Cash tossed her a knowing grin. “Oh, yeah? How distracted are you?” He eased closer.
“Not another step buddy. I need a rest.”
He laughed. “You can’t blame a guy for trying.”
When she finally joined them and set the food on the table, they all dug in. None of them had eaten much the night before and they’d all worked up an appetite. By the time they were finished, most of the leftovers were gone.
“I can’t believe I ate that much,” she groaned. “I probably just gained five pounds.”
“You’re perfect just the way you are honey. But if you want to work it off, I have a workout in mind for you. You’ll burn off a lot of calories.” Rusty wiggled his eyes brows at her suggestively.
Alex giggled. “Get your mind out the gutter.” She leaned back in her chair. It was time to address the topic she had been avoiding since they woke up. “So, what happens now? I can’t just leave my job without giving proper notice and…I’m not sure if I’m that crazy about living in that house you guys live in.”
Cash smiled, “We understand. You have to sort some things out here first. As for our living arrangements, I think you’ll like them. I’m assuming you have today off?”
She nodded.
“How much time do you have off?”
“Two more days.”
“That’s perfect. Fly home with us today and you can come back before you have to be back at work. We have to show you something, unless you had other plans for the next couple days.”
She shook her head.
“Good. Let’s clean up, shower, and get packed.”
“Just like that.”
Rusty nodded. “Yep.”
Alex had a feeling that life would never be predictable again.
***
“Why are we turning down here? We’re not heading to town?” Alex asked anxiously. Her stomach had been tied in knots all through the two hour plane ride and the car trip to Bradfordville. Cash and Rusty luckily had connection that allowed them the use of his private plane enabling them to get a quick flight out of town. Alex was nervous to see the place that had been the home of so many of her demons.
“Because we’re not,” Cash answered from behind the wheel.
Alex glanced out the window recognizing the familiar turn off. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say we were heading for Lake Underwood.”
Rusty massaged her shoulders from the back seat. “You’re so impatient. Just sit tight, we’ll be there shortly.”
“How can I be patient when you two have been so secretive? I thought you said were going straight to your house.”
“That’s exactly where we’re going.”
Alex frowned. They were definitely going to Lake Underwood. As they drove past the familiar scenery, all the memories they’d shared came flooding back. This had been her absolute favorite place in the world.
When Cash finally pulled the car to a halt, it was in the driveway of a massive log cabin style house. “What is this?” She looked at the house in awe. It looked like something right out of her dreams. It had a large wrap around porch equipped with a two-seater swing and antique rocking chairs.
“Home,” Cash answered simply.
Rusty opened the door and helped her out of the vehicle. “This is where you’ll live with us.”
“This is your house?”
Cash took her hand. “Our house.’
“Ours?” she whispered.
Rusty leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Yes, ours. Wanna take a look inside?”
“Yes!”
The inside of the house took her breath away with the vaulted ceilings to give the area a more spacious feel. Tastefully decorated with earth tone furniture, the house had everything from all the modern appliances to the big fireplace in the living room. There was even a hot tub in the back on a massive deck, perfect for relaxing. Alex inspected each room, falling in love with the house a little more with each new discovery. Her favorite feature by far, however, was the view of the lake from the kitchen window.
Once she toured the entire house, she turned to her men. “This is absolutely gorgeous. This is the type of house that I used to talk about. It has everything I wanted. You remembered.”
“Of course, we did.” Cash took her into his arms. “It was always our intention for you to be with us forever so we had the old cabin torn down and this house was built for you.”
She ran her tongue over her lips. “What about your old house?”
“We sold it. That place never really felt like a home after our Dad died, anyway. Besides there were too many bad memories as you’ve already pointed out. This is the place where we were happiest, with you. We want to always be with you, raise a family, love and laugh and grow old with you. What do you say, Alex?”
Rusty moved behind her and molded himself against her back.
Tears welled in her eyes. She was so humbled by their gesture and clear love for her. For so long, she’d believed that they had abandoned her when all along they’d fought to keep her. She would never doubt them again. Alex loved them with all her heart, had never stopped loving them and she never would. She would always be theirs.
She cupped the back of Cash’s head and pressed her lips against his in a long deep, kiss, before turning around and doing the same thing with Rusty.
Her heart swelled with love for her men.
Rusty grinned. “So I take it that means yes?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
This time it was forever.
The End
About the Author
USA Today Bestselling Author Eve Vaughn has always enjoyed creating characters and stories from an early age. As a child she was always getting into mischief, so when she lost her television privileges (which was often), writing was her outlet. Her stories have gotten quite a bit spicier since then! When she’s not writing or spending time with her family, Eve is reading, baking, traveling or kicking butt in 80’s trivia. She loves hearing from her readers.
www.evevaughn.com
Reconnected
by Jaycee Clark
Rainy witnessed a murder and needs a safe place to stay. Lee tried to forget the woman who stole his heart years ago, but now that there’s a killer after her, he’ll do whatever he must to keep her safe.
Chapter One
What the hell should she do?
Fuck.
“I warned you, you little shit,” Niall said, kicking the man on the floor.
Rai stilled behind the door to the dining room. She needed to get the hell out of here. If she moved, they’d know she was here.
But the French doors were right behind her, leading to the patio and pool.
Had he installed motion lights?
He had wanted to. Niall often talked about it.
“You know what would happen if you double-crossed us again,” Niall growled.
She peeked through the crack and saw he stood over the guy, with a gun in his hand.
How had she ended up here? She’d just come over to get a few things she’d left.
She’d been told he wasn’t home. He hadn’t asked for her key back. She’d kept it, and kept the fact she had left things here. He hadn’t believed she was done.
He never believed, and God knew she’d come back too many other times.
She’d come in through the back door, through the courtyard into the kitchen. There weren’t any cars in the drive, only the old bike. She’d had a friend drop her off a couple of blocks away, and she’d walked. She hadn’t wanted Niall to know she was here or that she’d even come to get her things.
She checked her watch.
She’d been upstairs when the garage door had groaned open and the crash of furniture from the scuffle had begun. She’d hurried downstairs then.
Should have checked the living room.
A large sheet of plastic tarping covered the floor and draped over the furniture.
Was he redecorating? Again? Niall was always redecorat
ing something, adding something.
“You should have paid attention when we warned you last time and taken it seriously,” Niall said, the plastic crinkling under his shoes as he kicked the guy lying in the middle of the plastic.
No, he probably wasn’t redecorating, unless blood spatter was the new vogue.
He kicked the man in the head again.
She bit the inside of her lower lip and tried to ease back toward the French doors.
Had he reset the alarm?
Probably not.
He’d know someone else had been in and set it back if he checked the logs, and he would if he noticed her locket was gone.
She should have just left Seattle.
She’d planned on it, but she’d waited.
Waited on work.
Waited on a friend.
Waiting on who the fuck knew.
Look where that had gotten her.
“You owe some people a lot of money, and we’ve let it slide. Let it slide a few too many times,” Niall said. Then he turned to the other man who was always with him lately. “We shouldn’t have let it slide, should we?”
The other man, sitting on the arm of the chair, shook his head. He simply watched, not smiling, not frowning.
She’d seen him a few times.
“So I’m supposed to make an example out of you.” Niall tapped his fingers on his thigh.
“No. No. Please,” the man on the floor mumbled.
“They always beg, don’t they?” the man on the chair said.
“It’s almost like a script,” Niall said, chambering a round.
The sound danced chills down her spine. She closed her eyes, silently praying.
The shot made her jump.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
Her hands trembled as she eased back a bit more. She should just hide until they were gone. She looked around.
There.
She slid between the wall and the china hutch. Please, please, please, let them just leave.
She heard them talking, planning, and plotting where they’d put the body.
The plastic crinkled as they must have rolled the dead guy up.
“Clean kill. Shouldn’t be a problem getting rid of him,” the other guy said.
“It’s never a problem getting rid of the body,” Niall said. “You get to carry his ass, though. Dumbass shoulda laid off the carbs.”
They both grunted. She heard them moving through the house. Heard the door open and shut in the kitchen.
Please don’t let him come in here.
The grind of the garage door rose through the air. She carefully exhaled. She waited, tense. The metallic taste of fear coated her tongue.
Now? Or wait?
What if Niall didn’t go with whoever it was?
She scrambled up and opened the French doors, then hurried over to the bushes that surrounded the back side of the pool. She slid behind the bushes and caught her breath, waiting to see if the stupid lights came on. They didn’t.
But had the alarm sounded?
She shook her head and crept down the bushes to the alley gate. Looking both ways, she shoved a strand of hair out of her face and opened the gate. Thank God she’d oiled it just last week. She eased it shut and hurried down the alley, pulling out her cell phone.
Who should she call?
Would Niall know? Would he suspect it was her?
With her jewelry missing? Yes. Very, very stupid.
It might be her grandmother’s locket and the earrings her brother had given her, but neither was worth her life. She knew that. Knew it, and yet still they were in her pocket. She’d wanted to grab a few other things too.
The box.
Damn it! She’d left the box sitting on the counter, with her knives and her mug in it. She’d grabbed them in the kitchen earlier. She’d just wanted to go through the house and get what was hers, and dump it in the box.
She should she go back and get it?
Damn.
She didn’t know. And now? Now there was some dead schmuck.
And a body they’d get rid of.
And she knew about it.
Accessory.
She had to tell someone.
Who… Who…
Her hands trembled, and she almost dropped the phone. Almost dropped it in the damp alley.
Chill the hell out, Rai. She took a deep breath but kept moving. Water dripped off the pine needles and plunked onto the ground.
Keep moving.
She pulled her hoodie up, a dark one, and kept walking. Through one alley, then another. When she was blocks away from Niall’s, she scrolled through her contacts, trying to figure out what to do.
She knew Niall. It was why she’d broken it off with him. She would be joining that poor bastard if, or rather when, Niall realized she could have even been in the house when he killed the man.
Home…
No, that wouldn’t work. Her brothers would protect her, but she didn’t want to pull them into this. Niall knew about her family. Her childhood home would probably be the first place he checked. She needed somewhere else to go.
As she scrolled all the way to the bottom, work caught her eye.
D. would probably help her.
No, he would.
Taking a deep breath, she hit the number. The phone was answered and fumbled. The loud music in the background through the phone settled something in her. She glanced back over her shoulder.
“If you’re calling to say you can’t come in, I don’t want to hear it. Three other girls are out with the flu. I need you.”
“D-D-D?”
Pause.
“Rai, what’s up?”
“He just—he just—he just…”
Silence.
She took a deep breath, then another. “I need your help.”
Chapter Two
Bear slid the brass into the slot to remove the old primer. As he raised the lever, he cursed. The brass crumpled. “Well, shit.”
Normally, reloading ammo soothed him, but something was just not settling tonight. He was…twitchy. He hated to be twitchy, like something just wasn’t right.
This was the third brass cartridge he’d crumpled. He held it up to the light to check it, then tossed it into the scrap pile he’d work with later.
Rubbing his eyes, he decided he’d remove the old primers from this new batch tonight and call it good. Probably had another fifty to go. He’d worry about putting the new primers in tomorrow.
He grabbed another .10mm and slid it in after double-checking it.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Someone banged on the front door.
Baxter, his tricolored Aussie mix, barked and barked again, tearing off from the back room to the back door. Bear hadn’t heard anyone drive up, but then he had his music on rather loudly.
Stupid dog. “You coulda warned me before they were at the damned door. How many times do I have to go over this with you? You bark before they get here. Not when they’re already on the back porch.” He checked from the side window and saw the beat-to-hell truck.
Doc?
And someone else.
He opened the door. “What are you—”
An armful of woman tumbled into his chest.
“Hey!” she said.
Doc, dressed in jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt, and a leather vest, merely nodded to him and growled, “You owe me big, Bear.”
Bear frowned. “What the hell is this?”
Doc looked at the woman, then at Bear, and grinned. “Man, if you don’t know a woman when you see one, you’ve been doing the mountain-hermit thing a bit too long. In which case, you should thank me.” His dark eyes slid back to the woman. “Though with this one, you very well might not.”
“Hey! I resent that. I didn’t do anything to you.” She laughed. “Though, I admit, most don’t know what to do with me.”
“You’re welcome,” Doc said. Then he turned on his heel and started back toward the old truck.
The wo
man jerked out of Bear’s arms and hurried toward Doc’s truck. “You’re just pissed I offered you advice on how to deal with your pissed-off girl.”
“I didn’t ask,” Doc replied.
“You’re the one that brought up the fight. Several times, I might add. I was only helping.”
“Not gonna happen.”
“Don’t know what you’re missing,” she said sassily.
It was dark, and Bear had no clue what time it was, let alone what was going on. He stood in his doorway and listened to the two of them as Doc tried to escape. And the woman? October in the mountains was cold, and it got dark early, so he hadn’t gotten a good look at her face. But he knew that voice.
No way. He couldn’t be that cursed.
“What the hell, Doc?” he asked as he started down the walkway to the gate. A fence surrounded the yard so Baxter would have plenty of places to run, not that he’d run away, but it kept the neighbors and insurance peeps happy.
“D. call you? Or Harlen?” Doc asked.
Bear realized the question had been for him. “Um. Harlen called, I think. D. mighta tried.” He shrugged.
“Well, they explain?” Doc asked. “They said they’d tell you all about it.”
Bear frowned. He might have done a bowl and forgot. It happened. He thought about it.
The woman huffed, and from here he could see her back straighten as she took in her surroundings. “Great. This is where I’ll be safe? Seriously?” she asked, drawing his attention and his memory.
He was cursed. Why him?
“Need your help in keeping a package safe.” Doc grabbed a bag out of the back of his truck
“A package?” he asked.
Doc’s chuckle danced across the night. “And such a feisty one at that. Have fun.”
“Wait a minute. You can’t leave me here.” The woman caught the duffle bag. Her long blonde hair glinted in the lights from his house.
Baxter, the traitor, just bounced around her legs. Long legs. Damned fine long legs in some sort of workout clothes.
“Oh, I not only can leave you here, Pita,” Doc said. “I most definitely will.”
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