Tara offered bottles of ice water and then sat down with a sigh,<br/>"In New Orleans, or at least here in those Quarter, everything and everybody is owned by a 'Boss'. You pay the 'Boss' and for your payment, you get protection, your home is protected, your business is protected. You are part of the family. Just like family, the 'Boss' can call on you for whatever favors you might have."<br/><br/>Malachai started at the word,favors.<br/><br/>"Not sexual ones from me, that is not part of my contract. and it is also what part of my protection is, no one can press me into prostitution. But the Ursaline Guest House has old secret passageways that go all the way back to at least the early 1800s. Those passages make smuggling a cinch. I think that was probably the whole reason they were created. So my 'Boss' needed cooperation and those people were probably someone else in the Quarter that are part of the family. Usually we don't know each other. My real employers don't know about the 'Boss' or the passageway or the smuggling, so I have to be really careful. I probably shouldn't even tell you guys but there is something about both of you that I feel I can trust."