Sexual Expression [Contemporary Cowboys 2] (Siren Publishing LoveEdge)

by Natalie Acres

  Brandon pecked on the window and one of the agents opened the door. “Yes?”

  “Why do you ask?”

  He smirked. “Your woman just gave us the break we needed. She’s taking Mr. Jahno to a bank in downtown Erwin, a bank where she claims there is one hundred million dollars in several safety deposit boxes.” He rubbed his hands together. “Our guys are on their way now.”

  The resonating sound of the slamming door apparently set off alarms and reminded Brandon of what Coco and her sisters had recently started chanting like a prayer.

  He could still picture Coco at the bank, putting some jewelry in one of the safety deposit boxes. She grinned that sexy little knowing grin and dug in her purse. Retrieving a handgun, she set it on top of the jewelry boxes and said, “In case someone is ever stupid enough to ask me to come here to retrieve cash and jewelry. I’ll be prepared.”

  He could almost hear her laughter and see her precious smile, that innocent smile, that careful loving smile, a smile that would soon fade forever if she had to wash blood off her hands. “I am my father’s daughter, Brandon,” she’d said. “Just as you are your mother’s son.”

  Brandon tried, and failed, to leave the vehicle. “Damn it! Why do you have safety locks on this thing!”

  Kurt and Zak swapped a glance.

  “I’ve gotta get out of here,” he said, knocking on the window.

  The agents standing guard at their vehicle glanced over their shoulder before motioning for the senior agent in charge, a man who had failed to rush forward at any given time when Brandon had needed to speak with him.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Kurt asked, turning around.

  “Hang on,” Brandon said, pushing the agent aside when the back door opened. “Hurry up! We have to get to the Erwin Savings and Loan!”

  “Mr. Blazier, we already have agents placed at the downtown branch. Ms. Baldini is already in route.”

  “With Juan Jahno?”

  “And his men. She somehow negotiated the release of your brothers in exchange for the hundred million. Our agents are talking to your brothers now.”

  Brandon grabbed hold of the agent and guns were drawn around him. “What don’t you understand?” His voice ricocheted off the hills. “She doesn’t have a hundred million dollars!” He shouldn’t have to tell federal agents that the bank in downtown Erwin probably wouldn’t hold that much in its safety deposit boxes. “What she has is a loaded gun and I am one hundred percent certain she knows how to use it!”

  Chapter Seventeen

  “I’m Coco Baldini. I need to access my safety deposit box.”

  “Certainly, Ms. Baldini,” the federal agent said. She’d recognized him right away when she’d entered the bank. She’d also noticed only one teller was a real bank employee. All others were agents and unfortunately, they looked like agents.

  Maybe Juan was too greedy to notice. So far he’d proven himself an exceptionally stupid criminal. And to think he was on a most wanted list.

  She followed the acting branch manager to the secure area where they both used their keys to access her safety deposit box. Juan looked surprised by the small box so Coco quickly turned to the agent. “I need to access all these, please.” She nodded at the row of boxes, all of which belonged to the Baldini sisters.

  “Of course. I’ll be right back.”

  She feigned a smile and waited until the agent stepped out of the vault. Understanding Juan hadn’t entered the bank with a weapon, she flung open the safety deposit box and retrieved her forty-five, releasing the safety and cocking it at the same time.

  “You stupid, stupid girl!” Juan screamed out his rage. “Do you honestly think you can pull a gun on me and live to tell about it!”

  “I will walk out of here,” Coco said, determination in her bones, rage in her veins.

  “I don’t think so. If I’m not back in my car in thirty minutes, my men are well informed and know precisely where to go and what to do. Would you like for me to tell you how the next Blaziers will meet their deserved endings?”

  “I don’t want to waste time,” Coco said, seriously considering pulling the trigger. “If your men are expecting your body back in their car within a half hour, we need to get the blood and guts part of this duty behind us so I can make sure we don’t disappoint them.”

  “You think you can kill me?”

  “I know I can kill you,” she said, never batting an eyelash but acknowledging the agents now coming through the front doors of the bank as well as swarming Juan’s getaway car. She lowered her weapon as the agents came in with their guns drawn. “But I’d rather see you rot in prison for what you did to my family.”

  “Do you think you can get by with this? Do you realize who I am!”

  “Yes, I do. You’re Juan Jahno and your name means nothing to me except that you’re the man who killed my family, a man who killed his own sons for money and power.” Coco slid her safety deposit box back in its appropriate place, deciding to keep her weapon on her all things considered. A woman never really knew when she might need to protect herself.

  “You will not get away with this!” Juan screamed like a lunatic as federal agents took him into custody, which by the looks of things was no easy task.

  Feeling vindicated for once in her life, Coco pushed her hands against the front glass of the bank doors and made her way to freedom. The Blazier vehicles peeled into the parking lot with barking tires and squealing wheels, but the men leaving those SUVs and dually trucks made far more noise as they yelled for her behind the strewn yellow crime scene tape.

  Apparently the local cops had anticipated the worst.

  It was then when she fully grasped what had been taken from her, from them. Before she ran to greet them, she turned around and marched back to the man responsible for tearing their family apart way too soon, to the one still yelling his obscenities and asking if she knew who she had double-crossed.

  “You’re the one who didn’t get away with such a senseless killing.” She swung her arm and pointed at the men behind her. “Look at them. You take a long, hard, look. Your boys—your biological sons—they were part of that. You never were. They were happy and healthy and loving boys and so much a part of a family that loved them and you stripped them away from us!” She marched forward then, afraid of what she might do, realizing then she was in another frame of mind.

  Behind her she heard Brandon and Liam calling out to her. Somehow, Kurt had made it through the barricade of local officers, detectives, and agents. He ran toward her, screaming out to her, apparently under the impression that she had lost her will to concentrate, to focus clearly.

  “Just a minute,” she said, throwing her index finger up in the air as she thought of something else she wanted to say.

  “Wait! Coco! Listen to me!” Kurt caught up to her and grabbed hold of her waist, struggling to hold down her arm as if he thought she could actually fire a gun and take someone’s life.

  She was insanely furious and she wanted revenge. Oh yes, she could taste it. Instead, she would trust the legal system one more time and pray they’d get it right this time.

  Coco convinced Kurt she was sane enough to make one final statement. Standing in front of the man who had taken so much from those she loved, she screamed at Juan Jahno. “I am my father’s daughter! But your sons? They were never their father’s boys! They were too good, too pure. They were like the father who raised them. They were Blaziers!”

  Epilogue

  A week later

  “It’s not quite a hundred million, but I think we’ll be okay if we live smart and stick to a budget,” Brandon said, pushing the business checkbook to the center of the table.

  “Been nice to have a hundred million though,” Hales teased, giving Coco a quick wink. “Where did you come up with that amount anyway?”

  “Your mother. She once told me this story about a man she knew who thought she was worth a lot of money.” She smiled as she thought of Geraldine and the bea
utiful tale she’d told her, one about love and romance and someone who had meant so much to her, a man who had given her two beautiful sons but in return only wanted one thing—her money.

  “Maybe one day you’ll write down everything she told you rather than slipping into a coma with a smile whenever we ask you things that remind you of Mom.”

  “Maybe I will, Hales,” Coco said. “That’s always been the plan.”

  “You’d better start writing soon,” Liam said. “If we’re out of the gun business, we’ll have to find some form of legitimate income.”

  “And you expect me to keep you boys up?”

  “I’m not too proud,” Hales said, leaning back and clasping his hands behind his head.

  “We have plenty to do here,” Brandon said, shooting Kurt a sideways glance. “Who knows, maybe after a couple of weeks off, we’ll be ready to start whipping this place into shape.”

  “Sounds like a lot of work, but I’m up for it,” Kurt said.

  “I’d rather earn a real man’s honest wage than an easy dollar,” Liam said.

  “Easy money comes with strings attached,” Coco said.

  “Says the woman with a hundred million dollars,” Dante said, probably believing she had that much to her name given the fact her father had cheated the mob.

  “Something else comes with strings attached,” Brandon said, going to a nearby drawer and pulling out a wide oblong jewelry box.

  Liam and Kurt rose from their seats at the table. Brandon handed over the box. “Open it.”

  She glanced at the others now stretching their necks to see over Kurt’s and Liam’s tall forms and broad backs.

  Coco flipped the lid up and gasped. It wasn’t at all what she’d expected.

  “The locks have our initials on the back,” Liam said, as if she wouldn’t examine each and every link and the three locks hanging from the center.

  “It’s stunning.”

  “Like the woman who’ll wear it,” Liam said.

  “Strings attached or nothing at all,” Brandon said, removing the choker from the box.

  “But you guys aren’t—” She stopped midsentence, realizing she would hurt feelings if she didn’t keep her mouth shut here. Unlike so many of her submissive friends, she wasn’t opposed to inexperienced Doms. In fact, she was excited by the possibilities.

  “We’re out of the gun business,” Kurt said. “We’ll have a lot of time on our hands.”

  “And I’m already a member of Paddles and Picnics. Seems only right that I would have the opportunity to play with my submissive in a proper setting,” Liam said.

  “Don’t tell them they aren’t Doms. Remember, I’ve watched them with you. They can learn.” Brandon leaned closer to her ear and with his hot breath at her lobe, he added, “And I’ll teach them what you like.”

  “This is what you want?” she asked, still fingering the locks on the choker.

  “You’re what I want,” Kurt said.

  “Always,” Liam assured her.

  Brandon’s eyes held that old familiar fire and proverbial knowledge she’d always appreciated. “But you should know there will be hours upon hours of play sessions.”

  “I’m up for it.” She was wet thinking about it.

  Liam glanced down. “You’re not the only one.”

  “Something tells me one Dom has a lot of work to do where self-control is concerned,” Zak said, grabbing his jacket from a nearby chair.

  Everyone laughed. Hales and Mason shook their heads.

  “Says the man who has been watching the clock to see if it’s time to go pick up Drina,” Dante said, winking at Coco. “Your sister must be something else.”

  “Of course she is. She’s from good stock.” Coco smiled. “Sort of like the Blazier men.”

  “You realize if we start farming this land the way we should, you’ll see us more than before?” Kurt sniffed. “You think you’re up for that?”

  “Can you handle us?” Liam asked.

  “If I can’t handle you, no one can.” She remembered the night they spent together and her body heated with visions of the four of them together.

  “There’s only one way to find out!” Brandon swung her over his back and gave her a solid thwack on the ass. “Liam, Kurt, let’s go men. We have a young filly to train.”

  Kurt gave her a heated look. “Something tells me this one here is already broke and ready to give three good men a nice ride for life.”

  THE END

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  An international bestseller, Siren Publishing exclusive author Natalie Acres divides her time between East Tennessee and Mystic, Connecticut where she dotes on her granddoll. She and her husband are the proud parents of four pampered dogs and two grown children, with an emphasis on grown.

  Natalie and her husband love attending music festivals and book events. Natalie would love to meet you at an upcoming signing or conference. E-mail natalieacres@yahoo.com for more information.

  For all titles by Natalie Acres, please visit

  www.bookstrand.com/natalie-acres

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