Foul Play [Merricks, Montana] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by McKinlay Thomson

  Blake and Alex did, however, talk a lot about being on the force and the differences in the two countries’ policing policies. They had all exchanged numbers at the end of the weekend, but had never found the time to reconnect, which was why it was such a surprise to Blake when Alex had contacted him out of the blue.

  “I need your help, Blake,” Alex had said. “I have a witness that I need hidden. We have a leak in the department, and I can’t trust anyone. No one knows of our connection through the lifestyle. I’ve always kept that part of my life secret.” Alex had gone on to tell him how this poor girl Sarah had seen her best friend get murdered and now had a drug cartel on her. Her cover had already been blown once, and now Alex wanted her out of the country.

  Blake had agreed, of course. Hiding witnesses was part of his job as a U.S. marshal, and even though this wouldn’t be official, he couldn’t deny the poor girl a safe place to hide. So now he was headed toward a private airstrip about an hour out of town to pick up his “friend” who was coming to stay.

  They had decided to tell people that Blake and James had met Sarah on the Internet and had invited her to stay while she was on holiday. How long that was going to be no one knew, but it was the only thing that they thought was plausible. Blake and James didn’t have any distant relative they could pawn her off as, so this was the best option.

  James had agreed to the plan and was at home getting the guest bedroom ready for Sarah’s arrival. They had both speculated on what she might look like. Alex had just told him she was a short redhead. Blake hoped James didn’t get his hopes up. This girl was coming for their protection, not to have the hard word put on her by a horny cowboy.

  Women were scarce in the small town, and ménage relationships weren’t uncommon. Merricks was very accepting of its alternative lifestyles, and even though it had started from lack of women in the town, it seemed more and more ménage families were moving there because it was accepted.

  The people of Merricks fought hard to keep their town and its residents safe from the discrimination of outsiders and didn’t take kindly to strangers. Anyone who came to Merricks and didn’t follow the rules were quickly run out of town. Blake often helped. It was part of his job as sheriff to ensure that the residences of the town were kept safe, and he took his job very seriously.

  Blake pulled the truck off the highway and turned down the road that led to the airport. He wasn’t too far away now and was impatient to get to there. He kept telling himself that it wasn’t because he was busting to see what Sarah looked like, but after all the talk he and James had, it was hard.

  Blake and James had decided that if they ever found a woman that they wanted to keep, it would be to share. Growing up around ménage families, they had always thought that they would share a wife, but when James had gone off to the army and Blake had gone to the academy, they had drifted apart. Then Blake had met Ellen, whom James had taken an instant dislike to, and he had assumed that the idea of sharing was never going to happen.

  It wasn’t until after Blake’s divorce and James’s discharge from the army that they were able to mend old fences and decide that a ménage relationship was what they wanted. But as time moved on and they were still unable to find that special woman, James was getting restless and impatient.

  After his failed relationship with Ellen, Blake wasn’t looking to run into another one. Even though he had agreed with James that yes, if they found that special someone he would give it another go, he’d yet to meet someone he knew he couldn’t live without. Despite the many women his brother and the town paraded in front of him.

  Blake pulled his truck up to the airport gate and flashed his ID at the security man manning the boom gate. As the gate slowly went up, Blake could see a small jet waiting at the end of the runway, close to the terminal building. He parked his car in the car park and rushed inside. Sarah would be waiting, and he didn’t want her to worry when he wasn’t there.

  Chapter Four

  Sarah looked around the small airport terminal and sighed. It had been a long trip and she felt like roadkill. She caught her reflection in the glass window and knew she looked a fright. Alex had whisked her onto the small federal police jet and flown her practically around the world, getting her to change planes three times before she boarded the flight that brought her to Montana. He’d left her in Singapore and sent her the rest of the way on her own.

  “You will be staying with a friend of mine in Merricks, Montana. He is a U.S. marshal, as well as the local sheriff, so you will be in good hands. He also does this sort of thing often,” Alex told her. “You need to lay low and listen to what he tells you. His brother is ex-military, as well. There is no one I trust more with your safety than those two.”

  “Will I talk to you again?”

  “Most likely not. I’ll stay out of contact unless there is an emergency. I’ll call Blake, if and when we have Russo, so you can come back for the trial.” Alex gave Sarah a hug and placed a gentle kiss on her check. “I’ll miss you, kid. Be good and take care of yourself.” Then he was gone. Sarah had felt like crying again, but she was all cried out. Alex had been her one constant in this mess, and she would never see him again. She had to now put her faith in some marshal she had never met and hope he was as good and as honorable as Alex had said.

  Sarah looked down at her new identity cards. She had a new passport and a new driver’s license. She was Sarah Harding now. She let out a big sigh. She had just gotten used to the old new name, and now it had changed again.

  Sarah was scared. She hated meeting new people. Hated the awkward first moments when she didn’t know what to say, whether she should shake their hand or kiss them on the cheek. She wasn’t good in social situations and preferred to just stay at home. It was different this time. She didn’t have a choice, and she wasn’t here for fun.

  Sarah looked at the advertisements on the wall as she waited for this Blake guy to get there. He was late and she hoped nothing had happened to him. She would hate to be stranded there in the middle of nowhere. She started to wonder what he looked like. Alex had said she would recognize him by his uniform, and once she had seen his ID, then she could leave with him. But she didn’t know if he was tall, short, thin, fat, old, or young.

  Sarah hoped he was a nice man. She didn’t want to have to stay with an old grump. It would be hard enough without having to constantly step on eggshells around him, and then apparently he had a brother. They lived on a ranch just outside of town. Sarah had never been on a ranch. She hoped it was one that still used horses, not one that used bikes.

  It wasn’t long before the door swished open behind her and a great giant of a man walked through. He was really tall, towering over her small frame. She only came up to his chest at best. He was solid, too. His muscles had muscles. She had always been attracted to big men, but couldn’t help but find this one intimidating.

  Sarah ducked her head. She couldn’t look at him in the eye. Sarah was naturally shy with everyone, especially men. She found them scary. This man would be no different.

  “Sarah Harding?” the mountain of a man asked, holding out his hand. Sarah looked at his hand for a couple of seconds before taking it in her own. Sparks shot up her arm to her pussy when his firm grip wrapped around her hand, and she pulled it away. Shit, that was weird. Can you be attracted to someone and scared shitless at the same time?

  “Blake Hammond. I’m here to pick you up.” His voice was deep and gruff and sent tingles through her body. She loved his deep accent and wanted him to keep talking. She also wanted to run in the opposite direction, but his voice was another thing she found attractive.

  “Alex said I wasn’t allowed to go with you unless you showed me ID.”

  “Are telling me or your feet, little one?” Sarah’s eyes snapped up at his question, and she got her first real look at his face. He had soft, dark-brown hair that she would love to run her fingers through, and deep, chocolate-brown eyes. They were hard eyes. Eyes of a man who had seen and
done things most hadn’t. They were a cop’s eyes. Alex had the same piercing eyes.

  Blake was gorgeous. He wasn’t cover-model gorgeous, but a rough, manly, rugged hot. He had a solid, chiseled jaw and firm lips. Sarah noticed he had a little scar in a half-moon shape, just under his right eye, and wondered where he got it.

  “I…I…err…I was talking to you, sir. May I please see your ID?” Sarah didn’t know where the “sir” had come from, but for some reason it had felt right addressing this man that way.

  “Sure thing, little dove.” Blake pulled his wallet from his back pocket and showed her his badge and ID. After Sarah looked over it and nodded, he put it back. “Are you ready to go, then?”

  “Yes,” Sarah replied. She had spoken to his feet again, and his big sigh practically knocked her of her feet. She bent down to pick up her bag, but Blake beat her to it and carried it toward the door.

  “Do you having anything warmer to wear?” Blake asked her. “It gets cold here, especially at night.”

  “No, I just bought a few things from the airport, but I didn’t know where I was going, so I didn’t know what to buy.”

  “That’s all right. We will take you shopping once you’re settled in. Until then I’m sure we can find some way to keep you warm.” Sarah blushed and told herself she was reading more into his comment than he intended. He was probably talking about a heater, not keeping her warm himself.

  Sarah followed Blake out to the car and got in. Well, here we go, she thought as she sat back and put on her belt. Staying with this mountain of a man was going to be interesting if her libido had any say in it. She just hoped she didn’t make too much of a fool of herself along the way.

  Hot guys like that didn’t go for short, chubby girls like her. Then there was the fact he was just taking her on to help out a friend. She was nothing to him but a job. So she needed to stay focused and get her mind out of the gutter.

  Blake got into the driver’s side of the truck, and the cab suddenly shrank in size. It wasn’t just his size that made the cab feel small, but his dominating personality as well. Sarah pushed herself as close as she could to the side of the truck and heard Blake sigh again.

  She didn’t want to feel intimidated by him, she just did. She usually warmed up to someone once she knew him or her for a while and hoped it would be the same with Blake. It was going to be a long stay if she had to constantly fight the urge to jump on him one minute and run in the other direction another.

  She decided to stare out the window as Blake pulled his truck out of the airport and onto the highway. It started to get hotter inside the cab, and Sarah’s eyes slowly drifted shut.

  * * * *

  Blake looked across at the small sleeping woman. His cock had been hard since the moment he had laid eyes her. She was short and had curves in all the right places. Blake had never been attracted to stick-figure women. He was a big man and liked to have a woman under him that he could hold on to.

  James was going to go crazy when he saw her. She was just his type, too. She was a little pale from her ordeal, but once she was settled and her color returned, Blake thought she might be a real little hottie. Her breasts looked a good handful, and she had an ass he wanted to smack until it was red. Then he would drive his cock into her tight, puckered hole as he held onto her wide hips.

  Blake could tell that her red hair was dyed, and he wondered what color it really was. He would get her to dye it back. He wasn’t a fan of dyed hair. He liked it natural. Knowing she dyed her hair made him think about other hair on her body. What color was it? Or did she have any hair down there at all?

  Blake swiped a hand over his face. He was fucked. She had made him so horny and she hadn’t even done anything. If she wasn’t in the car, he would have pulled over and taken care of the problem. It wasn’t just that she was a little cutie, either. Her shy, submissive personality had taken a hold of his balls and squeezed, too.

  He hoped that she would warm up to him soon. He didn’t want her scared of him. When he first walked in, he thought she was going to faint at the sight of him. She wouldn’t look him in the eye, and she had called him sir. He didn’t think she realized what she was doing, but it called to all his protective Dom instincts. He wanted to put her over his shoulder and carry her off.

  She just might be the woman James and he had been waiting for. He hadn’t been this interested in someone in a long time, and he had just spoken a few words with her. Blake didn’t want to get to ahead of himself. She was in danger and they were supposed to be looking after her. She was also grieving the loss of her friend. If James was interested, and he was pretty sure he would be, they had to take it slow. He didn’t want to scare her off before she got a chance to know them.

  Blake settled in for the drive home. He hadn’t felt this keen about someone in a long while, and he smiled to himself. Sarah would be worth the trouble, though, he could tell. He couldn’t wait to start wooing her.

  Chapter Five

  Sarah slowly woke when she felt the truck roll from a smooth surface onto a rough one. She rubbed her eyes. Her contacts were annoying her and she couldn’t wait to take them out. They were driving down a long dirt road. A pond sat to the left of the driveway, beyond a long white fence. There was a stable and pastures in the distance and a small corral, lit up by large spotlights, at the end of the driveway. An old, double-story, weatherboard house was farther on, and a soft glow from the window made it look inviting.

  Sarah had always wanted to live in a house like this one. The picturesque setting was something a city girl like her had only dreamt about. She had been to farms before—who hadn’t?—but nothing that looked like it fell out of a storybook. It was what she always pictured a working ranch to be, and she couldn’t wait until daylight so she could go exploring.

  Blake pulled the truck up next to the veranda. He got out and ran around to open Sarah’s door. She slowly slid down the seat until her feet hit the dirt below. Her back was stiff after the long drive, and she took time to stretch. She was that close to Blake she could smell his cologne. He smelt wonderful, earthy and woodsy and masculine.

  Then she looked up and was reminded of how big Blake was. It made her feel so small to stand next to him, and though she was short, no one would mistake her for petite. Sarah wanted to run her hands up and down the muscles on his big chest under his uniform. She also wanted to reach around and feel his ass to see if it was as hard as the muscles on his chest. As Sarah started to lean toward him, she pulled herself back to reality. What would this really hot mountain of a man want in a chubby little thing like her? He was here to protect her only. She had to keep reminding herself so she didn’t do something silly, like fall in love with the man.

  “You just shivered. Let’s get you inside and out of the cold.” Blake led her up the steps to the porch and then into the house. As soon as Sarah passed the threshold, she smelt something amazing. Someone had been cooking. Her tummy rumbled. She hadn’t eaten since the plane and even then it wasn’t much. She was too nervous to stomach much.

  Blake took her though the house and into the kitchen. There was a tall man standing next to the stove stirring a pot. He turned around as they entered.

  “Thought I heard you pull up.” The man smiled at them, and it lit up his face.

  “Sarah, this is my brother, James. He lives here, too, and works the ranch,” Blake said. James walked toward her and took her hand in his. A spark shot up her arm at his touch, and she pulled her hand away.

  “Pleasure to meet you, little darling.” James was shorter than Blake but not by much, and he also wasn’t as solid. He had more of an athlete’s physique than Blake’s barbarian-like form. His hair was also a lighter brown, and instead of a military cut, it was shaggy. His chocolate-brown eyes where the same. They were softer, though, as if he laughed more. Blake’s were colder and more serious. James was also sporting a three-day growth, whilst Blake was clean-shaven.

  Sarah could tell the two were brothers. They ha
d the same nose, except James had a small bend in his where it had been broken a time or two. They both were very intimidating men, and having them both stand so close was sending her body into fits. Her eyes dropped to the floor, and she curled into herself. She was just as attracted to James as she was to Blake, but that didn’t stop her from wanting to run screaming from the room.

  Shyness was her curse, and she had to live with it every day. Jenny had often told her she was too picky to be so shy. Her ideal man was tall, solid, and dominating, yet whenever she got within a few meters of one, she would shy away. She often wished she had Jenny’s confidence, but she just didn’t have that extroverted personality.

  “Are you hungry, Sarah? I made a pot of beef stew. I figured you would be after such a big flight.” James moved away from Sarah and back over to the stove. “Sit down and I’ll serve you up some.”

  “Thank you. I am a little bit.” Sarah moved to sit at the barstools that were set along the other side of the large island. It was a huge, colonial-style kitchen with marble benchtops and a bulky industrial-sized oven. The sink sat in front of big windows that overlooked the pastures outside. It had a homey feel to it, and Sarah could just picture an older lady cooking up a storm, like her nana used to do.

  “I’ve set up the guest bedroom and put fresh towels on the end of the bed for you, Sarah. After you eat, I’ll show you where the bathroom is, if you want to have a shower before bed,” James said as he took the stool beside hers. She was once again overwhelmed by the proximity of the large men. Keeping her head down, she tucked into her stew.

  “I’ll just go find you a shirt to sleep in,” Blake said and left the kitchen. James swiveled on his chair to face her, putting down his spoon.

  “What happened to your luggage, sweetheart?” James asked. Sarah took her time before answering. She was exhausted and overwhelmed and frightened. She needed to have a shower and sleep, and then maybe she would be strong enough to tackle the world again.