by Tara Rose
“Okay. Hang on. What the heck happened today? What did you two say to each other?”
Carson doled out the food and drinks, and each man had eaten half their sandwich before Carson finally spoke. “We had a nice, long talk, during which we listed every reason why this was a bad idea. Sharing you, that is.”
Teresa didn’t say anything. She merely watched them both, her food still untouched.
“Then, once we’d listed the reasons, we picked each one apart, until we realized that they were all bullshit.”
She swallowed hard. “May I ask what they were?”
“Sure,” said Garrett. “One, you have abuse in your past. But so do a lot of subs, and we’re more than willing to help you sort out the difference between that and BDSM play. Two, you have a bad reputation, but we’re working to make sure no one in this town believes the bullshit rumors about you anymore. And three, you’re in a vulnerable position right now, both because Ray Hammond is still out there, and because you’ve lived through eighteen years of hell. But we’re also both more than willing to help you through that. In fact, with your permission, we’d like to attend your sessions with Julie as well from now on.”
Teresa’s Big Mac literally slipped out of her hands and landed on the floor before she even realized that she’d lost her grip on it. Both men laughed, but Teresa jumped off the desk and started to clean up the mess. Garrett grabbed the wastebasket and swept the sandwich into it. “Don’t worry about it. Dean has dropped worse on this floor.”
“Here you go.” Carson handed her another one. “I brought extra food.”
“I’m sorry. But you two have completely blown me away.”
“Good,” said Garrett. “We were going for shock and awe.”
Carson pushed a chair toward her. “Sit down and eat, sweetheart. You have nothing to worry about, okay? We want to do this. You’ve touched each of us in a way that we didn’t think any woman could again, and the bottom line is that we’re each too damn stubborn and pigheaded to give you up. So the only logical solution is to share you, because we’re also not secure enough to ask you to choose.”
“I couldn’t do that. Honestly. I like you both too much. I want you both.” It felt so incredible to finally say that. “I want to try this, too, but I have no idea what I’m doing.”
“Who does?” asked Garrett, taking a seat next to her and diving back into his food. “Look at the mess I made of my life years ago. And what did I get for it? Bitter loneliness. I don’t want to be that man anymore. I’ve never been as happy as I was with you Monday night. I want that all the time.”
Carson sat in Dean’s chair and pointed toward her food. “Please eat something. We need to get some weight on you. And I feel the same way as Garrett does. I’ve hidden away for years, burying myself in my grief and my work. But last night was…it was magical. I’m not ashamed to say that. I’ve never felt that way about any woman. I have no idea if we can do this. I’ll be honest. But I’m sure as hell going to try, because the alternative is not acceptable. I won’t give you up.”
Teresa finally started to eat only so she wouldn’t cry. Her heart was ready to burst with joy. She’d never expected this to be so easy, or to hear such beautiful words from them. They were perfect. Both of them. She was truly blessed. Teresa finished her food, happier than she could ever remember being in her entire life.
Chapter Fifteen
Thursday morning, Teresa woke up when the phone rang, and if it hadn’t been for the fact that she suspected it was either Garrett or Carson, she would have been upset. She’d been in the middle of the most erotic dream of her life, staring both sexy men in their cop uniforms, as they’d been last night. She wondered if they’d wear them for her in the bedroom if she asked them to.
“Good morning, beautiful.” Carson’s rich, sexy voice sent shivers up and down her spine. She couldn’t stop thinking of the handcuffs he and Garrett both carried on their belts when they were in uniform. “We switched some shifts around and have the next four days off. You’re spending them with us.”
“Oh, okay. That’s wonderful.” This had to be a dream. Nothing even remotely this wonderful had ever happened to her. Last evening, after they’d told her about their talk and told her they were willing to try this, she’d stayed at the station until almost nine o’clock, just talking and laughing with everyone. How could she have ever hated this town, when even the cops were this warm and friendly? How blinded by the wrong influences she’d been as a teen.
“Starting with a trip to Tye Me Up. I did promise you a red corset and shoes to match, after all.”
Every delicious second of Tuesday night with Carson came flooding back. “Yes, you did. I haven’t forgotten.”
“Okay. So be ready in two hours.”
“I will be.” Four days. Four days with Carson and Garrett. Teresa didn’t care if she couldn’t walk after those four days. It would be worth it. She sang in the shower, and was still singing softly when she skipped down the stairs. They weren’t due to arrive for a while yet, but the day was so pretty she decided to wait outside for them.
She sat on the front steps of the main house, knowing that neither her mother nor Rosa were home right now. Teresa had always loved this front porch, and would often come to sit outside even in cool weather, just to breathe in the fresh air.
Now, she breathed in the scent of tulips and daffodils as she glanced over the flower beds, smiling at the haphazard pattern in which both flowers had bloomed this year. No matter how many times Rosa rearranged the bulbs each fall, the chipmunks and squirrels came along and dug them up, either eating them or moving them around.
Childhood memories like that had been resurfacing since she’d begun seeing Julie professionally, just as she’d been told would happen. Julie said it was her mind’s way of reconnecting with everything she’d lost during the past eighteen years, and advised her to just let the memories come, paying attention to the emotions they evoked.
Her next session was Monday, and she’d already texted Julie to let her know she’d gone out with Carson and Garrett individually, and was now going to spend the weekend with them. Julie had asked if they planned to join her on Monday, and she said she’d ask them if they could and let her know. She didn’t know either of their schedules, although it sounded as though they changed daily. But they had asked to attend her sessions with her, so she would now keep them apprised of when those were.
Her inner musings were cut short when a car came slowly down the street. Teresa stood, thinking it belonged to one of the men, but she didn’t recognize it. She sat down again, wishing she had a cell phone so she could tell what time it was. She didn’t even own a watch. But soon she’d be able to buy both. She’d stopped by the temporary office in the parking lot behind Busler’s yesterday afternoon and took care of all the paperwork needed to start her new job.
Teresa glanced up again as the car drew closer, frowning at the front plate. Indiana didn’t require front license plates, and this car had one. Their current plates were white with blue lettering and contained a logo in the upper left hand corner marking the state’s bicentennial. The plates also had a yellow banner across the bottom. She’d seen enough of them for the past three months to know.
But this plate wasn’t an Indiana plate that some silly driver had stuck on the front. It didn’t have the yellow banner, and there was no logo. Teresa’s blood ran cold as she realized that she did, however, recognize the state. The plate was white with blue lettering, but the red scripted “California” was too distinctive to mistake for anything else.
She froze for the space of about two seconds. Surely it couldn’t have been more than that, because the car had barely passed one home when she finally stood on shaky legs and tried the front door. Of course it was locked. They always locked it, even when they were both inside. She had her keys, but as she took them out of her purse, she almost dropped them.
Tears ran down her cheeks now. Her fingers shook so badly that it took her
what felt like hours to unlock the front door. When she finally did, she didn’t dare glance down the street to see how close the car was now.
She slammed the door behind her, locked it, and slid to the floor, wishing like holy hell that she had a cell phone right now. Her gaze fell on the phone on the hall table. Was there time to call one of them?
She scooted over to it, not daring to stand, and had to punch in Carson’s number twice. She couldn’t remember Garrett’s even though two minutes ago she’d had both numbers committed to memory.
“Hey, we’re almost there.”
“Ray is here,” she whispered.
“Say again?” Carson’s voice was hard and cop-like.
“Ray. His car. I saw it. It’s here. On my street.”
“Are you inside?”
“Yes.”
“Where? This isn’t your number.”
“Main house.”
“Get to a room with a door that locks and stay there, on the floor. Go now.”
The call disconnected and Teresa stared at the receiver, willing Carson’s voice to come back on the line. When it didn’t, she slammed it down and crawled toward the hall closet, wiping the tears off her face and trying not to panic.
Had she ever told Ray where she lived? Yes. Of course she had. He knew everything about her life in Racy. She’d told him all that long before she had a reason not to. She was such a fucking idiot to think he wouldn’t follow her here eventually.
She heard the front door handle jiggling, and had to cover her mouth not to scream. Carson had said they were almost there. What did that mean? How close was “almost there?” Was that Carson or Garrett trying to get in? No. They’d call for her if it was, and she hadn’t heard any voices.
She lay down and curled into a ball, unable to stop crying. There was an old blanket on the floor that her mother used to place on the back porch when they were kids so they could wipe their feet on it when they came in from playing on days when the grass was damp. She hadn’t done that in decades, probably, but the musty smell still clung to the blanket, taking Teresa back to happier times when she and her siblings had all been home.
They’d protected each other back then, especially Maggie and Rafe. They were the two who’d intervened whenever her parents spoke too harshly, or got a bit too rough with the physical punishment. She’d always depended on Rafe, especially. When this was over, assuming Ray didn’t break into the house and kill her, Teresa vowed to go and see Rafe. She needed to reconnect with her big brother again.
She sat up when she heard the unmistakable wail of police sirens and tires squealing.
“Teresa? Where are you? Are you all right?”
Garrett’s voice. Was he inside? No. It was too far away. He was outside.
She opened the closet door and saw him on the porch, walking from the window to the door again, with another officer whose name she didn’t know, trying to peer into the house. She unlocked the front door and fell into Garrett’s arms, barely noticing the neighbors on the street or the fact that no less than six Racy police cruisers were parked up and down Ash Lane. Praise be to small-town life. She’d called the cops in Los Angeles once and they’d never bothered to come.
“Are you okay?”
“I don’t know. Where is he? Did you catch him?”
Before he spoke, she knew he hadn’t. “I’m sorry, hon. There was no one here. Are you sure you saw him?”
She felt like the biggest fool on the planet. “I didn’t see him. I saw a car with California plates. And then I heard someone trying to get in the front door after I called Carson. But who else would be driving a car from California or try to get into the house?”
Garrett didn’t look convinced, and Teresa’s frustration level went through the roof.
“Do you think the driver saw you?”
“I don’t know how he could have missed me. I stared at the car for several seconds before I went inside. He was close enough for me to see the plate.”
Her heart sank at the brief look of annoyance that passed over Garrett’s face. “Are you sure it had California plates?”
“One hundred percent positive.” She told him about thinking at first it was a car with a front Indiana plate, until she spotted the red script.
“Okay. I believe you. But when we got here there was no car. Did you happen to see any of the numbers or letters?”
She closed her eyes for a second and tried to picture the plate, but nothing was clear. She’d blown it. “No. But you have his license plate number on the paper I gave Carson and Sean.”
“We ran that down already and the last-known address was no good. But assuming he’s still driving around with the same plate, yes. We have that now.” He turned to the officer behind him and asked him to let the detectives and other officers know what she’d just described. When the officer left, Garrett turned his attention back toward her. “It’s okay. We’ll put someone on the house all the time now. But we’ll have to tell your parents, you know.”
“Shit.”
“We have to. You know that. If it was Ray, he could try to hurt them or Rosa to get to you.”
“Then I need to get out of here. I can’t stay. They won’t let me in the house again after this. Luke told me I could move in with Peppi, so I need to do that today.”
“You are not moving above your brother’s bar. You told me that Peppi is hardly there. It’s too isolated and you’d be alone too much.”
“But Ray wouldn’t know about the new bar location because I only told him about the old location on Market Street. He won’t know where I am.”
“If that was him, all he has to do is spot you once again and follow you.”
“But you’re all out looking for the car now.”
Garrett opened his mouth to speak again, but stopped when Carson ran up the stairs and pulled Teresa into an embrace. “I have never been so fucking scared in my life. Your voice was shaking, and so was I.”
Garrett brought him up to speed, and Carson released the embrace to gaze into her eyes. “No fucking way are you moving in with your sister. No. We can sit on this house, and we can watch the bar, but the apartment above it is no safer than this is now. In fact, it’s worse. Peppi is in class all day and works at Tye Me Up the rest of the time. You’d be more alone than you are now. You’re coming home with one of us, love. We’ll move you out right now.”
Garrett shot him a look that was full of jealousy, and Teresa wished the earth would open up and swallow her. So much for their resolve to try this. “And how do we decide whose house she moves into?”
Carson stared at him like he couldn’t believe they were going to discuss this now, and was about to speak when Harrison joined them on the front porch. “Okay. We can’t find the car in town, but we’re going to comb every motel within twenty miles. He can’t be that far away yet, but we don’t know which road he took out of town. Where are your mother and Rosa right now? Any idea?”
“Yes. They’re in West Lafayette at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament. They’re there every Thursday morning to say the rosary and sew. They won’t be back until later this afternoon.”
Harrison spoke into the radio on his shoulder, then told Teresa that someone was already on their way to Racy Auto Repair to let her father know what was going on.
“They’re going to kill me.”
“No they’re not,” said Carson. “You can’t control what Ray does. You’ve been back home for over three months now. There was no way to foresee this. Let’s go up to your apartment and get your things.”
“And where exactly will we be taking them?” asked Garrett.
Carson glanced around. “Let’s decide that in private.”
Chapter Sixteen
Carson wanted to punch something, and he was afraid it might end up being Garrett. Everything had been fine between them an hour ago when Carson had driven out to Elm Parkway and picked up Garrett. They’d talked about Teresa on the way over, and how much they were each looking f
orward to making this work for their sake as much as for hers.
And then her call had come through, and Carson had nearly collided with the car in front of him when she’d whispered Ray’s name.
As soon as they were upstairs in her apartment, Garrett started in. “It makes more sense to move her to my place. Ray can’t possibly know where I live.”
“He can’t know where I live, either, but if he follows her to either house, she’s a hell of a lot safer on Honey Locust than way out where you are. She has no car. If she’s alone in the house, she’s stuck there. The station is five minutes away from my house. It’s twenty from yours. I have nosy neighbors that we can ask to keep an eye on the place, plus we’ll have an officer sit on it all the time now.”
“We can have someone sitting out on Elm as well. She won’t be alone.”
“It’s too isolated.”
“You just want her with you all the time. You’re using this as an excuse to get what you’ve wanted all along.”
“Fuck you. How can you say that right now? Isn’t her safety the most important thing? She’s safer in town, close to the station, and within shouting distance of all my neighbors.”
“Stop it!”
Both men stared at Teresa. Carson didn’t think she could shout, nor did he ever remember seeing so much anger and fear on her face. They were standing here acting like kids in high school when they should be getting her the hell out of this apartment.
They each started toward her at the same time, but she took several steps back and held up her hands. “I’m not going anywhere until you two stop this shit right fucking now. I can’t handle you fighting over where I sleep at night. I can’t do it.”
“I’m sorry,” said Garrett. “To both of you.”