The Wells Brothers: Luke

by Angela Verdenius

“The whole week’s going to be busy.”

  Elspeth beamed. “I know. Isn’t it great?” Whirling away, she added, “But tomorrow’s another day, tonight the night is ours.”

  Mikki had to smother a laugh at the way Elspeth dropped her tone to a menacing growl. “I thought that line was more for romance than horror?”

  “The night’s for hunting.”

  Mikki gave a fake, over-the-top shiver. “Ooohhhh, Aunty!”

  Elspeth disappeared out the door.

  Mikki looked around the room one last time. She could imagine how grand it must have been, but really, she’d much prefer her little duplex. It was warm and cosy, whereas this place was grand and proper, and face it, the furniture did not look comfortable. The old dilapidated sofa in the big room downstairs was hard to sit on and definitely didn’t invite a person to slouch on it. She could just imagine the women in their long gowns, sitting on the sofa, backs straight and hands clasped in their laps, ever inch the ladies.

  She looked down at her jeans, shirt and sneakers with a grin. Definitely not a Mikki era.

  Moving out of the room, she followed the progress of Elspeth’s torch, seeing the glow in another room. Entering, she discovered what had to be the room of the master and mistress of the house. Elspeth was on the far side, riffling through an old wardrobe that seemed to hold - wonder of wonders - clothing.

  Moving further into the room, she looked around. There was a double bed complete with four posters, tattered curtains pulled back at each post and fastened with a fraying, grimy cord. The dressing table still stood but the front of one of the drawers had fallen open, leaving a black gap. Atop the dressing table were several items, and she crossed over to study them.

  Wow, there was an actual old brush and hand mirror lying on the surface, along with a perfume bottle of some kind. And was that…? Leaning over, she touched the scrap of material to see a cameo broach nestled amongst the dusty folds.

  “Cripes, Aunt.” She gestured without looking. “Did you see this?”

  “In a minute, dear. Can you imagine? There are honest to goodness clothes here from what looks to be the early nineteenth century!”

  Straightening, Mikki moved the torch beam over the rest of the dressing table.

  Then it happened.

  Something brushed her shoulder, a presence at her back, a deep whisper in her ear. “What are you doing?”

  With a scream she spun around, the torchlight flashing across a big body right in front of her, an arm reaching out, a laugh starting - which got choked off as she instinctively swung her leg upward.

  Her knee slammed between two very solid thighs, there was a muffled squawk and the figure dropped to the floor.

  Heart pounding, Mikki leaped back, her backside slamming into the dressing table which, miracle of miracles, considering how old it was, didn’t break. Something to be said for the good workmanship of the day.

  “What on earth…?” Running up, Elspeth trained the torchlight on the man writhing at their feet with his hands clutched between his thighs. “Luke?”

  “Oh Jesus!” Horrified, Mikki dropped to her knees beside him, touching his shoulder. “Luke? Are you all right?”

  In answer, he rocked on the floor, eyes scrunched shut, lips peeled back from his teeth in a grimace of pain. No, that’d be agony. She bit her lip at the expression on his face. Definitely agony.

  Oh shit, she’d kneed Luke in the nuts.

  “Oh no.” Elspeth knelt at his back, rubbing uselessly in a vain attempt at trying to comfort him. “Mikki, what happened?”

  “He was just there. I swear, I wouldn’t have done it if I’d known it was him.” Wringing her hands in dismay, she bit her lip while staring down at his face. “He looks white. Does he look white to you? He looks white to me. Like really sickly pale. And geez,” she bent close to peer at his face, “he’s sweating.”

  Oh man, that couldn’t be good.

  “You hit him in the family jewels, Mik, what do you expect?” Elspeth continued rubbing his back. “Shhh. Oh sweetie, it’s okay. Shhh now.”

  Luke just groaned.

  “Should we try to get him up?” Mikki queried helplessly.

  “I don’t know.” Elspeth was biting her lip as hard as Mikki. “Maybe we should call an ambulance?”

  “Oh my God! Do you think I crushed his nuts that bad?” Involuntarily, her gaze went to his crotch. “No blood. Oh thank God, no blood.” On the heels of relief, another thought struck. “It’s internal, isn’t it? He could be bleeding internally! Aunt, go and ring an ambulance, go and-”

  “Stop,” Luke said weakly.

  “Maybe get some Aspirin or something so he doesn’t clot inside and it travels to his heart and - oh shit! He might stroke out! He might-”

  A big hand slammed down onto her thigh and squeezed. “Stop!” Luke barked out.

  Relief shot through Mikki, the same echoed on Elspeth’s face as they both looked down at him. That irate bark was promising, but one look at his face showed the same pain reflected. But he’d stopped rocking. One hand, however, was still firmly clamped on his abused genitals.

  She cringed. Geez, she’d done that, completely emasculated him.

  The grip on her thigh tightened, long fingers digging in as Luke opened his lids a crack to glare up at her through pain-filled eyes. “No ambulance. No Aspirin. No anything, you got it?”

  “But, dear,” Elspeth said soothingly, “you’re hurt and we don’t know how bad.”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “Maybe we should look and-”

  Horror joined the pain on his face. “No!”

  “Be reasonable,” Mikki pleaded. “You might have gone from a packet of whole nuts to crushed nuts. We’ll just peek, I swear.”

  “You-” releasing her thigh, he jabbed a finger up towards her face - “have done enough. No peeking.” He turned his head enough to glare up at Elspeth. “From either of you.”

  Consumed with guilt, Mikki recommenced worrying her bottom lip. “Luke, I am so sorry.”

  “Oh, you will be,” he muttered, his hand again landing heavily on her thigh.

  She wasn’t sure she’d heard right. “What?”

  “Just give me a couple of minutes, then I’ll get up.”

  Over his prone body, Elspeth looked at Mikki and shrugged.

  Blowing out a sigh, Mikki relaxed back on her heels to gaze down at him. Lying on his side, knees drawn up, one big hand clamped on her thigh, the other clutching his abused family jewels, Luke should have looked vulnerable. Well, he kind of did, but the strength in his hand gripping her thigh was a little intense, or maybe that was just the pain rolling through him. Man, she felt so bad.

  Not knowing what else to do as the silence dragged on, Mikki shifted her gaze to her aunt. “So, did you see the cameo brooch on the dressing table?”

  Elspeth’s mouth fell open. “What?”

  Feeling stupid, Mikki shrugged helplessly. “Look, we’re sitting here, he doesn’t want an ambulance, we have to wait. I don’t know what to say apart from maybe discuss the stuff on the dressing table.”

  Elspeth stared at her.

  “Or maybe the coming court case when he sues our arses off for assaulting him.”

  “No one’s suing anyone,” Luke ground out.

  Immediately Elspeth smoothed his hair back from his face. “Shhh, dear. Just relax, take it easy.”

  Mikki studied him. Surely there was a little more colour back in his cheeks? Surely his hand was clutching his privates a little less rigidly? Maybe - just maybe - there was a little easing of the tension in his body?

  After another several long minutes, Luke finally opened his eyes to gaze directly up into hers.

  Immediately she leaned close. “Luke?” One of her long curls spilled down to brush across his mouth and she quickly flipped it back over her shoulder. As he blinked up at her, she patted his cheek gently. “Hey, how are you doing?”

  “You poor love,” Elspeth murmured.

&nbs
p; Luke turned his head, his lips grazing Mikki’s palm. The sudden warm, moist breath against her skin made her stomach dip unexpectedly and she drew her hand away quickly.

  He didn’t seem to notice. “Better.”

  All of a sudden he started to push upright, the movement seeming to make him go a little paler again, though in the glow of the torches it was a little hard to say, especially as the women had to leave them on the floor while helping him to his feet.

  As soon as he gained his balance, Mikki moved to his side. “Here, let me help.”

  Luke glared down at her. “Wanting to finish the job by pushing me down the stairs?”

  “That’s a mean thing to say.” Not that she could blame him. Grabbing his wrist, she pulled his arm across her shoulders. “Come on.”

  “I’m not an invalid. Yet.” He rested some of his weight on her. “But I’m sure you’ll fix that.”

  Relieved that he was returning to normal and not writhing on the floor in agony, she steered him towards the door. “Geez, you’re going to hold a grudge, aren’t you? I can tell.”

  Luke grunted.

  Holding the torches, Elspeth stepped around them. “I’ll light the way down to the servants’ quarters where we can switch the lights on and fix you up.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “I thought you were going to die back there,” Mikki muttered.

  “I sure as shit felt like it,” he retorted.

  She rolled her eyes. “I didn’t do it on purpose.”

  “So why did you do it?”

  Manoeuvring him through the door, she couldn’t help but notice how gingerly he was moving. “I wasn’t expecting anyone behind me.”

  “Do you always react like that? Because if so, Red, you’re in danger of getting sacked from your job.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You attack all your customers like that and your shop manager isn’t going to be happy.”

  “I expect shoppers to tap me on the shoulder. Mind you,” she steered him towards the staircase, “they don’t usually tap my shoulder, they just talk to me.”

  “I was talking to you back there.”

  “You were whispering!”

  “So?” He stiffened slightly as they went down the stairs, taking them a little slower than his usual bounding energy.

  “Who in his right mind whispers in the dark?”

  Not answering, Luke just leaned on her a little heavier.

  Mikki had a suspicion he wasn’t as incapacitated as he appeared, was maybe punishing her a little by putting some more weight on her, but when she glanced up at his face he was looking ahead.

  Looking, that was, until her aunt got to the bottom of the staircase and swung around, flashing the torchlight right into his eyes. “How are you doing, sweetie?”

  He flinched, shutting his eyes before whipping up his hand to shield the glare.

  Mikki winced. Crap, first she’d crushed his family jewels and now Elspeth was trying to blind him. Way to go.

  Realising immediately, Elspeth shifted the torch. “Sorry!”

  “It’s okay.” He lowered his hand from his eyes at the same time he shifted away from Mikki, lifting his arm from her shoulders. “I can go from here.”

  Coolness invaded the area where his body had been against hers. Following behind him, Mikki couldn’t believe that oddly enough she kind of missed his nearness. As he moved ahead of her, so tall and muscular, she couldn’t help but put her nose to her shoulder and take a sniff. Yep, whatever deodorant he used was on her shirt. Smelled good, all man and cleanliness, and combine that with the warmth of his body-

  “Mik?”

  Looking up, she caught Elspeth watching her.

  “You okay?”

  Mortified at being caught sniffing her shirt - hells bells, what was wrong with her? - Mikki glanced down at her shirt and brushed awkwardly at the shoulder area. “Just some dust or something.”

  “Well don’t worry about that now, dear, we have to look after poor Luke.”

  The light flashed on in the hallway leading to the servants’ quarters, illuminating Luke waiting for them. Even with the back glow shading out his features, she could feel him watching her.

  Glaring, probably. His eyes hurt, his nuts ached, and she just bet he was wishing he was home instead of stuck in this old mansion with two women he was possibly thinking were either jinxes or trying to maim him.

  That last one she’d done a pretty good job of doing accidentally.

  With a sigh, she walked to the hall.

  Luke gestured for Elspeth to go ahead of him, but instead of following he continued to watch Mikki approach. She slowed down, regarding him a little worriedly. Maybe he wanted to ream her quietly without Elspeth hearing. She couldn’t blame him, after all she had dropped him to the floor in a foetal position, but honestly, she hadn’t meant to do it.

  Preparing for a tongue-lashing, hoping he’d just let her pass in silence, she straightened her shoulders, lifted her chin and crossed the last few feet to the doorway.

  His gaze never shifted as she neared, and when he opened his mouth she couldn’t stop an involuntary flinch. But all he did was shake his head with a resigned expression, place his hand at her back and usher her past him, falling in behind her.

  She felt his eyes on her every step of the way, making her feel distinctly uneasy. Man, she almost wished he would yell at her, his silence was a little unnerving.

  They walked down the hallway, through the door into the servants’ hallway and on into the kitchen where Elspeth was putting the kettle on the stove.

  “Now, Luke, you sit right there.” Elspeth pointed at the chair he’d sat in at dinner. “I’ll bring you a frozen bag of peas.”

  He sat gingerly. “What’re the peas for?”

  “Your…er…you know.” She flapped a hand towards him while crossing to the freezer.

  Blankly, he looked from her to Mikki standing on the other side of the table.

  How could he possibly forget? She pointed towards his crotch hidden under the table.

  “What? No.” He shook his head. “No peas.”

  “But, dear.” Elspeth looked at him from around the freezer door. “The…um…swelling?”

  “It’ll be fine.” He adjusted his position in the chair slowly. “I don’t need peas.”

  “But-”

  “Trust me, Elspeth, I know.”

  “Okay.” Dubiously, she shut the freezer door. “Do you need a heat pack then?”

  Mikki almost laughed out loud at the incredulity that flitted across his face.

  “No!” He lowered his voice. “No. No heat pack. Thanks.”

  “What can we do to make you more comfortable?”

  “Nothing. Honestly.”

  “What about a cushion to sit on?” she asked earnestly.

  That manly jaw dropped. “No, really.”

  Mikki’s lips twitched. Okay, she knew she shouldn’t be enjoying this but Elspeth on a roll was something else. The woman had no idea what to do but wanted to do something to make up for her niece’s actions.

  “A doughnut cushion? With a hole in it?” Elspeth looked at Mikki. “Maybe there’s a pharmacy open in town, or the local hospital? They use doughnuts for those women who’ve had babies and need stitches, don’t they? To sit on so the sore bits aren’t making contact with anything?”

  “Oh yeah.” Mikki couldn’t help but nod earnestly. “Will that help, Luke?”

  Oops, maybe she shouldn’t have drawn attention back to herself. Not when he said tightly, “No cushion. I’m fine,” before switching his gaze to Mikki accusingly.

  Crap, he’d seen her amusement. Sobering, she held up her hands. “We’re just trying to help.”

  “I don’t need help,” he gritted out.

  Elspeth bit her lip.

  Catching sight of her expression, he sighed, his shoulders relaxing a little. “Elspeth, really, I’m all right. I just need a little time to recover.”

  “Do you
need to go back to the city?” she asked worriedly. “I can drive you back tonight. I understand, I really do.”

  “I’ll be back to normal by morning.” His face softened. “I’ve had this before, so trust me, I know what I’m talking about.”

  “You get kneed often?” Mikki asked before she could stop herself.

  Oh boy, he might be prepared to give Elspeth some slack, but his eyes narrowed on Mikki. “Me and my brothers rough-housed as kids, I played sport at school, accidents happened.”

  She nodded, then for something to do other than sit and feel Luke drill holes in her with his eyes, she got up to take the kettle from the stove where it started whistling. As she prepared three mugs of hot tea, she listened to her aunt and Luke talking.

  “So what were you two doing upstairs at one in the morning?” he asked.

  “Hunting ghosts, dear, what else?”

  Chapter 3

  “Those two are a couple of sausages short of a barbie. Ghost hunting, Jason? Ghost hunting?”

  “Wait. Mikki really kicked you in the ball sac?”

  Luke rolled his eyes. “Yes.” It took a full ten seconds for his idiot cousin to stop laughing. “Finished?”

  There was a snort before Jason managed, “For the minute.”

  “Laugh it up, drongo.”

  “Did they offer you first aid? Oh God, that would’ve been something to see!”

  For a man who was usually more on the serious side, Jason was getting a lot of enjoyment out of this. Not about to relay the frozen peas offer, Luke forged onwards. “Ghost hunt. Can you believe it? They went upstairs after midnight to see if they could spot ghosts.”

  “What did you expect? It’s an old, derelict mansion, has some stories about it, a man died there, and you stick those two sheilas in the middle of it. What do you think is going to happen?”

  “I thought they were here for the plans and packing and sorting out and stuff!”

  “One job during the day, one job at night. Very industrious, wouldn’t you say?”

  “I’d say nutty as a fruitcake.”

  “Aw, they’re harmless. And fun.”

  “Fun is not getting booted in the nut sack.”

  “If you were into pain, it would be.”

  “Izzy is a seriously bad influence on you, cuz.”