“Exactly.” Damion nodded slowly. It didn’t take any of them long to slip back into the kind of thinking an agent developed, living in the shadows. “He’d think he could find you, kill you, and then head back to the capital. There’d be no solid evidence to tie him to Jordan. It could be his word against Matthews’. He’d claim he had no idea his chief of staff had been corrupt, and he’d feel certain that, hey, a sitting United States congressman’s word over a lackey’s? No contest.”
Damion looked around the table. Marc did, too, and saw the confusion on April’s face—Jake’s, too. But Grandma Kate was nodding slowly.
“It’s that charge he’s most afraid of,” Kate said. “A charge of treason. Anything less and he’d eventually recover, and even still have a political future.”
“Treason, on the other hand, brings at the very least life in prison,” Adam said.
April sat forward and looked from Jeremy to Marc. “You are not putting yourself out there as bait,” she said.
“I’m not going to hide, Nancy Drew. If he comes this far, if he comes for me, I’ll damn sure meet him because, if I don’t, he either kills me or he walks. Personally, I don’t like either alternative.”
“We’ll all make certain Marc’s safe,” Grandma Kate said. “And your insight, your brains, will help make it so, April.”
“We’ll keep our man safe, sweetheart,” Jeremy said.
Marc looked at Damion. “How long has he been missing?”
“It could be hours. He was observed going into his Georgetown residence at about eleven last night. But he was gone in the morning.”
“That doesn’t leave us a lot of time,” Adam said.
Marc nodded. “It leaves us enough.” Marc felt his grin, felt it turn just a little bit evil. “So let’s see what we can do to come up with a plan to nail this bastard.” He didn’t apologize for his language. The women at the table—his future wife and his grandmother—wore determinedly evil grins of their own. Jeremy met his gaze with a fierce expression.
He had the best damn family in the world. They had his back. Together, they had this.
Chapter Twenty
April clung to Marc, her head resting on his chest, her body pressed so close no air could get between them. Jeremy spooned her just as snuggly, and she felt the tension that had been building all day begin to ease, but only a little. They’d made wonderful, sweet, and then a little bit rough love, the three of them. These wonderful men had given her three orgasms. They’d felt her tension, probably understood its cause, and clearly had wanted to demolish it. It should have worked. She should have been sleeping.
Instead, her mind refused to settle, tossing up all the possible things that could go wrong. About the only thing she hadn’t mentioned was a coronal mass ejection from the sun. Oh, she knew she was being ridiculous, but she couldn’t seem to help it.
“You’ll be there, every step of the way, and know everything that’s happening,” Marc said.
Her men had been more than patient with her. All they’d said so far should have been enough. These damned emotions. Love really was a double-edged sword. It made you a hostage to another’s fortunes. Of course, she wouldn’t change being where she was at that moment for anything. I just wish I could get a handle on this prescient, out of control, fear-bordering-on-terror state I’m in.
“The best planning in the world sometimes isn’t enough. Shit happens.” She wasn’t a person who spent a lot of time, usually, looking at the negative side of things. Acknowledge and move on had always been her mantra, at least it had been since she’d become an adult.
“I refuse to believe we’ve all been through the slog we’ve been through just to be shit upon now,” Marc said. He rubbed his hand up and down her arm. “I know you’re scared, sweetheart. So am I. But I’ve got Adam and Damion and his partner, Chance. I’ve got Jake and Grandma Kate and those two private dicks you’ve hired on with. But mostly, I’ve got you and Jeremy and a whole bright and wonderful future ahead of us to live for.”
“We’ll all keep him safe, sweetheart,” Jeremy whispered. He pressed in tighter and placed a kiss on her ear. “Now let’s go sleep. I promise you things will look brighter in the morning.”
She wanted to believe that was true. She laid still and stayed quiet and felt herself sinking. She found sleep, but it was a fitful state until, just barely aware it was happening, her men stroked her, sending her deep.
The images came, sharp, clear, and were bathed in terror and heartbreak. The scene unfolded, an old dream, this time going farther, deeper, than ever before. Usually, she awoke when she looked up, groggy, and saw a grotesque monster.
And he had been that—but he’d been more. It played before her, different, with sound, and she was held a captive audience, this time unable to look away.
“Never kidnapped anyone before,” Felix said. “That was easy as hell, and it’ll be a hell of a lot bigger payoff for us than our usual grift.”
“Yeah, and it’ll put us way ahead financially, Felix.” The other man chuckled. “I think half a mil is just the right amount to ask. They can get it, no sweat. Bitch will never see my face, not even when I ‘rape’ her in front of you. You’ve got to remember to look suitably horrified, of course.”
“You know me, Oscar, I can beg and cry on demand. I really should have been an actor.”
“You are an actor, pal, just not in the movies. Okay, I’ll get this set up, and you deliver that ransom note. And put your damn gloves on before you touch it.”
“Oh, you betcha. Not leaving any fingerprints behind on this note for the cops to find me.”
“Your girlfriend will be under for at least another half-hour.”
“Plenty of time. I should be back before then.”
April cried out, the pain, the betrayal too deep, too absolute, to stay hidden any longer within the caverns of her mind.
“Shhh…”
April came awake cradled in Marc’s arms, his warmth and his presence chasing away the last of the images attacking from the past. In those first few moments, she couldn’t tell them, either of them, what had happened. She could only clutch and cry. Her heart was breaking inside, not for her now, but for the young woman she’d been, a woman in love for the first time in her life. A woman who’d just discovered that lover was a liar, a pretender, a bastard whose true motive had been to use her as a pawn in his quest for money.
Her men cuddled her in and waited. Soothing sounds and soft touches worked together to calm her. Jeremy left the bed but was back within a few moments. Marc held a glass to her lips. She smelled the brandy and took a small sip.
“This wasn’t about what’s coming, was it?” Marc kissed the top of her head. “It was about what was.”
“Yeah. Give me a moment.” She nestled into Marc and reached for Jeremy. They were there, solid, real, and she knew they’d never let anything harm her. Not ever again.
One of the interesting things about having two strong male lovers was the way they could move her about, rearrange her to suit them. Perhaps another day she might protest, but right now, because she understood them, she just let them do as they would.
Soon she was settled, still on Marc’s lap but now facing Jeremy, who held her legs. They’d brought the blankets up, and heat as well as their combined scent surrounded and soothed her.
Her crying and rough, air-gobbling sobs had tapered. The tissues she held clutched in her right fist were damp, and she eased her hold on them. Jeremy, ever thoughtful, took them from her and gave her a fresh handful to mutilate.
“He got himself hired as a teaching assistant on campus. Introduced himself as Felix Unger, and he…I guess you could say he courted me. Only now I know it wasn’t courtship. It was a con.” April shrugged. “But I fell for him. I fell for him, all the way.” April paused and let the fresh pain of that pass. It eased very quickly. That creature belonged to her past. Marc and Jeremy were her future.
“We were accosted as we were walking from hi
s car toward my apartment after a date. This masked man came out of nowhere, hit Felix with his gun, knocking him unconscious, I thought, and told me if I screamed, he’d kill him. I was scared to death. Crazy, frozen scared. It gave him enough time to put something in front of my face, hold it tight…I had no idea what it was, but I felt myself just…buzz away.
“I don’t know how long I was out, but as I began to awaken, I heard them talking. This masked guy and Felix. They were…they were friendly. They figured I’d be out for another half-hour at least, long enough for Felix to deliver the ransom note and return to play the tied-up, threatened boyfriend. The other guy, Felix called him Oscar…said he was going to fuck me, and Felix laughed and promised to act all tragically helpless.
“Felix left, and I came more awake, scared, heartbroken, and mad, and I saw the guy who was then unmasked—what I recall from my nightmare is he was blond, with longish hair. I guess he was getting ready, setting the scene. He reached for something on the chair and put it on, like a vest, only it was kind of heavy looking and very padded. He’d set a knife on the edge of the table.
“I got out of the ropes—they hadn’t tied me very tightly—and I was quiet, very quiet, as I got up on my haunches. I remember lunging, grabbing the knife. He turned around, shocked, and I stabbed him—or stabbed at him—I know I made contact because he fell back, and there was a sickening kind of thud as his head hit the edge of the table. And he…he collapsed. All that blood…on him, on the floor…on me.
“I ran. I ran as fast as I could, away from the city lights, into the darkness…I remember crying, hardly able to believe what that bastard, what Felix had done to me…and then I don’t remember anything until a kind, older man wearing a uniform and a badge put a blanket around me and helped me into his cruiser.”
Jeremy leaned forward and placed a tender kiss on her lips. His eyes fairly glittered in the low lighting. April didn’t know if she’d ever seen that measure of determination on his face.
“Now that you’ve remembered everything, what do you want to do?”
“Find those bastards and gut them.” April felt her face heat. She wasn’t the vindictive sort, but the rawness of the memory out-shouted her better angels.
“Oh, don’t worry, Nancy Drew. You can bet we’ll be doing that after a fashion—all three of us. Just as soon as we get through this next little dust-up.”
“Gives a whole new meaning to the term, ‘cleaning house,’ doesn’t it?” Jeremy asked.
April sighed. “It sure does.” The tension she’d been feeling all afternoon and evening had evaporated.
“Can you go back to sleep right now, baby, or would you like to sit up for a few minutes, maybe grab a snack?”
“Tea,” April said. “I want some hot tea and one of Aunt Anna’s pecan cookies, if we have any.”
“We do,” Jeremy said. “I’ll get the kettle going. Marc, here, will bring you downstairs.” He bounded from the bed and scooped up his boxers, stepping into them quickly. By the enthusiasm and energy he displayed leaving the bedroom, it was difficult to realize she’d just yanked him from what was likely a sound sleep only minutes before.
She angled her head and met Marc’s gaze. “It’s okay. I can walk.”
Marc squeezed her, an all-encompassing hug that warmed her head to toes. “Of course you can, but I really need to carry you.”
There was no question in April’s heart or mind that she was a submissive—but only with these two men. And just as their first instinct was to take care of her, so hers was to take care of them. She couldn’t think of a better way for love to function. “Well, then, Marc. Carry away.”
* * * *
The kettle was moments from boiling when Marc entered the kitchen carrying their woman. Jeremy took just a moment to study her. Yes, she appeared tired and maybe a bit battered by memories. But there was something new, something like an aura of freshness, of relief in that gaze that met his. April was wearing his shirt, and she looked damn fine with it just barely covering her.
With April’s memory finally giving her a clue, as she liked to say, a tremendous burden had been lifted from her. She never would have remembered if not for the stress they all were feeling, knowing Marc was setting himself up as bait. Jeremy believed that. But he also knew beyond a doubt that if she didn’t, down-to-the-bone trust them, she never would have remembered, period.
Just as if he hadn’t down-to-the-bone trusted her, he never would have gotten the relief from Marc that he needed. He’d worried she’d think less of him. He’d fallen asleep in Marc’s arms, and awoken in hers.
She’d told them she loved them, and they’d believed her and reciprocated. But knowing that truth went straight to the bone? Jeremy looked at Marc, who nodded just slightly. Yeah, he and his lover were on the same page when it came to their woman.
Jeremy had taken six cookies out of the freezer and set them on a plate in the microwave. The kettle boiled, and he poured the water into the teapot.
Marc set her down and went to the cupboards, bringing down mugs. Sugar and milk and the plate of cookies completed their very early morning snack.
April sighed, eyes closed, after that first sip of tea, and Jeremy couldn’t help but smile. “My mother always says that a good ‘cuppa’ could set all manner of things to rights.”
“She’s English?” April asked.
“Her parents were and brought her over her when she was six. She grew up used to English customs and mores.” He closed his eyes for a moment. Then he opened them and grinned at his lovers.
“When she comes to visit, I’ll talk her into making her famous clotted cream.”
Marc tilted his head. “I’ve heard of that but never tried it. What’s it taste like?”
“Heaven.”
“Anything puts that look on your face, I have to try it,” April said.
“And I’ve just had a marvelous vision of the two of you covered in something that delicious, with me licking you both clean,” Marc said.
April leaned her head on Marc and reached her hand to Jeremy. “Thank you. You’ve steadied me.”
“You don’t have to thank us for loving you,” Marc said.
Jeremy nodded. “What he said. Hey! I just thought of something.” He brought her hand to his lips. Instead of kissing the back of it, he turned her hand and kissed her palm. Then he linked his fingers with hers. “Do you remember when we asked you why you always picked such…um…interesting aliases?”
“The word you used, I believe, was lame.” By the expression on her face, April clearly didn’t see where Jeremy was headed with his question.
Marc did, however, and he chuckled. “That must have been your subconscious giving you a clue,” he said.
April shook her head. “Yes, I do remember your asking me that. I told you I had no idea why, and I still don’t.”
“Uh-oh. You’re not a fan of comedy? Movies or television?”
“I’ve never been one to watch a lot—not of television and I rarely went to the movies. Just never really appealed to me. Why?”
“I see a binge-watching session in our future,” Jeremy said.
“There was a play on Broadway written by Neil Simon, called The Odd Couple,” Marc said.
April looked from him to Marc, likely wondering if they were punking her. “Okay. I have heard that title.”
“And there was a television comedy by the same name,” Jeremy said.
“I think I knew that, too.”
Marc looked at Jeremy. He shrugged then turned to April. “But you clearly haven’t heard the names of the main characters, not that you recall, but you must have heard them at some point. The odd couple were two roommates, a fastidious fusspot and a slob—and their names were Felix Unger and Oscar Madison.”
April’s mouth dropped open. “Oh my God! That is a clue!” Then her expression turned thoughtful. “I wonder if they’re still doing that?”
Jeremy grinned. “Exactly! See how perfect you are for us. That�
��s going to be the thread we tug to find them.”
“And we will find them,” Marc promised. Then he took her other hand and kissed it. Jeremy didn’t know if she realized they both held her hands or not. But she nodded then looked at each of them in turn.
“There is just one more thing,” Marc said.
“And that is?”
“I love you, April Bixby, with all my heart.” Then he turned his head. “I love you, Jeremy, as much as I love April. You’re both it for me.”
“I love you, April. You and Marc complete me as I never knew I could be made whole.”
“I love you both so much. I can’t imagine ever being without you.”
“Good,” Marc said. “Because we both want you to marry us. Please, April. We want you for our wife, the sooner, the better.”
“Yes,” April said. Jeremy saw her tears shimmer, and his heart turned over. “Yes, I want to marry you both. Because I want you both for my husbands.”
There was one thing he and Marc hadn’t discussed, but he’d already made up his mind. When they pledged themselves in their Commitment Ceremony, Marc and April would have the same last name. And when the time came, he’d change his own to match theirs.
Chapter Twenty-One
The last two days, as they planned for the arrival and awaited any sign of Philip Kardigan, had been nerve-wracking. Marc appeared particularly calm, but April knew him much better now and understood calm wasn’t how he felt at all.
Each of her fiancés had his own tells and his own placebos—tricks and routines they used to ease stress. The latter for Marc was driving on his own. Just man and machine on the open road. Taking to the open road was kind of off the table at the moment, but there was no reason he couldn’t take the Tesla out to the track and drive a few dozen laps as fast as he needed to go.
She and Jeremy had both encouraged him to go and do just that. After practically pushing him out the door, he’d gone, and as soon as he was out of sight, they’d headed off to the sheriff’s office.
Love Under Two Bad Boys Page 18
