Alexander, Kortny - Come and Get Me [Whispering Mountain 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by Kortny Alexander

  “I love you.” Did I just say that aloud?

  May gradually raised herself up until they were eye to eye. Her smile was lazy, and her eyes were still glazed over. “You love me?”

  “Yes. You would know that if you returned a phone call.” He smacked her butt, and she squealed. He loved it when she smiled. When she darted her gaze, suddenly staring hard at the covers, he spoke up again. “You’re not required to say it back, May.” He kissed her before she could think of something to say. He didn’t care if she reciprocated. He was opening himself up to her. Kane just wanted her to know the truth about his feelings for her.

  “Dinner will be ready in thirty, you two.” He could hear the laughter in Remy’s voice.

  May swiftly turned in the direction of the bedroom door and the sound of Remy’s voice. “Hey.”

  “Hey right back at cha.” Kane laughed when Remy tried to hide his smile. “Kane, clean our girl up. I will be in the kitchen.”

  “Come on, sweetie.” Kane rolled them on their sides when Remy walked away. “I want you to behave in the shower.”

  May giggled as she slid from the bed. “You’re the bad influence.” She turned to him with a know-it-all look in her eyes and winked. “I’m a good girl.”

  Kane just grinned. “Smart ass.” He loved being silly with her. Even naked, she knew how to have a sense of humor. “Keep your hands to yourself.” He chased her into the bathroom. Sharing moments like these were priceless, and he’d give anything to have years of them with May.

  Chapter 13

  “Dinner was great.” May rotated her shoulders and winced. “This has been a very long and interesting couple of days.”

  “What’s wrong?” Remy came up behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders.

  She tilted her head forward and sighed. “Right there.” Remy grunted and began massaging her shoulders and neck.

  “Why didn’t you say something earlier, woman? It’s our job to take care of you, and we can only do it to the best of our abilities if you tell us what you need,” Kane said as he squatted down beside her and caressed her cheek with his index finger. They had just finished eating dinner, and both men had been in the middle of clearing the table and cleaning up the kitchen.

  “It’s no big deal,” she mumbled. She didn’t expect them to fuss over her this much. She let out a pleasurable moan when Remy kneaded her shoulders and moved down her back along her shoulder blades and spine.

  Remy grunted again. “No big deal, my ass. We’ve been around enough pregnant women to know better.”

  Kane stood and went back to clearing the dishes. She could hear him loading them in the dishwasher and humming. They hadn’t made a huge mess, so it did not take him long to finish the task.

  “Come on, sweetie.” Remy tapped her on the shoulder. Once she looked up, he extended his hand to her. She placed her hand in his, allowed him to help her up, and followed him into the living room.

  Kane turned on the television and popped in a whodunit-type movie.

  Remy sat down and patted his lap. “I want your feet in my lap, and put your head in Kane’s lap. Let us take care of you.”

  If anyone was going to cater to her needs, it would be the two men touching her now. She couldn’t believe this was what she had run from. In every message they had ever left her, no matter how angry they were about her ignoring them, they always told her how they wanted a relationship, something deeper and more meaningful, if only she would give them a chance.

  Could things really work out for them? It wasn’t like they started professing their feelings for her after they found out about the baby. It was done before any thoughts of having children together crossed their minds. They had left plenty of messages telling her how they felt. They had been careful during their night together, and yet somehow she ended up pregnant.

  There was a life growing inside of her and two men who wanted her. One of her men had already told her he loved her. She had been taken by surprise by his unexpected confession, leaving her feeling ecstatic. She loved Kane and Remy. How could any of this be wrong?

  Two pairs of strong hands caressing and massaging her body pushed all thoughts into oblivion. Remy had begun kneading and rubbing her feet and calves as Kane stroked her scalp and neck. Her eyes became heavy almost instantly. The last thing May remembered seeing was the previews.

  * * * *

  “What did you say, Orin?” Kane turned the volume up on the cell phone.

  “I said the guy we caught breaking into May’s house is talking. Apparently he doesn’t like getting his ass kicked repeatedly for trouble caused by his boss.”

  Kane placed the cell phone on the office table and pushed the speaker button so Remy could listen in. They had tucked May into bed two hours before, and after making sure the house was secure and deciding to catch up on a project, the phone rang.

  “Please tell me you’ve got something good. Is May still safe here with us? Has her location been compromised?” Kane heard the muttered curses on the other end.

  “There’s a pen drive involved. That’s what Timmons has been searching for. Apparently, his wife admitted to a few things before she was killed. She knew she was going to die, and she was brave enough to admit what she had done to ensure he would eventually be captured.”

  Remy and Kane exchanged glances. Kane got an uneasy feeling.

  “Over a period of months, Valerie Timmons had managed to photograph and sometimes record every person that came to their house for meetings. She managed to download a copy of all of his illegal dealings he kept on file on his computer, along with any other damaging evidence it would have taken authorities years to find.”

  “How did she succeed in taking pictures or recording any of this? I’m sure someone as conniving as Timmons would have noticed his wife taking pictures,” Remy said. Kane could see the worry etched on his brother’s face.

  “Spy gadgets.”

  The brothers nodded, but Remy spoke. “Smart woman.”

  “Yeah, well, she had in her possession two pen drives. Hers was the spy gadget, and the other belonged to Timmons. Unfortunately for Valerie, she didn’t know that she picked up his pen drive. She mistook it for an actual ink pen. Apparently she had a habit of grabbing pens off of his desk. This time, it was a really special ink pen. It was also rigged to emit a GPS location if the pen was clicked in the wrong sequence.”

  Kane paced as Remy did the talking.

  “Are you telling me that May is in the possession of these two items?”

  “That’s just it, Remy.” Orin sounded exhausted. “Valerie told her husband she had placed the evidence in a safety deposit box and mailed the key to someone she trusts in case something happened to her. She was followed all the time, so she was afraid to go to the District Attorney’s office.”

  “Okay, so I assume May is the person she trusts?” Remy asked.

  “Yep.” Trevor took over. Orin sounded extremely nervous all of a sudden.

  “So that’s what he’s after?”

  “Yes and no. Valerie did mail the key to May, but she had to sign for it, and according to the slip we found on May’s table, she has yet to make it to the post office to do so. It’s still there. But there’s another problem. Timmons is missing, and we think Valerie slipped the pen to May. I can’t say for certain she figured out what it was or not, but we believe May has it. While we were questioning Timmons’s man, he received a text stating the GPS had been activated, but no location was given. It’s a custom-made ink pen with a pen drive inside. Like I said before, it has a GPS locator on it and is activated when clicked out of sequence.”

  Kicking over a chair, Kane shouted, not caring how loud he was. “Shit!”

  “That’s why we are on our way with our team. I know your place is secure, but Timmons is a crazed killer. He wouldn’t care about your security system. He’d focus on getting back his property.” Trevor let out a heavy sigh. “She’s important to us. We know she is important to the both of you
, and that’s why we are coming with backup.”

  “Thanks, man.” Kane had a thousand thoughts running through his head. “If May has the ink pen, how do we turn off the GPS?”

  “I’m certain smashing the thing would shut it down, but I’m sure by now Timmons has the coordinates. If the pen is in May’s possession, make sure you’re locked and loaded.”

  “We already are,” Kane and Remy responded at the same time.

  “Heading to the car as we speak. See you soon.” Trevor hung up.

  Kane looked at his watch. “It’s eleven. I don’t want to wake her up, and I don’t want to go rifling through her things like some common criminal.”

  “Dammit, Kane, we don’t really have a choice in the matter. We need to make her aware of what is going on. She knows how to use a gun. We showed her where we had placed them throughout the house, and I want her ready, aware of what’s about to happen. She would never forgive us if we treated her like she was incompetent. I love her, and I love that little baby growing inside of her.” He stared hard at his brother.

  That was the first time Remy had admitted he loved her to him.

  “I love her, too, Remy. Hell, if I could, I would make her marry us tomorrow. But she ran from her feelings once, and now that we have her here, I won’t let her run again. Not without a fight.”

  Remy was checking the monitors and double-checking the security panels. “I agree with you one hundred percent. You know she is going to think we only want her because of the baby?”

  “Yep, and that’s why we are going to work even harder at proving her wrong.”

  Remy shook his head, stabbing his fingers through his hair. “All right, everything is secured. Let’s go downstairs and check on her. I have a bad feeling she has that damn ink pen.”

  Chapter 14

  The prickling sensation crawling along her skin caused May to stir. She woke with an uneasy feeling already threading throughout her body. Her hands fanned out on either side of her. Both of her men were missing from her bed, but May knew with a certainty as she moved to a sitting position that wasn’t the cause of her uneasiness.

  She sat in the darkness of the room for a few moments just listening to the silence all around her and the call of the nocturnal animals that seeped in from outside. Her head swung to the left in the direction of one of the windows. She thought she heard a scratching sound outside.

  Easing her hand to the nightstand, she removed the small handgun and slipped out of the bed. She tiptoed over to the window and peeked out the open blinds. Even with the glimmer of the moonlight shining through, her vision was limited. She squinted but still couldn’t make out anything. There wasn’t any movement.

  “Now I’m paranoid.” She closed the blinds. When she turned and walked back toward the bed, she stepped on something and heard it crack in the darkness.

  May walked over to the wall and turned on her lights and then closed the rest of her blinds. When she made her way back to the bed, she saw the pen she had used yesterday broken and the pieces scattered on the wooden floor. Her gun was still at her side when she heard the bedroom door open, but she was too stunned by what she was looking at to give any attention to whoever had just walked in.

  “May?” Remy called out to her.

  “What’s wrong?” Kane asked as they both made their way over to her.

  She couldn’t seem to pull her eyes away from the tiny red blinking light lying on the floor. Training, instincts, something should have kicked in, but nothing did. She just stared dumbstruck at the blinking light. Kane and Remy came to stand on either side of her. She knew they were there, but she couldn’t seem to look away from the light.

  “Well, damn. I guess that answers our question,” Remy said as he squatted down to examine the contents on the floor.

  “Focus, May.” Kane snapped his fingers in front of her face. “We need you, princess. I know you’re a social worker and you have the psychotherapy thing going on, but right now we need you to access that sweet military training you were given. Three pairs of eyes are always better than two.”

  May started nodding her head. Adrenaline was finally beginning to flow through her body. She could literally feel the surprised state she had been in dissipate. “That’s a tracker. GPS.” She nodded at the contents on the floor.

  Remy looked up at her and confirmed her statement. “Correct.” He pushed the crushed plastic that seemingly made up the ink pen to the side until the only things left were a pen drive and pieces of the GPS tracker.

  May moved into action. There would be no sleeping tonight. She knew exactly what she was looking at now. She laid the gun she had been holding on the bed. Pulling out a shirt and a pair of jeans, she changed while Remy and Kane examined the items still lying on the floor.

  “Crush it and flush it,” she heard Remy tell Kane.

  Once she was dressed, she removed a double-shoulder holster from her drawer and put it on. She holstered the gun she had placed on the bed. May opened her nightstand drawer again and removed a second weapon and secured that one, as well. The room went silent.

  “What?” She threw her hands up as both men just stared at her. “I still know how to use one. I get plenty of practice, and my license is current. You both are armed to the teeth, and you think I’m going to sit around here with nothing? Puh-leeez.” After clipping a knife to the hip of her jeans, she continued. “For the past few days, that man has been after me, swearing up and down I have something of his, and guess what. I do. He’s coming after me, and we all know it. And thanks to me, I just let him know exactly where I am being holed up. Who knows how long that thing has been active.”

  She saw Remy and Kane exchange worried glances but avoid direct eye contact with her. Remy picked up the pieces from the pen and proceeded to walk to the bedroom door.

  “So now what, Colombo one and two? Are you just going to give each other cryptic looks and keep things hidden from me?” She felt Kane’s hand at her back. Clearly he wanted her to follow his brother. Her anger was quickly growing, but without another word she fell in behind Remy.

  May followed them to the huge office they had been working in when she fell asleep. That was the only room in the house she hadn’t been in, and now she saw why. There was so much high-tech computer and surveillance equipment in one corner, it looked like a command post, and it held their work-related projects in the other.

  Remy walked to one of the computers while Kane pulled out his cell phone. May chose to observe the cameras that were located on different ends of the property. She knew there were motion detectors, but they were no longer on.

  “Why aren’t the motion detectors on?” she asked to no one in particular.

  “They are on. The lights turn on, but the alarms are disconnected because the wildlife around here kept setting them off,” Remy answered as he typed in something to secure the connection. “The house alarm is set, and there’s a buzzer that alerts us to anyone pulling onto the property. We have infrared cameras at a few locations. We tried to cover as much as we could with last-minute notice. We have an arsenal in this house, May.” He inserted the drive.

  Kane was talking to someone. The conversation was low and muffled. He’d moved away from her so she couldn’t hear what he was discussing. It didn’t matter in her eyes. She was busy watching those damn cameras.

  “Is there a way to rewind?” She had found a camera that had a view of her bedroom window.

  While nodding and answering questions with “yes” and “no,” Kane walked over and pointed out a few buttons and walked away again.

  May sat down and pulled up the camera she wanted and rewound the tape. She sat, not truly seeing anything. “You know, when I was a little girl, my sisters and I used to play a game. We would see who was better at sneaking through the living room and kitchen without making the red light on the motion detector light up.”

  She leaned closer to the screen and clicked a button a few times to magnify the screen. She used another butt
on to scan the area, making sure to take her time as she did so.

  “It was a skill, you know. My dad had placed those things just right. If you crawled on the floor in the living room, the motion detector in the kitchen would pick you up. When the red light flashed, that meant one of us lost the game. I, of course, always won.” She scrolled tighter. The surroundings were so dark it was impossible to see anything by her window, but she knew, felt something had been off when she woke up.

  “It took me a while, but I was the one out of the four of us with patience to retrieve the chocolate milk from the refrigerator. That was the prize. ‘Who’s the best burglar’ was the name of the game. Move slowly enough, be patient enough, and you just might trick the motion detectors.”

  “What do you see, May?” Kane had finished his phone call and was now standing behind her.

  “Sometimes a person doesn’t notice the detectors until the light flashes. Or in this case, the camera lens turns in the direction of the motion it has detected.” A few more clicks and she had managed to find what she was looking for.

  “Watch the bushes near my window.” She played it in slow motion. This person was good at moving painstakingly slow. “Watch the bush slowly expand and disappear again.”

  “Remy, they’re here. I know Timmons won’t come by himself.”

  Remy rushed over to the cameras.

  “Watch as the bush slowly grows an arm and a head.” Kane and May both pointed it out as the stranger peeked out from behind the bush. He was looking into May’s darkened bedroom.

  She shivered, realizing her hunch had become very real. May felt as if her chest had become heavy, but her training kept her from going into full-blown panic mode. She could protect herself, and she had no doubt that Remy and Kane would keep her safe. But knowing a deranged killer had found her didn’t help her mental state.