by Becca Van
“Yes.” Jeff held his hand out expectantly.
Jenna pulled an envelope from her purse and then handed it to her brother. Jeff’s face grew paler the more he read. “Someone tampered with her fucking car? Why the hell didn’t you tell me this when you called. Goddamn it, Jenna, all you said was that you were picking the report up from the police station. Fuck, who the hell would have tampered with the brakes on Joan’s car?”
“I do…”
Dallas didn’t hear the rest of Jenna’s comment, as the roaring in his ears drowned out her voice. He grasped her shoulders, spun her around to face him, and hoped he didn’t scare her with the rage permeating his body. He looked up when Des gripped his shoulder and saw his brother was just as angry and then glanced to Dach to see that his other brother had his fists clenched and was panting with fury.
Des shook his head and after taking a deep breath said, “Not here. We will all discuss this tonight, but we don’t know who else is listening.”
Jenna turned her back to him and tried to take a step away but Dallas wasn’t about to let her go. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her back to his front. Des and Dach moved up on either side of her and since Jeff was standing in front of her, she was surrounded by them. If anyone was watching, trying to see or get to Jenna they would have to go through the four of them.
Dach pointed at Jeff. “Go say your good-byes. We’re all leaving. Des will you drive you home in Jenna’s car so you can get your stuff and pack up enough clothes to last your sister a week. We’ll follow you and bring you back to our home and give you a lift to the base in the morning. You’ll both be staying at our house tonight.”
“I w…”
“Don’t even think about saying anything right now.” Dach pinned Jenna with a hard stare. “I’m so damned angry with you I want to spank your arse.”
Jenna gasped, opened her mouth, and then snapped it closed when she looked at the implacable resolution on Dach’s face. Jeff nodded and went to hand the report to Jenna. Dallas reached out and took it before she could even lay a finger on it. He, Dach, and Des escorted her out of the club and got into the truck to wait for Jeff. None of them said a word. Jenna kept her head turned away and stared out the passenger-side window. Her body language screamed defensive but Dallas hoped that when they all sat down and talked to her, she would understand why they were so mad.
Des climbed out of the back seat and unlocked Jenna’s car and after buckling up drove out of the parking lot. Dach followed, glancing in the mirror occasionally as he drove to make sure they weren’t being followed. Dallas kept an eye on his side mirror, too, being doubly sure they weren’t being ghosted. He had a really bad feeling about this and wondered what the hell Joan had gotten herself into. Whatever it was had been bad enough to get her killed. Even though Jeff and Jenna said they took care of their sister and she’d been really happy over the last few months before she died, Dallas had a feeling that Joan’s siblings had no idea what their sister had really been up to.
Then he felt bad for thinking that way. He had never even met Joan and shouldn’t be thinking ill of the dead, but whatever had caused someone to kill her couldn’t be good, and he vowed to get to the bottom of it with his brothers’ help.
* * * *
Jenna was out of the truck and inside the house before anyone could stop her. There was no way she was leaving it up to her brother to pack her clothes for her. What she wore to work was totally different than her casual clothes and knowing her brother as she did, he wouldn’t even think about getting her toiletries for her.
She hurried down the hall to her bedroom and packed enough clothes to last her a week. When she was done she glanced around her room to see if she had missed anything. Joan’s jewelry box popped into her head and she rushed to her closet, pulled the shoebox she had hidden it in out, and slipped it under her clothes. When she was sure she had everything she would need, she picked up the case by the handle and left her bedroom. She was just about to pass Joan’s closed bedroom door when she heard something move in her sister’s room. Jenna dropped her suitcase and burst into Joan’s bedroom.
Jenna covered her mouth and her knees buckled. She didn’t know if she’d cried out or if she made a thumping noise when her arse met the floor but the next thing she knew she was being lifted from the floor and carried down the hall. Grief and rage consumed her and no matter how hard she tried to keep it in, she couldn’t. She wrapped her arms around Dallas’s neck and clung to him as she buried her face into his body and cried and cried and cried.
Hands ran up and down her back, arms, and legs, and even though she could hear voices, they didn’t make any sense. She had no idea how long she stayed in her lamented stupor but by the time her tears stopped, she was utterly exhausted.
When she was able to pull herself together and look through swollen burning eyes, she saw that Noah, Zach, and Tom Beech were in the house. One of the men must have called the Passion police department. Now that her shock and grief were once more under control, Jenna began to get mad. How dare someone break into their house and trash her sister’s room. Even though she was furious, Jenna also felt trepidatious and violated. What would have happened if she had been in the house alone? Would whoever had broken in have killed her? And then her brain began to function logically. She pushed out of Des’s hold and walked from room to room. Nothing else, no other room had been touched except for Joan’s. Whoever had done this had been looking for something. Something that her sister had?
She stood in the doorway of Joan’s room and watched the three police officer’s dust for prints. When arms wrapped around her from behind, she startled and then relaxed when she realized that it was Jeff.
“Are you okay, honey?”
Jenna nodded and with a sigh turned to look at her brother. “She was closer to you. Do you have any idea what any of this is about?”
“No,” Jeff sighed and then swallowed audibly. “I wish I did but I have no clue, Jenna. I can’t leave you alone to deal with this by yourself, honey. I know you were only trying to protect me so I wouldn’t leave the Army, but you could be in danger. I couldn’t live with myself if you ended up dead, too. There is no way I’m leaving you alone and unprotected.”
“She won’t be,” Dach said as he moved toward her and Jeff. “Come into the living room where we can talk comfortably.”
Jenna had a feeling she knew what was coming and wasn’t sure how she felt about it, but one thing was certain. She didn’t want to stay in her home by herself.
Jeff gripped her hand and led her back down the hall and then sat beside her on the sofa. Dach was sitting in the armchair across from her and Des was in the adjacent one. Dallas sat on her other side.
Dallas pulled the forensic report about Joan’s car out of his shirt pocket and held it up in the air. “Why didn’t you ask one of us to come with you, Jenna? Why did you lie to us and especially your brother?”
“I…”
“And don’t you dare lie to me again,” Des said in a cold voice. “I knew something was wrong when you got that phone call and could tell you weren’t telling the truth. You couldn’t lie your way out of a paper bag, Jenna.”
Jenna felt bad that she told so many lies. She was usually a very truthful person but she had done what she thought was the right thing to protect her brother and his career. He’d already given up one dream for her and Joan and didn’t want him sacrificing anymore.
“I’m sorry.” Jenna met Des’s gaze and hoped he could see and hear her sincerity. “I was trying to protect…”
Jeff squeezed her hand. “You don’t need to protect me, Jenna. I’m a grown man and can make my own decisions. My family, you, are more important to me than my career.”
“Wait!” Dach interjected and then looked at Jeff. “There is no need for you to quit the Army. Jenna won’t be by herself. She’s going to move in with us.”
Jeff relaxed his hold on her hand and then slumped back in his seat. Jenna wondered
what was going on when a big smile crossed her brother’s face and he nodded at Dach, but didn’t ask because she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer.
She wanted to argue the fact that she was moving in with the King brothers but didn’t bother wasting her breath. She would stay with them until it was safe for her to go back home, and no matter how much they tried to sway her decision, she would come back here when whoever had broken in was caught.
Dallas leaned forward in his seat and rested his forearms on his thighs. “The next time something like this happens you will call or tell one of us. You don’t have to do everything by yourself anymore, honey. We are here for you. Okay?”
Jenna blinked when tears pricked the back of her eyes. As much as she appreciated him and his brothers wanting to help, she was used to making decisions and doing things on her own and didn’t know if she could rely on anyone else but herself. She was a control freak because she’d had to be and to change after so many years of being independent would be damn near impossible. But the yearning to lean on these three big, strong, handsome, brawny men was almost unbearable and she had to look away so she wouldn’t give herself away.
“Thank you,” she finally managed to answer in a husky voice and hoped they hadn’t heard the vulnerability she had.
When the silence in the room continued, she began to feel like her emotions were totally exposed but had no idea how to break the quiet. She could feel all their eyes on her and crossed her legs to ease the ache in her pussy. She didn’t dare look at them because if she did, she was scared she would do something stupid, like beg them to hold her and touch her. And she wasn’t even sure she’d care that her brother was still in the room.
Noah walked into the living room and broke the silence, thankfully saving her from the proverbial bell. “We’ve finished up dusting the bedroom and were able to get a set of prints from the window sill. I’ll run them through the database but unless the prints are on record we may not have any luck.”
Dach rose to his feet and faced Noah. “You may want to contact the sergeant at the Castlemaine police station. There were prints found on Joan’s car and her brake line was tampered with.”
“Fuck!” Noah glanced at Jenna. “Sorry, Jenna.”
“Swear away. I dropped a lot of the same over the last couple of weeks.”
Noah nodded and then took the report Dach handed him and read it. The set of his mouth was really tense when he had finished. “Can I keep this to make a copy?” Noah looked at Jeff and then Jenna.
“Sure,” Jeff answered.
“Thanks. I’ll get it back to you tomorrow.”
“Bring it to our house,” Dallas said. “Jeff is shipping out in the morning and Jenna will be staying with us.”
“Good,” Noah met Jenna’s eyes. “You won’t be any safer than with these three guys, Jenna. They’ll keep you safe. I’m going to find out whoever did this, honey, and make sure they go away for a long time.”
Jenna couldn’t speak around the lump in her throat so she nodded. Dach, Des, and Dallas saw the police officers out and Jenna was so tired she couldn’t keep her eyes open. She leaned her head on Jeff’s shoulder and let them close.
Even though she was aware of the men coming back, her lids were too heavy to open so she kept them closed. The last thing she remembered was being lifted in strong arms and then held against a warm chest as she was being carried.
Her last thought was how much she wanted to stay there where she felt safe, secure, and cherished.
Chapter Seven
Des didn’t know how much longer he could hold out. He looked down into Jenna’s beautiful face and emotion filled his heart. Over the last couple of weeks, he had been falling fast and hard for her and wanted to show her with his body just how much she meant to him, but he wasn’t sure she was quite ready for that yet.
Although every time he caught her looking at him or his brothers over the last week he was sure he’d seen desire in her eyes. They’d already told her that they wanted a ménage relationship with her but she hadn’t said one way or the other about what she had decided. Des carried her into the master bedroom, removed her shoes and then with both his brothers’ help, pulled the covers up over her. With a last look, he closed the door nearly all the way and then headed back down the hallway to the kitchen. Jeff had already made a pot of coffee and poured it into mugs when he and his brothers entered the room.
“Do you have any idea what Joan could have gotten herself into?” Dach asked.
“No,” Jeff replied and scrubbed a hand over his face. “She had made a really good friend in Castlemaine and they had been going out a lot lately. It was just so good to see her happy, you know?”
“Do you know this friend’s name?” Des questioned.
“Barbara, I think. I don’t know her last name but maybe her boss would know.”
Des straightened in his seat and wrapped his hands around his coffee mug. “What was her boss so angry about at the wake?”
Jeff stared at him and then frowned. “I don’t know. I didn’t even notice that she was upset or angry, but I do remember seeing her walking out of the house without saying good-bye or offering any condolences.”
“She’d been down near the bedrooms,” Dach said. “I don’t know if she had words with Jenna, but whatever happened she wasn’t happy. I’ll have to ask your sister in the morning.”
“You can ask me now,” Jenna said as she walked into the kitchen.
Des cursed under his breath. He’d been hoping that Jenna would sleep the night through. From the dark smudges beneath her eyes, she hadn’t slept worth a damn since her sister had died. When she headed for the coffee pot Des got up from his chair and took the pot from her hand before she could pour the dark brew into a mug. He placed a hand on her waist and reached up into the cupboard above her head and withdrew some herbal tea. His body rested against hers and he had to bite back a smile when he felt her shiver.
Oh yeah, sweetie. You feel it, too, don’t you?
Des made the tea, took Jenna’s hand in his, and led her over to the table. Instead of directing her to the empty chair he sat down and then pulled her down onto his lap. She stiffened for a moment and then slumped against him. His brothers glanced at him and he could see the hope in their eyes, but when they looked at Jenna expectantly, their expressions turned stoic.
“What happened between you and Joan’s boss, baby?” Dach prompted.
Jenna took a sip of the tea, grimaced, and then wrapped her hands around the mug as if trying to warm them. “I found her in Joan’s bedroom. She had been touching and looking through Joan’s things. She even unlocked and opened her jewelry box. When I asked her what she was doing, she said she was trying to cleanse Joan’s spirit from the house so Jeff and I would be able to get over our grief faster.”
Des tensed and then concentrated on relaxing when he felt Jenna tense up, too. When she leaned into him again, he wrapped an arm around her waist.
“Did you believe her?” Dallas asked.
“Not a word,” Jenna replied immediately.
“Shit.” Jeff sighed. “What if she’s…”
“We’ll look into it,” Dach said.
“Jenna you need to go back to bed, sweetie. You’re exhausted.”
“I’m fine.”
Dallas nodded toward her cup. “Drink your tea. It will help you relax and sleep.”
Jenna glared at Dallas but when he held her stare she backed down and gulped the tea down, then slammed the empty cup on the table. “Satisfied?”
“Indubitably.” Dallas grinned.
Jenna chuckled and then her chuckle turned into full-blown laughter. Des had never heard such a joyous, lighthearted sound and wanted to hear her laugh more often. Hopefully she would stay and they would be around to hear it.
“Come on, sweetie. You need more sleep.” Des helped her to her feet and guided her toward the door.
“I’m not a damn child.”
“Oh believe me, Je
nna. I know. You’re all woman.”
Jenna glanced at him over her shoulder and he let her see the hunger he felt for her. She stumbled slightly and then rushed down the hall to her bedroom and slammed the door closed behind her. Things were definitely looking more interesting.
* * * *
Jenna was glad that Jeff had left without a quibble and she had never been more glad that it was Saturday and her turn to have the whole weekend off. She was currently resting on the sofa in the King brothers’ living room and after a light lunch of sandwiches, she was struggling to keep her eyes open again. She’d spent the morning reading one of her favorite romance novels but now all the words were running together and she couldn’t make out individual words anymore. Dach, Dallas, and Des had taken turns coming in and out of the living room to check on her and every time they had, they sat on the cushion beside her and touched her. If she hadn’t been so freaking tired, she would have either told them to leave her alone or jumped one of them.
How long she dozed she had no idea, but the next thing she knew she was being gently shaken awake.
“Come on, baby, open those pretty green eyes for me.”
“Dach?”
“Yeah, Jenna. Good girl, you’re getting to know us pretty well now, huh?”
“I suppose. What time is it?”
“Time for you to get some fresh air and wake up a bit. Dinner will be ready in about another hour. I would have let you continue sleeping but I want you to be able to sleep tonight, too.” Dach held his hand out to her and helped her to her feet. She even let him help her put her shoes on without any protest.
Jenna couldn’t believe how much more relaxed she felt. Maybe taking a “nana nap” was just what she had needed.
Dach led her out through the glass sliding doors off the living room and led her across the wooden deck of the wraparound porch. She loved their house. It was much bigger than the one she and her siblings shared and the gardens were well tended, which surprised her considering she was currently living with three macho soldiers.
