Rachel didn’t think she had earned that. Not, at least, for what she’d confessed to so far. “What?”
“Seriously, Konor and Alex.” Heather did that little head shake as if Rachel should be getting a clue right then.
Nothing came to mind but irritation. “What?”
“You don’t know?”
“Know what?”
“I can’t believe you don’t know.”
“Whatever.” At that point, Rachel didn’t believe there was anything to know. Even if there was, she wasn’t going to spend the next hour repeating herself.
“Fine,” Heather waved Rachel away as she turned toward the row of tiny cupcakes, “don’t listen to me. Who am I, anyway? I just spend all day listening to all the gossip from all my customers.”
“What?”
Looking up all insulted and hurt, Heather stuck her nose up into the air. “Ask nicely.”
“Heather—”
“Fine. I don’t know the details, but I know enough for there to be a valid reason for Konor and Alex to hold a grudge and that it’s about a woman.” Heather finally settled on chocolate and popped the little sweet into her mouth.
“Great,” Rachel groaned. Whatever the rest of the details were, she didn’t care to know. “I really stepped in it this time.”
“I just can’t believe you didn’t know,” Heather retorted with some sympathy finally softening her voice.
“Well, I knew Killian and Adam weren’t all buddy-buddy with the sheriff, but I figure that was just ’cause he was their boss. Alpha dog attitude and all that, you know? But this is a lot worse.”
“Why’s that?” Heather asked around another cupcake. “Go with that bullshit line you gave me a moment ago. If you put a little more sincerity into it, they’ll buy it and think the sheriff was just screwing with them.”
“It might explain what Alex was doing here, but it won’t explain this.” Rachel held up the card for Heather to take a look.
It took her friend a second to shove in another mini delight before she took the card. Exactly twenty seconds after opening it up, Heather choked on her cupcake. Rachel caught the card as it fell while Heather wheeled and snatched up her beer. Half a bottle later, Heather managed to choke down the cupcake.
Glancing over her shoulder where Rachel patted her comfortingly and, hopefully, helpfully on the back, it took Heather a second of panting before she began to form her response. It started with a cough and rolled into peals of laughter that left Rachel feeling anything but sympathetic.
Even when Heather wrapped an arm around her shoulders to give her a hug, Rachel remained stiff. “Oh, God, Rachel. I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t around to make me laugh so hard.”
“I’m glad I amused you,” Rachel snapped. “Now I really have a problem and if you could concentrate here, I need to come up with an explanation.”
“Why don’t you start with trying to explain it to me.” Heather straightened up, obviously trying to put her mirth on the backburner. “And I mean the real reason. Not the lie.”
“Okay.” Rachel turned to keep their conversation private, even though nobody was near enough to hear over the music. “I need some help with the research for this project with Kitty Anne.”
“Oh, God.” Heather groaned, her head tipping backward under some invisible strain. “That’s not what this is all about, is it?”
“If you’d let me finish—”
“Fine, then, go on.”
Rachel hesitated, half tempted not to tell Heather. “So, I need help, but I obviously can’t ask Killian and Adam.”
“Obviously,” Heather repeated. “They’d ask too many questions, and then your exposé would be turned into their bust.”
“Yes.” Rachel nodded, pleased that her friend saw it the same reasonable and logical way she had. “But they’re, like, ideal to ask because their cops, so they know about these things. I could ask another deputy, but he would only tell Adam and Killian and that would make the situation worse.
“Then I see the sheriff, and it dawns on me that they don’t get along too well with him, so it’s unlikely they’ll be talking about me at any point. I figure I have the go clear on that front, but still the man is a cop, so I can’t really tell him the truth about my project.”
“Of course not,” Heather agreed. “So what kind of lie did you make up?”
Rachel smiled. Even if her plan had gone kaput, it had been a solid one. “That I was writing a book, which worked. The sheriff was very helpful.”
“But he also saw an opportunity to needle your boyfriends, and now your beans are spilled and you have to come up with a third lie to figure your way out of the first two.” Heather didn’t sound so much in agreement with Rachel anymore. “You really should have consulted Taylor first. He’s much better at this than you.”
“Oh, will stop comparing me to your son?” Rachel had enough of that. “It was a good plan.”
“It wasn’t,” Heather contradicted her instantly. “But I’m still curious as to why you bothered with all this. If you’re having a relationship with them, then lying like this is really low. If it’s just a fling, then what the hell does any of it matter?”
Rachel stared hard at Heather, considering her last words carefully. What did it matter? She could tell the same story to Killian and Adam that she had to Alex. They might even be of some help after all.
“You have that look in your eyes again,” Heather commented. “You had that same look earlier today, apparently right before you went out and did something very stupid.”
Other than shooting her a dirty look, Rachel didn’t jump to Heather’s bait. Not when she’d actually helped Rachel after all.
Chapter 15
“Then she ran off.”
Killian crowded in close to Adam, obstructing his view of Rachel as she huddled near the buffet with Heather. He’d dragged Adam away from his game of darts into this dark corner to ruin what had already been a pretty grim night.
Adam had been trying very hard to assure himself that Killian was right. There was no need to worry about Rachel and Alex. They’d probably innocently bumped into her and she’d just been being polite, given Alex was their boss. All of the sheriff’s posturing was nothing more than a show meant to tempt them into doing something stupid.
He’d been repeating all of Killian’s reasonable arguments to himself all night long. None of them sounded half as satisfying as dragging Rachel out to the Cattleman’s Club. They could use one of the observation rooms to show everybody, once and for all, who she belonged to. That had been Adam’s offered solution but Killian had actually been the voice of modesty and moderation.
What the hell does he ever know? The one thing Adam could count on Killian being was wrong eight times out of ten. So he shouldn’t have been shocked by Killian’s story. Sadly, he wasn’t. His gut had been telling him for weeks now something wasn’t right. Now he knew what, and it was bad.
“I thought we didn’t have anything to worry about from the all-talk-no-show sheriff.” Adam flaunted Killian’s earlier dismissal of his own concerns back at the now very worried looking deputy. “I thought I just had to play it cool and relaxed and not act like a…what was it?”
Like Killian would answer that. All Adam got was a dirty look and a muttered, “It doesn’t matter.”
“Oh, yes. I remember. A jealous, crazed Neanderthal trying to thump his chest and impressing nobody.”
“Do you want to hear I was wrong?” Killian shifted backward, giving Adam a good look at the defcon level three meeting going on between Rachel and Heather. “Or do you want to focus on the problem?”
He kind of wanted to do both. Adam’s mood was that sour. “A book? She hasn’t mentioned anything about either a book or researching prostitution to me.”
“Me neither.”
“Then how the hell does that bastard know about it? And when the hell did Alex and Rachel form a strong enough friendship for her to be confiding in him
?”
That’s what Adam really wanted to know because it burned bad. Killian and he were supposed to be her confidantes. Best friends and lovers, Mums had sworn that’s what made for the strongest relationships. Well, they couldn’t be best friends if they didn’t tell each other everything.
Then again, maybe Alex was the reason behind their stalemate. If he’d somehow befriended Rachel without their knowledge, the sheriff could have been feeding her all sorts of stories. They wouldn’t have to be lies. Adam and Killian’s past was colorful enough to be unsettling for a woman like Rachel.
Worse, those tales would confirm her opinion that they weren’t suitable relationship material. If Alex got Rachel to trust him like a friend, he’d have all sort of leverage over Adam and Killian.
“This is all your fault.” Adam took a certain amount of delight in blaming Killian right then. “If you hadn’t started this damn competition over who could be a better boyfriend, then we wouldn’t have been so distracted as to not notice Alex sneaking into the picture.”
“One has nothing to do with the other,” Killian shot back with clear indignation. “And all that competing has kept Rachel busy almost every spare second of her day, so it’s probably slowed the bastard down.”
“Is that right? Then when did he find the time to con her into telling him about her aspirations to write a damn book?”
“I don’t know, but I know this isn’t good.” That would probably be as close to admitting he was wrong as Killian would go. “She’s acting too squirrely, like she knows she did something wrong.”
Which meant she probably had because good girls suffered from guilt. That’s what had Rachel panicking right then as she obviously tried to seek either help or justification from her friend. Even over the distance, Adam could read the tension in her stance, the aggravation in the way her hands emphasized whatever points she made.
“She’s arguing her case,” Adam commented. “Building up for when she has to perform in front of us.”
“What?” Killian blinked, his brow loosening into a look of confusion. “What do you mean ‘perform’?”
Sometimes it really irked him how dense Killian could be. The man saw the whole world in black and white, good and bad. Nobody could ever have shades of gray and because Rachel was good, she could never be bad. Despite all they’d seen and experienced, and for all his talk, Killian was too damn trusting.
It was Adam’s job to show him the truth. “I mean she knows we’re going to be asking questions, and she’s checking her answers right now with Heather.”
Glancing from Rachel and Heather back to Adam, Killian swept that thought across the bar floor for a long moment. Still, he could have done with more time to figure out the obvious. “You think she’s going to lie?”
Hello, dumbass. Adam wanted to say it, but picking a fight with Killian wouldn’t help get the truth out of Rachel. So he stuck with a simple, obnoxious, “Yeah.”
“I ain’t going to stand for that.” Killian said it like the words alone would be enough to force his will into reality. “I say we take her home and screw her until she agrees to wear our collar. Then Alex won’t be able to make any more moves.”
Adam rolled his eyes at that attitude. “She can just take it off whenever she wants.”
Killian knew that, but the reminder had his fist clenching tight enough for Adam to worry that he might actually take a swing. Not that he could blame his friend, Adam understood. He’d been trying to figure out a way to bind Rachel to them that wouldn’t allow her to escape.
Unfortunately, the only thing he knew that stuck people together for the long term was having kids. Even children didn’t guarantee anything. Adam’s father proved that. Besides, getting Rachel intentionally pregnant to trap her wouldn’t be right.
“What about a baby?” It figured Killian would offer up the worst idea with the greatest amount of excitement. “That could really work because Rachel would marry a man for a kid, and then she’d be settled down, and we wouldn’t have to worry so much about having our fun. My mom will be over the moon, and so she’ll stop nagging. I mean, it might be rough at first, but things would—”
“And are you going to marry her?” The question alone should have had Killian backing up faster than a pig to the slaughter. Adam smirked that it didn’t.
“Whatever.” Killian shrugged the concern aside before giving his objection barely a half-hearted attempt. “I know you’d probably like to be wearing the ring, and it would probably make my life easier given all your paranoia, but we both know Rachel likes me better, so she might—”
“What?” That had Adam lifting off the edge of the bar, finally ready for that fight. “She does not.”
Killian snorted. “Please, you’re the idiot that thinks taking her to the club and showing her who the man is will help anything. We need to be cool about this, Adam.”
“I am being cool, or Rachel wouldn’t still be at this party, and she certainly wouldn’t be dressed.”
“It would help if you’d stop thinking with your damn dick. We have a real problem here.”
“No shit?” Like Adam hadn’t figured that out weeks ago. “We don’t know what the hell is going on here. The sheriff certainly isn’t going to tell us. That means whether you like it or not, we’re going to have to put the screws to our little lady.”
Killian chewed that over for a moment before finally relenting a little. “Fine, but we’re doing this at home. I’m not taking her out to the club until she’s wearing my collar.” He turned to gaze back at where Rachel still lingered, talking to Heather. “This would be so much easier if we could just beat the crap out of the sheriff.”
“Keep your leash on.” Adam enjoyed turning that expression back on his partner. Appeased, if only slightly, at the loosening of his own leash, Adam needed a beer to plot everything out. He flagged Riley for a drink. A second later, Killian gave up his vigil to second Adam’s request.
“I’m just saying,” Killian defended himself after Riley had popped two bottles open and slid them down to their end of the bar. “It would feel awfully good to give Alex a pounding.”
The idea didn’t hold much appeal for Adam. Alex had a right to try and make his play. There was no loyalty between them, not like what was supposed to be between Rachel and them. That’s where the real betrayal lay.
“Just one good pop.” Killian savored his own words before perking up slightly. “You think he’d arrest me?”
“Yeah, and then Rachel will get cranky and accuse us of not trusting her and blowing things out of proportion, which is just what Alex wants.”
“But isn’t she going to accuse us of not trusting her when you do whatever it is you’re planning on when we get home?” Killian reasoned, suddenly becoming logical.
“Yeah, but what I’m going to do isn’t going to make her cranky.” Well, maybe a little, but she’d be too desperate to do anything other than beg.
* * * *
Rachel couldn’t quell the nerves in her stomach as she watched Killian and Adam strap the presents down into the back of Killian’s truck. Neither of them had brought up the sheriff’s unexpected appearance or his gift, but Rachel wasn’t fooled. Their smiles were forced, and beneath the relaxed attitude they projected, both men seemed tense.
Social nicety would block them from making a scene. Rachel didn’t let herself be fooled into thinking they weren’t biding their time, waiting for the moment when they’d all be alone. That time would be in about five seconds, right after Killian’s mom finished giving her a big bear hug.
“Well, I’m going to say goodnight.” Karla Kregor gave Rachel a beaming smile as she stepped back. “It was so good to finally meet you, dear. I hope you’ll be stopping by the house soon.”
“I will. I promise.”
She’d get there right now if Karla would invite her. Anything to put off what would be coming to her in the immediate future. It wasn’t so much the confrontation that had her worried. It was the lying
. First, she didn’t do it well. Actually, she’d never succeeded in bullshitting Killian or Adam.
Then, she hadn’t put much effort into it before because it didn’t feel right to truly deceive them. Rachel tended to believe that people should be honest in relationships, thinking there was no point to lying when a person could just leave instead. It sounded good and proper in theory.
Things in life would be so much easier if what sounded good actually worked, because leaving Killian and Adam would be too hard to do. They’d have to leave her first. Rachel was pretty sure that would happen eventually, so what did lying really matter?
“And, you two,” Karla turned on Killian and Adam, both lingering against the truck’s tailgate, “it would do this old heart good to see your faces tomorrow morning in church.”
That guilt trip got an instant groan from her son. “Please, you aren’t that old that we have to be worrying about your heart just yet.”
Karla slapped her hands on either side of Killian’s face and yanked her son down for a loud smack on the cheek. “Services start at eight.”
“Yes, Mom.”
“And you.” She turned toward Adam, who leaned down to accept his kiss. Just as she had with her son, she ended the familiar gesture with a maternal order. “And a tie would be appropriate to wear.”
“Yes, Mums.”
Adam had the manners to escort Karla off toward her car, leaving Rachel finally alone with one of her men. At least it was only one, and he was grinning at her like a cat who’d cornered a mouse. The dark gaze Killian sent roving down her body assured her she would be eaten.
“What?” The gesture flooded her with warmth, leaving her aroused and frustrated. A look like that should have been a promise, but all too often lately, they’d failed to deliver any real heat.
“Nothing.” Killian’s grin straightened out as he stiffened up. “I was just thinking.”
Here it came. Rachel braced herself for whatever smartass comment Killian wanted to lead her toward and followed by asking, “About?”
Penn, Jenny - Rachel's Seduction [Cattleman's Club] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 17