“An obsessive fuck who didn’t return her calls, didn’t go to see her, and had the guards at the gate turn her away!” Kurt didn’t understand why his brothers didn’t see this from his point of view. From where he was standing, Coco and Brandon had ended things the day their mother and brothers were killed.
Kurt glared at Dallas. “And explain symbolic if you will, please?” He shook his fist at the whip now propped up against the bench where Brandon had been seated. “How was that anything short of abuse!”
Liam finally lifted his chin away from his clasped hands and left the table. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
Kurt shook his head. Hales thumbed the door. “Look at the bright side, you’re not Liam. Poor fella has it bad for Coco and after watching that mess, he’s a staggering hard-on.”
“I don’t make a habit out of looking at my brother’s weed-eater,” Dante said, striding into the kitchen and grabbing a banana from the fruit bowl. He took great pains and peeled it. He took a hearty bite and apparently noticing the look of disgust on Hales’ face, paused. “What?”
“That’s just wrong,” Hales said. “Liam walks out of here with a bulge as wide as Texas and you eat a banana after it’s been pointed out? You’re not right in the head, man.”
“Brandon is not right in the head.” Kurt tapped his temple. “Who does that?” He still couldn’t understand what happened entirely. True, he wasn’t in the lifestyle, but even if he had been, he couldn’t have supported that sort of act, the way he dismissed her.
Dante took another bite of his fruit and left the tip at his lips. “You don’t want to hear what I would say to that.”
“We don’t even want to look at you right now,” Hales said. “Finish giving your banana a good lick and blow and we’ll talk.”
“I’m going to find Coco.”
“Leave her be, Kurt.” Zak turned to him and added, “You’ll make things worse. A Dom/sub relationship is a sacred union, much like a marriage. She won’t put this behind her overnight.”
“So you’re saying she looked at being with me like adultery?”
“Something like that,” Zak said. “I’ve had contracts with submissives before and if one of mine had slipped under the covers with one of my brothers without asking first? I don’t think I could’ve gotten it up for one last suck good-bye.”
“You’re sick, man,” Hales said. “Listening to you guys talk, sometimes I swear I must’ve been adopted.”
“Says the man who looks exactly like Zak,” Dante said, finishing off his banana.
“How do I make this right?”
“Asks the man who fucked her into this situation?” Dante shook his head. “Now you see why we don’t have too much sympathy for you. You’re insensitive.”
“And I guess Brandon is the most considerate guy in the world?” Kurt still couldn’t get over the fact that Coco followed Brandon out of the kitchen!
“Give her some time,” Zak said.
“So another Dom can move in and take big brother’s place?” He glared at the likely suspect.
Zak shrugged. “I don’t think so.” He frowned. “I’m certain we’re not a fit.”
“Super.” Kurt stomped to the back door and grabbed his cowboy hat in passing. “Because one way or another, she’ll be in my bed tonight. That’s a damn promise.”
* * * *
“She went home.” Liam had thought about going after her but given the look on Kurt’s face when he walked back inside, he was glad he hadn’t. This situation had already turned into a real mess.
“I guess everyone here is blaming me for that?” Kurt searched their faces before leveling a pointed stare on Brandon. “Do you have anything to say about this at all?”
“No.” He nodded at an empty space at the table. “But sit down. We have business to discuss.”
“Now? Today?”
“Why yes, Kurt. Today sounds just fine to me which is why I suggested it. Sit the fuck down. Please. Everything else had to be done today so why the hell not? Let’s just try to do everything in one hour. Want to?”
Kurt stomped across the room as if he planned to walk straight through the kitchen and right on out to the foyer. He tracked horse manure with him, but that was the norm around there. Before he left again, Brandon said, “That problem we were afraid of? The one I discussed with Mom when she first got sick? He surfaced today. He was at the funeral.”
Kurt came to an abrupt halt. “Juan Jahno?”
“Yes.” Brandon crossed his arms and leaned back. “And you pegged it right. They were lovers.”
Liam felt sick. He shook his head and slowly said, “I really don’t think I can do this now. It’s been a long day. It’s been a terrible month. We started out with fences down, cattle wandering all over the county and ended up with a damn war right here on our own property, a war that claimed the lives of our brothers and our mother and now you’re telling us she was fucking around with Juan Jahno?”
“It’s pronounced with a silent H,” Hales said, probably thinking he was cute. “But you had the general idea. Juan and Jahn were named after their biological father. She always claimed he was just a close friend, but he was more than that.”
“He’s a drug lord for crying out loud!” Liam seldom lost his cool, but this was over the top. He’d watched the woman he loved give head to the brother least deserving of her affections. Now that same brother and the others wanted to talk about his mother’s infidelities with a man who impregnated her and gave them two half brothers whom they had mistakenly believed had been their father’s sons, too.
No. The drama had to stop somewhere.
His outburst had disrupted the chaos temporarily. The room was quiet and he hadn’t paid much attention to the fact until Brandon spoke up again and said, “He isn’t a drug lord, Liam. He moves merchandise around.”
“Is that what he told you?” Liam laughed. “Well when he came here to buy your guns, he had a drug lord’s cash or have you forgotten that small detail?”
“I’m sorry you’re hurt. If this is too much for you then go do whatever it is you do when you’re trying to pretend your hands are clean in all this, but right now, if you don’t mind, we need to discuss business because our very livelihood depends on this!”
Mason raised his hands off the table and slapped them against the surface. “Well, fellas, that’s it for me. I’ll excuse myself and turn in for the night. Like Liam, I’ve heard about all I care to hear for one day.”
“This concerns you, too,” Brandon said.
“He’s a kid,” Liam said.
“I’m twenty-one—that means the law acknowledges me as an adult, but it doesn’t change the fact I want no part of this.”
“Well golly damn. Aren’t you lucky?” Hales stuffed a handful of peanuts in his mouth and held up his index finger as if he wanted them to wait for some kind of punch line. “Instead of three-to-six years for a juvenile charge, if we get busted you’ll do thirty years to life. Man, ain’t it great to be in the gun business and all legal and shit now?”
“I’m not in the gun business.” Mason glared at them. When no one said anything, he reclaimed his seat. “Fine. All right. What’s up? Who is this guy Mom banged and how much does he want?”
“Now someone is making sense here,” Brandon said. “Shall we get down to business?”
In a matter of seconds, they were in a no-holds-barred family meeting. They had a serious problem with Juan Jahno, Juan’s and Jahn’s biological father. A private investigator had the results of their DNA tests. Their mother had apparently requested verification in recent years. Juan Jahno was indeed the twins’ father. Several years prior to her death their mother had apparently made a grave mistake by notifying him and detailing the consequences of their relationship and Juan’s and Jahn’s birth. It went downhill from there.
“He thinks he is entitled to an inheritance?” Kurt asked.
“It would seem so.” Brandon took a deep breath. “Yes.”
“How much?” Liam asked, starting to believe his family had been extorted more than all the A-listers in Hollywood combined. They’d shake off one problem and face another, hand over one large sum to a deadbeat and deal with the next one in line. Payoffs were a never-ending and tedious task.
“It’s hard to say what he feels he’s entitled to, but thanks to the love letters exchanged between them and the fact that his two sons and the woman he claims to have loved were killed, I’m assuming he’ll want half of her estate and all the twins’ life insurance.”
“Half of her estate?” Dallas shook his head so quickly it was as if he’d just seen millions and millions of dollars fly right by them.
“How much would it cost to buy him off?” Dante asked.
“More than we have on hand, I’m guessing,” Brandon said, looking at Kurt. “Do you know how much cash we can move around over the next few days?”
Kurt’s mouth twitched quickly, he narrowed his eyes, thought for a second, and after he’d likely considered all assets, he said, “We could sell some cattle, bring some in off feed, but we’re still looking at a few weeks putting our hands on the cash you’re talking about.”
“How much is in the bank?” Mason asked.
Brandon and Dante exchanged a knowing look. Kurt frowned. Liam scratched his head, dreading what came next.
“Maybe a little over a million,” Dante replied. “Our assets are tied up at the moment.”
“In guns?” Mason asked.
“Business,” Kurt said, obviously still uncomfortable about speaking freely in front of Mason. Liam understood. Legal or not, Mason would always be their kid brother.
“Look, I know you guys still think I’m too young to know what I’m talking about, but think about this situation if you will. We find out Mom had an affair with some dude from—where’s he from, by the way?”
“Mexico,” Brandon replied.
“Mexico. Perfect. So dude comes from Mexico, wants half or wants something, a financial acknowledgment that he was part of our family yet none of us know him and those of us who do—forgive me, Brandon and Kurt, as I glare at you—probably should’ve known better than to do business with him.
“Anyway, has it occurred to you that this fellow could be the very man who killed our brothers and Momma? Seems to me he thinks he has a whole lot to gain and if he approached you on the day of their memorial, well that’s just downright suspicious. He’s not looking like a man who’s above board if you know what I mean.”
“He’s right,” Liam said, thinking Mason was smarter than the average twenty-one-year-old.
Then again, he’d grown up in the business. Like the rest of them, he was able to weigh out pounds and ounces before he could multiply and divide. Then they moved up in the world, stopped dealing drugs, and decided to protect themselves and their investments properly. What better way to do that than to run guns?
Liam rolled his eyes at the thought.
“If you’re right, why would he kill Nate, too? He only needed his own sons and Momma out of the picture. Why pick off Nate?” Dallas asked.
“To make it look like he wasn’t involved?” Brandon blew out a hard breath. “Sleep on that tonight, men. Decide how you want to approach this. He’ll be here tomorrow or the day after. We need to decide if we should try and buy him off or just let him have what he thinks he’s owed.”
“Owed?” Mason widened his gaze. “You gotta be kidding me. Our father was Juan’s and Jahn’s father. Biological or not, it doesn’t matter. Our dad—not this guy—believed he was Juan’s and Jahn’s father and treated them as sons. This dude never came to the house for birthday parties. I don’t know of a card or letter he sent to his ‘sons’ or an invitation to come to Mexico. Do any of you?”
A collective “no” resounded.
“I may be the youngest one here and more out of the loop than anyone else in terms of trying to guess our financial predicament but if we vote on this, my vote will be this—push back and make it count.” Mason left the table. “And while you’re at it, why don’t you ask him how he heard about Momma’s death all the way down there in Mexico when the formal obituary wasn’t even in the papers here until yesterday. It’s odd to me that he contacted you today. Don’t cha think?”
Yeah, Liam thought so, too. In fact, he’d do a little checking and find out when Mr. Juan Jahno had arrived in East Tennessee. Something told him Mr. Juan Jahno had been around for at least a month or longer.
* * * *
Zak, Brandon, and Kurt were in the barn when Liam found them an hour later. Since their mother and brothers had been killed, he’d been troubled by their business, too aware of the death surrounding them, the deaths he feared they’d soon face.
“We need to talk,” Liam said. “I’ve been thinking about business lately. It’s time we go legal.”
Zak jerked, left the ATV where he was seated and grabbed the rake. Propping his chin up on the wooden end, he asked, “How do you propose we pay our bills if we ‘go legal’ as you’re suggesting?”
“We may need to get real jobs for a while if we pay off Juan Jahno. If we can avoid him, we have plenty to live on but something tells me we won’t avoid paying him off. Still, consider our lives now and the dangers we face every single day. Would it be so bad to have a nine-to-fiver and work for a living?” Liam asked. “I don’t know about you but I’d like to live another day and tomorrow, I’d like to start that day without looking over my shoulder.”
Kurt threw a bale of hay out of the loft, climbed down the ladder and took a seat. Working his gloves away from his fingers, he said, “Liam’s right. If we don’t back away from this life, one of these days, we’ll meet the same or similar deaths Mom, Nate, and the twins met.”
“You think I want that for us?” Brandon asked, pacing back and forth in front of a few stalls. “No!” He walked another pace or two. “Like you, Liam, getting out of the business is all I’ve thought about since they died.”
“Then let’s make it happen,” Liam said. “All we have to do is walk away.”
“You really think it’s that simple?” Brandon balked at that. “If it were that simple, I would’ve left home right after college and never returned here.”
“Don’t lie, man,” Zak said. “You and I both know why we’ve always stayed in. The money is hard to refuse. We had an ‘in’ and connections.”
“The kind of connections that can get a man killed,” Kurt reminded them.
“Easy money was the alluring quality, dude.” Zak swung the rake like a baton.
“Wonder if Nate thought of easy money when an automatic rifle was shoved down his throat?” Kurt asked.
“If we stay here, we’ll be under a microscope anyway.” Liam just threw that out there. Maybe if he could make his brothers believe the authorities would soon close in on them, perhaps they would be more fearful of life behind bars than facing a life without hundred dollar bills stuffed in their bulging wallets.
“What do you mean if we stay here?” Zak snorted at that. “This is our home. I’m not going anywhere. This land is owned free and clear. We were raised here.”
Liam crossed his arms over his chest. “Yes, we were raised here. Yes, I agree this is our home, but the way I see things now, the only way to keep our home is to make a name for ourselves in the farming business. Go straight. Become men with clean hands rather than ones with filthy hands covered in gun powder residue.”
“Zak, the free and clear land we’re standing on can be yanked out from under us and sold at auction, too.”
Liam breathed a huge sigh of relief. Brandon was talking sense.
Kurt’s mouth twisted. He shot Brandon a sideways glance and said, “Brandon, I care about Coco. I’m not telling you anything you didn’t already know. I’m not staying in the business because I don’t want to die like our family members. It won’t be easy getting away from the business but I want to start a life and—”
“And does that new start include Coco?”
Kurt’s brows furrowed. “I want a good life here with my family and yes, Coco is included in the family I’m referencing.”
“So you’re getting out because of Coco?” Brandon asked, his cheeks flushed.
Kurt took a deep breath. “I’m getting out because this wasn’t the life I chose. It was a life chosen for me, for you, for all of us and we accepted what was handed to us. We never questioned it. As kids we didn’t have the balls to stand up to the adults pushing it on us and now? What’s our excuse now? Dealing in guns isn’t a legacy I want to leave behind.”
Liam agreed there. Most children in those parts were born and raised on the farm. They were taught to work the land, the cattle and other livestock. Other farmers left their sons the family farms in hopes that somewhere down the road they would continue to make an honest living the way their fathers had.
He and his brothers had been one of the exceptions. They had learned how to harvest marijuana at a young age. Later, when their business had moved in another direction, they’d been taught survival skills and learned how to buy and sell guns and ammunition while dealing with the world’s most wanted criminals without being marked as one such criminal, too.
“Zak, what say you?” Liam asked, noticing how he loitered off to the side.
“After everything that has happened here, I had already assumed we’d start moving out of guns, but going legal, dude? Problem I see is getting out before we’re sucked in deeper.”
“He’s right,” Brandon said. “We have a real and present problem here, boys. Juan Jahno wants cash in hand. He will stop at nothing to get it. How do we pay him off and still support ourselves?”
“Have you ever thought that maybe we could budget an average man’s income and really work the land here?” Kurt asked.
Zak chuckled. “You’re sunk, brother. I can see that mind churning. You already see this place crawling with kids, women with babies on their hips, and an all-American family.”
Sexual Expression [Contemporary Cowboys 2] (Siren Publishing LoveEdge) Page 5
