want?” the dark-skinned woman asked.

“
Two coffees, an order of
biscuits with scrambled eggs, and I’ll have the ham and egg
breakfast.” Nathan handed the woman a fifty-dollar bill.

“
Coffee’s fresh in the pot
right over there.” She pointed to the serving station for drinks
next to them. “Get ya coffee, have a seat, and ya waiter will be
right over.” The woman handed Nathan his receipt and his
change.

After filling two white mugs with
coffee, they found a table in the corner of the main dining room.
Melinda took a sip from her coffee and surveyed the people seated
around them as Nathan removed his suit jacket.

“
When are you going to play
for me?” He settled in the chair next to her.

Melinda turned to him and was suddenly
riveted by his intense eyes. “Why would you want me to play for
you?”

He lifted his mug. “I’ve listened to
you talk about how music is your passion, but I’ve never heard you
play. I would like to have you play for me some time.”

“
You may live to regret
those words, Nathan. I sometimes get the urge to write music until
the wee hours of the morning.”

He sat back in his chair. “I won’t
mind. Might be nice to hear some soft melody coming through the
walls.”

“
Really? I was told you
like quiet in your building.”

He took a sip of his coffee. “Phil’s
still mad at me about having to wear headphones when he listens to
his metal music, eh?”

Melinda rested her arms on the table.
She liked the way his hair appeared a little windblown, and how his
thin lips seemed to curl into a playful smile when he looked at
her. Most of all, she liked being with him. There was something
sexy about the way he held the white mug in his hands.

A young man in a white apron
approached their table. “Y’all got your receipt?”

Nathan handed the receipt for their
breakfast to their waiter. The young man scurried away, heading
back to the main counter.

“
I don’t think you’re as
guarded as you pretend to be,” Melinda said as she admired his sexy
profile.

Nathan turned from watching the
waiter. “What are you talking about?”

“
Your employees seem to be
rather intimidated by you. They all tell me what a guarded man you
are, but I don’t see that. I think you’re very forthright and
open.”

Nathan leaned in closer to her. “Only
with you. With everyone else, I am that guarded man.”

“
Why are you only like that
with me?”

“
Maybe because I want you
to know me like I want to know you.”

A white light filled Melinda’s head,
and then the images came, fast and furious. She caught a glimpse of
her lying on that four-poster bed, wrapped in his strong
arms.

“
Please stop having those
thoughts, Nathan,” she begged, covering her red cheeks with her
hands.

“
That’s the second time
you’ve said something about reading my thoughts.” He grinned. “What
am I thinking right now, Melinda?”

She stared into his eyes as images of
his mouth covering hers overwhelmed her.