More Than an Echo (Echo Branson Series) (41 page)

“Excellent. Hey, was that front page your friend’s company? Savvy Software?”

Smiling, I nodded. “Nice write-up, huh? She was over-the-top thrilled with it.”

“She ought to be. A whole page? I know guys who’d give their left arm for half a page.”

As promised, Carter got Savvy Software onto the front page of the business section, and Dani’s phones hadn’t stopped ringing since.

“Have you spoken to Cinder about what she did?”

I hadn’t. I didn’t even know where to begin. “You mean about killing those guys? I don’t want to have that talk until we can spend some time together. Time is something in short supply for me right now.”

“Maybe in New Orleans.”

“No maybe about it. At some point, she is going to feel like a killer and we can’t have that. Self-destruction is
not
an option for her if I have anything to say about it.” Slowly, I rose. “What better place for me to re-energize and refocus on my life than in the Bayou. I don’t know who needs it more, Cinder or me.”

“Well, my offer is always a standing one. You ever want to take a sail down to Mexico for a couple of days, you know where to find me.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Leaving the marina, I was heading back to the city when my phone rang. Finn.

“Hey there, hotshot! I can’t believe I got a hold of the famous reporter!” Finn and I had managed to talk to each other for only a minute here and a second there, but little beyond catching up on the latest report or interview or headline.

“Hey there, Deputy Dog. How’s tricks?”

“Saw you on
Good Morning San Francisco
. You looked great. Nice color choice.”

“Oh, Finn, even
I
am tired of seeing my face.”

She chuckled. “Celebrity bringing you down?”

“I can’t stand one more second talking about me or I’ll go crazy. So, if you want to talk, tell me about you.”

“Me? Well...after watching the big Samoan strutting around here like he owns the place, after having to constantly hear what a fine detective he is, after answering my mother why I wasn’t as good as Darryl...well...gee...there’s not much left to say.”

I grinned. “Should I be sorry?”

“Never be sorry for a job well-done. I just wish you were my girlfriend so I could tell everybody
Hey look, that’s my girl
! You know, get a little reflected glory.”

I laughed. “Don’t worry, the wave is almost over.”

“So, when can you squeeze in a little beat cop like me for dinner and a movie? Dinner and dancing? Dinner and dessert? Hell, I’ll even take coffee and a stale doughnut”

My stomach did a little dance. “In a week. I have family in Louisiana and I thought it would do me some good to get grounded after all of this. It’s been exhausting.”

“But fun?”

“It was fun for the first couple of hours, but then it took on a life of its own and...well...I’m feeling a little out of balance.”

“You? Echo, you’re the most grounded person I know.”

“I still need to get the hell out of Dodge. Even if it’s just for a few days.”

“I understand. Call me when you get back?”

“Try and stop me.”

When we hung up, I wondered if I was being fair to her. We were worse than two ships passing in the night...we were two ships passing on different oceans.

I wondered if we’d ever connect.

Finn managed to come over in the middle of the night to see me the night before we left for Louisiana. I was so tired I fell asleep against her shoulder. I don’t mean sweet, cuddly sleep in the arms of the woman you might love. No, it was more like drooling down your chin, crust in your eyes kind of sleep that made your face all scrunched up and ugly.

When I was finally tucked into my own bed, along with a note on my nightstand that said for me to have a good time, be careful and call her for that date I owed her, I was feeling like the biggest loser on the planet.

From the Bayou, twelve hours later, that date seemed a really long way away, especially when I looked up and saw Tip standing on the dock, her long black hair catching the slight warm breeze, the smallest touch of a smile on her lips. She could stand there all day looking solid and unconcerned, but I knew better. She was relieved to see me.

“What are you...I thought—”

Tip smiled as she gently helped me and Cinder out of Bones’s boat. “Even in a small cavern in the Outback, your story, your face was all over the news. It took six cabs, five airplanes, two trains, a burro and a horse to get back here as fast as I could.”

“Why quickly? You knew I was okay.”

She grinned and lightly moved a stray hair from my forehead, her eyes soft and almost teary. “I needed to make sure no one followed you here. We can’t have your successes bringing riff-raff and other obnoxious reporters out here. With all your newfound stardom, we didn’t want to jeopardize Melika’s place.”

“We?” My stomach did that weird jump it gets at the thought of Tip with another woman.

“It’s good to see you again, my dear.” Melika walked down off the porch and hugged me. For a tiny woman getting on in years, she could still hug fiercely. “Oh my word, but you’re barely able to stand. In all the years I’ve known you, I’ve never felt you so exhausted. Poor girl.”

I made introductions. Cinder was at once taken by Tip, as most females were for the first time. Gay or straight, they were moths to her flame. If the Bayou hadn’t captivated her, which it clearly had, Tip most assuredly did.

“We’ll talk later,” Tip whispered to me, taking Cinder’s hand, who balked...Kneeling down, I took her hand in mine. She had the warmest hands of anyone I had ever met. “You’re okay. This is the school and these people are my family. They’ll take really good care of you, show you some really cool things, and keep you safe and happy. Okay?”

She thought about it a second before nodding.

“Good. Now Tip is going to show you to your room. It might be a good idea to take a nap.”

She frowned.

“I know, you’re not a baby, but everyone takes a nap when they first get here because for the first time in our lives, we feel safe and among our own. I slept for over twelve hours when I first got here.”

I looked over at Tip, not prepared for the surge of emotions rushing at me. “It’s really good to see you.”

She grinned. “I know. It’s been too long. Let me take care of Cinder here, and then it’s your turn for a nap.”

When they were gone, Melika took my hands in hers. “I am so very proud of you.”

“Thank you. This, too, shall pass and I can go back to my job and write more earth-shattering stories.”

“It’s good to have you back.”

“It’s good to be back.”

“How is the girl?”

“Powerful.  She needs a lot. She blew up those men and their boat without batting an eye. I felt no remorse from her either then or afterward. I wonder if maybe she hasn’t hurt someone before.”

Melika nodded. “Some people can kill without much effort or  regret. Cinder is one of them. Don’t judge her too harshly for it, Echo. She saved your life.”

“But that’s awful. Shouldn’t we teach her remorse or something?”

“Is it? She did it for you.”

I turned quickly to her. “For me?”

She nodded. “This young girl is painfully aware how dangerous she is. She would have struck out at anyone threatening you because
you
are the first person in her life to acknowledge that she’s different without being afraid of her or leaving her. In short, my dear, you are her hero and she would have blown the city up if she felt you were in danger.”

Sighing, I shook my head. “I don’t feel like a hero. I feel like I’ve just stepped off a tornado.”

“Careful what you wish for, remember? You wanted to make a difference in the world. Sometimes, you can do that anonymously and sometimes you can’t. You want the world to be something it can never be, but that won’t stop you from trying. Your altruism is one of the things I love most about you, but it is also going to be your cross to bear.”

“But you can help her, right? I mean…she’s not going to burst into flames, will she?”

Melika took my bag from my shoulder as we walked toward the house. “No, my dear, she will not burst into flames. You got to her in time.”

Inhaling deeply, I nodded. “How long has Tip been here?”

“Tip came the moment I knew you were in trouble. That woman actually had to commandeer someone’s horse to get out of the Outback. She traveled nonstop for thirty-two hours, cussing and spitting the whole way.”

“Why cussing and spitting?”

“When she knew what was happening with you, she tried to back out of going to Australia. She felt her place was here…with you.”

I stopped and studied her a moment. “Mel, you know that’s over, right?”

She took my hand. “I do, but you need to forgive Tip and repair whatever rift is between you. Heaven and hell couldn’t have stopped her from returning here when you got back. And you know why? Because she needed to see for herself that you are all right. Whether or not you two are together as lovers has no bearing on you being family. I need my family to love each other and get along. Let bygones be bygones, Echo, and forgive her.”

“She said she came back to make sure I wasn’t followed by any of my pesky colleagues.”

Melika shook her head slowly. “You still don’t understand her, do you? What you have done in destroying the Colombian organ traffickers is shine a very big spotlight on an organization that prefers to scoot around in the darker corners of the world. What you’ve done, my dear, is step on the tail of a very large and vengeful snake. Whether or not that snake chooses to strike back at you remains to be seen. Tip has returned from her journey early to make sure that it doesn’t. Fear the cartels. Fear the wrath of Tiponi Redhawk even more.”

I blinked several times. I’d had to stop the harvesters, but I never really felt like I was in any danger after the fact.

Was I?

Were we?

Had I inadvertently put us all in danger?

“Make peace with her, Echo, because no matter where you go or what you do in this life, she will always love you. She will
always
have your back. As long as Tip breathes, she will protect you with her life.”

With that, Melika started for the house, leaving me alone with my depleted energy and weary thoughts. So much had happened so fast, I’d never really had time to catch my breath or sort through the few coherent thoughts I had. I knew one thing for sure: I was exactly where I needed to be.

Climbing up the steps, I sat down at the top and looked out over my beloved Bayou. Taking a seat next to me, in a closeness only ex-lovers share, Tip stared out at the water while laying her large  hand gently over mine. “You okay?”

“I know in my head I am. I just don’t feel—”

“Whole?”

I nodded. “Exactly.”

Tip turned to me. “That happens, I think, when a dream comes true. It’s like the dream is no longer in your heart and so you feel sort of...empty. You’re out of sorts.”

I stared at her, thankful for her understanding of me. “That is precisely how I feel.”

“Do you know what you have to do? You have to get another dream to take its place. You always said you wanted to break a story so huge it got national attention. Well, it did. Now what? What’s your next dream?”

I ran my hands through my hair and leaned on my knees. “I think my next dream won’t be so grandiose and sure as hell won’t include getting shot at or blowing up speedboats.”

This made her chuckle. “Yeah, that last one was pretty big.”

“And came entirely too fast.”

Turning to me, she took my hand in hers. “The problem is, while you’ll acknowledge your supernatural abilities, you fail to accept your personal power.”

“Personal power? Don’t I have enough power as it is?”

“Accept it. You’re one of the good guys.”

I studied her a moment before whispering, “And you, Tiponi. What are you?”

She reached out and tucked hair behind my ear. “I’m one of the good guys’ bodyguards.”

I grinned wearily. “You can’t protect me from the world, you know?”

“I know. Maybe I
can
protect you from yourself. My job is to make sure you stay in the game for a really long time.” Tip gave my hand a quick squeeze before releasing it so that she could put her arm around me. I didn’t move.

“You know...I’m sorta seeing someone,” I said softly.

She chuckled again, but there was something soothing about the sound. “Sort of? Those are the majority of your dating experiences.”

“They are not!”

“Then why hasn’t anything happened? Wait. Don’t tell me. Too busy. Conflicting schedules. This big story. Stop me when I’m wrong. You like the
idea
of being in a relationship, but as of yet, haven’t figured out how to actually make one stick.”

I took her arm and flung it back at her. “Make one stick! Ha!”

“Have you even gone out on a date?”