The Men of Treasure Cove
Emma’s Treasures
The darling girl of Treasure Cove, Emma McKenzie, wanted for nothing, except the love of three men. Days after her twenty-first birthday, she gets her wish. But one night of passion takes everything that she has ever known. Emma finds herself miles away with a secret that will change the lives of the people she left behind.
After a fire that rocks the town and takes the lives of two of their own, the town is left with unanswered questions.
Travis, Tucker, and Tate Quinn are hardworking ranchers and have made a life for themselves in the community. They never forgot the girl that got away. When she shows up several years later, she brings unanswered questions, danger, and a surprise. Together, the Quinn brothers must work to figure out the mystery of the past, save the girl they love, and protect all that they hold dear.
Note: There is no sexual relationship or touching for titillation between or among siblings.
Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Western/Cowboys
Length: 42,321 words
EMMA’S TREASURES
The Men of Treasure Cove
Rebecca Joyce
MENAGE AMOUR
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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EMMA’S TREASURES
Copyright © 2012 by Rebecca Joyce
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62241-957-9
First E-book Publication: December 2012
Cover design by Harris Channing
All cover art and logo copyright © 2012 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
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Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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DEDICATION
For my husband. Thank you for the strong, playful way you love me and that warm shoulder to lean on when I need you. You are my Treasure.
EMMA’S TREASURES
The Men of Treasure Cove
REBECCA JOYCE
Copyright © 2012
Prologue
August, 1984
“Are you sure, Isa? Can you just be late?” Anne asked, shocked with wide eyes. Anne Romanov Brannon was beautiful, shy, and the sweetest person to grace Treasure Cove. She was her beloved sister and friend. She knew Anne was worried and scared for her, and she appreciated the gesture, but she needed her to be strong right now and not wilt into the background because sitting next to Anne were her other sisters, and they looked like they could kill.
Isabella Marie Romanov looked determinedly at her four beautiful sisters as she broke the news to them. She knew not to tell them she had planned this whole debacle down to a tee—that would only alienate her from them—but she could play the shocked and scared sister. “I’m positive. I went to Porter last week, and according to the nurse at the free clinic, I am eight weeks along,” she whispered, managing a tear or two.
“Eight weeks!” Tatiana shouted. Of all the sisters, Tatiana Romanov Quinn was the most outspoken and definitely the loudest. She was rivaled by Sophie, but not by much. “What the hell were you thinking, Isa! I mean seriously, you are barely out of high school, and I finally talked Stephen into paying for your college. I can guarantee he won’t pay for that now!”
“Who’s the father, Isabella?” Margaret asked sternly, turning from the window she was just looking out. Isabella knew out of all of her sisters, Margaret was the one who would know she was lying. Even from birth, she had never been able to get away with lying if Margaret was around.
After the death of their parents when Isabella was thirteen, she had been shuffled from sister to sister till she graduated from high school. At eighteen now, she was legally an adult, and she had a plan to be the wealthiest of all the sisters. Growing up, she had watched as her parents first married Tatiana off to Stephen Quinn, one of the wealthiest ranchers in Treasure Cove, in an impromptu shotgun wedding, all because Tatiana believed she was pregnant. It wasn’t until two years later that Tatiana realized that she was unable to have children and was left to raise Stephen Quinn’s triplet sons from a previous marriage.
Next was Margaret, who was blackmailed into marrying Colin Hicks, whose family owned the Hicks Mining Company, and was reportedly worth over a couple billion dollars. As for how she had been blackmailed, Isabella really didn’t know, but she knew that Margaret was just waiting until her children were old enough before she left her husband.
Then there was Sophie Romanov Kincade, who had actually wanted to marry Robert Kincade. It was later found out that though, that being married to Robert Kincade was all not sunshine and daisies. Robert Kincade, the town’s sheriff, was a mean son of a bitch, and was known to take his anger out on Sophie. Though she gave as good as she got, it was the latest episode that had put Sophie in the hospital, and made her unable to have any more children.
Finally, there was sweet Anne. Anne Romanov Brannon married Conner Brannon, her high school sweetheart. Conner and Anne had a true love story, one that Isabella wanted for herself and believed she had found. Out of all the sisters, Anne had managed to seat herself in with one of the founding families of Treasure Cove. Though Conner refused to share Anne, she was still loved and cherished by the entire community. She doubted that Anne had ever told Conner of her past, but she figured that if she wanted Conner to know, sh
e would tell him. Till then, Isabella wouldn’t say a thing.
“I asked you a question, Isabella, and I expect an answer.”
Isabella stood from the chair she was sitting in and walked over to the screen door. Looking out over the mountains from their parents’ old shack, she proceeded to tell her sisters who the fathers were, and why she couldn’t say anything. When she was finished, she turned to look at her sisters, who were all wide-eyed and speechless.
“What have you done?” Tatiana shouted.
“Are you fucking crazy?” Sophie screamed.
“Oh, Isa…why them?” Anne cried.
“They won’t marry you. They can’t. Their family is different. They always have been. Did you sleep with both of them?” Margaret asked, sitting next to Anne, who couldn’t stop crying.
“Yes,” Isabella admitted.
“Oh God, so you really don’t know which one is the father?” Sophie yelled.
“Oh, I know which one is the father. I said I slept with both of them, just not at the same time.”
“You devious bitch, you are going to ruin us all!” Tatiana screamed at her sister, getting to her feet.
“Shut up, Tat, and sit down. We have to fix this. Not just for stupid over there but for all of us. Now start thinking. Who do we know that is young enough to be a father, and who has been seen with Isa,” Margaret began, and Isabella knew that before she could say or do anything, her sisters would have this matter all fixed and wrapped up neatly in a tight little box, which is what she didn’t want.
“I don’t need you to fix this, Margaret. I know what I am doing.”
“Too damn bad, little sister. You fucked up, and now you’re going to pay the piper. We all have too much invested in our marriages for you to go and fuck everything up just because you can’t keep your legs closed. Thank God Momma and Papa are dead ’cause this would just kill them.”
“Isa, that family is one of the founding families of Treasure Cove. They own half the county, and what they don’t own, they have their hand in. Even Papa wouldn’t allow any of us to date those boys. Now, I am not saying anything bad about them, because they are really nice folks, but seriously Isa, those boys have had their lives planned before they were born. They know who they are going to marry. We all know it. Why would you think otherwise?” Anne said softly, with the other sisters nodding in agreement.
“Because they love me, and they don’t want to marry her. They hate her, and she is nothing but a money-hungry sicko. They told me they loved me and they want me to marry them.”
“But yet you slept with them at different times? Isabella, if you say you love them both, why didn’t you have them both at the same time? You know that’s how that family works. You can’t have one without the other,” Tatiana said.
“I tried, but when we started I got scared. They said it was okay, that they would ease me into the whole thing. But things just got out of hand fast, and now I am pregnant.”
“But you can’t marry them. The wedding was announced last Sunday, while you were in Porter. The whole town is talking about it,” Sophie informed her.
“That can’t be! They said they didn’t want to marry her! They told me they loved me!” Isa shouted at them, not believing a word they were saying.
“I’m sorry, Isa, but the invitations have been sent. The marriage is taking place at the end of this month,” Anne advised.
“No!” Isabella screamed, falling to her knees. She knew that none of her sisters would comfort her, that they would just let her wallow in her own misery. Maybe they were right, and she had made a grave mistake. Think, Isa, think! What are you going to do now?
“I’ve got it!” Sophie shouted, interrupting Isabella’s thoughts, “Glenn McKenzie! Isa went out with him a couple of times right before she graduated. No one would question the paternity, and the time is almost right.
“Uh, no it’s not! She stopped seeing Glenn four months ago, genius! The timing is not right,” Margaret informed Sophie.
“Whatever! So we make sure Isabella delivers a month or two early…too easy!”
“Are you mad, Sophie? We can’t harm the baby, and what about Isabella?” Anne said, shocked.
“Not mad, just a genius! It could work. Tatiana, is Glenn still working out at your ranch?”
“Yes. Stephen likes the boy,” Tatiana admitted.
“Good. And I know Robert has always said he was one of the good kids, never got into trouble. This could work,” Sophie said, almost talking to herself. Isabella looked at her sister and wanted to kill her. There was no way in hell she was ever going to marry Glenn McKenzie. He was poor! “All we have to do is get Miss Loose Pants over here to sleep with Glen, wait a week or so, and then she can tell Glenn she is pregnant. I can tell Robert, and, Tat, you tell Stephen. They will expect Glenn to do right by her, and then we are all in the clear and no one is the wiser. And no matter what, we tell nobody of what was said here today, ever!”
“You’re forgetting one little problem, sis,” Isabella said, getting to her feet, ready to kill Sophie for planning out her life. “You can’t make me sleep with Glenn, and you sure as hell can’t make me marry him. I won’t do it!” Isabella shouted at her sister.
The moment that Tatiana, Margaret, and Sophie stood and faced her head-on, she knew she was in trouble. It was bad enough dealing with one of those determined sisters, but when all three of them were on the same side, Isabella knew she had no chance in hell at winning.
“Wanna bet!” all three said in unison.
Chapter One
Present Day
“Can I keep him, Mommy?” the sweet little curly-haired brunette said, staring up with wishful hope glimmering in her eyes. Emma McKenzie just looked at her six-year-old daughter holding on to the little kitten with dear life and shook her head no. She wanted so much to grant Tabitha her wish, but there was no room in the cramped little Volkswagen Beetle. Hell, there was barely enough room for the two of them. She barely had enough money to feed them, let alone a kitten. She just couldn’t afford the added expense.
Sighing, she looked around into the vast hillside. Stuck out in the middle of nowhere was where she didn’t want to be. Especially knowing damn well that not far from this vast nowhere lived three men she was determined to avoid. She had to get out of this area before she was recognized.
Emma didn’t know what she had been thinking when she took this route. Her gut from the very beginning told her it was a big mistake, but did she ever listen to her gut? No. Only one other time in her life had she gone against her gut, and that had resulted in her beautiful daughter, so she really couldn’t complain about that time, but this was different. “I should have taken the long way around.”
“What, Mommy?” Tabitha said, playing with the little white kitten.
Looking around, using her hand as a shield from the hot Montana sun, she said, “Nothing, baby, I just wish that tow truck would get here.”
“Are we gonna have to stay here at night?”
“Not if I can help it. Don’t worry, baby, the tow truck will be here soon.” Emma tried to reassure her daughter, but trying to reassure herself was another matter.
Emma McKenzie had grown up not more than ten miles from where she stood. She knew if she squinted her eyes hard enough, she could almost see her family’s land, land that she loved with every fiber in her body.
Land that no longer belonged to her.
Born and raised in Treasure Cove, she had many fond memories, and she had taken those memories with her when she left, never looking back on what she was never going to have. It wasn’t the theft her of family ranch, or the death of her father, but the heartbreaking realization that because of one fateful night, her heart had been ripped from her chest and flung into the hot prairie wind. It was a night that still haunted her dreams, a night of consequences that she would have to live with for the rest of her life.
It was a hot night, and she took off on he
r palomino pony for a ride. It was nothing new for her to take off in the heat of the night as she headed for Old Miller’s Pond. A favorite of hers since she had learned to swim, she raced her pony at a full gallop, knowing the cool water was waiting for her.
She arrived at the pond and hopped off her pony, tying his reins to a nearby tree, and literally ran to the water’s edge. Quickly stripping down to nothing, Emma waded into the cool waters, sighing as the heat was evaporated from her body. Enjoying the midnight swim, she never did hear them gallop up on their horses. She never heard them strip out of their clothes, and she sure as hell never heard them swimming her way. The only realization she had that she wasn’t alone was when Travis Quinn grabbed her around the waist and said, “Lookie here, little Miss Emma McKenzie likes to swim in the buff.”
“Travis, I think you swallowed too much pond water. Go away and leave me alone.”
“I can’t do that, princess. You see, Tucker and Tate are over there, and I am saving you from their advances.”
“Damn it, Travis, this isn’t funny. Let me go! What would your daddy say if he caught us?”
Laughing, Travis couldn’t help himself. “Probably congratulate me on my delicious find!” Holding Emma closer to him, he leaned closer to her ear. “So, tell me, Miss Emma, what are you doing out here?”
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