Page 39 of Beau
Beau walked towards the closet and grabbed a gym bag that had been thrown on the floor. He unzipped it and laid it down next to Aurelie’s feet.
Not wanting to stay there any longer than she had to, Aurelie picked through the clothes on the floor and shoved underwear, bras, shirts and jeans into the gym bag. Though her natural inclination was to set everything to rights, the mess was so big she couldn’t fathom where to begin. Once the bag was full, she grabbed a pair of tennis shoes, a nice pair of heels and a couple of dresses that had been thrown out of her closet. She jammed them into the bag and zipped it closed.
“Toiletries?” Beau prompted. “How about that conditioner?” he said with a smile.
Aurelie entered the bathroom, her heart sinking to the very pit of her belly. The mirror over the sink had been smashed, and more spray paint had been splashed across the wall, which had the same message as in the living room.
DIE BITCH!
She tried not to fixate on the message and looked around for her shampoo and conditioner.
The bottles had been upended and emptied across the floor, making it a slippery nightmare. Her makeup, brushes, curling iron and blow dryer lay in the gooey, sticky mess.
Aurelie backed out of the bathroom, shaking her head. “I just can’t.”
“Come on, babe.” Beau took her hand. “Let’s go. We can shop for what you need. The store in Bayou Mambaloa might not have exactly what you need, but they should have enough that you can get by until we make another trip to New Orleans.” He led her out of the bathroom, grabbed the gym bag and kept her moving toward the exit.
Too sick at heart to do anything else, Aurelie left her bedroom. On her way back through the house, she paused to scoop up a fuzzy pillow that hadn’t been destroyed and plucked the photograph of her family off the floor. She hugged them against her chest and gave one last look around before turning away. “I’m done,” she said and walked out the front door.
Beau closed and locked the door behind them.
Why he should bother locking the door, Aurelie didn’t know. The intruder had her key. He could come back whenever he wanted and waltz right in.
“I need to call a handyman to have those new locks installed,” she said.
Beau carried her gym bag to the truck and tossed it onto the backseat. He took the items she had in her hands and laid them on the backseat alongside the gym bag.
Aurelie climbed into the truck as if in a trance, struggling to maintain perspective. It could have been so much worse if she had been at her home when the intruder had invaded. He could have burned the house to the ground.
“Things can be replaced,” Beau said as he got into the truck beside her.
“True,” she said. “The violence of the attack at the château and inside her house worried her.
She wondered how long it would take for her attacker to find her in Bayou Mambaloa. She hoped not soon. In the meantime, she had Beau. She glanced over the console at the man who’d saved her in the bayou like some guardian angel, who’d appeared when she’d needed him most. How lucky she was he’d come along when he had?
Beau didn’t like the idea that he couldn’t tell Aurelie that her father had hired him. It tied his hands and made his job even harder. He needed to make phone calls to his team to get them working on background checks on the people in Aurelie’s life. Beau sat for a moment, tapping his fingers against the steering wheel.
“What are you thinking?” Aurelie asked.
“I’m thinking I need to get my cousins to keep an eye on your place,” Beau said. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to make a stop.”
“Please,” she said. “I’d appreciate any help I can get.”
“Have you been to Thibodeaux Marina?” Beau asked.
Aurelie shook her head. “I haven’t had that much time to get around to all the places in Bayou Miste. The only people I’ve really met are Ben, Lucy, Alex and Ed. I’m very involved in my father’s philanthropy, so I’m on the road a lot. I’ve been to the general store in town a couple of times and wandered through a festival, but I’ve always been in a hurry. I guess I need to slow down long enough to meet more of my neighbors.” She grimaced. “I had all good intentions of doing that after the masquerade party.”
“Well, when this is over, I’ll introduce you to the rest of the clan.” Beau turned off the main road and drove down a side street. “For now, I need to speak with my cousin Ben.”
“How does he fit in the Bayou Miste hierarchy?” she asked.
Beau grinned. “He’s number one of nineteen.”
Aurelie’s brow wrinkled. “And Alexandra?”
“Number two,” Beau said. “Ben married Lucy, the granddaughter of Bayou Miste’s infamous voodoo queen. Lucy is a sweetheart. She has a twin sister named Lisa. You might want to avoid that one. She’s been known to cause trouble. Although, I think I heard them say something about her having moved to Atlanta. Aunt Barbara said all of Bayou Miste breathed a sigh of relief when she left.”
“Why?”