Page 45

“You broke into my apartment. That’s burglary.” Danny held the pressure steady, keeping the man from bleeding out. “Who paid you?”

“Don’t know a name.” He dragged in a shaky breath. “Arranged it through a phone call and left a wad of cash in my mailbox.” He closed his eyes. “That hurts like a motherfuc...”

“You said he arranged it through your phone,” Jacques cut in. “Where’s your phone?”

“In my pocket,” he said. “Am I gonna die?”

“Not if I can help it,” Danny said.

“An ambulance is on the way,” Cleyburn reported. “ETA five minutes.”

“Wouldn’t have taken the job if I’d known someone would be shooting at me,” Sarley said. “Take my phone. I don’t owe the bastard anything. Not after this.”

Jacques dug in Sarley’s front pocket and found the cell phone.

Sarley gave him the passcode to get in.

He could see the text messages between Sarley and whoever had offered to pay him to watch Danny and break into her apartment. He slipped the phone into his pocket. Swede might be able to trace where the texts had come from.

“You know I’ll need that phone for evidence,” Deputy Cleburn said.

Jacques nodded. “Absolutely. I’ll bring it by the station later.” After he got whatever information Swede might need first.

The ambulance arrived.

A paramedic took over from Danny, stabilized the patient, and loaded him into the ambulance. Due to the severity of his wound, he’d be taken to New Orleans.

Jacques, Danny and Remy gathered around Deputy Cleyburn and went over what had happened.

“Did you get the license plate number?” Cleyburn asked Remy.

Remy shook his head. “It didn’t have one.”

“What about the shooter?” Danny asked. “Anyone see his face?”

Jacques had been too busy trying to keep Danny alive. “I didn’t,” he admitted.

Cleyburn’s lips pressed into a tight line. “Same.”

“All I could see was that he was wearing a baseball cap pulled down low,” Remy said. “Couldn’t make out his features.”

“Again…” Deputy Cleyburn nodded toward Jacques. “I’ll need Sarley’s phone. It’s evidence.”

“And you’ll have it,” Remy promised. “I’ll bring it by later.”

“Well, Sarley admitted he was the one who broke into Danny’s apartment,” Remy said. “Unless we can tie his texts to the man who hired him, we aren’t much closer.”

“We need to get it to Swede and let him work his magic.” Jacques glanced toward Danny and grimaced. She was covered in blood. “We’ll make a quick stop at the boat factory and then get you home to clean up.”

She glanced down at her clothes and let out a long breath. “At least it’s not mine.”

Jacques felt the same. He’d lost a couple of years off his life when the window on his SUV had exploded. A few inches to the left and the bullet would have hit Danny in the chest.

His insides were still in knots at how close she’d come to dying. Unlike Sarley, who’d taken a bullet in the abdomen and would probably live, Danny would have died instantly. No amount of pressure to the wound would save her if the bullet had blown through her heart.

Jacques walked up the steps of the old house and closed the door Sarley had left open.

Danny waited at the bottom of the steps and fell in step beside Jacques. Before letting her into the passenger seat, he checked for broken glass. The bullet’s trajectory through the open door had sent most of the glass away from the interior.