by Jenny Penn
“Laundering?” Lindsay repeated, not surprised in the least. “You mean money.”
“I mean damn near a hundred million dollars,” Ethan qualified, finally shocking not only Lindsay but Cooper and Nick as well. Cooper coughed over the sip of whiskey he’d taken while Nick choked on a chip.
“A hundred million?” Lindsay tried to wrap her head around that number but couldn’t. She could however imagine that it made up the bulk of her trust. “That sounds like Carl. He never does anything in small doses.”
“That’s obvious.” Ethan snorted. “He wasn’t just laundering money for a single cartel, but was working with several of them along with franchises in Asia and Russia. Trust me, he tried to liquidate everything he could to pay them all off, but he came up short.”
“How short?” A hundred million might be a lot of money but she knew Carl had to be worth more than that.
“About twenty-eight million,” Ethan answered succinctly. “We’re working on locating the last creditor. Once we do, we’ll have the money transferred and that will eliminate any threat from that quarter.”
“Excuse me?” Lindsay frowned, not sure she’d understood him correctly. “You’re going to transfer twenty-eight million dollars out of one my accounts? Who gave you that kind of authority? Did I?”
Lindsay glanced between Ethan and Cooper, who he was glaring at. Clearly Amos’s man waited for him to respond, but Cooper just sat there, staring down into the bottom of the glass. That’s when the answer became obvious.
“You gave it to him,” Lindsay stated, her shock so great she didn’t have the energy left to get mad. All she could do was stare at Cooper in amazement as she ran over and over what Ethan said. “Wait a second, you said last creditor. That means you’ve already transferred out…”
“We’ve paid back,” Ethan corrected, “Five creditors, who were owed a total of nineteen million.”
“It was necessary,” Cooper finally spoke up, talking quick and fast as if afraid he might not get a chance to finish. “I know if the authorities find out about the transfers it might get you in some hot water but Evan can keep you out of jail. I was trying to keep you alive. Just keep that in mind before you go all ballistic on me. Okay?”
“I’m not going to go ballistic.” That would be a waste. Yelling at Cooper didn’t get her anywhere.
“You’re not?” he asked tentatively as if afraid to believe his good luck.
“No.” Lindsay smiled, knowing the gesture held little warmth. So did her thoughts. Cooper was going to pay for his arrogance. First, she was going to enjoy needling him. “I assume that’s the only money that’s been transferred?”
“Of course!” Cooper damn near popped out of his seat like he’d been poked with a hot iron. “I’m not stealing your money!”
“Uh-huh.” Lindsay narrowed her gaze on him, enjoying the flush that worked its way up his neck. Cooper was pissed. That was just fine by her.
“Let me tell you something, lil’ bit, I don’t need to steal your money. I got enough of my own!”
“Sure you do,” Lindsay instantly agreed, certain that would irritate the crap out of him and sure enough Cooper got all stiff as his lips thinned and his gaze darkened.
“I think it would be best if we finished this conversation later,” Cooper snarled, pausing to add just enough emphasis on his last two cents. “In private.”
“Whatever.” She’d give him his ‘private’ and she wasn’t even going to say a word.
“Fine!” Cooper dropped back onto the couch and turning his attention to the men watching their argument with interest. “Go on, Ethan, give us the rest of it.”
As Amos’s man began to do just that Nick leaned in to offer his approval in a whisper. He was amused, thinking she didn’t see his hand in all of this. If Cooper had been ‘managing’ things behind her back then Nick had been sitting there watching him, making him just as guilty and just as deserving of punishment.
Lindsay pushed those pleasant thoughts to the back of her mind and focused on what Ethan was saying. All the deputies were now accounted for. They were all dead. The only one missing was the sheriff, and apparently, the state police thought he was guilty of worse things than simply killing his deputies. Technically they were referred to now as accomplices.
According to Ethan, the police believe Rendell and his deputies had been up to no good. Stealing a federal witness, robbing a drug cartel’s money shipment, framing innocent people, there was almost no crime they weren’t guilty of, which kind of made Dennis killing off his own crew poetic justice at some level. There were only two questions left to answer. Where was the money and where was the sheriff?
After digging the deputies out of the bootleg tunnel in Elton’s barn, the police had found a few remaining bags of coins. They’d found more when they’d searched the deputies houses. The working theory was that they’d originally stashed the money out in Elton’s cabin until she’d shown up and spooked them into moving it.
It even looked like they’d set the fire, given both of Crugman’s hands were actually broken. That meant he couldn’t have shot Travis, which put every murder squarely on Dennis Rendell’s shoulders. While piece after piece began to fall into place there was one thing Lindsay didn’t understand and was almost afraid to ask about. It bugged her, though, and finally she felt compelled to know the answer.
“I don’t get it,” Lindsay blurted out, interrupting Ethan and drawing everybody’s attention to her as she continued to scowl down at the floor. Slowly she lifted her gaze to Ethan and pinned him in his place. “If Rendell had buried the money at Elton’s place, why didn’t fudge the DNA test when the court demanded he get a sample to compare with mine?”
Ethan hesitated, licking his lips in a gesture Lindsay had already figured out meant the man was nervous. She also knew not much made him that way beyond Dona and Sally. “He did…he tried.”
“Tried?” Lindsay blinked, not certain of what he meant by that.
“The DNA tests actually say that you are the Elton’s daughter.” There was a leading note to Ethan’s tone as if he expected her to catch on to whatever he really meant, but Lindsay was lost in what he actually said.
“Well, that’s not possible. Elton is not my father.”
“No. He’s not.”
“Then…”
“Then…” Ethan repeated back at her.
Lindsay held onto her temper by the merest thread and only because she could tell that Ethan wasn’t intentionally being an ass. He was simply avoiding telling her something because he thought it would bother her. Him and everybody else, Lindsay realized as she glanced around the room. Even Cooper and Nick avoided making eye contact as they looked to them.
“I’m not a Howell.”
Those four words had Nick glancing up with a sad shake of his head. “No, lil’ bit, you’re not a Howell.”
“That’s why you made the deal with the guys about the water…because it’s not my land.” Lindsay turned to confront Cooper with that truth but he shook his head, the same as his brother.
“It’s your land, lil’ bit,” Cooper insisted. “That’s what the court documents say and that’s all that matters.”
“No, it isn’t. The sheriff would have switched the samples. I’m not a Howell. I have no rights to that land. I’m a…Rendell.” Lindsay felt sick as that revelation hit her. “He used his own DNA.”
Along with that obvious conclusion came a few more startling surprises, like the fact that Cooper and Nick had known about this already. It was yet another thing they’d decided she either didn’t need to know or couldn’t handle knowing. While the lengths they were willing to go to keep her happy were touching, they were also very annoying. Deciding to focus on that instead of the horrifying truth of her parentage, Lindsay keeled over dramatically as she clutched her head and wailed.
“Oh my God!”
“Don’t start, please, lil’ bit,” Cooper begged, but Lindsay barely heard him.
�
��That’s worse than being a Bryne, isn’t it?” Lindsay turned that question on Nick, who rolled his eyes.
“Lindsay—”
“No!” She held a hand out to stop Cooper from whatever plea he planned to make. “I am too distraught and in my weaken state must take to my bed until I recover.”
With that she rose and sailed out of the room. She didn’t bother to stop and chat with Dona, Allen, or Sally as she cut through the kitchen and raced up the back stairs. With each step she cleared, Lindsay knew the brothers’ mother and aunt would interpret the scene and give her men hell for upsetting her. They’d deserve every second even if she wasn’t that upset but she was that pissed.
The only problem was she didn’t know who she was madder at— them for keeping her in the dark or herself for voluntarily staying there. Over the past several days she’d allowed herself to play the victim, allowing everybody to pamper and indulge her. All along she’d know what that would cost her, she’d known Cooper would take full and complete control the very second he had a chance.
That’s just what he’d done. Control was one thing, silence was another. She didn’t know how to go about explaining either concept to Cooper and Nick, but Lindsay did know how show it to them. She’d prove her point in a way neither brother would ever forget.
With that thought putting a smile on her face, Lindsay locked herself in Cooper’s bathroom. She turned on the shower and removed all her clothes before retrieving the key to his toy chest from the where she’d hidden it. Opening up the wardrobe, she stared at it in fascination, wondering if Cooper had any idea how often she snuck up there to play by herself.
Now she wanted to play with somebody else.
* * * *
Nick watched Lindsay storm out of the study in a huff and knew there was going to be hell to pay. When Lindsay was irritated she snapped, when she was mad she yelled, but when she was truly pissed she had a tendency to indulge in dramatically outlandish gestures. From pulley systems and generators to motor homes that cost more than a real house, she had a flare for over-the-top responses. He couldn’t help but guessing at what she’d think of next.
Lindsay left him waiting for three whole days. Despite her smiles and her polite answers, her responses were short, almost curt, and her smiles teethy, with the threat of a bite. She was plotting and she was planning. During that time she didn’t have a whole lot to say to either Cooper or him.
Neither did she appear to want to be touched. Lindsay turned her head, forcing their kisses to her cheeks even as she flailed about in bed, driving Nick and Cooper to the very edges of the mattress. Nick would have done something about it, and suspected Cooper would have joined him, if their parents hadn’t been sleeping just down the hall.
They couldn’t very well make Lindsay scream and beg when their mother might overhear her cries. So they endured, and began plotting their own plans. After all, in the years to come their parents would, no doubt, visit quite often. Then there would be the children. Both Cooper and Nick realized that what they needed was a bit of privacy.
That’s just what Lindsay was thinking, apparently. Though, she’d focused on Sunday morning, when their parents along with Sally and Thomas packed up and headed off to church. Nick figured they’d barely made it down the drive before he came awake with a sudden alertness.
Instantly aware that something was horribly wrong, he tugged on his arms but found them trapped, stretched above his head and tied to the head board. His legs were splayed open, like he was some kind of showgirl. One ankle had been tied to the bedpost, the other to Cooper—if Nick wasn’t mistaken.
“Lindsay!”
Cooper’s roar nearly deafened Nick even as it confirmed his suspicion. He was definitely rubbing toes with his brother, who decided in that instant to do his raging berserker impression. Screaming, thrashing, cussing, Cooper put is all into it.
“God damn it! What the hell is going on? Who the fuck am I tied to? Why the hell can’t I see anything?”
“Because you’re blindfolded,” Nick snapped back, almost hitting a high note as Cooper jerked his ankle. Nick yanked back, eliciting a litany of curses from his brother. “And tied to me, so if you don’t mind, try not to pull me into a split.”
Cooper stilled at that explanation, granting Nick some measure of peace as he tried to pointlessly to see through his own blindfold. It had to be Lindsay who had done this. Nobody else would dare, and she shouldn’t have. Of course, Cooper probably shouldn’t have threatened her either.
“You listen to me, Lindsay, if you undo these cuffs right now, I promise I’ll only punish you just a little.”
A sharp bark of laughter echoed out through the darkness, and Nick knew Cooper had caught her by surprise with that warning. He’d also amused her, though she quieted down almost immediately.
“Do you hear me, lil’ bit? If you don’t put a stop to this now, you’re going to pay in ways you can’t even conceive.” The strained vibrations of Cooper’s growl held a tension that should have alarmed Lindsay. It certainly alarmed Nick.
“That’s not helping,” Nick snarled softly, trying to keep his voice low enough that if Lindsay had busied herself with something else she wouldn’t overhear. Cooper felt no similar compulsion.
“Oh, really? Then what would?” He demanded to know with full bravo.
“We’re very sorry, lil’ bit,” Nick began, proving his point instead of bothering to argue over it with Cooper. “We know we should have told you about the DNA test and the money transfers, but wasn’t like we were trying to hide it. We were just worried about you. You’d nearly burned up in a fire. We didn’t want to add to your stress. Please try to understand.”
Maybe she did. Maybe she didn’t. Maybe she wasn’t in the room anymore. Whatever was going on, all that greeted Nick’s impassioned plea was silence. That lasted for a nearly thirty seconds before Cooper snorted.
“Yeah, that was a winning idea.”
“Screw you, Cooper,” Nick snapped, annoyed with his brother’s less than helpful attitude. “You’re the one who got me into this mess.”
“How did I get you into this mess?” Cooper demanded to know, having the audacity to sound honestly indignant.
“Because you’re the one who kept quiet about everything!”
“You could have told her. I never told you not to!”
“Oh, don’t even—”
“Shit!”
His brother’s panicked curse cut Nick off as it clued him into the subtle fragrance of sweet scent of apples and cinnamon suddenly filling the air. He felt the mattress dip and the soft brush of Lindsay’s thigh against his and knew instantly that she was naked and straddling Cooper. His brother’s curses quickly twisted into heavy pants punctuated by small grunts as the air filled with the wet, smacking sounds of something getting sucked hard—Nick knew just what.
His own balls swelled as his cock hardened, desperate for a little attention. God bless her, Lindsay didn’t deny him. Cool fingers curled around his hot shaft and began to pump. It was sweet torture as she kept the pace slow and her grip hard enough to have him twisting with a pleasure that never grew brighter but only grew thicker.
Cooper was either luckier or cursed, Nick couldn’t tell. All he knew for a fact was that sucking sounds gained in speed, becoming overshadowed by his brother’s panting. The heady sounds of need came faster and faster, deepening into groans as the air thickened with scent of sweat and sex. He could almost feel the climax building within Cooper but when he shouted out it was with agony and not release.
“God damn it! No!”
Cooper’s pained bellow preceded a frenzied fit that left Nick bruised and cursing as his brother fought back at being denied. For all his curses and threats there was desperation in Cooper’s tone that would probably be as close to begging as he’d ever come. It was certainly more than Nick every expected to hear from his big brother.
Of course, he understood Cooper’s pain all too well. He wasn’t the only one Lindsa
y stopped short on. Tough apparently, she wasn’t done with Nick. Turning her attention toward him, she waited until Cooper had calmed down before settling down to straddle him. The intoxicating fragrance of her arousal and the feel of her soft thighs against his shoulders gave him a clue to what she had in mind.
Nick didn’t wait for her to lower herself down. Stretching his neck, he leaned up to discover the creamy folds of her cunt just waiting for his kiss. Flicking his tongue gently over her swollen folds, he teased her even as he lost himself to the sensual delight of discovering her molten flesh with just taste and feel. She was so soft, so sweet, and so very addictive. It didn’t take but seconds for him to become ravenous in his hunger for her.
With the first lick, Lindsay broke into her sob, her hips grinding downward as her hand sank into his hair and pressed him deeper into her pussy. Nick rewarded her with quick laps of her clit that had her panting just as hard as Cooper had moments ago.
Lindsay’s husky moans broke into a high-pitched squeal when he shoved his tongue straight up her cunt, fucking her with fast strokes as he licked the cream right off her spasming walls. Just as her muscles began to bear down, trying to soak him deeper, Lindsay ripped herself free of his kiss and slid down his length to plunge herself down the full, aching length of his erection and bury him balls-deep in her hot, tight cunt.
Searing, white-hot rapture shot straight out of his balls as she began to ride him with wild abandon. The room filled once more with the wet, smacking sounds of sex, only this time it was Nick straining toward release and finding it denied him as Lindsay’s cunt convulsed all around him. Her muscles tightened down on him, squeezing his sensitive length in a moist vise that had him roaring with the painful need to release his seed.
Just one more stroke, one more tantalizing suck of her sheath, he was right there…Nick tipped his head back and roared as white-hot rapture streaked straight out of his balls and down the length of his cock. Lindsay’s sheath tightened around him like a silken vise, milking the very seed from his body as her whole body convulsed with her own release.