His best friend in the world stopped and managed not to take his head off. Andre Martine wasn’t wearing a shirt, his lean body covered only in a white towel wound around his waist. He frowned, one brow cocking and his surprise obvious. “Rene? Rene, what the hell are you doing here? How did you get in?”

The bat dropped and Andre breathed an obvious sigh of relief as he moved in, giving Rene a wholly masculine, pound-on-the-back hug.

“Sylvie keeps a key in the front flower bed in case of emergencies.” She’d explained that her next-door neighbor was elderly and sometimes needed to borrow things. But Rene had a far better question. “What are you doing here? I heard you were somewhere in Asia. No one’s heard from you in six damn weeks, brother. Your mother is worried.”

When Marcelle had come over for supper two nights before, she’d been beside herself because Andre hadn’t called in six weeks. She’d been almost ready to fly to Asia herself. He’d gotten to participate in calling Andre’s ancestors to watch over him.

It had been a fun night. Soon Marcelle would likely be cursing him.

Dre pulled back, a half smile on his face. “Yes, and that’s why I’m here instead of there. It’s also why I didn’t call. I swear my momma can tell when something’s gone wrong just from the sound of my voice.”

He looked past his own misery. Dre was close to his whole family. What was he trying to hide? “Gone wrong?”

Dre winced and turned. There was a bandage across his left shoulder blade. “Yeah, I might have gotten shot. Is the bandage on okay? It’s hard to deal with myself.”

It looked secure. “It’s fine. How on earth did you end up getting shot?”

“The reporter I was working with was doing a story on rebels on the border of Myanmar, and we got caught in some crossfire. It wasn’t too bad. We were pulling out at the time, but I realized I left a lens behind. Brand-new one. Hadn’t even used it yet. So I sneak back in, and that’s when it happens. Now, I managed to get away even though I had a bullet lodged in my back, and the best part of all? Didn’t drop that lens,” Dre explained.

Rene felt his heart threaten to stop. “You were in a war zone and went back for the lens?”