by Sophie Oak
He was a little sore himself, but that wouldn’t stop him from suggesting that he and Aidan play around a little. Lucas entered the kitchen and checked the coffee pot. There was just enough for him. He poured a cup and then made another pot for Lexi. He sniffed a little at the brand. It wasn’t her favorite. He’d make a trip into town later and stock up. This was going to be their home. It was up to him to make it perfect for her. He would have to relearn all of Aidan’s habits.
Lucas felt himself smile. When had he started getting so much pleasure from making other people happy? Maybe because his own childhood had been utterly devoid of anyone caring about what he needed. Meeting his half brother had been a turning point in his life. Jack Barnes had taught him what it meant to be a man. Being a real man meant being able to love and take care of the people he loved. It was a responsibility he took a deep joy in. Lucas had people who depended on him and who he could depend upon. One day, maybe, he would even have children.
That was a scary prospect. He remembered how hard it had been on Lexi to lose Brandon. But he wanted to try. He wanted it all.
He sipped his coffee as he looked out of the kitchen window over the yard. The barn door looked like it was open. It hadn’t swung wide, but he could tell that it wasn’t locked. The lock was sitting on the outside of the hinge. It was a windy day. It wouldn’t do for the door to swing open. And Ike was obviously running around. He could get stuck in there.
Lucas sighed and left his coffee behind. He let the screen door slam behind him. The sound was a loud shot in an otherwise perfectly quiet morning. Ike seemed to have given up his attempt to communicate. It was almost eerily quiet.
And he smelled something odd. Was that gasoline? Had Aidan been gassing up some of the equipment? It smelled like he’d spilled it—a lot of it.
Lucas pulled the lock off and was just about to lock the barn when he heard something shuffle inside. “Aidan?”
He opened the door and felt his stomach drop. Aidan was lying on the rack, tied down, the same way they had tied up Lexi the day before. Without another thought, Lucas rushed in.
“What the hell?”
Aidan’s eyes flew open. They were wide with terror. He pulled at his restraints and seemed to be trying to talk, but there was a rag in his mouth. Lucas raced to him and pulled the rag out.
“Run, Lucas!”
But it was too late. Something moved behind Lucas, and he felt the right side of his head light up before the world went dark.
* * * *
Aidan felt sick as Lucas fell to the ground. Dwight had perfected the art of slamming the butt of a rifle into a person’s head. He might not be the best foreman in the world, but he was damn good at knocking people out. And he was an accomplished killer. Aidan’s vision was still hazy, and he smelled gasoline. Was that just a hallucination? How much of this was real? He prayed Lucas was an illusion, but he didn’t hold out hope.
“Don’t hurt him. He doesn’t know anything.” Aidan was pretty sure it wouldn’t work, but he was willing to try anything at this point. He couldn’t stand the thought of Dwight shooting Lucas in front of him. Aidan prayed Lexi was somewhere safe. How long had he been out? Obviously long enough to get dragged to the barn and tied down with his own damn rope. “Please don’t shoot him. I’ll do whatever you want.”
Dwight stared down at the body at his feet. “When you first told me about those two, I thought you were insane. Now I’m just disgusted. I might be a killer, but at least I’m not a damn queer.”
Aidan’s head was pounding, but at least that gag was gone. He didn’t scream, because that was a surefire way to get that nasty rag shoved down his throat again. Besides, Bo was too far away to hear him. Only Lexi had a possibility of hearing him, and he couldn’t risk her running in here and getting herself killed.
“I’ve been listening to you talk for over a year, and it always made me sick,” Dwight continued. He reached down and grabbed Lucas’s wrists and pulled him, dragging him across the wood floor of the barn. “Do you have any idea what it took to sit there and listen to you whine about your sex life? But it gives me a couple of outs. You see, you might think that you’re being brave, but what you did last night was just stupid. Everyone saw you kiss Lucas. The police here aren’t really going to care that you got yourself killed. They’ll just say that’s what happens to gays.”
Dwight might have a point about the sheriff. He hadn’t been terribly friendly last night, but he had done his job. It might have been different if Karen hadn’t been gift wrapped and served up on a silver platter. That was obviously Dwight’s doing, but he let that go for now. Dwight needed to understand this wouldn’t be as easy as he thought. “Bo won’t let it go. And I assure you Jack Barnes won’t take kindly to his brother being murdered.”
For the first time, Dwight looked like he was sweating a bit. He dropped Lucas and stepped away. “I can’t worry about that now. I can’t let you live. I should have smothered your ass while I had the chance, but you didn’t remember. The doctors said they thought you would never remember, so I let it go. I didn’t want to kill Tanner and Link.”
A sudden flash of Link going down spun across Aidan’s brain. He’d been so fucking young. Tanner had been an accident. Aidan could almost forgive what happened to him. A firefight was scary and chaotic, but Link died in the quiet aftermath. Link had been murdered in cold blood. “But you did it anyway.”
“I had to. I wouldn’t survive in prison. Do you have any idea what I’ve done to survive? I had to stab myself to make it look like I’d been in a fight. That takes guts.”
Dwight was one delusional son of a bitch. “I bet Tanner’s wife and kid and Link’s parents would disagree with you.”
Dwight picked up the rifle he’d put down when he moved Lucas. He held it casually against his body. “I had to take care of myself. No one else would do it. And now I have to take care of you.”
“There’s no war here to slow down an investigation. Someone will figure out that you did this.”
He shrugged. “I don’t see why. I’ve been careful. I’ve never once said a bad word about you. I’m the loyal friend who sat by your bedside and followed you home to make sure you were okay. Now, Bo, he’s talked his mouth off about how pissed he is. That boy can’t handle his liquor. He was a might miffed you got the ranch. And I’ll make sure the sheriff knows how much you embarrassed him last night at the fair. No one in these parts wants a queer in their family.”
Dwight was severely underestimating this town in Aidan’s opinion. There would be some people who wouldn’t accept him, but not all. Even the ones who wouldn’t condone his lifestyle wouldn’t want him dead. Dwight was in for a mighty big wake-up call if he managed this.
“How exactly are you going to frame my brother? That’s not his gun. Everyone knows he loves his Remington Model 7. He would never use yours.” Sometimes Aidan thought Bo loved his rifle and the hunting that went with it far more than he would ever love any woman. He was pretty sure Bo slept with that rifle from time to time.
“I have no intention of shooting you. I’m—well, Bo—is going to lock you in the barn and set it on fire. By the time the ranch hands see the smoke and make it back from the east pasture, it will be too late. I’ve already hidden the gas can in Bo’s car. Dumbass doesn’t even lock his car.”
God, Aidan prayed Lexi was still asleep. He couldn’t bear the thought of Dwight tossing her inside with him and Lucas. Aidan pulled uselessly against the ropes he’d lovingly fastened to this table for his subs. This barn was supposed to be a playroom, a place where they could be themselves and love each other however they wanted. Now it would be his tomb. The ropes bit into his flesh, tearing at his skin. He felt blood start to leak from his wrists. Was that a little bit of give?
“Hurting yourself isn’t going to help,” Dwight said, standing over him. He had the rag in his hand. He shoved it into Aidan’s mouth. Aidan fought, but he gagged as the rag nearly found the back of his throat. He had to concentr
ate to breathe. “Can’t have you screaming, can we? I wonder if they’ll think you and that boy down there were playing your kinky games and Bo couldn’t take finding you like that. Or, hey, maybe they’ll blame Lexi. No real woman wants to lose her man to another man.”
Dwight pulled out a match when he got to the door of the barn. “Don’t worry too much. I poured the gas around the inside perimeter. The only window is up in the loft, and I made sure it’s closed. The smoke will kill you before the flames get to you. I’m not a monster after all.”
The monster Aidan had been friends with for years lit a match and dropped it to the ground. Fire lit and raced like the little Matchbox cars he and Bo used to play with. It raced up the track that led all the way around the barn. Within seconds, he and Lucas were surrounded by flames. Dwight slipped out of the door, and it snapped into place. Aidan had no doubt Dwight had locked it behind him.
Aidan couldn’t see Lucas. He had to pray that he wasn’t close to the fire. Aidan struggled with the ropes. He wouldn’t give up. He was too close to everything he wanted. Lucas’s life was on the line. He pulled, trying to get the screws to give. He would try everything he could because he was not going to let that son of a bitch kill his loves.
Aidan pulled and pulled as the smoke began to fill the barn.
Chapter Nineteen
Lexi thought about getting up and going after Lucas. It might be fun to watch the way the Master handled getting attacked by his sub. Lucas might get a spanking. That would definitely be a sight to see. She sighed and stretched. He might be getting a spanking even as she lay here.
When had she started thinking of Aidan as her Master? Probably a lot longer back than she liked to admit. Even back when they were living a very vanilla lifestyle, she’d dreamed about being able to call Aidan Master. It had been Lucas who introduced her to BDSM, but Aidan had always been everything she wanted in a Dom. His very alpha nature was what attracted her to him in the first place. She and Lucas might be halves of a whole, but they needed Aidan to complete them.
Lexi let her mind drift. She felt truly relaxed for the first time in forever. She was getting married. No long engagement this time. They were going to elope. Vegas, here we come. She knew her mom might be upset, but Lexi wasn’t taking any chances this time. She was tying that man up.
Or would it be Lucas? How exactly did they figure that out? Her mom had married Jack, and Dani had legally married Julian, but Lucas wasn’t exactly a sub in the way Sam and Finn were. Why the hell am I thinking about this when my men are out there doing hot, dirty things to each other?
Maybe she wasn’t as sore as she thought.
Lexi pushed the covers back and grabbed one of Aidan’s T-shirts. It covered everything that needed covering. She would grab a cup of coffee and then go sneak a peek. Then she would sit down and write for a while. That sounded like a great way to spend the day.
Lexi stopped at the door when she heard a cell phone chirp. Lucas’s. He must have forgotten it, a sure sign he’d relaxed. Lexi found it buried underneath the scrubs from the previous evening. Aidan had decided they would keep the scrubs for when they needed to play doctor. Lexi looked down at the number. Ben Dawson. Oh, she wasn’t about to miss that call.
“Hello.”
There was a pause. “I’m sorry. I’m looking for Lucas Cameron. Is this Lexi?”
“In the flesh. Lucas is doing things he really can’t do with a phone in his hand. I’m afraid you have to talk to me.”
A low, seductive chuckle came across the line. “Oh, sweetheart, I would love to do more than talk to you. Have you decided to leave those two boys you were playing around with? Maybe you would like to see how semi-psychic twins do it. I can answer that question. We do it better. Hey!” Ben’s voice went from sexy to irritated in a second. “You didn’t have to throw something at me. I get the picture, asshole. Fine. I’ll move on. Chase wants to talk to Lucas.”
Weird. Chase forced Ben to make his phone calls? Those twins were a very curious pair. “Lucas isn’t here. I can have him call you back.”
A slow sigh came over the line. “No, don’t bother. We’re coming out there. We’re at the police station right now. Chase is nervous about something. I’ve learned to trust his instincts. He’s an asshole who throws staplers at his own brother and refuses to talk on the phone because he’s sure it’s going to give him cancer, but he’s freaky on target when it comes to stuff like this.”
“Did they let Karen out?” Lexi was a bit surprised. She’d heard they were planning on throwing the book at Karen. By the time Bo had come to pick them up the night before, everyone had known that Karen had been found drunk in her car not far from the accident.
“No, she’s still in jail, but Chase is certain it wasn’t her.”
That was in line with what Lucas thought. God, Lexi wanted it to be Karen. It was very disappointing. She had been looking forward to seeing Karen in an orange jumper. “They found her in her car in a ditch. She wrecked it after she tried to kill us.”
“Then why didn’t her airbag deploy? According to the report, she blew a 1.6 on the breathalyzer. She was two times the legal limit. There’s no way she drove that car, much less managed to drive Aidan’s truck off the road. That was deliberate and took discipline Karen Wilcox simply doesn’t have. But of course we can’t get anyone to see that here. These cops like open-and-shut cases.”
He had a point. “If not Karen, then who?”
“Chase has been looking into the firefight Aidan was injured in. He doesn’t like it.”
“I’m sure Aidan didn’t like it, either.” But she didn’t see why Chase was spending his time on it.
“No, you don’t understand, sweetheart. Things don’t add up. The reports don’t make sense. Why was Aidan hit from both the back and the front? PFC Creely explains—and I’m using air quotes here—how it all went down, but I don’t buy it.” There was a muffled pause as though Ben had put his hand over the phone, then he was back. “Fine, I’ll tell her. Chase wants you to know that this was the sloppiest report he’s ever hacked into a government database to read.”
Interesting. “Does he do that often?”
“Often enough to get the FBI interested in us. Some people like to watch baseball. My brother likes to hack high security systems.”
Maybe Chase Dawson would be the one in an orange jumpsuit. But that was irrelevant. “What did the report say?”
“Specialist Tanner’s injuries were to the back of his neck. According to Creely, Tanner broke position and ran. But Chase checked his records. Tanner was set for Ranger training two weeks after his death. He was seasoned. He’d seen worse fighting. He wouldn’t have run. Most of the men killed in the fight were taken out by M-16s. Unusual, but not unheard of. Insurgents can get M-16s, too. And then there’s the fact that all the weapons were recovered from the scene. All but one. PFC Creely said he lost his M-16 somewhere between the scene and the hospital. That makes ballistics tests impossible.”
“Who is this Creely guy?”
“It’s Dwight Creely, Aidan’s foreman.”
Holy shit. Dwight, who constantly harped on Aidan to take his sleeping pills. Dwight, who got agitated every time Aidan started to remember something. “You think Dwight killed those men and shot Aidan?”
Ben hesitated, but only for a second. “Suspect is the proper word. We don’t think he killed all of them, but what if he panicked? What if he accidently killed someone and shot Aidan? It wouldn’t be the first incidence of friendly fire the US Military has covered up or just plain looked over. But we think Creely wants it buried, and it looks like he’s willing to kill to keep Aidan quiet. This was never about you, Lexi. This is about Aidan.”
Lexi let the phone drop. That son of a bitch was out there with Aidan. Unless Lucas had found them, Dwight was alone with Aidan, and Lexi had no idea what Dwight had planned next. It was obvious to her now that Dwight had done what he did to get Aidan back to the ranch where he could watch the only man who could
put Dwight away. Now that Aidan was starting to remember, Dwight had decided to take him out.
She stopped in the middle of the hall. She couldn’t panic. Panicking would tip Dwight off. She needed to stay calm. Lexi went to the office and pulled up the radio. If Aidan was out on the range, he should have his radio with him. Lexi tried to turn the radio on, but got nothing. She checked the cord to make sure it was plugged in, but all she came up with was a ragged end.
Someone had cut the cord to the radio. Someone didn’t want the cowboys on the range to be able to get in contact with the house.
Lexi’s hands shook. Ben and Chase were on their way, but it was twenty minutes from town. She couldn’t wait.
Think. Think. Think.
Aidan’s dad kept a multitude of guns in the house. She remembered that from her previous visits. It had been years, but she seriously doubted Aidan had gotten rid of all of them. Lexi remembered that there was a gun cabinet in the closet. She opened the closet in the office, and sure enough, the gun cabinet was still there.
And locked.
Damn it. There was a little place for a key. The desk. She rushed to the desk and prayed the key was there. She opened the desk drawer and found something much better than a key. Sitting right there on top of some papers was a revolver. She was going to have such a long discussion with Aidan about gun safety right after she saved his ass from the man trying to kill him. Lexi picked up the revolver. Damn, it was a heavy son of a bitch. She found a fast load cartridge. Six bullets. Hopefully she wouldn’t need them at all, but she wasn’t going to go after PFC Dwight Creely with a crop, and that was the only other “weapon” she had seen in that closet.
Lexi silently thanked her stepfathers. Jack and Sam had taught her how to use a pistol and a rifle. They had taken both Lexi and her mom to a shooting range. Her stepfathers’ belief was that if she and her mom were going to be around guns, they should damn sure know how to use them. Lexi popped the cartridge into place and clicked the safety off. The phone was sitting right there. She picked it up and dialed her mother’s cell, praying she made a connection. Her mom and stepdads were twenty minutes away, too, but she was calling in the cavalry.