Tap That (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)
Page 1
Tap That
Sometimes love and devotion come at an expensive price and no one knows this better than Beck and Seth Stallard. After watching the area’s businessmen scheme in an effort to ruin East Tennessee’s farming community, the Stallard brothers are aware of how the system works, but when one banker’s target is a blue-eyed honey, these cowboys will do whatever necessary to save the young woman they want and the land she cherishes.
Lindsey Leland is between a rock and a hard place. After her father passes away, she inherits a large farm and a huge debt. Facing foreclosure and the possibility of homelessness, she has no other choice but to accept a helping hand. Soon, shady dealings unfold, but Lindsey’s friends aren’t about to stand by and watch as she forfeits her family’s home. The Stallards will support Lindsey, but their motivations aren’t based on profits. Their primary interest in Lindsey is backed by compassion and funded by love.
Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre
Length: 20,203 words
TAP THAT
Natalie Acres
MENAGE EVERLASTING
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
TAP THAT
Copyright © 2015 by Natalie Acres
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63259-626-0
First E-book Publication: August 2015
Cover design by Les Byerley
All art and logo copyright © 2015 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
Dear Readers,
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Regarding E-book Piracy
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This is Natalie Acres’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Natalie Acres’s right to earn a living from her work.
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DEDICATION
For Tymber Dalton, Tara Rose, Tonya Ramagos, Cooper McKenzie and Marla Monroe
Because you’re ‘good people’ with extraordinary talent to boot!
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
About the Author
TAP THAT
NATALIE ACRES
Copyright © 2015
Chapter One
Sometimes a man needed to mind his own damn business.
Seth Stallard kept telling himself that very thing even as he walked across his lawn and ducked under the split-rail fence that inevitably led to the high grass adjoining Lindsey Leland’s front yard. Each step he took was one step closer to facing a spitfire of a woman who might tell him to turn around and walk right back the same way he came.
Still, he kept right on moving. Maybe he was glutton for punishment. At the same time, he was downright concerned.
Sheriff Crass Ass, better known as Sheriff Lenny Ray, had been at Lindsey’s place the week before. Threats had been exchanged, and from what Seth’s brother Beck had said, Lindsey only had a short period of time before the sheriff returned again with orders to remove her from the property.
Farmer’s Lending held the note on the place. The suits behind the business acted like they wanted to help her, but in truth, they wanted her farm. They didn’t give a damn about lending an extra hand.
Now, Crass Ass had returned. His deputies with their nondescript white box-style sedans were lined up in her driveway. Hell, it looked like they were there for a lynching. They didn’t have an ounce of discretion, but they sure carried that pound of judgment.
They wanted everyone in their small East Tennessee town to know. They were there to seize. They were there to take. If anyone held power in their small town, or in the whole state for that matter, it was Sheriff Ray and his boys.
What a joke.
Seth and his brother were embedded in the farming community, and if Seth had seen it once, he’d witnessed it a dozen times. These cops with their twenty-five-thousand-dollar annual income—and the holstered guns they seldom drew—would suddenly become ten feet tall and bulletproof, all because they were able to serve the orders that stripped one man—or woman—of the place they called home.
If Seth had learned one important lesson in life, it was this—people were basically bad. If someone wanted to find a good heart or desirable trait, they had to peel away the layers of crud and peer underneath a mountain of stone. They needed to work after it.
The local sheriff and his dutiful soldiers swarmed Lindsey’s porch. They pounded on her door screaming a mix of “We know you’re in there, Miss Leland!” to “Come on out here. We’ve got our orders!”
Orders, hell.
Seth took longer strides. If they wanted Lindsey, they’d go through him first.
The sheriff saw him coming and tried to block his path. “Now Seth, I know what you’re thinkin’, but back on up, son.”
“I ain’t your son, man,” Seth grated out, darting around him with precision and speed. He bumped a deputy’s shoulder in passing and entered Lindsey’s country kitchen. “What’s going on here, Linds?”
Lindsey looked like she could cry a bucket of tears. “I can handle this, Seth. Go home.”
&nb
sp; “I’m not feeling it. Besides, I’m not in any hurry.” Seth stood his ground. He glanced at the legal paperwork scattered across her kitchen bar. The words foreclosure and forthcoming auction jumped out at him. He winced at the thought of Lindsey’s place going to the highest bidder. The last few farms that were sold in Greene County had been sectioned off for subdivisions.
Gaudy, pastel-colored houses had littered the land where horses once roamed and cattle had leisurely grazed. The developer was from Florida and possessed about as much talent as a two-year-old with a box of crayons.
Backed by a local bar owner and a few other investors, Mr. Sunshine had an endless stream of cash and a penchant for pouncing on landowners in trouble. He was like a damn vampire waiting to suck the very life out of those who needed a real break. Then again, the Florida developer was crooked. Some said he kept a firm hand on all the right shoulders. Given the number of Greene County farms that had gone belly-up and the developer who had snatched them for the right price, Seth believed it.
“We need Miss Leland to vacate the premises,” the sheriff said, rubbing his belly and fiddling with his absurd belt buckle. The darn thing had a cornstalk on it with the word “Grow” splattered in the center. Right underneath it read “Support your local farmers.”
Seth balked at that. The sheriff didn’t know what manual labor was. He could serve his damn papers and wear his belt buckle to make himself feel better, but the wording was a tad much.
Cornstalk? Try chickpea.
Shaking his head at the thought, he turned to Deputy Bill Bingley. “You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Bill. Your momma and daddy would roll over in their graves if they knew what you were doing here.” His eyes watered as he remembered how the Bingley family had been ousted by the community. “Guess you figure turnabout is fair play, huh, Bingley? Your daddy didn’t deserve what he got from Farmer’s Lending and neither does Lindsey. You ought to bow your head in plain old shame.”
The sheriff put his hands up. “Seth, now listen here. Before you say something you regret, Lindsey knew this day was a’comin’.”
The sheriff didn’t know him very well. If Seth commented on something, he rarely wanted to take it back. “Lindsey will have plenty of time to ‘vacate the premises’ because I’ll go talk to the boys at Farmer’s Lending first thing Monday.” Seth turned to Lindsey. “Linds, what can I do to help?”
She shrugged and her big blue eyes flooded with dime-size tears. The poor thing didn’t have a clue. She was too young, far too green, to know how to deal with issues like these or the men who were there to enforce the laws behind their badges. Unfortunately, that eviction notice clutched in the sheriff’s hands probably held more weight and merit than Lindsey could even imagine.
“Can I speak to you privately, Linds?” He’d given her the nickname back when they were kids. She pretended to hate it and he loved that she did.
“Seth, you go on back over to your place.” Deputy Frank Bright let the front door slam behind him. “We’re here to do a job and I reckon we’ll do it or die trying.”
“There’s a hell of an option,” Seth said, cracking his knuckles. He’d never cared for the deputy.
Bright had been a bad sport in high school, a jock with attitude. Now, here he was taking pleasure in ripping a gal away from her family home. Plus, Seth knew a little something-something about Frank Bright. Rumor had it that he often used the residences in foreclosure for his own kind of private party.
After a little consideration, Seth couldn’t think of one county deputy that he respected. They were true jackasses with perceived power and seemingly ‘got off’ on another person’s pain. One day soon Deputy Frank Bright would get his. In the meantime, Seth wouldn’t let Lindsey go down without a fight.
“I need five minutes, Sheriff,” Seth insisted.
“Five’s all?” Sheriff Ray jiggled his shoulders. “For the kind of debt owed on this place, five is a far cry away from what you’ll deserve if you bail her out of this, Seth.”
Lindsey thinned her lips and set her sunken jaws. Her small fists hung at her sides. Love her heart. She wanted to fight, but if the circles under her eyes were any indication, the fight that once existed in her was long gone. It was buried under heartache and despair, a hopelessness that Seth couldn’t even begin to imagine.
“There’s nothing you can do,” she said.
“Let me decide on that.”
“Go home, Seth.”
“Sounds like the lady has had more than enough of you,” a deputy said.
“Lindsey,” Seth grated out. “I’m in no mood to stand around here and let these men make our friendship into something it’s not.”
“If you ain’t had a little of her, then that’s your problem. Your neighbor has the hottest tail in town and you’re only friends? You’re losing your touch, Stallard.” Deputy Bright smirked, checked his cell phone, and grunted.
“I’m one step away from losing more than my touch.” Seth made a sudden leap for Bright, but the sheriff stopped him.
“Not today, Seth.”
Through gritted teeth, Seth said, “What’s wrong, Bright? Got another one knocked up somewhere?” He then swung his gaze at the sheriff. “Oops. Wrong one. Small-town gossip.” He tapped his forehead. “It’s hard to keep up with the rumors and such.”
“Don’t worry your empty, big head, Seth. From what I hear, Lindsey cut a hell of a deal with a business owner in town. Since he’s not too interested in letting her out of her contract—regardless of what happens out here today—I’d say she’ll be broke in and ready to ride in no time.”
Seth snarled then turned his back to the men. He pointed at the mudroom located next to the kitchen. “Lindsey, now.” He glanced at Bright. “And that’s the last smartass remark you get. One more word and I’ll deck ya. Then, my attorneys will be all over ya come Monday morning. Maybe I’ll spend a few nights in jail but I’ll do my time with a smile. After my lawyers are through with you, we’ll collect your tarnished badge on the other side of the weekend.”
Deputy Bright looked plumb scared. It was no wonder. Seth and Beck had a reputation for taking things to the extreme. Money had bought them plenty of power and the best law firm this side of the Mississippi.
“Shall we, Linds?” Seth held out his arm in a gentlemanly fashion.
Lindsey’s upper lip curled and she looked like a woman prepared for a war of words. Instead, she stomped off to the mudroom and slammed the door behind them.
Cocking his head and holding up his hand, Seth said, “Before you say anything. I know all about your so-called deal with Bonzo Maldeni.”
She blushed, likely from anger rather than embarrassment. “And here I thought you were on my side. I didn’t cut a deal with Maldeni or any other businessman for that matter.”
“We’ll discuss Maldeni another day then. For now, you need to tell me everything about your arrangement with Farmer’s Lending. How much time do you have?”
“It’s already too late,” she whispered, staring at the toe of her scuffed cowboy boots.
“It’s never too late if you’re still willing to fight.” Seth tucked his fingers under her chin and forced her to look at him. “Are you still willing to duke this out, Lindsey?”
“It’s no use.”
“Why not? Because somebody down at Farmer’s Lending used their position and strong-armed you?” He shook his head. “No, Linds. I don’t buy it. Besides, I know how these guys work and the only reason you’re standing there and I’m standing here is because my father never hopped in bed with them.
“When those fellas stopped by for social calls and mentioned loaning money, Dad painted on an arrogant smile and told them we had all we’d ever need. In the early years, Dad used to pride himself on avoiding bankers and sinners. I’m pretty sure he couldn’t stay away from the latter altogether, but he managed to keep his distance from bankers.”
“Wish my father had done the same,” she muttered. “Farmer’s Lending wants
to foreclose and there isn’t anything I can do about it. Daddy knew this day would eventually come, but what’d he do? He played right into their hands.
“Whenever the loan officers called him in for a meeting, they’d offer more money and he always took it. He’d put up a piece of land here, more acreage there. Before long, they had the whole place standing good for his loan.”
“Hon, it’s 2013. Your daddy has been gone two years. You must’ve made ends meet somehow if you’ve made it this far.”
“Yes, but I’m tired of paying that ridiculous payment. Do you have any idea what it’s like to work three jobs and farm all in an effort to pay a 6,000-dollar mortgage? Even then, I’m always in the arrears. The interest rate was too high right from the start.” She sounded defeated. “Besides, I don’t want to pay a debt that isn’t mine.”
He rested his hands on her shoulders. “Linds, listen to me. No one twisted your father’s arm, so I’m not justifying what he did. He was a strong man who made his own decisions. Still, these guys have a longstanding reputation for roping in a good farmer, showing him all the money and love a banker can provide, and then putting the squeeze on him as soon as they see an opening.
“Now what’s done is done. You need to get that fire back. Show them the determined woman and hold your head up. Then, take a few days and decide how you want to deal with your father’s decisions. You’re at a crossroads, hon. As much as I hate to say it, there’s no easy fix here, but there’s a way to salvage this place. Just be strong and we’ll come up with a workable plan.”
“Strong?” She whipped around and faced an open closet. “See that computer over there? Old-timers called it a ‘commodity machine’ but it was nothing more than a dated computer. It was the death of a farmer. That’s what it was. In the last years of his life, all Daddy worried about was trading futures. He loved playing the stock market. He used to be happy out there in those fields. He liked working cattle and boarding horses. In the end, he was weak and only wanted to sit in front of that machine and predict the future of processed meat!”