Page 27 of Landry (Bayou Brotherhood Protectors #7)

Camille stayed low in the truck seat just like Landry had instructed. The last thing she needed was to be discovered while Landry was checking her house for burglars. He’d have enough to deal with if he found someone there and wouldn’t have time to come back and rescue her.

She worried about him. What if he did run into someone? Or worse, what if there were multiple bad guys there with multiple weapons?

Her pulse kicked up with the instinct to go after him. He should have waited for his team’s backup. Going in alone was dangerous. Who would have his back and check behind him?

Staying low, she reached for the door handle, her fear for Landry greater than her fear for herself. Yes, she was the only real family Ava had, and her daughter would be devastated if something happened to her mother; however, she wouldn’t be alone, unlike Billy Ray.

As soon as Camille had earned enough money, she’d purchased life insurance and hired a lawyer.

With Gisele’s consent, she’d had the attorney draw up documents designating Gisele as Ava’s guardian should anything happen to her.

Along with the rest of her honorary aunties, Ava would be loved and cared for.

Landry, on the other hand, had no one looking out for him at the moment.

After several long minutes had passed, Camille couldn’t take it anymore. She had to be the eyes in the back of his head, or whatever it was that meant having someone’s back.

She tightened her grip around the door handle, drew in a deep breath and?—

Something tapped on the window.

The sound was so sudden and unexpected, Camille let out a startled screech and bolted upright, fear like a fist clutching her lungs.

She stared through the window into the darkness. At first, she didn’t see anything or anyone. Then a hand reached up and tapped the window again.

Camille clapped a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming and shifted her gaze downward.

In the little bit of starlight edging through the canopy of tree branches, she could just make out a boy crouched low beside the truck.

Camille blinked, frowned, and then it dawned on her. “Billy Ray?”

The boy nodded, shot a glance right, then left. “You need to leave,” he said, his softly spoken words muffled even more by the glass. “Now.”

“Why?” she asked.

“They’re still here.” He rose, bringing his face closer to hers before he whispered, “They killed a guy.”

Camille’s heart leaped into her throat.

Landry.

No .

He couldn’t be dead. Ava liked him. So did Camille. Landry was a good man, unlike her lying, stealing ex-husband. He didn’t deserve to die. She pushed the door open, desperate now to get to him.

Before she could get out, Billy Ray shoved the door shut. “You have to leave now. Go. Drive away, or they will hurt you, too.”

“Billy Ray, let me out,” she said and tried to open the door again.

Billy Ray leaned against it, refusing to let her out. “You have to go.”

“Landry is at my house now. He’s a good man. If he’s hurt...” she gulped back a sudden sob, “I can’t leave him to die.”

“Please, leave now. You have to protect yourself.” He refused to move away from the door. “And don’t bring Ava back here. It’s not safe.”

Camille switched tactics. “If it’s not safe for me, it’s not safe for you. Get in the truck, Billy Ray.”

His eyes narrowed, and he backed a few steps away. “I can take care of myself. But you need to go.” Again, he looked around as if someone would appear out of the shadows, his fear and concern palpable.

Without the boy leaning on the door, Camille shoved it open and dropped to the ground. “Billy Ray, tell me what’s happening. Did someone hurt Landry?”

He shook his head and waved toward the truck. “I don’t know who the man is. He wore a ski mask. A big guy. He was here before and scared Ava. You have to leave now and protect her.”

Camille walked slowly toward the lanky boy, wearing clothes too big for him. He needed a haircut and a lot of love. “Billy Ray,” she said softly. “Come with me, and we’ll both leave this place.”

Again, he shook his head. “I can’t go with you. They’ll take me back to that foster family. I don’t want to live with people I don’t know…people who don’t really care if I live or die. I can take care of myself.” He tipped his head toward the truck. “Please, for Ava, leave.”

Camille inched toward Billy Ray. “I care if you live or die, and so does Ava.” She held out her hand. “Let me help you.”

“You don’t understand what it’s like to have no one.”

“I do understand, more than you think.” She took another step toward the boy.

“Please, take care of Ava,” he said and then spun and dove toward the shadows beneath the trees.

He’d only reached the darkest edge of the forest when a man dressed in black caught him in his powerful arms.

Before Camille could scream, a hand clamped over her mouth, and a thick arm grabbed her around her middle, trapping one arm.

Her cries were muffled as she kicked and clawed with her free hand. No matter how hard she fought, she couldn’t break free of the steely hold he had on her. Her heart thundering in her ears, she didn’t let up her struggle. She had to free herself and help Billy Ray.

The man lifted her off her feet and carried her through the trees toward the bayou as if she weighed nothing.

Ahead of her, another man struggled to hold onto the boy as he twisted and turned, kicked and squirmed, making it difficult to hold onto him.

An airboat stood with its bow halfway up the bank, manned by three men.

One sat in the captain’s seat, the other stood in the bow, wielding a military-grade rifle pointed at the third man standing beside him.

She couldn’t make out faces yet, but the man with the gun pointed at him looked vaguely familiar.

Camille’s heartbeat raced faster. If these men got them into that boat, they could take her away from Landry to anywhere in the bayou. He’d never find them until it was too late.

As they neared, her captor loosened his hold ever so slightly.

Camille seized that moment, jabbed her elbow into his side and slammed her head backwards into the man’s face. When he released his hold, she slid downward, ducked under his arm, turned and ran toward Billy Ray.

Two more men caught up with her, each grabbing one of her arms. Another man stepped in front of her with narrowed eyes and a wicked scar running from his temple to the corner of his mouth. “Get in the boat, or we shoot the kid.”

The man holding Billy Ray had a pistol pointed at the boy’s head. All the fight had gone out of him.

Rather than risk Billy Ray’s life, Camille thought quickly. “Look, you have me. You don’t need a kid. Let him go.”

The man snorted. “You’re not in a position to bargain, bitch. We don’t need no stinkin’ kid, but if it helps keep you from doing stupid shit, he goes with us.” He jerked his head toward the boat.

The man holding Billy Ray slung the boy into the boat. The man holding the rifle pointed it at Billy Ray, where he lay on the deck and then back at the other man standing nearby. “Either one of you moves, and I blow you away.”

The man and the ten-year-old boy remained motionless.

The two men holding Camille marched her to the boat and lifted her onto the deck to stand in front of the man the rifleman had been holding at gunpoint.

As he lifted his chin, starlight illuminated his face.

Camille gasped. “Richard!”

He nodded. “Yeah. It’s me.” His face was thinner, paler, and his hair was cut shorter than he had kept it when they’d been married, but it was him. The lying, cheating thief she’d tried to leave behind.

Anger boiled up inside, laced with her fear. “What the hell’s going on here?” she demanded, her gaze sweeping the array of men clambering onto the airboat. She counted six. With Richard, there were seven men against one woman and a boy.

The odds were not in their favor.

“I took something their boss wants back.” He sighed. “Look, all we have to do is give it to them, and they’ll let us go.”

“Seriously?” Camille shook her head. “You just got out of jail. How could you have taken anything in that short amount of time? And what does that have to do with me?”

Before she finished, Richard was shaking his head. “I took it five years ago and hid it where it wouldn’t be found.”

Camille crossed her arms over her chest. “Again, what does that have to do with me?”

“You have it,” Richard said, simply.

“What could I possibly have that you hid this...whatever it is...in? You left me destitute in the middle of a recession. Because you insisted I drop out of college to marry you, I couldn’t get a job that paid enough to afford daycare, much less pay for utilities and the loan payment.

I had to sell all the furniture just to get by until I had nothing left.

The mortgage company foreclosed on our house.

I ended up in a shelter with nothing more than what I could fit into a single suitcase.

If you left this item in something we had, it’s long gone. ”

“There was one thing I knew you would never part with. I put it inside that item.”

Camille’s brow furrowed. “I lost everything.”

“What was one thing I tried to toss in the garbage that you nearly had a coronary about?”

Her thoughts went back to that day she’d caught him with his hand halfway to the outside trash container. In that hand, had been the only item she’d had left from her own childhood. Her only connection to her parents since their deaths.

Her eyes widened as she looked up into Richard’s gaze.

“Fuzzy Bear,” she whispered. “You hid one of your jewel thefts in my daughter’s bear?

” She looked at the man she’d once thought she loved.

“Who are you? Certainly not the man I thought you were. What father would hide a priceless item in his daughter’s bear? ”

“A desperate one,” Richard said. “I didn’t realize the woman I took it from was the girlfriend of the New Orleans mafia’s kingpin.”