by Jenny Penn
Bound & Cuffed 2
Hunted
Janie is a good girl with a bad problem. She’s being stalked. When things start to get dangerous, she has one thing to do—seek the help of men who specialize in danger.
Tex and Brick are bad boys who are good at solving problems. Danger doesn’t scare them for a moment. Janie, on the other hand, does.
Sweetly innocent and temptingly stubborn, Janie represents a challenge neither man can resist. Tex and Brick represent a temptation Janie can’t help but to give in to. Even as the three of them are consumed by the combustible combination of want and lust churning between them, the danger is closing in.
Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre
Length: 41,385 words
HUNTED
Bound & Cuffed 2
Jenny Penn
MENAGE EVERLASTING
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
ABOUT THE E-BOOK YOU HAVE PURCHASED: Your non-refundable purchase of this e-book allows you to only ONE LEGAL copy for your own personal reading on your own personal computer or device. You do not have resell or distribution rights without the prior written permission of both the publisher and the copyright owner of this book. This book cannot be copied in any format, sold, or otherwise transferred from your computer to another through upload to a file sharing peer to peer program, for free or for a fee, or as a prize in any contest. Such action is illegal and in violation of the U.S. Copyright Law. Distribution of this e-book, in whole or in part, online, offline, in print or in any way or any other method currently known or yet to be invented, is forbidden. If you do not want this book anymore, you must delete it from your computer.
WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.
If you find a Siren-BookStrand e-book being sold or shared illegally, please let us know at
[email protected]
A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
HUNTED
Copyright © 2015 by Jenny Penn
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63259-956-8
First E-book Publication: December 2015
Cover design by Les Byerley
All art and logo copyright © 2015 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
Dear Readers,
If you have purchased this copy of Hunted by Jenny Penn from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.
Regarding E-book Piracy
This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.
The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.
This is Jenny Penn’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Jenny Penn’s right to earn a living from her work.
Amanda Hilton, Publisher
www.SirenPublishing.com
www.BookStrand.com
DEDICATION
To Dr. Murray for keeping all my ‘babies’ happy and healthy
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
About the Author
HUNTED
Bound & Cuffed 2
JENNY PENN
Copyright © 2015
Chapter One
Janie pushed back the curtains and spied on the men who had just pulled up in front of her mother’s house. They were big and very scary looking. Then again, this whole situation was very scary, and part of her just wished she could run and hide from it all.
Ken wasn’t going to let her, though.
He wasn’t backing down. He wanted her, and he meant to have her. Ken had made that clear enough in the past few weeks. Janie had made it equally clear that she didn’t want anything to do with him, not that he cared. She was his as far as Ken was concerned. That was a problem.
A very serious problem.
Ken had started to do more than simply show up at her job and house, bearing flowers and heartfelt pleas to take him back. He’d started to get mean, though never to her face. Instead, Janie had started to receive late-night phone calls, the other end going dead the moment she answered. She might have written that off to kids playing pranks if she hadn’t woken up to find all four of her tires slashed.
That had unnerved her, but still Janie hadn’t thought of Ken until the notes had started to appear. Filled with obscenities and insults, they’d demanded that she beg for Ken’s forgiveness and warned her that the time to right her wrongs was running out. That had unnerved both Janie and her mother enough to prompt them into going down to the police station to file a complaint, but the deputies had made it clear there wasn’t enough evidence for them to do anything.
That had left Janie feeling alone, uncertain and unnerved by every shadow she passed during the day. Finally, she’d given into her mother’s insistence that they seek professional help yesterday when she’d come home last night to find her apartment window smashed in with a brick.
Somebody had written across it in black magic marker, time is up.
That’s when Janie had called her mother and moved in, conceding that she might need somebody to watch over her. That somebody was not going to be her mother. Janie had no intention of letting her mom get hurt.
Of course, that didn’t make convince her that the two heavily muscled, tattooed men walking up her mother’s front path were the answer. She couldn’t help but wonder if they hadn’t just complicated everything. Those doubts had her turning back to where her mother sat, knitting away on yet another small sweater for her equally tiny dog.
“Are you sure about this?” Because Janie wasn’t. In fact, she was beginning to have more than a few doubts. Her mother, however, didn’t even pause her knitting or bother to look up as she answered without hesitation.
“Of course, honey.”
“But…bodyguards?” Janie couldn’t even believe she needed them. What had her life become?
“Yes, honey.” Helena placed her knitting back into her basket of yarn as a heavy knock echoed through the house.
Almost instantly Bennie was bouncing around and yapping as he rushed toward the door. His tail wagged in a frantic beat as his little paws began to pelt the door with an excited greeting that would end up with him peeing on the floor if her mother didn’t get the door open fast enough. Helena prevented disaster by scooping Bennie up and reaching for the knob. The tiny little hound squirmed in her arms, des
perate to get free and lick the men standing on the other side.
Janie followed her mother as far as the entrance to the parlor and watched as Helena offered the two scary-looking men darkening her doorstep a big smile. Janie couldn’t find one herself. Her stomach was in knots, her heart racing, her palms sweating, and that was before she got a close-up look at her new bodyguards.
They were huge!
Their size was emphasized by the tight fit of their nearly all black attire, though the first one to step forward was a might bit smaller than the man who hung toward the back. Despite the tattoos revealed by the short sleeves of his T-shirt, the man who greeted her mother wore a smile accompanied by a set of dimples that made his chiseled features look less hard and unforgiving.
“Good morning.” Smooth as velvet, his voice purred out like a sensual stroke that had the quivers in stomach churning into full-on tremors. “I’m Tex Holmes, and you must be the lovely Janie Scott. I must say, ma’am, I can see why a man might become infatuated with you.”
It was such a blatant line, but Janie’s mom giggled and blushed as she broke into a wide smile. “Oh, you sweet boy. I’m going to thank you for your compliment, but as I’m sure you know, I’m Helena, Janie’s mom. That’s my daughter.”
Her mother pointed Bennie at Janie, causing the big man’s dark gaze to shift toward her. His eyes narrowed slightly as they swept down her length, leaving a heated trail of awareness in their wake. Janie could feel herself warming under his look and tried desperately to mask her instinctive response to the handsome man by shifting her gaze to his partner.
That didn’t work.
Bigger, meaner, and definitely more dangerous looking, the large man lingering behind Tex was every bit as good looking as his partner. He was also the polar opposite. Where Tex had a head full of chocolate brown hair that glistened in the sun, his backup buddy’s skull gleamed in the light, smooth as baby’s bottom. The only hair growing on his head was the goatee that emphasized the hard line of his wide, square-cut jaw and the broad, masculine features of his face.
He looked like a walking destroyer and scared Janie about as much as he excited her. This was not her kind of man. Neither of them was. No, they were the type of men Janie had only ever read about in the romance novels she devoured in mass quantities. Both men looked like they’d walked off one of the covers, sending Janie’s hormones surging with a wicked, wanton need.
“Well, I can see good looks run in the family,” Tex finally responded. “You’re both very pretty, ladies.”
And he was so full of shit. Janie wasn’t blind to the truth. She owned mirrors and knew that her reflection was anything but beautiful. At best, she could be described as mousy. At worse, she she’d been called plain, which made her current situation all the more deranged.
“Well, aren’t you a charmer.”
Helena smiled as she stepped backward to allow both men to finally enter the hall and fill the small room with their heat and bulk. Instantly, Janie felt overwhelmed by their presence and couldn’t control the urge to retreat back into the parlor. Hidden from view, she took a moment to catch her breath, even as she listened to the deep baritone of Tex’s partner as he introduced himself.
“Mornin’, ma’am, I’m Brick.”
Brick?
Had his parents really named him that? Janie doubted it, even if it the title did fit his appearance as he sauntered into the room behind her beaming mother. She wasn’t the only one looking excited. Bennie appeared ready to wet himself if her mom didn’t release him soon. He’d do it, too. Her mother knew it, which probably explained why she dropped the miniature mutt onto the floor and allowed him to rush back to greet both Tex and Brick.
“Cute dog,” Tex commented as he smiled down at the small shaggy mess trying to lick his big, black boots clean. “Young?”
“Not nearly,” Helena laughed as she took a seat in her rocker and gestured for both men to claim the couch. “He’s about eight, now, but I’m afraid to tell him that. Bennie still thinks he’s a puppy.”
“Bennie?” Tex lifted a brow at that as he took the offered seat.
Brick, on the other hand, reached down to scoop Bennie up in one massive hand and lift the squirming pooch up to eye level. The small mutt tried desperately to stretch far enough forward to give him a kiss, and damn if the big man didn’t let him. That was a mistake.
“Bennie!” Her mom gasped, hopping out of her seat as a stream of urine came running down Brick’s hand. “Oh, my God, I’m so, so sorry.”
For his part, Brick didn’t say a word. He just stood there stoically while Bennie peed on him. It was almost funny, though Janie knew her mother didn’t agree. Janie bowed her head to hide her smile as her mother quickly snatched Bennie back and led Brick out of the room to get cleaned up, leaving Janie alone with Tex.
He shared her smile, making hers fade away as she felt a sudden tension grip her muscles. Tex really did look like a naughty rascal when he grinned, and she could feel her heart begin to race again as the silence stretched out between them. There was something in the air, something that made her ache to fidget, and she gripped her hands tightly together, trying to control that impulse.
“So…” Tex finally broke the awkwardness that seemed to grip the room. “You got yourself a psycho ex, huh?”
“I wouldn’t call Ken psycho.” Janie wasn’t sure what she’d call Ken, but crazy didn’t seem to fit.
“You tell him to back off and he doesn’t…that is psycho,” Tex countered, his tone daring her to argue, but that wasn’t in Janie’s nature. So, she let it go. Tex didn’t. “You did tell him to back off, right?”
Not so bluntly, but Janie had made it clear it was over. She nodded, not bothering to correct his choice of words. It didn’t matter. The man could think what he wanted.
“So go on and tell me a little bit about this ex of yours,” Tex pressed.
“Well…he’s a pet groomer.” That was actually how they’d met and explained Bennie’s currently unkempt appearance.
“Strike one,” Tex muttered, making Janie’s eyes narrow slightly. There was nothing wrong with pet groomers, but again she chose to bite her tongue and continue on.
“And he lives over on Magnolia Street with his mom.”
“Oh God.” Tex chuckled. “That’s worth almost two strikes.”
Janie clenched her jaw and held back on the impulse to tell him he was being rude. After all, she happened to be temporarily living with her mom. There was nothing wrong with that.
“Go on,” he pushed. “Tell me he doesn’t own a car but rides a bike everywhere.”
Janie glared at him, not wanting to admit the truth but unable to deny his assumption. Well, not completely. “Actually, he walks.”
“Oh, come on now, honey,” Tex groaned. “A pretty lady like you can do better than that.”
A pretty lady might be able to, but Janie couldn’t. After all, it wasn’t as if she’d walked off the cover of anything. The men were not beating down her door. Ken was actually the first man who had shown her any real interest in years. The truth was she’d been lonely. Now Janie was still lonely and a little scared.
“Well, we all make mistakes.” Tex sighed and offered her another quick grin. “I could tell you about a few of mine.”
Janie bet he could. She was also willing to bet that he was a mistake a lot of women could tell her about. He just had that kind of look. The kind that warned women he liked his fast and loose. Definitely not a relationship man.
“So tell me more about Mr. Wonderful.” Tex gazed over at her with those deep, dark eyes that made Janie a little uncomfortable. It was as though he was looking into her soul.
“Well…he collects comic books.”
That got an instant laugh from Tex, and Janie knew just what he was thinking, but Ken hadn’t been that bad. He’d been polite and courteous. He’d opened doors and called her sweetie. He’d brought her mother baked goods and always called her mother Mrs. Scott, which just
went to prove that he might be weird, but he had a hell of a lot more manners than Tex.
“Check this out, man.” Tex glanced up as Brick followed her mother back in with Bennie nowhere in sight. Janie had a feeling the dog had been banished to the backyard. “Our perp is a dog groomer who lives with his mommy and collects comic books.”
That summation drew a scowl not only from Janie but from Brick as well as he cast a look over at her. He studied her for a second before shaking his head.
“You could do better.”
Janie bit back a sharp retort as her mother laughed. “That’s exactly what I keep telling her.”
* * * *
Tex was still laughing as Helena Scott showed them out the door. This whole situation was silly. His uncle, Big Bob, had sent them over here as a joke. It had to be. This wasn’t a case, and it wouldn’t take more than five minutes to handle the matter. Big Bob’s plan for secluding Janie away with him as if they were on some romantic date was a waste of time.
“Come on.” Tex slapped Brick on the arm. “Let’s go have a word with Mr. Ken The Dog Groomer.”
“That wasn’t the plan,” Brick retorted even as he followed Tex back to the Malibu SS sitting down by the curb.
The black paint gleamed in the sunlight, making the large muscle car shine with a threat that was matched by the sheen of its owner’s head. Brick and his car were well matched. They were large and in charge. People got the hell out of their way, but only one was truly dangerous.
“Screw the plan.” Tex snorted as he pulled open the passenger door and paused to glare at Brick over the roof. “There is no point in wasting a bunch of time taunting a pansy into making a move when we could just make him wet himself.”
