“Oh, yeah. You know I don’t like to leave any part of Agnes behind.” Dre nodded like it was perfectly reasonable for a man to name his camera and treat it like his favorite girlfriend. The camera and the equipment that went with it were Andre’s prized possessions. “I am not Mr. Moneybags like you. I have to protect my moneymakers. Anyway, I made it back to our transport and spent a couple of nights in a hospital in Thailand. It’s almost healed up now, but do you have any idea what my mother will do if she finds out I took a bullet?”

He could imagine Marcelle would be upset, but he wasn’t sure how Dre intended to keep that from her. “She’s going to find out.”

One of Dre’s shoulders shrugged. “Probably, but it’s way better to show her a scar than a wound. A couple more days here and I won’t need the bandage, and I’ll show up on Momma’s doorstep and do all the chores she’ll have for me with a smile.”

Dre was forgetting his past. “And then she’ll know something’s wrong.”

Dre pointed his way. “Good call, brother. You’re right. I’ll complain and she’ll think everything’s normal. Do you know where Sylvie is? Talk about things not being normal. There’s no food in her fridge, and everything was dark when I got here. She usually leaves a couple of lights on. Has she finally moved into city hall?”

Rene had thought he’d been through the worst part of his day. He stood there, his brain completely blank and the stress of what he’d gone through threatening to overwhelm him. The minute he thought the word stress, guilt rose up like a snake rattling and hissing. He wasn’t supposed to get stressed. He was supposed to work better under stress, like some engine designed never to fail.

“Rene? Hey, you okay?”

He had to confess and get it all over with. “Sylvie’s at Darois House, which I’m going to lose next week. She’s there because I married her to trick my aunt into voting for me because I’m one board vote away from losing my job and any real influence I have over the company my father placed in my hands. But it’s all right because we’ve got a plan for an annulment.”

Dre stared at him. “I’m sorry. What?”