“That wasn’t a good idea,” Anna said in a low voice. She looked around the diner. The Contractor was no longer there. Her action of kissing Mitch must have had its desired effect. She now needed to focus on clearing up any misconceptions she’d caused and get her act together. “I only agreed to meet with you because I needed to have my interview for this job, and you were intent on keeping me from it by wanting to talk. Well, we’re talking, and I’m telling you I’m not interested in dating either of you.”
Anna would have gotten up from the table had Elliott not slid in beside her, effectively blocking her exit. The heat from his body surrounded her, giving her the answer she had been seeking earlier. It was her physical reaction to them that was distracting her. She needed to see beyond that and concentrate on staying alive.
“You kissing my brother seems to tell a different story,” Elliott said, turning so that one arm was on the booth behind her and his other was on the table. “I say let’s have that dinner we discussed and get to know one another better.”
Before Anna could disagree, Elliott had called the waitress over. This woman was older and Anna had not met her, so she must have been the waitress to clock in on the later shift. As Elliott started to place his order, Anna looked over at Mitch, who had yet to say anything since she’d kissed him. Hadn’t he been going to leave her and Elliott alone because he wasn’t in the market? Instead, he sat there studying her like she was a bug underneath a microscope. Had she thought his lips were soft? Because right now, they were compressed into a straight line and the concentration in his eyes made her feel as if he was seeing too much. She had instantly regretted kissing him, but now she truly understood what a mistake it had been.
“Dear? What would you like this evening?”
Anna tore her gaze away from Mitch, seeing that the waitress was waiting for her order. Looking down at her nametag, she saw that her name was Mary. Thinking quickly, Anna ordered a bowl of soup and waited for Mary to leave them in peace.
“So how was your first shift today?”
Anna debated answering. If she really wanted to leave, she knew Elliott would stand up and let her walk out of here. But she also knew that he wouldn’t give up trying to get her to go out with them, so the obvious solution was to sit here and pretend that they didn’t affect her in any way. She’d been in tougher situations.
“Fine,” Anna replied, sitting farther back in the booth. “It will do until something better opens up.”
“I’d have thought staying in the city would have been beneficial in finding something in regards to data entry.” Elliott leaned back as Mary returned with their drinks. She placed two waters on the table and a coffee for Mitch.
“Why did you sign up for a dating website?” Anna asked, trying to detour the route of conversation he was taking.
Hell, she had never done any type of data entry. That was something she’d made up so the people in her apartment complex didn’t question what she did with her days and nights. She lived off of her inheritance. Unfortunately, the money her parents had left her was dwindling at a very fast rate, but that was something she’d worry about once all this was over. Right now, she just needed to steer the conversation into a different direction. Mitch had still not spoken, making her more nervous as their “date” wore on.
“That’s a good question,” Elliott said, laughing. He seemed to know that she wasn’t comfortable and was making every effort to change that. She tried not to feel too guilty. They really did seem like nice men. Well, at least Elliott presented that type of aura. Mitch had an edge to him. “We’ve grown up around the ménage lifestyle and eventually, that’s the type of long-term relationship we would like to have. It was postponed for a while due to unforeseen circumstances, but now things seem to be falling into place.”
“Why beat around the bush?” Mitch said, finally breaking his silence. He looked at her over his coffee cup, before taking a sip. “I’m sure she’s already heard about my stint in jail.”
“Mitch,” Elliott said, as if using his name in warning.
“He’s right,” Anna replied. “Willow mentioned something about it. May I ask why you were in prison for ten years?”
“Murder. Mind telling me why you kissed me?”
Anna returned Mitch’s stare, watching him as he slowly sat his mug on the table. He had said the word as if she were going to get up from the table, screaming and running for the door. Mitch didn’t know that she had spent the majority of his prison term around criminals herself—they just happened to be on the outside. She’d come across plenty of murderers. No matter the charge and no matter what anyone said, Anna knew he wasn’t guilty of the crime he was accused of committing. There was something in the eyes of a murderer that Mitch didn’t possess. Sure, his time in a cell had probably hardened him in a way that made his mother cry, but his soul was innocent.
“Mitch, could we not do this here?” Elliott asked, looking discreetly around the diner. “Anna, I know my brother better than I know myself. He’s a good man. It’s a long story and better left to a time when we have some privacy. Please know that he’s not a murderer.”
“I don’t need you to defend me, little brother. If Ginger can’t handle that I’m a felon, then it’s better to know now.”
“Did you just call me Ginger?” Anna asked, not knowing if she should be offended by the redhead nickname. Did he not like redheads? Wait a second, she thought, stick to the topic at hand. It didn’t matter what type of women he liked. “I thought you weren’t in the market for a relationship. Have you changed your mind?”
The question popped out before she could stop it. My God, it was like raising a red flag in front of a bull. She hadn’t acted like herself since she’d met them. This wasn’t working, and she needed to change course and fast. A lightbulb went off above her head. The answer had been in front of her all along.
“Maybe I have. Maybe you’re an enigma that I want to figure out, because I’m growing quite fascinated with your red hair,” Mitch said, rubbing his stubble. “I think you are hiding something though, regardless of what my contacts found out.”
“Contacts? You had her investigated?” Anna could hear the outrage in Elliott’s voice. “Is there something going on here that I don’t know about?”
“Your brother is just wary of strangers.” Anna never broke eye contact with Mitch, waiting to see if any emotion made its way into his hardened eyes. “I can tell you exactly what he found out, which is what you read on my profile with some added details. Let me guess—you know that I lost my parents at the age of eighteen, around the same time I lost my brother. You know that I live in an apartment building in Phoenix and that I live off of my parents’ inheritance. Have I got things right so far?”
“For being twenty-nine years old, that’s a pretty short synopsis.”
“Not everyone can have such an exciting life as you, Mitch,” Anna replied sarcastically. Before he could respond, Mary brought their dinner. They all waited for her to place the plates on the table and leave. Elliott was fidgeting, and she could tell from the looks that he was throwing Mitch’s way that he wasn’t happy with the way his brother was acting. “I’m a boring girl, what can I say?”
“Mitch shouldn’t have invaded your privacy like that, Anna. I apologize.”
“We can change that,” Mitch answered, as if Elliott hadn’t spoken. The fire that ignited in his eyes was the first real sign that he felt the same blazing heat between them that she did. “Just say the word, and the three of us can head to our place. No strings attached.”
“Now wait a –”
“We go our separate ways in the morning,” Anna said, wanting to clarify his meaning. This was the best avenue to take and the answer to her problem. This passionate intensity between them wasn’t going to go away on its own. So the best course of action was to face it head on, extinguish it, and then do what she came to Triple to do. “I leave you alone and you leave me alone.”
“I’m not doin
g this,” Elliott said, leaning forward on the table, as if he could come between them and call a halt to these plans. “Whatever is going on between the three of us could be very special and I refuse to ruin it with a one-night stand.”
“Mitch already understands that this is all you are going to get. I don’t want anything else and neither does he. Either you want to be included or you don’t. But come morning, we are walking away.”
Anna had turned her head to look at Elliott, not prepared for the fervor in his eyes. The caramel color was still melted into molasses, pulling her in and making her want to be covered in his sweetness. She’d only known them for a short time, and already she could see the dramatic differences between the two of them. Amazingly, the differences were what attracted her to both of them. Mitch seemed to understand who she was here and now, where Elliott made her want to be that innocent woman she used to be. For some reason, she didn’t want to have one without the other. She held her breath, waiting for Elliott to respond.
“No.”
Chapter Seven
Elliott stormed out of the diner and walked across the street to the garage. Cutting through the back alley, he fished out his keys from his front pocket. What the hell had just happened? Mitch and Anna were keeping secrets, and Elliott didn’t like being on the outside. His brother had had no right to have her investigated, especially without telling him, but now Elliott understood Mitch’s need to do so. Her actions and responses were erratic, as if she were going off the cuff. Either she had a reason or she was a liar and just playing them. His gut feeling—shit, he didn’t know what the hell he was feeling. One minute he had a hard-on from hell and the next, well, he still had a hard-on and it wasn’t him who was going to get relief tonight.
“Elliott.”
Elliott stopped short of his truck, turning to see who had called out his name. Seeing Cooper appear under the streetlight, walking down the back alley from where his gun shop was, Elliott wondered what his friend might need.
“Do you have a minute?”
“Sure,” Elliott answered, when what he really wanted to do was drive home and sulk in a bottle of whiskey. Knowing that Mitch and Anna were going to be with one another while he chose not to participate was going to be hell. He might as well drink himself into oblivion. “What’s up?”
“Stay away from Anna.”
The warning came so far out of left field that, for a moment, Elliott didn’t say anything. Letting those words settle, his first reaction was an immediate need to know everything. How did Cooper know Anna? Why the words of caution?
“You know her?”
“I know we haven’t known each other that long, but I consider you a friend and hope you feel the same,” Cooper said, standing in front of him with his hands on his hips. “Please trust me when I say that you need to stay away from her. She’s involved in something, and whatever it is, you don’t want to be brought down with it.”
“Cooper, you can’t just say shit like that and expect me not to want to know more. Mitch is with her right now. Is she in trouble?”
“She can handle her own.”
“What the hell does that mean?” Elliott asked, taking a step forward. Cooper put his hands up and shrugged his shoulders. “Just tell me what you know and I’ll make the decision on whether we should stay away from her.”
“Tell him,” Brody ordered, his voice coming from the darkness behind Cooper. He stepped into artificial light. His girth was much more pronounced than his brother’s, and he came to stand beside Cooper. “If this were Cyn, we’d want to know.”
“We were involved with Cyn,” Cooper argued. “They don’t even know this woman. You’ve seen what she is capable of. She could get them killed, Brody.”
“From what I just witnessed at the diner, they know her well enough,” Brody informed him. “Look, it’s not like they can fire us. We don’t even work for them.”
“What the hell are you guys talking about, and what have you seen her do?” Elliott was done listening to them bicker back and forth about something that he had a right to know about in the first place. “Spill it before I call Mitch to beat it out of you.”
Brody just laughed at that threat, while Cooper gave a big sigh, indicating he was about to spill the beans. “Fine, but I’m throwing you under the bus if this gets back to Monroe.”
“Whatever,” Brody said, leaning up against Elliott’s truck and crossing his arms over his chest, obviously not worried about either threat.
“A few months back, the ATF came to us for help on one of their cases,” Cooper explained. “We were to pose as sellers of illegal weapons, using our store as a front. We made contact with a straw man, basically a middleman, and he was to find a buyer. The ATF wants to bring down multiple buyers in the area, so we set up the case so that the buyer was at the drop. Things went to shit when Sonny Jones, the straw man we used to broker the deal, took Cyn.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Elliott asked, shocked that this had happened in such a small town without any of this information leaking out. “How did we not know any of this?”
“Agent Monroe made sure that Deputy Thornton was the only one involved. The operation to bring down the buyers is still in full swing, but after having to witness Cyn’s life on the line, we opted out.”
“So where does Anna come into all this?” Elliott was almost afraid to hear the answer.
Cooper and Brody exchanged glances. Elliott almost took a step forward to grab ahold of Cooper’s shirt, wanting to shake the answers out of him. Trying to be patient, Elliott curled his fingers into his hands, holding them at his sides. He didn’t know why this mattered so much. Hell, he barely knew Anna Valdez. Somehow, someway, she’d already become an important part of their lives. He hoped that Mitch didn’t screw that up tonight. And he prayed that whatever Cooper and Brody were about to say didn’t alter the path that Elliott could see the three of them taking.
“Anna was the buyer. She went by the name of Anna Cruz.”
Fuck. Elliott lowered his head, taking deep breaths as his friend delivered the crushing news. This not only changed things, this pretty much ended them.
* * * *
Mitch held Anna against the door to her room, with her legs wrapped around his waist. He was a big man, but for some reason, Anna didn’t fear him like most women. The heat of her pussy absorbed through his shirt, touching his skin and making him want to rip off her panties. Her jeans were somewhere on the floor, along with her sweater and his shirt. They still had too many clothes on, but Mitch couldn’t bring himself to take this any further—at least, not without Elliott.
Tearing his mouth from hers, Mitch leaned his forehead against Anna’s. Their breathing was ragged and a fine sheen of sweat covered both of them. Her warm skin lay against his and he took a moment to relish in the comfort she provided. Even in this position, she melded against him perfectly. What he wanted was a quick fuck, not a long-term relationship or to ruin something good for his brother. He weighed the pros and cons.
“We can still do this,” Anna whispered, her breath caressing his lips. “We can satisfy each other, get whatever this is out of our systems, and go our separate ways.”
“You know one night wouldn’t be enough, Ginger,” Mitch murmured, shaking his head slowly against hers. “I might not be a good man, but I can’t do this to my brother. He wants more with you.”
“He thinks he wants more,” Anna said, speaking louder. She dropped her legs, forcing him to lower her to the ground. “I think he likes the idea of a relationship, not exactly me in particular.”
“That’s bullshit,” Mitch said, taking a step back. “You feel whatever is between us.”
“Maybe,” Anna answered vaguely. Walking across the room in nothing but black panties and a matching bra, she wasn’t in the least embarrassed by her appearance. She grabbed his shirt off the floor though and slipped it over her head. “But you want nothing more than to fuck, so why don’t we do that and call it a night?
”
“Because Elliott wants more and I can’t take that away from him.”
“I thought you two were into sharing,” Anna said, making her way to the tiny refrigerator on the far wall. “You each can’t have it your own way, especially with me only wanting yours. A one-night stand would accommodate both of us.”
“Then it looks like all three of us lose out.” Mitch made his way to the chair that was sitting in the corner, next to the bed.
It was a small room but equipped with whatever she might need. The bed was up against the right wall, while a small couch and table occupied the far-left corner. A mini refrigerator and small counter with a coffeepot and sink sat opposite of that. Hell, regardless of how small the room was, anything was better than the cell that he had occupied for ten years.
“Elliott said you wanted a ménage.” Anna had taken two bottles of water from the small fridge and brought them back his way. Handing one to him, she made herself comfortable on the bed. “Isn’t that what this town is famous for?”
“We share women, if that’s what you mean,” Mitch answered, trying to clarify things for her. “But as for a relationship, Elliott just hasn’t accepted that he’s going to have to do that on his own. I’m not cut out for that.”
“Ah, that’s right,” Anna said mockingly. “You don’t think you’re good enough for a woman because you’re a felon. Let me rephrase that, you’re good enough for a fuck, but not good enough for a relationship.”
“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” Mitch was now ready to leave. Who was she to judge him? She was the one with all the secrets, regardless that his contact said she was clean. He knew that to be the truth, just as he knew he’d forever be known as a felon.
“Stop with the ruffled feathers,” Anna said, rolling to her side and propping her elbow on the bed to rest her head in her hand. Her red hair tumbled around her fingers, the golden hue of the light making the strands seem to sparkle. He wasn’t sure where her clip had gone. His T-shirt was a little too big for her, but when she shifted her hips, the material moved up to display her panties. He couldn’t prevent his eyes from taking in the curve of her thighs or the way her dainty feet couldn’t be longer than his hand. The pink of her toes was just an added benefit to the view. He’d always loved pink on a woman. “It’s just obvious you have this self-image that differs from everyone else’s.”
Imprisoned Match [Ménage.com 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 5
