by Zoey Marcel
“I know your kind. You put your career first and want a man to control, yet you long for a real man to overcome your feeble protests. You can never be satisfied. Alphas are jerks and betas are boring to you.” Hessian feigned a yawn. “How tiresome. Perhaps I would be doing you a favor ending your worthless life. I’ll wager you can’t even give me a good reason to let you live.”
A tear slipped down her cheek. Her head stayed bowed and she whispered, “I’m pregnant.”
Silence followed.
“And you think I have enough oxytocin in my brain to care about that?”
More tears followed. “You asked what my reason was.”
There were other reasons as well, four of them back in McKenna Downs. Dying before her career took off didn’t bother her like she thought it might. Losing the men she loved forever did. Even if this mercenary let her live she could never go back. Charlie had made that perfectly clear the day she’d left. In truth, she was ashamed of the way she’d left, the fact that she’d walked away from them at all. They were her life.
“Babies are endless work. Is that how you want to spend your days? Changing nappies, losing sleep, and sacrificing everything for a brainless creature who couldn’t be bothered to show you gratitude?”
“Yes,” she sobbed, eyes squeezing shut. “I want to raise my baby.”
“Which of the Huntington bastards is the father?”
“I don’t care. It’s my child.”
She did know, but she didn’t want to put the father’s life in danger in case this asshole decided to be a dick and kill him.
“Did you ever sleep with Justin?” Hessian asked.
She sniffled, still crying. What kind of question was that? Why did he care? “No. We’re just friends. Why?”
“You don’t get to ask me questions. What is he like?”
“He’s nice and funny.” God, this was torture. She wished he would pull the trigger or leave.
“Is he seeing anyone?”
Why all these questions about Justin?
“I don’t know. Last I heard, he wasn’t.” She wanted to ask why, but she had a feeling a bullet might be on the other end of the question.
“Have you seen pictures of him when he was a baby?”
What?!
“No.”
“How will you describe me to the police?”
Her heart nearly stopped beating. “I won’t.”
“Oh, come now, we both know you will. You’ll tell them about my accent, no doubt. Yes?”
“If you want me to.” What else was she supposed to say?
He actually smiled at this. “Excellent.”
What a psycho.
“You do that if it helps you sleep at night, but they won’t find me. I can become whoever I wish and hide when I need to. I’ve committed crimes most of my life and never been to jail. Does that astonish you?”
She hated the questions, especially when she didn’t know if they had a right or wrong answer to them.
“No.”
“Did you know I’m capable of multiple convincing accents?” He changed his voice to sound American. “Brilliant, isn’t it? Or would ‘rad’ be more appropriate?”
Maybe if he was a preteen in the 90s.
“Or how about this?”
Despair set in when he continued to alter his accents, this time speaking in an Irish lilt. She was no phonetics expert, but he sounded equally convincing at every accent he spoke with. Who was he? Where was he really from? She doubted Hessian was even his real name.
“What will you tell the police?”
Her eyes squeezed shut, milking the tears. He wore a mask, but only around his eyes. She’d seen his face otherwise. He was probably going to kill her...unless the black hair peeking out from his hat was a wig and the brown eyes were contacts. Like the accents, it could be enough to obscure his true identity from the law.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “Please let me go. I want to raise my baby.”
“Alone?”
“If I have to.”
“You’ll feel differently when it’s keeping you awake at night and shitting all over you.”
“Well, I’ll put a diaper on it.” She couldn’t believe the words coming out of her mouth.
As luck would have it, he laughed at her sarcasm. “Full of sass in the true spirit of redheads. It would be a pity if I allowed you to live only for you to be blamed for your friend’s death.”
Ah crap, she hadn’t thought of that.
Hessian smiled. “Take heart. She’s still breathing over there.”
Kendall’s head shot over to where Amelia lay barely breathing.
“She’ll die, of course, but perhaps if you’re quick she can tell the police it wasn’t you who killed her.” He walked out the front door like he’d been paying a visit to a friend.
She still didn’t know how he’d gotten in. Maybe he’d picked the lock or had broken a window in the other room before she’d gotten home only minutes prior to Amelia showing up. He’d probably known that Amelia had been planning on visiting her.
Kendall dialed 911 and crawled over to her.
“About your men...I just...” Her friend struggled for air. “I’m sorry.”
“I forgive you.”
Amelia smiled up at her. “I’ll tell the police it wasn’t you.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
McKenna Downs, South Dakota
Justin walked up to his brothers working in the pasture with Quentin. Charlie was the closest one to him, which was good, considering he was the guy Justin wanted to talk to.
“What’s up, sport?” Charlie asked.
It looked like they were checking over the herd to make sure the cow critters were in good health.
“I actually wanted your advice on something.”
“What’s that?”
Justin stuck his hands in the front pockets of his jeans. “How do you make yourself stop liking someone?”
“Move in with them.”
He laughed at that.
Charlie’s scowl, which probably had to do with Kendall, eased into a crooked smile. “You think I’m kidding. That’s the fastest way to realize how fucking irritating someone is.”
“What if you already know the person’s faults, how frustrating they can be and what a jerk they are...and you still want them anyway?”
“Well, then you’re screwed. You’ve only got two options then. Fuck ‘em and get them out of your system, or put a ring on it before someone else loses their head over the person.”
Justin tried to be discreet, but Charlie was pretty smart. He just hoped the guy didn’t see through him. “What if you can’t?”
Charlie glanced up and him. “Why can’t you?”
The cow gave him a crabby moo as it was made to be still while Charlie examined it.
Justin felt his knees wobble. His pulse picked up speed. “What if the person is out of your league?”
“Nobody’s out of my league or yours. Look in the mirror, kid. You’re a good-looking guy and a hell of a lot less aggravating than this cow here. Will you stand still, you hamburger bastard?”
The bovine heaved an annoyed sigh.
“Actually, that one’s a girl,” Justin said.
“Figures. If you want someone, go after them.”
If only it was that simple.
“But what if you don’t even like them, but you kind of do? What if they swing a different way than you?”
Charlie’s head shot up and a slow grin crawled up his face. “You went and fell for a lesbian, didn’t you?”
Justin averted his eyes and forced a sheepish smile. His family would be supportive if it turned out he wasn’t straight, but he was still confused and uncertain about things. Let Charlie think it was a lesbian he liked, if it kept him from asking questions.
“Well, no one can blame you for that. Lesbians are great,” Charlie said.
Quentin walked by with an armload of hay. “Except for when they’re str
onger than you, eh, Charlie?”
“You son of a bitch, whose side are you on?” Charlie glared at him, but he smiled when Quentin winked at him and blew him a kiss.
Justin grinned. “Some woman beat you at something before?”
“I was young. It was before I started working out years ago and it never happened,” Charlie said.
The men laughed.
René chimed in. “There was this lesbian before that beat him at arm wrestling.”
“There was not,” Charlie argued. “She was a truck driver and on steroids.”
René chuckled.
Shane smirked. “I hate to break it to you, Charlie, but she wasn’t on steroids.”
“You all can go fuck yourselves,” Charlie muttered.
The men laughed again.
Justin decided to change the subject. Jasmine was the answer. He couldn’t wait to meet her. She would clear away these confusing feelings and urges toward Aiden.
“When are you four gonna go after the woman you want?” he asked.
His brothers froze.
“Kendall’s long gone,” René said sadly.
“You guys should tell her you miss her and want her to come home,” Justin suggested.
Charlie rolled his eyes. “She’s where she wants to be, in New York, indulging her feminist ego.”
“How do you know she doesn’t miss you guys?” Justin asked.
“If she wanted to be with us, she’d come back, wouldn’t she?” Charlie let go of the cow. “You can go back to munching, fatty.”
The animal slapped his leg with its swishing tail and bolted with a happy moo.
“I talked with her on the phone recently,” Justin said.
Their heads jerked and he saw that they still loved Kendall, worried about her.
“She said she loved you guys a lot, but she couldn’t come back. When I asked her why, she said it was because when she left South Dakota a few months ago, Charlie told her never to come back.”
“What?” the men shrieked as their glares flew to Charlie. “You dumbass!”
Charlie shrugged. “What? We were all thinking it.”
“No, we weren’t,” René argued. “I was prepared to get down on my hands and knees and beg her to stay with us.”
Charlie rolled his eyes. “Yeah, you would. Who the hell wants to wait around forever while someone yanks them around on a string?”
Quentin folded his arms and eyed him coolly. “I waited for you. All those times you made a pig of yourself, I stood by you and waited for you to pull your head out of your ass and commit to me.”
Charlie sighed. “That was different, and could you have been any more insulting?”
Quentin smiled mischievously.
“We’ve got to ask her to come back,” René said urgently. “I miss her so much.”
“Don’t be a wuss. You’ll get over it,” Charlie said.
“No, you won’t.” Shane stepped forward until he stood close to Charlie. “It’s been years since I’ve seen Carsten Brodie.”
“That’s ‘cause he’s married now, asshole,” Charlie cut in.
“Shut up a minute,” Shane snapped. “Some people can get over someone they care about or even love, but if it runs deep enough and you know in your soul that the person is the one, there’s no getting over that. I don’t do regrets, but every day I regret that I didn’t get to that chapel in Kansas just minutes earlier. If I had, Carsten and I would be together instead of him living a lie with someone else.”
“Well, I’m not you,” Charlie said.
“You keep going down this road and you will be,” Shane told him.
Charlie withdrew eye contact, seeming frustrated and torn.
“You guys should fly to New York, or maybe just Charlie,” Justin said. “Kendall gave me her address.”
“Is she seeing anyone?” Charlie asked.
“No,” Justin answered. “She said she was too sad to date anyone else.”
Charlie’s smile was one part gratitude and one part smugness. “Good.”
“I told her you guys were all being abstinent, hoping she would come back,” Justin said.
“What?” Charlie growled.
Justin shrugged. “What? You guys all have been celibate since she left. It meant a lot to her.”
Charlie’s tone softened. “It did?”
“Yeah.”
“I can assure you Charlie has not been celibate where I’m concerned,” Quentin teased.
Justin grinned. “When is he ever, when you’re around?”
Charlie snorted. “I’m not fucking him now, am I?”
“That’s not how it works, baby.” Quentin winked at him, making Charlie smirk.
Hart Huntington rode up just then. “Kendall?”
“How’d you know?” René asked.
“I could tell by the looks on your faces,” Hart answered. “This is Charlie’s fault, no doubt.”
The men grinned.
“What? Just blame me, why don’t you,” Charlie complained.
“You know you love her, son. Just be with her. Shane still loves Carsten, and I miss Lena like crazy every day.”
Everyone froze. Their dad brought up Lena. He never mentioned her, ever. It was too painful for him.
“I’m almost an old man,” Hart said. “Sometimes you have to compromise, humble yourself, even.”
“Men don’t do that,” Charlie countered.
“Good men do. If a woman doesn’t respect you for putting her first and do the same in return for you, then she’s not worthy of you. Nobody said you had to be a pansy. There is a happy middle ground, you know,” Hart said. “You fellas can work it out with her if you and she learn to swallow your pride.”
* * * *
How had he never been to New York City before this? It was an exciting place. Charlie could see why Kendall liked it so much, but he hoped she agreed to come back to McKenna Downs with him.
He stood outside her apartment after knocking. It was early evening. He hoped she was home.
After several seconds, the door opened and his precious Kendall stood there gaping at him. She looked stunning with her red curls pinned up on top of her head and her gorgeous green eyes misting with feeling.
“Can I come in?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she squeaked and stepped back, opening the door wider for him.
He entered and then ogled her while she shut and locked the door. Her ensemble was feminine and businesslike, as if she’d just gotten off work. She wore a pretty blouse she’d probably designed herself. He recognized it from one of her fashion drawings. She’d paired it with a curve-hugging black skirt and tall, black, fuck-me-now-Charlie stilettos. Her dangling earrings made her look so dainty and beautiful.
She faced him, hands trembling.
Neither one said anything for a moment.
“What I said to you on the prairie that day...I didn’t mean it,” he said quietly. “I was angry and hurt. I’ve regretted it ever since. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about you.”
Her lower lip quivered and her eyes watered.
“I’ve always respected what you do, Kendall. You’re the most talented woman I know. I should have supported you. I was just worried you’d choose your career over me. It was part of the reason I wanted you pregnant, so you’d never leave me. That was wrong. I’ve always been good to you, but I was worried it wouldn’t be enough. I know I’m the best you’ve had, but I’m not the nicest guy or the purest. I was always afraid that one day you’d realize you could do better than me.”
Kendall’s eyes spilled over. “I can’t.”
His heart tugged. “I love you, Kendall. I don’t care where we live, or if we have kids. I just want you to be happy, but goddamn it, you’ve got to meet me in the middle. We can live here half the year and in McKenna Downs the other half or whatever bullshit we’ve got to do to be together. I’ll compromise for you, but I’m no one’s pussy.”
She giggled a little, brushing a
way her tears. “I’ll move back with you for good. I don’t need to live here. I just need you and them.”
“Seriously?” Well damn, that was easy. Why the fuck did he wait three months to apologize?
“Under one condition,” she said firmly.
“What’s that?”
“Promise me that if I ever want to go shopping outside of McKenna Downs, or if we have an argument and I want to take a drive to cool off for a little bit before coming back to make up with you, you’ll give me permission to leave town.”
“Only if you swear to come back to me. If you ever leave me again, I’m going after you.”
She flew into his arms. “I’ll never leave you again. Thank you for coming here for me. I’ve been dying without you.”
He held her tight while she sobbed into his suit jacket. “I couldn’t stay away. How does Paris sound for a honeymoon?”
She squealed and embraced him tighter, kissing him all over.
He grinned. “I figured you’d like that.”
“I still want to continue my fashion career.” She pulled back slowly, sniffling. “I thought maybe I could set up a website to sell my clothing.”
“You can, but you should know we bought the empty building in McKenna Downs for you. We figured you could be the first one to open a clothing store in that town and sell stuff you designed and whatever else you want.”
“Oh my god.” She cried into her hands.
“It’s not New York, but—”
“It’s perfect.” She cried on his shoulder while he held her. “Thank you.”
He rubbed her back in soothing strokes.
“I can’t wait to see it. When we have kids, I’ll raise them, but I’m not giving up my career or identity for them.”
“Baby, between you, me, Quen, and my brothers, don’t you think we can handle one or two kids? How stupid would the five of us have to be if we couldn’t?”
She giggled. “That’s true.”
“I don’t care one way or the other if we have kids. I just want you with me. But you don’t have a choice about where we eat tonight.”
She pulled back slowly, smiling up at him. “Why is that? God, you look so hot in a suit.”
He knocked the pins out of her hair so it fell free and tumbled down her shoulders in a striking cascade of lustrous curls.