by Lexi Blake
“I can see why not. That sounds like something out of television. And you blew up these fellows’ vehicles?”
“Yes, it is best way to take out a person if you do not wish to shoot them. Shooting can get messy, and sometimes people need a bigger demonstration to make them believe you will do what it takes. An exploding car will get many people’s attention. But I am careful and always use a device I can control because I do not want the ignition to be turned by innocent person and then they get killed. Only bad person. My partner make fun of me for spending many nights hiding in bushes waiting for my target, but I say it is better to have bad back than bad soul.”
Long-Haired Roger’s fingers drummed nervously on his desk. “Uhm, I can see you were a very thoughtful assassin. What does your partner think about you now that you’ve come to the States?”
Ivan had always thought Alexei was an idiot, but then Ivan had been a hard-boiled killer. Ivan had never been his friend. “He does not think at all. He was one of the peoples I killed to save womens of Bliss.”
“Okay, then.” Long-Haired Roger’s face took on a pained expression. “I think you might be overqualified for this job. I really think you should look for something bigger.”
Alexei sat forward. “Oh, no. I like small business. I work very hard.”
“I…I just don’t think you have quite the level of experience I was looking for. Sorry. I really hope you don’t blow up my car.”
Alexei left with a heavy heart and the sad knowledge that his job hunt was not going to go well.
Chapter Five
Caleb winced as the phone rang, wondering why the landlines couldn’t be as crappy as cell service was here in Bliss. The phone kept ringing. Why wasn’t a man allowed to drown in his misery in relative peace and quiet?
“And why do I have to be the only doctor?” Caleb asked the only other living thing in the building. Yep. He was now talking to a plant. That was how pathetic his life had become. He was talking to an ivy instead of laying Holly out on his exam table and proving how thorough he could be.
He could still feel that soft, curvy body pressed against his. He could feel the roundness of her breasts crushed to his chest. If he’d had more time, he would have been able to get his hands on them. He would have eased her on to the exam table and pushed her clothes off. The table was a nice height. He could have spread her legs and finally gotten a taste of her pussy. Sweet. She would be sweet with a hint of tangy bite to her cream. That was his Holly. Sweet with enough sass to make it all interesting. He would eat that pussy. How long had it been since he’d enjoyed a woman that way? And he wanted Holly. He wanted her so bad his cock was in a constant state of need.
When he’d eaten his fill, when she’d come all over his tongue, he’d take her. He’d spread her legs and let his cock have its way. He’d fuck her until he didn’t have an ounce left in his body. Then and only then would he be satisfied. And not for long.
The phone started up again, an annoying insect that wouldn’t let up. It was going to keep ringing. With a growl of frustration, he picked up. “Bliss County Clinic. Who’s dying?”
“Caleb?”
He froze at the sound of his brother’s voice. “Eli?”
“It’s good to talk to you, brother.”
He closed his eyes and forced himself not to hang up the phone. He hadn’t hidden his location from his family. He’d merely assumed Eli would know he didn’t want to talk to him. “What do you need, Eli?”
He could practically hear his brother’s frown. He would be tense, his brows coming together. The older he got, the more Eli looked like their father. Damn, sometimes he missed his father with an ache that seemed endless. And sometimes he was happy his father had died before he could see what had become of his middle son.
“Do I have to need something to want to talk to my brother?” Eli asked.
“You know damn well we have nothing to say to each other.”
“You have to forgive me at some point. You have to talk to me at some point. I know I fucked up, but I don’t want to lose my brother, too.”
Then maybe Eli shouldn’t have slept with his wife. He held the words in. Arguing with Eli wouldn’t do a lick of good. “I’m still alive. Don’t be such a drama queen. I’ve been gone for over a year and you haven’t needed to talk to me. You know you were the one who asked me to leave.”
Eli’s voice softened. “And you sound more animated than I’ve heard you in years. I would push you out a thousand times if I thought it would save you from the dark hole you fell down.”
His hand tightened around the phone. “It wasn’t a hole. I was kidnapped. Tortured. I’m sorry that inconvenienced you.”
“Damn it. That is always your answer. You think I don’t know what happened to you? I’ve read every report. I had to read the reports because you wouldn’t talk to me. You wouldn’t see a counselor. You wouldn’t try antidepressants. You wouldn’t do anything except slowly waste away. I couldn’t handle it. I love you, brother. Whatever our differences are, I love you. I had to try something. I was lucky your friend had a place for you to go. Tell me you don’t like it there, and I’ll come pick you up myself.”
Yes, Senator Elijah Sommerville would fuel the jet and have a limo meet him at whatever airport he landed in. Eli was good at using his position. A wave of guilt assaulted him. It had been Eli who had the power to send a SEAL team in after him. If it hadn’t been for Eli, he likely would have died in that tiny closet. “I don’t want to leave Bliss.”
Eli sighed. “I know. You like it there. I’ve talked to Lieutenant Meyer.”
That was news to him. “Since when do you talk to Wolf?”
“Don’t get mad. All he’s told me is that you’re settling in and you’re working. I was glad to hear that you’re working again. I told you it would help.”
“What do you want?” He didn’t want to sit here and talk about his life with his brother. There was too much between them. Eli was from a different time. Eli was from “before.” Everything was “before” or “after” Africa. It was the way he divided his life.
“Fine. I was calling to see if you would come home for Thanksgiving.”
And be reminded of all the ways he’d failed his family? No. “I have patients here. I can’t leave.”
There was a long sigh. “All right. It’s still a couple of months away. We would love to see you. If you change your mind, you know the way home.”
Eli hung up. Caleb wouldn’t go home for the holidays. He would spend them alone. He would try to ignore the whole season. Colorado winters were different from winters in Chicago. Chicago winters were brutal, but there was a softness to the season in Colorado. A beauty that didn’t exist outside the mountains. And Holly always looked adorable bundled up in a parka.
“Are you going to stop talking to me?”
Caleb looked up and saw Wolf’s massive form taking up all the space of his doorway. The big cowboy stood there staring at him. He wore his typical uniform of dark-washed jeans and a T-shirt. His boots were worn, but the hat was new. It was still odd to see Wolf out of uniform. “Why wouldn’t I talk to you? Oh. You heard me talking to Eli. I don’t care if you tell my brother I’m alive. It’s fine. If you didn’t, he would probably bug me more.”
Wolf walked in, his eyes going immediately to the plant. “He wants to know you’re okay. He worries about you. Did you make a friend?”
Caleb took a long breath as he zipped up his bag. “It was a present from Nell. She’s trying to liven up the clinic. Or she’s planning on using it to kill me. I don’t know which.”
“Interesting.” Wolf turned his keys in his hand. “So, why exactly do you need a ride? Something wrong with your truck?”
“I loaned it to Holly. There was a diner emergency.” He closed his files and shoved them into the proper folders. He grabbed his keys and led Wolf out the door, locking it behind him.
“Oh, did that matchbox of hers finally give up the ghost?” Wolf asked.
Wolf’s lips pursed. “So Alexei has Holly’s car and you gave her yours. Very interesting.”
“No, it’s not.” He took the steps quickly, eager to get out to the hospital and get back. He had rounds this afternoon.
“Yes, it is interesting. The man is only in town for a day, and you’ve already been pulled into a three-way.”
Caleb rolled his eyes and prayed for patience. He hoped that rumor wasn’t going around. Bliss ran on gossip, and the citizens lived to get in each other’s business. “It’s not a three-way. It’s a friend helping out another friend who happens to have horrible taste in men. I didn’t advise Holly to let Alexei borrow her car. Now are you going to help me out? I promised Holly I would get these in today.”
Wolf opened the driver’s side door and got in. “Hey, I got nothing better to do, and now it’s a four-way. Awesome.”
Wolf’s sarcasm was one of his flaws. Caleb let it go as he buckled his seatbelt. “Thanks, man. It shouldn’t take too long. I already talked to the lab. They’re waiting on me. Are you sure James can spare you?”
Wolf had been working with his childhood friend, James Glen, at his huge spread. James had inherited the ranch and herd from his father, but Caleb had heard he was struggling. Wolf couldn’t have come home at a better time.
“James is getting to know his new partner. An ex-football player from Texas bought into the Circle G. The paperwork is all done now, and he got into town a while back. He has a wife and brought a friend with him, too. He seems nice enough. Big son of a bitch. James wasn’t thrilled about taking on a partner, but taxes nearly killed him. Trev McNamara’s his name. He bought in for something like ten million. And it works out for me. I have to go to Texas.” He said it with a grimace. There was only one thing in Texas that would make Wolf frown like that.
“You’re going to see your brother.” Wolf loved his brother, but apparently Leo Meyer made Wolf crazy.
Wolf turned the truck onto the street toward the highway and the mountain road that led out of Bliss. “I’m going to see a man about a job in a club. Unfortunately, it happens to be the same club that my brother works at. If I had a lick of sense, I would find something else to do, but I was never known for my smarts.”
Caleb couldn’t help but chuckle. “You’re finally going to do it, then? You’re going to work as a professional Dom? Spanking girls for a living?”
Wolf’s massive shoulders moved up and down in a negligent motion. “Well, I shot people for a living, and they won’t let me do that now. My request to be reinstated was denied. Apparently a SEAL has to be able to make it past a metal detector, and the rod in my leg makes me an automatic pat down. James doesn’t need me anymore. I don’t think Mom and Mel need me hanging out at their place. Dear god, I don’t need that.”
“James doesn’t need another hand?”
“Well, James’s new partner is bringing a built-in hand with him. Some cowboy with a lot of experience. Apparently his brother runs a big spread in Texas. Julian, the man who owns the club I’ll be working at, knows him. I’m the one who introduced James to Julian. I got rid of my own damn job.”
Wolf hadn’t planned on punching cattle for the rest of his life. At least he’d never told Caleb he’d planned it. “Why isn’t this cowboy back on his brother’s ranch?”
Wolf groaned. “Why would you think? Because he’s this Trev guy’s partner. They share a wife.”
Caleb couldn’t help but laugh. “I swear this place is a magnet. We’re crazy threesome central.”
Wolf shrugged. “There’s always room for one more. I think Holly wouldn’t mind.”
He felt his mood sink. “It’s not going to happen.”
Wolf turned and started the climb up the mountain. Delicate aspens and stout evergreens were thick along the road. “I don’t see why not. Look, I get that you don’t want to be in a relationship alone with her. You think she couldn’t handle your problems. You don’t want to start a relationship with her when you can’t move in with her or have a normal life.”
At least someone got it. “It wouldn’t be fair to her. She should have a man who can be with her all night. Who doesn’t fuck her and get up and walk out, or worse, who gets up and goes to sleep in her closet.”
“But what if she had someone in bed with her? What if she had someone who could be there at night? Relationships here in Bliss are serious, but the people are a bit more open-minded. You want Holly to get what she needs. You think she doesn’t want the same thing for you?”
The idea played at the edge of his brain. It had been playing there ever since Alexei had planted it. But the Russian hadn’t really meant it. He couldn’t have. He’d said something about Holly being more woman than any one man could handle, but that didn’t mean anything. “I think Alexei might have something to say about sharing.”
Alexei would never go for it. And he shouldn’t. But what if he did? What if Alexei could be the normal, happy boyfriend? What did that make Caleb? The guy who showed up for sex? What good would he be?
And what the hell had poor Holly done that the normal, happy boyfriend was a former Russian mobster?
“I think Alexei might be more open-minded than you think.” Wolf handled the turns and curves of the mountain road with the ease of a native.
Caleb shook his head. “I wouldn’t be doing it for anything other than sex.”
He couldn’t allow himself to want more. He wasn’t cut out for it. He had too much rage. He was far too damaged.
“Holly needs to feel wanted,” Wolf pointed out. “Holly needs to feel like a goddess. I know how to read women. She’s been alone for a long time. She’s not confident in herself.”
“She’s beautiful. How can she not know that?” He dreamed about her. Her curves, the sunset color of her hair, the soft silk of her skin. She was the most gorgeous thing he’d ever seen, and it went far past her killer body. When she smiled, she lit up like a lamp that had been turned on and illuminated a previously dark room.
“Because too many people told her she wasn’t. She’s divorced, right? I bet the guy was an ass.”
Caleb would like to get his hands on Congressman Scott Lang. Maybe he should look into the asshole, see if he could fuck up his life a bit. He bet Alexei would be good at that. Alexei would know all the tricks. “He’s a politician. Asshole doesn’t begin to cover it.”
Wolf snorted. “No wonder you haven’t told her who you are. I’m sure she doesn’t want to get involved with another political family. Look, she’s been crazy about you for a while. It’s all over her face. She wants Alexei, too. Choosing between the two of you is going to hurt her.”
“I didn’t offer her a choice.” But he had put his hands all over her. He’d held her and kissed her, and now he wondered if he could go the rest of his life without touching her again. “Besides, I can’t stand Alexei.”
Wolf turned to him, his dark eyes serious. “So you’re never going to tell the woman you love how you feel? Man, they won, didn’t they? You won’t fight for her. You won’t share her. You never really got out of the jungle, Caleb. I didn’t save you, did I? Your body might have walked out, but the essential part of you is still there. Can’t you see that?”
The jungle? Hell, he’d never truly gotten out of the box they’d put him in. He was still there. He moved through his life, but his soul had been killed and buried in the box that had served as his prison. His body moved on, treating his existence as a living purgatory where the things that could open him up were always out of reach because he couldn’t get out of that fucking box.
“I can’t tell her I love her.” He turned his eyes back to the road.
Wolf’s voice got low, cajol
ing. “But you can show her. You can give her the fantasy she’s never had. You can make her feel like she’s never felt before. How many women get two men utterly devoted to her sexual pleasure? Make her feel like a goddess. Give her back the confidence that was taken from her.”
Tempting. So tempting. He could show her how he felt with his hands and his mouth and his cock. He could prove to her how desirable she was. “I don’t like Alexei. He’s a criminal.”
“Former criminal,” Wolf corrected.
“Once a criminal, always a criminal.”
“He saved Holly. Doesn’t he deserve a second chance? He’s trying to change the course of his life. I think he deserves some slack. Have you read the transcripts of the trials he testified in? Have you read the workup the justice department did on him? He might have done some bad shit, but it was all to other criminals, and a lot of it was in self-defense.”
“He wrote to me.” It was the first time Caleb had admitted it. “While he was in witness protection, he wrote to me.”
“Really? What did he say?”
“He talked about stuff. His life before his brother was killed. Stuff like that. I glanced through them.” It was a lie. He’d read them all. He’d been curious about the first one. It had been an earnest letter that asked for forgiveness and thanked Caleb for saving his life. Caleb wasn’t a forgiving man. The rest of the letters had talked about everything from his motel rooms to the television shows he watched to his relationship with his brother. So why hadn’t Caleb trashed them? They were still sitting in his desk drawer in a neat stack.
Why hadn’t he gotten rid of them?
Wolf sighed. “I don’t think it’s going to do you any good to stay here and watch Holly settle down with another man. Why don’t you think about coming to Dallas with me? There would be any number of places to work in Dallas. And then maybe I wouldn’t need to room with my zentastic brother.”
