Not Quite Right (A Lowcountry Mystery) (Lowcountry Mysteries Book 6) by Lyla Payne Read Free Book Online Page A

pirate?” he interrupts.
    I nod, unable to tell from the shuttered expression on his face whether he’s humoring me or really listening. “Yes, the pirate. Turns out the reason she came to me is because she’s my ancestor on my mother’s side, and she wanted me and Amelia to know about a curse placed on our bloodline back in her day.” I take a deep breath. “No male would live past the age of thirteen.”
    Skepticism emerges now, dark on his angular features. “Why?”
    “Her husband—well, her third husband—hated her and the son she had with Calico Jack. He was jealous that she loved Jack more, and Anne never gave him a son of his own. He was determined that Calico Jack’s son would never inherit his fortune and would never be more prosperous than the husband’s own family line. Thus, the curse.”
    “Her husband knew how to curse people?”
    I grind my teeth, impatient now. I don’t have time to explain shit that happened a hundred years ago.
    More than that, I need him to realize we’re not on the same team. I’ve got Clete on the periphery of my world, breathing down my neck about finding some dirt on the good detective. It’s not that I’d rather be on the moonshiner’s side exactly, but the guy takes his favors seriously. Even though he didn’t come through for me on the whole dirt on the Middletons thing, that didn’t mean he’d forget the promise I made in return.
    My head spins with the thought. The last thing I need is Clete skulking around town, and to be honest, I’m not sure I’d be too sad to see Travis move along myself.
    Really? You don’t have any desire to learn more about your mother? one of my devils scoffs as he lounges near my ear, breath stinking of childhood insecurity.
    I want to flick him away, but Travis already thinks I’m crazy enough.
    “No. There was a woman, a slave. She knew voodoo, or maybe Gullah religion, but either way, the curse was born. And in all of those years, the line spawned from Anne Bonny and Calico Jack’s child has never seen a male live past puberty.” I spread my hands, willing him to accept all of this, then tip my head. “I realize I have no firsthand knowledge, but you look as though you passed that milestone some time back.”
    His cheeks go red at the observation. I meant it to be slightly lewd, to remind him that we’re not brother and sister, but end up feeling more than a bit icky and ashamed about it.
    “Curses aren’t real, Graciela.”
    “So you think it’s merely a coincidence? All of the stillbirths and accidents and other circumstances that took the boys? All before they were thirteen?” He says nothing, and I smell victory. “Of course you don’t. You’re a cop—you know coincidences like that don’t exist.”
    “I don’t know. Maybe not, but then why did your mother put me up for adoption when I was only a few days old? Why did she say I was hers?”
    He needs to believe that he knows where he comes from, and my chest hurts that I have to be the one to tell him he doesn’t.
    “I don’t know. That’s the honest truth, Travis, and I don’t know how we would find out now, either.”
    “What about your dad? Would he know anything?” He’s swallowing over and over again, his Adam’s apple bobbing.
    Despite the fact that I’ve never trusted Travis, never been overly fond of him, something about his distress worms its way into my heart. The odd reaction causes me to blurt words without considering them first. “I tried asking him about it. I don’t know how long he was around or how close he and my mom were, not really. I’m just getting to know him myself, but if he tells me anything about you, I promise I’ll pass it along.”
    We stare at each other for a few minutes, each lost in thought—in what we’ve always been told, in what we’ve been promised, and maybe what we always hoped would be true about the places we came from.
    “I have to go to work,” I murmur when Amelia steps out onto the porch,