06 All Bark And No Bite

by Jana Leigh

  "I can't move," Jazz said and then felt Rex roll over to the side and take her with him, so she was laying half on top of both men. The sweat was causing her to chill as it finally cooled down and Rex threw a cover over them.

  “No, we have to get our asses back out there. I am telling you that we are totally going to get razzed,” Jazz complained, stood and put her hands on her hips. “I am serious, get your asses up. I am not facing the music alone. You are totally helping me.”

  Her men groaned and raised themselves out of the bed, they dressed, stopping to kiss each other and fondle each other.

  “Okay, so the story is, we had to take a phone call,” Rex said smoothly as they opened the door.

  “Right, from who?” Drew laughed.

  “Who gives a shit, if they ask make someone up,” Rex laughed and slapped Jazz on the ass as she walked in front of them swinging her hips seductively.

  Chapter Seven

  Phoebe laughed when Jazz came back into the room. “One more down, who is the next to fall?”

  Blake leaned over and said, “We are, I am pretty sure we can just disrobe right here and go at it.”

  Phoebe slapped him on the shoulder and blushed. She was still not used to this whole thing, hopefully she would get used to it. She didn’t have to tell her story aloud, they were all there for it.

  Shane grabbed her hand as if he knew what she was thinking about, when she made her plan to try to catch the Digrossi family. She really thought it would work. But she had not planned for them to have a security system put on the computers as well. It sucked. She should have thought about it. If they had the hard drive she copied they would have been done with all this and not been forced to go into hiding until they could gather the drive back.

  The men were working on a way to break into the building when everyone was gone. Since they disappeared, Junior had focused on combing the United States for them. He had let his security in the building lax since most of his muscle was searching for them, with orders to shoot to kill.

  If Shane and Blake had not been there, she would have been one of the many casualties from Junior taking over the company. The asshole had no morals at all.

  "Sir, I must insist that I speak with Ms. Stone, or we will have to send a uniformed officer out to her listed place of work. There are a lot more lives involved here," Blake said and rolled his eyes. Only a dork would actually buy this story, but he had to think of it off the cuff, and nothing else popped to mind.

  Shane nodded his head and Blake hung up the phone as the man began to get nasty with him. "Well?"

  "Third floor, in an inner room. According to the plans, we have it as the security floor," Shane said grimly and looked at the building.

  "Fuck," Blake said quietly.

  "We need to get her out now," Shane said and looked around the street. They needed a diversion and quickly. One that would make sure that every single person came out of the building.

  "They're gonna take her through the garage. Once I create a distraction, you make sure you get her," Shane said and grinned.

  "How will I know?"

  "You’ll know," Shane said and ran back across the street.

  Blake shook his head and didn't doubt for a second he would know when his best friend was going to start. Shane was the master at distractions. Over the years, he saved all the men's lives they now worked with—his hare-brained schemes always worked and always made them laugh when it was over. Blake only hoped that was the case tonight.

  He wound his way through the streets until he was on the back end of the building. He slipped into the parking garage and positioned himself to see the elevator that led to the area. They knew that only the execs parked in here. He saw Junior's car and rolled his eyes at the license plate he had—TufGuy. What a dipshit, he thought, and then noted the other cars that were still in the building. Quickly taking out his phone, he snapped pictures of all the license plates, so they could look them up later.

  The security man was walking around the garage checking things. Blake turned and twisted, moving around the barrier as the security man walked. He wanted to chuckle at the game of hide and seek he was playing. Wow, Junior should really pay to have his security trained better.

  Blake stood wondering when the hell Shane was going to give the signal. It seemed like it had taken forever to get here and be in place. Now he was wondering how much longer he was going to have to avoid security.

  Then he heard it and smiled. The siren and alarms went off, nearly busting his eardrums. Blake pulled out his earplugs and put them in so the noise wouldn't bother him. He hated to lose concentration because of noise. He felt the loud noises of the gates being opened and the police department beginning to arrive. It had to be a bomb threat. Shane always loved to make a statement.

  Blake saw the elevator light up and begin to move. It was called to an upper floor. He watched as the lights flickered, finally landing on the floor where Phoebe and the security offices were located. It took a long time for it to begin moving. Someone must have been holding it open, waiting for people.

  She may not be on this ride, he thought, and waited. If she had been discovered, Blake knew that Junior was going to try to keep it under wraps, but who knew how far the knowledge of corruption went into his place. For all they knew, every single person who worked here knew what the hell they were doing.

  Although Junior tried to say he was a normal businessman, most people didn't believe him. But there was a handful of people who said that he should be given a chance. Most of them were local officials who had helped the two brothers stay out of jail when their father was arrested.

  They claimed the brothers had not known a thing their father was doing. And the businesses had been separated years before. The brothers actually had a legitimate business that ran out of this building. But only a sucker would believe it were true.

  Blake positioned himself once again so he could see the people as they exited the elevator, when the bell dinged. Junior and a thin man stepped out, hurried together to his car, and got in. They didn't even look over their shoulders to the see if the rest of the people got off and got to their cars safely. Blake could see several of the higher security men moving quickly to their vehicles. They had files on each of them.

  Rocco, Junior's right-hand man was missing. Blake frowned and watched as the elevator once again closed and began to rise. Shit, if they had Rocco watching Phoebe, she was in more trouble than they realized. The man was a sick motherfucker, the shit they read on him made him cringe. He loved to torture people to get information out of them. Few people survived once in his presence, if he wanted information. This really sucked. He needed to have Shane come and help as backup if Phoebe was with the large man. Blake could take him if they were one-on-one, but with Phoebe being there also, he wanted to make sure she didn't get hurt.

  The elevator dinged again, and Blake looked up. He didn't have enough time to get Shane back here. He hoped he had the car ready for them, because Rocco was on the elevator, and he was carrying a bloodied, unconscious Phoebe in his arms. Blake felt the anger begin to rise as he saw the condition she was in. He could tell her arm was broken because of the old angle it was at as it hung loosely in front of her. Her face was turned toward him, and the bruising and blood showed that she had taken a few hits.

  Blake waited as the large, monstrous man walked to the van that was parked next to where Junior had parked. Holding Phoebe with one hand, he reached for the back doors to open them with the other, and Blake struck. He hit the large man on the back of the head with the pipe he found. The 'thunk' when the pipe hit the man's head made even Blake grimace, but he didn't have time to stop and think. He grabbed for Phoebe as the large man began to fall.

  Trying to be gentle, Blake laid her in the corner while he stood and looked back at Rocco. He should have known the large man had a rock-solid head. The blow may have dazed him, but it didn't knock him out. With a red, furious face, the large man spun toward him and let
out a roar of displeasure.

  "You fucker," he screamed and lunged toward him. Blake had the advantage of being lighter and quicker. He was also in better shape. The criminal obviously became complacent in the last few years, relying solely on his reputation. Blake grinned and swept the large man's feet, then pounced when he hit the floor.

  Punching him in the face repeatedly, Blake almost grinned at the blood he saw pouring from the man's nose, he wanted to scream at him and ask him how he liked being beaten. But he held back. Blake didn't want to attract attention.

  Finally, with a sickening crunch of the cheekbone, Rocco fell unconscious. Blake pushed himself up and took a deep breath before wiping the back of his hand across his forehead. That had been tough work. Now he needed to get his little woman out of here and to safety before he could relax.

  Blake went to where Phoebe's crumpled body lay on the cold, concrete floor and gathered her up quickly. They had to get out of here before the security and police came to look.

  He walked out of the back of the garage and grinned when he saw the black van parked just beyond the entrance. Moving quickly, he reached the door just as it popped open and Shane said, "Hurry, they're going to be securing this area in a second, and we need to be long gone."

  Blake nodded, slid into the passenger seat with Phoebe still in his arms, and buckled them in together. He wasn’t going to let her out of his sight for a second until they were back where they needed to be.

  "We need supplies," Blake said briskly, knowing his friend would realize he was talking about medical supplies.

  "Already ahead of you, have them being prepared right now. Just one quick stop and we'll be on the way. I think it would be best if we didn't stop too much until we reach Lily's place."

  Blake nodded and looked down at the woman he held in his arms. "Yeah, I think we need to make sure she's safe, then we can figure all of this out."

  They were headed back to the headquarters of their new company, which was now located in Massena, NY. The leader of the company was Rex—he was Phoebe's half-brother. Rex and Drew were getting married to Jazz. It was like Peyton Place around them, but Blake and Shane really wanted the same thing as their friends. Phoebe was the one they wanted.

  The others in the company were Trent and Bear. They had already found their woman, Lily, even if she refused to acknowledge it. It was kinda funny watching the grown men follow Lily around. Blake wondered if Phoebe was going to be like that, too. If these three women became close friends like they all hoped, they would be a force to be reckoned with. Jazz was one scary lady when she was pissed. For a dancer, she packed quite a punch.

  Chapter Eight

  They were getting ready for tomorrow's Christmas Eve celebration. All the women were decorating the Big House and hanging the lights. Hopefully, the men would be back from cutting down the fresh Christmas tree soon, and they would all have the tree trimming party. Their men had gotten up this morning and made a big production about getting out the saws, and wearing their flannel shirts, being lumberjacks. It was amusing to the women who knew there was a chain saw in the four-wheeler that would take care of the cutting. At this point, they all assumed the men were doing their whole bonding thing, hiding some facts they discovered and didn’t want to talk about in front of the females.

  Lily was walking by the offices with her hands full of their Christmas Day dinner when she heard a beep. She knew it meant the computer found something, so she dropped her bundle off and walked into the office slowly. First, she looked over her shoulder thinking that someone was going to walk in and find her. It would be just her luck. When no one appeared, Lily walked in fully and closed the office door.

  There were several pages of paper on the printer, and she grinned. They had been looking for their siblings—and apparently, they found one. The other looked like it was not as well documented, but when Lily saw the documents they discovered, she panicked. Everyone would freak out when they saw this. She knew some things already that she hadn’t shared yet, thinking after Christmas they would have plenty of time to talk about this. But she was wrong, this took on a whole other dimension when she saw the papers. She was going to have to do something soon, and she was not going to be able to have the group help her.

  Folding one of the papers, she slipped it in her pocket. Lily opened the door and called out to the other girls. They would need to see this. She felt a little guilty about the information she was keeping from them; however, there was nothing to be done about it until she could make a solid plan.

  “What’s up?” Bailey said as she waddled through the door with lights wrapped around her neck. The other women followed, she grinned when she saw they were all covered in tinsel and garland. This is what she wanted her whole life. This type of family, and she would be damned if any of them got hurt trying to get the information they needed. She was the only one who could possibly do it and Lily also knew her men would never let that happen. A plan started to form in her head, but she pushed it aside and smiled at the women.

  “The program found something. Junior has been searching for babies who were born to a certain woman. The woman died in childbirth fifteen years ago,” Lily said slowly and waited.

  “Shit, your sibling is a teen?” Calli asked with a hushed voice. As if anyone would hear her, they were in the country.

  “We need to get the men,” Ginny said quickly and went to the kitchen to get the handheld radios they all had. Each of the women was assigned a radio that went directly to their men. However, when the men went on this tree cutting outing they only took one—Andres's, so the rest of them left their walkie-talkies in their rooms.

  Lily and the women looked over the paperwork that had printed out. The young man, who was supposedly their half-brother, had a hard life. His mother was killed in a convenient accident when he was young, and from there he went into the system since no one was able to locate any of the woman’s family.

  Seven foster homes in the last twelve years, the boy had been shuffled around the state of New York like a bag of potatoes, Lily thought. Phoebe and Jazz were wondering aloud if they could make some calls to people they knew and find out where the boy was right now.

  According to the papers, the boy had blown out of his last foster home six weeks ago. With it being so close to the holidays, it looked like the Social Worker didn’t want to put too much work into it and placed the child in a group home. The address wasn't listed.

  Ginny walked back into the room and said, “They are on their way, said they just finished cutting the tree. I told them they found one of the missing siblings, and Rex said he was coming right away with Andres.”

  “Good, I think maybe I can call this woman who used to work in the system, there has to be something we can do,” Jazz said.

  “It's the day before Christmas Eve. We can’t leave him in a group home for the holidays. He's family,” Lily said quietly and wrapped her arms around her waist.

  “I agree, we need to do something,” Phoebe said and put her arm around her half-sister.

  It didn’t take that long for the men to get back from cutting the tree. Rex and Andres walked in only minutes before the others came in also. They spent the next few minutes catching up on the information Lily found on the printer.

  “I can make some calls,” Dallas said and looked up at the group and waited. He wanted to make sure that is what they wanted. It was one thing to find a full-grown sibling who was in danger, but a teen? There were a lot of issues they would have to deal with.

  “He needs family,” Phoebe said firmly, and the other women nodded.

  The men all looked at one another and realized they would never win this battle, shrugging, Noah said, “Where are you going to put him?”

  “In the Big House, of course,” Lily said with a look of dismay. Where the heck did they think they wanted to put him?

  “I am playing the devil’s advocate here ladies so don’t get all pissy with me,” Noah said with his hands held up and then lo
oked at the guys who seemed to have developed a mental connection while they were out cutting down a tree, because they nodded to him. “All I am saying is that this isn’t an adult, what are we going to do with him for the long run, we have to have a plan.”

  The women stared at him with open mouths, and his wife turned and glared at him. “Listen here, mister, what the hell do you think we are going to do with him, bring him home for a nice Christmas meal with the crazies and then pat him on the head and send him away? Unfortunately, he got the short end of the stick in the gene pool. He is related to that dumbass. You all need to listen up though, I am sure the girls are on the same page, so, here is how it is going to go down,” Bailey started speaking softly and then she turned, and all the girls nodded at her. “You will go and bring home the half-brother. We will take care of all of his needs and Christmas. We will be having a talk about who is going to legally adopt the child and then where he will be raised, because there is no fucking way in the world I would ever leave a child out there with a damn big bull's eye on his back. If you think for one second any of us don’t understand the ramifications of what is going on, then you have another thing coming.”

  Dallas stepped forward and put a hand on his wife's shoulder, “We know that, honey. What we were trying to say is, this is a child we are talking about. It is a whole other set of issues. How do we even know the kid will want to come, or if he isn’t a psycho like his father? We need to check things out.”

  “Then why don’t you smart, big, strong men go and do your checks, while we plan for one of two contingencies. Either he is coming here and we are welcoming him into the family, or I will find the highest security mental institution and have you forge the papers to have him admitted immediately. Either way, he is not sitting out there on his own for one more minute,” Calli said stepping forward and pointing at her men.

  “Honey, it's the day before Christmas Eve. I swear we will try to get this accomplished, but I won’t bring someone here that will jeopardize any of you,” Steve said.