Searching the house further, they found some scattered items in various drawers and closets – and some items on the table next to her bed. They removed everything from the rest of the house and stored them in the alcove. That way, they could control Rachel LaBelle's access to everything if it was all in one place.
When Rachel came home that night, her house was completely dark. She was too tired to notice that anything had been rearranged. She took her makeup off in the bathroom, changed into her PJ's and went to bed. The bounty hunters waited until she was in a deep sleep. Then they tied her to the bed, carefully and gently.
When Rachel suddenly woke up abruptly, she saw Jenny sitting at the foot of her bed. She tried to scream, but one of the Cliburns immediately gagged her.
“There's only one question I want to ask you for the moment,” Jenny said. “And you don't need to speak to answer it. You can just nod your head yes or no. We already know the answer, so you should be honest.”
Rachel stared at her wide-eyed with fear.
“Are you – or are you not – descended from a woman named Madame Eve LaBelle?”
Rachel's eyes widened even further. But, rather than play games, she slowly nodded.
“Have you ever heard of the Guyette family?” Jenny asked.
The name sounded familiar, but Rachel couldn't place it. So she was being mostly honest when she shook her head 'no'.
“How about the Powells or the Cliburns?”
Still no.
“The Renoux?”
No.
“Maybe the McAlisters, the Slaters or the Quackenbushes?”
Rachel kept shaking her head 'no'.
“Well, weall remember your great-great-great grandmother,” Jenny said. “And we need you to take care of some business on her behalf.”
Rachel was terrified, but now she realized she probably was physically safe for the most part, if these people needed her. The redheaded bully to her left, however, was holding a taser. This wasn't so promising.
Jenny noticed that Rachel had caught on to that.
“If we remove the gag and you scream, he's gonna use that on you,” Jenny warned her. “So we understand each other? If you do what we want, you won't get hurt.”
The Cliburns looked at each other. That wasn't guaranteed to be true. The reality was, they could only guess what to do. Even if the curse was lifted, Rachel LaBelle could come after them with something else if she was pissed enough. Then they'd be back to Square One. It was up for debate as to whether Rachel LaBelle would live or die after-the-fact.
“Beau, go ahead,” Jenny said. The dark-haired Cliburn removed the gag. Rachel remained as silent as a church mouse.
“There's another LaBelle that's still alive,” Jenny said.
“My mother,” Rachel admitted.
Jenny already knew that.
“Anybody else?”
“Not that I know of, but that doesn't mean we don't have distant cousins that we haven't met.”
“We know your mother lives in Florida. We need you to call your mother and get her over here.”
Rachel laughed at that.
“My mother – come to visit me? That's not going to happen. Besides, she’s in New York right now.”
The redheaded Cliburn – Paulie – moved in closer with the taser.
“Hey! Stop!” Rachel protested. “I'm telling the truth. You don't know my mother. She's not exactly the motherly type. I avoid her as much as I can unless I really need to talk to her for some reason.”
“Is she more powerful than you?” Jenny asked.
“Powerful how?”
“How do you think?”
“Oh,” Rachel said. “You meanthat.”
“Why the hell else are we here?!”Jenny spat.
“Yeah, my mother is pretty powerful. She's better than me. It's true.”
“Well then you need to get her to Florida, however which way you can.”
Rachel started shivering with nervousness.
“You look familiar,” said Paulie, eyeballing Rachel up and down.
Great, Rachel thought.
“You're that lingerie model,” Paulie concluded smugly.
Jenny gave him a dirty look.
“Seriously?” Jenny said. “Can you keep your mind focused here?”
Paulie backed off.
“You're going to have to tell me what this all about,” Rachel pleaded. “You need to give me specifics. What did Eve LaBelle do to you all exactly?”
“Should weshowher ortellher?” Beau asked Jenny.
“I don't know...” Jenny said thoughtfully. She was relishing this moment a little more than she should. Then she made her decision.
“Let's show her,” Jenny decided.
When the three of them started pulling off their clothes, Rachel for a split second thought she was about the get gang-banged. She tried to scream, but she was so scared she lost her voice.
Then she saw Jenny, Beau and Paulie drop to the ground, almost like a belly flop. Their skin started rippling and then it cracked into separate segments.
Scales?Rachel thought.What the hell is happening?
The flesh-color of their skin deepened into a greyish green, and the bones of their jaws popped like someone was cracking his knuckles. Within seconds, Rachel LaBelle was surrounded by three alligators in her bedroom. Her heart started pounding. This was beyond anything she had ever seen in terms of the supernatural. Rachel kept trying to remind herself that these people needed her for something, so they would have to keep her alive.
Although, that didn't mean they wouldn't bite her.
Can alligators jump? she wondered. If not, she technically was safe up on her bed.
Jenny proved THAT wrong by darting at the foot of the bed high enough that her two front legs hung on, and she could snap at Rachel. Mostly, she was doing this for effect, which worked. Rachel yelped.
“Cut that shit out!” Rachel hollered. “I'm scared enough already, don't you think?”
The three of them shifted back into human form. Jenny and Beau got dressed, but Paulie was in no hurry. He definitely remembered Rachel in those catalogues, and he was giving her a full frontal view of his own.
“What am I supposed to be looking at exactly?” Rachel snarked. “Put your pants on, please.”
Paulie smirked and complied.
As they all pulled themselves back together, it began dawning on Rachel that all the rumors about her great-great-great grandmother were true. She really WAS that powerful a Conjure Woman. Love spells and money spells be damned. This was someseriously powerful shit. Rachel's mother didn't even know about this – else she would have told her, wouldn't she have?
“So apparently you think it sucks to be an alligator,” Rachel observed. “And you don't want this in your life anymore.”
“Exactly,” Jenny said.
“Alright, look,” Rachel said. “I get it. And if Eve LaBelle had a beef with you, that was her problem and it was over a hundred years ago. It's notmy problem. So, I don't mind helping you out. But the thing is, this is the first time I've ever heard about this kind of curse. Neither my mother nor I can do this kind of thing – so this is going to take research.”
“Understandable,” Beau said.
“But we're going to get nowhere if you threaten me or keep me tied up,” Rachel. “We're going to have to have a different arrangement. Especially if you want my mother to be involved.”
“We've thought about that,” Jenny said. “We just didn't know who we were dealing with yet.”
Beau and Paulie had concluded that Rachel's Hoodoo stash had seemed pretty unimpressive. So they knew ahead of time that they were not dealing with anyone powerful. But she would have to do.
“In the spirit of getting more with honey than with vinegar,” Jenny continued, “we're willing to make you an offer.”
“What kind of offer?” Rachel asked.
“We're willing to pay you and your mother,” Beau said. “We'll pay you $250,0
00 if it works.”
The Powells had proposed a monetary option, if the opportunity to negotiate such arose. This would solve the problem of having to make the LaBelles disappear, if they could set up a mutually beneficial arrangement.
Rachel thought it over.
“You said seven families?”
“Yes.”
“But going back over a hundred years, that's a lot of descendants.”
“Yes,” Beau said.
One thing Rachel was good at was negotiating business contracts.
“We'll do it for $100,000 per family,” Rachel countered.
“What?” Jenny spat. She acted resistant just for effect, because she knew she could get the money from the Powells if need be. They had authorized her to go up to a million dollars.”
“Try $500,000,” Jenny threw back.
“Nuh-uh,” Rachel said. “If all my focus is on this for the next few weeks, I won't be able to take a couple of modeling contracts. That's gonna cost me. And this clearly is worth it to you, and considering that you just broke into my home and terrorized me, I think I'm being reasonable.”
Jenny stared at her.
“And if I fail – then you don't have to pay me anything,” Rachel added. “So with the number I gave you, now we both have positive motivation here.”
Paulie looked amused. He wasn't her type at all, but she winked at him to give him a positive nudge.
“Fine,” Jenny said. “Untie her.”
Chapter 22
After another round of lovemaking in the swamp, Brandy didn't let Jake let her follow her home and spend the night. She needed to keep him out of sight for awhile. If other shifters saw him hanging around Escala – and more specifically her house – things could get tricky pretty fast.
When she awoke the next morning she felt absolutely delicious. It was that rare feeling you get when you don't have to set the alarm and you wake up just after the sun rises, but you don't have to be anywhere anytime soon. She lounged in bed for awhile, self-indulgently replaying last night's events in her mind a few times over. Then it was time to get up like a normal person and put on a pot of coffee.
Jenny wasn't home when Brandy slipped in the night before. The bed was still made in the guest room that morning, which meant Jenny hadn't slept there last night at all. Brandy felt a pang of guilt knowing that it was highly likely she had finally made a move on Rachel.
Brandy made a pot of coffee and heard someone knocking at the back porch door. It was Marianne.
“Jenny around?” Marianne asked. She accepted a cup of coffee from Brandy, who for some reason didn't look like her usual, sluggish-in-the-morning self.
“She didn't come home last night, looks like.”
“You think she went after Rachel LaBelle finally?”
“Probably,” Brandy said.
“Look,” Marianne told her, “you've got nothing to feel bad about. Here we are payin' for the sins of our fathers – whatever they were – so maybe it's a LaBelle's turn to see what it's like.”
“Maybe.”
Brandy sipped her coffee thoughtfully.
“And she WAS using magick on McEvans,” Marianne added. “So she's not some sweet, innocent gal. That's some manipulative shit. It's unfair for anyone to do that to someone. We're supposed to have free will. That's a serious breech of trust, going behind a man's back like that.”
Brandy nodded.
“What's wrong with you?” Marianne asked. “You're not usually this quiet.”
“Nothing. I'm fine. I just slept a little late.”
“So I'm going to state the obvious then,” Marianne said distractedly, analyzing her nails. “McEvans probably is free and single right now. If he had half a brain in his head, he broke up with her on-the-spot.”
Marianne frowned at her manicure. The pink polish on her right middle finger was chipped, as was the polish on her left index finger. She just had them done two days ago, too.Pain-in-the-ass. Brandy had warned Marianne that pink nail polish on gator claws would be suspicious if she was ever caught by a trapper. That’s why Brandy avoided mani-pedis. Acrylic nails and nail polish strangely survived the shift.
If anyone cared to look, the swamps around Florida were filled with middle-aged female gators sporting french manicures.
“He did break up with his girlfriend,” Brandy said.
“You talked to him?”
“Yep,” Brandy said. She was started to avert her gaze, avoiding direct eye contract with her best friend.
“And?”
“And what?”
“Well – this could be trouble now – because I know you've got the hotty hots for him.”
“So what?”
“Sowhat?”
Brandy was never good at lying. And last night was sodamn good she was busting at the seams wanting to tell Marianne the details. And Marianne would probably approve if she thought this was harmless fling. But it wasn't safe and it wasn't harmless.
“Nah, I think I'm going to cool it for awhile,” Brandy said. Lie lie lie.
Marianne studied Brandy's face.
“Look me in the eye and say that.”
Brandy made split second eye-contact with Marianne, as she repeated the words, her eyes darting back and forth.
“That's not looking me in the eye! Oh my Lord – is that a hickey?!”
“Are you kidding?!” Brandy jumped up and rushed to a mirror on the wall.
She searched her neck but couldn't find anything.
“Gotcha!” Marianne announced.
There was no hickey.
“Grr! You're a bitch sometimes!”
“When? Where?”
“Oh God, Marianne, what am I going to do?” Brandy moaned. “It was last night.”
“How far did it go?”
“As far as itcango.”
Marianne's jaw dropped. She knew this was Brandy's first time with a man who wasn't a shifter. And what a man!
“This is bad. But it'sso good at the same time,” Marianne said naughtily, enjoying the idea of forbidden fruit. “It will get bad – but it's good right now. Tell me everything!”
Brandy buried her head in her hands as she began the story, swearing Marianne to secrecy about last night – but avoiding at all costs letting Marianne know the fact that McEvans had seen her shift.
“You did it with him in the swamp,” Marianne said wistfully. “And he's not even a shifter – that's the sexiest thing ever.”
Brandy finally looked up, more pleased with herself than ashamed now.
“It was pretty damn amazing,” she said. “I can't stop thinking about it, and I'm going to see him at work tomorrow.”
“Who put the moves on who exactly?”
“He did – he definitely did.”
“Wow,” Marianne said. “It is too damn bad he's not a shifter. He's a cut above all the men we know, that's for sure.”
Then Marianne decided it was time for a reality check.
“You know you're going to have to cut it off. This can go on for maybe a month, tops. How are you going to play the double role of being 'Shirley' and his bed buddy at the same time?”
“I think he's gotten over Shirley,” Brandy lied. She simply didn't need to sneak 'Shirley' into Animal Sphere anymore, now that McEvans knew the truth.
“Okay then,” Marianne said. “That's a little surprising, but it's kind of a relief.”
As they continued talking, Jenny arrived home. She sashayed into the kitchen and poured herself a cup of coffee, joining them at the kitchen table.
“Ah – hello there,” Brandy said.
“Good morning,” Jenny said. She was clearly in a good mood.
“You didn't come home last night,” Brandy.
“Nope,” she said. She was playing hard to get.
“Spill it, String Bean,” Marianne said.
Jenny smiled smugly.
“We made a deal with Rachel LaBelle.”
“You made adeal?” Marianne said. “Whatkind
of deal?”
“We agreed to pay her $700,000 for lifting the curse.”
“She admitted to knowing how?” Brandy asked.
“No,” Jenny said. “She doesn't know how. But she and her mother are going to figure it out. They only get paid if it works. But we gave her $100,000 as a retainer.”
Brandy and Marianne stared at each other. It wasn't a done deal, by far, but this was looking like it actually had potential.
“So, if they don't know – how are they going to figure it out?” Marianne asked.
“Apparently Rachel's mother is stronger than she is,” Jenny explained. “Eve LaBelle must have invented the curse, because clearly it's not standard Hoodoo stuff – it's something mighty special. Rachel thinks her mother has some family grimoires that go back to Madame Eve.”
“People are going to be ripshit,” Brandy told her cousin. “What makes you think someone won't try to track Rachel down and remove her from the picture if they find out?”
“Well, I know YOU won't tell anyone, because you'd feel too guilty,” Jenny said. “And we set her up somewhere that no one knows about, so she's safe.”
“With the two thugs?”
“Beau and Paulie aren't thugs,” Jenny said. “They're bounty hunters, and they're serious and committed to the cause.”
Chapter 23
Rachel was, indeed, holed up somewhere safe. She was set up in a hotel somewhere in the Florida Keys.
Rachel immediately had called her mother and laid everything straight out for her. Her mother was absolutely amazed. The promise of a 50/50 split of $700,000 just to work some Hoodoo was too good to resist.
“Well, of course you'll need my help honey,” her mother drawled. “This type of magick is way beyond you.”
“It's way beyond you, too, Mother,” Rachel said back, as sweet as pie. “I've never even heard this story before.”
“True – true,” her mother said. “Neither have I.”
But her motherhadheard the story, as a little girl. Once from an aunt.This was some dark stuff, her aunt had warned her,Best not to go there, Sylvia.But Sylvia LaBelle had always wanted togo there. She just could never figure out how. And so she had to stay satisfied with knowing the right spells to help her seduce one rich man at a time, and then grieve over each untimely death.
Big Gator: A BBW shape shifter paranormal romance Page 11