Page 8 of Beau

Aurelie spied the boardwalk leading out into the bayou, a recent addition to the Gautreaux Chateau venue that had intrigued her enough to choose this site for her father’s fundraiser.

She’d spent so much time arranging for all the deliveries, staffing and guest lists, she hadn’t had time to visit the boardwalk and see the amazing vistas in the bayou during the day.

Rather than walk back into the mansion and face all those people—one in particular—Aurelie chose to take the opportunity to walk along the boardwalk, stretching out into the bayou. She struck out at a swift pace, determined to forget Robin Hood and that kiss.

She might have reconsidered if the moon and starlight hadn’t chosen that moment to emerge from behind a bank of clouds and shine brightly down on the wooden planks, tempting her with a silvery path through the bayou. Moonlight glinted off the inky black water.

The sound of nature blared louder than the orchestra playing in the ballroom. Anyone who said it was quiet in the countryside didn’t live near the bayou. Frogs and crickets sang, their music almost deafening in the night.

Starlight reflected off the bayou. Something moved in the water, like a floating log with twin spots of starlight reflecting off eyes. Alligator.

Aurelie shivered, glad for the boardwalk and the railing to keep her from falling in with the lethal predator.

She’d gone more than fifty yards on the boardwalk, losing sight of the mansion as the path twisted and turned through stands of partially submerged cypress trees with long, lacy branches.

Before she realized she was very alone and out of sight of the chateau, clouds drifted in, blocking the stars and moonlight. Aurelie’s steps faltered. The defining sounds of frogs and crickets faded around her, replaced by the sound of footsteps on the boardwalk behind her. Her heart leaped into her throat. Was it him?

She spun to face the man who’d been occupying too much of her thoughts. She lifted her chin, threw back her shoulders and fisted her hands on her hips. With a sarcastic comment poised on her lips, she waited for him to round the corner of the boardwalk and the overhanging limbs of a cypress tree.

At that moment, the clouds moved on, and the moon and stars illuminated the night.

The man rounded the corner, running full-on. Instead of Robin Hood, with his green hat, jacket, tights and that stupid quiver of arrows, a man dressed entirely in black, with a black ski mask covering his head and face, charged toward her.

Shocked, she stood for a fraction of a second, gaping. Then, she spun and ran. She wasn’t fast enough and didn’t have enough of a head start to escape her pursuer.

He didn’t slow until he reached her. Hands grabbed the back of her jacket, yanking her to a stop. She tried to shake free of her jacket, but those hands gripped her body, lifted her into the air and flung her over the boardwalk railing into the bayou.

Like so many who’d encountered a life-threatening experience, the event played out in Aurelie’s mind in slow motion. She was flying through the air, over the rail, arms and legs flailing. She hit the water sideways, plunging deep beneath the surface. She hadn’t even had time to catch her breath. She floundered, kicking her feet while looking for purchase on the silty bottom, and found none.

Aurelie sank deeper, flapping her arms. A fairly good swimmer, she wasn’t so afraid of drowning. Well, as long as she could figure out up from down, and that was proving to be a problem. The bayou here wasn’t terribly deep. Her lungs burning, she couldn’t find her footing, but she’d seen the eyes of alligators rising above the surface of the water in their nightly search for prey. She had to get out of the water fast. Or she’d become that prey.

When Beau turned away from the ladies’ restroom door, he looked right and left. There were no other doors along the corridor except the men’s room. He ran in there and checked just in case she’d been dragged inside. He was out in seconds, eyeballing the exit door at the end of the hallway.

She had to have gone outside.

He ran to the exit door and burst out into the night.

He stood for a second, looking right then left. A stone walkway led around the side of the building. He ran down the path that emerged on a wooden platform, which was the beginning of a boardwalk leading out into the bayou.

He stared out at the empty boardwalk.

Surely, she hadn’t gone out on the boardwalk alone at night. He glanced all around and didn’t see her anywhere in sight.

Fuck.

Beau stepped out onto the boardwalk and ran, praying the boardwalk was the same way out as it was back. If she’d gone out on the boardwalk, he’d either catch up with her or meet her on the way back. If it made a loop and came back to another location, he’d have to hurry to catch up. If she was even on the boardwalk. Either way, he had to make sure.

Despite the pain in his leg, he sprinted, picking up the pace. If she hadn’t taken the boardwalk, she could have continued around the side of the house to the front, where anyone could grab her, shove her into a car, and take off. He’d never know it until it was too late.

Beau ran faster, pushing the pain out of his mind. As he rounded a drooping tree branch over the boardwalk, he spotted a large dark figure ahead of him. He heard a woman’s scream as that dark figure lifted her into the air and tossed her over the rail of the boardwalk.

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!

“Hey!” Beau yelled and raced for the attacker.

The man spun toward him for a second, then turned and ran in the opposite direction.

Beau didn’t slow until he arrived at the point at which the dark-clad man had thrown a woman into the bayou. Clouds floated over the moon and sky, darkening the world around him. His heart thundered in his chest; his breathing became ragged as he strained to see into the dark abyss. He couldn’t see a damned thing, nor could he hear any splashing. Panic threatened to overwhelm him, but he couldn’t let it control him. Beau dropped the quiver of arrows, scraped the hat off his head and braced his hands on the boardwalk rail. Before he could think through his actions, he vaulted over the rail into the water. Having grown up in the Bayou, he knew the danger of being in the water at night. Water moccasins were bad enough, but the real threats were the alligators. Splashing noises would have attracted their attention. If there were one or more in the area, which he suspected there were, they’d be angling toward that noise in search of their next meal.

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