Peaches 'n' Cream (24 page)
“Don’t forget pickles,” Logan added helpfully.
“Oh, yeah, I forgot.” She nodded. “Pickles, too.” They had fun with their partners until Damien and Ryan couldn’t take it anymore. They finished their pancakes and milk and then all but ran out of the house, Logan’s laughter following them.
He noticed he was getting much better at the laughter thing. Looking across the table at the woman who had stolen his heart, he wondered what would have happened to him if he hadn’t ever met her. He’d have to remember to thank the numbnuts for bringing her home.
He really owed them.
Nine hours later, Peaches stood with her back resting against him as they admired their handiwork. The new cat playground was finished. Brightly painted boards made catwalks high above the floor. There were shelf steps going up and down the walls. One wall was covered with carpet. There was a thick rope hanging from floor to ceiling. There were balls, hanging toys, bells, catnip scratchpads, a cat condo and a cat tree, a cat bed on the wide shelf he put at the window. There were even new food dishes. It was a cat nirvana.
They had kept the cats shut in the bathroom during the construction period. Peaches went to let them out as he waited in the doorway. He didn’t want to admit it, but he was feeling anxious. He wanted the fucking cats to like it, so he could win points with his lady.
118
When the cats ran through the room like their tails were on fire, jumping and exploring, Peaches threw her arms around his neck. She dangled there as she kissed him hard on the mouth.
“Oh, you are such a genius!”
Logan enjoyed his new status as genius for days afterward. More snow came, piled on the mountains of snow preceding it, only to be moved around into piles that wouldn’t melt until well into spring. He thanked the hefty bank account that allowed them to have the equipment needed for such heavy work.
The herd wasn’t happy, but they managed to keep them alive as the days passed into weeks. Since she was “officially” bored to tears, Peaches began to go to the barn with them every morning. She groomed and exercised horses. Logan had to admire her skill. She hadn’t been bragging that first time he had met her. She was an extremely competent horsewoman.
Logan, Ryan, and Damien spent a lot of time watching her, not getting much else done in the meanwhile. They knew they were loafing a bit too much when the men would start teasing them.
“You guys aren’t getting paid to watch pretty girls,” one of the older cowhands joked, slapping Logan’s shoulder with the confidence of an old friend.
They began discussing their plans for the next few months. Ryan and Damien would head back out on the rodeo circuit. Peaches would accompany them from time to time, until she wasn’t comfortable traveling. Then she would remain at home so he could care for her. He liked the thought of that. It pleased him in a manner he never believed would happen. He was happy and Peaches was the reason for it. He loved her.
And he loved his friends and partners, though he doubted they would get more than one gruff declaration from him. He had yet to tell them.
Everything was going fine until Peaches was notified that she was going to have to testify against the first robber the police had caught.
“You’re not going.” It was a command. With arms folded across his chest, he tried to look his most intimidating.
Unfortunately, Peaches wasn’t intimidated. She was merely annoyed. “I have to go,” she said with a sigh. “I don’t have any choice.”
“I was hoping someone would kill him in jail.”
She threw him a look as she packed a bag with clothes. “Well, considering he’s probably the leader of a large portion of the jail’s population, there’s not much chance of that happening. He has more protection than the president does. You’ll drive me to the airport tomorrow, won’t you?”
“You’re not going commercial. Colt has a jet. We’re borrowing it.”
“We?”
Logan scowled down at her. “Yes, we will be going with you. You know your future husbands? The men who will defend you until we each take our dying breath?”
“Never mind that she saved each of us at least once,” Damien drawled from the doorway of their bedroom. He was obviously enjoying their argument. He looked at Peaches. “We’re going. Where you and the baby go, we go. There is no arguing about it.” 119
“Which reminds me,” Logan said. “We’ll be stopping by the clinic on our way to the airport. The doctor will be checking everything. If she says you can go, then you can go. She has the final say.”
Baby. Logan grinned like an idiot. Damien joined him as they stared at their woman, the mother of their child. Ryan pushed into the room, saw their grins, and then joined them. It had been the last test kit out of the carton that had given them the results they had been waiting for. They were going to be fathers. She was going to be a mother. They grinned some more as she grabbed her bag and headed toward them in the door. She was shaking her head and muttering something about idiots as she pushed through.
“You love us and you know it!” Ryan called after her. A shoe was sent flying in his direction. He ducked, but it skimmed his left ear. “Hormonal. I know hormonal when I see it!”
“You’re going to be seeing a lot more of it,” she called back hotly and then continued down the hall, muttering to herself. “Men! What the fuck was I thinking? Three of them? Seriously? I’m going to have to ask my mother if she dropped me on my head.” Logan pushed past him, carrying the heavier of the two bags she’d packed. “If you keep messing with her, I’m going to take you out to the playroom and tie your ass up.” Damien gave him a warning of another kind. “You might listen to him. He is going to be real frustrated now that his little sub is pregnant. He won’t have a playmate for at least the next nine months.”
Stopping in the middle of the hallway, Logan turned his gaze on Ryan. The smile he gave the younger man was almost dangerous. “I think you and I should go check the playroom, make sure everything is okay before we leave.”
Ryan swallowed hard, dropping his gaze. Damien moved closer, sliding an arm around his waist. “You know you want to.”
“Yeah, maybe.” His voice was thin, uncertain, but did have a note of excitement in it.
Damien kissed his ear. Logan smiled at the tender gesture.
“You’ve wanted to go to Colt’s club. You can’t go without Logan. You have to be collared.
You told me you want him to fuck you in front of everybody. If you can’t go to the playroom with him here, how are you going to go to a BDSM club?” They waited for Ryan to decide. They had a lot of things to do before they could leave for Nevada, but everything could wait until they had sorted this out. Damien pulled him close, kissing him.
“Do you know how much I want to see you tied up?” He laughed huskily. Logan smiled and nodded. “If Logan agrees, you can suck my cock while he fucks that fine ass of yours.” Shaking his head and pulling away, Ryan laughed. “You’re such a perv.”
“Yeah, well, that makes four of us in this house. What do you say? Want to go play?”
“What are you guys up to?” Their woman was calling to them from downstairs. They shifted restlessly.
“We’re up to no good, baby. Ryan’s trying to decide whether he wants Logan to tie him up and fuck him.”
“Can I watch?”
“There’s a perv for you.”
120
The men laughed. Then each grabbed a bag and carried them downstairs. They would leave before first light the next morning. Plans for the playroom were put on hold when they got a call from the barn. One of the horses was down with colic.
At the clinic the following morning, a cheerful doctor examined the bleary-eyed Peaches.
She gave her the thumbs-up, telling her everything looked very good. She could travel, but she was to get more rest from now on. Peaches told her that wasn’t a problem, since she seemed to want to sleep most of time. And she was to limit her stress.
Logan, Ryan, and Damien listened to all the instructions, nodding solemnly when the doctor directed very pointed instructions to them. Logan just managed not to flush with embarrassment. Nearly everyone in Silver had their quirks, their dirty little secrets, their twisted desires, but he had always kept his life very private. Why was the doctor looking at him like that? There was no possible way she could know what he and Peaches did in his playroom.
Yet, maybe she knew enough about him that she had guessed and was gently warning him not to be too rough.
Feeling duly chastised, they left the office behind their woman. She was practically glowing, her beautiful face wreathed in a smile. As he looked at it, he knew that they had put it there. She was happy with them. She was happy about the baby. Relief coursed through his body. He wanted her to be happy with them, so she would never regret putting her faith in them.
“I have to make a side trip,” Peaches told them as they approached the restrooms.
They made their own side trip, only to be interrupted by a muffled crash through the wall.
* * * *
Peaches put her elbow in the woman’s face. Her head snapped back from the sharp impact, the rest of her following as Peaches spun and put her foot in her gut. Falling hard against the trash container, the woman was curled there, panting in obvious pain, her arm over her stomach. She looked up with an unreadable expression in her dark eyes. When she reached in-to the pocket of her smock, Peaches held her breath. A small caliber pistol was pointed in her direction. She cursed the fact that her own pistol was locked in a box in a safe at home. As she was deciding her next best move, the door flew open and hit the woman with a satisfying crack. She was glad the very powerful Logan had come in first.
It only took a moment for him to remove the pistol and to check for other weapons. He didn’t find one. Hauling the young woman to her feet, he held her close as he scowled down at her. Then, with a powerful hand tightly gripping her upper arm, he dragged her out of the women’s restroom.
Ryan and Damien were all over Peaches then, their hands running over her until they were satisfied she was unhurt. “Are you okay, baby? What happened?”
“She was in here scrubbing the floor when I came in. We smiled at one another. It was nice and friendly.” She shrugged. “When I came out, she was behind me. It wasn’t much of a fight and it didn’t last long.”
“Lucky we heard it. The bitch was going to shoot you.” 121
Peaches contributed the trembling in her body to the new rush of adrenaline. She was normally cool and calm under such circumstances. However, there was a difference this time.
She was carrying a precious life inside her. Not only did she have to care for herself, but for her baby, their baby, as well. Nothing was more important than protecting their child.
Ryan hugged her close, pressing his lips to her ear as he stroked her body. “From now on, we’re not letting you out of our sight.”
Damien peeled her out of Ryan’s arms. He hugged her and then released her to move her toward the door. He paused when he reached it, turning to look down at her. “I imagine the sheriff will be here soon. When he’s through with us, we’ll go to the hotel. You’re going to rest.” He pushed the curls back off her face.
She smiled up at him as she pressed herself against his big, strong body. Her nipples perked up with an interest that was never far away. She always wanted her men. It was as if her switch was stuck in the “on” position. She didn’t mind in the least.
“I want to talk to her.” Peaches frowned. “She didn’t look very old. And she looked as scared as I felt. Something’s not right. I’ve been around a lot of the women connected to gangs. She doesn’t seem to have the right attitude.” It took a while, but Peaches convinced the sheriff to let her speak to the woman. She was guided to an interrogation room, where the woman was sitting with her wrists cuffed and wearing a neon-orange jumpsuit. It was obvious she had been crying. There were salty trails down her cheeks and the tip of her nose was pink.
“What’s your name?”
“Carmen.”
Peaches nodded. “Carmen, I want to know why you did it. I’ve seen a lot of girls who’ve been tangled up with a gang, whether it was by choice or not. You don’t seem quite hard enough. You must have been convinced to try to kill me. Why? How?” Carmen looked away. Her fingers were tangled together. “I can’t tell you anything,” she whispered thinly, her fear obvious. “You know that.” She wasn’t going to listen to any of that crap. And it was crap. “You can make choices here. Do you have family? Are your mother and father still living?” she asked impatiently.
The dark head shook. She looked on the verge of tears again. “They’re all gone. I do have a son. He’s a year old.”
“Where is he?” Hearing that, Peaches suspected what had happened. She just wanted to hear it from Carmen.
“They have him. They told me they would kill him if I didn’t come here and kill you.” She snorted. “I don’t know how they expected me to do it. The two guys they sent up here couldn’t do it. One ran when you killed the other. They sent me after that. I came here and got a job. I was surprised when I saw you today. What were the chances of that happening?”
“Why did they pick you?”
“They said I’d fit in. I talked nice and I didn’t have a record. If anyone ran a background check on me, it would come back clean.”
Sitting back, Peaches studied the other woman long and hard. She wasn’t as young as she had first thought. Carmen was probably close to twenty-five. “Did you do well in school?” Carmen nodded. “I was fourth in my class. I was supposed to go to college, but my mother got sick. I took care of her until she died, so Papa could work. Then my father got sick. He 122
died just last year.” Lifting her hands, she rubbed them over her face. The handcuffs rattled.
She sighed as she lowered her hands. “I was working two jobs after my papa died. I wanted a better life for my son. I was working to get us to a better place. A nice apartment somewhere where there were nice schools, where he could play outside without me having to worry about drive-by shootings and drugs sold on every corner. Anthony’s father was killed in a drive-by shooting. He had gotten in a fight with a gang member when he caught the man trying to steal his car.”
It had been a big dream on Carmen’s part. And a very good dream to have for her son.
Peaches believed her. She also admired her for her dedication to making her son’s life a good one.
“You have to give me details. I want you to trust me with this. Tell me everything you know about the people who took your son and sent you here.” They stared at one another. Carmen’s fingers curled so tightly into fists her knuckles turned white. The stress she was feeling was almost palatable, as was the stark fear in her huge, dark eyes.
The door opened a moment later. The sheriff and his administrative assistant came in.
They sat down beside Peaches and began to ask questions and take notes. An hour later, they were all leaving the room.
“You can get my son?” Carmen asked in a small voice. There was so much pain in her eyes. However, there was hope, too.
“We’re going to try. I know a lot of people.” Peaches reached out to squeeze her arm.
“We’ll go to your room and get the picture of your son. It’ll be sent to the right people.”
