Demon Hunting In the Deep South (37 page)

“Nicole, wait. I wouldn’t make any sudden moves if I were—”

Too late. Nicole took off at a run, clutching the shower curtain around her. The pack of dogs howled and streaked after her. Nicole shrieked and darted around a patrol car, the dogs in hot pursuit.

Bacon, bacon, bacon—
Evie could almost hear the dogs panting the battle cry.

“For a chunky gal, she sure can move,” a man wearing overalls and no shirt observed.

Evie glared at him. After a lifetime of fat jokes, she
hated
that kind of remark. Who was he to talk, anyway? He had back boobs and a belly like a pregnant hippo.

“Save me, Jesus,” Nicole yelped. “Save me!”

A beagle snarled and latched on to the back of the shower curtain. Nicole picked up the pace, trailing the beagle behind her like a banner as she circled the police car for a second time.

“Nicole, get on top of the car,” Evie shouted as the snarling dogs closed the gap. “They can’t get you there.”

“I can’t!” Nicole cried. “I’m too slicky!”

“Oh, my goodness,” Evie said. “Help! Somebody help!”

Blip!
Ansgar was there lifting Nicole out of harm’s way. He rumbled deep in his chest, and the dogs scattered and slunk away.

He set Nicole down in a plastic lawn chair. Her chest heaved and her eyelids fluttered.

“There,” he said. “Do not be affrighted. The hounds will trouble you no more. You are safe now.”

“Holy Moses.” Nicole was gasping for breath. “Thought I was a goner. Thought them dawgs was gonna eat me for sure. And then you come out of nowhere, like the Flash or something. It was amazing.”

“Not at all,” Ansgar said.

“Oh, no.” Nicole went pale. “I think I see Daniel coming this way.” She gave Ansgar a pleading look. “Don’t tell him about the dogs. Please. He already thinks I broke the trailer.”

“What dogs?” Ansgar said. “I do not see any dogs.”

Nicole’s eyes filled with tears. “Bless you, Mr. Dalvahni.”

Dan strode up with Frodo under one arm. “You all right, Nikki?” he asked.

“Course.” Nicole adjusted her shower curtain, her color high. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“ ’Cause somebody sabotaged your trailer, that’s why,” Dan said. “I’ve been talking to the firemen. Whoever did this crawled under your trailer and weakened every last one of the supports. That’s why it collapsed. And the culprit left this.” He brandished an evidence bag at Nicole. “It’s a toy animal, a stuffed Chihuahua. Frodo found it, isn’t that right, boy?” Dan patted the dog’s mini Afro. “He’s got a heck of a snoot on him. He could be a SAR dog. Went crazy when he found it, snarling and snapping to beat the band. There’s a note attached. It says ‘die demon dog’ on it.”

Nicole shrieked and slumped back in the chair. “It’s the dog stalker. Lord have mercy Jesus, he’s done tracked us to Hannah. We ain’t never gonna be safe again.”

“We’re going to catch this guy, Nikki,” Dan said. His jaw was set and he looked determined. “That’s our job.” He set the Chihuahua in her lap. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to show this evidence to the chief. We’ve had a rash of dog attacks in the past few days, and this could be related.” He started to walk off and turned around. “Here,” he said. Removing his uniform jacket, he draped it around Nicole’s bare shoulders. “It’s kind of chilly out. Should’ve offered it to you sooner, but I get tunnel vision when I’m working.”

He winked at Nicole and walked off.

Nicole watched him depart with a stunned expression. “Did you see that? He winked at me and then he give me his jacket. And me smelling like bacon.” A tear dripped down her cheek. “That’s the most r-romantical thing anyone’s ever done for me.”

“You like him, don’t you?” Evie asked.

“He’s a prince,” Nicole said with a blissful sigh. She shifted uncomfortably in the chair. “When you reckon the police gonna let me back in my place? This shower curtain is starting to chafe.”

A shout drew their attention to the trailer. Several firemen leaped back as the trailer roof fell in and the walls buckled.

“I’m afraid you won’t be getting anything much out of that trailer,” Evie said, shaking her head. “It’s toast.”

Nicole started to cry again. “Everything me and Frodo had was in there. What am I going to do? I can’t go around in no shower curtain for the rest of my life.”

“I’ll tell you what you’re going to do,” Evie said. “You’re coming home with me. I’ve got a guest bedroom that’s empty. We’ll find you some clothes and get you fixed up right.”

“You’re my guardian angel,” Nicole declared. “I knowed it the first time I laid eyes on you.” She swiped her wet cheeks with the back of her hand. “But it wouldn’t be right, me bumming off you and me with no job.”

“What? You mean to say Addy
fired
you? I can’t believe it.”

“No, she ain’t fired me yet, but she will.” Nicole looked down at the dog in her lap. “She ain’t gonna want no ex-stripper working in her nice shop, ’specially no ex-stripper with a crazy dog stalker after her.”

“Miss Corwin is not going to fire you,” Evie said firmly. “Meredith Peterson’s funeral is tomorrow, remember? We’ve got a ton of flowers to deliver.”

Nicole perked up. “That’s right, I forgot about that.” Her brows drew together. “I sure hope that bitchy haint don’t show up. She makes my butt wanna suck a lemon and spit the seeds.”

“An interesting visual,” Ansgar said. “ ’Tis to be hoped the expression is figurative and not literal.”

“Huh?” Nicole said.

“Don’t pay any attention to him,” Evie said. “He has an odd sense of humor. As for Meredith, I can’t imagine her missing her big day.” She helped Nicole struggle out of the plastic chair. “Let’s go home. I’m tired and hungry.”

Ansgar wrapped his arms around Evie. “I am not surprised,” he said. He nuzzled the back of her neck, sending shivers of delight up and down her spine. “You have not eaten since yesterday at midday. When we get to your abode, I will cook omelets, if you like.”

“I like very much,” Evie said. She leaned against him with a happy sigh. “But hold the bacon, please.”

Chapter Thirty-seven

T
wo hours later, sleepless but refreshed by a shower and a hot breakfast, Evie rumbled down Main Street in Ansgar’s spiffy new truck. Driving the Raptor was fun and exciting. Heads turned as the brawny Ford cruised down the street. She could almost hear the buzz of speculation following in their wake. Evie loved her beat-up old Taurus. It was familiar and dependable and totally unexciting, like her former self. But handling the sleek, powerful Raptor was a thrill.

Kind of like handling Ansgar, she thought with a mental giggle, sneaking a peek at the hunk sitting in the passenger seat. Yep, big and muscular and sexy as hell, like his truck, with an engine built for power and endurance.

She turned down a narrow lane and pulled into the empty lot behind Flowers by Adara. It was 7:30 a.m. and they were the first ones to arrive; the shop didn’t open for another half hour.

Evie eased the truck into a parking space, cut off the motor, and unfastened her seat belt. “Thanks for letting me drive,” she said. “It was a rush.”

She glanced over at Ansgar to find him studying her legs with wolfish hunger. The knee-length skirt she wore had ridden up during the drive from her house, exposing her bare thighs. A flush of lust swept through her, leaving her feeling hot and achy. He made her feel womanly and desirable. She wanted him with an intensity that was scary. Right here, right now, in front of God and his sister and anybody else that happened along. This wouldn’t do. She needed to get a firm grip on her hoochitude. She would
not
have sex with Ansgar in the parking lot of the flower shop. No matter how much her inner wild woman complained.

She reached down to tug the skirt back into place.
Pfft!
Ansgar was out of his seat belt and across the seat, his hand covering hers.

“I have missed you,” he said, his voice a low, sexy throb.

Her heartbeat ratcheted up a notch as his strong fingers caressed the sensitive flesh of her thigh, and her inner slut purred in anticipation.

“Missed me?” She gasped as his hand slid up her skirt and higher. “What do you mean? I haven’t gone anywhere.”

“No,” he said, “but I have missed this.”

He kissed her, and she forgot everything but the hot delight of being in his arms and having his hands on her. She’d missed him, too. It seemed like hours since he’d touched her. She wanted to climb him like a trellis. The thought had barely registered when she was in his lap, her skirt hiked around her waist, kissing him for all she was worth.

So much for her self-control.
Ding!
Round one to the hussy.

Ansgar groaned her name as she reached between them and undid the top button of his jeans. The hard length of his erection pushed against the palm of her hand. A tug on his zipper and he’d be inside her. It was outrageous and reckless, scandalous and wonderful, and she couldn’t wait.

A loud rap on the truck window interrupted them.

“Hey, you kids, get off my lawn,” Addy said. “This is a no hump zone.”

Evie scrambled off Ansgar’s lap. “Gracious, Addy, you startled me.” Avoiding her friend’s gaze, Evie got out of the truck and straightened her twisted skirt. “You’re early.”

“Huh.” Addy eyed Ansgar with hostility as he exited the Ford with pantherish grace. “The way you two were going at it, I’d say I was just in time. Blondy was just about to insert tab ‘A’ into slot ‘B.’ ”

“Addy, the things you say,” Evie said, her cheeks flaming.

Addy tilted her head and surveyed the Raptor. “Nice truck. Whose is it?”

“Mine,” Ansgar said. “Did Brand not tell you?”

“No, he did not.” Addy thumped him on the chest with her finger. “All right, bub, that’s my best peep you had your hands all over. What are your intentions? Enquiring minds want to know.”

Ansgar shut the truck door and leaned against it. A smile played at the corners of his fine mouth. “You mean to say Brand did not tell you that, either? How remiss of him.”

Evie saw Addy’s jaw tighten; Ansgar really knew how to push her buttons. “What are you talking about?”

“Evangeline and I have plighted our troth.”

“What?”
Addy screeched. She grabbed Evie, and they danced around the truck, laughing and crying and squealing at the top of their lungs.

“I’m so happy for you,” Addy said once they’d quit doing the ring-around-the-rosy in the parking lot. Ansgar still leaned against the truck, arms folded across his broad chest. He was trying to act cool and unaffected by their excitement, but a flush rode his high cheekbones. Addy gave him a look of recrimination over her shoulder as she punched in the security code on the back door. “If
somebody
had come to his senses earlier, we could have had a double wedding,” she said. “I love Muddy, but you
are
my best friend, Evie, and my sister from another mother. It would have been so perfect if the four of us could have gotten married together.”

“I know.” Evie followed Addy into the back of the store with Ansgar at her heels. “But you’ll come to our wedding, won’t you?”

“Well, duh.” Addy strode between the neatly lined shelves of floral products in the storage room. “Wild horses couldn’t keep me away.”

Flinging open the store room door, Addy flipped on the lights in the main part of the shop and froze.

“Holy shit,” she said.

“What is it?” Evie stepped into the business area of the flower shop, Ansgar hovering protectively at her side, and gasped in astonishment.

The shop had been transformed into a makeshift art gallery. Dozens of paintings covered the walls. More paintings were displayed in the shop window and propped on tables and against the foot of the service counter. Some of the canvases were framed—most were not. There were several magnificent oils of the Devil River; a pen and ink drawing of the Trammell Bridge; a sketch of Jebidiah Hannah, Spanish American war hero and founder of their small town; and a fabulous painting of a white buck with silver antlers, graceful head bent as it drank from a forest pool.

The vast majority of the paintings, though, were nudes—lush, sensual, stirring—and all of them were portraits of Lenora.

“It’s official,” Addy said. “My big brother has lost his ever-loving mind. I’ve been begging him for months to let me display some of his work—
Some
of his work, not all of it. I suggested we start with something simple. You know, a landscape or two, to get people used to the idea that Shep Corwin, local undertaker, paints. And what does he do? He sneaks in here and fills my shop with nekked pictures of his girlfriend. He didn’t come out of the closet. He busted down the damn door.”

“Shep did these?” Evie examined one of the paintings. It was boldly signed
S. Corwin.
“You said he could paint, but I had no idea he was this good.”

“Oh, my God, he’s signed them,” Addy said, noticing the signature on one of the oils. “He’s gone from being shy and
I’m not sure I want to share this part of me with people
to putting it all out there. Mama’s going to have a cow. She has no idea.”

“She knows Shep paints,” Evie said. “I’ve heard you two talking about it.”

“Oh, yeah, but she doesn’t take it seriously. She doesn’t take anything seriously that doesn’t fit into her version of the universe. And this definitely doesn’t fit, so she ignores it.” Addy pointed to one of the nudes. “What do you think she’s going to do when she sees
Homage to Lenora’s Boobs
?” She jabbed her finger at a picture of a voluptuous, ebon-haired Athena rising from the river. “Or
Succubus on a Half Shell
?” Turning, she gave a little shriek. “And can you
imagine
what she’s going to say about
this
?” She picked up a canvas and brandished it at them. It was a portrait of the thrall lying naked on a couch. “Shep Corwin has put a picture in my shop of Lenora petting her petunia! If that ain’t a sign he’s lost his marbles, what is it?”

Evie thought about it. “I think this is Shep’s way of declaring himself and his love for Lenora, sort of an early wedding present.”