Burning Love (Hell Yeah! Cajun Style), page 9
Harley clapped her hands in delight and the two men laughed. “He’s so agile.”
“Carmen!” At Beau’s call, another Cuban rose up out of the water and started a slow march to the fence. “These are my favorite,” Beau explained. “No other species of croc or gator even comes close to the intelligence of these creatures – it’d be like comparing a dolphin to a gold fish. Watch this, Indy give our girl some supper.” Indy tossed another chicken over the fence and Carmen caught it in her powerful jaws. “Water!” Obediently both big reptiles turned and made their way back to the dark green waters of their safe haven.
“Boss, we got fire-ants in the Cubans’ pen. We’re gonna have to move them down in your slough for a few days soon to clean this up.”
“Do what you need to; just make damn sure that the fencing – underwater and above ground - is secure. We don’t want to lose these babies, plus we don’t want them eating any locals. That wouldn’t be good publicity.”
“You are providing these animals with a second chance.” Harley looked at Beau in wonder.
“How many others do you have?”
“Only three more right now - the Dwarf Crocodile, Morelet’s Crocodile or the Mexican Crocodile, and the Orinoco which is from South America. It’s my hope to get these endangered animals started in places where they’ll be safe. Programs are in place to attempt to retain enough of their natural habitat to ensure that they don’t disappear.”
Harley put an arm around Beau. “People like you are the true heroes in this world.”
“Thanks, Love.” Her words meant more to him than a Congressional Medal would have. He was about to show her the rest of his pets when his beeper went off. He unfastened it and read the message. “I’ve got to head to Beaumont. There’s a gator in a residential area, taking a dip in somebody’s pool. I’m sorry, Honey, but that’s part of the work we do here. Any time an alligator is found in a place where he isn’t welcome, we go in and catch him and move him to some place safe.”
“Can I go with you?”
Beau was pleasantly surprised. “You want to help me catch the gator?” She was so delicate and feminine; he couldn’t believe she would choose to spend an afternoon watching him wrangle a reptile.
“Unless you’d rather I didn’t.” She looked a bit unsure of herself.
“Hell, no,” he was emphatic. “By my side is where you belong. Don’t worry, I’ll keep you safe.” Beau couldn’t remember ever being so happy. “Come on, we’ll take the other truck,” he pointed to a black double cab dually. “It’s equipped with all of our reptile control tools.”
“Do you do this often?” Harley asked after they had climbed in, excitement sparking through her veins. Even though her life was fraught with danger, this day with this man felt like a great adventure,
“Two or three times a month,” he ably maneuvered the vehicle from the swamp road onto the blacktop that would lead to I10 west.
Beaumont was just a few miles west of Port Arthur where she had dismantled the bomb at the Transco Facility just the day before. “Where do you take the alligators that you relocate?”
“Mostly, I take them deep into the Atchafalaya, the largest swamp in the United States. It’s amazing that people are so familiar with the Everglades, but don’t even realize the Atchafalaya exists.”
“I knew about it. We’ve never talked about our early years very much, but I grew up in Beaumont. Funny, though – I don’t remember hearing about alligators invading homes the way you say they do nowadays.”
“That’s because all of the new housing additions they’ve been building are on lands that used to be rice paddies.” He slipped his hand under her hair and began to massage her neck. She totally relaxed into his touch, letting him make her feel good. “Progress has encroached upon the natural habitat of the gators and they are just moving in the same place they’re kind has moved for thousands of years – only this time man is trying to share that space with them. So they go out into their yards, and there they are. They look in their pools, and they have a guest – one woman even came home and found a good size young female had come through the doggie door after her cat.”
She had leaned back into his hand, letting him rub her neck, and every once in a while a little contented sound escaped her lips. He kept talking – his cock solidified, but his heart was happy. When he told the story of the home invasion, she reacted to that, “What about the cat? Did the alligator eat it?”
Beau laughed, “No, the cat just jumped up on the kitchen cabinet and they had a staring contest. The cat won.”
“Good. Where did you grow up, Beau?” Knowing he ended up in Brownwood, there was no doubt he had endured some type of tragedy. When he moved his hand from her neck, she thought her question had offended him. It didn’t, he took her hand in his and held it tight, as if drawing strength from their union.
“My early days were spent in a little town called Church Point, Louisiana. My Mom and Dad were good people.” He smiled at her, and Harley felt a warmth start to grow around her heart. If she wasn’t careful, she would have an urge to start picking out china patterns. It might be her wishful imagination, but she was beginning to see forever in his eyes. “All my memories were good ones until I was five, when Hurricane Juan destroyed my world.” For a moment, he stared out the window. They were going through Lake Charles and he seemed fascinated by the refineries and smoke stacks on the horizon.
“You don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want to.” Some people valued their privacy; she surely had no room to talk.
“I want to tell you everything,” he spoke simply, giving her hand a squeeze. “I’m a big believer that everything happens for a reason. It’s true that I’ve had some hard times, but all the events in my life wove themselves into the path that led me to you, Cher. How can I regret that?”
Lord in heaven, he was getting serious quickly. A shiver of unease passed over her. There was no guarantee she could ever be what he wanted or needed. And neither one of them deserved to be hurt. They had known enough of that to last a lifetime. What he was about to say was still unclear, but it wouldn’t be pretty – she knew that. And the funny thing was, she agreed with him. “I don’t regret the path that led me to you, either. Just knowing that you are alive and well and happy is worth more than you know.” ‘Yea, I’m pushing him away with both hands’, she inwardly laughed at her own contradictory behavior. They were in big trouble.
“My Dad worked on an oil rig out in the Gulf. So he would be offshore for three weeks, then home for three weeks. Lordy, when he was home – laissez les bon temps rouler – the good times rolled. Pop loved to party. My memories are hazy, but what I have are bright ones. Mama, she loved my daddy and I can still remember how tender he was with her – like I want to be with you, Cher.” He rubbed the pad of his thumb over her knuckles. “All that changed when Juan blew in. He wasn’t a Katrina or a Carmen or Camille,” he named huge deadly storms, “but he was big enough to devastate my world. It tore up a lotta shit. Two hundred cattle drowned in Terrebonne Paris and Grand Isle was underwater. Offshore, it got a helluva lot worse. An old wooden lighthouse was destroyed over on Timbalier Bay. Dad’s oil rig collapsed, then smashed into another rig. Some of the crew was rescued, he was one of them. But the ship that picked them up sank during the rescue mission. Twelve people died in Juan, and my Pop was one of them.” Harley picked up his hand and kissed it, then held it as tight as she could to her breast. He didn’t react, seemingly lost in his story. “When my Mom heard the news, she panicked. There was no way she was going to believe he was dead till she saw his body. I can remember her dragging me out of bed, just screaming. It was still pouring down rain when she dropped me off at her brother’s house. I never saw her again. She died in a head-on collision halfway to the boat docks. The only consolation I had was that they were together. But, I was alone.”
“God, I’m sorry Beau-ray. Your pain makes my childhood seem like a trip to Walt Disney world. Were you not happy at your uncle’s? Was he not good to you?” She knew there had to be some reason he ended up on the streets of New Orleans.
“He was a single man with a job; there was no way he could keep me. So I was passed around like some stray puppy that no one had time for. It was a wonder the state didn’t step in and put me in a foster home. It was a good thing that Mama had a big family, because I never stayed anywhere very long. No one was really mean or cruel to me, they just didn’t care. The best place I stayed was at my Great Aunt Lejune’s. She was good to me, and lord, she could cook. But, she passed away about four months after I’d moved in with her. I mourned her almost as much as I did my mama and daddy.” As he reminisced, they passed through the monotonous landscape of far western Louisiana and crossed the border into Texas. All the while she caressed his hand, trying to absorb his remembered pain. “When I was fourteen, I’d had enough of being the human hot potato. One night at my Cousin Prejean’s trailer house, I just opened the bedroom window and crawled out. It was a hot June night, and I can still hear the sounds of the crickets and the bullfrogs. I walked nine miles to the interstate and hitchhiked to New Orleans.”
“I wonder why The Big Easy is so attractive to runaways?” Harley mused. “For me, it seemed a place of vast possibilities. Mystery is so much a part of its natural fabric, and I had been so condemned for my psychic abilities. It just seemed to me that if I could get to New Orleans, I’d be . . . normal.”
“How psychic are you?”
The question wasn’t asked with any motive or hidden tone other than mere curiosity. She could read that much, plainly enough. “By most standards, my ability is weak. I get impressions from objects. Rarely can I read anyone’s thoughts, and even if I did, I would doubt what I was picking up. What freaked my parents out was that I always knew where they’d been, who they’d seen during the day and what they had been doing. Since my father was trying to hide a gambling problem from my mother and my mother was trying to hide a drinking problem from my father, my propensity for spouting off what I picked up from their clothes or their possessions just made them hate each other and fear me. So, I saw no reason to stay. They didn’t love me and I could do without the daily beatings; that’s for sure.” The next thing she knew, Beau was pulling off the road, turning down a driveway that led to a mechanic’s shop. He didn’t go all the way, just far enough off the road to be safe.
Unbuckling his seat belt, he leaned over her and unbuckled hers, as well. She had no idea what was going on. “Those days are behind us, Mon Ange.” She knew enough French to know he had just called her ‘his angel’. “I need to hold you, just a bit. My arms feel so empty without you.”
Gathering her in his arms, he tucked her close and rocked her, as if to erase every cruel word and stinging blow she had endured. God, he was sweet. Men were supposed to be hard and stoic, unyielding and harsh. Not Beau – he was big and macho, but his heart was the biggest thing about him. At that thought, she smiled to herself. He might possess other large parts as well, that would be interesting to find out. Lord, how far she had come in so short of a time! To ponder the size of a man’s cock had never crossed her mind before today. “I needed for you to hold me. Thank you.” And that was the truth; she wasn’t feeling any anxiety from his closeness – only happiness. Now, anything beyond a hug was still up in the air. A blast from an air horn broke their reverie. “Perhaps, we should get back on the road.”
“You’re right. Give me some sugar to tide me over.” This time he waited for her to do the kissing. She delayed for a microsecond, and then pressed her lips to his cheek, his chin and the corner of his mouth.
Damn! And he was supposed to go alligator hunting? He’d much rather hunt a bed and stay there for a week with this treasure. She rubbed her lips over his, much like he had when he was marking her like the noir panthere – the black panther. That was fine; he wanted to bear her mark. “Tongue, Cher’t Bebe.”
His Cajun terms of endearment were causing her to quiver with happiness. Cher wasn’t pronounced like the singer, it was soft – sha. And when he called her his dear baby, she melted. He opened his mouth and she slid him just a bit of tongue and he groaned his appreciation. Sipping from her lips like they were the finest wine, Beau stole the small remainder of her heart that she was holding in reserve.
Another blast from a passing eighteen-wheeler brought them back to reality. “Let’s go before I ravish you here, Treasure.” Feeling a little dazed and a lot horny, she eased back to her side of the truck and managed to exhale a ragged breath. “I feel the same way, Nada. Soon, you will be in my bed. I won’t survive if you don’t.” His words hung between them, giving her something serious to think about.
Pulling back into traffic, they headed toward Beaumont. A few miles down the road, when they had themselves under control, he became curious. “Touch my truck seat or whatever, and tell me what I’ve been up to lately.”
Was this a test? She dreaded doing anything that would upset their tender camaraderie. But the look he gave her was full of gentle curiosity and tender concern, so she put a hand on the dashboard and the other on his steering wheel and concentrated, calling forth whatever residual energy lay in the common materials which would give her a glimpse into the recent past. As if watching a 3D movie, she saw a large alligator throw open its jaws and lunge at her. She jumped. About as quick as it had come, the monster morphed into a cartoon figure of Japanese movie fame – “Godzilla,” she said aloud. The mythical creature was attempting to climb from a well – interesting.
“Damn!” Beau exclaimed, “You saw Godzilla?”
She opened her eyes to see if he was laughing at her. He wasn’t. What she had seen made no sense, but it was all she had. “Actually, I saw a large alligator. It was aggressive – that’s why I jumped. But then it changed and became the movie monster fighting to get out of a deep hole.”
“Shit, Baby – you nailed it.” He was shocked. There was no way she could have known. He hadn’t told Dandi and she’d never met Indiana. “Right before I met you, my buddy and I rescued a big gator from a well. His name was Godzilla.”
“Good, I’m glad I haven’t lost my touch.” Yea, since her gift kept her alive, she wanted to keep her psychic antennae clear and free from static. The voice of his navigation system told him where to turn and they maneuvered through a cookie-cutter housing addition filled with median priced homes sitting too close together with not enough landscaping for Harley’s tastes. She much preferred older, more traditional homes with big yards and a tangible history, like Willowbend. “Look at that crowd gathered, that must be the place.” She pointed to a house at the end of the cul-de-sac where multiple vehicles were haphazardly parked and neighbors were gawking about and peeking over the fence like they were sneaking a glimpse at a peepshow.
Beau pulled in and got out, gathering his equipment that included very little - nets, ropes, tape and two sticks with hooks and a noose. “Do you want to stay in the truck till I get back?”
“Heck, no.” She was out and around where he was before he could say Andy By-God Jackson.
“Hell, Baby. You just stick close to me so I can keep you safe.”
His request sounded reasonable to her. Once they pushed through the crowd and made it to the backyard – it all happened fast. Harley was amazed to see the large reptile was jammed into a corner, hissing and doing its best to back through a wooden fence. “It’s scared,” she stated the obvious.
“Yeah,” Beau addressed the useless audience. “Everybody stay back – when they feel threatened is when they’re the most dangerous. Keep your distance and I’ll have it under control as quick as I can.” He took the stick noose and moved it close to the animals head. The big gator lunged forward about two feet. “Watch it, Baby. Where are you?” he was thinking of her first.
“Here to help you, just tell me what to do.”
“Nah, Cher – this big bruiser means business.” He managed to get close enough – quickly to push the loop over its head, but the gator began whipping its head side-to-side, desperately trying to dislodge the rope. “I need two hands.” He glanced around to see which man would step forward to help. None did.
“I can do it, Beau. I have nerves of steel,” she sounded like she was joking – but actually, she wasn’t.
“Sweet Doll, I don’t know.” She touched his elbow, showing her support. “Hold this, carefully, and I’ll put another one on and try to get behind it.” He handed her the stick and immediately the huge animal reared, but Harley spread her feet, tightened her body and held tight.
Beau was right there – if the gator came for Harley, he would have to go through Beau – but still, he wasted no time throwing another rope around its neck and pulling tight. “On land, these things are ten times less dangerous than water. They can lunge at thirty-five miles an hour, but not very far.” As Beau moved to its side, the gator tried to turn, but Harley went the opposite direction and kept him from flipping around on Beau. “Good girl, Baby-Doll.”
With quick agile moves, Beau subdued the creature by sheer force – he got on top of it and with brute strength forced its head to the ground. Only the tail was whipping now. “Can you tape his jaws for me, Brave-Girl?” he asked Harley with a smile.
“Yes, Sir,” she took the tape from the ground and knelt down in front of the alligator. “He smells pretty bad.”
“Yea – that’s fear. He’s thrown his musk.” He pressed down on the head and snout while she wrapped the heavy-duty tape around and around. “Make sure you leave his nose holes open so he can breathe.”
“Okay,” she did what he asked, quickly and efficiently. The gator seemed to calm and Beau, with Harley’s help, flipped him over and tied his front and back legs together. “Now he’s all trussed up like a Christmas turkey.”
She sounded so proud – but she wasn’t nearly as proud as he was. “You handled yourself like a pro. After Amos and the ghosts - I expected you to be leery of all this.”
