by Dee Tenorio
Too many, apparently… “Oh ew! Damn it, Susie, that’s my brother!”
And my lover. The reply was on the tip of her tongue, but Susie was so surprised by it, she couldn’t say it. Two nights in bed did not a relationship make, and she didn’t want that kind of claim on him, anyway. But the possessive thought refused to let go. When she looked at him, when she thought of him, even as she pushed him away, she still immediately thought of him as hers. Her lover, her trial, her heartbreak, her joy. The father of her child.
She’d normally kick his teeth in for thinking the same way about her—and she had no doubt he did—but there was something so tantalizing about the notion of Locke belonging to her in that way. Belonging to him the same. About how perfectly the two of them fit together. Not just sexually, either. They could talk, about nothing, about pretty much anything, and their conversations never failed to stir her. Idle chitchat, a verbal poke, all-out arguing, it didn’t matter. He didn’t demand she see anything his way, only that she be willing to see where he might be coming from. And when he pissed her off, his calming presence always soothed the fiery sparks of her temper.
Of course, when his temper took off, she never had much interest in soothing anything. Locke riled wasn’t easy to do, but God in Heaven, it was breathtaking. Sexy, like charging the air full of electricity and expectation, leaving her to hold her breath and see what he might do. Which made zero sense for someone like her, who used to shake to her bones when faced with a man’s anger. But not Locke’s. It just never occurred to her to fear him. There was a freedom in that he might never understand, but knowing he didn’t get it hadn’t diminished her appreciation.
Unfortunately, Locke also had an unnerving knack for getting right to the heart of anything he set his mind to. Problems, lies, fantasies, goals… He’d certainly figured out how she worked in no time flat, always able to needle her into saying what she thought instead of what she knew damn well she should keep to herself. What amazed her was that he seemed to like her truths better than her tact, even if it wasn’t a nod in his favor. She’d never known anyone like that and he had no idea what a seduction it was when he did it.
So yes, the temptation to let him be hers lured her, but she knew she couldn’t give in to it. She’d belonged to someone before and learned her lesson too well.
Love and possession had nothing good to do with each other.
“What I’m trying to say,” Amanda continued, oblivious to the fact Susie hadn’t been paying any attention, “is that he knows how babies get here, so he’s not going to be shocked. Hell, he probably knows more about babies than both of us put together.”
Well, wasn’t that a sobering thought? Susie looked down, her hand slipping to her still flat stomach. How many books had she read, doctors had she seen and practically interrogated to know every scrap of information that she could? Desperate to hold on to what could never stay. What she’d come to believe would never be hers. What Locke had somehow, miraculously, given to her.
“Whatever your reasons are for not telling him, he’ll understand.”
Susie looked up, startled to find Amanda crouching next to her. “What?”
“He’ll understand. He might yell a lot, but he always understands. After all the crap us kids have done over the years? A pregnancy should be a welcome change.”
Susie tried to bite back a grin. “Better than hearing the elder twins got stuck in their kayaks again, huh?”
“Considering the last time, when neither one of them was wearing underwear, I’m gonna go with yes.”
Susie rubbed her hand over her face, giving in to the laughter Amanda clearly was trying to pry out of her. “Do I want to know why they were kayaking without underwear?” Please say they had pants at least.
“The way I heard it, even Locke didn’t want to know. He just handed them the butter and got the hell out of there.”
Laughing suddenly got easier.
When it died down, Amanda leaned against the wall, her pretty face drawn into lines of disappointment. “Can you at least tell me why you need two more days?”
Part of Susie wanted to explain. Was tired of feeling the growing separation between herself and the best and first real friend she’d ever truly had. But… She shook her head. The only one she could imagine telling was the one she absolutely couldn’t confide in. Not yet.
“It’s important to me, Amanda. That’s really all I can tell you. But when I do explain, the one who should hear it first is Locke.”
She didn’t like it, but Susie could see the acceptance on Amanda’s face.
“How about I go see if any orders came in overnight? Get a jump on the shipping?” Not usually Amanda’s job, but Susie could tell her friend was doing what she could to give her some space.
She would take an olive branch if she could get it. “Sure. You remember the password?”
“Still ‘Flash Gordon’?”
Yeah, what could she say, she had a type.
At her nod, Amanda got up and headed through the curtain for the office/closet, calling back sweetly, “Do I get to tell Locke that?”
Just as sweet: “Only if you want me to break every bone in your body.”
Amanda was still laughing as she got started, the sounds of her tapping the mouse and the keyboard drifting through the quiet until she gasped.
“What in the blue hell is that?”
Locke stared at the open sign on Susie’s shop door. He’d been looking at it for a solid ten minutes, debating whether or not he should head over as he planned. What he really should do was head home and try to force himself to sleep, but he knew that wasn’t going to happen. Why? For the same reason he couldn’t leave the front of the store.
Something was wrong. Something had to be wrong because Cole Engstrom had walked into the Suite Shoppe at nine in the morning. Cole Engstrom barely registered as breathing at nine o’clock on any morning. A certified computer genius—meaning he had a university-granted license to play video games like a drug addict—and something had to be seriously wrong to have him rushing into the store lugging a bulging black duffel bag.
But if Locke went over, Susie would tear into him for interfering.
Not that he was overly concerned about that part, but upsetting her wasn’t a good idea. Which meant he’d had to resort to something he most disliked doing: coming up with an excuse. Coming up with one Susie wouldn’t see right through was an even bigger challenge.
He smiled grimly. At least his reputation with her might actually work in his favor for once. A quick call to Jimmy’s Grocery and he already had an airtight alibi. All he needed was for the delivery to arrive so he could get started.
“How long are you gonna be mooning over that woman?” an unwise person asked from where he should have been dusting the stock.
“Man, Danny, didn’t I tell you to leave him alone?”
Locke didn’t bother to turn and face his younger brothers. Having an audience only made them more obnoxious, though how that was possible he found hard to explain. They were only three years younger than him, but in many ways, he couldn’t help but see the elder twins as the babies of the family. Lord knew they whined enough to be considered for the title.
“What? I’m just saying.” Daniel’s favorite excuse for spouting off whatever came to his lips. Clearly, none of it went through his mind first. “She don’t want nothing to do with him, but he’s always there. Staring. Breathing. Like a desperate psycho. He’s scaring people.”
“So?”
Yeah, so.
“What do you mean, so? It’s embarrassing.”
Daniel found his behavior embarrassing? Locke raised his eyebrows at that. Daniel had no qualms about farting at the gym—with women nearby—but staring out the door was cause for concern? Without question, Locke had failed somewhere in his parenting.
“You say that like he wasn’t scaring people before.” Dean scoffed…uh, supportively? “What’s it to you anyway? It’s his business. He wants every
one to see he’s dragging his tongue after the meanest woman to move to this town in fifty years, so what? It’s not like they didn’t already know.”
“Know he’s dragging his tongue or that she’s mean?”
“Take your pick.”
Locke rolled his eyes. Why their father had insisted on keeping those two alive, he’d never know.
“You just think she’s mean because she said she’d rather let a pack of wild dogs chew on her ass than go out with you.”
Locke turned and pinned his gaze on Daniel. “You asked Susie out?”
The panicked pose of a deer in headlights seemed a bit strange on a two-hundred-fifty-pound bodybuilder holding a feather duster at the top of a metal ladder, but no one had ever accused Daniel of normalcy.
“Well, yeah. I mean, who didn’t? She’s hot.”
A valid point, though no less irritating.
“I didn’t,” Dean offered for no reason.
“Kiss up,” Daniel muttered, going back to his work, such as it was.
“No, I’m just not stupid. I know when something’s off-limits.”
“She’d only been here for two days when I asked, sheesh!”
“She was taken ten seconds after she got here, dumbass. Everyone knew it but you.”
“She’s not taken.” The admission came out of Locke like a growl. Not yet…
Dean just snorted. “Yeah, sure. And Smelly up there has girls coming out of his ears. I’ll admit to being dumb sometimes, but like I said, I ain’t stupid.” He leveled a surprisingly pointed glare Locke’s way. “I didn’t think you were either, but you’re getting close to making me wonder.”
The bell above the door to the store chimed, accompanied by the slight crumple of someone breathless trying to push through. Locke turned and found one of Jimmy’s stock boys standing there, red-faced and trying to hold on to the three paper bags of food. Outside, a bike with a giant basket attached up front leaned against the front window of the store. Locke took the bags, hooking his foot on the open door to hold it wide.
“Pay the kid from the till,” he ordered, not wanting to admit Dean’s remark had hit home. “Make sure he gets a good tip. He needs a car.”
He turned fast enough that Daniel’s complaint about not getting tips when he was a kid was little more than a soft whine on the breeze. Just the way he liked it.
A few steps later, he was pushing through the glass door of the Suite Shoppe, already breathing easier, on his way to finding out what the hell was going on.
He couldn’t say for sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing that the bell overhead announced his arrival. One second he was alone in the store, the next, his sister came running from behind the red curtain, skidding to a stop in front of him. Her cheeks were red like tomatoes and her eyes darted to the corner closet behind the register where they liked to pretend they had an office.
“Locke, what are you doing here?”
Oh yeah, definitely in panic mode.
He lifted the grocery bags to her eye level. “I’m bringing over some supplies for dinner.”
Amanda’s eyes widened at the nearly overflowing groceries. “Uh, does Susie know you’re coming with all that?”
“I decided to surprise her.” Surprise her. Horrify her. Something like that.
“I don’t think Susie is up for any more surprises today.”
“Why? What happened?”
Amanda’s hands went into flap mode. “Shhhh!”
Locke waited, the only thing he could really do when it came to his sister. Of all his siblings, she was the one who couldn’t be rushed, who had the usually laudable quality of thinking for herself. She also had to come to things her own way, and unfortunately, that included sharing information.
So he watched silently as she looked over her shoulder to check if anyone was listening before pulling bags out of his arms and shoving them onto the checkout counter. Then she grabbed his sleeve and led him around the small corner to where her boyfriend sat like a flattened cockroach in the desk chair. Locke frowned at the intense hunch of Cole’s shoulders as he typed on Susie’s laptop. The screen had a number of windows open, as well as a few black-backgrounded ones, the type basic and white and flying upward with each line Cole put in.
Locke didn’t know much more about computers than the programs he used for his businesses, but if he remembered correctly, that was programming junk. “What the hell are you two doing with Susie’s computer?”
Cole jumped, but that might have had more to do with Locke’s volume than any real fear. The smartass had lost that over the summer thanks to a small fistfight where he hadn’t died at Locke’s hands. Times like these, Locke rather missed the younger man’s instinctive terror.
Amanda’s hands unleashed their flapping fury on his shoulder again. “Geez, Locke, I told you to be quiet.”
“Because Susie doesn’t know you’re hacking her system?”
“Yes!” his sister hissed.
Locke drew back. She always did surprise him with her honesty. “Explain.”
“Look, we get a lot of questionable email. Most of the time it’s spam and we just delete it. It picked up when the catalog went out over the summer and we were just deleting them and keeping the orders. We also got a lot of requests for the models’ contact information, which we of course never gave,” she added almost as fast as his brows rose.
Though it was a tastefully sensual lingerie catalog, he’d been beyond pissed when he found out she and Susie had posed for the pictures themselves. Neither one had exposed their faces, which might have been a relief if anyone in town had missed the memo concerning their identities. The knowledge that his sister and his woman were both likely pinups for any guy lucky enough to have snagged a copy wasn’t his favorite factoid, but he’d come to terms with it. Mostly.
“But there were a few coming in that were getting under Susie’s skin for some reason. They just didn’t take no for an answer and you know how she hates that.”
Cole choked on what had to be laughter, making Amanda cringe.
Locke waited for her to go on.
“I wasn’t sure why, but I could tell they were bothering her more than the spam. I haven’t been getting the email, so I was shocked when I saw the one that came in today. It was…” She looked at the computer, her brow creasing, her frown pulling the corners of her lips into a deep frown.
Locke looked from her to Cole and back again. “Was what?”
“Vicious.” She looked as if she tasted something foul. “Susie read it and then, next thing I know, she’s practically running up the stairs. She locked herself up there and she won’t answer me.”
His teeth ground together. “And you didn’t come get me?”
Irritation flashed over Amanda’s face. “Excuse me if I was more concerned with my friend’s well-being than running to my big brother, whose business—I might add—this actually isn’t.”
She could add all she wanted. They both knew it was his job to subtract anything that might threaten either her or Susie. Especially Susie. “Show me the letter.”
“I don’t know if I—”
“Not that I’m a fan of interrupting Jackmans on a tear,” Cole suddenly said, still not bothering to turn his chair. “But I think the point is moot, Amanda. You wouldn’t have told him this much if you weren’t going to tell him all of it. And from what I’ve been able to dig up, none of these emails are particularly suspicious anyway.”
Locke moved closer to the computer, trying to make sense of any of the screens. Cole’s fingers moved over to the mouse and drew one program to the front. The website email.
Subject: Notice Of Legal Action
Dear Ms. Susanne Packard,
This is our sixth attempt to reach you concerning the matter of identifying the models used in your most recent July catalog, be that an agent or some other external point of contact. We have even offered to purchase the information from you, to no avail. All manner of communication has been met with ne
gativity. Our client, who chooses to remain anonymous, is not satisfied with these results. As you can see, we have been left with no other options to acquire the necessary information from you.
This letter is to inform you that we were authorized to investigate your company and discovered that you maintain a business loan with First National Bank for the principal amount of $32,089.03. This loan has been acquired by our client and your payment information will be mailed to you directly in the next few days. Please read the terms thoroughly to ensure that you remain in good standing with your loan payments. Failure to comply with the new terms will result in immediate foreclosure and seizure of all properties, files and equipment related to the business “Susie’s Suite Shoppe”.
However, if you would see fit to send the information concerning the models in your catalog—as previously mentioned, an agent’s address would meet our client’s requirements—the debt will be forgiven immediately.
This letter was sent to expedite the time required for your response. It will also be sent in printed form to your business address. You have two days to respond before we move forward in person. We strongly suggest you take the offer as it has been presented to you. Our client’s belief is that you are purposefully and maliciously keeping the information that we are seeking from us. We have been further authorized to take this matter as far as is necessary to acquire it from you.
If you insist on making this difficult, you will only have yourself to blame for the results.
“That letter would scare the shit out of me too,” Cole commented with a shake of his head. “Though, legally, they don’t have a leg to stand on. It’s intimidation, pure and simple. I’m tracking the email, all the other ones too, but all appearances are that it’s from a legitimate law office out in Chicago, just like they show in the address of the last one.
“That’s about the only thing that stands out to me. The other emails weren’t officially coming from the firm, just an individual lawyer using his own credentials, but if you trace the address you end up at the same place. And that firm isn’t your average ambulance-chaser type either. In fact, they look pretty damn impressive. I can’t believe they’d send something like this.”