Page 8 of Hell of a Mess

Seven

Luther

Linc scowled at me as if he already knew why I had met him in the garage before he could go inside the house.

I stayed where I was leaning against the wall with a cigarette in my mouth.

Technically, this wasn’t inside the house, but I could already tell he was about to bitch about me smoking out here.

Gathe had driven Branwen and Stevie today, and he’d let them out at the front of the house.

Neither of them would be coming in the fucking garage.

Didn’t matter though; he was going to be pissy about it.

“Put out the goddamn cigarette,” he snarled.

I took another long pull from it and ignored that command. He could suck one.

“She’s staying upstairs. I’ll give her one of my guest rooms,” I said as the smoke drifted from my mouth. Might as well get to the point.

Linc’s eyes narrowed. “No, she’s not.”

Chuckling, although I wasn’t finding any humor in this, I shook my head. “Don’t answer to you. I own that half of the house, and if I say she’s sleeping in one of my rooms, then she is. Keeping her in the damn basement is inhumane.”

Linc’s teeth were clenched tightly as he glared at me.

“My wife and child are in that house. We don’t know who the hell she is.

All we know is a name, and since you left before we had Wilder run it, there isn’t one goddamn Lace listed under missing persons.

There also isn’t one who meets her description in Mississippi or the surrounding states.

Yet you want to let her in our home, around my family. When we know nothing!”

“Did you check Texas?” I asked.

“Why? Did she remember something else?”

I shook my head. “Not really. She remembered a white horse named Griffin. But there is a Texas drawl under all that refined speech of hers. It’s faint, but it is there.”

He jerked his phone out of his pocket and pressed the screen aggressively, and then it began to ring. It was on speaker.

“Hello?” Wilder Jones’s voice came over the line.

“Run a list of horses by the name of Griffin. It’s white,” Linc barked. “And along with the horse, check for missing women in Texas.”

“She remember something else?” Wilder asked.

“Yeah, the horse. Luther detects a Texas accent in her voice.”

“All right, I’ll run it. Give me ten minutes, and I’ll get back to you.”

“Thanks,” Linc replied, then ended the call and started toward the door leading into the house. “She is fine in the basement. It’s secure, and she can’t get upstairs and murder us all in our sleep.”

“No, she isn’t. And she’s not going to murder anyone. She’s fucking harmless, scared, and alone. Maui loves her. Dogs know shit.”

Luther stopped at the door, gripping the knob tightly.

He hated it when I went against his orders.

Everyone else here obeyed him, but when I moved here to help him, I’d warned him that Garrett was my boss.

Not him. Of course, that had changed now that his oldest son, Blaise, was the boss.

I obeyed a kid I’d fucking helped raise.

We all had. It was weird, but the little bastard had turned out to be more powerful than his father had. Mostly out of fear. He was ruthless.

“She stays on your side,” he said tightly.

“We share the kitchen and great room.”

“FUCK!” he roared, turning back around. “Can you not at least respect that I am trying to protect my family?!”

I did respect it. But he was being ridiculous. Lace wasn’t a danger to anyone. He wasn’t going to listen to me though. Until he had her identity and knew her background, he wouldn’t rest easy with her around Branwen and Stevie.

“I’ll be with her if she’s in either of those areas,” I told him.

His jaw worked as he clenched his teeth, and then he jerked the door open hard and stalked inside.

That had gone better than I’d imagined at least. I finished my cigarette, trying to decide if he was right and I should leave her in the basement.

Not that I was worried that she was going to kill us in our sleep.

I was more worried about me. My reaction to her.

I didn’t do the protective thing, but this one female had shit stirring inside me that was foreign.

I wanted to take care of her, and that was what scared the hell out of me.

The door swung back open as I was putting out the butt of my cigarette. Glancing up, I looked at Linc. He didn’t seem to be ready to snap my neck at the first chance he got anymore.

“Registered white quarter horse by the name of Griffin. Foaled in Texas,” Linc said as he read from his phone. “Owner”—he looked up at me with a pointed gaze—“Arun Al-Bahrani.”

The man who had bought the Sovereign. What the fuck?

I straightened as I worked that out in my head. Lace knew him. At least, she knew his horse. Another connection. One I didn’t like.

“You still want her in your guest bedroom?” he asked acidly.

I blew out a breath with an amused chuckle.

“Just because she knows the man’s horse doesn’t mean she’s dangerous to your girls.”

He stood there, and I could see the argument in his eyes, just as I knew he’d be going to the dentist next if he kept grinding them like that.

“Fine,” he snapped. “Then the girls are going to Ocala. Stevie has been asking to see Levi and Aspen. Time for a visit.”

Levi was Linc’s son, and Aspen was his wife. They lived in Ocala, just like my son and his wife and child did. Both working within Blaise’s tight circle. It was the safest location for any member of the family to be.

Linc really was paranoid. The man needed to relax.

“I want her in my office. If her memory is returning, it’s time to speed that up. See how she reacts to Arun’s name.”

“No,” I cut him off, starting for the door. “It hurts her head when she’s forced. Don’t push her.”

“Are you trying to make me snap?!” he barked.

I shrugged. “Not particularly, but it is amusing to witness when you do,” I replied.

“If I need to have orders sent from Blaise, I can do that,” he threatened.

That caused me to stop. Narrowing my eyes, I studied the man I’d worked beside in this family my entire life. I considered him my closest friend. But I had a line that he was about to cross—and honestly, I hadn’t known I had a fucking line. Seemed I did though.

“I’ll talk to her. You will scare her,” I told him.

“She’s not just too young, Luther, but she’s connected to shit we do not want involved in.”

A hard laugh parted my lips. “I’m not going to fuck her. But I brought her here, and right now, I seem to be all she has in the goddamn world. I will talk to her. You let me handle it. When I have more information, I will bring it to you.”

He shook his head. “We need her out of this house. Make it happen quick. She needs her memory back, and we need our hands cleaned of this mess.”

Yeah, I didn’t want to stand here and argue any longer, but if he thought I was handing her off to whoever she belonged to, he was wrong. Someone had been beating her, and the fucker was going to pay. She would be safe when the time came that I did let her go.