Love Under Two Bad Boys

by Cara Covington

  “Not if you’re the one performing it,” Marc said. “I trust that since you’re an adult now, you’ll resist the urge to have me bark like a dog or moo like a cow in social settings.”

  Robbie chuckled, Marc smiled, and checked his rearview. The SUV took the same turn and was still behind them.

  The hair on the back of Marc’s neck prickled.

  “I promise no pranks. I’ve used hypnosis a couple of times in the past. Other than talking, I can’t really think of another way to help you. Drugs are out, of course. But I’ll do some research, see if there’s anything else.”

  Marc steered the car left but kept his speed down, waiting…and the SUV appeared behind him once more.

  He activated his rear camera and pressed the zoom option to bring up the front plate of the car—there were several black SUVs in the family—only there was no front plate on this particular vehicle.

  He didn’t have to ask to know that no one in the family would flout the state law by not having a plate on the front. Some states allowed for only one plate—but not Texas. In Texas, you needed both.

  “Your seat belt is fastened?” Marc asked that then glanced at Robbie. He was frowning at the camera view Marc had brought up.

  “Yeah. Problem?”

  “I don’t know. He’s been behind us for a bit, which is kind of strange because I’m just heading home. And as you can see, no plate.”

  He took the next right. This was a familiar road, a private road, in fact, as it was on private, family land. Marc waited until the SUV appeared, and then he accelerated.

  So did the SUV. As far as Marc was concerned, that took away any uncertainty as to whether or not they were being followed. I could always stop and talk to the driver. It might be someone assigned from Langley—not an unheard of action, especially if they were to uncover some sort of a threat toward him.

  Marc’s gaze flicked to his rearview in time to see an arm come out of the driver’s side, holding something small, pointed in their direction.

  A sharp ping sounded, and the Tesla jerked slightly.

  “Did that son of a bitch just shoot at us?” Robbie sounded mad as hell.

  “Yeah.” And neither of them had a weapon, damn it. “Hang on.” Marc knew this road, and he took fierce advantage of that fact. He took the car fast—over one-fifty—and felt them take a bit of air as they traversed three slight hillocks as they sped south. As soon as he was over the third, the road stretched flat and free of intersections. After another half-mile, he slowed just enough and then pulled the car into a one-eighty—and headed back the way he’d come. The SUV crested the last hillock, and Marc felt his grin turn vicious as he imagined the driver seeing this little silver bullet playing chicken with his big black SUV as Marc closed the distance between them.

  If the driver of that SUV had a half a brain in his head, he’d realize he’d probably survive a head-on collision with the smaller sports car. But Marc counted on basic human nature. And human nature wasn’t big on logic when it scented danger racing toward it.

  Marc slammed on the brakes and turned the wheel, cranking it hard left, cutting off the SUV. The unknown driver pulled his steering wheel to his left to avoid collision, just as Marc thought he would.

  Only that heavy, lumbering vehicle sure didn’t handle sudden movements at high speed like his sleek and graceful Tesla.

  The SUV hit the small ditch, careened into the sky, spun, and crashed—right into the only live oak in the immediate area.

  Marc’s heart tripped like a chorus of timpani. He looked at Robbie. “You okay?”

  “Yeah.” His brother released his seat belt. “Good driving—good, but crazy as fuck, brother. You call Adam. I’ll check the driver.”

  “We both check, and then I’ll call.”

  “You think he’s going to shoot me after that spectacular crash?”

  “I think he might, so we do this together.” Marc decided right then that would be the last time he was caught without a weapon.

  They found the driver unconscious, but alive. The man was unfamiliar and carried no identification. Marc bet, when they checked, there’d be no distinguishing markings on the vehicle, at all.

  “We’ll need an ambulance.”

  “On it.” As Robbie did what he could for their attacker, Marc called Adam, who said he’d call the ambulance.

  Then he cursed under his breath and placed one more call—this one to Jeremy and April.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Jeremy Bishop looked to his left. His lover, Marc Jessop, was standing off on his own, his cell phone held close to his ear, his expression not the expression of a happy man as he talked.

  To his right, arms akimbo, Adam Kendall appeared to be examining what was left of a black 2018 Ford Escape S. His expression wasn’t the expression of a happy man, either.

  Jeremy could completely understand all this family unhappiness. He wasn’t feeling very cheerful at the moment, himself. And that just pisses me off because I’ve spent a good part of my day naked with our woman. The bright side, of course, was two-fold. First, Marc and his brother Robert were unhurt, and that by itself was huge. Second, he and their woman had only been about a half-hour away, having already left Austin on their way back to Lusty, when Marc had called them.

  They’d already been on their way home to him.

  For her part, April also didn’t look very cheerful. She, too, was on the phone, likely talking with either Mel Richardson, Connor Talbot, or maybe even her friend Kat Lawson Jessop.

  April Bixby would never sit idly by and wring her hands if either of them was in danger. Their woman was a warrior. She’d arm herself to the teeth and attack the first chance she got.

  The image of April, wearing war paint and skulking through a jungle with a knife clamped fiercely between her teeth, formed in a nanosecond and put a bit of a smile on his face. I wonder why my imagination conjured her naked? There just was no way, Jeremy mentally affirmed, to control one’s imagination. That image also put a little hum in his blood, making him feel a bit better.

  Robert Jessop had left the scene, riding to the hospital in Waco with his cousins Warren and Edward in the front of the EMT vehicle while he monitored the patient in the back. Jeremy didn’t know much about the unsub—unknown subject—except the man was alive, if still unconscious, and he’d tried to kill his lover.

  Adam had let them know the state police had been called in, and so the unconscious assailant would be under guard while being treated. The sheriff of Lusty had also recovered the gun the attacker had used, and he’d dug a bullet fragment out of the back driver’s side of the Tesla. These two items were sealed and dated, signed by the sheriff, to be forwarded to the state police.

  That bullet fragment had lodged in the support bar between the back windshield and the driver’s side rear window. Just a fraction of an inch more toward the passenger side and that piece of metal might have penetrated the window and lodged in the driver’s head, instead.

  Since Marc had been the driver, Jeremy was right back to being unhappy, too, with that image now front and center in his mind.

  A large, flatbed tow truck pulled up, and Marc’s cousin, Gord Jessop, got out and approached. His low whistle as he walked around the crumpled vehicle spoke volumes.

  Those who’d been on phone calls ended them and headed toward Adam and Gord.

  “I think it’s a miracle that poor man wasn’t killed,” Gord said.

  “Let’s hope he wakes up and can tell us who the hell he is and why he tried to kill our cousins.” Adam’s tone sounded just as pissed off as Jeremy imagined it would.

  “Well, now. That bit of information was left out of your call, cousin.”

  “Sue me.” There’d been bite in those two words. Then Adam exhaled. “Sorry, Gord. When I called you, I was keeping an eye on the patient evacuation.”

  “Don’t worry about it.” Gord tilted his head at Marc then took a quick visual of the Tesla. “I can fix that bullet hole, if you li
ke.”

  “I might keep it as a reminder not to be caught unarmed again,” Marc said.

  “I sure do know that feeling.” Gord offered a grim-looking smile then turned his attention back to the SUV. Nodding, he jumped back into his tow truck, executed a three-point turn, then slowly backed up until there were only a few feet between Gord’s truck and the damaged vehicle.

  “Any idea who could be gunning for you, cousin?” Adam asked.

  “Seriously, Adam, not a fucking clue.” Marc kicked at the road. “If I thought someone might be, do you honestly think I’d come back here and endanger the family?”

  Jeremy heard the outrage in his lover’s tone, which was exactly what he’d expect to hear. Hearing the same tone in Adam’s voice, not so much.

  “If you thought someone might be and you didn’t come back here, every last damn one of us would have kicked your ass. We’ll talk about this later because there are other stakeholders who will want a piece of this conversation. For now, let’s see if we can help Gord get this pig righted. I want to see what evidence it has to give us.”

  Gord used the winch, showed them what to watch for, and maneuvered his service truck until, with a sad-sounding groan, the SUV landed upright on four wheels again. He apparently didn’t look surprised the front axle appeared broken.

  He then unhooked the winch, repositioned his truck, and let down the ramp. Little sound was made by the hydraulic lift as the entire bed of the truck then rose in the air. Gord freed a second winch and crawled under the SUV, hooking it probably to the rear axle.

  It didn’t take long for him to begin the process of pulling the SUV up onto the truck bed. He stopped about half-way and secured safety straps around the back tires of the SUV then continued using his equipment to move and lift the damaged truck.

  Once it was flat atop the service vehicle, Gord secured extra safety straps. Jeremy and April helped Adam and Marc ensure there were no bits of truck left on the ground. There was some glass, and Adam made a call to Jake, who promised to have a crew out shortly to clean it up.

  Adam ended that call then turned to Gord. “Can we examine it right away?” he asked.

  “Yup. I’ve got an empty bay. See you there.” Gord waved and got behind the wheel, put his truck in gear, and drove off.

  “This isn’t going to take long,” Adam said.

  “What are you looking for?” April asked.

  “Whether or not there’s a VIN number on the sucker,” Marc said, clearly on the same page as his cousin. “Bastard was driving with no plates—and they weren’t simply pulled off and stored in the back seat, either.”

  “You think he stole that truck specifically to use today.” Jeremy kept his gaze on Marc to see his lover’s reaction to that.

  Marc met his gaze and nodded. “Yeah, I do.”

  “I want you to wait for me at my office, cousin,” Adam said. “The three of you go there now, please.”

  Adam got into his cruiser and drove off.

  Jeremy and April both closed in on Marc. He reached for them, and for a long moment, they simply stood together, holding on. “Hey.” Marc lifted April’s face and brushed his thumb under her eye, wiping away the lone tear that had fallen.

  “Sorry,” she said. “This scared me, baby.”

  “Me, too,” Marc said. He sweetly kissed her lips. Helpless to do anything else, Jeremy leaned in and Marc had kissed him, too. He might not show a tear, as their woman had, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t been just as frightened as she.

  After ending the call from Marc, knowing he was all right, he and April had clutched hands and hadn’t let go, or even spoken, until they’d arrived here and seen him.

  “Come on, let’s head to the sheriff’s office. There’s bound to be sweet tea, and I need some.”

  Jeremy had been driving April’s car. He told her to go with their man now, content to follow him into Lusty.

  I’d follow him to the fucking ends of the earth. Jeremy wouldn’t even think twice about it, either. The three of them together, probably with a little help from the family, would figure this shit out.

  * * * *

  She clung to that moment when they’d been alone on that FM road and had closed ranks. April had breathed him in, breathed them in, and shuddered. Her men were safe and sound. At least for the moment. She didn’t think showing her emotions made her appear weak. Necessarily.

  They’d climbed into two cars—bless Jeremy for driving mine so I could ride with Marc—and were now entering the sheriff’s office in Lusty, Texas.

  April hadn’t been in the sheriff’s office before now. It held three desks that filled the large front part of the office. A small hallway opened up beside the desk against the back wall. It led to a room with a big window on one side that appeared to hold their computer server and a bathroom and a cell on the other side. Just one cell, but she’d bet it could hold three or four full-grown adults. At the end of the hall stood, of course, a back door, the kind of emergency escape most buildings boasted.

  Matt Benedict, one of Adam’s deputies, nodded as they came in. “There’s some tea in the fridge, there. Help yourselves. Adam said he’d be back in about ten minutes.” Then he grinned. “In the meantime, cousin, you can begin to write your official statement.”

  He handed a pad of paper and a pen to Marc, who just smirked in return. “Hand over the tablet, cousin, and I’ll write my AAR.”

  After action report. April tilted her head. Obviously, Marc believed that the someone who had just deliberately tried to kill him was connected to his past adventures on behalf of Uncle Sam.

  Since the driver of that SUV had followed and then shot at him, April couldn’t fault the logic in his thinking, even if she really didn’t want to believe it.

  Marc settled at the desk on the other side of the office from Matt’s, tablet in hand. She and Jeremy sat in the chairs in front of the back desk, which Matt said was Adam’s.

  April had spent her fair share of time in police precincts and sheriff’s offices in her career as an investigator. This one stood out, not because it was small but because it was well maintained and equipped. She understood now, as she didn’t the first day she’d appeared as a customer at the roadhouse, just how wealthy this community, as a whole, truly was. Unlike other small towns, if the sheriff of Lusty needed something, he got it immediately.

  April brought to mind that room across from the cell. There was more computer equipment in that room for it to house only a server. Then Jeremy confirmed her suspicions when he nodded toward the hallway.

  “That’s some damn fine high-tech equipment you have in there,” he said.

  Matt nodded. “The town recently installed an electronic security system. License plates of vehicles entering Lusty are scanned and run, and if there are any wants, warrants, or general alerts from our own related security monitoring systems, we’re notified on our cell phones. The process takes only seconds.”

  “I heard about that when I took up my role at the roadhouse,” April said. “Once Kat and I got together, she told me about some of the latest innovations.”

  Matt grinned. “We ended up leaving those extra cameras in place over the parking lot out there at Angela’s place. Grandma Kate felt, and we all agreed, that with so many of our family members involved there in one capacity or another, it only made sense to extend our protection to the roadhouse.”

  The door opened, and Adam strode in. He nodded to them, set his hat on the small shelf behind his chair, then sat.

  “You were right,” he said to Marc. “The vehicle identification number plate had been pried off the dash.” He grinned. “But the one on the front of the engine block under the hood was still intact. I sent the number to a contact of mine with the state police, Sergeant Clint Parrish.”

  April tilted her head. “You’re pretty certain that car was stolen, then?”

  “Yep, and likely only earlier today.”

  “Not indicating a last-minute decision?” She had wondere
d, if the move had been an impulse, perhaps the attacker hadn’t been after Marc, specifically. Maybe he’d been looking for any target. Maybe his agenda had been pure greed. Anyone driving a car like Marc’s might be assumed to be rich. She had hoped that was the case, but she guessed now she should have known better.

  Adam proved he’d known which rabbit hole her thoughts had dove down. “A career thief would likely have ruined if not removed that second VIN,” Adam said. “A career assassin might have done the same thing. I think our suspect, whoever he is, was venturing a little outside his own comfort zone. From what Marc told me about how close the SUV was when that bastard took his first shot, if he was a pro, he shouldn’t have missed.”

  April didn’t know if she should characterize Adam’s observation as ghoulish or particularly insightful.

  Marc huffed out a breath. “Hell, if he was a pro, he shouldn’t have tried to shoot me when he didn’t have complete control of the entire situation.”

  “True,” Adam said. “In the meantime, we’re going to move this meeting over to the Big House. Aunt Bernice has sweet tea and fresh coffee brewing for the Northerners among us.”

  “Why are we going to the Big House?” Marc asked. He got up from his chair and handed Adam the tablet. “There’s my report. Where’s my answer?”

  Adam smiled. “Oh, that’s easy. Do you recall I told you we’d discuss this later because there were other stakeholders who’d want in?”

  April could feel the tension in Marc. He didn’t relish any situation where he wasn’t one hundred percent in control of the events.

  “I do, yes. I thought it odd at the time.”

  “Understandable. You’ve been away for a long time, Marc. This is the new Lusty. So we’ll take our asses over to the Big House because Grandma Kate invited us to, and she’s waiting. And if I know her, she’s already taken steps about this little dust-up you and Robbie just had and already has, if not the entire plan to find out what’s going on, at least the first few steps of one.”