Page 16 of Xavier

Hopefully, it would help.

If not, how much worse could it make her life?

Well, hell.

Why had that thought popped up right as she was going to sleep?

Now, she’d never get to sleep.

Possibly ever again.

Chapter 3

The next morning, Xavier entered the boat factory, having slept very little the night before, wondering whether Lissette had made it home to her grandmother’s house on an island in the bayou.

Every time he closed his eyes, her image appeared in his head, with her long, straight black hair, disheveled after her fight with the guys who’d tried to kidnap her, hanging down around her shoulders.

He still wanted to go to the sheriff to report the men and their van. He didn’t know why he’d agreed not to.

The panicked look in her dark eyes and the way her brow had furrowed when he’d mentioned the sheriff had been enough to make him promise to keep the incident to himself the previous night.

In the light of day, he was second-guessing that promise. Would mentioning what had happened to his teammates break that promise? Maybe they could poke around to find out who those men were and why they’d tried to take Lissette.

Anton Noel and Jacques Jardien swapped gossip as they polished the hull of an aluminum jon boat.

“I heard Mitch Marceau was up on the marina roof yester and fell off a ladder. Broke his arm and gave him a concussion,” Jacques said.

“That’s too bad. What with the weatherman predicting that hurricane out in the gulf coming our way. He’ll have a tough time battening down the hatches.” Anton straightened, his rag in hand. “Speaking of bad luck, do you remember that old lady whose pink metal flamingo disappeared from her flower garden on Second Street last month?”

Jacques nodded. “She had the sheriff and all his deputies comb Bayou Mambaloa for an entire day, claiming it was her husband’s last gift to her before he died, and she wouldn’t rest until it was returned.”

“Didn’t Remy buy a new one and stick it in her garden in the middle of the night so Shelby and the rest of the sheriff’s department wouldn’t have to spend any more time looking for it?” Xavier asked as he approached the two men.

“He did,” Anton said.

“Why do you bring her up?” Jacques asked.

“She had a massive tree limb fall on her porch last night. Tore the entire porch off.” Anton’s lips twitched. “Damned if it didn’t touch the pink flamingo in her front garden.”

“Unlucky? Or lucky?” Jacques questioned. “With a hurricane coming in, maybe she’s lucky it happened before we get hit with the storm.”

“Either way, I’d say it’s unlucky,” Xavier said. “The porch has to be replaced, and I’ll bet she doesn’t have that kind of money to have it done.”

Anton shook his head, his lips twitching on the corners. “I bet she claims that the fact the flamingo remained untouched is a sign from her dead husband that he was looking out for her.”

“I wouldn’t disavow her of that opinion, if it makes her happy,” Jacques said. “Remy said J.D. LaDue’s skiff sank at the marina overnight.”

“He’s been riding around in that old thing for the past couple years, bailing water,” Anton shook his head. “I told him to bring it by, and we’d patch it for him.”

“Maybe he’ll finally take us up on that offer,” Jacques said, “whenever he dredges it up from the bottom of the bayou.”

“When I was at Mimi’s Diner for breakfast,” Anton said, “I heard that quite a few people have experienced similar bad luck over the past few weeks. Mimi had a fire in her kitchen; a three-hundred-year-old plaque from someone’s family tomb went missing; the tow-truck driver’s transmission dropped on the highway to New Orleans; and a man who found wasps in the wall of his house was attacked by them and spent the night in the hospital.”

“Speaking of bad luck,” Xavier said. “I drove by the Crawdad Hole this morning. Danny French was in the parking lot, pulling a ladder out of a truck. I stopped to ask if she needed help. She said the old bell that had hung behind the bar forever fell last night and nearly hit her.”

“The one they ring when someone says something stupid?” Anton asked.

Xavier nodded. “Yes, that one.”