Claimed by Three (8 page)

She gave him the full names of the last ménage group she dated. “They wouldn’t do this. They’re married now and not even in the city, although I don’t know where they are. I do know one of them is in the PD and probably isn’t on the planet. My brother said the request for transfer was rushed, and that usually ends with the guard being put into the first available open slot, which is most often on the space-bound rotation.”

“I’ll check their location.” Officer McCord nodded.

He went over and met the person who climbed out of the skimmer. He talked with the young man while the investigator opened the back hatch. The officer pulled out a big black-handled box. Images were taken of the words scrawled across her home and walkway. He did a thorough job. He took scrapings of the paint off the walkway and off her house. He removed multiple samples of each pigment decorating the paving and siding. That were a lot of samples, because whoever had done this appeared to have brought every color they could find.

She watched him but had to look away when the damage began to make her so angry she couldn’t stand still. She focused on the trees and bushes that blocked her sight of the neighbor’s yard. The sound of another skimmer descending and landing beyond the officer’s dark gray vehicle drew her attention to the landing lot.

She glanced at the skimmer to see who it was. She’d supposed another officer had arrived to help, but recognized the sleekly built, dark green Duce immediately. Kassius. Was it only him, or were Berenger and Teague with him? She didn’t have to wait long to discover the answer.

The hatch popped up, and Berenger climbed out of the side closest to her. She saw movement on the other side. At least one of the other men had come as well. What she didn’t understand was why they were there.

Yes, she’d expected to see them sometime today, but not there. She grimaced when she noticed they were all three there.

“Who are they?” Officer McCord walked over to her.

“They are my dates from last night.” She glanced over at the three men walking toward them.

“They don’t seem happy.” He raised an expectant brow.

They didn’t look happy, but then again, they didn’t appear angry. She shrugged. “Well, probably not, but they’re not mad to this level. I left early and didn’t tell them. So more irritated than anything else.”

“I’d be irritated about that too.” Officer McCord shook his head. “What are they doing here?”

She explained she had no idea.

“I called them while we were coming over here. They’re serious about her and needed to know. I was fairly sure she wouldn’t do it herself,” Cooper volunteered.

“First date, Cooper. It’s too early to be serious.” She scowled at her brother. While she wanted to be serious about them, she also wanted to take it slow.

“They don’t know about this now but learn about this damage later, especially if something else happens, and you’ll find out how serious they are. And don’t try to play games with me. I know you, and you wouldn’t let them get that close to you unless you were at least a little serious about them.” Cooper folded his arms across his chest.

“Why didn’t you call us?” Kassius walked over the lawn to stop in front of her.

“I called him, which is apparently as good as putting out an ad.” She pointed to her brother and then waved at the mess on her house and walkway. “I don’t know what all this damage is about. Maybe they vandalized the wrong house. I haven’t made any enemies, as far as I know.”

“You should have called us.” Berenger stepped forward. “And don’t think we won’t be talking about you leaving without waking us this morning. I was looking forward to waking up with you.”

“Again, I called my brother, so I wasn’t alone. First, because he’ll go telling my mother crazy stories if I don’t, and second, because he’s a bigger nag than anyone I know.” Sephanie turned a glare on her brother.

“I’m sure calling your brother was a good idea in the sense it saved you some trouble from him, but you should have called us. We can give you a harder time than him if you don’t start sharing with us.” Teague stepped around Kassius and cupped her cheek.

She rolled her eyes. “It was our first date, Teague, in spite of what you’ve said about wanting to court me. That’s barely begun. It takes more than one date to build enough of a relationship for me to feel comfortable calling for help.”

“You’d better get comfortable with it. If anything like this occurs again and you don’t contact us, you’ll have a few parts of you that are uncomfortable and red.” Teague glowered at her.

She stared at him. He’d threatened to spank her, and he’d done it right in front of a Planetary Police officer. On top of that, the officer hadn’t reacted, not so much as a blink. Men! The officer might be part of a ménage—most police were—but he could at least give a token gesture of cautioning the men.

Chapter Seven

The entire incident seemed surreal. Sephanie wished it was over but knew after the police finished, she’d have much to do. She wanted to scream or hit something but had to stand there and wait. If she let the anger out, she wouldn’t be able to control it. The police were still there. She wanted them to see her as a sane woman, not crazy.

How long will this investigation take?
The stress built slowly. A headache began to pound at her temples. Aside from the wait, she had to find someone to clean up this mess. Once the paint was off the walls, she'd have more trouble to handle before she went to work. She’d still have to deal with Kassius, Berenger, and Teague and kill her brother, or at least yell at him for interfering.

“Know any good cleaning services?” She looked at the group gathered around her. She tried to keep her tone light, even though her throat felt tight.

“Actually, yes,” Berenger said. “There were two incidents at my shop where I needed a cleanup company. We’ll call them when the officer tells us he’s releasing the scene.”

She waited with them until the officers and techs were finished. Officer McCord once again walked over to them. She hoped they could start cleaning this today. She didn’t want to leave that mess on her home any longer than necessary.

“We’ve documented the scene and gathered samples. They’ll be analyzed. We’ll be doing a few more interviews of your neighbors to see if anyone saw anything. Unless we find a witness, it will be difficult to track down who did this.” Officer McCord gave them a nod. “You can start cleaning this up. I know of several services that would do it, if you need recommendations.”

“I know of a cleaning service.” Berenger stepped forward, blocking her view of the officer.

“We’ll contact you if we learn anything,” Officer McCord stated before he walked out of the yard. He and another officer stayed. They began walking over to her neighbors.

She’d seen his expression and had been around her brother enough to know this case would probably languish unsolved because of lack of witnesses and evidence. It wasn’t exactly a high-priority situation. Yes, the amount of damage done was significant, but with no bodily injury or obvious threat of future injury, other cases took precedence.

“I’ll call the company to come start cleaning this mess.” Berenger walked over to the skimmer, where she assumed he would use the holo-comm unit there.

If he’d given her a moment, she’d have let him in the house to use her holo-comm. Her gaze followed him until he slid into the skimmer. She continued to stare after him, but her attention turned when her brother stepped up to give her a hug.

“Paine and I are leaving now, but if you need anything or there’s more trouble, call me. I know Teague, Kassius, and Berenger will take care of you.” Cooper stepped back and smiled.

“You know I could handle this myself. I’m not in any danger here. I’m not convinced this paint is intended for me, but even if it is, this prank is juvenile and harmless.” She frowned at her brother. There was no reason for anyone to guard her.

Paine gave her a hug. “Cut your brother some slack. We can’t be sure if it is a mistake, and regardless of that, he’ll be extra vigilant because of the recent threats against him. The man behind them is in a cell, but the memories are still fresh.”

Paine had a point, and she hadn’t thought of it that way. She gave a small nod. She could be patient with Cooper, but six months from today, she wouldn’t be so tolerant. Her brother and his partner walked to their skimmer and were gone a short while later.

“Since Officer McCord is done and your brother is gone, we can talk.” Kassius clasped her arm and turned her to face him.

“Seriously, there’s all of this to take care of, and I don’t know if the cleaner Berenger knows is available to help.” She flung her arm out to indicate the walkway and her house. “And how do you know Officer McCord?”

It was possible the cleaners wouldn’t be able to clean the paint today. If they couldn’t find someone to do it, she’d have to try to get it off herself.

“If they don’t, we’ll find another service to do it,” Kassius said, as if it would be easy to find someone available on short notice. “As for Nate, I’ve met him before. Once at a club, and the other time he was looking for someone and came to the orchard.”

Berenger walked back to them from their skimmer. “The cleaners will be here shortly. They’ll look at the damage, test it to see what they need to do, and give an estimate of price and how long it will take to clean the damaged area.”

Hearing that, she heaved a sigh of relief. She’d find the money to cover it.

“Will they be able to do the job today? It makes me furious to see it there. I’d rather they attacked me instead. At least then I’d be sure it wasn’t some mistake.” She ran a hand through her hair.

“We’ll ask the cleaners about that, but they seemed to understand you would like this off your home and walk.” Berenger strolled over and stood beside Kassius.

When Teague stopped on the other side of Kassius, she knew they wouldn’t delay the discussion of her leaving their house this morning any longer. She sighed.

She planned to call them from the bakery this morning. After she’d slipped out of their home, she’d thought she would be at the bakery by the time they located her. They wouldn’t have been able to argue there. She expected them to have time to cool down before they were able to talk.

“Before they get here, we will talk.” Teague’s hazel eyes glittered, appearing harder than she’d seen them before. “Who was the man who picked you up this morning?”

She leaned back away from the intense stare. “He’s a friend I thought would be awake at that time. How did you know it was a he who came to get me? Did someone see him?”

Maybe one of them woke up and saw Jack drive her away. She didn’t know if there was some type of alarm that was tripped when Jack piloted his skimmer through the orchard. If that was the case, she would have expected them to get to the front of the house before she managed to get into Jack’s Duce.

“We saw him on the security video.” Berenger stared at her. “Who is he?”

“Jack. He’s an artist. He’s been a friend of mine for years.” She shrugged.

“Have you ever dated him?” Kassius asked. His tone sharpened, and he took a step toward her.

“No.” She gaped at Kassius.

“Has he ever shown interest in you?” Berenger reached out and took her hand.

“No.” She shook her head. “I’m not his type.”

“And what is his type?” Berenger’s eyebrow arched in obvious doubt.

“Thin and tall, usually, but certainly anyone who doesn’t make fun of his artistic moods and angst.” She smiled as she thought about Jack.

“And you make fun of those artistic moods?” A smile kicked up the corners of his mouth.

“Yes, he sometimes takes the artistic moods too seriously. There are times he goes overboard. I’m one of the friends who yank him back to reality.” She relaxed once her answer seemed to alleviate their concerns.

“All right, that’s taken care of, but we will speak to your friend. Don’t think we won’t.” Kassius nodded. “Now, I want to know why you left.”

She grimaced. Damn, he was persistent. Not that she expected him to let it drop, but she’d had some hope when they’d relaxed after she’d told them Jack wasn’t interested in her.

“I was uncertain and perhaps scared too.” She took a deep breath and hoped they’d understand.

“You’re scared of us?” Berenger looked astonished and horrified.

She winced as she saw his expression. She couldn’t let him think that. It wasn’t true. “Not scared of you. Scared we moved too fast, that I messed up our chance to be together.”

“So you were scared and you left? You didn’t think you should talk to us? Maybe try to find out if there was anything you should be scared of?” Teague took a step closer to her.

He stood right at her side. If she looked up, they’d be nose to nose. “I know I panicked, and I was already having doubts about leaving on the way home. I had to think. If I stayed there, I wouldn’t be thinking much. We went from our first date right into sex. That’s fast for me.”

They’d moved from first date to intimacy insanely fast. It could have happened faster. She’d been tempted to have sex with them the night they’d asked her out. She was honest enough to admit it. If he’d asked her, she didn’t know if she’d have resisted.

Berenger smiled, the expression wide and full of masculine smugness. She was glad she hadn’t told him the full truth. His ego might never have gone down after that.

“You won’t be leaving before morning again, Sephanie.” Kassius’s fingers under her chin turned her head so she looked straight at him. “If you panic, we’ll talk about it.”

“Let me have her for a moment, Kass,” Teague said.

Kassius released her at the same time Berenger did. Teague clasped her arms and turned her to face him. He picked her up and hooked an arm under her buttocks, holding her so they stared eye to eye.

“We won’t change our mind about marrying you.” His hand flattened against her back, pulling her closer. “You’re not going to get hurt, because we want you as much as you do us. And if you leave us again without telling us, I’ll pick you up, put you over my knee, and redden that ass.”

“Threatening to spank me won’t calm my fears.” She pushed away, arching her back to get some distance between them.