Shannon's Fairy-Tale Foursome (34 page)

“I have to see, Drew,” she cried out in a voice she didn’t recognize. “Please. Just let me in there. I can handle it. I promise.”

Drew buried his head in her hair, kissing her and whispering to her soothingly. The fight drained out of her slowly as the pain took over and with a sob, she collapsed in his powerful arms.

“We have to go,” Jared said in a gentle voice. He came around the front of her and lifted her into his arms. “They need to work in here, princess. Let’s take you to Jaycee’s. It looks like we all need to have a talk.”

Shannon picked up the sugar container and stuck it under her arm then lifted the three steaming mugs from the countertop. She crossed the Blakemore’s kitchen and joined Jaycee and Katie-Anne at the table. Setting the too-hot-to-touch mugs down, she scooted two of the drinks across the table by their handle. “Here, you two look like you could use these.”

Shannon pretended not to notice her friend’s silence or wide eyes as she lifted the lid to the container, scooped out a teaspoon full of sugar, and poured it into her herbal tea. “I know that I can. Although, I must admit I’m not convinced that a drink as mild as this one can do a damn thing to help. Wonder if Sarah got home okay or not. I hope so,” she babbled, jumping from one topic to the next. “It was nice of Deke and Adam to take her back to her apartment. She seemed awfully upset, and I know those two will take better care of her than we can. Besides it gave us some time to talk.” With a sigh, Shannon stirred the sugar into her drink and watched it melt away. “Come on, hit me with your questions. I know you want to.”

“Why didn’t you tell us about your uncle?” Jaycee asked quietly, her voice husky from the tears she’d shed over the last thirty minutes while Shannon had shared her twisted story. “Didn’t you trust us, Shan?”

Shannon’s heart squeezed. She’d known her friends would see it that way, that they’d blame themselves instead of her. Hell, she’d even mentally prepared for it, but the tightness in her chest still caught her by surprise. “It wasn’t that,” she assured them, only barely able to squeeze the words past the lump in her throat. “I was protecting you two and all of our men.”

“You were protecting us by risking yourself?” Katie-Anne inquired. “How did that make it better, Shan? Please explain it to me because I don’t understand.”

Shannon’s heart sped up, and she suddenly felt caged in. Standing up, she paced back and forth across the kitchen floor, the cool tiles uncomfortable against the bottom of her bare feet. “I don’t know how to explain it to you. I just couldn’t bear for him to hurt one of the people I loved again. It would have been too much.”

“Don’t you think that losing you would have hurt us?” Katie-Anne asked incredulously as tears formed in her striking blue-green eyes. “Don’t you realize how important you are to us, Shannon Roberts? Forget the men for a minute. We
love
you. You’re our best friend. For all intents and purposes, you’re our sister. If we lost you to that asshole, it would have
devastated
us.”

“Yeah, Shan,” Jaycee continued. “We’ve got our own ménage a trois thing going on here. Granted, it’s a no-sex, friends-only ménage, but that is irrelevant. It has always been the three of us together, or so we thought.”

“We all have our secrets, Jaycee,” Shannon said defensively. “You know that.”

“Yes, we do,” Katie-Anne agreed, picking up her tea with trembling hands and sipping it. “But this one involved your safety and ours. It wasn’t fair for you to keep this from us, and why are you telling us now anyway? Is it because of tonight? He can’t be involved. You just said he died a few weeks ago.”

“I’m not so sure he did, and neither is Svetlana.”

“Oh, shit,” Jaycee cursed. “If Destiny said so—”

“Well, technically, she didn’t come out and say it,” Shannon admitted reluctantly, pausing midpace. She plopped down into the chair she’d just gotten out of and ran her hand through her messy hair, snagging it about halfway down in a bobby pin she’d used to repair it with. “You know how Destiny or Svetlana or whatever you want to call her is. She gets all cryptic and tells you these fragmented riddles that make no sense whatsoever.”

“But she’s always right,” Jaycee commented. “I love her to pieces, but it creeps me out sometimes.” She rushed to add, “Oh, please don’t tell her I said that! It would hurt her feelings.”

“Don’t worry, we won’t say a word,” Shannon promised Jaycee.

“We’re straying from topic, and we don’t really have time for that right now,” Katie-Anne pointed out as she rose from her chair and put her cup to the sink. “We need to figure out what the hell we are going to do and what his next move will be.”

“I don’t know what he’ll do,” Shannon mumbled, “but it’s about to get ugly around here.”

* * * *

A week passed then another and another. Nothing happened, nothing changed. She spent every second guarded by one or more of her men. They distracted her, of course, but it still didn’t keep her mind at bay. Even now, she sat on the couch in Jaycee’s house with her two best friends and Sarah while all nine of their men stood close by in the den, listening to them and watching them like hawks.

The protectiveness would be sweet if they let her, Jaycee, or Katie-Anne breathe, but that wasn’t happening any time soon. Hell, even poor Sarah was being hounded by Deke and Adam, and those two weren’t involved with her—yet. They barely even knew her.
Give me a fucking break. We are capable women, not children who needed to be coddled.

Shannon sighed. Whoever was behind the break-in, whether it was Pauley or Mary or whoever, had won. Each of them was trapped, unable to move backward or forward. Their men kept them safe, but they wore their patience thinner by the day.

“Are they driving you crazy yet?” Jaycee whispered as she slid toward Shannon on the couch. “I love Gray and Cade, but damn it, I need some space. Do you know they followed me into the bathroom last night? Can’t a girl pee in privacy?”

Katie-Anne stayed silent, as she had for the past three weeks. She seemed to have shut down, like something had shattered inside of her along with her possessions. She hadn’t even started to repair Pure Fluff. Her store remained in shambles, and Katie-Anne avoided going within five hundred feet of the building. The one time they’d convinced her to return to the “War Zone,” as Cade had dubbed it, she’d turned around and walked out without a word. After that, she’d only grown increasingly despondent.

Shannon shifted on the couch cushion, hoping to find a more comfortable position. Her body couldn’t seem to relax after last night’s escapades with her men. If they didn’t keep her so sexually satisfied, she would fear for
their
safety from
her
.

“Yeah, J,” Shannon replied. “I have stopped dreaming about fucking them and started dreaming about spanking their asses—and not in an erotic way.”

Sitting across the room from her, Sarah choked on the chamomile tea she’d been sipping. It didn’t take her a second to recover and murmur, “Excuse me.”

Until then, Shannon had almost forgotten that Sarah was in the room with them. Since the day of the fire, Sarah had been around Jaycee, Katie-Anne, and Shannon—a lot. She claimed that she didn’t know what to do for them, but she did. She supported them, and she talked to them. She helped them, and she shared with them. Shannon had a feeling that she was saving them in a way she would never know.

She, Jaycee, and Katie-Anne had talked about how much of a godsend Sarah was on several occasions. Between her positive personality and her peaceful demeanor, she kept them from taking things too serious. And her innocence was refreshing. It reminded them of the good things in life, not the darkness that had settled around them lately. The fact that they loved to tease and torment her were just bonuses.

“What?” Shannon asked Sarah cheekily. “It’s the truth. I dreamed that very thing last night.”

Sarah blushed profusely. “Don’t need to know that,” she said.

“Sure you do, Sassy,” Shannon replied, using the nickname that drove Sarah nuts. Unless it was Deke calling her that. Then she was good to go.

“Crab cakes,” Sarah muttered. “Go ahead. Get it out of your system. You’re going to tell me either way.”

Grinning, Shannon sassed, “Yes, ma’am, I am. My dream made me realize that
I
want to make
their
asses blush, goddamn it.”

“Bring it on, baby doll,” Randy shouted from the den.

Shannon wanted to throw something, but instead, she settled on snarling, “Leave us alone, eavesdropper!”

Jaycee snorted as she patted Shannon’s knee condescendingly. “That’s about as likely as Katie-Anne telling us what the hell is wrong with her.”

“Leave her alone,” Sarah said sharply, sounding more firm than Shannon had ever heard her.
Looks like our baby bear is a mama bear in training.

At the same time, Katie-Anne snapped, “Leave me alone.” Standing up, she walked to the side of the room closest to the door. “If I wanted to tell anyone, I would.”

Shannon eyeballed her friend before meeting Jaycee’s gaze. “I’m sure Landon knows. She tells him everything nowadays.”

Katie-Anne shook her head, keeping her ramrod-straight back to them. “No, not even him.”

Jaycee glanced at Shannon with worried eyes. They were truly concerned about Katie-Anne and had talked more than once about how to snap her out of the depression she’d sunk into.

She had drawn into herself, keeping everyone at a distance. The only person she allowed to get anywhere near her emotionally was Landon, and he only got so close before she pulled away.

“Why not? Why do you have to be like this, damn it?” Jaycee badgered. “You’re freaking me out. Hell, you’re freaking everyone out. Please talk to someone. I don’t give a damn who at this point, but just talk.”

Katie-Anne brushed off Jaycee, bending down to pet Shepp, who’d just stepped into the room.

“Stop petting him,” Jaycee ordered abruptly, sounding stilted and cold. “I will
not
be ignored, so answer me, damn it.”

“Stop it, Jaycee,” Sarah said. “She needs some time.”

“No, she does
not
,” Jaycee disagreed as she crossed her arms. “She needs to stop shutting everyone out and start talking.”

Lifting up, Katie-Anne marched out of the room with a whining Shepp following behind her. She didn’t speak to them, didn’t acknowledge them. It was as though she, Sarah, and Jaycee weren’t even there. Only a heartbeat later, the front door opened and slammed.

“She told you, Jaycee Elizabeth,” Shannon said with a snap of her finger, attempting to lighten the dark mood in the room. Of course, it didn’t work.

Shooting out of her chair, Sarah mumbled, “I need to check on Katie-Anne. It’s cold and wet outside. I think I’ll take her a jacket.” Then she was gone, too.

“Motherfucker,” Jaycee cursed with a frown.

Gray’s voice boomed through the room despite the distance between the living room and den. “Jaycee Elizabeth Blakemore! You are not to use that kind of language.”

“You let Cade use it,” Jaycee called back in annoyance. “Why not me?” She lowered her voice before leaning forward and muttering, “Fucking double standards. I may kill one of them yet.”

“I heard that, darlin’,” Cade commented, strolling into the room casually.

Jaycee shrugged with a wink to him. “I can convince you to keep your mouth shut.”

Cade snorted. “Gray can convince me otherwise.”

The man in question strode into the room and agreed with his husband. “You’re damn straight, Cade.” Gray dropped a kiss on Jaycee’s mouth then Cade’s. “I have to run Shepp over to the vet. He’s acting strangely, and I want Ari to check him out.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Shannon said nervously. “How old is he now? Thirteen? Fourteen?”

“He’s fifteen, but I don’t think that’s the problem,” Gray explained, his brown eyes looking concerned. “There’s something up with him. It’s just not his health.”

Rather than respond to Gray, Jaycee batted her blonde eyelashes at her men innocently, but there was a tightness around her eyes that contradicted her joviality. She was patently ignoring Gray’s worried words. Jaycee loved that dog and would be beyond devastated if something happened to him. Hell, they all would be. “I can convince both of you.”

Gray propped himself up against the doorway arrogantly. He crossed his arms over his chest, and asked, “Want to bet me?”

Cade grinned eagerly. “Yeah, Jaycee. Put your money where your mouth is.”

Jaycee huffed. “No, I’m mad at the two of you.”

“Surprise, surprise,” Cade said sarcastically. “When
aren’t
you mad at us?”

Shannon giggled, sticking her nose where it didn’t belong. “Never.”

“I’m not mad when you
boys
are fucking my brains out,” Jaycee retorted.

“Jaycee,” Shannon scolded with a twitch of her lips, ruining the entire effect of her reprimand. “TMI overload.”

“Not yet, but there’s about to be,” Jaycee warned her.

“Got to go, J,” Shannon said as she jumped up and scurried toward the door. “I’m not in the mood to watch you three fuck like the bunnies you are.”