10. Chapter 8
Chapter 8
Brixon
I rush back to the house and change before we head to Gionna Restaurant. Apparently, a few of the higher up Saints decided to have dinner with the Devereaux’s.
Liam’s old friend let him know about the dinner that, of course, we weren’t invited to. No one knows we are here watching and waiting.
Since we are questioning the loyalty of Devereaux and his involvement with the sex trafficking, it’s better that we show up and make it look like a coincidence.
We have not made our presence in NOLA known yet. It’s better to surprise people like this. We could be walking in on the very people who betrayed us all with the sex trafficking of the women we swore to protect.
Should we have already had all of this figured out by now? Yes, but we also felt that watching the girls was more important at the moment. Our main task is protecting them.
There is still time. Until I know they have Boudreaux, I don’t like the idea of leaving my little witch on her own. She may be a badass, but all it takes is one mistake and she could be gone in a second.
I won’t let that happen.
The curse says one of us has to die. If and when it comes to that, it will be me. I won’t be able to live in a world without her in it now that I have my memories of us.
Genevieve is the only thing that matters to me now.
“Fuck bro, check it out!” Noah pulls me out of my thoughts, pointing to the door of the restaurant as we pull into a spot across the street.
I look out the window and see a huge guy covered in tattoos. He has dark hair put up in a man bun. He is carrying out a very pregnant woman, rushing into the back of a blacked-out Tahoe.
Four men I recognize, one being Augustine Devereaux, rushes out of the restaurant behind them just as the Tahoe takes off with the screech of its tires.
“Follow them.” I say, looking at the worried faces of the Saints coming out of the classy place.
“I got a pic and am sending it to Brock. He can check it and tell us who that guy is.” Liam nods back at me before turning back towards the front of the car.
Noah pulls back out on the road and takes off in the direction they just went. He follows the speeding SUV through the streets of NOLA until they make a dangerously fast turn towards the ER of the hospital.
Noah stays back as we watch the SUV come to a screeching halt in front of the hospital, close to the paramedic’s entrance of the emergency room. I see Dr. Cowan, who we all went to college with, rush to help take the lifeless, dark haired, very pregnant woman out of the SUV. They place her on a gurney, then rush towards the sliding glass doors.
We all three watch as the muscled-up man bun drop to his knees. I can’t help but feel for the guy and can’t imagine what he is going through right now.
I hear Liams phone ding, pulling all of our attention from the bloody scene we just witnessed.
“His name is Christian Devereaux. He’s Sebastian Devereaux’s twin brother. Did y’all know there was another Devereaux son? Let’s hope this one is smarter than his twin. I heard he was murdered horrifically by some crazy ex-girlfriend.” Liam laughs lightly.
Liam’s voice changes to a more monotone, “Shit bro, Brock says Christian goes by Sin. He was just informed of his lineage, status, and birthright of being a Saint in the last couple of months. His wife was kidnapped, and he just got her back pretty recently. Not just him, but a group of the Saints here in Louisiana, who had more than one son chose to try and keep one son out, and oblivious to his birthright. How in the fuck did that work?”
“Stay here, I’m gonna go talk to him. Message Lucas Cowan and let him know we want updates on Devereaux’s wife and child. Explain why they are important in this situation.” I say lowly, knowing this is my one chance to see who this guy is.
“Here, I had grabbed these for Emily when I got the pizza and forgot them in the car. Take them to make it look like you were already coming here. We don’t want to raise suspicion. This place will be crawling with Saints trying to see what he is made of very soon. Make it quick so we can get the fuck out of here.” Liam pushes a wrapped bouquet of flowers towards me in the backseat.
I take the flowers and make my way up to the doors where this giant man is on his knees praying.
I tap his shoulder, “She is going to be okay. Cowan is the best OBGYN in the country, he will take care of her.” I try to reassure him.
I hold out my hand to shake his, “Brixon Blaze.” I say as I help him up and see that he is covered in his wife’s blood that I now have on my hands too.
He stands a couple inches taller than me, but we look about the same size in clothes.
“Do I know you?” He asks as he breaks his hand away from mine.
“No. but our dad’s have been friends for years. I saw what just happened and thought you should know your girl is in good hands. Don’t worry, the Saints take care of their own. I know that you are new to all of this, but if you need someone who grew up in it to talk to, here is my card.” I hand him my business card with my club’s logo and my personal cell, with a nod.
“Thanks.” He takes the card looking like he is way more confused than he was when I first tapped his shoulder. He nods, putting the card in his pocket as he enters the automatic glass doors to the hospital.
I head back to the Jeep with the boys, opening the back. I wipe my hands on a black towel in the back and grab my bag of my extra clothes to take back to him. Thankfully we always have a spare change of clothes in the back of our cars for each of us.
You never know when you are going to need them, and that guy needs them right now.
“Be right back, this guy needs help man. He might lose it. I don’t think he has anything to do with the sex trafficking. He just loves his wife. Might be a good guy to have on our team eventually.” I say before I shut the back of the SUV and head back towards the hospital, not waiting for their response.
I hurry inside when I see a few elders getting out of a sleek black and chromed out Escalade, walking towards the hospital.
A group of well-dressed people with tattoos and crying women stand outside of the bathrooms near the chapel when I enter through the sliding glass doors. I assume Christian is probably in one or the other.
I push open the door a little more aggressively than intended and see him standing at the sink trying to wash his wife’s blood off of his hands.
I toss the bag of clothes to him when he looks up at the door, “Figured we are about the same size. Now get yourself together, incoming Saints wanting to make sure you are okay. Don’t show emotion, they hate that!” I say quickly and leave before Louisianas elders see me.
I move quickly around the large pillars and watch the old men filing in through the sliding glass doors, all wearing impeccable suits. They stand back, watching Christian as he comes out of the bathroom and greets his friends, still looking like a broken shell of a man.
“Come on man, suck it up or they will eat you alive.” I whisper quietly to myself, hoping he will listen.
I watch his face morph to stone as he scans the room, looking for anyone out of place. I know when he sees them by the way his eye twitches but doesn’t stop scanning, so it probably wasn’t noticeable to the old men.
Christian moves with his friends toward the elevators. I watch the elders move to follow them, but keep their distance, sizing the man up.
I take the opportunity to sneak out as they move past a point where they would see me.
I hop back in the Jeep, quickly shutting the door, “See the elders? They weren’t the ones at the restaurant, and they are keeping their distance from Christian.”
“Yeah, Brock just let me know that the elders who showed up have been very quiet the last few weeks. Something has happened where things shifted. They are worried for a reason. Brock is going to look into a few things and get back to me.” Liam replies, letting me know they are trying to get answers.
“Let’s head back home and call it a night. I want to relax and have some fun. Liam already sent a text to Emily, who let him know Lily came over, just in case you were worried about me being a fifth wheel.” Noah’s smile reaches his eyes as he takes off out of the parking lot.
“Oh, and the girls are already falling down drunk.” Liam chuckles.
“Great, this should be fun.”
When we get back home, we all go in and change back into our comfy clothes, grab the rest of the pizza and head over to Evie’s.
As soon as we get to the gate, we can hear the music thumping through the old white wood paned windows. The closer we get to the door; I hear the words to the song playing.
“Drunk And I Don’t Wanna Go Home,” by Elle King and Miranda Lambert, continues to play as I open the door.
We can’t contain our laughter as we hear the girls singing along with the song.
We make our way through the house and find the girls dancing in the kitchen. Each of the girls have a drink in one hand and a slice of pizza in the other, as they sing and shake their asses to the beat of the song.
I can’t take my eyes off of my perfect little witch. She looks so much more carefree than earlier this evening.
“You know leaving your door unlocked is not safe little witch!” I holler past my chuckle, watching as the girls jump, and shriek. Evie hits the ground laughing with her hand on her chest, a pizza slice in her mouth, cup still in hand without a drop spilled. She sits with her legs sprawled out in front of her giggling through the slice of pepperoni.
“Fucking impressive,” I laugh as I go help Evie up.
“Welcome back boys!” Emily holds her cup up to give us cheers, then downs whatever is left in the red Solo cup.
“Brix! We found all the hidden secrets just like my mom said! Do you know the story of the Casket Girls? Hmm, buddy? How about our lineage that died off because of this stupid curse? I do!” Evie’s words slur as she acts like a child in school, raising her hand.
“Alright little witch, show us what y’all have found.” I say as I help her up off of the floor.
“Well, apparently daddy dearest paid for all of my college and the scholarships, and everything was fake, including the money I got for the shop. So, I’m a huge fraud.” Evie shrugs her shoulders as she takes another drink of her… Yup, margarita. I can smell the tequila on her sweet breath.
“Oh my God, there are records of all kinds of things that Evie’s gran and mom had hidden. For the last time Eves, you are not a fraud! Anyway, they were both trying to break the curse!” Emily’s voice gets higher pitched as she grabs Liams hand, dragging him towards the dining room.
We all follow suit, watching as the girls get more excited as we enter and see the table covered with pictures, letters, jewelry, newspaper clippings, and documents including death records on all the witches who came over from Rome, called the Casket Girls. Including every LaBlanc woman and Blazendel man killed in the name of this curse.
“Jesus Christ! Some of these documents are some of the oldest things I have ever seen. These are amazing.” Liam boasts, picking up different ones, analyzing them.
Liam is a huge history buff, especially NOLA history. Being born here and not being able to be here the last ten years was tough on Liam. He loves our hometown.
“Tonight, let’s just have fun and forget about all of this. You guys are finally back together, and so far, everything is working out. Let’s just be happy for one night and start digging into this tomorrow when everyone is sober.” Noah offers as the longest version known to man kind of “Low,” by Flo Rida, featuring T-Pain, ends.
“Coconut,” by Harry Nilsson fills the brief moment of silence. The girls start almost screaming before getting in a line and dancing back to the kitchen, singing the lyrics.
I exchange glances with Liam and Noah before following the girls, not understanding what the girls are doing.
“What is happening exactly?” Noah shouts over the music that somehow got louder.
“Midnight margaritas!” Emily shouts, drawing out the words in a high-pitched voice.
Lily gets ice while Evie gets margarita mix, and Emily grabs the tequila. They pour everything into the blender as Evie chants something and waves her hands at it. She looks sad for a second then hits the button as the girls’ sound like they are repeating a line from a movie then stop.
Lily stops the blender while Emily grabs more solo cups and Evie pours the drinks. They each take one and continue to dance and sing around the kitchen until the song stops and they crack up laughing.
“I’ve missed you taking part in our madness Evie. It’s just not the same without you.” Lily says as she laughs with the other two girls.
“What in the hell was that?” Liam chuckles, looking at Emily with a look of pure amazement.
“Midnight margarita scene from Practical Magic, duh.” Emily rolls her eyes, laughing at Liam for not having a clue.
We all once again exchange glances, trying to see if the other knows what these crazy girls are talking about. I’m sure it’s obvious that the three of us are equally dumbfounded by what she just said.
“Tell me you have seen one of the most iconic movies of all time!” Evie looks animatedly shocked into disbelief.
I look to the other girls who wear the same expression, looking at all of us like we have committed a crime.
Evie cracks a grin first, “Well, technically we have to watch the movie now that we already did the song and dance, then we have to do it again along with the movie, so y’all can join in on that one!”
“Yay, I’m so excited.” I reply, rolling my eyes a bit, not exactly thrilled to have a party with our friends when I just want to be with her.
If this is what she needs to be okay tonight, then that is what I will give her and watch whatever fucking girly movie she wants me to.
“How many times did I sit and watch Varsity Blues with you in high school?” Evie slurs her words making me chuckle,
I still love that movie.
“If I remember correctly you were allowed to grumble about watching it.” I retort.
“Yeah, but I didn’t start grumbling until I had already watched it a million times.” She dramatizes the number very dramatically throwing her hands up, making me laugh.