“Did you go back there, Nonny?” he asked suspiciously.

“I’m fixin’ to. They trampled my plants, and I’ve spent years puttin’ them all in that one spot in the swamp so I could gather them easier. I’m too old to be gallivantin’ around the swamp lookin’ for the right plants to make medicine when the traiteur calls for it.”

“Traiteur?” Malichai asked.

“Our local healer,” Wyatt supplied.

“I’ll go look after your plants for you, ma’am,” Ezekiel said. At her swift look he cleared his throat. “Grand-mere, I mean. I’ll be more than happy to read anyone from the good book who comes looking to step on those plants again.”

“You’re a fine boy, Ezekiel. You may not have had much parentin’ but you probably are one of those boys who just figgurs it out on your own,” Nonny said.

Wyatt sent Ezekiel a sharp glance. All three of them were enhanced physically and psychically. Unfortunately, their cat DNA gave them a need for hunting. Wyatt felt sometimes as if his mind was always at war. The healer side of him versus the killer instinct that the cat had. Ezekiel already had been an aggressive, dominant male. He didn’t fight for fun in the way Wyatt and his brothers did – Malichai, Mordichai and Ezekiel had fought from birth to stay alive. The new mixture of DNA into their already explosive make-up could be hazardous under the wrong circumstances.

You can’t kill in my grand-mere’s backyard. He used telepathic communication.

Ezekiel didn’t look up from mopping up the gumbo with the bread.

What did you plan on doing, Wyatt? Malichai asked. Shaking hands with them and thanking them politely for patting down your grand-mere?

Your sarcasm is not appreciated. I plan on a little recon before I go to bed. I want to check out this building and who owns it. I can get word back to Mordichai and see if he can dig anything up on them for us while he’s lookin’ after Joe.

Wyatt hadn’t been too surprised when his ability to speak telepathically with his team had been so easy – he’d always heard others in his head – catching random thoughts now and then – which was how he caught the love of his life cheating on him. At least at the time he’d thought she was the love of his life, now, after much soul searching, he realized he was just a damned fool with a white knight complex.

Beneath his hands the table trembled slightly, just enough for both Malichai and Ezekiel to frown at him.

What’s wrong? We’ll get these bastards, Ezekiel said. No one’s going to hurt your grandmother, not with us here.

What could he say? That he couldn’t bear thinking about what an idiot he’d been because he’d thought some woman ripped out his heart, stomped on it and then told him what she really thought of him – none of it good. He thought he loved her from the time he was five years old, when he’d first laid eyes on her at a neighborhood fais do-do. He’d devoted himself to her, although they didn’t date in school. She appeared too fragile and always turned to him when she broke up with her latest boyfriend.

He hadn’t ever let himself believe, not for one minute, in spite of Nonny warning him a time or two, that Joy Chassion was playing him, using him until someone came along who could get her out of the bayou. He hadn’t wanted to know – to believe – to even consider for one moment that his judgment could be that bad.

He’d never had that kind of hurt before and he sure as hell never wanted to experience it again. He’d sworn off women. They were unreliable and untrustworthy. He’d be damned if he ever went down that road again. And worse, he couldn’t trust his own judgment. Joy hadn’t been worth it, and the sad truth was, he’d never really been in love with her, only with his own fantasy. He’d made a damn fool of himself and he’d have to live with the consequences for the rest of his life – and so would his family. Nonny was going to have to look elsewhere for babies.

The funny thing was, he must have known all along that Joy couldn’t be trusted. She wanted money and a different life. He had the ability to give her both, but he never told her. Never wanted her to know. She had to love him for who he was, not what he could do for her.

Wyatt shook his head. “Grand-mere, I’ve been braggin’ to Malichai and Ezekiel that there’s nothin’ quite like our café and beignets. They’ve never had them before.”

Nonny looked both shocked and horrified. “Never?”

She got up immediately and went to the warmer, where she removed a large platter of beignets. She placed it squarely between the two men and marched back to get the hot black coffee for them.

Wyatt waited until she was seated again and his two friends were covered in powdered sugar. He leaned toward his grandmother, holding out his hand to her. “Your phone, Nonny. I want to see what these men look like.”

She pulled the small cell phone from the pocket of her sweater. “I took several. Those are the men who trampled my plants. The one with the dog tried to scare me, but I whispered to it and it stopped showin’ me its teeth. He wasn’ too happy and I was afraid I mighta gotten the dog in trouble.”

Malichai and Ezekiel both put down their beignets to study the series of photographs on her phone. Most were quite clear in spite of the fact that she was taking them on the sly.

“Which one put his hands on you?” Ezekiel asked.

“You sound jist like my boys. No sense in gettin’ everyone riled up. My dress and jeans came out clean and I woulda had to wash them anyway.”