Betrayed [Bound & Cuffed 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Jenny Penn

  Yanking on a fresh pair of panties, she dressed in a rush. Molly barely paused to run a brush through her hair before stomping into her shoes and snatching up her purse. Then she flew out the front door without ever looking back. Escaping the apartment didn’t mean she could escape her thoughts as easily.

  They haunted her throughout the day, leaving Molly nervous and scared. She didn’t want to fall in love. Love was a liability, especially when it came to loving men like Bruce and Logan. They were players. They weren’t to be trusted.

  Molly told herself that over and over again, but it didn’t help. Some defiant part of her refused to believe that either Logan or Bruce would do to her what Harvey had. They might have been loose, but they weren’t liars. Or so Molly thought, but that certainty started to weaken over the next several days as both Bruce and Logan came home smelling like cheap perfume and bar smoke.

  They also stopped making amorous demands when they crawled into bed with her. Instead of pressing her for anything, they just held her. That might have seemed sweet the first two nights, but by the third, Molly started to worry.

  Something was really wrong.

  Something had changed.

  Molly couldn’t help but obsess over what it might be. She was way too afraid to ask. Instead, she grew quieter, more withdrawn. Not that either Bruce or Logan noticed. Not that Molly could blame them. They were barely around, going into work both day and night.

  Even on her day off, Molly barely caught a glimpse of them before they were out the door with a warning that they wouldn’t be back until late. Real late. That left her wondering if they weren’t avoiding her. Maybe they were already tired of her but didn’t have the heart to kick her out, seeing as she had nowhere to go.

  Once that thought took hold, it grew roots and started to poison every other thought Molly had until she felt driven nearly insane by the possibility that she’d turned from a joy to a burden. She just had to know the truth.

  That was how Molly found herself sitting down the road from Big Bob’s Bondsmen office waiting for Logan and Bruce to come out. She didn’t worry about them recognizing her, not in the truck she’d borrowed from a coworker under the disguise of needing to move some stuff. Even if they did spot the truck, the setting sun assured they wouldn’t be able to see clearly enough to make her out.

  Molly, however, could see both men clearly as they finally emerged from the bond office. They were joined by a whole group of people who appeared to be saying goodbye for the day. That certainly roused Molly’s suspicions.

  Those suspicions grew to a dark pit of dread as she followed Logan and Bruce to a local pickup bar. They weren’t heading out onto a stakeout. They were partying it up. That became clear as she tailed them from one bar to the next. With each stop, Molly’s heart hardened as her pain grew into a rage that left her feeling flushed and clenching the wheel with a grip tight enough to leave her knuckles white.

  She was getting ready to explode.

  God help Bruce and Logan then.

  * * * *

  “You know we’ve picked up a tail,” Bruce commented as he angled his head to see farther back in the side mirror. Sure enough the little black pickup that had been following them around all evening made the same turn Logan just had at the last intersection.

  “Yeah.” Logan sighed from behind the steering wheel as he, too, glanced toward the review mirror. “Whoever our shadow is, they’re not real discreet.”

  “Could be our guy.” In fact, Bruce couldn’t imagine who else it could have been. Logan couldn’t either, apparently, but that didn’t mean he agreed without a little hesitation.

  “Kind of ballsy, don’t you think?”

  “Sounds like our Guy,” Bruce shot back as he reached for his phone. “Either way, I think it’s time to call Craig and Josh and find out just who is sitting behind the wheel.”

  “That should work.” Logan nodded as he pulled into a strip mall with the next small bar on their list to check. “We can go out the back way and circle around to help them wrangle the bastard.”

  “Absolutely.” There was no way Bruce was letting Craig and Josh take Guy down on their own. He wanted this collar. He planned on claiming it.

  Bruce made that as clear as he could as he told Craig to keep an eye on the truck and driver tailing them and to wait for Bruce and Logan to join them. Of course, Bruce knew his cousin probably wouldn’t heed that command, even as Craig agreed to his terms.

  “We better hurry,” Bruce warned Logan as he disconnected his call. “You know Craig. He’s not going to wait.”

  “That boy.” Logan sighed and shook his head.

  Youngest of the cousins, Craig hadn’t learned yet the advantages of taking his time. Josh, his ever-present partner in crime, wasn’t any better. Full of piss and dumb ideas, Josh was what passed for brains between the two. He was really good at getting Craig into trouble.

  Of course, so was Bruce.

  That was just what he was ready to go find. He shoved open the truck door, hopping out as Logan brought it to a stop before the small dive bar they were aiming for. The place had a male revue once every few months, and the ladies lined up for tickets. They spilled out of the small bar and onto the sidewalk in an endless sea of short skirts and cowboy boots.

  That was not the kind of trouble Bruce was looking to get into, but the sea did not part before him as he strode up with a don’t-fuck-with-me look plastered on his face. He knew what he looked like. He’d practiced his glare in the mirror and had it down to perfection.

  Bruce had proof of that. It had worked on one hardened criminal after another, sending punks scrambling for the corners, and even decent men knew to step back and away from him. Unfortunately, the ladies had not gotten the message. Instead of retreating, they surged forward in a flutter of eyelashes and quick hands that had Bruce actually stumbling back.

  God help them, Logan wasn’t fairing any better, but if they didn’t figure out a way to cut through the crowd, they wouldn’t ever get in the bar, much less back out of it. There was really only one thing to do. Head straight into the pack and flirt his way from one lady to the next until he finally reached the door where a large man guarded the entryway into the pulsating chaos of swirling lights and booming music.

  The bouncer shook his head at Bruce and held up one beefy-looking hand. “No men. Not tonight.”

  That put kind of a wrinkle in Bruce’s plan.

  * * * *

  Molly sat there stewing in the pickup truck as she watched Bruce and Logan flirting with just about every slutty woman cramming around the mouth of their most recent stop. It was as if they couldn’t get enough, or they hadn’t found what they were looking for. It was clear just what they were looking for from the way they carried on with all the ladies.

  Well, they could have the ladies.

  Molly didn’t care.

  Or so she told herself, though the tears making her eyes sting told the real truth. Her heart was breaking, and it felt ten times worse than when Harvey had stomped on it. That had simply hurt. The pain lancing through her went beyond that simple description.

  A scream of raw, primal rage built within her, and Molly could feel it cresting along with the overwhelming urge to storm across the street and confront her two wayward men.

  “Don’t move.”

  The hard, cold feel of a metal barrel pressing up against the side of her head emphasized that soft warning and had Molly freezing in her seat.

  “Molly? Oh shit!”

  Molly didn’t recognize that voice, but suddenly the gun being pressed to the side of her head was gone and she could breathe again. Nearly falling over the steering wheel, she slouched forward with a deep breath as she turned to stare at the man glaring back at her through the open window.

  “You are in so much trouble.” The man standing beside the driver’s door shook his bald head, but the sad gesture was ruined by the grin pulling at his lips.

  Molly recognized him as one of Bruce and Log
an’s cousins. She’d seen him around before, though she didn’t know his name. He was short, bald, and thick. Most of all, he was frightening. There was just something about the man that had always unnerved her. Right then was no different, even if the man was grinning at her.

  “So much trouble!” the man repeated with a laugh, clearly enjoying the moment.

  Molly didn’t respond to that but just glared at the man, in no mood for his jokes. Nor was she about to sit there and listen to him. Reaching for the gearshift, Molly popped the truck back into gear and took off, leaving Logan and Bruce’s cousin eating her exhaust, even as she caught Bruce and Logan trying to wade back out of the sea of women and rush across the parking lot.

  They were too late.

  Molly had seen all she needed to.

  * * * *

  Craig jumped back before his toes got smooshed beneath the truck’s tires, but that didn’t stop him from laughing. The whole thing was too damn funny not to chuckle over. Hell, even Josh was smiling.

  Logan and Bruce weren’t as they came tearing across the street.

  “What the hell?” Logan spat as he came racing up to where Craig had joined Josh on the sidewalk. “You just let him get away?”

  “Him?” Craig snorted and had to bite back another laugh as he fought to get the words out. “Try her.”

  “Her?” Bruce frowned, slow to catch on. That was where Josh came in. He was good at explaining things.

  “It was your girl, man. I think she’s checking up on you.”

  “Our girl?” Logan repeated, as if the very thought was foreign to him.

  It probably was. Everybody knew that Bruce and Logan did girls. They didn’t keep them. They didn’t claim them. They sure as hell never liked being claimed themselves. That probably explained the scowl that darkened both Bruce’s and Logan’s brow.

  “Now, I don’t mean to tell you your business,” Josh continued on, sounding so damn full of himself it was hard for Craig not to laugh, “but we don’t need a civilian screwing things up, so if I were you…I’d go set that lady straight.”

  That earned Josh a middle finger salute from Logan, even as Bruce turned to start racing back toward Logan’s truck. Josh shot Logan an appropriately crude gesture, but he wasn’t lingering around to finish that fight. Logan was fast on Bruce’s heels. Within second his big truck was burning rubber through the parking lot across the way as it tore out and took off down the road in the roar of an oversized engine.

  Craig couldn’t stop laughing. Those two boneheads were about to get theirs.

  “That’s not going to go well.” Josh sighed, echoing Craig’s silent thought.

  Chapter Twelve

  Molly didn’t even make it halfway home before suddenly Logan’s truck roared up, coming within inches of her back bumper. The big, ferocious grill filled her rearview mirror and all but tempted her to slam on her brakes. She would have to if it had been her truck, but instead, she slammed on the gas, racing ahead.

  Logan kept up, staying right on her ass all the way back to the apartment they’d been sharing for these past few weeks. She had nowhere else to go, but that didn’t mean she didn’t plan on packing her bags and leaving. Nothing Bruce or Logan could say would change her mind.

  Of course, that didn’t mean she didn’t have some choice words for them.

  Barely bothering to pull the hand brake up as she slammed the truck to a stop, Molly hopped out of it. Leaving it running by the curve, she turned to confront Logan as he leapt out of his truck, leaving his engine rumbling away, too.

  “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Logan demanded to know before Molly even had a chance to level her own complaints at him.

  “Don’t take that tone with me!” Molly shouted back, not about to be bullied by Logan. “I’m not the one running around town, hitting up on all the ladies.”

  “Oh for God’s sake,” Logan spat. “Is that what this is about? We’re working!”

  “Yeah,” Molly snorted, not comforted by that in the slightest. Not that she believed him for a moment. Nor was she going to listen to him for another moment. She was tired of the lies. “Right.”

  “Listen”—Logan stepped forward to place his big palms on her shoulder and hold her still to force her to hear what he had to say— “we’re hunting a very dangerous man, who enjoys abducting, torturing, and raping women. That means we have to go to his hunting grounds. That’s all we’re doing. I swear.”

  A hint of a plea entered Logan’s tone, but Molly was not moved. She was still stuck on hurt and way beyond rational.

  “Go to hell!” Molly shot back at him, jerking free of Logan’s hold to turn and slam into the hard wall of Bruce’s chest.

  “I told you there was no point in reasoning with her,” Bruce stated simply, sounding more resigned than angry.

  “And just what the hell—hey!” Molly shrieked as Bruce snatched her right off her feet.

  Treating no better than a sack of dog food, he tossed her over his shoulder and started for the apartment. Molly was pretty sure what he planned to do next, and she wasn’t in any mood for that. She made that clear as she hollered and screamed, struggling for freedom with every curse-laden demand she threw at him.

  It got her nowhere.

  Just as Molly anticipated, Bruce carried her right through the front door and down the hall toward his bedroom. Not seconds after he banged through the door, Molly went flying through the air, landing with a bounce on Bruce’s bed. She was up and on her feet, wagging a finger in Bruce’s face before he could do much more than remove his belt.

  “Don’t you ever do that again!” Molly snapped. “And don’t even think about taking anything else—hey!”

  For the second time in about as many minutes, Molly found herself hollering in outrage as Bruce snatched up her hand. Within the blink of an eye, he had his belt wrapped around her wrist. She stared in amazement, and that was all the time Bruce needed to capture her other wrist. Before Molly knew what the hell was going on, he’d bound her hands together.

  That was when she started to get really mad, but it didn’t matter how many threats she lobbed at Bruce. He ignored both her struggles and her demands, toppling her back over onto the bed and latching her wrists to the frame with the tail end of the belt. Then he tightened down the knots, securing her into place.

  She knew what came next or, at least, thought she did. Bruce, however, shocked Molly when, instead of stripping or finishing removing the rest of his clothes, he simply rose up onto his feet to glower down at her for several long, tense seconds.

  “We’ll finish this argument when we get home,” he declared, grinding out his words with a roughness that echoed the anger burning in his gaze. “Right now, Logan and I have work to do.”

  With that indignant-sounding snap, Bruce turned on his heels and stormed out the door. He had to brush past Logan, who lingered there watching the show his cousin had just made out of Molly. Despite the fact that he didn’t look half as pissed, Molly knew better than to expect any help from him.

  “Sorry, honey.” Logan sighed, shaking his head as if he could read the hope taking root in her mind. “But while you’re lying there thinking about what kind of bastards you think we are, maybe you’ll start to realize you’re the one in the wrong to even think we’d betray you like that.”

  Amazingly, Molly thought she detected a hint of hurt in Logan’s tone. She was the one tied up in a bed, left like a carton of takeout to wait for them to get back. As if that wasn’t bad enough, now she knew why her men weren’t coming home hungry anymore.

  That thought had her simmering as Molly contemplated calling out to Trisha for help. She could hear somebody moving around next door, but the thought of actually asking Trisha for anything left a sour taste in Molly’s mouth.

  Apparently, she didn’t have to ask, though. From the sound of the next door opening and the track of footsteps to Bruce’s and Logan’s front door, it sounded as if Trisha was coming to help. She’d prob
ably heard the racket Molly had made earlier, but if Trisha thought this was going to make things right between them then…it just might.

  Molly sighed, admitting to herself that she wasn’t mad at Trisha. Worse, she might just have made a jealous, suspicious fool out of herself…or maybe she was grasping at straws. Molly didn’t know and she felt way too conflicted in that moment to figure the matter out.

  She needed time and fresh air, and definitely not to be tied to the bed, to sort everything through. Trisha was her solution to all three things, which was just why Molly called out as she heard the front door open.

  “Hey, Trisha! I’m back here.” Molly waited, but Trisha didn’t respond. There was no response, in fact, just a moment of dead silence before the door shut. “Trisha?”

  Molly called out again but knew in her gut why Trisha wasn’t answering. It wasn’t Trisha. The footfalls that started to cross the apartment were too heavy for her former roommate. That could mean only one thing. Molly was in trouble.

  She started fighting her bonds with a greater desperation than she had before, but there was no give in the leather, no way to flee as, finally, the footsteps came to a stop and a strange man filled the bedroom doorway.

  “Howdy.” He greeted her with a big smile and cheery twinkle in his eyes as he waved a hand through the air. “I’m Guy.”

  * * * *

  “You really think leaving Molly tied up was a good idea?” Logan asked as he turned into the next bar on their list.

  “Huh?” Bruce glanced up from his cell phone. Craig and Josh had already spread the word to all their cousins about Molly stalking them. Everybody had a quick comment to make. They weren’t waiting to see Logan or Bruce but were texting like fiends, keeping Bruce busy tapping away at his phone.