Chapter 15 #3
The wind howled through the hole in the roof and ripped off another sheet of tin, sending it crashing through.
“Watch out!” Remy yelled.
Men scrambled out of the way as the sheet dropped to the concrete floor.
“We have to get out of here,” Remy said above the screaming wind and rain pounding against the tin of the remaining roof.
“It’s too late to go back,” Xavier said. “There’s a bunker somewhere. We have to get to it.”
Lights blinked out, the only illumination coming from the flashes of lightning.
Flashlights blinked on around the room.
“Find the bunker,” Remy called out. “And hurry. This building’s coming apart.”
Another roof panel was blown away, and the sides of the building swayed.
Lissette’s grandmother caught her arm. “I know where be de bunker.” She turned and picked her way toward the back wall, as spry as any younger woman.
Xavier unclipped a flashlight from his belt and shined it in front of the older woman.
Lissette followed, confused by the fact that her grandmother wasn’t limping on her sprained ankle.
She led them to a heavy steel door and pulled the handle toward her, revealing steps leading upward. “You go first with de light,” she said to Xavier.
He led the way up the stairs into a concrete bunker large enough for the entire team to get in with room to spare. Shelves lined one wall with a variety of supplies, including battery-operated lanterns, blankets, canned foods, bottled water, MREs, hand saws, axes and more.
The last one to enter, Remy studied the shelves and the thick, concrete walls. “Benoit built this bunker for just such an event.”
“Let’s hope it’s waterproof or high enough off the ground we won’t drown in the storm surge,” Anton said.
Remy held up the satellite phone. “No signal in here. Good thing I called Shelby before I stepped in. I let her know we were sheltering in place until the storm was over. Swede has our location.” He glanced toward Gerard.
“Bernie is with Shelby, Jean-Luc and Lucas in the bunker at our headquarters. Electricity is out all over town; they’re running on generator power. ”
Anton plucked a lantern off a shelf and turned it on. The others powered off their flashlights.
Gerard passed out blankets, and everyone got as comfortable as they could on the concrete floor, settling for the duration of the storm.
As Lissette helped her grandmother get comfortable, Remy looked across at her.
“Thank you for what you did for Shelby and Jean-Luc.”
Lissette nodded. “She’d have done the same for me.”
Remy’s lips curled in a soft smile. “She would. She’s a good person, always looking out for others.” His gaze met Lissette’s. “I’m beginning to believe you have the potential to be the same.”
Lissette held Remy’s gaze for a long moment, her eyes burning with unshed tears. “I hope I don’t disappoint you and Shelby.”
He shook his head. “I have faith that you won’t.”
“Do you think she would vouch for me when my parole officer comes after me for being outside my boundary?” She tipped her head toward the ankle monitor.
Remy grinned. “I know she will. That ankle monitor is how we found you and your grandmother.”
Lissette smiled at her grandmother. “I’m glad. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you and your team hadn’t arrived when you did. I was out of ideas to keep étienne’s attention.”
“He was going to kill us both,” her grandmother said. “After you completed de reliquary.” The old woman’s mouth twitched. “I’m not sure what you did, but you did it well, mon cher. De flaming ending was inspired.”
Lissette grinned. “I learned from the best.”
Her grandmother chuckled and stretched out on the floor, closing her eyes.
Lissette sat on the floor next to Xavier.
He leaned his back against the wall, wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close. “You left.”
“I had to come alone,” she said.
“I looked around, and you were gone.” His arm tightened around her. “It gutted me.”
“I didn’t want to leave, but I had to,” she whispered.
“You made me realize I’ve been chasing a place to call home.” Xavier shook his head.
“And?”
“And home isn’t a place,” he said. “It’s people who make it home.”
“Amen,” Remy said.
“Amen,” echoed around the bunker.
Lissette settled against Xavier, closing her eyes. The storm raged around them, but they remained safe, cocooned in the bunker.
She must have slept because the next time she opened her eyes, someone had opened the door. Cool, fresh air filtered into the bunker.
Xavier wasn’t next to her.
She sat up and made her way down the steps to stand next to Xavier. The steel door opened onto a lake bathed in moonlight.
Nothing remained of the metal building, the stacks of crates holding the stolen reliquaries, and the men who’d died defending their mafia boss.
Also gone were the boats they’d arrived in.
“Shelby and Swede know where we are,” Xavier said. “They’ll send someone out to get us.”
Lissette leaned into him. “We’re not lost.”
“No,” he said. “We’ve found our way home.”
Lissette raised her wrist to the moonlight, a smile spreading across her face as her spell echoed in her memory. It had worked after all.
Bring the lost home
Where they belong.