Page 105 of Nevermore
Parents died in a freak helicopter accident. Grandparents were supposedly offed by the Irish mob. His brother and sister werelost at fucking sea. Going back further I guess Franc saw ties between the Collinsworth’s and all kinds of shit; mafia, mobs, dirty cops and politicians, and most of it ended with a trail of bodies. Collinsworths are powerful, I guess, but always used someone else to get their shit handled.
It’s all just morbidly bizarre, very unsettling, especially for us Louisiana boys who grew up with tons of folklore and ghost stories about curses and bloodlines.
And Lexis the last of his family line, so that amped up his creep factor for sure, but aside from that the guy seems harmless.
We do need to be careful no matter how much of a pussy anyone seems to be, though.
Colin Hastings was a quiet, wiry weirdo, and look what he managed to do.
So, state of the art security system it is.
It has to be.
Between the pictures and notes, all the shit Leo has been finding for months, and now learning that the twisted fuck following her has actuallytalkedto one of the only other people who live here? Yeah, we needed all the cameras and locks and shit.
It isn’t supposed to keepmeout, though.
I open my eyes and stare down at the keypad, trying in vain to remember the pattern my fingers took this morning and just when I’m pretty sure the first number is eleven, the door swings open.
“Wait, what happened?” Lucky asks into the phone as he grabs the front of my shirt and yanks me into the loft. “Hold on, baby. Say it again.”
He looks at the screen, presses a button, then sets the device on the island after dragging me over to it.
“I ran back into the main house because I left my AirPods in bedroom number four,” Leo says, now on speaker. “And by the time I got back to my car, all four tires were flat. Which they were not when I realized I didn’t have my AirPods.”
I frown as I listen intently, not just to what our girl is saying but what’s going on around her too.
She’s outside, I can hear the gravel driveway under her boots, the breeze I know is blowing. Then Leo huffs into the phone, which means she’s on the ground looking at her tires, most likely for the second or third time because she’s probably pissed.
Turning toward Lucky, my frown deepens when I see he’s searching high and low for his keys, and my eyes roll when he asks his next question.
“All four of them?” he grunts as he starts fighting with his shoes. “Does it look like they’re just low, or are they totally flat?”
“Lucky, I’m not an idiot.”
I chuckle a little even though my pulse is still racing.
Feisty little thing, our girl.
She sounds calm though.
Annoyed but calm.
“I’m not saying you are, baby, I’m just trying to understand how your tires were perfectly fine this morning when you left but are now completely flat. Did you drive through something when you went to your appointment?”
I hate that Leo went to a doctor appointment without anyone. I absolutely hate it. Almost as much as I hate the fact that it meant she had to drive herself to work this morning instead of the normal ride in with one of us. But apparently the planets did not align for this one.
Norm was helping his parents figure out giving their house to Adam and Jesse. The Nodines jumped at it when their baby boy brought it up, which is great, but it’s also why I wasn’t around this morning either.
Nanny Vee is back home because the nursing facility couldn’t get rid of her fast enough and since Max and Andrea aren’t quite living at her house yet, I’m the one wandering in limbo.
I love my grandmother, more than I can properly express but the woman drives me batshit crazy, and since she still acts like she’s in her fifties and ready to whoop ass, taking care of her doesn’t always go well. This morning included. Thankfully Norm’s parents came over as soon as they were done, which is when I was free to come here, and our sweet boy let me know about the groceries.
Lucky and Pete didn’t go with Leo because we have officially started construction across the hall and today they had every tradesman thinkable here for estimates. Most notably, Dirt SackDanny, who they grilled about the shit at the mansion the night Leonor twisted her ankle.
So, we were all busy and since our girl is feeling more like herself, she decided she could handle this appointment alone.
I think she was full of shit.
