“You don't think you would have run across him by now? Zeke said you went up and down the main waterways.”
“I did.”
“And you’re an ex-SEAL and the best game warden around here. If you can't find him, it is possible something else is going on.”
Michael nodded. “We were just discussing that.”
“He’s not lost.” Zander blew out an exasperated breath. “And I don’t want my brothers out there looking for a guy who could be dead, or armed, or potentially being held hostage by people who are armed.”
Theo’s jaw tightened. “We only suspect Sharp’s gotten involved with that group down the bayou. We don’t have any hard evidence.”
“Don’t we need to assume the worst?” Zander asked.
Michael swore. “We went to high school with him. I don’t want to believe that he’s involved in that shit.”
“There is no shit. They haven’t done anything,” Theo pointed out.
“Yet,” Michael shot back. “But they’re stockpiling guns and supplies for some reason.”
“And they came to town looking for workers,” Zander reminded them. “Just because we ran them out before they got far doesn’t mean they’re not doin’ stuff we’re not aware of.”
“We’ve been keeping an eye out,” Theo said. “I haven’t seen any of them in town.”
“Unless Sharp is working for them,” Zander pointed out. “And is making the deals and recruiting.”
“Fuck,” Michael muttered.
Theo drew in a long breath through his nose, but finally nodded. “Yeah. Okay.”
“You should have told us you suspected him of something more,” Michael said. “I know that you keep it all from your family, but you can’t do it all on your own.”
Zander felt that statement hit him a little harder tonight. It wasn’t anything they hadn’t all said to one another at various times. They all tended to be the types that just handled things.
Theo had hauled a family out of a car that had gone into the bayou without calling for backup. He could have easily ended up sucked under with them.
Michael had been approached one night by a couple of guys who needed to be patched up after what looked like a pretty bad beating. They wanted it off the record and he’d treated them by the side of a dark backroad. Zander and Theo had chewed his ass about all the things that could have gone wrong with that.
They all needed to be reminded that they had a team at times.
“I was hoping Sharp would get his shit together. I didn’t want everyone lookin’ at him differently or bein’ suspicious,” Zander said. “But now that he’s missing, it’s different. My guys don't need to be stumbling across any guns or drugs or a dead body half eaten by an alligator.”
His cousins, Josh, Owen, and Sawyer had already lost someone to the bayou. Tommy had been attacked by a bull shark. Sawyer, his best friend, had found him while he was still barely alive, but he’d died before they could get him to the hospital. It had messed with them all, especially Sawyer, for a long time.
Theo sighed. “Obviously we’re not gonna put anybody in harm's way. But, we have a lot of space to cover now that the main areas and most obvious places have turned nothing up.”
“We’re pulling the volunteers back. At least while it's dark. The four of us,” Zander said, indicating JD, the other firefighter and paramedic who was off with another group, “can handle this for tonight. If we need more hands we’ll pull in some deputies. I'll call up to New Orleans where I have a bunch of people who owe me favors. Matt LaSalle will come down. He can bring some buddies.”
Theo and Michael exchanged a look.
“You think I'm overreacting?”
“We trust you,” Michael said. “If you think there's a chance that Sharp is out there with those guys, voluntarily or involuntarily, you're right, that's a whole different situation for us to be walking into and especially putting volunteers into. But you're not jumping to conclusions here just because you think that the second you leave Autre all things go to hell, are you?”
Normally, Zander would've lashed out at someone who suggested something like that, but Michael knew him well. As did Theo. And they actually tended to share his overprotectiveness and of responsibility toward their town.
“Maybe a little,” he allowed.
Michael just gave him a nod. “Okay. The four of us will take two boats out. This could be a long night.”
Zander nodded. He welcomed it. Maybe it would keep his mind off of Caroline.
“And,” Theo asked, “do you know where your big floodlight is?”
The next morning, Theo spotted Sharp. He was on the dock of one of the cabins deep in the bayou. Which confirmed Sharp was mixed up with that group. Which pissed Zander off even as he was relieved the other man was alive. He was glad he’d pulled his brothers back before they’d found Sharp and started asking questions about those cabins and the guys inside. He was glad they hadn’t wasted any more time or resources finding the guy. But fucking hell. Now any time he saw Sharp in town he was going to have to watch him like a hawk and make sure he wasn’t pulling anyone else into anything illegal or dangerous.
And, though it seemed impossible, from there, Zander’s mood continued to decline.
Two days later, he threatened to throw Charlie in jail for harassing a law enforcement officer if she didn’t shut up about Caroline. Including talking to Jordan and Naomi about heading to New Orleans for a girls’ night out. A conversation that hadn’t even included him. She’d dumped a glass of sweet tea on him. But she didn’t talk about Caroline in front of him again.
The next day, he stopped Maddie for going five miles above the speed limit through town. And ticketed her. Then he ticketed her again for failing to signal her turn at the stop light after pulling back onto the road and continuing on toward the Boys of the Bayou office. He also hung up on Owen when he called to ask him what the fuck he was doing. He also hung up on Ellie when she called. And he’d walked out of his office when Leo stopped to “check on him”.
Two days after that, he put Beau up against the side of Ellie’s when Beau made a crack about girls in tiaras maybe being more work than they were worth.
The day after that, he pushed Zeke into the bayou because Zeke wouldn’t shut up about how fucking happy he was being married and being a dad.
That one was unfair and he’d apologized later.
The worst part was Zeke had given him a one-armed hug and said he understood.
The truth was, Zander was miserable and he knew it was possible that was never, ever going to get better.
You have to stop texting me. I’m serious.
Zander glared at his phone. Spencer could be such a jackass.
Zander: Just tell me how it’s going.
No.
It was Saturday, and Caroline and Brantley’s “engagement party” was tonight, and Zander was climbing the walls.
He was sitting at the Landry table at Ellie’s, surrounded by his family, most of whom were ignoring him because he’d been a dick to them all over the past week. Still, he was here with them because even when one of them fucked up, this was where they belonged.