Covington, Cara - Love Under Two Cowboys [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Cara Covington

  “We didn’t know Tamara was there, remember? That sort of changed things. I had to improvise.”

  “Uh-huh. Matt and I and the handful of men I brought with us from Susie’s Commitment Ceremony hear those shots, and we storm into the hangar, guns drawn.”

  “It was just a little dustup,” Peter said. “Your brothers and I had it all under control.”

  Julián had always considered his younger brother to be a fairly smart man, but at the moment, he wasn’t so sure of that fact. He seemed to take great delight in baiting Lusty’s sheriff.

  It was kind of like dinner at the New House, only on not so grand a scale. Julián grinned. He was becoming rather fond of his brother’s Kendall in-laws.

  “A little dustup? One perp shot, unconscious, needing surgery, another with a giant hole in his leg thanks to a tiny little woman and an even tinier screwdriver—”

  Peter laughed. “I’m going to tell Tamara you called her tiny.” He rubbed his hands together as if in anticipation. “And then I’m going to tell Samantha.”

  “Jerk,” Adam said. Then he turned his attention back to Julián. “What was I saying? Oh, yeah, what I found once I got inside that hangar…last but certainly not least, your brother on his ass on the cement floor bleeding all over the damn place.”

  “You got shot?” Julián swung his head toward his brother and pinned him with a stare.

  Peter shrugged. “Just a little.”

  “Just a little.” Adam said that with more than a little sarcasm in his tone. “Let me tell you something, Julián, our Peter is a fucking bullet magnet. It happened again, just a couple of months later.”

  “You’ve been shot twice.” Julián shook his head as Adam launched into another story, detailing how Tracy had been nabbed in an attempt to lure Peter into a trap.

  “Who knew that such a tiny little town could have so much chaos and mayhem?” Julián wouldn’t say he was horrified, exactly. “Well, I’ve certainly had my previous impression about the peacefulness of small towns shot all to hell—pun definitely intended.” He wondered briefly if that had been the wrong thing to say. Apparently not, as Adam and Peter both grinned in appreciation of his pun.

  Adam nodded, and then he shrugged. “Well, I do have to say that lately, things have been…somewhat colorful around here.” Then he shot Peter a thoughtful look.

  Peter met his gaze and nodded. “You doing all right now, brother-in-law? After your latest little ‘dustup’?”

  Something in the way Peter asked the question focused Julián’s attention on the two men. Though not related by blood, it was clear a fraternal bond had formed between them.

  He’d accompanied his brother to the sheriff’s office on the heels of their lunch together at Lusty Appetites, ostensibly because Tracy had insisted Peter bring Adam’s lunch to him.

  Julián had wondered at the time why Ginny, the man’s wife, wasn’t running the meal over instead. Now he understood. Likely all the women had come up with this plan, as a way of making sure the sheriff was doing okay.

  He was no cop, but from what he’d heard, he figured Adam Kendall had saved Chloe’s life last week with his bold action. He knew Adam was second-guessing himself because Chloe had had to kill a man, and she was having some problems coping with that.

  One thing he could say about the men in Lusty. They took their responsibilities toward all of their women very seriously. Very similar to another city a couple of hours’ drive down the road.

  Julián didn’t know why he’d always resisted getting to know the Texan side of his heritage. He thought of that bumper sticker Mick had given him a couple of years back. He maybe hadn’t gotten here as fast as he could, but he was here now. He guessed that was what counted the most.

  Adam let out a deep breath. “Yeah, I’m okay. If I had it to do over again, I might have handled the situation differently. Maybe I would have planned the op a bit more thoroughly. I’m lucky that only Lockwood was killed.” Adam shook his head. “I guess I’ll never know how it might have gone down if I’d done things differently. I was pissed at the time, and I can’t help but think maybe my anger played a role in how things went down.”

  “Here’s what I know.” Peter nodded. “I ran the scenario you were faced with past a couple of good friends I have in the FBI—these agents have a history working in hostage situations. Their take was that most of the time, the bad guy either wins or causes a hell of a lot of collateral damage. They said what you did was risky, but likely the best chance you had for things coming out okay. And here’s what else I know. You can twist your guts into a permanent knot over what might have been. So forget that and focus on the outcome. Both Chloe and Carrie are alive, and Carrie is free from a horrendous nightmare, and it’s because you acted swiftly and decisively.”

  “Well, you can be sure that next time I’ll think things through a little better before I go storming anywhere.”

  The phone rang. Adam had been sitting back, his legs on his desk, chair tilted back, looking more relaxed than he had just a half hour before.

  He pulled his feet off the desk and reached for the phone.

  “Sheriff’s Department, Adam Kendall speaking. Hey, Stinson, how are you?” Adam’s smile slowly disappeared as he listened to his caller. “Yes, a Lear landed out at our airfield, Christ, just before dawn this morning. Owned by some French businessman on his way to San Antonio.” Adam reached into one of the baskets on his desk and picked out a printed sheet. “Apparently they had a fuel line problem. The man and his assistant rented my brother’s SUV and they drove off. I ran them, of course. Owner’s name was Broussard. Henri Broussard. Came back, no wants or warrants.” Adam paused for a moment, then said, “What?”

  The look on Kendall’s face had gone from curious to stone-cold in a heartbeat. He listened as whoever was on the other end of the phone seemed to be going into great detail. Finally, he said, “Okay, we’ll head out there now.” He looked from Peter to Julián. “I’ve a couple of men with me. We’ll take care of things at our end. Don’t you worry about it, Stinson. I’ll get the ball rolling with the state boys, too. We’ll be ready for them. Keep me updated, will you?” He hung up the phone and got to his feet.

  “That was Hank Stinson, sheriff over in Divine. A woman and a baby turned up missing, and he has reason to believe they’ve been kidnapped, and are being driven this way. Son of a bitch!”

  “It involves that Lear that landed out at the airfield this morning?”

  “Yeah. I checked that bastard out, too, and he came up clean. But I believe Hank. He says the man’s dirty, he’s dirty.”

  “What do you need from us?”

  Julián had never seen his brother in “cop” mode. All signs of the younger brother he knew were gone, replaced by the face of a man Julián certainly wouldn’t want to cross.

  “They’re a couple of hours out, yet. We need to secure the airfield. Their pilot is still with the plane and hell, I think Morgan and Henry were working on the damn thing for them.”

  Peter nodded. “Yes, they were. Figured it couldn’t hurt to make a good impression on an international businessman.”

  “I’ll just head out and grab that pilot. I’ll call in backup. We’ll come up with a plan to stop those perps and rescue the woman and child.”

  “You’re not going out there alone.” Peter looked over at Julián. Then he looked back at Kendall. “I know Matt is off today and he headed down to San Antonio, so he can’t be your backup.”

  Adam smirked. “I can handle securing the pilot. Hank says the SUV carrying the baby and Jayne Sheridan are a couple of hours out, yet. We’ve got time to come up with a good plan.”

  “Jayne?” Julián had felt as if he was watching a play unfold before his eyes up until then, but the mention of Jayne’s name pulled him right into the action. “That son of a bitch grabbed Jayne?”

  “Oh, hell, she’s the woman you told us about, isn’t she?” Adam said. “The one who fainted in your arms at that nightclub when
you and the twins went to look at that horse ranch.”

  Julián nodded. “The Dancing Pony, yeah. Christ, I bet her boyfriend is having a fit right now.” Julián recalled his first look at the man with the tattooed arms and quiet but intensely territorial presence. When the man had looked at Jayne, Julián could see his heart in his eyes. The tenderness on his face had convinced Julián to hand over his precious bundle.

  On his later visits to Divine he’d had occasion to grab a beer with Seth Carter, the man who had claimed Jayne Sheridan. He thought that, over time, the two of them might become good friends.

  He looked up at Adam. “I’m pretty good with a gun, or playing a grease monkey, whatever else you need me to do.”

  He expected to get an argument. After all, he wasn’t a cop, like the sheriff and Peter were.

  Instead of telling him he was a civilian and had to stay back, Adam nodded. “Okay, then. Let’s ride.”

  It only took a few minutes to arrive at the airfield. Broussard’s plane was in what the families called the Lear hangar, as it had the best setup for repairs. The other two jets had been temporarily moved to allow room for it.

  Julián had wondered exactly how wealthy the families of Lusty, Texas, were. He supposed he finally had his answer, as he caught sight of the spiffy-looking helicopter they had, too.

  Adam looked for all the world like a man who was just dropping in to visit his brother. Julián watched as Morgan, sitting behind his desk in his glass-walled office, nodded to him.

  The pilot appeared to be relaxed, sitting in the chair across from Morgan, chatting away. Adam went into the office and stood, his hand appearing to naturally rest on the butt of his gun.

  “I wish I was armed,” Peter said.

  Julián nodded. “Me, too. But if the bastard runs, we can tackle him—hopefully without you getting shot again.”

  “Christ, that’s all I’d need. Three times? I would never be able to live that down.”

  In the end, the pilot didn’t run. In fact, it looked to Julián as if the man sighed in relief as he easily and without Adam pulling his gun, raised his hands in the air.

  Since Peter headed toward the action, Julián followed along.

  “You must understand. This man is evil to his core. Ma mère—sorry, my mother, she is very old. Henri Broussard would not hesitate to pick up the phone and order her dead.”

  “And if he’s taken out?”

  Guy St. Pierre shrugged. “If he is arrested, another will move in and take over his network, but I would be free of danger. Broussard has always kept those he considered his personal servants close.”

  “Are you expecting to hear from Broussard later today, say, as he gets close?” Adam asked.

  “Non. He called a half an hour ago, and told me the plane had better be ready, or else. He will not call again.”

  “Leave your cell phone with Morgan. I’m going to call in my other deputy to take you to our jail. I’m sorry, but the lives of two innocents depend on what we do next.”

  “Bien. I will gladly visit your jail.”

  Peter stepped forward. “If you have information that could assist the State of Texas and the government of the United States in their investigation and prosecution of Broussard, I’m pretty sure that you would be a free man.”

  Morgan nodded. “And we’d make certain your mother was safe.”

  “I had heard that America was the land of opportunity, but I never thought that would ever apply to me. Merci. I will tell you everything I know.”

  St. Pierre didn’t object to the handcuffs, or to being taken to the Lusty jail. Adam called in his other deputy—a man named Jasper—to come and collect and then babysit the man.

  Adam’s cell phone rang and he walked off to converse—likely with the sheriff of Divine. He was back moments later.

  “Jayne has her cell phone with her and has been texting what information she could along the way.”

  “Gutsy lady,” Peter said.

  “She is that. Smart as a whip, too,” Julián said.

  “They’re in Morgan’s SUV, heading this way.” Adam looked over at Morgan, who nodded.

  “I’m putting a call in to Mitch at Benedict Oil and Minerals.” Morgan looked at Julián. “All of our vehicles and cell phones have GPS locators. Mitch—who’s head of security and an ex-Marine—will tell us where the car is, so we can monitor their progress.”

  “I’m betting they’re still in it, still headed this way. They’ll want to keep up the façade of being wealthy, law-abiding businessmen. Likely figure we’ve no idea what they’re really doing,” Adam said. Then he looked at Julián. “Ace Webster is driving a man named Seth Carter here.”

  “Jayne is Seth’s woman,” Julián said. “And the baby she has with her, if I’m not mistaken, is Seth’s son.”

  “So, his coming isn’t a problem for you?”

  Peter answered for him. “I think my big brother has his eye on another woman—someone from his wild and wanton past.”

  Julián slugged Peter’s arm. “Hey, I finally got myself a wild and wanton past, and it wasn’t too many years ago, either.” His thoughts and feelings about Gwen were too raw and undefined to share with anyone at the moment. Besides, he needed to bring all his attention to the very real dilemma of rescuing Jayne and the baby. He turned his attention to Adam. “Seth and I are okay. What do you need me to do?”

  Julián listened as Adam outlined a basic plan. Morgan would take his place in the pilot’s seat—so their quarry could see a body in the cockpit, and, if worst came to worst, he could start the plane.

  Adam put a call in to the state cops, who were perfectly willing to come and lend a hand. It didn’t take them long to get there. Captain Connell and Adam conferred, and then Connell set about hiding his men from view.

  Peter headed out in Julián’s pickup truck, after grabbing a Stetson and some dark glasses from somewhere inside one of the hangars.

  “He’s going on recon,” Adam said as they watched Peter drive off. “We know where the SUV is, but we’d all feel better if we got eyes on it, if only in passing.”

  Julián grinned. “You figure he won’t make it back in time for the action to go down, don’t you? He’ll have to circle around after passing that car. If he’s not here, there’s no way he can get shot.”

  “Damn straight. Jordan and my mother would have my nuts if I let that Fed get shot again.”

  Personally, Julián approved of the ruse.

  Twenty minutes later, Peter called with an update. The SUV had pulled over and Peter had done what he called a pretty decent good ol’ boy act of offering roadside assistance. He reported two men, one who looked like a weasel and one big dude—likely Broussard and his lackey. They’d stopped so Jayne could change the baby’s diaper. She was bruised, but on two feet, and appeared lucid. The baby had been waving his arms about. Adam immediately let his counterpart, Hank Stinson, know.

  They were all conscious of the time. It occurred to Morgan that there should be an invoice for that son of a bitch to pay. He even included a fee for the rental of the SUV. He looked up from his computer. “If that bastard has put so much as a scratch on my ride, I’m going to castrate him.”

  Adam grinned. “Hell, maybe you can castrate him anyway.”

  “Or leave that to him.” Julián nodded toward the black SUV that turned, tires squealing, and came through the front gates.

  The passenger door practically exploded open, and Seth Carter hit the ground running. He headed straight for the only man he knew, Julián.

  “He hit her. He grabbed Jayne, and my son, Toby, and he hit her. That bastard’s a dead fucking man.”

  “We’re ready for ’em, Seth,” Julián said.

  “Don’t fuck up our plan.” Adam Kendall came over and got in Seth’s face. “Every single one of us is focused on getting your family back. We won’t make you stand on the sidelines. But you have to get with the program.”

  Julián waited with everyone else to see if th
e big tattooed man could rein himself in. After a moment, Seth nodded. His sharp gaze took in the lay of the land, and the men he didn’t know. Julián had noticed that Adam greeted the other man—the driver of the SUV—like an old friend, which he probably was.

  “This is Ace Webster, a man not unfamiliar with dicey situations.” Adam performed the rest of the introductions. Then he said, “We’re ready. Captain Connell, here, has his men tucked out of sight. He’ll wait just inside the hangar door and direct them when the time is right. Morgan will be in the cockpit. I’ll pull the plane out of the hangar using Henry’s truck as the suspect vehicle pulls through the gates. Julián is going to be our grease monkey.”

  “And me?” Seth took a half step toward Adam Kendall.

  “You can be inside the plane. Likely, they’ll want to rush Jayne and your son on board, get them out of Julián’s sight as soon as possible. If so, you can grab them, and keep them safe. Ace, maybe you’d like to join Seth, since you’re armed.”

  “Sounds good, Adam.”

  Then Adam looked at Julián. “If you get a chance to grab Jayne and Toby, you take it. Otherwise, you’re just another working man, only happy to help the rich and awesome foreigners.”

  “Christ, I don’t know if I’m that good an actor.” Then he met Seth’s gaze. “But I’ll do everything I can to help Seth protect his woman and his boy.”

  Seth nodded. “I owe you, man.”

  Julián waved that away. He reached for the tool belt Morgan had brought out for him to wear, and strapped it on. Then he tucked the guns—one Adam had handed him and one Morgan had passed—into the waistband of his pants, one on either side.

  He hoped to hell Broussard and that other bastard didn’t look past his tool belt and his goofy grin and see the weapons.

  Morgan’s phone beeped. He looked at the screen then up at everyone else. “They’re nearly here.”

  Adam nodded. “Okay, places. And let’s do this thing right.”

  Julián was in awe at the speed with which everyone moved. Ace pulled his vehicle around the far end of the hangar, out of sight, and then ran toward the Lear. Morgan, followed by Seth, was on his heels and got into the jet, too, leaving the door open and the steps down. They’d already hooked the jet up to the pickup—the one the Kendalls had modified for that very purpose. Adam got behind the wheel of the truck and waited.