Love Under Two Accountants [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Cara Covington

  He caught that eye roll of Damion Quest in his peripheral vision, just as he saw the way Joe Grant elbowed the man. He used every bit of his will not to smile. The very last thing he wanted was for his sweet wife, who was sitting quietly beside his mother, her focus completely on him, to think he wasn’t taking her friend seriously.

  “I could never figure out why Forrest—I’m glad, by the way, to put a name to him rather than just think of him as the villain—anyway, I could never figure out why he was so certain I had his…well, whatever he thought I had.”

  “I know that troubled you. The not knowing.” Adam decided if he was going to appear to treat this seriously, he should. He was an officer of the law. He knew how to help a witness ease into testimony.

  “That was the worst part, right from the beginning.” Bailey nodded. “The New York police detectives investigating Dirk’s murder had no idea what the motive had been or what the killer could be after. They had two theories going, that it was either a large sum of cash owed to loan sharks, or that drug smuggling was somehow behind it all. I’d never seen much evidence that Townsend’s Treasures was doing a great business, financially speaking. I worked on the books, remember, and it appeared to me as if Dirk was just barely keeping his head above water. But I knew he had an expensive lawyer, and I figured, I guess, that Dirk had family money of some sort that he was living off. Like a trust fund. He seemed like that kind of man.”

  “Your thinking in that regard was spot on,” Adam said. “I’ve read the man’s background, and he was indeed from money.”

  Bailey nodded, and Adam could see she was pleased to have her intuition confirmed. “I never saw any evidence of drugs, period, although I was willing to admit that I wouldn’t necessarily understand such evidence if I saw it.

  “What I really didn’t get was that, even after I left the area, Forrest went to the trouble of breaking into my house and the storage unit I’d rented. And when I found out he’d actually torn up all of my mom’s things I’d put in storage…” Bailey stopped, and Adam’s respect for her increased when she found her grit and didn’t give in to the urge to cry. Personally, he sure wouldn’t have thought less of her if she had cried. He couldn’t imagine having every tangible memento of his mother suddenly ripped from his life.

  Bailey inhaled deeply. “I thought he was just…I don’t know, having a temper tantrum? Unchecked emotional outbursts seem to be in vogue these days. You read about them in the papers nearly every day. But even that never made any real sense. I kept wondering, what was he looking for?”

  “That was the focus of the NSA investigation,” Adam said. “Find the why, or in this case the what, and you find the who.”

  “Exactly! And then, today, Kat and Samantha and Grandma Kate—all these women, actually—helped me to think along different lines. Clearly, Dirk was into something dangerous, something that got him killed. Something illegal.

  “He traveled a lot, and the family today asked me where he went. No one asked me that before. I had to think back on a hundred minor conversations I’d had with him because he booked his own travel and had not really been very forthcoming about those trips. But he’d said enough that I was able to realize the one place he seemed to like to go was Africa. The Ivory Coast, to be specific, seemed to have great appeal for him because I heard that name more than once.

  “After I shared that, Kat told me about the diamonds, and I remembered they were known as blood diamonds.”

  Adam didn’t know if Bailey noticed the way Joe and Damion suddenly straightened in their seats. He didn’t think she even noticed his own tension. He paid closer attention and understood she didn’t notice him or the other two men because she was gently unwrapping the object in her hands.

  “This is Rufus. I’ve called him my spirit guide. I think I shared that information with a few people—certainly with Chance and Logan but also with Jake and Ginny.”

  At the mention of his wife’s name, he looked over at her. She was nodding, letting Adam know Bailey was telling the truth.

  “What I didn’t share with most of you, because it didn’t really click as being very important…not until today…is that Rufus and I haven’t really been a team all that long. There was just something about him, the moment I set eyes on him, that drew me.

  “And the first time I laid eyes on him was about two hours before the police came to tell me that Dirk Townsend had been murdered. Rufus had been in that last shipment, you see. Sometimes, Dirk would bring back the oddest little whatnots. They generally weren’t of any value, but he said he’d seen them and thought of someone he knew who might want to buy them.”

  “Did he leave those ‘whatnots’ lying about, or did he generally take them with him?”

  “Huh. I didn’t think of it, but no, you’re right, he usually took them with him.” Bailey frowned, and Adam had to wonder if she was realizing how many times the man had passed an item under her scrutiny that had contraband inside it. Bailey met his gaze. “Anyway, I was going to ask him how much he wanted for Rufus, believing it likely it wouldn’t be more than twenty bucks.”

  She looked up and met Adam’s gaze. Then she looked over at Damien Quest. “I’ve just this day come to believe that what Everett Forrest was looking for are diamonds, and those diamonds might be inside Rufus. He’s the only part of that last shipment not accounted for—but only because he wasn’t on the manifest to begin with. I checked that day because if Dirk had tagged him for someone, well then, I certainly wouldn’t have thought to have him for myself. Mr. Quest? You appear to be the senior NSA agent present. Do you want to…” She didn’t finish the sentence. She just offered him the tiny dragon.

  “I have a hammer in the kitchen. I’ll go get it.” Jonathan Benedict’s tone was as gentle as Adam had ever heard it.

  Quest came over and took Rufus—towel and all—from Bailey’s hands. Adam gave the man a lot of credit because he handled the stone dragon with respect.

  Adam ensured Bailey was front and center when Quest took the figurine to the dining table. The man rewrapped the stone figure in the towel and set it down.

  Jonathan handed Quest the hammer. Bailey, with her two men bracing her, stood across the table from him. Adam and Joe flanked Quest. Joe was using his cellphone to document the moment.

  Damion Quest lifted the hammer and brought it down hard—hard enough that the sound of breaking stone announced the dragon’s demise.

  Damion took his time gently unwrapping what was left inside the towel. Shards of a concrete-like stone were unrecognizable and seemed to shelter a harder substance that had indeed been within. The dining room lights weren’t overly bright but offered enough light to make the uncut diamonds glitter, despite the light coating of stone dust they now wore.

  Joe continued to document as Quest used a pen to separate the diamonds from the dust. Evidence, Adam knew, likely to be presented to a grand jury.

  “Bailey James, congratulations.” Damion Quest smiled at the young woman. “I do believe you’ve just provided us with solid evidence that’s going to convince Everett Forrest to tell us everything he knows about a certain arms business, operating illegally between Africa and most European capitals.”

  “My God, that’s it!”

  “I know what Townsend was doing!”

  Logan and Chance spoke practically at the same time. Then Logan shook his head. “It didn’t click, and it should have.”

  Chance’s expression looked grim as he met Quest’s gaze. “Tell Porter if he looks at Townsend’s trips to Europe—Paris, Brussels, Berlin, even Istanbul, you’ll find they happened just a few weeks before there were major terrorist events in those cities.”

  “So, we have the diamonds, Forrest’s attempt on Bailey, and Townsend’s schedule. The perfect trifecta to break this case wide open,” Quest said. “With no hope of recovering the gems, Forrest’s only chance for survival will be to testify and seek the protection of the U.S. Marshals witness protection program.”

  “
That sounds like a win, Mr. Quest. One you wouldn’t have without Bailey,” Kat Jessop said.

  “No, I think they wouldn’t have had it without all of us, here.” Bailey grinned, and then she laughed. “What do you know? I fainted on cue and ended up being kick-ass, after all.”

  Adam couldn’t help himself. He laughed. “Yes, ma’am,” he said when he got himself under control. “Bailey James, I do believe you fit in here as if Lusty was where you were always meant to be.”

  He didn’t think he’d ever seen anyone smile brighter than Bailey did in response to his words.

  * * * *

  Chance stood with his brother and simply watched as Bailey socialized with these new relatives—people he and his brother had not even known a month ago. Now they were family, and Chance couldn’t imagine his life without them.

  They’d had an interesting conversation on the phone with their boss, Porter Wells, just moments before. He’d not only congratulated them on their sharp analytical insights, he’d congratulated them for their good taste in women.

  And he’d given his stamp of approval to what they wanted to do next. They needed to speak to Bailey, of course. But even before they did that, they needed to speak with Grandma Kate.

  As if reading their thoughts, the nonagenarian looked up from where she stood, talking with Damion Quest. She touched Quest’s arm and then left that gentleman and came straight to them.

  “You two boys look as if you have something important on your minds.”

  Chance looked at Logan, who nodded. Then he faced Grandma Kate, a woman he’d known on one level all his life. It wasn’t until they’d come here to Lusty, however, that they’d discovered her heart and her spirit.

  “We want to stay. You arranged for us to lease that house and invited us to stay as long as we wanted. Well, we want to stay here permanently.”

  “Is there a particular reason for this decision?” Kate’s gaze, direct but not unkind, was just another facet of the woman he was coming to truly respect.

  Chance nodded. He couldn’t stop from looking up and over to the left. Bailey was talking to her good friend Ginny Kendall, with Adam and Jake, who’d arrived a few minutes before, close by…and Bailey simply glowed.

  When he met Grandma Kate’s gaze once more, her smile let him know she might understand. He didn’t want to leave it unsaid. “We’re in love with Bailey. We want to ask her to marry us.”

  “She’s found her place here, Grandma Kate,” Logan said. “We can’t ask her to go back to New York. We won’t ask her to.”

  “The truth is this is her place, and she’s ours. So I guess that makes Lusty our place, too.”

  “Well, now. You’re absolutely right. Lusty belongs to you as much as it belongs to me, as much as it belongs to any of us. Let’s step into the den for a few minutes. I’ve a story to tell you about Sarah Carmichael Benedict and a vision she had for her descendants.”

  Chance followed Grandma Kate, curious as to what the woman had to say. It wasn’t until they entered the den that he noticed Jake had joined them.

  “Nothing was more important to Grandmother Sarah than family.”

  Chance recalled the story of the founding of Lusty, as told to him and Logan by Anna Jessop. An adventure worthy of the name, he’d wondered about the tiny woman who’d managed to tame two nineteenth century gunslingers. He and Logan found their life’s adventure in numbers—in the tracing of transactions and the reconstruction of circumstance creating an evidentiary timeline. He supposed that quest for adventure, however one defined that concept, was in the genes.

  “She’d probably been deeply affected by her father’s betrayal,” Chance said.

  “Just so,” Grandma Kate said. “She believed that Lusty was a sanctuary, where people could live as they chose. So when James, Jacob, and Rosie’s children left, she held no malice for them despite how it broke her sons and daughter-in-law’s heart. But she also believed in making this a home the descendants of those who left could return to if they so chose. And so, she left a legacy for those future generations—a legacy that has remained intact, invested, and has grown in the years since.” Grandma Kate smiled. “I’m more than delighted that I can say that, in the last few years, Lusty’s children have begun to come home.”

  “What kind of a legacy, Grandma Kate?”

  “Land and money,” Jake said. “You don’t have to decide today. In fact, you probably want to discuss the matter with Bailey—and she’s the only one you can speak to about this. That was the single firm codicil to this inheritance. You can’t tell your brothers or sister or cousins about it. This is Grandmother Sarah’s legacy to those of her descendants who choose to come to Lusty of their own volition and for their own reasons, and then choose to make their lives here.”

  Chance’s eyes widened as Jake offered them land on which they could build their own home, acreage enough to farm or ranch, if they wanted. Or they could stay in the house they were in, for their lifetime, lease free. If they chose the latter, there was a trust fund, and the amount of money was substantial.

  He looked over at his brother and knew what Logan was going to say. They were often on the same page, but never so much as right then. “We’ll let Bailey decide. Just as soon as we convince her to marry us.”

  Jake grinned. “Then, why don’t you go collect your woman and get working on that little thing? Gentlemen, I wish you luck.”

  Chance laughed. “Because you think we’re going to need it?”

  “No. Because I’m just that kind of guy.” Jake’s smile wasn’t as convincing to Chance as his cousin likely believed it to be. The man was a lawyer, and a cousin—which likely meant Chance and Logan were being treated to an entirely new incarnation of cousin speak. As welcomes went, it wasn’t bad.

  Grandma Kate just sat back, a look of utter satisfaction on her face.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “It’s been one hell of a day.” Chance laid his hands upon Bailey’s shoulders and rubbed gently. They had just stepped out of the Big House and arrived at the car.

  Chance’s words lifted her heart. She’d known she wouldn’t have to explain to either of these men the toll the day had taken on her. Logan eased in close behind her and slid his hands around her waist.

  “It really has been a hell of a day.” Bailey sighed. Just having these two men so close to her, touching her, helped.

  “We want to give you what you need, sweetheart.” Logan’s words feathered her ear. “The danger’s over now, and if you need to go to your own apartment, to have some time to yourself, then that’s where we’ll take you.”

  In the past, Bailey might have interpreted Logan’s words to mean he and his brother didn’t want to be with her. She hoped the woman she used to be was reformed forever. She had more self-confidence now than she’d ever imagined she could claim. She didn’t know if this after-effect of having her life threatened would last or not. She hoped it would. She hoped she had a better grip on her value as a woman. Letting go any lingering self-doubt, she decided to ask for what she wanted—what she needed. “I don’t want to go to the apartment. I don’t need to go there. I need to be alone with you both, between you both. Naked in bed, if possible.”

  “Thank God.” Chance’s tone, as well as his words, spoke relief, and Bailey understood she wasn’t the only one struggling with self-doubt.

  “Let’s go home, sweetheart, and talk.”

  It didn’t take long to get from the Big House to the house Chance and Logan were renting. Of course, it didn’t take long to get anywhere in Lusty.

  Bailey hadn’t realized the degree to which she was fidgeting until Logan, in the driver’s seat, took a gentle hold of her left hand while Chance took her right. She inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. It had been one hell of a day. Compared to all she’d experienced in the last few hours, there really was nothing on the immediate horizon for her to feel so nervous about.

  Except for one thing.

  Chance kept hold of her hand
as she got out of the car. He drew her close to him, and the closeness, the heat, helped calm her. Then Logan came around the front of the car and joined them, and Bailey couldn’t hold back the emotion, or the words, any longer. It all tumbled out, one enormous rolling mass of need.

  “I need you both so very much. I’m feeling a little clingy, when I never thought I would be the kind of woman to cling in the first place. But I want to hang on to you and never, ever let you go. I know that’s stupid because you have a home and you have a life and you need to leave—” Bailey stopped speaking because Chance’s mouth covered hers. His kiss, hot and carnal, pulled her in, just pulled her deep into the heat of what they shared, together.

  He released her lips, and Logan’s mouth immediately replaced his brother’s. The taste of both men excited her tongue and raced her blood. This was passion, this was need, and it was the most real, the most wonderful thing in the entire world.

  “You are our home,” Logan said.

  “You are our life.” Chance tilted her chin, and she could see them both, see the fierceness in their gazes. She could feel the tension in their bodies, bodies that pressed close and were nearly vibrating with hunger.

  “All we need, sweet Bailey, is you.” Logan’s voice shook. “We love you, and that’s forever. We know you found your place here, in Lusty. Our place is with you, so here we’ll stay.”

  “Marry us, Bailey.” Chance’s eyes glittered with a light she’d only suspected he possessed. “Make your life and your future and your children right here, with us.”

  She was being offered everything she’d never dared dream of, every wish, every hope. All that was necessary, all that was wonderful, right here, within the arms of these men. Right here, in a place she’d never even known existed but had become so close to her heart. She felt her tears and her smile and knew this was right. This was forever.

  “Yes. Yes, please. I want to marry you, be with you, have children with you, and grow old with you. Yes, Lusty is the place where I found my home—but my heart-home is you, too.”