Moon Kissed (2 page)

Riley swallowed and looked at each of them until she met Myles’ gaze. “Since you so graciously pointed out that I was a little girl the last time we saw each other, names put to faces would be great.”

Myles pointed to Solomon. “That’s the jackass who thinks just because he’s the eldest, he can make decisions for us.”

“Solomon,” Riley said with a nod at him.

“Next up in the order is me,” Myles said, waiting to see if she would know.

Riley raised a dark brow. “Then you’re Myles.”

“Very good,” he said. “The scowling one behind the bar is next.”

Riley’s smile slipped as she shifted her gaze. “Kane.” They stared at each other for a heartbeat before Riley turned her head to the pool table. “Which leaves the youngest, Court.”

Solomon crossed his arms over his chest. “Now that that’s settled, why not tell us why you’re visiting.”

When she hesitated, Myles wrapped an arm around her and walked her to the bar where Kane filled a glass with ice and then water. She sat on one of the stools and closed her fingers around the glass.

Myles exchanged a look with Solomon. By the way Riley was acting, it was obvious she hadn’t told her brothers where she was.

“Do you know I was sent away?” she asked, her gaze on the bar. “Vin said he didn’t want me to be a part of the family business.”

“You’re his only sister. I’d have done the same,” Court said as he joined them.

Riley shrugged. “I’d have liked to have some say in it. All of my brothers agreed with Vin, even Beau. The day after I graduated high school, Vincent drove me to Austin. I’ve lived in Texas for years. Going to college, working. I wanted to go home.”

“Did you tell Vin that?” Solomon asked.

Riley shook her head. “I thought it would be okay to go home since Vin was marrying Olivia, and Lincoln and Ava were together.”

“You just showed up, didn’t you?” Kane asked softly.

Riley looked up at him. “Olivia and Ava knew what I had planned. They told me how Beau had met Davena. There were three women at the house now. I figured that meant Vin wouldn’t keep me away.”

“But you didn’t know about everything that’d happened,” Myles guessed.

Riley snorted and said, “The Chiassons and LaRues have been fighting the supernatural since before I was born. My mother had five children and still fought beside her husband. I should be able to go home.”

“Your brothers just want what’s best.” Solomon took the stool on her left. “Surely you understand that.”

“I do, but I haven’t seen my home in over four years. They always seemed to have some crisis or another around my breaks that prevented me from returning.”

Myles saw the desolation and unhappiness in her gaze, a look he recognized all too well in Kane’s eyes of late. “So what happened when you showed up?”

“There was no big, happy family reunion as I’d hoped,” she said with a laugh, her lips in a tight smile. “Vin was furious. He and Olivia got in a huge fight because she tried to convince him to let me stay. It didn’t take long for all of them to begin arguing. That’s when Vin told me to go back to Texas. I told him to kiss my ass and I stormed out to my car. Then I started driving. Before I knew it, I was here.”

Court leaned his forearms on the end of the bar. “I spoke to Christian yesterday. He filled me in on Delphine’s appearance in Lyons Point. These are dangerous times, Riley.”

“They’re always dangerous. Riley’s a Chiasson. She knows how to fight,” Kane said to Court. He then turned his gaze to Riley. “What’s your plan?”

She tucked her hair behind her ear. “I’d like to stay here a couple of days to figure out what I’ll do next. If that’s okay.”

“Next?” Solomon repeated. “You’re not going back to Austin?”

Her smile was sad. “I graduated in June. My brothers don’t even know. All the times I called home, they didn’t have time to talk because of something they were hunting. I had no family in attendance. I even remained for a few months thinking they might realize their mistake, but there’s always something to keep them from remembering me.”

Kane covered her hand with his. “They remember. Trust me. You had a chance at a normal life, Riley. They didn’t. Neither did we.”

“Of course,” she said too quickly.

Myles wasn’t fooled. Riley was hurting, and she needed someplace to lick her wounds. “You’re welcome here for as long as you need.”

His brothers were nodding in agreement before he finished talking.
 

“Thank you, but I can only accept on one condition,” Riley said.

Court shrugged, not understanding. “Name it.”

“None of you can tell any of my brothers or their women.”
 

Riley might be beautiful, but she had a sharp mind. At that moment, Myles realized the trap she’d led them into. If they didn’t allow her to stay, they couldn’t keep an eye on her, and as hunters–and her family–that was their duty. By making them agree to her terms, she ensured that she wouldn’t have her brothers descending upon her to get her back to Texas.

“I never saw that coming,” Kane said, one side of his lips lifted in a grin.

Myles caught Solomon’s and Court’s gaze. Perhaps Riley was just what Kane needed to help him remember to smile and laugh again. Kane could look out for her, which would help him heal.

“You do know the full moon will be here in a few days?” Solomon asked her.

Riley looked at him as if he were a simpleton. “I’m a Chiasson. Of course, I know. So don’t bother trying to lecture me. I know the divides in New Orleans where vampires, witches, demons, werewolves, and djinn are housed. I also know enough to stay away from Delphine and anything to do with Voodoo.”

“She’s a Chiasson, all right,” Myles said with a grin.
 

Riley was a breath of fresh air and seemed to be just what the LaRues needed. Vincent might lament having a sister because of the worry it took to keep her safe, but Myles wondered how different the LaRues’ lives would’ve been if they’d had a sister among them.

“I’ll get her settled,” Kane said as he came around the bar.

Myles, Solomon, and Court watched the two of them walk from the building with Riley talking and Kane nodding his head.

“I don’t know if this is a good idea,” Solomon said.

Court ran his hand through his chin-length butterscotch blond hair. “It’s done now. She knew we couldn’t let her leave.”

“She got Kane to smile. That’s a vast improvement over the last few weeks,” Myles pointed out. “He needs something to do, and Riley just gave him the opportunity.”

Solomon slid off the stool. “Let’s hope you’re right, because when Vin discovers Riley is here, we may well have the entire Chiasson clan on our asses.”

“Think how we could clear out New Orleans with all of us,” Court said. “No more pacts with the five houses. New Orleans could be clear once more.”

Myles knew Court had been joking, but it made sense. “We can’t bring Delphine and her followers down by ourselves. With four more, we’d stand a really good chance.”

“Especially with Beau’s woman being a witch,” Court pointed out.

Solomon pinned Myles with a look. “First, we make sure nothing happens to Riley, because Chiasson or not, she’s not been hunting like we have. If anything happens to her–”

“You don’t even need to say it,” Myles said.

Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea that Riley was there.

CHAPTER TWO

Addison Moore sat in her parked car and stared unseeing out of the windshield. In her hands was a letter that had changed her life in a second.
 

Something dropped onto the paper. Addison looked down and saw the bead of wetness that soaked into the letter. It took her a moment to realize it was the sweat running down her face from being in the car with the engine turned off in hundred-degree heat.

She folded the letter up neatly and tucked it into her purse. Then she opened the door to the car and stepped out into the sunshine.

Addison shut the door and leaned back against the car staring at all the tourists. They were laughing and smiling, not a care in the world. It was so at odds with what she was going through, that it almost felt like she wasn’t in her body. That she was on the outside looking in.

“Miss, are you all right?”

Addison shook herself and saw the police officer standing beside her. He was middle-aged, with gray at the temples of his black hair and concern in his eyes.

“Are you lost?” he asked.

She forced a smile. “Just daydreaming, officer. I’m fine.”

“You need to get out of the heat and get some water soon,” he warned before moving on.

Knowing he was right, Addison pushed away from the car. She hadn’t taken two steps before her cell phone buzzed with a text. She reached in her purse for it and then groaned when she saw the text was from her roommate, Wendy.

“I haven’t been gone that long,” she mumbled as she hastily wrote that she’d have Wendy’s car back within the hour.

How she hated not having money for her own vehicle. After only one semester at Tulane, Addison had no choice but to sell her clunker of a car to make ends meet. It had been her only choice, but it also put a heavy strain on her.

Addison put the phone away and strolled along the street. Since the first time she saw New Orleans at the age of ten, she had been fascinated. The history of the city was mesmerizing. The food and vibrancy of the streets and buildings drew a constant crowd no matter the time of year.

Yet there was no denying the dark, dangerous edge of the city either.

Addison walked the streets of the Quarter, watching others stand for pictures or stare in wide-eyed wonder at the cemeteries. By getting a glimpse into someone else’s life, she was able to forget hers for a short while.

A glance at her watch proved that her hour was almost up. Reluctantly, she started back to the car. She wasn’t ready to return to the university, not when it was the end of her time there.
 

“Stop pitying yourself,” she said aloud. “Stand tall. Stand proud. You’re a Moore.”

Those were the last words her father had said before he was deployed. He was a career Navy man, never happy unless he was at sea. That never bothered her because he always came home. Until he hadn’t.

Addison didn’t want to think about her father, or the lonely years after. At twenty-three, she was ready to get on with her life, except that she couldn’t do that until she finished her degree.

Which was going to be impossible now that the last of her scholarship had run out. Her student loans were reaching cosmic proportions already. If she were lucky, she might pay them off before she died.
 

She was almost to the car when a scream rent the air. Someone came rushing toward her, knocking her to the ground. Addison looked up in time to see a young kid with a navy hoodie duck into an alley.

Suddenly, people began to crowd around. Someone helped her to her feet as sirens blared. Addison looked down to see that both knees were scraped and bleeding, and her shirt was ripped.

“Excuse me. Pardon me,” she said as she slowly made her way through the throng of people to the car.
 

She reached the car and glanced around to see someone pointing her out to a policeman. Addison stilled and waited for the officer to reach her. It was the same one from earlier.

“Did you see what happened?” he asked.

She threw up her hands. “I’ve no idea what happened. I heard a scream, then someone ran into me and knocked me down.”

“Do you remember anything about the person?”

“I saw what looked like a teenager with a hoodie duck into the alley.”

The policeman’s face was grim. “I’m going to need a formal statement from you.”

“Because the guy bumped into me?” she asked in disbelief

“Because he mugged an elderly woman. When he took her purse, she fell and hit her head. She’s dead.”

Addison briefly squeezed her eyes closed. “Oh, my God. I had no idea.”

In seconds, she was taken to a patrol car and driven to the station. She sat there for the next hour waiting on someone to take her statement while her phone blew up with texts from an angry Wendy. Another hour passed while she wrote everything down and went over it with another officer before she was driven back to Wendy’s car.

Addison stared at the spot where the red Miata was supposed to be parked, to find a gray Dodge truck instead. She was about to try and catch the police before they left when she remembered telling Wendy where she’d parked the car in one of the dozens of texts they’d exchanged.

Anger spiked through her as she punched Wendy’s number and listened while the phone rang. It took three rings before Wendy answered. “Do you have the car?” Addison asked.

“Yeah. I had Paul drop me off,” Wendy said with music from the radio blaring in the background. “I told you, I have to be at my parent’s tonight by eight. I couldn’t wait.”

“I wish you’d have told me you picked up the car. I thought it was stolen.”

Wendy laughed. “Nope. I’ve got it. Gotta go! I’ll see you Monday.”