CHAPTER 15
Mah-Mah was on the final flowers in her hair when three fast knocks rattled the door, making them both jump.
“Mon Dieu, they better not be early!” Mah-Mah whispered, hurrying to the door.
Beth examined herself in the mirror, fighting the wave of nervous nausea. She could actually say she looked beautiful. Not brand-new Cadillac kind of beautiful like Luseah, but more like… new Toyota kind of pretty.
The door opened and Mah-Mah came back in, shutting it back. She then turned to her and the look on her face sent a sick dread slamming her stomach. “What?”
She hurried over and grabbed her hands. “There’s somebody here,” she said, her fretful look bringing panic to mix with the dread.
“Who?”
She closed her eyes briefly then opened them right as another knock pounded the door.
“Mah-Mah, are you in there?”
Beth stood frozen in place as the woman hurried and opened the door, letting in Lazure who looked like he’d seen a ghost of a dead loved one. That he may have hated.
The French speaking erupted in whispers and hisses, making Beth’s panic skyrocket.
“Is Sahvrin okay?” That’s all she needed to know.
Mah-Mah hurried to her, nodding as she did while Lazure continued in hushed French. “He is fine.”
“Is he here, is he back? Who else is here?”
Lazure spoke French that sounded like a panicked question.
“I just found out! I haven’t had time!” Mah-Mah cried.
“Please stop speaking French!” Beth gasped, bringing a shaking hand to her mouth with, “I’m sorry, I just…I can’t understand what’s happening.” She smoothed her hands over the soft dress, her smile quivering under the strain of panic she held at bay. But something said she should be panicking and not knowing about what or why was doing her head in. “Can I see him,” Beth wondered, suddenly wanting to be back at his little house where everything was quiet and simple.
“Go and see about this, Lazure!” Mah-Mah hissed before grabbing both Beth’s hands in her warm ones. “I want Sahvrin to explain everything to you. A woman from his past is here, but don’t worry, I will get rid of her immediately!”
A woman? “She’s here now?”
Mah-Mah nodded before her pretty face darkened and she looked away. “How dare that bitch come here. How did she even remember the way?” She snapped her eyes back to Beth. “I won’t lie to you, little one. He was madly in love with her,” she said, nodding and wiping her tears. “She broke my son into a million pieces. He used to be an artist, a brilliant artist and when she left, she took that passion with her. He never touched a paint brush again.”
It all hit her. That’s why he didn’t want to talk about the art. Oh God, that was the woman! The one who taught him everything about sex?
The need to comfort Sahvrin and run from what she was sure was coming made her ill. He was madly in love with her kept playing over and over in her head.
“Why do you think she’s here?” she heard herself ask, already numb.
The answer to that was lost to the buzzing fears in her head and what was coming. She needed to prepare for whatever it was.
“I need to change,” she realized in a mumble.
“No! You are not changing!”
The sudden image of him in the next room with a beautiful ex made her need to hide. Escape. And just as quickly, without thinking, she headed to the bathroom door. She would not run from him. From this. She just needed to know where she stood, where he stood, how he felt about this woman.
After much confusion, she finally made her way outside, gathering that’s where they must be. She spotted them on the pier, ignoring the call of two of his brothers as she headed toward them. She would be civil, this was not a big deal.
She focused on the fact that this woman broke him into a million pieces, rather than all the sex they’d had. The idea had her pulse pounding on every frayed nerve, and they were all frayed.
She stared at the woman, unable to look at Sahvrin as she closed the distance. With ten feet between them, she held out her hand in greeting, almost dumbstruck with her beauty. “Hi, I don’t mean to interrupt, I just wanted to introduce myself. I’m Beth, I’m just a friend.”
“Katrina,” the woman greeted, sounding as kind as she was beautiful. “Very nice to meet you, Beth.”
“Wow, aren’t you gorgeous!” Beth gushed, unable to stop her dumb laugh. “Well, I see you are here to…catch up. I just wanted to welcome you.”
“And why the hell would you want to do that?”
Sahvrin’s angry question snapped her gaze to his, and the fury in his dark eyes stole her breath. “I…I was just wanting… to make sure you were okay and…”
His burning eyes bore hard into her. “Your concern is almost as beautiful as you are, but it’s not necessary. I will speak to you at the house in five minutes.”
Her head was nodding then finally her “Okay,” flew out. Go to the house. Get your ass to the damn house. “I’ll go to the house.” She took a step back and tripped on the air, arms flailing ungraciously. “Whoops, got it,” she said, turning and hurrying back the way she came while her heart hammered so hard in her chest, it felt like it might shatter.
****
Sahvrin stared after His Petite, burning to know what was going through her head now.
“I actually didn’t come here to fight with you.”
He stared at the female demon from his past. “What did you come for?” he really wanted to know. Her associations ran too close to his current problems, that was for damn sure and her remembering how to even get out there was now another problem.
“I just wanted to see how you were, sue me.”
“You’re about fifteen years late, Katrina. And I don’t want to fight with you either. I’m over it all.”
“I see that. Is she your girlfriend?”
Fuck. Definitely no accident her coming here. And now she could identify Beth.
“No,” he decided to say.
“You always call your friends beautiful?”
The jealous fury in her blue eyes was laughable. “We’re related,” he said, in sarcasm, watching her reaction to that while digging for something to buy time. “Now that you’re here, you can take the jewelry box you left behind.”
The sudden softening in her face was the win he needed. “You kept it?”
“I kept everything.” In ashes scattered in the swamp.
Her fighting stance slacked a little. “So, how is she related?”
“Cousin,” he said. The look in her eyes said she didn’t believe him. “I put everything in the guest house.” He allowed his gaze to touch her half-exposed breasts then raised it to her face. The heat in her eyes brought an acid to his tongue, making him want to spit. “Follow me.”
The sound of her boots behind him meant his little trick worked like a whore”s charm. She was here for more than just information. What, exactly, he didn’t know. If she thought he’d have anything to do with her after what she pulled, she had a very vulgar revelation coming.
He didn’t allow himself to glance at Beth who watched them from the porch. He didn’t need to look to know there was hurt and confusion and fear on her beautiful face and being unable to do a fucking thing about it had his rage boiling.
“Your cousin looks worried about you,” she said.
She definitely knew the cousin thing was a lie. But she didn’t know he knew she knew. “She’ll get over it.”
Once in the guest house, he lit the wall lights and locked the door while she was distracted. He pulled out his phone and opened Jek’s message box.
“What are you doing?”
“Just letting Mah-Mah know I’m okay. I’m sure she’s worried I’ll do something stupid with you.” Meet me at the guest house. Katrina is here and she knows something. We can’t let her leave. Have August get rid of her boat.
He put his phone in his back pocket, looking at her. “Like, fuck you,” he added, repeating the dirty breast gazing trick and replacing the sudden worry in her eyes with a little too much lust.
“So, you came all this way to see me?” He leaned against the door and crossed his arms on his chest.
“Yes.” She lowered her gaze over him, and he realized it was partly true. “Are you still painting?”
The hopeful smile on her face made his fury burn. “Never touched a brush since you left.”
A knock sounded on the door, and he turned only his head. “Who is it?”
“Jek.”
He opened the door and let him in, locking it back. “Well, well, look what the swamp dragged in. Hello Katrina.”
She eyed him, all that fear returning. “What’s going on?”
“That’s what you’re going to tell us,” Sahvrin said. “I know you were sent. Jek, find some rope. And get Zep in here to interrogate her.”
“Texting him now.”
“Listen, you don’t have to tie me up, I do know what’s going on. But I wasn’t going to tell, I was coming to ask for your help.”
“Have him bring some of Mah-Mah’s truth serum,” Sahvrin said eying her, already sick of her lies.
“I’m telling you the truth. I need your help with my daughter.”
He stared at her, hating that he had no way of verifying much since he’d forbidden anybody to utter her name. “What daughter?”
The tears pouring now hardened every muscle as he stormed up to her and grabbed her jaw hard. “What…daughter.”
“Yours,” she gasped, clenching her eyes tight.
Sahvrin stared at her for many seconds then shoved her back onto the small couch. He turned to Jek who had a clueless look then back to her. “Prove it,” he seethed, ready to kill something.
“How am I supposed to prove it? When I left, I was pregnant and didn’t tell you. I planned on having an abortion and found out my father used me as leverage because he was being blackmailed by The Roulettes. He was part of their trafficking,” she said, her mouth twisting with rage. “Then Remy Dupre, the president of Roulettes in New Orleans decided he wanted me, and I had no choice in the matter,” she shot out, telling him he’d raped her. “I eventually told him I was pregnant, and he assumed it was his. I thought he’d want to abort it and instead he became a proud father,” she said with a pent up loathe that said she’d gotten her punishment and then some.
Sahvrin paced in the fiery hell she’d just unleashed. ”Where is she? How old is she?” he demanded.
“She’s with him. Always. Like a prisoner. A well cared for and provided for sixteen-year-old prisoner. We both are. I know about the arms deal he wants to do and so when he needed information, I saw my chance of getting her out and I volunteered to get it.”
Sahvrin spun and pointed at her. “You didn’t say a damn word about any of that.”
“I had come to you for help,” she yelled back. ”I…I was sorry about leaving, I am sorry. I knew it was a slim chance you’d forgive me, but I had to try and if not for me then for our daughter. If he ever finds out that she’s yours, he’d…” She shook her head, covering her mouth. “I don’t know what he’d do, Sahvrin. But she’s all I have left.”
“Left of what? Us?”
“Of anything!” she screamed back. “I have nobody and nothing but her, and she means the fucking world to me, you sonofabitch, do you understand?” Her face had turned hard and furious, a look of somebody who’d been forced to do unthinkable things to survive. “I will kill. And die for her if that’s what it takes, but you have to get her out of that life. She deserves this,” she spread her arms around, “this life here, this beautiful world I stupidly threw away.”
Sahvrin turned his back to her, gritting his teeth and eyeing Jek who was still riveted in shock.
“What’s her name?” Jek wondered to Katrina as Sahvrin closed his eyes.
“Savvie,” she whispered. “I have pictures on my phone, look,” she gasped, pulling it from her pocket.
Sahvrin stormed over and snatched it from her, not trusting her. “You were ready to fuck on this floor,” he muttered to her. “What’s the password.”
“Savvy2507” she said, making his stomach sick. 2507 was their fucking anniversary. “And I told you I will do anything to protect her,” she said, back to seething pissed. “That includes say what I have to, do what I have to and fuck who I have to.”
But the heat in her eyes had been nauseatingly real. He knew it and she knew it.
Another knock came and he looked at Jek before calling, “Who is it?”
“Zep... August.”
Jek opened the door and they entered, eyeing Katrina with wonder as Jek locked the door back.
“Where’s Beth?” Sahvrin asked Zep.
“I think she’s being distracted while we sort this out.”
He typed the password into the phone and the image of a beautiful young girl popped up on the screen. He aimed the phone at Katrina.
“That’s her.”
“What’s going on?” Zep wondered.
Sahvrin stared at the girl, fighting a million thoughts and emotions. She was so fucking sweet looking and could’ve been Juliette’s twin. “Meet your long-lost niece,” he said, presenting the phone for two seconds before hurling it across the room.
He paced several steps, needing to kill something more than ever. His brothers stood guarded and ready as he fought his rage. Savvie. “You cold, fucking, bitch,” he gasped, leaning over and holding his knees, unable to get enough air.
“What’s he talking about?” August mumbled behind him.
He listened to Jek tell him the sordid story as plans began filling his head. “Where is she?” He went to Katrina, fighting the need to jerk her to her feet and shake all the answers from her. “I want every detail.”
“What if she’s lying about all of it?” August wondered.
“I’ll happily do a DNA test,” Katrina said.
“Oh you will,” Sahvrin assured even though he believed every word she said. If there was one thing he knew about her, it was when she lied.
“She doesn’t have a clue what’s going on,” Katrina said.
“So she doesn’t know she’s a prisoner,” Sahvrin interpreted, looking at Jek. “We find her, we take her. She comes here.”
“She can’t come here!”
He snapped his gaze to Katrina.
“They know I know this place,” she said. “They may not be able to beat it out of me, but I would sing like a fucking bird if they threatened her, and they would.”
“Not if we get her before they know. And they won’t beat anything out of you because you’re not leaving.”
She flew at him, and his brothers caught the clawing cat. “I have to go back! You can’t go near her, they’ll fucking know, I’ll kill you!”
“Text Lazure,” Sahvrin told August. ”We need to do this as soon as possible. When they won’t expect it.” He faced Katrina again. “What about Beth, what do you know about her?”
Her mouth twisted in disgust. “What do you think? That a very valuable piece of merchandise went missing in the swamp, and he wants it back. Hope you didn’t fuck the virgin value out of her.”
He held her stare, ninety percent sure she’d spoken the truth. He wanted more than anything to say he did fuck her, and it was the best fuck he’d ever had, but his need to protect His Petite was way fucking bigger than his hate for this woman.
He went back to pacing and arranging the information racing in his head. Sahvrin closed his eyes briefly then looked at Katrina. “Who are the dealers for these guns?”
She swallowed, shifting on her feet like she might try to run.
“Tie her to that fucking chair,” Sahvrin said, before pointing at her. “Fight and I’ll make you sorry. Please try me.”
She eyed him, her chest heaving for many seconds before she slowly sat in the chair and let them tie her. “The Diablos De La Guerra, that’s who are supplying.”
“Who are they?” Sahvrin asked, stopping before her.
“They’re your worst nightmare for seven of your fucking generations.”
He nodded, eying her. “Then I’d say this arms shipment is a big deal.”
“Anything with them is a big fucking deal,” she said, like she wanted to spit.
He considered that and turned to Jek. “I have to renegotiate that contract now. Once that deal is sealed with the supplier, then King Cock won’t renege, not for his whore or his child if he wants to keep them alive. But something tells me he’d be more worried about his own hairless sack than he is about them.”
Sahvrin turned at Katrina’s maniacal giggles, meeting her giddy gaze. “King Cock already signed the deal. And stupid Thadious told the Diablos De La Guerra that the swamp was ready to go and open for business,” she finished with a delighted smirk. “Both of them motherfuckers, and their extendedfuckingfamily,” she yelled, pulling on her restraints, “are the walking dead if they don’t get the Holy fuckingBishops to help them! Now do you see why I was sent here? To fuck you into this agreement, of course, but that’s not why I was going to fuck you, oh no no no, I was going to fuck you for our daughter’s freedom and protection.”
Sahvrin spun to Jek, his adrenaline pumping hard. “You. Me. August and Zep are having a drink at the Roulettes tonight. Bart will stay with Katrina. We’re negotiating these gun on our terms.”