“You got it all wrong,” Beau said. “I knew this was goin’ to happen. I told you, Gilbert. I knew we should have just laid low.”

“You knew what was going to happen?” Remy asked.

Gilbert sighed. “We were set up to take the fall. We were set up, Remy.”

Drake toed the man’s boot. “How many times have you heard that, Remy?”

Remy smirked. “Oh, that one’s new to me, cuz I’m wet behind the ears.” He glared at the Tregre brothers. “Is that what you think? I’m wet behind the ears? You think you’re smarter than me?” He bared his teeth in a semblance of a smile. “You hear that, Drake. Gilbert thinks he’s smarter than I am.”

“You’re twistin’ my meanin’, Remy,” Gilbert said. “We came to talk to the boy—Renard’s boy. We figured he was blood kin and might help us.”

“Help you kill off his team? His friends? The only family he’s ever known?” Drake scoffed. “If you think that, you don’t know the meaning of loyalty and you sure don’t know Joshua.”

Both men shook their heads. “We didn’t come here to kill anyone,” Gilbert insisted. “We knew you’d been out in the swamp last night. You were at the Merciers and also our property, lookin’ around. The scent was everywhere.”

Beau looked at Drake with something close to respect. “You cut through the swamps followin’ our boat, didn’t you? I didn’t think anyone could do somethin’ like that and I’ve lived in the swamp my whole life.”

Remy held up one finger. “You cut through the swamp followin’ a boat?”

“All of them,” Beau said. “All his men, and Saria led the way. They must have run.”

“And waded through the reeds in a couple of spots,” Gilbert contributed. “There was no other way.”

“My sister was runnin’ the swamp at night? Wadin’ through the reeds with gators?”

Remy’s voice had gone very quiet. Drake had hoped he wouldn’t go all commando on him, but now that he knew how insane he’d been to even try it, let alone have Saria with him, he couldn’t really blame the man.

“We knew they were running do, Remy,” he said. “Although we’re familiar with the rain forests and the danger in them, we had no idea how truly dangerous what we asked Saria to do last night really was. She was amazing and we were damned stupid to risk it.”

That was as much as he was conceding to Remy. The man could take it or leave it.

“So you were runnin’ dope, Beau? Right under my nose?”

“There’s a big difference between takin’ a boat out to deliver soap to a buyer and killin’ someone, Remy,” Beau pointed out. “We didn’t kill anyone.”

“So how did you get into the drug business, Beau?” Drake asked.