Bailey, Debbie - Stephanie's Homecoming [Men of Kinsey 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (19 page)

“My family has taken on way too much when it came to me. I want my sister to be able to enjoy her family without so many struggles. When Mom and Dad died, she just took me in without a backward glance and without a thought to how it would affect her life. I want to give her something remarkable to show her how much she and her husband have done for me.”

Stephanie squeezed his hand, saying, “I want you to do something for me, and I don’t want any questions, okay? I want you to call Avery’s in the city and make reservations for your sister and her husband, and then I want you to book the honeymoon suite at the best hotel, and I mean the best. Somewhere like the Ritz, and make sure it’s for two nights with the works. A full spa treatment for both of them, and I want a special dinner served for just the two of them in the private dining room. And make sure you charge it on your company credit card. I don’t want to find out you paid for it yourself, Shayne. This is one of my gifts to your sister for raising such a fabulous brother.” Stepping forward, she gently kissed his cheek and left.

* * * *

While waiting for Stephanie, Kane had called ahead to Turk to let him know that he needed to come and pick up Stephanie to take her home. He’d been watching her as she spoke with Shayne, and the sad look on her face unnerved him. She’d been through a lot since coming home, and now the visit from her aunt. Whatever it was that Sophia said to her had affected her greatly, and he just wanted to wrap her in his arms and carry her home to Turk.

As Stephanie and Shayne came out of Shayne’s office, he watched as the young man kissed her cheek and handed her to him.

“Are you ready to go, baby? Turk’s going to meet us up at the club so that he can take you home. I just have some paperwork to do and a few phone calls to make, and then I’ll be straight home, too.”

She was too quiet on the short drive over to Club Kinsey. Something was definitely wrong.

“What happened with Sophia, angel eyes? You’ve been so sad since she left. I thought that if you’d forgiven her, you’d be happier.” Kane took her hand and kissed the palm.

“She’s dying, Kane. She only has about six months, and at the most a year. She wanted to clear the air with me before she went. Sophia came to explain to me why she behaved so badly after Mom and Dad passed, and she wanted to make sure I would be okay.” It broke his heart to see the woman he loved in such pain.

Pulling into the parking lot of Club Kinsey, Kane immediately noticed Turk leaning against the back of his truck waiting for them. As they parked, Turk walked over to the passenger-side door, which Steph had already opened, and lifted her into his arms.

“Rough day today, sugar?” It was more a rhetorical question than anything else.

Walking back to his truck, Turk placed Steph inside the truck cab then headed back to speak with Kane.

“What the hell happened, Kane? She looks almost catatonic.” Kane looked over his friend’s shoulder, his heart breaking for her.

“Remember me telling you about the trouble Stephanie had with her Aunt Sophia after her parents’ deaths? Well, Sophia showed up at the office today. She’d heard Steph was back and wanted to make amends for all the trouble she caused.” Running a hand over the tight muscles at the back of his neck, Kane continued.

“Sophia also wanted to let her know that she is terminally ill. She doesn’t have more than a year, it seems. Stephanie, having the sympathetic nature that she does, after hearing Sophia’s explanation, gave Sophia the forgiveness that she was looking for. But I think it’s hit her harder than she expected.”

“Damn, hasn’t she gone through enough already?” Turk scowled.

* * * *

Sitting in the truck waiting for Turk gave Stephanie a chance to mull over everything that had happened in the last few days. When she had decided to move home, she thought she’d be leaving all the nastiness of the big city behind her. The crime rate in her old neighborhood was astronomical, and it was supposed to be one of the better areas in the city.

But even with all the troubles that had happened since coming back, she knew she wouldn’t change a thing. Glancing over her shoulder, she smiled at the two men who had won her heart. She had loved Kane for what seemed like forever, but Turk had been a complete surprise.

Suddenly she remembered her conversation with Shayne earlier and jumped out of the truck.

“Kane, I need you to do something for me before I forget,” she said as she walked up to them.

“Anything, baby, you know that.”

“I want you to find me a real good realtor who knows where I can get my hands on some land to build a house.” Stephanie looked really excited at what she was asking of him, but Kane wasn’t so sure.

“You’re not moving out on us, Stephanie.” He growled at her.

Steph could see both men tense at the mention of purchasing land to build a house.

“Relax, big guy, I’m hopefully going to be going into a new business venture soon, and I’m going to need to build a house and office space.”

“What new business venture, Stephanie?” This time it was Turk who was snarling.

“I’ll go over everything with you later. This is a project that I’m only going to be funding. It’s something I want to do that not only helps some really great people, but also brings business into Kinsey.”

Turning back toward the truck, she felt a whole lot better about things. She’d never touched the money her parents had left her. She’d never needed to before, but this project was something that was going to be a good thing all around, and she was sure that her parents would have been proud.

Chapter 11

Jenny sat across the street in her car watching the interaction of the three people she’d been looking for.

She had waited outside the paper hoping to see Stephanie come out alone, but when she exited with Kane, she could feel her heart rate increase as her anger, once again, roared to life.

She knew that once her parents came home, in a few days, that they would help her to make Kane see how good they could be together, but in the meantime she needed to get Stephanie out of the picture, and it didn’t seem like the two men were going to let her out of their sight, so this meant that Turk would have to be removed from the picture as well. That was okay with her because she wasn’t planning on being a sex toy for the two men. Her only care was Kane and getting him to the altar quickly.

As she watched Turk and Stephanie pull away from Club Kinsey, she followed in behind them. Maybe somewhere along the way she’d get the chance to stop and talk reasonably with them. Patting her purse that was on the seat beside her, she thought it didn’t matter anyway, if they weren’t going to see her position in all this, then they were going to have to have an accident.

* * * *

Turk knew they were being followed. Looking in the rearview mirror, he could see Jenny’s car behind them, and he grabbed his cell and pushed Kane’s number on his speed dial.

“Kane here,” his friend answered quickly.

“We’ve got a tail, Kane, and I don’t think that she wants to play nice.”

Stephanie quickly turned to look back to see Jenny coming up on them quickly.

“I’m on my way, Turk. Take Jefferson Road, and Ryder and I will cut her off. This is going to stop today.”

 
Turk placed his phone back on the seat beside him and headed in the direction Kane had told him to go.

It would take them about twenty minutes to get to Jefferson Road, and since there was usually little or no traffic between there and here, Turk knew he’d have to be really careful. Jenny was in a dangerous frame of mind at the moment, and he wasn’t sure how far she’d be willing to go to get Stephanie out of the way. But neither of them were going to allow this crazed woman to harm what they had just found again. Turk smiled at that thought because, technically, he’d only known Stephanie a week, but from hearing all of Kane’s stories and how wonderful she was, he felt like she’d come back to him as well as his friend.

“She’s waving at us to pull over, Turk,” Steph told him. He hadn’t noticed, but Steph had unbuckled her seat belt and slid across the seat to sit closer to him.
Damn I love bench seats!

“That’s not gonna happen, kitten. Hold on, we’re coming up to the turnoff to Jefferson, and I’m not going to slow too much to take it. I don’t want to give her any chance to catch up with us until we’re closer to Kane and Ryder.” Just as he made the turn, Jenny bumped his rear with her car and almost sent them into the ditch. If he had been less of a driver, she could have killed them.

“She just tried to run us off the road.” Steph’s faced paled, and she reached for the overhead roll bar.

“There they are, baby. I can see Ryder’s truck waiting at the turnoff, and I bet Kane’s close-by.” Turk started to slow the vehicle as he got closer to where Ryder sat waiting for them. Once they passed the point, Ryder pulled out quickly, cutting Jenny off, and Kane pulled in behind her, effectively cutting off all escape routes.

Turk pulled over to the side of the road, and before he could think about it, jumped out and ran back to where they had Jenny boxed in.

“Are you fucking crazy, lady?” he screamed at her. “You could have killed us back there.”

Slowly, as if she had not a care in the world, Jenny emerged from her car. “I’m sorry, Turk, I didn’t mean to run into you. I’ve been trying to get you to pull over so that we could talk, that’s all. I never meant to run into you.”

Turk didn’t believe a word of what Jenny was saying, and for the first time in his life he had to turn and walk away, or else he’d find himself in prison for murder. All he wanted to do was wrap his hands around Jenny’s throat and squeeze the life out of her for even thinking to harm his woman.

He could hear both Kane and Ryder yelling at Jenny about her driving, and Kane told her that the next time she came within a mile of any of them, they’d call the cops, and to top it off, Ryder was cancelling her membership in the club.

“You can’t cancel my membership, Ryder. I haven’t done anything wrong,” she cried.

“It has only recently come to my attention, Jenny, that over the past few years you have been, what most police agency would consider, stalking one of the owners of the club. Not only that but you have spread lies, and now you have shown yourself to be a danger, not just to Kane but also to the people he cares about, who, I might add, are also people that my family cares about. So yes, Jenny, I can cancel your membership, effective immediately.”

It had been some time since Turk had seen Ryder that pissed off. The only other time was after an incident with his wife’s ex. Ryder and his brothers, Sam and Dan, were very protective of anyone they consider family and that included him, Steph, and Kane.

Jenny stomped her foot and continued to rail at Ryder about how unfair he was being until Kane stepped forward and said, “Listen to me, Jenny, and for the first time, hear what I am saying. I do not want you in any way, shape, or form, and to continue this fantasy you have about us being together is just crazy. I’ve heard about your wedding plans, and let me tell you, as far as I’m concerned you need to get professional help. I’ve repeatedly told you it would never happen between us, even if Stephanie wasn’t in the picture. I have no romantic feelings for you, and I never will. I’ve let you go on with the silliness for years, and that’s my mistake, but now it’s over. No more bullshit.”

Kane leaned in close to Jenny then and told her, in a voice that would have scared the pants off of most people, “I’m giving you this last warning, Jenny. Leave Stephanie alone, and if something should happen to her, I will personally see to it that you and your family pays dearly. I’ll make sure that you not only spend the rest of your life in prison, but I’ll make sure that your family is left destitute as well. And trust me on this, Jenny, I have enough knowledge of your dad’s business to destroy him.” Kane hated using her parents like that, but it seemed the only way to get Jenny’s attention was to threaten her access to her parents’ money. He would never do it, but he knew the threat would probably be enough.