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Chapter 29
As Mrs. Morten headed off into the kitchen to get that pie, Leila and Zenia put their heads together for a private powwow of sorts.
“I hope you know what you’re doing here girl. Trying to get the old lady to talk. But if you say the wrong thing, it’s game over,” warned Zen.
She picked up a Fig Newton from the coffee table, sniffed it, then scrunched up her face and put it back.
“Why do white people like to eat cardboard? Where’s all the flavor?”
Leila grinned, “Much farther south. But just follow my lead. I know she’s holding out on us. She knows something. She has too.”
“I’m getting some serious unhealthy incest vibes in this place. I mean Clyde is like what, old like forty, and it’s not normal for a man to have never lived on his own. He’s like still attached to his mama’s tit or something. Creepy. And did you notice like all the pictures o
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Bad Moon On The Rise Chapter 30
Forty-five minutes north of Stillwater, sat the town of Sugar Creek, and as far as Leila could tell, there was nothing sweet about the near ghost town. More than half the businesses on the main street were boarded up, with going out of business sale paint peeling off the neglected store fronts, and the remaining merchants didn’t look that far behind from also shuttering their doors by the state of things. Whispers of a bygone era of Florida Cracker vernacular architecture, with metal roofs, raised floors, and wrap around verandas to offer shelter from the brutal sun, lay in disrepair and rot.Perhaps once, the town had been charming, upkept, and thriving, but those glory days had long passed. The closure of the sawmill had killed the town, now it was just a faint echo of its former self, or more aptly, all that remained of its quaint splendor was dust. More than half its remaining residents lived below the poverty line and relied on government su
Bad Moon On The Rise Chapter 31
“Well fuck,” muttered Zen, “but I can work with this.” “Good luck. Looks like a tough crowd. I’m guessing you didn’t need to bring the girls to the party after all,” grinned Leila. Both women shared a look before they walked deeper in the lobby with dingy, linoleum floors, dim lighting, and the smell of unchanged cat litter permeated the air. At least Leila thought the obnoxious odor was from cats, but there was the possibility it was human waste in nature drifting from the bathroom with an Employee’s only sign on the door. Some past its prime potpourri was in a glass bowl on the counter near a small display of local town attractions, which held about three brochures in total, boasting an outlet store, a pizza joint with a nineteen-fifties theme, and a bowling alley. Dust mites flitted through the air in the breeze from the open door, and possibly some cat fur, giving Leila more credence to her belief of a feline also living on the property. The clerk gave an irritated glance in the
Bad Moon On The Rise Chapter 32
Leila and Zenia scoured the lot looking for guests, especially ones that looked like tenants. A man in a dark hoodie in the mid-July sun didn’t stop to even acknowledge them, which was probably for the best. He made a beeline across the cracked asphalt and disappeared into a room. It was likely he was about to take a hit of whatever he’d just scored. The sores Leila had seen on his face held credence to her theory. Meth and Heroin were the drugs of choice in these parts. Leila wasn’t as sensitive to the hot or cold since being turned, but even she began to feel like an egg frying on the pavement after twenty minutes of loitering around the rundown motel. She swatted at a mosquito and then it’s entire family it’d brought along to feast on her. Zen’s mood was deteriorating just as rapidly, especially when she stumbled on a pothole and about twisted her ankle. “Fuck this. I don’t want to catch hepatitis around here. I think this is a waste of time girl. Most of these people are asleep a
Bad Moon On The Rise Chapter 33
Zenia dropped Leila off at her apartment with the explicit instructions to take the rest of the night off from sleuthing and focus on her date to come with Sterling. But that was easier said than done as thoughts of this mystery woman kept intruding in her head as Leila got ready for her date. Was this scorned woman the key to solving this case? The smoking gun they so desperately needed to save the man she loved from being accused of a crime he didn’t commit? Or would this motel hook up prove to be just another dead end or red herring?Leila replayed it all in her head as she showered, hoping to pick apart any clue she might have missed. It would be hard to locate this woman when they had so little to go on about her. Hopefully, they would learn more when Spencer contacted them about whatever data he was able to recover from the dead man’s phone. As Leila scrubbed herself pink, took a razor to every inch of her body, then doused herself in scented oils like she was christening hersel
Bad Moon On The Rise Chapter 34
Leila was surprised how easy it was to carry on a conversation with her boss without Zen around to fill lingering silences or nudge the lovebirds into the right direction. Of course, now the man was so much more than just her boss to her. Looking back though, she realized Sterling Mount had always been more to her from the start. A friend when she needed it starting over in a new town with little money and no prospects. Never pressuring her like the others before him did and expecting her to sleep with him to show her gratitude Those friends had come with conditions. But the handsome bar owner had never expected anything in return for his good deeds of finding her housing and giving her a job. He was a good man and those were hard to find.They continued on with their flirty banter throughout their first course, and some of that nervousness dissipated like the ashes in the wind from the fire. Leila knew Sterling was also feeling more at ease and enjoying himself, if not for the smile
Bad Moon On The Rise Chapter 35
After the young lovers roamed the places on each other once forbidden, the moon was high and bright in the sky, and Leila dizzy from his kisses, Sterling wet his lips as his fingers stilled at the hem of her dress. A question danced in his bright cerulean eyes. He waited for Leila to control where they took this new and beautiful thing forming between them. He was so careful not to press his weight down on her. So far, his touches and kisses had been almost chaste. But Leila wasn’t sure she wanted him to remain a gentleman tonight.The wolf inside her longed for him to tear her dress to shreds and devour her. Her human side wanted all the promises making love entailed, emotions and feelings which had been denied her since she gave her body to the first boy she’d loved. Since Miles, the times her body had been taken, and the times she’d shared it willingly had met a carnal need, but never anything beyond those basic primal urges. Tonight, she wanted to feel it all. Something that trans
Bad Moon On The Rise Chapter 36
It wasn’t the warm, welcomed summer rain that sent Leila and Sterling indoors, as they lay naked and entangled in one another by the smoke of the dying out fire. Their passion for each other was not cooled by the rain or dampered by the smoke that curled around their still heaving bodies like the ivy that snaked up the side of Ster’s cottage. If anything, both Leila and her wolf were ready for round two, in fact she stole a kiss from his plump lips, and deepened the kiss when her tongue plunged into his mouth. He rose up to meet her kiss and the ferocity of her tongue stroke for stroke. One glance down between his muscled thighs told Leila all she needed to know. She threw a leg over his hip and made to straddle him. It wasn’t even the clash of thunder that parted the lovers, but rather the streaks of lightening reaching out across the inky sky. It touched down far too close to the ground for comfort. Thanks to her wolfblood, taking a lightening strike would likely only stun her, but
Bad Moon On The Rise Chapter 37
Leila arrived early for her five p.m. shift at the bar the next evening to see if an extra pair of hands was needed to help get the bar up in running. But she soon saw that Ster had everything in tip-top shape, the window Gary Kline had busted was replaced, the food prep done for the night ahead, the place shiny clean, and even the band’s equipment was in tune for their eight p.m. set.She still tried to make herself useful. Her boss grinned at her from behind the bar with a dazzling smile and came to meet her halfway when she walked in. But Sterling let Leila control how far they were willing to take this, especially with an audience present. Amos Fox was visible through the kitchen window as he readied for the dinner service. Leila didn’t know the fifty-something man well, but he always talked about his wife Glory. They’d been married longer than Leila had been alive and it was a long running joke around the bar that Glory couldn’t cook a lick and burned water.Amos was a loving but
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