His Reluctant Bodyguard (22 page)

And she wasn’t the only one, for Rip turned his head abruptly. So did she, and couldn’t believe her eyes.

A line of women wove their way across the dam. At least they were dressed like women, in native
Benezetian
tiered skirts. But even in the dark, Avery could see their faces were painted with garish white make up. Several of them shook tambourines, and two tapped on small drums held under their arms. As Avery stared open-mouthed, the line of women approached.

"Mama Simone," Rip hissed. "Stay back!"

"Mama Simone?" Avery echoed in disbelief.

But instead of obeying Rip, or even acknowledging that he had spoken, the old woman and her friends circled around them.

At that moment, JB
Pollendene
slid down in Henri’s grasp. In one swift movement, JB pulled a dagger from his boot and sank it into Henri’s thigh. As the young man screamed and fell to the ground, his pistol went flying, and JB
dived
for it.

Rip’s shot went wide, and JB sat up snorting with laughter, pointing the pistol at Henri’s head. Behind him, the semi-circle of women started to chant in a language Avery didn’t recognize at all.

"JB
Pollendene
," Mama Simone called out in a weird guttural tone that was unlike any sound Avery had ever heard. "Throw the gun away." Mama Simone ordered as her companions continued to chant.

JB’s
head jerked up and swiveled toward Mama Simone. Then, as if it were pulled with a wire, his arm straightened and the pistol fell from his fingers.

Holy
moly
! She really is a voodoo priestess!

Avery could see Rip’s mouth hanging open, same as hers. She snapped her teeth together and watched Mama Simone raise her hand.
JB’s
body jerked like a puppet as he rose to his feet.
 

Mama Simone suddenly whirled toward the gate and shouted, "No!"

The four guys at the gate all fell to their knees, grasping their heads in pain. Avery didn’t understand. While the chanting and Mama Simone’s voice sounded strange, it didn’t hurt her head. Rip looked equally confused.

Not JB.

As soon as Mama Simone’s attention shifted, he dropped into a crouch and scuttled crab-like onto the dam.

With a shout, Rip fired at the fleeing man, but the shot went over
JB’s
head. Mama Simone turned toward the sound of the pistol and Avery took that as her cue. She scrambled to the writhing Henri’s side and scooped his pistol off the ground.

"Don’t move!" She brandished the weapon at the four men on their knees.

A moment later, Rip knelt beside her, his pistol also trained on the men.

"Got ‘
em
covered," he assured Avery. Then he nodded at the hapless man on the ground. "See if you can help him."

"Sure." She managed to say, while Rip edged toward the guys at the gate.

Staring at the knife sticking out of Henri’s leg, Avery’s stomach churned, but she took a deep breath and untied her twine belt. As she tied it tightly around the man’s leg above the wound, she saw movement from the corner of her eye. The line of chanting women surged toward the retreating figure.

"Stop, JB
Pollendene
!" Mama Simone ordered in her eerie voice.

Avery craned her neck to watch the bizarre scene play out.

"
Nooo
…"
JB’s
high, thin scream trailed off as his body straightened. His limbs jerked and flailed as if he was fighting not to obey.

The line of women fanned out around him, and with a strangled whimper, he forced his legs to move backward. Obviously struggling to inch away, he seemed determined not to let the women encircle him
,.
Even at a distance, Avery could see him panting and grimacing with the effort.

"The Sage Femmes command you to obey!" Mama Simone shouted while the chanting increased in intensity.

JB shook his head, and backed up a few more inches.

Avery gasped in horror as she saw the heel of his foot reach the edge of the cement.

Jerkily, JB twisted to look and teetered precariously for a moment. Then, with a bark of laughter, he stepped off into nothingness.
 

Chapter 13

As Rip kicked away his adversary’s pistol, Avery screamed. He whirled around just in time to see his cousin JB fall. Abruptly, the Sage Femmes went silent. While Rip sprinted toward them in disbelief, the women seemed to shrink, shoulders and heads drooping. No longer intimidating, they suddenly appeared as a group of tired women. Two or three of them stared over the edge where JB had fallen while several others rubbed at the garish make up smeared on their faces.

A scuffling noise from the direction of the gate made Rip stop and turn back. The four guys dashed toward the encampment. He raised his pistol, but even if it hadn’t been dark, they were already out of range.

"Shit!" Rip exclaimed. He rushed over to where Avery sat beside Henri
Roussellot
, who still had the knife sticking out of his leg. "We need to get out of here! Those guys will rouse the whole camp and they’ll be here in minutes."

When Avery continued to stare wide-eyed at the place where JB had gone over, Rip gently gripped her shoulder. "Avery, sweetheart, we
gotta
get Henri out of here." Then he called out, "Mama Simone, can you help us?"

Before the old woman covered the short distance, Henri began to shake. Poor guy was going into shock. Avery looked like she was, too.

"Take off your shirt,
mon
cher
," Mama Simone ordered Rip as she knelt and tightened the tourniquet Avery had placed on Henri’s leg. "I need it to staunch the blood."

Rip shrugged off his jacket and pulled the stained and dirty white shirt over his head. Mama Simone wadded it in her fist. Then with one swift movement, she pulled out the knife and plugged the hole with Rip’s shirt.

Henri’s moan of pain snapped Avery out of her fog of shock. She rubbed her index finger over the white make up under the old woman’s eye, and then studied the greasy residue.

"I can’t believe you had that kind of power over JB." Incredulity and awe laced her quiet tone.

Mama Simone pulled a small pouch from her waistband, extracted a dried leaf, and shoved it into the wounded man’s
mouth."You
be fine, Henri
Roussellot
." Then she patted Avery’s hand. "Don’t matter what you believe,
cheri
. Only matters what JB believed." She motioned toward the other women. "Claire,
Lisette
…"

The two women knotted their shawls and Rip’s jacket together, and helped Mama Simone carefully roll Henri onto the makeshift sling. When Rip tried to assist them in carrying the young man, they waved him away.

"See to your pretty one," Mama Simone insisted, waving over two more women.

Rip offered Avery his hand. "We need to hurry, Avery. Can you walk?" His shoulder was still tender, but he’d carry her over it if necessary.

But she got shakily to her feet, and stood watching for a moment as the four women and Mama Simone shambled off, carrying Henri. Rip pulled on Avery’s arm, urging her to follow.

"Wait!" she cried out, and holding up her pants with one hand, she rushed to the metal box.

Momentarily stunned, Rip watched her claw open the door and grasp one of the three wheels inside.

"We need to open at least one of these gates!" She panted as she struggled to budge the stubborn mechanism.

The sudden sound of gushing water made Rip realize what she was doing. "Let me!" He pushed her hands aside and shoved the wheel a half turn.

Clutching her waistband again, she ran to the edge and gazed down. "That’s enough! Let’s go!"

He loped over and grabbed her hand, but as they turned to follow the women, the sound of shots came from the direction of
JB’s
encampment. Avery’s mouth flew open, but whatever she said was drowned out by a boom that shook the ground under their feet.

"What the hell?" Rip exclaimed, as he stumbled to maintain his balance.
"A rocket launcher?"

Avery threw herself against him, burying her face in his neck. In the chaotic noises of screams, shouts, and more gunfire from below, Rip heard the sound of a vehicle approaching.
Please, let them be on our side
!

However, he raised his pistol all the same, determined not to go down without a fight. He angled his body so that he at least partially shielded Avery from whoever they were about to confront.

The truck screeched up to the chain-link fence. Its headlights threw their harsh illumination over the whole area where Rip and Avery stood. Rip squinted through the dust motes as a man leaped from the cab of the truck.

"Rip? Avery?" Luc’s voice echoed off the concrete.

Rip’s arm dropped to his side, his pistol falling with a thud.

***

Avery slept all the way back to
Saturnina
. Not even the rough road or the truck’s stiff suspension kept her awake. If she’d been capable of clear thought, she would have realized the sleeping pill was still in her system. But all she could do was loll her head against Rip’s bare shoulder.

When they arrived at their destination, a small hotel at the harbor, she roused enough to let Rip and Luc half-carry her to the elevator and then into the room. She vaguely registered a wide bed with lots of lace and frills, before she collapsed face down on it, asleep again.

She awakened to the sound of running water and a cool breeze brushing her face. Looking up, she saw the ceiling fan whirling over the bed. The power must be back on.

Pale light filtered through the lace curtained French doors to the balcony. As she struggled to sit up, every muscle in her arms and legs protested, and her feet throbbed. Then she made the mistake of looking at them, and they were so filthy she gasped with dismay.

"Avery?" Concern suffused Rip’s voice, as he stepped into the room, clumps of shaving cream still stuck to his face. But when he saw her sitting on the edge of the bed, his smile flashed dazzling white. "Good morning, Sunshine."

Throwing her hands over her face, she moaned, "Don’t look at me! I’m a mess!" She pulled the sheet over her head and waved a hand in dismissal. "Please stop looking and go away!"

"All right, all right.
I’ll go down and get us some breakfast." He disappeared back into the bathroom, but continued to talk to her. "See that pile of clothes on the chair? The owner’s wife sent those up for you."

Avery peeked around the sheet at a stack of colorful fabric and prayed clean
undies
were included. Rip re-emerged and she ducked again, but not before she caught a glimpse of his clean blue jeans and red polo shirt.

"I’ll be back soon," he assured her as he slipped out the door.

Feeling like she was a hundred years old, Avery stumbled into the bathroom and flipped on the shower. The warm water did wonders to revive her and sooth her aches and pains. Shampooing her hair was sheer heaven. As usual, Rip had left a pile of wet towels in his wake, but luckily there were two left for her. She scampered out wrapped in both of them, grabbed the stack of clothes and dashed back just as Rip opened the main door.

"Good news!" he called out. "They found Yvette and she’s okay."

Relief spurted through her veins, followed immediately by concern. She had a hard time forcing the words out and wasn’t sure Rip would even hear her. "What about her brother and
Roussellot
?"

"Thierry’s dead." His quiet reply made a shudder of grief pass through her, even as he continued. "But
Roussellot’s
going to pull through."

The rip-tide of emotions left Avery unsure what to feel. Mechanically she laid the clothes out on the bathroom counter. Wrapped inside the colorful skirt and t-shirt were the tiniest pair of black lace panties and matching bra she’d ever seen. Not exactly what she’d had in mind when she wished for clean
undies
. Dressing quickly, she found a comb and ran it through her wet hair. Finally, she used a diagonally folded face cloth as a hair tie and padded on tender feet into the main room.

Rip greeted her with a wide grin and a steaming cup of coffee. Just the smell made her sigh appreciatively as she sank into a wicker side chair. He inclined his head at a plate of pastries on the night stand. "Sorry, that’s all they had downstairs."

Before Avery could reach for one, a loud rap sounded and Luc entered, smiling even more broadly than Rip.

He handed over her purse and shoes.
"Thought you might like to have these."
Giving a little cry of joy, Avery grabbed them and started digging through her purse while Luc continued talking. "Everything is going incredibly well. The election will happen in a few days. Until we have the results, Rip, you can act in Jean Jacques’ stead since you’re now his closest relative."

Avery paused in the midst of combing her hair into a proper ponytail to ask, "Did you find
JB’s
body?"

Luc’s expression shifted to seriousness and he nodded. "And we’ve moved Jean Jacque into protective care with a nurse as well as guards." At Avery’s questioning look, he explained, "It’s for the best, his mind is gone."