by Monica Owens
Levi sighed again and sat back up. “Babe, everything is gone. Olivier blew that whole town to smithereens. FBI is crawling over that place, looking for leads. Which, by the way, is your doing.”
“The FBI is my doing?”
“Yeah. You called them in after all.”
She narrowed her eyes as he pointedly looked away. “I didn’t—”
“You did. I was right there when you did it.”
“Levi,” she said sternly.
“Yep?”
“You called in the FBI?”
“No. You did. Busted one of the biggest meth labs this side of the Mississippi. Took down a couple of the townspeople, even though they’d evacuated.” He winked at her.
“Levi,” she mumbled. “You really called the FBI?”
“Yeah. Your murder book was still in my truck. Just because some of those people are dead doesn’t mean you can’t accuse them of a crime. The mayor and the sheriff were in cahoots and killed a bunch of people, including Colton’s grandma and grandpa. Not to mention his mother and the trucker.”
“I can’t believe—”
“You’re a celebrity.”
Her mouth dropped open as he gave her a goofy grin. “Levi…”
“The town of Magnolia is no more, but at least Olivier won’t get the spoils.”
Trish frowned. “So you want me to come back with you because I’m a celebrity?”
“Shit, I haven’t ever fucked a celebrity. Figured it would be a nice change.”
She rolled her eyes, which hurt a little. “Levi.”
He grinned. “Babe, I want you to come back to Vegas with me because I love you. When I couldn’t find you…” His smile faltered and he took her hand. He ran his thumb over the backs of her fingers and wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Trish, when I couldn’t find you, I thought I would die. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think straight. And seeing you hurt…God, I wanted to murder Arnaud.”
“Speaking of Arnaud…”
“Yeah, there’s a lot we’ve got to talk about,” he interjected. “But right now, you need to answer me. Will you come back with me to Vegas?”
She met his eyes and nearly started to cry again. This man made her feel. He made her want to be pretty and delicate and have him take care of her. Was she ready to give all that up for her pride? She really had never felt this way before.
“Something you need to know,” he said conversationally. “Me and my guys in Vegas, we’re looking for a couple murderers right now. We’re also searching for some historic relics and we could use a detective that can sniff out the bad guys.” He cocked an eyebrow at her. “No pressure.”
Her heart skipped a beat at the thought of searching for more bad guys. Maybe possibly without the limits of the law. She shook that enticement away and concentrated on them. Him. “If I go back with you, there’s something you have to remember,” she said quietly. She desperately wanted more water and she licked her lips nervously. “I won’t go because I want you to take care of me. I’m independent and I’m strong.”
He leaned forward and kissed her lips. “Babe, I wouldn’t want you if you weren’t.”
Trish felt tears rush to her eyes. No man had wanted a woman who wouldn’t act like a weak flower, not in her town. Not where she was from. And she wasn’t a weak flower. She was strong. She could do anything. Not only did Levi want that, he loved it.
“And I won’t go to be your personal detective,” she continued, even though the thought of it was making her pulse quicken.
“No?” he asked like he knew the idea of crime stopping was slowly wooing her to his side. But that wasn’t her main reason to go. He needed to know that. He deserved that from her.
“No. I’ll go because…” She licked her lips again. “I’ll go because I love you.”
Levi grinned. His face lit up and his eyes sparkled. He leaned in again and kissed her harder and stronger. Trish ran her fingers into his hair and held him close.
When he finally let her lips go, he stayed close and whispered against her flesh. “I love you, too, Trish.”
With her right arm throbbing and her head still spinning, Trish let Levi kiss her senseless.
She couldn’t wait to get back to Vegas with him.
*****
Colton had a melting bowl of ice cream in front of him, his spoon clasped in his hand like a shovel and his other hand held, palm out, toward the other occupants of the room.
“Wait, wait, wait. So, like, you guys don’t have a mom or dad like me?”
Curse, Bar, and Ram each glanced at each other. Finally, Curse cleared his throat. “Uh, no.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Colton said again. “What about Levi?”
Ram leaned forward and put his empty ice cream bowl on the coffee table. “All right, little man. Time for bed.”
“Hold on.” Colton shoveled another scoop of ice cream in his mouth. “I’m ’specially interested in you.”
Curse grinned at Ram.
The four of them, plus Henry, were sitting in the living room of the top most floor of the pawn shop. Colton had arrived, with Henry and Arnaud, earlier in the week, and Colton was enjoying all the attention. That and the guys had no idea how to raise a kid, so Colton was pretty much getting away with murder.
Ram decided that was fine with him because the kid was adorable. Not that he’d tell an eleven year old he was adorable. Tell him he was awesome, maybe, but not adorable.
Levi told the guys to take care of Colton until he could bring Trish home. This meant they all took turns watching him. But nights like this, when the pawn shop was closed up and all the guys were home, Colton used all the adult attention to his advantage. Ram also decided that they weren’t just fallen angels, but saints as well.
“Okay, I’m half black,” Colton announced. “And you look like you’re all black. And I want my hair like yours.”
Ram flicked his dreds back over his shoulder. “I think Levi will have something to say about that.”
“Levi’s got a lot of hair on his face,” Colton pointed out, then licked the ice cream running down the heel of his hand. “I think he’ll let me get a lot of hair on my head.”
Now Ram grinned. It was like the kid hadn’t seen anyone his own color before. Well, from what Levi had told them of the jerkwater town Colton had lived in, that was probably true.
Ram didn’t mind being the kid’s guinea pig either. Shortly after Colton arrived, he’d cornered Ram and asked him all sorts of “ethnic questions,” as Colton put it. Who put those words into the kid’s head was going to get a mighty wallop from Ram if he ever found him.
“Finish your ice cream, kid,” Curse announced.
“But really, he does,” Colton responded. He scooped more ice cream in his mouth, talking around the treat. “He musta been super hot up in California.”
“Yeah, we’ve seen him,” Bar said, hiding a smile.
“So Levi said someone is supposed to buy me a house,” Colton shot off in another direction. His soupy ice cream was forgotten again when he met all three men’s eyes. “Maybe with a pool?”
“All right. Time’s up,” Ram told him. “You don’t eat that ice cream in two seconds, I’m taking it.”
Colton’s eyes widened and he slurped the rest of his ice cream down. “Okay, done!”
“Go brush your teeth, kid,” Curse told him.
Colton jumped up, the sugar already hitting his blood stream, and took off toward the bathroom. Henry got up with a sigh and trudged after him.
Bar dropped his head back on the couch. “He wears me out.”
“He’s going to wear Ram out with all the questions,” Curse said with a grin.
“He asked me if I’ve ever seen Roots,” Ram responded.
“He’s a smart kid,” Bar answered, now putting both hands behind his head. “And he’s probably heard every racist joke and slur known to man. Hard to be the one that’s different.”
“Yeah.” Ram nodded slowly. But he wasn’t th
inking of his skin color at the moment. All the guys around him were fallen angels, and technically, he was one, too. But he hadn’t left hell of his own accord. Instead he’d been thrown out, just like Arnaud. Which meant that though he’d started his days as a fallen angel, he’d live out the rest of his life as a vampire. None of the guys around him could say that.
Well, maybe not anymore.
“Gonna go talk to Arnaud,” he said, getting to his feet.
“He adjusting?” Bar asked.
Ram shrugged. “Takes a while.”
“I imagine.” Curse nodded.
Ram stalked off before Colton could get back. The kid really was awesome, but there was a bigger problem in this building.
Arnaud.
Curse and Bar had taken ghoulish delight in helping Ram when the latter had been thrown out of hell. So there was no doubt Ram wanted to do something different. The other guys had agreed, but they wouldn’t budge on one item: Arnaud needed to be kept under lock and key.
Ram went down the back stairs, past the storage room. He pulled out the ring of keys each of them had a duplicate of and unlocked the many and varied locks. Not many buildings had basements here in Vegas, but Levi had purchased well. The tiny basement had been expanded and enlarged after they bought the building and now housed some of their greatest treasures. And one of their greatest failures.
Ram approached the jail cell Arnaud found himself in. The newly minted vampire glanced up as Ram came closer.
Arnaud’s teeth were extended and he’d bit his lips. Blood streaked down his arms and Ram saw the bags of blood they’d left with him were all open and drained. He remembered these days: the savage bloodlust, the incoherence, the shock and dismay.
Ram might have his shit together now, but he didn’t always.
“You all right?” he asked as he approached.
Arnaud bared his teeth and shook his head.
Ram nodded and pulled a chair over to the cell. He flipped it around backward and straddled it. “So, where do we start?”
“What?” Arnaud rasped.
“You’ve got to remember you’re a man,” Ram told him. “Not a predator. You’ve got to remember who you were. So where do you want to start?”
Arnaud lowered his head again.
Ram leaned forward and pulled tobacco fixings from his pocket. “Fine. I’ll go first. Want a smoke?”
Ram didn’t wait for Arnaud’s answer, just started making a cigarette. “I was sent to earth after the first wave of angels fell. Gabriel figured that it was a fluke, that if we saw what the other ones had done, we wouldn’t make the same mistakes.” Ram snorted. “All it did was teach us not to get caught, you feel me?”
He slowly rolled his cigarette. “So where was I? Oh, right, Gabriel sending us down. I got sent to Haiti. All that voodoo shit. Serious scary…”
Ram continued to talk. And talk.
He just hoped Arnaud could focus and listen.
Not lose himself again.
Because Ram didn’t want to chop his head off. But he would.
If he had to.
Chapter Twenty-Four
They could have flown from Bakersfield to Vegas, but Levi wanted this time alone with Trish. Soon enough they’d return to the hustle and bustle of life and he’d regret not taking advantage of their alone time. So he rented a spacious sedan and drove them back home, extending the five hour trip into two days with their frequent stops.
Trish had called her parents and surprised him by asking them to visit her in Vegas when they got back. He’d underestimated how aloof her relationship was with them until he’d first heard her talk to them. Her fall from grace in Atlanta had colored their opinion of her, she’d told him that. He didn’t realize how strongly they felt. So she’d given them no end date for their return to Vegas, just that she’d call. But at least she didn’t ask them to come and get her.
Trish couldn’t travel for a long period of time. Her stint in Bakersfield had left her with pins, screws, plates, stitches, rods, and the promise of physical therapy. Levi only caught her grimace the first few days, then she stoically went through all of the doctor’s protocol. One thing about his woman, she was stubborn, and she wanted to spend no more time in the hospital than was necessary.
He didn’t blame her.
The first day out of the hospital, he put them up in a swanky hotel. He planned a nice dinner and maybe they could take in a show. Instead Trish fell asleep an hour before dinner and didn’t get up for four hours. He ordered room service and a pay movie when she woke up.
In Levi’s opinion, that was the best date he’d ever been on.
Over the next couple of days, he’d taken her shopping to replace the clothes that had burned up. One of the FBI agents Levi contacted sent pictures of the devastation in Magnolia, including Trish’s house. They’d met with authorities several times, but they’d been cleared to go back home.
The night before they crossed into Nevada, Levi pulled into a roadside motel, a friendly oasis seemingly in the middle of nowhere. He heard Trish sigh, not in irritation at another stop, but in relief. She stubbornly refused to take pain meds while they were driving, certain that he needed her to stay awake to “help” with the navigating.
He didn’t argue.
The motel had small cabins scattered over acres of property. Theirs was in the woods, quiet and secluded. Before stopping for the night, they’d made a run to the grocery store, so Levi wasn’t surprised when Trish came outside and handed him an ice cold beer.
From his seat on the cabin’s porch stairs, he took the bottle and smiled up at her. The first few days he’d met her she wore only pantsuits and thin camisoles. Now she was in yoga pants, a tank, and flip-flops.
But her thick hair was up in a ponytail, her bangs straight across her forehead. She wore no makeup and hadn’t even bought any yet. He liked this side of Trish. Still no nonsense, but relaxed.
She sat on the stairs with him, but down a couple of rows, so she could lean against his leg.
“Hurting?” he asked, twisting the cap off his beer.
She shrugged, but the movement was stiff. “A little.”
“Did you take your pain pill?”
He’d also found that Trish didn’t like being told what to do with her health. If she thought she could handle the pain, she handled it. Admitting that she had “a little” pain meant she could barely stand it.
She sent him a sideways look. “You know that wasn’t a twist off cap.”
He grinned and took a swig. “They’re all twist offs to me.”
“Show off,” she muttered.
That’s all he would get on the matter of pain with her. Deflection.
“Curse has a few houses for us to look at when we get back,” he said quietly.
She nodded. “But we’ll stay in a casino until we decide, right?”
One other thing he’d learned about Trish. She liked the dancing lights of Vegas. “Yeah. Wherever you want.”
“All this capitulation is going to go to my head,” she said with a snicker.
“I’m only like this when you break your arm.”
“I’ll have to keep it broken, then.” She laughed.
They sat there until his beer was dry and dusk settled over them. When he moved to get up, Trish stayed him with her good hand. She turned and met his eyes through the semi-darkness.
“You haven’t touched me,” she said quietly.
“Well, I thought…”
“That I was broken?”
He sighed. “No. That you were hurt.”
“It’s only my arm.”
“You’ve been on pain meds—”
“Lean back.”
He frowned. “What?”
“Lean back. Unbuckle your belt.”
His pulse leapt in throat. “Unbuckle my belt, huh?”
“Yeah. I can get the button and zipper, but not the belt. Help an injured girl out, would you?”
Levi grinned and leaned back. With on
e hand he flicked open his belt.
Trish snorted. “Show off,” she muttered again.
She surprised him again by dexterously opening the button and zipper of his jeans with her left hand. He clenched his jaw and leaned further back when she reached inside.
“What do we have here?”
“Trish…I’m not gonna last long.”
And it wasn’t a lie. She stroked his already hard cock, humming approvingly as he filled her hand. His hips kicked up, pushing his cock against her. His brain momentarily shorted out and he dropped his head back.
That’s when he felt the coolness of her lips, then the heat of her mouth.
“Trish…,” he whispered into the night.
She worked his cock into her mouth, holding it steady with her working hand. Darkness steadily fell around them so when he looked down, he couldn’t even see her anymore. But she licked and sucked, tongued and nipped him. He knew better than to hold her head to him, so he gripped the stairs under him, almost snapping the wood in two.
“Trish, I’m gonna blow, babe.”
She pulled back, enough so that the head of his cock bumped against her lips when she spoke. “So blow, babe.”
Then she slid his hard cock back into her mouth, her tongue rasping along the notches and veins, soothing the heat of him. And this time when Levi dropped his head back, he closed his eyes, concentrating on the gift she was giving him, the steady feel of her lips, tongue, and teeth on him. Her palm stroked the length of him she couldn’t fit in her mouth and he imagined what it would look like when he could see her do this. Her lips stretched wide, her cheeks hollowing out with each pull. More than anything he wanted to crank his hips upward, make her swallow every spurt of hot semen as it chugged out of him, but he wanted this slow. Wanted to respect her because he loved her.
Her hand slid lower to cup his balls and Levi lost whatever morsel of strength he had.
“Unh, Trish,” he grunted. Now his hand did find the back of her head. He gripped her ponytail and held on. He couldn’t stop his hips from churning, but she stuck with him. Rivers of pleasure wrung through him, spraying liquid warmth into her mouth and down her throat. The thought of her swallowing his cum as he still erupted into her made his body shiver. Trish never pulled away and even burrowed closer into his lap.