by Leigh Landry
She was going to help Marc catch this creep, and she wasn’t taking any reward money. She’d figure another way to help Luna.
She’d tell him in the morning after he rested.
“We’ll go with someone that knows you both. It makes me feel better,” she said.
“I don’t think that makes me feel any better.”
Marc put his feet on the coffee table and rested his head on the back of the couch, closing his eyes during the commercial break. The muscles in his face relaxed, so she hit him in the stomach with a pillow.
“Wake up.”
He startled and his eyes opened wide, reacquainting him with the land of the awake. “I was just resting my eyes.”
“Sure.” She put the pillow down and pointed at the TV. “Game’s back on.”
He grabbed his pen, but this would be a losing battle. She hoped he’d be able to wing it through his show tomorrow even if he didn’t see the end of the game. She could help him with a lot, but not that. His notes looked like some kind of foreign language. PATs? LB, TE, FS. It was like when they were kids and left notes for each other in code, except she didn’t have the key.
And what the heck was a YAC?
Her phone buzzed. She sent a quick text back to Freddy letting him know that they were okay.
She wasn’t concerned much about a concussion anymore. Marc had been lucid for the past two hours, and his exhaustion was the result of a long night and the trauma of the fire.
“Hey, before you pass out, which room am I sleeping in?” They had three bedrooms, but she had no idea if he had a guest bed set up or if he’d turned the extra rooms into something else.
He gave her a devilish grin. “Mine?”
“Nice try.”
“You’re no fun.”
“I’m loads of fun. But you’re not finding that out tonight.”
His eyebrow perked up at that and all the promise it held, although she doubted he was in any condition to carry through on his eagerness. She leaned over and kissed him. Short and sweet. On the mouth. Like it was the most natural thing in the world. When she pulled her head back, she smiled at him, unable to hide her joy.
He tilted his head to study her face.
“All this country air is agreeing with you.”
“Nope. I’ve got city roots now.”
“You’ve still got bayou water in your veins, and you know it.”
She wasn’t going to argue this with him. Especially when she knew part of his argument was right. This place would always be part of her. She just didn’t belong here anymore.
“Which room?”
“Fine,” he said with a sigh. “Denise’s old room. There’s still a twin bed in there. Want me to tuck you in later?”
“Sure.” When his mouth fell open in surprise, she added, “All you have to do is stay awake.”
He narrowed his eyes, a hint of a smile playing on his lips. “Challenge accepted.”
16
Marc opened his eyes to the sound of a cell phone ringing. He sat up and circled his neck, loosening his stiff muscles. He must have fallen asleep on the couch and missed the end of the game.
Crap. He’d forgotten to set an alarm, so he’d have to wing it on the air today. When he checked the time on his phone, he realized it wasn’t his cell ringing. Then he discovered he was on the couch with a blanket and the pillow from his bed.
Sierra.
After a few confused moments of looking for her car outside, he remembered he’d told her she could sleep in Denise’s room. Not his first choice.
When he’d found her at Denise’s house—well, when she’d found him and hit him in the head—he’d been disappointed and frustrated. No, he’d been pissed at her. Mostly because he was worried, and her plan was just about the dumbest thing he’d ever heard. Not to mention dangerous.
But sitting with her during the game, working side by side, felt so natural. Denise had been right about him and what he was looking for in a relationship. She’d been wrong about him never finding it.
Sierra was his comfy pair of sneakers. They’d been there all along. He’d just misplaced them for a few years.
All he wanted was to lie around the house today until he built up the courage to tell Sierra…what? That he was in love with her? That he’d always loved her? Something like that. He’d figure it out.
But he had to go to work first. It took some convincing, but his brain finally accepted that he wouldn’t lose her again if he left for a few hours.
He walked down the hall and heard Sierra talking to someone. It must have been her phone ringing.
“Fine. I’m here to get the reward money, then I’m coming home. Is that the answer you wanted?”
Marc froze short of the doorway as the room went silent.
Sierra had been telling him all along that she wanted the money. He’d planned to pay her anyway for helping him all weekend when she should have been out looking for a second job. But that had been the last thing on his mind.
Apparently, it was at the forefront of Sierra’s. Driving him around, sitting with him last night, the other night in the shop—it was all about that reward money.
His chest tightened as he stood there waiting. Waiting for what, he didn’t know. A pain settled in his stomach, but he couldn’t force himself to move.
A few seconds later, he heard her voice again, softer this time. “Yeah. I know. I’ve got work in a bit. I’ll talk to you later.”
He waited for a minute that felt like an hour before he forced his feet to shuffle into the doorway and knock.
“Hey.” She smiled sheepishly at him. No awkward acknowledgment that she knew he was listening. “Your head looks better.”
He nodded. “Feels better. I’m gonna make coffee and feed the dog. Then we need to go.” His voice had an edge that matched the tightness in his gut, so he left the room before she could ask what was wrong. If she even noticed. She probably didn’t care.
This was for the best. She didn’t need to put herself in danger, and he sure as hell didn’t need to worry about keeping her safe. He had enough to worry about.
As much as it hurt hearing her conversation, he figured he was better off hearing it now before he fell off the deep end.
Who was he kidding? It was already too late.
This was going to hurt like hell.
It already did.
Sierra crouched at the edge of the boardwalk and pointed her long stick at a web with a large orange spider. It was about six inches long. A small female.
“Does anyone know what this is?”
The herd of children clustered around her, shoving and climbing over each other for a better look. Along with a few screeches and gasps, they shouted five different answers at her, some of which weren’t even types of spiders.
“No, look again. Has anyone seen this before?”
One tiny hand went up in the back of the crowd. She couldn’t see the kid it belonged to. Most likely the runt of the classroom litter.
“In the back. Have you seen this before?”
A little boy stepped to the side and nodded. She couldn’t help but smile at the kid—quiet, awkward, and full of curiosity.
“Want to tell us where you’ve seen it?”
“In the woods. At my grandma’s house.”
“And did your grandma tell you what it was?”
He nodded again.
She raised her eyebrows and nodded at him, willing the kid to speak. He knew the answer. She could always tell. The hard part was getting them to trust themselves and not worry what anyone thought if they said the right answer. Or the wrong one.
“A silk spider.”
“Yes! That’s right.” She nodded at him. “What’s your name?”
“Shawn,” he stammered.
“Shawn’s right. A lot of people around here call them banana spiders, but we don’t have true banana spiders here. This is a golden silk spider. Nice work, Shawn.”
Their teacher caught Sierra�
��s eye and pointed at her wrist, the universal signal for, It’s time to head back for our picnic lunch. Sierra turned the group around, and the class followed her like a pack of ducklings. Thankfully, not her ducklings. She got to answer their questions, enjoy their enthusiasm, and hand them off to their teacher and chaperons for the less-fun stuff—bathroom breaks, handing out napkins, and making sure everyone made it back on the bus. Sierra definitely had the better deal.
Back inside, Dale leaned back in his green chair, while he sipped his third coffee of the morning. “How’d it go?”
“Good. The usual. No problems. They’re having lunch now.”
“Good, good.”
She squeezed past him to check for messages on her phone. The way things had been going over the weekend, she fully expected a text from Marc saying someone had dropped a half-starved lion on his front lawn.
Although, as strange and distant as Marc had seemed that morning when she’d dropped him off outside the radio station, she doubted she’d be his first call today. And she had no idea why.
Once they’d moved past her backfired plan and his injury, things had gone pretty well last night. So well, in fact, that she’d been planning to tell him she didn’t want any reward money.
She debated telling him more than that. Like how she felt. And she was feeling a lot before she went to sleep.
But then she’d woken to a major case of cold shoulder, so she’d decided to kept her mouth shut. At least until she figured out what was wrong.
No messages. Given the last few days, no messages was a good sign. Especially knowing Marc was safe at work.
When she put the phone back in her bag, she found a folded piece of paper she hadn’t noticed before. As she unfolded it and read the messy handwriting, she put a hand against the desk to steady herself.
“A check?” Dale peered over her shoulder. “Does that mean you found a second job?”
Sierra held up the check, showing him the note at the bottom.
“Reward?” he asked. “Sounds like you had a busy weekend.”
It was for a thousand dollars, and it had Marc’s signature on it.
“It’s from Marc,” she said, disbelief scratching at the edge of her voice. “I helped him with the snakes. Well, sort of.”
She closed her eyes tight against the image of those poor, dead snakes. She should have gone to them at the first sight of the house in flames. But she’d been so worried about Marc that she’d forgotten all about them.
“That fellow that came in here with you Saturday. Not too fond of this place, but fond enough of you to come inside anyway.”
She shrugged. “I gave him a good enough scare to follow me in. Doesn’t count.”
“Oh, sure it does.”
“It doesn’t matter anyway.” Apparently, nothing she did mattered. Her apology. Spending the night. Nothing. The waves of nausea she felt thinking about what that check meant. She waved it in the air. “He just bought me off.”
“Why? What did you do?”
“Why is it always something I’ve done?” Her voice had more of an edge to it than Dale deserved. “Why can’t he just be a jerk?”
Dale considered that for a moment. “Fair enough. And maybe he is an asshole, but a man doesn’t write a check for no reason.”
Sierra stuffed the check back into her bag and resisted the urge to pick up her phone again. She wanted answers, but her pride wouldn’t let her ask the questions.
“Yeah, well, I thought we were past this reward agreement.”
She’d assumed he was developing feelings the same way she was. That their only hurdle was her getting over her fear of second chances.
That was her mistake. Clearly, he didn’t feel the same way.
“How about helping me with this morning’s delivery? You can tell me all about the rest of this story while we go through the boxes.”
Sierra didn’t want to go through boxes of supplies, and she really didn’t want to talk about the rest of the story. But she felt like she couldn’t breathe, so she followed Dale anyway.
Out on the deck, Sierra hacked away at the cardboard while Dale matched inventory slips with the contents. She got a little thrill taking out her frustration on those packages. After she had slashed open the last box, she sat against the building and took a few deep breaths.
“Feel better?” Dale asked.
“No.”
“Want to talk about it?”
“Not really.”
Dale checked a few items on his list, then asked, “How’s your friend’s house? Any more snake sightings? Oh! What did you do with the rest of them?”
Sierra flinched. Then, she laughed. Completely inappropriate, but better than releasing her brewing tears. “Burned.”
“What?” Dale put his paper and pen on a box and walked closer to her. “How did the snakes burn?”
She laughed again. Harder this time. When she’d caught her breath, she said, “With the house.”
He searched her face for signs that this was a joke or that he’d misunderstood. “Was anyone hurt?”
She shook her head. “No. Well, Marc, but that was my fault.”
“What happened?”
“I hit him in the head with a saucepan.”
Dale scratched his beard, waiting for an explanation.
“He’s fine now. I was helping him find out who was doing all of this because he had offered a reward in the paper.” She remembered the check in her bag. “But I guess it’s none of my business anymore.”
“Wait, you think someone is doing all of this on purpose? This sounds dangerous, Sierra. Have they contacted the police?”
“For some stolen things. Not the snakes. And the arson investigator is supposed to examine the house today. Or what’s left of it. They need proof, otherwise it just looks like a bunch of weird coincidences.”
“But the snakes. You said they couldn’t get in there on their own.”
“The police won’t care unless they have proof that someone did this. And someone wants them off that property in a hurry. The cops won’t exactly be quick. That’s why I wanted to catch someone in the act.”
“But you caught Marc.” Dale nodded. “I get it now. Do they have any idea who might be doing this?”
“One. Maybe. Adrien Guidry.”
During a commercial break before Marc had fallen asleep, he’d told her all about his phone call with Adrien. He sounded like the kind of guy who’d be pissed enough to threaten Marc for moving in on his sister. Marc was convinced Adrien wouldn’t follow through on any threats. She had to admit that burning the house sounded like a stretch, but she didn’t know the guy. Maybe the dude was unhinged.
“Come to think of it, he might have the perfect opportunity to spy on Marc and the house and know when they were gone. His mom lives down the road.” Sierra remembered the wild look in that woman’s eyes. Maybe that was hereditary. “That woman was overenthusiastic during the fire, and she’s lucky she didn’t leave bruises grabbing my arms like that. I don’t care what kind of attorney she thinks she is.”
“Wait…an attorney named Guidry? Are you talking about Lynette Guidry?”
“I have no idea. Dramatic lady, close to your age, lives down the road from Marc. Pushed her way through the firemen to ask where Marc and his sister were.”
Dale nodded. “Sounds right. Lynette Guidry. I knew her husband. He’d show up here to pick my brain about new species from time to time. Raised reptiles in a spare bedroom.”
That caught her interest. “I guess me and Dad moved out of that neighborhood too soon.”
Dale frowned. “Probably good that you did. Nice enough man when I saw him here, but word on the street was that he was a terrible drunk.”
She remembered Marc telling her about his dad and his dad’s buddy. “Not exactly the best quality for a breeder.”
Dale looked off at the woods. “They never heard from him after he took off. There was some speculation that he drove into a lake or stumbled in
to the bayou in a drunken stupor one night, but families don’t want to consider such things.”
“Sure, but you’d think they’d want to know the truth.”
He shrugged. “After he left, I heard Lynette went back to finish law school. I imagine it was tough on them, but I’m glad she did well for her and those kids.”
The idea of Mrs. Guidry and Chloe and Adrien abandoned with no money or support out of the blue like that gave Sierra a twinge of sympathy for them. At least Sierra’s dad had a job and money when her mom left. Even then, it was still hard.
But she was more focused on that reptile room. If their dad had been a breeder, Adrien could have the knowledge and the resources to be the person responsible for those snakes at Denise’s house.
“So you were close to them?” she asked.
“Me? Oh, no. I went out there a couple of times on his invitation. Purely out of curiosity. Met his wife and kids. That little girl was sweet as pie, but her older brother was a tough kid. Always glaring at me around a door frame. Still, they all seemed close enough.” He lost himself in memories again. “I never got the impression he’d walk out without saying a word. Shocked a lot of people. But you never know what goes on behind someone else’s front door.”
“No, I guess you don’t.”
She helped Dale carry the new supplies inside and checked her phone once more. Still nothing. A glance at the check sent her stomach rolling again.
Screw Marc and his check. If he wanted to buy her off, fine. She’d stay away from him. But he couldn’t do a thing to stop her from snooping. Denise and her kids still needed help. And with his check, she didn’t have to worry about getting another job yet. She could spend all her free time looking into Adrien Guidry for this, and she could pay the mortgage and pay Liz back and not worry about Luna’s therapy.
Dale decided to take a walk and inspect the trails, patting Sierra on the shoulder on his way out. Good. With a quiet Monday and no one in the station, she could make the rest of the phone calls to see about permits and purchases for those snakes.
