Read Online Girls Just Wanna Have Guns by Toni McGee Causey - Free Book Online Page A

of the car littered the bridge and dead fish floated in the slow-moving bayou, while cops and bystanders alike shouted in vain against the blaring sirens. He stood there in sunglasses, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, sweat trickling into his collar, ignoring the oven-level heat. The advantage of being tall allowed him to see above most of the other officers milling around, and he scanned the road beyond the smoking bridge, looking for a sign she was okay.
    Patrolmen canvassed witnesses, occasionally glancing his direction with a small shake of the head to indicate no specific sighting. The car was probably too charred for the crime scene team to know yet if there were remains inside. Bitter-tasting smoke billowed up and hung in the otherwise crystal-blue sky, casting an ugly haze over the surrounding run-down waterfront property. Not even the lush green of the cypress and birch could offset the smoggy cloud hovering over the fishing area.
    Cam tried to see past the smoke to gaze back south at the city. He wanted to feel its rhythm, the hum of LakeCharles’s industry situated smack in the middle of farmland on one side and swamp and fishing on the other. Sometimes, he could detach himself from the harsh reality of crime, feel the heat of the small city, listen to its heart, its good intentions that offset the bad stuff happening, and that sustained him.
    Then there were days like this that killed him. He didn’t know if she was dead in that car, or maybe at the bottom of the bayou, or if she’d escaped. (How? And had gone where?) This was why he couldn’t have married her, he reminded himself. This was why that engagement ring was at the bottom of the lake behind his house, Bobbie Faye never the wiser. Because, ultimately, he would have gotten the phone call. He knew so many cops’ wives and husbands dreaded that call, and yet, he had always known that if he’d married Bobbie Faye, even though he was the cop, he’d have been the one on the receiving end. Too many times he’d tried to get her to be safe. Too many times he’d tried to make her see if she just asked for help, she wouldn’t have to face this sort of danger. Too many times he’d told her she could keep this sort of chaos from happening, she could have an easier life, a real life. She never listened. Dammit, she never listened.
    Right now he had to do something—anything—because thinking was just no damned good.
    Ce Ce scanned over the disaster zone that had been her store, her long braids swinging as she turned and turned her ample body, trying to take it all in. The pieces of four display cases filled the aisles around the gun counter where Bobbie Faye had holed up, the merchandise shot all to hell. There was no blood, so Ce Ce breathed a sigh of relief.
    How could this have happened? Ce Ce felt wholly at fault, wholly unworthy. People knew her for her good voodoo. She ran an entire side business on her reputation for getting results. She’d cast several protection spells for Bobbie Faye recently and they should have been in effect. Thoseincantations should have prevented any craziness from getting in the store and bothering Bobbie Faye. Every angle should have been covered.
    Wait.
Multiple
spells. Could they have cancelled one another out? Oh, Lord. She looked around the old mazelike store. Half of the wooden floors sagged from age, and dust coated some items that maybe hadn’t been such good purchases at the time (she didn’t know how she was going to unload those Pet Rock Vacation Spas that were cluttering aisle twelve). Somewhere in that store was an inlet for the bad, and it had gotten her girl.
    The twins joined her—Alicia with streaked hair now so that Ce Ce could tell them apart. They all watched the cops range through the aisles as they interviewed witnesses, took photos and fingerprints, and bagged evidence.
    “Bobbie Faye was just minding her own business,” Alicia whispered in awe.
    “Trying to talk Maimee out of buying that