by Jenny Penn
“Deal.” Kevin nodded easily as he hopped out of his seat and began collecting his stuff. He paused to offer her a final smile. “I’m so glad that my story moved you. I didn’t know I could be powerful.”
“A strong voice is always powerful,” Kitty Anne instructed him. “But it will weaken if it doesn’t learn to speak correctly, understood?”
Kevin snorted and rolled his eyes as he heaved his backpack over his shoulder. “Understood.”
“I expect to see you first thing in the morning after breakfast,” Kitty Anne called out as he headed out the door of the shed, brushing past Nick, who paused to offer Kevin a quick greeting.
“Hey, Kev.”
“Hey, Mr. Dickles.”
“You headed down to play soccer.”
“No, I’m headed down to watch.” Kevin cast a quick look back at Kitty Anne before adding on, “And, apparently, interview one of the guys.”
“Interview?” Nick frowned. “For what?”
“For the paper.”
That had Nick’s scowl deepening. “We don’t have a paper.”
“I know,” Kevin assured him before disappearing down the hall and leaving Nick to cast his confused gaze in Kitty Anne’s direction.
“Am I missing something here?”
“I think it would be great if we started a Camp D newspaper. I mean, I know you have to find a teacher to replace me, and I have a lot to learn about fundraising, but…it would be a great fundraising tool, and I’d love to help out getting the paper started.”
Kitty Anne pulled herself up, both excited and expectant as she waited for Nick’s response. She’d anticipated some amount of interest, good or bad, in the idea, but all she got was a grunt and a shrug.
“Whatever you want to do. I need—”
“What do you mean, whatever I want to do?” Kitty Anne frowned, disappointed with his response. He could show, at least, a modicum of excitement. “Don’t you care what I do?”
“Of course I do, beautiful,” Nick assured her all too quickly. “But I—”
“I’d believe you more if you would talk to something north of my breasts,” Kitty Anne shot back huffily, venting her irritation on cleaning up the small classroom.
“I am not talking to your—”
“Hey, Mr. Dickles.” Tony strolled in, confident and grinning as always. The kid was a charmer, and he knew it. He also aimed high, putting the moves on Kitty Anne more than once. “You joining Miss Kitty and me for a lesson?”
There was something about the way Tony talked that just made everything sound a little lewd, and Kitty Anne couldn’t help but roll her eyes at the fifteen year-old’s antics.
“Actually, I need to have a few private words with Miss Allison.”
Nick put enough emphasis on her title to assure that his opinion of the kid’s familiarity with Kitty Anne was understood. Just in case it wasn’t, the dirty look he shot her made it clear that she’d overstepped her bounds. Maybe he was right. Tony might be harmless, but that didn’t make him any less forward.
“Sure thing, Mr. Dickles.” Tony nodded eagerly, appearing completely unfazed as he moved into the room to drop his bag by one of the desks.
“I’ll just leave this and my…shirt”—Tony whipped his T-shirt off in a move that was clearly practiced and left Kitty Anne biting her cheeks to keep from laughing as he dropped it down on his bag— “right here and go play soccer till you holler for me.”
With that, the kid strutted out of the room with the confidence of a man twice as old and three times larger. The sad thing was that Kitty Anne actually suspected Nick might be a little jealous. He certainly was annoyed. He watched Tony go with a look that had Kitty Anne smothering another round of giggles.
Heaving a heavy sigh, he looked toward the ceiling and shook his head. “This is exactly why I had rule against women working at the camp.”
“Oh please,” Kitty Anne huffed. “He’s just teasing.”
“No,” Nick stated firmly with a shake of his head. “He’s not, which is just why I have interviews lined up two weeks from now to find your replacement. Soon, the camp will be happily woman free again.”
“How sexist can you be?”
“I might be sexist, but that doesn’t mean you and your mother aren’t causing me all sorts of problems,” Nick stated pointedly as he rounded on Kitty Anne, who groaned.
“Oh God. It’s going to be one of those talks.”
“Yes. It is.” Nick swallowed and braced himself in a gesture that was almost as comical as Tony’s strut had been. “Your mother has to go.”
“That’s fine by me.” Hell, it sounded better than that, but Kitty Anne knew there was a reason Nick was talking to her and not Lynn Anne. “Why don’t you just go tell her that?”
“Because she scares me,” Nick admitted with an honesty that had Kitty Anne’s frown blooming back into a smile.
“Oh, don’t be silly.”
“She kneed me in the balls!”
“It was an accident.”
“No.” Nick shook his head, refusing to accept that lame excuse. “It wasn’t, so I’m going to try something less painful and more effective.”
“Yeah? And what’s that?” Kitty Anne asked, unable to shake the smile his sore tone stirred in her. He was so cute when he got upset.
“I’m going to buy her off.”
“What?” Kitty Anne blinked, her smile fading fast. “No.”
Kitty Anne wasn’t about to let her mother annoy her boyfriend into giving her money. That was too much.
“Absolutely not.”
“Kitty Anne—”
“Nope.” Kitty Anne shook her head, refusing to even talk about the matter. “Don’t worry. I’ll get rid of her.”
“It’s been almost two weeks,” Nick complained. “I’m tired and sore, and I want to have sex in a bed like normal people.”
“Oh please.” Kitty Anne rolled her eyes at that. “We could have sex in a bed if we want to. Besides, we’re not having sex, remember? You chose GD’s side.”
“I didn’t choose any sides,” Nick insisted, refusing to let Kitty Anne lure him out of his grumpy mood. “And I’m buying your mother off. I know what your mother wants, and I’m just going to give it to her and get rid of her.”
“Well, if you’re just going to do whatever it is you want, why are you bothering to tell me?” Kitty Anne demanded to know in exasperation.
“Because if I didn’t tell you, you’d be upset with me for both doing it and not telling you. This way you’re only pissed about one thing,” Nick shot back as if that made all the sense in the world. He followed that indignant retort by snatching up Tony’s shirt and shaking at her. “And I expect your pupils to stay clothed, Miss Allison, is that understood?”
“Kiss my ass, Mr. Dickles.”
“Later,” he promised her, sending a wicked thrill racing up Kitty Anne’s spine. “After you put on GD’s collar.”
“Good luck.”
He was going to need it, and maybe a little motivation wouldn’t hurt. After all, as Nick had pointed out, it had been nearly two weeks and GD hadn’t caved yet, proving that he was more stubborn than her. Now she had to wait on Nick?
No. He didn’t have that kind of fortitude. She’d break him, and she knew just how.
“I’ll tell you what.” Kitty Anne smiled as she slunk across the room to rub up against Nick suggestively as she purred. “You get rid of my mom, and I’ll put GD’s collar on and celebrate…but if I get rid of her first, guess who wears the collar.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Monday, June 16th
“I am not wearing a collar.” GD looked over at Nick, who was grinning like an idiot, and shook his head.
It had been a long, sleepless night. He’d stayed in town at his apartment last night, having worked late at the club. The Davis brothers refused to accept GD’s resignation until he’d hired his replacement. They weren’t going to waste their time interviewing people. GD suspected tha
t was because each brother knew how hard it was going to be to find a replacement.
Any of the guys at the club would probably jump at the chance to claim the title of master of ceremonies, but that was sort of the problem. The master had to be laid-back and not out for either personal gain or vendettas. GD was considered to be very evenhanded and that was important because the other guys had to respect his opinions and rulings.
He had an idea of who to tap, but at the moment Hailey’s brothers were both out somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico fishing. They wouldn’t be back until the end of the month. So, some nights GD found himself crashing at his apartment instead of disturbing Kitty Anne and Nick by trying to slip into their bed in the middle of the night.
Besides, these quiet moments gave him a chance to think, normally about Kitty Anne. She was always in his thoughts and right then, his thoughts were focused not only on her but on how to get her to slip on his collar. He knew the woman didn’t really object to wearing it.
She was just stubborn.
Kitty Anne was too bullheaded for her own good, and his. After all, she’d had a taste of what he had to offer, and GD knew she’d liked it, but yet…she still turned him down.
That hurt a little. It certainly didn’t put him in a good mood.
“And if I’m going to be living out here, I’m really going to need my own office,” GD grumbled, knowing he was repeating himself. He just didn’t trust that Nick was actually listening.
“We’ll attach it to the new house,” Nick responded with what was becoming his standard retort. He shrugged, unconcerned about the matter, but then it wasn’t his office.
“I’m serious, man,” GD stressed.
“I know you are.”
“I want to see these plans before they’re finalized.”
“Whatever.”
That wasn’t the firm agreement GD had been looking for, but he didn’t think Nick was capable of being too firm right then. After all, the man had been getting laid for the past two weeks. That tended to put any man in a good mood. Kitty Anne’s mother on the other hand tended to put most men into a bad one.
“That is after we get rid of Lynn Anne,” Nick muttered, drawing GD’s attention to his darkening frown. “If we ever get rid of her.”
“It’s going to be a week before the paperwork all clears.”
“One more week of hell,” Nick echoed.
“Yeah.” GD frowned at the screen as he finally cleared the last hurdle and made it into Lana’s bank account. “Well, shit.”
“What?” Nick perked up, glancing over at the laptop GD had set up on Kitty Anne’s desk. “Now that’s a woman worth a lot of money.”
“And if Gwen knew that, she’d probably ask for more,” GD muttered to himself, wondering just why the hell Lana was paying her in the first place.
“Who?” Nick lifted a brow in open curiosity.
“Nobody,” GD quickly assured him, backing out of Lana’s accounts and closing down his laptop as he pointedly turned the conversation to the story Nick had shown him earlier. “What we really need to talk about is Rachel’s investigation.”
“Oh yeah. That.” Nick’s nose wrinkled as he settled back in his seat with a sigh. “I told you that woman was up to no good.”
“She’s just doing her job,” GD corrected him for like the millionth time that morning. “More importantly, there was nothing in Rachel’s notes that indicated that Kitty Anne had told her anything. She figured out the Seth’s connection all on her own.”
“And Kevin?”
“She doesn’t know about him…well, not really. She’s found his birth certificate, but hasn’t put all the pieces together.” It was only a matter of time before she did. “Right now, she’s deduced that Seth came here to find Patton. Oh, and she thinks that he started the fire.”
She was looking for proof, which was dangerous. Not just for Kevin and Seth. Alex and the district attorney hadn’t pressed charges against Kevin for the Davis barn fire despite the evidence of his guilt. That was in their prerogative, but that didn’t mean the voters would agree when the story ran in the paper.
Once that happened, all hell was going to break loose. It was tragedy upon tragedy. The girl—whose mother had abandoned her and whose father had been murdered by the father of the men who raised her and now claimed her as their own—had two brothers from her crazy mother that nobody had ever known about. That was the kind of drama the gossips waited a lifetime to kibitz over.
“And you suggest…what?” Nick waited pointedly, but he knew GD only had an old, well-worn solution.
“Telling the Davis brothers the truth.”
And they could be the ones to tell Patton.
“That’s up to Kevin and Seth,” Nick insisted. “I’m not going to force either one of them to do anything. When they’re ready—”
“What if Seth’s never ready?” GD asked, loathing that cliché. Sometimes people were just too stubborn for their own good and needed a swift kick in the butt, but not literally.
“He will be. Even if Seth doesn’t, Kevin probably will. Just look at how far he’s come.”
“Thanks to Kitty Anne,” GD reminded him. “She’s working wonders with him.”
“Kitty Anne’s got an ulterior motive.”
“Oh come on,” GD groaned. “What is it going to take to make you trust her?”
“What’s it going to take to make you?” Nick shot back pointedly, but GD didn’t have a clue as to what he was talking about.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“When you wear Kitty Anne’s collar…then I’ll tell her whatever she wants to know about Kevin.”
“I’m not crazy enough to let Kitty Anne put a collar on me.” GD wasn’t about to sink into that quicksand. Instead, he picked up his laptop and shoved his seat back. “Now, I got to go handle some business out at the club so…give Kitty Anne a kiss for me when you see her at lunch and tell her I’ll see her later. Okay?”
“You can kiss me now,” Kitty Anne cut in, speaking up from the doorway behind GD.
The doorway Nick could see clearly. His smile assured GD that he’d just been set up. If that didn’t clue him in that she’d heard too much, Kitty Anne’s own warning did.
“Of course I might bite, you never know. After all, you can’t trust me, can you?”
“Thanks,” GD whispered furiously at Nick, whose grin was growing wider by the second.
“Don’t be snapping at Nick,” Kitty Anne said, jumping immediately to his defense as she came wheeling around the desk to confront GD with her frown. “What is this? You won’t wear my collar? What the hell do you think I’m going to do with you?”
That was a conversation he didn’t want to have because he didn’t want to give her any ideas. Instead, GD took the low road and pointed at Nick as he threw him under the bus. “He doesn’t trust you with Kevin.”
“What?” That had Kitty Anne wheeling around. “You don’t trust me? Why the hell not?”
“We know you’re working with Rachel on a story about Seth and Kevin,” Nick warned her, cutting Kitty Anne off before she could blatantly lie. Of course, instead of responding with any sense of shame or embarrassment, Kitty Anne drew herself up indignantly.
“And just how do you know that?” Kitty Anne demanded to know.
“GD broke into the newspaper office and read her notes,” Nick answered without any hesitation, drawing a glare from the accused himself as he growled out his displeasure at being betrayed.
“Thanks, man. That was a great help.”
“You broke into Rachel’s office?” Kitty Anne heaved a deep sigh as she shook her head at him. “You know that’s illegal, right?”
“Only if you get caught,” GD assured her. “And I’d love to continue this argument but—”
“You got to go to your naked girlie club,” Kitty Anne filled in for him.
“I’m quitting. I swear.”
“I guess I’ll have to trust you then, huh?”
<
br /> GD shot Kitty Anne a dirty look for that low blow and stepped around the desk to drop a quick kiss that spun out of control as she went all soft and easy in his arms. She was so sweet and sassy, and he’d have loved nothing more than to back her up against Nick’s desk and have a little fun, but he really did have business to take care of.
Reluctantly lifting his lips, he gazed down into her eyes and cupped her gently curved jaw in his, allowing his thumb to stroke over the velvety smooth arch of her cheek.
“I’m not wearing a collar,” he whispered softly. “But don’t ever doubt that I’m your slave.”
Kitty Anne’s lips pulled into a satisfied grin. “I know, and you know I’m not going to do anything that might harm Kevin.”
GD smiled. He did know, just as he knew it would irritate the crap out of her when he failed to agree. So he left her standing there, staring after him as he whistled his way out the door.
* * * *
Kitty Anne watched GD saunter away and couldn’t help but sense that something else was up. He was moving too fast, not that she was really worried about him and the club. She knew all the signs of a cheating man, having gone through that before. GD was too attentive and way too horny to be straying just yet.
That thought gave Kitty Anne pause as it dawned on her that maybe GD and Nick weren’t the only ones with trust issues. At least, though, she was trying. That was more than she could say for either of her men.
“You keep frowning like that and your face will get stuck,” Nick warned her as he stretched forward to snake an arm around her waist and tumble Kitty Anne back onto his lap. “And you have such a pretty face. I hate to see it marred with such an angry scowl.”
“So says the man who is worried I’m going to…what?” Kitty Anne looked up at him. “What is it you really think I’m going to do? Tell Patton that she has two brothers she doesn’t know about? Or tell Rachel and let her write a story that blows up an entire family?”
Nick frowned over her questions. That was exactly what worried him. That and more, but he couldn’t tell her that without revealing even more.
