Hunter stepped back the moment David released his hand. With a look at his mother, he darted back into the other room.
“Well, that’s good to hear,” Muffy said. “I’m sorry to say Chaz isn’t here.”
Reese smiled benignly. “Well, we didn’t have an appointment. I was hoping to touch base with him about some important matters. Will he be back soon?”
“He’s away on vacation. He decided to take a quick break.”
So, Chaz had lied about being in Boston on business.
“Where’d he go?” Mati asked. “Somewhere warm, I hope.”
“No. He’s in Boston, visiting a friend.”
“Oh, great city, I hear,” David said with enthusiasm. Reese’s lips twitched. “Does Chaz have much business down there? Nice to be able to combine work with his break.”
“No, it’s just a vacation,” Muffy repeated, eyeing David.
“Can I ask you a strange question?” David said as he fished his phone from his pocket and held it out to her. “Have you seen this man before?”
Muffy stared at the grainy shot from the garage video on David’s screen, her brows drawing together. “Yes. That’s Chaz’s college roommate, Brian Simpson. That’s who he’s visiting.”
“In Boston,” David clarified.
“That’s right.” She turned to Mati. “What’s going on?”
Mati took her hand and sat with her on the couch in the waiting area. “We can’t really explain right now, but we need to get in touch with Chaz. Do you know when he’ll be back?”
“No. I mean, he should be back in the next day or two, but…”
“Can you call me when he gets here? You have my cell, right?”
Muffy flashed a smile. “Yes, of course.”
“Great, thank you,” Mati said. “You can text if it’s easier.”
Muffy nodded vaguely. David was ninety-nine percent sure she had been agreeing she had the number, not that she would call.
“Can I ask you one more question?” David said.
Muffy’s distrust was apparent, but curiosity won out. “Okay.”
“Is Chaz good with technology? Cell phones and programming and stuff like that?”
“No, he’s—what?” Muffy stopped suddenly, her eyes darting to the side. “Why are you asking that?”
Before David could answer, the sound of pounding feet and a slamming door echoed from the back of the house.
David took off running without a backward glance, ignoring Reese and Mati’s startled calls and Muffy’s desperate, “No!”
Mati watched David sprint through the back door with her heart in her throat.
Reese looked at her wildly.
“Go! Go!” she cried, flapping her hands. “Don’t worry about me!”
Reese took off like a shot out the front door. Mati and Muffy sat in stunned silence, listening to the sound of an engine turning over and gravel spitting out from beneath tires as Reese tore from the small lot.
“What just happened?” Muffy asked.
Mati winced. She wouldn’t wish this on any mother, and certainly not on Muffy, who had always been kind. Still, she had to ask. “Is Hunter good with technology?”
Muffy appeared to be about one second from bursting into tears. Mati squeezed her hand, making her focus on Mati.
Muffy shook her head as if to clear it. “What?”
“Is Hunter good with technology? Cell phones and stuff like that?”
“Yes,” Muffy admitted miserably. “He’s smart. Too smart. He’s bored witless in school and they can’t seem to do anything about it. He’s always looking for something to break or fix or do. Cars, computers, you name it. Now he’s in trouble, suspended for the week for a stupid prank he knew better than to do, but was so bored and eager to prove to his teachers that he knows more than they do, he did it anyway.”
“Does Chaz give Hunter stuff to work on?”
“Chaz? He’s letting me pay him to do some filing and—”
“No,” Mati said, trying to contain her impatience. “I mean like fix computers or cell phones.”
“Sometimes, I guess?” Muffy sighed. “I don’t know. Chaz has been acting as moody as Hunter. I’m ready to lock them both in the attic until at least one of them is done with puberty.”
Mati was starting to wonder if the Bentley men were going to end up locked up somewhere a lot less fun than the attic.
She nearly jumped out of her damn skin at the sound of feet pounding up the front porch stairs. She was halfway to the door when it flew open and David and Reese charged in.
Mati flung herself at them. David caught her.
“Where’s Hunter?” Muffy asked desperately.
“We don’t know,” Reese said. “He might be headed home. He went east. And he’s fine,” he added, “just faster than David on foot, and clever enough to cut through Wentworth Park so I couldn’t follow in the car.”
Mati tried to shake David, with zero success. “Do not run off like that,” she scolded.
He kissed the top of her head. “I can’t promise that, but I’m sorry we scared you.”
Mati, dizzy with relief, laced her fingers with Reese’s. “I was fine. I am fine, except for you scaring the crap out of me.”
David smiled at her sweetly.
“Yeah, yeah. Apology accepted.” Mati rolled her eyes.
Muffy’s eyebrows were lost beneath her bangs, her eyes wide and unblinking.
The three of them sucked at being subtle.
“Right,” David said, pulling his phone from his pocket. “I need to call Chance and Hodges.”
“I still don’t understand. Why do you want Hunter? Is he in trouble?” Muffy asked.
“We don’t know that he’s done anything wrong,” Reese said, smiling reassuringly. “We just want to ask him some questions. I’m guessing by his departure that he knows something. Will you please call us when he turns up?”
“But why would he do anything to you? Our families have been friends for generations.”
David hesitated to say more, but Mati took a gamble. “He may not have realized that what Chaz asked him to do was wrong, if that’s what happened.”
Muffy’s eyes narrowed, her mouth set in a grim line. “If my brother asked Hunter to do anything he shouldn’t have, I will fucking end him.”
Mati had no doubt Muffy would do it, too. Mati understood the pain of having stupid brothers. She squeezed Muffy’s arm. “Call us if you see either of them, and I promise we’ll tell you everything we learn, okay? You can be there when we talk to Hunter, of course.”
“We’re not interested in getting Hunter in trouble,” Reese said. “We know he’s just a kid, and we won’t forget that, or stop caring what happens to him.”
David didn’t look like he entirely agreed with that, but fortunately, Muffy wasn’t looking his way.
She nodded, her shoulders coming down a little. “I’ll call. I promise.”
Mati gave her a long hug. “Thank you.”
No one said another word until David was behind the wheel and they were on their way.
Then they all spoke at once.
“I need to call Chance—”
“Hodges will want to know—”
“That sucked donkey balls—”
David and Reese looked at her.
“What? It did. If Chaz dragged that kid into this, I’m going to kick him in the nuts, then let Muffy loose on him.”
“Fair enough,” Reese said. “But until then, we need to figure out what the hell is going on. Chaz was not only in Boston looking for us, but he dragged his college roommate into it. Why? Why was he in Boston? To hurt me? You?” he said, gesturing at Mati. “What possible reason could there be for that?”
“And for running you off the road five years ago,” David added.
“And for trying to hurt your father?” Mati asked.
Reese shook his head. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
David pulled over in front of the bank where
Reese indicated he should park. Reese took off his seatbelt. “I need to call Hodges and update him.”
“Ditto with Chance.”
Mati waved at them. “Go ahead. I could use a minute.”
They frowned but made their calls. Mati used the time to close her eyes. She listened to the men bicker over the spelling of the roommate’s last name and wondered how any of this would eventually make sense. Why would Chaz break in? She worked with him sometimes. He could access most of their files on any random day just by asking. In fact, she had been going back and forth with him recently on the real estate project—
Mati sat up. “Oh shit!”
Reese had already finished his call, but David said, “I’ll call you back,” and hung up.
“What?” Reese asked.
“I emailed Chaz a few times while we were in Boston.”
“Did you tell him where you were?” David asked.
She gave him the look he deserved.
“Okay, dumb question,” David conceded.
“What were you emailing him about? I wasn’t on those messages,” Reese said.
“I’ve been working on the real estate inventory, remember? There are a couple properties that have documents missing or misfiled, and since the transactions were all handled by Chaz or his father, I was asking him for some things.”
“Real estate?” David asked.
Reese shook his head. “I have no idea what that could have to do with any of this.”
“Me either,” Mati agreed. “Nothing springs to mind, not even now when I’m thinking in terms of seeing it in the worst light.”
“When we get home, we can work through what you’ve got, and what’s missing, together,” Reese said.
Mati winced. “I’m sorry. It never occurred to me my project could have anything to do with this.”
“It may well not. I can’t imagine how it would, to be honest,” Reese said. “And don’t apologize. This is not your fault in any way.”
Mati nodded, taking a deep breath and pushing any guilty feelings aside for now. She and Reese would get into that as soon as they were home, but in the meantime, she had to get it together for what came next—dealing with the other giant shitstorm in her life.
Reese studied her. “Are you sure you want to tackle all this now?” he asked, gesturing at the bank.
Mati smiled wanly. “I don’t think I have much choice.”
“Do you want me to come with you?”
David shook his head. “We’re both coming with her. We stick together until this shit is figured out.”
Mati didn’t love the sound of that. She could picture the two of them hovering over her while she tried to talk the bank out of ruining her family. There were a lot of ways that could go badly.
“We can wait outside the office, if you want,” Reese said. He turned to David. “The walls are glass. We’ll be able to see her.”
David nodded. “That works.”
Mati smiled and took Reese’s hand. “Okay. Thank you.”
Hours later, at the end of what had turned out to be a very long day, Reese threw the last stack of papers onto one of the many piles on his desk and faceplanted onto another.
“There is nothing here,” he growled in utter frustration.
David collapsed back in his chair on the other side of the chaos. “Nope. Not that we’ve found. But I’m no expert…”
Reese lifted his head to glare at David. “So you’ve said, eight times, and yet you’ve done a perfectly capable job keeping up with this wild goose chase for the past six hours, all while cooking us dinner and holding our hands and generally making this about a thousand times less painful than it was doomed to be.”
David studied a piece of paper Reese was certain was of no significance whatsoever and tried to hide his pleased smile. “It was fun helping you guys.”
“Well, there’s always more of that needed, so have all the fun you’d like, for as long as you’d like.”
David looked up and Reese held his gaze, aware of how that sounded and not willing to back down from it. Not an inch.
David was the first to look away, but he was smiling. It turned even sweeter when his eyes landed on Mati.
She’d curled up like a cat in the chair next to David’s to “rest her eyes” about two hours ago and hadn’t moved a muscle since. She’d had a hell of a day between the trip to Chaz’s office, the bank, and the marathon—and ultimately pointless—review of Reese’s real estate holdings and documents.
“Her neck is going to be sore in the morning,” David observed, adjusting the blanket they’d tucked around her. “Maybe it’s time to take a break and get her into bed.”
Reese stood, groaning as he arched his back into a stretch. “That’s a great idea.”
David stood, too. “Think she’d kill me if I carried her?”
Reese smiled, remembering the last time David had asked, and gave a completely different answer. “I think it would make her happy.”
David scooped her into his arms, tilting his head toward the door. “Lead the way.”
Reese held the door while David pivoted to get Mati through without hitting her head or legs. Reese caught a glimpse of the smile on Mati’s lips as she burrowed against David’s chest.
“This is nice,” Mati murmured.
“I’m sorry we woke you,” David said as they strode through the front hall.
Hodges popped out of the kitchen and watched, agape, as David bounded up the stairs as if Mati weighed nothing.
Reese shrugged helplessly at Hodges, who snorted and watched David disappear down the hallway with a shake of his head.
Then he winked at Reese. “Go get ‘em, tiger.”
“Oh god, no. You—”
Before Reese could fully convey his horror, Hodges was gone, cackling as the door swung closed behind him.
David’s voice reached him from above. “Reese? You coming?”
Chapter Thirty-Two
David set Mati on the bed gently, but her eyes still fluttered open. As soon as they focused on his face, she smiled.
David’s heart did a funny jig in his chest.
“Thank you for carrying me,” Mati said, her voice husky from sleep.
“Reese assured me you’d like it.” He felt pinned by her warm brown eyes, even though he was the one hovering above her.
“I did.”
“Are you telling on me?” Reese asked. He was leaning against the door, his arms crossed over his chest. He was ridiculously handsome.
David’s heart did that same damn jig again. God, he was happy, really happy, but it was laced with fear. To have found this, them, seemed miraculous, but nothing was certain.
He opened the buttons on Mati’s blazer and she sat up enough to shrug it from her shoulders. He curled his arms around her, unhooked her skirt, and was in the process of sliding the zipper down when Reese put his hand on David’s back, his long fingers spanning his shoulder blades.
David stilled, his cheek pressed to Mati’s.
She nuzzled him. “You always take such good care of me,” she said softly.
“Of us,” Reese agreed.
David finished with the zipper while trying to shrug. He could feel Mati’s smile against his cheek, which was warming with their praise.
He stood and helped Mati to her feet. She shimmied her hips and her skirt fell to the floor.
“You’re beautiful,” he said, taking in her full breasts and softly rounded belly. Her thigh-high stockings and sapphire blue bra and panties were the stuff of fantasies, particularly with those glasses perched on her nose, but all he saw was her. Her crazy hair coming loose from the knot and her wicked smile as she stood confidently before them.
Reese’s lips skimmed over David’s neck. “You are, too.”
“I’m what?”
“Beautiful,” Reese said, like it was obvious. He reached around and unbuttoned David’s shirt.
Mati opened the button on his jeans and slipped her hand
under the zipper. His hips canted forward eagerly and his cock nestled into her cupped palm. He’d foregone underwear after the previous pair had been ruined, thanks to them. Now she held him still, protecting his growing erection as she pulled down his zipper.
He hooked his finger in the string of her panties. “Maybe tomorrow, you should be the one to go without underwear.”
“Maybe,” she agreed.
His pants joined her skirt on the floor. She bent to help him from his shoes and socks and he put his hand out, his instinct to stop her.
“Let us take care of you,” Reese said, pushing David’s shirt off his shoulders and running his hands over them.
“But—”
Reese silenced him with a gentle kiss, then Mati pulled him toward the bed. He climbed on the mattress with her and towed her into a long, slow kiss.
He was dimly aware of Reese moving around in the periphery, stripping off his clothes and shutting off lights. David heard the door close and lock, and the bedside table drawer slide open.
His brain was filled with ideas. Mati would be sore after last night, but maybe she’d like that. Or maybe she’d like one of them to eat her out or finger her. He bet Reese would like to be fingered, no matter how sore he was. Reese’s prostate was a gift from the gods, and because of it, his appetite seemed insatiable. David wanted to feed that.
Reese appeared behind Mati, his hands running over them, dipping between Mati’s legs and curling around David’s cock.
He pumped his fist a few times, getting David fully hard before they pushed at David’s shoulders, his hips, nudging him back until he was sprawled out on the mattress. He reached for them, but Mati pressed his hands to the bed. He lifted his head to suck one of her nipples into his mouth and roll it between his teeth.
She gasped, her skin was hot, her nipple hardening against his tongue. He gave a ferocious suck and she squirmed, making helpless, happy noises until she jerked away and mock-glared at him. “Behave.”
“What?” he asked innocently.
She rolled her eyes, not fooled in the slightest. “Keep your hands there.”
David arched his eyebrows. “Okay.”
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