Unbridled and Unbroken (12 page)

Adam took one more healthy, long drink of his coffee. The more he woke up the more he wondered why Johnny was so ape shit over her being gone already. “What are you really worried about?”

“Nothing.”

“Bullshit. You’re acting strange even for you. It’s not the first time a woman woke up before us and left. Why the concern now?” Truth be told, Adam was slightly worried too. Last night had been unexpectedly amazing. The three of them had what he considered to be an exceptional sexual aptitude. They moved together perfectly without speaking as if they’d choreographed the sex in advance and merely acted it out to its phenomenal conclusions. Exquisite was the best single word description he could come up with.

“I just want to make sure she’s okay.” Johnny kept moving around the room. His clockwise search yielded nothing. “She’s special to me.”

Adam silently agreed, but shrugged and pretended that her sudden absence this morning wasn’t just as big of a bitter disappointment to him. He tried not to get so attached to new women, but wondered if it was already too late.

“What in the hell are you looking for?”

Johnny lifted one shoulder. “I don’t know. A note, maybe.”

Adam was less concerned about a note. The room was lavishly decorated, but he wouldn’t expect writing implements on the premises. This was, after all, a sex club.

The converted building, which had been remodeled to suit the DRMC’s needs for last night’s premier event and coming week, was only temporary. Eventually they’d have a permanent club located in Colorado, but an issue with the land they’d purchased last year had delayed construction on their permanent playground. This hastily renovated building had been the quick fix they’d come up with instead of foregoing their annual private event during the week of the Western Association of Rancher’s conference.

Johnny stopped his search of the room. “What if she left because of what happened between the three of us last night?”

“Why would she? The sex was amazing. She loved it.”

“Are you sure? It was her first time. Were we too rough? Maybe she woke up with regrets.”

“If she did, and I highly doubt it, then it’s better we find out now rather than later. I told you not to get too attached.”

Johnny opened his mouth but just as quickly snapped it shut. Adam didn’t know what he’d been about to say, but obviously her departure worried him more than an average date might have.

“So why the big concern?”

He shrugged again. “I like her.”

“Well, so do I, but don’t jump to conclusions. You’ll stomp around here wasting your energy only to find out she had to go home and feed her goldfish. Calm yourself until you know for sure. And consider also that maybe she only wanted the one night.”

Adam needed to give himself the same advice. The mere suggestion that last night hadn’t been perfect for the three of them, especially her, suddenly weighted on his heart.
Had
they been too rough? No. Otherwise she likely would have departed and wouldn’t have instigated rounds two and three in the middle of the night.

“If she hasn’t called us by tonight, I’ll go visit her at work.”

“I’ll go with you.” Adam finished the last of the hot coffee, got out of bed and stretched.

“You don’t have to.” Johnny’s eyebrows rose in exaggerated question as to why he wanted to accompany him.

“But I want to.” Adam sent him a quelling look. “Okay, fine. Maybe I like her, too.”

Johnny grinned. “Last night was amazing, right? She made it amazing for us.” His expression slid into one of awe and wonderment. Forget getting too attached. Johnny was probably already in love with her.

“Yep, amazing,” Adam replied and wondered if he also wasn’t just a little bit in love with Veronica.

They gathered their things and found an earring in the bathroom. Adam assumed it was Veronica’s because these rooms had been built especially for the Double Rider Men’s Club. Last night was the first night this room had ever been used. If Adam had his way, it wouldn’t be the last. But he knew they had to surrender the space. If Veronica was still okay with their arrangement, they’d have to reenact it back to their hotel room at the Red Field Inn.

This room had originally been booked by their friends Dell and Zachary, but they’d had a flight delay and didn’t make it out of Colorado last night. Clay had offered the room to them when they showed up with Veronica.

Adam made a note to thank them all for the boon.

“How hard would it be to track her down before tonight?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, we know her name. Surely we could find out where she lives.”

“Hunt her down, you mean?”

Adam nodded. “Perhaps I’m just as anxious to ensure she enjoyed last night as much as we did.”

Johnny smiled. “Now you’re talking.”

The phone rang as Johnny and Adam prepared to leave the room.

Adam answered the phone by the nightstand and spied Veronica’s panties protruding from beneath a pillow and tangled in the sheets.

“Hello,” he said distractedly and reached for her underwear. He couldn’t wait to return them to her.

“It’s Clay. Last night I told you to get out before ten in the morning, right?”

“I don’t know, why?”

“Zachary is here, wanting his room.”

“We took Zachary’s room?” Adam shoved Veronica’s panties in one jacket pocket and laughed.

“Yeah, but he wants it back. And I still have to send up the cleaning service.”

“Too fucking bad, maybe I’m not done with it yet.”

“Both Zachary and I saw your girl from last night making her escape this morning. She didn’t even wait for the cab I called for her.”

“What? You saw her!”

“Yeah, she ran out into the street barefoot and flagged one down headed in the opposite direction.”

“Was she upset?”

There was a pause on the line for a few seconds. “Is there a reason she would be upset?”

Adam knew that Clay had a strict policy on distressed women. He didn’t like for any of the female persuasion to be troubled and avoided angering them at all costs. He also was known to beat the shit out of anyone caught mistreating any women.

“No. Not any reason that I’m aware of. She just didn’t say anything to us before she left.”

Clay cleared his throat. “She seemed a little embarrassed and rumpled. Said she had to get somewhere, so I called her a cab.”

“Well, what else did you say that made her run into the street?”

“Don’t put this on me. I didn’t say anything to make her run. “

“Did Zachary see her? Did he say something?”

“No. She mistook him for her cabbie. He’s planning to get a new tailor, but otherwise our conversations were innocent. Maybe she had to—I don’t know—go somewhere in a fucking hurry, shit. Now, let’s get back to my initial question. When are you and Johnny leaving?”

Adam put a hand in his pocket and rubbed his fingers over Veronica’s forgotten underwear and smiled. The fact that she wasn’t upset when Clay saw her, but instead embarrassed and rumpled, calmed Adam down but he’d feel better after they spoke to her again.

To Clay, he said, “Don’t get your panties in a wad. We’re leaving right now.”

Chapter Seven

Veronica glanced at the clock on the wall about every two minutes the moment she was in her plastic work cage.

Fear kept her alert.

It seemed patently unfair that the men of her dreams belonged to the same club as the man who wanted to destroy her life and all she knew.

She didn’t know what scared her more, knowing Johnny and Adam might find out about her past and give her location to Zachary Barrett so he could have her arrested, or never seeing either one of them again.

Having them find out about her disgraced past was bad enough. And that fact was likely a given at this point. Would they come to witness the culmination of her disgrace or simply write her off?

The clock ticked away as she waited for the police to show up and take her away. It was an agonizingly slow night. She almost wished for a rush of customers to take her mind off this excruciating wait.

She should have taken another night off, but her boss had been so cranky that she’d taken the night before she didn’t dare anger him.

With the remote possibility of “not” being found out, arrested and exposed, she still needed this job to pay her bills.

If no police cruisers, or Zachary Barratt himself, showed up for her tonight, Veronica planned to stay as far away from Johnny and Adam as possible. She may have escaped discovery this morning, but further contact with them was just asking for trouble.

She didn’t need trouble.

She needed her old life back.

In fact, after last night she desperately wanted her former life to look forward to. If she couldn’t have perfection with Johnny and Adam, she deserved to return to the life she’d worked so hard for.

A flash of headlights swung across the store at a few minutes past midnight. A white van pulled up next to the gas pumps. Damn it. Was that Jerry again?

She watched closely as someone exited the driver’s side door. She caught sight of long gray hair in a ponytail.

Not Jerry.

She pushed out a long breath of relief.

Her respite was short lived as a familiar rental truck suddenly pulled into the lot and parked in the first space by the door.

Johnny was driving. She could see his cowboy hat outlined in the driver’s seat. This time, though, he wasn’t alone.

Veronica discovered she was more glad to see them than alarmed. If they’d talked to Zachary, she’d be in jail now, wouldn’t she?

Maybe they didn’t know anything about her past. Maybe Zachary hadn’t realized who she was. Maybe she’d get to speak to these two perfect men once more before they found out about her ugly past.

At the very least, she owed them an explanation for sneaking out this morning. Although, her excuse at the time was firmly rooted in the I-don’t-want-any-awkward-conversation variety. The fact that she hadn’t been arrested the moment she got to work two hours ago was a clue they didn’t know what had happened in her previous life or that it had seriously impacted their men’s club.

Perhaps she’d misjudged them. Perhaps they wouldn’t care about what she’d done or rather what had been done to her. Perhaps they’d support her, give her the benefit of the doubt, and not care that she was sort of a fugitive. She glanced at their silhouettes in the truck. There was only one way to find out.

The van at the pumps had paid with a credit card and left.

Johnny and Adam still didn’t emerge from the truck. What were they waiting for? Suddenly another thought occurred to her. She had run out without saying anything. Did they think she didn’t want to see them?

After another long moment, she raised her arm and waved at them.

Immediately, both truck doors opened and they spilled out into the night as if they’d only been waiting for a positive sign from her in order to engage.

Three strides later and they were inside the store. Adam led the way this time. Veronica glanced down at the security footage in time to see a perfect bad-assed still shot of him entering. She smiled at the knowledge that she now had access to both of their pictures for future reference.