The Triplets Mate Zoe (2 page)

“You can’t. They broke the espresso machine. It’ll cost hundreds of dollars to replace, and who knows if the insurance will pay for it? Who knows if the police will find the thieves?”

Vallen felt the Dom in him come to the fore. “We’ll make sure the insurers pay you what they owe you. You have our promise on that.”

Diego patted the man’s shoulder and walked out the back. Vallen hoped he could find some wine or something. The old man didn’t look good. He needed a shot of something to help him get over the shock. Hot, sweet chocolate or warm, soothing herbal tea would be best, but with no means to heat water right now, just about anything would be better than nothing.

Vallen grabbed the broom and started sweeping from the front of the store, making the mess into one giant pile against the side wall. As he swept, he stacked the chairs onto the tables, noting that one of them seemed to have been used as a weapon because the legs were bent. He took that chair out back and found a trash bag to sweep all the detritus into. He swept carefully, not wanting to throw out anything that might be important, but it was mostly chunks of glass from the smashed window, along with small pieces of wood and plastic from who-knew-what.

He’d just finished bagging the trash when Diego retuned with two mugs, one in each hand. “From the baker,” he said as he handed one to the man and the other to the woman.

Vallen noticed Zoe had managed to get her to stop crying, and she was wiping very red eyes with a wad of tissues. Progress was being made.

He waited until they’d both drunk their beverages, and Diego had returned the mugs, and then he spoke as gently as he could. “Diego and I will help you. What’s the most important thing to do first?”

The man had a little color in his cheeks now, although he still didn’t look well. His voice was less frail and wobbly, though. “Zoe must take the food and give it to her father for the homeless people. Likely much is already ruined, but some things might be salvageable if they’re cooked straight away.”

“Okay. Show me what to take, and Diego can get that to them now,” said Vallen.

Diego raise his eyebrows at him but didn’t say anything. He’d have had to walk here because Vallen already had their shared car. But if it was too much to carry, he could take their car, and the bread, and get that to the Crawfords and Monty, who were likely wondering what the fuck was going on.

The woman seemed to be recovering from the shock and showed them where there was a huge pile of cardboard boxes. They unloaded the contents of the large freezer into the boxes and carried them all out to Zoe’s car.

Vallen looked around the shop. Really, there wasn’t much that could be done until the repairman came to fix the freezer, but it didn’t seem like a good idea to leave these two older people alone right now. Zoe would have been the obvious person to stay with them, but today was the female shower day at the church, and her mom would need her help. Plus, he had no idea what to do with the food to preserve it or cook it, and the women would be much better at that.

Fuck! It seems I’m elected to stay.

“Diego, you and Zoe go back to the church and start work on the food. I’ll stay here and do whatever needs doing.”

“I should stay.” Zoe’s chin was firm, and her hand was on her hip.

“You’d be better at this than me, I know, but it’s the women’s shower day, and already your mom will be missing you.”

He watched her lips thin, and then she frowned. Damn, her face was so expressive. He knew exactly what she was thinking.

“All right.”

Zoe hugged the woman again, gave her a cell phone number, and then followed Diego out to the cars.

Vallen turned to the couple. “I’m here to help. What can I do to help you now?”

* * * *

Zoe muffled her sigh as she backed out of the parking space and turned her car toward the church. Well, it wasn’t her car exactly. It was the family’s sole vehicle, but lately she seemed to be the one driving it mostly. Leah, her older sister, had met and married panther shape-shifter triplets. She’d just gotten back from her honeymoon and was in the middle of moving into their apartment at the panther warehouse.

Meanwhile her younger sister, Maia, had fallen in love with another set of panther triplets and gotten herself pregnant. She was getting married in a family-only ceremony on Saturday evening. However, she’d already moved in with the men. They’d turned up with a truck and told her parents what had happened and moved her in with them all on the same day. Fortunately, her parents had taken the news better than Zoe had expected. She supposed she ought to have guessed what was going on when Maia was coming home late, night after night.

Zoe sighed again. She’d love to spend some time alone with Vallen, Montague, and Diego Reed, but it just seemed too much like following the crowd. She wasn’t a lemming to walk off a cliff because her sisters had. Although honesty forced her to admit that her sisters both looked more like cats who’d gotten the cream than lemmings falling off a cliff.

But still. She wasn’t going to be rushed into anything, not even by intensely handsome, tall, muscular men, with military-short black hair and rich dark-chocolate eyes.

And now, on a women’s shower day, with forty women to be showered and a hot midday meal to prepare for one hundred twenty people, they had an eclectic collection of other foods that needed to be cooked and preserved to be used either today or soon. Fortunately, her mom was a genius at throwing random ingredients together and turning them into delicious meals.

Plus, someone had to help the café owners. Likely Vallen would be with them to fill in any paperwork needed to claim the insurance. He’d sounded very definite about that. But Zoe felt sure there’d be dozens of other tasks to be done that she knew nothing about, and the owners were completely shattered. George was so pale, his face almost gray, that she’d been really worried about him, and Dorrie had cried herself into such a state she was almost hysterical.

I hope Maia and Leah are both at home this morning. We’re going to need all the extra help we can get.

The panthers ran a reclamation business, which sounded dodgy to Zoe, but they were used by the police and government, so they must be legal. She knew they rather jokingly called themselves The Cat Burglars, which was a play on their panther abilities as well as the fact that sometimes they sole things back from people who’d already stolen them. Like the man who’d taken her father’s stamp albums and never given her father the money for them. Fortunately, Leah and her three men had managed to sort that out, and the money had helped the family enormously.

Leah had insisted some of it be used to pay all their bills, so her father couldn’t just give it away, which was a tendency he had. He was so kindhearted and felt so deeply for the poor and downtrodden. But sometimes paying the electric bill was just as important as helping another homeless person.

Zoe parked her car in the church parking lot, and Diego pulled up beside her. Two of Leah’s mates were waiting in the lot, so that meant Leah was here, which was great news. Saxon and Hardy Stewart had been leaning against a tree. Now they came across to her car and Saxon asked, “Do you need us? There was some garbled message about extra food to collect.”

Zoe waved at the backseat of her car, which was piled high with boxes of food, and popped the trunk, which was also filled with boxes.

Hardy grinned. “It’s nice to be needed,” he said, piling three boxes into Saxon’s arms before picking up two and stacking them so he could lift them both himself.

Diego walked past her, carrying the bread. “Don’t try to carry that stuff yourself. We’ll be back in a minute to get it for you.”

Zoe nodded. Her mom would have to look at the items and decide the best way to save as much of the food as possible, so there was no immediate rush to get inside. Leah would be able to start work on the bread while that happened.

Zoe stretched her back. The ice cream wouldn’t be too nice right now, but the milk should be all right as long as they used it today. Maybe they could make some kind of bread pudding for the people. They seldom had a real dessert to eat, and when they got one, they were always so grateful.

Even when everything was taken into the large kitchen and her mom was oohing and aahing over the supplies, Zoe found herself thinking about Vallen, Montague, and Diego. Three kind, handsome men. The time had come for her to decide whether or not to tell them to go away from her and stay away, or whether she should accept their company and go on a date with them, as they so clearly wanted her to do.

They’d been really helpful today. Without a crowd of people, this food wouldn’t have been salvageable. Maybe it wasn’t just coincidence. Maybe it was meant to be. Maybe she should think about letting them get closer to her.

Where else would I find handsome men who want to help? Handsome men who like me? It’s not going to happen ever again. I should jump at them before they get tired of waiting for me. Three men. Three men! If they ask me again, I’ll say yes.

* * * *

Diego carried the last boxes of food from Zoe’s car into kitchen of the parsonage. He hung Zoe’s car keys on the hook by the back door. Everyone in the family used the one vehicle, and he knew the keys were left there. The kitchen was piled high with partially defrosted meats, vegetables, desserts, and boxes of every imaginable thing the café owner had used in his work. No wonder the man had been devastated at the loss of so much.

Diego waked to the pile of empty boxes and began opening them up and folding them flat. He didn’t know whether the pastor would keep them, or whether they had to be taken back to the café owner, or even thrown in the trash, but folding them flat was a necessary first step and would make some space in the overcrowded kitchen.

It was a huge room, the heart of the house. The back door opened immediately into the kitchen and almost everyone used it as the main entry to the pastor’s home.

John-Paul rubbed his hands on his jeans and said, “Right. You people can carry on here. I need to go and talk to George and Dorrie. Can one of you men check that the hall is open and do any setting up that the volunteers over there need?”

Diego sighed. He could tell that was going to be him. Leah was newly mated to the Stewart triplets, and there was no way any of them would leave her side willingly. Besides, Diego knew what to do. He’d been coming here to help for weeks now and knew every step of the preparation process. At least they’d been given a leaf blower from a hardware store just a week ago, and he didn’t have to sweep the enormous parking lot anymore. That was a huge job reduced to a ten-minute one.

“I’ll go,” he said, putting the last of the deconstructed boxes on the pile against the wall.

The first of the volunteers who came every day to help prepare the food were just arriving. There were maybe a dozen women involved, and, of them, five or six would come on any given day. The only male volunteer was there every day. He was the only person the homeless people trusted to watch their precious possessions while they showered and ate.

Once or twice he’d been ill and unable to come, and even though one of Zoe’s sisters had watched the property, the homeless people hadn’t been able to relax without Old Harry there in charge.

Diego unlocked the door to the hall and switched on the lights while one of the women went straight to the boiling water unit on the wall and turned it on. He helped her get out the huge cauldrons to cook the food.

“What’s on the menu today?” she asked.

“I don’t know. The café down the road was burgled last night, and their freezer was damaged. George has donated the contents of his freezer to the ministry. But I don’t know what food was in it and what Naomi has decided to put on the menu today.”

“George’s café was robbed? That’s terrible. You go there right now and tell George and Dorrie we’ll send them up a hot meal at noon, and we’ll come up after we finish here to see what they need.”

Diego knew a direct order when he heard one. Arguing with her that it had nothing to do with him wasn’t going to work. “Yes, ma’am,” he said obediently.

It was lucky the café was only a few blocks from the church. This was the second time he’d walked there already today. And it was damn likely he’d be walking it again at noon with their meals. Still, it was the least he could do to help.

Vallen and the woman were washing the floor. The man was sitting at one of the tables with John-Paul and the panther pack’s accountant. Well, hell, Vallen had been busy. Diego hoped that meant their accountant was helping George fill out the paperwork to claim everything that had been damaged on the insurance. At least Vallen seemed to have everything here under control. He delivered his message, adding that’d he’d bring food for Vallen, John-Paul and the accountant as well, and headed back.

The kitchen was a hive of activity when he returned, and it seemed he was the designated messenger boy. He spent the next few hours walking backward and forward from kitchen to hall, taking messages, fetching equipment, and delivering food. By the time he finally sat down to eat, he was as exhausted as if he’d been repossessing someone’s property.

Even worse, he’d only had glimpses of Zoe. He hadn’t so much as exchanged a complete sentence with her all day. He wanted that woman so damn much it hurt. It didn’t matter how often logic told him he didn’t really know her. In his heart, he knew everything he needed to know. He’d watched her work really hard for hours and hours. He’d seen her talk gently to people in pain and stress. He’d sat around the kitchen table when she was laughing and joking with her family. Diego didn’t really think there was much more he needed to know about her except what she’d look like naked and in their dungeon. Or even better naked and in their bed.

Besides, if she had flabby thighs or a wobbly belly, it wouldn’t matter at all. Her face was stunningly beautiful, and so was her nature. Anything else was just gravy. He wanted Zoe, and that was all that mattered—as long as she wanted him and his brothers as well. And that was the tricky bit. How were they ever to find out? They needed to take a stand, stop pussyfooting around, and invite her on a date she couldn’t refuse.