Deuce (Swamp Desires Book 1) (6 page)

“I completely agree, brother. This issue is too close to home. It needs dealt with. We have a new ally on our side. Her name is Adele. She is the white wolf from earlier. You may think this is weird, but Skylar visited both of us tonight. She told me that Adele is my future. When I looked upon her face, I knew right then that she was right. She is my other half. We have agreed to take it slow and get to know each other.” 

“I am happy for you, brother. I knew we would start finding our other halves soon.”

Chapter Seven

Deuce

1 week later

I cannot stop thinking about her. This past week, she was in my every waking thought. When I go to sleep at night, I dream the most erotic dreams of us together. This week has been fun. She has met my brothers, and they, for once, did not make asses out of themselves. She even came on one of the night tours with us. She was in awe during the tour. She later said that the swamp is a truly magical place. It helped her know the land better also. She now knows where all the good spots are for bodies being dumped, and last night we went patrol together. Our creatures worked very well together. Her wolf was not afraid of my gator. In fact, she approached him and licked his snout. He rubbed up against her slightly, careful to not knock her over. We are learning more and more about each other. I am so glad we decided to take things slowly, although my cock does not agree.

So far, we have not made any progress on the sex trafficking issue. But we all know that it will take time. Somehow we need someone who is on the inside, who is willing to help us. Pierre has been going to the local clubs a lot lately to see if he can find anything out that way. He is trying to watch the happenings of the big wheels that come in and out of the local bars. Alexandre has been watching the missing person reports to see if anything leads us to them.

There are so many people in this town, it seems that we may never find who is behind this. But we have hope that we will find them and take them out. Sebastien went to the local police station to get a list of all the missing women and teenage girls. They know about our tour business, and know that somehow these women could end up on our tours. Or we may encounter them before they are killed by their captors. The police are always very forthcoming with their information. They let us know if any new cases have come up as well.

We are taking it one day at a time. That is all we can do. We help who we can, and try to get information in the process.

But, I still cannot stop thinking about Adele. I crave the times when I can spend time with her, even if only for a few minutes. I know she works during the day. So I try to see her every morning before she goes to work and catch her when she gets home. This morning I brought her coffee and homemade biscuits that I made. Yes, I can cook. I love to cook, but I never really have the time to do so. Each of us can cook; we take turns. Pierre is having a hard time keeping his beast at bay. He has been so on edge and snaps at everything. I hope he can find his other half soon so he can have some peace from the beast.

Today is another hot and humid as hell day here in the bayou. It never really changes. We really don’t have a winter. It may get in the thirties, but it never lasts long. So, in truth, it is always hot. As usual, I dress in a muscle shirt and shorts and sandals. After Adele left for work, I decided that today I was going to go visit Joslyn and Dean. I want to see if I can get them to join with us. Luckily, today it is going to rain, so I know she will be awake during the day. On cloudy and overcast days she is able to come out during the day. Joslyn is a vampire, but she can still shift into her tiger when needed. I texted her earlier and she said they will be home today. But at some point, she needs to head to the store.

I decide to go through my daily checklist for the business. Sebastien and Alexandre are running the day tours, and Pierre and I are running the night tours. Every week, we switch. That way each of us are doing both tours. The first day tour just left a few minutes ago and Sebastien is waiting for the next one to start in about an hour. I head downstairs and see if he is in the office. Yep, he is soaking up the air conditioning, just as I thought he would be.

“Man, you would think that with it being cloudy today that it would not be as hot.,” he comments.

“It is hot upstairs already. So before I came downstairs, I turned on the AC unit. By tonight it will be nice and cool up there. So what are you doing?” I ask.

“I am just sitting here looking over this list of missing girls. So far we have only been able to find four of them. There are at least twenty women on this list. I was thinking that maybe we need to put the word out in the supernatural community. The more shifters that know about this the better. I wonder if Skylar can somehow send them all the message.”

“I am heading over there in a little while. So while I am there, I will see if she can. I am going to see if they will all help us and join forces. The more people we have the better. These women need to be found and brought back home to their families,” I tell him.

“Man, I totally agree. Oh man, I forgot to tell you. Those biscuits you made this morning were the bomb.”

“Thanks. I think I am going to head out now. Before the rain comes. I hate riding my bike in the rain.”

“Sounds like a plan. Don’t forget your helmet, brother,” he states.

I shake my head and head out the door. Some days he is like a mother hen. I get my dirt bike out of the shed and grab my helmet. Once it is on, I make sure I have enough gas to get me back and forth. I get on and head toward my cousin’s home.

I get there in a matter of about fifteen minutes. I absolutely love coming here. Especially when I pull into the driveway. It is surrounded by old oak trees that have created a canopy over the driveway. It is just beautiful. I pull up next to the house and get off my bike. I head up the steps and knock on the door.

I am greeted by Sandra. “How many times do I have to tell you that you are family, and that you do not need to knock?”

“I know, Sandra, but I was raised always to knock before I enter someone’s home. It is only polite to do so. Yes, we are all family now, but I still have manners, love,” I say.

“Come on in. Skylar ran downstairs and told us all to meet in the living room. She knew you were coming today, and why,” she says.

“Somehow that does not surprise me at all. She is just something else, you know,” I reply.

“How are those beautiful babies doing, Sandra?”

“Oh, they are just wonderful. They are actually napping right now. So your timing is perfect,” she says.

I follow her into the living room. As she has told me, everyone is gathered there waiting on my arrival. Man, it still astounds me the powers that this family has. My family. I am so happy that Joslyn has mated into their family. It is good knowing that we have them on our side if we may ever need them. We will always be there if they need us. Because that is what family does. In the past few months, we have all gotten very close, and our relationship with Joslyn has only gotten stronger. 

The living room is massive in size. They have changed the hardwood floors to carpet. Since the arrival of the babies, they have started to baby proof the house. The carpet they chose is very plush and soft to the touch. The décor is simple and modern, with a few paintings here and there. There is a huge entertainment center with a huge flat screen TV. The sofa is a massive wraparound with at least four recliners built into it, and each recliner can rock if needed. I would imagine that the recliners that rock are used quite often since the babies’ arrival. The floor plan is an open concept. From the living room, you can see into the huge modern kitchen that has a huge island and a massive eight burner stove. The curtains on the windows are black out curtains. They keep all light out during the day.

Since Skylar came out of her coma, the vampires of the family now have the ability to go out into the sunlight without it hurting them. They can be out in the sun for long periods of time. The vampires of the family are: Dean, Blaze, Rhiannon, and Joslyn. Even though Joslyn is not an original member, she is mated to Dean, so she has been given the same power as well.

I enter and hug each woman and shake hands with all the guys. After that is done, we all sit on the huge couch. “So, Deuce, what brings you by today?” Dean asks.

“Well, last week we saved a woman from being killed. She was being held captive by a vile man who is in the sex trafficking trade. He purchased her from her parents when she was sixteen. At first, he treated her good, but as time went by and she got older, his treatment became more aggressive. Needless to say, he sold her body to his clients almost every night for three years. Then when he tired of her, he started abusing her physically. We saved her from him before he could kill her and dump her body into the swamp. She is now at the shelter for abused women. He is …, well, he is no more and will not be hurting any more women,” I say, bringing them up to speed on everything.

“Was this the same night I approached you and Adele?” Skylar asks.

“Yes, it was,” I reply. “I am here because this has become an issue in this town. An issue that hits home with us, because we were born and raised here. We want to put a stop to this. We have contacted the local police, and they have given us a list of missing women. So far, we have been able to save four from being killed in the swamps. Somehow we need an “in”, to get ourselves inside this operation and save the rest of the women.”

“Lately, I have been feeling so much sorrow. I am not sure where it is coming from,” Sandra chimes in.

“I know where it is coming from, because I have been feeling it as well. Some of the women that are being held captive are supernaturals. Somehow, their captors have them in cages that prevent them from shifting. The handcuffs they are using are pure silver, which again prevents them from shifting. These captors are very smart and know what they are doing. They have done their homework for sure,” Skylar says.

“Have you noticed that your brothers have been staring at the missing girls images a lot lately?” Sandra asks.

“As a matter of fact, I have noticed it. I never thought anything of it, other than, that they are trying to memorize each missing person.”

“Three of those women are your brothers’ destinies. I do not know which ones, or their names,” Gabriel says.

“This just gotten so much more real for us then. If those women are my brothers’ soul mates, then we have to find them and save them. If we do not, it will kill my brothers.”

“Let us do some digging of our own. We may be able to find things out that you are not able to because you are from here. Us still being new may work in our favor,” Blaze says.

We all sit in silence for a few minutes, but it feels like hours. Everyone is digesting this information and the wheels are turning in each person’s head. How do I tell my brothers this news? Do I even tell them? How could I keep this from them? I have to tell them. If I was in their shoes, I would want to know. This issue has become so much more than I had originally thought possible. We have to find those three women … along with all of the others we can save.

“Thank you, Blaze. Every bit of help we can get would be greatly appreciated. I did not think that some of the women could have been supernatural as well. Which makes them so much more valuable to these guys. We have to find them all and save them all if possible,” I say.

“Tonight, Blaze and I will go into town and go clubbing. We will watch and listen for anything suspicious. We will keep doing this until we get the right information. Once we have some good leads, we will ask everyone to meet again to discuss what we have found,” Matthias says.

“Sandra and I will use our telepathic powers to see if we can reach any of these women. We will need a copy of the missing persons reports. It helps if we can address each woman by name. Most likely the supernatural women will be harder to reach, because they tend to keep their minds closed off. But there is a sliver of hope that they will have them open even for a short period of time,” Skylar tells the group.

“My brothers and I will continue to search the swamps nightly, along with Adele. With all of us working on some aspect of this, we should be able to come up with some leads soon,” I say, hopeful.

“I will check around the witch grapevine. Not all witches are bad, so I will start there. It sounds like that the cages and cuffs are magically enhanced. So the witches would be a good place to start,” Joslyn adds.

“That is a wonderful idea. I will help you with that, Joslyn. Having me around might help persuade them into talking to you,” Rhiannon states.

“We will all do our part to help you and your brothers. We are family and this is what family does. We look after each other. This problem seems to be growing and becoming a much bigger problem. The local authorities have to be overwhelmed. We can keep them in the loop, since there are shifters on the force. If we all work together, we can find those girls. All of them,” Gabriel claims.

“Thank you all so much. You have no idea what this means to us. And yes, I consider each of you a member of my family. And you are right, Gabriel; we will do this together.”

“It is my turn to do the grocery shopping. So I need to head out. Deuce, do you want to come along and help me?” Joslyn asks.

“Sure, I would be happy to come help you. I have nothing else going on until later when Adele gets off of work,” I say.

“Perfect. I hate her going by herself, even though she knows this town and where to go. I still worry about her. The guys and I are fixing the fence on the edge of the property. It came down during that last big storm we had last week,” Dean informs me.

Everyone gets up and goes their separate ways. As soon as the women stand up, I start to hear the babies cry. Those babies are smart and know what is going on around them. They are growing fast, too; much faster than a normal child would. I follow Joslyn to the SUV and we get in and head into town.