Going For Gold: Providence Gold Series Book Four

by Moore, Mary B.

  “Elijah, this is Lottie. Lottie, this is…”

  Not waiting for me to finish, he held his hand out to her. “Elijah Townsend-Rossi, his favorite cousin.”

  Shaking his hand, she smiled at him and looked nervously over at me. “Great to meet you. I didn’t know you were coming today.”

  Flicking a wide-eyed glance at me as soon as he heard her voice, he replied smoothly, “I wanted to surprise this one. Gotta say, though, hearing that voice and seeing how beautiful you are, I don’t blame him for not opening the door.” Clenching my fists, I started rehearsing my apology to my aunt over the death of her son, when he turned his head fully in my direction. “You lucky fucking bastard.”

  Trying to ease some of the tension, Lottie took her hand back from where he was still holding it and smiled at both of us. “This is so awesome. When are your brothers arriving?”

  Rolling my eyes, I opened the door all the way and stood back. “No one knows when they’re coming, they just turn up.”

  Some might think I was being rude, but it was true. In fact, I had good reason to not be happy with Elijah and he knew it, which he proved by bursting out laughing.

  “You still pissed at me? Come on, I thought we were friends.”

  Shooting him a glare, I closed the door behind them, trapping the two puppies which were now pulling on his shoelaces and growling. If it had been anyone but him I’d have told them off… No, wait, I was totally lying. If it had been one of a handful of people I’d have done that, but definitely not with him.

  “What did you do?” Lottie asked, unable to help herself.

  “I sent him a cake for his birthday,” he shrugged, sitting down on the couch and watching Red and Rambo. “What are they?”

  “Miniature Daschund puppies. What was wrong with the cake?”

  “It was one of those diaper cakes. It was actually a total fluke that they had denim diapers out at the time, and also that you can buy fake Levi jeans labels online.”

  Yeah, I was pretty certain you weren’t meant to do that and with his job breaking the law wasn’t just frowned upon – it was a fuck no. Which obviously I reminded him about, because I’m a good cousin and all.

  Waving it off, he looked at me and for the first time, I saw how tired he was. I wasn’t a heartless bastard, I might still have a tiny bit of a grudge (what he’d divulged to Lottie didn’t even come close to what he’d done), but I actually loved my cousins no matter how big of a pain in my ass they were. Seeing the guy who always seemed like he didn’t have a care in the world trying to hide something that was big enough to smother that carefree attitude? It concerned me.

  “Speaking of work, how’s it going?”

  “Busy.” That was it, that was all he said. I left it a second to see if he’d expand on it, but he purposely kept his eyes on the dogs.

  “What do you do, Elijah?” Lottie asked him this time as she curled up and leaned into my side.

  With anyone else, he would probably just ignore the question, but he looked up and saw the way we were sitting and his eyes softened. “I’m in the Coast Guard in Alaska.”

  “Whoa, that’s really cool. Are you on a ship or do you go on the helicopters?”

  “Both. We land on the ships periodically to launch off of, but usually it’s from land.”

  Saving her from having to wring the answers out of him, I cleared my throat. “Elijah is the guy who goes down into the water, or lowers from the helicopter onto the deck, baby. He’s a rescue swimmer.”

  “You go into the water in Alaska? How are you still alive?”

  Smiling at her, he replied, “We try not to spend too much time in the water when we go down.”

  “Do you have a survival suit?” When he nodded, she asked the question that I’d figured was coming. “Can I try it on? How warm does it keep you?”

  Sitting back, I watched as she threw question after question at him – some he dodged, some he answered. There were also a couple of internet searches to look up what he’d mentioned and most of those triggered more questions, too. At one point, he looked up at me like he was begging for me to help him, but I just shot him one of his shit-eating grins back making it clear no help would be forthcoming from this cousin. The grudge – it was real.

  Finally, when she’d run out of questions, I repeated my earlier question, phrasing it nicely this time. “So, how come you came earlier than the others?” Before he could answer it, I followed it with an almost paranoid, “It is just you, isn’t it?” And looked around us like more of them were standing behind me.

  “Yeah, the others aren’t due for a couple of days, but I heard you had some problems going on and figured I’d come lend a hand.”

  Sighing, I groaned, “And who told you I had problems?”

  Bursting out laughing, he leaned forward to pick Red up, holding him in front of his face like he was trying to make sure he was of the canine species and not a rat. “Gramps did.”

  Covering my hands with my face, my initial instinct was to scream into them but that would make me look like a little bitch. “Fuuuuuck.”

  The bark of laughter that came out of Elijah didn’t help the frustration and sinking in my gut. If Gramps had told him, it meant he’d told all of them. That meant that they’d also try to come early, some of them letting us know they were here, the others not doing that. Instead, they’d just get stuck into finding Eric and it would all go to hell.

  I had two cousins who were twins, Jackson and Marcus, and they were the worst for it. The last time they’d tried to help out, they’d planted a booby trap near the lake that was on our property, and had blown up five trees. Incidentally, they also blew up the ATV that they’d been riding at the time, having forgotten where they’d set the booby trap and only jumping off at the last second when they saw the wire.

  Charlotte’s eyes were huge as I told her all of this, and she looked at Elijah in a new light when she looked back at him.

  “That’s crazy!”

  Not taking any offense at her saying that about his brothers – not that he could – he nodded his head. “Yup, but I can’t say that the rest of our family are known for being normal.”

  “None of us have ever blown anything up.”

  “Yeah, but some of you have accidentally hit the trigger on the shotgun,” he pointed out, talking about when Tate was a kid. He’d totally done that, and probably would now, which was why we made it clear that he wasn’t to touch the big guns. Nerf guns, sure. Real guns, he couldn’t be trusted with. Looking at Lottie, he tilted his head as he took her in. “You ever shot a gun, honey?”

  I felt her turn to stone under my hand, and she shifted uncomfortably. “Uh, no. I’ve never needed to.”

  “You stay with this one,” he nodded at me, “you’re gonna find you need to. It’s safer, trust me. Either that or you’ll want to shoot a gun – at him.”

  And just as I’d been softening toward him, he levelled back up to total asshole.

  * * *

  Christmas day…

  Ever wondered what total anarchy and chaos looks like? It was Christmas day with my family. There was paper everywhere, boxes spilling out the items that had been wrapped in them, people excitedly talking as they played with their presents and ate the little snacks that Mom had put out. This year, the sound of obnoxious music and the loud noises coming from the kids' presents joined it all, too.

  Holding out the tray with deviled eggs on it to Lottie, I popped one in my mouth. “Egg, baby?”

  It was almost like I’d asked her if she wanted to shove the tray up her ass the way she moved quickly away from it. “No, I don’t eat eggs.”

  Seeing the pink on her cheeks, I leaned into her. “Why would that be?”

  Not making eye contact with me, she mumbled, “I’m allergic.”

  She was lying. “Allergic?” I asked skeptically. “But you eat food with eggs in them.”

  “No, I don’t.”

  “Pasta, mayo, you had pancakes yesterday, y
ou ate egg rolls at dinner last night, donuts, French toast, potato salad,” I listed, thinking over the foods I remembered her eating with an egg in them.

  Wincing as I listed them all, she looked around us like she was looking for help. “I was being polite?”

  Pulling her into my front, I turned her head so that she was looking up at me. “What’s the real reason you won’t eat a deviled egg, Lottie? And no more lies.”

  I don’t think I’d ever seen someone blush as hard as she was at that moment. “I don’t think we’re at the stage in our relationship where we can discuss this sort of thing, Levi.”

  I’d been determined to find out the real reason before, but now it was a matter of life and death. “Lottie.”

  Shoving her head into my chest, she grabbed two handfuls of my top and tried to wrap them around her head. “Lottie, tell me.”

  Because she didn’t lift her head out of where it was, her answer was muffled and I had to strain to hear it. But I heard it, oh sweet Jesus did I hear it. “Some egg dishes react violently with my stomach, ok?”

  Bursting out laughing, I pulled my shirt off her head. “React violently? What the hell is that?”

  Elijah and Archer walking up saved her from answering. “What are y’all talking about? Merry Christmas by the way, Charlotte,” Elijah told her, giving her a wink and then looking up at me when he saw how red she was. “Holy shit, what did you say to her?”

  Grabbing me by the beard, she pulled my head down until my face was about an inch away from hers. “You tell them, and I swear they’ll never find your penis.”

  “Jesus,” Archer muttered, taking a step back.

  “And I’ll put hair removal cream in your beard.”

  Closing that inch until my nose was touching hers, I growled, “You wouldn’t dare.”

  My penis was one thing, but a man’s beard was sacred.

  “Shit, she went for his beard. That’s Levi-sacrilege,” Elijah whispered to Archer.

  “True story, he was born with that thing,” he agreed, looking between the two of us.

  “She might have issues finding that penis, though.”

  Raising my head back up to glare at them, I snapped, “Will the two of you shut up? Don’t you have other people to piss off?”

  Rocking back on his heels, Elijah scratched his belly absentmindedly as he looked around the room. “Nope, we’re waiting for the brothers to get here. Apparently there was an accident so they’re held up in traffic.”

  Spinning around, Lottie clapped excitedly. “Wait, they’re on their way? Why didn’t you say? I need to make sure my phone’s got a good amount of battery.”

  Frowning at her, Elijah asked, “Why do you need that?”

  Seeing as how she was already moving to where her coat was on the couch, the question was asked to the back of her head. Still, she answered it, making me and Archer burst out laughing.

  “Because if they’re anything like you, the videos are going to make me rich.”

  Fucking right!

  Charlotte

  Every single bone in my body hurt. I’d never been part of a Christmas celebration like it, and I was going to have to start going to the gym now to survive next year.

  It had started normally, with everyone exchanging presents like normal people do. Then they’d started passing around the food – little things to nibble on to start with, some chips and dip, normal things like that.

  For dinner, we’d all sat down at the table and Erica had brought out four of the biggest turkeys I’d ever seen in my life with platters of vegetables and sides.

  During it, Elijah had started the nurse questions, the ones every nurse loves to be asked.

  “What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen stuck in someone’s body?” I’d seen a lot, but the answer had to be a bullet, followed by a butt plug made out of Lego.

  “Have you ever had a patient with a hamster up their ass?” No.

  “Have you ever seen a patient with glass up their ass?” Yes, a beer bottle.

  “How does someone get a vibrator stuck inside them?” Bad luck and poor planning.

  “What’s the biggest thing you’ve ever seen stuck up an ass?” A large shampoo bottle, and one of those huge jars of peanut butter.

  “What do you do with the stuff you pull out?” It’s up to the patient.

  It had been endless, and by the time they were distracted by dessert, I was relieved that Elijah’s brothers hadn’t arrived yet because I had a feeling it would have gone on for longer.

  And the dessert, oh those poor pies. Unfortunately, those had been made by Luna and Dahlia who had both decided that it would be less of a pain in the ass if they had some wine before they did it. Wine ended up as sex on the beach which was technically just vodka because they didn’t have the other ingredients, apparently. So, doing shots of vodka – in normal water glasses because they didn’t have shot ones – they made some pies.

  Thanks to a lot of the vodka and a little of the tequila, they mixed up cream with sour cream, sugar with salt, and didn’t add butter into the base. What we got was a base that was ground crackers only so it disintegrated when you touched it and the most god awful tasting pies.

  Bad, right? Well, they’d also made a mousse in case people didn’t want pie – squirty cream and cocoa powder. When it got to the table, it looked like diarrhea.

  Because there was no dessert, people decided they’d have a drink to finish off the meal and raided Erica and Jerome’s liquor cabinet.

  I’d left early, but they were all still drinking when I did – more than likely to numb their taste buds after the mouthful of pie we’d all tried out of politeness. Biggest mistake ever, I’d rather take my chances with deviled eggs.

  It had been a long week, and it was only Thursday, so no one had taken it badly when I’d bowed out before the rest of them. The truth was, I wanted to try to call my parents. It was Christmas and even though they hadn’t replied to my last message about Eric, a part of me was certain that they’d answer today. I mean, it was freaking Christmas day!

  Just as I was about to hit their number, my eyes caught on the present that Dahlia, Lily, and Luna had given me earlier – the one they’d told me I couldn’t open until I got home. In fact, they’d almost panicked when I’d said it would be ok and had started opening it in front of them.

  Putting my phone to the side, I picked it up and gave it a shake. Nothing made that tinkly broken glass noise when I did it, but there was some heavy thudding.

  Making sure I was alone, I ripped off the paper and frowned at the brown box that was under it. If you were going to give someone a gift that was secretive, wouldn’t the nice thing to do be to at least make it something in a box that told you what it was when you took the paper off? They’d made me hide this under my coat like it was porn or something.

  Oh shit, they hadn’t got me a box set of porn, had they?

  Biting my lip, I argued with the stupid tab thing that was holding it shut, and then lifted up the lid. What was inside wasn’t anything I’d seen before. It looked like a short rocket ship in different sizes with weird bumps and arms coming out of some of them. I recognized the next item in the box, a vibrator, but it had something else attached to it that stuck up in the air, too.

  Removing those items from the box, I put them on the floor beside me and picked up a package with different tubes in it and read the labels out loud.

  “Cherry lube, apple lube, Baileys lube, warming lube, ice fire lube, tingling lube… how many types can you get?” Considering there was two rows of five in the package, I’m thinking the answer was a lot.

  Placing it down next to the others I’d already taken out, I lifted out the next thing. A vibrating cock ring. Turning it over, I wasn’t sure whether to wince or laugh at the images on the back that told you how to use it. The item that was next to it in the box also said it was a cock ring, but this one was thick and made of black rubber.

  By the time I got to the bottom of the b
ox, I was kinda turned on, definitely curious, and absolutely embarrassed. There was also some hilarity and laughter, but holy shit those girls had no shame. They’d added in nipple clamps, a clit clip with a dangling diamond, another butt plug that was metallic with a diamond at the end, a row of beads that were apparently also for your butt, a clit vibrator, and finally the last thing had been a prostate massager. Seeing as how I definitely didn’t have one of those, I was taking it that this one was a gift for Levi.

  Leaning over the pile of sex toys, I went to pick up my phone when I heard something breaking in the living room.

  Standing up, I opened the door and headed toward where the noise had come from calling out, “Red, Rambo, if you’ve broken something special, your daddy’s gonna…”

  That was kind of the last thing I got to say because an arm went around my throat from behind me, and something was placed over my face.

  Of course both of those things made me scream into the rag on my face, but it was the voice that whispered, “Merry Christmas, Charlotte. I can’t wait to give you the present I got you,” that made me hyperventilate just as I lost consciousness.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Levi

  “I need to ask her this question,” Elijah insisted, pushing past me as we walked through the dark living room toward the bedroom. “It’s such a good one.”

  Ironically, the fact that the house was dark didn’t really strike me as strange. Lottie tended to turn lights off as she went, but normally not unless I was with her. Given how busy the day had been, it wouldn’t have surprised me if she’d just come home and passed out.

  Archer had been the one who’d walked her back saying that Bogey needed to go potty, and I knew he’d stick close to the house to keep an eye on her while we waited for my cousins to arrive. Only two of them had, though, Webb and Jesse, because the others had taken the route that was blocked by the accident.