by Jenny Penn
“And are you going to pay?” he asked, uncertain of what else to say but still shocked when Chase nodded.
“For now.”
Brett hesitated, giving him a chance to go further with his explanation, but Chase didn’t, leaving Brett just as confused as he’d been a second ago. “What the hell is going on here? You’re being blackmailed, and you’re not even the little bit pissed about it?”
“We’re just playing this smart. Everybody who needs to know what they know knows it.”
Brett blinked that in, trying to follow along and coming to the obvious conclusion that Chase was telling him to mind his own business, which he would gladly do except that there was one thing the brothers didn’t know.
“Fine, but maybe you ought to give that speech to Patton,” Brett advised him. “Because she’s running around conducting her own investigation into the matter.”
That got a response, this time from Devin, who scowled with unpleasant surprise as he turned on his brother. “Oh, crap. Now what are we going to do?”
“Mike’s trying to keep her out of trouble,” Brett assured him. “Of course, you know how Patton is.”
“Yes, trust me, we know.” Chase heaved a deep sigh and scowled, appearing to consider his options before pinning Brett with a hard look. “What I’m about to tell you stays here, between us. Got it?”
“Like I’ve got anybody to tell.”
“He’s talking about Angie,” Devin shot back. “Whatever she knows, Patton will know, so she can’t know anything.”
“Got it. Angie will be kept in the dark,” Brett assured them, curious enough to agree to just about anything. “Just tell me what the fuck is going on.”
“Gwen Harold was blackmailing a whole bunch of people,” Chase began, pausing to shoot Brett a pointed look. “Now she’s dead. All the evidence she collected on her victims has disappeared along with the flash drive, and suddenly we’re getting cryptic e-mails demanding cash. You put all that together and we’ve got a dangerous situation on our hands.”
“Then you should warn Patton.” And he should warn his brother before they stumbled into trouble.
“And send her running straight into the danger?” Devin shook his head. “No. What she doesn’t know won’t kill her…just as long as we can figure out a way to control her investigation.”
“So I guess you better call your brother and give him a heads-up,” Chase advised.
Brett was already reaching for his phone.
* * * *
Mike sighed as he flipped his phone closed and glanced over at where Patton was studiously trying to pick the lock on Howie’s trailer. He could have helped her. He knew how to kick in a door, but she insisted. Given that Mike’s sole purpose here was to avoid getting either one of them arrested, he’d agreed, but now his patience was wearing thin.
So was the light.
Mike frowned as a shadow darkened over them. Unless clouds came in the same of a person, they had company. Company that had snuck up on them silently enough that none of Mike’s finally honed senses had been triggered until it was too late. Mike felt his heart lurch as he swung around to confront the Amazon smirking down at him.
It was Wanda.
He hadn’t seen her in over ten years, but that didn’t stop him from flashing back to when they’d been kids and she used to put him in a headlock. Mike had pleaded with the most wonderful Wanda in the world to gain his freedom. It had been humiliating.
“Oh my God,” Wanda breathed out with a smile breaking across her face. “If it isn’t little Mikey…and General Patton!”
Patton swung around at that greeting, and instantly, Mike knew that he was in trouble. Patton and Wanda were back together again. While Wanda had almost ten years on Patton, they still had a strong history as mentor and pupil.
“It’s Wonderful Wanda!” Patton all but exploded upward, leaping off the top step of Howie’s deck to launch herself straight into Wanda’s arms.
Well over six feet, Wanda had the kind of muscle tone that scared most men but allowed her to catch Patton without toppling over. The two women squealed and hugged and then started babbling out questions and answers in an endless avalanche of chatter that boggled Mike’s mind. He didn’t stand a chance of keeping up with their conversation.
He didn’t even try. Instead, Mike’s attention was caught by the sudden rattle of the back door’s knob. It turned, glinting in the sun, and once again, he was caught off guard as GD threw the open door. He didn’t look happy. With an aggravated motion, he snapped at them in a pissed-off whisper as he glanced all around.
“Will you three idiots get in here before somebody notices you?” The big man stepped back and motioned for them to hurry up.
“Oh no.” Wanda sighed and shook her head. “Somebody is grumpy.”
“Don’t start with me, Wanda,” GD snapped.
“Wouldn’t dream of it, shorty.” Wanda slapped the big man on the arm as she followed Patton up the steps and into the dark confines of Howie’s small kitchen.
Mike brought up the tail, leaving him as the one who had to deal with GD’s scowl as he shut the door behind them. The big man didn’t even have to start. Mike knew what he was thinking and held up his hands in surrender.
“I’m just the following the redhead. How your cousin came to be here, or what I’m doing here, I don’t have a clue,” Mike swore, earning him a snort from the large and irritated man before him, but thankfully, GD followed his comments and turned his attention on the two women smiling at them.
“What?” Patton dared to blink innocently up at GD. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Why shouldn’t I be looking at you like that?”
Patton smile didn’t dip with that obnoxious retort, but neither did she answer GD. “How long have you been in here?”
“What the hell are you doing here?”
That was at the beginning of an argument that quickly included Wanda, who apparently had been following GD around for the past two days. A bounty hunter by profession, she was testing her stalking skills and considered GD to be really out of practice. Of course, he was indignant that she’d just waltzed into town and started harassing him.
Apparently, GD was doing Wanda some kind of favor. In repayment, she was annoying the shit out of him pretending she was a detective. In reality, Wanda made a career out of hunting down men who had dared to harm a woman or a child. She insisted that was the same as working any dipshit case GD took.
The very fact that Wanda dared to insult the big man to his face went to prove what kind of crazy GD’s cousin was and just why Mike stayed away from that battle. Moving into the living room, his nose wrinkled as he took in the dank, depressing room. It was small and cramped, decorated as if they were still in the seventies, but it was also strangely, perfectly clean. The cook sure as hell hadn’t looked that clean back at the diner.
Clean it might be, but fresh smelling it certainly wasn’t. The heavy scent of age weighed on the stale air, adding to the oppressive feeling of the orange shag carpet and the cavernous wall-to-wall paneling.
“I don’t think we have time for you to go through the twelve theatrical stages of a hissy fit.” Wanda’s sharp retort drew Mike’s gaze back to the sight of the two Davis relations facing off. His money was on the Amazon. “So why don’t you go do whatever it is you’re here to do, and I’ll help Patton do whatever it is she’s here to do.”
“Fine,” GD snarled.
With his ears burning and cheeks glowing, he was flushed and looking ready to blow as brushed past Mike and stormed off down the hall. Mike would have been glad to let him go, but from the look Patton shot him, he knew that wasn’t her plan. It was clear from the way she nodded her head after GD what she wanted, but still Mike hesitated until she snapped at him.
“Mike!”
“Fine.” Mike heaved a sigh and plodded after GD.
The long, narrow hall that led to the back bedroom was lined in snipped and flattened soup
cans, which could almost have been attractive in a rustic sort of way if it weren’t for the birdhouses tacked up along with them. The creepiest thing by far, though, was the collection of birds.
Never a big fan of any pet that didn’t bark, Mike especially didn’t like stuffed ones. They weirded him out with their plastic eyes and their too-still postures. He couldn’t help but give them a wide berth as he finally stepped into a strangely cheery bedroom.
Painted a bright yellow, with a matching floral bedspread, the room contrasted sharply with the image of the rough and greasy cook Mike had gotten a glimpse of earlier. Whoever this room belonged to, it wasn’t Howie. Either that or they didn’t know Howie well enough. For that, Mike was thankful.
“This place is giving me a bad vibe, man.” And Mike had learned in the marines to pay attention to his vibes. They’d save his ass more than once.
“Tell me about it,” GD retorted as began to slide his hands across the wall. “While you’re at, why don’t you tell me what you are doing with Patton?”
“Angie,” Mike answered in one word as he watched the big man continue to inspect the walls. “What you hoping to find there?”
“A hidden camera,” the big man answered succinctly, pausing only long enough to cast Mike a pointed look over his shoulder. “And it would go faster if you would help.”
“It would go faster if I knew what the hell was going on,” Mike muttered, even as he began inspecting the far wall.
“You don’t really want to know the details, do you?” GD asked, returning his attention back to the wall he was checking.
“No, probably not,” Mike admitted. “But since I have now been tasked by Chase to keep Patton distracted and out of trouble, I kind of need to know where not to let her roam.”
That revelation had GD stopping to turn and gape at Mike. “You’re kidding me? I’m working my ass off here to save this town from completely imploding and they’re letting fruit-loops run around playing private eye?”
Mike shrugged, not sure how to answer that question. “I don’t know, man. I don’t even know what is going on.”
“This shit’s got to stop.” GD shook his head and headed for the door.
“Where you going?” Mike hollered after him, turning to follow, but his attention got caught by the stuffed bird perched damn near over the doorway.
His nose wrinkled as he eased past it in disgust. It almost felt as if its black, lifeless eyes followed him, but that alone had him pausing as he realized the sensation wasn't just nerves or a trick of the light. The damn thing’s eyes were following him, and it was the only bird with black ones.
Something was wrong, and Mike really didn’t want to touch the damn thing. GD had taken off, though, leaving him to suck in a deep breath and touch the dead, stuffed animal. He’d never actually touched one before, but the moment he wrapped his fingers around the damn thing, he knew something was inside it.
That was GD’s problem.
Mike didn’t feel the least bit bad about dumping that headache on the big man. It didn’t even matter that GD was actually helping him out by letting Patton in on a few little facts she didn’t know. Catching only the tail end of GD’s revelations, Mike still heard enough to know that GD had outed the Davis brothers.
That was exactly what they weren’t supposed to do, but GD was clearly annoyed that everybody was trying to play detective. They were all getting in his way, an observation that had Wanda snorting. Patton, on the other hand, turned an enraged gaze on Mike and demanded to be taken back to the ranch.
“Sure.” Mike had no problem divorcing himself of this mess and was more than happy to pass off his recent find to GD. “Here, man, I think this is the dead bird you were looking for.”
GD lifted a brow at that but accepted the stuffed animal without comment as Mike turned to follow Patton back out the door. She bitched non-stop for the next half-hour but thankfully didn’t require Mike to respond to any of her rather colorful comments and speculations. That was a good thing because he really wasn’t paying her any attention.
His thoughts drifted back toward Angie and what he was going to do about her. Mike really didn’t know. He wanted her in a way he’d never wanted any other woman. Strangely enough, he couldn’t seem to take her. There could be a way around that problem. He just needed to get Angie to agree to his conditions.
Fortunately, Mike spotted his brother’s truck parked out front of the big main house dominating the cluster of buildings that made up the main compound of the Davis brothers’ ranch. Patton had jumped out before he’d even come to a complete stop.
She was racing up the front steps even as he was pulling the key from the ignition. Patton didn’t wait on Mike but disappeared into the house. By the time he’d reached the front door, the yelling had already started.
Mike followed the hollering into the brothers’ study, where he found Patton confronting Slade over the thick wooden slab of his desk. Brett was kicked back on the couch across from it, watching the two with a small smirk pulling at his lips.
“Hey, man.” Mike slumped down on the seat beside Brett as Slade stuttered desperately in a vain attempt to keep up with Patton’s accusations.
“I…no, we….Patton!”
“What’s up?” Brett greeted him with a nod.
“And don’t think I don’t know why you don’t care about that stupid flash drive! GD told me the truth. It was a sham. A fake!”
“I’ve come to a decision.” Mike glanced over to catch his brother’s gaze before continuing.
“Yeah?” Brett looked over at Mike as Slade attempted to defend himself.
“That is the most ridiculous accusation. I would never…”
“Yeah.” Mike had to bite back a smile. “I’m thinking you should marry Angie.”
“You set me up, and I can prove it! Just you wait till…”
“Is that right?”
“Yep.” Mike nodded as Slade came out of his seat.
“Oh, don’t you take that tone with me! You wouldn’t be in this mess if you hadn’t stolen those damn files in the first place!”
“And let me take a guess. You’re going to be fucking my wife, right?”
“Yep.”
“Steal? Steal! Oh, come on!”
“That is if you can manage to fuck my wife without running away like a little girl.” Brett smirked.
“I got a plan for that, too.” Mike turned to see Brett’s smug smile as he unveiled his brilliant idea. “I’m going to do her in her sleep.”
“Her sleep?” Brett’s mouth fell open as he blinked at Mike in shock.
“I’m going to ask her first,” Mike retorted, enjoying the way his brother continued to gape at him. “What? You didn’t think I’d sneak into her bed without permission. I’m not like some people.”
That echoed loudly in the suddenly silent room, drawing both Slade’s and Patton’s gazes in their direction as if they had both forgotten that the brothers were there. Apparently, they weren’t welcome either from the scowls each sent Mike and Brett. Slade, though, was the one who voiced his annoyance.
“If you two don’t mind, I think I need to have a private word with Patton.”
“Oh please.” Patton snorted and rolled her eyes. “Private word, my ass. You just don’t want any witnesses for what you’re about to do.”
“And you do?” Slade shot back, causing Patton to still for a second before she went screaming out of the room.
Slade was right on her heels, a grin breaking across his features as he rushed past Brett and Mike. Both brothers watched him disappear out the door, and seconds later, Patton’s cries were breaking into loud threats that faded away with the slam of the door.
“So?” Brett picked the conversation right back up. “You’re going to ask if you can sneak into her room and molest her while she sleeps? That’s your plan?”
“You got a better one?”
Chapter 13
Angie sat her desk staring at the schedule before
her. Her head was pounding, her neck strained. No matter how long she stared, the schedule refused to be sorted out. There were too many men, which was why they tended to double up. While a lot of seasoned members already had established partnerships, the younger ones were still sorting things out.
That was supposed to be GD’s problem. Of course, he’d quit, and Brett had taken off to God knew where. As for Mike, Angie wasn’t certain whether he was taking the job or not. Strangely enough, he didn’t seem that interested in working at a club full of naked women. That would have made her love him more if it weren’t for the fact that she was getting stuck carrying the load for both GD and Lana.
Patton was certainly of no help. She’d completely disappeared and wasn’t answering her phone. Neither was Mike, which had Angie suspecting they were in jail. She was half temped to call down to the station and see if she had won her bet. Assuming she had, Angie still had to figure out how to claim her prize. Given Mike’s tendency to run away, she might really have to tie him to her bed.
“Knock, knock!” Brett called out as he stuck his head through the door. “You ready for dinner?”
“Where have you been?” Angie glanced up with a scowl, not about to be seduced by that big, goofy grin of his. She was ticked, and he was going to know it. “I’ve been working my fingers to the bone all day and could have done with a little help.”
“I’m sorry.” Brett stepped all the way into her office. “I was with the big bosses.”
“The big bosses?” Angie snorted at that, swiveling her chair so she could keep an eye on him as Brett started toward her. “Is that to say you spent all day gossiping with the Davis brothers?”
“Just with Slade,” he corrected her. “And you’ll be glad to know that the flash drive is no longer a worry.”
“Really?” Angie lifted a brow at that. “Patton found it then.”
“Nope.” Brett shook his head. “It was a fake. Now, come on, dinner is getting cold.”