Rue Toulouse (46 page)

“Give me the damn thing,” Jonathan said. “I’ll knock the bitch out.”

“I’m not as dumb as you all think,” Travis said as he pressed the stun gun against Jonathan, smiling as his body fell slowly to the ground. “Caterine will not be hurt.”

Limp with relief, Caterine lay on the van’s steel floor, watching Travis slam the door shut and the brightly lit windows of the mansion—and their chance of rescue—disappear before her eyes.
The gate
, she thought. To leave they had to go past the security gate. It would be her chance to get help. As she was about to rise and throw herself into the front seat, Paulette spoke.

“Well, Miss Perfect, you’re not so superior now, are you?” Paulette gave Caterine a vicious kick in her side. “Stay down, you little whore.”

Caterine grunted in pain. She knew they had to be close to the guardhouse and the gate. When she tried to get to her knees, Paulette grabbed a handful of her hair, jerked her head back, and slapped her hard across the face.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for years.” She sneered. “You know what else, whore?” Paulette bent down inches from Caterine, a menacing smile spread across her face. “I’m going to love watching every minute as your unconscious body sinks slowly into the swamp. Imagine that, precious Caterine Doucette is going to be alligator bait.”

Caterine fought back tears of fear and pain as she felt the van turn onto St. Charles. Her chance to alert the guard was gone. Where were Remi’s men? The cameras should have picked up Travis leading her down the outside stairs. She had to think clearly. It might be up to her to get Grandmère out of this because, by God, she wasn’t going down without a fight.

Caterine realized she hadn’t heard a sound from her grandmother, and her gut clenched in horror. Had they already killed her? Searing anger temporarily replacing her fear, she shot off the floor and backhanded Paulette with such force it knocked her backward off her precarious seat on an empty paint bucket, slamming her head hard against the metal wall of the van. “I’m going to kill you if you’ve hurt Grandmère
.
”

Her flaming rage fueling her, Caterine grabbed for Paulette. They kicked, scratched, and punched as they rolled around in the confined space.

“Travis, give me the goddamned Taser!” Hyacinth screamed.

Caterine had just landed a hard blow to Paulette’s nose when she heard a weak voice call her name.

“Caterine, please stop. I’m here. I’m alive. They’ve got me back here.”

Breathing hard, Caterine untangled herself from Paulette and brushed her hair from her eyes with scratched and bleeding hands. She scrambled through the dark interior toward her grandmother’s voice and found Miss Dauphine wrapped in a blanket, lying on the dirty van floor. She ran her hands along her grandmother’s body. “Grandmère, are you all right? Have they hurt you?”

“Except for my throbbing ankle, I’m fine.” Miss Dauphine’s voice shook slightly but sounded strong. “I foolishly believed Hyacinth and Paulette when they told me they had you and they’d kill you if I didn’t come with them. Tell me, did they harm Annabelle?”

“I don’t know. Remi left me with Paul and went to check on her. That’s when Travis got ahold of me.”

Caterine heard her grandmother sigh. “What part that young man, or Jonathan Day, have in all of this is beyond me. Now, please get me out of this blanket so I may sit up and address this situation.”

Before Caterine could explain Travis’ forced compliance, Hyacinth’s shrill voice cut through the darkness.

“What are you two whispering about back there? Don’t think you have a chance of escaping.” Hyacinth left the passenger seat and knelt next to a sobbing Paulette. When she spoke, each word dripped scorn. “You’re going to pay for hurting my little girl, Caterine . . . you and your bitch of a grandmother who’s treated me like the dirt beneath her shoes from the day I married her
precious
son.

“But you know what,
Miss Dauphine
? I get the last laugh because once you and your perfect granddaughter are dead and Charlotte is sent away for her nasty drug addiction, the pride of the Doucettes will belong to my daughter. How do you like that? Ma Chérie belonging to my daughter—not your dear dead son’s little girl, but
mine
. Do you understand what I’m telling you, you old crone?”

“I understand perfectly well what you’re saying, Hyacinth,” Miss Dauphine replied, her cultured voice dripping with contempt. “You’re telling me you’re nothing more than the gold-digging little tramp I always knew you to be. As far as Paulette’s paternity, you’re mistaken if you believe your confession is a surprise to me. Markus has always been gullible and naïve when it came to scheming women with pretty faces.

“This idea of yours that killing both Caterine and myself will somehow bestow ownership of Ma Chérie upon your daughter again displays what little intelligence you possess. Do you honestly imagine I would allow someone not of my blood to own it? If Caterine hasn’t changed the will, it states quite clearly that upon my and Caterine’s deaths, ownership goes directly to my legitimate grandson, Robert Doucette. At least you did manage to produce one honorable child, although as my son is his father, perhaps that accounts for Robert’s ethics. Breeding does tell in a person. Now, I can’t imagine Robert would wish to inherit Ma Chérie by the means of our murders, so I would suggest you stop this nonsense and tell Mr. Jenkins to turn this vehicle around and take us home. Killing us will gain you nothing.”

As her grandmother verbally lashed Hyacinth, Caterine was aware that Travis had left the highway and was slowing the van down to a crawl. Fear again clutched at her chest. She could see nothing but impenetrable darkness through the windshield. When Travis brought the van to a complete stop, Caterine began to shake. Was this it? To her surprise, Travis jumped from the van. The only sounds inside now were Paulette’s soft whimpers. What was Travis doing? Before Caterine could think of a way to escape, he was back.

“I opened the gates,” Travis said as he climbed back into the van. “Should I close them behind us?” Getting no answer, he drove on.

Suddenly, with a scream straight out of a horror film, Hyacinth lunged for Miss Dauphine. “I won’t let you win, you crazy old bitch!”

Instinctively, Caterine rose, throwing herself toward Hyacinth, blocking her from her grandmother. As their bodies connected, Caterine felt something sharp rake across her side.

“I’ll kill you first, you little whore. Then your precious grandmother can watch as piece by piece I feed you to the gators.” Hyacinth’s deranged laugh echoed between the metal walls as she plunged the knife toward Caterine’s chest.

“No, not my lovely Caterine. You can’t hurt her.” Travis, sobbing, slammed on the brakes and dove between the two front seats toward the struggling women. In his haste to save Caterine, Travis tripped over Paulette’s outstretched foot, hurling him into Hyacinth and knocking her off balance.

Caterine grabbed her grandmother, just managing to pull her out of the way of the two falling bodies. She heard Travis let out a brief cry, then for a heartbeat the interior of the van went silent.

My God, she’s killed him,
Caterine thought, seeing Travis’ limp form inches from where she sat. Then her grandmother let out a low moan.

“Dear God, Caterine, you’re bleeding.”

In the dashboard’s faint illumination, Caterine followed her grandmother’s eyes to the red stain seeping through the tear in the side of her gown.

“How badly are you injured?” Miss Dauphine asked.

Now that she was aware of the stinging cut, she had to swallow back sudden nausea. “It’s not that bad. Don’t worry, Grandmère, I’ll be fine.”

“This situation has become intolerable,” Miss Dauphine said. “Hyacinth, I demand you take Caterine and myself home immediately.”

A triumphant smile spread across Hyacinth’s face. “Oh, you do, do you? Well, Miss Bitch, for once you’re not going to get your wish. For Christ’s sake, Paulette, stop that sniffling. Find the damned Taser and get us some lights back here. Then come over here and help me get these two out of this van.”

“Mama, I want to be the one to zap that whore for luring my Travis away from me,” Paulette said peevishly as she got to her feet. “Then
I
want to throw her into the swamp.”

“Whatever you wish, Paulette. Just find where that buffoon Travis dropped the Taser.”

By the dim glow of the weak interior light, Paulette saw Travis lying at her mother’s feet. As blood dripped from her nose, she let out a deafening scream. “Mama! You didn’t kill Travis, did you? Once Caterine’s dead, he’ll marry me.”

“Paulette, stop it. I don’t know if he’s dead or not, but we can’t worry about that now. Go find that goddamned Taser.”

The insane determination in Hyacinth’s face told Caterine her aunt was way beyond reasoning with. If she wanted to save her and her grandmother’s lives, she’d better do something and do it quickly.

While Hyacinth was distracted by Paulette, Caterine leaned close. “I’m going to try and get us out of here, Grandmère. Do you feel anything you can use as a weapon?”

“Save yourself, Caterine. I’m an old woman and it doesn’t matter if I die.”

Caterine opened her mouth to protest, but Miss Dauphine cut her off.

“Don’t argue with me, Caterine. There’s no time. Do as I say and save yourself.”

“Here’s the Taser, Mama.” Paulette came up next to Hyacinth. “Can I use it on Caterine now?”

Hyacinth smiled. “Yes, that will make it easier to drag her out.” A pained expression briefly crossed Hyacinth’s face. “If that idiot you hired to kidnap her had done his job, we wouldn’t be in this damned situation. All we’d have to worry about is Miss Dauphine.”

“It’s not my fault, Mama,” Paulette said. “Charlotte’s boyfriend said that man could handle it. Remember it was
you
who put that newspaper under the mat to hurt Miss Dauphine and then tried to run Caterine down. It’s just Caterine’s incredible luck that she always escapes.”

“Well, she’s all out of luck. Neither she nor Miss Dauphine is getting away this time.” Hyacinth’s smile was back in place. “I’ll take care of old granny here after you deal with Caterine.”

“Hyacinth, you and your despicable daughter are both mentally deranged and are not fit to be among decent civilized people,” Miss Dauphine said. “I can guarantee that if you harm Caterine, you both will be locked away for the rest of your lives.”

“I hate you, Miss Dauphine!” Paulette shouted. “I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.”

As Paulette shoved the Taser at Miss Dauphine, Caterine lunged, screaming Remi’s name.

Chapter Forty-Three

“It looks as if someone hit Miss Annabelle from behind,” Bobby said as he, Remi, and Antoine hurried from the ballroom and through the upper hall toward Miss Dauphine’s sitting room. “I found our housekeeper, Flora, and asked her to sit with her until we got back.”

“Remi, what the hell happened?” Antoine asked.

“I’ve been an idiot. I should have realized they’d use Miss Dauphine to get to Caterine.”

“Who’s the ‘they’ you keep talking about?” Bobby asked. “All Ray told me tonight is that you were hoping to set a trap for whoever was behind Caterine’s attack.”

Remi scoffed derisively. “Yeah, well, it seems they set the trap for us instead.
Merde
,” he swore as they entered the sitting room and he saw Annabelle’s slight form crumpled in a chair.

“Oh, Mr. Doucette, I’m so glad you’re back,” Flora cried. “I think she’s coming around.”

Remi fell to his knees in front of Annabelle, taking her limp hand in his. “Pet, can you hear me? Pet, please open your eyes. Bobby, call for an ambulance,” Remi demanded. Then to his relief Annabelle’s eyelids began to flutter. Blue eyes, so like his own, opened slowly, regarding him quizzically.

“Remi, what happened? My head hurts abominably.” Annabelle’s voice was a hoarse whisper.

“Someone hit you, Pet. We called an ambulance.”

Annabelle slowly sat up and hesitantly placed her hand to the back of her head, wincing in pain as she felt the tender bump. Fear quickly replaced the pain in her eyes as she frantically looked around the room. “Remi, where’s Dauphine?”

Remi hesitated, carefully considering his words. “Pet, listen to me. Before the paramedics get here, I’m going to need your help. I want you to be strong and stay calm for me. Can you do that?”

She slowly nodded.

Hoping to reassure her, Remi squeezed her hand. “I need you to tell me the last thing you remember.”

Her eyes filled with tears, and her voice quavered. “Remi, please tell me. Is Dauphine dead?”

“I don’t know, Pet. We’re not sure where she is. What do you remember?”

Annabelle took a deep breath. “We were sitting in the ballroom when Dauphine’s ankle began to hurt. We decided she’d be more comfortable in here, and we’d finally have an opportunity for a nice long chat. Markus and Jules helped to get Dauphine settled. We were entertaining ourselves by gossiping about some of our acquaintances when Paulette and Hyacinth walked in unannounced. Dauphine immediately became angry and asked them to leave.” Annabelle’s face crumpled, and once again her eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry, Remi, that’s all I can remember.”

“It’s okay, Pet.” Remi squeezed her hand again. “Do you recall what Paulette or Hyacinth said when they came in?”