Page 15 of Devil's Haunting
“Just thinking about my woman,” I don’t even bother to try and hide the truth.
Leo flashes a crooked grin in my direction and gives a nod of understanding. While it’s not the norm, Leo is already happily married and will become a patched brother when his time as a Prospect is up, with an Old Lady. They’re that whole high school sweetheart kind of story and I’ve never seen the man look twice at the angels, or any of the hangers on who come by for a party or try to get in a brother’s pants.
“You’ve found a good one,” he tells me. There’s nothing lewd about his words, only honesty, but it still causes my lip to curl.
Over the last few weeks, Leo has been one of the guys who has been at the house working right beside me. He’s well trained in a lot of areas, and I don’t have to ride his ass to make sure the job is done right. He’s a damn good worker and I could see him moving up in the company the same way I can imagine him wearing a full patch.
He’ll get there; it’s just a matter of time.
“I have the next load of lumber in the truck. The guys are unloading it right now,” he informs me.
I give a chin lift in acknowledgement knowing the guys will get it sorted out and will keep working. We’re still in the processof demolition and stripping down everything to the studs where needed. A few of those studs then need to be replaced. Until we open the wall, we don’t know what we’ll find, and more than one load of lumber has been needed.
I’m looking forward to getting to the point where we can put the finishing touches on the rooms, but we’re a long way away from that. I’m giving us about six months to complete everything and that’s mostly because I’m living here, in the construction zone, and I won’t be able to stand it going much longer than that.
I open my mouth to ask Leo a question when an ear-piercing scream rips through the air. My startled eyes meet Leo’s wide ones, and everything stops for about three seconds. Then my body uncoils, and I sprint out of the library and head right toward the solarium where I know my woman has been working on a painting while also reading bits and pieces of Blanche’s diary because she can’t stay away even though it breaks her heart.
Even though I’m moving fast and not going far, it feels like it is not nearly enough. I burst through the door of the solarium with Leo right at my back. Taking in the sight in front of me, I’m shocked. The canvas Laiken has been working on for days has crashed sideways to the floor and paint is splattered all over the ground. In the center of the carnage is my woman.
She has huddled in on herself with her knees to her chest and her eyes screwed closed. The way she’s rocking forward and back as if she’s trying to soothe herself breaks something in me.
I skid to my knees next to her and almost roar out my distress when she flinches away from me when I touch her. Her eyes snap open and all I can see is something feral there when she meets my gaze. The moment she recognizes it’s me, she melts into me.
When her fingers dig into my shirt and twist, the action fucking kills me. I want to make that fear disappear completely.
“What’s going on?” I murmur the words against the shell of her ear, and she shivers in my arms.
“She was here,” she breathes out while shivering in my arms.
The grip she has on me tightens just as Leo crouches down close, but not too close. His eyes are filled with concern as he looks at my woman. Even though I know he doesn’t mean anything, and I have no reason to be jealous, my emotions are all over the place.
“Is she okay? How can I help?” Leo’s questions are innocent, but they set me the fuck off.
I growl at him. The way his eyes widen as he raises his hands in surrender and shuffles back a few steps tells me he can feel just how on edge I am.
“I don’t know,” I grunt at him, “but I need you to clear everyone out. Job’s done for the day,” I bite out the words, hating the way my woman is trembling in my arms.
Over the last few weeks while living with her, I’ve gotten to know her really well. She’s a strong fucking woman and doesn’t let much get to her. The whole thing with Blanche got under her skin, but it wasn’t just about Blanche. It was about the lack of options women had and the lack of resources beyond marriage and kids.
The expectations on the shoulders of women were heavy and there weren’t nearly enough choices when it came to education which means employment was practically nonexistent. To have the one path Blanche had made more difficult by a man’s choiceshas had Laiken looking around the mansion like she might set a match to it at any moment.
I can’t say that I blame her exactly.
Leo murmurs, “I’ll take care of it and get out of your hair. Let me know if you need anything and I’ll pop it over.” He glances around the room before looking at me again. “Maybe it’s time to spend the night somewhere else.”
“No,” Laiken growls fiercely, “I’m not letting her win.”
The look Leo gives her is skeptical as hell, not that I can blame him. All I can do is sigh. My woman is stubborn as fuck. She hasn’t wanted to give an inch on this house and the more of Blanche’s journal she’s read, the worse it has become.
I run my hands up and down my woman’s back, trying not to get distracted by how fucking good it feels to have her tits pressed against my chest right now. My dick is not as discerning as I am. Nuance means nothing to him and he’s hard as a fucking steel pipe.
“I won’t let Desiree and her Voodoo win,” Laiken grunts and burrows deeper into my chest.
I suck in a sharp breath with her words. It’s not the first time she’s mentioned Voodoo, but this feels like it holds weight in a new way. This is New Orleans. Creole and Voodoo go hand in hand and are part of the history of this city. People who believe and practice Voodoo aren’t to be fucked with.
The thought of someone who lived here, who changed the course of the lives of those who lived here over a hundred years ago, practicing Voodoo has my stomach clenching.
“Blanche got pregnant, and Desiree cursed her. I don’t believe in that kind of thing, but Blanche did. She wrote about how shefelt like the walls were closing in on her and about how she was always being watched. Desiree became bolder in her actions and behavior. Phillip did nothing about it,” she grits out the words through her teeth, the disdain she feels for the man clear to hear.
