Rue Toulouse (48 page)

Caterine shuddered. “I thought it was Hyacinth’s dead body hitting me.” She lifted her tear-streaked face, her nose inches from his. “Remi, you sure pick a hell of a time, a hell of a place, and a hell of a way to finally tell me you love me.”

A shaft of moonlight illuminated their faces. With his mouth now a breath away from hers, he spoke so only she could hear. “Trust me, Princess, this isn’t the way I planned on telling you or showing you that I love you more than life itself. But rest assured that when I get you home I plan on telling you and showing you over and over again under more pleasant circumstances. For the meantime—”

“Excuse me, Mr. Michaud, if you could possibly refrain from displaying your affection toward my granddaughter, I would appreciate some assistance out of this vehicle.”

“Grandmère. Oh, God, she’s all right.” Caterine squirmed in Remi’s arms. “Put me down. I have to go to her.”

“I’ll go. Just wait here.” Remi placed her gingerly back on her feet. “You won’t get far on that ankle.”

As he stepped away, he noticed streaks of red on his hands. “Christ, Caterine, you’re bleeding. Where are you hurt?”

Caterine touched her neck where Hyacinth had pressed the knife and felt a shallow cut with sticky drying blood. “The cut isn’t that deep, and it seems to have stopped bleeding.”

He shone the flashlight along her body. “For Christ’s sake, Caterine, your face, hands, and arms are smeared with blood.” He peered closer. “And it’s streaming from your side.”

“Whoa.” She swayed slightly. “I’d forgotten about my side. I thought it had stopped bleeding. I guess moving around started it up again.”

“Damn it, Caterine, hold on to me before you fall.” He shone the flashlight around the area until he spotted a fallen log. He picked her up, carried her over, and sat her down. “What are you wearing under that dress?”

“Petticoats. Why?”

“Let me see how badly you’re cut.” He held the flashlight close to her side. Cursing, he reached under her gown and tore off a long strip of petticoat. He made a thick pad out of the cloth and pressed it to her side. “Hold this tight while I go help your grandmother.”

Caterine smiled. “I don’t think there’s any saving my gown this time. You know, Remi, every time I wear this something inconceivable happens to me.”

He grinned wickedly. “Nothing as inconceivable as the first time, Princess.”

As he stood, all humor left her face and she put her hand on his arm. “Remi, wait. Travis is in the van, and I’m afraid he might be dead.” Her breath caught. “He was stabbed by Hyacinth while trying to save me.”

Hyacinth moaned loudly, rocking back and forth in Bobby’s arms.

“Hush, Mama, hush.” Tears rolling down his face, Bobby brushed his mother’s hair back. “We’ll take you someplace where you can get some help.”

Caterine’s heart broke at the anguish in Bobby’s voice. Ignoring Remi’s instructions to stay put, she rose and tentatively reached out her hand, lightly placing it on his arm. “Bobby, I’m so sorry. I had no idea things were this bad.”

He looked at her with bleak, tear-filled eyes. “I know, Cat. Neither did I. I can’t help but wonder had I been here would this have still happened?”

“Don’t do that to yourself. We have no way of knowing how ill she is and how long this has been coming on.”

“Robert, we’ll see to it your mother gets the best possible care,” Miss Dauphine said as Remi helped her walk to where they stood. “Mr. Michaud isn’t certain how seriously injured Mr. Jenkins is, but one can only hope he’ll live. If Mr. Jenkins survives, whether he will press assault charges is another matter. Unfortunately, we have another problem. Robert, I’m afraid Paulette has lost all sanity as well.”

“What?” Bobby turned to Remi.

Remi sighed. “She’s in the van curled up on the floor around Travis and won’t leave. She keeps saying he’s going to marry her. I’ve called the police.” Remi held up his cell phone. “Someone should be here soon.”

Caterine put her arms around her grandmother and held her tight. “Oh, Grandmère, I thought when Paulette got you with the stun gun she’d killed you.”

Miss Dauphine’s mouth tightened into a thin line. “Whatever that contraption was supposed to do to me, it must not have worked properly. I felt strange for a minute then it passed.”

“The Taser probably wasn’t fully charged,” Remi said. “You’re lucky, Miss Dauphine. I don’t know what would happen if someone your age were to be hit with a full charge.”

“Well, Mr. Michaud, I never intend on finding out. Pray tell me, how did you and my grandson find us?”

“I’m wearing a hidden microphone, Grandmère,” Caterine answered. “Remi was able to hear everything that was going on.” She frowned and turned to Remi. “I didn’t know where Travis was taking us, so I wasn’t able to tell you where we were. How did you find us?”

“Your mike also has a tracking device.” Remi scowled. “What I’d like to know is how in the hell Travis was able to get you out of the house without any of my men stopping him.”

“Travis tased Paul, then told me they had Grandmère. After that, things moved rather quickly.”

“It doesn’t matter how quickly things moved, Caterine, someone should have stopped Travis.”

“Everyone stay nice and quiet,” a voice spoke from the darkness. “Remi, we’ve got you covered.”

“You boys are a little late, aren’t you?” Remi said with irritation. “Come on out. I’ve got everything under control.”

Caterine watched as four large shapes carrying guns materialized out of the darkness.

“We saw you leave. We weren’t that far behind,” Remi’s Uncle Sosa explained.

“Yeah, well.” Remi glared as his eyes moved from Uncle Sosa to Uncle Bernard to his cousins, Philippe and Cecil. “Would one of you like to tell me how Travis was able to get Caterine out of the house and out here to the middle of the goddamned swamp without anyone getting in his way?”

Before Sosa could answer, another voice came out of the darkness. “It wasn’t their fault, Remi, it was mine.” Paul stepped into the clearing. “I was stupid enough to let Travis hit me from behind. Then, while the boys were checking on me, Jules and Markus insisted on knowing what was happening, so we wasted more time filling them in. I told them to stay put there at the house and we’d call as soon as we found you. As we were leaving, we found Jonathan Day coming to on the driveway. I assume that means he also had a part in this?”

The men listened in amazement as Remi relayed the sequence of events as heard through Caterine’s microphone.

“At least we were smart enough to put tracking devices in all of our cars,” Bernard said. “Otherwise, we wouldn’t have found you.”

“I still can’t believe Travis and Jonathan were part of this.” Paul shook his head in wonder. “Who would have thought? Paulette and Hyacinth don’t surprise me in the least, but those two?”

Wailing sirens pierced the quiet night, and three sets of lights could be seen flashing through the trees.
 

“You boys had better put your guns away,” Remi suggested. “We don’t want to confuse New Orleans’ finest as to who the bad guys are.”

Paul saw to the loading of Travis into the ambulance while a medic cleaned and bandaged Caterine’s wound. When she promised to have the cut seen to as soon as possible, the medic reluctantly agreed not to take her along in the ambulance.

After Remi, Caterine, and Miss Dauphine gave statements to the police, Bobby helped his mother and sister into the backseat of one of the cruisers. “I’m going along with Mother and Paulette to the police station.” Bobby turned to Caterine and his grandmother. “I called home and spoke with my dad. I didn’t tell him exactly what’s happened. I just told him to meet me at the station. He didn’t know where Ray had gone, so I’m going to try and get in touch with him as well. Hopefully, he can meet us there.”

Caterine recalled why Ray had left the party and sighed. “Bobby, Ray might be hard to get in touch with. He left the party with two police officers.”

Frowning, Bobby looked quizzically at Caterine. “Why would he do that?”

Caterine bit her lower lip. She wasn’t sure how many more family disasters her cousin would be able to take. She took a deep breath. “It’s all too complicated to go into right now. Just go to the police station, and I’ll try to find Ray for you.”

For a second, Bobby stared into Caterine’s face, shook his head, then bent and kissed Miss Dauphine’s cheek. He hugged Caterine, and got into the front seat of the cruiser. Paulette and Hyacinth sat silent and unmoving in the backseat.

“God knows what will become of those two,” Miss Dauphine said as she and Caterine watched the police car’s taillights disappear into the night. “My heart goes out to Robert for what he’s going to have to face. Now, Caterine, tell me what you didn’t want to tell Robert regarding Ray and the police.”

Caterine hesitated. “Grandmère, you’ve been through enough for one night. It can wait until I know more details myself.”

“Caterine, considering all that’s happened tonight, I can’t imagine anything you told me could be much worse.”

As she debated how to tell her grandmother that Randal might have shot five people, Remi and his uncles and his cousins joined them.

“Bernard and Cecil have offered to take you to the hospital to see if you need stitches, then see that you and Miss Dauphine get home safely,” Remi said.

“What will you be doing?” Caterine asked.

“I have to see if we can get my car off whatever it’s stuck on. If it’s not drivable, I’ll have to get Antoine to tow it to his garage. Hopefully that won’t be necessary. I’ll see you at home as soon as I can.”

Miss Dauphine cleared her throat. “Mr. Michaud, there aren’t words to express my gratitude for all you’ve done to save both our lives.”
 

Remi smiled. “My pleasure, ma’am.”

“Well, Mr. Michaud, since this unpleasantness has now reached a conclusion, I no longer feel it’s necessary for Caterine to reside with you. Therefore, I will be expecting her to come home where she belongs.”

Remi’s expression went cold as his eyes met Caterine’s. “What will it be, Princess? Are you going back to your old home in Audubon Place or your new home with me on Rue Toulouse?” His jaw tight and his gut clenched, Remi watched the indecision in Caterine’s eyes as they traveled from him to her grandmother and back to him.

He silently cursed at his utter stupidity in imagining she’d ever leave her world of wealth and privilege for a simple life with him. The intervening silence grew until, unable to stand there another minute, he spoke quietly to his four male relatives, then walked away into the darkness.

Chapter Forty-Five

“Remi, wait!” Caterine called. The anger, hurt, and betrayal she’d seen in his eyes was like a blast of icy water hitting her in the face. The moment he’d walked away, she knew she’d just made the biggest mistake of her life. Even though she loved her grandmother dearly and understood her responsibility to Ma Chérie, Remi and her love for him had to come first in her life. “Remi, no, please wait. Listen to me.” Caterine started after him.

“Hold on there,
cher
.” Uncle Sosa put a restraining hand on her arm. “That’s one hurt, angry man. I suggest you let him cool down first before you try and talk to him. Trust me, I’ve seen him like this before, and it can be real ugly.”

“Caterine, my dear, it’s best if you let him go.” Miss Dauphine said.

For the first time in her life, Caterine felt true irritation toward her grandmother. She forced a smile and turned to Remi’s uncles and cousins, who looked uneasy and uncertain as to what they should be doing. “Sosa, would you and the others please give my grandmother and me some privacy for just a few minutes? Then I’d appreciate it if one of you would please take my grandmother home and another take me to Remi’s.” At Sosa’s nod, Caterine took a deep breath and addressed her grandmother.

“Grandmère, I love you dearly and I appreciate all you’ve done for me throughout my life, but I also love Remi Michaud. I love him with every ounce of my being, with every breath I take, with every beat of my heart. And if he’ll have me, I want to spend the rest of my life married to him. Now, I hope you can accept that, but if you can’t, I’m sorry. Neither you, nor anyone, nor anything is going to stand in my way of having the man I love.” In the silence that followed her declaration, she stood holding her breath, waiting for her grandmother’s reaction.