Van, Becca - The Love of Three [Elite Dragons 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (6 page)

“What?” Alicia thought her jaw might hit the floor in shock. “How do you know that?”

His narrowed eyes turned to her, and a new quiver of desire raced down through her stomach to her womb. “I can smell you, baby.” With that growled response, he turned his attention back to Bronsin. “I thought we agreed to no sex until Alicia recovered.”

“Hey, back off, bro. All I did was kiss her.”

“What else?” he asked belligerently.

“I played with her nipples, but her clothes were on the whole time.”

“You got her off just by…”

“I’m right here, you know.” Alicia walked up to Stedman and poked a finger into his chest. “If you want to know something about me, then you can damn well ask me to my face. Don’t talk about me as if I’m not here.”

Stedman smirked and snagged her finger. “Yes, ma’am.” He lifted her finger and sucked it into his mouth.

Alicia moaned and then sighed when he nipped on the tip of her digit and released her.

“Let’s go and eat.”

Alicia practically ran out the door.
How the hell am I supposed to survive the week without jumping them if they keep firing my libido up?
Instead of waiting for them to catch up, she hurried through the back door to the main house and entered the dining room.

“Alicia, how are you feeling? Is your hand hurting you?” Martha asked as she placed food onto the tables.

“I’m fine, thanks, Martha. I took a couple of painkillers not long ago.”

“Well, you just sit right down, honey. You don’t want to hurt yourself any more.”

When dinner was finished, Brooke and Janie helped Martha and May clean up. The men had gone off to the opposite end of the house, taking their coffee with them.

“What’s up with them?” Alicia asked the other women from her perch on a stool next to the counter.

“I’m not sure, but something is up,” Brooke answered. “Coulter, Trace, and Corbin have been working in their office all day.”

“They could just be doing the stud paperwork.”

“No, I don’t think so. Besides, your men do that.”

“
My
men?” Startled, Alicia looked from Brooke to Janie. She looked as unruffled as Brooke at the suggestion that the Tiltman brothers belonged to Alicia.

“Don’t you dare deny it, Alicia! We’ve all seen the way you look at those three.”

“So have they made a move on you yet?” Janie asked.

Alicia felt heat race up over her face. She mentally cursed that she couldn’t hide from these women. Brooke and Janie smiled, winked, and then burst out laughing.

“Oh yeah, they have. You go, girl,” Brooke sassed.

“Leave the poor girl alone,” Martha interjected. “In fact, why don’t you three go into the living room and catch up? May and I can finish up here.”

“Are you sure, Mom?” Brooke asked.

“Yes. You’re looking tired, Brooke. You need to take it easy, honey. Look after my grandchild and rest.”

“You’re the best.” Brooke planted a kiss on her mother-in-law’s cheek and headed out.

“She’s right, you know,” Alicia said, “you and May take such good care of everyone.”

“Go on with you.” May blushed, making a shooing motion with her hands. Janie just laughed and kissed both older women on the cheek and followed Brooke.

Alicia hugged both women before she, too, walked toward the living room.

“Okay, girl, come and sit down and fess up.” Brooke patted the sofa.

Alicia spent the evening with her new friends. She told them what her men had suggested she do so that she wouldn’t get bored but only gave them a small glimpse of the details they really wanted to hear.

“Why didn’t either of you tell me about their skills?”

“Well.” Brooke looked to Janie and then back to her. “No one was sure if you were staying. My men didn’t want you to know in case you went back home.”

“They don’t trust me?” Alicia asked, feeling a little hurt.

“No! Yes! Shit, I’m making a muck of this.”

“What Brooke is trying to say,” Janie cut in, “is yes, they trust you, but what they can do is top secret, and besides, it was better if the information came from your men. Brooke’s men wanted Stedman and his brothers to tell you from nearly the first, but they weren’t sure how you felt about them so kept it to themselves until they were sure about what you all wanted.”

“Phew,” Alicia sighed with relief. “If only they had come to me sooner. We could have built a relationship much earlier.”

Then they moved to talking more about the enhanced abilities of the men. Alicia listened avidly, wanting to know everything her men had been through and could do. By the time they were finished, she had images of cartoon and comic book characters flitting through her mind. Even if she knew that was going a little over the top, she couldn’t seem to stop her imagination.

“Do they use their abilities in bed?” Alicia blushed when that question blurted out of her mouth. The other two women laughed hysterically. Janie was the first to recover. Her answer was breathless but assured.

“
Yes
!”

Chapter Five

“What’s going on?” Bronsin asked. All the team members were seated in the large office his team leaders used when planning a mission. Except it hadn’t been used for much of that lately. Since they’d put an end to the black-market organ-smuggling ring, this room had stood empty. There were boxes propped up in one corner, and the sideboard was dusty. Bronsin drew a complicated figure in the dust, trying to control his sense of unease. A steady mantra of
we’re retired, we’re retired, we’re retired
ran through his head.

Judging by the look on Coulter’s face, though, they were about to get less retired.

The first words out of Coulter’s mouth confirmed it. “There have been more kidnappings. We’ve been ordered to investigate.”

Several of the men swore. Bronsin had to speak over the grumbling. “Why us?”

“It’s the same MO as the organ smugglers.” Coulter picked up a stack of file folders and began sliding them one by one across the long table to each of the men. “The details are in here. Two women so far. Both went to the same clinic in Miles City, Montana, and disappeared within twenty-four hours of each other.”

“Miles City’s eight hours from here,” Ward said.

“It’s where we’re going,” Coulter said grimly.

The last folder slid to a halt at the empty seat in front of Bronsin. He reluctantly left the dusty sideboard and sat down in the chair. Opening the folder, he stared down at the page, filled with weariness.

Why do we have to get called up now?
He knew as well as the others that they were to serve their government first and foremost, and he didn’t balk at that service. But he couldn’t help but think about what it would be like to leave Alicia here.

As he skimmed, Coulter continued to give orders. “Seton, I want you to set up more alerts on Dr. Smith, just in case this turns out to be more black-market organ trading.”

“You think they’ll be that stupid? We caught them last time when they used the name ‘Smith.’”

“You can never tell. To cover our bases, I want you to look into all the doctors in that town and delve as deep as you can if any new GPs have popped up in town.”

“I don’t get it,” Bryden Healy said. “It’s over and done. We caught the asshole in charge of this whole thing. He’s in prison.”

“And he’ll be questioned,” Coulter said ominously. “It’s possible that he left behind a second-in-command who’s taken over for him. Or it may be copycats in an unrelated organization.”

Fuck
. If that were the case, they might have years of work ahead of them. Bronsin didn’t want to have to leave Alicia more than strictly necessary. Hell, he didn’t want to leave her at all.

Coulter leaned back in his chair. “Stedman, you and your brothers can head up this operation since we won’t be there. I’ve given you each a copy of the missing-persons reports filed with the local sheriff’s office as well as photographs of the women.

“Seton, Wolf, and Lander, you can help question any of the women’s family, friends, and work colleagues. Bryden, Linton, and Codi, you three stay out of the public eye as much as possible. If we need to go undercover, I don’t want any of their goons to be able to identify you.

“Linton, check the Miles City records and see if any property has been purchased recently. Go back over sales done in the last twelve months. This seems like it’s new activity, but this might be a sleeper cell that’s been there for a while.

“Do any of you have any suggestions?”

Bronsin and the others shook their heads. “God, I hate this shit,” Trace said. “I don’t want to leave Brooke while she’s pregnant.”

“You don’t have to go,” Ward said. “We understand that you and Coult and Corbin want to be near your wife, especially since she’s suffering from morning sickness. Why don’t you stay here and let the rest of us go.”

“I’m one of the leaders. I can’t ask you all to go if I don’t.”

“Of course you can,” Codi said. “In fact, we insist you and your brothers stay here with the women. At least we’ll know they’re safe with you around. After what happened the last time, I don’t like leaving the women alone.”

“Thanks, guys,” Coult said. “We appreciate your understanding.” He stood. “Okay. Get to work. I want you to head out at 0400. That way you should arrive in Miles City by lunchtime.

“Stedman, Ward, Bronsin, I want you to move Alicia into the spare room at the other end of our house. That way if she needs help while her hand is healing, Mom and May will be on hand. Have you three boneheads made a move on her yet?”

Bronsin tried not to show how startled he was by the question. “You know how we feel about her?” He thought he had kept his attraction hidden.

“Of course we know.” Trace smiled. “We wouldn’t be any good at our job if we didn’t notice the small details.”

I should have known
. “Yes, we started today.”

“It took you long enough. That girl has been waiting on you three ever since she got here.”

This time Ward reacted with surprise. “She has?”

“God, you are such dumbasses when it comes to women.” Coulter smirked.

“Hey, watch it,” Stedman snapped. “We didn’t want to make a move until we knew it was safe. Plus, we hadn’t told her about the other stuff yet.”

“So she knows now?”

“Yeah, she knows,” Bronsin replied. “She looked a little stunned at first, but when we explained, she looked a bit awed.”

“How did she take the empathetic abilities?” Coulter asked.

“Just like Brooke and Janie.”

“Women are so predictable.” Trace laughed. “They’re okay with enhanced physical skills, but as soon as you tell them you could feel what they do if you wanted, they balk.”

“Don’t be such a bastard, Trace. You know we all felt the same until we learned how to shield and control our talents.”

“Yeah, I know. I was just teasing.”

“For fuck’s sake, don’t let Brooke hear you say any of that. She’d have your guts for garters.”

“Yeah, she would.” Trace smacked his lips together and smiled. “God, I love a feisty woman.”