Sidney’s Triple Shot [Apache Crossing] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by Lori King

  A round of laughter went through the group, and everyone headed out the door, ready to rumble.

  “Wake up, you lazy whore.”

  Icy cold water splashed over Sidney’s aching face, and she gasped as her one good eye shot open. Robert stood over her where she lay on the bed, holding a plastic cup in his hand. His smile bordered on psychotic, and his normally neatly groomed brown hair was ruffled, as though he had been running his fingers through it restlessly. His clothing was rumpled, which was very unlike Robert, and combined with the madness in his eyes, he looked terrifying.

  “It’s about time you woke up. You’ve been out for hours. We need to get moving before those boy toys of yours show up to do something stupid,” he snarled at her.

  She moaned as she sat up. “Robert, I’m hurt. I need a minute.”

  “Oh! You think I should give you anything? After this stunt? Have you lost your fucking mind, woman? You just ran me across the fucking country, chasing after your fat ass, and now I’m supposed to go easy on you?” His laughter reverberated through her stomach, and she struggled to keep from gagging.

  “I said I would go with you, but why would you want me to?” she asked, rubbing at her temple.

  “Because you’re mine. I don’t give up what’s mine until I’m damn good and ready. Now, move your ass, and help me pack.”

  A light rap on the front door had her heart jumping in her throat, and Robert jumping in general. “Who the fuck is that?”

  He peeked out the front window and groaned before opening the door a crack to see who was there. Sidney caught a quick glimpse of a familiar face but couldn’t remember the man’s name. She could hear him asking Robert if everything with the room was satisfactory and if they needed more towels. Biting her lip to keep from giggling out loud, she felt relief wash over her. The man was from Apache Crossing and had been in the bar with Lane and Gage once or twice. She knew that if he was here it was because her men had found her.

  “Towels? No, we don’t need towels! We’ll be leaving shortly. We have a long drive ahead of us, and my wife isn’t feeling well,” Robert answered, attempting to shut the door.

  “Sir, if you would like, I can call in our town doctor. He’s only a few minutes away, and I’m sure he would be happy to check your wife over.” The man caught Sidney’s eye, and she saw his brow pucker in a frown at her swollen face. He managed a quick wink in her direction, and she gave a slight nod of understanding. Her men were out there ready to rescue her. Her heart soared with the knowledge.

  “She’ll be fine. It’s just a little dehydration is all.”

  With a loud crack, Robert slammed the door, grumbling under his breath about ignorant backwoods farmhands. He began darting around the room, collecting his things.

  “Robert, why can’t you just let me go?” she asked softly, trying not to agitate him further.

  He spun around and glared at her. “I don’t just give up my property, Sidney. You’re mine, even if you’re nearly unrecognizable now that you’ve shorn your hair and worn their stench.”

  “You don’t love me, Robert—” His hand reached out and grabbed her by the chin cruelly, and she cried out.

  “Listen here, bitch. You don’t tell me what I feel, just like you don’t tell me what you feel. You just do as I say so that we can get back to Greenville without incident.”

  Deciding that the best plan of action was to just keep her mouth shut, Sidney nodded her agreement, and he reluctantly released her chin. He turned back to the windows and peeked outside again. Something out there upset him, judging by his colorful curse, and Sidney could feel her stomach tightening into a ball. She prayed that it was the Dawson brothers, because she knew that the likelihood of her surviving a trip back to Greenville with Robert was slim. Her wrist ached with a pain that was indescribable, and her face felt like it was ten times its normal size.

  Robert was busy shoving his stuff into a dark-green duffel bag as she sat silently on the bed watching him. When he had collected all of his stuff, he pulled the gun from his pocket and waved it at her.

  “Come on. Get your fat ass up, and get out to the car. There are several more cars out there that weren’t there before, and I think I smell a trap. Don’t make any sudden moves, or I’ll shoot you and leave you where you fall,” he said, and she shivered at the evil in his voice. How had she ever found this man attractive in any way?

  The bright afternoon sunlight burned her eyes as they exited the motel room. Robert held the gun against the small of her back and had the duffel bag thrown over his shoulder. She moved slowly because of her injuries, limping on her foot, and he grew impatient.

  “Move faster, damn it,” he snapped and shoved her with the gun. She stumbled slightly, and he had to grab at her broken wrist to catch her. His other hand waved wildly with the gun in it as he tried to jerk her back to an upright position using her incapacitated arm. Trying hard not to scream out loud, she bit her own lip until she could taste blood and see stars.

  “Let her go, Wicks.” The voice came from their left, but it wasn’t one of her men. She couldn’t see past the gray sheen of pain in her eyes, so she didn’t know who spoke.

  “You aren’t going to get out of the parking lot with her, so you may as well let her go.” A new voice spoke, this time from their right. Robert’s body was tense as he pulled her against him, body-armor style. She blinked until her eyes cleared and the roaring in her eyes quieted.

  “Put the gun down, Robert.”

  “Just do yourself a favor and let her go. Step away from her.”

  “You’re making the biggest mistake of your life, douche bag.”

  The voices came from every direction now, and Sidney held herself completely immobile, afraid that in Robert’s current agitated state he would pull the trigger by accident. Suddenly in front of her, she saw a glorious sight. Xavier stepped into view, followed by Noah and finally Tyce. Each brother was pointing a gun in their direction, but specifically not aiming at her. Her heart began to thud violently, and her palms grew sweaty. This was the moment of truth.

  “So you didn’t die, huh, cowboy? Too bad,” Robert said, letting the gun drop slightly from her rib cage. Just enough for her to draw in a quick breath, accept Tyce’s nod, and drop to the ground in a limp heap.

  Her ears caught the crack of the gun as it fired, followed by a quiet whizzing noise, just as Robert jerked to a stop. She twisted her head to the side to look at him, only to see a shocked expression on his face and a small, black bullet hole in his forehead. She watched as the life flickered in his eyes, and suddenly they went glassy. His body tipped, and she jumped to her feet, moving out of the way just as he fell forward. Standing in the middle of the parking lot in shock, she just stared down at his body, unable to process what had just happened.

  A second later, familiar arms were wrapping around her, and she was looking up into Xavier’s face. “Sidney, baby? Hang on. We’re going to get you some help. Where all are you hurt?”

  She couldn’t speak, and no tears even fell from her eyes. She just mutely stared up at her future husband in awe. He found me, she thought to herself, and then she turned to see Tyce and Noah both at her side, running their hands over her body as they checked for injuries. They found me, and they saved me, she thought, and she gave a mental sigh of relief.

  “Love, I’m sorry we didn’t get to you sooner. We had to wait for him to come out of the room into the open before we could move in,” Tyce said, looking like waiting was the worst thing he had ever lived through.

  “It’s a good thing you’re marrying one of the best marksmen to ever wear the Marine Corps uniform, honey,” Noah said as he pressed a kiss to the unswollen side of her head. “One shot, and Tyce grounded him.”

  Sidney’s eyes flew back to Tyce’s, and she tried to smile, but her swollen cheek didn’t allow much movement. Other voices began to intrude on her foggy thoughts, and she looked around them as Xavier held her in his arms.

  Nathan Blake and t
he man who had inquired about the towels were standing to one side talking with Deputy Ruiz. Zane and Ridge Anderson were helping Sheriff Lumpy collect evidence. Another dozen townspeople stood around her, Lane, Gage, Colton, Austin, Kara, Derek, even Melanie, the town mayor…There were more people than she could count, and they were all helping to clean up or watching her curiously.

  Finally finding her voice box, she asked, “Are all of them here to find me?”

  “Hell yeah, we weren’t about to let someone steal the Dawson boys’ woman,” Lane said loudly, and everyone chuckled. “Not to mention, we weren’t willing to give up one of the best bartenders in the world. Next time though, Dawson, could you let us have a little fun, too. That whole one-bullet-and-it’s-all-over thing was kind of a bummer.”

  The towel guy stepped over and smiled down at her. “Hi there, sweetness, I’m Jaxon Blake. I had to get him to answer the door so that we could make sure you weren’t tied up inside. We might have had to go all Rambo on his ass and kick the door in…Damn, that would have been fun.” His regretful tone and Lane’s nod of agreement started her giggling, which made them both smile as Jaxon reached out to shake her uninjured hand. “I wish I had gotten introduced before you got that purple shiner, but you’re still pretty as a picture.”

  Sidney managed to say a quick thank-you before Xavier carried her over to an ambulance that was pulling into the parking lot. “Come on, baby. We’re taking you in to the hospital in Austin to get looked at,” he said as he helped settle her onto the gurney.

  “Thank you,” she whispered as her three men gathered around her.

  “You don’t ever have to thank us for protecting you, baby. That’s our job. I just wish we could have protected you well enough to keep you from all of this,” Xavier said.

  “I love you,” she responded as tears finally began to slip down her cheeks.

  “We know that, love, and if this didn’t prove to you exactly how much we love you, then I don’t know what will,” Tyce said with a wink.

  “I’m riding with her to the hospital. You two follow in the truck,” Noah said, surprising them all.

  Even more surprising were the nods of agreement from Tyce and Xavier. A couple minutes later she was strapped into the back of the ambulance with Noah next to her head and a paramedic taking her blood pressure. Staring up into his face with her one good eye, she couldn’t think of anything more beautiful than the love in his eyes.

  Chapter 17

  “I promise you that I’m fine, Noah,” Sidney said for the hundredth time as Noah hovered near her spot on the couch. “In fact, I’m better than fine. I’m bored, and getting irritable because I’ve been stuck in this house for two weeks. I need to get back to work, and I have to go back to Greenville to pack up my stuff before Robert’s parents give it all away.”

  “Xavier told you that we will take you there as soon as the doctor releases you. Until then you are resting, as directed,” Noah said, handing her a can of soda and the remote control.

  “That’s it! Call Doc Woolsey right now and see if he can move my appointment up to today. I’m not waiting any longer,” she snapped back as she threw the remote on the end table next to her.

  Rising to her feet, she tottered for just a second on the walking boot holding her foot before hobbling her way back to her room. Well, their room, she thought to herself with a grin. Ever since she was released from the hospital, they had all four shared Xavier’s oversized bed. Tyce and Noah had gone online to order a custom-made bed that should arrive in a couple of weeks, but until then, none of them were willing to sleep without each other.

  For the two days she was actually in the hospital, all three men had slept in the room with her, and she was content with that. Even knowing that Robert was dead, she was still having the occasional nightmare about the whole ordeal. The doctor from the hospital had been adamant that she needed to seek out therapy to help her cope with her PTSD, so Xavier had called on a friend in town who was a therapist, and she was working on it.

  She just wished the guys understood how much she needed her life to get back to normal. She couldn’t take the china-doll treatment much longer. They hadn’t touched her sexually in more than two weeks, and her body was revolting. Every time one of them got close enough for her to smell, she was throbbing with need. It was time to take matters into her own hands and get that damn doctor’s release.

  Showering alone was tricky, so she had to rely on Noah to help her, but that only pissed her off more. Noah was almost clinical in the way he washed her body and supported her on one foot. It was not the Noah she knew and loved. He seemed scared to touch her too much. Finally showered and dressed, she perched on one of the barstools in front of the bathroom mirror. Tyce had finally brought one into the bathroom for her when she complained that she wasn’t going to make them hold her up to put makeup on over her bruise.

  Now, looking at her face, there was barely a yellowish tint to the skin around her eye. It turned out that she had a fractured orbital socket, a broken wrist, a sprained foot, and a couple of cracked ribs. She knew she was lucky, though. If Robert had gotten her back into that car and out of Texas, she wouldn’t have survived. The cast on her arm would remain on for a couple more weeks, but hopefully the walking boot could come off soon.

  After dabbing on a little bit of concealer to cover the remaining bruising, she ran a brush through her hair and headed back to the living room with her purse in hand. Noah was seated at the bar reading the newspaper when she stomped in.

  “Let’s go,” she said.

  “What?”

  “I said, let’s go. I am either going to Doc Woolsey’s office to be released, or you are taking me to the bar to work. I will not sit here immersed in my own pity for a moment longer.”

  The smile that grew on Noah’s face eased her irritation, and she smiled back. “Well then, I better get some boots on, huh?” he said jovially.

  It was mere minutes before they were walking into Doc Woolsey’s office, and she returned the greeting from the young girl at the reception desk. Once she explained what she wanted, it wasn’t long before she was seated in a small clinical room in a gown waiting for the elderly doctor. The nurse had taken her vitals, drawn blood, and even asked her to pee in a cup. Now she was perched on the cot in the middle of the room while Noah was seated next to her in a plastic chair. Impatience crawled over her skin, and she sighed heavily just as the doctor entered the room.

  “Well, Ms. Rowe, you seem to have had yourself a hell of a fight.” Doc Woolsey was an older man in his earlier seventies, but he was good looking in a stately sort of way. His silver-white hair was still thick and matched his mustache and neatly groomed beard. He was tall and didn’t stoop as some do when they age. He had just the slightest pudge to his middle, but he moved with the grace of a much younger man, and his green eyes sparkled with life. “I hear you’re tired of playing the invalid.”

  “Doc Woolsey, I feel fine, and I really want to get back to my life. I need to get back to my life.” She cringed at the desperation in her own voice, but Doc seemed to understand.

  “Okeydokey, well, let’s get started then. I want to check those ribs first. Noah, you need to step out for a few minutes.”

  Noah hesitated, but when she nodded he stood and brushed a quick kiss over her forehead. “I’ll be in the waiting room.”

  “The nurse will get you after we’ve checked her out. Don’t worry, we’ll take care of her.”

  He made quick work of checking her out, seeming pleased that she was healing properly. When he finally completed his exam, he took a seat on the rolling stool by the counter. “Sidney, you’ve been through terrible trauma in that last year, and although I think that rest is important, I also understand that sometimes you have to just let go of the past. I’m going to release you to all activities, but I don’t want you lifting anything with that wrist until the brace comes off, and if you feel tired or worn out at all, I want you to get off of your feet.”

&
nbsp; “Can I go back to work?”

  “As far as I’m concerned you are free to go back to work and resume all activities.”

  “Thank you so much, Doc. I have been anxious to get back to the real world!”

  “I’m going to have the nurse get Noah now,” he said with a gentle pat on her leg.

  When Noah entered the room, he immediately came to her side and pulled her against his chest. “So…Doc, is she released to all activities?” Noah asked, and Sidney almost laughed out loud when his cheeks flushed lightly.

  Doc Woolsey just chuckled. “Yes, son, she is released to all activities. Just take it easy until she builds her strength back up.”

  Noah and Sidney both shook Doc Woolsey’s hand and hurried out of the office. Sidney could see lust burning in her man’s eyes as he helped her into his Jeep, and she grabbed his wrist before he could step away.

  Tugging gently, she pulled him close. “Noah, I want you. I need you to fuck me.”

  His groan sent a gush of moisture flooding her pussy, and he pressed his mouth to hers. The kiss was deep. It reached all the way to her core and tugged at her heart. This was her man. Her soul mate. And she wanted him with every fiber of her being. She tried to convey that with her lips, teeth, and tongue, but he still managed to pry away from her.

  “Honey, I want to continue this, but not until we get home. I want to do it right,” he murmured against her forehead before he stepped back and slammed the Jeep door shut.

  She groaned loudly as she settled back into her seat and buckled up. If he was determined to drive home first, then she would wait, but not without touching him. Once he was situated and driving them down the road, she reached over to stroke the bulge under his zipper.

  “Fuck. Sidney! What are you doing?”

  “I’m just keeping you warm, Noah. I don’t want you to lose interest before we get home,” she said seductively as she squeezed his hardening cock.

  “There isn’t a chance in hell of that happening, Sidney. Please, honey, give a man a break. I don’t want to kill us in the five minutes it takes to get home.” His jaw was clenched, and his breathing was choppy.