Page 72 of Act of Brotherhood
“My pleasure. Let’s talk about the hot Viking-Cake Dude again. I’m still stunned you brought a guy you’d just met home with you. Finding out you really did bang his brains out really makes me wonder if I know you at all.”
Nicolette nodded. “Made me wonder if I knew myself. But really, he’s not crazy. Please stop calling him that.”
“Fine. The Viking who ran off naked into the night is not crazy. I totally stand corrected.”
Nicolette laughed. “Well, he did say something weird before we got busy. But no weirder than the stuff you ramble on about. You know, shifters and stuff,” said Nicolette.
Clara sucked in a huge breath. “We’ve talked and video conferenced nightly for the past week, and you never once thought to bring up the fact he talked about shifters?”
“Didn’t seem as important as the fact I did indeed bang his brains out. Oh, and did I tell you Cody knows him?”
Nicolette could still vividly remember what it was like having Garth in her. He’d made her feel things she never had before. When she’d gone in search of him, he’d been nowhere to be found. It had been then she’d realized she’d never gotten his last name, let alone his phone number.
She’d had a couple of nights with Garth. Granted, it was the best sex of her life, but a two-night stand all the same. Saying it out loud made it feel cheap when it had been anything but. Sure, it had ended with him rushing off into the night and leaving his clothes behind, but still.
No matter how that’s spun, it’s crazy.
“Tell me again what you heard outside,” said Clara.
“I’m not sure. I was in the kitchen and I heard something that sounded like men whispering. Super soft. But whispering all the same.”
Clara was quiet a second. “And you think they were doing it outside of the kitchen window?”
“No. I know they weren’t there. I’d have seen them. It sounded like it was coming from the back corner outside. You know, the one where the overhead lights keep burning out?” Nicolette stared at that very spot from her position near the backdoor.
“Let me get this straight. You thought you heard men whispering out back, at night, in the dark, and you then went out to check?” asked Clara, her voice rising slightly.
Nicolette’s cheeks heated. “Erm, yes.”
“Dumbass,” snapped Clara.
Nicolette smiled. “Thanks.”
Leaning slightly, Nicolette peered into the darkness more, hoping to be able to make out the shape of something, if something was indeed there. In the back of her mind, she thought about calling the police, but she wasn’t sure what she’d tell them. That she’d thought she’d heard a strange noise and had a bad vibe? Somehow, she seriously doubted they’d see that as an emergency. They’d respond and then look at her like she was nuts.
Besides, they were no doubt responding to actual emergencies. Ones she didn’t want to take them away from for any reason.
“Call the police,” said Clara, as if reading Nicolette’s mind. “If your gut is saying something is off, that means aliens are about to abduct you or something. We both know your gut feelings are never wrong.”
“I’m fine. No one is here.” The words didn’t sit right with her, and she tensed. “Well, I’m fairly positive no one is here.”
“I’d like to go back to my first thought on the matter, which was…dumbass.”
Nicolette didn’t respond. She stared into the backyard instead.
“I need you to grunt or something if you’re alive,” said Clara. “The dead air is making me think you’re currently being hacked into tiny bits by some creeper dude.”
“Nice picture you painted there for me,” returned Nicolette as she clutched the spoon tighter, a deep sense of foreboding settling over her. Everything in her was screaming at her to run into the house, bolt the door, and call her uncle at once. To hell with the fact it wasn’t their normal call time. Her gut said that the devil himself was staring back at her from the darkened corner of the back courtyard.
Since that was ridiculous, she laughed it off, nervously. Butterflies skittered about in her stomach and she found herself unable to move. The fear she was trying so hard to deny left her paralyzed. A prisoner in her own back sanctuary.
“I’m acting like a crazy person and letting my uncle’s and your eccentrics rub off on me. The two of you are always going on and on about spooky stuff. No surprise I’d get myself worked up over nothing,” stressed Nicolette.
“It’s nothing until you’re nose-to-nose with Dracula. Then it’s something.” Clara laughed softly. “Speaking of Dracula, your uncle may be eccentric, but he is hot in ways that should be outlawed. I mean, how can a man be that hot and have a voice like he does?”
“Gagging a little here now, thanks,” said Nicolette. Sure, her uncle was passable, but he was her uncle. Eww. “And what do you mean speaking of Dracula?”
“Gag all you want. Doesn’t take away from him being a total hottie,” supplied Clara, ignoring the Dracula question.
