Chapter 7
As she had predicted, the man at her first stop, Grady Martin, opened the door of his ramshackle cabin, took one look at Lissette and slammed the door in her face. “Go away. I don’t let murderers in my house.”
“Mr. Martin,” Xavier stepped forward, “I’m Xavier Xander with the Bayou Brotherhood Protectors. Madame Gautier sprained her ankle and can’t make her usual house calls. She sent us with the salve you need for the sore on your leg.”
“How do I know that witch didn’t put poison in it?” Martin demanded. “She might want to murder me as well.”
“I don’t want to murder you, Mr. Martin,” Lissette said to the wooden door. “I won’t come in, but at least take the salve. I didn’t put poison in it. My grandmother made it. I haven’t even opened it. She said for you to apply it twice a day.”
“Get off my property before I call the sheriff,” was Martin’s response.
“I’ll go,” Lissette said softly, “but I’ll leave the salve on the porch. If you don’t use it, at least go see the doctor in Thibodaux. You don’t want the infection to get worse and potentially lose your leg.”
“Don’t need no stinkin’ doctor,” Martin grumbled. “I’m dialin’ 911.”
“Mr. Martin, you might not have heard the weather reports...” Lissette started, apparently determined to pass on the news of the looming storm.
“One more button and the call goes through,” the man called out from behind the door.
“There’s a hurricane headed for Louisiana,” Xavier picked up where Lissette left off. “We might be ordered to evacuate.”
“They’d have to drag me kickin’ and screamin’. I ain’t leaving. Been here all my life. Ain’t no hurricane gonna scare me out of my home,” Martin yelled. “I got dispatch on the line.”
“We’re leaving.” Lissette bent to set the jar of salve on the porch, straightened, lifted her chin and walked back down the dock to where they’d tied off the skiff.
Xavier followed her, noting how stiff she held herself. Martin hadn’t held any punches, calling Lissette a murderer, accusing her of poisoning the salve and threatening to sic the sheriff on her.
He wanted to say something to make her feel better about her first ugly rejection.
All she’d wanted was to deliver her grandmother’s items and warn the man about the storm. At least Martin wasn’t on the list of people whose reliquaries had been stolen from family tombs.
Lissette didn’t say anything derogatory about Martin’s reaction. She climbed into the boat, checked her grandmother’s list and sat patiently while Xavier got in.
The next shack they came to wasn’t much better than the first.
When Lissette knocked, a voice inside yelled, “Come in, for chrissakes. It’s not as if I can get to the door in the next fifteen minutes to answer it.”
Lissette opened the door and stepped out of the daylight into a darkened interior.
A grizzled old man sat in a lounge chair with a wheelchair positioned beside it. “Madame Gautier?” he asked, shading his eyes from the light spilling through the door.
“No, Mr. Romig, I’m her granddaughter,” Lissette said.
“Ah, Gisele, the good one,” he said. “Come in.”
“Not Gisele,” Lissette corrected. “I’m Lissette.”
Mr. Romig’s brow dipped low. “Lissette? Isn’t she in jail?”
“I was, sir, but I’m out on parole.” She crossed to the chair and laid the food on the TV tray table positioned in front of his lounge chair. “Madame Gautier sent food. She wanted me to ask if your daughter has been by to visit this week.”
“How could you be out of jail so soon after trying to kill Bayou Mambaloa’s finest, Shelby Taylor?
You’d think they’d lock you up and throw away the key,” he muttered.
“What judge would allow you to run free to kill anyone else you have a mind to?” His eyes widened.
“Is that why you’re here? Did you come to kill me? What did I ever do to you?”
Xavier stepped up beside her. “Mr. Romig, Lissette is only here to help Madame Gautier since she sprained her ankle. No one is here to hurt you.”
“It’s okay,” Lissette said as she backed away. “I won’t hurt you or anyone else. I just came to fill in for my grandmother while she’s recovering. Also, if the sheriff’s department hasn’t informed you already, your family tomb was vandalized, and the reliquary inside was stolen.”
“Sounds like just the kind of thing an ex-con would do.” Romig scowled at her. “That reliquary’s been protecting my family since before I can remember. You sure you didn’t take it?”
“No, sir. I didn’t take it,” Lissette said. “I came to warn you to be extra careful until they find the thief and return the reliquary to its rightful place.”
“That reliquary was there to protect me from the likes of you. If you didn’t take it, I’ll bet you had something to do with the theft.
What did I ever do to you that would make you wish bad juju on my family and me?
Does my daughter know? Hell, she needs to know.
It impacts her as well as my grandchildren.
Jesus. Who the hell let you out of jail?
We’re all getting along fine. You come back, and everything’s going to hell. ” He waved toward the door. “Get out.”
She sighed. “I’m going. But one more thing.”
“Haven’t you done enough?” Romig flung his hands in the air. “Take yourself and your black cloud of doom with you.”
Lissette shot Xavier a grimace. “I’ll let you tell him,” she said softly, then turned and walked out of the cottage.
“You’re with her,” Romig sneered, “which means you’re no better than that trash. Get out!”
“Mr. Romig, Lissette also came to warn you that there’s a hurricane headed our way. The governor is considering a mandatory evacuation. Do you have anyone who can help you get out before it hits?”
“I’ll get myself out, if it comes to that,” Romig said. “I don’t want you or anyone who has anything to do with that woman anywhere near me. She’s trouble. If you’re smart, you’ll get the hell away from her before she ruins your life like she almost ruined Deputy Taylor’s.”
Xavier gave the man a single nod, turned and walked out of the house.
“And close the door behind you!” Romig yelled.
Biting back the urge to slam the door, Xavier gripped the handle and pulled it closed with little more than a click.
Lissette waited for him in the skiff.
Xavier studied her tense face as he approached and stepped into the boat.
“I’m sorry you had to bear the brunt of his contempt. Don’t take it personally,” she said from behind him. “It’s all really directed at me. Only seven more homes in the bayou, and we can go door to door in town.” She started the engine and pulled away from the dock.
Xavier wanted to say so much, but the noise of the engine and the fact that he was facing away from her would make it impossible for her to hear. Besides, what would he say?
It’s okay.
Those men didn’t mean it.
Give it time. They’ll come around.
The problem was that it wasn’t okay. Fournier and Romig had meant every word they’d said, and they might never forgive her for what she’d tried to do to Shelby. Hell, Shelby might never forgive her for attempting to kill her.
Remy sure as hell wouldn’t forgive Lissette for nearly killing the love of his life, and he’d never trust her.
Still, his chest tightened at the venom the men had spewed at her when she’d come in her grandmother’s stead to deliver food, medicine and information they needed to stay safe.
The next four homes were much the same. A woman chased Lissette off the dock wielding a broom.
A man stood in his doorway, holding a shotgun.
Another woman refused to answer the door but told her to leave the food on the porch and thank her grandmother.
However, she’d go hungry until Madame Gautier’s ankle was better, before she’d accept anything else from Lissette.
By the time she pulled into their last stop, shadows had formed crescents beneath Lissette’s eyes.
Towering cypress trees surrounded the quiet cove.
A quaint pale-yellow cottage with white shutters stood on a knoll.
The low white picket fence surrounding the cottage had honeysuckle vines twisting between the slats.
Lissette killed the motor and let the skiff slide up to the dock. Xavier stepped out and tied the line. He reached down to help Lissette out of the boat.
She stood for a moment with the package to be delivered and stared at the cottage on the knoll.
“I remember the first time I saw this cottage,” Lissette said, her voice barely above a whisper.
“I’d just come to live with my grandmother.
She didn’t want to leave me alone for the first couple of weeks, so she took me out on her house calls. ”
Lissette stared up at the little cottage, a smile curling her lips. “When we came to this house, I thought it wasn’t real. It looked like it was straight out of a fairy-tale book I’d borrowed from the school library.”
She didn’t make a move toward the house. “I told myself I wouldn’t be like my mother, moving from one lousy apartment to another. I was going to live in a house like that one day.” She snorted. “Instead, I went to jail. There must be a lot more to genetics than I originally thought.”
Xavier touched a hand to the small of her back. “You don’t have to be like anyone but yourself.”
“What if you don’t like who you are?”
“Then you can be anything you want to be. It’s all up to you.”
“That’s what I thought. I didn’t like myself.
I see that now. I was hell-bent on being hell-bent.
Now, I want to change, to be a better person.
” She shook her head. “Unfortunately, nobody can see me as any different from the woman I was before I went to prison. Everyone reminds me that a leopard doesn’t change its spots.
” She glanced up at him. “Don’t think I’m feeling sorry for myself.
I deserve their scorn. I did some contemptible things.
You don’t have to come with me. I can handle this house call on my own. ” She started walking.
Xavier caught up with her and matched her pace. “Can’t get rid of me that easily.”