Wild Fever (2 page)

The door to the house was thrown open, and Christian walked out followed by Lincoln. They each took a chair, though Christian chose the one farthest from them all.

Vincent didn’t know how close his brother had been to Molly. It was rare that a Chiasson dated anyone from the parish because of the family name. It was even more rare when a Chiasson actually found a woman that he wanted to ask out. But as their father had often said, they had to keep the line going so more creatures could be killed.

“Riley called,” Christian said to break the silence.

Lincoln let out a string of curses while Beau just shook his head as he peeled off the label to his beer.

Vincent looked at Christian to find his brother’s gaze on him. “What did she say?” Vincent finally asked.

“She was checking in.”

“You didn’t tell her about what was going on, did you?” Beau asked.

Christian gave him a droll look. “Do you think I’m that thick? I was in agreement about sending her off. Of course I didn’t tell her anything.”

Vincent scrubbed a hand down his face. He was the eldest, the one who was supposed to keep everyone in line and focused. It had seemed like an easy job when he was younger.

And when their parents had still been alive.

“What’s the plan?” Lincoln asked.

Vincent drained the rest of his beer and looked at the amber colored bottle.
 
“We go back out at first light. We split up and search every inch of the bayou. That thing is somewhere out there. I won’t rest until it’s dead.”

For the next hour, the four of them discussed which sections of the bayou they would each take, as well as individuals they knew they could get to help.

Lincoln was the first to call it a night, and Beau soon followed.
 
Vincent rose from the swing and stood at the edge of the porch staring through the screen to the bayou beyond.

“I didn’t know you had found someone, Christian. I’m sorry it ended the way it did.”

Wood creaked as Christian rose from the chair and came to stand beside him. “I liked Molly. I’d probably have asked her out again, but I wasn’t in love with her.”

“It doesn’t make it hurt any less. You knew her.”
 

“Do you ever wish we had been born to a normal family? The kind that goes to the movies, bails their kids out of jail for buying beer underage, and stays out past curfew on Friday nights?”

Vincent rested his forearm against a wood beam and chuckled. “For most of my life. It’s not easy being a Chiasson.”

“Dad was married and had you and Lincoln by the time he was your age. How long until you marry, Vin? Do you think you ever will? Hell, will any of us?”

Vincent wished he had answers for his brother, but he didn’t. “Let’s focus on one thing at a time. We need to find this creature and see what it is so we can kill it. We also need to go to Molly’s funeral, and then over to Deb’s for lunch on Sunday after church.”

“That’s a lot to do in three days,” Christian said with a hint of a smile. He raised his beer bottle to Vincent before he lifted it to his lips.
 
“Do you really think we can catch this creature?”

“Yes.”

“Always so sure of things. That must make sleeping easier for you. Me, I’m not so certain. This...thing...is quick. It attacks differently every time, and we’ve barely gotten a look at it.”

Vincent ran his thumb around the mouth of his empty beer. “Everything can be killed. Remember that, little brother.”

CHAPTER TWO

Olivia Breaux adjusted her hands on the steering wheel as she took the exit off of I-10 toward Crowley. The closer she got to the small town she had left behind the night of her high school graduation, the more she felt as if someone were sitting on her chest.

She drove through Crowley taking in the sights, and was amazed to find that very little had changed. To her, Crowley had been the “big town”. She hadn’t understood just how small Crowley was until she saw Dallas for the first time.

Olivia had sworn then and there never to go back. Yet nine years later here she was, going home.

With Crowley behind her, the buildings gave way to pasture and rice fields. Life seemed to slow to a crawl in the bayou, matching the movement of the water.

She noticed several new homes built on what was once farmland.
 
Fewer of the fields had rice growing, but other than that, it all seemed the same.

As she drove, her thoughts returned to the life she had once led. It seemed an eon ago, and yet she remembered Vincent Chiasson with a clarity that was startling.

She had always been infatuated with him, doing just about anything to get his attention – to no avail. Vincent, like his three other brothers, kept themselves apart from others.

The only Chiasson who didn’t was Riley. The youngest of the five, she was wild and beautiful – and completely protected by her four older siblings.

Olivia smiled as she recalled a party her senior year where someone had brought Riley. The best part of that night had been when Vincent had shown up to take Riley home.
 

He had looked like an avenging warrior, glaring his bright blue Chiasson eyes at anyone even close to Riley. Olivia would have done anything to have him protecting her like that.

She wondered what he was doing these days. She knew he and his brothers would never leave the area, but after all this time, she was sure he was married with children. And yet, she held out hope that she’d get a glimpse of him, to look from afar as she always had.

Olivia frowned when she saw traffic stopped ahead. With only one main road to and from Crowley, what little traffic there was could get backed up quickly.

She stopped the car and put it in park before she rolled down her window and leaned her head out. There was a group of people standing together and looking farther up the road.

Olivia recognized two of the women, which stopped her from getting out to see what was going on. She rolled her window back up so she wouldn’t waste the air conditioning, and inwardly groaned at her cowardice.
 

She was going to have to face everyone eventually. It wasn’t as if she could live there and not come in contact with others, especially those she went to school with.

With a puff of her cheeks, she blew out a breath and lowered her visor to look at herself in the small mirror. She ran her hand through her board straight black hair and grimaced.

Olivia pulled her sunglasses down her nose so she could see her black eyes as she asked herself, “What do I tell them? Do I just say that I wanted to come back?”

She snorted. “Yeah. That won’t work. The truth? Nah. I’d rather not. I’ll have to come up with something.”

A shriek flew from her lips when someone knocked on her window. She fumbled as she raised the visor, and tried to find the button to lower her window.

“Hey,” Sean Hebert said as he leaned down. He pushed back the Stetson on his head full of blond hair as the sun glinted off the Sheriff’s badge on his chest. “Just wanted to let you know things will be moving along soon.”

“Thanks.” Olivia tried to raise her window in the hopes that she could get away without him realizing who she was.

Unfortunately, he put his hand on the window and pulled down his sunglasses. “You look familiar.” He studied her a moment with his dark eyes, and then suddenly smiled. “I’ll be damned. Olivia Breaux has come back to Lyons Point.”

“Hi, Sean. What’s in the road?” she asked, hoping he would forget any questions he might have. Sean had always been good looking, the guy every girl wanted to date in school – her included for awhile.
 

“Gator,” he responded with a wide smile. “You know how they like to cross this area to the other canal. So, what’s brought you back home? We figured never to see you again? Are you married?”

Here was one question she could answer. “Nope. Not married.”

“Want to go out while you’re in town?”

She pushed her sunglasses back up and forced a smile. “I need to see to a few things.”

“Of course, of course,” he hurried to say. “I know where to find you.”

“Alrighty then.” She rolled up her window when she saw the tail of the gator disappear over the other side of the road. The cars began to fire up and drive away.

Olivia, however, couldn’t move her car since Sean was still leaning against it. He kept smiling as he straightened and patted her hood.

She drove away hoping every encounter would go as smoothly, if not as strangely, but she knew there were old friends who hadn’t forgiven her for leaving. Friends who would love to rub it in if they knew why she had returned.

Her heart was still hammering by the time she turned off the main road onto a dirt road. It was just as bumpy as she remembered, which, oddly, brought a smile to her face.

Cows and horses grazed peacefully in the pasture on her left, while on her right, a new house was being built. How she missed the rice fields. Strange, since she had thought she hated them.

She had to slow the car to a crawl as some parts had slag while others had so many holes she had nowhere to drive. It was thirty minutes later when she spotted the mailbox with the immaculate flowerbed around it.

“I’m home,” she murmured.

Olivia turned in the drive and found herself grinning wildly when she saw the old wooden house on stilts, just as it had been nine years earlier.

She parked her car behind her grandmother’s old Chevy truck and turned off the ignition as she sat there looking around. She could almost pretend that it was the day after graduation, and that the last years hadn’t happened.

Sitting in a parked car without AC in the Louisiana sun was a great way to get heat stroke. Olivia opened the car door and stood.

The first thing that hit her was the humidity. The second was the smell of the bayou, and then her grandmother’s cooking. There was nothing that could match it.

“It’s about time you arrived. Now get on up here,” her grandmother said with a wave of her wooden spoon from the steps of the porch.

Olivia let out a laugh. She might have spoken to her grandmother every week, but she hadn’t seen her in years. Her silver hair was pulled back in a loose bun, and she wore her favorite rose embroidered apron.

She didn’t hesitate another second in grabbing her purse and one of her bags before running up the steps. Olivia paused long enough to look over the bayou and the cypress trees.

With a shake of her head to dispel memories, she turned and opened the door to the screened porch. She didn’t dwell, because there would be enough time for that later.

Olivia hurried into the house. As soon as she entered, all her cares dropped away just as they used to. She shut the door and dropped her bag and purse seconds before she was enveloped in a hug.

“It’s so good to have you home, sha,” her grandmother whispered brokenly.

Olivia felt tears threaten her own eyes as she returned the embrace. “It’s good to be home.”

She hadn’t realized just how much she had needed her grandmother until that moment. It wasn’t just her words, but the woman herself. Her house had become Olivia’s home after her parent’s death when she was seventeen. As horrific as that was, it was as if nothing dared to come near her as long as she was in that house.

Everything changed the day she left Louisiana.

“Now, none of that,” her grandmother said and stepped back to look at her. “You need some rest and food. You’re too skinny, sha.”

“Only you would say that, Maman.”

Her grandmother looked at her with eyes the same black as her own, before she turned to the stove and began to stir something in the pot. “Then it’s a good thing you’ve come home.”

“Yum. I smell gumbo.”

“Sha, as if I’d let you come home and not greet you with proper food.”

Olivia opened the fridge and pulled out a Coke. She sipped the beverage as her gaze caught the loaves of fresh bread on the counter that her grandmother baked every day.

“Anything interesting happen on your drive in?”

“Why didn’t you tell me Sean Hebert was a Sheriff’s deputy?”

Her grandmother’s sly smile said it all. “So, you ran into Sean. He always asks about you when he comes out here.”

“He comes out here?” Olivia asked in shock.

Her grandmother tasted the gumbo and put another pinch of pepper in. “He checks in on me from time to time. He’s not the only one who asks about you. Now, what had you running into him?”

“Gator in the road.”

“Ah,” she said with a nod of her silver head. “That does tend to stop traffic.”

Olivia took another drink as she debated whether or not to tell her grandmother the rest. “Maman, he asked me out.”

“Good, good,” she said with her back to Olivia.