Bailey, Debbie - Stephanie's Homecoming [Men of Kinsey 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (15 page)

Stephanie couldn’t believe the sight before her. Her almost-brand-new truck was demolished. Turk grabbed her around the waist from behind to keep her away from the still-smoldering wreck. She tried to shake him off, but he held her tight.

“What the fuck did I do to anyone to deserve this?” she cried and turned into Turk’s arms to hide the tears now falling.

“Shh…baby, you haven’t done anything. Whoever has done this is a sick son of a bitch, and when I get my hands on them, they’re dead.”

* * * *

Turk met Kane’s eyes over her head and silently agreed with his friend that it was time to do some serious digging to find out who was doing this.

Turk had a pretty good idea, but getting Kane to believe it might be a bit difficult. Jenny Black had always been in Kane’s blind spot. He just thought of her as a nuisance and that eventually she’d tire of her pursuit and settle down with one of the local boys. But Turk saw her for what she was, a manipulative bitch who had spent the last ten years chasing a man who hadn’t given her the time of day. Turk might have understood her motives a little better if Kane had made the drastic mistake of bedding the crazy lady years ago. But he knew that Kane had never even asked Jenny on a date, let alone fucked her, yet somehow she’d gotten it in her head that Kane was her man. She was a lot more dangerous than he even thought if it was her doing this. She had to have help, though, because it was a man who almost attacked Stephanie, he was sure of it.

 
When he’d chased the stranger that first day, he hadn’t gotten a look at the guy, but he seemed somehow familiar. Jenny wouldn’t risk getting her clothes dirty torching the truck, so she had to have some help.

Stephanie cuddled deeper into his arms, and he could hear the sniffles that she tried hard to hide. She was a hell of a strong woman, but having only come home a few days ago, she shouldn’t have to be worried about her safety.

“I’m gonna take our girl back inside. Zachary, I want a copy of your report, as well as any personal observations you have. Kane, you need to call McCall and Harris to find out who the hell did this and why?”

“Whoa there, Turk, those are two of our best men that you want me to pull out of the field. I’m sure we can handle it,” he said.

“I know we could handle it, asshole. I’m just not willing to take the time away from protecting Stephanie to deal with it.” Turk was really pissed at Kane’s reaction to this. Could he really be so blind as to not even suspect Jenny? If his friend didn’t pull his head out of his ass where Ms. Black was concerned, he was afraid that Stephanie would be the one to pay.

He picked her up in his arms and carried her back into the house and straight to their room. Laying her down on the bed, she started to curl into a ball, but he wouldn’t let her give in to the fear.

“Come here, kitten,” he said and pulled her back against his front.

“You can’t let the fear overtake you, baby. We’ll find who is doing this, but don’t let them take away your independence,” he said quietly, kissing the top of her head.

“I know, Turk,” she sniffed, “but I hate not knowing what the fuck I did to deserve it. I’ve been home only a few days, and the only person that seems to have any animosity toward me is…” Stephanie stopped herself before she falsely accused anyone.

“Jenny will be the first person I look into, baby. She’s had this imaginary love affair with Kane for years. He thinks she’s harmless, but she’s not, and I think she’s behind both these incidents,” Turk told her.

“Turk…? Can you come into the living room for a second? Zachary has a couple of questions for you.” Kane’s soft voice came from the doorway. Turk wasn’t sure what else he could tell Zachary, but he’d do whatever was needed of him to stop this madness. Kissing Steph’s cheek, he told her he’d be right back and followed Kane out of the room.

Zachary was sitting on the couch holding something in his hand.

“Have you ever seen this before, Turk?” he asked, holding up a man’s gold watch with the name B. Thompson on the back.

“Where the fuck did you find this, Zachary? That’s my brother, Brian’s watch. I gave it to him five years ago for graduating university,” Turk said.

“It was underneath the truck, and at first I thought it had been accidently dropped there, but it was placed too far under to have been an accident. He placed it there, or someone who wanted to implicate him did.” Kane took the watch and handed it back to Zachary.

“I haven’t heard from my brother in some time. He’s had some difficulties in the last few years, and he and I haven’t exactly seen eye to eye, but he’d never do something like this.”

“We need to find him right away, Turk, and see if he knows anything about this. I know you think Jenny is involved, and I’m beginning to think so, too. But she’s had to have some help. No one around here would help her with something like this. Maybe she talked Brian into it, I don’t know, but until we find him, both of them are suspects in my book.”

Turk saw look of sadness on Kane’s face. He knew Kane didn’t want his brother to be involved, just like Kane didn’t want Jenny to be involved, but with finding the watch and some of the statements made by Jenny, they seemed to be the only two people that could have any connection to this.

Zachary stood to leave and handed Turk the watch before saying, “Find your brother, and get to the bottom of this. I think he left the watch as a message to you, Turk. Maybe he’s in trouble and needs your help, I don’t know, but whatever he’s involved with, we need to fix it and do it fast. If there is another incident like this and we have proof that he’s involved, I won’t give you any heads up, I’ll just go after him. But because I trust both of you, I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt, at least for now.”

Turk thanked Zachary, shook his hand, and showed him to the door.

Coming back into the living room, Kane was just hanging up his cell.

“Why the change of heart where Jenny is concerned, Kane? She’s been after you for years, but you’ve never taken her seriously.”

“From the conversation I had with Zachary while you put Steph back to bed.” Running his hands through his hair in frustration, Kane sat on the arm of one of the chairs.

“Zachary told me that about six months ago, Jenny and a couple of her friends had gone into the city to buy a wedding dress.
A fucking wedding dress, Turk, for our wedding.
The crazy-assed bitch apparently has been planning to
surprise
me with this huge, wonderful wedding. When the hell did I ever give her any indication that I would marry her? Every time she’s mentioned it, I put a kibosh on it immediately. I’ve never wanted a relationship of any kind with her, and she knew it. When I first met her, years before I met Steph, she had asked me out a couple of times, but I wasn’t anywhere near ready to settle down then, and that was all she seemed to talk about to anyone who’d listen. If it is her behind all this, I’m gonna kill the bitch. I don’t want Stephanie running again, and if all this scares her enough, I’m afraid she might bolt.”

* * * *

“Well, thanks for having such little faith in me, Kane.”

Both men turned at the sound of Stephanie’s voice.

“Whatever is going on is not going to scare me enough to run. I made a promise to both of you that I would come to you before it got that far. I know what I did all those years ago wasn’t right, and all I can say is that I’m older now and a hell of a lot stronger, baby.”

Walking over to where Kane was seated, she placed her hands on either side of his face and lifted it so that he was looking at her.

“I love you both, and nothing is going to come between us. If Jenny is involved, then she needs to have some serious psychiatric help. To carry a torch for a man who has told you repeatedly he doesn’t want you, and to even plan a wedding, it just isn’t sane, Kane.” Steph turned and looked at Turk. “And you…find your brother first before you jump to any conclusions. Someone could be setting him up, or there could be an explanation. Until you talk to him, you can’t pass judgment.”

She gently kissed Kane’s forehead, moving to head back upstairs. But before she got too far, Turk took Stephanie by the hand and pulled her into his arms. Quickly wiping away the moisture that had developed at the corner of his eye, he smiled down at her and asked, “Where did you come from, sprite? And how did I get so lucky as to have you love me?” He looked at Kane and saw that he, too, had tears in his eyes.

“Steph, come here, baby,” Kane said quietly as he stood, turning toward her. He reached out a hand to her, and as she moved to take it, he pulled her hard against him.

“If I had seriously thought that Jenny was a danger to you, I would have dealt with her long ago. She just seemed to be more of a pest to me every now and then, not anything serious to worry about. I had no idea the extent of her delusions until Zachary told me about her wedding plans.” He kissed her gently on the lips and sighed, leaning his forehead against hers.

“We will fix this, angel eyes. But until we do, you are going to have a bodyguard with you at work.” Raising his finger to her lips before she could protest, he said, “It won’t be Turk or I, because we’d be too much of a distraction, but we will have two of our best men watching out for you. You won’t even realize they’re in the office. Turk or I will drop you off and pick you up every day. Whoever is doing this is dangerous, baby, and I won’t give them another chance to get close to you.”

Cuddling up against Kane, Stephanie sighed and agreed that as long as she was able to continue her work at the paper, they could have her guarded.

“But I’m not going to hide from her, Kane. She may be a suspect, but until we have proof, we need to act like everything is normal, and that means there are going to be times that we run into her. This is a small town, and if she’s as deluded as we think, then seeing us out together might push her right over the edge.”

“You are quite the little fighter now aren’t you, angel eyes,” Kane said proudly, kissing her cheek.

“I allowed her to take me away from what was mine years ago. I’m not going to let her do it again.” Stephanie started to walk out of the room, but as she got to the doorway, she turned and said, “You’re mine, boys, and anyone who thinks they can take you from me has got a hell of a fight on her hands. Now, I’m going back to bed to get a couple more hours sleep. There’s nothing that can be done until morning, so why don’t you two come and make me feel warm and safe between you.”

Stephanie couldn’t help but giggle at the sight of these two very large men as they practically tripped over each other trying to get to her.

Chapter 9

“I’m not having anything to do with your fucking insanity anymore, Jenny,” Brian snarled at the woman who had lied to him every step of the way. He didn’t have anyone else to blame but himself for getting into this situation. He’d fallen for it because he needed the money to get himself out of trouble with his bankers. But there was no way he wanted anyone to get hurt. When Jenny had come back to her apartment last night, he couldn’t believe what the fucking crazy bitch had done. And when he noticed his watch missing from the bedside table, he wanted to strangle her for what she had done.
Pretending
to be the big bad stalker was one thing, but torching trucks was a whole different thing. He knew that at the first chance he got, he was going to head out to find Turk and let him know exactly what Jenny was up to, and his part in it as well. He just hoped that Turk could forgive him for his stupidity.

He would continue to keep his eyes and ears open until he could get to his brother, but until then he wasn’t going to let Jenny out of his sight, if possible. She was a danger to Kane and Turk’s woman, and after seeing his brother’s face when he looked at her, he knew that Turk loved her very much, and his brother deserved all the happiness he could find.

“What are you thinking so heavily about, handsome?” Jenny said, giving him an annoyed look. “Look, Brian, maybe I shouldn’t have torched her truck last night, but dammit, she’s fucking my man.” Her face went bright red, and he could tell he was in for another of her diatribes about how she and Kane were destined to be together and yadda yadda yadda.