Cowboy Love in Peril [Love: The Cowboy Way 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (3 page)

“No fair, buddy. I just don’t feel the need to worry as much as you do. I mean, if we survived Travers and Costanza, we’ll survive this. Right?”

A cold, savage desire to kill those who had threatened his family assaulted Brandon once more. He didn’t like the fact that it was on Wade’s mind, but given that he knew the trial was due to start any day now, it was only to be expected.

Brandon hadn’t told Kimber or Wade that he might have to testify and, if he got his way, they’d never find out. He sure as hell wasn’t gonna let them worry about it unless he had to. With both he and Travers being ex-Special Forces, their evidence and testimony would be classified and nobody outside of the court room would ever get to hear it.

Travers had been a member of Brandon’s unit but had gone rogue not long after Brandon retired. Manuel “Manny” Costanza, the Miami drug lord who’d taken out the hit on Brandon in revenge for the death of his only son in a drugs bust five years earlier, was due to be executed sometime last year but his sentence had been pushed back so he could stand trial with Travers. The irony of a legal system that would waste money on the trial of a man already sentenced to death wasn’t lost on Brandon. Only when Manny was gone and Travers was locked up would Brandon know for sure that he and his family were safe.

Travers and Costanza had pleaded not guilty to the charge of conspiracy to commit murder, with Travers also contesting the additional charge of kidnapping, forcing Brandon and other members of the squad to testify. Kimber and Wade weren’t needed, despite the fact Travers had held Kimber hostage until Brandon and Wade had managed to apprehend him. Brandon’s testimony, and the eye witness accounts of the other operatives, would be enough to convict him. There was still time for Travers to see sense and cop a plea, but maybe he figured he had nothing to lose. Costanza, on the other hand, had everything to gain from the delay.

Brandon checked the charge on his cell phone for the tenth time that morning. He might be called to testify with very little notice and he’d need to be ready to travel at the drop of a hat.

“Something up with your phone? You’ve been staring at it all day.”

“Needs a new battery, I guess.” Avoiding Wade’s gaze, Brandon slipped the cell phone back into his pocket and jerked his head toward the engine bay of the truck. “You want a hand changing that belt?”

“Nah, I’m pretty near done.”

“Okay, then I guess I’ll take a run over to Ma’s place. I haven’t checked in on Seth for a couple of days.” Brandon grimaced, ashamed that he’d done so little with the ranch he’d inherited from his mother when she passed away two years earlier. The Reed ranch bordered Wade’s, and the pair of them had spent as much time in each other’s houses while they were growing up as they had in their own.

“Okay. I’ll see you back at the house later,” Wade said, standing up and giving Brandon a smile that made his balls tighten. He looked around to check that none of the guys were near then reached over to grab a handful of Wade’s T-shirt to drag him closer. Brandon groaned as his mouth closed over Wade’s, knowing he was playing with fire doing even this much when they couldn’t risk taking things further. Brandon didn’t give a fuck if anyone knew, but Kimber was the one everyone would judge if the truth about the three of them got out, and that was enough of a reason to be careful when the work hands were around. Brandon felt the hot flick of Wade’s tongue as it tangled with his, then a gentle pull on his lip as Wade nibbled at his mouth before letting him go.

“You gotta leave right this minute?” Wade asked, his voice raw and his eyes burning with need.

Brandon took a step back, needing to put some space between him and Wade so he didn’t throw caution to the wind and drop to his knees to suck Wade’s dick, right there and then. “What about the truck? Have you finished?”

“Fuck the truck.”

“I’d rather fuck you in the truck.” Brandon laughed at his own joke, expecting Wade to laugh, too, but when his lips compressed into a hard line, Brandon could tell Wade thought he was serious.
No Kimber, no sex
. That was the rule these days. Not that Brandon, nor Kimber for that matter, wanted things that way. Still, this wasn’t the time for another fight about
that
. “Relax. I was kidding. Give me an hour then I’ll see you back at the house, okay?”

Wade smiled as he nodded and turned back to the truck, almost dismissing him. Brandon stormed from the barn, kicking the door shut with his heel, the urge to smack the shit out of Wade making his hands clench into fists.

Who the fuck did he think he was?
Brandon’s mood soured further as he drove the couple of miles to his family ranch. Why Wade thought his was the only opinion that mattered regarding the relationship between the three of them, Brandon didn’t know. But it really pissed him off at times. Okay, so they had such a fulfilling sex life that Brandon couldn’t claim he was being deprived of anything, but that wasn’t the point. Why couldn’t Brandon have sex with the man or the woman he loved, whenever and wherever he wanted? He and Kimber could have sex alone but he and Wade couldn’t? Who the fuck decided that?

And why the hell was Wade being so damned stubborn about marriage all of a sudden? He’d wanted to marry Kimber for years before Brandon came back to Chelwood, and now that Kimber and Brandon both believed that marriage was the best thing for their family in general, and the kids in particular, Wade no longer wanted it. Hell, Brandon would marry Kimber himself in a heartbeat, but that would send the local gossip mill into overdrive and put Kimber in a real difficult position with her parents. Wade said he didn’t want that either. Not that anyone actually knew what the hell he
did
want—Wade had taken to either killing the conversation or storming away whenever the topic came up—and Brandon was getting pretty fucking sick of Wade deciding how they all lived their lives.

Brandon stopped at the house to check on Seth, then headed down to the bunkhouse to see who was playing hooky when they should be out working the field.

Old Seth Miller and his wife had worked for his family for years, and if keeping the ranch going did no more than provide the pair of them with a place to live out their old age, Brandon was happy to do it. But he couldn’t leave Seth to run things alone. The ranch hands were taking liberties with the old man, turning in late, leaving work half done. Brandon had held his tongue, unwilling to undermine Seth by stepping in, but things were getting worse and business was starting to drop off. A good reputation and the loyalty of its business connections was all a ranch had these days, and Brandon had been forced to slash a few dollars a head off the last shipment of cattle in order to stop his largest supplier going elsewhere, thanks to the guys not having the herd ready in time.

Walking through the trees at the edge of the property rather than use the lane, Brandon dropped to a crouch as he crossed the clearing at the back of the bunkhouse, careful not to let the guys he could hear inside see him coming. A hard kick on the door smashed it wide open, and the four guys inside playing poker damn near fell off the bunk they were using as a makeshift table.

Lopez, the biggest of the four, recovered first, getting to his feet, a cocky grin on his face. “Hey, boss. What’s up?”

“What’s up,” Brandon said, taking a step toward the guy who’d been wrangling at the ranch for only the last few months, “is that some of you think it’s okay to take advantage because I’m not here to keep an eye on you.”

Lopez shrugged and turned his back on Brandon. “Seth gave us the day off.” He turned to the other men who were standing around like a bunch of sullen teenagers waiting to be grounded. “Ain’t that right, guys?”

Brandon crossed the room and grabbed Lopez by the shirt. “I’d think long and hard before you lie to me again.”

The man was huge, at least four inches taller than his boss, and thought he could simply push Brandon away. So the look of surprise on his face when he suddenly found himself flat on his back with a knee across his throat gave Brandon a perverse satisfaction that had nothing to do with Lopez.

“We was just taking a break, okay?” Lopez’s words came out in a painful rasp as he clawed at Brandon’s knee, his face turning purple. Brandon got off him and dragged him to his feet, irritated at his loss of control. He wasn’t about to admit that to Lopez and his buddies though.

“I’ll forget about it this time, but you’re lucky we’re so busy around here at the moment or I’d fire the lot of you.” Brandon walked over to the door, pausing as he was about to leave. “And if Seth hears a word about this, I’ll fire your sorry asses anyway. Got it?” He didn’t bother waiting around for an answer.

By the time Brandon got back to the Gardener ranch, his anger had eased a little but when he walked in to the house and found Kimber crying in Wade’s arms, rage coursed through him again. “What’s going on?”

Kimber turned her tear-stained face toward him, and Brandon had an almost painful reaction to the torment in her cornflower-blue eyes. “It’s nothing. I’m just being silly.”

Brandon held his arms out to her, and she eased out of Wade’s embrace and crossed to him without hesitation. Tremors wracked her slender frame and she started crying again as Brandon crushed her to him. “Honey, you’re worrying me sick here. What’s happened?”

Wade dragged a chair away from the kitchen table and sat down hard. “She’s still upset about what that woman said yesterday.”

“Is there more to the story than you’ve told us?” Brandon pulled Kimber’s face up toward his, searching her eyes for answers. “What else did she say?”

Kimber fished a hankie out of her pocket and blew her nose, then turned to sit beside Wade, gesturing that Brandon should come sit down, too. “Like I said, nothing really happened. In fact, she was quite nice to us.”

“So nice she made you cry like this?” Wade saved Brandon the trouble of pointing out the flaw in Kimber’s explanation. When she didn’t say anything else, Brandon asked how the kids got on at their appointment.

“The doctor said the girls look well loved, and they couldn’t ask for a better environment to grow up in.”

“Did
she
ask about the twins’ father?” When Kimber shook her head, Brandon realized there was something else going on. “Oh, God, are the girls okay? There’s nothing wrong, is there?”

“No, they’re fine.” Kimber took a sip from a glass of water sitting on the table, her hand still trembling. “The doc said they are developing as they should and are quite advanced for their age.”

Wade smiled and brushed a strand of Kimber’s wheat blonde hair behind her ear. “Glad to hear it. What else did she say?”

“That I was a credit to single mothers everywhere, and she didn’t know how I coped alone.” Fresh tears sparkled in her eyes, and Brandon felt his heart sink at the pain etched into her face. He glanced over at Wade, wondering if the big lug finally got just how much their situation was affecting Kimber. If the desolation in his eyes was anything to go by, he understood now.

“Hey, at least that proves people aren’t gossiping about us,” Brandon said, desperate to give Kimber something to feel a little better about. “And she’s right—you are a credit to mothers everywhere, single or otherwise. You do a great job with the girls. They’ve gotta be the happiest kids in New Mexico.”

Kimber slumped forward and buried her face in her hands, her voice barely audible under her tangle of hair. “For now, but what about when they start school? What do I say to our kids when someone at school starts to tease them about not having a daddy or asks why there are two men living in the house with their mom?”

“We could home school them, Kimber. You’re a qualified teacher.”

Kimber rounded on Wade. “Things aren’t that simple. What will we tell them when they get old enough to ask why they don’t have any friends? Are you prepared to try and explain that to your daughters?” She turned to Brandon. “Are you?”

For the first time since the subject of marriage had become an issue, Brandon suffered real fear at the sudden and deeply disturbing thought that the three of them might not be able to work things out. He looked at Wade, who avoided his gaze and Brandon couldn’t be sure if it was shame or stubbornness that made him look away, but they were sure as fuck gonna talk about his attitude, next chance they got.

When neither of the men answered her, Kimber pushed her chair away from the table and got to her feet. “Just as I thought. That’s down to me, too, right? Just like everything else. Running our home, fending off questions, raising our kids...hell, even ensuring you two are getting what you need sexually. That’s all my job, I guess.”

She stormed from the room and out into the yard, slamming the door shut behind her. Wade moved to follow her, but Brandon reached out to grab his arm. “Give her a minute, okay?”

“Don’t tell me how to deal with Kimber. I think I know her a little better than you.”

Brandon snatched his hand away, stunned by what Wade had said. But then the anger that had barely subsided since Wade had pissed him off earlier roared back to life. “Yeah? And whose fault is that?”

It was a mean thing to say, but Brandon didn’t see why he should hold his tongue while Wade rode roughshod over everyone. Wade and Brandon had grown up together, and Kimber only came into the picture when Brandon had started dating her at the age of twenty. But one night, he’d acted on his growing feelings for Wade and had been crushed when Wade’s shame and confusion at his burgeoning attraction to Brandon made him reject and shun his best friend. Guilt and pain had forced Brandon to join the army and leave town without giving Kimber an explanation. When he’d returned to bury his mother eighteen years later, he discovered that Kimber and Wade had found love with each other. He’d be grateful until his dying day that, eventually, they’d found room in their hearts for him.