by Diane Leyne
She felt herself blushing. She had wanted Owen for so long and he didn’t want her, and then he wanted to go out with her and now she was with Doc and Quin and she was so confused.
“No, Deck. I want to know who she is seeing tonight. Spill it, Jules. Who are you going out with?”
She felt both sets of eyes on her.
“I do, too,” Quin agreed. “Spill.”
She backed away from the two of them, swallowing hard. There was so much male intent in their faces. She wondered if they were going to throw her down and fuck her again. A part of her hoped so, but another part of her was confused. Something was niggling at her subconscious, but she didn’t have time right now to worry about it.
She walked around the men, grabbed her saddle from the top of the pile, and carried it over to an annoyed-looking Lucky. She started saddling him without looking back at the men.
“Owen,” she said quietly.
“What did you say?” Quin sounded furious. “You are going out with that douche bag? Why?”
“Yes, Jules, why? I thought you were past that infatuation!” Doc sounded madder than she had ever heard him.
“I promised.”
“Well, then, you can just unpromise him. Or Deck or I could do it for you. Yes. I’ll give him a call and tell him to stay away from our woman.”
“No!”
“Yes!” Quin’s voice drowned hers out. “Good plan. As for you, Jules. You’ve earned yourself another spanking, and not the fun kind. You aren’t going to be able to sit for a week once I’m done with you.”
“And when you can, it’ll be my turn to tan your ass, and we’ll repeat the process until you have it firmly in your mind that you are ours. Ours! No dating other men.”
Jules finished with the last of the saddle fastenings and turned to the men. After all of her worry about asking them to try a ménage, they’d certainly taken to it quickly enough. Too quickly?
“Blake Adams and Quin Redekker! Stop trying to…” She paused. Redekker. That triggered something. She thought hard. The men took a step toward her, but she held up her hand. Maybe it was her expression, but they halted, their expressions uncertain.
She looked at them. Doc and Deck and…that was it. Deck. Doc had called Quin Deck. Wasn’t that the name of his best friend from college, the one he visited periodically in east Texas?
It all made sense now, or at least part of it did. She had been so thrilled that they, two virtual strangers with nothing in common but her, had not only accepted her request for a ménage but seemed to have embraced it. She’d been overwhelmed and joyous and humbled that they’d both cared enough for her to give it a try. But it had all been a lie.
Suddenly, she felt like a fool. They’d played her. She should have known when she watched them down by the river wrestling. It was obviously something they’d done many times. Two strangers didn’t have that kind of comfort level after only a week.
She could feel herself tear up but she was determined not to cry in front of them.
“Holy Shit. Quin Redekker. Deck. Blake, you called him Deck earlier, but I didn’t make the connection then, but you just did it again.” She turned to Quin. “You’re Blake’s best friend from back east, aren’t you?” She waited until he reluctantly nodded, obviously worried about where she was going. “You’ve known each other for years, haven’t you?” She didn’t wait for an answer this time. Her rant was just building steam. She’d been excited and scared and so proud of herself for taking a chance and going after what she wanted, but it hadn’t been her idea at all. Now she felt like an idiot. What they had…it was all a lie.
“Why did you pretend not to know each other when Quin moved here? Was it some kind of game? Even when I asked you two if you were interested in a ménage…you’ve done that before, haven’t you? Oh, god. Did you two play me? Did you invite him to come to Satisfaction to help seduce me? I guess it certainly explains why you were both okay with a ménage. I’m guessing you’ve done that together before, haven’t you?”
She watched them nod guiltily. Then Doc spoke up.
“Jules, his coming here had nothing to do with you. I mean, that part was all a happy accident.”
“I never expected to fall in love, but I have. I mean Doc’s talked about you since you moved to Satisfaction and when I met you in person…”
“If that’s true, why didn’t you tell me you two knew each other, then?”
She looked at them and saw their identical guilt expressions. Why lie and pretend to be strangers? And then it came to her.
“Quin works for SSP, doesn’t he? He’s here investigating the problems at the Double S, right?”
She was gratified to see both their jaws drop.
“I, uh, shit! How did you know about someone from SSP coming here?”
“Not quite as sneaky as you thought, Redekker. Doc mentioned a long time ago that you had some kind of hush-hush job and I heard that Murphy and Cole had brought someone in and I put two and two together. I’m not a total idiot.”
She put her foot in the stirrup and levered herself up into the saddle.
“You know what? I was actually planning to tell Owen at dinner that I didn’t think us getting together was a good idea anymore. Now, I’m not so sure I want to see any of you. Hell, maybe it is time I moved back to Seattle. After all, my obligation to Micah’s almost done and a change of scenery might be just what I need. Oh, and don’t worry. I won’t blow your cover, Redekker.”
“Jules.”
“Jules!”
Blake’s tone was conciliatory and Quin’s was demanding, but she didn’t respond. Tears that had been threatening now started to run down her face.
“Leave me alone. Both of you.”
She gave Lucky a nudge and then they were moving quickly down the trail, leaving the two men she’d thought she was in love with in the dust.
* * * *
Blake looked over at Deck. Without a word, they both got dressed and saddled their horses before mounting and riding in silence back to the Double S. When they got there, they saw a puzzled ranch hand rubbing down Jules’s horse.
“Sorry, guys, but she told me to tell you not to follow her or talk to her. She said to tell you she’ll talk to you when she’s ready and not before.”
He looked at the two men warily as if he expected them to blow up at him. He was a good kid and just passing along a message. Blake couldn’t get mad at him.
“No problem, Philip. We’re not going to shoot the messenger.”
The young man looked relieved and got back to the horse. Blake and Quin worked silently on their own mounts, stripping off the saddle and tack and then rubbing them down before taking them to their stalls and giving them some food and water.
Then they walked out to the parking lot and over to their individual cars.
“Tonight at Whips and Spurs.”
“Of course. In the meantime I’ll be doing some work on our other problem. We need to find out who the hell has been targeting the Double S and what’s happened to change their plan.” He ran a weary hand through his hair. “As much as I didn’t like the old plan, at least we knew what it was and could block it. Now I don’t have a clue what he or she is up to. Damn.”
“When is the money due to be transferred?”
“Noon.”
“And how long afterward will you know?”
“Depends on how tricky they are, but the SSP tech team is first rate. It shouldn’t be very long. We can grab a bite at Candy’s at noon and wait for the answer.”
Blake nodded.
“Quin, you going to Whips and Spurs?”
Quin looked grim and nodded. Blake felt the same way. They were so close to getting what he’d dreamed of for two years. He wasn’t giving up. He had already waited two years for her. He’d wait another two if he had to, although this would be harder. It had been tough when she’d been pining for Owen, but if they actually got together, it would be hell on earth. He wouldn’t give up, though. She w
as his and Quin’s, and sooner or later she’d get over being mad and then and realize that. He just had to be patient.
“Damn, Quin. We were so close.”
“Buck up, Blake. If I’m right, we are going to have the evidence we need tomorrow to throw his ass in jail. That’s not my preferred way of getting rid of the competition, but in this case, I’ll take it.”
Quin’s tone was so satisfied that Blake almost laughed.
“Owen? You really think he’s behind everything? Why didn’t you say that to Murphy and Cole?”
“Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s him, but I need proof. And I also need to know what’s motivated this. I’ve had his financials checked out and there’s no way on earth he could afford my fees, so there’s someone behind him and we need them, too. And if I told Murphy and Cole, they wouldn’t be able to act naturally around him and it would also probably get back to Jess which means…”
“Which means Jules would fine out too. Damn. Owen? I never liked him. I thought it was just because Jules had that stupid crush and every time he brushed her off, I could see the hurt in her eyes and it made me want to hurt him, but now I know he’s a grade-A asshole, and I will hurt him. Bad. Shouldn’t we try to do something, stop her from going out with him?”
“Not until we get the proof. Besides, she’ll be safe enough. His target is the Double S, not our Jules. But then when we get the proof…”
Blake nodded reluctantly. “Then we hurt him.”
“Then we hurt him.”
* * * *
The Whips and Spurs was packed, but the only men she saw, really saw, were Blake and Quin sitting in a corner booth following her with their eyes all night. She didn’t want to serve them. She sent Daisy over and they sent her away. Then she sent Leah, and they rejected her, too. Finally she sent Micah. He talked to them for a long time, it seemed, and when he came back, he had a big grin on his face.
“Why don’t you deliver a couple of beers to the gentlemen at booth four?”
“They are not gentlemen and I’m not serving them.”
“Have a little pity on them, Jules. They are both hurting and sorry for whatever it was they did that has got you riled up.”
“They didn’t tell you?”
“Nope. They just said that you were theirs and they were yours and to tell you they weren’t going to give up until you took them back. So you might as well deliver their beers and whatever message it is you want to send them, because I’m not doing it for you and I’m pretty sure no other waitress in the place will go near them, not the way they are hurting right now.”
She didn’t say anything at first. Bastards. Telling her brother she was theirs. But they also said they were hers, she realized. Hers. Damn, her traitorous pussy was starting to drip honey and dampen her panties. She still wanted them, but damn it, they had to learn a lesson.
And damned if she was cancelling the date with Owen. She needed the closure. She’d tell him that it was too late and she was in love with someone else, but she’d do it privately tomorrow on her own timetable. She’d actually planned to tell him tonight if he came in, but those two idiots deserved a little payback. If he came in, she’d be sweet and charming to him and let them watch and suffer.
Chapter 13
Jules looked over at Owen. She’d walked over to Candy’s and arrived ten minutes early, agonizing about how to handle the situation. She’d deliberately arrived early, hoping to have a few minutes to think about it before he arrived, but Owen had been even earlier. He was coming out carrying the hamper when she arrived. He grinned and pulled her close for a kiss. She’d been so disconcerted that she was in his truck and they were quickly down one of the service roads on the ranch before she got her wits back. The back was riding low, she realized, but she couldn’t see what he had in there because the bed of the truck was covered.
She shrugged mentally. She watched the scenery passing by. It was so beautiful out here, but she hoped it would rain soon. The water levels at the pond were going down as the streams that fed it were drying up. The main river in the area, the Rio Pequeña, which eventually fed into the Rio Grande, was at the lowest level in years as well.
It was only a few minutes before they pulled up in the same spot she’d gone to with Quin only a few days earlier. With a sinking feeling, she realized that he was planning on having the picnic by her pond. Hell, it was their pond now, hers and Quin’s and Blake’s. She didn’t want to go there with Owen. It was her own damned fault. Instead of paying back her men for their deceit, she should have followed her first instincts and cancelled lunch with Owen and just told him outright that she wasn’t interested anymore.
What had she been thinking? She’d been trying to let him down lightly. She’d pined over him for years and he had to have known it. Now that he returned her feelings, she had to admit that she wanted him to pine a bit for her. It was petty, but there it was. She’d been planning on telling him the truth, but not until the end of their meal. She had wanted to get her own back by stringing him along, even if only for a meal, and then ending it. And now she was going to pay for her insensitivity.
She glanced over at him. He looked so serious, not like a man on a date with the woman he had just realized he loved. He looked a bit unhappy, but then he turned toward her and smiled. She shivered. Something wasn’t right.
She decided that she’d tell him right now and head back to town, but he was getting the picnic basket out of the back of his quad-cab truck and heading down the path without waiting for her. By the time she gathered her wits, he was well out in front. She hurried to catch up.
It was only a half mile and by the time she caught up, they were at the pond. It was so beautiful, even more so with her memories of the previous day. She felt the residual passion and some regret. She should have given them the opportunity to explain before she’d ridden off, but she’d been so hurt and had reacted emotionally.
She watched Owen spread a blanket on the ground and then begin to unpack the hamper. He certainly wasn’t acting like a man in love.
“Owen?”
“Hey, baby. Take a seat while I get us organized.”
“Owen, stop. Please.”
“What is it?”
“I should never have agreed to come out with you. I’m sorry.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m in love with someone else.”
Owen looked puzzled and then he laughed.
“You little minx. You are trying to get a little payback for me ignoring you all those years?”
* * * *
“Aren’t you going to eat?” Quin looked up to see Candy standing with her hands on her hips. He looked at her guiltily and then down at the burger on his plate. He loved Candy’s food, but between waiting for the information on the wire transfer and thinking about Jules’s date with Owen the coming night, his stomach was tied up in knots.
He looked over and saw that Doc hadn’t eaten anything either.
“Sorry, Candy. Got a lot on my mind. I do have a question for you, though. Jules often has lunch here, doesn’t she? Have you seen her today?”
“Yes, she does, and no, I haven’t. Look, you two big strapping men have to eat something. If you don’t want burgers, I’ll bring you something else. How does a nice piece of apple pie sound? Fresh from the oven?”
“That would be great, Candy.” Hopefully, he’d be able to choke it down.
Just then his cell vibrated. He held it up to his ear.
“Uh-huh. Uh-huh.”
He put it down.
“We have confirmation. The money came from Owen Firth. He tried to be tricky with the routing, but he’s an amateur. Now they are tracing the source, who deposited it into his account.”
Just then, Candy walked back and placed their pie in front of them.
“Owen, you just missed him.”
“Missed him?”
“Yeah, I made him up a picnic hamper. What are you going to do about it?”
“Cand
y?”
“My guess is that he isn’t planning on eating all that food himself. He’s probably wooing Jules. You like her. She likes the both of you for some reason. A picnic by the pond is pretty darned romantic. Firth isn’t any good for her. What are you two planning on doing about it?”
Quin and Blake both leaped to their feet. Quin leaned over and kissed Candy’s cheek. “Candy, if we were both able to marry her, you would be our best woman, but since we can’t, we can only ask that you attend her collaring ceremony.”
“Yes, well, get going. I don’t trust Firth as far as I can throw him. He’s up to something no good. I don’t know what it is, but he’s been having money troubles lately, and now he’s flush.”
“How do you know he’s had money troubles?”
“He used to eat here all the time and then suddenly his credit card got declined. He laughed it off and then his other card got declined. After that, he only paid cash. And you hear things when you run a place like this. He owes money all over town. My guess is he’s been gambling and not doing a good job of it.”
“Does Jules know?”
“I haven’t told anyone, not until now.”
“Why are you telling us?”
“Because you are the law, aren’t you? Or something similar. My guess is that you work for the same agency that Jess’s brother does. Am I right?”
“Are you psychic?”
“No.” She laughed. “But Murphy asked me for Tait’s number and I knew something was up. Why didn’t he ask Jess?”
“Why would he think you had it?” asked Blake.
“I, uh.” Blake watched with fascination as Candy blushed, “I may have gone out with him and his friend a couple of times.”
“Shit! Never mind interrogating Candy about her love life now. We’ll do that later, once we have Firth behind bars. Sorry about wasting the food, Candy.”
“No problem. Just remember I’m holding you to that collaring ceremony.”
* * * *
