Bryce moved, kicked out from his position on the floor, and caught Bateman right at the knees. The man began to fall, and his aim swung toward Bryce. Leesa sprang forward, intent on taking him down and disarming him.
And then the gun went off.
* * * *
Jason watched as Bateman marched Leesa to his own car then pointed his flashlight in the open trunk.
“It’s Bryce Jordan in the trunk. He looks unconscious.” Marc had been on his belly, binoculars in hand, when they’d arrived.
As Jason watched, Leesa reached into the trunk and lifted her unconscious ex right out of there.
“Basic training,” Marc said. “She’s been taught how to lift and carry more than twice her weight.”
Jason didn’t care if she had been trained. He hated she was forced to do that, forced to carry the man who’d treated her like dirt.
Adam was standing off to the left, and in the last couple minutes, he’d been joined by several other people. Jason hadn’t heard their approach, which told him whoever these people were, they were professionals. The only one that Jason recognized was Peter, Adam’s brother-in-law.
Jason jerked as Bateman fired his gun.
“Blew off the lock. Arrogant asshole. Thinks he’s all alone out here.” Marc’s running commentary kept Jason grounded. Beside him, Phillip had also jerked at the loud noise. In his periphery, Jason watched as Adam and the other men he was with moved toward Marc.
“Okay, they’ve gone inside,” Adam said. “Jake?”
“Yep, I’m ready.” Jake stood behind them slightly, with his laptop open, turned on, and sitting on the hood of the car.
“Good picture quality,” Adam said.
He and Phillip joined Adam and the rest of the men. On screen, they watched as a light came on. Bateman used his gun as a pointer, and Leesa set her ex on the floor.
“Hell, there’s not even a water source in here.”
“Are you recording?” one of the men with Peter asked.
“Oh, you bet,” Jake said. “Both video and audio.”
The man looked up. His grin flashed, and the sight of it gave Jason a shiver. “Perfect. We’ve already got the bastard on kidnapping and unlawful confinement. That’s a damn fine start. Let’s move out.”
The sound of laughter drew Jason’s attention back to the laptop. “Guess Jordan woke up,” Jake said. Then he snorted. “Leesa just kicked him.”
“Are you fucking nuts? Dude, asshole here has a gun pointed at us and he doesn’t look happy!”
“What the fuck are you laughing at, Jordan? I don’t need to keep you alive if there’s no fucking letter.”
Jake used a key command, and then they were looking at a split-screen. The interior, yes, but now also the exterior and from the viewpoint of the barn’s front door, looking out toward them. Bateman had left the door wide-open, which was good for the advancing team. He had a light on inside, which pretty much guaranteed he wouldn’t see anyone approach in the dark.
But regardless, and as Jason could see, Adam, Peter, and the others were being careful—and strategic—in their approach.
“Fuck.”
His gaze shot to the other screen, where Bateman moved, taking his gun off Jordan and aiming at Leesa.
Then Jordan kicked out, Leesa charged, and Bateman’s gun fired for the second time that night.
“Damn it to hell, woman!” Jason could have sworn he’d just aged ten years in those few seconds.
“Just like every other one of them,” Jake said. “Our women delight in trying to give us heart attacks.”
“Federal agents! Bateman, stay on the ground!”
The command sounded in stereo, on the screen and in real life, just a few hundred yards away inside the abandoned barn.
Jason didn’t wait, and neither did Phillip. He felt his best friend, his partner, his co-husband hard on his heels as he took off at a dead run, heading for their woman.
Out of breath, anxious, Jason ran into the barn and scanned. Bateman was on his belly on the floor, being cuffed. Marc was crouched next to Bryce Jordan. Jason saw blood on the ground and then found Leesa. Their woman was standing off to the side, brushing her jeans off. The dusty imprint told the tale of a meeting with the floor—but otherwise she looked all right. Uninjured. Not shot. He took a few extra seconds to let those two words echo in his mind.
She looked up, met his gaze, and charged again. Jason caught her, and Phillip closed them all in an embrace of privacy. Jason thought they all three of them were shaking. He kissed the top of her head.
“Scared the shit out of me, woman.” he said.
“Me, too. Seriously scared,” Phillip said.
“Me, too.” Leesa said. For a long moment they just stood, holding on, letting their heart rates even out. Jason closed his eyes and let himself absorb the miracle of Leesa Jordan, in his arms, out of harm’s way. He lifted his head and saw something on her left cheek. A spot of blood. He lightly brushed his finger over it. Just a speck and it didn’t appear to hurt her.
“When he shot the lock off,” Leesa said.
“You’re all right, Leesa?” Jake Kendall joined them. The intrusion brought Jason back to the present. And Phillip, too, apparently, because he stood back, leaving Leesa in Jason’s arms.
She slid her arm around Jason and looked at Jake.
“Yeah, I am.” She looked down at Bryce. Marc was on his knees beside the man, giving him a quick once-over.
Then Marc looked up and met Jason’s gaze. “My cousins the paramedics are on their way. The bullet caught the edge of his right arm. I think it’s just a graze. They always look worse than they really are.”
“Easy for you to say,” Bryce said. “Fucking stings like a bastard.”
Until that moment, Jason hadn’t realized the man had been wounded.
“I know how getting shot feels,” Leesa said. Then she nodded to the man who was still on his back on the floor. “Thanks for kicking out at him. That gave me the chance to attack.”
“First time we ever worked together,” Bryce said. Then he looked from her to Jason. “And I think that is mostly my fault.”
“But not all,” Leesa said. “I know I became a real bitch in Kabul.”
“Well, I didn’t enter into our marriage with right motives in the first place. Can’t blame you for the way you reacted to what I dished out. I have the feeling that won’t be a problem for you next time…Sarge.”
Jason looked from the wounded man on the floor to his woman. He flicked a glance at Phillip, who’d been paying attention and who then nodded to him.
“It won’t be,” Jason said. “And I’ll add my thanks to Leesa’s.”
“The medics are here,” Adam announced. He stood aside as two Jessop cousins—Warren and Edward Jessop—came into the barn, a stretcher between them.
Marc got to his feet, stepped back, and let the professionals get to work.
“Robbie at the clinic?” Marc asked them.
“He probably is by now,” Warren replied.
“I don’t think I need the clinic.” Bryce Jordan seemed uncomfortable receiving the kind—and professional—attention.
“Grandma Kate says you get the clinic,” Warren said. “And if all’s well, a room at the B&B, all free of charge.”
“Take it,” Adam Kendall said. “We still have statements to take and reports to make.”
“I’ll take you three home,” Jake said. “Big brother here can get your statements in the morning.”
“Damn good plan.” Phillip nodded and headed out, following Jake.
Jason wasn’t surprised by Kate’s generosity. If he knew her—and he understood that he really did—she likely had already been apprised of the major points of this…what had Peter just called it? The latest dust-up? He looked down at the man who’d just been lifted onto the stretcher. “We’ll see you in the morning, Bryce.”
The other man nodded, his face showing no sign of his belligerence from earlier in the evening.<
br />
Jason took Leesa’s hand and led her in the direction of the car. Since Jake and the sheriff were giving the three of them the rest of the night to deal, he was determined that they were damn well going to take it.
Chapter Nineteen
Leesa was so happy to have her men on either side of her in the back seat. Both Jason and Phillip sat close, holding her hands. Jake, behind the wheel of Adam’s cruiser, drove them home. He’s not a cop. Why is he driving a cop car?
Leesa blinked. She had noticed a deputy’s badge on Jake’s waistband when he’d come up to her in the barn earlier. During one of her many afternoons at work, when there’d been lulls and time for conversations, Leesa had learned that a lot of the men, and quite a few of the women, in Lusty had deputy sheriff badges.
Leesa had been surprised when Tracy had told her that each and every one of them who did actually had been sworn in as deputies. For emergency purposes, of course. Considering that, she supposed that would include every member of Adam’s family.
Leesa closed her eyes. She had no idea why her thoughts had taken that detour down trivia lane. She’d never experienced her thoughts being so scattered, so…unsettled.
“We’re almost there, baby.” Jason gave her right hand a squeeze. “You’re shaking. Are you sure you weren’t hurt aside from that scratch on your cheek?”
Leesa opened her eyes. She was shaking. Weird. I never shake. “I’m sure. I can’t seem to stop the shaking, but I’m okay. Well, my mind is ping-ponging all over the place, too, but other than those two little things, I’m perfectly fine.”
“You’re likely having an adrenaline crash, Miss Leesa,” Jake said. “It’ll pass.”
Leesa looked up and met his gaze in the rearview mirror. Appreciating the kindness that she saw there, she nodded and then sighed when he pulled the car into the guys’ driveway.
“Adam will call before he comes over tomorrow morning,” Jake said. “For the rest of the night…well, I’ll just shut up, now.”
He wore a teasing grin, and it took Leesa a few moments to understand why.
Jason extended his arm. “Thanks, Jake.”
Jason’s voice had a strange echo to it. And then they were in the house, in the living room. Jason scooped her into his arms. “I have you. Let’s go upstairs and just be for a little while.”
That sounded like the best idea, ever.
For the first time in her life, Leesa felt good letting others—specifically these two wonderful men—take complete care of her.
Entering the bedroom, getting naked, all that passed in a blur. When she felt the comfort of the mattress beneath her, when she felt the heat of their flesh on hers as they snuggled her close between them, she knew she was home. A few tears leaked, and she let them, because, in that moment, everything was good. Her world had righted, and the shaking stopped.
“I wasn’t scared at first. Not until we got into the barn and Bryce began to laugh at Bateman. I looked up and into that man’s eyes, and I realized he was on the edge. And that, more than anything, scared the shit out of me. Well, that and his turning his gun on me.”
“About that,” Phillip said. “He turned the gun on you, and your response was to tackle him?”
“You stole my question,” Jason groused.
Phillip’s words, so carefully enunciated, and Jason’s little addendum let Leesa understand something very basic, and very important, about love.
When you loved someone deep down to your soul, then their reality became yours—and vice versa. She’d been terrified, of course, but she understood that both her men had been, too.
“I only tackled him after Bryce kicked him in the knees. In that instant, his aim went wide of me and was more or less back on Bryce. I didn’t even think. Training kicked in—and that was a bad pun—and I simply reacted.”
“Well, fuck.” Phillip kissed her shoulder. “Of all the people on this planet I did not want to feel grateful to, your ex was at the top of the list.”
“No kidding,” Jason said.
Leesa couldn’t help it. She laughed. What started as a small giggle didn’t take long to morph into giant, wrenching sobs. Totally out of her control, those sobs shook her and plunged her into the depths of an emotional storm.
Her men said nothing. They simply held her close and let her cry. After a few minutes, tissues were pressed into her hand. She mopped, then hiccupped, then clutched the damp paper in her fist.
“Better?” Jason asked.
“Yeah. Thanks.” She exhaled. “That has never happened to me before. I’m not even sure I understand why it happened now. I’ve always been able to roll with…well, whatever. And there have been some pretty heavy whatevers, too, in my life. Finding out Bryce cheated on me, confronting him, his punch…I rolled. Got pissed as hell, filed for divorce, but no emotional meltdown. Getting shot? Hurt like a son of a bitch, but I rolled and, again, no meltdown.”
“Well, hell, baby, I’d say you were overdue for one, don’t you think?” Jason kissed the top of her head.
Leesa had been using his chest as her pillow. She needed to see her men, so she began to turn. She smiled as the image of a spit turning on a rotisserie formed in the back of her mind.
She moved, and they moved with her, accommodating her. Both men were on their sides, heads on hands, looking down at her. Since she could see them both at the same time, that was perfect.
“What I think…” She looked into Jason’s eyes, so full of love it made her feel ultra feminine. Then she met Phillip’s gaze and saw not only that love but so much joy with it.
“What I think is that you’ve both reached down deep inside me in a way that not only no one else ever has but to a part of me I forgot existed. I think a part of me—that part that is female—stepped back when I joined the army. I didn’t date, and I didn’t have any real close female friends. I think I believed I had to turn off that side of me and just focus on the career I’d chosen. I’d go home on leave, and be happy to spend time with my parents, but wanted nothing more. Each time I felt a greater distance between myself and my sisters, especially.” She reached out and put a hand on each of her lovers. “I got married, but you know how that worked out. What you don’t know is that, after the divorce, I kind of doubled down on the way I’d been before Bryce. I was even more determined not to acknowledge my feminine self.
“When I left the army, when I came here? I felt like a fish out of water. But this place….it doesn’t let you stay that way. It hauls you in and accepts you and then helps you face your inner demons.”
“Tell me about it.” Jason’s tone, so intimate, warmed her heart.
“I never knew that all of the things I was learning, the people I was meeting, that all of that was working to bring me to a place where I’d be ready for you. But it did, and while I could never be ready for the reality of what we share, I am so damn grateful for it and for the two of you. For the first time in my life, I feel whole.”
“I love you, Leesa.” Jason reached down and used a finger to trace her lips. “It’s a forever love, and I never want to be without you. Will you marry me?”
Phillip ran a hand down her body. “I love you, Leesa. You’re the woman I’ve dreamed of finding before I fully understood my dream. Please marry me. Have our babies. Build a life with us.”
“Yes. Yes, yes, and yes. I want to marry you both. I want to marry you and have your babies and grow old with you.” She raised her hands from their chests to their faces. She felt her own trembling. Her heart raced. Desperation filled her, and she believed that if she couldn’t have these men in the next few seconds, she just might die. “I need you both right now.”
“Shh.” Jason gently stroked her face, and then he kissed her.
Opening her mouth, she used her tongue, her lips, trying to draw him in. Her hand left his face and gripped his shoulder. She tugged. Her desperation grew. She felt wild, needy, and greedy. She felt out of control.
Jason moved onto his back even as he reach
ed for her. He held her suspended, above him, and his gaze pierced her. “No condom?”
She knew they were clean, and they knew she was, too. They’d asked her to consider using protection only when it came to anal sex—a pleasure she’d not yet experienced, despite all of her hints and then pleas to do just that.
She didn’t have to even think about her response now. “No condom.”
Jason lowered her onto him, and the heat of his naked, erect cock against her pussy made her shiver.
Behind her, Phillip laid his hand on her back and stroked down. He rubbed his finger against her anus. She would have sworn her pussy gushed in response.
Then Jason combed his fingers through her hair and brought her head down for his kiss. Warm and wet, his mouth suckled hers while his tongue caressed and enslaved her own. He moved his hips, a sultry caress of his cock against her labia. Leesa felt her own moisture, and when he wiggled, she felt his cockhead at the opening of her slit.
She gave him a little wiggle of her own and took his cock deep inside her.
Jason broke their kiss. “Oh, Leesa.”
She didn’t need an explanation. He’d told her she would be the first woman he’d ever be naked inside of. The first, the last, the only.
“Jason. So good.”
“Mmm.” Jason’s agreement caressed her cheek. His mouth took hers once more, and with his right hand on her ass, he fucked her, his tongue and his cock taking her, a synchronized, wondrous plundering.
His strokes, slow and deep, moved in a rhythm that evolved into the most beautiful music. She danced with him, her entire being focused on this joining, this ballet in their own private sanctuary. Arousal wound over and through, binding her to both of her lovers. Phillip’s heat, his hand, connected her to him, and Leesa gave up thinking, wanting only this symphony, this passion…this love.
The realm of sensation and emotion they inhabited needed no words. Sexy and sensual, erotic and romantic, this realm enclosed them, and Leesa’s will, her soul, and her heart surrendered.
Love Under Two Financiers Page 17