“Actually…” the pirate captain looked at Grace. “Are you ready darling?”
She nodded.
“Aw, ain’t that sweet. She’s your darling. Stop wasting time and get me out of here.”
“I’m happy to remove you fromSweet Dreams.” Luc's smile held cruel promise.
DeLille’s body started to rise into the air. Instead of fright, the older man’s face was open and full of wonder. “Well don’t that beat all? Take me home. Remember the box.”
Luc picked up the box and the valise. “Grace, it’s time to leave.”
“What? You can’t leave,” the grocer screamed, fighting empty air, but his body was floating above the floor, and his struggling didn’t release him.
“Yes, we can,” Grace said, her voice friendly.
The manacles flew at DeLille. He hollered, dropping the gris-gris to lift his arms in defense. The manacles locked around his wrists before he could blink.
Grace raced to retrieve the gris-gris from where it’d fallen.
“Flynn,” DeLille screamed. “You can’t do this. I had the doll. You have to do what I say. You have to take me home.”
“The operative word, there, Mr. DeLille,” Grace said. “Ishad. You had the gris-gris. You don’t have it anymore.”
“But…” he shifted in the air, but remained hovering above the floor, his legs spread wide. He wore a raging pout, like a defeated toddler.
“Grace, if you’ll put the box and that thing in the valise then hold it, I’ll get us out of here.”
“Certainly,” she said.
As Luc lifted her into his arms, she waved at the man who still hung suspended in mid-air. “Goodbye, Mr. DeLille.” She flashed a sweet smile.
They were on the deck of Luc’s ship before Grace could blink. It’d been the same when he’d taken her home from theOnly Loveafter their first kiss. She dropped the valise. “How long will he be in the air?”
“Oh, he fell the moment we left the house.”
“I hope he hurt his head.”
Luc grinned. “Probably.”
“He won’t drown, will he?”
“I can’t say. He’s mobile, despite the shackles, and the horses are still in the stable. He can probably get away if he hurries.”
Either way, they were rid of him and the trouble he threatened would be drowned in the flood.
Chapter Twenty-two
April 18, 1912, Waning Crescent Moon
The Only Love, Mal Chance Bayou
Beneath their feet, the deck shifted. Luc caught Grace as she staggered.
“What was that?” she asked.
Luc grinned out at the rising flood waters. “I think we’re afloat. Come look.”
Taking her hand, he helped her find her sea legs on the way to the ship’s rail where they peered over the side. About two yards of water separated them from shore. The tangle of brush, trees and driftwood that had hidden the wreck of theOnly Lovewas nearly submerged.
