Bayou Dreaming (Butterfly Bayou 3)

“I can find out. Are you worried it was a person and they might have jumped the fence?” Roxie started moving to the back, passing the small firepit and chairs.

“Yeah. The only thing I can think of that would walk on two legs would be a bear. We don’t have bears this far south. I’m worried someone was creeping along back here.” He had his own flashlight out.

That was when he heard a whisper.

Roxanne had obviously heard something as well because she held up a hand, fist closed. He’d seen his brother do the same thing, a military gesture requesting quiet. She pointed her flashlight down and nodded his way.

There were multiple footprints in the dirt, and it was easy to see that some of the bushes had been disturbed. A couple of branches were bent or broken.

“Shhh.”

He frowned because that had come from behind the fence.

“You’re squishing me,” a feminine voice said.

Roxie pushed through the bushes and hopped up to the middle brace of the wooden fence. “Hello, girls. How is it going tonight?”

Zep pressed through the branches to join her, the fence creaking only slightly at their combined weight. He looked over the top of the fence, and sure enough, there were two teen girls huddled behind a small shed. They were dressed in pajama bottoms and hoodies, each looking like they were ready for bed but also not. He would bet anything the parents in the house had no idea that the slumber party they were hosting wasn’t slumbering at all.

“All right, kids, it’s time to talk,” he said.* * ** * *

The trouble was they hadn’t had any time to talk. Roxanne reflected on her problem twenty minutes later as they stood in Hannah Belton’s family kitchen, her parents frowning the whole time. Hannah and another teenage girl sat across the table, the light from the overhead lamp reminding her of a spotlight in some overdramatic interrogation scene. Hannah and Ashlyn Travers were supposed to have been working on a class project.

“How are you going to give your report in the morning?” Mrs. Belton pointed a finger her daughter’s way. “You’ll be far too tired from playing around all night. I knew this was a mistake. This is why you’re not allowed to have sleepovers on weeknights. Ashlyn, what is your mother going to think when I tell her that you were out in the middle of the night?”

She kind of wished she could have conducted this interview without all the parental help, but that’s what happened when dealing with teens. The parents were always more freaked out than they should be.

She’d snuck out several times when she was a teen. It was a minor rebellion that usually led to uneventful nights. But she did have some questions. “How long were you out in the backyard?”

Hannah had been crying since the moment they’d looked over the top of the fence. “Not long. I needed some fresh air and we were actually doing part of this project for school.”

Ashlyn hadn’t shed a tear. She was definitely the tough girl of the two of them. “I was getting some footage for a multimedia project we’re working on. I needed some video of the moon, and it wasn’t out tonight until later. I dragged Hannah into it. Mrs. Belton, we finished everything we needed to do. The report is one hundred percent ready to go. You can read it if you like. It’s all my fault. I should have waited, but the full moon only lasts three nights.”

She was a cool customer. But there was something missing. “How long had you been out there?”

“I don’t know.” Hannah answered between sniffles. “Not long.”

“You were supposed to be in bed.” Mr. Belton decided to get in on the action. “Not getting into trouble with the cops.”

“I didn’t think I would get in trouble with the cops.” Hannah started to weep again.

“I don’t think the deputy is going to haul you to jail. Mr. and Mrs. Belton, Hannah’s not in real trouble. She didn’t do anything illegal, right?” Zep was sitting to the side, but his voice oozed calm and reason.

If only he could be as reasonable about their relationship. Their non-relationship.

She’d hurt him and she hadn’t meant to do that. She hadn’t once considered the idea that she could hurt him. Zep Guidry let the world and all its problems slide off his back one hundred percent of the time. She should know since most of the time she was there when Zep got in trouble. Other people would fight her and call her names as she was arresting them. They would argue and give her hell. Not Zep. He would simply slide her a sexy smile and ask if she needed to frisk him. Or something equally obnoxious.

Or he would be calm and quiet. When she thought about it, he’d only said the obnoxious stuff once right after their night together. Had he been flirting with her? It had been two nights after they’d slept together, and she remembered he’d had the sweetest smile on his face when she’d walked into the bar where the fight had taken place. According to the witnesses, Zep hadn’t started it, but they’d decided to take everyone down to the station.