by Mia Ashlinn
“Why didn’t you tell us about your uncle?” Jaycee asked quietly, her voice husky from the tears she’d shed over the last thirty minutes while Shannon had shared her twisted story. “Didn’t you trust us, Shan?”
Shannon’s heart squeezed. She’d known her friends would see it that way, that they’d blame themselves instead of her. Hell, she’d even mentally prepared for it, but the tightness in her chest still caught her by surprise. “It wasn’t that,” she assured them, only barely able to squeeze the words past the lump in her throat. “I was protecting you two and all of our men.”
“You were protecting us by risking yourself?” Katie-Anne inquired. “How did that make it better, Shan? Please explain it to me because I don’t understand.”
Shannon’s heart sped up, and she suddenly felt caged in. Standing up, she paced back and forth across the kitchen floor, the cool tiles uncomfortable against the bottom of her bare feet. “I don’t know how to explain it to you. I just couldn’t bear for him to hurt one of the people I loved again. It would have been too much.”
“Don’t you think that losing you would have hurt us?” Katie-Anne asked incredulously as tears formed in her striking blue-green eyes. “Don’t you realize how important you are to us, Shannon Roberts? Forget the men for a minute. We love you. You’re our best friend. For all intents and purposes, you’re our sister. If we lost you to that asshole, it would have devastated us.”
“Yeah, Shan,” Jaycee continued. “We’ve got our own ménage a trois thing going on here. Granted, it’s a no-sex, friends-only ménage, but that is irrelevant. It has always been the three of us together, or so we thought.”
“We all have our secrets, Jaycee,” Shannon said defensively. “You know that.”
“Yes, we do,” Katie-Anne agreed, picking up her tea with trembling hands and sipping it. “But this one involved your safety and ours. It wasn’t fair for you to keep this from us, and why are you telling us now anyway? Is it because of tonight? He can’t be involved. You just said he died a few weeks ago.”
“I’m not so sure he did, and neither is Svetlana.”
“Oh, shit,” Jaycee cursed. “If Destiny said so—”
“Well, technically, she didn’t come out and say it,” Shannon admitted reluctantly, pausing midpace. She plopped down into the chair she’d just gotten out of and ran her hand through her messy hair, snagging it about halfway down in a bobby pin she’d used to repair it with. “You know how Destiny or Svetlana or whatever you want to call her is. She gets all cryptic and tells you these fragmented riddles that make no sense whatsoever.”
“But she’s always right,” Jaycee commented. “I love her to pieces, but it creeps me out sometimes.” She rushed to add, “Oh, please don’t tell her I said that! It would hurt her feelings.”
“Don’t worry, we won’t say a word,” Shannon promised Jaycee.
“We’re straying from topic, and we don’t really have time for that right now,” Katie-Anne pointed out as she rose from her chair and put her cup to the sink. “We need to figure out what the hell we are going to do and what his next move will be.”
“I don’t know what he’ll do,” Shannon mumbled, “but it’s about to get ugly around here.”
* * * *
A week passed then another and another. Nothing happened, nothing changed. She spent every second guarded by one or more of her men. They distracted her, of course, but it still didn’t keep her mind at bay. Even now, she sat on the couch in Jaycee’s house with her two best friends and Sarah while all nine of their men stood close by in the den, listening to them and watching them like hawks.
The protectiveness would be sweet if they let her, Jaycee, or Katie-Anne breathe, but that wasn’t happening any time soon. Hell, even poor Sarah was being hounded by Deke and Adam, and those two weren’t involved with her—yet. They barely even knew her. Give me a fucking break. We are capable women, not children who needed to be coddled.
Shannon sighed. Whoever was behind the break-in, whether it was Pauley or Mary or whoever, had won. Each of them was trapped, unable to move backward or forward. Their men kept them safe, but they wore their patience thinner by the day.
“Are they driving you crazy yet?” Jaycee whispered as she slid toward Shannon on the couch. “I love Gray and Cade, but damn it, I need some space. Do you know they followed me into the bathroom last night? Can’t a girl pee in privacy?”
Katie-Anne stayed silent, as she had for the past three weeks. She seemed to have shut down, like something had shattered inside of her along with her possessions. She hadn’t even started to repair Pure Fluff. Her store remained in shambles, and Katie-Anne avoided going within five hundred feet of the building. The one time they’d convinced her to return to the “War Zone,” as Cade had dubbed it, she’d turned around and walked out without a word. After that, she’d only grown increasingly despondent.
Shannon shifted on the couch cushion, hoping to find a more comfortable position. Her body couldn’t seem to relax after last night’s escapades with her men. If they didn’t keep her so sexually satisfied, she would fear for their safety from her.
“Yeah, J,” Shannon replied. “I have stopped dreaming about fucking them and started dreaming about spanking their asses—and not in an erotic way.”
Sitting across the room from her, Sarah choked on the chamomile tea she’d been sipping. It didn’t take her a second to recover and murmur, “Excuse me.”
Until then, Shannon had almost forgotten that Sarah was in the room with them. Since the day of the fire, Sarah had been around Jaycee, Katie-Anne, and Shannon—a lot. She claimed that she didn’t know what to do for them, but she did. She supported them, and she talked to them. She helped them, and she shared with them. Shannon had a feeling that she was saving them in a way she would never know.
She, Jaycee, and Katie-Anne had talked about how much of a godsend Sarah was on several occasions. Between her positive personality and her peaceful demeanor, she kept them from taking things too serious. And her innocence was refreshing. It reminded them of the good things in life, not the darkness that had settled around them lately. The fact that they loved to tease and torment her were just bonuses.
“What?” Shannon asked Sarah cheekily. “It’s the truth. I dreamed that very thing last night.”
Sarah blushed profusely. “Don’t need to know that,” she said.
“Sure you do, Sassy,” Shannon replied, using the nickname that drove Sarah nuts. Unless it was Deke calling her that. Then she was good to go.
“Crab cakes,” Sarah muttered. “Go ahead. Get it out of your system. You’re going to tell me either way.”
Grinning, Shannon sassed, “Yes, ma’am, I am. My dream made me realize that I want to make their asses blush, goddamn it.”
“Bring it on, baby doll,” Randy shouted from the den.
Shannon wanted to throw something, but instead, she settled on snarling, “Leave us alone, eavesdropper!”
Jaycee snorted as she patted Shannon’s knee condescendingly. “That’s about as likely as Katie-Anne telling us what the hell is wrong with her.”
“Leave her alone,” Sarah said sharply, sounding more firm than Shannon had ever heard her. Looks like our baby bear is a mama bear in training.
At the same time, Katie-Anne snapped, “Leave me alone.” Standing up, she walked to the side of the room closest to the door. “If I wanted to tell anyone, I would.”
Shannon eyeballed her friend before meeting Jaycee’s gaze. “I’m sure Landon knows. She tells him everything nowadays.”
Katie-Anne shook her head, keeping her ramrod-straight back to them. “No, not even him.”
Jaycee glanced at Shannon with worried eyes. They were truly concerned about Katie-Anne and had talked more than once about how to snap her out of the depression she’d sunk into.
She had drawn into herself, keeping everyone at a distance. The only person she allowed to get anywhere near her emotionally was Landon, and he only got so clo
se before she pulled away.
“Why not? Why do you have to be like this, damn it?” Jaycee badgered. “You’re freaking me out. Hell, you’re freaking everyone out. Please talk to someone. I don’t give a damn who at this point, but just talk.”
Katie-Anne brushed off Jaycee, bending down to pet Shepp, who’d just stepped into the room.
“Stop petting him,” Jaycee ordered abruptly, sounding stilted and cold. “I will not be ignored, so answer me, damn it.”
“Stop it, Jaycee,” Sarah said. “She needs some time.”
“No, she does not,” Jaycee disagreed as she crossed her arms. “She needs to stop shutting everyone out and start talking.”
Lifting up, Katie-Anne marched out of the room with a whining Shepp following behind her. She didn’t speak to them, didn’t acknowledge them. It was as though she, Sarah, and Jaycee weren’t even there. Only a heartbeat later, the front door opened and slammed.
“She told you, Jaycee Elizabeth,” Shannon said with a snap of her finger, attempting to lighten the dark mood in the room. Of course, it didn’t work.
Shooting out of her chair, Sarah mumbled, “I need to check on Katie-Anne. It’s cold and wet outside. I think I’ll take her a jacket.” Then she was gone, too.
“Motherfucker,” Jaycee cursed with a frown.
Gray’s voice boomed through the room despite the distance between the living room and den. “Jaycee Elizabeth Blakemore! You are not to use that kind of language.”
“You let Cade use it,” Jaycee called back in annoyance. “Why not me?” She lowered her voice before leaning forward and muttering, “Fucking double standards. I may kill one of them yet.”
“I heard that, darlin’,” Cade commented, strolling into the room casually.
Jaycee shrugged with a wink to him. “I can convince you to keep your mouth shut.”
Cade snorted. “Gray can convince me otherwise.”
The man in question strode into the room and agreed with his husband. “You’re damn straight, Cade.” Gray dropped a kiss on Jaycee’s mouth then Cade’s. “I have to run Shepp over to the vet. He’s acting strangely, and I want Ari to check him out.”
“That doesn’t sound good,” Shannon said nervously. “How old is he now? Thirteen? Fourteen?”
“He’s fifteen, but I don’t think that’s the problem,” Gray explained, his brown eyes looking concerned. “There’s something up with him. It’s just not his health.”
Rather than respond to Gray, Jaycee batted her blonde eyelashes at her men innocently, but there was a tightness around her eyes that contradicted her joviality. She was patently ignoring Gray’s worried words. Jaycee loved that dog and would be beyond devastated if something happened to him. Hell, they all would be. “I can convince both of you.”
Gray propped himself up against the doorway arrogantly. He crossed his arms over his chest, and asked, “Want to bet me?”
Cade grinned eagerly. “Yeah, Jaycee. Put your money where your mouth is.”
Jaycee huffed. “No, I’m mad at the two of you.”
“Surprise, surprise,” Cade said sarcastically. “When aren’t you mad at us?”
Shannon giggled, sticking her nose where it didn’t belong. “Never.”
“I’m not mad when you boys are fucking my brains out,” Jaycee retorted.
“Jaycee,” Shannon scolded with a twitch of her lips, ruining the entire effect of her reprimand. “TMI overload.”
“Not yet, but there’s about to be,” Jaycee warned her.
“Got to go, J,” Shannon said as she jumped up and scurried toward the door. “I’m not in the mood to watch you three fuck like the bunnies you are.”
A piercing scream interrupted her getaway. “No!”
“Katie-Anne,” Landon yelled hoarsely, tearing out of the den and practically ripping the door off its hinges in his haste to get to her. Shane raced behind him with a panicked expression that made Shannon’s stomach turn over.
Sucking in the precious air she needed to sustain herself, Shannon took off after the men with everyone else. She prayed every step of the way. She bargained and pleaded. I can’t do this. I won’t let them die because of me.
A second scream from Katie-Anne split the air. “Shepp!”
Everyone picked up their speed, following the sound of Katie-Anne’s cries in the midst of the pouring rain.
“Katie-Anne,” Landon yelled. His voice broke pitifully, and Shannon felt the urge to kill whoever would hurt the people she loved. “Answer me, kitten!”
Landon skidded to a sudden halt where the circle driveway ended and met the gravel leading to the road. Only a few steps past him, a drenched Katie-Anne lay on the ground with Shepp cuddled in her arms. His sister sat behind her, holding onto both Katie-Anne and Shepp. The sweet dog whined softly, but the noise wasn’t what caught Shannon’s attention. It was the blood covering him that did.
Landon fell to his knees then crawled over the small rocks to Katie-Anne. Immediately, Sarah moved aside, and Landon took Katie-Anne into his arms. He rocked her as she held onto the aged Australian shepherd and mumbled, “Good boy. You saved me from that car. Please don’t die. Please don’t die. I love you.”
Jaycee gasped, running around Shannon and all of the men to where Shepp lay dying. “Who would do this to our baby?”
“He’s old and blind, sweetheart. I’m sure it was an accident,” Gray assured her, his voice sounding thick and uneven. He went to Jaycee and gathered her in his arms before trying to lift her away from the now-whimpering dog.
Jaycee growled at Gray. “Don’t even think about it.”
“It wasn’t an accident. He was going to hit her,” Sarah mumbled then started to cry.
Crossing over to Sarah, Adam lifted her off the ground easily and cuddled her close to him. He whispered something into her ear that seemed to help, but she was still too choked up to offer them any answers.
“She’s right. It wasn’t an accident,” Katie-Anne said. “The car came toward me, and Shepp knocked me over and out of the way, but he hit him.” She tightened her arms around Shepp, who’d quit breathing, and broke down, sobbing. “He’s such a good boy.”
“Who hit him?”
Shannon missed the response to Gray’s question because she spotted a tired, beaten-up car out of the corner of her eye as it took off down the driveway. With the rain beating down on her, Shannon couldn’t make out the color of the car but she had a feeling she already knew. “What color is that car?”
When no one answered her, Shannon pursued the car on foot, only wanting to get close enough to see the color and model. She apparently had gone farther than she meant to when, out of nowhere, the grind of wheels locking up on gravel sounded. The car then slid around, sending rocks and mud in ten different directions, and came flying at her.
She turned on her heel and ran. The adrenaline rush helped her, but she still didn’t have a chance. She knew it, and her men knew it. They screamed for her, all three of them rushing in her direction with everyone else running behind them.
She veered to the left, slipping and sliding in the muddy gravel, as she attempted to get to the safety of her men, but the car anticipated her diversion and changed directions as fast as she did. Then something happened. Rather than speeding toward her, the car shot past her, giving her a perfect glimpse inside. Uncle Pauley.
In a split-second, Shannon realized that he was going to do something far worse than kill her. The bastard was going to kill one of her men before her very eyes, and she couldn’t do a damn thing to stop him. There was no way she could reach Jared, Drew, or Randy in time.
Horrified, Shannon froze on the spot as she watched her uncle’s car hit Jared and keep going. “No,” she screamed before Jared’s body even had time to hit the ground. “God, no!”
Chapter 26
“I’m fine,” Jared reassured Shannon yet again. “It’ll take a lot more than your psychotic uncle hitting me with a beat-up green car to get rid of me. Stop worrying
so much, princess.”
Jared had spent the last two hours lying in an uncomfortable hospital bed, repeating the same words to Shannon like an annoying mantra. He’d grown tired of it long ago, but he wanted to ease her worries—not that it worked in the least.
Time to change my tactics.
Jared flung back the white cotton bedspread, along with the blanket and two sheets underneath it, then patted the cold, empty space next to him. “We have a few hours until dinner. Why don’t you come get on the bed with me, princess? I’m worn out, and I want to hold you in my arms.”
He wasn’t really tired enough to sleep, but he hoped she would be, if he could get her calmed down long enough to doze off.
She sniffled as tears continued to fall from her eyes, but she still got out of the rose-colored chair and climbed onto the bed with him. She curled her body into his, her delicate weeps turning into giant, hoarse sobs.
“It’s going to be okay,” Jared soothed as he stroked her disheveled hair from root to tip. “They’ll find him.”
“No, they won’t,” Shannon muttered hopelessly, shaking her head against his shoulder. “He’s never going to leave me alone, Jared. Never.”
Jared bit back the angry words on the tip of his tongue because she didn’t need that right now, but her response still offended him. A woman should have faith in her men. What did it say about them that their woman didn’t believe any of them could protect her?
He squeezed her, despite the soreness in his arms, and asked, “Do you have faith in us?”
She raised up, her shocked, hazel eyes meeting his and stunning him momentarily. Focus, asshole. You’re trying to have an important conversation with her.
“You know I do, Jared.”
“Then trust us.”
He kissed her on the nose. “We need to rest. You know what they say about life-and-death situations?”
