Xavier (Men of Forbidden Temptation Book 5)

Chapter 10

The sun is finally shining againafter several dark and cloudy days. It’s been almost two days since I’ve been home. I had to stay at the mayor, John’s, house the past two nights because of the severity of the storm.

Early yesterday morning we lost power as the hurricane pummeled the island, and then the flooding started.

As each new hour passed, the water continued to rise. The four of us watched the water get closer and closer to the house.

We ate peanut butter sandwiches and snacked on chips and cookies while we waited for the storm to pass.

It wasn’t all bad, though. I hung out and played cards with Brianna, John, and Elizabeth until it became too dark to see without straining our eyes.

I didn’t want to use the battery operated lights before we really needed to in case the storm lasted longer than expected.

After John and Elizabeth went to bed for the night, Brianna and I continued to talk about the events that led up to the murder of Everett.

We tried to bounce ideas off of one another, but neither of us could get to a definitive reason for the events.

We need more answers.

The motive for all these crimes are still left unanswered.

I still think Zach and the mayor are hiding pertinent information for this case, but I didn’t voice my opinions.

At least Brianna is on the same page about Zach.

If her father is involved, it will destroy her. Just in the past two days, I could see how much of a daddy’s girl she is.

She’s close to her father, and she talks highly of him, but I’m waiting for more answers before I make an opinion of him.

I join the family in the kitchen for a light breakfast of pastries, since the power still hasn’t been restored. The sun is shining through the blinds, giving a little bit of hope for the day ahead.

John glances my way with a friendly smile on his face. “It looks like the flooding has finally receded enough to start the cleanup.”

“Great.” I say as I sit down at the table. “Put me to work.”

Brianna sits down next to me. “No, Dad, we can’t ask him to work. He’s our guest.”

I appreciate the gesture, but this may be my ticket to get to talk to the mayor one on one.

“I don’t mind. You put me up for a couple of nights and fed me. It’s the least I can do.”

The laugh that comes from her stirs something inside of me. I love the sound. “You mean we forced you to eat sandwiches instead of a home cooked meal?”

I shrug. “It’s still better than what I’ve eaten most of my life.”

MREs were hit or miss, but at the end of the day, it was food in my stomach after a long, hot day of work.

“Do you not cook for yourself?” Brianna asks before taking a bite of her croissant.

“I make do, but I never really learned. I never really had a need to learn.”

She hmms and scrunches up her face. Silence takes over as the four of us eat.

When we are finished, we head outside to assess the storm’s damage to see what needs to be cleaned up.

Several trees fell over or snapped in half, tree branches and leaves are scattered around, and trash from neighbors’ houses litter the yard.

I grab one of the chainsaws from the garage to cut the trees up into smaller, more manageable pieces as Brianna and Elizabeth stack palm fronds and branches in a pile for a brush fire.

John rolls the larger logs and picks up the smaller cut logs, moving them to the other side of the yard as I continue working.

Cut after cut, the trees get smaller and smaller.

Sweat coats my skin under the hot summer sun, and my muscles burn from prolonged use.

When the last tree is cut into smaller pieces, I turn off the chainsaw and place it on the ground.

My gaze wanders around the now tidy yard, surprised it only took a couple of hours to clean it all up.

Brianna walks over to me with a bottle of water in her hand. “Here. You need to hydrate. You’ve been working for hours with no break.”

“Thank you.” I take the offered water and drink half the bottle in one gulp.

Who knew storm clean up was so hard and time consuming?

“All that’s left is to burn the brush pile.” I say after I finish my water.

“Don’t get too sweaty because we have the town meeting to go to.”

I look down at my sweat-soaked shirt. Too late. There’s no way I could have cut up the trees without soaking my shirt.

Unless I was shirtless.

“What town meeting?” No one has mentioned a town meeting over the past couple of days.

“Oh, right, I forgot you’re new to town. Dad always holds a town meeting after a major hurricane. The community gathers and we discuss what still needs to be cleaned up, if there’s anything left after people get started on their own.”

“That makes sense.” Scarlett Island is a tight-knit community after all, so it makes sense that they would all chip in to help each other out.

She continues. “If someone needs an extra hand, then a team gets together to help. Last year, it took almost the entire town to get a tree off Uncle Zach’s restaurant. They had to call a company for a crane.”

“Well, I’d say your family’s house is debris free. We just need to burn the branches. I’ll have to go check on my dad’s house before the meeting.”

“Don’t you mean your house? It’s not your dad’s house anymore.”

Her comment catches me by surprise, and she winces when I turn to face her.

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry. That was incredibly insensitive.” Her face blushes a deep red with embarrassment.

I shrug. “It wasn’t insensitive. I know you didn’t mean anything negative about it. Besides, you’re right. It is my house now, and I should start thinking of it as mine.”

“On that note, I’m going to run inside and grab my keys. I’ll see you at the town hall for the meeting.”

She spins around and jogs toward her house.

I chuckle and shake my head before grabbing the chainsaw to put it back inside the garage.

I say a quick “See you in a few,” to the mayor and his wife before getting in my car and driving the short distance to my house.

That’s one of the perks of living on an island. It only takes a few minutes to get from one end to the other.

I take a deep breath as I turn onto my road. It’s still flooded on this side of the island.

Stepping out of my car, my gaze immediately surveys the damage. Palm fronds litter the front and side yards. The old giant tree in the backyard has been uprooted and is laying half in the water across the dock.

The dock will have to be completely replaced, but it was old and barely holding on as it was, so that loss isn’t too much to bear.

The clean up, brush fire, and pulling the tree out of the water will have to wait until after the town meeting.

I turn around, run inside, and change shirts before heading back out to my car.

Slowly and carefully, I drive to the center of town where the town hall building is located and survey the town’s damage on the way.

Even though it was a category three hurricane, Scarlett Island seems to be lucky, but I haven’t seen the entire island.

Roof shingles and tree branches litter the roads and sidewalks, but from what I can see, there isn’t any structural damage to the town’s buildings.

Following several cars, I park in a nearby parking lot where most of the town has parked.

When I get closer to town hall, I see John standing at an outside podium, looking like the mayor he is with his wife, Elizabeth sitting on his left and Brianna sitting on his right.

This seems a little too formal for a post storm clean up meeting.

Is he planning something else?

A re-election speech, perhaps?

From the growing crowd, I’d say the entire town is here waiting for a town-wide update on the storm damage, and whatever else John has up his sleeve.

He clears his throat to get everyone’s attention. “Good afternoon, everyone. I hope everyone stayed safe during the storm. I did my first preliminary trip around the island, and I’m happy to say that overall, we have been blessed.”

Several people clap and cheer for him as he pauses to gaze around the crowd.

He smiles before continuing. “We have some houses with roofs destroyed and missing, and several large trees are down. It will take a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, but I know we will, once again, come together to help our fellow community members.”

The claps and cheers cause John to pause his speech once again.

With another enormous grin, he continues. “With the sun shining brightly above us, I am hopeful about the future of our town. I’m hopeful that we will continue to prosper and thrive as a community. And I’m hopeful that power will come back on today.”

I never would have guessed that he would give a speech about hope, but I know in stressful situations and uncertain times, hope is all it takes to keep going.

His comment about power coming back on today is complete bullshit, but people are eating it up.

I’m more realistic. With half of the island still under water, we will be lucky for power to be restored in a week.

Besides, the government won’t send help for days and insurance companies won’t pay for months.

We are going to have to come out of pocket for these repairs if we want to continue living in our houses.

When the claps die down, John waves like he’s royalty.

It’s over the top and too excessive. A pit forms in my stomach and suddenly I’m overwhelmed with the feeling that he’s about to say something stupid.

“On a separate note, I want to give my praise to my daughter, Brianna, for being incredibly heroic. Two days ago, she witnessed a break in and an altercation that ended up with a man being murdered in cold blood.”

My gaze meets Hudson’s as several gasps echo around me.

Didn’t the police warn everyone to keep quiet?

He rolls his eyes before returning his gaze to the mayor.

“The murderer and his accomplice are still at large. I don’t know if they stayed in town to weather the storm or if they left before the storm hit. I promise you, the police department is working around the clock to find them and bring the killers to justice.”

Gossip immediately starts up as soon as John stops speaking.

I make my way over to Hudson and say, “Why would he tell the entire town this when they have bigger issues to worry about?”

“Maybe he thinks the town can help find them.”

I lower my voice to a whisper. “I bet they are still hiding out in the old abandoned warehouse.”

“I’ll check it out after the meeting is over. If there’s activity inside, I’ll drop an anonymous tip to the police department.”

“I can come along with you, if you want the backup.” He shouldn’t be going alone, especially since that part of the island is still flooded.

“That sounds great, but there’s a certain blonde that can’t keep her eyes off you. What’s going on with the two of you?”

My gaze meets Brianna’s. “Nothing is going on. She’s working with me to find out what’s really going on here.”

He doesn’t seem to believe me. “Mm-hmm. Sure. I’m not blind.”

I tear my gaze away from hers and continue to search the crowd. Before I can focus on whatever else John is saying, I see the two men from the bait and tackle store.

They are toward the outskirts of the crowd, blending in with their baseball caps and dirt and sweat covered attire.

This likely will not be good.

Their expressions are hard and free of any emotions.

Why would they show their faces in town?

I nudge Hudson and quickly glance at the men. He gives me a slight nod before heading in the opposite direction.

We have to circle around the crowd so they won’t see us coming at them.

I slowly move through the crowd, trying to not draw any attention to myself, but I lose sight of the men.

Shit.