Page 75 of Nevermore
Taking the ice pack from Norm, who is tapping into that hot temper a little bit because he’s scowling, I go about handling Leo’s ankle while the boys do some math.
“You were in the field,” Norm grunts. “These scratches, the stuff in your hair, that’s not from falling in the yard.”
Duh.
I look up just in time to see Leo open her mouth to throw another excuse at us but she doesn’t get the chance. Not when Pete comes back holding theentirejunk drawer before making a slight detour. He grabs her backpack off the floor, tosses it at me, then comes to sit between me and Lucky while Norm plants his ass on the other side of our drummer.
While sitting here like this, the four of us across from Leonor as if we’re about to unleash the most intense interrogation in the history of them, it probably isn’t the best idea but it’ll get the point across. Even if our girl loses her shit a little. She’s defensive on a good day and this is going to make it worse. Especially when Pete doesn’t actually say anything, he just dumps the drawer in Leo’s lap and glares at all the shit none of us thought we’d see again.
“You went through my stuff?” Leo takes her ankle out of my lap, sitting up as she folds her arms in front of her chest.
Here we go.
“I was looking for the bottle opener, Leonor. None of us have ever snooped through your shit for the hell of it and that isn’t going to change because?—“
“Don’t,” she says with a scowl. “You downgrade anything just because you’re mad and we are going to have even more problems than what you’re jumping to conclusions over.”
Pete slams his mouth shut and Lucky immediately starts in. “Leo, baby cakes, it isn’t just the drawer. We’ve all found shit outside your apartment, seen weird things going on since we’ve been back.”
He keeps going, talking in that soothing tone we all fall for while he brings up the photos, and I take the opportunity to drown him out and actually go through Leonor’s shit because I’m holding the backpack she hasn’t left her apartment without since we’ve been coming around.
I pull out another patchwork voodoo doll, a couple of envelopes addressed in charcoal then keep going to find a fucking baby doll head with empty eye sockets, setting everything down on the empty side of the couch to Leo’s left. Then I dig some more.
Taser, her passport, meds, chargers and every device she owns that can fit in the canvas bag, and… “A fucking gun, Leonor?”
“So?”
I look up at her, my brow furrowed before I shake my head then check to make sure the safety is on before I empty it. “So?So you could have shot Dirt Sack after a night like tonight.”
Leo glares at me, jutting her chin out as she straightens her spine. “And how the hell do you even know how tonight went, hmm?”
Handing the ammo to Pete, I put the empty gun back in her bag then sigh my ass off.
Do I knowwhyI’ve always been so damn empathic when it comes to Leo? To the point of almost psychic? No, but I’m assuming it has everything to do with living in New Orleans and the supernatural shit that seems to thrive here.
Probably being in love with her, too.
Either way, I’ve been able to read Leonor like a fucking book since the second we met, better than the other guys who are eerily in sync with her as well, I just get there first, and sheknowsit. It’s always given me a leg up when it comes to our girl.
Even when she gets pissed at me for it.
“You locked up when you said you did then started the long ass walk back to your car. Sun was setting, getting dark, you thought you saw something.” Leo watches me closely, narrowing her eyes on my face and while that would normally get me to shut up and move on, I’m done doing that. The band is back together, she’s with Lucky and Pete, I have nothing left to lose. “And since you had more of this psycho bullshit in your bag, you probably did see something, and it spooked you. So you took off into the field and ran until you didn’t think you were being followed anymore.”
Leonor smirks. “That it?”
I shake my head and mirror her expression. “No. You twisted your ankle, fell, thought you were still being followed then took a chance to get out when shit got quiet.” I scrub a hand over my face with a sigh. “Enter Dirt Sack and his guardian angel who conveniently had you drop your bag before any of this got started.”
Jesus, even pissed off and ready to fight, Leonor really is beautiful.
“I don’t know where?—“
“He’s right,” Norman says as Pete quits blinking again and Lucky basically starts to vibrate. “Isn’t he, Leo? Mark is completely right, and you were going to lie to us about it just like you’ve been lying about everything else.”
“I haven’t lied about any of this”—she motions to hersouvenirsall over the floor—“so don’t even try that. You didn’t ask, I didn’t tell.”
Lucky shoots up from the coffee table and points a finger in her face. “Don’t try to get off on a technicality, Leonor. Omitting the truth is the same as fucking lying, and you had no goddamn right to keep this from us.”
“Fuck you, Lucius.” Leo quickly gets to her feet so she can get back in his face but winces when she puts weight on her ankle. “This is my fucking problem, not yours. Just because you all blew back into my life the way you did doesn’t mean I’m going to tell you everything right out of the gate, especially with this shit. This ismyproblem, it’s nothing you need to worry about.”
