Bayou Blue

by Raquel Byrnes

  I coughed, drowning while standing on land, and leaned against the waves of air that beat my hair against my face.

  Hurricane Erin had hit, she was coming for us with a fury like I’d never known, ripping through the trees and over the water with raging power.

  Suddenly Jake was on his feet, his arm slipping around my waist as he took me with him. He climbed through the swampy ground, his teeth gritted with the effort of pulling for both of us.

  I kicked my legs, struggling to walk with him across the liquid surface.

  “The shack, Riley,” he screamed and his hollow eyes fixed on the wood structure. “We get there or we don’t make it out of the storm.”

  I clawed at the plants, helping us move forward. Almost there, we crested the broken stairs, and I scrambled onto the tilted porch, panting with panic and exhaustion.

  Jake pulled himself to his feet, helped me to mine, and then pushed on the shack’s door, ramming it with his shoulder. Out of the sky, a shearing crack shook us, a sparking frisson of heat that sent branches and the smell of burning wood flying at us.

  I whipped around, my back flat against the wall of the shack and stared with my mouth wide open. I saw it through the shaking tree branches.

  A blue ball of swirling light pulsed across the sky.

  Blue lightning. I saw it and froze. Another churning mass burst across my vision, spread through the black clouds that folded and collapsed into each other. The blue was so beautiful I didn’t dare blink.

  “Riley,” Jake called, halfway into the doorway, his arm extended out to me, shoulder bracing the door open.

  I turned to him, threw myself at his chest, and we tumbled into the doorway in a tangle of arms and legs. Jake flipped onto his back and used his legs and feet to force the door closed.

  Panting and stunned, something pulled at my consciousness.

  Everest had no reason to leave the airboat…

  I didn’t see the movement, or see the arm coming up out of the shadowed corner of the room until it was too late.

  The gunshot blasted through the tiny room, Everest’s face lit up by the muzzle flash.

  I jerked sideways as the force of it sent me flailing. I hit the floor gasping, the pain crowding out my breath.

  “Riley!” Jake’s voice, frantic and far away, echoed in my head.

  Michelle sat wide-eyed and with one shoe, huddled on the floor next to the pot belly stove. The blue lightning cast her delicate features in a wavering mask of light and shadows. She reached out to me with a trembling hand.

  Eyes swimming, I saw movement overhead. Arms and bodies twisting in an angry knot.

  Jake locked with Everest in a desperate battle.

  “It was a trap...” I tried to say, but a clap of thunder tore over my words, drowning them out.

  32

  Jake

  Jake flew at Everest, his hand closing around the gun as it went off again. White-hot pain seared across his shoulder, but Jake kept going, his legs pumping through the pain like he’d done in high school football. They crashed against the far wall, toppling to the floor in a fury of elbows and knees that jabbed and punched.

  Jake reared up, loomed over the smaller man, and threw a punch that rocked through his entire arm.

  Everest’s head whipped to the side, but he kept his grip on the gun, brought it up, and fired another round.

  The blast ripped past Jake’s ear, missing by millimeters as the heated air rushed by, blowing out his eardrum. Jake twisted to the side in pain.

  Everest scrambled to his feet, kicked Jake in the ribs and sent him writhing to his side.

  Angry, Jake whipped his leg across Everest’s knees, sweeping his feet out from under him. The smaller man went sprawling on his back. The gun clattered across the warped wood floor towards Riley.

  Everest and Jake dove for the gun, both men fighting for the weapon.

  Jake glanced down and saw Riley’s blood spreading out in a crimson mushroom across the dirty floor. She was reaching for the gun, her small hand closing around it.

  “No, you don’t.” Everest shouted and kicked at her arm.

  She screamed in pain, and the gun skittered back across the room, butting up against the door.

  Fury building in his chest, Jake threw Everest, sending him flying across the room against the pot belly stove. Jake dove for the gun, skidding on his hands and knees to it and came back up searching for Everest, but couldn’t find him in the shadows of the shack.

  To his right, shaking in its hinges with the force of the wind, the thin wood door bowed and caved, splinters jutting from the corners. Thunder claps jolted all of them, rocking the shack as the crackling heat of another bolt of lightning made the hair stand up on Jake’s arms.

  Everest flew out of the corner, his teeth bared in the blue flashing light.

  The feral grin of a crazed animal crossed the man’s face. Everest let out a yowl, diving for Michelle as she cowered on the floor next to the stove. He was at her before Jake could close his hands on him.

  Everest’s hand came up, a rusty knife held at Michelle’s throat as he yanked her to her feet in front of him.

  Jake froze, his heart going still at the sight of the blade at her pulse.

  Her eyes swirled, fear driving her to scream and flail in Everest’s grip, but he held her tight, ducking behind her, using her body as a shield.

  “Look what I found behind the stove,” Everest screeched and bobbed his eyebrows over Michelle’s shoulder at Jake.

  “Everest,” Riley pleaded. “Everest, don’t.”

  “Shut up, just shut up.” Everest’s wicked smile contorted into a grimace through his bloodied lip. The knife in his hand twitched.

  Michelle’s eyes went wide with pain.

  “How about a trade, Jake? The girl for Riley?”

  Jake held the gun on Everest but Michelle blocked any shot. The wind and flashing, the shaking of the shack made hitting Everest impossible.

  “Please, Everest,” Riley called out. “Why are you doing this?”

  “This is your fault,” Everest said and staggered with the force of the shifting floor. “You couldn’t leave things alone. Couldn’t let them believe your baby brother was crazy.”

  “He wasn’t.” Riley gritted her teeth, her hand at her side as she pushed herself up.

  So much blood on the floor. Jake’s heart tumbled; worried that she might lose too much before they got help.

  “But I had them convinced!” Everest yelled and in his anger, shook the knife, scraping a crimson line across Michelle’s neck. “You wouldn’t even die right when I sent that Grossman Chemical goon after you! You ruined everything!”

  Jake tried to aim for him, tried to steady his hand against the floor buckling under their feet.

  Everest caught his movement, shifted his stance to shield himself better.

  “Now, give me the gun, or I take her head off!” Everest screamed.

  Jake put his hands up in surrender, the gun pointed up. He glanced at Riley, watched her with growing dread as she struggled to her feet. Her face was pale with pain.

  “Do it, Jake,” she told him. Her light eyes locked on his and his soul ached, torn with the thought of losing her to this madman.

  “Set it on the floor and kick it over to me.” Everest walked backwards with Michelle, her whimpers lost in the storm’s tumult lashing at the small building.

  Jake tossed the gun.

  Everest bent down with Michelle, the knife still at her throat, and had her pick up the gun. He took it from her with his free hand.

  “Let Riley and Michelle go, Everest,” Jake shouted. “You can run… no one will find you. They’ll assume you’re dead in the storm.”

  Everest shook his head, a fierce snarl pulling at his lip. “Take her!”

  He shoved Michelle at Jake, sent her sailing at his chest.

  As he grabbed Michelle, Everest pounced for Riley.

  Jake heard her scream as he yanked at her. Jake twisted toward
s them, trying to get Michelle away and reach for Riley at the same time, but he felt just the whisper of material pass under his fingertips. Missed them.

  Riley flailed at Everest, screaming and pounding at him with her fists, and the two of them went crashing against the door. It flew open, the wind shrieking through the doorway and lashing at them.

  Jake lunged for Riley, swiping at her with his hands, but she and Everest were out the door in a fury of wind and flying debris. Their bodies lifted in the hurricane’s power.

  Riley screamed, her mouth open with fear, clawing at the doorway for terrible second, and then she was gone.

  Jake’s heart stopped.

  “Riley!”

  33

  I saw Jake’s face as I flew out the doorway, his horrified scream as my hand slipped and the hurricane hurled me and Everest out against the side of the house.

  I pawed at the floor, Everest’s arms wrapped around my waist, his face contorted with terror as the wind dragged us along the porch boards. The force lifted us up, weightless for a moment before we slammed back down.

  Lights flashed behind my eyes, the jarring blow knocked the wind from my lungs and sent shards of pain through my bruised ribs.

  Everest’s face changed, from terror to awe. He laughed maniacally and screamed back at the storm. He wailed about power and predators and reached out a hand like he was trying to grab the wind.

  I cried out, my fingernails ripping as I clutched the rail of the porch with every fiber of my being.

  Everest let go of me, gripped the railing next to me.

  The storm screamed and ripped at my body with cold and wet and hurled earth, until there was nothing but pain and terror.

  Please, Father…

  “Riley!”

  Jake screamed from the door. He reached out, holding on to the door jam with his other hand.

  “Jake!” I cried and stretched, reaching for him.

  “No,” Everest screamed and tried to bat away Jake’s hand. He wrestled to his feet, leaning against the wind as he struck out with knife, slashing at Jake’s arm.

  In that terrible moment, I remembered a woman from one of my pieces, her pale face looking at me from her hospital bed. She’d survived a mugger with one of her defense class moves.

  “It happens faster than you can imagine. When someone attacks you have to lash back, fast and sure.” She’d patted her own legs with a bandaged hand. “Your legs are strong. Use them.”

  Terror turned to rage, and I felt the wrath of all that I’d lost. All the sorrow and pain burned through me. I planted my feet against Everest, shoving him away from Jake with all my might. My kick propelled him from the shelter of the shack’s roof.

  He turned, slicing down at me with his knife, but he lost his footing. Tossed in the wind, it caught him in its grasp. He lifted up, writhed in midair, shaken by an unseen hand, and then I saw a black form, a twisted trunk racing towards him in the rampant wind. It smashed into him, bending him in half as it sailed away, his shriek snatched up and hurled away into the hurricane’s fury.

  Jake’s hand closed around mine, his face straining as he pulled on me.

  “Let go Riley,” he shouted over the storm. “Hold onto me.”

  Body wracked with shaking, I clenched my eyes shut, terrified. I let go of the rail.

  I soared up, sailing on the wind as Jake, his feet planted on either side of the door, held onto me with both hands. Tearing pain ripped at my shoulder and side and I cried out.

  Jake shook his head vehemently, his face lighting up with blue pulses from the ball lightning.

  I had nothing left, my strength failed, my vision grayed.

  “Riley, don’t give up.” Jake’s gaze locked with mine. “Fight.”

  I felt myself move towards the door. I raised my free hand to grab hold, slipped and tried again.

  The wind buffeted and tossed me at Jake. I scrambled to him, wrapped myself around him.

  He and Michelle pulled me in.

  We crawled along the wall, my whole body shaking with the closeness of death and the wild storm that almost took me.

  Jake held me to him, his arm tight around me as Michelle and he pushed and kicked the door closed.

  Tears of relief and fear finally came, pouring from all of us as we huddled against the pot belly stove. Blue lightning flickered with the roar of Erin’s thunderous whirlwind outside.

  Jake’s ragged breath caressed my neck, his embrace not easing, as he stroked my hair and said my name over and over again.

  “I’m OK,” I panted. “I’m OK.”

  He ran his hand along my side, pressed against the tattered trail that Everest’s bullet had left and shook his head.

  “It isn’t deep, Riley. The bandages helped.”

  The wrapping for my bruised ribs probably saved my life.

  “Jake,” I said weakly, the adrenaline already burnt through. “C–can we go somewhere without water or wind for our first date?”

  He kissed my forehead softly. “Where ever you want, ma cher.”

  Outside the hurricane shook and rattled the tiny shack, but inside, in Jake’s arms and despite the dark, I felt hope.

  34

  The storm passed us, moving on through the bayou as the morning light edged the dark skies upward. Sometime during those hours the hurricane whirled itself back out to sea, leaving rain and weakened winds in its wake.

  I woke in Jake’s arms.

  Michelle lay next to us, silent and shocked, but alive.

  I tried to sit up, but pain shocked through my shoulder. I sucked in a breath, wincing through the hurt.

  “Shh,” Jake murmured and eased me back against his chest. “Help is coming any minute, just be still.”

  It wasn’t quite any minute. It took half the day for them to find us.

  Toughie and Girard floated in the still surging current and yelled our names. When they found us, they looked like they thought a joke was being played on them. They couldn’t believe we’d survived.

  During the ride home, Toughie kept glancing back at me, a small smile on his lips.

  Girard saw to my flesh wound and the cut on Michelle’s neck. He patched up the wound on Jake’s shoulder.

  Jake hovered close to Michelle and me, a silent guardian.

  When Girard was done, Jake took the blanket from him, draped it over Michelle, and hugged her when she looked up at him with sorrowful eyes. She had a lot of healing to do.

  With an uncle like Jake, and a mother who loved like Citrine, she’d be OK.

  Toughie looked back at me again and I caught his gaze, raised my eyebrow.

  “You OK?” I asked Toughie.

  “Just never seen anything like it, Red,” he said finally.

  “What’s that, Toughie?” Jake came over to me and wrapped a blanket around my shoulders.

  “So much trouble and triumph in one small package,” Toughie said under his breath.

  Jake turned to him, wrapped his arm around me, and gave me a crooked grin that sent flutters through my chest.

  “You have no idea,” Jake teased.

  ****

  I learned a lot over the next two days in the hospital.

  La Foudre, busy with recovering from Hurricane Erin, didn’t much care about what came out of those terrible moments in the shack, but the rest of the nation did.

  Jake kept the reporters out of my room and funneled information to me. With no working television in my room, I had to rely on news from phone calls and visits.

  My mother came to see me in the La Foudre hospital. She arrived with flowers in hand, and I hoped we could make peace over our actions and words last time we were together.

  She nodded to my arm in a sling and frowned. “Does it hurt much?”

  “You should see the other guy,” I joked and knew my morbid humor would spur her to talk, even if to correct me.

  She tossed a newspaper on my lap, the North County Chronicle.

  “What’s this?” I picked it up. It stu
ng more than a little to get scooped by my own paper.

  “Susan Lockhart is talking to anyone who will listen,” My mom intoned angrily. “Too bad she didn’t do that earlier.”

  “She was afraid of Everest, I think.” I unfolded the paper with my good hand and saw Park Davis’s name on the exclusive article. I sighed.

  Ouch.

  “At least she’s setting the record straight.” My mother pulled a chair over and sat down. Brushing the wispy red tendrils from her forehead, she shook her head, a sad look on her face. “Apparently, she approached Randy during an art class they shared and asked him to help her prove Grossman Chemical Engineering had covered up the fact that her father’s death was a result of their negligence.”

  I remembered the article in the Tulane student paper about Randy being on a safety commission grant and told my mother.

  “That’s probably what gave this Susan Lockhart the idea that Randy would help her.”

  “She would have known, anyway,” I corrected with a sad smile. “He was a Drake.”

  “Yeah.” My mom watched me read. “It’s a pretty good piece, Riley.”

  I skimmed the article by Davis. He interviewed Susan in her New Orleans jail cell.

  “Says she already had an infatuation for Everest and volunteered with his organization in New Orleans when she dropped out of Tulane.”

  “She introduced your brother to him believing they could work together since they traveled in the same circles.”

  “She hadn’t been too far off.”

  I didn’t mention that even my mother had sought out Everest’s help not too long ago.

  Willow shrugged, wouldn’t meet my eyes, and I knew she was thinking the same thing.

  “The MP3 you lost, the FBI recovered it from that…that man who attacked you and it corroborates Susan’s story that she and Randy discussed ways to get Grossman Chemical to admit their illegal activity. That’s when Grossman’s head of security started harassing them. Randy and Susan closed down their social network accounts and stopped going to classes out of fear he’d hurt them.” My mother cried softly. “Why didn’t he ask for help? Why did he do this alone?”