By Andrea Dean Van Scoyoc and Yvonne Mason

Chapter 1

No Rest For The Weary…

Shaking the sand off my feet I walked into my small apartment. It had been a long day and my evening swim was much needed. The ocean always calmed me when I was stressed. The last pick up had almost been the death of me, in more ways than one.

That being said, I met my new best friend Hope Harrington whose life was changed and all because I threw her to the floor and handcuffed her. But, that was then and this is now. 

As I walked into my living room, my phone rang and I rolled my eyes when I looked at the caller id. It was my boss, Harry James. That wasn’t his real name but he thought it gave him status so he used it for the bail bonding business; this was another story within itself. I almost didn’t answer. I was tired and had been promised few days off and here he was calling me.

“What do you want?” I asked when I answered.

“Well good afternoon to you, too.” Harry replied sarcastically. “I need for you to go to New Orleans and do a pick up for me.”

“Harry, I thought that was a joke! I’m on vacation,” I said with exasperation in my voice. 

“So take it in New Orleans,” he said with equal sarcasm.

I rolled my eyes and watched out the window as the sunset. I couldn’t fully appreciate the view of reds, oranges and pinks as the sun kissed the ocean because Harry was whining in my left ear. I heard him say something about  Marie Laveau his latest jumper. Yes, her name was Marie Laveau; apparently her mother thought she was some kind of voodoo priestess descended from the one and only Marie Laveau from New Orleans.  She wanted her daughter to carry on the family tradition. However, the only thing the daughter carried were several sexually transmitted diseases and bad genes. This was one ugly woman.

I didn’t want to bring this woman in. She wasn’t worth my time or my health. But Harry was screaming in the phone, “She is going to cost me a fortune. Her bond was over 50 G s! You have to go get her! We only have two weeks before I have to cough up that dough to the court. Now get cracking.” 

Then he hung up. 

I stood stupidly in the middle of the living room watching the last rays of the sun sinking in the ocean holding a dead phone and sticking my tongue out, at nobody.

Then the phone rang again. “Harry,” I screamed, “I am not going.”

The voice on the other end said, “One, I’m not Harry, two why are you screaming in the phone and three where are we not going?”

I have to admit…I wasn’t prepared to hear Alex screaming at me. I mean come on…my ears are just as sensitive as the next person s! But she had and I wanted to know what was going on.

“Harry wants us to go to New Orleans,” Alex grumbled.

“New Orleans? I thought that was a joke!”

“Yeah, me too and guess what, we’re going after Marie Laveau.”

“What?” 

My response was supposed to be one of sarcasm and disbelief and I guess it wasn’t lost on Alex because she piped right up with a response.

“Yep. Her mother thought she was the reincarnation of her and named her after her.”

I rubbed my head. I thought after our last adventure, nothing could have topped that but now, to be chasing Marie Laveau…please.  “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I honestly thought that Harry was joking. Don t get me wrong, I’ve always wanted to go to New Orleans and see Marie Laveau’s crypt, but this isn’t quite how I imagined I’d go. I suppose he wants us to go right now, this minute?”

“Yep.”

I knew that Alex was pissed. She always gave me one word answers when she was secretly seething. Yeah, I know, we haven’t known each other for long, but believe me, Alex is about as complicated as I am, meaning we are both, easy people to read.

I can’t blame her for being mad. Two jumps, one right after another? This last jumper was a real, how do I put this delicately? I guess I can’t. He was an ass and a total waste of our time, as far as humans go.

He was arrogant, presumptuous and I detested him. Not that bounty hunters are supposed to like the scum they chase. Just saying…that my first experience with a jumper was a doozy.

Now we’re going after Marie Laveau.  Oh…joy. I can make the best of any situation, and I really do want to go to New Orleans. I figure I’ll visit Marie s crypt while I’m there and do the little wine and rose ritual to get her to grant me a wish, but what I’d like to do more than anything, is slap the skank we’re going after, for putting a damper on my plans.

My first trip to Nola and what will I remember from it? That the only reason I got to go was to chase some hoochie ho who thinks she’s Marie Laveau. Under different circumstances, I’d be indebted to her.

I don t even want to think about that. It’s depressing.

Anyway…I focused back to the phone clenched tightly in my hand.

“So, I take it we’re leaving at midnight tonight on some boat or maybe a red-eye secretive flight all covert and all that, so the powers of darkness can’t detect us?”  I doubted my lack of enthusiasm in regards to a pseudo-Marie Laveau-hunt would be lost on Alex, and I was right…

Currently available in paperback and on kindle soon to be released in

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