Avalon was ice cold.
“Bad things are coming,” Avalon whispered. “So many bad things, and for all of us.”
Maura didn’t want to hear that.
Frankly, it freaked her out.
* * * O R A C L E * * *
The deed was done.
The body was left where someone would find it.
This place was perfect. He deserved to hang, and this would give the most impact.
He could almost see the news now.
The sheriff was trying to stop the justice, and that wouldn’t work.
This had to be finished.
Once before, a sheriff had tried to stop him, and that didn’t end well. Maybe, it was time to scare this sheriff too. Maybe it was time to show her what happened when you put your nose where it didn’t belong.
He had an idea.
He had the files, he had all of her information, and now he’d leave her a little gift.
Well, make that one hell of a gift.
She’d never see this one coming.
They had one of seven.
They had two of seven.
When they found this one, they’d have three.
Little did she know they actually had number four already. They’d had him for a very long time.
The fun was about to begin.
Now he’d really pick up the pace. This game just got interesting. Bishop Killion didn’t have a clue what she was up against, and that would be her downfall.
Just like her dear old dad.
* * * O R A C L E * * *
Ravenswood
B & B
Friday Mid-Day
When they pulled up, it looked like every other Bed and Breakfast in a tourist town.
It was a Victorian with lots of flowers, bright colors, and rockers on the porch.
They were having a hard time picturing the man who went to jail dating anyone who worked here. It was getting weirder and weirder with each passing moment.
Something was definitely off.
Nate pulled out his phone when the text went off, and he read it.
“We have to head back after this. Avalon is going off the rails, Lucian is knocked out, and Jagger is twisted up.”
Luke glanced over. “Please tell me that my wife didn’t knock him out. She has too much fun doing shit like that. It took me a whole week of explaining why Marines just couldn’t go around doing that. She wanted to actually do it to a guy who stole her parking spot.”
Nate would have laughed if he wasn’t feeling the stress of the situation.
“Well, we know it wasn’t my girl who did it.”
Shit.
Luke was sure Maura had to have one hell of a reason, or so he hoped.
Heading up the porch stairs, they needed to make this fast. Once inside, a blonde woman headed their way. She wasn’t dressed like any business owner they saw before.
She looked more like Jessica Rabbit run amuck, but with so much blonde hair it looked like cotton candy.
What the hell?
“Can I interest you in a room?” she asked. “I’m Starla, and I’m the proprietor.”
Nate nearly asked the proprietor to what. Had they walked into a brothel?
“Uh, no. We have some questions to ask you about a man named Nolan Parker.”
She smiled. “That’s my man. What about him?”
They pulled their badges.
Her demeanor changed. “Did my rotten, greedy, bastard step-son send you?”
They looked at each other.
“Pardon?”
“Lucian Monroe. I was married to his father, and ever since the old man croaked, he’s been a thorn in my side. I contest the will, which is my right, and he shuts me down. All I want is what was owed to me. His father married me and I played wife. I did what he asked. All I got out of it was this business. That’s not fair. I deserve my share.”
The men knew why it felt off. Lucian mentioned this when they asked about a place to stay.
It was really odd, or a coincidence, that a man who’d been connected to the three men was also connected to Lucian’s stepmother.
They didn’t like coincidences.
Nate pushed on.
“We need to know if you can corroborate Nolan’s where abouts.”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t give you the dates.”
“I don’t care. I know how this works. I was married to a lawyer. That bastard monster is one too. If I give you any leeway, you’ll frame a good man. I moved on, and Nolan is sweet. You can kiss my ass.”
“So you’re saying you were with him…”
“Yes. Whatever the date, yes.”
This was going to get them nowhere and they could see that.
“Okay.”
“You can leave now. You can also tell Lucian that I’ll see his ass in court. Once I have enough money, I’ll make sure I buy the best lawyer, and Graymoor will be mine. He can have this dump. I’ll be living large.”
The men backed out and away from the crazy.
She was storming around the inn, and they wanted nothing to do with that. Outside, they leaned against the side of the vehicle.
“So.”
“Yeah, so.”
“We have a felon who was put away by Lucian and the judge, defended by the dead defense attorney, and now shacking up with the woman who was married to Lucian’s father.”
“Yeah, didn’t see this one coming.”
Luke either.
“Do you think…?”
“I don’t know what the hell to think. Ravenswood is a hot mess. We need to do more research. There’s no way this is a coincidence. That’s just not possible.”
Luke agreed.
It was just too in your face.
This was going to take digging.
Lots and lots of digging.
Chapter Fifteen
Morgue office
When he showed up, he couldn’t find her at first. Then he was directed to her private office off the main lab. When he knocked on the door, he was invited in.
The second he saw her, his heart skipped in his chest.
She was drop dead gorgeous.
Her ankles were propped up on the corner of her desk, there was a file on her lap, and the sexy skirt was hitting mid-thigh. Since Jagger knew what was waiting beneath, it took everything he had to stay calm.
By stay calm, he meant not do anything stupid like whip out his dick and take her on the desk.
That took a lot of effort.
Herculean effort on his behalf.
The second he saw the coifed hair, picked up the scent of her rich perfume, and saw the red lips, he knew what he wanted, and it wasn’t to talk.
Coming here was a bad idea.
“I see you’re busy. I’ll come back.”
Yeah, as in when hell froze over.
Jagger hated that he was running. This was proof he was off his game. A woman in a lab coat shouldn’t freak him out. A naked woman definitely shouldn’t do that to him.
“Hey! Come back. I was thinking about you. Want some coffee?” she asked.
He swallowed and stepped back into the room. As he headed toward the couch to sit, she dropped her ankles before crossing to the door to close it.
“What do you need? Are you here to pick up reports for Nate and Luke?”
His gut instinct was to lie.
Instead, he went with the truth.
He was an idiot.
CLEARLY.
“I wanted to talk about yesterday.”
She looked puzzled as she sat on the edge of her desk not far from him.
“What about it?”
“I wanted to tell you I was sorry.”
“For?”
“What happened between us was inappropriate, out of control, and something that shouldn’t have happened.”
Now she really looked confused.
“The sex?”
When she said it like that, he felt dirty.
Jesus!
Was this what all the women he’d boned over the years felt like?
Really?
Karma needed to show up now? Here? With her?
“Yeah, the sex.”
Roxy started laughing.
“I don’t think this is amusing. This is me, apologizing for what I did. It’s no laughing matter.”
Only that made her laugh even more.
“Why are you getting all freaked out? We’re two adults, we had sex, and that’s it. You’re not tied to me in anyway, and I’m not tied to you. It happened, we both got off, and it’s a new day.”
Maybe that was the problem.
He didn’t like being her booty call.
Yes, he’d done it before to countless women, but it felt…wrong.
He watched her. For some reason, she sucked him in. She wasn’t the most beautiful woman he had ever fucked.
She wasn’t even the wildest.
Still…
She drove him insane.
He could smell her perfume wafting his way, and it made him hard.
Jesus.
He was beyond hard. He was rock, raging hard.
“You’re too uptight.”
He was well aware. The irony was, he was never like this before. Something about this town, and her, did it to him.
Roxy checked him out. It was a well-known fact that she loved a soldier. In fact, she’d like to love them all. Talk around town was that she had ‘issues’ stemming from her past, but she really believed she just liked sex.
If it was with a hot man, even better.
She moved toward him.
His eyes dilated.
Yeah, he was saying he didn’t want her, but she was a doctor. She knew responses, and his pulse had just jumped in his neck.
As she stood in front of him, as he sat on the couch, she was already wild for him. He was there, she had some time, and honestly, Jagger Armstrong made her curious. He’d come there to apologize.
Who did that?
Apparently him.
It was kind of sweet in a silly schoolboy way.
That made her want to take another walk on the wild side with this man.
She grinned wickedly.
Immediately, Jagger knew what she was thinking. When Roxy leaned forward, bracing her arms on either side of his head on the back of the couch, he knew coming there was a horrible idea.
“Don’t,” he warned.
“Don’t what?” she asked, straddling his lap.
Immediately, his hands went to her hips.
“Touch me.”
“Oh, you want me to touch you? Okay, soldier boy.” With that, she grabbed his face, yanked him to her mouth, and did her worst.
She poured into him.
She devoured him.
Jagger couldn’t think, let alone breathe. She was sitting across his lap, she was rubbing against his erection, and all he could think about was burying himself in her body.
God!
He wanted her.
What the hell was this power over him?
As her fingers found his shirt, she yanked it off. They had to break the kiss.
“What were you saying?” she asked.
He couldn’t think.
She was sliding out of her lab coat and unbuttoning the silk shirt. He knew it was pricy. His mother wore rich feeling clothes too. He’d lived in that world.
He’d sworn he’d never go back.
He felt her fingers on his belt.
He stared down, helpless to stop her. For some reason, he couldn’t tell her no.
She was a witch.
A wicked one, and she’d cast the spell.
“Jagger, touch me,” she whispered in his ear.
He fought it. His mind said no, but his hands…they slid between her legs to the wetness.
Jesus.
She was really wet.
Again, he told himself no.
He told himself that he wasn’t going to be part of this clusterfuck. Then he heard her panties rip. He swore it couldn’t have been him. There’s no way he was doing this all over again. There was no way he was going to have unprotected sex with her twice in two days.
And yet…
He felt her slide down his dick. It was the best thing he’d ever felt in his life. She was tight, warm, and perfect.
The moan wasn’t his either.
It had to be hers.
Jagger was having an out of body experience. As her lips found his ear, and she whispered all the foul, dirty things that got him off, he didn’t have a choice.
Jagger was too far gone. He moved, pressing her into the couch and beneath his body. She felt so small and fragile beneath him, but it was deceiving.
She was incredibly strong. She’d broken him in two days. He knew he was unfixable at that point.
He needed her more than he wanted to breathe. He wanted her more than he could say no.
So… he took her.
Jagger gave her all he had.
He made her scream.
He made her beg.
And then, he made her cum, over and over again, until he couldn’t hold out any longer. With one long drive into her, he poured into the doctor. He emptied his body into hers.
When it was all said and done, he knew the truth. Jagger had to get away from her. He couldn’t fight her, and if he couldn’t fight her, then he knew the truth.
She had power over him.
AND.
NO ONE.
COULD.
EVER.
HAVE.
THAT.
Jagger didn’t love. He wasn’t capable.
* * * O R A C L E * * *
Graymoor
He was shocked that he showed up there.
When the mayor rang the gate, he didn’t know what to think. Then he realized it was likely going to get worse.
Silas Reed was a tough man, and he didn’t take any shit. He’d remembered dealing with him when he worked as the DA.
Lucian knew he didn’t make house calls.
If he was there, he had an agenda.
It likely had something to do with Bishop. Everyone in Ravenswood knew that he doted on her. She was, after all, a Killion. That name meant something there.
Like his had at one time. There were three power families in that town, and they were Monroe, Reed, and Killion. They meant law and order in Ravenswood.
Or at least they used to.
As he headed downstairs, he had that sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.
He wanted to avoid this at any cost, but he didn’t have a way out. Silas would climb the damn gate.
He didn’t doubt it.
No one told him no or kept him out. For thirty years, he ran the city, and no one forgot that. There were rumors that he’d bought his elections, that he had ties that were a little shady, but it didn’t matter to anyone.
He was loved.
As for him, since the explosion, Silas left him alone, and they didn’t cross paths.
Not anymore.
Now here he was, and that was one hell of an omen. Something bad was brewing.
Earlier, when Lucian had woken up, the screaming had stopped but the foreboding feeling in his gut had not. He really wished that whatever Maura and Avalon had done to save him lasted a little longer. Now not only was he freaked out, but he was about to face down the old man.
He didn’t have the patience for this.
What had happened to his easy life where he hid in his library reading his books and avoiding the world?
Oh yeah.
A killer.
The maniac had brought Bishop Killion back.
He was screwed.
At the door, he let the man in. He wasn’t smiling, but he did shake his hand.
“Can we talk, son?”
His head pounded as his blood pressure spiked. Bad things were coming. His gift was trying to warn him. Lucian couldn’t look. He had to play with the aura to stay coherent, or this man would have him locke
d away for being crazy.
“If we must, Mayor. Come to my office. I don’t think you want the FBI privy to this, do you?”
“Not particularly.”
Once behind the closed doors, Lucian went right to the whiskey. He had a feeling that he was going to need a drink or seven.
He poured two glasses.
When he offered one to the mayor, he took it.
“You look good, son.”
“Liar. I look like hell.”
Silas laughed. “Yeah, you really do. I don’t know what my girl sees in you.”
There was no doubt who ‘his girl’ was. The irony was, Lucian was beginning to believe she was his girl too.
Or that’s what he wanted.
“Your face healed.”
“Yeah, I was rebuilt. I’m fucking bionic.”
That set the mood.
“You know why I’m here.”
“I have a few suspicions. Let me take a stab at it, Silas. You’re here for me to contribute to your campaign.”
“I wish.”
Damn.
He’d hoped.
“What are you doing, Lucian?”
“Drinking, but apparently, not heavily enough. I can still understand you.”
Yeah, and hear the buzzing. He knew booze was bad when mixed with his gift, but his gut was a series of knots, and he wanted to puke.
He needed to calm down.
“I mean with Bishop. You have to leave her the hell alone, Lucian. I came here to ask you to stay away from her.”
His heart hurt.
This couldn’t be happening.
He had to contend with Wendy, riding her ass, and now the mayor was riding his.
“Silas.”
“Let me tell you something you may, or may not know. When you were hurt, her daddy put her on guard duty. She took it seriously. Bishop is loyal to a fault. She’d protect the devil himself if she thought he deserved it.”
He let that hang between them.
Was Silas calling him the devil?
Apparently.
Funny how he was the hero when his gift had made the law look good in that damn town. The past didn’t matter for some.
Silas was one of them.
Oracle Seeing (The Phoenix Files Book 2) Page 28