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That had been the only lucky part of my day.
“Is it usual to have fights like we did today?” I asked.
He shrugged. “The full moon sometimes affects them. Today was a particularly bad day, however. I rarely ever confine them to their cells. It always seems to backfire in the end, but there was no containing today’s need. They were going there if I had to force every last one of them into their cells.”
My cell phone rang, and I pulled it over from where it was resting at the edge of the table and glanced at the screen.
Shiloh.
My aunt.
“I have to take this,” I said, going to stand.
He waved me off. “Just answer it here. Brielle talks really loud.”
He gestured with his head to where he could see Brielle pacing and waving her arms outside.
Nodding once, I pulled the phone to my ear and said, “Hey, Aunt Shiloh. What’s up?”
“Hey, baby,” Shiloh said in her warm, sweet voice. “I happened to be talking to your dad, and he said you were out to eat with Bayou Beauregard. Is that true?”
I frowned. “Yes. Why?”
“I…nothing bad, I promise. Not really. But...would you mind bringing him by the compound? I want to…speak with him.”
Frowning at the hesitancy in her voice, I said, “I’ll ask him if he’s willing to come over there. Can I get some information to hand out, at least?”
“Sure,” she hesitated. “Tell him it pertains to his ex—the woman that he saw about four years ago.”
Shaking my head at Shiloh’s evasiveness, I hung up with her and then said to Bayou, “So my aunt wants me to bring you by the compound. She also said that she’d like to speak with you. It’s about your ex. One from about four years ago.”
Bayou’s face darkened. “I’d rather not speak with her about that woman.”
The change on Bayou’s face was nothing short of electric.
I blinked. “Ummm.”
“What did you say your aunt does?” He paused in his anger.
“She’s a social worker,” she said. “She works for the state.”
Bayou seemed to gather himself under control. “Maybe she listed me as an emergency contact, and they’re going to tell me she’s fucked herself up and she needs the plug pulled.”
My mouth fell open. “That bad?”
He nodded once. “That fuckin’ bad.”
Bayou started to gather up his food and trash, shoving it all onto the plate in front of him.
“She wouldn’t want to talk to you unless it was important,” I said. “But I’m not sure why she knew to even ask my dad. But, like always, I don’t pretend to understand her and my father’s relationship.”
“She saw us, maybe?” he suggested. “I was there for a couple of hours the day before.”
“That’s true,” I admitted. “But normally she only…never mind. We’ll go and figure out what she has to say from her. Speculating about the two of them is quite futile.”
Bayou reached into his pocket and withdrew two twenty dollar bills again, placing them on the table.
I looked down at my half-eaten burger and decided to take it with me as I just shook my head. “One of these days I’m going to get to pay.”
Bayou’s eyes flicked up to meet mine. “And one of these days, it won’t be when you’re with me.”
I scoffed. “We’ll see.”
“No, we won’t,” he countered. “I’ll drive behind you.”
I frowned, kind of wishing that he’d want to ride with me. Or have me ride with him. Either would be good at this point.
“Hey, where are y’all going?” Brielle called out, phone still pressed to her ear.
“Home,” Bayou lied. “See you tomorrow for breakfast.”
Brielle frowned, but as she saw us both go to our respective vehicles, she didn’t protest us leaving at the same time.
Which I could tell she wanted to.
But without sounding weird, she couldn’t protest her adopted brother leaving with a woman at the same time. Especially since he’d made it sound as if we were going to our separate homes.
Bayou stayed right on my tail the entire time, and we arrived at the compound thirty-two minutes later.
Pounding in the code to get in the gate—we each had our own individual code to get in—I waited for it to open and kept taking surreptitious glances in my rearview mirror to see where Bayou’s eyes were aimed.
Each time I did, I found that they were directed at me.
A delicious shiver went down my spine at the thought of his eyes—and other things—being on me.
Texting my aunt while the slowest gate in eternity opened—it was solar powered and it’d been overcast and raining for the last two weeks—I got an immediate reply that she was in the main offices.
When the gate finally swung open enough for me to get through—and yes, I’d learned to wait after hitting it not once, but four times in my impatience to get through—I drove straight to the offices and parked.
