The Awakening

by Jana DeLeon

  A flash of anger passed over Tanner at the way Vernon spoke about Josie. “That’s a hard line to take about your employer, isn’t it? Haven’t you worked for the family for years?”

  “I worked for her father, not Josie.”

  “Well, it appears to me that Josie is the one signing your paychecks now. I’ll expect you to show her a little more respect in the future.”

  The crew had already slowed, but when Tanner delivered that statement, all work ceased completely. A red flush crept up Vernon’s neck and across his face. He stood, his face inches from Tanner, glaring at him.

  “I expect you to do the job you were hired to do,” Vernon said, “and not worry about how I do mine.” He shot an angry look at the crew, then stomped off into the swamp toward the house.

  Tanner watched his retreating back and contemplated going after him for a couple of seconds. Finally, he decided it wasn’t worth it, but he knew Josie would likely be hurt and offended at the way the foreman had spoken about her.

  He looked over at the crew, and all the men except Ray looked down at the ground. Ray looked as if he wanted to say something but only waved at the crew to get back to work. Tanner sighed and started toward the trail that led back to the house. He’d gotten about twenty yards down it when he heard someone behind him. He turned around and saw Ray hurrying up the trail.

  “Mr. LeDoux,” Ray said. “I shouldn’t be speaking to you about this, as Vernon is my boss, but I agree that what he said about Ms. Bettencourt is disrespectful. Disrespecting ladies don’t sit right with me.”

  Tanner nodded. “I’m guessing being accused of being drunk on the job doesn’t sit well with you, either. It wouldn’t me.”

  “No, sir, it doesn’t, so I’m going to say something I wouldn’t otherwise. I don’t trust the man.”

  Tanner stared, a bit surprised at the man’s directness. “Any particular reason why?”

  “He disappears most of the day. I know he’s supposed to be helping with the work. I’ve heard Ms. Bettencourt say as much, but he’s never here more than a couple of minutes before he disappears into the swamp.”

  “Any idea what he does out there?”

  “No, but I’ve never see him with fish or game, so I can only assume he’s up to no good. Ain’t no man needs to walk around in the swamp all day to clear his mind.”

  “That’s true.”

  “I followed him a bit one day, but I think he heard me.” Ray gave Tanner a sheepish look. “He lost me in the undergrowth.”

  “We all lose the trail sometimes.”

  “Yessir, but I don’t very often. Vernon’s good...real good. I’m just letting you know, in case you had in mind to see what he’s up to.”

  “I appreciate it. Hey, what time did he come back to the work site today?”

  “About two hours ago.”

  “And he didn’t say anything about where he’d been or what he was doing?”

  “Nope.” Ray frowned. “It was kinda strange, though. He was soaking wet. Like he’d been swimming or something. He’s stayed at the site longer today than he has since I started, but he still didn’t lift a finger to help. He only sat there scribbling on that paper of his.”

  “I appreciate you telling me all this.”

  “I don’t like to talk about another man’s business,” Ray said, “but I don’t think Vernon is doing right by Ms. Bettencourt. She’s worried about everything opening on time, and Vernon shouldn’t be adding to that worry.”

  “You’re right. It’s his job to eliminate some of that worry. If you hear or observe anything else that looks off, please let me know.”

  “I will. Are you staying at the main house?”

  “Until I find the vandal, yes.”

  “That’s good. I don’t think Ms. Bettencourt should be there alone. I have to tell you that if this job was for anyone but Ms. Bettencourt, I would have quit already. I got a bad feeling about all of this.” He gave Tanner a nod and headed back down the path to the work site.

  Tanner watched as he walked away. He had a bad feeling, as well.

  * * *

  THE VANDAL WATCHED the tracker and the crew leader from behind a cypress tree. Only pieces of the conversation carried to the cypress tree, but it was easy to fill in the gaps. They were both worried about the bitch. The simpering, whining, spoiled bitch. The crew leader was of no concern. The man didn’t have the nerve or the skill to follow someone with considerable skill through the swamp, but the tracker was worrisome.

  On the plus side, the crew men were nervous and superstitious. The easiest way to shut down all this nonsense was to scare them off the job. Strong, available men weren’t exactly plentiful, and even fewer wanted to work in the swamp when they could get higher-paying work in the midst of the sights and thrills of New Orleans.

  Tonight, the vandal would strike again.

  Chapter Seven

  Josie had showered and changed and was standing in front of the refrigerator when Tanner walked in the back door. The sun was already setting, casting a dim glow over the back lawn. She felt her lower back loosen as she saw him walk inside and realized how tense she’d been, wondering what he’d found, if anything.

  “I was just trying to decide on supper,” she said. “I’m afraid I don’t have much in stock, but I could fry some bacon and eggs if you’re interested.”

  Tanner pulled off his gloves and set them on the counter. He looked as if he was thinking hard on something, and she was dying to know what it was.

  “Actually,” he said, “I wondered if you’d be interested in having dinner in town, and maybe a beer?”

  A twinge of excitement passed over her, and she chided herself. The seriousness of his expression let her know the invitation was not personal, which was the last thing she needed at the moment, anyway.

  “This invitation sounds like it comes with an agenda,” she said.

  “I’m afraid so. I want to get out into town. Watch the locals and see if I can stir up some talk.”

  “And get the word spread around that I have a tracker living on the property.”

  He nodded. “It will either shut him down or cause him to escalate. When people rush, they tend to make mistakes, so if he escalates, I’m depending on him getting sloppy enough for me to catch him.”

  “So I guess that means you didn’t find anything today?”

  He frowned and Josie got the immediate impression she wasn’t going to like what he was about to say.

  “I had a talk with Emmett Vernon,” he said and told her the details of the conversation.

  A flush ran up her face and she clenched her hands. The nerve of the man who’d made a good living off her family, talking about her that way.

  “I don’t know what Emmett is trying to imply, but I promise you, there are no skeletons that followed me back to Miel. Those people only care about the fashion world, and tucked away in the swamp, I am hardly a threat to models vying for the same gig.”

  “I didn’t figure, but I wanted you to be aware of what he’s saying. Your crew leader was a bit upset about it, too.”

  “Ray is a good man. I’m sorry he’s in the middle of all this drama. He has a nice family to support and just wants to do his job.”

  Tanner nodded. “He told me he doesn’t trust Vernon. Men like Ray don’t say those kinds of things lightly, especially to a stranger.”

  She blew out a breath. “No, I suppose not. So, what do we do?”

  “You go about your business as usual. I’m going to fish around into Vernon’s business a bit and see if anything surfaces.”

  “This is all just so distressing. The man was like an uncle to me, and all of a sudden, it’s like I don’t know him at all.”

  “We’ll figure it out. Vernon may have reasons for his behavior that have nothing to do with this situation. He’s not exactly the kind of man who would lay his problems out at your feet.”

  “No, I guess he’s not.”

  “There’s something else,” he
said.

  One look at his face had her back tightening again. “Why do I get the feeling I’m really not going to like this?”

  “Because I don’t like it, either.” He blew out a breath. “I saw what you saw. I chased it through the swamp, but lost it in the bayou. I couldn’t find the place where he climbed back up the bank.”

  She stared for a couple of seconds, not even breathing. “You saw it?”

  “Only a little, but it was exactly as you described.”

  “Do you still think it’s a man in a suit?”

  “That makes the most sense. Someone familiar with the swamp would have known how to ditch me.”

  “And that’s why you want to observe the locals.”

  “Yeah.”

  He stared down at the counter again, and her antenna went up.

  “You’re not leaving anything out, are you?” she asked.

  He blew out a breath and looked back up at her. “Thing is, I saw it over a section of brush.”

  “Okay?” She wasn’t quite getting the problem.

  “That brush was a good six feet high.”

  She sucked in a breath and looked out the windows and into the swamp. It looked so peaceful, but something lurked out there. What was it?

  The even bigger question—what did it want?

  * * *

  TANNER STEPPED OUT OF the shower and dried off with one of the huge fluffy towels. The towels in his apartment were thin, scratchy and covered with bare spots. He supposed that was one of the advantages to having women around, they knew how to make things comfortable and paid attention to details.

  Still, buying new towels was a lot cheaper and held far less irritation than a relationship, so he supposed a trip to the store was on his list of things to do when he was done with the case. Maybe he’d spring for new sheets and blankets, too. The current ones almost matched his towels.

  He pulled on jeans, a shirt and boots, and ran a brush through his damp hair. He considered putting on cologne, but then remembered he hadn’t brought any with him. It was just as well, as cologne might make it look too much like a date. The last thing he wanted was to make things personal. Seeing Josie every day, especially so worried, was harder than he’d imagined, and he’d imagined damned hard. This was worse.

  Every time he looked at her, he wanted to pull her into his arms and tell her it would all work out fine. Then his thoughts drifted to less honorable actions.

  He shook his head, trying to clear his mind of thoughts of Josie in his arms. It wasn’t going to happen now any more than it had happened when they were teens. He was just as out of his depth as before. She was the world-traveled high-fashion model who’d inherited a family fortune and owned expensive horses. He was just the local boy with a cheating father and drunken mother who spent all his time staring at mud.

  Those two planes would never meet. She had no reason to lower herself to live on his, and he could never get himself high enough to match hers.

  His cell phone rang and he answered Holt’s call.

  “I got that information you requested,” his brother said. “Everyone’s clean except Mack Prevet. He was arrested on an assault charge about eight years ago when he was running a bar in New Orleans.”

  “You get any details on that?”

  “Yeah, I talked to the arresting officer. He says Prevet got into a fight with his live-in girlfriend at the bar and clocked her in the face. She refused to press charges, but there were a dozen witnesses in the bar.”

  “Sounds like a nice guy.”

  “Oh, yeah, and apparently one that has no problem terrorizing women. He’s also in the red with his bar in Miel. Has it hocked to the gills. Rumor has it, he has a bit of a gambling problem.”

  “Thanks for the information. I’m going to get an up-close and personal look at him tonight.” He told Holt about his plans for dinner and drinks in Miel, hoping to pick up some information on the locals and perhaps flush out the vandal.

  “Be careful,” Holt said. “If you spook him, he may escalate. Is Josie okay with this plan?”

  “Yes. We discussed it earlier and she knows the risks involved.”

  “Well, in that case, enjoy your dinner with a beautiful woman.”

  Tanner could practically see his brother smiling as he delivered that last comment, but Tanner wasn’t about to take the bait. “I will,” he said, and disconnected.

  He stepped out of his room at the same time as Josie walked out of hers. One look at her and he felt his chest tighten. He’d seen her on the cover of magazines, wearing clothes that probably cost more than he made in a year, but standing in the hallway in jeans, a blue top and black heels, she looked more gorgeous than ever.

  Critics had been fond of saying that her auburn hair was her downfall to greatness, that if she’d been a blonde, she could have hit the big time. Tanner didn’t know anything about the modeling big time, nor did he normally go around describing hair as “auburn,” but he knew they were wrong. Her hair fell in waves across her shoulders, gently framing her face and making her green eyes stand out even more.

  “Is something wrong?” she asked.

  Yanking himself out of his stupor, he said, “Not at all. Actually, I was just thinking about how going to dinner might not be the best idea.”

  Her face fell and she tugged at the hem of her blouse. “Oh, okay.”

  “Because I might have to fight off every man who sees you.” He smiled. “You look great.”

  She broke out in a smile that almost blinded him. “Thank you. That’s the best compliment I’ve heard in a while.”

  “I find that hard to believe.”

  She waved a hand in dismissal. “Stop or you’re going to make my head swell. I’m starving. Shall we?”

  He gestured to the stairs. “My pickup truck awaits your pleasure.”

  She started down the stairwell. “Aside from my horses, you’re likely to be the best company I’ve had in years.”

  He laughed and followed her outside. “That’s some good company, putting me up against the horses.” He opened the passenger door of his truck and she climbed inside.

  “I meant to ask you about the horses last night,” he said after he climbed in the driver’s seat and started up the road to town. “Things were kind of crazy and I forgot. They’re Arabians, right?”

  “Yes. I met a breeder on a shoot in France. His horses were magnificent. I’d never seen anything so majestic. We stayed at his ranch several weeks and I spent every spare moment shadowing him and watching him work with the horses. I’d helped my dad break and train quarter horses before, but this was different.”

  “You were already planning on getting some?”

  “Not then. I mean, I wanted one more than anything, but it wouldn’t have been possible at the time. My job was too demanding, and I was rarely in one place long enough to keep a cactus alive, much less care for and train a horse.”

  “So you got them when you came home?”

  She nodded. “I got really lucky. The breeder I’d met in France had a friend in the States who was retiring from the business. He’d had a heart attack and wanted to spend his remaining years on a beach and not in a barn.”

  “Not a bad plan.”

  “If you can afford it, it’s a great plan.”

  Tanner glanced over at her, confused by her tone. Franklin Bettencourt had been king of Miel, and Josie was his only child. Between her inheritance and what she must have made modeling, she should be able to buy a small island.

  “Probably not in my future, then,” he said. For whatever reason, Josie wanted to pretend she wasn’t wealthy. Maybe it embarrassed her, or maybe she thought he’d jack up the price if he knew what she was worth. He looked out the dashboard down the narrow road. None of it was his business. He needed to stick with the case and stop running off down rabbit trails.

  “So I guess you got some horses from the guy who retired?” he asked.

  “Yes. The breeder in France called and spoke to him
. He gave me a really good deal because he knew Raul would help me with the training.”

  Tanner frowned. So it was Raul now. He wondered just how close Josie and the French horse breeder had become. He’d seen no pictures of Josie with a man in the house, but he hadn’t been in her bedroom, either. And being in a different country, she was likely calling him at a time when he wasn’t around to overhear.

  None of it’s your business.

  The repeating thought flashed through his mind again, then another came—to hell with it.

  “So are you and Raul...”

  “What? Oh...no!” She laughed. “Raul lives with a very nice man named Jacques.”

  “Ahhhh,” he said, not able to form a coherent reply to such an unexpected answer.

  “I vowed off relationships a long time ago,” she said. “Besides, I have more than enough to keep me busy. No time for much else. What about you?”

  “Me?”

  “Yeah, you. You must have your share of admirers.”

  “I spend most of my time in the swamp. It’s not exactly the best place to find a date, and I prefer it that way.”

  “Well, then I guess both of us are outside our comfort zone tonight.”

  “I guess so,” he said, not sure what to make of her comment. He’d been clear that tonight was about business, not personal. Likely, he was overthinking it. Thank goodness his brothers couldn’t read his mind. He probably wouldn’t look near as good a bet for a business partner as they thought. Certainly he didn’t have his life together like the two of them.

  He held in a sigh as he pulled into town and parked in front of the only restaurant open for dinner. All his life, he’d been running to catch up to his older brothers. He’d hoped once they reached adulthood that things would change, but here he was, still comparing himself to Holt and Max and coming up short.

  He looked over at Josie, who hadn’t moved from the passenger’s seat, and was staring at the restaurant with an apprehensive look. “So, is the food any good here?” he asked.