Bayou Dreaming (Butterfly Bayou 3)

Marcelle shrugged. “Well, I was going to give you a discount.”

Delphine winked and pulled out some red plastic cups from her bag. “Works every time. And it’s not really champagne. It’s rum punch. Champagne sounds classier.”

“Hey, maybe we shouldn’t around the deputy,” Marcelle said under her breath. “She’s the mean one.”

Roxie sat up straighter. She wasn’t the mean one. Mostly. “Give me some.” Damn it. She could really use a drink, but she hadn’t been smart enough to change. She’d done what she always did when she went out in public. She’d used her job like a shield against everything. “Actually, save some for me. I’m still in uniform.”

Delphine gave her an approving smile. “I’ll do that for you, baby girl. You don’t talk bad about my new baby, Marcelle. She’s only going to be mean to the other people now.”

“She’s not mean, Momma,” Sera argued.

Roxie was genuinely amused. Being a part of the Guidrys would be a complete change from her own family.

Who were still here, lurking about in the shadows, waiting to bite her in the ass.

“All right, everyone get settled,” Sylvie announced. “We need to get down to business at this emergency meeting. I’m going to open the meeting with a statement from our task force leader, Zéphirin Guidry.”

“That’s my baby,” Delphine shouted with pride.

“Momma, please,” Zep begged quietly.

She couldn’t help but giggle a bit at the sight of his gorgeous face twisted in pure agony as his momma told him to keep going.

Out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of another child who was totally embarrassed by a parental unit.

Ashlyn Travers wasn’t sitting with her mother. She wasn’t sitting at all. She was standing at the back of the auditorium with a handheld camera.

Roxie leaned over to whisper a question Lisa’s way. “Do you know if they always film these things? I hadn’t noticed it before.”

Lisa glanced up as Sylvie was talking about the rash of calls the government was getting. “Not that I ever noticed. Must be a school project. I heard they had an AV Club going at the high school. They’re learning how to edit and put together films. Some of the kids were in a couple of days ago talking about how you can even record whole movies with your phone these days.”

Wasn’t that interesting?

She settled back as her mind started putting pieces together.

She might be able to make this meeting work in all their favors. And Delphine might actually need that champagne because she intended to give Zep some real choices tonight. All she had to do was make her move.chapter elevenZep wished he’d thought to change out the water bottles with beer. Or rum. He was going to need it to get through this meeting. Not only was his mother out there treating him like he was graduating from preschool, but he had to deal with the Q and A portion of the evening.

“Has anyone considered that this could be the government? We all know they have some crazy experiments going on.” Herve owned the auto repair shop and way too many trucker hats. The one he had on today proclaimed that Shrimpers Do It With Grit.

Armie snorted and sat back, leaving it all to Zep.

He’d made his statement. That had been the easy part. His prewritten speech had been plain and clear. There was no mystical predator running around. Yet he was still answering the rumors. “There are no experiments going on. There is no rougarou. At Archie’s place, the goats got spooked by a dog in the woods. What happened at Dixie’s place was kids fooling around. There is absolutely nothing to be worried about.”

Sue Nelson, who worked for the post office, moved to the microphone. “That’s easy for you to say. You weren’t at my place last night. Something was watching me. I was in my backyard and I saw a flash of light from the woods behind the shed. And I could hear something moving.”

“I looked at the police reports from last night,” he offered, deeply aware that he was being filmed for some kind of high school film project. He’d questioned Sylvie when he’d seen the blond girl from the other night with a camera. He definitely didn’t want to fumble this and end up as a meme. “The deputy who handled the complaint saw no evidence of any large animal in the area.”

“But that deputy isn’t even from here,” Sue argued. “Deputy Blanchard is good at all the normal police stuff, and he is very nice to look at.”

“Sue, we have talked about this,” Armie interrupted. “You cannot objectify my deputies.”

“Well, I’m only doing it to the really good-looking ones,” Sue shot back. “Maybe you should hire some less attractive men. And I would like you to know I don’t objectify you at all, Armie LaVigne. Not since you gave me that ticket for parking in a perfectly fine spot.”