Ghost
A couple nights later
Luxe was angry with me. For the past couple of days, I’d been keeping her in the house since her incident.
It was the safest option at the moment. She might have been mad, but she was complying so far.
The shit that happened at the restaurant was a close call.
I wasn’t sure how the shooter missed their mark, but it was fortunate for us.
Maybe they weren’t mature enough with a rifle. Shit, we might never know.
Before I even left the building, I shot Savion a text to alert him on what was going on. He had a team out there in no time to see if they could find the shooter. I didn’t have time to be searching for anyone when I knew that Luxe needed medical attention.
Ever since the incident, I’d been beating myself up because shit could’ve been much worse than that. I keep asking myself how I missed it. I was the type of person that was normally on my toes. Nothing got by me.
As I lay there in bed, I searched the security footage for Luxe and didn’t see her anywhere in the house.
I switched to outside and saw her in the backyard digging in her garden.
It was too damn late for her to be out there playing in fucking dirt.
I’d noticed that she spent a lot of time out there in that damn garden.
Luxe acted like an old-ass woman. At the rate she was going, she wasn’t gonna be the old lady with the cats; she was gon’ be the old woman with the garden.
Tossing the covers back, I climbed out of bed and slipped my feet into my slippers. Usually, if I was at home, I walked around the house without a shirt, but whenever I left my bedroom here, I tried to make sure that I was fully covered out of Luxe’s respect.
Grabbing my T-shirt off the back of the chair in my bedroom, I slipped it over my head and left the room. The house was still. It was so fucking quiet in here that you could hear a pin drop.
It was going on midnight. I’d been in my bedroom ever since dinner.
Normally, I just waited until Luxe was settled for the night before I sat down and ate anything.
After I showered and climbed into bed, I was under the impression that Luxe was in her bed, probably sleeping by then, but I guess I was wrong.
I followed the staircase down to the first floor and headed toward the kitchen where the back sliding doors were located for the backyard. I noticed the porch light on, which wasn’t odd. Luxe always kept lights on outside the house.
Opening the door, I stepped out onto the porch and found Luxe on her knees in her white robe, in the garden.
She had a helmet on with a light attached to the front of it so she could see in the dark.
As I closed in on her, she didn’t even bother to look in my direction, letting me know that she more than likely didn’t have her hearing aids in.
I’d told her several times since I’d started working with her that it was too dangerous for her to keep doing that.
She needed to be able to hear her surroundings in case something was to happen.
Of course, Luxe wasn’t gon’ fully listen to me, because dealing with her was like having a toddler.
They did whatever the fuck they wanted and dealt with the consequences later.
I stopped behind her. She turned to the right and grabbed a plant.
I saw something pale sticking out from the dirt near where she was kneeled.
From where I stood, I couldn’t really tell what it was, so I leaned down and grabbed it, just to find out that it was a finger.
A fucking finger still attached to a got damn hand, which I knew was probably still on a body.
“What the fuck, Luxe?” I gripped her by the shoulder, and her head whipped in my direction. Her gun pressed into my dick.
“You gon’ make me blow your shit off. You gon’ be around here with a shit bag if you keep on.”
“Why is there a body in your fucking garden?” I signed to her.
Luxe’s eyes expanded. I guess she didn’t expect me to find out her lil secret.
“You want to join it or something? Asking me all these got damn questions.”
Gripping her by the forearm, I pulled her to her feet and dragged her lil ass right into the house. The bottom of her robe was the color of the dirt like she’d been living on the streets her entire life or something.
“Why is there a body in your garden?” I signed to her again.
Luxe sighed and removed the helmet from her head and then said, “He tried to kill me, so I killed him.”
“Tried to kill you when?” My brows snapped together.
“While you were in there sleeping. I handled it though.”
By this point, I was over all the signing. I swiped her hearing aids off the counter and politely placed them back into her ears.
“What the fuck you mean while I was in there sleep?” I ain’t even been to sleep yet. There wasn’t any noise in the house to let me know there was any danger. She must’ve killed his ass smooth as fuck to get past my radar.
“I caught him creeping around outside when I came down to make me some tea. I couldn’t sleep.”
Luxe really didn’t seem like she needed my help around here. From what I could see, she took damn good care of herself. They taught her well.
“The next time something like this happens, come and get me. It’s what I’m here for.”
“Fine. Whatever.”
She grabbed her helmet off the counter and headed back toward the door. I followed behind her and stood there as she covered the remainder of the hand with dirt. Her entire backyard was covered in flowers and vegetables. I couldn’t help but ask, “Is that the only body back here?”
Luxe looked up at me, and the corner of her mouth quirked. It was then I realized that she had a bit more Saint-Mercier in her than I thought. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
“Do your family know about your hobbies?”
“That’s really none of their business.”
I stood there as she finished up in her garden, and then we headed back into the house. She removed her robe at the back door and tossed it into the trashcan. Luxe went over to the sink and washed her hands and then fixed her tea as if nothing had happened.
“You’re talking about me and my hobbies, what’s one of your hobbies?” Luxe asked me before taking a sip of her tea.
“That’s really not important.”
“Why not? You’ve been working for me all this time, and I feel like I don’t know anything about you except that you smell good.”
“You think I smell good?”
“That’s beside the point. I want to know what’s one of your hobbies, and then I’ll let you go back to sleep.”
“Collecting guns.”
“I don’t know why I didn’t know you was gonna say something like that.”
I shrugged, and she stepped from behind the counter, passing me. I followed her out of the kitchen and back upstairs to our bedroom. Once I saw her enter hers, I went into mine and cracked the bedroom door.
The following morning
I sat on the edge of my bed, staring at the clock on the nightstand. It was five thirty in the morning. After everything that happened the night before, all I could do was toss and turn all night. The thought of someone else showing up at the house kept haunting my mind. I needed to be on my toes.
Grabbing my phone, I dialed Savion’s number. He answered on the second ring.
“Yeah?”
“I don’t think it’s safe staying at her house anymore,” I told him. We had already said that it wasn’t safe being here after the first attempt on her life, but Luxe’s ass didn’t want to leave.
“What happened?”
I should’ve called him last night and informed him of the incident, but I wanted to make sure nothing else was going to happen. “Someone else came to the house last night. She killed him, though.”
“Yeah, you are going to have to get her out of that house. I’m still trying to get a hold of the guy in Argentina. Hopefully, he’ll be able to tell us something soon.”
“She has a business trip tomorrow for a few days. I’ll just take her back to my old spot when we come back.
Have someone move some of her personal things over there.
Maybe have Solei let you know whatever she may not be able to live without.
I’m not even gon’ tell her what’s going on so that she won’t have the chance to fight it. ”
She might die without that garden, but I think she’d be all right without that cemetery for a while.
“I’ll get on it. Do I need to send someone else with you?”
“Between her and me, I think we got it. I’ll let you know if I need anything.”
“A’ight.”
The call ended, and I got up from the bed and then headed into the bathroom to get ready for the day.