Lotto Trouble: A Reverse Harem Romantic Comedy (Lotto Love Book 2)

by Ann Denton

  Alec turns away without confirming that I understand his little finger-pointing, elbow-flapping hand signals. He goes back to staring at the bad guy for another second. I shake my head and roll my eyes and decide to just follow along behind Alec. Hopefully I don’t screw up the plan of the only person in our little quad that knows anything about attacking others.

  Suddenly, Alec leaves our bush. Not running, not stealthy. He just stands up and walks. Alec marches right toward the motherfucker in the sports coat leaning on the helicopter. What in the holy name of hell? This is his plan! Suddenly I'm rethinking his intelligence. Because this plan seems a few peas short of a casserole.

  My choices are to stand where I am or follow the fathead with the homemade hanger weapon. My brain must be fried because I choose to follow the fucktard. I don't know why. I could justify it by saying that I think he'll take most of the bullets … but I don't really know if that logic is true. My feet just move.

  I run like a maniac to keep up with Alec, but it does no good. The guy leaning on the chopper sees us and swings around. He flips his knife shut and reaches for that nice, shiny firearm on his hip. And does he point his weapon at the big, hulking man striding toward him? Nope. He points his gun right at me.

  Dammit! I freeze. Alec doesn’t. I stick my hands in the air when Sports Coat waves his gun.

  "Don't move," Sports Coat barks at me.

  Alec turns to look at me, like he’s surprised I’m there. In fact, his eyebrows lower like he’s pissed to see I followed him.

  We have another of those silent conversations, only this time he’s scolding me instead of comforting me.

  Sports Coat approaches behind Alec, “I’ve got her covered.”

  Guess Alec’s disguise is working well enough, then.

  When Sports Coat gets within Alec’s reach, I gulp, not sure what’s gonna happen next. Apparently, gulping is the signal for attack. Alec swings his arm at the stranger; the arm that's been reinforced with tiny hanger daggers. He whacks Sports Coat right in the neck. The other man stumbles backward and Alec moves immediately to disarm the other man.

  Sports Coat squeals like a piglet when Alec touches his hand. They scuffle. I bite my lip, unsure what to do as the damn moon closes her eye and leaves us back in a mess of shadows. I lean forward a bit, then step back, then take half a step forward. It’s like second grade all over again, trying to jump into the damn ropes for double dutch. I’m trying to time jumping into the fight so I actually help. Only, I don’t know when that might be.

  My moment finally comes when I see Alec kick the gun away. Then I know exactly what to do. I beeline it for that motherfucker. I snatch it up.

  "I have his gun," I call out. But Alec doesn't turn to acknowledge me; he’s busy groaning after Sports Coat’s nut shot.

  I call out a little louder. "I don't think you heard me. I got his gun! You can stop now."

  Alec just grunts and slams Sports Coat’s head into the grass. They roll around on the ground like two monkeys.

  "If you just back the fuck off, I can point the gun at him," I grouse as I click the safety off the gun and train it away from them. Like any good Oklahoma girl, I learned to shoot young. My daddy took me when I was growing up. But I haven't touched a gun in years. And so I mentally review the steps when suddenly a gunshot goes off. I stare at the gun in my hand. Did I accidentally …?

  I hear bones crack. Sports Coat howls.

  Alec grunts and another small gun flies through the air. "Correction," Alec grates out. "You got a gun."

  Well, smack me in the face and call me stupid. Of course, he had two guns. What self-respecting bad guy wouldn’t? My cheeks burn red as I run across the grass and scoop up a small revolver. I guess my role here is more weapons collector than anything. Shortly after gun number two, Alec tosses the pocket knife my way. I slide that onto the neckline of my dress because I literally have nowhere else to put it.

  I’m just adding a set of brass knuckles to my weapon collection when Kenneth and Danny make it around the building and up to us.

  “Damn,” I poke fun. “Stop to take a shit?”

  Danny turns red.

  I shake my head. “Never mind. Don’t answer.” I look at Kenneth and ask, “Know how to shoot a gun?”

  We turn to watch Alec put Sports Coat in a headlock. Kenneth cocks his head and asks, “He’s still not out? I thought you’d have knocked him out by now.”

  Alec snarls, “You wanna come down here and choke him out instead?” Alec’s face is turning red with the effort of holding Sports Coat down.

  “Nope I’m good,” Kenneth replies.

  There’s an awkward period of silence where Alec squeezes tighter, Sports Coat flails and wheezes, and Danny, Kenneth, and I just stare off into the distance … then at each other … then off into the distance … waiting. It takes a lot longer than I expect for Sports Coat to go limp.

  Alec sighs and sits back in the grass, recovering.

  Danny leans over the stranger. “He’s still breathing.”

  Alec nods. “He’s just passed out.”

  I nod. “Alright then. So, we need to tie him up, maybe?”

  Alec nods.

  Finally! Something I can do. “I’ve got jute rope back in my villa, I’ll just go run and…” I’m moving and trailing off.

  “Katie!” Alec’s voice stops me. He holds out a hand. “Gimme a gun.”

  I trot back and hand him one.

  He raises a brow when I keep the other.

  “Hey, I know how to shoot. Targets at least.”

  He clamps his lips together to suppress a smile. “Alright. You can keep it. But give those bozos the knife and the knuckles.”

  I pass out the other weapons and then head back down the dip in the grass toward my villa. Someone follows, but I don’t look back. I just take comfort in the warm presence guarding me.

  I get into my villa and head over to the unused fireplace. That’s where I put the boxes with flower tape, twine, all kinds of random supplies. I open the flaps of one box and start to dig in. “It should be in one of these three boxes,” I say.

  I see Kenneth grab a box out of the corner of my eye. He starts digging. But he doesn’t get very far before he stops and rubs his chin. “Um … why do you have cat litter in here?”

  I look up from where the ribbon wheels I’m tossing aside. “Don’t you use those in your kitchen?”

  “Um. No.”

  “Oh, it’s great for spills. It’s crazy absorbent. It’s got these crystals that just suck up all the …” I trail off at Kenneth’s disbelieving look.

  “Don’t ever bring that stuff in my kitchen.”

  “Okay, geez. I just like to be prepared.”

  Kenneth just gives me a disbelieving head shake before he reaches into his box and pulls out a roll of twine.

  “Jackpot!” I give him a high five with my free hand and we make our way back outside, me in front, holding my gun down and creeping sideways like they do in cop shows. “So … know how to tie people up?”

  Kenneth grins and slides closer to me. “Katie, if you want me to truss you up sometime, just ask.”

  I giggle awkwardly but a little shiver runs down my spine. I’m sure if Kenneth were to do that to me, he’d be amazing at it. “I meant, like, bad guys.” I try to steer the topic toward the pressing issue at hand.

  But Kenneth slaps my ass and says, “I’m so glad I didn’t die tonight.”

  “Me too.”

  “I definitely don’t want to die before I tap that again.”

  I laugh. It’s not poetry, but it works.

  We rejoin Alec and Danny and try to determine the best way to tie up Sports Coat. In the end, we decide to go full cocoon. We wrap him shoulders to feet in skinny brown twine.

  Once the bad guy is secure and I’m standing over him with my gun pointed at him like I’m some badass who knows what she’s doing, Alec slides open the door to the helicopter. He hops in and takes a look around. He tries the radio, bu
t it’s all static.

  “Dammit. Bet the mountain blocks the radio signal,” he gestures over at the rise that leads up to the waterfall. He gives up on sending a distress signal and searches under the seats, pulling open the luggage compartment. But the thing is empty. Not a scrap of paper with notes on what they’re doing or anything.

  “Six seater,” he calls out. “So we should assume it was full.”

  “But, if it was full, then they couldn’t take anyone back with them,” I protest.

  Alec lifts a shoulder. “Not alive. But that luggage compartment’s empty.”

  I tremble at the implication. Next to me, Danny swallows hard. The only reason I could think these guys would land here and want to bring back a body is because they’ve been wronged. Dammit all, Peter Brown! It kinda makes me want to find him and kick him myself. He’s the fucking ass-teroid who’s caused our own personal apocalypse.

  “So, if we have one, then there are five more out there,” Danny shakes his head. “Damn.”

  Alec hops down onto the grass and turns to stare up at the chopper, examining it. “Best way to make sure a chopper can’t fly is to take out the tail rotor.” He eyes it.

  Danny studies it. “I could do that, hit rocks at it or something.”

  Alec shakes his head. “Too loud. Same with the guns. If we shoot it, this guy—”

  “Sports Coat,” I supply.

  “What?”

  Apparently, I’ve derailed his train of thought.

  “Heather and I like to come up with nicknames for people we don’t know. So, we can tell who we’re talking about. So, we’ll say, like, remember Jellybean at the mall?”

  “Jellybean?”

  “The guy had bright green hair.”

  “So, your nicknames are unoriginal and all about appearance?” Danny asks.

  “Hey!”

  “I say Katie’s new nickname is Nipples,” Danny says.

  Kenneth nods. “Done.”

  My fingers clench and I nearly pull the trigger. “Fuck you, Ken doll.”

  Danny’s eyes widen and dance with mirth. “I like it. Sex symbol. But Ken doll and Kenneth could be confusing. What should we call him? Shorty?”

  Kenneth cocks his head and stares at Danny. “Maybe you should be called Quickie based on how fast you—”

  Alec’s nostrils flare and he pinches the bridge of his nose. “Shut up and focus!” Alec turns to Kenneth. "Do you know where the nearest garden hose is? Where is the closest grounds keeper shed?"

  "Katie's villa is the farthest out," Kenneth shakes his head. "There's no way we be able to get to anything without crossing paths with the rest of those creeps."

  "Fuck.”

  “A hose? To suction out the gas?” I ask.

  Alec nods and I stare up at the big, mean, flying monster that spit six assholes down on us and consider how I might be able to break it. I lick my lips as I ponder the options. And the event-planning, contingency awareness, end-of-the-world worrywart part of my brain lights up. I turn to Kenneth, a self-satisfied smile stretching across my face as I ask, "What if we soak up the gas … with cat litter?"

  I try not to do a smug happy dance as the guys pour cat litter into the gas tank. But I fail. I totally shoulder shimmy with a gun still in my hand.

  Once that’s done, we have to decide what we want to do next. Should we go down to the pool and try a rescue mission? Or should we go into the forest and try to snag Peter Brown?

  “They’ll come back to check on Sports Coat eventually,” Kenneth gestures at our prisoner, who’s still out cold. I give him a shoulder bump for embracing the nickname and he smiles at me and rolls his eyes. Ugh—he’s got the best smile. It transforms his face. We share a moment before we both turn back to the discussion at hand.

  “But, we might need a bargaining chip,” Danny argues. “We go in now, then we’ll be empty-handed.”

  Alec nods. “That or, at least, we need a distraction. If we can get Peter Brown and get back down here quickly, maybe two of us bring him in while the other two sneak in through the back with the guns. If we’re coming from behind … we might have a shot.”

  Kenneth plays devil’s advocate. “But, if Heather and her harem are still on the island and they didn’t leave with the staff, they could need us now.”

  That thought alone has me dancing on my tiptoes with anxiety. Shit. What do we do?

  “We can’t know either way for sure unless we walk down there right now.” Alec shrugs.

  Kenneth toes Sports Coat. “What if we go for Brown and also try to get this asswipe to talk when he wakes up? I mean, then maybe we could get some more intel on their plan and stuff.”

  Alec grinds his teeth together in thought. It’s the first non-hot, mildly annoying habit I’ve seen from him.

  Danny sighs, “I wish they had fucking walkie talkies so we could hear their plans.”

  “This is real life, not some movie, dimrod,” Kenneth rolls his eyes.

  “I know that! I can still wish—”

  Kenneth opens his mouth to get chippy.

  “Don’t!” I hold up a hand. “Just … don’t. We need to think this through.” All the guys turn and look at me. And suddenly it feels like I’ve been tossed inside a pressure cooker. “Whoa. Um, why are you all staring at me?”

  “Heather’s your friend,” Alec says. “What do you think we should do?”

  Oh crap. Me? He wants to know what I think? I’m with Danny. I’m all for wishful thinking. I don’t want this reality. I don’t want to be here in this moment. I don’t want this weight in my chest, like the damned ghost of Jacob Marley—wrapped in chains—is suddenly possessing me. I want to skip to the end and miss the scary bits and the life lessons. I just want it to be Merry Christmas and happily ever after and all that. My mind goes back and forth like a swing in a windstorm. Do we take the bad guys on now, head on? Or do we wait and try to trick them?

  I pick at my hair and avoid their eyes. I’m not qualified to choose. What if I make the wrong choice? What if Heather’s down there? What if I make the wrong choice and she dies? What if I make the wrong choice and one of my guys dies? Or what if someone gets hurt? What if they hate me for it? I start breathing harder. I can’t …

  Alec steps up to me, right into my bubble. We’re toe to toe and I can feel the heat radiating from his skin. I can see the scratches weeping on his chest, the bruises blooming. “Katie, choose.”

  “I can’t—”

  “Choose or I’ll kill him.” Alec gestures at Sports Coat.

  “What!?”

  “Prisoners are usually more trouble than they’re worth,” Alec shrugs. “But you choose. What do you want? You have five seconds.”

  My skull’s an inferno. This isn’t happening! He can’t be serious. He’s joking, right?

  Alec cocks his gun. He takes a step closer to Sports Coat. “Pool or waterfall?” He takes aim.

  Panic clouds my thoughts and I try to swat it away. I can’t let him! He can’t! We—I—I blurt out the first thing I can. “Waterfall!”

  Alec slowly moves his gun away from Sports Coat. He smiles at me. “Good job.”

  I fall to my knees on the grass. “I can’t believe you were gonna kill him.” I’m so angry and sick to my stomach right now. I thought I knew him. What the fuck?

  “I wasn’t gonna kill him,” Alec puts the safety back on his gun and tucks it into his waistband. “I just wanted to know what you thought. Not what you thought we wanted to hear. But what you, Katie, on an instinctual level, thought was the right choice.”

  Tears come to my eyes. And that panic that’s been seething inside me finally pushes it’s way through my stomach and out my lips. I puke on the grass.

  Alec comes to put an arm around me, but I shove him off. “Fuck you and your life lessons.”

  He doesn’t say anything in response to that. He just stands, hands Kenneth his gun, and slings Sports Coat over his shoulder. “I’ll see you at the waterfall.” He walks off.

&
nbsp; Danny scoops me into his arm and places a gentle kiss on my forehead. He doesn’t say anything, which is nice. He just carries me away from my villa and toward the path that leads up the mountain. Kenneth follows, guarding our rear.

  I slump in Danny’s arms as the adrenaline leaves me. He carries me, but it doesn’t seem to slow him down. He and Kenneth catch up with Alec pretty quickly. I’m almost asleep when I hear screaming. Female screaming. The shrill sounds of a voice I know all too well.

  I scramble out of Danny’s arms and fall to my knees on the path. But I don’t even care. I stand and turn; we all turn to look back in the direction of the villas. We can’t see them anymore. Trees block the view. But there’s one more loud screech.

  My hand goes over my heart. No! Heather!

  Chapter Six

  Heather

  I scream for all I’m worth. Then I yell at those stupid twins. “You asshole motherfuckers! Why the hell are you even here, huh? Did they send you?”

  The twins have the good sense to look ashamed. As they should. They’re damn lucky I didn’t pick up Suity McGunpants’ weapon when I had the chance or they might be full of holes right now. My lip twitches. If there’s one thing I can’t stand since Shane Paul, it’s a lying cheater. And now, I’m looking at two of them. Somehow, these jerkoffs weaseled their way onto the harem list and onto my plane, all because of that lotto ticket and some male sense of entitlement. I should have hired bodyguards like Katie suggested when she planned this thing. Fuck. I’d thought she was being overprotective, paranoid about guys getting too obsessed with me or desperate for my money. I hadn’t thought she’d be right.

  Dammit. Katie’s paranoia: 1. My idiotic ass: 0.