Resurrection in Mudbug (27 page)
Read Resurrection in Mudbug Online
Authors: Jana Deleon
Luc narrowed his eyes. “What other shooter?”
“Jadyn said a shot came from someone behind us in the trees. It took out one of Marcelo’s guys and that’s when we bolted. My vision was too blurred to see anything.”
Luc nodded and turned to Jadyn. “Did you see the other shooter?”
Jadyn froze for a moment, trying to come up with a clever way of answering the question as she wasn’t near as good a liar as Luc. “There was no person back there that I could see.”
Luc looked momentarily confused at her choice of words, then his eyes widened slightly, and she knew he’d caught on to what had happened. “It was probably a local,” he said. “Someone who wanted to help but doesn’t want to be involved. That sort of thing happens more than you’d think, especially in these bayou towns.”
“Well, I hope karma comes back on him in a big way,” Colt said.
Jadyn coughed. Oh, karma had come back on the shooter all right. Just not in the way Colt thought it would.
“So what’s the story here?” Luc asked.
Colt waved down the path to the crypt. “You’d have to see it to believe it.”
As they stepped into the clearing at the crypt, Steve whistled, taking in the three dead men and the pile of caskets. “This is some twisted shit.”
Luc bent over James’s body. “Is that the coroner?”
“Yeah, I’m afraid so,” Colt replied. “He was the middleman.”
Luc shook his head in disbelief. “Were they trafficking bodies?”
“No,” Colt said. “Guns.”
“Damn.” Ryan looked a bit sad. “Seems like we’re always doing the ATF’s job for them.”
Luc scanned the clearing, then looked over at Jadyn, and she knew he was looking for Helena. She inclined her head toward the crypt just as Helena’s voice wafted to them.
“Help! I’m going to suffocate. It’s dark and I’m locked in here with dead people. I’m claustrophobic, for Christ’s sake. That’s why I was cremated and spread.”
Luc rubbed his chin and Jadyn could tell he was trying not to laugh. “So the guns are in the coffins and they were stored in the crypt. And the coroner was the middleman for all this carnage.”
Colt nodded. “Hard to believe. I’ve known the man my entire life.”
“Luc!” Helena sounded again. “Is that you? Get me out of here. I promise I’ll never try to see you naked again. I’ll even close my eyes when you walk into a room.”
Luc coughed. “The job always sucks worse when you know the perp,” he said and pulled out a sat phone. “The state police can secure the area, and I’ll call a buddy of mine with the ATF. We can wait here for the state. Jadyn, why don’t you get this man to the hospital?”
“Absolutely,” she said.
“I’m fine,” Colt protested.
“Dude, I know broken ribs when I see them,” Luc said. “Everyone loves a hero. No one loves a martyr. Go get them wrapped before the shock wears off.”
Colt hesitated before answering and Jadyn could tell he was weighing the desire for painkillers against perceived responsibility. “You’re sure?”
“Positive,” Luc said. “Just leave the keys to the crypt and the gate with me. The cops are going to want both.”
“I love you, Luc!” Helena shouted. “You’re a God.”
As they started to leave, Jadyn stopped in front of Luc, hesitated for a second, then threw her arms around him. “Thank you,” she said.
Steve and Ryan whistled.
“Don’t let Maryse know about that,” Steve teased, “or she’ll have your hide.”
Luc smiled as Jadyn released him. “Jadyn is Maryse’s cousin. I think she’ll be okay with it.”
Ryan raised his eyebrows and gave Jadyn a hard look. “Cousin, huh?” he said to Luc as they headed to the crypt. “Is she single?”
Jadyn waved at the men and started down the path back to the gate. She walked slowly, allowing Colt to progress at a stride that was less aggravating to his ribs. When they got to the truck, she opened the door and he climbed in the passenger’s seat, his face contorting in pain as he pulled himself onto the seat.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
He smiled. “I feel like I’ve been hit in the chest by a space shuttle, but other than that, it’s turning out to be one of the best days of my life.”
She nodded, understanding exactly what he was saying. Never had she been so frightened, so certain that her life was over. Now, every intake of breath seemed a huge gift.
He put his hand on the side of her face. “You saved my life.”
Her heart began to pound in her temples as warmth ran through every inch of her. “You took a bullet for me,” she said. “It would have been rude to leave you there.”
He looked at her a moment longer, his indecision clear. Then he laughed and dropped his hand. “Welcome to Mudbug, St. James.”
Jadyn smiled and closed the passenger door. He’d said the same thing to her the first time he’d met her, but this time, she could tell he meant it. It wasn’t the ending she’d thought she was going to get, but apparently Colt had decided he wanted her to stick around.
That would do. For now.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“Bring more potato chips,” Beau called from the deck as he pulled a stack of hamburger patties from the grill and handed them to Luc, who placed them on the patio table. The smell of onions and pepper wafted by Jadyn’s nose and her mouth watered.
Sabine and Maryse walked out of the house carrying potato chips and a huge pan of baked beans. Mildred refilled everyone’s iced tea and they all took a seat at the patio table. Jadyn looked around the table and couldn’t help smiling.
It was a beautiful Saturday with a nice breeze wafting across the deck. The past week had been a whirlwind of interviews with the state police and the ATF, but it had resulted in more arrests in the arms trafficking ring. Luc, always the practical one, said it wouldn’t make a difference in the big scheme of things as another criminal would simply step into the vacated slots, but then he’d smiled and said something about job security.
Colt had been thrilled with the additional arrests that the ATF made, but Jadyn could tell that the entire thing still weighed heavily on him. So many times that week, she’d started to talk to him about it, but she had no idea what to say. Colt settled back into talk about work and regular Mudbug happenings, and Jadyn decided that’s the way he wanted it, so she let it go.
After Luc rescued her from the crypt, Helena had gone straight to her hotel room and refused to come out for three days. Mildred sent up bath salts and candles every day, and Sabine came by every afternoon to counsel the ghost on releasing the stress she was harboring. Several times, Jadyn thought about exactly what was going on in Helena’s room and questioned their group sanity. Finally, the ghost had emerged refreshed and insisting on visiting Hank. Mildred had arranged the visit and taken her to New Orleans the day before.
Mildred cleared her throat. “Before we eat, I’d just like to take a moment to thank God for bringing you all into my life and keeping you safe. And a special thanks for the newest addition to our family.” She reached across the table to give Jadyn’s hand a squeeze.
Jadyn’s heart swelled as the others cheered and clinked their plastic cups together. She’d thought she was coming to Mudbug for a job.
But she’d gotten a family.
The End
More of Helena’s antics coming late 2013!
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The Author:
Jana DeLeon grew up among the bayous and ‘gators of southwest Louisiana. She’s never stumbled across a mystery like one of her heroines but is still hopeful. She lives in Dallas, Texas with a menagerie of animals and not a single ghost.
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Twitter: @JanaDeLeon
Books by Jana DeLeon:
Rumble on the Bayou
Unlucky
The Ghost-in-Law Series:
Trouble in Mudbug
Mischief in Mudbug
Showdown in Mudbug
Resurrection in Mudbug
(Coming June 2013!)
The Helena Diaries—Trouble in Mudbug (Novella)
The Miss Fortune Series:
Louisiana Longshot
Lethal Bayou Beauty
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Excerpt from Louisiana Longshot
I stepped off the Learjet at the private airfield just before dawn. I’d been on the plane exactly seventeen hours, twenty-six minutes and fourteen seconds, wearing the same eight-hundred-dollar dress I’d worn when I killed a man twenty-five hours earlier. One of my shoes hadn’t made it out of the desert, and I clutched what remained of the other shoe in my right hand and my nine millimeter in the left. Apparently, eight-hundred-dollar dresses didn’t come with pockets or holsters, and I didn’t have the kind of cleavage that made a viable hiding place.
A black Cadillac DTS with limo-tinted windows waited at the end of the runway, so I took a deep breath and headed for the car, steeling myself for the ass-chewing I knew was coming. But when I opened the door and slid into the passenger’s seat, the angry, balding man I’d expected to see was nowhere in sight. Instead, a slightly overweight, fiftyish, African-American woman frowned at me, shaking her head.
“Girl, you are in one heap of trouble,” said the driver, Hadley Reynolds, CIA executive assistant extraordinaire.
“Did he have a heart attack when he heard?” I asked, wondering why the director had sent Hadley instead of coming himself. “I figured he’d be here to run me over with the car.”
“He had a moment there during that phone call when I wondered. His face turned so red, I thought he was going to pop, but then he rushed out yelling at me to pick you up and take you to meet him as soon as you arrived.”
I sighed, my fleeting thoughts of a real meal and decent clothes slipping from my mind. Not only had the plane been stocked with healthy food, it hadn’t contained an ounce of alcohol. “I guess picking up a burger and six-pack on the way is out of the question?”
“It’s six a.m.”
“Not in the Middle East,” I pointed out.
“This is Washington, D.C., not some giant sandbox. Besides, you’re meeting at a café. You can have all the fat and carbs you want.” Hadley looked down at her own plump figure then over at me and frowned. “You know, I rarely ask for anything although I do a lot of favors—and God knows, I’m never going to fit in one of those size-four dresses they put you in—but why can’t you be kind to the shoes?”
I looked down at what was remaining of the Prada shoes and felt a bit guilty. When I’d opened the box containing the shoes at CIA headquarters, I thought Hadley was going to pass out. She’d stared at them as if they were magical. My reaction hadn’t been exactly the same. “I’m sorry.”
Hadley raised one eyebrow.