“Bella, please lower that. I have no wish to harm you. Who do you think took out the other man?” Biondo laid Remy out.

“He’s good, chèrie. Come here and hold my hand.” The words were the sweetest she’d ever heard.

Biondo held out a hand and helped her onto the dock. “You did a good job with the other. He fell back into the water, but the shot was true. Tell the authorities he went over on that side and they should be able to pull him out. Also, tell the authorities that he was working for the federal prosecutor.”

Blue and red lights lit up the north side of the building.

“Biondo? Take the boat. There’s a place marked on the map. Meet me there dawn Friday and you’ll have your account. I promise,” Remy said. “And thank you.”

Lisa clutched Remy’s hand as Biondo nodded down at him.

“I will be there.” He hopped into the boat and started it up. He slipped into the bayou as the door to the patio came open.

“Hold on,” she said, hoping the Italian was right.

He squeezed her hand. “I’m okay. Won’t be using my left arm for a bit, but I’ll recover as long as I have the right nurse with me.” His eyes went stark. “Is my brother alive, Lisa?”

She held his good hand to her heart as one of the EMTs raced out and prayed the answer to his question was yes.

Chapter Fourteen

“We do this far too often,” Taggart complained. “I hate hospitals. Why do I get called to them all the damn time?”

Lisa looked up from her chair in Remy’s room. She’d spent the early morning hours going back and forth between rooms in the small hospital. Remy’s surgery had been simple. Zep’s had not. Eight hours of complex surgery had been required to remove the bullet and its fragments from close proximity to his spine.

It had been a long night, but they’d all breathed a sigh of relief when Zep had come out of anesthesia and managed to wiggle his toes.

Delphine and Sera were sitting in his room, holding hands and thankful it hadn’t been worse. She’d been dozing when Texas had invaded.

“Maybe you need to hire people who don’t get shot,” Mitch said as he strode through the door.

Will merely walked in and started looking at Remy’s chart. “Has he had a CT? From what the police report said, he landed pretty hard a couple of times. For that matter, Lisa needs one, too.”