DAKOTA SPRINGS
Dakota Heat 4
Leah Brooke
MENAGE AMOUR
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Amour
DAKOTA SPRINGS
Copyright © 2010 by Leah Brooke
E-book ISBN: 1-60601-731-4
First E-book Publication: January 2010
Cover design by Jinger Heaston
All cover art and logo copyright © 2010 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
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All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
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Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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DAKOTA SPRINGS
Dakota Heat 4
LEAH BROOKE
Copyright © 2010
Chapter One
Elizabeth Reed gripped the receiver tightly, her gaze automatically flying to where her daughter played on the floor. “Hayden?”
“Of course it’s me! Your mother just told us that your divorce is final. Pack your things. I’m coming to get you.”
Holding the receiver away from her ear, she stared at it, dumbfounded.
After all these years, why the hell would Hayden call her now? Not wanting Angie to hear, she moved to the kitchen.
His icy tone finally broke through as she warily lifted the receiver again. “—get there I’m going to beat the hell out of him and beat your ass raw.”
With her heart beating frantically, her legs wobbled, forcing her to grip the kitchen counter for support. She kept her tone firm, not about to let him hear any kind of weakness. “This is none of your business, Hayden, and I certainly don’t need you to come and get me. I’ve grown up, just like you wanted, and I can get home all by myself.”
“Push me on this, Lizzy, and you’ll be sorry. You never should have married him. If I had known about it beforehand, I would have stopped you.”
Shock and anger rendered her nearly speechless. He’d always been arrogant, but she’d never really had it directed at her before. If he thought she would just take it like one of his ranch hands, he was in for a surprise. “Listen, you son of a bitch—”
“No! You listen! Get your shit packed. I’ll be there in the morning.”
“I won’t be here!” Elizabeth pushed the button to end the call and hurriedly tossed the phone onto the kitchen table as if it burned her. Backing away on legs that felt like jelly, she jolted when the phone rang again. And again. She took a step back with each ring, her heart racing. She had to get out of there. She couldn’t deal with him right now.
Why the hell had he called?
Each ring grated on her nerves until the answering machine finally picked up.
“Lizzy, honey, it’s Chandler. Pick up the phone and talk to me, baby. Come on.” After a few seconds of silence, his voice took on an edge. “I know you’re there. If you don’t pick up the phone right now, we’re getting the next flight and coming up there. And we won’t be happy. If you pick up and let me know you’re okay, we’ll wait for you to come home, if that’s what you want.”
“Mommy, the phone ringed. A man’s talkin’ in the ’chine.”
Spinning, Elizabeth took a deep breath and forced a smile for her three-year-old daughter. “I know, sweetheart. I’m going to talk to him now. Go back to your dolls, darling.”
Watching her daughter walk back into the living room, Elizabeth picked up the phone, taking a deep breath before she pushed the button to talk. “Chandler, I have no idea why you and Hayden are calling, but I don’t want to talk to either one of you. We have absolutely nothing to say to each other. Promise me you won’t come here.”
“Calm down, darlin’. I don’t want you takin’ off. We just wanted to come up and help you.”
Elizabeth winced as Hayden yelled something in the background. “Chandler, I haven’t talked to either you or Hayden since…”
“Since we called you when we heard you got married.”
Elizabeth still wanted to cry every time she thought about that call and the defeat in their voices. But they’d already turned her away. “Look, I don’t know what’s gotten into either one of you. I’m coming home at the end of the week. I want to start over. I want Angie to be raised in the same small town that I was raised in. Don’t worry, I’m not coming back to bother either one of you again.”
Chandler sighed. “You’ve never been a bother to either one of us.”
“I remember it differently.”
There was a long silence, followed by a muffled sound as if Chandler had his hand over the receiver. When he came back on the phone, his frustration came through loud and clear. “We won’t come up there. But this isn’t over. We’ll talk to you when you get home.”
“We have nothing to talk about. You’ll really stay away? Both of you?”
“Yes.”
Elizabeth had trouble believi
ng that. “You’re lying.”
Chandler’s voice dropped so low she had to struggle to hear him. “I’ve only lied to you once in my life, Lizzy, and my life has been hell ever since. We’ll wait. But you’re supposed to come home this weekend. If you don’t, we’re coming to get you. By force, if necessary.”
Tears rolled down her face, but she fought to keep them out of her voice. “Goodbye, Chandler.” She hung up and reached for a tissue to wipe away her tears before Angie saw them.
Eight years ago, Hayden and Chandler had wanted her to leave them alone. What the hell did they want from her now?
* * * *
Elizabeth drew a deep breath, wiping her hands on her skirt as the airport came into view. In just a few minutes, they would be on the ground. In an hour they would be back in Dakota Springs.
Home.
She found it hard to believe that it had been almost eight years since she left Dakota Springs and everything she’d ever loved. Her life had changed so much since then.
“Mommy? Will Grandma and Grandpa be at the ’port?”
Elizabeth smiled down at the biggest change in her life. “Airport, sweetie. And yes, they’ll be there.”
Angie had been excited about this move ever since Elizabeth had told her that they would be living in the same town as her grandparents.
Unfortunately, Hayden and Chandler Scott lived there, too.
The last time she’d seen either one of them had been the night of her eighteenth birthday, a night she wanted to forget. She’d been in love with them forever and that night she’d been happier than she’d ever been in her life, believing that they’d just been waiting for her to turn eighteen to tell her that they loved her.
She could still remember their sardonic laughter and her own mortification as her dreams of a future with them shattered.
“Mommy? Will I like ‘Kota Springs?”
Elizabeth smiled and took her daughter’s tiny hand in hers. “Da-ko-ta Springs, sweetie. You’ll love Dakota Springs. I did when I was a little girl. You’ll start school there soon and make lots of friends. And there’s a park right down the street from Grandma and Grandpa’s house.”
“You said there’s horses. I telled Becky.”
“You told Becky,” she corrected absently. Memories of Hayden and Chandler teaching her to ride flashed through her mind. It had been the happiest time in her life, and she’d fallen a little more in love with them every day. In her naiveté she’d seen nothing wrong with it and wanted them both, dreaming that they would all live happily ever after.
Even now her face burned when she remembered how incredibly stupid she’d been.
She had no idea why the hell Hayden and Chandler suddenly seemed interested in what she did, but if either one of them thought they could try to run her life, they could think again. She’d mistaken their interest in her life before for caring. She wouldn’t make that mistake again.
She’d grown up, and she’d be damned if she’d let them treat her like a child.
Until the other night, she hadn’t spoken to either one of them since she got married, but she’d kept up with their lives through her parents. Anxious for any bit of news, she’d casually questioned her parents when she spoke to them, carefully keeping her feelings hidden.
For some reason, Hayden and Chandler had started fighting with each other several years ago. Mr. and Mrs. Scott had apparently had enough of it and sold the ranch to their sons and started travelling the way they’d always wanted to.
Since then, the Double S had become even more successful.
Angie bounced in her seat as the plane rolled to a stop at the gate, more animated than she’d been in a long time. She hadn’t slept on the flight, as Elizabeth had hoped. She was too excited to start a new adventure.
Just watching her made Elizabeth even more tired. She hadn’t slept much in the last several weeks. She’d been busy selling off the furniture Richard didn’t want and packing and sending their belongings home.
The last of their belongings had been stuffed into the carry-on she now slung over her shoulder and, with them, the information that had been her ticket to freedom.
With Angie in her arms, she stood, anxious to see her parents again and start a new chapter in their lives.
A chapter that started with getting over Hayden and Chandler.
* * * *
With his stomach tied in knots that felt more like boulders, Hayden Scott stared at the gate, willing Elizabeth to appear. He could hardly believe that their Lizzy had finally come home.
It was about fucking time.
He’d spent the last four years believing that this day would never come and the last three months marking days off of his calendar. The last twenty-four hours had been spent watching the clock.
He felt alive in a way he hadn’t in years.
They’d made the biggest mistake of their lives on Elizabeth’s eighteenth birthday, and not a day had gone by since then that he hadn’t regretted it. Every single day since she’d gone had only reinforced his conviction that he would never love anyone else.
They had a second chance with her and were determined that nothing get in the way of them having her.
Chandler stopped pacing to look back out the window, a tense stillness coming over him as the plane rolled to a stop. “I’ve never been so scared in my entire life. What if she can’t handle what we want from her?”
Hayden drew a breath, fear tightening his own gut. “That’s Lizzy you’re talking about. That hard-headed brat can handle anything. I swear I’m never letting that woman out of my sight again.” He tightened his hold, crushing the stuffed bear they’d bought for Angelina, unsurprised that his hands trembled. Carefully loosening his grip, he fluffed out the fur where he’d smashed it, wanting it to look perfect.
Would they be able to convince her to give them another chance?
They had to. He couldn’t bear to think of the alternative. They’d done all they could to ease the way. They’d spent the last six months letting everyone know just what they felt for her and making sure her parents and the town accepted it.
He could still remember his panic and frustration when the letter he sent to her college dorm shortly before graduation came back unopened.
He and Chandler had purposely not contacted her while she attended school. They’d wanted to give her a chance to be on her own until they told her how they felt.
Her father had been furious, and it had taken months to get him to accept that they both loved Lizzy. They’d explained how they’d arrived at their decision to share her and answered all of his concerns.
They’d been stunned to learn of her marriage and even more so to learn that she carried her husband’s child. They’d both spent the next several months growling at anyone who spoke to them, drinking too much, and going through women at an alarming rate in their hope of forgetting her.
Nothing had worked. They hadn’t even made love to her yet and she’d ruined them for anyone else.
They’d tried to go on with their lives, but there was a hole where Lizzy should have been. Once they learned that she was getting divorced, they’d started living again, making plans, and setting things in motion for her return.
The waiting had finally ended, and the slippery minx would be with them again in a matter of minutes. Hayden kept his eyes glued to where she would appear. He and Chandler had every intention of spoiling both her and her daughter rotten and giving them all the love they could handle.
They’d tie Lizzy to them so tightly she would never be able to escape them again.
* * * *
Holding her daughter close, Elizabeth slowly made her way out of the plane, following the line of people moving into the airport. Shifting Angie to her other hip, she adjusted the carry-on that had started to dig into her shoulder.
“Mommy, my shoe!”
With a sigh, Elizabeth stopped, moved to the side, and looked down at her daughter’s tiny, bare foot, automatically reaching down to
cradle it in her hand. “Where did you—never mind. I see it.” The small pink sandal lay on the floor several feet back. By the time Elizabeth got through the crowd of passengers, picked it up, and checked to make sure Angie still wore the other one, she found herself at the end of the line.
Slipping the sandal onto Angie’s foot, she tightened her grip on her and hurried into the airport. “Let’s go find Grandma and Grandpa, sweetie.” Searching the crowd for her parents, she stopped dead, her eyes going wide at the sight that greeted her.
Hayden and Chandler strode toward her, head and shoulders above the people around them, both looking more than a little anxious. They’d both matured in the years since she’d last seen them, looking colder and more formidable than ever. Their eyes glittered fiercely as their long legs quickly covered the distance between them.
They’d always been good-looking, but the years had added a few lines and honed the sharp edge of power and authority they’d always carried so easily. It turned them from handsome to striking.
Panic had her heart pounding furiously and kept her frozen in place as realization hit her. The men she’d loved for years had been replaced by two men who possessed an aura of danger that had never been there before and a desperate look in their eyes that she didn’t remember.
Why had they come? Had something happened to her parents?
Hayden reached her first, his long strides eating up the ground, reaching out to grab her arm when she would have stepped back. “It’s about damned time.”
Elizabeth barely had time to blink before he pulled her against him and bent his head to take her mouth with his. Her senses soared as he deepened the kiss, his lips moving over hers hungrily, his big arms wrapped around both her and Angie. She never knew coffee and mint could taste so darkly erotic. She automatically met his ardor with heat of her own.
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