Born to Bite (13 page)

“Gee, thanks,” Armand said dryly, but wasn’t sure he meant it. His mind was now full of images of Eshe in that damned baby doll and leather boots. His backing her up against the stall wall and—

“Crap!” He set aside the rake he’d been using and moved out of the stall with every intention of going inside, finding Eshe, and living it rather than imagining it.

“So, I’ll just finish up in here, shall I?” Bricker offered, bringing Armand to an abrupt halt. Turning, he found the young man had taken his place in the stall and picked up the rake. He was now glancing from it to the hay on the floor with consideration.

Armand felt his shoulders slump. He had chores to do. Twice the amount he usually had now that there was no manager to do them for him. He briefly considered letting Bricker help out, but it was only very briefly. Justin Bricker didn’t even appear sure what to do with the rake he now held. It seemed Eshe was going to sleep soundly tonight. But tomorrow he was going to start advertising for a new manager, Armand decided. To hell with waiting until Eshe was gone; he needed someone now so that he could spend time with her.

Seven

Harsh afternoon sunlight was peeking around
the edges of the blackout curtains over the bedroom windows when Eshe woke up. A glance at the clock showed that it was just past three in the afternoon. It had been early when she’d gone to bed, but not when she’d gone to sleep. She’d lain awake in bed for hours, exhausted, but her mind fretting over her worries. It had been three A.M. when she’d last looked at the clock before dropping off to sleep last night. She’d slept twelve hours. It was a long time for her, and that alone would have left her well rested. However, she’d also enjoyed some of those shared erotic dreams that life mates were said to experience, her mind merging with Armand’s as they slept and the two of them living out in their dreams what they really wanted to do in reality, which had come down to a lot of very hot sex. It was a bit embarrassing to think about now that she was awake, but Eshe was definitely better for the relief it offered from her sexual tensions. She’d even woken up with a plan on how to prove Armand had told her the truth about the deaths of his wives.

Sitting up in bed, Eshe tossed the blankets aside and got to her feet. She was even actually humming under her breath as she crossed the room to the bag she’d brought with her. While she had jeans and T-shirts now that she could have worn, leather was better for riding the motorcycle, so she pulled out the second pair of leather pants she’d brought, as well as the almost corsetlike matching black leather top, and took them with her into the bathroom.

Fifteen minutes later, she was showered and dressed and heading out of her room.

Eshe got as far as the top of the stairs and then stopped. The long sleep had done her good, but now she needed blood and there wasn’t any in the refrigerator downstairs.

She swung back around to peer up the hall toward Armand’s room, but shook her head at once. If she went in there and got anywhere near the sleepy-eyed, bed-headed Argeneau tiger, she wouldn’t get a damned thing done today. Her clothes would be on the floor and she’d be in his bed with him before he’d finished blinking his eyes open. And despite the fact that he’d turned his back on her last night, she didn’t think he’d push her out of his bed this afternoon. She’d be living out the dreams they’d shared in living color.

Sighing, Eshe started to turn back toward the stairs, but paused as her gaze landed on the only other closed door in the hallway. Obviously that was the room Bricker had taken for his own. It was the one across from hers. Eshe narrowed her gaze on the door and then nodded and strode toward it with determination.

She suspected Bricker had been up until sunrise. It was the usual sleeping pattern for most immortals; in bed by dawn, up by sunset. Of course, some immortals got up earlier or kept more regular hours. They didn’t have to sleep in the day if they didn’t like. They didn’t even need to avoid sunlight, really. It just saved them on having to consume extra blood to combat the damage sunlight did to the skin, so most at least stayed inside during daylight.

Unfortunately for Bricker, Eshe didn’t much care if he usually slept later. He was young, and she needed his help. If she knew Lucian Argeneau, he’d sent extra blood with Bricker, and she wanted some of it. And then she wanted his help asking questions of Susanna’s brother and sister, and Althea’s parents if they were still in the area. A quick call to Lucian should tell her where the two pairs lived.

Bricker’s door wasn’t locked, but then she hadn’t expected it to be. As far as she could tell, none of the bedrooms had locks on them. Eshe eased the door open and moved silently inside, her eyes examining a sleeping Bricker. The boy was built like a wrestler, lots of defined muscle and flat stomach, but fortunately without the unattractive thick neck. Eshe admired his buff chest above the sheet that had been pushed down low at his waist as she settled to sit on the side of his bed, then reached out and tugged gently on a length of his hair.

Bricker’s eyes opened at once.

“Eshe,” he said with blank surprise.

“I need you,” she whispered, not sure how thick the walls were and not wanting to wake up Armand.

A slow smile immediately curved his lips. “I knew you couldn’t resist me. I’m a hottie.”

“Ha ha,” Eshe said, knowing he was teasing. “Did Lucian send blood with you?”

“It’s down in the fridge in the kitchen. I put it there after you went to bed. Armand said we have to move it to the refrigerator in his room tonight, though, so his housekeeper doesn’t see it when she comes in tomorrow.”

“Good,” she said, standing up. “Now get up. You’re going to help me.”

“Help you with what?” he asked in a whisper, sitting up on the bed.

“With finding out what really happened to Armand’s wives.”

“Sleep did help clear your mind then?” he said with satisfaction.

“Yes. And as long as I keep my distance from Armand it will stay clear. Now get up and get dressed. I’ll be in the kitchen.” She was at the door before she added, “And wear your leathers, we’re going out.”

Eshe didn’t wait to see if he followed her orders, but the rustle of sheets behind her as she opened the bedroom door suggested he was. As the senior enforcer there, she wouldn’t have expected anything less than prompt obedience, and she got it. Eshe was on only her third bag of blood when Bricker sauntered into the kitchen in a T-shirt, leather pants, and jacket, and with his hair still wet from a very fast shower.

“So, what are we doing today?” he asked cheerfully as he opened the refrigerator door to retrieve a bag of blood.

Eshe pulled the empty bag from her teeth and answered, “I’m calling Lucian to find out where Susanna’s brother and sister and Althea’s parents live and then we’re going to go question them. They should help verify whether Armand was around when Susanna and Althea died.”

“Sweet,” Bricker crowed, straightening from the fridge with two bags in hand. He tossed her one, saying, “See, I told you a night’s sleep would make a difference.”

Eshe merely grunted around the bag she slapped to her teeth. She hated I-told-you-sos.

The moment she’d finished feeding, Eshe pulled her cell phone from her pocket and punched in the number for Lucian’s home. It was early still, but Lucian was a man who never seemed to sleep. Besides, she couldn’t just sit around waiting. She wanted to be out of the house and on the move before Armand woke up and her brain went south.

“Speak” was Lucian’s barked greeting when he answered the phone. It made Eshe roll her eyes. There was really no reason the man couldn’t try at least a little common courtesy.

“It’s Eshe,” she announced. “And good afternoon to you too, Lucian.”

“I’m not assigning someone else to—” he began firmly, and she interrupted.

“I’m not calling about that.”

“Oh.” She could actually hear his frown over the line. He didn’t ask what she was calling for, but simply waited for her to speak.

“I need the address of Agnes and John Maunsell and Althea’s parents,” she announced.

“William and Mary Harcourt,” he murmured, giving her their last name, and then he asked bluntly, “Why?”

“Armand says he was away at court when Susanna died in a stable fire, and that he was home on the farm when Althea died in the hotel fire in Toronto. I want to talk to them to see if they can verify that for me,” she explained, and then added, “It would get him off the hook for at least two of the deaths, which would pretty much clear him altogether, don’t you think?”

Lucian was silent for a minute and then she heard a rustling sound as if he was covering the phone. It was followed by a muffled conversation she couldn’t make out. When it ended, there was another rustle as the phone was uncovered and then a female voice spoke, “Hello, Eshe. This is Marguerite Argeneau.”

“Marguerite,” she murmured with a half smile. Eshe had always liked Lucian’s sister-in-law through his now-deceased twin, Jean Claude. “Hello. How are you?”

“Very well. Listen, Lucian is getting the addresses for you, but I think I can help with at least Susanna’s death. We lived not far from Armand at the time and Jean Claude and I traveled to visit when we heard the baby was born. We missed Armand, he’d apparently left the day after the birth and we didn’t arrive until four days later. We stayed a couple of days and then left early in the evening on the night of the fire to head home. From what I heard afterward, it apparently happened a couple hours after we left. Armand was not home when we left, so unless he arrived after we rode out…” She didn’t bother finishing the sentence, but instead asked, “Does that help at all?”

“Yes,” Eshe murmured, trying to ignore the relief sliding through her that at least she knew that Armand probably hadn’t been there when Susanna died.

“I read Marguerite’s mind,” Lucian announced, apparently taking the phone. “She’s telling the truth.”

Eshe rolled her eyes at the rather rude and abrupt announcement, but smiled reluctantly when she heard Marguerite laughing with amusement in the background. Apparently she wasn’t upset by his reading her to verify that she was telling the truth.

“Here are the addresses,” Lucian announced abruptly, and Eshe glanced around a bit wildly for a pen and paper to scribble the information down.

“Here.” Bricker snatched a magnetized notepad off the refrigerator and slid it in front of her, along with a pen he found after a quick search of the drawer beside the fridge.

Eshe mouthed, “Thank you” to him and listened as Lucian rattled off each address.

“They’re both in the area,” she murmured with relief as she wrote down the addresses. Armand had said that Althea’s parents had moved to Europe after her death. She’d been worried they might still be there. But it seemed they’d moved back to the area since then.

“Do you need anything else?” Lucian asked abruptly.

“No. That was—” Eshe didn’t bother to finish. Lucian had hung up the moment she’d said no. Rolling her eyes, she muttered, “And good-bye to you too.”

“So?” Bricker asked, hefting himself up to sit on the island. “Where are we going?”

Eshe tore off the sheet of notepaper with the addresses and walked over to hand it to him.

“Susanna’s brother and sister live closest,” he commented, and then glanced at her in question. “What about breakfast?”

Eshe considered the question. She was rather peck-ish herself, but really wanted to get on the road. This eating business could be a bit inconvenient.

“Can you cook?” she asked finally.

Bricker pursed his lips, and then said slowly, “Yeah…but I passed a diner on the way out here. It would be faster.”

“Good thinking,” she decided, turning toward the door. “The diner it is then.”

Bricker was off the counter at once and slipping past her. “I’ll race you.”

“I’ll win,” Eshe warned, following him out of the kitchen.

They served an all-day breakfast at the diner that turned out to be delicious. It was also on the table in front of them pretty fast. Eshe and Bricker were equally quick about consuming it, paying the bill and getting out of there. Aside from the fact that she wanted to get to business on the task of questioning the families of Armand’s first two wives, she was also incredibly uncomfortable in the diner. It was full of locals, and every one of them seemed to be watching her and Bricker and, when not offering them wide friendly smiles, whispering wildly among themselves.

It seemed Mrs. Ramsey had been faithful in spreading Eshe’s description around and everyone knew who she was, but there was a lot of wild speculation passed among the tables by the waitresses as to who Bricker might be. Some had pegged him as her lover and suspected a love triangle had developed at the farm. Others thought perhaps he was a relative. Eshe had just shaken her head at that one. As it happened she did have two white siblings who had taken on their father’s coloring, but Bricker looked nothing like anyone in her family.

Eshe was uncomfortable being the center of attention and glad when they finished eating and she could hustle Bricker out of the diner.

Agnes and John Maunsell lived two towns over, a twenty-minute drive. At least it was twenty minutes with Eshe and Bricker racing each other there. The house they arrived at was a large, modern brick ranch house set back a good distance from the road, with several bright red outbuildings around it and white fencing everywhere. In truth, it looked brand-spanking-new and was obviously the latest of the six farms Armand had mentioned John accumulating.

“Nice,” Bricker commented once they had both turned off their bikes and she could hear him.

“Yes,” Eshe agreed as she got off her motorcycle, and it was attractive. But she preferred Armand’s place. There, a line of trees along the road and around the house itself offered privacy and made the house feel cozy and almost secluded. Here, there were no trees at all, simply the buildings set in the middle of fields as if dropped there.

“I wonder how many acres he has here?” Bricker murmured as they moved together toward the house.