Chapter Eight
Hank Henry glanced up and down the street in front of the construction site and breathed a sigh of relief when he didn’t see Rico Hebert’s car anywhere. He was in the clear, at least for the moment. He had no doubt that Rico would turn up sometime that day. The man was a thug but completely reliable. If Rico said he was going to do something, you could bet on it.
Hank got out of his truck and saw Chuck waving at him from the doorway of the building. A young woman stood behind him. As Hank crossed the street and approached the building, his felt his pulse shoot up. He knew the woman, and that might not be a good thing at all.
“Hank Henry,” Chuck said, “I want you to meet Lila Comeaux. Lila will be running this facility when it’s open, and she’s got some specific ideas about the look and feel of the place.”
Lila smiled and extended her hand to Hank. “It’s good to see you again, Hank. You look well.”
Hank felt relief wash over him as he shook her hand. Apparently, she wasn’t going to make an issue of his past. “It’s good to see you, too.”
“You two know each other?” Chuck asked.
Lila froze for a moment, and Hank knew she was struggling with exactly how to answer the question without betraying a confidence. He quickly decided to take the decision off her plate. “Yes, sir,” Hank said. “Lila worked at the rehab center I stayed at in Mississippi. She was a huge factor in me getting straight. I’m glad to know you’re opening your own place. I know you wanted to move back home, and I think you’ll be able to help a lot of people here.”
Chuck looked over at Lila. “Are you okay with Hank working on this job? If there’s any discomfort, I can make other arrangements.”
“I’m thrilled Hank is going to work here,” Lila reassured him. “Hank was a huge success for the clinic. He really has the determination to make his life something of merit.” She smiled at Chuck. “And I’m very pleased to know that you’re the kind of man that gives people an opportunity to do something worthwhile for themselves, despite their past. It makes me even more certain of my decision to hire you.”
Chuck blushed a bit and looked down at the ground. “Well, hell, we all made mistakes. Youthful indiscretions and the like. Some of us were just lucky enough to pull our head out of our ass before getting caught. Don’t mean you can’t do things right going forward.” He looked up at Lila and grimaced. “Oh, hell, now I’ve gone and said ‘ass’ in front of a lady. My wife will have my hide.”
Lila laughed. “You said ‘hell,’ too, but I won’t tell if you don’t.”
Chuck looked pained for a moment, then laughed along with Lila and Hank. “Guess I did at that. Well, if the two of you are finished with the reunion talk, I guess we best get to talking about cabinets.” He pulled a notepad from his pocket. “Let’s start with the reception area.”
An hour later, Hank walked Lila to her car, unable to contain his excitement about the job before him. “Your ideas are fantastic, Lila. I think people will really feel comfortable with the environment you’re creating.”
“Thanks,” Lila said and brightened. “You have some pretty good ideas yourself, and I was very impressed with the photos of your prior work. You have a rare gift.” She placed one hand on his arm. “I’m so glad you’re pursuing a great life for yourself, Hank. I look forward to working with you.”
Hank’s arm tingled at her touch and he felt a blush creep up his neck. Lila smiled at him, a warm, sweet smile that made him feel good all over. “I’ll see you sometime tomorrow with those color swatches,” she said, and slipped into her car.
Hank watched her car until it turned out of sight at the end of the street, and that’s when he heard whistling behind him. He felt his spine stiffen and turned around, already dreading what he knew he would see behind him. Sure enough, Rico Hebert was half a block up, leaning against his car.
And he didn’t look happy.
“Pretty piece of work,” Rico said as Hank approached. “Girl like that might be worth making some time for.”
“Don’t even go there. She’s my boss, nothing else.”
Rico stared at him for a couple of seconds. “Looked awfully friendly for a boss, but hey, maybe you got one of them jobs with perks. Might be the reason you went straight.”
Hank clenched his jaw and struggled against clenching his hand. Hitting Rico would be instant gratification and long-term suicide. “What do you want?”
“You know what I want.”
“I already told you, I don’t know anything about that psychic woman. And my ex won’t talk to me since our divorce,” Hank lied. “She’s not going to give me information on her friends, especially given our past.”
“That’s a shame, because you see, we got sorta an issue on our hands now. And the boss would really like it solved, you know?”
“What kind of issue?”
“That woman took a powder. Ain’t no one seen her since yesterday.”
Hank put up his hands. “I don’t know nothing about that.”
Rico studied him for a couple of seconds. “Maybe not. Still, if someone told the woman that we was looking for her, that person might be in trouble, you know?”
“I haven’t been anywhere but this job site and my house.” He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and held it out. “Check my phone. You can see every call in and out the past week, and I don’t have a home phone. I can’t help you.”
Rico looked down at the phone, then back up at Hank and nodded. “Maybe you should ask that ex of yours again. You know, as a special favor to Sonny.” He walked back to his car and pulled away.
Hank watched until Rico’s car rounded the corner; then he crossed the street back to the job site. “Hey, Chuck,” he called to his boss when he walked in the clinic. “Can I borrow your cell phone for a minute? Mine’s dead and I need to make a quick call to my ex-wife. There’s some legal business I need to get settled up with her.”
Chuck pulled his cell phone from his pocket and passed it to Hank. “No problem. Come see me in the back when you get done. I want to put together a plan for building the cabinets and need to talk to you about when to order the supplies.”
“Sure,” Hank said, and waited until Chuck was halfway down the hall before he punched Maryse’s number into the cell phone.
Maryse looked away from her computer and down at her phone, frowning when she didn’t recognize the number. She answered on the second ring.
“Hello?”
“It’s Hank. Don’t hang up.”
“What do you want?” Maryse asked in the exasperated tone she reserved only for her ex-husband.
“Your friend, Raissa…she’s got trouble.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
“Okay, how’s this? For two days now one of Sonny Hebert’s guys has shown up at my job site wanting to know where Raissa is. He says that the reason she left is because I warned her about Sonny. He thinks I should find out where she is from you.”
Maryse felt her pulse quicken. “What have you told him?”
“That you hate me and won’t even talk to me.”
Maryse blew out a breath. “I don’t hate you, Hank. I honestly don’t know how I feel, and I’m sure you understand that now is not exactly the time to explore that.”
“I get that. I’m just afraid that when he doesn’t get the answer he wants from me, he might decide to go straight to you. You need to watch your back, Maryse, and tell Raissa to do the same. These guys don’t mess around.”
Maryse swallowed and stared out the front window of her and Luc’s new home. “I know. We’re being careful. I mean, as careful as we can be.”
“Damn it.” Hank sighed. “It’s times like these I’m almost grateful that Mom’s not around to see just how big of a mess I made of my life. I know she was a hard woman to love, but she still deserved a better son than me, and you deserved a better husband.”
“We all make mistakes. It’s what we do afterward that defines us. Thanks for warning me. And Hank, you watch your back.”
“Yeah.”
Maryse disconnected the call and leaned back in her chair, a tinge of guilt running through her. She still hadn’t told Helena that Hank couldn’t be her biological son—hadn’t told Hank, either. After everything she’d been through in the past couple of months, Maryse knew better than most that you never knew when your last conversation with someone might be. And where Helena was concerned, that was doubly true, as no one really had a clear grasp on why she was here to begin with.
She pressed in Mildred’s number on her cell phone. It was time for them to come clean to Helena.