Her Only Desire Read Free

Although nearly a grown man in body, he’d been her best friend and cohort in many of her adventures. He didn’t mind baiting her fishing hooks with worms, didn’t mind climbing to the roof of the schoolhouse to see the stars. As wonderful as she’d believed he was, she’d been aware from a very young age that most people didn’t look at him the same way she did.
    That day, even their cousin Celeste had turned up her nose at the sight of him, pretending she didn’t know him. However, Celeste’s boyfriend, Boone, had been kind, offering to let them sit near the fireworks platform. Denny had sworn it was the best day ever. But it had been the last time either one of them had set foot inside the estate.
    And here she was today. Her stomach clenching so tight she felt a little nauseous. Trying not to think about the thing that screamed inside her mind, aching to be released.
    A secret so profound it could alter the path of one man’s life and destroy what was left of her family forever. That secret was one she could never tell.
    Some nights, she awoke drenched with sweat, sure she’d blurted aloud the words. But she only dreamed she revealed the truth that had left such an ugly scar upon her community.
    How she wished she’d never found the bracelet. Never seen the photograph. But that photograph was part of her small town’s legacy. A dark chapter with murky underpinnings, coloring everything after it with dismal tones, dark suspicions, and angry frustration for a justice that would never be served. Her damnable curiosity had led her to the discovery.
    Her secret had consequences. Karmic ones. She had proof. From the moment three years ago when she’d plucked the golden charm bracelet, so pretty and delicate, from among the odd assorted treasures she’d found, nothing but bad luck had followed. Her mother succumbed to cancer months later. The only home she’d ever known was lost to foreclosure. She’d been forced to live underneath her uncle’s roof for several months until she’d saved enough to rent a cheap apartment, eager to escape the Thibodaux house, where an atmosphere of desolation and endless sorrow smothered the inhabitants in their never-ending mourning. Arrangements were made for her brother, who needed specialized care. The day social services loaded him into a van and drove away, he’d been so confused, he’d cried big fat tears.
    Dark days had followed. Even with the bracelet safely hidden, Tilly couldn’t brush off the lingering fear that somehow someone would find it. In this town, darkness was impossible to escape. Even on cloudless days, the thick canopy formed by interlocking oaks, dripping with Spanish moss, cast an eerie pall, smothering the light, muffling the sounds of the wind blowing across the marshes from Barataria Bay to Bayou Vert.
    Darkness had always been a part of the town’s psyche. When you add the isolation of living in a bayou more accessible by boat than it is by the thin ribbon of state highway, especially when the seasonal rains hit, it was easy to understand. Folks believed themselves alone. Forgotten. Free to mete out their own justice, live by their own rules.
    In one unforgettable instance, they’d been robbed. A bright light extinguished with no one to bear the blame. The helpless rage festered, then faded, covered by a thin skin. But when prodded, it erupted like an angry boil.
    Boone Benoit’s return to the bayou was just the nasty jab the town needed to awaken from its slumber. Tilly felt the stirrings of a coming disaster. One she was helpless to avoid. She’d find herself at the center anyway. She might as well be close enough to make a difference if things went sideways.
    She drew a deep breath, clearing the cobwebs of the past, and stiffened her backbone.
    The panel for the automatic keypad controlling the massive gate in the estate’s stone wall was missing, wires hanging. Tilly unwrapped the fencing wire that held the gates closed and slipped through,