by Tracy Ellen
Last night, Luke and I had a furious battle over his implacable decision to assume my un-cousin as his complete responsibility to save my soul.
Okay, I had marched around his room in full battle-rattle fury while my Dark Prince lounged and watched me with a fond smile, his eyes primarily focused on my breasts, but sometimes dwelling on my cha-cha region.
My war-god’s proclamations on the subject had driven me completely up the wall with frustration. He had two things to say.
One: Candy was willing to swear she’d never cross me in anything, if I would let her back into the family.
Two: Should Candy need killing at some point, he would do it and not me.
Nothing I could say would make him change his mind.
It was all my damned soul’s fault. Luke did not want mine stained with parricide. I was seriously beginning to rue the day that I went to Hubert H. Humphrey Airport and picked up my soul. Only I would fall madly in love with a trained killer that had a pastor for a father and an unhealthy obsession for the status of my soul.
“He can kill, but it’s not alright for me to kill,” I mocked loudly to my empty apartment.
Luke forced me into accepting his deal by using the trust card.
“Geez Louise, is this how mad the people feel that I’ve used the trust card on, too? I thought they’d be happy I was solving their stupid problems!” I shouted at the Christmas tree.
To prove my trust, I was forced to agree to not kill Candy Ducking MacKenzie. I didn’t agree to anything else. Luke knew nothing about Candy and the dead farmer. I was keeping my meeting with her tonight. I needed proof that she needed killing for setting that mad dog farmer loose to possibly kill Jazy and Tre.
“Ha! I wonder what Mr. Big Man Killer would think if he knew the un-cousin almost got his favorite cha-cha killed two nights ago,” I scoffed, and drop kicked a throw pillow across the room that went crazily awry and hit the Christmas tree.
I sucked in a horrified breath, and it was dicey for a moment while the fake tree branches jiggled and danced, but nothing fell off or broke.
That was the gist of my problem and why I was still so frustrated. I couldn’t tell Luke any of that, though. I had to see what Crazy was planning tonight. I did not believe for one minute all she wanted was a free pass to move about in the family. I didn’t think she even liked our family, and if she did, I’d sure like to see how she treated a family she hated.
“Doesn’t he get that I won’t let him kill for his soul’s sake, any more than he would let me kill for mine?” I muttered in exasperation, downing the rest of my drink.
I froze with a mouthful of bubble water.
I gargled loudly, “Holy frickin’ epiphany! He is so good!”
‘Yeah, sounds like he’s got it all wrapped up nice and tight that neither of you will be doing any killing,’ the detective voice agreed cheerfully.
‘But that’s a good thing, right?’ the accountant voice asked in bewilderment.
‘Mmm…fifty-fifty,’ the mean mommy voice temporized.
‘Yes, it depends on if someone needs killing bad enough,’ the sex kitten voice yawned with a stretch.
Once Luke had my promise on our deal last night, he also refused to cooperate in other ways. He said no to the start of what I hoped would be my erotic training and he said no to my suggestion that he take me downstairs to his “dungeons”. Luke insisted we have a regular night of lovemaking in his bed, for once, like every normal couple was doing across America on a snowbound winter’s eve.
He only laughed when I muttered darkly that if he was that vanilla as my boyfriend, I couldn’t imagine how white bread he’d be as my husband.
Turns out, normal was uniquely fun for us, though. The Rakester made up for being so vanilla with vigorous stamina and his multiple hands. We slept in until an astounding ten o’clock in the morning.
Anna’s morning call was a quiet voicemail. She was staying home to sleep-in, too. She was feeling exhausted, so would probably nap most the day and I didn’t need to call her back.
That cheered me up. Then the snow let up around noon as predicted, so my day was shaping up nicely. Luke’s four houseguests wouldn’t be leaving for Chicago until tomorrow morning, but there was no way I was spending another day socializing, especially with Bucky.
So I played the work card.
I reasoned it was worth letting Pussy Galore have one last try to seduce my boyfriend, if the trade-off meant I got the afternoon to myself.
Luke’s eyes glinted when he heard the news I was leaving to play catch up at the store. Much like Tre J’s talent, I think my Dark Prince sympathized with the caged beast he saw in my eyes. My money was on Luke spending the day in the man cave barn with John Smith, whaling the daylights out of each other.
I was ready to follow Johnny home to Northfield when he swung around in his snowplow truck around one. He was right on schedule, as we’d prearranged last night with my cash donation, and I followed Johnny’s truck home to Northfield.
I spent a fantastic afternoon in the closed bookstore. For several hours, I worked with not one interruption and without speaking to a single soul. That priceless trade-off was almost worth the lost holiday revenue.
My time of solitude allowed me to think over some issues, specifically what to do about James Byrd’s letter of resignation. I was a bit surprised Luke hadn’t asked me about James, but Mr. Tricky worked in mysterious ways.
Around five o’clock, Jazy had called to invite me out for pizza at Basil’s later tonight, along with Tre, Crookie, and the Byrd men.
It was on the tip of my tongue to decline, but at the mention of James Byrd, I realized it could be a perfect opportunity. I’d been racking my brain trying to solve the problem of his letter of resignation. Jazy could be a big help with my dilemma.
The last thing I wanted was to lose James’ business partnership or his friendship over something that was a ruse from the start. I was perplexed on how to allow my new friend to save face. I wasn’t sure if James cared about losing face for telling me of his intentions on the assumption I was a free woman, but I cared for his sake. If James insisted on pursuing me after knowing I was still Luke’s girlfriend, then so be it--his face deserved whatever it got.
Nobody in our families knew the truth of our break up. I explained the Luke-lite version to Jazy, so that she would understand the plan to let James save face.
Jazy was disappointed her curse wasn’t needed, but impressed by how Luke had pulled off such a great fake dumping--so it was a wash. My sister made me promise to fill her in on every detail later tonight. Oddly enough, I looked forward to telling all of my family the truth of what had transpired over the last couple of weeks.
Jazy had swung by the apartment an hour ago to pick up my purse. There were no updates on the Circus Freak Dating Plan, other than my sister’s big grin when she told me that she’d eluded Max’s calls and texts that day. He wanted to hear about her big date, but she’d used the “Sorry, I’m too busy to talk” card.
I debated if I should leave Rita in my purse for authenticity’s sake, but due to my eight p.m. appointment to determine the un-cousin’s destiny, I decided to keep Rita with me.
My best guess on how James Byrd had managed to give me the envelope undetected was farfetched, but after dealing with Luke’s extensive video camera technology on his farm, it didn’t seem so outlandish.
When we arrived at James’ party, we three girls had locked our purses in Mia’s trunk. We knew we’d be dancing and they would hamper us. I definitely didn’t want to leave my purse lying around with Rita in the special pocket. Luke would have beaten me for my lack of situational awareness with Svettie still on the loose, but I didn’t care much what Luke thought that night.
We never retrieved our purses from the trunk during the party, so James must have watched us on cameras when we arrived. Either he then jimmied opened Mia’s trunk, or he had someone else do it--and it wasn’t Mia or Jazy. I had found the envelope the
next morning in my purse while in my office in my locked store. It had to be Mia’s trunk because I didn’t think I could take it if another man was running footloose through my locked building.
Jazy arranged the time so that I would be the last to arrive at Basil’s. After Tre obligingly asked why Jazy had my purse, and Jazy explained how it had been left in Mia’s locked trunk until this evening, the purse would be left unattended. Jaz would casually let it drop to Tre that Luke and I were together. At that point, James could retrieve the envelope or not.
It wasn’t the best plan, but it was the only one I had.
Of course, that all was assuming the un-cousin planned her warehouse assignation to blackmail me and I wasn’t walking into an assassination ambush.
Luke was picking me up around ten or so. Since it was the last night Pam and John would be in town, as well at Daniel and Bucky, we were going to try Brisbane’s again. The Emperor was the only name on my dance card, and I was excited. Socialization where we could go off on our own to dance was more my style.
After that, Luke Drake was mine again tonight, all night.
I never knew I had a butt fetish. Thinking about pizza, I had an insatiable desire to bite Luke’s tight, round ass and nip my way down his muscular thighs. Maybe I’d pay some particular attention to that tender, soft skin on the inner thigh, up near his jingle bells. I might have been more concerned, but I recalled my women friends describing the same desire to bite their plump babies. At the time, I remarked that sounded like dingoism, but they had reassured me the desire was normal based on psychological studies. It was a physiological response triggered by scent in much the same way as when a person was presented with a delicious meal. Thinking about company meatloaf or Luke’s nude body, I now understood.
It was time to leave then, and I felt much more chipper after my few minutes of peaceful meditation. The cold air was invigorating and I sang a little “Jingle Bell Rock” on my short walk to MacKenzie Place warehouse.
I thought that name had a nice ring, and made a mental note to compliment my Uncle Trevor when he was back in town.
I arrived at the warehouse, and finding the main door unlocked, went in. The reception area that I stepped into was empty, but felt oddly quiet. I put my hand inside the open purse where I’d stashed Rita and gripped the gun.
I called out into the dark in my best tough girl voice, “Yo! Anybody home?”
I heard a faint voice call back, “In here!”
Walking to a pair of swinging double doors, I pushed through them cautiously because it was extremely dark on the other side. I didn’t know where the light switch was located and my phone was in my purse with Jazy. Blindly, I swept my hand along the wall and jammed my finger on a nail sticking out of a board.
“Goshfamn, son of a ducking snitch,” I faked cursed loudly, and shook my hand at the stinging pain before I stuck my finger in my mouth to suck hard.
There was a bright flash that totally blinded me. Banks of overhead lights blasted on with several loud clicks to the accompaniment of a hundred voices screaming, “Surprise!” and then “Happy Birthday, Princess-Anabel-Junior-Bel-She-Devil-Auntie!” and then “WE GOT HER!”
The pictures commemorating my 29 4EVER best surprise birthday party ever started out with me sucking my finger looking like a bad porn star while I aimed my gun at the camera.
All in all, as far as symbolism goes, not a bad predicator to the next year of my life.
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Thank you for reading Adieu to Destiny!
I hope you enjoyed Anabel’s latest adventure. If you have a moment, please consider leaving a review on the bookseller site where you purchased my book. I am a self-published author, so your support is immensely appreciated.
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Books by Tracy Ellen available everywhere where books are sold…
The Undying Love series
Acadia’s Law: Book One
Acadia’s Revenge: Book Two (coming spring 2015!)
The Adventures of Anabel Axelrod ongoing series
A Date with Fate, Volume I
Courted by Karma, Volume II
In Love by Design, Volume III
Adieu to Destiny, Volume IV
Family and Fortune, Volume V (tentatively titled, coming spring 2015!)
Happy Reading!