“We do this far too often,” Taggart complained. “I hate hospitals. Why do I get called to them all the damn time?”

Lisa looked up from her chair in Remy’s room. She’d spent the early morning hours going back and forth between rooms in the small hospital. Remy’s surgery had been simple. Zep’s had not. Eight hours of complex surgery had been required to remove the bullet and its fragments from close proximity to his spine.

It had been a long night, but they’d all breathed a sigh of relief when Zep had come out of anesthesia and managed to wiggle his toes.

Delphine and Sera were sitting in his room, holding hands and thankful it hadn’t been worse. She’d been dozing when Texas had invaded.

“Maybe you need to hire people who don’t get shot,” Mitch said as he strode through the door.

Will merely walked in and started looking at Remy’s chart. “Has he had a CT? From what the police report said, he landed pretty hard a couple of times. For that matter, Lisa needs one, too.”

Oh, no. “You are not in charge here, Will. You don’t even have privileges in this hospital, so don’t think you can order up a battery of tests. I’m fine. Remy’s fine now. And he took that bullet for me. He made sure I was in front of him when we were running away from the hired killers.”

“That wasn’t merely my job.” He brought her hand to his lips. “It was my privilege.”

Will set the chart down and she watched the moment he gave up the fight. His face flushed and he strode over to her, holding his arms open. “Thank god you’re alive.”

She got up and let her brother envelop her in a hug. “Only because of him. And because my family hired him. By the way, you hired him to save me, but he’s really awesome in bed. I think I’m going to keep him.”

Will groaned but he was smiling when he pulled back. “I did not need to know that.”

“I think it’s the other way around,” Remy said, reaching for her again. “She’s not only the most beautiful woman in the world, she’s also the best manager. I’m the one who’s keeping her. And Will, that money was a loan. We’re going to pay you back.”

“No, it was an investment in my sister’s future,” Will corrected. “And I told you it could be a wedding gift. I am going to assume there will be a wedding.”

“Don’t expect a big thing.” She didn’t want to wait months and months. “We’ll go to the justice of the peace.”

Remy’s head shook. “Not once my momma and Seraphina find out. But don’t worry. They can plan something fast. I think you’ll discover the whole town wants to be in on it. We don’t let a reason for celebrating get by us down here.”

She was going to marry that man. She was going to be a part of this town and this family.

“I believe this means everyone owes me,” Taggart said. “I took the way under on that bet. Which is a good thing because I got bills, man. Charlie wants to send the girls to school and that involves all sorts of expenses. Do you have any idea what school supplies cost? I say put one pack in the center of the kindergarten room and let them fight it out Hunger Games style.”

Lisa was glad he wasn’t the head of the education department. “You scare me.”

Taggart’s whole face brightened. “Thank you. That is the nicest thing anyone has said to me in forever. You know, it’s like people think because you’re the king of the world you don’t need a few compliments.”

Remy groaned and let his head roll back. “Will someone give me the rundown of what’s happened? Were you able to connect any of the dots I gave you?”

Even as they’d prepped him for surgery the night before he’d been on the phone with his boss, explaining everything that had happened, telling him everything he knew.

“Your sheriff is apparently a rock star,” Taggart replied. “While you were getting all prettied up for surgery, Armie LaVigne wrapped his bullet wound up and oversaw that crime scene. He had pictures for me within hours, and Adam found our two dead guys a couple of minutes after. Hutch worked some magic and connected our federal prosecutor to the wiring of fifty K each into the dead guys’ accounts. He’s in custody and singing like a soon-to-be incarcerated bird.”

Will shook his head. “Bridget is completely and utterly insufferable now. She was right about everything. She heard the news and she hasn’t stopped fist pumping. I’m worried for the baby. Her mother’s self-satisfaction could ruin her before she’s even born.”

“I think we should learn to always believe Bridget,” Mitch said with a sigh. “I’m just saying, she needs to go into crime fighting.”

“You think she’s going to be difficult to deal with? Maia Brighton is currently polishing her collar because she’s got me by the balls,” Taggart replied. “I’m going to find her the nastiest Dom I can and pray he can keep her under some kind of control.”

Lisa was starting to understand. “Vallon wasn’t merely laundering for the mob, was he?”

“Nope,” Taggart replied. “When you turned him in, you also turned in a judge and prosecutor who were taking bribes to ensure good verdicts. All of Bridget’s crazy pregnant lady conspiracy theories were true. We think Scarsdale has been working this for years along with the judge and a few members of law enforcement who helped direct things.”

“You caused some chaos because you called in to the police tip line. The police started investigating and Scarsdale couldn’t stop it once it had begun. You started a snowball that caught all the bad guys in it as it started to roll downhill,” Mitch explained. “The best Scarsdale could do was force the officer who wasn’t on his payroll to break the chain of custody so he could try to get the case thrown out on lack of evidence. He sent someone to her home to cause some chaos and then made sure she got the call when she was supposed to be driving back to the station. An officer who was on the payroll then took the pages that had Scarsdale’s accounting.”

“Unfortunately for him, that page also included the account number for an assassin known as Il Biondo.” Taggart leaned against the sink. The whole room was filled with large predators, but somehow Lisa had never felt safer. “You do realize almost no one in the world has seen the man’s face and lived. He’s the real deal.”

“He told me he has a code,” Remy said. “As far as I can tell, he meant it. He could have taken her with him last night, but he didn’t.”

“I had Hutch and Chelsea look into him. And hack some highly classified sites,” Taggart continued. “We believe Il Biondo is a former operative of AISE, Italy’s version of the CIA. We believe his legal name is Giovanni Vorenus. He comes from a wealthy Venetian family whose history apparently stretches back almost forever, according to the lore. Anyway, Gio was the last of his name until he married and had a son. That’s where things go poorly. He returns from an assignment only to discover that his wife and son have been killed. He disappears the next day and resurfaces a year later with a dye job and a new business.”

“That’s terrible,” Lisa said, her heart softening toward the man who’d tried to kidnap her.

“But it explains a few things. He wasn’t going to harm you. He wanted the account number, but he didn’t intend to kill you.” Remy laid back. “He could have taken me out or left me for dead. He could have taken Lisa with him last night. I wouldn’t have been able to stop him.”

Taggart nodded. “Does he have what he…” He put a hand out. “I don’t want to know. Just tell me if he’s going to come for her again.”

Remy shook his head. “No. He’ll honor his word. Don’t worry about him. Our business is done.”

It wasn’t, but Big Tag didn’t need to know it. If Big Tag knew they were meeting Il Biondo on Friday, he would likely send out a ton of people to protect them both and scare off the man. Remy wanted this over with and Lisa agreed. It was time to look to the future.

There was a knock on the door and her sisters were there. They’d both made the trip, hurrying to get to her, and she realized that miles couldn’t change her family. Laurel rushed in, but Lila hung back. If there was one thing she’d learned, it was that family required work and tolerance, too.

She looked at her oldest sister and waved a hand to bring her in. “Lila, please come here and hug me. I’ve missed you and I’m so sorry about some of the things I said to you.”

Tears in her eyes, she joined them, wrapping her arms around her sisters.

“I’m sorry, too,” she whispered. “I was totally wrong about Remy. He’s a good man. God, we owe him so much more than money. I don’t know why I was hard on him that day except I was being arrogant and I thought I knew best.”

“She does that a lot.” Laurel smiled, her head dropping to Lila’s shoulder.

“I broke up with Brock. Laurel told me he’d been making you both uncomfortable. I didn’t listen before, but I am now. I was holding on to something that didn’t work because I so desperately want what my siblings have,” Lila admitted. “Please forgive me.”

Lisa hugged her sisters tight. “There’s nothing to forgive, but you have to be nice to my fiancé and you can’t be all snobby around his family. Or the customers at my new establishment. Or the gator. I’ve heard Otis can be sensitive about stuff.”

Lila’s eyes had gone wide. “Please tell me you’re joking. At least about the alligator.”

Taggart was shaking his head as he stood next to Will. “You seriously raised all that estrogen?”

“How I survived I do not know,” Will admitted, but he was looking at them with an indulgent smile. “But if you ever need parenting tips on the teen years, I could write a book. Your number one job?”

“I know this one,” Tag said, holding up his hand. “Keep ’em off the pole.”

“Gotta keep ’em off the pole,” Mitch said with a frown. “Laurel, we’re never having girls.”

Laurel winked Lisa’s way. They would see about that.

She settled in next to Remy as her family talked around her. They had one last job to do and then she would be free.

 

* * * *

 

The morning air was almost cool as they shifted from the bay to the river, then turned off into the bayou. Darkness was all around them and the big cypress trees rose from the waters, shadowy figures that looked altogether different at night. At night the trees seemed to reach out for her, arms grasping.

“Hey, there’s nothing out here that’s going to hurt you,” Remy said as he turned the boat down some path she couldn’t detect. “You’re free out here. No one’s going to ever lock you away.”

She took a deep breath, letting the air around her remind her that she was with Remy and this was part of their home, one she intended to explore. Nothing would hold her back from making this place her home. “Thanks for letting me come with you.”

“I wouldn’t if I thought you were going to be in danger, but you deserve to be with me. This is our life, not merely mine,” Remy said. “Besides, this is one of my favorite places in the world. I want to show you. I think it’s a fitting place to start.”

“To start?”

He looked back and she could see him as the world around her began to brighten slightly. Civil twilight. Not quite dawn. “To start everything. I was wrong. I was scared before, scared of screwing things up, scared of not being enough for you. But all I have to do is love you and be a good partner to you.”

She moved in behind him, resting her head against his back. “You are everything to me.”

“And I’ve been waiting for you since I was a child, waiting to find the other half of my soul,” he said. “This is another part of my soul, chèrie, and I want to share it with you.”

The boat bumped slightly as they ran aground, and she could see they’d made it to what looked like an island in the middle of the bayou. Remy tied the boat to a tree stump and then helped her out with his good hand. She jumped the last of the way, landing in a small clearing.

“Zep and Sera and I would come out here this time of year. Always at dawn because there’s nothing like it,” he said.

“Nothing like what?”

In the low light, she watched him smile. “Wait for it. We’ve got a few minutes. We can conduct our business and let our friend be on his way.”

“Asking me to leave so quickly?” Biondo’s voice came from the other side of the small island.

Remy stepped in front of her like they were in the presence of a predator. “We just want to move on with our lives. I need to know this is over.”

The man known as Il Biondo stepped from behind one of the massive trees, coming out into the clearing. “If I get what I need.”

Men. They were making this super dramatic. She moved from behind Remy, holding her hands up to show she didn’t have anything in them because…again with the overly dramatic men.

“Thank you for what you did at the wharf. We would be dead if you hadn’t shown up.” She walked right up to the beast.

“Lisa,” Remy said under his breath.

She gave the assassin her most brilliant smile. “Can I give you a hug?”

Biondo stilled, the question seeming to completely stump him. He looked over at Remy. “Mr. Guidry?”

Remy sighed. “Go on. She’s a hugger. You’ll hurt her feelings if you don’t.”

The Italian seemed awkward as he patted her on the back. She squeezed the man, willing him to feel how grateful she was. How long had it been since he’d had a kind hand on him? Had it been since his wife and child died?

“Thank you so much for saving us,” she said.

He cleared his throat and stepped back. “I was only saving myself. You have the account number where I can access my money. Money is necessary to my lifestyle, and I don’t merely mean to buy clothes. Money protects a man like me.”

She pulled the account numbers out of her pocket. They were written on a pink sticky note and she’d finished it off with a heart. “Here are the four I remembered. I don’t know which is yours.”

“I can figure it out from here and move the money quickly,” he said with a long sigh. “Then you can be as honest as you need to be if the time comes for you to testify. It won’t matter because I’ll be gone and so will my money. The rest will be sitting there to help incriminate whoever needs to be. I’ll lay low after I do what I need to do.”

“So this might not be over.” Remy reached out for her hand, tangling their fingers together.

“I promise you this is finished, Mr. Guidry,” Biondo said solemnly. “I will handle everything from here. If the wheels of justice don’t move quickly enough, it’s up to men like me to hurry things along. No one will come after the lovely Ms. Daley. She was trying to do something right and good. That should not be punished.”

“Thank you, Mr. Vorenus.”

He stopped, going still again, but not in any kind of an awkward way. Nope. This was the predator Remy was worried about and she didn’t have a death wish.

Remy moved in front of her again. “She has no intentions of telling anyone.”

His eyes came up and there was such a chill there for a moment, and then it seemed to pass. His shoulders relaxed and a reluctant smile crossed his face. “Mr. Taggart, I presume. As you haven’t brought a law enforcement team with you, I assume it was for his curiosity alone.”

“The boss is a curious man, but he also knows what it means to have a job to do,” Remy replied. “Ian’s got his own family connections.”

“Yes, the Denisovitch Syndicate. He’s an interesting man, your boss. As long as he understands the world is not so black and white, we will be fine. You know it’s been a very long time since someone said my name. Funny thing, my name. Where I come from it’s attached to many interesting stories. Perhaps you will vacation one day in Venice and hear about how my family was descended from a vampire. Take the ghost tour and if I am in town, I will show you my city.” He looked around. “You know, I’m really more of an urban assassin. Next time we meet perhaps it will be more civilized. Arrivederci, sii felice.”

He walked off and disappeared in the trees. After a moment she heard a boat motor turn over and he was gone.

Remy took a deep breath. “I can believe that man is descended from vampires.”

Lisa wrinkled her nose. “They don’t have babies, and now you sound like your momma. I have to say I love that my future mother-in-law thinks she can vanquish demons with sage and some Latin that I’m pretty sure she doesn’t even understand what the words mean.”

Remy pulled her close. “Latin? I’m fairly certain she made that shit up. God, Lisa, I’m glad you’re here. Don’t ever leave me.”

She let her head find his chest. “Never. It’s you and me and possibly Otis forever.” She laughed, but the truth was they had battles ahead. “I know Zep is doing okay, but we have to help him get back on his feet.”

“And we will. I promise. I’m going to make sure baby brother is back to normal. It’s time we were a family again.”

She held him for a moment longer, but then she yawned. This place was…very bayou. And they could seriously be home in bed. One of Remy’s second cousins was opening Guidry’s for them for a week so Remy could recover. They could be in bed, cuddling, maybe having some very careful, don’t-pull-the-dude-who-got-shot’s-stitches fun. “This place is nice. Let’s head home. I want to spend some time showing my sisters around town.”

He sighed, a long-suffering sound. “Will you be patient? There’s a reason I brought you out here. It’s the perfect time of year.”

“The perfect time for what? Is Otis going to make an appearance? We’re in the middle of a swamp, Remy. I’m a little worried about your wounds. There have to be like a million bacteria running around here.”

He chuckled. “I’ll try to avoid swimming. Now be quiet. I don’t want to scare them. It’s almost time.”

“Time?”

He turned her around and held her close. “Dawn’s here. Look at that light coming up. Be quiet and listen to me. Did I ever tell you that when I’m out here the words in my head… Well, they’re never louder than they are right here.”

Okay, he was right about that. The world was suddenly orange and pink and red, the sun coming up and lighting the world with energy and hope. All around her, day rose from the bayou, lifting the world with it.

“Do you know why we call it Papillon Bayou, my love?”

She was watching the colors as they revealed the beauty of the world around them. The forest. The water. The greens and browns all waking up, all saluting the new day. There would never be one just like this. This day was unique and special, as were the days before and the ones that would come after. Her future spread before her filled with light and love, struggle and triumph, and most of all this amazing family built from both blood and those she’d chosen. “Because it’s so beautiful?”

“Nothing is more beautiful than you, ma crevette. And we’re going to work on your French. Say good morning, Lisa. Or as we say it, bonjour.”

She gasped as she realized what he was talking about. They weren’t alone. Not even close. They came from out of the ground, from the branches of trees where they’d hidden for the night, from under logs and rocks. They rose with the dawn, their wings spreading as though joy had suffused each small creature.

Butterflies.

Her world filled with wonder as thousands of the things took flight, ready for the day. They took off, circling for a moment as though saying hello or dancing to greet the sun before they swept up and scattered, taking their beauty to the world.

“Papillon means butterfly,” Remy said, wonder in his voice. “I wanted to share this with you. I’ve been here with my brother and sister, but never a woman. The next woman I bring out here will be our daughter. This is their migration time. Every year they come back here. They always know their way home.”

His arms were around her and there was only one more thing that could make this perfect, that could bring them closer. “Tell me what’s going through your head right now, Remy.”

“Here,” he said, whispering the words in her ear because they were meant for her alone. She’d figured that out. Those glorious poems that ran through his head were for the two of them. “It is here we rise. Here on this spongy earth, where water and land mingle. Here, where the trees rise from the bayou and not flat dirt. Here we are born. Oh, our story might begin somewhere else, the once upon a time happening in a kingdom of concrete and neon. But happily ever after starts here. This is where two decide to become one. Where that odd one will multiply to three and four. Where the whisper of soulmates starts a new generation. Here on this soil, this soul we share, here where the butterflies live—we begin.”

Tears blurred her vision, but she didn’t need sight. She rested her head against his chest and let those words of his fill her soul as the butterflies danced around her. She could feel their beauty as they welcomed her home.

Butterfly Bayou was a magical place.