Tall, Dark & Hungry(5)

Lucern glanced at his wristwatch, shrugging. "In about an hour."

"What?" Bastien squawked.

"What, what?" Lucern asked.

"You're joking! She doesn't get in in an hour."

"Yes, she does."

Bastien stared at him blankly, then asked, "Which airport?"

"JFK."

"Dear God."

"What?" Lucern asked. He looked concerned as Bastien began scanning the tiny restaurant in search of their waitress. Of course she'd disappeared right when they wanted her, probably into the kitchen.

"You could have mentioned this before, damn it," Bastien growled. "Hell, why didn't Kate mention it? She knows it takes an hour to get to JFK. Where the hell is that waitress?"

"She probably didn't realize how late it was," Lucern excused Kate. "Besides, she's a little distracted right now."

"Yeah? Well, it will be her fault if we're late."

"We'll make it," Lucern said soothingly as the waitress walked back out of the kitchen. Gesturing her over, he added, "Terri has to collect her luggage and go through customs anyway."

Bastien shook his head in disgust. Lucern rarely worried about anything anymore, but a couple hundred years in the business world had made him a details man. "She may have to get through customs, but we still have to get the car and drive there. Let's just hope traffic isn't particularly slow today."

Leaving Lucern to deal with the bill, Bastien took out his cellphone and called his driver. While he drove himself or took taxis at night, when he traveled during daylight Bastien always had a driver. Aside from saving the trouble of finding parking, it prevented his being out in sunlight any longer than necessary—he simply had to jog from the car to the entrance of wherever he needed to go. Not that he couldn't have stood walking a few minutes in sunlight, or even longer than that really, but it meant he would need to ingest more blood, which could be pretty inconvenient at times.

Once assured that the car was on its way, Bastien snapped the phone closed and slid it back into his pocket, then began to consider how best to handle this situation. While he used a chauffeured limo when necessary, his usual driver was on vacation and Bastien really didn't want to spend the hour-long drive out to the airport watching everything he said around the replacement driver. They would have to ride back to the office to collect his car. He'd also pack some blood in a cooler to take with them in case of an emergency, Bastien decided. All of his cars had special window treatments to prevent UV rays from getting in to do any damage, but should the car break down or get a flat tire and they be forced to fix it or walk any distance in sunlight, things could get uncomfortable, or even dangerous.

All of this would take time, of course, and increase the chances that they weren't going to be on time to collect Terri, but if luck was with them and traffic wasn't slow…

"Traffic's slow," Lucern said a short time later.

Bastien gave a short laugh. "Of course it is. Murphy's law, right?"

Lucern grunted.

"Reach in the backseat and grab my briefcase. You'll have to make the sign."

"Won't we recognize Terri from the picture?" Lucern retrieved the case and set it on his lap.

"Maybe. But I don't want to count on that. If we miss her, Kate will kill us both."

Luc gave another grunt. He had never been big on talking. Bastien supposed that was why Kate had wanted someone else along to collect her cousin. The only time Luc seemed to talk was when she was around. It was also the only time he smiled. She brought something out of him no one else could, and which apparently retreated or dropped dead the moment she was out of sight. When Kate wasn't around, it was difficult to get more than a couple of words out of Lucern; a grunt was his response of choice.

"What do you want on it?"

Bastien glanced to the side. Not only had Lucern managed to string more than two words together, he'd pulled a large notepad and pen from the briefcase and was ready to write. "Just put her name on it."

"Right." Lucern scrawled the name Terri across the paper, then paused. "What's her last name?"

"You're asking me? She's your fiancée's cousin, not mine."

"Yeah," Luc agreed, pursing his lips thoughtfully. "Didn't Kate mention it at lunch?"

"No. Not that I recall." Bastien glanced at him. "You really don't know?"

"I can't remember."

"Well, Kate must have mentioned it a time or two over the last few months."

"Yeah." Luc was silent for a moment, then bent his head to write on the page again.

Relieved that his brother remembered, Bastien turned his attention back to traffic, then spared a glance at his watch. "If her flight isn't early and customs takes twenty minutes or so, we might just get there before she gives up and hops in a taxi. Where will she go if she doesn't find anyone waiting for her?"