Love Under Two Private Dicks [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Cara Covington

  “Are you denying that you put a hand on Emily Anne?” Adam asked. “When everyone here saw you do it?”

  That seemed to stop Billy J, but only for a moment. He shook his head, and then put his full focus on Adam Kendall. Emily Anne watched as his sly and charming smile—the one he’d always used to get his ass out of trouble—spread across his face.

  “C’mon, Sheriff. You know how these females are. I know you don’t know Emily Anne all that well. Heck, she’s little more than a stranger in town herself. But believe me when I tell you she’s been leading me on for a long time. Just look at her! I suppose y’all can’t blame her chasing after a man, she must be desperate, you know what I mean? So what do you say you remove these cuffs and let me take the bitch someplace private where I can explain things to her?”

  His cajoling question was met with absolute silence. Emily Anne felt shame flood her. She couldn’t prevent her eyes from drifting down to the floor.

  How could I ever have thought this loser was the best I could do?

  “Adam, I believe we have all heard quite enough.” Kelsey Benedict had emerged from the kitchen. She followed up her words by approaching Emily Anne and slipping her arm around her. Miz Bernice came to stand on the other side of her, and she slipped her arm around her, too. The message was clear, and even if Billy J didn’t get it, Emily Anne did. She was one of them. She belonged.

  “Please remove that odious little boy from my daughter-in-law’s restaurant,” Bernice Benedict said. “He’s not fit to be in polite company.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Adam said. He stopped long enough to duck his head and catch Emily Anne’s attention. “Sweetheart? I want you to go on over to the clinic and let Doc have a look at that arm. Make sure it’s only bruised—which is bad enough—and not actually damaged in any way.”

  “I’ll see that our Emily Anne is taken care of, Adam,” Kelsey said. “You can count on it.”

  Adam nodded. “Good. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to take this trash outta here.”

  Cody Harper came over and joined the group surrounding her—a group that had become larger and more supportive than her mind could take in.

  Cody wore a huge smile on his face. “Hey, Sheriff, I just spoke to Connor Talbot. He and Mel are about fifteen minutes out.”

  “Who the hell are they?”

  Billy J’s question sounded petulant, his response to the snickers that had just rippled through the restaurant with Cody’s announcement.

  Adam chuckled, and Emily Anne thought he might have actually been enjoying the moment a little too much himself. “Son, those two men might just end up being your worst nightmare come to life.”

  Chapter 17

  “I want to see what’s in that shed.”

  They were less than a half an hour from home when Connor’s words broke the silence they’d been traveling in. Mel nodded his head, because he was in complete agreement with Connor. Bruce Smith had acted completely spooked. From the safety of an old Texas oak tree across the road and to the north some six hundred yards from his house, they’d watched him—Connor through the scope of a very wicked-looking sniper rifle, and Mel through his high-resolution binoculars—as he’d come out of his house and headed straight for the third shed built in an arc behind the house.

  “He didn’t hesitate, he went to that one particular shed, and it sure as hell didn’t take him long to pick out the right keys to open the damn locks—all seven of them.” Mel shook his head. “I couldn’t see if the keys were marked or not, so that might not have been a clue.”

  “Not,” Connor said. “I was able to get a look at that key ring. The keys were assorted shapes and sizes, but I couldn’t see any colored markings on them. Had to have been fifty keys there, easy, and he was able to pick out the right ones without hesitating.”

  Mel shot him a quick look. “I have got to have me a go with that rifle of yours. That must be one hell of a powerful scope you have there.”

  Connor didn’t open his eyes, he just grinned. “She’s a beauty. You can put your hands on her anytime, partner.”

  They’d been on the go since very early in the morning. After their meeting in Divine they’d decided to drive past the property Smith lived on. They’d seen the tree and the way the FM road had undulated, and had decided to just see how the vantage point worked.

  Mel hadn’t actually believed they’d see anything at all. Instead, they’d gotten one hell of a bonus.

  Something important was in that shed. He just knew it.

  This was the part of working with Connor Talbot he liked best. The man’s mind never shut off, and could follow more twists and turns than most. There was no one Mel wanted by his side or at his back more than this man.

  “Bruce Smith is a man with secrets, and his biggest one is inside that particular shed,” Connor said.

  “I don’t know if he sensed us out there today, or if he’s just starting to turn paranoid,” Mel said. “He stopped and looked around, as if he could sense us.”

  “He did the same thing earlier in town when I was waiting to snap his picture. His lips were moving the whole time on both occasions,” Connor said, “which could mean he was talking to himself. Well, unless he had an imaginary friend there that he was talking to, that is.”

  Mel shot a glance over at his partner. “I caught that, too. Didn’t realize he did it in town. I wonder if anyone else has noticed the habit, or if it’s something new?” He put his gaze back on the road. “What I’d like to do is get some sort of audio surveillance set up. If his mouth is moving, he might be talking to himself. If he is talking to himself, he might confess to murder.”

  “Would that hold up in a court of law?” Connor asked.

  “No, but it might serve as grounds for a warrant to conduct a search and seizure.”

  That’s all they really needed, sufficient grounds to get that warrant.

  “You think that we’ll find the evidence we’re looking for in that shed,” Connor said.

  “I do, yes. And I’ll bet you a couple of hundred those other sheds are empty.”

  “Do I look like a sucker to you?”

  “Of course not.” Mel laughed.

  “Good. Because I’ve worked hard on presenting the appearance of an intelligent hard-ass and I would hate to think my efforts were wasted.”

  “And here I thought that look was natural and not practiced.” Mel shot a glance over to Connor. “Unlike our Mr. Smith. He doesn’t look natural at all. “

  “I know. So I guess the first order of business is to verify that Bruce Smith is indeed Ralph Baxter. I’ll run the picture I took through my program, but again, we need something that will hold up in a court of law. Any thoughts as to how we do that?”

  “As a matter of fact, yes. Ethan said the guy comes in to The Dancing Pony a couple of times a week, remember?”

  Connor opened his eyes. He ran a hand through his hair, something he did whenever he was ticked with himself. “Well, hell. Of course. Fingerprints. We can lift them from Smith’s place, most likely, but we need a proper evidentiary trail. Ethan serves him then gets the glass or bottle or whatever the hell it is for us, with witnesses, and we run the prints.”

  “I like it when we can use the simple ways, you know?” Mel said. “Sometimes, it’s the simple things that trip these bastards up.”

  Connor’s cell phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at the display and frowned. “Cody Harper,” he said to Mel. Then he answered the call.

  “Hey, Harper. How goes it?”

  Mel couldn’t hear the other side of the conversation, but when Connor swore and sat bolt upright in his seat he felt his stomach churn.

  “Well son of a bitch. Look, we’re about fifteen minutes out. You’re sure she’s all right?” Connor listened a moment and then nodded. “Okay, thanks. We’ll head over to the clinic, first. See if you can persuade Adam to keep the little bastard there until we arrive.” Connor smiled, and then he laughed. “Yeah, he soun
ds like he got more than his share of stupid. Thanks, Harper.”

  He hung up the phone and turned to look at Mel. Because Connor had laughed, Mel knew that whatever had happened wasn’t too serious. But he also knew it involved their woman, and her having to go to the clinic. No matter how Mel cut it, that just simply wasn’t good.

  “Start talking.”

  Connor nodded, and did just that.

  * * * *

  “Quit beating yourself up over this,” Kelsey Benedict said. Standing beside her as she sat on an exam table in one of the clinic rooms, Kelsey ran her hand lightly down Emily Anne’s arm. “My Auntie May used to say you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you finally find your prince. Clearly, Billy J was just another one of life’s frogs.”

  Emily Anne burst out laughing. Judging by the smile on Doctor Robert Jessop’s face, he thought Kelsey’s comment was funny, too.

  Kelsey had insisted on bringing her to the clinic. She wanted to see for herself that Emily Anne was uninjured—and, she said, that she wasn’t feeling guilty over what had happened.

  “Seriously, it’s not your fault he tracked you down and then humiliated himself in front of my customers. No one—and I mean no one at all—thinks any less of you for what happened today.”

  Doctor David Jessop came into the exam room and put the x-ray they’d just taken up on the viewer, and turned on the light behind it.

  Robert narrowed his eyes as he examined the test results, and then nodded. “Good.” He flashed a quick grin. “Nothing broken, just as we thought. It never hurts to confirm our beliefs, though. Sometimes you can end up with a hairline fracture that will give you hell later on.”

  “Just from having my arm grabbed and squeezed?”

  “You’d be surprised. I know of a surgeon who broke his finger and all he did as he was coming down a staircase was casually bump the banister with his hand.”

  Emily Anne had thought that Sheriff Kendall had been displaying an overabundance of caution, sending her here to the clinic. Heck, there was a part of her that thought his orders to come and get checked out had been issued solely to give Billy J a bit of a scare. Except, of course, he hadn’t been the least bit scared.

  Instead, the sheriff must have been genuinely concerned about her and not completely without cause. Who knew such a simple encounter could have such repercussions?

  “Thank you, Doctor Jessop. I appreciate your taking care of me.”

  “You’re welcome, Emily Anne. There’s not much we can do about the bruising you’re about to endure. However, please pay attention to the injury. If the area swells, put a bit of ice on it—or a bag of frozen peas. If it begins to hurt more instead of less, or if it becomes excessively tender to the touch, or if it feels as if it’s hardening—you come back and see me, immediately.”

  “Don’t worry, Doctor Jessop. She will.”

  Emily Anne looked over to the doorway. Connor and Mel filled the space, each having to stand a little sideways so they could both see her.

  “Hi.”

  “Hi yourself, precious.” Mel raised one eyebrow toward Doctor Robert, who nodded. He didn’t wait any longer to enter the room, and Connor was right behind him.

  “Well my work here is done,” Kelsey said. Then she wrapped her arms around Emily Anne and gave her a hug. “No more work for you today, my friend. We’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Thanks for coming to be with me.”

  “You’re more than welcome, Emily Anne,” Kelsey said.

  Emily Anne couldn’t recall a time when anyone had ever put herself out for her the way Kelsey had just done.

  Lusty really was her home in more ways than one.

  Both men said a quiet word to Kelsey as she passed them, and then they came to her. Connor gently picked up her arm and brushed his thumb over the bruise she had growing there.

  She didn’t say anything, just let him focus on the mark. “You’re all right?” Connor asked her instead of the doctor, and she appreciated that.

  “Yes, I really am. I bopped him one…well, kind of.” She showed him her fist and he smiled. Then he took her hand.

  “If you ever have occasion to do so again at any time, please don’t tuck your thumb inside that way. You could end up breaking it.” He lifted her closed fist to his lips and kissed it.

  “I’ll remember.”

  Emily Anne leaned into him and laid her head on his chest. Mel smiled and stroked his hand down her back.

  She didn’t know how it was she understood that Connor was the one who needed the most assurance that she was all right. She suspected, though, it was because of the life he’d led, the danger he’d walked into on behalf of their country, and the losses he’d endured.

  In ways only a woman would understand, she knew he was a fragile human being, for all that he was a brave and fierce warrior.

  “We tossed a coin. I’m going to take you home while Connor goes over and has a little ‘talk’ with Billy J.” Mel said that as if he was just announcing a trip to the grocery store.

  Emily Anne eased back and looked up at Connor.

  “We decided that we didn’t want him to know there were two of us. He sounds like the kind of unscrupulous little shit who’d use that sort of information against you.”

  “I’m not ashamed of being with you both. Let him do his damnedest. I don’t care.”

  That got a grin out of Connor. “We know you’re not ashamed of being with us, angel eyes. But you haven’t had a chance to talk with your family, yet. Let us take care of you the best way we know how, all right?”

  She gazed at him for a long moment before she nodded. “All right. But on one condition.”

  He didn’t ask, he just raised his right eyebrow.

  “When you come back home, you’ll have to show us both your double-headed coin.”

  She’d been guessing, but judging by the way Connor was struggling to control his smile—and the look of shock on Mel’s face—she figured she must have nailed it.

  “You know me pretty well, sweetheart, don’t you?”

  “I guess I do.”

  He bent over and gave her a very sweet and way-too-short kiss. He ran his hands up and down her arms, from shoulders to elbow. Then he lifted her bruised forearm and placed a kiss there, too. “I won’t be long,” he said.

  He nodded to both Doctors Jessop, clapped Mel on the shoulder, and left the exam room.

  “He’s sneaky,” Mel said. “He didn’t have to use a trick coin on me. I’d have let him confront the jerk.”

  Emily Anne grinned. “That’s just because you think he’s scarier looking than you are.”

  “It’s a hell of a thing for an alpha male to admit,” Mel said. Of course his sigh, heavily exaggerated, was designed to make her smile and keep her mind off of what might shortly be taking place at the sheriff’s office.

  He didn’t have to bother. She wasn’t really worried. Connor Talbot would go all out against a perceived enemy, she had no doubt of that.

  If that enemy was a real threat. She couldn’t for one moment think that Connor would view Billy J. Cooper as any kind of threat at all.

  He had, however, behaved badly toward her. Emily Anne was beginning to understand just how much she meant to these two men, and how, just maybe, one of the worst things a person could do, in their eyes, was treat her badly.

  Emily Anne focused on the man standing in front of her. “You’re wrong, you know. He isn’t scarier looking than you at all. You can put on quite the fierce face when you need to, Mr. Richardson.”

  Mel looked over at the Doctors Jessop who’d been playing spectators to their personal moment. “Is she really all right?”

  “Absolutely,” Robert said. He repeated the instructions he’d already given her, clearly quite comfortable with the concept that Mel would take better care of her than she would herself.

  “Thanks, Doctors. Both of you.” Mel extended his hand to both men. They shook, and then he helped Emily Anne down from the exam table.
>
  He led her out to his car, and she found her gaze tracking over to the sheriff’s office on Main Street.

  “Connor won’t hurt him, as much as he might want to. This time,” Mel said. “But if the little shit is stupid enough to bother you again, all bets are off.”

  “I’m not particularly worried about the little shit,” Emily Anne said. “I just don’t want Connor to get in trouble with the law.”

  Mel grinned. “This is Lusty. I’m quite certain that Adam has already put the fear of God into Billy J, and will very willingly stand back as Connor ably gives him a second helping of that.”

  Emily Anne had no problem with that concept. She couldn’t imagine that any real feelings for her had brought her former boyfriend here. He had to be up to something—he had to want something from her. He’d never given her anything so it couldn’t be a piece of jewelry or a personal possession he wanted back. She just wished she knew what the heck his so-called interest in her was all about.

  “Don’t worry,” Mel said. “Connor will find out what the hell is going on with him, and what he wants from you.”

  She stared at Mel. “Are you a mind reader, now?”

  Mel stopped, leaned over and kissed her. He opened the car door and held it for her. “No, precious, but I know you were wondering why he was pestering your mother, trying to get her to tell him where you were. Did she, by the way?”

  Emily Anne took note of the casual way Mel had asked that question. He and Connor had let her know, early on, that they didn’t appreciate the way her family had made her feel fat and unloved. She imagined they wouldn’t put up with any lip from anyone about her—not even her own mother.

  “I jumped to that conclusion as soon as I saw him. But according to Billy J he got the information from Linda Sue Powers. Her daddy owns the company where my daddy works.” Emily Anne shrugged. “My daddy wouldn’t hesitate to tell Linda Sue where I was, even though she’s never been a friend of mine. I’m just really glad momma didn’t tell him.”

  “Me, too, baby. Come on, let’s go home. Do you think you could tolerate your men fussing over you for one night?”