“The chick has no idea who she is. Unless she’s something like this one”—he pointed at me—“I should be able to read her. Or I can at least try. What other options do we have?”
“I could try, and I can also ask my Gramé to call on the spirits to see what they tell her,” Voodoo offered.
“Oh, we’ll be having you do that too,” Venom assured.
“Now what are we going to tell her? Because like Sabre said when we started, if she’s who he thinks she is and she’s from over a thousand years ago, how to we explain this shitshow to her without having her freak out?” Ghost backing my concerns was oddly comforting.
“We can’t exactly tell her that we have paranormal abilities and hope she won’t go running off down the road, screaming for help. We have a lot at stake here too. If our secrets became public knowledge, can you imagine what that would do to us? We might as well choose our cages at the fucking zoo,” Squirrel grumbled, and I shot him a glare.
“She wouldn’t do that,” I argued. My hackles began to rise at any hint that she wasn’t trustworthy. Anger shot through my veins—hot and scratchy, it made me want to crawl out of my skin.
“Sabre, you need to be reasonable here,” Venom warned, but I wasn’t ready to be reasonable. For over a thousand years, I’d wandered, sought death, and been a lonely, miserable asshole. Then for some reason, this area called to me—convinced me to risk establishing roots. I stayed, and now I believed it was because she would be here. What I didn’t know was if I’d finally been forgiven or if I was being toyed with.
“I—” That was all I got out before Venom held up a hand, asking for my silence.
“You don’t know her anymore, Sabre. She certainly doesn’t know you or anything else for that matter. She has no reason to trust you, and you have no reason to trust her. Not yet,” he explained, and I hated that he was right.
Frustrated, I threw myself back in my chair.
“If Chains is doing this, how do we explain it to her?” Angel glanced at Chains with concern.
“Why don’t we tell her he’s a hypnotherapist and he’s had a lot of success with regression?” Blade chimed in, and everyone turned to him in surprise and shock. “What? I can’t come up with a good idea?”
“It’s not that, but your ideas usually involve some kind of twisted torture,” Voodoo said, making a valid point.
Blade shrugged. “True. But I get the job done, and I’ve never heard you complain,” he smugly claimed.
“Are we in agreement?” Venom asked the room as a whole. “We bring her in, tell her the hypnotism bullshit, and see what Chains uncovers?”
Reluctantly, I nodded. Everyone else also agreed.
“And Voodoo, you talk to Madama Laveaux and see what you pick up,” Venom directed to Voodoo who gave a curt nod.
“Once we finish that up, we need to get her working. I’m all about helping someone down on their luck, and regardless of the circumstances, this chick has bad luck in spades, but she needs to earn her keep,” Venom warned. “Ideas?”
“Cookie said they need another waitress down at Royal Heaven,” Raptor offered.
“No. Hell no,” I objected. Over my dead fucking body—if I could ever have one.
“That would be up to her,” Venom corrected me, but I gritted my teeth and curled my hands into fists. My blood boiled at the thought of her wearing the barely there uniform the waitresses at the chapter’s strip joint wore.
“Why can’t she help out at RB, Ink.?” I grumbled. RB, Ink.was the tattoo shop the chapter owned.
Chains tapped his fingers on the table in agitation. “Can she tattoo?” he sarcastically questioned.
“Well, I highly doubt it,” I replied in kind.
“Ever done piercing?” Chains persisted. He cocked a brow at me, and I glared.
“I’m sure there’s something she could do there,” I muttered.
He huffed before scrubbing a hand over his mouth. Then he dropped it onto the tabletop. “Fine. Faith is going to be taking off soon for maternity leave, so maybe she could fill in while she’s gone. We could work on training her until Faith has the baby.”
“That work for everyone?” Venom asked.
Voodoo shrugged. “Fine by me.”
Everyone else gave their blessing, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Go bring her in here,” Venom instructed.
I stood up and left the room. With each step that brought me closer to her, dread mixed with hope. There was the chance that she wasn’t my Soleil. Though my guts told me it was her, she could be an absolute ruse to further punish me, since I’d found a place to call home. Then the alternative sent my mind into a tailspin.
If I was forgiven and we were given a second chance, nothing could make me happier. That thought had my chest aching, and the hand I raised to knock on her door trembled.
Here goes nothing. Time to see what Chains could find out….