by Abby Knox
“I’m sorry,” she sobbed. The attorney glared and held up his head. “No more, GiGi. That’s it.” Then he pointed to the officer. “She did not apologize, she committed no crime.”
“Stop!” she cried. “Somebody tell me if he needs blood. Does he need blood, because I can donate! I have a universal blood type!”
“Ms. DuGrey,” the officer said, “I just need you to calm down and tell me one more time. Why did you think it was OK to draw blood from Mr. West? What were you planning to do with the blood sample?”
The attorney stood up and put a hand on GiGi’s shoulder. “Is she under arrest? Because we are done here unless you are going to charge her.”
The officer glared up at the attorney and then looked at GiGi with an expression of not so much anger as concern. “Ma’am, you are free to go. For some reason he will not be pressing charges, against our advice. But I’m going to caution you to be careful of who you get mixed up with in the future. Drugs are not your friend.”
Was this actually happening? Was she getting a D.A.R.E. lecture now when Vann was lying in a hospital bed? Was Vann really not going to press charges?
She didn’t know she could feel so many things all at once: guilt, sadness, remorse, terror, relief and guilt again.
And then, an overwhelming need to see Vann.
As the attorney led her from the room, she made a beeline for the emergency room.
“Not a good idea, Ms. DuGrey.”
“I have to see him.”
“Your uncle gave specific instructions—”
But then the attorney’s voice was cut off by a loud clatter of metal and a man’s voice booming, “Where the FUCK is she?”
It was Vann. He was OK. And he wanted to see her.
Gulp. Better go and face the music.
She freed her arm from the half-hearted grip of the lawyer and bolted toward the sound of Vann’s voice.
“Vann!” she screamed through her sobs.
“GiGi, where the fuck have you…ow! Get that fucking IV away from me, and no I don’t want any fucking Jell-O!”
The crowd around Vann made it seemed that everyone in GiGi’s family, as well as Vann’s people, had descended on the emergency room at the same time.
GiGi’s stomach fell to the floor and she felt like she was going to throw up. This was not how she wanted her truth to come out to Vann. And she was not interested in all of these people discussing her perceived “kinks.”
Rosemary, Aunt Betsy and Uncle Lionel were talking to the attorney in one corner. Ash, Bobby and a few others she vaguely remembered from the engagement party, all surrounded Vann. And there was the mysterious Penny LeFleur, who was apparently still giving Rosemary the cold shoulder. And, oh my god, Ash’s father was there, too. She recognized Jimmy Boudreaux from the locally famous chicken commercials. Good grief, was every New Orleans food celebrity here to behold the woman who tried to murder Vann West in the middle of coitus? Where was Emeril Lagasse? He should probably be here to see this, too, she thought wryly.
Vann had a large bandage on his neck and he was wearing a ridiculous hospital gown. And yet somehow he still resembled a Viking god. His friends all looked like they were trying to get him to calm down so the nurse could stick him with a needle. He was having none of it.
And then, he saw her.
GiGi was prepared for him to start accusing her of assaulting him, to ream her up one side and down the other and declare that he never wanted to see her again. She held her breath and braced herself for the onslaught.
Instead, he pushed Ash and Bobby out of the way. “Babe, are you OK?”
She cried, “How are you asking me that?”
He didn’t answer, but squeezed GiGi so tight her feet lifted off the floor. He planted kisses on both her cheeks and lips and nose and forehead.
“You must be on some good hospital drugs,” she said, laughing and crying through their kisses.
“No, I’m just relieved you’re OK.”
She sniffed. “But your back! Your neck! I can’t believe you still can look at me.”
He set her down and held her face in his hands. “You got it backwards. I only want to look at you, just you, ever again. And anybody that keeps you away from me again is going to get flayed.”
This comment was aimed at his crew, who stood watching the scene just as incredulously as GiGi’s people were doing.
Then Lionel approached out of nowhere. “Excuse me, Mr. West. I was wondering if you and I could discuss how we’re going to keep this out of the papers, in the interest of both parties.” Her uncle Lionel pulled a checkbook out of his breast pocket.
Vann didn’t even look at the old man. Instead he smirked and kept his eyes on his girl. “Put your money away. Only thing you can do for me is agree to come to your own daughter’s wedding.”
Lionel huffed. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. If you think this little flesh wound is gonna make your family look bad in the police blotter, then buckle up. Just wait until the society page of the Times-Picayune find out the wealthiest man in the history of New Orleans ain’t even man enough to show up to the wedding of his daughter. All because she’s marrying his former business rival’s son over some long-forgotten feud.”
GiGi stared wide-eyed from Uncle Lionel to Rosemary to Aunt Betsy to Ash. They all looked like they were waiting for the old man to pounce on Vann with a vengeance. He was old, yes. But her uncle was loud and powerful and charismatic, and he could still make a Teamster’s nuts shrink into his abdominal cavity with one withering look. One doesn’t run the biggest shipping operation on the Mississippi Delta with the demeanor of a pansy-ass.
But Lionel did not yell. He did not stomp his feet. What he did was tuck his checkbook back into his breast pocket, turn, and walked away.
Everyone watched him go. Betsy turned to follow her husband out.
“Mama?” Rosemary said.
Betsy looked back at her daughter and shrugged, whispering “I do not know,” in answer to the unspoken question that was on Rosemary’s mind. Then she scampered to catch up with her husband. As the pair of them made their way down the hall, everyone could hear Lionel murmur, “I hear that daughter has got you helping with the wedding now. Oh, Betsy, how she gets her way with you, every time, is beyond me.”
Betsy replied. “That’s a trait she didn’t lick up off the street, Lionel DuChamps.”
Before they disappeared out the exit doors, everyone saw Lionel reach over and pull Betsy in close, following by Betsy reaching over and slapping old Lionel on the ass.
Rosemary gasped, and Ash remarked, “Looks like the old man’s getting lucky tonight!”
“’Bout damn time,” said Rosemary, to a response of raucous laughter.
GiGi shook her head. “You people are crazy.” She still had tears streaming down her face.
Vann looked deeply concerned about her. “Y’all, thanks for coming, but my GiGi here and I are gonna have a little chat.”
They all reluctantly left the room, but not before Penny shot her a look of death.
“Penny, wait!”
GiGi wrenched herself free of Vann’s grasp and went to Penny, who held up impatiently.
“Penny,” GiGi said, “I don’t know you, so I don’t blame you for being angry with me. I know what this looks like.”
“It looks like several flesh wounds. Deep ones,” Penny said.
GiGi felt the stabbing pain of remorse grow deeper. “I am so sorry. I don’t know what else to say.”
Penny crossed her arms. “Has Vann let you in on our little secret? Because you two may not be such a good fit for each other. Rosemary and Ash are outliers, under the circumstances.”
“Penny!” Vann shouted. “Please. I know you mean well, but you need to go. It is not your place to bring this up. GiGi and I have got this.”
Penny looked shocked. “So, you’ve made a decision.”
Vann and Penny exchanged looks. The sound that came out of Vann was laden with grave warning.
“That. Is. None. Of. Your. Business.”
Penny left without another word, but GiGi thought she could see her dabbing at her eye.
GiGi regretfully watched her go. So much for trying to make friends with Vann’s people. This was why GiGi threw herself into her work. She wasn’t good at relationships, platonic or otherwise. Oh, and the whole panther thing.
“Hey,” Vann said, as if reading her thoughts. “Don’t worry about her. She’ll be fine.” He wiped her tears with his thumbs and kissed her mouth tenderly. When he was finished, he said, “So I guess we need to talk, Crazy Cat Lady.”
“Oh Vann. I’m so sorry…”
“Oh no, you don’t. You do not need to apologize for who you are. But listen. We are not going to have this most important conversation while I’m wearing a butt window hospital gown. Let’s go get a whiskey and a steak and we can talk this thing out, OK, angel face?”
“But have they discharged you yet?”
He laughed. I don’t know and I do not care, but let’s get the fuck out of here.”
Chapter 12
Vann
GiGi’s eyes were sparkling. “So, can I come out and run with the pack sometime?”
The two of them were enjoying enormous steaks—hers with wine, his with whiskey—at a little chophouse on the river. They were the only people in there in jeans and sneakers. To top it off, there was the bandage on Vann’s neck and more bandages on his back, giving his ratty hoodie a sort of humpback look. But one nice thing about dining with Vann was, nobody questioned his attire at an upscale eatery.
He had just got done telling her all about the curse that had been laid on the Boudreaux, centuries ago.
“If you go back far enough in the family tree, Ash and I and the rest of the wolves are related. It’s a very old curse.” He told her everything — that they were shapeshifters, that they turned to wolves and hunted every full moon. And that once in a while, when things get out of hand, the beast can get out.
And then it was GiGi’s turn. The panthers had only been cursed a bit more than 100 years ago, she told Vann, by a business rival that had apparently found a half-assed voodoo practitioner who tried to have Beauregard DuChamp killed by wild animals. When it didn’t work, the dark magic and the injuries left behind also left a mark on the whole clan. GiGi’s parents had been shapeshifters, too. It was not a hiking accident that killed them. It was a couple of drunk hunters in the swamp who had spotted two panthers, and shot them both dead. GiGi, not yet knowing who she really was as a young girl, was taken in to the protective bosom of the DuChamp clan. Like Rosemary, she’d had a coming out party, but being a deb and all that that entailed was of little interest to GiGi. Given the circumstances, Betsy and Lionel didn’t push.
“It’s funny,” Vann said. “The DuChamps like to talk about their old-money status, but the wolves have actually been shifters way longer than y’all.”
GiGi grinned. “And now with Rosie and Ash getting together, who knows what that will mean.”
Vann added, “And don’t forget you and me.”
With most everything out in the open, and GiGi assured that he wasn’t angry with her, she seemed almost giddy with excitement over this new knowledge.
“You have no idea how hard it is to make friends with people. And this whole time you’ve been visiting me and I didn’t even know it. I can’t believe you are Buster. My Buster dog. I’ve been feeding you hog intestines!”
“It’s OK, I kind of liked it,” he said. “Wolves aren’t picky, except when it comes to mating.”
GiGi blushed and bit her lip. He was never going to get tired of watching her do that.
“Fine,” he said. “You can come along on a hunt.”
“I can?” She clapped her hands. “Yay!”
“Next full moon, it’s a date. In the meantime I’d like you to get used to being on a boat without getting seasick. I have big plans for you, angel face.”
“What kind of plans?”
“That’s another secret. A nice one, though.”
GiGi
It was mid-March, and the night of the full moon was warm and damp, but the spring hadn’t yet had time to settle into outright humidity. Spring flowers were blooming as GiGi and Vann held hands in the dark, headed north to the other side of Lake Pontchartrain.
The two of them had spent the last few weeks getting closer than she could have ever expected. As commanded, she spent more and more time on his boat. They christened every bed, couch and deckchair on board.
But her favorite times were spent lazing around his house. Vann had given her mind-blowing cunnilingus on his kitchen island. They did it tantric style in his oversized clawfoot tub. They tried it doggy style in his bedroom and she was shocked to discover that she liked it. He had awakened a very different beast, and she couldn’t get enough of his body, or of his expertise with hers.
Not that there needed to be an excuse for so much boning, but the two of them were desperate to fit in as much as possible. Vann was on a break from filming his TV series, but he would have to fly out tomorrow. He would not be back until the bachelor party, a few days before the wedding in June.
When they arrived at the clearing in the woods on the edge of the lake, Penny, Ash, Bobby and a few others were already there. Penny did not look happy to see her, but said nothing as nobody else seemed to have a problem with GiGi being there to watch them transform.
When the inevitable happened, they had already undressed. GiGi respectfully kept her eyes away from the others and focused on Vann. Naked in the moonlight in the trees, he was even more stunning than the Viking god superhero he resembled fully clothed in the daylight.
And then, the change began. They all looked at each other and looked at GiGi. Ash asked in a deeper, edgier voice than normal, “Do you think it might be dangerous for her to be here?”
Vann glowered. “She’s my mate, no matter what anybody here thinks. Anyone try anything with her, they’re toast. Whether you’re in my pack or not.”
There was a growl from Penny and then Bobby chimed in. “Come on, man, you know we’re better than that.”
Vann nodded at Bobby but gave Penny a look of warning. “I do know that. I trust all of you. And now that you know the truth about GiGi and Rosemary, I hope we can all just get over ourselves. OK?”
Penny let out a low growl before nodding and running off down the path, disappearing into the woods. “Beat you suckers to the warren!”
Vann gave GiGi one last kiss and then turned, letting out a huge howl at the moon. He disappeared behind a huge oak tree, and when he reappeared, he had changed.
There was her Buster. He trotted over to her and nudged her leg as she reached down and gave him a pet. And then he took off at full speed down the path.
What choice did she have but to run and try to keep up? Eventually she did, and it was revealed what Penny meant about the warren. When GiGi arrived, they were all having dinner, and it was hasenpfeffer. She could not watch them eat adorable rabbits. She could not even bring herself to serve rabbit at her restaurant, so how could she watch this?
The feast was over quickly and then they were back to running.GiGI was thankful she had kept up her running routine despite her rigorous restaurant schedule. Of course, all the marathon sex had increased her stamina tenfold.
When they reached the edge of the woods, the pack dove into the lake. The water seemed to energize them all, and they tore back into the woods at full speed. When GiGi caught up with them, it was only because she was able to follow the sound of their howling. They were all together in the clearing again, the moon bright above their heads. They howled like that for what seemed like an hour. And then, eventually, they settled and made their beds for the night in the grass. Penny and Bobby’s wolf selves slept in a pile next to each other with some of the younger wolves. Vann kept his distance, then pawed the ground in a soft spot not far from his friends. He walked in a circle a few times, and then fell in a heap. His ice-blue eyes beckoned her
to come closer. As much as she was a little fearful of being around a pack of wolves with her eyes closed, she was exhausted from all the running. She didn’t love the idea of sleeping on the hard ground, but the huge gray wolf curled around her and she relaxed into him. Before long, she was asleep.
Chapter 13
GiGi
GiGi did her best to enjoy Rosemary’s bachelorette party. After all, Rosemary and GiGi had cleared the air with Penny after the hospital incident with Vann. Penny, the maid of honor, had actually been having fun with the bridal party ever since they had gone dress shopping together Uptown, where Rosemary had picked the biggest, loudest, most ridiculously expensive gowns in the South. GiGi actually found herself warming up to Penny, and vice versa.
But tonight, GiGi was anxious. It had felt like an eternity since her Vann had flown away last March. Her need for him was compounded by the fact that he had made her promise not to pleasure herself without him.
“Don’t touch your pussy. I want to be the last thing you feel before I leave and the first when I come back,” he had said before leaving her.
She had agreed, but it felt wickedly cruel. It was now June and she was so eager to see him and to make up for lost time with that beautiful cock of his, she was about ready to hyperventilate.
The bachelorette party was supposed to merge with the bachelor party at the end of the night for one big final blowout party at Bobby’s Tavern.
Dinner at the DuChamps mansion in the Garden District was stellar, of course. The comedy show Uptown was just OK. The burlesque show on Bourbon Street was absolutely amazing. Here is where GiGi got very drunk to loosen herself up as she waited and waited to get to the end of the night and see Vann. She wondered where in the world they might do it tonight. She was actually hoping to just go to his house or her apartment and take off their clothes and eat ice cream and watch TV. This was the first Thursday night she had ever been free of any restaurant responsibilities, as Aunt Betsy had insisted. She considered it a test run to see how her sous chef and hostess could handle everything without her. GiGi bonded with her cousin Chastity who was down from Baton Rouge, and who admitted to GiGi that she was a virgin.
