Page 80 of Xavier

Lissette knew the mafia. Nothing came without a price. “In exchange for what?”

“You,” he said simply. “Or rather, you’ll make a protection reliquary just for me—tonight, before the eye of the hurricane comes ashore. Do that for me, and you can come work for me.”

“Why would I want to work for you?” she asked.

“You would be accepted and revered, not ridiculed, spit on and called demeaning names.”

She’d taken this kind of job at the same organization before. At the time, it had felt good to belong somewhere.

Not this time. She knew the price she would have to pay. She had done her time and refused to go back.

“I have to decline your generous offer to work for you, but I accept the offer to make the trade on one condition...you release my grandmother when you take me.”

“I hold the cards,” Benoit said, his tone still congenial, almost pleasant, deceptively so. “I have the great Madame Gautier,” he reminded her.

“I’m the only one who can make the reliquary that will free you from the past,” Lissette said, playing on his paranoia. “Only I can close this circle that began with your grandfather.”

“I will release your grandmother after you make the protection reliquary. And yes, you set this path in motion with my grandfather. I understand now that you are the only one who can bring it to an end. But I’m not opposed to just killing you. Perhaps it will free me of your curse.”

Lissette shrugged. “Go ahead. Kill me and place your bet.”

He didn’t speak for a long moment. “If you want your grandmother to live, come alone to the coordinates I share with you. It will get you part of the way to your grandmother. At that point, I will give you another set of coordinates. If you bring anyone with you, we will kill your grandmother. Do not take too long to make up your mind, or the hurricane will overrun the location where your grandmother is being held. It will flood and erase all that remains there, including Madame Gautier.”

“Don’t leave my grandmother there,” she cried out.

He wasn’t listening. The call had ended.

Lissette glanced down at her cell phone, thoughts roiling through her head like clouds churning in the sky. When her phone chirped, she almost dropped it. Her hand shook as she opened the text from the unknown number and found a pin on a map. That location led deep into the bayou. It would take time to get there, especially as the weather worsened.

Torrential rain already made it hard to see. The wind would be a factor, too. Her grandmother’s skiff would be tossed about, maybe even capsized. She needed something heavier that could cleave through the water and stay steady in breaking waves and blustery wind.

Mitch, the marina owner, rented boats like that, but he’d already boarded up the marina. He wasn’t renting boats during the storm.

As a teenager, Lissette had worked at the marina one summer. She knew where he kept the boat keys and where he kept a spare key to the marina’s back door, which she would need if she decided to make the trade to get the reliquaries back, and most importantly, to save her grandmother from the incoming storm and the mafia kingpin’s paranoia.

Without realizing it, she’d left the ladies’ room, her feet carrying her not to the barroom but to the rear exit, decision made.

She had to go alone. It made sense to leave without making a fuss, without telling Xavier. He’d go all protector on her and insist on going in her place.

Benoit didn’t want him. He wanted the one who’d set the bad juju in motion for anyone who assumed leadership of the New Orleans Mafia. Benoit truly believed that only she could break the curse by working the magic through a protective reliquary.

Lissette opened the door and peered out into the rain. She needed to get to the marina, but she couldn’t go on foot.

Closing the door, she returned to the barroom. The men still stood around the map, discussing how they would split up to cover as much territory as possible.

Lissette couldn’t ask Xavier for his truck keys without tipping him off. She looked around the room, her gaze finding Danny at the bar, her purse on the counter, a brush in her hand as she smoothed her thick hair into a ponytail. She shoved the brush into her purse and set it under the counter. Then she got back to work, disappearing into the kitchen.

Danny drove an older model Army-green Jeep she parked at the back of the building.

Glancing around to make sure no one was looking at her, Lissette crossed to the bar and slipped behind it.

Before she could reach for Danny’s purse, one of the Bayou Reapers, his arms covered in tattoos, stepped up to her, wearing a black leather vest with Bayou Reapers written across the front and back. “You helpin’ out? I could use a refill.” He plunked his beer mug on the counter and pointed at the taps. “The one in the middle.”

Lissette forced a smile and filled his mug.

He tossed a bill on the counter and said, “Keep the change.” He turned back to the group, divvying up assignments and areas.

Lissette glanced toward the kitchen door, grabbed a napkin and a pen and wrote a note.