Page 75 of Home Again

“Maybe Fergus can work his magic with Selma and find out where Linus fishes.”

“It’s worth a try,” Gideon agreed as they started for the truck. When Sebastian settled into the passenger seat, he realized he’d missed a text. He sucked in a deep breath as he thumbed over the message to see who it was from. It was unknown, but it had a video attachment.

“What?” Gideon asked as he got into the driver’s seat.

“Don’t start the engine,” Sebastian told him. “We have another video.”

Gideon didn’t say anything, he just leaned over to look as Sebastian pressed play.

Gianna’s face came into view. Once again, she looked like she was pleading.

“Please give Armand the money, otherwise they’ll kill me.”

Sebastian watched in stunned disbelief as someone backhanded her. Gianna cried out and fell so that she was off-camera, then the video stopped. He closed his eyes, trying to stop the image from replaying itself in his mind.

“Bradley’s trying to crawl into your head. You can’t let him.” Gideon clasped Sebastian’s shoulder, but he shook off his friend’s hand.

“Sebastian, you can’t let him win.”

“He’s going to kill her, you know. This ransom is bullshit. He’s planning to kill Armand, and yeah we can stop that. We can put the two of them behind bars. But if we don’t find her, she’s dead.” Sebastian’s voice was flat.

“Shake it off,” Gideon bit out. “Call Fergus and see if he can find out Linus’ fishing spot from Selma.”

Sebastian nodded.

* * *

It was another two hours of nothing and then two things popped at once. Jada called and said she had a lock on Bradley Fontenot’s mobile phone and Neil Hebert called and said that he, Red, and two of his boys had caught up with Leroy Fontenot and he was currently rolled up in a tarp in the back of Neil’s pick-up. Neil told Sebastian where to meet them.

Sebastian looked over at Gideon. “Drop me off with Neil. I’m going to go confiscate Leroy’s vehicle and use it as my own and see what I can do to find the cousins. In the meantime, you use Jada’s info to track his ass.”

Gideon nodded. As they started over across town, Sebastian’s phone rang and the call went to the truck’s Bluetooth. It was his grandfather

“When are you coming home, boy?”

“When I’m damn good and ready,” Sebastian answered.

“That’s not good enough. I delivered Armand, didn’t I?”

“Your lousy son has more targets on him than a ten-point buck. You best be thinking about how to keep his sorry ass alive, not how to get me home and win an election.”

“You’re just listening to rumors. They’ve been going on for years, they mean nothing,” his grandfather scoffed.

“This time they mean something. Look, Grandpère, I don’t have time for this shit. I’m hanging up now.”

“Wait!” the old man cried.

“What?”

“Bastian, I need you. They’re telling me that without having you in the race, they won’t back me for the lieutenant governor spot,” he whispered. “I need their support.”

“I’ll talk to you when I get back home. We’ll work something out.”

Sebastian hung up.

“Why’d you keep him hanging like that?” Gideon asked. “I thought you were going to cut him off at the knees.”

“I think I’ll have a better shot of getting a confession from him about Gianna’s mother if I keep him dangling on a thread.”