Chapter Twelve

Neither of them said a word as they scurried around the building toward the motel. Eve felt like there were a thousand volts of electricity burning through her. What she just saw would be burned into her memory for the rest of her life. It would haunt her worst nightmares. She only hoped they wouldn’t top off the experience by getting arrested.

Micah slowed his pace as they crossed the highway. A rusty, beat-up truck was now parked next to his Jeep, and two men leaned against it. They waved as they approached.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Micah demanded.

Josiah looked at Samuel beside him. “You took off in an all fired fucking hurry without thinking things through. So what’s going on in there?”

Micah shook his head. “It’s a fucking bloodbath. In every literal sense of the word. Everyone is dead including Eve’s old roommate and the son of a bitch who tried to kill her. It was horrific.”

“What about Momma’s necklace?”

Micah turned to look at Eve. She glanced around them to see if anyone was watching them. She wiggled her fingers in her bra to fish for the amulet. She heard a muffled moan come from Samuel followed by a warning snarl from Micah. Finally, she caught a finger around the chain and tugged it out. Wrapping her fist around it, she laid it in Micah’s hand.

He studied it in his hand. “Fuck, I still need to take it to the jeweler to be repaired. The clasp is still broken.”

Eve glanced at the clasp. “No, you don’t. Take it home. If you have a screwdriver, I can fix it. Then you can take it back to Momma.”

He grinned at her. “You’re amazing.”

“Don’t forget it.”

He grinned at her. “Fuck, I love you.”

“I love you more.”

“I hate to break up the foreplay,” Josiah interrupted. “Was there another attack in there? We need to get ahead of this fucking thing before someone figures us out.”

“There were paw prints,” Eve answered. “But they didn’t seem like yours. I’ve seen you guys in beast form. I can’t imagine you could get in that back hallway without causing far more damage than what was there.” She looked at Micah. “Didn’t you think that?”

Micah nodded. “I couldn’t get back there. Abraham couldn’t, and he’s the smallest of us. I doubt it was werewolves. In this case, I think we were framed.”

Samuel huffed. “Who would want to frame us?”

Micah pulled out his phone and opened up his photo app. He held it out to the others. The image of a pale blonde in a pool of blood was displayed on the screen. There were two crimson spots on her neck. “While Meg was hugging her officer friend, I managed to get this. The bodies were torn apart. It was consistent with a werewolf attack. But one of the bodies had this. Those puncture marks are consistent with teeth.”

Josiah cursed. “Holy fucking shit. Vampires.”

“Wait, fellas,” Samuel protested. “Vampires aren’t real.”

“Hey, dumbass.” Micah smacked him across the back of the head. “We’re not supposed to be real either. If werewolves are real, then vampires probably are too.”

“What purpose would vampires have to massacre a strip club full of people and make it look like beasts did it?”

Eve cleared her throat to stop the bantering brothers. “There was an auction website on Deacon’s computer when I went in his office. Momma’s necklace was on there. There was a notepad too with crossed out numbers. The first number was twenty-four thousand. That’s a little more than I owed Deacon. The only one not crossed out was twenty-three million. That was the minimum bid on the website.”

“The son of a bitch was auctioning the amulet before the fight?” Micah hit the hood of his Jeep with his fist.

Eve shrugged. “Apparently.”

Josiah sighed. “The numbers can’t be a coincidence, but there’s no way to figure out what they are and if they have anything to do with this.”

Eve bit her lip for a second. “If I can get access to a computer, I can try hacking into the auction website. Maybe there is some record of what Deacon was doing or if anyone had bid.”

“Hack? You can hack? We can hack. But you can hack?” Samuel asked incredulously.

“You shouldn’t underestimate me.”

“I’ll look into it.”

“You have a brother to train,” Josiah reminded. “Leave the hacking to Eve. She saw the website.”

Micah rubbed her shoulder. “If I’m not on duty, you can use mine.”

“You’re off until the end of the week,” Josiah informed him. “The six of us think you need to rest. And train. Let’s get out of here. There are a bunch of people watching us. Let’s not give them a reason to come visit us.”

“See you at home.” Micah crossed around the Jeep and opened the door for Eve. Once she was secured inside, he climbed in the driver’s side. As he threw it in reverse, they could see the throng of people approaching. They sped down the road, escaping before they were confronted.

»»•««

A fire flickered in the fireplace casting an amber glow through the living room. Eve could feel its warmth in the office where she sat curled up in Micah’s office chair. Dressed only in a pair of baby doll pajamas, she cuddled under the woven blanket. Her fingers flew across the keyboard. She’d fixed Momma’s necklace a few hours ago when they arrived at the cabin. Micah stuck around for a quickie that lasted at least an hour. Feeling him move deep inside her quenched a thirst she thought was going to end her. After he left to train with his brothers, she showered, crawled into her pajamas, and took her place in his chair. She only got up to make the fire and a pot of coffee.

Whoever ran this site had to be loaded. The amount of protection it had was mind blowing and frustrated the shit out of her. The moment she thought she finally broke in, the site sent her off in some other direction. She was near certain its origin wasn’t on this continent. She ended up on the dark web more than once. Some sort of genius Eastern European hacker had to be behind this kind of security.

She looked up as the front door opened and closed. Micah breezed by, blowing her a kiss as he passed. She heard rummaging in the bathroom, and then the water in the shower pounded against the wall. A deep ache inside her begged her to join him. A second shower wouldn’t hurt.

Her fingers struck the keys viciously. She needed to know what the hell happened to the club. She needed to know who killed Tabitha and why. Somehow, that amulet was at the heart of it.

The screen went black. Eve’s mouth opened as a slew of expletives built inside her. This was bad. So bad.

Before she could say anything, the display came back to life. On it was a page she hadn’t seen before. Her eyes skimmed the words as her heart started to race. She was in. After hours of work, she tasted victory.

She was so engrossed in the website she never noticed Micah sneak in until his mouth was on her neck. He knotted her hair in his fist to tilt her head so he could continue to feast. The words blurred as she moaned. Her body burned with lust.

His lips wandered along her shoulder up the curve of her neck. His teeth nipped her flesh. His free hand caressed her breast to press her against him. She opened her mouth to search for his kiss. Instead, he tugged her head in the other direction to feast on the other side of her neck.

Eve tried to stand, to surrender to him. His embrace kept her rooted to the chair. He teased her with a kiss and then another.

As they broke apart, he grinned at her. “Time for bed.”

She blinked at him, dazed, before she came to her senses. “Can’t. I finally got in.”

“What did you find?”

“Nothing. You started kissing, and I got hot and bothered instead.” She turned back to the computer, noticing that Micah never moved his hand from her breast. She typed as she studied each screen.

Finally, she stopped and pointed. “There. That’s what the numbers are. He started with a minimum bid of twenty-four thousand. Someone sent in a bid for one point two million. Then another bidder countered at one point five million. The numbers grew as they tried to outbid each other. It stopped at twenty-three million. Maybe someone got impatient?”

“Can you trace the two bidders’ IP addresses?”

Eve returned to the keyboard. “I’ve got them. The first is from a residence in Greenwich, Connecticut. No name though. The second came from the motel across the highway from the club. The guy who owned the motel was buddies with Deacon. He would give the guy a kickback every time one of us girls took a john there. The guy kept half a dozen rooms open just for us.”

“A dummy bidder. Who bid last?”

Eve typed a bit. “The guy at the hotel. I wonder if the other bidder figured out they were being scammed and came to get the necklace by force? Get a little revenge for Deacon’s greed?”

“We at least have something. We know that someone wants Momma’s necklace. But who? And why?” He flipped off the screen. “But we’re not worrying about it now. Momma has her necklace, and it’s fixed. We’ll deal with this another day. Let’s go to bed.”

Eve stood slowly, her lips wandering his chest. Micah gripped her ass as it peeked out of her shorts. She moaned as she wrapped her arms around his neck to draw herself closer to his body.

He picked her up and set her on the chrome desk. He slowly skimmed the pajama top from her body and tossed it on the floor. He palmed her breast, kneading it in his hand before enveloping the pink nub in his mouth. He sucked hard. Eve cried out at the sensation as she grabbed for the waistband of his pajama pants. She struggled to untie them and then pulled them down.

Micah wrapped his fingers around the waistband of her shorts and tugged. He chuckled. “Uh-oh. Didn’t think that one through.”

Eve braced her hands on the desk and pushed her ass up. “How’s that?”

“Got a better idea.” He grabbed her legs and wrapped them around his waist. Picking her up, he carried her to the living room. She ground herself against his swollen, exposed cock. He growled as he lay her down in front of the fireplace.

The warmth of the fire spread over her as he stripped her bottoms off her and then spread her legs apart. His lips covered every spot of her trembling flesh as he kissed a path from one knee to the other. He slipped a couple of fingers inside her, pumping in and out of her at a steady pace. She arched hard against his hand as she came. She barely came down from her rush before he filled her.

She dug her fingers in the flesh of his ass as he thrust hard. The past week without this had torn her apart. She needed him. She needed him more than the air that she breathed. Her body exploded with pleasure as another orgasm rushed over her. She felt him throb hard inside her as he joined her.

He softly, passionately kissed her again and again. When she finally caught her breath, she spoke. “Are you feeling okay?”

“No pressure. No pain. Never felt better,” Micah answered.

“You don’t have to fight anymore.”

“I’ve come this far. I want to see it through.”

“I’ll be by your side through it all.”

He smiled as he kissed her. He rocked his hips, driving him deeper. He was hard again. She whimpered as she held him close and surrendered to him.

»»•««

Each day for the next few weeks went by almost exactly the same. Micah was out of bed first thing in the morning for a run. Eve slept in as long as her body would let her. She could still feel the drug’s effects on her body even though every day got better. She would trudge through the snow to find breakfast and would end up helping Meg and Momma. She fixed her mate’s lunch and supper. The kisses of gratitude were enough to make her want to head right back to the stove.

When she wasn’t with Momma and Meg, she was in Micah’s office trying to learn more about whoever it was that bid on the amulet. She could trace the IP address to a physical location, a dark, cold mansion. But as hard as she tried, she couldn’t find the name of the owner. It wasn’t like the place was vacant. In the real-time video she was able to tap into from a neighbor’s security system, the place was certainly hopping at night. During the day it was pretty quiet.

Withdrawal outbursts still plagued her. She would start crying for no reason. Her body would ache for days. There were moments when she didn’t want anyone to touch her.

However, when Micah was around the strange force that bound them together dominated every other feeling she had. He took away every pain. The only ache she felt was the need for him. She knew no other addict had quite the recovery program she did. And she wasn’t about to share.

As the next full moon approached, they made their plans for Eve to go to Aunt Edna and Aunt Edith’s. Meg had told her all about these two while they were making cookies one afternoon. The aunts visited Micah once while he was in the hospital. It certainly seemed like it was against their will. Dressed in black with silver hair tied up in tight buns, the two gaunt-faced sisters looked like they belonged in a library. Or a museum. Or a morgue. Take your pick. They definitely didn’t seem like the sisters of the bubbly, excited Evelyn Hallow.

Eve couldn’t let go of Micah when the Hallows met up with Sharky and Littlefoot outside Sharky’s Garage the morning of the full moon. He softly kissed her and then opened the back door of Sharky’s sedan.

“Baby, it’s okay. I’ll text. All right?”

“I don’t want to be away from you,” Eve protested defiantly. “I can take care of myself up there.”

“Eve, I will keep you company. The week will be over before we know it,” Meg offered.

Littlefoot stepped forward and gently patted her on the shoulder. “Ladies, you need to go. The brothers have to get back to the camp to get prepared.”

Eve looked up at Micah, silently waiting for him to back her up. He kissed her once more. “I love you, baby. Go to my aunts. I’ll see you soon.”

“I love you.” With a sigh, Eve slid into the backseat. Micah slammed the door closed and blew her a kiss through the window. Before she could return it, Sharky took off down the road going due west.

The trip was slow as Sharky rumbled along the newly snow-dusted roads. Eve stared out the window. Her heart broke the farther away they drove. She felt something brush her fingers. She turned just as Meg wrapped her hand around Eve’s. Eve forced a smile for her.

She sat up straight in her seat as Sharky pulled to a stop outside the small house and turned off the motor. She blinked hard. It was still there, cold and plain.

“This is it?” Eve questioned.

Meg let out a weak laugh and then lowered her voice so Momma couldn’t hear her. “Oh, it gets better.”

The three women carefully made their way up the icy sidewalk while Sharky retrieved their bags. Eve kept an extra firm grip on Meg. The last thing she needed was her pregnant new friend to fall. Momma slowly ascended the steps and opened the door.

Eve couldn’t bite back the words. “Holy shit.” She took in the room, the embroidered upholstery of the straight back chairs, the lumpy outdated sofa, the porcelain knickknacks, the sounds of church hymns played on an organ. The place looked as antique as the women who lived there. And as morbid.

Meg laughed. “Welcome to Aunt Edith’s and Aunt Edna’s.”

“What was that, Meg?” The taller of the two sisters demanded as they both shuffled from the kitchen.

“Nothing, Aunt Edith. It’s good to see you.”

Edith snorted. “And when are you to birth my nephew’s demon spawn?”

“Edith,” Momma chided. “My grandchild is not demon spawn. You’re just jealous you will never have a grandchild.”

Edith huffed again. “I would rather be without children and grandchildren than have shared a bed with a beast of Satan.”

Momma snarled at her sister. Eve turned to Meg and whispered. “Oh, this will be fun.”

“Edith and Edna don’t like me,” Meg admitted.

“Really? If they don’t like you, they’re going to hate me.”

“Excuse me.” Edith’s voice pitched high as she clenched her hands on her hips. “You. I don’t know your name. I saw you in Micah’s hospital room. I don’t know who you are, but it’s extremely impolite to whisper in our presence.”

Eve smirked as she hooked her thumbs in the belt loops of her jeans. “My name is Eve Romero. I was in Micah’s hospital room because I’m his mate. He met me when I danced naked for him at the strip club I used to work for. The night we mated? Yeah, he paid to have sex with me.”

She was certain Edna almost fainted. Edith definitely staggered back a few steps. “You wear the cursed mark?”

Eve glared at them. Then she stripped her shirt off and turned her back to them. Momma let out a squeak of surprise. The sisters flapped wildly as they began to chant in unison. Meg just laughed.

Eve shook her head. “I warned you. I took my clothes off for a living.”

“Evelyn, this is unacceptable.” Edna fanned her red, flustered face. “First you bring Caleb’s little slut here and this whore? You and your sons are evil. Evil. You are all damned then come into our house to drag us down with you.”

Edith pointed a finger at Eve. “You. Go. You’re not welcome here.”

Meg frowned. “If Eve goes, I go.”

“Good riddance,” Edna replied.

“If my girls go, I go,” Evelyn countered as she stomped a pudgy foot.

Edna and Edith gaped at her. Finally, Edna spoke. “If you choose them over your own sisters, fine. Go.”

The door opened, and Sharky staggered in with their bags. Momma pointed to the door as she faced her sisters. “They are my daughters. Sharky, put our bags in the car. We’re leaving.”

“Mizzus Evelyn?”

“Now.”

“Yezzum.” The old man stumbled out the door. Evelyn motioned toward Eve and Meg. “Girls, let’s go.”

“Evelyn, if you walk out that door, do not come back,” Edith warned.

“Goodbye.” Momma stormed out the door, slamming it behind her. The three women held tight to each other as they made their way to the car. Each crawled into their seat and closed the door. In the quiet, Eve could hear Momma sob.

Sharky slid into the front seat. “Where ye be goin’ now?”

Meg pulled her cell phone out of her coat pocket and texted. “Sharky, let’s find a good cup of coffee. I’m arranging a place to go.”

“Yezzum.” Sharky shifted the car into drive and coasted down the street. It didn’t take long for them to discover that the only place to find coffee was the run down convenience store on the edge of the small town of Bemidji. It was enough time, though. As Eve took a sip from her cup, Meg read the text on her phone.

“Got it. We have a place to stay,” Meg announced.

“Where?” Eve questioned.

Meg winked at her. “Sharky, head to Littlefoot’s. We’re bunking there.”

Eve didn’t miss Momma’s giggle. Sharky nodded with a laugh. “Yezzum.”