Broken (20 page)

Right about ten when the car had been showing up every day, the past
five
days starting Sunday, that week I heard it and threw out something in the trash before writing some things on my white boards where he could see me. Then I drank some water on my shelf until I heard the car door open and close. When I saw him approach out of the corner of my eye, I moved towards the other white boards where my tool chest was as if I
hadn’t
noticed.

And waited.

“Good morning, ma’am, I was wondering—” he greeted as he stepped
into
my garage where we weren’t as visible from the street.

“Why are you stalking me?” I demanded as I pulled the gun from behind my back and aimed it at him. His eyes went wide and he flinched. “Don’t try it. Hands up.”

“Don’t try
what
?” he hedged, studying me closely as he slowly raised them.

“You’re armed. I can see the harness under your suit jacket. Now answer my question before I shoot first and get my answers later, because I promise you, I can take an accurate headshot before any man can pull a gun and stop me. You just came onto my property with a weapon and into my
home
by walking in my garage uninvited. So I will ask again.
Why are you stalking me?
You’ve been outside my house every day this week—”

“I’m not here for
you
,” he growled, anger flaring in his eyes. “Is every American this paranoid? I didn’t think you truly were all gun-toting imbeciles as the media portrays you.”

“Says the imbecile who just walked into a house and got the drop pulled on him,” I drawled, rolling my eyes at him. “I’m the only one who lives here, so you care to try again? Who else would you be here for? You wouldn’t
be
my first stalker, so yeah, that’s why I have a gun. You did come here
armed
and uninvited so good thing I
do
have one, huh?”

“My apologies. Let’s start this again.” He dipped his head at me as if manners would work
now
or something. “I don’t know who you are even. I’m looking for the people next door to you—three men.”

“Three men? It’s a
family
, nice try,” I sneered. “They’ve lived here the whole time I have and that’s been well over a year now. They traveled for a bit for work, but the guy’s brother stayed there and housesat, but a
family
lives there.”

“No, my records say—” he argued, reaching for his pocket.

“I will
shoot you
,” I yelled, cocking the gun. “It’s a fucking
family
. Mom, dad, two kids. I don’t know what game you’re playing, but I’m not. I don’t know what you want from me or what this is about, but you’ve been parked outside my house for a fucking
week
, asshole, not
theirs
. Now I can pull this trigger or we can call the police and let them sort this shit out, but either way, this ends today because I’m not living in fear watching my windows anymore.”

He darted out of the garage like I’d been hoping for, and I pulled my phone out of my pocket, texted the guys not to come home, then called the police. I lied my
ass
off when they showed up, feeling horrible about it, but either way, the man was obviously dangerous and not exactly aboveboard so, yeah, we did what we had to at times.

I told them he’d verbally accosted me, threatening me at gunpoint about one of my characters and where they lived,
clearly
out of his mind since fictional characters weren’t real. When they asked me how I’d gotten away and him to leave, I’d made up that I’d told the man that the character in question was at the airport trying to catch a plane. They asked me why and I rolled my eyes.

“Yeah, I didn’t really have a reason more than I wanted
him
to leave,” I drawled. “He had a rental car. I thought he was from out of town. It just popped in my head that
he
should fucking go so I said that.”

“Smart really. Helps us catch this asshole hopefully,” the policeman said, nodding before he called it in.

That had been my
actual
reason, but I couldn’t say that. The police took off after that, and I told the guys it was safe to come home. Then
I
made a call to an old college friend of mine who worked for the FBI now, waiting
forever
to get through to him since he was out on assignment.

“Who is this guy to you?” he asked after I filled him in.

“No one maybe, but I need to know if he’s gone or that he’s not coming back.”

“You’re gonna owe me
big
for this, Cara,” he warned as Teak and Aspen came whipping into the driveway first before Cypress did seconds later, all of them hopping out of their vehicles almost instantly.

“Fuck
that
, Kevin,” I bitched, waving them quiet as they joined me. “I seem to remember a certain someone almost
failing
advanced chem who’s
ass
I saved by switching lab partners to help him and
doing
all the work. That class was only once a year and failing it would have made you add another year onto your whole schooling because of it. Does the FBI like the five-year program for its applicants?”

“Point made, Cara. Point clearly made. I’ll make some calls and get back to you. We’re square after this though.” He hung up and I smiled at the phone.

“I accept your terms.”

“What the
fuck
is going on?” Aspen bellowed, his eyes wild. “Why couldn’t we come home? And who are you yelling at from the fucking
FBI
?”

“Okay, so you guys are going to be mad,” I hedged, wincing at just
how
mad they probably were going to be. “But I handled it. Let’s go inside. You might need a drink.” I opened the door from the garage, quickly grabbing my gun which Cypress caught, the blood draining from his face when he did. “Maybe a bottle each actually.”

I sat them down in the kitchen and poured them drinks, refilling them instantly as I went, and sure enough, it didn’t take long before they went through a large bottle of whiskey. Man, did they have a tolerance. By the time I was wrapping up, my phone rang.

“The guy’s gone,” Kevin informed me. “Hopped some private diplomatic jet back to some country I’ve never heard of. State department is all up in arms over this thing. They want to know why some fucking diplomat is harassing one of our people and word is they’re looking for some lost royal, Prince Teak Greene or some shit. Know anything about that?”

“No, not a
thing
,” I hinted.

“Cara, do you need help with this
thing
you know nothing about?” he sighed.

“Help would be appreciated.”

“Who is this guy to you? I’ve never known you to go out on a limb like this for people.”

“Really? You’ve never known
me
to help someone close to me, Kevin?”

“Good point. I retract my statement,” he conceded. “So you care for him.”

“I love him. Will you help me?”

“Yes.”

“What’s it gonna cost me?” I chuckled, glancing at the three sets of
huge
eyes staring at me in my kitchen practically chugging shots now.

“My wife really likes your books,” he hedged, and I could almost hear the wheels spinning in his head. “You could name some dashing werewolf after me who saves the girl and dedicate one of them to her.”

“Done,” I immediately agreed. “Email me her name and what you want me to say and it’s done, my friend.”

“Well hot damn. She’s going to fucking love this. I’ll get laid for months like a rock star,” he gloated.

“Glad to help,” I drawled, always loving how Kevin liked to overshare. “Now about that
thing
. I guess it would be plausible that this guy got his information wrong. I have a
lot
of characters. It wouldn’t be far-fetched that one could be named Teak Greene and he got his shit mixed up with the way the internet and social media is nowadays. Someone probably posted something to someone, and it led him on the wrong trail. Maybe the State department should put him on the
right
trail—say Rio? That’s a big place that no one’s ever found.”

“People
do
get lost there all the time,” Kevin agreed. “I’ll let the State department know that I’ve heard such a rumor, and we feel this diplomat was a little off his rocker, confusing fiction with reality in a case of overly loving an author and her work.”

“It has happened.”

“That it has. Talk to you soon, Cara.”

“Thanks, Kevin.” I hit the screen to end the call and set my phone on the counter, glancing at them each in turn. “Don’t be mad. I’m fine. The guy wasn’t all that—” I gasped as the three of them jumped me at once, peppering me with kisses as their hands seemed to want to check every inch of me for any scratch or
whatever
.

“I love you
so
much,” Teak gushed as his lips found mine. “I can’t believe you did all of that for me, for us.”

“You’re not mad?” I guessed, shocked they were letting me off the hook.

“
Furious
, but amazed too,” Aspen growled, tearing my shirt off me as his kissed along my neck.

“You stupid,
stupid
, wonderful woman,” Cypress praised as he worked my yoga pants down my hips. It was an odd, confusing reaction that left my head spinning over and over again. All. Afternoon.

And into the night. The three of them did things to my body that I didn’t know could be done, teaming up on me right there in the kitchen. When I couldn’t take anymore, they tucked me into bed, all of them surrounding me, practically smothering me as we piled together as close as possible.

I was just thrilled I hadn’t gotten yelled at. I really had expected to get yelled at.

At least a little bit.

* * * *

Things were weird the next few days though. I didn’t know if the day they’d been waiting for when the royals came looking for Teak had come so now they didn’t know what to do was the situation, or if how I handled things still bothered them, but either way—things were different. And I couldn’t put my finger on
how
.

I watched Teak and Cypress cutting wood from my bench seat up on the top deck and thought about things, wondering what to do.

“You have that look,” Aspen murmured as he slid behind me, wrapping his arms around me. “What’s going on?”

“You know, I think a lot, so you might want to get used to
that look
,” I chuckled, leaning back against him.

“I know your normal thinking look, but you also have a worried thinking look so don’t deflect. Talk to me.”

“I’m just wondering what my role is,” I sighed, closing my eyes, trying to soak up his strength. “I don’t know. What part I play in all of this? You guys each have your role and I don’t see mine. Maybe that’s why I think things are weird or have changed since that guy showed up.”

His lips gently kissed right below my ear, melting me. “Let’s start there. What do you see as our roles?”

I smiled, Aspen exemplifying in that moment how I would portray him. “You’re the planner. You lay things out and set up the game plan. You see the big picture and take note of how the puzzle fits, how someone’s feelings change, always observant to what’s the situation. You keep us in line, always so we’re on target and know what we need to make it.”

“And me?” Teak asked, and my eyes snapped open. I hadn’t heard him or Cypress come up the back steps. I sighed, realizing this was going to be a
thing
now.

“You’re the peacemaker. You won’t let anything bad in the house continue, you make sure four adults keep the puzzle together and that the pieces are happy together. You bring the smiles and life back into the dullness of having to
be
adults, and you love openly in a world where it’s so easy to hide. We need to blow off steam or find a way around something we can’t see the answer to, we go to you.”

“Me?” Cypress breathed, fear in his eyes.

“The interpreter, the adjuster. You speak both languages of every piece, making sure they’re turned the right way depending on
how
they’re feeling and what they need. I might cook, but you’re the homemaker here, Cypress. You know that Teak likes the really fluffy pillows, and I medium ones, and Aspen’s weird and doesn’t want any. You make us all
work
in those little ways that normally four adults can
not
. I don’t get what Aspen was saying, I ask you before the fight.”

“And in all of
that
you don’t see a place for yourself?” Cypress hedged, looking away.