Chapter Twenty-Five
Trey
Though he’d never been one for PDA, once Trey had Callie with him again, he was having a hard time letting her go.
They were in the same conference room where he and the others had met earlier. Only now, he and Callie were side by side on the lumpy sofa, Bobby and Charlie were seated at the table, and Sissy Barbier sat sipping a Coke in a metal chair.
“I really am sorry about my dad,” Sissy said, not for the first time. “I had no idea he was so desperate.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong, Sissy,” Callie assured her. “And I think your dad is—well, maybe not at his best right now.”
“That’s one way of puttin’ it,” Bobby said dryly.
“He could have killed you.” There was no hint of softness in Trey’s voice and he didn’t care.
He was a long way from feeling any kind of pity for Frank Barbier.
Not only had he destroyed Callie’s property and terrorized her, he’d almost managed to kill the producer lady, Louise Goodnight, who it turned out, was diabetic and had nearly gone into ketoacidosis because she hadn’t received her necessary dose of insulin.
And on top of all that, he’d set his daughter up to take the fall for the so-called hauntings in the St. Ignatius library.
Sissy paled at Trey’s words, but before he could apologize, her rescue came from an unexpected source.
“She can’t control what her father does, Uncle Trey,” Charlie said sharply as he moved to stand by the girl’s chair. “And it’s not cool for you to make her feel worse than she already does.”
Beside him, Trey felt Callie nod. “You’re right, Charlie. It’s not Sissy’s fault.”
And now Trey felt like the bad guy here.
But he’d only just found Callie and to realize how close he’d come to losing her today had been a gut punch.
Especially when he considered just how lucky he’d been to have her enter his life at all.
Still, Callie and Charlie had a point. It wasn’t the girl’s fault her daddy was one baby short of a king cake.
“I’m sorry, Sissy,” he said, wrapping his fingers around Callie’s. “I was just scared today. Callie could have gotten really hurt. But they’re right. It’s not your fault, it’s his.”
The girl nodded, but still seemed uncomfortable when Charlie led her out of the room muttering something about the snack machines.
Almost as soon as the door shut behind them, it opened again. Alex walked in, looking slightly less grim than he’d been earlier. “Just got off the phone with the hospital in Lafourche. The producer lady—uh, I mean Louise—is gonna make a full recovery.”
“Thank heavens,” Callie said with a gusty sigh of relief.
“You’re the one responsible for saving her life,” Alex said with a pointed look.
“If you hadn’t managed to get taken by Frank, I don’t know if she’d still be alive.
Not necessarily because he wanted to kill her, but he was so far beyond noticing her condition, I’m not sure he’d have realized she was really ill until it was too late. ”
Trey didn’t think Alex’s words were all that funny, but Callie laughed. “I wouldn’t have thought about it in just that way, but I guess you’re right, Detective. Though I hope I won’t need to get kidnapped in order to save someone’s life again anytime soon.”
“One of my guys questioned her on the way to the hospital, by the way,” Alex added, turning serious again.
“It turns out that Miss Goodnight wasn’t exactly on the up and up with Frank from the get-go.
She thought getting close to one of the local businessmen would make folks around here more likely to agree to go along with her plans for the reality show, so she seduced Frank.
But when Khaki refused to get on board, she decided to go back to New York and work on something else.
But apparently Frank couldn’t let go of the idea of getting the windfall from bringing in a production like that.
So he convinced Louise to come back to the island so they could keep seeing each other, and in the hopes they could eventually change Khaki’s mind.
Apparently, he’s got a gambling problem nobody knew about and he owes money to some real sharks in New Orleans.
And it didn’t help matters that according to Sissy, he’s got also got undiagnosed mental health problems that run in the family. ”
“Poor Sissy,” Callie breathed out, and Trey squeezed her hand. “Where’s her mother? Frank said something about his wife being troublesome. But he didn’t really elaborate.”
“She’s remarried and has a new family and couple of younger kids up in Shreveport.
” Alex scanned his notes, “Apparently, Sissy stayed with her daddy ’cause she didn’t want to change schools.
Though according to her aunt who lives on the island, it might also have something to do with not being crazy about the mother’s new husband. Poor kid can’t catch a break.”
“We’ll do what we can to help,” Bobby said from where he’d been listening quietly to all the updates. “It looks like Charlie’s friendly with her. And Lord knows Tricia loves to take in a stray.”
“I’ll do what I can too,” Callie said with a nod.
“We will,” Trey said emphatically. And Callie gave him a shy smile, then repeated, “We will.”
“That’s about all from our end for a while,” Alex said with a nod.
“We’ll get our information to the DA’s office in Terrebonne and I’m sure they’ll want to talk to you, Callie, if they need you to testify to the grand jury.
But for now, y’all can go get some rest without fear of any weird noises or ghost business. ”
“I like the sound of that,” Trey said with a yawn as he and Callie stood and moved to follow Alex and Bobby out the door.
Once they’d said their goodbyes to Alex and thanked Charlie and Bobby for their help in resolving things, Trey led Callie out to his jeep and helped her in.
He waited until they were on the road to the library before he said, “Callie, I don’t know if I’ve ever been more scared than I was when I figured out Frank had taken you. I don’t ever want to feel that way again.”
They weren’t holding hands anymore, but at his words, she reached across the center console and gripped his hand in hers.
“And I don’t know when I’ve been more relieved.
” She lowered her own alto to mimic his lower register and said in an exaggerated New Orleans accent, “Callie, you can stop now. I gotcha.”
He laughed. “I don’t sound like that,” he said a little defensively.
“Oh, you one hundred percent do,” she teased. Then she added in a softer, sweeter tone, “But I like it.”
“I got more where that came from, sugar,” he said, hearing how much lower his voice had gone and not giving a good God damn about it. “A whole lot more if you’ll have me.”
She rubbed her thumb over the back of his hand and Trey was pretty sure it was the sexiest touch he’d ever felt in his life.
“I can’t think of anything I’d like better,” she said with a grin. “Though there’s one problem.”
At that, he felt a drop in his gut. What now? Did she have to go back to Cincinnati? Was there somebody waiting for her back there? Hell, was she married? A woman this gorgeous and smart didn’t get to her age without a serious relationship.
Keeping his manner calm even while his heart was beating with trepidation, he asked with studied nonchalance, “What’s that?”
“You’re going to have to share me,” she said seriously.
“Oh my God, there is somebody else,” he muttered. “Look, we’ll figure it out.”
“I hope so,” Callie said, her voice serious. “Because Stella can be very clingy.”
“Ste—” Trey shook his head in acknowledgment of the hit. “You’re gonna pay for that, Madam Librarian,” he said as he stopped the car behind the library and put it into park. Looking over to where she sat grinning at him, he thought he’d never seen anyone more beautiful.
“Is that a promise?” she asked a little breathily, her eyes lit with mischief.
He pulled her close and leaned his forehead against hers. “You better believe it, darlin’. You better believe it.”
“I do,” she said with a grin before kissing him until they were both breathless.
Then, pulling back a little to smile up at him, in that husky voice that sent every one of his senses on alert, she said, “Let’s go home.”