Triple Threat_An MFMM Reverse Harem Romance Page 2

  “Everybody needs to eat. I can go out and be back in a few minutes with ingredients that will knock your socks off. There’s a small kitchen down the hall. We don’t have to go anywhere.” I could tell that she was curious about what Devon was proposing, and she seemed like she was debating with the wheels in her head working overtime.

  “I could be convinced to have a bite to eat. There is one condition. No more shop talk. I would like to know more about the three of you. I’ve seen your files, but I want to know what’s not in them. I feel it’s important to be on the same wavelength. There can’t be any surprises going forward. Do any of you have any personal recollection of working with General Roberts?” She was good at fishing, and my personal interaction with General Roberts had left me feeling the sting of his metaphorical boot on my neck.

  “I want to go on the record to say that I don’t trust him.” Caleb was being rather elusive, and my curiosity was getting the best of me.

  “Caleb, my woman’s intuition tells me there’s a story there and maybe a few glasses of wine will loosen your lips.” I was hoping that somebody was going to mention liquid refreshments, as I had a bottle in my possession.

  “It just so happens that I have a bottle of champagne chilled in an ice bucket in the kitchen. I brought it with me in case we had something to celebrate. Devon will go out for the necessary supplies for dinner and Caleb will make sure that your presence doesn’t become public knowledge.” I was directing the pieces on the board in the hopes that I could find a few moments alone with our benefactor.

  “There’s a market down the street which should have everything I need. I shouldn’t be more than a few minutes.” Devon's last two words were louder to make himself clear that my time alone with her was limited.

  My window of opportunity was going to close fast.

  “I will get her vehicle off the street and make sure nobody can track her whereabouts. This whole thing can unravel if somebody were to get wind that we are working together. It shouldn’t take me more than a few minutes to scan her vehicle and then hide it someplace where nobody is going to find it.” Caleb was also quite vocal about not being absent for too long.

  “You all have a checkered past and most of your assignments have been redacted. What I have learned is that the three of you can be trusted for your discretion. Nobody is going to know outside of the four of us what is going on.”

  Then I saw a red light perfectly positioned over her left breast and my heart stopped.

  There wasn’t a moment to lose. I was prepared to jump on a live grenade. I couldn’t help but think that heroism would make it easier to make her see me as her savior. I was not immune to the nightingale effect and many women in my pool of conquests had fallen into my arms with gratitude.

  Chapter three

  Caleb

  I turned quickly, acting on instinct, kicking out my right foot and sending Rachel rolling across the floor still in her chair. The bullet came through the window with only the tinkle of glass and the smoking crater in the table to indicate anything had happened.

  I slid across the floor to the black case beside the window. I could hear my heart beating with exhilaration in the heat of the moment. It was a highly charged atmosphere ripe with tension. It was right in my wheelhouse.

  I flipped open the lid and assembled the rifle without even looking. It was up to my eye and I was using the scope to survey my surroundings. My finger was on the trigger ready to send my enemy straight to hell.

  “Both of you get outside. I need you to give him a target,” I ordered with a bead of sweat rolling down my back.

  I wasn’t even thinking about the danger I was putting my brothers in—my military mindset took over.

  They looked at each other and I was afraid they were going to refuse my request. I was the most secretive of the three of us. The blood on my hands stained my soul. It also made me uniquely qualified to bring this to a swift and decisive end.

  “You better get a clean shot. Don’t miss. I don’t think you’re going to get a second chance. Try to take him alive. We can’t get any answers out of a dead man.” Bryce never let me forget that he was the older brother, but that didn’t give him a monopoly on giving orders.

  “I’ve never missed in the years that I have been a sharpshooter and I’m not going to start now. Dead or alive…the result is still going to be the same.” I tensed and shut out every distraction by staring at the one spot across the street.

  They were already running down the stairs, avoiding the elevator on the premise that it might’ve been booby-trapped.

  I hadn’t moved from my position, waiting for that slight movement. I saw Rachel crawling toward me. This girl had a pair of grapefruits that was bigger than some of the men I had served with.

  “That was quick thinking. It appears that you know how to adapt to your environment. I imagine nobody is ever safe when you have a picture to go with the name of your target. I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy the things that you have seen. It must be a terrible burden.” She ran her hand through her hair, nervously pulling at the locks.

  She was empathizing with me, and her perfume turned my head with this immediate need to pin her to the floor in a compromising position.

  I blocked out the distraction of her feminine curves, though they were burned into my memory. This was no time for the pursuit of physical pleasures. The switch had gone off in my head and my eagle eyes pinpointed the trajectory of the laser beam.

  I carefully opened the window feeling the breeze to let me know that I was alive. I calculated the distance. I used my finger to determine the strength of the wind and what direction it was coming from. There was practically a flag metaphorically blowing from the shooter’s position.

  I took a few deep breaths to bring me a sense of calm in an otherwise chaotic moment. It wasn’t long before I saw my two brothers racing across the street, attracting attention.

  The man made the mistake of taking his eyes off the prize. He probably thought we were foolish enough to escort her out under armed guard. The long-range rifle felt like an extension of my arm. The recoil echoed with the bullet exiting the chamber.

  The muzzle flash meant to kill one of my brothers went into the air. His hand was useless, but he was still breathing. Shooting a gun was never going to be on his resume ever again with the kind of nerve damage I had inflicted.

  I lowered the gun, and this gave my brothers time to chase down the target. There was no telling what our adversary was going to do. A wounded animal was unpredictable.

  “That was an inspiring shot.” I looked over at her and saw that she was holding onto the replacement scope watching my every move.

  I found myself overcome with emotion. Kissing her was like falling into a warm bath on a winter’s night. She didn’t struggle or fight me and sank into it. I couldn’t seem to get enough of her candy apple lips and bubblegum tongue.

  She pushed back on my chest and looked at me incredulously like I had committed the ultimate sin. This was an overdose and she was my drug of choice running through my veins.

  “I don’t think…it’s…it’s a good idea to mix business with pleasure.” Her lips were saying one thing, but her body was screaming out for some kind of gratification with her chest heaving with each breath.

  “I can see how you might think that, but I have this excess energy that I need to burn off. It’s been my personal experience that sex is like the fountain of youth. You might be a little younger, but I can teach you things that will blow your mind,” I hinted with my hand on the back of her neck.

  Her chest was flushed and I could feel with my two fingers that her pulse was racing.

  “I don’t want us to do anything that we’re going to regret. I will say that extending the intimacy between us will help to cultivate loyalty.” She wasn’t exactly giving me the green light, but she wasn’t running from the room screaming at the top of her lungs either.

  “You’re over thinking this. Sometimes sex can b
e its own reward. Not to brag, but I’m very good and I have learned from various women how to please. Don’t take my word for it.” I was baiting her and giving her license to express herself physically.

  “Put the gun back in the holster. It’s always the quiet ones you have to worry about,” she teased with her hand subtly twitching.

  “I’ve never been one to go quietly into that good night. This is the only chance we’re going to get to be alone. There is chemistry. I have seen the way you have looked at me out of the corner of your eye. That wasn’t my imagination.” I circled her lips with my finger.

  I wanted her and there was no hiding it.

  “I’m going to chalk this up to an overabundance of testosterone. Keep your distance until after this fever goes down.” She was basically confessing that her desire was hard to control, but it was a testament to her character in how she backed out of a sticky situation.

  I had a newfound respect for her. It didn’t stop me from coveting something that was off limits. The unattainable piece of ripe fruit was ready to be plucked by my hands. The feeling was highly intoxicating, and I wanted to show her with more than words how I felt.

  “Are you sure there isn’t anything that I can do to change your mind?” I said with a seductive lilt to my voice.

  I grazed my hand across her arm and over her cheek, causing a visible shiver to run down her spine.

  “Keep doing that and I won’t be responsible for my actions.” She moved a little closer with her eyes blazing.

  I ran my hands through her hair, but I had very little room to maneuver on my knees.

  “You have opened a Pandora’s Box and there’s no closing it. My heart has been frozen in my chest for years until you came around to thaw it. I’m not usually the wordsmith of this family, but I feel empowered by your presence.” I lifted her to her feet and dominantly pressed her against the wall away from the window.

  “Do the two of you want us to come back later?” Devon’s sarcastic voice broke the sexual spell.

  I had my hand poised to unbutton her shirt when we were interrupted from throwing caution to the wind.

  Chapter four

  Devon

  I walked in carrying a drone and placed it down with what I had seen them doing still burning in my eyes.

  Bryce brought the man in under duress and grimacing from his injured hand.

  I was appalled by his behavior, but secretly wished I was in his shoes. Caleb had done what I was thinking. It was a little surprising to see him emotionally available with a woman. I thought that he was involuntarily celibate. He wasn’t the type of guy women would gravitate toward on the dance floor. The lone wolf mentality was working for him.

  There was a drone right where we had found the man nursing his wounds and cursing Rachel’s name underneath his breath.

  “There’s no way that you could have followed my evasive driving techniques. I was trained by the best in the business,” she said, unaware of our discovery.

  “I can field that question without him having to utter a single word.” I motioned to the drone by the door and her eyes lit up with recognition.

  “It looks like the cat is out of the bag. I followed you from a distance using the drone to pinpoint your location. It doesn’t matter that you have gotten a brief glimpse behind the curtain. You still don’t know what the wizard is doing.” He was telling us something and nothing at the same time.

  Caleb was fuming in the corner with his arms crossed. There was no telling what we would have walked into a few minutes later. The man was an enigma wrapped up in a paradox.

  I had this slim hope that my chance to be with her didn’t slip through my fingers. I had a feeling Caleb wasn’t going to remain silent forever. Right on cue, he decided to interject his thoughts on the status of our prisoner.

  “I’ve seen that look in his eyes before. He has been conditioned with the kind of training that is rarely seen in the United States. We could put him through an intensive interview, but he won’t tell us anything that he doesn’t want us to know. We need to put him on ice until after we get to the bottom of this. I’m going to make a phone call to make sure that he’s thrown into the deepest hole possible.” He produced the phone in question out of nowhere and began punching in the digits.

  Caleb was scary.

  His cold and calculating eyes weren’t something that I wanted to make the acquaintance of in a dark alley. It was a good thing that he was on our side. Working against him would have been a detriment to our health. We had barely scratched the surface of what he was about. I had the feeling he was a ticking time bomb. I really didn’t want to be around when he exploded.

  “Caleb, I’m not sure I know what you’re thinking, and I really don’t want to pull at that thread.” I knew I had made a mistake when the man we had hostage began laughing hysterically.

  “I think that I can speak for all of us when I say there’s nothing remotely funny about any of this. You were sent to kill me, and I have no idea why. It stands to reason my business sometimes harbors resentment from other competitors.” Rachel wasn’t amused and didn’t feel that she had to censor what she said in mixed company.

  “Caleb is renowned and his reputation is something that is only whispered about in close-knit groups. It’s rumored that he has gone soft and found religion. He was the black cloud hovering over our heads, but these days he is more a joke than a threat.”

  I couldn’t stop Caleb from grabbing this man by the throat and squeezing off his windpipe.

  “People can think whatever they want. Rest assured my talents from the old days won’t need much of a refresher course. Don’t ask to find out what I’m made of.” The guy’s eyes were bugging out of his skull and that stubborn attitude vanished to be replaced by fear.

  “I know it’s not easy, but you have to refrain from killing him. Take a step back. I’m not asking.” Rachel had a fire inside of her, and showed that she wasn’t intimidated by Caleb with how she put her hand in front of him defensively protecting the prisoner.

  She was the only one. My limited interaction with my brother had taught me not to poke at fresh wounds without wearing a flak jacket. I was still nursing my wrist and he still had the makings of a black eye masked by the tribal tattoo. We always did know what buttons to push to get a rise out of each other.

  Caleb wasn’t saying a thing, and neither myself nor Bryce wanted to make matters worse by jumping in feet first. It was brave and foolish for Rachel to stand up against the overwhelming storm brewing inside of Caleb.

  Her hand touched his shoulder and he visibly flinched. I thought for a moment they were going to come to blows, but he finally relented and turned his back on what could’ve been a disaster in the making.

  “I appreciate the strength of character it took for you to turn the other cheek. I would respectfully request that you make that phone call you mentioned earlier. I’m guessing whoever will have him no doubt will have the training to loosen his lips. I agree in theory that taking him off the chess board is a good idea. We do take the risk of whoever he’s reporting to finding it rather suspicious that he doesn’t call in on a regular basis.” Rachel made a valid argument, but to leave him to run his mouth off was only going to cause more problems than it was worth.

  “I could probably get my hands on something of an experimental concoction to get the truth out of him. It would have to be administered by a competent Physician. It just so happens that I know someone that owes me a favor. He can conduct the questioning and report back his findings,” I said, trying to be purposely vague.

  The doctor in question was a name I didn’t want to mention as some people may have considered his actions reprehensible in the past.

  “I’m not sure how to say this, but I don’t need any of you protecting me from the truth. I can’t escape this feeling that I’m dragging the three of you into the lion’s den. Danger does appear to be your middle names and warning you off of this is not going to do me any good. Let’s remembe
r that we need to do this together.” She waved her hands around the room.

  She didn’t know the extent of what we had done for our country and I had no intention of sharing.

  “We’ve already agreed to be your eyes and ears. My brothers and I don’t agree about much, but this is a matter of principle. It doesn’t hurt that we need the influx of cash to keep the lights on.” Bryce wasn’t saying anything she didn’t already know.

  She had already admitted to knowing our financial difficulties and wasn’t using it against us to get a better price for our services.

  Caleb was in a clandestine conversation in the corner and I had my doctor friend on speed dial. I sent him a text message knowing that his work demanded his undivided attention. He barely held onto his medical license, but it meant that I had to sweep in and clean up his mess. One mistake with a lethal dose didn’t mean that it had to ruin his life.

  “Devon, if it’s all the same to you, I would like to hear from all of you individually. I get a better read on people when I have a one on one interrogation.” I watched as she grabbed Bryce by the elbow and guided him into a nearby open office and closed the door.

  I was secretly worried that she wouldn’t be able to resist his catlike eyes drawing her into his gravity. The woman was a dish best served hot right from the oven. My hunger was insatiable, and I could turn any woman into a spent pile of flesh within minutes of getting them out of their clothes. I knew this particular gift was shared by all three of us and seduction was a weapon in our arsenal. I had a feeling the same thing could be said for Rachel.

  “The people I talked to took a little bit of convincing. I had to remind them of how I got them out of the sticky situation. Without me, they would’ve never come home to their loved ones and they know it.”