Unlike the night of her party, when she might have been a little too high on life, a little too preoccupied with sensation to reflect on who these people were, walking into Mama’s Housetoday felt like stepping through a field of electrified air where predatory intent was a force hovering over each inhabitant. And Lucas was a part of them.
He held her gaze, waiting for her, then his gaze narrowed.
It had been her choice to come up here with him, but she thought she was choosing sex and adventure. The man ready to knock the world on its ass over a woman named Merlee implied that it was going to be more than sex and adventure, Cornelius inside the concrete building meant it would be more, and the group insideMama’s House,definitely meant more. She wasn’t choosing more at this stage of her life, she reminded herself, just a month of unentangled sex.That was it.
“I’m sorry, Lucas, I didn’t want to drag you into this. I should’ve listened, but I thought…” The woman couldn’t seem to go on. Her voice was strong, but it was filled with shame.
Stormy may not have wanted to join the group, but she was propelled by her fearsome curiosity.
“Just tell me you’re all right, Merlee girl, let me know you’re safe, darlin’.”
“I’m safe, Lucas,” Merlee said. The unspokenfor nowhovered like a phantom.
“Merlee, it’s Mama again—”
“Hey Mama.”
“Lucas didn’t get your messages so he doesn’t know what’s happening there.”
“Somebody better tell me something soon or I’ma lose what little patience I’m holding on to,” Lucas demanded.
“Lucas, I need you to stay calm,” Merlee pleaded.
Lucas closed his eyes, cracked his neck, and relaxed his shoulders. He opened his eyes and smiled down at the phone, his whole vibe mellowing as he rubbed his free hand over his chest. Though he projected ease, Stormy didn’t believe it for a minute.
“Come on now, Merlee girl, I’ve eaten three plates of Mama’s cooking and ain’t had my midday nap yet, so if you’re safe, ain’t much gonna get my pressure up today. Now, what’s going on?”
Leaning closer, Stormy peered at the phone’s screen. The woman Lucas was video-calling was strikingly beautiful. Like…gorgeous. Thick long sable hair, catlike hazel eyes, defined cheekbones, and lips that appeared plush and full.
“PaPere and Belle Mère are here at the farm,” Merlee said, her gaze avoiding the screen, avoiding Lucas. “They said it would just be them, said they’d only need to stay a week until their new place was ready, said they had nowhere else to go. They brought Armand and Thibideux and it’s been over a month, and now PaPere is saying he’s not leaving because the farmhouse is his birthright.”
Merlee looked back at the screen. “I wouldn’t bother you but Belle Mère and Thibideux are causing problems in town. Armand tries to do what he can, but the three others are treating our grands’ home like a squat house. I have a business to run and folks are reluctant to bring their animals to the farmhouse clinic because of them. I tried talking to PaPere alone. I told him it was time for them to leave willingly or I’d have the police escort them out. He said he’d burn it all down before he left and didn’t care if me and ‘every fucking animal here burned with it’.”
Whatever that emotion she’d felt earlier slunk away in shame as Stormy realized that Merlee was Lucas’s sister. She could see the similarities clearly withoutthe emotion that shall not be nameddistorting her perception.
“The old man threatened you,” Lucas reflected quietly. And despite his soft smile, violence was a kinetic energy that seeped through his projected calm. “And Thibideux…he out of prison then, yeah?” There was a distinctive shift in his accent; still country but the inflections more Acadian, reminding Stormy of the bayous and moonlight he’d mentioned the first night they met.
What the hell was going on?
“He’s been paroled,” Merlee replied.
“And the sheriff hasn’t arrested them for the trouble they’re causing?”
Traveling across state lines was a parole violation, but since none of this was her business Stormy remained quiet.
“Sheriff Anderson? Really? Even if he had a notion, Belle Mère’s already worked her way into his pants, PaPere holds the proof, and Belle Mère threatened to destroy the Sheriff’s good name if he interferes in our family business. That woman, Lucas…Inevershould have let them come.”
“Don’t worry yourself, Merlee girl. I’ll be out on the earliest flight to Tulsa International.”
“It’s no rush, Garret is insisting that I stay with him and Doc Travis is offering to let me work out of his veterinary hospital in town. You know he’s been trying to get me to buy him out so he can retire. I’ll use his space for now, but the county fair is coming up in three weeks, and I can’t afford to be away from the farm then. Armand and my farmhand William can manage the in-house animals and my gardens, but I need to be back at the house before the fair gets underway.”
“You will,” Lucas said. “Stay with the runt of a fiancé and don’t go out to the farm, darlin’, I’ll call you before I board the plane. And Merlee, tell Garret that if he tries anything of a sexual nature with you while you’re in his house, I’ll castrate him.”
“I’ll do no such ’a thing, big brother, because what you’re threatening to cut off is actually mine and I’m not parting with it.”
Every part of Lucas’s flesh not contained by boxers and boots flushed red. “Boy yeah, I’ll be making you a widow before you become a bride.”
Merlee’s laugh was as loud and bodacious as her brother’s.
