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“Yarrow, honey, we need to talk to you,” said Nine.

“Are you going to make me leave?” she asked with a terrified expression.

“No. God, no! Why would you think that?” She shrugged.

“Is something wrong with my daddy?”

“Honey, we’re trying to find him. His cell phone is turned off, so we can’t get a read on where he is right now. Did your daddy have any places where he went to feel safe? Maybe someplace that was real special to the two of you?”

She looked at him, shaking her head, then looked down at the tiny gold Claddagh ring on her hand.

“Wait. The place he and Mama met. He used to say it was the happiest time of his life until I was born. We used to go out there and have a picnic and explore the grounds.”

“What grounds, honey? Where?” asked Ghost.

“Cypress Plantation. It’s that old home about to fall in, out on Highway 61. Daddy always said his great-grandparents lived there once upon a time, but I don’t see how. We don’t have that kind of money. The whole place looks like it’s gonna collapse. But he loved it. He said he and Mama had their first kiss out there.”

“It sounds like a special place, honey. You stay here, and we’re gonna go see if we can find your daddy.”

When the four men ran toward the big black SUV, she turned to Lydia and the other girls and shook her head.

“Aren’t they too old to be running around like that?”

“Yes,” laughed Faith. “But don’t tell them that. Men have fragile egos, honey, and we like to let them think they’re still young.” She shook her head, her expression filled with confusion.

“If you say so. Daddy used to say he didn’t understand women. I don’t think I’ll ever understand men.”

“You know where this place is?” asked Ian.

“Definitely,” smirked Gaspar. “It was far enough away from the city that when we were teens, we would go out there and have bonfires, chase the girls, catch a few, and do things we were too young to do.”

“I see,” nodded Ghost. “Is it really falling apart?”

“It was falling apart fifty years ago. I can’t imagine what it looks like now. It was once one of the grand plantations along the river. I think the owners finally let it go sometime in the 1960s. No one ever bought it, so it’s just crumbled.”

“What about the land? That must be worth a fortune,” said Nine.

“The land was bought by one of the chemical plants, and the house was deemed a historic structure. You couldn’t tear it down, but no one wanted to give them the money to repair it. I can’t believe it’s still standing at all.”

It was a forty-five-minute drive, and they reached the old mansion just as dusk was falling.

“Well, if this isn’t fifty kinds of hell in a horror movie,” muttered Ian.

“Yeah,” laughed Gaspar. “Seeing it as an adult, it does have that vibe. Which, I imagine, has kept folks away from it. Shit. I’m not sure it’s safe to even step up on the porch.”

“It’s not,” said the voice just inside the shadow of the doorway. “I’ve fallen through twice. Leave before I shoot.”

“Yaz? Yaz, it’s Gaspar Robicheaux. If that’s you, we’re here to help.” They heard the creaking of the boards, and the shadow began to emerge, looking weathered, worn, and beaten. He held a shotgun in his unsteady hands.

“Gaspar?”

“That’s right. Yaz, you look terrible, brother. Put the shotgun down. Yarrow is safe with Mama and the others. She’s awful worried about you.”

The man dropped the shotgun and fell face-first down the steps. Exhausted, hungry, dehydrated, he was done.

“Shit,” muttered Ian, running his way. He knelt beside him and nodded. “He’s alive, but he needs help now.”

“Evie? Autumn? Someone in flight control. I need a pickup now at the old Cypress Plantation off 61. Send someone from medical as well.”

“Roger that,” said Evie.

The men tried to give Yaz water, but he was barely conscious and unable to accept. He kept mumbling his daughter’s name in spite of their reassurances that she was alright. Evie arrived with Doc, and they loaded Yaz and took off south.

By the time the seniors got to the clinic, Yaz was showered, lying in bed with an I.V., and his daughter holding his hand.

“How is he?” Gaspar asked Doc.

“He’s dehydrated. Needs food, which he’ll get once we get more fluids into him. But other than that, he’s actually doing alright. He didn’t sleep more than an hour or two a night. Poor bastard was worried sick for his daughter.”

“Can he speak to us?” Doc nodded, moving out of the way. “Yaz? How are you, brother?”

“Grateful,” he said, smiling at him. “Grateful to your mama and all of you that Yar is okay.”

“We would have never let harm come to her. Yaz, can you answer some questions for us?” asked Ian. The man nodded as they took seats around the bed.

“Tell us about Hugo.”

“It started about five months ago. The bar was really struggling. I was worried about what Yarrow and I would do if we lost it. He came in and said he was planning to be in the area for a while but needed help with something.” Yaz shook his head, frowning. “I was stupid. I believed everything that came out of his mouth. He said he was from a major brewer of moonshine, and I’d been selected as a beta test bar. Me. Pfft!”

“It does seem a bit much,” smirked Nine. “I mean, we all love your little place, Yaz, but it’s not exactly beta test material.”

“I know, I know. I agreed. I agreed and signed those damn papers without having a lawyer look at them. I just couldn’t afford one. And before you tell me how stupid I was and I could have come to y’all, I know that now. And to top it off, he was the man that my wife ran to and fooled around with. He killed her with that shit. Yarrow doesn’t know. Again, don’t tell me how stupid I was for trusting him.”

“Well, I don’t like to repeat myself,” laughed Gaspar.

“Yeah, you do,” grinned the man. “Anyway, Yarrow, she loves to dance, and we have music playing all the time. Sometimes live, sometimes a DJ, or just piped in music. I put cameras in the bar because I thought Hugo’s men were stealing from me. I had no idea what he was going to do.”

“Why threaten you with her? What did he really want?” asked Gaspar.

“He wanted me to tell him about y’all,” said Yaz. “I didn’t figure that out until later. I’m not sure why. Maybe because it all seemed so out of context. He asked if I knew any good security agencies, and I said no. I mean, y’all have said you don’t want advertising.”

“We don’t. You did the right thing.”

“Then he started telling me about an interview he had at a restaurant in the Quarter a long time ago. He asked if I knew what companies did that. Again, I said no.”

“Didn’t he remember the name of our company?” asked Ghost.

“Well, that’s just it. He said he was looking for a group called REAPER. I didn’t know that y’all went by that name.”

“We don’t,” said Nine. “Not any longer.”

“I think he thought I was lying, and that’s when he threatened me with Yarrow’s life. I couldn’t let her be harmed. I didn’t care about me. But I couldn’t let anyone hurt her.”

“Daddy, I care about you,” sniffed the girl as she walked into the room. “We’re a team.”

“Yes, we are,” he said, kissing his daughter’s hand. “We’ll be a team for a long time to come now.”

“Yaz? Any idea where this man is located?” asked Ghost.

“None. But I do remember the phone number that he programmed into my phone. I destroyed my phone, but I called him right before I did that.” Gaspar laughed, shaking his head at the man.

“You couldn’t have led with that?”