Page 3 of Beaches

“No!” yelled Calvin.

He took off as fast as he could, his weakened state making it difficult to run. The others were right behind him, racing toward the young woman. Calvin rounded the curve of the cave entrance, reaching for her thin arms.

“No!”

CHAPTER TWO

“Matthew, this is fucking amazing! I mean, freaking amazing,” said Wilson. Matthew just laughed, slapping his back.

“You don’t have to change your words for me, son. I’ve heard them all. And you’re welcome. The island needed to be bigger for all of you and for those that might come next. We’ve been working on it for a while. Y’all just didn’t notice.”

“Pops, how did you do this? How did we not see this happening?” asked Gaspar, looking at the drone footage of their island. Matthew grinned as if to say, ‘my little secret,’ but instead told them.

“You’ve all been gone quite a bit on your missions. When you’re sleeping is when I get a lot of the work done. Grant and I hired a nighttime crew that was able to expand the island.”

“What about these small fingers on the islands, Pops?” asked Miller. “What are they for?”

“Anything we can do to prevent others from getting close is always smart. Each of these is built so that the ground is too soft to land a boat near it, even if they got through all our security checkpoints. The docks are now almost completely surrounded by land, except for one small opening that can be closed off with one of Finley’s wonderful contraptions. We’re all safe out here. As safe as those at Belle Fleur.”

“Matthew, this must have been an extensive project,” said Trak. “Even at night, we should have heard something.” Matthew nodded, smiling at one of his son’s oldest friends. He gripped his neck.

“Álííl,” he said, smiling at him.

“What does that mean?” asked Rafe.

“Magic,” smiled Trak. “He said it was magic. That’s all I need to know, Matthew. Thank you for making this an even safer place for us to be.”

“Don’t be late for dinner tonight,” he said, walking away from the group of men. “Irene is cooking up something wonderful to go with this beautiful cool snap. Weather is perfect.”

They watched as Matthew walked away, tall, strong, as if he were only fifty, not twice that age. He had no limp, no change in his gait, no stoop of his shoulders. Still solid. Still six-feet-two. Still two hundred pounds. The only indication of his age was his silver hair and the wrinkles around his eyes.

“Álííl,” whispered Trak. “He is the magic. Not all of this.” Gaspar nodded at his friend, then turned to the rest of the men.

“We did a helluva job on the case with Maison Soleil and the APD. Even got a call from the POTUS on that one. Yesterday, we got a message from Alexi. He thanked us for being there for his daughter, again.”

“Man, she was there for us,” smiled Tailor. “I couldn’t believe it. She grew up to be a beautiful, intelligent young woman. I wish he’d come here, but he refuses. He’s getting up there and is starting to feel the effects of having a body this size and aging.”

“Not everyone can be here, brother,” said Alec. Tailor only nodded.

“What’s on the list for this week?” asked Gabriel. “New animals?” The men all laughed, looking at Gaspar.

“Sometimes, I really hate you guys,” frowned Gaspar. Nine slapped his back as the seniors all laughed at him.

“We’ll be sending a few of you out to help with some protection details,” said Nine. “Angel, Gibbie, and Antoine will be handling security for a large art exhibit at the New Orleans Museum of Art. They don’t trust some of their own security to handle the details, so our team will have full control of it all. We’ll all be attending the opening.”

“What? Why?” whined Baptiste.

“Because Ela, Cassidy, and Shay will all have exhibits there. It’s highlighting women in the arts and their contributions to the state of Louisiana. Some of Ela and Cassidy’s paintings are mind-blowing. They look as if you could walk into them. Shay created an entire line of jewelry using cypress and oyster shell, showing the beauty of our land.”

“Damn, that’s pretty amazing,” said Baptiste.

“One of her necklaces sells for more than ten grand,” smirked Ian. “The paintings range from twenty to ninety grand. One of the bigger pieces that Ela did is estimated to sell for a hundred and fifty grand.”

“Holy shit,” muttered Gibbie.

“Gibbie, you, Bull, and Jazz will be working with the team on outside security. That’s six of our best. Make sure nothing happens.”

“You got it,” said Gibbie with a head jerk.

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