Page 2 of Blood and Sand

After wiping away the tears I let fall, I composed myself, then did what I needed to do for me and my career. Finally, after seven years with Rey, I put my needs first, and I wasn’t turning back. To succeed in my career and fulfill my dream, I had to say goodbye to Louisiana and to the man I treasured.

“The airport, please.”

Chapter one

Detective Rey LaCroix

Louisiana

Three years later…

“Baby, your phone’s ringing.”

Groaning, I rolled over after removing Chanel’s naked body from my chest and squinted, trying to read the red numbers on the alarm clock sitting on the nightstand through blurred vision.

Fucking five-thirty in the morning.

I gripped the sides of my head; the pounding felt like my brain was banging against my skull. It had been a long night. This was one hell of a hangover I’d have to deal with.

After working a long shift, instead of taking my ass home like I should have to start my long weekend of wallowing in misery, I decided to go toLucky’s Dive, the local watering hole. I’d needed to drink myself into oblivion before calling Chanel to come over and fuck away my dreaded existence in the house I’d once shared withher.

This had been my routine for the past three years. Nothing was the same since she decided to walk out of my life, and I decided not to fight for her. My mother always said my stubborn ways would cost me something important one day, and they had.

It cost me everything.

It cost me her.

I couldn’t even say her name. It hurt too much, like my heart was being squeezed in a vise. I really shouldn’t have been pissed she walked away from our marriage for her dream job. She’d worked hard to achieve it. But I was pissed.

Well, not pissed, just hurt. We promised each other forever. Now I was alone, and she was moving forward without me.

I fumbled around for my ringing cell phone in the pitch-black room. At this time of the morning, it couldn’t be anything good.

“LaCroix.”

“Head down to Laurels Bayou.” Captain Broussard’s voice sounded through the hangover clouding my mind. “We got two more floaters.”

“But Cap,” I ran my hands through my hair, frustrated, exhausted, and hungover, “I’m off until Tuesday night. Can’t you call Shaw?”

Two more hours of sleep was all I’d be able to get before I needed to be on the road. He’d just interrupted the little time I had left to sleep off this hangover, and it was my day off.

I shoulda brought my ass home instead of going to Lucky’s.

Around this time of the year, I picked up as many extra shifts as possible before taking a very long weekend. This year was no different than the last two. I worked to the point of exhaustion, drank until I couldn’t function, and fucked until I forgot about her, at least for a little while. I’d planned to drown my sorrows away this weekend while I took my boat out on the lake, fished, and mourned the love of my life in privacy, for the third year in a row. It had become my ritual. My time of regret. Being drunk and alone was my penance for being an asshole.

The happiest day of my life occurred this month, three years ago. Our wedding day. This month also marked the worst day of my life, the day she left me—two weeks before our anniversary.

“Well, LaCroix, if you no longer want to be the lead on this investigation so you can wallow in self-pity about your fuck up, I’ll hand the files over to Rankin, and he can take over as lead detective.”

My jaw clenched. If I could’ve reached through the phone and choked the life out of him, I would have been a happy man. He knew this was the only weekend I requested off all year, and to threaten to take my case away from me was a low blow. Rankin was a newbie and couldn’t distinguish his head from his ass if he had to, much less solve multiple murders. He only had the job because his father was the former sheriff. Cap knew I would never let my case be handed to someone else, especially to someone like Rankin. I owed it to all the families of these murdered women to find out what happened to them.

“No, sir.” I sighed. “I can be there in an hour.”

“Make it thirty, LaCroix,” he ordered, ending the call without waiting for my response.

“Son of a bitch!” I rose from the bed naked, phone clenched tightly in hand. If I hadn’t needed it, I would have thrown the shit across the room. “Get up, Chanel. You got to head home. I’ve been called in.”

“Why can’t I just stay until you get back, baby?” she asked, groaning. “You fucked me good last night. I’m tired. I just need to sleep a little longer.”

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