Lucifer's Woman Page 3

  Each drop of hot water soothed his aches and loosened his muscles. He turned and allowed the water to flow down his back, ass and legs. After a few minutes, he started feeling better. Grabbing the soap, he washed. His hands running over each inch of his hard body including his beard. His actions were automatic while his mind was on his visitor. What the fuck was he going to do with her?

  The town’s people left the club alone and that was the way he liked it. Most of the men here were vets who for some reason the government had turned their backs on. Once they had served their time, they were booted out of the military and the men were lost as to what they were supposed to do next. They hadn’t blended back into civilian life very well at all. The horrors of war hadn’t allowed that.

  Lucifer had brought them all together and had given them a purpose again. They were living on the land he’d inherited from his grandfather before he even went in the Marines.

  Here they worked the land, grew a little weed and had begun brewing their own whiskey. The whiskey was an old family trade secret, one that had been passed down from father to son for the last several generations but would most likely die with him, as he was the last in his family line. The fact that they didn’t have a permit to brew the hooch was the reason they didn’t want to town’s people coming around, well that and the men were better left alone. They hadn’t been here that long only about three years or so, but they were learning to adjust.

  He sighed deep and shut the water off. Stepping out of the shower, he looked into his room and found her still passed out on his bed. Lucifer eyed her from head to toe and felt his body harden with desire. This fact surprised the hell out of him. He hadn’t felt desire for any woman in so long, he thought that feeling had been destroyed along with the rest of his body in that little village in the mountains of Iraq.

  Pulling on a pair of jeans without boxers, Lucifer smiled as he imagined her naked and writhing beneath him. It’d been literally years since he’d had a woman and up until now, that fact hadn’t bothered him too much, but it was bothering him now and for good reason. Before he let his imagination run away with him, he finished dressing. When he looked back over at the bed, he found a pair of green eyes looking back at him.

  He took a step closer and she was watching him the whole way. She had a look of fear and uncertainty in her eyes. He stopped at the edge of the bed and they stared at each other for a moment.

  She looked away first. “Who are you and where am I?” she whispered. Her throat was sore and she had no real volume in her request. She raised her hand to her sore neck.

  “They call me Lucifer and you’re in my bed at the clubhouse.” He smirked at her. He thought he might just keep her. It was crazy but he couldn’t seem to push the notion away. The fire in those green eyes did things to his mind and his body. He actually felt something that wasn’t hate and misery for the first time in years.

  *

  Jessie looked up and swallowed the lump in her throat. Tears threatened to fill her eyes. When she awoke Sydney’s necklace was gone, but she had more important things to worry about than a necklace, even if it meant the world to her.

  “What do they call you sweetheart?”

  She pulled her head back at the sweetheart. She didn’t want to tell him her name. She didn’t want to be here. She didn’t want any of this. She should have just turned the damn journals over to the police and let them deal with it but it was too late now. She wet her dry lips with her tongue. “How did I get here?”

  Lucifer followed the movement of her tongue to her lips then shook his head. “One of my men brought you here.”

  “Was that the same man who tried to strangle me?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, you were technically trespassing, so he had every right to stop you by fair means or foul.”

  “What?” She shook her head. “He could’ve just said get off my land.” She scoffed. “I wasn’t hurting anything. I was just there to look at the rock formation.”

  Lucifer looked amused as he cocked his head to one side. “But why? Why were you there to begin with? I know you were warned by the townspeople. They would have told you about this place. About who owned it and why they don’t come here.”

  Jessie nodded. “They did.”

  “Then why did you still come here?”

  Jessie shrugged. “I just did, that’s all.” She swallowed hard as she thought about the reason she didn’t want to share her information with this man. Her hand went again to her throat but when she remembered her necklace wasn’t there anymore, she stopped and let her hand drop to the bed.

  Lucifer leaned over the bed and caged her in with one hand on either side of her head. He didn’t touch her but he came as close to her as he could. His head lowered until they were inches apart. “I really need some answers. Who are you and what were you doing on our land?”

  Jessie dropped her gaze down to his lips and wondered how they would feel if she moved just a little bit? Then she mentally shook that crazy thought away. “I was just taking a walk and found the rock formation. That’s all.”

  “But how did you know it was even there? Not many of the locals even know it’s there?” He wondered out loud. “Who did you hear about the rock bench from?”

  Jessie closed her eyes and didn’t say anything.

  Grasping either side of her face, he brought her closer. “Tell me what I want to know,” he demanded roughly. He frowned again and looked to where his hands were. He then seemed to pale a bit and his hands shook.

  Jesse now felt a bit of fear. Though this man didn’t scare her like he probably would others. Something about him just seemed so sad and at the same time fierce. “I have nothing to say,” she whispered as she watched him.

  *

  Lucifer could hear the fear in her voice and he could see the fear in her eyes. He didn’t know her story, but he was sure she had one and it wasn’t only him she was afraid of. He felt sure of this. But if it wasn’t him, who or what was it that had her running scared?

  He noticed the bead of sweat running down the side of her face. He watched as the droplet of water made its way down her fair skin all the way down to her jaw. He was so intent on watching it he almost missed her softly asked question.

  “What are you going to do with me? I can’t stay here.”

  “Aww sorry babe, I can’t let you go until I know why you came in the first place.” Lucifer chuckled softly. He wasn’t sure he could let her go anywhere anyway.

  Wetting her lips with the tip of her tongue, she watched his eyes dilate at her movement. Surprise lit her eyes as his eyes snapped up to hers. She gasped softly and that was all it took.

  Lucifer leaned closer and his lips crushed down on hers. A bolt of electricity sparked between them and he groaned as his hands took control and wrapped around her head pulling her close to him.

  She wrapped her own arms around his neck and brought him closer. It wasn’t until he ground his pelvis down on hers and she could feel his erection that she seemed to react.

  She pushed him away from her, but Lucifer wasn’t letting her go. Not after that kiss. He broke away just enough to see her glare. Shrugging again, he pressed his lips back on hers and lost himself for a moment in all that was her…her scent, her flavor, it was heady. He was in disbelief of his own reaction. This just couldn’t be…but it was.

  He jerked his aroused body off her softer one and stood up but only stepped so far away.

  She raised her eyes to watch his face rather than the hard cock in his pants. Her cheeks were flushed, and she looked stunned by what had just happened.

  But if she was stunned he was more than unsettled.

  She frowned as she stared at him.

  He held himself stiffly and took another step back away from her. His hands were clenching and unclenching and he was breathing heavily.

  “Are you okay?” she asked in a whisper.

  Lucifer surveyed her and smiled slightly as he tried to get himself under control. He couldn’t
believe he’d just done that. “I can’t let you leave here until I get some answers sweetheart. If you want to talk. I’ll be down the hall in the main room.”

  Lucifer paused for a moment just outside the door to his bedroom. Taking a deep breath, he wondered what the hell had just happened. Before he could wonder too long, he walked down the hall and joined his men in the main room. Grabbing a fresh cup of coffee, he sat down at the table where Jinx and Demon were sitting. One of them had opened the backpack Jinx brought back when he brought the girl in.

  Lucifer took a sip of his coffee and asked, “Well. what did you find?” he tried to keep his hands steady and keep his expression blank, even though he had just been jolted by a live wire. Yes, a live wire was as close a description as he could get. That kiss had affected him deeply and not just sexually either.

  Demon flipped out a driver’s license and he glanced at it. It belonged to the girl in his bedroom and claimed her name was Jessie Nicole Grant. He read her date of birth and she was twenty-three years old. She lived in Austin, Minnesota. The town was maybe three hours away from Whiskey Bend.

  “You might want to have a look at this too.” Jinx tossed him a slip of paper. Lucifer picked it up and frowned.

  On the paper were landmarks and x’s. The more he studied the paper the more convinced he became that he was studying a map. A map of the farm land he had inherited from his grandfather over twenty years ago, just before he joined the Marines. His granddad died over ten years ago and the farm until they moved back here had laid empty since his death.

  Lucifer stared at the two men from under his frown. “What the fuck?”

  “What the hell is going on here Prez?” Demon asked looking perplexed too.

  “I don’t know but I intend to find out.” Lucifer pushed away from the table and stomped his way back down the hall.

  A few minutes later, he returned pushing the girl they now knew as Jessie Grant in front of him. He moved her over to the table where Jinx and Demon waited and slammed her down in a chair. Sitting down next to her, he put her driver’s license in her face. “Ok, Ms. Jessie Grant, you got some questions to answer.” He growled.

  Jesse reached out with shaky hands and grabbed her license. Folding her fingers over the plastic card, she refused to look up at the men sitting there.

  Lucifer flipped the slip of paper toward her that Jinx had found in her backpack. “What the fuck is this?”

  Jessie paled but didn’t reach for the paper. The silence grew and the tension in the room went up a few notches but still she didn’t say anything. Keeping her eyes down, she held her tongue.

  “I don’t hear any words coming out of your mouth Jessie.” Lucifer snarled. “How and why do you have a map of my farm and what are all those x’s about?”

  Chapter Four

  When she still didn’t break the silence, Lucifer slammed his hand down on the table.

  Jessie jumped and ducked as if someone was going to hit her, covering her head with her arms.

  Lucifer glanced over at Demon and Jinx then back to her. “I ain’t gonna hurt you girl, just need some answers.”

  “Maybe we’ll get some answers if we go get her stuff?” Jinx held out her key to the room she had at the boarding house. “I’m sure Maudie would let us in her room.”

  Jessie snapped her head up and glared at them. “You wouldn’t dare.” She looked shocked.

  Lucifer nodded. “Oh, but I would.” He turned to Jinx and nodded.

  Jinx got to his feet and began walking toward the door.

  Jesse hung her head and didn’t say anything for a moment. Then she raised her head and with tears rolling down her cheeks she whispered, “The x’s could be, maybe…burial places.”

  The whole room went silent.

  Even Jinx stopped in his tracks. Then very slowly, he turned to face the table again.

  Lucifer reached down and hauled her up from the chair by grabbing her by the upper arms. Holding her level to him, he glared at her. “What the fuck did you say?”

  Jessie winched as his fingers bit into her skin. “I said the x’s could be burial places for nine women.”

  Her words were little more than a whisper but every man in the room heard her.

  She cried out as Lucifer’s hands tightened their hold and as soon as he heard her cry, he released her.

  The men all began gathering near the table and she wiped tears away from her eyes.

  “I think you’d better explain yourself woman.” Lucifer crossed his massive arms over his chest.

  “I don’t think I want to,” she replied as she looked from man to man.

  “Talk woman!” Lucifer yelled.

  Jessie jumped to her feet and began backing away from the group of men gathering behind Lucifer. “No. I don’t know if it’s true or not. That’s why I didn’t want to say anything in the first place.”

  “If what’s true?” Demon asked as his fingers curled into fists at his side. “That’s a hell of thing to say if you’re only guessing.”

  Jessie wanted to run, she really did. This couldn’t end but one way and she wasn’t ready for that yet. She even eyed the path to the front door but knew she’d never make it.

  “I think you need to explain yourself. Start at the beginning and don’t spare any of the details,” Lucifer demanded. “I assure you we’re all waiting with bated breath.”

  Jessie slumped back down in her seat for a moment. Then brushing her hair away from her face, she began her story, “I recently lost my mom to cancer, then I found out I also lost my grandmother, a grandmother I didn’t know I even had. She left me a small farm near here, so I came to check it out. When I was searching the house, I realized that my grandmother had renovated her house into small apartments and rented out to people who needed a place to stay. In one of the bedrooms I found set of journals. At first, I didn’t know what they were, then I began to read them” She paused a moment to wipe away her tears.

  “What were they?” Lucifer asked with a frown as he stared at her. He almost seemed confused as if he didn’t know what to make of her.

  Jessie lifted her head and caught his eyes. “It was a handwritten account of the deaths of nine women, written by their killer.”

  The whole room went silent after she dropped her bombshell. No one hardly dared to breathe as they absorbed her words.

  After a few minutes or so Lucifer asked, “What made you come here?”

  “Here as in Whiskey Bend or here, as in your farm?” She moistened her dry lips with her tongue again.

  Lucifer caught and followed the motion but before he could get distracted again, his eyes snapped back to hers. “Both,” he barked.

  “This is where the journals told me to come.”

  “Fucking hell,” Demon muttered as he looked around the group of men standing there. His face held the same expression as theirs. Shock and awe. “Jesus H. Christ.”

  “I don’t believe this bitch’s bullshit.” Jinx stomped back over to the table. “If someone was out here burying bodies we would have found them out by now, don’t you think? We’ve been here for over three years and some of us, almost four and we haven’t run across anybody burying a body yet.”

  “He buried the first body ten years ago,” Jesse informed them quietly. “Her name was Michelle and he buried her at the place where you found me. That rock bench. He put her there because it was her favorite place to watch life. That place meant something to her. She met him that morning and brought him there to show him her special spot. She told him from there, ‘you could see the town below along with the river and the scenery was so peaceful that sometimes when you sat there the woodland animals would walk right past you.’ ”

  Lucifer watched her for a moment then lifted his eyes to his men. They were all stunned at her words. How many times had they done the same thing? Just sat on those very rocks and looked over toward the river? How many times had they seen what she just talked about? Deer, squirrels, and wild turkeys, even the occasion
al wolf packs often roamed the woods around the farm.

  “Did these journals say how he killed her?” Demon asked.

  Jesse hung her head. “He stabbed her. He watched and described in vivid detail everything that happened as the life in her eyes drained slowly and when it was gone, he buried her under the stone bench. He thought that would stand as her grave marker. That way, he would always know where she was when he wanted to come back to visit her grave. He said he would be the only one to know what the rocks really meant…”

  Her words died out at the end but every man there heard them.

  “How do you know all this?” Demon asked.

  “He wrote it down in his journal.”

  “Do you have these so called journals?” Jinx wanted to know.

  “I have them but not here. I didn’t want to bring them with me in case I actually found them to be true. I didn’t want to paint a target on my back in case he was still in the area. I didn’t want him to know that I found them until I knew for sure the bodies were actually, where he said they would be.

  “What else do you know about this man?” Lucifer sat down at the table and glared at her.

  Jessie shrugged. “More than I ever wanted to, I can tell you that much.”

  “We need more info girl,” Demon stated. “If we got bodies buried here, we need to know before the cops bust us for this mess.”

  Jessie shrugged. “I wish I could tell you more but I can’t. Other than knowing he’s a sick individual and his first name, I don’t know any more than that. I do know how he felt when he murdered those women and where he supposedly buried them but that’s all the journals told me.”

  “Wait a minute, back up,” Lucifer said. “You said you knew his first name?”

  Jessie nodded. “He claimed his name was Michael but that may or may not be true.”