Bailey, Debbie - Stephanie's Homecoming [Men of Kinsey 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (16 page)

Turning to face her, he hugged her to him to try and calm her down before she went on overload, saying, “I’m sorry I got so worked up about it, sugar. I just don’t want Turk to get hurt, that’s all.”

“I would never purposely hurt your brother, Brian. I know how important he is to you, but if he stands between me and my goal in getting
her
claws out from Kane, then I’m sorry, but he’s…oh what the hell do they call it…oh yeah, he’s collateral damage.”

Collateral damage…hell, this psycho bitch was bent on destruction, and it doesn’t matter who gets in her way.
He needed to keep her occupied and as calm as possible until he could get to Turk.

“Hey, sugar, why don’t you and I head into the city for the night? We’ll have a nice dinner and see a show or something. What do you say?” God he hoped he could get her mind busy with other things for a while.

“I can’t leave now, Brian. That woman is practically living with Kane and your brother, and that is unacceptable. My friends have already started asking questions about why she’s there. I’ve got to get her away from him before I’m a laughingstock.” Jenny walked over to the liquor cabinet, grabbed a bottle, poured a shot of whiskey, and downed it before turning back to face him. Her demeanor calm and cool again.

“Why don’t we have dinner at the diner? It’s doesn’t matter if Turk sees you here. You’ll just tell him that you met me a few months ago and we’ve been dating. He’ll probably be jealous as hell, too, and it will also deflect any suspicions from us regarding the truck fire.”

Fuck, he had to think fast. Going to the diner with her was a huge mistake unless he could get a hold of Turk first. He needed to get into town alone for a while. He hadn’t realized before just how out of touch with reality Jenny was when it came to Kane Bryson. Jealous of him? Not fucking likely.

“Sure, sugar, we can do that. I just need to go into town to pick up a few personal items. I want to get some new jeans, as well, so why don’t you go have a nice, long bubble bath while I’m in town, and then when I get back I’ll take you wherever you’d like to go.” Smiling his best, he just fucking hoped she bought it.

“A nice, hot bubble bath sounds delicious. But don’t take too long in town because we want to get to the diner before it gets too crowded.”
Jenny smiled, kissed him on the cheek, and headed back to take her bath.

Grabbing his keys and cell phone, he headed for the door, dialing Turk’s number as he headed out, hoping to get to Turk before all hell broke loose.

* * * *

Turk grabbed a cup a coffee and was just about to head out the door when his cell went off. He only gave a few friends and family his cell number because he hated using it. Picking it up, he recognized the number right away. Brian…

“Well, little brother,” he said unhappily, “looks like you got yourself into a bit of trouble?”

“Turk, I need you to meet me at Jackson Point right now. Shit’s about to hit the fan, and I want no part in it,” Brian said quickly.

“What the fuck are you doing with that crazy bitch, bro?” he practically yelled into the phone.

“Just meet me there, and I’ll explain everything. I gotta run. I’ll see you in about ten minutes.”

The bugger just hung up.

What the hell is going on?

“Was that our friends checking in?” Kane asked as he came into the kitchen.

“No, it was my brother. I’m meeting him in a few minutes to get to the bottom of this whole shit pile with your little Jenny,” Turk said.

“She is not now, nor has she ever been my little anything, ass wipe, and you bloody well know it.” Turk felt bad for teasing Kane about Jenny. He knew that Kane already felt like shit for not seeing how fixated Jenny was becoming, so he didn’t need to be bugged about her.

“Sorry, bud, just a bad joke. I’m worried about how deep Brian is involved with her, though. Shit, we haven’t seen each other much over the past few years, and this is not the way I wanted a reunion with him to go.”

“Go find out what he’s into, and we’ll deal with it. If he’s calling you, he obviously wants to let you know what going on, right? So don’t worry about anything until you talk to him.” Turk had lucked out when he’d met Kane. No matter what kind of mess they had found themselves in, Kane always was able to get him to see things in a calm and rational manner.

“Find out what from whom?”

Both men turned at the question coming from their woman.

Looking at her made his heart ache. That’s the only way Turk could describe it. Not a bad ache, but the good kind. It made him feel like his heart was about to burst because of the strong feelings he had for her.

And he hated that his brother was involved in this whole mess.

“I’m going to meet my brother, baby. He says he wants to talk to me about this thing with Jenny.” He didn’t want Stephanie to worry, but they’d promised her the truth in everything, and he wasn’t about to go back on his word with her.

“Apparently my brother has been hanging with Jenny, and we think he was the driver on the bike that first night. He wants to talk to me, so I’d better head out; I told him I’d meet him in about ten minutes out at Jackson’s Point.” Stepping forward, he pulled Stephanie into his arms and just held her for a minute before turning and quickly striding across the yard to his truck.

Turning to Kane, Stephanie smiled and said, “Well, I guess you get to take me into the office today.”

“What, no myriad of questions? No demanding of answers?” Kane laughed.

As she walked over to stand beside Kane and placed a hand on his cheek, she smiled up at him and said, “I made that promise to Joe and Helen, remember? I trust you and Turk to protect me, so as long as you keep me in the loop, I’ll try to let you guys handle everything. Now grab your keys and get that cute ass of yours into the truck so you can take me to work.”

Kane grabbed her around the waist and pulled her hard against his body, whispering in her ear, “You are quickly earning punishments, angel eyes.” He smiled, reached behind his back, and pulled out his keys. “Let’s get you into work before I drag you upstairs and spank that gorgeous ass of yours for being such a smart-mouth.”

Laughing, she grabbed her bag and headed for the truck as Kane punched the security code into the system and ran ahead of her so he could open the door for her.

“Such a gentleman, Kane Bryson.” She smiled and took the hand he held out to help her in.

“My mama raised me right, angel eyes,” he said softly and kissed her hand before telling her to buckle in and closing the door.

* * * *

The moment Steph walked in the doors, people were on her. Since Kane’s men wouldn’t get there until tomorrow, he would be watching over her at work today. Stepping back and letting go about her work was harder than he thought it would be. Even though she was probably safer here than anywhere else other than their home, he still didn’t like her being too far away from him.

He watched her answer all the questions asked of her without a thought. Some of them were just common sense things. But she was patient and listened to everybody.

Shayne, her assistant, diligently followed behind her, taking notes and making sure that every hour or so she had a bottle of water. It was such a little thing, but it showed Kane that the kid not only liked his job but cared about his boss. Hmm, he might just have to have a little talk with the young man.

Around one o’clock, he noticed Shayne glance at his watch, and then when the next person came to ask for something, he told them that unless it was life or death to come back in an hour after they’d had lunch. He then closed the door, walked over to where Steph sat going over some files, and pulled them away from her. Kane had to hold back a laugh at the look she gave him. It probably would have scared half the young men he knew, but this Shayne kid leaned over and said something to her then pointed over at him.

Kane waved and headed into her office.

“So, angel eyes, this kid giving you trouble?” Kane growled.

“I don’t give Miss Morrison trouble, Mr. Bryson, I give her balance. If I didn’t make her stop, she would forget to eat, and I’m sure you’d be pissed right off with me if she passed out on you.” Shayne smiled and left the office.

“Damn, that kid is good.” Steph smiled as Shayne headed out to grab his lunch.

“He’s a good kid and makes sure you are well taken care of.” Kane came around and sat on the edge of her large desk and pulled her up to stand in front of him.

“So, baby, do you want to head over to the diner? Turk called, and he’s in town, so he’ll meet us there when I call him.” Kane nuzzled the side of her neck, and when she opened her eyes, three of the women from the fashion department were all standing outside the glass door of her office giggling like schoolgirls.

Without a word, she pulled out of his arms and headed to the office door and flung it open. “Okay, ladies, come in and meet him and then go to lunch, but remember, you can only look. No touching, this one’s mine, and I am very possessive.”

All three women came in, and she introduced them to Kane. Leaning against her desk, he was impressive, but when he stood to his full height, he was magnificent. Arms crossed over his chest, the only thing he said to them was, “Ladies…” and Stephanie swore all three of them had orgasms. After hustling the women off to lunch, Stephanie couldn’t help but laugh as she grabbed Kane by the hand and headed for the diner.

“Hold on, baby, let me call Turk so he can meet us. He’ll be pissed if I don’t.” Kane quickly called Turk, and then with his arm around her shoulder, they walked over to the diner. As they walked across the street, the hairs on the back of Kane’s neck started to go up. He knew they were being watched, but the street was too quiet for them to stop so he could have a look around. He needed to get her to the diner safely and worry about whoever was watching them later.

Once they got to the door, Kane opened it and shuffled Steph through then had a quick look around the area before following her in.

The place was busy with the lunch rush, but they saw Turk waving in the back booth and headed in his direction, bobbing and weaving around all the other customers lined up for takeout.

The minute they were an arm’s length away, Turk reached out and pulled Stephanie against his body for a big hug and a quick kiss.

“Damn, I’ve missed you today, baby,” he said as he helped her into the booth. “Have you had a busy day so far?”

Before she had a chance to answer, Kane started singing her praises.

“You should see our girl at work, Turk. Shit, she’s amazing, she has a dozen people asking her questions, and”—he leaned forward and whispered—“some of the questions are stupid, if you ask me.” Leaning back against the booth, he looked sternly over at Steph when she kicked his shin under the table.

“There is no such thing as a stupid question, Kane,” she said smiling at the look on his face. “Some people just lack any common sense, that’s all.”

Kane laughed and then quickly put on phony stern look. “You will pay for that little kick under the table, angel eyes.” He smiled devilishly, wiggling his eyebrows back and forth.

The waitress came and took their orders, and once she headed back to the kitchen, Kane asked, “What did your brother have to say?”

Sighing heavily, Turk ran his hand down the front of his face in frustration. “He was the driver on the bike that first night.”

“What the hell was he thinking, Turk? The other person had a knife on them.” Kane knew it wasn’t Turk’s fault, but he was just pissed at the idiocy of Brian.

“There wasn’t supposed to be any weapon. According to Brian, that first night, it was supposed to be a purse snatch. He didn’t know about the knife until he found it on Jenny later. It was Jenny who torched the truck, too, and left his watch there. He’s got a good alibi for the time of the fire. He was at an AA meeting.” Turk looked so relieved that his brother wasn’t the one to start the fire.