by Erin R Flynn
Table of Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Epilogue
Find A New Series To Love…
About the Author
Other Titles by Erin R Flynn
A Supernatural Script Inc. Book
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Briony Rose has been threatened, abducted, and her hard work burned to the ground. If that wasn’t devastating enough, there are witches who rely on her to provide what they need for their own magic and protection. The only silver lining is the two hotties jumping in to help her—and they need a place to stay.
Fresh out of the Army, Theo Black and Levi Evans are on the run when they stumble across Briony being abducted. They should mix like oil and water, but maybe they’ve met the one open-minded witch who will give them a chance.
When their troubles catch up to them on multiple fronts, Theo and Levi step up without hesitation, and Briony wonders if maybe it’s time she reevaluates what she thought about having familiars.
The guys seemed determined to show her there’s nothing wrong with having people at her back… She was simply waiting for them to be part of her team.
Naughty Witches is a sizzling hot paranormal romance novella series with strong female leads, fun so sexy it raises the temperature, and mismatched people who find HEAs that give us all hope fate won’t forget us. Each book is a new pairing in the same world, with an overall series arc.
1
Briony
After I was dumped off the shoulder of one of the assholes who abducted me, I landed with a grunt when I hit the concrete hard. Shocker, right?
This was going to be a mess to get out of and handle for sure, but I needed more details before I knew the right way to react. So far, all they wanted was to cover me with bruises and warn me I should behave.
Uh-huh, right. Sure, fuckers.
The four who took me were strangers, but someone I recognized joined us and came into view. David Larson—business mogul and real estate developer extraordinaire—hiked up his suit pants and squatted down so I could see him better.
“I warned you that your choices had consequences, Ms. Rose.”
“So do yours, asshole,” I chuckled darkly.
He rolled his eyes at me like he couldn’t believe I didn’t get I was bested. “Now, you will sign over your land and for the first offer I gave, since you’ve wasted enough of my time and annoyed me. You should learn from this mistake for the future and know when you’ll lose.”
“Yeah, sure thing.” I snorted, having trouble not laughing. “And how do you plan to pull this all off, Bad Bond Villain?”
He smirked at me. “Simple—you sign and keep your mouth shut, or we kill you and then take on who inherits the land from you, and they will sign or suffer the same fate.”
I burst out laughing. “You think you’re going to scare Meave Washington? Fucker, she’d eat you for breakfast. Oh, damn, that would be a fight I’d love to see, but apparently it only happens if I’m dead. So that’s a no go.”
I was about to use my magic and break the restraints before doing what needed to be done when I heard the sounds of fighting behind me.
I rolled enough to look over my shoulder to watch as two guys punched two of my abductors, already having knocked two out. They were magnificent, clearly well trained and efficient in their movements compared to the thugs Larson hired.
I had no idea who they were, but they had my utmost respect for their skills. And for helping a girl out, so I didn’t have to use my magic to make the situation better.
They moved on either side of Larson, understanding he was the boss of all of this.
“Now, I understand the fun of tying a pretty woman up for some slap and tickle, but she’s clearly not on board with what’s going on, so we’re going to step in here,” the taller of the two said.
It was so hysterical given the situation, I almost burst out laughing.
And then he stepped into the sparse light, and I about swallowed my tongue instead. Damn. Just dayumn.
The boy was well built, six-three and just built.
And so was his friend. Wow.
“You into something we can’t call the cops about?” the second one asked me as he pulled out his phone. That was enough to distract Larson, and the first easily grabbed him.
“Call them,” I told him. “They want me to sell my land, and apparently this is acceptable negotiation tactics when someone refuses.”
“Damn,” he grumbled, shaking his head. “Are you hurt? It might be better if we let the cops take pictures of just how we found you.”
“I’m good.” I shrugged. Made sense, so yeah, I could stay tied up a bit more. “Thanks for the save.”
He winked at me. “We weren’t busy at the moment.” He made the call, and the other one shot Larson amused looks when the guy struggled against him.
It didn’t take the Rock Springs police long to show up, since they’d actually brought me into the city, instead of handling this out at my remote farm.
Idiots, really. But it was probably a power play to Larson, like he could be so brash. Or maybe he thought since the mayor was his bestie and trying to pressure me to sell, it would help.
Yeah, great, but I didn’t even live in Rock Springs, Wyoming so… Idiots.
“Briony?” someone called out, footsteps racing over. “What did they do to you?”
I glanced up to see Trey, giving him the best smile I could muster. “These two saved me from Larson and his goons. Just a normal Thursday night. How are you?”
“Fucking… Briony, seriously,” he groaned, squatting down to check my face. “Damn, you’re going to have bruises all over.”
I rolled my eyes. “One dumped me off his shoulder, so yeah, lots of them.”
“Why didn’t you release her?” he snapped at my saviors.
“They thought photos would speak loudly when Larson tries to weasel out of this.”
Trey winced. “Yeah, good call. Sorry.”
“It’s cool. It’s November in Wyoming, so the concrete is a nice ice pack, if I don’t get hypothermia,” I drawled, both guys who saved me snorting at my snark.
Trey ordered someone arriving on the scene to take some pictures of me, warning me not to smile before turning on the two guys. A different officer had already come to take Larson, so they were just standing there.
&nb
sp; “Who are you, and how did you two get involved in this?” Trey demanded.
The taller one rubbed his hand over his head. “I’m Theo Black, and we were walking out of the bar down the road and saw the van over there drive by with her popping up into view and I saw the ropes. I thought they were enough to decide to check since we saw them pull in here.”
“I thought he was just kidding me,” the other said. “But we get here and the guy is talking of killing her so, yeah, we jumped in. I’m Levi Evans. We both just got out of the Army and thought we’d take a road trip, see the country in winter sort of thing, and well… Yeah, this happened.”
He sounded equal parts amused and shocked, shaking his head as he scrubbed his hand over his shorter hair. In the light, I could see it was a dark blond and would probably be really sexy if he grew it out, but his chocolate eyes were captivating.
They were delicious, and made me think of everything good and yummy.
“Okay, I got enough,” the officer told Trey.
He sighed and squatted down, pulling out a pocketknife and cutting me free as the other officer held an evidence bag for him. “What am I going to do with you, Briony?”
“Oh, right, this was me,” I drawled. “And for the record this isn’t the only crime scene.”
“Shit,” he hissed with feeling.
“Yeah.”
“How bad?”
I swallowed loudly. “My shop is probably gone. They torched it. It should be ash by now, along with some of my trees. I don’t think they went for the house.”
“Damn, I’m sorry.”
“Thanks,” I whispered, my heart aching. There was a huge mess to clean up.
“I’ll call the arson investigator and get him right out so we document it all for your insurance and the charges.”
“Thanks, Trey.”
He winked at me. “Maggie loves you more than me so I gotta be nice to you.”
I tried to laugh, but it came out more like a groan because of the pain in my ribs. He was teasing me, but his wife did love me and I adored her. She was such a selfless and good person she gave me hope that there were more like her out there, instead of people like me, who were jaded and damaged.
Really damaged.
“I know you won’t want the hospital, but we need to document it all,” Trey told me.
“Yeah, fine, and check them out too,” I told him, nodding to my saviors. “Those assholes had hard heads and they punched them a lot. I know, I kicked two in the head and about broke my foot, which was why they kept dumping me.”
“Of course you did,” he chuckled. “I’m surprised I didn’t find them all unconscious and the call came from you.”
“Hey, I don’t turn away good help,” I teased him, wincing as he helped me up. “Oh fuck, thank fuck I have a fucking whirlpool fucking tub and heating fucking pads.”
“That’s a lot of cussing, Briony,” Trey chuckled.
“Yeah, it hurts that bad,” I groaned as I limped along. “Damn, I think I really did sprain my ankle at least from kicking them.” I yelped as Levi swung me up in his arms and carried me over to the ambulance.
“It hurt watching you walk.”
“Thanks.”
“No problem. And for the record, we’ll go to the hospital to get pictures taken for your case, as I think you’re worried about corruption on this.”
I nodded; smart, hot, and lethal. Nice combo. “Yeah, Larson’s in tight with the mayor, who’s a jackass.”
“Briony,” Trey sighed.
“Oh, right, he’s a total corrupt douche of an asshole who acted like he was doing me a favor helping the deal to sell my land, and if I was good he might fuck me too. Which is gross. Really gross.”
“Yeah, really gross,” Trey muttered under his breath, actually shivering in disgust, as the mayor was almost sixty and not in the best of shape. Actually, that was being kind—he was gross. It wasn’t his weight, but how he carried himself, his very aura even that… Yeah, really gross.
The EMTs checked me out enough to know that there weren’t any immediate injuries, and if I rode with them, I got the bill for it. So I went in Trey’s cruiser instead. Plus, the EMTs were also busy with the four knocked out and beat up guys.
We caravanned it to the hospital, and I laughed when Trey made it clear to the ER staff that I went first as the victim… And eventually, they could take care of the other four.
He did at least include Levi and Theo.
After a lot of everything and X-rays, I was released with a prescription of pain meds. Also a sling for my dislocated shoulder, a brace for my severely sprained ankle, and some ice packs I was holding to my badly bruised ribs.
But no broken bones or a concussion. Apparently, that had been one of the rules of my being kidnapped, because then I wouldn’t be of sound mental state to sign my land over.
Right, because under duress was okay though.
Seriously?
“The fire department put it out and checked the whole area for any embers, but the investigators will be there in the morning to take pictures with the light,” Trey told me. “The shop’s all gone they said though. I’m so sorry, Briony. A bunch of your trees too, but the house and other buildings are fine.”
“Thanks. Tell Maggie I’ll still get her a crib before she pops, I promise.”
“We can buy a damn—”
“Blasphemy!” I gasped, acting like I might faint. “How could you even tease me about that?”
“Fine, fine, get going and rest then,” he grumbled, shaking his head as he walked off to handle what he needed to with the cops guarding the bad guys.
Except he’d been my ride.
“Need a lift?” Theo asked, his black hair and deep green eyes still looking sexy in the harsh lighting of the emergency room.
“Yeah, but it’s a hike.” I raised an eyebrow to ask why he wasn’t already on his way.
“Um, your friend Trey said we needed to stick around and talk to the DA and probably testify,” he explained, his tone a bit nervous. He looked younger than I would have first guessed now that I could see him better, and from a normal angle.
Really young actually.
“Can we talk outside?” Levi asked, glancing around and looking embarrassed at the attention we had.
I nodded and waved him off when he tried to help me. Pain shot through my foot on my second step, and I relented, Levi picking me up while Theo asked if there were crutches I was missing.
“She can’t use crutches with her shoulder, but it seems she doesn’t need to,” the nurse said, sounding fairly amused by the situation.
Clearly, she didn’t have the full picture.
Awkward.
“It’s fine,” I told them, knowing since it was all documented now, I could use my magic to heal the worst of it once eyes were gone.
When he set me down by a rental SUV, I focused my magic to check their auras, getting something was going on.
And my mouth almost fell open when I saw they were both scared. What did these guys have to be afraid of?
“Um, we don’t have…” Levi started, glancing at Theo.
“We’re not sure we can afford a hotel for the weeks Trey said it might take,” he explained. “Even a motel.”
Well shit. And I needed them to make it a slam dunk case.
I sighed. “I have a guesthouse. You’re more than welcome to it.”
“Oh, wow, okay, thanks. We were just hoping for a room or idea of what to do,” Theo muttered, giving me wide eyes. “What kind of land do you own?”
“You’ll see.” I nodded to the SUV. “It’s a hike, and I need food for the pain meds. We’ve got an hour before the McDonald’s closes. Can you guys spot me for that? I’ve got cash at home.”
“Yeah, sure, I’m starved,” Levi answered as he helped me up into the SUV.
We headed across town to hit the drive-thru and they couldn’t hide their shock at how much I ordered.
First, I’d skipped dinner.
Second, McDonald’s was always something you ordered extra of because it was greasy bliss.
Third, it took a lot of energy and fuel to do magic. But they didn’t know that part, and I was too tired to come up with a real excuse.
“I stress eat,” I fibbed. Well, it wasn’t untrue, but normally I spent so much time forgetting to eat that any chance I got to eat, I squirreled it away. “Please don’t make me eat cold fries because it’s a rental. I’ll pay if I fuck it up.”
“Cold fries suck,” Levi muttered as he grabbed bags from Theo. “I’m not waiting.”
Good deal.
The first twenty minutes of the drive were filled with eating noises, and just when things might get awkward, my pain pill kicked in and I didn’t much care. I groaned in my seat as I tried to get comfortable, but at least the pain was dulled to an ache so I could suffer through that a bit longer.
“Fuckers destroyed my damn gate too,” I seethed as we arrived at my farm. “I hope you hurt them good.”
“I did,” they said together.
“Holy shit, so you’re rich,” Theo whispered as we pulled up to the house.
“Yeah, I’m rich,” I chuckled.
“Sorry, it’s just, you kept calling it land, like… I didn’t think this rich. I didn’t really think anything yet.”
“I got it,” I promised as he parked.
I sighed. At least I didn’t have to break into my own house since I’d been in the workshop. Too many times had I forgotten keys or locked myself out, so now there were keypad entries. I slid out and healed my foot enough to walk on it so I didn’t have to be toted around, promising Levi I was fine now.
“There’s been a fuck ton of magic used here,” Theo muttered, glancing all around. “I mean damn you’re powerful.”
Which meant he was sensitive to it.
And not from a witch bloodline, as I would have sensed that, old and powerful enough to know when I meet others.
Which meant only one thing…
Hunters.
I used my magic to flash up fireballs I was ready to throw as I backed away from them. “So is this your guys’ new shtick? Rescue a witch just so you can kill her yourself after you get all the information you want and her totems?”