But I didn’t have to answer. She knew from my eyes. The look on her face reminded me of Marcela’s at her birthday party in Miami, blank with disbelief. “What?”
“I can’t get down on one knee, but . . .” I opened the ring case for her. “This was my mother’s ring. My father gave it to me. I’d like it to be yours.”
April gazed at the sunshine in the ring case, then back up to me. My mother’s diamond was gorgeous, but the sparkle in April’s eyes dimmed it by comparison.
“Ten, you know I want to have kids,” she said.
“One or two kids?” I said. “After Chela, how hard can that be?”
“And I’m a slob.”
“And a pretty lousy cook,” I said. “But we can work around that.”
April studied my face for lies or uncertainty, shivering against me. She hushed her voice. “I saw you die that night, Ten,” she said. “When you weren’t breathing . . .”
I had made my first appointment to see the therapist April recommended the following week, but April behaved as if Escobar had not damaged her, too. Whenever I asked how afraid she’d been, she said she’d mostly been afraid for me. She couldn’t stare it in the face yet. Gustavo Escobar would be with us for a long time, whether or not we were together.
But I hoped we would be. We would fight all of our demons better as a team.
“I thought I saw you die, too, April,” I said, pulling her closer to me, absorbing her tremors. “And I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to make sure you never go through anything like that again. Not even close. I can’t promise you I’ll be perfect—but I can promise to try to be the perfect man for you.”
“Tennyson Hardwick,” she said. “That’s quite a proposition.”
“It’s not a proposition, sweetie,” I said. “It’s a proposal.”
We kissed as if it were our last chance.
WE WOULD LIKE to thank all of the friends and family who have supported us through this special journey. Special thanks to our police source for helping us navigate the world of prostitution. Also, many thanks to our longtime editor, Atria Books Vice President and Senior Editor Malaika Adero, for her dedication, vision, and faith. Many thanks to Todd Hunter at Atria Books, as well as Atria publisher Judith Curr and publicist Yona Deshommes.
For Tennyson Hardwick series news and updates, “like” Tennyson’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pages/Tennyson-Hardwick/35660298310.
You can also keep up with the coauthors on Twitter and Facebook.
Follow Blair Underwood on Twitter at www.twitter.com/blairunderwood (@BlairUnderwood), or “like” his Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BlairUnderwood.
Follow Tananarive Due on Twitter at www.twitter.com/tananarivedue (@TananariveDue), or “like” her Facebook page at www.facebook.com/pages/Tananarive-Due/15737779284. She also writes two blogs: Tananarive Due’s Reading Circle at www.tananarivedue.blogspot.com and Tananarive Due Writes, a blog for writers and screenwriters at www.tananarivedue.blogspot.com. Her website is www.tananarivedue.com.
Visit Steven Barnes’s website at www.diamondhour.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/StevenBarnes1. You can also send him a friend request on Facebook: www.facebook.com/steven.barnes.7127.
BLAIR UNDERWOOD is an author and award-winning actor, director, and producer. He lives in Los Angeles, California. Visit his website at BlairUnderwood.com.
TANANARIVE DUE is an American Book Award–winning, Essence best-selling author of Blood Colony, The Living Blood, The Good House, and Joplin’s Ghost, and coauthor of the NAACP Image Award–winning Tennyson Hardwick mystery series. She lives in the Atlanta area with her husband and coauthor Steven Barnes. Visit her blog at TananariveDue.blogspot.com.
STEVEN BARNES is an award-winning author of twenty-three novels, including the New York Times bestseller The Cestus Deception. He has been nominated for both the Hugo and CableACE Awards for his work in television. Visit his website at lifewrite.com.
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OVER DESIGN BY MIN CHOI • COVER AND AUTHORS’ PHOTOGRAPH BY BLAKE LITTLE, PHOTO OF MIAMI BY GETTY IMAGES
OTHER WORKS IN THE TENNYSON HARDWICK SERIES
Casanegra
In the Night of the Heat
From Cape Town with Love
We hope you enjoyed reading this Atria Books eBook.
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the authors’ imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2012 by Blair Underwood, Tananarive Due, and Steven Barnes
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Atria Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
First Atria Paperback edition September 2012
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Underwood, Blair.
South by southeast: a Tennyson Hardwick novel / Blair Underwood; Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes. — lst Atria paperback ed.
p. cm.
At head of title: Blair Underwood presents
1. Murder—Investigation—Fiction. 2. Miami (Fla.)—Fiction. I. Due, Tananarive, 1966– II. Barnes, Steven, 1952– III. Title. IV. Title: Blair Underwood presents.
PS3621.N383S68 2012
813’.6—dc23
2012014242
ISBN 978-1-4516-5063-1
ISBN 978-1-4516-5065-5 (ebook)
South by Southeast Page 33
