From the moment that bullet went through Danny Bales’ head, Big Boy felt a relief that carried him all the way back to Bluejacket on an emotional high. As he was passing the Bayou Motel, he saw that big black Hummer still parked in front of room 4A and grinned. There was nothing left for her to do but go home. Gossip said she'd buried the body, but had been so scared and in shock that she couldn't remember where. Even if she did find it, there was nothing on a stack of bones with Big Boy's name written on it. It was all good now.

He parked, got out, and strode into the house with his head up and a defiant jut to his jaw.

Sugar was in the kitchen with Ruthie, their cook, and when she saw Big Boy, she frowned.

"Where have you been? Our lunch is all cold and—"

"Hush it, woman. I was out on business all morning. I'm tired and hungry, and I don't want to hear any of your sass."

Sugar blinked. "I'm sorry, honey. I was just worried, that's all," she said, and threw her arms around his neck.

He gave her a kiss and a smack on the butt, then set her aside.

"Ruthie, heat up my food. Whatever it is, it'll be fine. I'm going to wash up."

"Yes, sir," Ruthie said.

Big Boy went to their bedroom, took off everything he'd been wearing, tossed it all into the laundry, and washed up before he put on fresh clothes to go downstairs.

Sugar was waiting for him at the foot of the stairs. She slipped her hand in the crook of his arm and began chattering about the morning she'd had and the sale coming up at her favorite boutique in New Orleans.

Logan wore her blood-stained boots, a pair of Wade's jeans, and one of his shirts back to the motel. She sat in the back seat, listening to Wade and Chief Evans making plans for tomorrow. All she could think about was that there would be no police on her door tonight, and that the killer was still out there, leaving bodies in his wake.

The Chief unsealed the door to her room then went inside to make sure nothing had been disturbed. From what he could tell, it looked the same as the day he'd locked it.

He came back and handed the room key to Logan. "There will be an officer patrolling this parking lot off and on all night, and every night until you two go home. Call me any time if something comes up. I'll bring coffee and doughnuts in the morning. Try to get some sleep."

"Thanks, Chief. See you in the morning," Wade said, then helped Logan into the room and locked the door behind them.

Logan went straight to the little closet and got a pair of shorts and a shirt, then underwear from the dresser and disappeared into the bathroom to change.

Wade didn't know what to make of her being so quiet, but he'd seen her this way before, so he guessed if she wanted him to know something, she'd tell him.

She came out a short while later carrying his clothes and handed them to him.

"I didn't get anything on them, and thank you for letting me wear them out of the hospital."

"You're probably the only woman I know who could have pulled that off. My inseam is 38. You have long legs, my friend."

He laid the clothes on the back of a chair and then couldn't think of anything else to say that wouldn't get him in trouble.

There was a tense moment of silence as they stared at each other, and then Logan handed him her sling.

"Would you help me get back into this?"

He took it, slipped her arm into the pocket, then moved behind her to make sure it wasn't going to rub on her neck as he separated the Velcro strips.

"Can you hold your hair back for a minute while I fasten this?"

She grabbed the length and pulled it over her shoulder as he fastened the strap on the sling.

"You're good to go," he said, and brushed a kiss on the side of her neck, right below her ear. "Remember, Dr. Silas sent some pain pills, plus a prescription, which we can get filled tomorrow. Do you need one?"

She was still struggling with the kiss when she realized he'd just asked a question that required an answer.

"Need what?"

"A pain pill," he repeated.

"Not right now," she said.

"Then why don't you rest a while?"

"What about you?" she said. "There's no comfy recliner in this room. Just two straight-back chairs and a bed."

"There are two sides to a bed, and I will honor my side."

She turned around. There was no guile in his voice or expression. Just Wade being Wade. She finally relaxed.

"Okay, but there are only two temperatures in here. It's either hot or cold, and I opted for cold when I got here."

He pointed to the bed. "There are covers."

He pulled the blankets back and waited.

She moved past him to the bed, then eased down and stretched out.

"I'm tired," she said. "I think I'll rest for a little while. Turn on the TV if you want. I sleep with it on at home all the time."

Wade tucked her in, and then turned on the television and sat down on the other side of the bed, leaned against the headboard, and turned down the volume. He didn't care what was on. He just wanted to watch her sleep.

Connie Bales had held her sixteen-year-old daughter until she cried herself to sleep, and then got down to business.

She called a friend who worked for American Airlines and explained why they needed to get to New Orleans tomorrow. Within the hour, she had two tickets to their destination, and a rental car waiting for them upon arrival. Because these were hardship tickets, the airlines waived the higher cost and also put them first class. The drawback was catching a flight at six a.m., but she was grateful they had one at all.

She and Angela spent the rest of the day tying up loose ends here, and then packing for the trip tomorrow. By the time she finally got to bed, she was exhausted and sad—so sad.

She set the alarm and then fell asleep, only to wake up hours later in a panic, remembering the fight she and Danny had had about that Silverado that wound up being the last straw in what was left of their marriage.

She was too wired now to go back to sleep, and it was only a couple of hours before her alarm would go off, so she made some coffee and cried while she waited, knowing they were going back to chaos.

Josh Evans got a text from Wade Garrett. They were at the motel, dressed and ready to go.

The chief responded to the text with a thumbs up emoji, and left his house pulling a small flat-bed trailer with two four-wheelers on it. He drove straight to Friendly's Grocery for the fresh doughnuts and coffees. Next stop, the Bayou Motel.

There were a half-dozen trail cameras in the trunk of his car, along with an axe and his hand-held radios. He didn't know what all they might need, but he didn't want to be there without it. He hadn't slept worth a damn last night. The murder of Danny Bales had hit him hard. He would never get used to giving people bad news.

When he got to the motel, because of the trailer, he parked at the office and walked down to their room.

It had been a long time since Logan had slept with a man, however innocently. She was far too aware of the body heat, the soft sound of his breath, and the covers stretched over two people instead of one, to get much sleep.

She got up once to go to the bathroom, and when she came out, he was waiting to help her back in.

"You okay, honey? Do you need something for pain?"

"I'm okay, but yes, where are the pain pills?"

"On the table. Get in bed. I'll get them and some water."

She sank down onto the side of the bed, then waited.

He came back, dropped two pills into the palm of her hand, and handed her a cold bottle of water from the mini-fridge.

"Thank you," Logan said, and downed them, then took another long drink of the cold water before handing it back.

He set the bottle on the nightstand, then eased her down onto the bed.

She patted his hand as he was pulling up the covers and closed her eyes.

Wade paused and smiled.

"Thank you, too," he whispered, then turned out the lights and got back in bed.

It took a couple of minutes for him to settle, and then when he did, he fell back into a deep, dreamless sleep.

The next time he woke, it was just after seven a.m. He rolled over to wake Logan, and she was already awake looking up at the ceiling.

"Hey you."

She turned her head and smiled.

"Hey, yourself. I've already showered. Woke up before six."

"Were you in pain?" Wade asked.

"It wasn't that. Just thinking about this morning."

Wade leaned over and kissed her, softly, slowly, and then stopped before it got intense.

"Think about that, instead," he said, then threw back the covers and got out of bed.

Logan's lips were still tingling when she heard the shower come on, then groaned and made herself get up and start dressing. Chief Evans would be here soon.

She was ready by the time Wade came out of the bathroom with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist. She looked up and then groaned.

"You make being a man look damn interesting, Wade Garrett."

He grinned, grabbed some clean clothes, and then started to go back into the bathroom to change.

"Oh, you don't have to do that," Logan said. "I promise I won't look."

Then to prove her point, she got up, pulled up one of the straight back chairs, and sat down in it to watch TV, giving Wade the rest of the room to dress.

He shrugged, dropped the towel, and started putting on clothes, wishing he was taking hers off instead. When he was finished, he sent Chief Evans a text that they were ready, and got a thumbs up in return.

"Chief Evans will be here shortly," he said.

Logan nodded, but she had that faraway look again, and there was nothing he could do to make it better.

They were both staring blankly at the early morning news when there was a series of sharp raps on the door.

"That'll be the chief," Wade said.

Logan stood as Wade let him in.

"Ready?" Josh asked.

When she didn't answer, Wade looked over his shoulder. Logan had her arm out of the sling and was buckling on her holster. They watched her slide the Colt into place, and drop a box of ammo into a shoulder bag before replacing her sling.

"Do you have water, Chief?" she asked.

Josh nodded. "And transportation. Two four-wheelers. It may be a little rough riding out there, but at least you won't have to walk."

"Thanks," Wade said. "Got the room key?"

She pointed. "It’s in the bag.”

Wade picked it up.

"Then let's go," Josh said. "I want to get out of town before anyone notices we're all leaving together."

He led the way to the cruiser, seated Logan in the back beside the box of doughnuts, handed her a tall to-go cup of coffee and a roll of paper towels.

"Knock yourself out," he said, grinning.

"Save some for me," Wade said, and got into the passenger seat beside the chief.

Logan tore off a couple of paper towels, picked up two doughnuts with the towel, and handed them to Wade.

"How many do you want, Chief?"

"Just one for now. I had a bowl of cereal at home."

Josh took the doughnut and laid it on the dash, then started the cruiser and looked up at Logan in the rearview mirror.

"Which way?" he asked.

"You need to be on the northbound highway out of Bluejacket, and once you pass the city limit sign, drive nine miles north," Logan said.

He nodded, and off they went. As soon as they passed the city limit sign, he started watching the miles.

Logan ate two doughnuts and was still working on her cup of coffee when Josh spoke up.

"We just passed the eight-mile mark."

"There will be a blacktop road on your left at the nine mile. Turn left, which is west, and go two miles."

"Yes, ma'am,” Josh said.

Wade kept looking over his shoulder, making sure they weren't being followed, and each time, he and Logan locked gazes. It was obvious to him that the closer they came, the more tense she became.

"Turn here," she said, and the chief signaled the turn, then eyed the speedometer again to mark off two miles.

Wade glanced back over his shoulder again and then caught a glimpse of Logan's face. She looked like someone was driving her to her death, and he didn’t like that.

"Logan!"

She blinked, then focused. "What?"

"Wherever you are in your head, this time you're not alone, remember that."

Her eyes welled. She nodded.

"Coming up on two miles," Josh said.

"I'm watching," Logan said. "Slow down, look to your left...south...look south...STOP! We're there," she said.

The chief frowned. "I don't see a road."

"It's there. I've already walked in. These fences weren't here ten years ago. I don't know who owns this land now, but the fencing was put up after I left."

Evans marked the location on his GPS.

"Give me a few minutes, and I'll find out who owns this." He got out and walked away, punching in numbers as he went.

Logan and Wade sat without speaking, waiting for him to come back.

"Are you feeling okay? Is this going to be too much?" Wade asked.

Logan nodded. "I'm okay, just dreading the inevitable a little, you know?"

Josh came back, opening the door abruptly. "This land is owned by some holding company called Delta Ventures, Incorporated. I'll delve into it more after I get back into town. Right now, I need to figure out how to get four-wheelers in there."

"Cut the wires," Wade said. "I can make it look like someone ran off the road and hit a fence post."

Josh frowned. "I'm supposed to be upholding the law, not breaking it."

"I don't think cut fencing is comparable to murder," Logan said.

Josh couldn’t argue with that. Instead, he opened the trunk of his car to grab bolt cutters, and then headed across the ditch to the fencing. He cut all four wires right up at the fence post, dragged them back into the weeds, then pushed the post over onto the ground.

Logan got as the men began unloading the ATVs.

Wade eyed the ditch and frowned. “That’s too rough a ride for you. Wait here a minute,” he said, and took one across the ditch and came back for her.

"Hang onto me as we cross the ditch. You don't want to slip and fall on your shoulder, okay?"

She grabbed him around his waist, and held on tight as he took her down the ditch and then past the fence line.

Josh locked his cruiser, and was tying the duffle bag full of trail cameras to the back of his ATV as Wade got in the driver’s seat.

"Get on behind me," Wade said, as the chief crossed the ditch in his four-wheeler, and rode up beside them.

“You know where you’re going. Lead us in,” the chief said.

Logan threw one long leg over the seat and settled into the seat, wrapped her good arm around Wade’s waist, and off they went.

It took far less time to make the trip in on the ATVs than it had the day Logan had walked it. The old road became visible when they finally got into the trees, and Wade followed it all the way to the water.

Logan tapped his shoulder.

"Stop here," she said, then dismounted and walked a few yards away.

The chief rolled up behind them and killed the engine.

The heat was palpable. Gnats and flies swarmed the new offering of bare flesh. Wade caught a glimpse of a big snapping turtle sliding off of the bank into the water, and a little farther down, Josh spied a gator barely visible in the water.

"Gator out there," he said, pointing.

"Jesus," Wade muttered. "I keep picturing her here, alone and in the dark, digging a grave."

"What's she doing?" Josh asked.

Wade looked back at her and shrugged.

Josh called out. "Logan, is this the place?"

She nodded without turning around.

Wade didn’t realize until he walked up behind her that she was crying, but when she turned to face him, there was defiance in her stature.

"He died here," she said, pointing down, then she walked over to the grove of cypress with the men following. "I dug the grave here by the light of a full moon. After I was through covering him up, I marked an X on the back of this tree with the shovel blade. It's there. This is the spot."

Wade looked back at the distance between where her brother had died and where she’d buried him and shook his head.

"How did you get him this far?"

Logan's eyes narrowed, as if she was reliving it. "There was a heavy tarp over his tools in the pickup bed. It's where I hid. I took it off, rolled him onto it, and then used it like a sled to drag his body to the grave." She shuddered. "The killer won't know this part. All he knows is where my brother died. You need to set up some of the cameras to catch that view. He'll assume I buried him where he dropped. And it's been ten years, so he won't be expecting to be able to see it."

Evans grabbed a couple of cameras and moved off into the woods, cursing swamp grass and snakes as he fastened them to trees where the killer wouldn't see them, then began working his way around the small clearing, putting up a trail camera every twenty or so yards while keeping an eye out for gators until the site was encircled with the cameras.

"We're done here," Josh said. "Let's get before someone sees us in here."

They loaded up on the ATVs, and this time Evans led the way out. He crossed the ditch and then drove the ATV back onto the trailer.

Logan rode the ATV up out of the ditch with her jaw set, ignoring the pain. But when she dismounted at the blacktop, she crawled back in the cruiser as Wade loaded the second ATV. She was hurting and she was weak, but it was done. She set what was left of the doughnuts into the floorboard and then curled up in the backseat and began taking slow, deep breaths, trying to ward off a growing ache in her shoulder.

Wade leaned over the seat after he got in.“I brought your pain pills.”

“They’ll make me sleepy,” she said.

“So what,” Wade said, and shook two out and handed them to her, watching until she popped them in her mouth and washed them down with water.

“Oh my God, my shoulder hurts like a bitch,” she muttered, then eased back down against the seat.

Josh started the car, and then jacked up the air conditioner as high as it would go so Logan could cool off quicker.

"Are you okay, ma'am?" he asked.

"I'll be fine, just shaky. There's a place a little farther west where you'll be able to make a turn without backing up."

"Thanks," Josh said, and took her at her word.

Sure enough, the blacktop ended at a big, open space, free of fencing or roads. Evans took the turn wide, and the trailer made it with ease.

They passed the place where they'd ridden into the swamp on their way to the highway. The ATV tracks were visible, and, unless someone looked very close, it appeared as if a couple of reckless riders went off the road, knocking down the post and breaking the wire on impact.

Lulled by the pain pills and the hum of the wheels on pavement, Logan fell asleep, and woke up as Wade was about to carry her into the motel. She was too weak to argue.

He laid her down on the bed, took off the gun and holster, and then her boots, before pulling up a blanket.

"I'm okay," she mumbled, and felt his lips on her forehead as she drifted away.