American Heroes Series - 03 - Purgatory (50 page)

Nash chuckled, shook his head,
and followed her back to the ballroom where one pair of kids were playing video
games and the other pair were watching television. It looked, and sounded, like
chaos and above it all, he could hear Penelope squealing with delight at her
mother’s new earrings. He plopped down on the couch between Wolfgang and Shane,
settling in to watch television, something he rarely got to do, when Penelope
turned to him.

“Nash,” she said with hopeful
restraint. “I love my mom’s earrings. Do you think…?”

He cut her off before she could
finish, pointing a finger back towards the dining room. “Go,” he told her.
“Pick whatever you want.”

Penelope squealed happily and gave
him a big hug, so excited that she toppled him over onto the dog.  Wolfgang
jumped off the couch, barked, and then followed Penelope as she ran into the
dining room and down the secret stairs. As Nash righted himself, Elliot sat
down beside him and he put his arms around her, snuggling against her.

With the smell of beef brisket in
the air and the sun starting to set over the Black Bayou, Nash and Elliot settled
down to enjoy the rest of a peaceful afternoon.

***

Nash heard it first, the driving
sheets of rain that come on the outside band of a strong storm. It sounded like
someone was hosing off the roof. Elliot was snuggled up against him, sound
asleep and burrowed deep in their big, comfortable bed. He glanced at her as
the rain began to pound, wondering if the noise would wake her up. She didn’t
move.

Carefully, he disengaged himself
from her and covered her back up with the comforter.  It was actually chilly in
the room, September being unseasonably cool and the incoming storm bringing
even cooler temperatures.  

They were able to have a fire in
their master bedroom fireplace that night for the first time, the embers of
which still burned in the hearth. Nash gazed at the fireplace a moment, the
glowing wood, and thought of the lovemaking they had done before the fire. The
mere memory of it was enough to heat his veins again.

He’d hardly touched Elliot over
the past couple of months because her morning sickness had been so bad. She
hadn’t exactly been in the mood, and he understood, as difficult as it had been
for him to restrain himself.

But last night had seen that
dramatically change and the woman had come out of her shell. Truth be told, he
was a little wary to touch her because he’d never made love to a pregnant woman
before, not even his ex-wife back when she was pregnant with Beck or Shane.
He’d been afraid to and Julie hadn’t cared one way or the other.

But Elliot wasn’t shy about it at
all; she had stripped off her clothing and literally jumped on top of him. Nash
wasn’t hard pressed to admit that being beneath her as she made love to him was
one of the most wildly arousing experiences he’d ever had.  Her gently swollen
midsection drew his lust and he found something supremely erotic about making
love to his wife as his hands caressed her pregnant belly. 

Fertility was a massive
aphrodisiac in his book, and they’d made love three times before she fell into an
exhausted slumber. Even now, as the rain poured and the fire burned low, he was
tempted to climb back into bed and make love to her again.  Pregnancy only
seemed to make her sexier.

But she was sleeping soundly and
he didn’t want to wake her, not even to satisfy a semi-arousal from his erotic
thoughts. So he pulled on a pair of pajama bottoms and quietly opened the
bedroom door, checking the hall door that opened on to the balcony to make sure
it wasn’t leaking before he moved into Alec’s room to make sure his new windows
were holding as well.

He went to all the windows on the
second floor, checking to make sure they weren’t leaking, checking on the kids
to make sure they were okay.  It was just a habit he had.

Alec was asleep with all of his
covers kicked off the bed, as usual, and Shane was snoring so loudly that he
had driven Beck into Elliot’s writing room, where the young man was sleeping
soundly on the couch. 

Nash went into Penelope’s room to
see that one of her windows had a small leak at the bottom because the rain was
blowing in sideways, but it wasn’t critical.  He would be sure and tell his
brother about it, though. Moving out of her bedroom, he glanced over to see
Wolfgang sleeping soundly next to Penelope on the bed.  He was about to shut the
door behind him when he heard his name.

“Nash?”

Penelope’s head came up in the
darkness and Nash paused with his hand on the door. “Why are you awake, honey?”
he whispered. “Go back to sleep.”

“Is my mom all right?” she asked
sleepily.

He went over to the bed and made
her lay back down, pulling the covers up over her. “She’s fine,” he murmured.
“Sound asleep. Why?”

Penelope snuggled down and the
dog shifted in his sleep. “Because she doesn’t like storms. She’s afraid of
them.”

Nash touched her head. “She’s
fine,” he repeated. “Go back to sleep.”

Penelope dozed off and he quit
the room, shutting the door softly behind him.  He made his way back up the
hall and into their bedroom, only to find Elliot sitting up in bed.  Before he
could say a word, she extended his cell phone.

“It rang,” she said groggily.
“It’s Ken Havereau.”

Nash’s brow furrowed with
confusion and some concern as he put the phone to his ear. “Ken?”

“Nash?” Ken was nearly yelling
because there was a lot of noise in the background. “Sorry to bother you, but I
need your help.”

Nash had known Ken for almost ten
years. He didn’t like the sound of the man’s voice. “What’s the matter?”

Ken’s voice crackled through the
phone. “I’m just south of the Sunshine Bridge,” he said. “We’ve got a mess down
here, Nash.  It looks like a tornado touched down on the west side of the river
just east of Donaldsonville then skipped the river and came down again in
Union.  I can’t get a hold of the Matt Jorry; dispatch has been trying to raise
him for ten minutes. These people need help, Nash, and the deputies here are
looking for direction. I know you’re not the sheriff anymore, but….”

Nash cut him off. “I’ll be there
as soon as I can,” he was already up, hunting for his clothes. “Where in the
hell is Jorry?”

He was speaking of one of his
captains who had taken over the office of the Sheriff until the new election in
November. Jorry was an intelligent man and a good cop, so it was surprising
that he wasn’t available during a crisis.  Ken sighed heavily.

“I have no idea,” he said. “We’ll
keep trying. Meanwhile, what do you want me to do?”

Nash put the phone on speaker as
he put it on the dresser and pulled off his pajama bottoms. “I’m assuming
emergency services are already rolling.”

“Yessir.”

“I want a damage assessment and
who rolled where. Watch spreading emergency service thin in case we get another
wave of this storm. Contact St. Elizabeth and Prevost Memorial. Make sure they
can handle the casualties and make sure the casualties you send to them are
distributed according to their work load. I’ll call you in a few minutes to see
if you can give me a better assessment of damage and injury so I know whether
or not I need to call the Governor and ask for state assistance.”

“You got it, Nash.”

Nash hung up the phone as he
pulled on his boxer briefs and his jeans. He pulled a white t-shirt out of the
drawer and was just turning around to look for his shoes when he looked up and
saw Elliot’s expression. 

She was sitting up in bed, the
comforter clutched to her breast as she watched him get dressed. He was struck
by the look on her face, something between sadness and fear.  He went over to
her immediately, cupping her face in his big hands and kissing her mouth.

“I’m sorry, honey,” he murmured.
“They got a mess down by Donaldsonville and they can’t find Sheriff Jorry. They
need help.”

She looked up at him with her big
blue eyes, filling up with tears. “Nash, you promised. No more call-outs.”

She was starting to cry. He sat
down next to her and wrapped his big arms around her. His face was against the
side of her head when he spoke.

“There’s no shooting and no
guns,” he swore. “A tornado touched down and ripped up some people’s lives. Ken
can’t find Sheriff Jorry and he’s looking for help. I can’t turn him down,
honey.  He needs help. Those people need help.”

She wiped at her face, laying her
head against his shoulder as he held her. “Okay,” she whispered. “As long as
there are no guns.”

“I swear,” he kissed her head.
“No guns.”

He stroked her blond hair and
gave her a hug before letting her go and resuming his search for clothing.
Elliot sat on the bed, huddled up in the comforter as Nash pulled on a
lightweight v-neck sweater and dug into the wardrobe they’d built into the
bathroom for his jacket that said “Sheriff” across the back. He came out of the
bathroom, fixing the neck on the jacket, as he bent down to kiss her good-bye.

“Go back to sleep,” he kissed her
again. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

She listened to the thunder
outside. “I can’t go back to sleep if you’re not here. Are you taking your
phone?”

“I’ll be on me every second. Call
if you need me.”

She nodded, trying to be brave
about it. “Okay.”

He stopped messing with the
jacket, eyeing her. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

“I’m sure.”

“If you get really scared, the
boys are all here. Wake them up and make them sit up with you until I get
back.”

She wriggled her eyebrows. “I may
go in and sleep with Penny and the dog.  Wolfgang will protect me.”

He grinned. “Yes, he will,” he
agreed, collecting his keys. “I love you. I’ll be back as quickly as I can.”

“I love you, too,” she said.
“Please be careful. It’s nasty out there.”

He flashed her a smile. “I will.”

She heard his footsteps head down
the hall and down the stairs.  She heard the front door open and close, and then
his car start up in the driveway. Getting out of bed, she pulled on a pair of
loose pajamas, peering out the window in time to see his car drive off down the
driveway in the pounding rain.

Elliot stood in the window long
after car disappeared, feeling very alone and very afraid. As the thunder
rolled, she collected a blanket from the bed and made her way to Penelope’s
room to sleep in the company of her daughter and the big German Sheppard.

Somehow the big lick to her face
from the happy dog made her feel better as she drifted off to sleep.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

It was an odd and moist evening,
the storm blowing in from Texas turning the sky strange shades of blues and
greens. Biffy stood on the crumbling porch of The Bottoms, watching the sky,
feeling the weather change. Tulip, her younger and mostly mute sister, sat on
an old chair behind her, working on some sewing as the sky above turned
ominous.  

As Biffy stood and inspected the
sky, Will and Ed meandered out onto the porch, kicking dogs aside as they
went.  They, too, paused to look up at the sky.

“Y’all know we have a right to
what they found at Purgatory,” Biffy said quietly.

Will nodded, hands shoved into
the pockets of his dirty jeans. “We gave them notice,” he insisted.

Biffy shook her head. “I don’t
mean throwin’ a bottle and drivin’ off,” she said. “I mean that our family was
founded just like their family, by pirates who robbed and raided to get what
they wanted. If y’all think about it, we’re still pirates. We still live by the
law of the wild and we take what is ours.”

Ed was standing on the other side
of Biffy. “We can’t get on the property now,” he said. “They got that big ol’
fence up and there’s electric wires running underground so we get shocked if we
touch the fence. We tried.”

Biffy took her eyes off the
darkening sky and went to sit next to her silent sister. “Back in the day, our
people didn’t stop because of fences or fancy
eee
-lec-tricity.  Nothin’
stopped ‘em.  Our people used the water to sneak up and take what they wanted. 
Yessir.  Did y’all stop to think that we could do the same thing?”

By this time, Nicky had wandered
out onto the porch.  He stood there, listening to the conversation, a type of
conversation he’d heard daily for months.  But this one was different. It sounded
as if his grandma was up to something more than the usual.  

“Do what?” he asked before his
brothers could. “Mam, we need to stop tryin’ to get back at the Aurys. Daddy
tried and it got him killed. We tried and it only got us into jail. We tried to
sue them but that didn’t work, either. We need to quit while we can.”

Ed and Will were looking angrily
at their brother. “Then we have to try harder,” Will yelled at him. “You’re so
‘fraidy, just get out of here.”