Justice
Getting secondhand information worked worse than gas in a diesel engine. Milla had really fucked things up.
And she’d made shit ten times better.
Since her website voodoo, I’d sold everything in my inventory. What I had left would be shipped out that day.
I hadn’t talked to her in a week except for the random forwarded email from her with orders.
As I shuffled through the papers, there were special instructions on some and notes for others to be shipped without the invoice, for gifts.
This trickled-down information bullshit sucked.
I packed and taped up the last box before loading it into the back of my truck.
As much as I didn’t want to, and as much as my gator wanted it more than anything, Milla and I needed to talk.
“Hey, Justice, can I borrow some money? My nails are chipping, and it’s been almost an entire month since I had a pedicure.” Loic’s hand was on his hip as he inspected his nails on the other hand.
Idiots. All my crew were idiots.
“Go ask your girlfriend, Scarlett. Maybe she has money. Or, have you two broken up? Callum not have the hots for you anymore?”
Shit. Now I’d done it. Callum hadn’t come back from his post-burn journey into the woods. We were all worried about him, but it wasn’t the first time the panther had taken off for an extended vacation. We’d heard his roar a couple of times, so we knew he was okay, but it sucked to have him gone.
“Still not back?” Stupidest question ever. We would all know if Callum was back.
“Nope. You want help? I need something to do when I’m not on the rig. I’m going batshit crazy.”
“You can ride with me to get these shipped out. I have to stop at Milla’s, too.”
His eyebrows rose. “Hell no. Sit in the truck while you two...hell no.”
I slammed the tailgate and shrugged. “None of that. I’m going to ask her some questions about my website. That’s it.”
“You sure? I could smell the lust coming off you two the other night. Don’t deny it.”
“That’s just it. Lust. Nothing more. Get some shoes on and let’s go.”
The ride was stifling. My fucking A/C didn’t work, and even November in Louisiana had days in the nineties. As a gator shifter, our temp ran a little colder than a normal human, but even so, it was beyond hot.
Callum had to be sweating like a whore in church.
“I’m starving. Let’s go see what Tansy has.”
I laughed. “You’re always starving. I know I saw you down an entire stack of pancakes on your porch this morning.”
Loic patted his stomach. “So what? I’m a growing boy. Anyway, Gina is hot.”
“Oh, please. Don’t tell me you’re trying to get with Gina. She’s a dragon. She doesn’t have sex outside of mating.”
“Never? Damn.” He looked out the window for a bit. “I’m still hungry.”
“Fine. Let’s go.”
After watching Loic glutton himself through a dozen apple fritters, we were about ready to leave.
My gator rolled inside me. We were going to see Milla. Fuck. I knew what I had to do.
“Gina, can I get one of each and an extra-large coffee to go, please?”
Loic snapped his head in my direction so hard I thought he’d choke on his Coke.
“Shut up. Don’t say a fucking word.”
He laughed. “I get it. But why so many?”
“I don’t know which one she likes.”
“This place was open when you were kids, right? Which one did she eat?”
I knew. I pretended not to know, but I knew. “Hey, Gina. Scratch that. Can you give me a dozen buttermilk with chocolate, please?”
Loic slapped me on the shoulder. “Females dig sugar and guys remembering shit like that.”
Gina rolled her eyes while finishing up my order. Sugar and remembrance in hand, we made our way to Milla’s.
I threw my truck in park and walked up to the familiar house. Marie had lived there before, and then Tansy, and now Milla. I hoped someone we knew would always live in this place.
“You need me to hang back?” Loic asked. “I was just fucking around earlier.”
“Nah, it’s okay. You can come with me. If she’ll let us in.”
I knocked on the door, looking like a straight-up joker. I had donuts and coffee in one hand, and, with the other, I straightened my shirt and tried to push down my hair.
I heard a whirring sound, and we both looked up to see a camera pointed directly at us.
I thought maybe she wouldn’t let us in until the clicks and clanks of six locks being unbolted brought my attention back to the door.
“Hey,” I said, intending to make some joke about the camera until I saw her. Her hair was piled on top of her head. The scent coming from her told me she hadn’t showered in a while. Her concentrated pheromones had my gator reeling.
“What? Is that coffee? Please tell me that’s for me. Even if it isn’t, I’m taking it.”
She plucked the cup from my hand and downed almost half of it before coming up for air.
“Rough week?” Loic chimed in.
“You have no idea. What are you doing here?” she spoke to both of us, but her eyes never retreated from my gaze.
“I need access to my website email, and I don’t know how to do that. You’ve been sending me invoices, but some of them have special instructions. I need those.”
A ping from some machine in the background got her attention.
“Yeah, come in. Let me grab my laptop.”
We walked in. The place was messy, but nothing I hadn’t seen in Loic’s house. While she went to the other room, we sat on the small sofa and waited.
Milla came back in and sat on the other side of the room. “Come here. I can’t show you all the way over there.”
Demanding wench.
“Fine.”
In less than five minutes, she showed me how to access my own email and orders. She could’ve done that a week ago.
“There. Got it?”
“Yes.” I chuckled. “I’m not an idiot.”
“I know.” Milla twisted her neck from side to side. A sound of pain escaped her mouth, and my next move couldn’t have been stopped, even if the world had ceased turning.
“Now, you come here.” I turned her without permission to face away from me. Loic left the house as soon as, I presumed, he caught the changed scent in the room.
I hated this female in front of me for what she had done to my family so long ago.
I cared for her too much.
My gator called her mate.
Fuck.
“What the...oh…” Milla’s protest evolved to sounds of relief and pleasure as I kneaded her shoulders and neck. A plus of working with your hands was having strong fingers.
“How long have you been...working without a break, hmm, female?”
The question momentarily broke her haze of pleasure. “A week or so, I guess. No telling.”
The knots between her shoulder blades told me differently.
“Why don’t you take a break? Eat something. I can hear your stomach over all those pings coming from your computers.”
“More of this. Then eating.”
She was stiff as a board, and not just her back. Stress and anxiety arced from her body to mine. My gator reared up against it, wanting to take it all away from her.
Slowly, I leaned down and whispered, “Relax, female. Let me take care of you.”