Imprisoned Match [Ménage.com 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)
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Ménage.com 4
Imprisoned Match
Anna Valdez is leading a double life that will surely land her in jail. Since the age of eighteen, Anna has been on a path of revenge to make those pay who are responsible for her family’s death.
Unbeknownst to Anna, her best friend has created a profile on a ménage dating website in hopes of pushing her into having a life. Both paths lead her to the town of Triple, where Elliott and Mitch Braxton are at odds about meeting their perfect match. Elliott thinks it’s time that his brother return to the life of the living after ten years in prison. Mitch disagrees—that is, until he meets up with Anna.
Trying to keep them at arm's length proves impossible, especially when they find out she’s not exactly who she says she is. Can Elliott and Mitch convince Anna that being imprisoned in their love is a better choice?
Note: There is no sexual relationship or touching for titillation between or among siblings.
Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre
Length: 42,812 words
IMPRISONED MATCH
Ménage.com 4
Peyton Elizabeth
MENAGE EVERLASTING
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
IMPRISONED MATCH
Copyright © 2013 by Peyton Elizabeth
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62242-477-1
First E-book Publication: March 2013
Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2013 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,
If you have purchased this copy of Imprisoned Match by Peyton Elizabeth from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.
Regarding E-book Piracy
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This is Peyton Elizabeth’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Ms. Elizabeth’s right to earn a living from her work.
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DEDICATION
Jeffrey—you make every day brighter, every hour more golden, every minute more cherishable, and every second more promising. I love you.
IMPRISONED MATCH
Ménage.com 4
PEYTON ELIZABETH
Copyright © 2013
Chapter One
“You did what?”
Anna Valdez snapped up the computer that was sitting on her friend’s lap and gaped at the screen in horror. Staring back was a picture of herself along with every personal detail of her life for the entire world to see. Scrolling down quickly, Anna saw that even her hometown of Phoenix, Arizona, was listed on the page. How could her one and only friend do this to her?
“Sarah, how could you do this to me?” Anna asked, reiterating the question that was bouncing around in her head.
“Because you can’t keep staying in this one-bedroom apartment day after day, night after night, with no social life,” Sarah explained, leaning forward to pick up her wineglass that had been sitting on the glass coffee table. “It’s unhealthy. You live here, sleep here, eat here, and work here. What kind of existence is that? Besides, if I don’t look after you, who will?”
Anna slammed the laptop down on the table and swiped up her wineglass. She was going to need the rest of the bottle after this bombshell. Anna stood up and walked to the small kitchenette, where the opened wine bottle from earlier this evening sat on the counter. Refilling her glass, Anna tried to think of a way to undo the mess that Sarah had gotten her into. She knew that Sarah had her best intentions at heart, but there were things that her friend didn’t know, such as the fact that Anna was a criminal. Well, sort of. The word criminal was a little harsh, but what was the point of splitting hairs when the end result would be the same—jail. If Anna had her way, Sarah would never know what she really did with her days and nights.
“I know you think you’re helping me, but really, signing me up for a dating website? I don’t have time to date,” Anna said, returning to the living room and taking a seat in her favorite big, cushy chair that sat off to the side of the couch. There were few things that gave her comfort, but her apartment was a safe haven Anna had come to appreciate. It was the only place she was actually able to be herself. While Sarah might not know what Anna actually did for a living, she was the only one who really knew Anna as a person.
“That’s why a dating site is perfect,” Sarah replied with a smile. She held the wineglass between her thighs as she tightened her ponytail. “If I can’t get you to hit the bars with me, then I’m going to have to figure out a way to bring the guys to you. And just to make sure we don’t miss any of the good men, I have doubled your chances.”
“What does that mean?” Anna asked, dreading to even hear what else Sarah had done. There was no way this situation could get any worse, could it?
“It’s not just a dating website—it’s a ménage dating website,” Sarah said, grinning like a cat that had swallowed a canary.
“Ménage? As in two men? Are you crazy?” Okay, so she was wrong and things had gotten worse. If she were an optimistic person, Anna would be saying it was all uphill from here and this could be fixed. Unfortunately, she was a realist—and reality sucked.
While Sarah droned on about how it was a good idea to increase Anna’s chances of meeting the one, Anna took a big gulp of her wine to keep herself from screaming. She needed to take down her profile immediately, and in such a way that didn’t send off warning signals to
Sarah that something was wrong. If someone were to find out her real identity, it could be fatal. Although, if Anna calmed down a bit and really thought this through, what were the odds of the people she was deceiving scanning ménage dating websites? It was almost laughable. After all, they were criminals associated with a drug cartel. She highly doubted they would concern themselves with online dating.
Leading a double life was getting more complicated by the day, and Anna knew if she didn’t stop, she’d end up dead. Anna figured jail was being too hopeful. On the plus side, the snapshot Sarah had placed on the site was how she looked now, which was with light auburn hair—she refused to call it red. The alias she had created, Anna Cruz, had jet-black hair and dressed to the nines, which was how anyone associated with the cartel knew her. She glanced down at her gray sweatpants. This was how Anna Valdez dressed. Tuning back into Sarah’s rant about Anna needing a life, one word caught her attention.
“What did you say?”
“I said Triple isn’t that far from here. Apparently, that type of lifestyle is really prominent in the surrounding area. I reviewed some of the other applicants, and the majority of the men reside there. You should see some of the ranches in that part of the country. Wow—they sure have money.”
This could not be happening. Anna drained the rest of her glass, hoping the blood hadn’t faded from her face in such an obvious manner. She needed another refill. Getting back up, Anna made a beeline for the bottle with every intention of finishing it off. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry but knew that if she did either one, she wouldn’t be able to stop. Leave it to Sarah to sign her up for a dating service where the applicants were from the one town she needed to stay away from. Instead of going uphill, Sarah had just pushed her off a cliff.
Her mind drifted back to around a month ago. It was the one time she had ever set foot in Triple. She hadn’t planned on shooting two men that night, but seeing innocent people hurt wasn’t in her game plan and she had done what she had to do to protect them. Her life’s purpose was to bring down those responsible for her family’s death, not to have innocent blood on her hands. She couldn’t prevent the memory from flooding back.
Anna walked around the cargo truck that held a massive load of illegal weapons, knowing she didn’t have much time. The sellers were undercover agents and she figured she had precious moments before the ATF swept in for the arrests. At least Sonny Jones, the straw man of this meeting, would get his payback for his role in murdering her family. That had been her one and only goal this evening.
“And how do I know that he won’t come after me later, huh?” Sonny yelled, catching Anna’s attention.
Turning her head, Anna saw that he held a woman at gunpoint. The two men who Anna had been introduced to as the sellers also had their weapons aimed at Sonny and his bodyguard, Victor. It was a standoff. Cooper and Brody Jackson had things under control though. They would make the arrest, Sonny would spend the rest of his life in jail, and she could go hunting for her next—and final—target. Carlos was already holding open the door to the black vehicle that would be her salvation. She wasn’t going to get involved in their dispute and give the ATF the chance to nab her.
“Sonny, don’t be stupid.”
Anna heard the panic in Cooper Jackson’s voice. Now wasn’t the time to grow a conscience, she thought, forcing herself to take another step toward her car. Agents were trained for situations like these. They had it covered.
“So how do you suggest we end this?” Sonny asked.
Anna couldn’t help but turn at the sound of malice in Sonny’s voice. She saw his knuckles whiten as his fingers tightened on the gun. He hadn’t been the one to pull the trigger on her brother or parents, but he might as well have been. He was the one responsible for giving the Contractor her brother’s name, as well as that of her family. Anna could observe from the fear in the woman’s eyes that she thought she was going to die but noticed that she wasn’t looking at Sonny or his weapon. The woman was staring at Cooper and Brody. She loved them, that much was obvious.
“I’ll end it,” Anna said, before even realizing she’d spoken the words.
She brought up her weapon and pulled the trigger, having no doubt she’d hit her target. The sound of the shot rang out in the air, along with Sonny’s scream. He was holding his hand, now empty except for his blood. The woman he had been holding hostage finally regained her senses and dove for his gun. Anna caught sight of Victor turning his weapon on the woman, so Anna aimed for his leg. Taking another shot, she couldn’t resist a smile when Victor fell to the ground.
“Remember, Jackson, you owe me,” Anna said, satisfied that he would take over and see that Sonny was taken into custody. Carlos motioned to her that they were running out of time. Walking to the car, she couldn’t help turning around one more time. “This doesn’t mean I’ve forgiven you, just that I know who can be useful to me in the future.”
Anna wasn’t sure if he would get the innuendo that she was aware of the setup but thought she’d put that out there. Her aiding them in saving their woman might come in handy if she were to ever meet them again in the future. She had one more man to bring down, and Anna wasn’t sure where that might lead her. The Contractor, as he was nicknamed, was elusive, and she had yet to find out his real name. Looking over at the woman, Anna envied her. The two men clearly cared for her, and Anna wondered which one she would choose. They both seemed to be the type of man any woman would be lucky to have. Anna would never know what it was like to be loved like that. She’d either be dead or in prison by the time she completed her mission, but she’d made peace with that a long time ago.
“Anna,” Carlos warned in a soft voice that only she could hear. “They’re coming.”
“Are you okay? You seem a little pale,” Sarah said, draining what was left in her wineglass. Walking over, she passed the counter and went to the sink, placing her glass inside. Her demeanor seemed a little more subdued than before. “Listen, I was only trying to help. Now you’re making me feel bad. I can’t stand seeing you wither away into a lonely old lady.”
“Old lady?” Anna asked, forcing out a laugh and trying to appear as if being plastered on the Internet for the world to see didn’t bother her. She needed to make Sarah believe that she was as normal as Sarah’s other friends. “I’m almost thirty years old. I highly doubt I’m going to whither away into an old maid. Besides, you come drink wine with me once a week. And just because I work from home doesn’t mean I don’t have contact with the outside world. You make me sound like a hermit.”
“Well, I live across the hall from you. We’ve been friends for over a year and I have yet to see you have an active social life,” Sarah said, coming back over to the counter and leaning her hip against it.
“That’s why I have you,” Anna said, giving off her best smile. “And remember, you work during the day. I do get out and have lunch, you know. Speaking of work, don’t you have an early meeting tomorrow?”
Sarah grimaced and then looked over to the stove, where the green digital clock showed ten thirty at night. Anna was glad she took the bait. “You had to remind me. Ugh. Did I mention I hate Monday mornings?”
“Every Sunday night,” Anna replied, smiling for real. “Good luck tomorrow. I know you worked hard on your presentation.”
“Thanks.” Sarah walked back over to the couch and used her feet to fish out her slippers that had been under the coffee table. Sliding her toes inside the pink rabbits with long, fuzzy ears, Sarah started to walk toward the door. “You aren’t mad at me, are you?”
“No, silly. But the next time you do something like that, you’ve got to ask me.” Holding open the door, she watched as Sarah walked across the hall of their apartment complex. “Just for you, though, I’ll take a peek and see what type of men are listed on there. If I don’t like what I see, I’ll just delete my profile. No harm, no foul.”
Anna felt guilty when Sarah’s smile spread across her face, indicating that she was happ
y Anna was going to give it a try. So what that Anna told a little white lie? Her entire life was based on a lie. Sarah didn’t need to know she was going to delete everything on the site that could be traced back to her as soon as she could get her fingers on her laptop.
“Call me if you find a man or two,” Sarah said, waving her hand in the air before she disappeared into her apartment.
Anna closed the door and proceeded to secure all three locks that she had added for protection, along with the deadbolt. Once she was satisfied that no one was getting in without her permission, Anna made a beeline for the computer. Picking it up, she plopped herself on the couch and rolled her finger over the little silver touch pad. The screen came to life, bringing up her picture that was situated in the top left-hand corner. Looking underneath the snapshot, she saw her weight, height, and other personal attributes. On the right side was a box that included hobbies, likes, dislikes, and other little tidbits of information. Had Sarah really put down she liked hiking? The only thing that held a ring of truth of the hobbies she had listed was running.
Anna was just about to click the blue unsubscribe word that was underlined when a small ding vibrated her computer, accompanied by a tiny yellow envelope appearing on one of the tabs at the top of the page. The little arrow wavered over the word that would erase all the damage that Sarah had done, but something drew her to see what the envelope contained. Had someone been attracted to her photo or the description that Sarah had filled in? Temptation had her wanting to see what was in the message.