“Um…the video erases after twenty-four hours.”
“But I fixed it,” Big Country said slyly. “Remember?”
Terry, who had been sitting at the bank of computers on the step-down level adjoining the living room, pushed back from the computer system and joined them. “I’m sorry to complicate your life more, Stormy, but I just learned that the car Mrs. Yin saw driving away from your house belonged to an elderly couple in San Francisco. They were found murdered and freshly buried in their backyard. Their estimated time of death predates even your meeting with this Delilah, Big Country.”
Terry sat on the loveseat beside Mama. “This woman is more than a happenstance bar hookup, she’s a skilled murderer or associates with people who are, and I don’t believe you or Stormy are her end game.”
“The car Mrs. Yin saw was a 2013 Toyota Prius—” Stormy said, looking at Big Country, no doubt thinking of the conversation they had with the saint.
“Delilah is the one who dropped Cornelius off on the side of the mountain,” Big Country said, standing. “That weak little fucker knows what’s going on, and it’s time for me and him to have a real come-to-Jesus moment.”
Zeus and Bride also stood, heading toward the heavy steel door that led to the hallway and stairs connecting to the bar.
“No,” Mama said, and all eyes turned to her. She looked at Big Country first. “You have business at home. That takes precedence.”
Until that very moment he’d forgotten all about Merlee and those fuckers nesting in his grands’ home.
“I purchased two tickets to Oklahoma. Which of the Brood do you want to go with you?” Terry asked.
Big Country didn’t want any of the Brood to go to Oklahoma with him, didn’t want anyone to witness the rotted skeletons that would claw their way through his family’s seedy closets, and expose their depravity to the light of day. His family’s ugliness was one he’d keep his Brood mates away from as long as he could.
“Her,” he said, nodding toward Stormy. “She goes. We got a contract.”
The red undertones in Stormy’s brown skin deepened as all eyes swung toward her. The Brood knew the only contracts he made with women were the ones for money and goods in exchange for fucking.
“It’s not what you think,” Stormy said.
It wasn’t, but it was a contract just the same.
Lucas recited the terms of their contract word for word. “Now, did y’all hear the part about us not leaving each other’s side for the next month?”
“But we didn’t say anything about leaving the state,” Stormy argued.
“If you wanted that stipulation added, you should’ve negotiated it into the contract.”
“Reesy, you hear this shit?” he heard Stormy’s father say.
“Look, actually I don’t mind going with you, we can drive wherever you want.” Stormy shook her head. “But me and planes, Lucas—”
“Hey, not a problem, darlin’; we also said we’d cut bait if either of us wanted to.”
He wasn’t going to beg her. He preferred to go alone anyhow; hell, it was probably for the best. Merlee’s security was his priority, not some woman looking for an excuse to tuck tail and run from the beast she’d seen that had emerged from him.
“Tell him to come to the phone,” Stormy’s mother said.
Stormy didn’t tell him shit, only glared at him, likely mad that he’d called her on her bullshit excuse. She didn’t fear a fucking plane, she feared him and didn’t have the balls to say it.
Big Country walked over and took the phone from her hand.
Stormy’s mother was a classic red-bone, with skin a few shades lighter than Stormy’s, but eyes, lips, and nose a near-perfect match to her daughter’s.
“Well, hell.” Her mother blinked. “Mrs. Yin wasn’t exaggerating when she said you were the biggest sexiest man to walk through my daughter’s door she’d ever seen. I have to admit, she was right on both counts.”
Big Country smiled. Mothers loved him.
“Give me the damn phone,” Stormy’s father snapped before his face dominated the screen. His mocha skin, the sculpted angles of his face; they were also Stormy.
“Boy, go put some damn clothes on. What kind of grown man walks around in public damn near naked Reesy, huh? That’s the kind of country shit your people are good for.”
