Leah's Triplet Mates (10 page)

“How soon can you get the replacement figurines to us? It might take us a week or two to enact the recovery,” said Saxon.

“I’ll have them here tomorrow, locked in my safe. Let me know when you need them, and I’ll make sure I’m here to give them to you.”

Bram, Hardy, and Saxon rose and shook hands with the client.

“Excellent. We’ll be in touch. You do understand this job will be more expensive than the first one. It might be considerably more complicated to make the switch now,” said Saxon.

“Absolutely. Shall we say five thousand for a complete exchange?”

Bram kept a poker face, but that was twice what they usually asked for a local job. If they could get in and out before Lutterworth was aware they’d taken the jewelry it’d be easy. They had to do it before he improved his security, whatever happened. They were cat burglars, not safecrackers.

“That seems fair.” Saxon shook the client’s hand again, and they all left.

They headed to the elevator, and Saxon rested his hand over the buttons. “What level did we get on at?” he asked.

Bram shrugged. He’d been in the backseat, not paying attention.

Hardy stared at Saxon. “You were shotgun. As navigator, it’s your job to notice that sort of thing.”

“You drove. Don’t you know which level you parked on?”

“Of course not. We went up several levels before we found a parking space.”

Saxon growled at Hardy. “Well, how are we supposed to find the fucking car? Do you even know what the license plate is?”

“No. Why should I? It’s a white Mazda, and I’ve got the keys.”

“But you don’t know where you parked it, and half the cars in the parking lot are white.”

Bram leaned against the wall of the elevator and laughed. His brothers were carrying on like a couple of six-year-olds. Here they were in a huge shopping mall with a loaner car and none of them had a clue where it was. None of them had slept the previous night. They’d all had far too much exercise and drama over the past forty-eight hours, and now they’d lost their borrowed ride. Bram laughed and laughed until tears ran down his cheeks and his belly started to hurt.

Soon Saxon and Hardy were laughing with him.

* * * *

Hardy didn’t know whether to laugh or cry or punch his brother on the nose. Both of his brothers. Saxon standing there like butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth and Bram laughing like a moron. Finally, he stared at the elevator buttons. The loaner car wasn’t parked on the top floor of the parking lot. He was certain about that. It also wasn’t the bottom floor and likely not the second from the bottom. He punched the button for the second from top level.

“We’ll start at the second top level and walk down. At least I know which way to turn when we get out of the elevator.”

Bram stopped laughing long enough to say, “Besides, walking down is easier than walking up. Jeez I’m tired.”

Hardy was exhausted as well. There’d been way too much drama in his life in the past two days, although finding Leah had made it all worthwhile. However, how to get her back into their bed was proving harder than he’d expected. That had to happen tonight. He couldn’t wait any longer for her, and ménage sex, real triple-penetration sex. Hell yes. That had to happen and soon. Preferably tonight.

They marched out from the elevator, heading in the direction all three of them agreed was correct, and then spread out looking for white Mazdas. Hardy hadn’t even noticed which make and model it was, just that it wasn’t old, but it wasn’t new either.

Whenever one of them found a potential car, Hardy pressed the beeper, but no lights lit up. After they were sure they’d checked that level properly, they took the stairs down to the next level and did it all again.

By the time they’d checked the third level, Hardy was totally exhausted. He leaned against the wall of the stairwell and groaned. “Fucking hell. We’ve lost the fucking car.”

“I hear you, brother. Damn, I need a nap,” added Bram.

“Well it’s not here. We must have left it on the second level,” said Saxon.

Hardy shook his head. “I’m sure I drove up more than one level. He stared at the car ramp up to the next level.

“Fuck. That’s it. We looked at the wrong side of the building on the middle level. The stairs and the ramp turn in the other direction. We checked the wrong side of the fucking parking lot.”

With renewed energy, he headed up the stairs, trailed by his brothers.

Bram asked, “What do you mean we looked on the wrong side?”

“The elevator faces the same way every time someone exits it, but the ramps and stairs don’t. We took the elevator up to the professional suites, but we walked down the stairs,” explained Saxon, hurrying after him.

With their backs to the elevator this time, they headed out through the parking lot, and Bram found the car quite easily.

They piled in and headed for home. But the only thing Hardy could think of was how to get Leah into their bed.

“Okay, brothers. How are we going to invite Leah into our bed tonight? Time’s wasting. Tomorrow night, we might be back at Lutterworth’s. Tonight is for Leah.”

“I’m too tired. I never thought I’d say I was too tired for sex, but I am. All I can think of is sleeping,” said Bram, cracking a huge yawn.

“It’s not much after four now. We call Leah and make a date. We sleep for two hours, pick her up at maybe seven thirty, take her to dinner. We’ll be in bed with her at nine and return her home at midnight. No problem.”

“And be up at five to be at the bakery?” asked Saxon.

“Damn. I hadn’t thought of that.” Hardy groaned as he swung the car up the ramp onto the freeway.

“Here’s something else I bet you haven’t thought of. We don’t have her cell phone number.” Bram’s voice was flat and deflated.

“Well, fuck. Now what are we going to do?” asked Hardy.

“Not fuck, that’s for sure,” answered Bram.

Just then Saxon’s cell phone beeped, and for one glorious moment, Hardy wondered if Leah had called them. Until he realized she didn’t know their numbers any more than they knew hers.

Saxon’s quiet, “Yes, sir,” told Hardy their Alpha was the one making the call. He concentrated on driving silently and safely. Maybe the Alpha had already found them some more work to do. If they could pick up several jobs to do at Lutterworth’s all in one night, it’d be excellent.

Hardy blinked as Saxon hit the speaker on his cell phone.

“It’s not worth a lot of money, but it has sentimental value because she won it as a prize in elementary school and she’d never won a prize before. That dates back before this modern habit of every kid in the class getting a prize every year.” The Alpha’s voice was tart.

“What’s the name of the book, sir? And do you have a description of it?” asked Saxon.

“It has a plain brown leather cover with silver writing. Not a paper cover or dust jacket, just the leather. The title is
A Child’s Garden of Verses,
and the author is Robert Louis Stevenson. It was published in 1916.”

Wow. One hundred years ago. I’m sure that’ll be valuable. Maybe not worth thousands, but Lutterworth wouldn’t have stolen it if it wasn’t worth something. Not when he knew the owner would miss it. And that proves he steals things himself from people he visits socially, as well as scamming them.

The Alpha was still speaking. “The Lutterworths have been invited to spend a few days on Long Island with some friends of theirs. The friends will be flying directly there tomorrow, but the Lutterworths will want to go home and pack different clothing. However, I suspect they won’t be home long enough to notice much. You need to plan your venture for the night after tomorrow night. Clear?”

“Yes, sir.”

Hardy waited until Saxon’s cell phone was back in his pocket. “We’re all too tired to do anything tonight. Leah deserves our best efforts to please her, and tonight won’t be that. I suggest we all have a really early night and meet her at the bakery tomorrow. Tomorrow night must be for Leah. We have to get her alone. Then we have to plan not only the retrieval of the ceramic figurines and this book but also how to sell those stamp albums.”

Internally Hardy groaned. Stealing the items from Lutterworths was going to be easy compared with getting Leah into the dungeon and their bed. Her schedule was very full, and she lived with her family. And if they went with her to Detroit, they’d have to accept her sister as well.

Damn and double damn. This was going to be tricky.

* * * *

Leah was glad the shelter was very busy. She was so tired that if she’d had time to sit down likely she’d have fallen asleep instantly. A young woman had arrived with her thirteen-month-old daughter and a newborn girl, only a day old. When her husband had learned the new baby was a second girl, he’d thrown them all out of the house, with nothing. The new mother was still weak and exhausted from the labor and birth, so Leah took the toddler to watch her while her mom helped the young woman and Zoe and Maia ran the craft workshop without her.

The craft afternoons were fun. It was a chance for the women to forget their worries and experiment with paints, inks, glues, cardboard, and other craft materials. Leah was often amazed at how talented the women were, making items that were good enough to sell in the local craft store at their first attempt. One woman was an incredibly accomplished artist, and her sketches were selling really well.

Fortunately the tiny tot in her care was easy to entertain, playing happily with a set of plastic shapes that could be pushed inside a ball, and then falling asleep in Leah’s arms. Hiding her own yawns, Leah settled the little child into a crib and covered her with a blanket before heading out to the kitchen to help prepare the evening meal.

By the time they all got home and ate their own meal, Leah was more than ready to rest, but her sisters needed to be told about the stamp albums. She didn’t tell them about being kidnapped or about spending the night with the men.

“It took a lot longer than I’d expected, and I didn’t want to come home then in case Mom was already up. So I waited until the bakery opened and went directly there. Bram was there, too, buying bread rolls. I’m really tired now, though.”

“I’m sure you are, sweet. But I’m so glad you got the albums back. And I’m sure they’re worth something. Maybe not a whole lot, but more than just two hundred dollars,” said Zoe.

“We need to take a day and go to Detroit, and we need to do it fairly soon. Those utility bills need to be paid.”

Leah yawned.

Zoe patted her shoulder. “Go to bed, Leah. Maia and I will work out a day when we can organize a big cauldron of soup for the meal, and with the bread, it’ll mean you and she can be gone for the day. The volunteers can handle that alone as long as Mom and I help chop up the vegetables first. Not on Saturday. There’s too much preparation to do for Sundays. And not Monday because of having to rearrange all the furniture in the hall. But midweek. Tuesday or Thursday would be best. Male shower days.”

Leah nodded. That made sense. Her mom did most of the female shower supervision, so a Tuesday or Thursday would mean her mom was free to do more of the meal preparation. But it wasn’t going to be easy if two of them weren’t there.

She climbed into bed and wished for a moment that the three men would be around to help. It’d made such a difference having them available to sweep and wash dishes and shift the furniture. The pews were very heavy to move, and no matter how often the parking lot was swept, it always needed doing again a day or two later. If they were rich, they could buy a leaf blower, and then keeping it clean would be easy. She shrugged. There wasn’t enough money for the utility bills, never mind for a leaf blower.

She closed her eyes, meaning to think some more of the sex she’d had with the men, but the next thing she knew, her alarm was ringing and it was time to go and fetch the bread.

There was one car already parked outside the bakery when she arrived, and Leah’s heart beat faster with hope, even though she couldn’t believe the men would be here. When the car doors opened and they all climbed out, she burst into a happy grin. She shouldn’t want to see them, but somehow, she couldn’t prevent herself from smiling and feeling a burst of joy run through her entire body. Her nipples hardened as they crossed to her car. Bram opened her door, and Hardy held out a hand to help her climb out.

“Good morning, beautiful,” said Hardy.

She blushed at his words. “It’s nice to see you all again, too,” she said, hurrying inside. She collected the day-old bread, thanked the baker and his wife, and stared as Bram bought an armload of packages. Saxon helped her put the trash bag of bread into the trunk of her car, and they followed her back to the parsonage. There it was Hardy who carried the bag for her while Saxon held the doors for them and Bram placed his parcels on the table in the kitchen.

Her father looked up from the table where he was drinking coffee. “Good morning, Hardy, Bram, and Saxon. I’m so glad you’ve come to help. It’s the men’s day for showering, and it’s sometimes difficult for me to help everyone. Old Harry has to stay with their belongings, you know. They trust him and expect it to be him on duty, not one of the girls.”

Leah watched the men’s faces. Her father had named the men accurately. They were identical physically, but their personalities were different. Her father was an expert at understanding people and he’d picked up on the differences already. From her dad’s discussion with her mom yesterday, she was almost certain they’d guessed the men were panther shape-shifters as well. Or, if not panthers, shape-shifters anyway.