Tara's Revenge [Cattleman's Club 9] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Jenny Penn

  That was what Travis and Bryant were⎯interesting.

  Richard was not.

  “What in the world happened to you?” Richard raked down her length, making Tara feel like a slug that was dripping with slime. “Were you in some kind of accident?”

  “No.” Tara dropped her purse on the entry table and took her stand, fighting not to let Richard ruin the glow Travis and Bryant had left her with. “And what happened to me is really no concern of yours anymore. What are you doing here, Richard?”

  His professionally arched brows furled together in a look of consternation that Tara knew well. Richard enjoyed a challenge. That was what she’d become from the moment she’d told him she wanted a divorce. It was from that moment that Richard had started to actually show any real interest in their marriage.

  Tara had hoped that he’d take his defeat and move on when the judge had finally signed off on their divorce, but apparently he hadn’t. She really wasn’t in the mood to argue the matter anymore.

  “Never mind.” Tara cut Richard off just as he looked about ready to respond. “I don’t care. Get out.”

  “Tara⎯“

  “Out!” Tara held the door open and glared pointedly out it, but Richard dug in his heels.

  “I’m not leaving until you talk to me,” he declared with a stubbornness that had grown wearisome about five minutes into their marriage.

  It was about that time that everything had changed between them. It was about then when Richard had started reverting back to his natural state⎯bossy, demanding, and completely self-absorbed. Tara would admit that he’d put on a good act when they were dating, but it had all been a lie. That was true of almost everything the man said, except for when he was getting stubborn.

  “I’ll call the cops,” Tara warned him, but Richard remained unimpressed.

  “It’s not your house,” he pointed out with exaggerated patience.

  “No.” Tara smiled. “But I’m fucking the cops, so…”

  Richard blinked, clearly surprised by her explicit use of language. A second later he burst out laughing as he started to shake his head at her. “You’re lying.”

  “I’m really not.”

  Richard snorted at her insistence. “Oh, please.”

  “I just spent all morning fucking two men in front of an entire audience.”

  Maybe it was the way she said it, without any real emotion or insistence—Tara didn’t know—but Richard seemed convinced that she was making a joke. He kept on laughing, which started to get on her nerves.

  “I’ll tell you what,” Tara began as she marched over to take Richard by the arm and lead him to the door. “Why don’t you go ask my uncle about the Cattleman’s Club, and while you’re at it, get the hell out.”

  With that, she shoved Richard right out the door. He stumbled over his own feet, still laughing as she slammed the door in his face. For the first time since she’d moved in, Tara locked the damn thing before storming off to get a shower.

  * * * *

  “For God’s sakes! The mayor’s niece!”

  Chase Davis seemed hung up on that point. The big man was on a complete tear, but every time he got to the fact that Bryant and Travis had brought Tara to the club, he stopped, snarled, and clenched his fist. The man was pissed.

  Bryant had figured that out the moment Chase had come storming into the station house, all flushed and demanding to have a private word with the two of them. Alex had volunteered the interrogation room, and Bryant had a sick feeling every deputy in the place was on the other side of the two-way mirror reflecting back the image of he and Travis sitting there like two guilty schoolboys getting the riot act read to them.

  Guilty boys should shut the hell up, but of course, that wasn’t Travis’s forte.

  “It’s not like we forced her,” Travis muttered, glaring up at Chase. “Or that it’s any of your business.”

  That had Chase’s fist banging down onto the table as he leaned over to snarl at Travis. “You made it my business when you brought her to my club.”

  “It’s a private club,” Travis argued. “Who’s going to find out?”

  “The mayor.”

  Bryant cringed at the harsh sound that came out of Chase’s throat as he ground out that answer. The man was about ready to crack some teeth. No doubt, it wouldn’t be the first time. Chase, after all, was known for his temper.

  He was also known for being a fair man, a hard-working one and loyal, the kind of friend everybody wanted to have and the sort of enemy nobody wanted to challenge. Bryant sure as hell didn’t. He didn’t want to get in the way of the mayor either, but nobody was keeping him from Tara.

  “The mayor,” Chase repeated as he straightened back up and resumed his pacing. “He called me this afternoon. Apparently he’s concerned about the club. He’s heard rumors. He fears it might be a whorehouse! Do you know what that means? Do you?”

  Bryant did, but he wasn’t speaking up. Thankfully, neither was Travis.

  “It means that he is threatening the club with an investigation.”

  That meant they were about to be the two most hated men in Pittsview. Clubs like the Cattleman’s survived based on secrecy and the tolerance of the local community leaders. It helped that most of the community leaders were also members, but not the mayor.

  “That is unless we purge ourselves of the, and I quote, ‘disreputable members that seek to pervert the innocent female citizens of this fine town.’” Chase paused again. Only this time he smiled, and it was not a comforting sort of grin. “And do you know what that means?”

  Travis heaved a heavy sigh and nodded. “We’re out of the club.”

  “Yes. Yes, you are.”

  “That’s not going to stop us from fucking Tara.” Nothing was, and Bryant wanted that made clear to every man listening. “She’s ours.”

  “Well then, for your sake, I hope she’s worth it.”

  With that grim wish, Chase headed for the door, and he didn’t bother to say goodbye before he slammed out of it. That left Travis and Bryant sitting there, staring after him. They sat there for a silent moment before Travis sighed.

  “That man’s going to keel over from a heart attack one day if he doesn’t relax.”

  “Too true.” Bryant nodded. “Too true.”

  “Of course, now we do have a problem.”

  “Yeah.” Bryant nodded, knowing exactly what Travis was thinking. “Where are we supposed to take Tara tonight?”

  * * * *

  Tara wasn’t the least bit surprised when her uncle called down to the pool house, demanding an audience with her immediately. She knew what was coming, knew that she shouldn’t have taunted Richard but entertained him politely for at least a few minutes. That would have been the mature thing to do, but Tara wasn’t feeling up to acting like an adult and was half tempted to reject her uncle’s demand.

  She was living in his house, though. He was her uncle. Those two inescapable facts left her little room to do anything but agree. So, she blow-dried her hair and put on a respectable pair of slacks and complementing shirt and marched herself over to her uncle’s office. He was waiting for her, brooding over the papers scattered across his desk. He greeted her with a scowl and a command that held little warmth, despite his words.

  “Please shut the door behind you, Tara.”

  It was going to be one of those talks, and she was dreading it. Tara still did as he asked, feeling the disapproval in her uncle’s gaze, even as she turned her back to him to see to the task of shutting the door. By the time she turned around, he was gesturing toward the chair across from his desk.

  “Sit.”

  Half tempted to remind her uncle she was neither a dog nor a child, Tara bit back those sharp words and complied. Compliance was the shortest way back out of this room. That was what she really wanted⎯to escape.

  “We need to talk about your future, Tara,” her uncle began slowly as he folded his hands together and stretched his arms out over his desk. “
It has come to my attention that you have been spending an increasing amount of time with Deputy Black and Deputy Grover. While I appreciate that you might be having…fun with them, that’s not why I agreed to let you stay here.”

  “But that’s exactly why I came here,” Tara injected. “To rebuild my life.”

  “Rebuild? With Deputy Black and Grover?” Her uncle blinked, looking appalled by the very idea. “That’s not why you are here.”

  “Then why am I here?” Tara demanded to know, exasperated and confused. She’d thought her uncle understood what she was doing. Clearly not.

  “You’re here to find direction,” her uncle stated evenly and with a patience that grated on Tara’s nerves. “And you have found the wrong one. Working as a clerk? Consorting with two deputies? You’re better than this.”

  “No, I’m not.” Tara was even offended by the idea. “And you got me that job.”

  “To keep an eye on you while you figured out how much it sucks to work!” Her uncle flushed red, his fingers clenching into fists. “Your grandmother left you the bulk of her estate, not because you were her only grandchild but because you were a good grandchild! What do you think she would say now?”

  “I don’t know.” Tara didn’t care, but neither did she have the courage to say so.

  “Well, I do.” Her uncle drew himself up, sucking in a deep breath and tightening his tone back to a more reasonable, if strained, tone. “She would say what I’m about to say to you. I think you should grow up and give Richard another chance.”

  “No.” Tara rejected that idea instantly with a shake of her head, not even willing to consider the matter. “You know what he did. He stole money from my trust.”

  “A couple thousands of dollars⎯“

  “Tens of thousands,” Tara corrected, not that her uncle recognized her interruption.

  “⎯from a trust worth tens of millions is not a big deal.”

  “It is to me!”

  An ominous silence filled the room after Tara laid down that final word on the subject. Getting back with Richard wasn’t going to happen. Her uncle seemed to accept that, but he refused to accept the point.

  “Fine.” Taking another deep breath, her uncle managed to find a more reasonable tone. “Fine, but the solution isn’t running wild through Pittsview. You need to find yourself a decent man.”

  “I don’t want a man, decent or otherwise.” Frustrated by the feeling that nobody seemed to understand her, Tara tried desperately to explain her position once again. “I just want to live my life…my way.”

  “And the trust?” her uncle asked, but Tara didn’t know what he was getting at.

  “What about it?”

  “It must be managed. It must be protected.”

  “So that’s what this is really all about.” Tara frowned, finally seeing her uncle’s true motives. “You’re afraid I’m going to fall in love with Bryant and Travis and they’re going to run off with all my money? That’s why you invited me out here, isn’t it? Because you know I’m not talking to my parents and somebody had to keep an eye on me and all that money, isn’t it?”

  “Tara⎯“

  “No!” Tara cut him off, rising out of her seat with full indignation. “I don’t need to be watched. It’s my money. I’ll do what I want with it.”

  “Tara! Don’t you walk away from me!”

  But that was just what Tara was doing. She was walking away from him and this entire conversation. She didn’t stop until she’d made it back to the pool house, storming into and slamming the door to vent all of her frustration. It really was time to move out.

  That thought had her glancing toward the table where the stack of fliers she’d printed out of homes for sales sat. Right next to it was a box, a beautiful black box wrapped in a red bow.

  * * * *

  “Are you sure about this?” Bryant asked for about the millionth time, making Travis really want to turn around and hit him. Every five seconds it seemed like he made the same complaints over and over again. “Because breaking into the mayor’s pool house sounds like a good way to get fired.”

  “Only if he finds out,” Travis shot back. “Which he’s going to if you keep talking through this entire invasion. This is supposed to be quiet time!”

  That earned him a one-finger response from Bryant, who was dressed just like Travis, in all black with a backpack full of toys hanging from his shoulders. They’d decided, if they couldn’t bring Tara to the club, they would bring the club to Tara. What they hadn’t agreed on was whether to set the club up at their place or hers.

  Travis had to admit that Bryant had a point when he’d argued that making Tara scream down the rooftop probably wasn’t the best idea when her uncle, the mayor, was sleeping right next door. He’d won the argument, though, when he pointed out that their cracking ceilings probably wouldn’t hold the weight of the pulleys and straps they’d raided from the Cattleman’s toy chest.

  The mayor’s pool house, on the other hand, had nice high beams. They would not only hold the weight but also provide room for them to get creative. Besides, it wasn’t like Travis hadn’t already given Tara a workout in the pool house. Nobody had come running to save the girl. He didn’t imagine anybody would come running this time either.

  Beyond that, Tara just had a nicer place. She had a real big shower with water pressure worth envying. They could fit all three of them in there. Hell, they’d strap her up in there and have a little fun. That idea started to take shape as Travis led the way through the forest that fed into the back of the mayor’s estate. It was early still, and the sun was lingering along the edge of the sky, casting thick shadows that gave them plenty of room to move.

  It helped, too, that the main house appeared dark and unoccupied as they snuck up on it. Their luck ran out, though, when they got to the door of the pool house and found it locked. That didn’t stop them from getting in, but it did sort of up the tension in the moment. That didn’t compare, though, to their response when they finally made it into Tara’s bedroom and found a box and a note that left no doubt that somebody was making a move on their woman.

  “Wear this and nothing else.” Bryant read the card lying beside the empty gift box. “And there is an address and time. It looks like it’s Maxim’s down in Dothan.”

  “Maxim’s?” Travis blinked, wondering what man in town would think of that place.

  Maxim’s was a snooty French restaurant that people like the mayor went to. Not the Cattlemen. The portion sizes were dainty, the decorations girly, and the entire atmosphere stuck-up. People said it was like stepping back in time, but Travis didn’t want to visit the past. He wanted to head straight toward the future and his plans for the jerk who thought he could make a move on Tara and get away with it. With that thought, he turned toward the door.

  “Let’s go.”

  “Where?” Bryant hesitated as if he couldn’t figure out the obvious.

  “To rescue Tara, duh!”

  “And what if she doesn’t want to be rescued?” Bryant pestered Travis, even as he followed him out the door. “I mean, maybe this is her thing.”

  “We’re her thing,” Travis snapped back as he led the way out the pool house’s main door, not even bothering to be stealthy. Nobody was around, and he was in a rush.

  “Maybe she wants a new thing,” Bryant muttered, following Travis but with a lot less outrage fueling his steps.

  Bryant was already sounding defeated. That was no good. Pausing beneath the arch of the oak trees lining the edge of the mayor’s garden, Travis turned to confront his friend with what he’d thought was obvious enough that he shouldn’t have even had to explain it.

  “And if she did, don’t you think she’d tell us?” Travis knew she would, and so did Bryant. It just took him a moment to see the truth.

  “Yeah, she probably would.”

  “And she’d probably assume a gift like that was from us.” In fact, Travis was sure of it. Bryant was finally catching on.

 
“Somebody is trying to screw with us.”

  Travis nodded and smiled. “And I say we go find out who.”

  Chapter 12

  Tara sat squirming in her seat, almost giddy with excitement. She was dressed in a sexy black sheath, and nothing else. Just like the note had told her to. It hadn’t been signed, but that didn’t mean she didn’t know who had sent it.

  Travis and Bryant were stepping up their game…though she wasn’t sure about the restaurant they’d chosen. It certainly didn’t seem like their kind of place with all its elegant decorations and frou-frou menu, but she figured that they were just aiming for something romantic. No doubt somebody had told them about this place, and it was going to be amusing to see their reaction when they walked in and found themselves transported back to the time of big belle skirts and top hats.

  Just the thought had her giggling as she glanced around. This was definitely going to be funny. Funny and fun, that was what she really wanted. Tara wanted to laugh, to enjoy life and allow it to flow where it may. That was what her uncle, or anybody else in her family, didn’t understand.

  They were all so obsessed with the accumulation of wealth and power. What did that get them? Not happiness. Not satisfaction. Not the ability to relax and enjoy the world around them. It all seemed so pointless to Tara. She was half minded to shock them all and give her entire inheritance away.

  That seemed to be her road to freedom. They’d all stop harassing her then. Hell, they’d probably disown her. As much as Tara didn’t want to admit it, much less feel it, that thought bothered her. As ruthless and tyrannical as her family might be, they were hers. She’d been raised to be loyal.

  Or maybe that was just gullible, Tara corrected herself as she looked up to find Richard cutting a sharp path through the dimly lit dining room. In an instant her excitement and glee soured, fast. It wasn’t so much the sight of her ex-husband that did it as it was the realization that Travis and Bryant hadn’t dreamt up a romantic date for the three of them.