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“Well, thanks for your emasculation,” he grumbled, annoyed.
“Anytime. Go ahead and have some gator, it’s barbequed up real nice. And there’s the spiciest shrimp gumbo right over there—Ombre made it. He don’t have no tongue to burn off, so it’s got so much spice in it that the devil might come out.”
He looked at me, then at the food, then at me. Then at Wendy. “You got her?” he asked Wendy, pointing at me.
“Absolumont!” She curled her arm around mine. “Let’s go flirt wid dem college boys! You know all dem names,cher! I depend on you,” she told me conspiratorially.
She wasn’t fucking kidding, either. She was a flirt. I thought she and the demon were together, but Wendy was ridiculously forward with men. And she was right—as was usual for any place, I stayed for twenty minutes and I knew the names and majors of most of the men that she wanted to get introduced to, and they knew me.
I stood nearby as she somehow got kisses—deep, sexy, not-chaste kisses, from no less than three men in the audience, but then she would pull away and go onto the next. I was going to ask something like, ‘What about your demon boyfriend? Is he okay with you tongue-fucking a bunch of guys?’ and then I realized it was none of my business. Maybe she didn’t ask for a demon boyfriend, and got stuck with one, and unlike the men I was stuck with, hers was bad in the sack and she had to look elsewhere? I didn’t know. It was definitely something to unpack over a cup of coffee, and not with a zydeco band playing and party chaos all around me.
And then the drinking started. And the dancing was inevitable after that.
Roger was drinking some beer, but he was watching me while talking to a few other guys, like he was supervising a playdate with me and Wendy.
But that’s when I saw the same guy who’d sold me my necklace.
It was only for a moment—we were zydeco dancing and sometimes that happened in a rush and with many partners, but he and I locked eyes for a moment before I pulled away. He smiled at me, and I was about to open my lips to say something, but then closed it.
When the song ended, I spotted him talking to a beautiful, tall, dark-skinned woman. A few other men came around by them, about seven men. They all seemed big, and handsome, and strangely… I don’t know. Off.
I elbowed Wendy when she passed me another shot. “Hey, Little Mama—time to return the favor.”
“Oh?” she asked, amused, and then when I pointed, she looked.
I pointed to the group. “Who arethey? You know them? I saw the tall, scruffier guy last Saturday night, coming right out of your place. He’s the one who gave me the amulet necklace.”
She didn’t answer, so I turned my whole body to look at her. Her countenance was completely different. “We need to get you into the house,cher. Fast as you can get,” she said, not looking in my direction.
Alarm suddenly anchored in my throat. “Why?”
“Because those aren’t humans. And that,” she nodded to the woman, “is Madame Juana. She’sbadnews. Don’t you worry. Just head right to Rog and then tell him to get right into my store. It ain’t far from here.”
As we looked at them, the party turned and looked at us.
“Walk like there ain’t nothing wrong,” Wendy told me in a low tone. “And I’m gonna go up and distract ‘em a bit with Ombre.”She marched straight up to the group, Madame Juana and her staring each other down coldly.
I glanced nervously at the man—excuse me, not-man—who’d sold me the amulet, and when I saw his eyes zeroed in on me, I turned and walked straight to Rog.
Rog was in the middle of a conversation, and I had to put my hand on his chest. “We gotta go.”
Rog stopped talking and his expression grew serious. “Huh?”
“Wendy says we have bad company, but we might be able to make it to her store for safety. Just go.”
Rog stilled for a second and looked over where I was looking, and his body was so tense it felt like it was made out of stone.
The group of men were looking straight at us, their expressions all predatory and amused.
We’d found the pack of rogues.
And Rog’s bike was parked on the other side of the party.
Did I mention that this just wasn’t my week?
CHAPTER 22
Kaci
