by Marla Monroe
“I’m going to go make coffee. I think we could all use some.” She walked back toward the office where they had a small kitchenette.
“That was too fucking close, Brody. We could have easily been killed. I don’t know what I would have done if I’d lost either of you.” Lamar thrust his hands in his pockets.
“I feel the same way. I hope this is the end of it. I don’t want to be watching our backs for the rest of our lives. How can we convince Caitlyn to stay with us if we might get her killed?”
“If this isn’t the end, I don’t want her staying here. I want her as far away from us as possible. I couldn’t live knowing we had gotten her killed.”
Brody nodded even as he felt his heart breaking at the thought of sending her away. It didn’t matter. Her life was more important than his heart. In the meantime, they would wait for someone to come and tell them what was going on.
Several minutes later, Caitlyn returned with three mugs of steaming coffee. She handed one to each of them and cradled the last one between her hands. The dark liquid sloshed in the cup, betraying the soft tremors wracking her body. Brody gritted his teeth to keep from cursing. Instead, he set down his mug and pulled her back against him, wrapping his arms around her. He hoped to give her some of his strength.
She relaxed into his arms, and the little earthquakes slowly calmed. She sipped her coffee and laid her head back against his shoulder. Brody felt a moment’s relief that she was in his arms and trusting him to keep her safe. Then reality took over and he slowly stood her up away from him.
“I want you to stay in the office until we find out what is going on. I don’t want to take any chances that something else could happen. You should be out of the line of fire in there.”
She turned around to glare at him. “I’m not a coward. I want to know what’s going on. They were shooting at all of us, not just the two of you.”
“I don’t want anything to happen to you, Caitlyn. I can’t concentrate on what needs to be done if I’m worried about you. Please don’t argue with me on this.” He squeezed her shoulders, keeping her close to him as they spoke.
He was aware of Lamar standing only feet away watching them. His brother would be making sure he wasn’t stepping out of line. He wasn’t. Brody knew he was right and she needed to be out of sight.
“I think you’re being overprotective of me now. They have the men in custody. They aren’t going to suddenly get loose and attack me again.” She held up her hand when he started to contradict her. “But I’ll stay in the office so you won’t be dividing your attention while the deputies are here.”
Brody felt his blood began to pump through his veins again. He pulled her into his arms and hugged her, coffee and all. Looking over to where Lamar was, he saw a look of relief flow across his brother’s face.
“Okay. Get back to the office and stay there until one of us comes to get you. There should be plenty in there to keep you busy. It’s where we start the paperwork for the bookkeeping anyway.”
“Yeah, I noticed that the other day when I was here. I didn’t want to fiddle around without your knowledge.” Caitlyn turned and walked toward the office across the building.
Brody watched her until she disappeared inside. Then he turned back toward Lamar and grimaced. His brother looked as worried as he felt. What was taking the deputies so fucking long?
An urgent knock at the shop door jarred both men from their individual thoughts. Lamar was closest and stood to one side to answer it.
“Who is it?”
“It’s Jace Vincent, Lamar.”
Lamar unlocked the door and slowly opened the door. The deputy walked in and closed the door behind him.
“What’s going on?” Brody demanded.
“We’ve got three men cuffed in the back of our vehicle. After running their names, it seems that not only do we have two guys with long rap sheets and a few warrants against them, but we have the president of Azzali Steele as well. Makes me wonder why the president of the company would be mixed up with drive-by shootings. Not only were they lousy shots, thank God, but they didn’t have the sense to check their getaway route ahead of time.”
“Talk about your stupidest criminals,” Lamar said.
“Right. We’re taking them down to the station for questioning. You guys should be fine now, but we’ll let you know what we find out. Sheriff Tidwell is already there waiting on us.”
“Thanks for the help, Jace.”
“Glad we were driving by. Talk to you later.” The deputy turned and walked out the door, closing it behind him.
Lamar locked it and turned to face Brody. “What do you think?”
“Tidwell said they were in league with the mob. There could be retaliation.”
“Maybe. Do we send her away or keep her close?”
“Let’s see what Tidwell comes up with. I’ve always trusted his instincts before.”
Lamar nodded and they headed toward the office where Caitlyn was waiting for them. Brody needed to see her again to reassure himself that she hadn’t been hurt. They’d been damn lucky.
He knocked on the office door and called out. “Caity, it’s us. Unlock the door, baby.”
The sound of the lock clicking let him know she had heard him. Then the door opened, and she stuck her head out with a giant smile aimed for them.
“What happened? Is it over?”
“They are headed to jail, but we don’t know if there is anything else to worry about yet. The sheriff will talk to them and then let us know what he finds out. Until then, you’ve got to stay close to us and keep your head down.”
“I can do that.” She hugged them both then sat back at the desk. “I’ve got plenty to keep me busy here. Your files here aren’t in much better shape than the ones you had at home.”
Brody winced. He knew they weren’t bookkeepers. They were machinists. Neither one of them had even taken bookkeeping or accounting or whatever the hell they called it now.
“Don’t go getting defensive. Very few business owners keep their own books. Those that do probably shouldn’t be.”
“I don’t know what we are going to do to keep them in line if you leave. They’ll just get back in the same shape they were before you straightened them out.”
“I’ll help you figure them out. Maybe when I work on Brian’s I can work on yours some, too.”
“We better get to work, Brody. We’ve got a lot to get done today, including the online store business.”
Brody sighed. Lamar was right. They needed to get to work. He was having a hard time leaving her, though. He wanted to stick around and just watch her work. Standing up, he winked at her and turned toward the door. Lamar already had it open and was walking through it. He followed behind his little brother, closing the door behind him. He heard the soft click of the lock even as his heart skipped a beat at the finality of the sound.
* * * *
Caitlyn pored over the paperwork stacked in piles on the desk. She had to work at concentrating on the numbers. Her head was still outside where they’d been shot at. She could almost hear the bullets popping the outside of the building around her head. Nothing like that had ever happened to her before. It made her screwed-up life with Harold seem small and insignificant. Maybe it was. Maybe she had needed this to put things in perspective. Was she putting more importance on the situation than it deserved?
She looked out the glass window at the men as they worked on something that looked a little like an engine. She couldn’t help but admire their muscles as they glistened with sweat in the overhead lights. Each flex of muscle sent another bead of sweat down their brows or across their shoulders. Caitlyn wanted to follow where it rolled with her tongue.
She tore her eyes from the men and concentrated on the books once more. She had plenty of things to keep her busy. She didn’t need to be making goo-goo eyes at Brody and Lamar while they were working. She couldn’t fight her attraction to them, neither could she deny that she loved them, but could s
he live with them? Could she embrace the lifestyle that living with them would require?
She let it turn circles in her head while she concentrated on putting their business in order. Maybe later she would have an answer to that question. For now, she had work to do.
Sometime later, a knock at the door startled her into throwing her pen across the desk. She looked up into the amused eyes of Lamar standing at the door. She frowned at him before unlocking the door and finding her pen on the floor in front of the desk.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. I guess I thought you would see me walking across the floor.”
“I’m really concentrating on the books. I guess I wasn’t paying any attention to anything out there.”
“Somehow I think I should be offended by that.” Lamar kissed her on the forehead before grabbing two bottles of water from the fridge. “We needed some water. How are you doing?”
“I’m fine. How much longer till you’re ready to head over to the store?”
“Brody wants to finish this project we’re working on first. Shouldn’t take more than another hour.”
“Sounds good. I’m close to being finished with what I’m working on here. I’ll need to work on it some more next week though.”
Lamar nodded and winked as he walked out the door. She closed it and locked it behind him. Then she watched as he crossed the floor toward Brody, handing him a bottle of water once he reached him. Brody looked over toward her and saluted her with it. She waved and smiled then returned to working on their books.
An hour later, both men stood outside the door waiting on her to answer their knock. She smiled and unlocked the door. They were both soaking wet with sweat.
“Ready to head over to the store to finish up there?” Brody held the door open.
Caitlyn nodded and grabbed her purse. Then she waved them out ahead of her. She slipped past them and waited while Brody locked the office up. It didn’t take them long to close the building down and drive over to Brian’s store. Brody insisted that she remain in the locked truck until they had checked out the building to be sure it was safe.
Once inside, they quickly set up an assembly-line of packaging and labeling the items to be shipped. They had just loaded them into the truck to take them to the post office when Brody’s cell rang.
“It’s Tidwell. He’s probably found out something by now.”
Brody answered the phone and listened for a while before agreeing to meet them at the sheriff’s office in thirty minutes. He hung up and filled them in.
“He said that we shouldn’t have any further trouble but that he would explain everything once we got there. Let’s mail these and head over there.”
Caitlyn let the guys handle mailing the boxes. She sat in the truck, thinking about their close call and how everything could be okay so quickly when the mafia was involved. She still didn’t feel totally safe right then.
It wasn’t until they were sitting in the sheriff’s office that she began to lose some of the worry she’d gathered up after being attacked earlier in the week. She’d believed that Brody and Lamar would have done everything in their power to keep her safe, but she knew they were two men. They hadn’t even been armed that she was aware of. Now, she was surrounded by armed men.
Sheriff Tidwell walked into the room that was probably their conference room. She, Brody, Lamar, Deputy Vincent, and his partner Silas Atkins were all present at the table. The sheriff took the last seat at the head of the table and began talking.
“Tomas Azzali is the president of Azzali Steele of San Antonio. He is a small company branch out of Philadelphia. He’s a second or third cousin to the big boss of Azzali. It seems that the big boss wasn’t aware that Tomas was trying to build a mini-empire out here in Texas and isn’t very happy with his cousin at the moment.”
“So even though he has ties to the mafia, he isn’t really part of them.” Lamar leaned back in his chair.
“Right. He is probably part of their legit business practices that is supposed to keep the heat off of them back east. This has compromised their plans. I’m sure that Tomas will be dealt with severely. Once he gets out of prison here for attempted murder and aggravated assault.”
“So the big boss isn’t going to try and take over the business here.” Brody didn’t seem as convinced as Tidwell appeared to be.
Caitlyn could understand. He’d had his livelihood threatened and been shot at. She wasn’t as convinced either.
“No. He’s assured us that he has no intention of widening his business in this direction. He just wants to continue the local business that he’d started out working in San Antonio. He says he isn’t greedy.”
“Do you believe him?” Brody finally asked. “Because this is our business, not to mention our lives, on the line here.”
“I believe him. He seems to be having a busy time out there right now as it is. He doesn’t have the time or the manpower to spread himself thin right now. You can forget about Azzali Steele.”
Caitlyn watched as Brody relaxed in his chair. He nodded and turned to Lamar. They exchanged a long look, and then he turned to look at her.
“How do you feel about it, Caity?”
“I trust the sheriff. I think everything is fine now.”
“As long as you feel safe then I’ll be happy. I don’t want you to feel like you have to look over your shoulder all the time.”
“I’m ready to go, Brody. Can we go back to your place now?” She suddenly felt tired and realized the adrenaline she’d been running on since the drive-by was beginning to fade.
“I agree with that.” Lamar took her hand and pulled her to her feet.
Everyone at the table stood up as she and Lamar did. Brody took her other hand and they left the conference room together. She couldn’t wait to get back to their place. She’d almost said home back there, and that worried her. She didn’t need to be thinking about their house as home. She wasn’t staying past next week. Was she?
Chapter Twenty
“Dinner was good, Caitydid. Thanks for cooking.” Brody kissed her on the forehead as he walked by with his plate, heading toward the sink.
“I really enjoyed it. Meatloaf is my favorite.” Lamar stood up with his plate and glass in his hand.
“I’m glad you both liked it. I enjoy cooking. I just don’t like cooking for one, so I don’t do it very often.”
“You know if you stayed with us, you would be cooking for three.” Lamar smiled at her.
Caitlyn wanted to say yes and stay with them, but she was afraid that it wouldn’t work. What if a few months down the line they decided they didn’t want to be tied down with her? Where would she be then? She would have a business there and have to start over again.
“What are you thinking about so hard over there, Caity?” Brody’s expression said that he knew what she was thinking about. She hesitated, trying to figure out what to say.
“The truth. Don’t avoid the question.”
She put down the dishcloth and dried her hands. Turning toward where he and Lamar stood just inside the kitchen doorway, she licked her bottom lip and sighed.
“I’m just worried that you’ll get tired of me and want out after a few months. I’m no one special. How can I possibly keep two men interested? I couldn’t even keep one before.”
“Are you comparing us to that scumbag?” Lamar demanded.
“No! I know you’re nothing like him. I’m used to being on my own all the time. I don’t know if I can change to fit into your lives. I don’t want to wake up one day to find out that you are tired of me and then have to start over again.”
She watched Brody walk around the table while rubbing his hands over his face. He stopped several steps in front of her.
“Caity, we want a chance to prove to you that we’re in this for the long haul. You mean more to us than anything. Give us the chance to prove it. Now that we don’t have to worry about someone coming at us from behind our backs, we can spend more time with you a
nd show you how we feel.”
“We have next week.”
“What about the week after that? You said you were going to be here three weeks to make sure Tish knew how to handle the books.” Lamar took a step forward, a serious expression on his face.
“I was thinking I would move back over there to work with them on their business.”
“Stay with us instead. It would be like living with us and going to work every day. You can see how well it would all work for us.” Lamar took another step toward her and was within touching distance now.
She glanced over at Brody and could tell that he had been expecting her to stay with them the entire time as well. She quickly searched back to figure out if she’d told them she would or not. She couldn’t remember. It had all happened so quickly.
“But Brian…”
“Knows how we feel about you. We told him we wanted to court you. He’ll expect you to stay with us if you’re thinking about it. Give us a chance, Caitlyn.” Brody stared down into her eyes as Lamar reached out and palmed her cheek.
How could she say no, especially when her heart was already theirs? She sighed and looked down at her feet. She couldn’t. God, leaving them was going to kill her.
“Okay. I’ll stay with you until I’ve made sure Tish is comfortable with the books. I’ll make sure you’re doing okay with yours, too.”
Lamar grabbed her before Brody could and swung her around in his arms. Then he kissed her long and deep, wrapping her in his arms so that she couldn’t move even if she wanted to.
“Lamar, carry her upstairs. I’m going to finish loading the dishwasher. I’ll be up in a few minutes.”
Lamar whooped for joy and picked her up in his arms. She clung to him as he climbed the stairs toward the bedroom. She expected him to let her down once they were in the room, but he continued to the bathroom and set her on the counter. He stood between her spread legs and nipped at her earlobe before licking his way down her neck to nip at the curve where it met her shoulder.
