38. Pete

38

PETE

The Resurrection of Leonor Poe and The Ravens: Some Spirits Won’t Stay DeadWell, that’s a shitty fucking title.

C licking the link, I open the article with a scowl and start reading about some fuckhead from the NOLA post who decided the morning after was a great fucking time to rehash the past.

It’s been well over a decade since Leonor Allan captivated the world of heavy metal as the front woman for the newly reformed Ravens but it isn’t her heart beating from within our speakers that’s made her unforgettable…

I roll my eyes and grumble to myself, “Tell Tale Heart, stupid.”

Dumb shit doesn’t even know his Poe.

With a show that blew our faces off, a classic performance enhanced by a renewed passion for their craft, and dropping some details about a new album and possible tour, New Orleans' very own hardcore fab five returned to the scene in true LPATR fashion.

Okay, that’s not so bad.

Mentioning the show, the new album and the tour, that’s all good publicity.

Especially as he mentions our first three albums, our hits, and gives a brief history of our so-called rise to fame.

It actually almost sounds like this shithead might be a fan.

Then I keep reading.

But where have they been the last four years? That’s what most readers are dying to find out, and this music fan did some digging. We all remember that final show; the October air was crisp, the stagnant heat had finally dissipated, and Leonor Allan was laying in a pool of her own blood.

Pictured left: Lucius ‘Lucky’ De la Grange fighting with paramedics to enter the ambulance as they carted her off to Ochsner Medical, his face torn and hanging by a thread. Pictured right: Markus Favre, Norman Nodine, and Peter Lagrave being escorted by police through the parking lot in handcuffs behind the coroner’s van containing the mutilated body of Colin Hastings.

I can’t believe he fucking posted those.

We knew they were out there, those were photos Vintage fought tooth and nail to have taken down then sued to get the physical and digital negatives of.

I’d love to know how that dipshit got his hands on them.

Maybe I’ll give him a call after I finish reading this bullshit.

Last night, history repeated itself. Around midnight, after closing possibly the most epic show of their career, The Ravens were once again the center of a rather bloody investigation. NOLAPD swarmed the Fillmore after the show and quickly to follow were reports of the band finding body parts in their dressing room. Considering the fact that Allan herself was found naked and crucified in a cemetery a few inches above the murdered body of Pierre Doquin not even six months ago, this reporter thinks it’s safe to say The Ravens have exploded back onto the music scene. The question is, how long will it be this time before LPATR are Nevermore?

“Hey.”

My eyes snap to the bedroom and I quickly close the article, swipe out of the news site, and shove my phone in my pocket as Leo closes the bedroom door. “Hey, princess.”

She gives me a tired smile, her eyes still a little puffy and bloodshot, her nose a touch pink from what was undoubtedly one of the longest nights we’ve had in a while.

It breaks my fucking heart to see her this way.

And it pisses me right off because we shouldn’t have to keep dealing with this kind of shit, she shouldn’t have to continually have her old trauma dredged up and new created at the hands of some sicko who thinks this is all a fucking game.

“Where is everyone?”

“Mark and Norm went back to the Fillmore,” I say with a soft smile as my girl steps into my waiting arms and holds me tight. “Luck is pulling the van around to the back so we can avoid the paps.”

Leo nods against my chest and takes a deep breath. “Why did they go back?”

“To make sure Francesco is doing what he said he would.”

“And the three of you decided they should go because Lucky will probably start a fight with his brother.”

I kiss the top of her head and grin. “Lucius will probably murder him after the shit he pulled last night. Those two volunteered as tribute to prevent that from happening.”

“They deserve blowjobs for that.”

“That’s my girl,” I snort, looking down as Leo tips her head back and rests her chin on my chest. “How’s Justine?”

“Sedated.”

“That bad, huh?”

She blows out a breath that turns into a yawn. “I don’t think she slept for more than five minutes last night.” Leo sighs again then buries her face between my pecs. “Mostly she just held me in a bear hug and mumbled about how she’ll be damned if she lets anyone take me from her again. I had to put her pill in a jelly donut and beg her to eat it because I was worried about her sugar dropping.”

I bet Justine loved that. “She still fought you, didn’t she?”

“Tooth and nail.” Leo lifts her head to look at me again. “She’s worse than a toddler throwing a tantrum over broccoli.”

Nodding my head in agreement because I don’t doubt that for a second, I dip my chin and kiss my girl, grateful that once again she was able to walk away from the fuckery that seems to follow us everywhere.

She deserves to catch a fucking break.

And to take a month-long nap.

Leonor looks so damn tired right now, I’m not sure leaving the hotel is the right thing to do.

“Are you sure you’re up for this?”

She nods, hugs me a little harder then turns to go looking for her boots. “I have to go.”

“You could reschedule.” But she won’t.

“I can’t.” Called it. “This has been a long time coming and after everything that’s happened…”

I just nod and watch her hunt for her shitkickers.

Today’s appointment could not have had more terrible timing if we’d actually planned it.

Leo’s last one with her OB, the one after she was attacked a few months ago, didn’t go how any of us wanted it to.

She needed to get in and get checked out, to have a fucking rape kit done after what happened but because of Leonor’s situation and all the damage done to her body, they specifically had her obstetrician perform everything because she knows our girl’s insides the best. And since Lucius is a basket case, Leo let him sit in on everything and he was the one who blurted out a bunch of questions about the mass in her uterus.

That, of course, caused a fight, shit that all of us ended up dragged into but when it was all said and done, my princess and her doc filled us in.

Dr. Morgan, her OB, is pretty convinced that it’s just scar tissue from the first attack but since it seems to have changed shape, and Leo has had some weird spotting since the shit at the mansion, she’s been keeping a close eye on it. Close enough that she told Leonor she was scheduling a CT scan and a sonohysterogram for her as soon as she had openings.

Both of which are today.

We got the call last night from Dr. Morgan herself about getting to the hospital this morning and she was pretty insistent that Leonor make sure to go.

None of us wanted her to, which surprised her, but after the show last night, it felt like too much, too soon. She hasn’t even slept by the look of her, not even a few minutes and I know Leonor hasn’t eaten hardly anything since we had lunch yesterday. Her sugar was 69 last night and it wasn’t much better when Mark checked it before he and Norman left, so all in all, our girl could really use at least a day to recover from everything.

Leo decided to go anyway.

I was less than thrilled but it isn’t my body or my decision and while I’m worried as hell over what could be going on with our girl, I’ve kept my cool and tried to be as supportive as I can be. We all have but we’re scared. It’s almost like we don’t want to think anything else could be wrong with Leonor after all she’s been through, like God or the fucking universe or whoever can’t be that fucking cruel. Putting it off or living in denial isn’t the way to deal with it, though.

Until Dr. Morgan called we’ve been dealing with it ok but that appointment confirmation was enough to put that to the test.

It got to the point where I had to send Lucius down for the van because he was starting to get obsessive about which donut would give Leo the best blood sugar reading without sending it too high, which was making both his and our girl’s anxiety spike, so I sent him on a mission while she tried to get Justine to sleep while we’re gone.

“You ready, princess?” I ask as Leo finishes lacing her boots, my phone buzzing in my pocket at the same time.

LUCKY: I am seconds from running over all of the vultures that are camped out across the street. You know they’re just waiting for us to leave so they can follow.

They are but we’re used to that. It’ll be fine as long as you’re outside the back door.

LUCKY: Staff entrance. The one in back through the kitchen.

We’re on our way down.

LUCKY: Security is waiting. They’ll take you through staff hallways and staircases the entire way.

A little over the top, don’t you think?

LUCKY: ??

Sorry, baby. We’ll be right there.

With a grin because our boy is adorably extra, I take Leo’s hand and leave the hotel room, immediately running into the security Luck was talking about.

“Chase?”

“Hi, Leo. Glad to see you again.”

I frown at the big ass dude who smiles at my girl before he starts leading us down the hall. “I’m Pete.”

“I know,” the fucker says as he glances back at me. “I know everyone in and out of that room.”

Leonor squeezes my hand in hers as I gear up to set his wagon for being snarky, quickly asking, “What happened to working at the mansion?”

Chase turns back around as we follow him down various winding halls and stairways. “It’s been closed for a while and Collinsworth hired what’s basically a SWAT team to keep an eye on it while everything is halted. So when the hotel was contracting out for added security, my boss sent us here.”

Listening to the two of them go back and forth a little more, I look this asshat up and down, noting how he’s dressed in street clothes, the concealed gun under his sweatshirt, and the fact that there is a weird familiarity about him.

I’m sure it’s from the mansion if that’s where he worked before but something about this guy gives me a weird feeling in my gut. One that Leonor would make me ignore since she doesn’t appear to share it.

“Where you headed today?” Chase asks as we finally make our way through the kitchen. “Anywhere fun?”

“Afraid not,” Leo says with an arched brow. “Unless you like having your insides medically photographed.”

I shoot her a look, unsure if it’s because she’s making light of something that is anything but, or if it’s because she’s getting a little too friendly with this ogre. “Come on, princess, we’re going to be late.”

Merging onto the highway, I roll my eyes as I listen to Lucky while he continues to panic over forgetting Leo’s insulin.

“I don’t know how I did it.”

“It’s fine, love.” Leo turns in the passenger seat, facing our boy wigging out in the back. “We are going to be in a hospital, I’m sure they have some if I end up needing it.”

But he doesn’t hear her.

The same way he hasn’t heard me or anything else for the last ten minutes while he’s been ripping up the entire back half of the beast.

When he realized it wasn’t in her backpack, Lucky pulled over, searched every inch of the front and when he noticed how close we were cutting it to the appointment time, he made me drive so he could keep looking everywhere else.

Thank God Leonor seems to be pretty calm.

I know she’s not, not really.

She’s probably getting more and more anxious with each mile that passes and I wouldn’t doubt that she’s playing through every worst case scenario she can conjure right now. If it wasn’t for the distraction Lucius is providing, she’d probably be trying to take the wheel to turn us around.

So, I’ll be grateful for that.

And the fact that neither of them are paying enough attention to realize we’re being followed.

Checking my mirrors again, I squint at that motherfucking Lambo, the exact one we’ve been haunted by since the first night we were back together, who’s riding the ass of a car a couple behind us.

I noticed it almost right away, that car is hard to miss, and even though it’s kept its distance, I’ve seen it in the rear view for miles now.

It seems silly to follow us in such a flashy car and assume it wouldn’t get noticed but that’s my thing, aside from music I’m a car guy but even if I wasn’t, I’m not blind. I don’t have a clue what the douche is trying to do, though.

Part of me figured the car was owned by someone from one of the local online magazines or something since we’ve seen a flash go off almost every time the Lambo was around. I’m still relatively positive that what this is; some reporter trying to make a buck by following us around and getting the scoop on whatever the hell the five of us are doing.

And since shit keeps happening to Leonor, I doubt the fucker is about to let up.

Again, I just think a Lamborghini is the wrong way to go about it.

“Dr. Morgan’s calling me,” Leonor blurts, breaking the tense silence inside the van. “Why is she calling me?”

She looks up at me then back at Luck, who immediately holds out his hand. “Give it to me.”

“I don’t want to answer.”

“That’s why I’m telling you to hand me your phone.”

Leo looks between us again, our girl worrying her lip between her teeth. “What if she’s calling to tell me I’m dying.”

I roll my eyes and signal to get off the highway. “Somehow I don’t think that’s why she’s calling, princess.”

“You don’t know that. I’m going in because of the thing, she could have got my bloodwork back and?—”

“Give me the phone, Leonor,” Lucky demands gently. “We need to answer it no matter what Dr. Morgan has to say.”

Our girl takes a few seconds to think, staring at the phone that will stop ringing and go to voicemail momentarily. Then she blows out a breath and hands it back to Lucius, who answers on speaker.

“Leonor Allan’s answering service, how may I direct your call?”

“Good morning, Lucius,” Dr. Morgan says with a chuckle. “I take it Leo is with you.”

“And Pete,” my princess blurts. “It’s the three of us.”

“Hello, Peter.”

“Hi, doc.” Waiting at the light, I check to see we still have some very flashy company then look at the clock. “We should be at the hospital in about ten minutes.”

“Excellent,” she says. “I was hoping to catch you before you got there.”

Lucky scoots forward, holding the phone between us as Leo blurts, “Because I’m dying and don’t need the imaging?”

Dr. Morgan doesn’t laugh, she knows our girl better than that but you can hear the smile in her tone. “No, Leonor. If I had serious news to deliver, you know I’d ask you to come to my office.”

“So…”

“So,” the doctor says, still smiling down the line. “I need you to go up to obstetrics when you get there.”

Leo looks at me as I get into the left turn lane then at Lucky. “Because I’m dying?”

Now Dr. Morgan does chuckle a little. “No, Leonor, I can assure you that no matter what was going on, this isn’t?—”

I hear it before I see it, the unmissable sound of an engine revving up, a high powered engine as it does what sounds like a burnout, but it isn’t.

No, that’s definitely not what this is and before I have the chance to process it, everything moves at both lightning speed and snail's pace.

We’re thrust forward into the intersection, the first impact coming from behind, sending the beast forward a few feet with an abrupt lurch. It dazes us slightly, my arm shooting out to cover Lucius and Leonor while we jerk against the seatbelts and just as I turn to make sure they’re both ok, I swear to Christ, time stands still.

Another high powered sports car guns it from our right, weaving in and out of traffic until it clears it completely. I watch in horror as its speed increases, as the blacked out windows and dark exterior come squealing toward us.

I lift my foot off the break, watching the car eating up the distance between us and just as I get the beast to move a little forward, that’s when our world is literally turned on its head.

Metal crunches as the side panel door of the van takes the impact, a head on jackknife that sends our halted vehicle spinning. We roll once then twice, crashing to a stop on the driver's side just as it tried to roll a third time, my head hitting the window as we land flat on my side with a twisted thud.

My ears are ringing but the pain hasn’t registered, not yet anyway and just as I try to move, to look around and assess what I can, something else crashes into the back of the best and sends us clear across to the other side of the four way.

The seatbelt keeps me in place but I crack my forehead against the steering wheel, a thin stream of blood starting to blur my vision but none of it quells the need I have to get to my people.

But I can’t move, and I’m starting to get dizzy.

So much so that when I finally force my head to turn, the visual of our girl dangling over me, shards of glass from her blown out window littering the right side of her face, her limp body hanging from the passenger seat by only her seatbelt as her blood drips toward me has me fading.

Until I realize Lucky is between us.

Out cold and covered in blood, Lucius is folded against the windshield, the back of his head dead center over a massive crack in the glass.

As my eyes get heavy, as the pain in my own head starts to take over, all I can think about is the band.

Fourteen years of feelings and memories play through my mind like a video set to fast forward. The moment we met Leonor all the way to the last few nights; the last time I woke up to the four of them, our first show in years, every second in between rushes through me and as I start to pass out, I start to pray for the first time since my mama died.

Please don’t let this be the end.

LEONOR

“Hey, princess.”

My brow furrows at the sound of Pete’s voice because I can’t tell if I’m dreaming or it’s really him.

Until I feel fingers gently caressing my hair.

Forcing my eyes open, I slowly shift around, turning from the edge of the bed to face him before pushing up on my forearms.

I blink a few times, clearing the sleep from my eyes, and my entire body sags in relief as Pete gives me a very tired smile.

“Hi, love.” I scoot my chair closer, wincing at the way the movement hurts almost everywhere. Then I decide to say fuck it, ignoring everything the nurses have been bitching at me over since I left my own hospital room in search of one of my boys. “Is this ok?”

Peter nods as he scoots a bit, lifting his arm for me as I crawl into bed with him. “Don’t care if it hurts. I need you right here.”

Softly cupping his cheek, I press a kiss to his lips, closing my eyes tightly to hide my tears.

Waking up screaming in another hospital room, panicked and unable to immediately remember what happened for the second time in my life? Yeah, that was horrible and I’d be happy to never do that again but when I did start to remember what happened, that made it ten times worse.

“You ok, Leo?”

I push a few of his dreads over his shoulder, making eye contact the best I can because I know he needs it. “Yeah.”

Pete just arches a brow. Painfully, judging by the little flinch.

“Miraculously, nothing is broken, I’m just banged up.” Which is the truth, shockingly.

The entire right side of my face is full of cuts, my right shoulder and arm is about the same, I have whiplash, and my sternum is bruised as fuck from the seatbelt but I came away from our accident relatively unharmed.

We all did, all considering what happened and how much worse it could have been.

Those amber eyes search mine for a beat, the burst blood vessels in Pete’s right one making my heart squeeze all over again until he licks his dry lips to ask, “Is Lucky… Lucius, is he…”

“He’s ok.” A wave of relief visibly comes over him as I kiss him again. “You two have matching head wounds and concussions, and he’s recovering from surgery a few hours ago, but Lucky is ok.”

“Surgery?”

I nod as I settle against Pete. “His shoulder is fucked up. Nothing permanent in terms of function but when he hit the windshield, the way he was thrown and landed, it dislocated it and tore his rotator cuff. He should be close to coming out of the recovery room, actually.”

Thank God for that, too.

Not being able to see either of them for the first few hours I was conscious had me seconds from snapping. They kept telling me my boys were ok but there was no fucking way I was going to believe it until I saw them. I needed to see for myself, needed to watch the rise and fall of their chests as they breathed because we shouldn’t have walked away from something like that. Especially since none of the airbags in the beast deployed.

It didn’t help that they wouldn’t let Mark, Norman or Justine back to see us, either.

I knew they were here; we’ve all been each other’s emergency contacts forever and the nurses confirmed they showed up but they kept insisting they couldn’t come back until we were moved into regular rooms.

They still are and I have no idea why.

I’m sure the rest of our family is ready to come unglued.

And I wouldn’t put it past Justine to call in some sort of backup or threaten a lawsuit so they could get through security.

That’s basically what I did.

When they wouldn’t really tell me much about Lucky and Pete, when they refused to let me get out of bed to go find them, I started threatening to call our lawyer because I don’t give a fuck what their reasons are, I needed to see my boyfriends.

Especially when one of the nurses was nice enough to fill me in on what exactly happened.

Basically, the Lambo hit us from behind hard enough to shove the beast into the intersection then a second car, a Viper from what I understand, gunned it through and around traffic to hit us from the right side. What’s weird about all of that, weirder than it actually happening, is the fact that by the time the police showed up, the Lamborghini was gone and whoever was driving the Viper disappeared as well.

Which means not only are the three of us ok, the two fuckers involved in starting the very on purpose accident are as well.

It sounds like the only casualty was that big, beautiful cargo van, and I’m still struggling to wrap my head around how we walked away.

Well, we were wheeled away in stretchers because all three of us were out cold, but still.

The lack of airbags coupled with very intentional hits by other vehicles could have easily meant at least one of us didn’t make it.

We all did, though.

I don’t need to understand how or why, I don’t even need to know what divine power made it so. All I need is the physical reassurance, the visible confirmation that my boys are alive and breathing, and that the three of us will be walking out of here in a day or two.

“We really know how to party, don’t we?”

We both turn at the sound of that voice, rough and gravely but no less comforting.

I immediately go to get up as a nurse wheels Lucky into the room, our beautiful giant sporting gauze on his head, several cuts on his face, and a fancy new sling and wrap to keep his arm from moving, but when I try, he lifts his hand. “Stay there, baby cakes.”

“Lucius, I…”

I am momentarily speechless.

Two male nurses come in right behind him, pushing a pretty large hospital bed until everyone is in the room.

“Right there, fellas,” Lucky says as he points. “Get it as close as possible, we don’t need our girl slipping through the crack.”

Pete chuckles and I smile as we watch them take the rail off the bed we’re in as well as the corresponding side of Lucky’s before they get them as close as they can, lock them in place, then help our boy into it.

“How did you manage to talk them into this?” Peter asks as I kiss Lucky, who then leans to kiss our boyfriend. “I doubt this is protocol.”

“It’s not.” He grins. “But I’m in pain, loopy as fuck and when I started spitting all the legal bullshit about patient rights and whatnot, apparently I sounded convincing enough to make it happen. Where is everyone?”

Stuffing a few pillows behind and under me so I don’t actually fall through the cracks, I make myself as comfortable as I can between them. “They won’t let them back.”

“What?”

I nod slowly as Pete says, “You can use your legal jargon for that, too.”

“Motherfucker.” Lucky goes for his call light but before he can even push it, someone else walks in.

“Perfect,” Dr. Morgan says with a smile. “I was hoping all three of you were together.”

My stomach drops before it launches itself into my throat, the relief I was feeling replaced with sheer panic.

If my OB has tracked us down after everything we just went through, I can’t imagine what she has to tell me is good. And it must be important as fuck for her to do that.

“Good news.” She comes to the end of the double bed, stopping at the foot as she flips through the pages on her clipboard. “The babies are just fine so no need to worry about them anymore. That scar tissue must have protected them from any bumps they could have taken, it’s amazing really after all the blood you lost but that being said, your numbers are still not exactly where I want them to be. I’m going to?—”

“ Babies,” I blurt as I sit up, my back ramrod straight and eyes wide as saucers. “Did you just say babies ?”

Dr. Morgan looks up at me and nods slowly. “Yes… They didn’t tell you?”

“Tell me what?”

“You’re ten and a half weeks pregnant, Leonor. That’s what I called about this morning.” She smiles wide as she sets the clipboard down. “I ran a few extra tests on your bloodwork because I didn’t like some of the levels I saw and I got confirmation this morning. You, my friend, will be giving birth to twins next spring.”

“Shut the fuck up,” I say like an asshole as Pete and Lucky sit up next to me. “You’re not serious.”

“As a heart attack. When they brought you in I met them in emergency. I heard the crash on the phone before it went dead and made sure to do an exam once I was able to. You were spotting pretty heavily, most likely from the trauma of the accident, and I’m sure that’s why they didn’t say anything right away. In case…”

She trails off as I nod. “In case I lost them?”

“But you didn’t. Those two little peanuts are thriving, their heartbeats are strong, and that mass we don’t need to worry about anymore is probably what protected them.”

Babies?

I’m going to have multiple babies?

“Who’s the dad?” I ask like a moron because I’m in shock.

“Hopefully one of us,” Pete grunts as Lucky chuckles. “Unless there’s more you need to share, princess.”

I shake my head as I look at him. “No, god, that’s not what I meant, I just…”

“You want to know which one of the four of us.”

“Right.” I nod as I look at Lucius, tears stinging my nose when I see them shining in his gun metal gray eyes. “Not that it matters, it really doesn’t, I just wondered, I don’t know, I…” God, I can’t even think straight right now.

This is the last fucking thing I expected Dr. Morgan to tell us when she called to say she wanted to see me. It doesn’t feel real, not after believing for such a long time that this probably wouldn’t happen for me.

For us .

I should have known the four men I fell in love with had super sperm. Physical trauma, surgeries, and medical diagnoses mean nothing to the shit they’re packing.

Which makes me snort.

“That’s not funny, Leonor,” Lucky scolds.

And I frown. “What’s not?”

“Everything doc just said.”

“Which was?” I missed it while I was thinking about super sperm.

Dr. Morgan pulls something from the clipboard and hands it to me after rounding the bed. “I was just talking about the scripts I sent in for you, the extra precautions we’ll need to take. But I’m scheduling an appointment for you in about a week and we can review all of that then. Just make sure you go to the pharmacy to pick up what I ordered, and take it easy for a while.”

I nod absently as I look down, my hands starting to shake a little as my eyes scan the black and white image in my hand.

“It’s a good thing there are four of you.” Dr. Morgan chuckles as she heads toward the door. “Leonor is going to be a handful, I think, and having a team of men who love her and will no doubt spoil her is the only way any of you are going to survive this pregnancy.”

If I didn’t know she was kidding, sort of since she’s not wrong either, I’d be pissed by that.

But she is, and she’s not.

As I lift a finger and trace the two little bean shaped blobs floating in my body very close to the scar tissue my doctor so thoughtfully labeled, all I can think is, I’m going to be impossible, sure, but my boys wont have to work as hard as they think to keep me on track.

These babies are precious, they were wanted long before they existed, and I’ll be damned if I let anything or anyone take them from me.

The Ravens are having babies.

If that isn’t one hell of a comeback, I don’t know what is.