by Sophie Oak
“Hey, baby, how are you doing this morning?” Her mom sounded cheery and awake.
Lexi didn’t have time for chitchat. “I need you to send Jack and Sam out to the ranch. Do not come yourself. Matter of life and death—maybe mine, definitely Aidan’s. Love you. Bye.”
Lexi hung up the phone. It immediately rang again, but Lexi let it. She knew her mother. Jack and Sam would be on their way. Whatever happened, at least Lexi knew someone she trusted was coming for her.
Lexi clutched the gun at her side, holding the barrel down and away. She started back toward the bedroom. She didn’t even have on shoes. She would get dressed and then go after them. It would be okay. So far Dwight hadn’t done anything blatant and open. She could see now that he’d tried to blame someone else for his crimes. He would lie in wait. She had time. She would find Lucas and Aidan in a ridiculously compromising position, and they would wonder why she was running around with a gun. By that time, Ben and Chase would be here, and Jack and Sam would be hard on their heels.
Then why had Dwight cut the radio cord?
There was no rational reason to do that unless he was moving. If he sent the ranch hands out of range of cell phones, they would have no way to call for help.
Prickles of trepidation raced along her skin. She rushed into the kitchen. She would get dressed and find them and pray it wasn’t too late.
She was rushing through the kitchen when she stopped. She felt her hands begin to shake as she realized what she could see through the small kitchen window. It was a tiny little window over the sink, draped with faded yellow curtains. It framed the scene in a sort of weird normality. Dwight stood in front of the barn door. His back was to the window. He stood there casually, a rifle at his side. Why was he watching the barn? Was he waiting for Aidan to come out of the barn? Would he shoot Aidan?
Smoke. The faintest hint of smoke drifted from the barn.
Rolling nausea swept through her system as she realized what was happening. Aidan was trapped in the barn, and it was on fire. Terror threatened to swamp her. She didn’t know if he was dead already. He could be dead, and she’d been lying in bed. And where was Lucas? Lucas had gone looking for Aidan. Had he found Dwight?
Lexi clamped her free hand over her mouth to stop the scream that threatened to escape. They couldn’t be dead. They just couldn’t. Her mind wouldn’t wrap around the idea. They were alive, and they were in that barn. They were waiting for her.
They were her men, and by god, no son of a bitch was taking them from her.
Lexi forced herself to walk to the front door. Dwight would see her if she charged out the back. She had no doubt he was better with a rifle than she was with a handgun. After all, he had a lot of practice killing people. She hadn’t even gotten into a fistfight before.
She had to do this.
Lexi had never in her life felt so alone or small as she did as she crept out the front door and around the small ranch house. Her heart pounded in her chest. She wasn’t brave. She sure as hell wasn’t fearless. She was afraid of everything, but she couldn’t afford that now. She was way more afraid of losing Lucas and Aidan than she was of getting herself killed.
Lexi got to the edge of the house. Now she could smell the smoke. How long had they been trapped in there? She was sure Lucas was in there, too. Otherwise, he would be fighting like hell. Lucas was a fighter. Aidan had already proven how hard he could fight.
It was her turn.
Tears blurred the world around her as she held the gun up in a two-handed stance. Immediately her arms ached from the weight, but she wasn’t about to fail now. As quietly as she could, she walked out into the open. Dwight still had his back to her.
“Are you going to move out of my way, or are you going to force me to shoot you?” Lexi asked the question in a clear, calm voice.
She saw Dwight’s back stiffen and his hand tighten around the rifle. He turned very slowly, one hand up. “You don’t want to shoot me, girl. I can’t do what you ask.”
Wrong answer. Lexi pulled the trigger.
The gun exploded, sending jolts of shock up her arm. The kickback set her on her ass and, once more, she wished she’d put on underwear. Her lack of proper panties didn’t stop her from jumping up. Dwight was on the ground. Lexi approached quickly, gun at the ready. His body twitched in the dirt. She kicked the rifle away. Blood streamed from the wound in his chest. A thin line seeped from his mouth. He was obviously in pain, and he wasn’t dead yet.
And Lexi didn’t have time for him. She shot him again, right in the chest. Again the recoil hurt, but she was ready this time. She stayed on her feet and immediately turned to the barn.
“Aidan!” She screamed his name, praying he called back.
She could feel the heat pouring from the barn. She pulled at the barn door, but something held it closed. A lock. It was a combination lock. She had no idea what number Aidan would use.
Lexi stepped back and aimed for the lock. After this was done, if she never saw another gun again, it would be too soon. She spread her legs wide to handle the kickback better and fired. The lock exploded. Lexi set the gun down and pulled open the barn door.
Heat blasted from the open doors. The sides and the back of the barn were fully ablaze. Smoke was everywhere.
“What the fuck?”
Lexi turned and saw Bo staring down at Dwight’s body. Ike sat beside him, his chest heaving as though the dog had been running.
“Help me!” Lexi yelled at him before she ran into the barn. She could barely see through the smoke. It billowed out of the open doors. She could make out the rack. Someone was on the slab. Aidan.
Lexi raced across the floor. Her eyes were adjusting and the smoke was clearing now that it had a place to go. Aidan was tied down. His wrists were bloody from where he’d tried to pull himself free. There was a rag in his mouth. Lexi pulled it out. God, she couldn’t breathe. Aidan was so still.
Please. Please. Please. Let him be alive.
“I have Lucas,” Bo yelled.
Lexi looked over, and Bo was pulling Lucas across the floor. He wasn’t conscious. She couldn’t tell if he was dead. His head rolled back as Bo dragged him by the shoulders. “Get him out of here!”
“I’ll be right back,” Bo yelled.
Lexi could feel Ike beside her. He whined up at her as though begging her to free his master.
Aidan coughed. It was the most beautiful sound she’d ever heard. “Lexi?”
Lexi started working the ropes that bound Aidan. “I’m here. We have to get out.”
He shook his head. “No, angel. You have to run. Get Lucas out if you can, but Dwight’s going to kill us all. You have to run.”
She tugged and managed to pull his right hand free.
Bo was suddenly back in the barn. He pulled a knife out of his boot and started sawing through the ropes on Aidan’s right foot. “Dwight won’t be killing anyone, brother. Your girl took him out. Remind me not to piss her off. And your damn dog must have known something was up. He barked right outside my window until I got my ass up.”
Lexi crawled onto the table to get to Aidan’s left hand. Her lungs were burning. A piece of the roof fell beside her. They didn’t have much time.
“Damn, girl. That is very distracting.” Bo cut through both ropes in the time it took her to work through the first of hers. He avoided another board that fell. He was perfectly calm, given the situation. He took that wicked knife and slashed through the rest of his brother’s ropes. “I’m trying to rescue my brother. You don’t need to be flashing your cootchie. It’s awfully pretty, though.”
Lexi huffed and jumped down from the table.
“You little prick, that’s your sister-in-law.” Aidan’s hands were shaky, but he rolled off the table. His knees struck the floor.
“Yeah, hurt me later, brother.” Bo took the left side, Lexi the right, and they got Aidan to his feet.
Lexi nearly fell as they made it out of the barn. Aidan slumped down, but Bo took his
weight, leaving Lexi to drag air into her lungs. She coughed, her lungs aching. Lexi saw Lucas on the grass. He was so still. She raced to him, running her hands across his body, praying for any sign of life.
“Didn’t work out how I wanted it to,” Lucas muttered between parched lips. “My horniness got me in trouble today, Lexi.”
Lexi laughed through the tears falling from her eyes. She put her head to his chest, reveling in the sound of his heartbeat. “Let this be a lesson to you, Lucas Cameron.”
“You take care of that asshole Dwight?”
Lexi nodded. “He’s gone, babe.”
His hand found her hair. “That’s my girl.”
“Our girl.” Aidan was suddenly at her back. His face was haggard, and his voice sounded three kinds of ruined, but he was alive. Lexi sat up, and Aidan leaned into her. “Our girl saved us. We’ll never hear the end of it now. And she did it all without any underwear.”
Lucas gave her a tired thumbs-up.
In the distance they heard a siren sounding.
Here came the cavalry.
There was the sudden sound of gunfire. Lexi jerked up.
Bo stood over Dwight, Ike at his side. He shrugged. “You’ve seen those movies. Bad guy always comes back. This one ain’t coming back. You know, I never did like that son of a bitch. You think anyone would notice if I shot him a couple hundred more times?”
“Don’t you dare,” Lexi threatened.
Lexi wrapped her arms around her men. Nothing in the world mattered but the fact that they were alive and well.
Two hands started to find their way under her T-shirt.
“Hey,” Lexi protested.
They both snickered.
“It’s my comfort object,” Lucas said.
“It’s my security blanket,” Aidan added.
They were together, and this time it was forever. Lexi felt her heart swell. She had everything she needed.
But she was going to start putting on panties first thing in the morning.
Chapter Twenty
Ten months later
“You’re doing what?” Lexi asked as Dani jumped up and down.
Julian smiled as he sat down at the wide outdoor dining table that graced the Barnes-Fleetwood Ranch’s backyard. It was a glorious spring day, and just about everyone she loved was enjoying a barbecue celebrating the fact that Lexi had finished her first book. It was a romance, and she hadn’t sold it yet, but her family insisted on celebrating every little thing.
“She’s opening a spa.” Julian looked odd in his terribly expensive shirt and slacks, with a hot dog in his hands.
“In Willow Fork?” Willow Fork barely had a beauty parlor, much less a spa. Of course, it was practically a metropolis compared to Deer Run.
Dani’s face was lit with enthusiasm. “It’s a dude ranch spa. There will be horseback riding and hiking and facials and massages. I thought maybe writers could use it for a retreat or something. I’m really excited about it. It’s my senior project.”
Lexi had to shake her head. The rich really were different. Most people would think of a senior college project as a paper analyzing different business practices. Not Dani Lodge-Taylor. Nope. When she did her senior project, she opened a multi-million dollar spa. “Well, I’ll be there.”
“You’ll love it. It turns out Julian owns a huge tract of land in Willow Fork.”
Julian shook his head. “Yes, I actually meant to keep that secret, but my wife turned out to be a bit nosy.”
“I didn’t tell her,” Finn said, sitting down next to Julian. “She was pissed at me, too.”
“Well, I’m not mad now. Now I’m excited. I just hired a manager. She used to run this resort in the Caribbean that catered to people in the lifestyle. Her name is Gaby, and she has two kids. She and her husband are from Texas. They thought it was time to come home. I am really excited about this project. It will bring jobs to the whole area.” Dani chatted on, but Lexi found her focus shifting.
Aidan and Lucas were standing together at the swing set. Olivia and Josh were sitting in swing seats, laughing as the men pushed them. They looked perfect standing together, talking as they entertained the kids.
“Hey.” Her mother curled an arm around her waist. Dani sat down with her husbands. They were arguing happily about budgets.
“Hi, Momma.” Love for her mother swelled in her heart. She let her head rest against her mom’s shoulder.
“I finished your book, baby girl. I am so proud of you. It’s great.”
“Thanks. I’m happy with it.” It might never sell, but it did what it was supposed to do. It told her story. Oh, the names might have changed and the circumstances, but at the heart it was about the love she’d managed to find. It was about the peace she’d come to.
“One day I hope you’re ready to try again,” her mother said. “The best thing I ever did was have you kids.”
Strange, mentioning having kids never scared her anymore. “I thought marrying Jack and Sam was the best thing to happen to you.”
“It was a great thing, but you kids, you were the expression of my soul. All three of you were the product of the love in my heart for the men in my life. I loved your father. It was a child’s love, but it was love. I love Jack and Sam with everything I have. I hope one day you want kids, Lexi, because those men love you.”
She didn’t doubt it. Not for a second. She looked down at the rings on her finger. Two thin wedding bands, connected. Lucas had put the first one on her finger when they had legally married. Aidan had placed the second on her and one on Lucas when they cemented their relationship at The Club. They were the O’Malleys. Lucas had legally changed his name. They were a family.
And she had no intention of it being just the three of them.
“We threw away the condoms last night, Momma.”
They had made love with nothing between them. Lexi wasn’t sure how long it would take to get pregnant, but she was ready for it.
“I’m so glad, baby girl.”
She stood there with her mother, the warm spring breeze playing through her hair. They each watched their men. Lexi hugged her mom and prayed she would be as good a mother as Abigail Barnes-Fleetwood had been.
Jack declared the burgers were ready, and everyone started to line up, chattering happily about their business deals and what the kids were doing.
Lexi stood with her mom and watched it all. They were a wild, weird, crazy bunch. And they were hers.
THE END
WWW.SOPHIEOAK.COM
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Prior to becoming a novelist, Sophie worked in theater and comic books. She lives in Fort Worth, Texas with her husband and three precocious children, who wonder when mom is going to write a book they will be allowed to read. Her answer: probably never. Sophie believes in happy endings for everyone, no matter how extreme the story. Her stories may feature some of the fringe elements of sexuality, but at heart they are always about love. Sophie loves to hear from readers. Please feel free to contact her at www.sophieoak.com.
Also by Sophie Oak
Ménage Amour: Texas Sirens 1: Small Town Siren
Ménage Amour: Texas Sirens 2: Siren in the City
Ménage Everlasting: Texas Sirens 3: Siren Enslaved
Ménage Everlasting: Texas Sirens 4: Siren Beloved
Ménage Amour: Nights in Bliss, Colorado 1: Three to Ride
Ménage Everlasting: Nights in Bliss, Colorado 2: Two to Love
Everlasting Classic: Nights in Bliss, Colorado 3: One to Keep
Siren Classic: Away From Me
Siren Ménage Everlasting: A Faery Story: Bound
Also by Sophie Oak and Chloe Lang
Siren LoveXtreme: Playing the Field
Available at
BOOKSTRAND.COM
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
rlasting)
