Matt hauled the cuffed man, who was staring daggers at Adam, to his feet. “I never would have guessed that son of a bitch had arms this long. Go ahead and kill me, then. Because I am never going to stop trying to bring him down.”
“What the hell are you talking about? You’re under arrest for stalking.”
“Stalking? Wait…you’re going to arrest me? What—” He stopped talking because he spotted Cord and Jackson. “You! You fucking bastards!” He jerked forward as if he’d charge them. Matt held him back. “What have you done with my sister? Where is she? Did you turn her over to that pervert once you’d finished with her?”
“Who are you?” Adam stepped between them and the cuffed man.
“My ID is in my pocket, asshole. You know who I am. He’s been after me for awhile, now.”
Adam yanked the man’s wallet out of his pants and flipped it open. “Jeremy Bishop.”
“Ari’s stepbrother,” Cord said.
“Why have you been stalking her?” Jackson asked.
Perhaps it was the fact that all of them were confused and it showed. Or maybe it was because Matt and Adam had both shoved their guns back into their holsters. Jeremy looked at each of them in turn. Then he said, “I haven’t been stalking her. I’ve been trying to find her before that bastard’s goon does.”
“That bastard being her stepfather—your father.”
“Fucking pervert.” Jeremy all but spat those words.
“So you know what he did to your stepsister when she was just a kid.” Cord didn’t feel any sympathy for anyone who had failed to protect her back then—not even a stepbrother only seven years older than her who’d never really been around much. Maybe if he had been around, Ari—Connie—would have felt she could have gone to him for help.
Jeremy looked down at the ground for a long moment, then met Cord’s gaze. “Connie wasn’t the only one that bastard molested.”
His words seemed to echo in the air. Adam swore under his breath and released the handcuffs.
“Who is the goon?”
“His name’s Frank Mills. He’s Congressman Bishop’s so-called campaign manager, but I’d call him a hatchet man. I followed him from Houston this morning, but lost him about twenty minutes ago. I thought he might have been headed here. His sources are probably at least as good as mine.” He nodded toward the ranch. “That’s where that scumbag snapped that picture that appeared in the Tattletale, isn’t it?” And he turned a really nasty stare on Cord and Jackson.
Cord held up his hands. “It’s not what you think.”
“So you didn’t both really have sex with my sister out there somewhere?”
“What little brother means is we’re planning to marry her.”
“Both of you?”
“It’s a long story,” Adam said. “What do you mean, you lost him?”
Jeremy faced Adam. “He’s driving a rental car, a 2012 silver Chevy Impala. But I lost him on the highway at the light.”
“Fuck.” Adam spun on his heel and ran for his cruiser.
“What? What the hell?” Jeremy looked as Matt headed for his car, and then he turned to face Cord.
“He’s in town,” Adam said. “The bastard is probably already in town!”
“Oh, hell, no!” Cord ran for his own truck. Jeremy didn’t bother to hop into his car, he ran toward Cord’s.
“I don’t know what Mills is going to do. But the congressman has plans to run for the Senate next year. He’s an ambitious, narcissistic prick, and I don’t think he’s planning to stop with the Senate. I’d say Connie is most definitely in danger. I’ve heard stories about Mills. He doesn’t think the laws of the land apply to him.”
“Damn it to hell.” Cord didn’t say another word. He just joined the parade of vehicles—they were third behind Adam and Matt—driving full speed toward Lusty.
Chapter 21
“I’m not going to tell you again. Get. In. The. Car. Now.”
“You’re fucking crazy if you think I’m going to get in that car with you. So you better just shoot me right here, because I’m not moving.” Ari had never been so frightened in her entire life. She knew with a sick kind of certainty that if she got into that vehicle she’d be a dead woman.
Asshole looks like he might kill me anyway.
Where the hell was everyone? Rarely were the streets of Lusty crowded. But they were never deserted either—or rather, they hadn’t been, until today.
Ari caught movement in her peripheral vision. Someone had emerged from the small path between the spa and the building next to it.
And then a sweetly familiar voice said, “That young lady isn’t going anywhere. Now you stand down and stand there. The law will be here any minute!”
“Grandma Kate!”
“It’s all right, sweetheart. I’ve got you covered.”
The man with the gun adjusted his aim. Kate, God bless her, took two tiny steps away from Ari. Now she could see her, her diminutive frame stiff, her eyes narrowed, and a gun with a pretty pearl handle clutched in her two, tiny hands.
“You crazy old bitch! Put that gun down!”
“Did that nasty man just call me an old bitch?” Kate let her gaze track to Ari for just a second. Then she took another half step away from her and edged closer to the armed man. “If we’re going to call names, I can call names, all right. Now you put that gun down, you miserable excuse for a human being!”
Ari thought her heart was going to pound right out of her chest. This was a standoff with the potential for a cluster fuck of major proportions.
If anything happened to Grandma Kate, Ari thought she would just die. She tried to edge closer. If asshole raised his gun to shoot, she’d jump in front of the elderly woman to protect her.
“That’s enough. You’re not going to shoot me, you old bitch. Now give me that gun.” The man took two steps toward Grandma Kate.
Three things seemed to happen all at once. A gun discharged, two cop cars, sirens screaming, pulled into town, and someone screamed.
Ari took off like a shot, throwing herself in front of Kate, clasping her hands on the woman’s shoulders. “Oh God, oh God, Grandma Kate! Are you hurt?”
“There, there, sweetheart, you’re all right now. He dropped the gun when I nailed him, and he’s not trying to get it back. And here comes Adam and Matt, just in the nick of time!”
Ari was slow to process the words Kate spoke. People were running out of the Spa and Darryl’s Duds. She looked around and saw the doors to the fire hall explode open. Warren and Edward were running toward them, followed by Grant and Andrew. The two cruisers screeched to a halt right there in front of them.
And on the ground, writhing in agony, both hands holding a spot high up on his left thigh, the man who’d tried to abduct her had definitely been disarmed.
“I think the nick of time came and went, Grandma Kate.” Chloe came over and put a hand on the elderly woman and one on Ari. Then she looked down at the wounded man.
Warren and Edward slowed, their gazes tracking to the front door of the spa. Ari figured they were looking for their fiancée. They saw Carol through the plate glass window, standing safe and sound inside the building. Both men simultaneously relaxed, and then switched gears. She could see the mantle of professional first responders fall into place on them both. They pushed through the small crowd and reached the man on the ground at the same time Adam and Matt did.
More screeching of tires announced more new arrivals. Ari looked up because she knew who those arrivals were. Her eyes widened in shock when she saw who was with her men.
Everyone was talking, her men were shouting her name as they ran toward her, and general pandemonium erupted.
Adam put his thumb and forefinger in his mouth and blew an ear-splitting whistle. The immediate silence—well, except for the abject whining of the man on the ground—was nearly deafening.
Cord and Jackson reached her and wrapped their arms around her. Their cocooning her didn’t prevent her from
hearing Adam’s words and his exasperated tone.
“What the hell just happened here?”
“That creature down there had a gun pointed at our Ari! He wanted her to get into his car, but she told him she wasn’t going to do that.”
Ari blushed because Kate sounded so proud of her.
“So I came out through the walkway there and showed him my gun. I very clearly told him to stand down and stand there.”
“You did?”
If Ari had to characterize Adam’s tone, she would call it “cautious.”
Everyone’s attention was now on Grandma Kate.
“Well of course I did, Adam. It’s not fair to just walk up and shoot a body without any warning, now, is it?”
“Um, no, ma’am, it’s not. Then what happened?”
Ari wasn’t sure if Adam wanted to laugh or cry.
Grandma Kate said, “Do you know that man called me a ‘crazy old bitch’? I am not old! I have lots of fuel left in this tank of mine.”
“Yes, ma’am, I know you do. Clearly, the man didn’t know who he was dealing with.”
“He most certainly did not. He came at me, demanding I give him my gun. So I gave it to him, all right. Right in the thigh very close to his man-bits.”
“Your aim is as good as ever, Grandma Kate.” Warren announced that, looking up from where he knelt on the ground treating the wounded man. A wink accompanied his statement.
“Well, of course it is, Warren, dear. There’s nothing wrong with my eyesight.”
Ari thought that Adam’s eyes were crossing but she couldn’t be sure.
Grandma Kate stepped closer to the sheriff. When she spoke she pitched her voice lower so not everyone standing around could hear her. But Ari did, and it was all she could do not to laugh out loud.
“Adam, dear, are you all right? You look a little flushed. Have you been keeping an eye on your blood pressure? You know, you’re not too young to have heart problems. Maybe you should go over and see Robert.”
“I’m fine, Grandma Kate. Of course, I would be a lot better if the citizens of this town would let me do my job.”
“Oh, poor Adam.” Kate patted his cheek. “You go on right ahead and arrest that horrible man. Our Ari is a little shaken up—so are her men, and that young man who’s with them, by the looks of them. I think we should head over to Lusty Appetites.” She turned and looked at Ari. “We’ll have us a nice cup of hot tea, and maybe there’re cream puffs left. A couple of them would certainly hit the spot.” She looked at Adam again. “With your permission, of course, Sheriff.”
Ari thought that Adam Kendall had given up any semblance of thinking he was in control. He bent down and kissed Kate’s cheek. “You go on over there. I’ll be by after we move this criminal over to the clinic. I have to take your official statement.” He looked over at Ari. “Yours, too. At least you didn’t have a gun.”
Ari shook her head. “No, I didn’t think to even grab a weapon. It never occurred to me as I waited for him to turn his car around and come back that he would have a gun.”
Shocked silence followed her statement. She felt Cord and Jackson both go stiff and knew without a doubt they were responsible for the growling sound she heard, too. Then someone laughed. “Hey, quarterbacks, welcome to Lusty.” Ryder Magee said that. “Y’all are going to fit in with the rest of us just fine.”
* * * *
“I owe you an apology—a couple of apologies, actually.”
Ari put her attention on her stepbrother, Jeremy. The excitement had died down, and just her, her men, and Kate were at the table with Jeremy.
“For what?”
“I was in denial for several years. After Mom and Dad divorced, I never wanted to see him again. I pretended that what had happened to me hadn’t happened. And because I did, because I didn’t speak up…” Jeremy looked off to the side. She could see the tension surrounding him. He seemed to gather himself and then he faced her again. “Because I didn’t speak up, he was able to molest you, too.”
“I spoke up, and my mother called me a liar and a whore for doing so.” Ari shrugged. “I’m not trying to make light of what happened to me. But right here, right now, I know that if I hadn’t gone through all of that, I wouldn’t have ever come to Lusty, or met Cord and Jackson, or Grandma Kate. I wouldn’t be in love with the two most wonderful men in the world.” She reached over and touched her stepbrother’s hand. “What else did you think you had to apologize for?”
“I let it slip to a friend—someone I thought was a friend—that I had seen you in Austin. When you screamed, and turned, and ran away…when I saw the look on your face when you did, then I knew that bastard had touched you, too. That was when the guilt started kicking me in the throat.
“I mentioned that I had run into you to someone I’d believed was a friend. That person told the Congressman, likely, I realize now, to curry favor. When I understood that he knew you were in Texas, that was when I decided to look for you. My plan was that when I found you, I would talk you into coming to Indianapolis with me and going to the district attorney’s office. We can swear out complaints against him.” Jeremy shrugged. “I don’t know if the congressman has everyone in authority in his pocket or not. He’s got a lot of money.”
“We have more,” Grandma Kate said. She met Ari’s gaze. “If that is something you want to do, this town, and the Town Trust, will support you.”
“It won’t be easy,” Cord said. He took her left hand in his. Jackson picked up her right.
“It’ll be in the news and you’ll be hounded. Everyone will know your story.” Jackson rubbed the back of her hand with his thumb. “But if you want to? If you feel you need to? We’re with you.”
“There’s another problem, too, with you coming forward,” Jeremy said. “Maybe you all haven’t thought about it. But…Ari Stein isn’t your real name.” He looked at her men, and then Grandma Kate. “When she dares to stand up and speak, when she tries to press charges against that bastard, she might be charged with fraud.” He looked at Ari. “You’ve filed income tax, and probably have a drivers’ license, and a credit card, all done under a false name.”
“Oh, that isn’t going to be a problem at all,” Kate Benedict said.
“Shit, I never thought of that,” Cord said. “Jeremy’s right.”
“No, actually, he isn’t,” an unfamiliar voice said.
They turned to look at the man who’d spoken. Next to Peter Alvarez-Kendall, stood a man who was not very tall, but fairly buff, with soft brown hair and eyes…eyes, Ari thought, that looked vaguely familiar.
He focused on her and she knew she should know who… “Oh, my God!”
The man smiled at her. “Hello, Connie. It’s good to see you again.”
“I don’t…” She looked at Kate, who was grinning, and then at Peter, who also wore a wide smile. “I don’t understand.”
“Allow me to introduce you to Cameron Wilson, a special agent formerly with the DEA, now with the FBI.”
“Oh! But…”
“But you knew me as the leader of a street gang in Indianapolis who went by the moniker of ‘Dirty Harry.’” He looked at the table at large. “May I join you?”
“Please.” Jackson got up and snagged another chair. Peter got one as well.
“When Jake instigated a background check on you, he saw certain flags that led him to believe that you might be in the witness protection program,” Grandma Kate said. “So he contacted some people he knew, which led us to Special Agent Wilson.”
“I was concerned, at first, because I’d realized that someone was looking into Ari Stein’s background a bit deeper than normal. I thought, initially, that it was the congressman’s minions. I’m delighted, needless to say, that it was not.”
“Jake spoke to Special Agent Wilson, and then he told me what he’d learned,” Kate said.
“Unofficially, you were a member of the witness protection program,” Agent Wilson said. “I’ll never forget the day you cam
e to me and asked me if there was any way I could get you a new identity. I had already figured you weren’t really a street kid. I did some digging of my own. When I figured out who you were and why you wanted that new start, I gave you one.” He looked around the table. “At that time, on that particular assignment, I had some special resources that we don’t always have. I can’t tell you why, even after all these years. I can only say that I had them and was able to utilize one of them, without needing anyone’s approval. Since that time, I never forgot you, girl. When I was done with that assignment, I gave some of my colleagues with the FBI the information I had on the congressman. They looked into him, but could find no solid evidence against him. They’ve had him under investigation for a couple of years, now, because someone else finally came forward with a complaint against him.”
Ari felt herself go pale. “Oh, God!”
“Red?”
“Tink?”
“No, Connie—Ari. No, not on you,” Agent Wilson said. “She was someone he touched before you—a twelve-year-old who’d been forced into prostitution by her aunt, who was her guardian. You did what you had to do to survive. You tried to tell your mother what that sick bastard did to you, and she turned her back on you. If you had tried to say anything at the time to anyone else—well, let’s just say the current congressman, who was a city councilor at that time, had some of the police in his pocket. You were only a child. There was nothing you could have done.”
“This case the FBI has been building—you’ll want our testimony, won’t you?” Ari asked.
Agent Wilson nodded. “Yes, we will. You and your stepbrother, plus me—that ought to nail him. I won’t lie to you. There’ll be a spotlight on the two of you, because this is going to hit the papers, and—well, I don’t have to tell any of you how ugly newspaper coverage can get.”
Ari looked at her men for a long moment. They met her gaze, her hands held firmly in theirs.
“It’s up to you, Ari. However you want to play this, it’s fine with us,” Cord said.
Love Under Two Quarterbacks [The Lusty, Texas Collection] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 23