Page 31 of Landry (Bayou Brotherhood Protectors #7)

As they neared the marsh where Landry and Camille had hidden among the reeds before, Landry spotted an orange glow barely visible through the trees.

When they were within five minutes of their destination, J.D.

turned off the red and green lights on the sides and the white light on the stern.

They didn’t need them to navigate the bayou with the stars shining brightly overhead.

The downside to being able to see without lights was that others could see them.

Another airboat blasted around a bend in the channel ahead and raced straight at theirs.

“We’ve got company,” Landry said into his headset.

“Get around them and keep going,” Remy responded in his ear. “We’ll take care of them.”

“What if they have Camille and the boy?” Landry said.

“What if they don’t? The fire has me worried.”

“Me, too.”

“Then go. We’ve got this.”

Landry and his boat team didn’t have much choice. With the other craft barreling straight at them, they were forced to engage.

At the last minute, both boats skidded sideways. The men on the other boat opened fire at the same time as Landry, Simon, Valentin and Simon. Even J.D. had a weapon and fired at the other boat.

All too soon, they were past and zooming on toward the fire that Landry was now certain was coming from the Later Gator Fishing Hut. As old as the weathered wood was, it wouldn’t take long to burn into nothing.

Marceau maneuvered the airboat as quickly as he could, slowing only to go around tiny islands dense with trees and underbrush. As they moved closer to the final bend with the low-hanging tree branch, flames lit the night, climbing high above the treetops.

She was there. Landry knew in his heart Camille was there. Please, God, don’t let her be inside that hut.

Marceau rounded the bend past the tree branch and brought the airboat to a gliding stop, bumping into the dock that was just beginning to catch fire.

Landry leaped from the boat onto the dock and ran for the hut, completely engulfed in flames.

“Landry don’t!” a voice called out behind him as someone jumped onto the dock, shaking the structure with the impact.

Before Landry could reach the burning door, arms wrapped around him, bringing him to a halt.

“You can’t go in there, the roof is about to fall in,” Simon said into his ear.

“I can’t leave her inside to die.”

“You’ll die before you get to her.”

As if to prove the point, the roof shuddered and fell into the structure, shooting flames and embers high into the sky.

“No,” Landry cried. “She can’t die. We didn’t have enough time. I didn’t get to tell her.”

Simon continued to hold him from behind. “Man, I’m so sorry.”

Landry shook free of his friend’s arms. “I never thought there could be someone like her. She cared so much about everyone and loved her daughter deeply. And the kid...” He swallowed hard on the lump in his throat. “He didn’t even have a chance to grow up.”

“Help,” a small voice called out. “Please, help.”

Landry looked around. “Did you hear that?”

“I did.” Simon pulled a small flashlight off his vest and shined it down beside the dock.

There, in the black waters of the bayou, was the pale face of a boy.

“Help,” he said.

“Billy Ray?” Landry dropped to his belly and reached down. “Give me your hand.”

The boy shook his head. “No. You have to help me, or she’s going to die.”

Hope burst like a flame through Landry’s chest. “Where is she?”

“Under there.” The boy pointed to the flaming inferno of the hut. “Hurry. It’s about to cave in.”

Without hesitation, Landry stood, shed his bullet-proof vest and dropped into the water. He went under a few feet, then pushed off the silty bottom to surface behind Billy Ray.

“Show me,” he said.

The boy led the way to the edge of the hut and pointed beneath.

On the edge of the island on which the back corner of the hut had been anchored, lay a pale figure, half in the water, half out, and too still to be conscious.

Above her head, the hut burned, the smoke and flames rising up.

What remained of the hut’s wooden foundation wouldn’t last much longer. Like the roof, it too would fall.

Landry swam for her, his feet eventually touching bottom just close enough to reach her.

Billy Ray appeared beside him. “I couldn’t swim her out. The best I could do was drag her up here to keep her head above water.

“You did good. Go get my friends. They’ll help.”

Billy Ray swam out from under the hut.

With little time left to get her out, Landry laid his arm across Camille’s chest and hooked his hand beneath her opposite arm. He laid her back against his chest and pushed off the side of the island.

His clothing and hers weighed them down, dragging them under. He surfaced, kicking hard to bring their heads to the surface. He kicked again, pushing himself hard in a sidestroke, inching his way toward the edge of the building.

Above him, something cracked. The hut shook, the flaming walls trembled.

Landry fought harder, his arm cleaving the water, his legs kicking, boots and all.

As he reached the edge, hands grabbed him from both sides and pulled him and Camille out from beneath the structure as the walls caved in and the flaming floor collapsed into the bayou below, sending a fog of steam rising into the air.

“Keep moving,” Simon urged. “We’re almost there.”

“We’ve got this, Landry,” Rafael said. “Never leave a man...or woman behind.”

They swam to the side of the airboat where Marceau, J.D. and Valentin each reached down to lift Camille out of the water and lay her on the deck.

Landry pulled himself up over the side and dropped down beside Camille.

Valentin had his fingers pressed to Camille’s neck, his brow furrowed.

Landry held his breath; his heart stopped beating.

“She has a pulse,” Valentin finally said. “It’s faint, but there.”

Landry let go of his breath, and his heart started beating again. She was alive. He searched her body for injuries, finding a hole in her shirt, blood oozing through.

“That man, Dion, was going to shoot me.” Billy Ray knelt at Camille’s head. “She dove in between us.” He met Landry’s gaze, his eyes filled with tears. “Please, tell me she isn’t going to die.”

“Not if we can help it,” Landry said and applied pressure to her wound, praying she hadn’t lost too much blood.

Marceau dug in the big metal box beneath his seat and pulled out a first aid kit. “It’s not designed for gunshot wounds, but there are gauze pads you can use to apply pressure to the wound.”

Simon opened the box while Rafael held a flashlight over them.

“Found the gauze.” Simon ripped open the packages and handed the white sheets to Landry.

He draped the pads over the wound and pressed down. “We have to get her to a hospital.”

“On it,” Marceau called out from his seat above the others. The engine rumbled to life, and the fan spun up to a roar.

Holding his hand to the wound, Landry stayed with Camille all the way back to the marina.

An ambulance waited in the parking lot. Paramedics stood on the dock with a rescue basket and a medical kit, ready to take over.

In less than a minute, they’d loaded Camille into the basket. Between the paramedics, Landry and his team, they carried her up to the waiting ambulance.

The paramedics worked over her, hooking her up to an IV and settling an oxygen mask over her mouth and nose.

Landry wanted to go with her, but the paramedics needed room to work on saving her life.

“Come on.” Marceau clapped a hand on Landry’s back. “We’ll follow them to the hospital. Deputy Taylor is on her way back with what’s left of the people who did this to her.”

Landry climbed into Marceau’s truck beyond numb, his heart aching. Camille wasn’t out of the woods yet. She’d lost a lot of blood, and he had no idea if any vital organs had been hit. Ava would be devastated if she lost her mother.

Hell, he would be devastated.

How had this woman come to mean so much to him in such a short amount of time?

Because she wasn’t afraid to love deeply. Her daughter, her friends—even a boy she barely knew. She’d risked her life to save him.

“You have to believe she’ll be all right,” Marceau’s voice cut into the silence of the cab.

“She’s a good person,” he said, realizing how inadequate the words were. “The best.”

Marceau nodded. “You’re lucky to have her.”

“I don’t have her,” Landry admitted. “But I’d give anything if I did.”

“Including your life,” Marceau said. “You could’ve died with her if you hadn’t gotten out from under that hut when you had.”

“Couldn’t have done it without my team.”

“Your team is a great group of men. They all have each other’s backs as they should. Brotherhood forged under a different kind of fire.”

“I’d give my life for them,” Landry said quietly.

“And they’d give their lives for you.” Marceau stared at the ambulance in front of them.

Landry turned to study the man driving. “You speak from experience. You were in the Marine Corps, weren’t you?”

“I was. Once a Marine, always a Marine.” His lips twisted. “A long time ago. My team was my family.”

Landry nodded. “As is mine.”

“But a family of your own is on another level entirely.”

“I didn’t know that until I met a real family. A family of two. A mother and daughter.”

“Makes you want something you never had before, doesn’t it?”

Landry nodded. “More than I want to breathe.”

“Let me tell you something.” Marceau’s brow dipped.

“When you find someone who makes it all clear to you, someone who makes your heart swell with a feeling so profound you think it might explode in your chest, you have to hold onto that person. Do whatever it takes to protect her, to cherish her and love her with every last breath you or she might take.”

Landry nodded. “I hope to have that chance.”

“Don’t give up yet. She’ll make it through this and will need you to see her through her recovery.” Marceau shot a glance his way. “How are you with making candy?”

Landry laughed around the knot in his chest. “No idea, but I’m willing to learn.”