2. Sarra

2

Sarra

I sat on my bed; the weight of Knox's presence heavy in my mind. The moment I laid eyes on him, recognition struck like lightning. I knew who he was. I didn't know his name, but I knew him. He'd been haunting in my dreams since I turned sixteen. How was this even possible?

Dreams always meant something to me. Mam had drilled that into my head since I was a child. There was a reason he was here now, at a time when my life was in danger. He was here to protect me. Raised in these swamps, Mam had always taught me that dreams could be good or evil. She knew about my dreams concerning this man. I first saw him when he was much younger. I wished I had never told her about him.

Mam's words echoed in my mind: "If you ever see him, don't push him away." As if I could. His arrival felt like a piece of my life finally falling into place. I wondered if he had ever dreamed of me. Probably not.

Some people live here in the swamp, like Mam, who could look at your hand and tell you about your future. Mam told me to ignore most of that because they always added to the telling. She told me she was raised in these swamps and didn't like leaving here when they sent her away to college.

My cousins are all brothers, six of whom are as handsome as Knox. I knew the color of his eyes before I saw them.

I never knew I had family. Mam always said it was just the two of us. I loved Mam, despite her sometimes-cruel nature. Her death was bittersweet—painful, yet a relief from her emotional disturbances. In her absence, I uncovered dark truths about her.

Avoiding Mam's wrath had been a skill I honed. Discovering my cousins brought a new dynamic into my life. They tried advising me on what to do with my life, but I only wanted to live here in my house.

They all live in New Orleans, so they knew something about how I grew up from stories they heard about the people in the swamps.

They knew some of the families out here, and I introduced them to the few people I knew. I didn't have many friends, but I didn't need a lot of people around me. I have Bub, and now I have my cousins, and now I have Reaper.

I don't know why people think the swamp is scary and dangerous. The swamp is always beautiful, and the birds always sing. If they weren't singing, you better climb a tree and grab your bow and arrows because evil was near. That's what the people here said, anyway.

When I got in touch with my cousins, I mostly spoke French because Mam preferred speaking French. My cousins were angry that Mam took me to live with her. They said she stole me, and all of them thought I was dead.

I don't remember my parents, but if they hired a nanny to care for me, they didn't care enough to care for me themselves. Maybe that's why I don't remember anything about them. I also wondered why Mam was a nanny; after all, she had an engineering degree. At least that's what she told me.

There is so much going on in my life right now that it makes me dizzy just thinking about everything. I looked at the clock; it was dinner time, and I was making gumbo, and it should be done by now. Knox was standing at the stove when I opened my door, stirring the gumbo.

"I made some biscuits to go with dinner. I hope that's okay," he said, smiling.

"Yes, of course, it's okay. You can cook anytime you feel like it. I want you to act like this is your home and do whatever you want," I said, taking bowls from the shelf. I fed Bub his food first, then scooped out Knox's and my dinner.

"These biscuits are delicious. Did your mom teach you to cook?" I asked.

"No, my grandpa taught us to cook. My parents died when we were little, and Grandpa raised us."

"I'm sorry. I never had my parents either, but I had Mam and loved her like she was my mother, because I thought she was. I never knew she wasn't my mother until she died. I was relieved she wasn't my mother because she had mental problems, and I was always afraid I would be the same."

"Do you think she should have taken you to your family instead of letting them think you were dead?"

"I suppose she should have. I don't know why she didn't. She left me stacks of folders filled with stories about our life before the swamp and our years here. She said she would have been imprisoned for keeping me with her," I said, getting another biscuit.

"But she kidnapped you."

"I will never blame Mam for any wrongdoing; I would have been killed along with my parents if she hadn't hidden me. She loved me in her way, and I wasn't stuck back in the swamp without learning anything. Mam went to college; her mother made her go, and she taught me everything she knew. I had class for six hours a day, five days a week, just like other school kids."

"Did you have friends your age?" Knox asked.

"I had a few. I wasn't the only child living here in the swamp. Mam didn't like me playing with other kids. Look around you, it's beautiful here. Who would want to live anywhere else?" I explained.

"What about the alligators, snakes, tons of mosquitoes, and spiders?" Knox would have kept talking, but I interrupted him.

"When you grow up here, you know what to do. You watch for the gators and snakes and go inside when the bugs fly around your head. The spiders only bother you if you bother them."

"I can tell you love it here."

"I do. I don't want to ever move from here. I tried that, and I didn't like it. It's perfect for my writing."

"What do you write?"

"Thrillers. I use a pen name. I didn't know my last name was Allen while I lived with Mam." She looked like she didn't want to say anything, but she changed her mind.

"I often wonder why no one investigated Mam and where she was when everything happened at my parent's home that night. My cousins said they didn't know Mam worked for my parents. Of course, they were young, also."

"I guess you didn't know anything about your life before you lived with Mam. She's right; she would have gone to prison. What she did was wrong; she should have given you to your family instead of making them worry and wonder. I guess since she killed two men, she would have been arrested for that as well until everything was sorted out.

"Let's not talk about Mam. Tell me about your family."

"I have two brothers and two cousins. We all grew up in Grandpa's home. Our parents, my cousins' parents, and Grandma died in an accident coming home from a concert."

"Grandpa raised us. My brothers and cousins are all married. I still live in Grandpa's house. My brother Rebel and his wife Evie live there with their little girl, Hannah, and a new baby boy."

"Does the other brother live nearby, and the cousins?"

"We all live on the mountain where we grew up. Most of the people I went to school with still live on the mountain, and most who moved away have moved back."

"It sounds crowded."

"I guess sometimes it is a little crowded. We always have big get-togethers, and Steel has a family reunion yearly; over a hundred Petersons live on the mountain. Steel is also a Delta Force, teammate, we always enjoy his family reunion."

"Where do you sit with that many people?"

"Tables are set up everywhere. Steel calls Party City in the biggest town near us, and they set up the tables. It's fun."

"It sounds exciting. I mean, you all know each other. How can someone know so many people?" I asked as I gazed into his beautiful gray eyes. My fingers itched to move his hair back from his face. When he's really mine, I will do it whenever I want.

Because I didn't have a doubt in my mind that Knox Bellmont would be mine. Why else would he have been in my dreams all those years?