by Gemma Snow
“You seemed to do a fine job entertaining yourself last night,” Ev shot back, but the sting was vastly lessened by the wide yawn that cut through it. She pursed her lips. “No one said you had to talk to us.”
“I don’t have anyone else to talk to.” He indicated to the empty seat beside him. “I’d take dentist chat over watching how totally domesticated you two are. God, it’s like I don’t even know you.” He grinned. “Hey, Ev, remember the time you went home with the SEAL, what was his nickname, oh yeah, Mr. Rocketlauncher, and it wasn’t because of his finesse with weapons.”
She lobbed a crumpled napkin at him and hit her target square on. Quinn couldn’t suppress a laugh, not when Lucas started laughing or when Ev’s lips curved into a smirk. He’d needed this, after the week he’d had. Coming home to Ev and Lucas had been a staple of his life at the Bureau and he knew he couldn’t survive a day without them.
“Dunno what you find so funny, Mr. Macho,” Lucas said, insolent grin spreading. “I sure as hell wouldn’t be smiling if I’d brought home my boss’s daughter. Did you think of him while you were in bed?” Lobbing another napkin at Lucas’ face seemed like a great idea, but the plane began its final descent and they turned away from Lucas to fasten their seatbelts.
The landing was smooth and, in a few minutes, they’d made it through baggage claim and toward the car rental. Then they were on the road, Quinn at the wheel, Lucas in the seat beside him and Ev stretched out in the back, fast asleep.
“This case really got to her,” Lucas said quietly, once they were on the road. Quinn had never been to Montana, and the vast stretches of empty highway surrounded by farms and fields had a calming effect on his harried thoughts. He glanced away from the road to look at Lucas.
“Yeah, I thought so too.” She’d called them from her motel room twice, while in Freemont, New York, and she hadn’t done all that great a job convincing them she was fine. But that was Ev. She could put on her robot face with the best of them, but deep down she was the kindest, most feeling woman he’d ever met. And even if she had been a robot, child serial killers would have been rough on the soul.
“Let’s give her a damn good weekend, Luc, what do you say?” Quinn asked. Lucas’ face curved into a smile.
“A case-by-case weekend?” he asked with that boyish enthusiasm and, God, Quinn felt old. Back when they’d first gotten started, Ev at the Behavioral Analysis Unit, Quinn with Counterterrorism and Lucas in Gang Crimes, a division of the Violent Crimes Department, they’d had one hell of a tradition. When one of them got a really bad case, like shit the bed, goat-fuckery, FUBAR bad, they’d have a case-by-case night, where they’d share a case of beer, a twelve-, twenty-four- or thirty-six-pack, depending on the severity of the case. They’d been young and capable of bouncing back from some riotous hangovers, and the memories of those early years made Quinn smile.
“Why the fuck not?” he said. “Though if Sam’s got an open bar, and I damn well hope she does with her salary, I’m going for more than cheap beer.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Lucas agreed. “I think we all need a chance to wind down. Ev most of all.” He grinned at Quinn. “Let’s make this a weekend we’ll never forget.”
Chapter Three
The Triple Diamond Ranch was gorgeous. There was no other way to put it. Ev had slept the three hours from the airport and so stumbled from the car, finally feeling awake for the first time in days, only to catch sight of the sprawling, incredible mountain range cutting across the gray sky. Even with the trees bare and the harsh bite of winter catching in every breath she took, Ev couldn’t deny the beauty all around her.
They walked a short way up the path to the check-in office. It was warm inside and, after a moment, a striking, tall woman emerged from a back room. She started at them then smiled.
“Welcome to Triple Diamond!” she said. “I’m Lily Hollis. This is my sister Maddy’s ranch and B&B. You’re here for the Pierce-Hawkins wedding, right?”
Ev stepped between Quinn and Lucas and fished through her purse for her wallet. “We are,” she said, handing over her credit card, and Lily Hollis tapped out a few keys on the computer before her.
“You’re going to love the setup,” Lily gushed. “Maddy’s working on the barn right now—it’s gorgeous! And so are the brides.” She shot Ev a conspiratorial wink. “I used to do flower arrangements for weddings, so Sam asked me to make her corsage. There won’t be a dry eye on Sunday, let me tell you.”
Ev blinked in surprise. “I must admit,” she said, “I thought there’d be more backlash about having a gay wedding out here.”
Lily only laughed. “Wolf Creek is a lot more open-minded than you’d think,” she said. “For instance, Maddy and I, well, we both have pretty unconventional relationships, ourselves.”
Curiosity way, way piqued, Ev went to go ask exactly what that meant, but the door swung open, bringing in a burst of cold air and her former trainer at Quantico, Samantha Hawkins.
“You guys are late,” she said, before rushing in to hug first Lucas, then Quinn then Ev herself, her blonde hair flying free from the back of the parka when her hood fell down. “Look at you, all grown up.” She punched Quinn in the stomach and he wrapped one thick arm around her neck.
“Still taller than you, Sammy,” he said. “And you should be happy we got our sorry asses out here at all. Ev didn’t get in until three and Lucas apparently thought your wedding was next month.”
Sam raised a brow and Lucas held up his hands in surrender. “Do I know anything?” he asked, eyes glinting in mischief. God, he was so fucking cute when he was up to something. For someone else.
“Go drop off your stuff and come meet us down in the restaurant,” Sam said. “Aims is going to be so happy to see you. And everyone else is here, too, so make it quick.”
Ev couldn’t help but smile when Sam dashed off back out into the cold. She was a fairly small woman, but stuffed into her bright white parka, she looked a little like a happy marshmallow. Still, she was in love.
“Ah, you’re our threesome,” Lily said. Ev’s heart stopped for a moment. Just a moment. Of course, they were a threesome. They’d even done the cliché and called themselves the Three Musketeers for a spell. They had always, always been a threesome. And yet there was something in Lily’s voice that made the word seem heavy, loaded somehow, as if it were Ev’s own subconscious saying it instead.
“Ha, yeah, we booked late,” Ev said, her voice perfectly normal, thanks.
Lily waved her off. “No worries! Will you be wanting an extra bed brought in or…”
Does she know? No. There’s nothing to know. But…
“Two beds, please,” Ev said quickly. Even quicker, she covered it up with a joke. “Quinn kicks and Lucas snores, so I’ll never get any sleep if I don’t have my own bed.” Quinn rolled his eyes and Lucas shot her a stupidly seductive wink. Lily just tilted her head and didn’t say a word, which felt a hell of a lot more damning than if she had.
The small guest cottage was, for lack of a better word, adorable. Lily chattered on as they made their way down the path, sharing that Maddy had inherited the ranch from her uncle almost a year earlier, and had begun turning it into a B&B within a season. The guest cottages, ten in all, Lily explained, were recent additions to the two-dozen rooms in Holmwood Manor. They didn’t look it. In fact, when the group cleared the small hill, with the great mountains rising in the distance and the rustle of stark wind through the empty trees, Ev couldn’t deny that those rustic little cottages, all wood and stone aesthetic, most definitely looked like they belonged.
As they took the path down the hill, a man approached them. He was tall, almost as tall as Quinn, with dark-blond hair and a dazzling smile. The second he spied Lily in their small traveling crew, his face broke out into an enormous grin.
“Lils, I’ve been looking for you.”
Lily stopped them and gave the man a smile.
“I was working the desk for Maddy.” She turned to them t
o explain, “This is our biggest wedding yet so my sister called in the extra help. Dec and…” She paused. “We actually live in a cabin up the mountain. Dec and his partner Micah own the Black Reef Survival Camp.”
“I knew you looked familiar,” Quinn said, reaching out his hand to shake Dec’s. “Quinn Langston. Did you teach a class in Houston maybe two years back?”
Dec nodded. “Yeah, we do some traveling classes.” He paused for a moment. “You guys must be with the Bureau, then.”
They nodded.
“Lucas Vallejo,” Lucas said, shaking the man’s hand, too.
Dec turned his smile to her, and Ev’s whole body flushed. He was handsome. But she knew Lucas’ pretty-boy, playboy tendencies more than well enough to know that a smile like that was never a good sign.
“Ev Monteiro,” she introduced herself with a smile. “Nice to meet you.”
“Dec McCormick. Welcome to Triple Diamond,” he said. “Won’t be nearly as exciting here as it is in DC, but I’m sure you’ll have fun.”
“I don’t want exciting,” Ev said. “We get enough exciting.”
“Dec and Micah also work S&R,” Lily explained, her voice holding a note of pride. “And I’d say it gets pretty exciting here on occasion.”
There was that tone in her voice again and Ev couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe she was missing something. Something she found herself more and more curious to learn about.
“Don’t say those kinds of things in front of the guests…” Dec murmured under his breath, loud enough for the lot of them to hear. Lily turned a brilliant shade of pink that had nothing at all to do with the frigid winter air.
“Dec.” She eyeballed him. “Also, you looking for these?” She dangled a set of keys in front of his face, and instead of responding, he just…kissed her.
Wow. That was one hell of a kiss. Ev had never thought she was into the idea of watching another couple kiss but…
“And here I thought we’d need to buy tickets to the show,” Lucas said, when Lily and Dec finally broke apart.
He shot Lucas a wink. Good, give the guy a taste of his own medicine. Not that Lucas was gay. She’d wondered, when they had first met, but it was more a Latin flair than a desire to pick up and start sucking cock.
And maybe she was having altitude adjustment issues, because wow, that was crude.
“Go give the keys to Micah so I can show these three to their cottage.” Lily’s voice was filled with way too much humor—and lust—to be a command.
Dammit, this time Ev knew she wasn’t imagining the look in Dec’s eyes at Lily’s words. What the hell am I missing here? Working for the Behavioral Analysis Unit hadn’t come with a warning that she would psychoanalyze nearly every person that came her way, but there was definitely, definitely something between Lily and Dec that she was missing. The only question was what.
But Dec moved on and Lily continued to chatter about the ranch until they arrived at guest cabin number four. She handed them the keys and gave a friendly wave before heading back the way she had come.
The cabin was sparsely decorated but very cute. In one corner of the living room and kitchenette, a small fireplace took up most of the wall, with stacks of thick wood in a basket to the side. Down the hall, a door led into one of the bedrooms, housing a bed nearly as large as the room itself. Small, rustic touches, like a basket of flannel throw blankets, dotted the cabin, but the most spectacular was a large picture window framing the stark, stunning view of the mountains in the gray sky. Even though the cabin was pleasantly warm, there was an undeniable scent of snow on the air.
“Did you guys pick up on any vibes from Lily and Dec?” she asked, tossing her duffel onto the bed and rifling through it. The door was open, so her voice would carry down the hall, she realized.
“Yeah, hot ones,” Lucas replied. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched him muss up his long hair, and a thrill ran through her. She’d touched his hair, of course, once when he’d broken his wrist and couldn’t wash it himself and another time when he was too drunk to get a piece of bubble gum out of the end. Both hazards of the job. Still, her sudden desire to run her hands through his hair now was both unexpected and unwelcome.
“Never took you for a voyeur, Luc,” Ev replied. She gripped the sweater she was looking for, pulled it free from the bottom of her bag, her movements jerky. Behind her, she felt Quinn’s warm presence, and a moment later he was kissing her ear gently.
“Did you ever analyze me for a voyeur?” he asked, his hard body pressing against her back and her ass and…oh, baby.
“I hadn’t,” she said, her voice just a little breathy. “But I’ve been wrong in the past. I suppose we’ll just have to do a series of tests to find out.”
“Studious little scientist,” Quinn murmured against her ear. “Talk nerdy to me, Dr. Monteiro.”
She tried to laugh, but the sound came out a little husky, and she turned around to face him, to kiss him, to touch him, her body suddenly craving the connection of Quinn’s, only to stop when she caught sight of Lucas standing in the doorway to the bedroom, arms folded across his chest and a smug smirk on his face.
“You just called me a voyeur then proceeded to dry hump with the door open,” he said.
God, the man had a beautiful voice, all rolling, lilting, bedroom tones. Seductive and rich, like honey upon her fingers. Quinn, on the other hand—who hadn’t moved from his position, most likely because he was sporting a sizable erection now and it would be obvious the minute he stepped out from behind her—Quinn wasn’t seductive at all. He was darkness and smoke and unbridled passion. He was just a little dangerous, both because he couldn’t be easily analyzed and because he knew exactly what he did to her.
“I’m going to take a shower,” Ev said, her voice way too cheery. “I’ll meet you guys at the party, okay?”
Quinn and Lucas exchanged a look and Ev just shook her head. “Whatever perverted fantasies you two are coming up with right now, I can promise you I don’t want to hear it.”
But as she escaped into the bathroom to take the shower she hadn’t planned on taking until that moment, Ev knew she wasn’t running away from their fantasies at all, but rather her own.
Chapter Four
When Ev finally emerged from the shower, Quinn and Lucas were gone and that sent a wave of relief washing over her. They’re my best friends. I shouldn’t be happy they’re gone. Except it was getting harder and harder to deny the desire Lucas inspired within her, and she was afraid if she acknowledged it, she’d have to acknowledge all the other sticky, dangerous parts that came with it.
But I love Quinn. And she did, with the whole of herself that knew if anything ever happened to him, she would be wretched. Still, even dead on her feet, she hadn’t been able to fall into sleeps deep enough to ignore the dreams about Lucas that had plagued her over the last months, or the curiosity that stoked a decidedly non-scientific part of her brain into wondering about…about both of them.
But people didn’t do that, so Ev pulled on her super-cozy cable-knit sweater she never got to wear because she was never home from work long enough to wear anything, yanked a beanie over her wet hair, pulled on her warmest coat and stepped out into the cold wind Even though they’d gone two hours west from DC, the sun, what little of it had been there when they arrived, had nearly disappeared, leaving a cool, gray-purple glow in its wake. The air was crisp and blistering, but it was a dry kind of cold and she simply let herself enjoy it. The path was softly lit by pretty golden lanterns and she headed past the other cabins, the main manor house—Holmwood, Lily Hollis had told her—and toward the cozy communal room where the group of them were probably all already deep into the hard liquor.
Fine. Not only was she not driving, she didn’t have to be anywhere for days. Dammit, she wanted to get sloshed.
But before Ev made it to the small building, she heard a noise coming from the toolshed behind Holmwood Manor. Instincts on high alert, she reached for her handgun,
only to remember that it was safely stored in a lockbox back in the room. Still, she slunk around the building, body tense, heart moving slow and steady in her chest, as she peeked into the shed and…
It was Lily Hollis, held up against the wall with her pants on the ground and her legs wrapped around…
A man who was decidedly not Dec McCormick.
Ev hightailed it out of there faster than if there’d been a gun put to her head. When she arrived at the mess, she found Lucas and Quinn sharing a couch with Sam and her fiancée Aimee, and Aimee’s sisters, Maya and Jodie. Others that Ev knew from the teams and their training were sharing the tables, the bar and a rug before the fireplace, happily digging into more than a few pitchers of cold beer and hot toddies.
“You go running or something?” Lucas asked when she came over to them. Ev must have looked confused because he added, “Your face is flushed, Evs.”
She pulled off a glove and touched her face. It wasn’t flushed—it was hot, burning against her icy fingers.
“Must be the cold,” she managed. Yeah right. If her flush had been caused by anything other than embarrassment, she’d eat the glove in her hand.
Of course, it couldn’t have anything at all to do with the curiosity and lust burning you up from the inside out, could it? Course not.
Rather than dwelling on it, Ev made her rounds through the small crowd, greeting old friends and being introduced to Aimee’s and Sam’s family members. She caught sight of a man whom she didn’t recognize sitting alone at the bar, and turned to DC detective Cole Wicks.