Page 60 of Passion’s Song

Yet, hadn’t Damien felt the same way? This entire time, his goal with Alexander Quarters had been, in part, to capitalize on the misfortune of those who’d been run out by Katrina. And, instead of coming up with a solution to help bring them back home, he’d sought to develop something that would keep them out.

Damien felt so slimy that he suddenly felt the need to shower.

“This can turn out to be a very lucrative venture,” Langley McGowan said. “Thank you for bringing this area to our attention.”

Damien didn’t want the man’s thanks. He no longer wanted his help, either. He didn’t care how lucrative this venture could be. This was no longer about money.

It was amazing how quickly his perspective had changed. If Michael Berger had come to him just a month ago with the ideas he’d just outlined, Damien would have jumped in with both feet. But after witnessing all the hard work that had been poured into the various projects around the Ninth Ward, and seeing the pride with which the residents worked to resurrect the neighborhood from the ashes of Katrina, how could he go along with something like this?

His initial plans only pertained to a small portion of the Ninth Ward. What sat on the screen before him right then encompassed an area at least four times the size of what he’d first envisioned. He could not pretend to be okay with this.

But Damien also understood how these things worked. The McGowan Group didn’t need him to tell them when, what and how to conduct business. If he told them that he no longer thought it was a good idea to build in the Ninth Ward, they would simply go on without him. They didn’t need his permission.

The thought of the McGowan Group bulldozing their way over A Fresh Start was more than Damien could handle.

He had to figure out a way to make this right.

Chapter 11

April stood with her hands on her hips outside the newly installed gate that surrounded the small garden at A Fresh Start.

“What happened?” she asked, disbelief suffusing her voice as she stared at the dozens of plantings that had been dug up and tossed around. Tiny vegetables that had just started to take root had been ripped from the soil, the rows of neatly tilled dirt marred with the deep impressions of footprints.

“Vandals,” Simeon said. He pointed to the piece of chain-link fence that was pulled back slightly. “We’re thinking they snuck in over there. Based on the size of the opening, they couldn’t have been that big. It was probably just some teens who decided to go out and cause trouble.”

April let out a rare but well-deserved curse. “The kids will be devastated when they see this. All that hard work they’ve put into it, gone, just like that.”

“Some of the vegetables were just starting to sprout,” Simeon said, gesturing to the small green tomatoes that now lay on the ground instead of hanging on the vine where they should have been.

April shook her head. “I’m going to have to call Jodi at the community gardens to see if they have any they can spare.”

“First, we’ll call the police,” Simeon said.

“We should, although without any cameras I don’t know what good it’s going to do.”

“Maybe someone in the neighborhood saw something. You never know.” He clamped a hand on her shoulder. “Look at it this way. The kids will learn one of the biggest life lessons there is, that disappointments can come at a moment’s notice.”

“Is this your way of looking at the bright side?” she asked him.

He shrugged in that ever-optimistic way of his, managing to wring a laugh from her when all April wanted to do was hit something, preferably the little bastards who’d terrorized their gardens.

Maybe Simeon had the right idea. It was a life lesson, not just for the kids in the program, but for her, too. She knew that setbacks like this one were to be expected. Not every kid in this neighborhood would be saved. Her job was to work with those they’d managed to reach and make sure they didn’t fall in with the likes of those who’d caused this mess last night.

April bent down to start clearing away the discarded vegetables, but then decided against it. If the police were coming it was better not to disrupt the crime scene. Instead, she took out her phone so that she could snap a few pictures.

When she looked at the screen, April noticed that she had two missed calls from Damien, along with a text message that read Need to talk to you now.

When she called him back, he picked up on the first ring.

“Hey,” she greeted. “You needed something?”

“Yes, where are you?” he asked.

“At A Fresh Start. There was an incident overnight,” she said, looking around at the gardens.

“Is everything okay?” Damien asked, concern in his voice.

“Everything except for our gardens,” she said. She waved a hand. “I’ll tell you about it later. I had a couple of missed calls from you. What did you need?”