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Mimi laughed and then slowly sobered. “He scares me, Renée. If I allowed myself, I could be so head over heels in love with him again. But I can’t seem to let the past go. I just don’t trust that he wouldn’t break my heart all over again.”

“Unfortunately, I can’t help you with that.” Renée looked at the clock on the wall. “It’s about time for us to get back out on the floor. Did I hear through the grapevine that you’re working late tonight?”

“Yeah, Sonja called in sick, and Max asked me to stick around through the dinner hour. Hopefully I’ll get off at around seven,” Mimi replied.

“Sonja has a habit of calling in sick,” Renée said. “I’m surprised Max hasn’t fired her yet.”

Max Sinclair was the owner of the store. He was middle-aged and married to his childhood sweetheart, Rebecca. He was a generous and caring employer, and all the staff positively adored him.

“You know how Max is. He gives everyone a million chances before he decides to fire them,” Mimi replied.

“He asked me to work late, but I told him I couldn’t tonight because I have a date,” Renée said.

“With who?” Mimi asked curiously.

“With Daniel Pullen,” she replied.

“Isn’t this your second date with him? Do I smell a budding romance?” Mimi asked.

“No, Daniel is really just a placeholder for when my hero comes along,” Renée replied. “I know that sounds horrible, but I think I’m just a placeholder for him, too. He’s a nice guy, and I enjoy his company, but he isn’t my Mr. Right.”

“Your Mr. Right will come along, Renée,” Mimi said with a smile to her friend. “By the way, how is Callen doing?” Callen was Renée’s older brother. He was two years older than Renée, and while he had always been nice to Mimi, the two siblings didn’t always get along.

“He’s okay, still working the commercial ships and rarely at home,” Renée replied. “But when he is, we actually get along okay. Since our parents are gone, we realize all we have is each other.”

Mimi reached across the table and took her friend’s hand in hers. “I’m sorry, Renée.” She squeezed Renée’s hand and then released it.

“It’s okay,” Renée replied. “I still miss them, but what are you going to do?”

The two talked for a few minutes more, and then Mimi took one last bite of her salad, and it was time to go back to work.

It was just after seven when Mimi left to head home. She didn’t mind working late occasionally as a favor to her boss. Max had been very good to her when she first started to work at the grocery store when Danny was just a little over two years old. During that time there had been days she hadn’t been able to work because Danny was sick or Gramps wasn’t feeling well. Max worked with her during those times.

It didn’t take her long to reach the swamp’s entrance. As always, she pulled her knife from her purse and began the walk in.

Several people she’d checked out today at the grocery had talked about Johnny’s stolen trailer. She’d heard a lot of speculation about who might be responsible, but nobody had a definitive answer. She hated that it had happened. She hoped a random thief had stolen it and not one of the men she called her friends. In fact, when she got home the first thing she intended to do was call those friends and tell them she didn’t want them coming around for a while.

Nobody would be coming by tonight because she’d worked late. But she had grown tired of the company every single night of the week. They brought with them a controlled chaos that was exhausting. The truth was she was looking forward to some quieter evenings.

Before Johnny returned to town, the men only came by to visit with her maybe once or twice a week. She knew their presence every night was an effort to keep her and Johnny from having any real alone time together.

She was halfway to her shanty when it happened. She heard a noise behind her, but before she could turn around, strong arms grabbed and pulled her tight against a hard body.

She gasped in surprise and attempted to use her knife to stab behind her. However, he grabbed the knife handle, and for a moment they fought over it. She tried desperately to hold onto it, but he was much stronger than her. He got control of it and threw it to the ground.

“Who are you? What do you want?” she asked, panting sobs of fear. She kicked backward, hoping to hurt him. It didn’t matter if this was one of the men she’d called her friend or not. She needed to get away from him, but he was far bigger and much stronger than her, and he held onto her tightly.

“Gus, is this you? River? Jean-Luc?” She wiggled and squirmed in an effort to get free. She tried to jab her fingernails into his legs. But she quickly realized she couldn’t hurt him, and she couldn’t get free.

“I warned you before,” a deep, raspy voice said. His hot breath warmed the side of her neck. “I warned you about seeing Johnny.”

“Jean-Luc, is that you? River? Gus? Who the hell are you?” she cried, still struggling against him.

“I’m the man you belong to. I warn you again, stop seeing Johnny. You belong to me.” To punctuate his sentence, he slammed his fist against her jaw.

Stars shot off in her head as an intense pain exploded through the entire side of her face. He threw her down then, and she heard his footsteps as he ran away.

She remained on the ground for some time, crying with both residual fear and pain. Finally, she ran her hand over the grass and found her knife. She pulled herself up and hurried for home.