by April Zyon
“The last that I knew, she had actually found a little success with selling her paintings in LA. Some bigwig of some sort bought one and had to meet her. She thinks that he’s just—and don’t judge me—but she said she thinks that he is scrumptious.” She wrinkled her nose. “Personally, the guy gave me the creeps when I met him about four months back. He’s a weirdo, one of those pervy assholes that you meet and you immediately feel dirty. But, she seemed happy enough, so what do I know?”
He was frowning when she looked up at him. “Well,” he said slowly. “I suppose that, if she’s happy, then you should be happy for her. I also suggest you call her, keep open the lines of communication so if things turn out that she’s suddenly not so happy, she has someone to talk to. I wouldn’t say anything about him to her. That’ll just burn your friendship in a bad way.”
“I have actually. I’ve called her a few times and she hasn’t called me back.” She frowned, but then sighed and shrugged. “We will hear from her when she breaks it off with him. Sadly, that’s the way of it. Either she will break up with him or he will dump her because she’s not putting out. Who knows? She’s always been a wild child, a free spirit, and I love her for that, but sometimes, I want to just tie her down, you know?”
“I know,” he said gently. He pressed a kiss to her forehead and tugged her in closer to him. “You should try and get some sleep, honey. If I know my mother, she’ll be banging on the door at the asscrack of dawn to wake us up. Evil woman that she is.”
“Oh God. Well, if she does pound on the door at that time of morning, I say we take our time in getting downstairs.” She looked up at him and said. “I say that we make love again at the asscrack of dawn so that it will make the day not as depressing, what do you say?”
“That sounds like a really, really good plan,” he agreed with a chuckle. “Especially since she’ll know what’s taking us so damned long to get down to the kitchen. I do like how you think, my love.” Lifting a hand, he tipped her chin up and pressed a kiss to her lips. “Sleep for now.”
“Good night, Joshua,” Alison whispered against his chest, and then closed her eyes saying.
Chapter Seven
“Alison, wake up, honey,” Joshua’s voice broke through to her sleeping mind. Not that she wanted to wake up, not yet. “Alison, I’m serious here, you need to wake up right now.” He fell silent again for a moment. “Alison, your brother and his friends are in my room, damn it, wake the hell up.”
“Don’t yell at her,” her brother’s voice said.
“I’m not yelling at her, I’m freaking out because you are in my room. At…” She heard a groan. “Seriously? Four o’clock in the morning! You couldn’t have waited until there was at least a speck of daylight?”
“No,” Rhys said in a firm voice.
Alison frowned and opened her eyes slowly. “Rhys? What the—” She grabbed the blankets and covered even more of her body while moving closer to Josh. “What? How the heck did you get in here?” She looked at the two large and imposing men at her brother’s back. “Oh for the love of Peter, you brought your friends too? What the hell, Rhys?” She looked to Joshua and asked, “Please tell me you have a shotgun so I can shoot my brother for bringing two men that I barely know—no offense, guys—into a bedroom where I’m naked, for the love of all that’s holy.” She then laughed and added, “Mom is going to kick your rump if she knows that you are in here with me.”
“Picked the locks,” Rhys said with a shrug. As if it was a common and everyday event. “The bedroom door was a little harder, good quality lock,” he said. “Get up, get dressed, and meet us in the kitchen in ten minutes. If you’re not down there in ten, I will come back up here and I’ll have the shotgun,” he said with a look that said he damn well meant it.
All three men turned and left the room, the last one out shutting the door gently.
“Son of a biscuit eating, goat-herding monkey’s uncle,” she muttered, and got up out of the bed. She winced. “Oh hell. He so would do it too.” She looked to Josh. “You should go down. I need a bath or a shower or something. The whole process felt amazing, but I’m a little sore right now.” Which didn’t make sense since there had been no pain the night before.
He chuckled softly as he got up and moved toward her. Wrapping her in his arms, he pressed a kiss to her cheek. “It’s all those muscles protesting that you’ve never used before. Don’t worry, let me hit the bathroom and then I’ll go down and start coffee if the burglars haven’t already. You can come down when you are moving like you haven’t been on a horse for three years straight.”
“Yeah, because we don’t need to give Rhys anymore fuel for the fire that he seems to have under his ass.” She hugged Josh back and sighed as she leaned into him. Her eyes closed for a moment before she pulled back. Looking up at him, she smiled happily. “Good morning. Last night was amazing, and while I had hoped to do that again this morning, I think that I’m glad we aren’t. I hurt, and making love with you should never hurt, right?”
“No, sweetheart, it shouldn’t. Have a hot shower for now, and later you can take a long soak in the tub. Just loosen up enough that your brother doesn’t kill me right off. Though why he’s here in the first place…” he said with a heavy sigh. Shaking his head, he pressed another kiss to her cheek. “Give me two minutes and then the bathroom’s all yours.”
“Sounds good.” She pulled back from him and sat back on the bed. She wondered just why Rhys was there too. It wasn’t a good thing if he and his friends were there at—Jesus H. Christ, it really was 4 a.m. She was killing Rhys.
When Joshua came out, he smiled at her. “I don’t have to do anything on the ranch today. So, once they are gone, we’ll grab a bunch of snacks and hole up in here. At least until the mothers go into town or something.” Which the women would. They would likely want to do a shopping trip at the very least. He was buttoning his jeans when she next looked up. Grabbing a shirt, he sniffed it and shrugged before pulling it on. “Five minutes, love. I’ll tell him you’re having a shower, but I doubt he’ll give you more than that.”
“Sounds good. I will be down quickly so that he doesn’t put your back to a corner. This is just crazy.” She grabbed clothes to take to the bathroom with her. “I like your idea, though, the part about hiding out from the world. I’m totally down with doing that if you don’t mind.”
“Not in the least.” He smiled. “I wouldn’t have suggested it otherwise, love. Go, bathe. I will get coffee and something to eat going while you are cleaning up.” He came to her and leaned in, pressing a quick kiss to her lips. “I love you,” he whispered softly.
Alison watched him leave after she whispered her love to him as well. Shaking herself out of her stupor, she went to the bathroom and took a very, very quick shower.
****
With her hair braided and back out of her face, she walked down the steps. She paused at the foot of them and frowned. Walking into the utterly silent kitchen, Alison shook her head. “For heaven’s sakes, we are all flipping adults here, you know.” She looked to Rhys’s friends, and after grabbing herself a cup of coffee from Joshua, asked them, “Why in heavens name didn’t one of you try to talk bonehead into waiting until a decent hour of the morning? And why in the world are you here anyway?” This last question she directed at Rhys.
“Because they knew we had to talk to you before you got moving around for the day,” Rhys said quietly. “We’ve done a lot of work since I last saw you, Ali. Your stalker has been a very, very busy boy. His name, by the way, is Jeremy Rodgers. He’s thirty, from Miami originally, though he moved to Bali a couple years back for some contract work. Work he’s been out of since he latched onto you.”
Ali frowned and tilted her head to the side. “I know that name.” She had to think for a moment, but then went pale. “I remember him. He stuttered and he gave me the creeps. I mean he sent my ‘oh crap-o-meter’ into the range of run, run fast. I never said anything to anyone about him, though, and he wa
s let go very shortly after getting on set. He was caught doing something, but I have no idea what. I think it was something with the swimsuits?” She frowned and then added. “Oh, I do know.” She felt sick. “He was caught sniffing them. Well, you know.” She was blushing as she said it. “He was sick, like in a way that he needed a white coat that gave him full time hugs.”
“Oddly enough, he was institutionalized for a number of years as a teenager, at eighteen, though the system kicked him loose and he managed with anti-psychotics and such for a good long while. According to his records, though, he hasn’t done a refill in eight months,” Rhys told her. “Show her the page,” he said to one of his friends.
The one moved closer and flipped open a heavy duty laptop. On the screen was a social media site that claimed she and Jeremy were engaged to be married. There were a number of images of them together.
“What the fuck?” Joshua said, leaning a hand on the table at her side. His other hand settled on her neck and rubbed gently at her tense muscles.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” Ali whispered, and felt the tears rolling down her cheeks. “I wasn’t with him in any of these images.” She began to scroll through them and pointed. “Here, Rhys, this was when you picked me up from the airport when I came back home from Bali.” She pointed to the image and then to the next. “This is me with Graham Buchanan.” The poor man was a dear friend of hers and he had just been dumped by his current boyfriend. “I never even talked to this man.” She hesitated and then said, “Wait, no, I did. He was in my changing room after a shoot and was fixing my laptop. That’s what he did. He was a computer technician.” She recalled him now. “And I had to buy a new laptop shortly after because I dropped the one I had into the pool. I don’t remember why or how, but I remember it took a dive and never came back.” She gasped as she went through the images. “Son of a bitch. These were from my changing room in Bali.” The images were ones that showed her with not so much clothes as blurred lines. “Oh God.” She really was going to be sick.
Joshua slammed the lid of the laptop shut and pulled her up from her chair. Wrapping her in his arms, he held her tight to his chest. “Breathe, love, just breathe,” he whispered in her ear. He stroked her back gently, his other hand on the nape of her neck as he rocked her slowly back and forth in his arms. “You’re safe, he’s never going to get close to you again.”
“He put naked images of me online.” Images that would never, ever come off. “And he’s been threatening my family. This has to end.” She pulled back, looked up at Josh, and nodded. She rested her head back on his chest and turned to the side to look at her brother. “What do we do, Rhys?” She trusted her big brother, always. He was a rock star in her eyes. “I don’t know how to deal with this. I’ve never had to deal with anything remotely like this, and now that you know, help me?” She begged him very softly so that the sound barely carried.
“We are,” he told her, moving a little closer. “I want you to stick close to Joshua. Stay in the house as much as possible for the next little while. Victor,” he said, gesturing to the large blond, blue-eyed man, “will be sticking around in case you have to go out or if Mama decides to take a trip to town. He won’t get in the way, but will be nearby if needed. Simon and I will be tracking this Jeremy down. We’ll find him, Ali. Promise.”
Ali moved from Josh’s arms into her brother’s. She hugged him tightly and nodded. “I know you will.” She couldn’t speak too loudly because when she was scared, she got quiet. “Just don’t get hurt doing it, please? And make sure that he’s brought to justice? As in the court justice and not something that we will have to worry about having come back on you one day?”
Rhys snorted and squeezed her closer. “As if they could ever pin anything on me,” he said in his low rumble. After dropping a kiss to her hair, he eased back. “Stay inside, Ali. I’m not kidding. We need time to track his movements and figure out where he’s at and what he’s doing. If you have to go out, you take Joshua with you, everywhere. I mean absolutely everywhere.”
“I think that I will just stay holed up in our room all day if you don’t mind. Josh doesn’t have anything to do on the ranch today and whatever needs to be handled can be handled by the hands, right?” she asked Josh. “Trust me, I know when to listen to you, big brother, and now is the time.” Mostly because she was scared to death.
“If they need me, they will call,” Joshua said softly. He gave her another squeeze and rubbed his hand slowly up and down her arm as she moved back to him. Wrapping her up, he held her close to his body, offering comfort with his strong hold.
Alison was shaking. “If you let them know that they are only to call you in case of an absolute emergency, they will know that there is something going on.” She hesitated and then asked, “Should we have them watching out for this guy? I mean, he got onto our ranch and into the house, but that’s because so many people come and go. Still, maybe we should send out the alert?”
He and her brother were quiet as they looked at one another. “I think we have to, Rhys,” Josh said finally. “Even if we don’t say why. Just tell my people, and yours too to be safe, that he’s wanted by the sheriff and may be armed. Do not approach for any reason except to call you directly if he’s spotted.”
Rhys nodded, reluctantly, she noted. “I’ll put the word out to everyone. They all know me anyway, but I’ll hit up your foreman for the moment so he can put the word out to everyone before they head out for the day.”
“Craig will make sure everyone knows,” Josh said, naming the Carver Ranch foreman.
Ali nodded and sighed. “Just be sure that our moms are safe and Josh will keep me safe.” She had the utmost faith in Joshua and his abilities to keep her safe. “Perhaps this will be a good time for me to contact my agents and ensure that they know I won’t be taking any more jobs. That I’m taking this time to go back to living life.” She would continue to take photos herself, but modeling she was over and done with.
She felt Joshua stiffen at her back even as Rhys shot her a surprised look, which, for her brother who hid everything, was a surprise to her. “Wow,” Rhys said quietly. “While I’m all for not seeing my half-naked sister on any more magazine covers or spreads, why now?” He then pointed to the two guys off to the side. “One comment out of either of you and you will not like where it goes.”
Peeking to the men, both with their mouths open, showed they were thinking about it before they each closed their mouths and smirked.
“Honestly?” When Rhys nodded, Alison shrugged. “I only did the modeling as a way to pay for my schooling. It wasn’t something I wanted to do. It was something that just fell into my lap. I will continue to take photographs of things that I love, like our hometown, but at least with that, I get to be in the background and never in the limelight. You of all people should know that I’ve never enjoyed it.”
“True enough,” he said with a slow nod. “Well, as long as you are happy with that, go for it. You know I’ll always support you in whatever you decide to do. With a few minor exceptions,” he added in a mutter. He checked his watch then. “We’d better get going so I can talk to both the foremen and get them photos of Jeremy. Stay safe, Alison. Joshua.” Rhys stepped in closer, and right over her head, nailed him with a dark look. “Anything happens to her…”
“Yeah, I got it,” Josh said, squeezing her closer.
Alison took a deep breath when the three men walked out of the kitchen. Her arm was around Josh’s waist. “Well, at least we know what and who we are fighting against, right?” That had to be something.
He nodded as he looked down at her. “Yeah, definitely something. It worries me, though,” he told her softly. “If he’s off the rails this far already, what the fuck is he going to do next? When a guy is that messed up, how do you predict his next move?”
Ali didn’t know and that scared the hell out of her. She said as much to Josh. “I wish that I knew how Rhys planned on catching his ass so that we would be in on
it, but knowing my big brother…” She shrugged and sighed a little. “Well, he likely has a trick up his sleeve. I just wish that I knew what it was.”
“It’s probably best we don’t know what your brother and his friends have planned. Plausible deniability, sweetheart.” Heaving a sigh, he hugged her to him, falling silent for a time. “We should likely eat now and leave a note for the moms that we did. Otherwise, they’ll be attempting to wake us back up in an hour or so. Remind me later to get a heavy ass bar for across the door. Having your brother’s face being the first one I see in the morning…” A shudder rippled through Josh’s body. “So not pretty.”
“Yeah, I can imagine.” She gave him a hug and then she added, “You might want to do something to the window as well because knowing my brother, he would find another way in. He’s crazy good.”
“Good point,” he muttered. Then he shot her a look as he slowly smiled. “Or, we could just think about building our own place. Nothing massive, but something just for us. A couple rooms, on the ranch, away from everyone, and yet close enough that I don’t worry about my mother being here on her own so much. Something with grenade launchers, gun turrets, and traps for your wily, evil brother.”
That had her laughing and she shook her head. “Yeah, somehow, I don’t see that happening. And hopefully, Rhys will convince Gwen to finally set the date and marry him so that one day and they will move into the ranch so I don’t have to worry about my mom.” She pulled away from Joshua and winked at him. “Now then, let’s eat and we will go back to bed and spend many hours learning each other’s bodies?”
“Deal,” he said. He looked like he had something more to say, but only for a moment. Pressing a kiss to her lips, he asked. “Bacon and eggs good, or do you want something healthy like wheat toast and air?” he teased with a smirk.
