Their Unexpected Mate [Paranormal Protection Unit] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (14 page)

“And as cowardly as this will sound,” she looked at each of them, “I’m using this as my refuge to stay away from my brother. I needed time from him, time so that I can figure out just what I want and need to do about him and his thievery.”

The brothers shot a look at Scythe who nodded. “We know about him,” Trey admitted to her. “We did a little digging when we first realized just who you were, to us, that is. I won’t apologize because we wanted to know everything we could about you. I do have to admit though to an overwhelming urge to break your brother’s legs and arms.”

“And his nose. Definitely his nose,” Sully muttered looking at her. “He’s in deep with some not-very-nice people. And by deep, I mean he’s about one move away from having a permanent place at the bottom of a lake or river with his own pair of concrete booties.”

“Oh God.” She hadn’t realized it was that bad. Yes, she had known that he had gotten in with some very, very bad people, but ones that were ready to kill him? She knew the blood drained from her face. Katherine gripped the counter to remain standing to whisper, “Is there anything that can be done to save him, to help him redeem his own soul?”

“Highly doubtful,” Mac said quietly, shaking his head slightly. “But that’s why he’s trying to get the lawyers to hand him everything you have. He can buy his way out and then have some left over to get himself buried again. He’s promised them your money, from what we can figure out.”

Trey watched her a moment before moving closer to wrap an arm around her. “We think that they may just come for you. There was a man watching you, hired by your brother with the backing of those he owes money to. He was to basically find dirt on you or fabricate it, and if that failed…” he trailed off since the alternative wouldn’t have been pleasant for her in the least. “We’re not going to let them hurt you in any way, Katherine, promise.”

“He has hired a hit man to kill me?” she asked incredulously. “Jesus.” She knew that her stepbrother had been warped, but seriously, this was far too much. Laying her forehead against Trey’s chest, she wrapped her arms around his middle and accepted the comfort that he offered. “I knew that he was nuts, I really did, but to want to kill me for money?” She shook her head. She would have cried, had she had any tears left for the man. “I will ensure that he never lays a finger on anything my father had. He already has gone through every penny that Daddy left him and now it’s time for me to ensure that he can’t touch the house funds as well.” She wasn’t stupid. She knew that he had been dipping in them. “And if I can get concrete proof that he’s been stealing from the trust fund set up just to keep the house and staff running, I’m going to press charges and put him in jail.” It might not save him, but it would keep her father’s last wishes intact.

“We could help you there,” Sully offered, moving up behind her to rub a hand up and down her back lightly. Mac moved in to touch her hands where they lay on Trey’s back. “Well, not us personally, but we have a teammate that has serious skills in computers. There is literally nothing he can’t find,” he told her, looking to the others, who nodded. She was family. She’d end up meeting the others of the team soon enough. Might as well start with the energy-drink junkie.

“Thank you,” she murmured. “I would really, really like that. It’s time that big brother realized that I’m not going to lie down and let him walk all over me.” It felt so nice to have all of them touching her, close to her. She felt as if she were really and truly whole.

Closing her eyes, she took it all in and blurted, “I love the feeling of having all three of you touching me. Feeling all of your hands on me. I feel safer than I have ever in my life felt. Thank you for that guys,” she murmured.

“You are our bond-mate, little kitten,” Mac said with a grin, gently taking her hand in his to squeeze her fingers. “Of course you will feel comfort when we are close and touching you,” he added.

“It’s the bond, the physical and mental,” Trey said, pressing a kiss to her hair. “The closer we are the more soothing it will be. In time it will grow, strengthen, and you won’t need us all hovering around you. Not that it will stop us.” He smiled down at her. “But that’s a whole other story.”

“I hope that it won’t stop you,” Katherine said with a grin. “I rather love having you boys hanging around me,” she said, and then, “All right. I need to finish cooking.”
Compartmentalize!
“If you boys want to be fed, I need to finish food. After breakfast we will contact your friend and then we will figure out where things go from there, deal?” She had to first feed them, and then she would worry about dealing with her scumball of a brother.

Nodding, Trey leaned in to brush a kiss to her lips before moving back, letting the other two do the same. “I’ll go and call Skittles and let him know we need to meet,” Mac said with a smile to her. “I’ll be right back, promise,” he murmured, touching her chin lightly. Heading out of the room, he pulled out his cell and made the call.

“Skittles?” Kat asked as she flipped the sausage and then, after checking the bacon, began to put together the pancake batter. “Should I ask?” Yep, she should. “Is that his real name or is it a moniker of some sort?” She hoped it was a nickname because if not, good lord, his parents must have been serious hippies or something to have named a child Skittles.

Chuckling, Sully shook his head. “It’s his call sign. We all have them. His is Skittles because of his love of the candy. He always has a bag of them in his pocket or out on his work space. If he ever offers you some, take a couple and understand he likes you. He’s a little…” He looked to Trey for help describing their computer and technical guru.

“He’s a little off. He is what one would call an oddball, plain and simple,” Trey told her, pulling down plates and moving to set the table.

“Whack job would be a better description,” Sully said, moving to grab silverware.

Shaking her head at her men, Katherine put together the meal that they had worked on together. Flipping pancakes and stacking them, she finally pulled out the bacon and looked to her men. “All right, boys, bring your plates over and get them filled up. After we eat we will call your friend and see what he can do to help us get my brother stopped. Please,” she added with a smile.

“He’s already been called,” Mac said, coming back into the room. “He’ll be here in a half hour. He was just getting out of the shower when I called. He also said as long as you have coffee on and maybe save him a bite, he’ll be happy to help out.”

“Good to hear.” Trey nodded, passing Katherine a plate. “Ladies first,” he said to her.

Leave it to her men, she thought with a grin. “Do you know just how much that I adore you boys?” she asked honestly, openly. “It’s growing more and more. I never would have thought that I would have given so much of myself, my heart, in such a short time, but I have and I can’t complain about it at all.” Not when they all lived for her. They all were there for her.

At their looks, she smiled. “It’s not bad, I promise you,” she assured them. “It really isn’t bad. It’s just something that I hadn’t expected, something that I never, ever would have dreamed that I could have in my life. You are something that I’ve always wanted and I’m so very happy that I walked into that bar that night and Trey followed me home.” She smirked at Trey and winked at him. “However, I really, really need to start to have my own containers of ice cream sent here because I really don’t think that I want to chance that bar again.”

Asking the question that had been burning in his mind since that night, Trey blurted out, “How were you able to open that door, baby? The door to The Bar was specially created so that only those of magical blood of some sort can open it.”

“Not the first clue. It was heavy as a house but I guess that my need for my fix of ice cream was just so intense that I would have knocked off the local dairy if it meant me getting some of my mint-pistachio ice cream,” she teased.

“Huh,” was Trey’s retort, that sound driving straight through Kat and having her cocking her eyebrow at him, looking at him, and waiting.

“Huh what?” she demanded.

“Well, we were all trying to figure out if you were of a magical lineage of some sort.”

That had Katherine snickering. “Yeah, well, I’m so not of magical lineage. Heaven’s sakes, I didn’t even know about magic until you boys told me about it.” She took some of the bacon and then two of the pancakes as her own. “The rest is all you. I have my coffee and that is all that I need.” That and the bacon slices and ’cakes was more than enough for her.

Sharing a look, the men chose to completely drop the subject. Skittles would dig deeply into her family’s background, because there was something there. Maybe something very, very long buried and many generations behind, but it was the one and only way that she would have been able to open that door, period.

When the doorbell rang, Katherine went to get it. The boys had all shared a look and with Trey up to his elbows in suds, Mac taking out the trash, and Sullivan changing yet another lightbulb that had blown for her, they all groaned. “What?” she demanded at their looks.

As one, she heard, “Skittles and Bulldog are here.”

“Bulldog?” she asked with a squeak. She couldn’t help herself.

“Yeah, our CO.” Well, as much of a commanding officer as they had in this new business. They no longer were paid by Uncle Sam, but since each of them had been all but born and raised in the military they couldn’t let it go too easily.

“All right, I will bite,” Katherine said and skirted around the kitchen island and toward the front door, calling over her shoulder. “Is he a shifter bulldog?” she teased. Pulling open the door she stood, shocked.

“Holy mother of God,” she whispered as she looked at the mountain of a man before her.

Standing at seven feet tall with military-short blond hair and silver eyes, Bulldog, aka Talon Silverwing, quirked a grin at her. “No, honey. I’m not a bulldog. Something far, far meaner and larger. I’m Talon Silverwing. Ignore the idiots who are in there trying to get through their chores as quickly as possible to get in here and try to make me out to be some hard-ass.”

“No cursing in my home.” He might have two feet on her in size and, holy smokes, likely two hundred pounds, but she wouldn’t back down on this. “And please wipe your feet before you come in,” she said and stepped back. “As for you.” She shrugged. “Honestly, just from their tone they have a great deal of respect for you, so if you are a hard-butt, it’s obviously something that they all need or else they wouldn’t have as much respect for you,” she stated simply. Looking past the large man, she saw another tall man standing there in a duster that went to his ankles. She watched as he shifted from foot to foot, six foot one maybe in height with long, multi-colored hair. She knew immediately who the man was. Smiling, she offered her hand. “And I take it that you are Skittles?” she asked softly.

Stepping in and closing the door behind him, securing it with a click, Skittles nodded and took her hand. “Oh, your hands are very soft,” he murmured and stroked a long, elegant thumb over the back of her hand. “Quincy,” he told her in a very, very low whisper. “Quincy Wallace. See why I go by Skittles?” he asked with a smirk.

“Well, I happen to like Quincy,” she assured him and nodded. “Can I take your coats?” She looked between the men.

Skittles shook his head and opened the duster so that she could see inside of it. “If you notice, I have more than a few weapons.” He was a warlock. He could work magic like nobody’s business but he needed to have weapons as well, especially if they were dealing with shifters. Yep, one could never be too prepared, Skittles thought to himself. “Thank you, though, sugar,” he told her and pulled out a pack of Skittles. “Want one?”

Smiling, Katherine took what he offered and popped one into her mouth. “Thank you.” She actually loved Skittles, especially when she could pound them into dust and put them into the middle of sugar cookies. “I think I might just have to make you some of my stained-glass cookies, Quincy,” she told him and shot a look at Mac, who laughed at the name.

“I suggest that you don’t offend my new friend,” she told her lover. “In my home, no less.”

Snickering because he couldn’t help it, Skittles looked at Bulldog. “You hear that? I’m her new friend. And she just called one of her boys out. I really think I’m going to adore this one.” Before, he had been pissed to high heaven. Pissed off because he knew without a shadow of a doubt that as soon as one of the men found their bond-mate, the others would soon fall in line. It was the prophecy that Skittles’s grandmother had told Bulldog when he pulled his team together.

Shaking his head, Talon sighed. “Down, puppy.” Skittles was one of the youngest of them, mostly because the shifters and dragons all lived very, very long lives, and while the warlocks and magi all lived long lives as well, they came into power early in their lives and their families sent them into the teams to hone their skills. As of right now Skittles was still the youngest at forty-seven, even if he looked and acted like he was eighteen.

Unaware of what was going on around her, Katherine said, “Come on in, gentlemen. Have a seat in the living room. I will go and get us tea.” She arched an eyebrow. “Is that acceptable?”

“Yes, ma’am,” both men said in harmony and took a seat in the comfortable and large furniture.

Katherine walked into the kitchen, grabbed the large pitcher of tea, and looked to Trey. “Bring in glasses for all of us with ice, please. I take it that we have a great deal to discuss.” She hid the fear, the nerves under the cover of playing hostess.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said and waited until she was out of the room. The brothers moved in closer to hear what he needed to say while he finished the dishes. “Send a text to Skittles, Mac. Have him start on her ancestry. I don’t want to say any more on the topic in front of her until we know,” Trey said, rinsing another dish and putting it in the drying rack.

Grabbing a towel, Sully moved into place. “You know, if she’s got magic in her background that would definitely explain a lot, Scythe,” he murmured, keeping an eye on the doorway as he started drying the dishes.