Page 35 of Beau

“You are insisting on accompanying me everywhere and staying at the cottage; you might as well keep the key,” Aurelie said. “That way, when I can go back to my own cottage, you can return the key to your mother.”

“Fair enough,” Beau said. “I’d suggest going to a smaller town, but we’ll probably have a better selection and quicker service if we go into New Orleans to get the phones.”

“Agreed,” Aurelie said. “I need to check in with my father. My abrupt departure from the masquerade ball last night probably has him worried.”

“Then, New Orleans it is.” He locked the door behind them and walked with her out to the truck.

Aurelie looked around the cottage and out toward the bayou. “This is a nice place,” she said. “It just needs some updating. How many acres did your mother say came with the house?”

“I think she said ten acres.” He glanced around. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to look behind the house. It’ll only take a second.”

“I’d like to as well,” she said and followed him as he rounded the outside of the building.

The back of the house had another wide deck with a porch swing hanging on either end. A stone walkway led down to a dock with a small boat tied to one side. The dock appeared to be in fairly good condition, if slightly weathered.

“Mr. Pearson must’ve had the dock reworked in the last few years,” Beau said. “I wonder how Elise knew about it. I suspect my young sister is a bit of an adventurer and finds her way around the bayou.”

“I like her.” Aurelie smiled. “She appears to be full of grit and sass.”

“Sass is a given when it comes to Boyettes.” Beau grinned. “I hope I get to know her better now that I’m back home. I joined the army when she was little. So, I missed out on most of her life.”

“Like you said, now that you’re back, you can make up for lost time.”

Beau nodded. “If she lets me in. After all, she’s a teenager.”

“You are very fortunate to have so many siblings.”

“I didn’t think so growing up,” he said. “Peace and quiet were not in our cards. But it was nice to know they were there for my folks when I left. There’ll always be somebody here to help my mother and father.” He glanced her way. “Ready?”

“I am.” Aurelie walked with him back to the truck and climbed in.

Soon, they were on their way to New Orleans. Traffic wasn’t bad, and they made it to the cell phone store in under an hour. Fortunately, the store was able to set them both up with new cell phones and transfer all their data.

As soon as Aurelie’s cell phone was up and running with the old phone number, multiple texts came through, and she had several voice messages. She started with the voice messages. Three of them were from her father, who was worried that she wasn’t answering her phone. He wanted an update.

While Aurelie checked her messages, Beau listened to his. After one message, he turned and walked a few steps away from her to place a call. He spoke softly into the phone, where she couldn’t make out his words or who he was talking to.

Aurelie chose that moment to respond to her father’s voicemails using the callback number. His phone didn’t ring but went straight to voicemail. He was probably on the line with someone else. She left a brief message telling him she was fine and that she’d call him again soon.

She dreaded looking at her text messages. After all that had happened, she knew for sure there would be more from her tormentor. She drew a deep breath and touched the icon for her text messages. Three of them were from her father, demanding she call back immediately. Two of them were from the contact she’d been using to get information about a certain corporation that was suspected of dumping toxins into the Bayou. The last text message was the one that made her gut knot.

YOU SHOULD BE DEAD

Her pulse quickened. Heat rushed up her neck into her cheeks. “Bastard!”

“What’s wrong?” Beau appeared at her side.

She held up her cell phone with the text message.

“Bastard,” Beau said.

Aurelie chuckled. “My thoughts exactly. Are you all caught up?”

“I am,” he said.

“I’d like to head back to Bayou Miste,” Aurelie said. “We can stop by the sheriff’s office for an update on the damage done to my house. Hopefully, he can find out if the sheriff near Gautreaux Château made any headway through the video footage from the security cameras.”

“I have a friend with connections in law enforcement,” Beau said. “I can have him check on the sheriff’s office that’s looking at the video footage from the château. That way, we can focus on Bayou Miste and the damage done to your house.”