Page 31 of Xavier

Xavier left the boat factory, Remy’s words echoing in his mind. He should have walked away while he could. He could have moved on to his next job, forgotten the dark-haired, mocha-skinned beauty and left Bayou Mambaloa as he’d planned.

Instead, he was marching into the swamp up to his neck with—as Lissette had put it—the most hated woman in Bayou Mambaloa.

Strangely, he suspected they had more in common than she’d expect.

They were both hated.

While Lissette was hated by the entire community, who wouldn’t cut her any slack, Xavier hated himself for his teammates’ deaths. He would never cut himself any slack. The weight of hatred was something he could understand whether self-inflicted or not.

The difference between him and her was that he could never shed his self-loathing. He wouldn’t allow himself to. In contrast, Lissette wanted to shed the burden of the hatred she felt from the community but couldn’t. It wasn’t hers to shed. They both had baggage.

He’d give her one week—make that six days, now. Then he’d move on.

Back in his truck, he drove down Main Street, stopped at Mimi’s Diner, ordered two burgers to go and waited at the bar. It was late for lunch, and there weren’t many customers in the diner.

When Mandy, the new Mimi, came out with his order, he paid and paused. “I heard you had a fire in the kitchen recently.”

“We did. It was the freakiest thing. When I bought the diner from Mimi, I had the electrical system updated.”

“As old as the diner is, it probably needed it,” Xavier said.

Mimi nodded. “This diner’s been around as long as anyone can remember. We put in all new wiring and a breaker box, had it inspected and everything.”

“Was the fire electrical?”

She nodded. “One of the wall sockets that wasn’t even being used shorted out, sparking a small fire. Luckily, it happened a few minutes before I arrived to open up at four in the morning. I smelled smoke as soon as I unlocked the back door. I located the source and flipped the breaker switch that supplied power to it. Thankfully, it didn’t do much damage. I opened the doors and ran a fan to clear the smoke. So, it was breakfast as usual.

“Did you have an electrician check it out?”

She nodded. “There was nothing wrong with the connection, as far as he could tell, but he put in a new box, and it’s been fine since.” She tipped her head to one side. “I just wonder if it had anything to do with the fact my family’s tomb was vandalized.”

Xavier frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I never thought much about Voodoo or protection spells, but when my mother was dying of cancer, she asked Madame Gautier to make a reliquary for our family tomb to protect me after she was gone.”

“And your tomb was one of those that was vandalized?”

She nodded. “I didn’t pay much mind to the reliquary when my mother died. I was grieving and thought it was just a nice thing for Madame Gautier to do, like placing flowers in a grave.” She looked around the diner, her brow furrowing. “But now...”

“Now you think that reliquary was protecting you…?”

Her gaze came back. “I’ve heard others talking. They’ve lost their protection as well, and bad things are happening.” She shrugged. “I don’t know what to believe.”

“I’m sorry about the vandalism.”

“And now, Madame Gautier is out of commission with a sprained ankle.” She sighed. “I just hope that little fire is all the bad luck I’ll get, but it would be nice if the protection reliquary was back where it belonged, or Madame Gautier was up to making another. I just hate to ask when she’s not up to getting around.”

“Doesn’t Madame Gautier have people she’s training to do the same work?” Xavier asked.

“That’s another issue,” Mimi said, lowering her voice. “Gisele is out of the country with Rafael. Holly and Simon went to Atlanta. Neither one of them will be back for at least four or five days.”

“She has another granddaughter, doesn’t she?”

Mimi’s frown deepened. “Lissette?” She shook her head. “I’m all for giving people a second chance, but I don’t know how much she knows about Madame Gautier’s protection spells.”

“Have you asked her?”

“No.” She waved a hand toward the windows. “Now the weather reports are indicating Bayou Mambaloa will be in the hurricane’s cone. Things could get really bad around here.”