Adams, Eve - Trio [Gideon's Ring 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (19 page)

She’d never be taken seriously.

None of that mattered now. Finding the thief who sent that family into financial ruins mattered. Justice mattered.

Catching him before he got away with doing it again mattered.

Sarah thought about her situation. She came to the ranch to get over Ryan. That and to see if she could get the jump on Lucky before her brother. It was the only way Norris would see her as a viable business partner and not just his little sister who couldn’t hold down a job.

She wasn’t cut out for the corporate world. Desk jobs. Paperwork. The nine-to-five. None of that appealed to her. She wanted to be out doing the work with her own two hands, not reading about it while sitting at a desk.

If she caught up with Lucky before her brother did, Norris would have no choice but to let her in on the family business.

Conning the guilty.

Now if she could just figure out the thief’s identity. He’d changed his entire image, starting with his name, all the way to his physical appearance. She’d overheard Norris describe Lucky to Amber.

“The family described him as tall, skinny, with blond hair and beady little eyes. Like a weasel.”

Like a weasel
. Just as Barrett had described him.

She debated whether to tell Barrett about the real reason why she’d come to the ranch. If she told him about Lucky, about how the thief planned to do the same to the Gideons as he’d done to so many other families, would he believe her? Would he take her word for it, or would he tell her to pack her bags?

Or worse, would he think she had something to do with it? Talk about shooting the messenger.

And what about Chris? What part did he play in the GR&L? He wasn
’
t one of the four brothers, but he was a Gideon. Did he stand to lose anything if Lucky took the ranch? Maybe she should at least talk to him.

No. She couldn’t chance it. Deep down she knew Chris would understand, but she didn’t know how deep she’d have to dig. Would Barrett understand at all? Everything she knew about the man was all part of the adventure, all part of the contract. Did he mean any of the words that fell from his sexy lips? Did either of them?

Did she really know either of them at all?

Sarah’s thoughts drifted back to the folder. She grabbed it and flipped through the papers until something caught her eye. Pulling the brochure out, she turned it over and read the back.

“
What is that?
”
Chris asked and took it from her.

“
Something the GR&L’s PR rep gave Barrett.
”

Chris turned it this way and that, his handsome brow snapping into a frown as he studied it closer. “Barrett, this was printed at one of those twenty-four-hour places. This isn’t what you send out, is it? The Christmas cards are one thing, but this is a terrible way to save a buck.”

“That’s Wyatt’s department,” Barrett growled, obviously not pleased with the comment. “We pay a shitload of money to get those professionally done. Those are the new ones Strickler made up for the ranch.”

Sarah picked up another brochure, removed her gloves and ran her fingers over it. It not only looked cheesy, it felt cheesy. “Did you pay Strickler a lot of money to work these up?”

Barrett rolled his glorious eyes. “Wyatt sold our generator to
The Roadhouse
to pay for all of that bullshit paperwork you have in your hands. That’s why we don’t have any backup power.”

She could tell Barrett didn’t approve of the sale. A heavy guilt weighed down on her heart. She had to know but didn’t know how to ask without outing her brother.

“My brother paid you for the generator, right?”

He looked at her and thinned his lips as he set his jaw. “Hardly.”

Oh, no. “Don’t tell me he conned you.”

“He might as well have. The son of a bitch only paid half of what it was worth. Wyatt, my idiot brother, didn’t know how much it was worth when he sold it to your brother. Oh, but I’m sure Norris knew what a steal he was getting.”

Whew. Sarah let out a breath. At least she didn’t have to try to find a way to explain what her brother did. “Norris is a good guy, Barrett. If you just tell him that you sold the generator by mistake, I’m sure he’ll let you buy it back.”

He laughed, the sound hollow and without an ounce of humor. “With what? My good looks?”

She gave him a sideways glance. He had the most beautiful profile. “I’d pay for that.”

“Baby, you get my good looks for free.” He flashed her a wicked smile, accompanied with a wink that had her own lips curling into a grin.

“
Same here,
”
Chris added, an equally devilish smile on his sensual lips.

“At least for the weekend,” she added. They all lost their smiles, and the conversation died.

Barrett drove the snowcat up the road toward the tents. At least she thought it was the road. She couldn’t see anything but white.

The snow had started to fall even heavier, and the wind had picked up, throwing them into the middle of a blizzard. The temperature gauge inside the cab registered a balmy twenty-four degrees. With that wind, it had to be close to zero out there.

Sarah found the humming of the snowcat’s motor almost hypnotic. She stared straight ahead and, although she didn’t want to, couldn’t help but wonder what Ryan would think if he could see her now, quite literally sandwiche
d
by two incredibly sexy cowboys.

Would he scold her for taking risks? What about having sex with men she barely knew? What would conservative, hypocritical Ryan have to say about that?

Damn it. No longer her boss, her lover, or even her friend, Ryan still had a way to bring her down. And, just like that, she started to question her own judgment. Having sex last night was one thing, a spur-of-the-moment, lust-induced frenzy to propel them all into orgasmic ecstasy.

So what did having wild sex in the cab of a snowcat mean? Did it even mean anything?

“What are you thinking about? You have a weird look on your face.”

Sarah blinked and turned to hide her expression from Chris. Damn Ryan and his memories. Here she sat in a snowcat with two absolutely gorgeous men who’d just fucked her into a blinding orgasm, and she had to think about her ex-boyfriend.

Barrett looked at her. “Sarah, baby, what is it?”

“Nothing,” she lied.

“It’s obviously something or you wouldn’t look ready to either cry or kick someone’s ass.
”

Chris reached over and squeezed her leg.
“
Talk to us so we can at least prepare for the direction you plan to go.”

Chris Gideon, sexy as hell, a very gifted lover, and just as outspoken as her. Barrett Gideon, dominant, sexual, and diabolical with his hands. But were any of them friends? Would what they’d been doing together since last night be considered the start of a friendship? A fuckship? Nothing at all?

She needed Carol. Her friend would understand, but she came here to have a good time, not listen to Sarah ramble on about Ryan for the bazillionth time.

Sarah wanted to talk to them, wanted to share her desires, her fears, and even her dreams. Instead, she remained silent and stared out her window.

“What was his name?” Barrett asked.

Whipping around, she snapped her jaw closed and stared at him. “How did you know?”

“Gail,” he answered.

Did he just call her by another woman’s name? Heat slapped her cheeks as she leaned toward the direction of kicking his ass. “Excuse me?”

He let out a long, drawn-out sigh and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand, but didn
’
t say anything more.

“Her name was Gail,
”
Chris explained.
“
The woman who broke Barrett’s heart.
”

She watched Chris as he spoke and then turned to Barrett. They both looked so sad about it.
“
Tell me about her.
”

Barrett let out another long sigh.
“
We’d known each other since college. When we started dating I thought we were getting pretty serious.”

“I never did like her,” Chris pointed out.

Barrett set his jaw. “Yes, Chris. I know.”

Sarah pulled the attention back to the topic and not the thick tension developing between the two men.
“What happened?”

Barrett shook his head, clearly struggling to talk about it.

“Tom happened.” Chris spit out the man
’
s name like it was a bad word.

“
Who
‘
s Tom?
”

“
An asshole.
”
Barrett squeezed the wheel and clenched his teeth.

The other person. Sarah knew the feeling very well and shared the bitterness and pain in Barrett’s voice.

“Gail ran off with him without a second thought.” His jaw set as his tone grew cold. “But then he started drinking. He had a temper she didn’t realize until one night the son of a bitch beat her up and put her in the hospital. She left him after that.”

“And came running back to you, right?”

He nodded and thinned his lips. “We picked up right where we’d left off.”

“But she was never really back,” Sarah said.

“
Which is what I kept trying to tell him,
”
Chris added.

Shaking his head, Barrett then lowered his gaze and released a breath that filled the cab with the sorrow he’d held inside. “She even told me she loved me, all the way up to when she left me to go back to the man who almost killed her.”

She swallowed tightly as tears sprang up, stinging her eyes. “Did you love her?”

“I thought she hung the moon.”

Was that a yes? What did that even mean? “And now?”

He swung that powerful, intense blue gaze to her. When it slammed into her, she sucked in a breath. He studied her for several seconds, raking his gaze across her face and leaving a searing trail. He then looked back out the windshield.

“What I think of her now doesn’t matter. She’s gone.”

“And that hurts.” She knew that from experience.

“Yes, it does.”

His honesty hurt as he spoke about a lost love. The raw emotion in his voice sliced into her heart.

Something else they had in common.

“
Mine was Tiffany.
”
Chris held up his hand.
“
Now before you point out her profession, Barrett, let me get this out. The woman had a body built for sin.
”