by Becca Van
Slick Rock 13
Triple H Ranch
Catalina Ball is on the run. After finding her parents murdered on the living room floor of their house, she escapes before the killer can get her. She spends three months in a safe house being protected by the sheriffs of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, trying to come to terms with her parent's horrific death and her grief, but the danger isn't over. The killer finds where she's hiding and after killing the deputy, comes after her.
Cat manages to escape but she's exhausted from her panicked flight and collapses on the outskirts of Slick Rock, Colorado. Hank, Barry, and David Heritage, owners of the Triple H Ranch, think Catalina is the woman they’ve been waiting for. They take her into their home, to rest and heal, and begin to court her. Cat tries to keep her distance, but it's an impossible task when she is so attracted to the three men. When danger hits town, will the three retired SEALs be able to save her from the madman hell bent on snuffing out her life?
Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Western/Cowboys
Length: 55,183 words
TRIPLE H RANCH
Slick Rock 13
Becca Van
MENAGE EVERLASTING
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
TRIPLE H RANCH
Copyright © 2016 by Becca Van
E-book ISBN: 978-1-68295-158-3
First E-book Publication: April 2016
Cover design by Les Byerly
All art and logo copyright © 2016 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Epilogue
About the Author
TRIPLE H RANCH
Slick Rock 13
BECCA VAN
Copyright © 2016
Prologue
Cat smiled happily as she walked up the drive to her parent’s front door. It was such a beautiful day, and she hoped her mom and dad hadn’t decided to take the boat out onto the lake. Lake Hayden was such a beautiful place, and she loved spending time with her parents relaxing in the warm sun. She was hoping to go with them to relax and soak up some of the sun’s rays on their new boat.
The front door was open and while that wasn’t the norm, she thought that maybe her mother had wanted to let the breeze through the house. Her mom loved opening up the windows and rear doors to let the fresh air into their home. She walked inside the entry and frowned because of the stillness she felt. The hair on the back of her neck stood on end, goose bumps raced over her flesh, and her heart began to pound in her chest as her feet began to move. The moment she got to the end of the short wall hiding the rest of the house from the entry she knew something was terribly wrong. The house felt almost sinister with its silence.
Her feet landed on the edge of the large rug, and she slowly moved toward the living room sofa. As she reached the back of the couch and saw her parents lying on the floor with their eyes wide open, staring at the ceiling, her stomach heaved and she covered her mouth and nose with her hand. The smell of blood and death was overwhelming, but the grief in her heart and soul nearly brought her to her knees. Tears rolled down her face unchecked, her chest and throat hurt as she held back the sobs.
That was when she heard a noise coming from the kitchen. She pushed the horror and grief aside as fear skittered up her spine, making her tremble. When she heard a boot or shoe land on the hardwood floor, she turned and fled.
Her breath came in ragged pants as she raced back to her car before she threw herself into the driver’s seat, turned the key, and planted her foot on the accelerator. She had no idea why she glanced into the rearview mirror, maybe it was a sixth sense, but a cry of anguish echoed around the car when she saw her father’s brother standing on the top of the front steps with bloody hands and a dripping knife in one of them.
Cat almost ran off the road. If one of her tires hadn’t hit the gutter, she might have wrecked the car. At the last minute, she jerked on the steering wheel, straightening her car back onto the road, thankful that there hadn’t been any other vehicles in her path to crash into.
She didn’t remember driving to the police station, but she vaguely remembered giving her statement to the chief of police and then she had been spirited away into the protective custody of the Kootenai County sheriff’s department of Coeur d’Alene.
* * * *
Catalina jerked upright as the nightmare released her of its hold. She reached for the bedside lamp, turned it on, frantically glancing about the unfamiliar room before drawing in a deep gasping breath and running her
hands down her sweat-coated face. Now that she knew she was safe, the urge to laugh hysterically was hard to keep at bay, and she was worried that if she did give in, she wouldn’t be able to stop.
She felt as if she were on the edge of a cliff about to step off and knew that if she took the final step, there would be no way back. Her emotions were all over the place, and she wondered if she was about to lose her mind, but she wasn’t about to let that asshole win. If she didn’t hold herself together, he would never pay for his sins.
Every time she closed her eyes, she saw her parents lying on the floor of the living room, blood pooling under their bodies, soaking their clothes and seeping from the countless stab wounds.
She’d never forget the moment she had glanced into her rearview mirror. Her father’s younger brother had stood on the stoop, blood still on his hands, and he had made a slashing motion across his neck.
Cat knew then she would never be safe until her uncle was caught and behind bars. The police had put an APB out on her uncle, but he seemed to have disappeared from the face of the earth.
She’d had been in hiding for just over three months and tried to take each day as it came, but the grief that swamped her regularly was sometimes too much to handle. She didn’t remember much of the first month since the day she’d found her parents stabbed to death on the living room floor, but it didn’t really matter. Nothing mattered anymore. How could it when she’d witnessed such a horrifying scene and her parents were dead?
Occasionally she wished her parents had never won the lottery, because if they hadn’t, they might still be alive.
She felt so guilty because she was still breathing, and from time to time the grief was so overwhelming she could barely breathe. Luckily for her functioning was automatic, otherwise she might not be alive still.
She was currently residing in the Coeur d’Alene sheriff’s spare bedroom, and he had deputies with her around the clock, but she still didn’t feel safe. She knew she never would until her uncle was apprehended and behind bars.
She shivered as she stared out the bedroom window that faced Lake Coeur d’Alene trying to stop the tears that burned the back of her eyes from welling, but it didn’t help. She cried at the drop of a hat these days. She missed her parents so much. Her life would never be the same. She’d been in her last year of college, had just finished her degree for becoming a teacher, and now wondered if all her dreams had gone up in smoke because of her greedy uncle. Cat hadn’t known at the time but the bedrooms and kitchen had been ransacked. The safe in her dad’s office had been open and emptied. Her parents had died over money because of greed. She couldn’t understand why her uncle hadn’t just asked her father for cash if he needed it. She knew he would have given it to his brother without blinking. But she wasn’t sure that it was just greed that had been the driving force for him to kill her parents.
Now that she cops knew about him, there was no way he would ever get his hands on the money. For all she knew her uncle could have been killing for years. Is that why she didn’t feel safe? Was her uncle a psychotic murderer who got off on hurting and killing other people? A shiver of apprehension shot up her spine and she drew in a deep ragged breath. This was getting her nowhere. These thoughts were just compounding her fear so she tried to push them aside.
No matter how much she thought about the reasons for her uncle’s actions, it wouldn’t change anything. It wouldn’t bring her parents back. She was all alone and trying to take each day as it came, putting one foot in front of the other as she moved through each day in a fog.
The sheriff and his deputies had been great, making sure she had something to eat and drink at regular intervals. However, just looking at food made her feel ill, and she left it untouched most times. She’d caught Sheriff Riddell as well as his men looking at her with concern in their eyes, but she just couldn’t dredge up the energy to talk to them. All she ever seemed to do was nod or shake her head. She hardly ever slept and spent most of her time staring out the window that looked over the lake.
She was so tired she could barely hold her head up and finally gave in to rest it on the windowsill before sinking into a light doze.
Her mother seemed to appear from nowhere and standing at her side was her dad with his arm around her shoulders, and they were smiling at her. Cat knew they couldn’t be real because she could see right through them, and although her mom’s mouth was moving as if she were talking, she didn’t hear a word. Cat took a step back when her mom frowned at her, waved her finger as if scolding her, and shook her head from side to side.
She glanced over at her father to see that he’d removed his arm from her mother’s shoulder, still smiling, and then his arms spread wide before wrapping around his body as if trying to hug himself.
A giggle rose up in her chest and burst from her mouth at her dad’s strange antics, and when she glanced back at her mom, she saw she was still doing the finger wag and head shake. Just as they appeared, they disappeared again without any warning and Cat sucked in a deep ragged breath as she bolted upright, bumping her head on the window frame.
A smile curved the edges of her lips as she remembered her mom giving her a talking-to when she’d done something wrong, but she’d also done the same thing when Cat’s self-esteem had taken a nose dive. Her dad had often told her she could do anything she wished if she worked hard to get it as long as she believed in herself.
She exhaled and tears welled. Her parents had been trying to tell her to stop wallowing and get on with it. At least that’s what it had looked like to her.
The heavy weight of grief she’d been carrying in her heart lightened a little, and she smiled fully for the first time since finding their bodies.
She knew it was going to take more time for her to think of them without breaking down or feeling sad, but she would eventually. She would always miss them dreadfully, but she was still alive and had years to live if the police could find and incarcerate her uncle.
If she got the chance, she was going to grab hold of any opportunity that came her way and hold on tight. She’d always dreamed of having a family of her own. Maybe one day in the near future, she would meet a loving man who would help make her dreams come to fruition.
Feeling better than she had in months, Cat rose and headed out. Her stomach was growling for the first time since that horrific day, letting her know how hungry she was. She was going to the kitchen to find something to eat.
She had just finished her sandwich and cup of tea before she realized how quiet it was. Besides the low drone of the TV coming from the living room, she couldn’t hear anything else. Surely Deputy Ted River would have come out to the kitchen when he heard her rummaging about.
Cat edged toward the living room entrance and sagged against the doorframe when she saw the deputy sitting on the sofa watching TV. She was about to call out to him but covered her mouth when she realized he wasn’t seeing anything. There was a bullet hole in the middle of his forehead.
She backed into the kitchen. The food in her stomach felt heavy like she’d just swallowed a lump of lead and threatened to come up, but she swallowed taking deep breaths through her mouth. She moved silently around the kitchen counter and pulled the big carving knife out of the knife block, clutching it tightly in her hand. The light coming through the windows was quickly waning, and as shadows formed, the house took on a sinister note that had the hair on the back of her neck standing on end.
She glanced at the phone hanging on the wall but quickly vetoed the idea of making a phone call. If there were someone still in the house besides her and the dead deputy, they would hear her as soon as she started talking.
The urge to leave was too distinct to ignore, and she crept back around the counter toward the sliding glass doors, which led out to the deck at the side of the house. She tugged on the door and nearly growled with frustration when it remained shut, but when she looked down, she noticed the latch was in the lock position. Using two fingers, she held her breath as sh
e unlocked the door and slowly pushed it open, thankful that it made barely any noise. After glancing behind her and making sure she was still alone, Cat stepped onto the deck and closed the door behind her.
She frantically looked about, not sure where to run and as she moved to the pathway which she suspected led around to the front of the house, she quickly changed her mind and took off toward the lake.
Her heart was pounding in her chest, and although she was shivering with cold, she was sweating with fear. She’d just reached the beginning of the private dock, which jutted over the lake, when she heard a shout. She turned and looked back over her shoulder and began trembling with terror.
Her uncle leaped off the deck and was sprinting toward her, and he had a gun in his hand.
Cat put on a burst of speed, running as fast as her legs would carry her and without any hesitation, she dived straight into the cold water. The moment she hit the water she tucked the blade into the waistband of her jeans and began to swim. She swam as far and as fast as she could, hoping that when she came up for air she would be far enough away from the dock so that Uncle Max wouldn’t be able to see her, or wouldn’t be able to shoot her with his gun.
She stayed under water until her lungs were burning, so desperate for air she was tempted to breathe in the water, but she refrained and headed toward the surface. The moment she broke free of the water, she gasped oxygen into her lungs and turned to see if she could see him. Just as she spotted him, a searing hot pain pierced her arm and water splashed close by, and then a light pop echoed. The bastard had to be using a silencer. No wonder she hadn’t heard anything when the deputy had been shot. Plus she’d been asleep or so lost in her own grief she hadn’t noticed any sound out of place.
