Kaleidoscope

Chapter Eight


Girl Posse



I slid up and on the downward glide I knew it was coming.

And like last night, both before and after sandwiches, it took me by surprise.

But this time, I was riding Jacob so I didn’t know what to do while riding a man and having an orgasm.

In the end, I couldn’t do anything but what my body told me to do.

And that was slam down hard on his cock and feel it pulse through me, radiating everywhere, shaking me through and through so intensely I arched back and had to brace myself by curling a hand around his thick, hard thigh.

So totally better than self-induced it wasn’t funny.

“Baby, do not f*ckin’ stop,” Jacob growled, his hands on my hips coaxing but I was too far gone.

So far, I barely felt Jacob sit up but I did feel his thigh come up as he cocked his knees. Then I had an arm around my waist pulling me up and slamming me down.

My head tipped down and I lifted my eyelids as far as they would go, which was about a quarter of the way up.

“Honey,” I breathed as he pulled me up and slammed me back down.

That felt good and a low sound escaped my throat, I lifted my hands to his shoulders, used them as leverage and took over.

“Thank f*ck,” he muttered but didn’t release my waist.

“This is fun,” I whispered, sounding slightly surprised, moving on him fast and hard.

“It’ll be more fun you take me there, like, soon,” he replied.

Wasn’t I doing it right?

I bit my lip and grew uncertain.

Jacob’s eyes narrowed on my lip.

A second later I was on my back in his bed, he was pounding deep and he had a hand between us, thumb pressed to my * and one could just say he knew how to use his thumb.

“Jacob!” I gasped.

“Now this,” he grunted as he thrust, “this, baby, is fun.”

He could say that again.

He didn’t.

He kissed me.

I came again a few seconds later.

Then he did the same a minute after that.

* * *

“We gotta go, honey. You have insulation to install and I have chips to pour into bowls,” I said after Jacob got back from the bathroom, rejoined me in bed, settled on his back and cuddled me close to his side.

“We can eat them out of bags,” he replied.

“Okay, then I have a fridge to check and make sure it’s working, and if it’s not, I have beer to shove in snow to make it cold.”

His body shook with silent laughter before his arm got tight when I tried to pull away. “In a minute.”

“Jacob—”

“I like this.”

I did too.

And I liked it that he liked it. Jacob Decker, my friend reunited, now my lover (and a great one), wanting to cuddle in bed after sex with me.

But this being Jacob, all he was and all he was to me, that made it even better.

So I settled in.

The one good part about Dane was that he liked to spend the night with me. Sex with him had its moments, none culminating, but there were moments. But sleeping with him was always nice. He was also a cuddler and I liked that too.

My only lover before him, Jerry, cuddled a bit after but always went home to his own bed or expected me to go home to mine. I’d had him while Jacob was with Elsbeth but he never met anyone because he didn’t last long and it never got serious.

Between Jerry and Dane, a long dry spell that was okay by me.

Jacob, too, was a cuddler, but with his long frame, it being so big, and his innate bossiness, it was different than Dane. Dane spooned but if I moved, he let me go my own way. Jacob slept and I slept with him however that came about. I moved, he moved me back or moved into me (mostly moved me back). If he moved, he took me with him.

It was weird and it didn’t sound like it would be good.

But since he was Jacob, all he was and all he was to me, it was fantastic.

Thinking these thoughts led me to thinking that switching creepy, the-only-thing-good-about-him-was-cuddling-and-he-could-be-sweet, felonious Dane right away with everything-was-good-about-him-except-he-was-sometimes-bossy Jacob didn’t suck.

This thought was so funny that me, me, Emmanuelle Holmes, thirty-four years old and only having two short-term boyfriends moved right from one guy, felonious or not, to another, and traded up to one who was hotter, nicer, funnier, smarter, richer and had the capacity to give orgasms every time (sometimes two!) made me start giggling.

“What?” Jacob asked.

“Nothing,” I choked out through giggles.

Jacob’s hand came to my chin and gently forced it up so he could catch my eyes.

His were smiling.

“What?” he repeated.

“I’m a slut,” I announced, still giggling but harder now. It was full-blown laughter. “In the blink of an eye I go from a felon to a mysterious crimefighter or whatever you are.” I started laughing so hard I hiccoughed and pushed out, “Trading up.”

My laughter only started to die down when I noticed Jacob’s eyes were no longer smiling.

“What?” I asked when I got control of my hilarity.

“Been cool about that Emme, but heads up, that cool ends now. I may have found you again when you were with him but I didn’t like him from the start. Ten minutes later I found out there was a lot not to like. And now the only good part about you bein’ with him is that you were smart enough not to get too deep and he’s gone. But I don’t find it funny.”

I sobered immediately and whispered, “Sorry.”

“And you’re not a slut,” he stated. “A woman who’s never had a man make her come, except one, the one she’s currently in bed with, is, by definition, not a slut.”

“Okay,” I agreed quickly, mostly because of the look on his face and his tone.

Normally, I would have begged to differ, seeing as I had a nonexclusive boyfriend I had yet to officially break up with and I was currently naked in bed with Jacob which I thought, by definition, nonexclusive or not, was pretty slutty. But I was sensing (accurately) that now was not the time to debate that point.

Then again, the look on his face, it was more likely never would there be time to debate that point.

“We might have to talk about him seein’ as you’re a witness, him givin’ you that ring. So, they don’t confess, that shit goes to trial, this isn’t done for you. But, if we’re not talkin’ about the case—not him, the case—he doesn’t come up at all. You with me?”

I was with him. This annoyed him. So Jacob could be seriously bossy and bossily serious, the second one when discussing my criminal, very-soon-to-be official ex-boyfriend.

So I should likely avoid that.

“I can do that,” I told him.

“Good,” he muttered.

“You heat your pool,” I blurted to change the subject, and his brows drew together.

“What?”

“You say I heat my mountain. You heat yours too,” I informed him.

“Yeah. Difference is, I got the money to afford it.”

Him having his big mostly mansion that had nothing to fix and was all perfect, I figured he was not wrong.


“It’s environmentally unconscious,” I pointed out.

He stared at me then pressed his head back into the pillows and looked at the headboard, muttering, “Here we go.”

“It is,” I pushed.

He looked back at me. “Babe, I don’t give a f*ck.”

“Well, I do. You should turn off the heat when you’re not using it.”

“I turn off the heat, I want to use it, it takes hours to heat it, by that time I’m over wantin’ to use it.”

“Then you should put a cover on it,” I went on.

“It doesn’t look as good with a cover on it,” he replied, and I felt my brows go up even as I pushed up and glared down at him.

“You’re destroying the environment for cosmetic purposes?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he answered indifferently.

“That’s irresponsible.”

“It’s my money.”

“You’re a citizen of this earth just like me, Jacob Decker. It isn’t about money. You’re accountable to future generations.”

He grinned. “That’s a lot of folks, Emmanuelle. I hope I die before they incarcerate me for my pool heating irresponsibility and I have to stand trial in front of an angry environmental mob.”

I hated it about as much as I loved it (the second part after it was over, of course), when Jacob started teasing when we were debating.

But while we were doing, it was all about hating it.

“Don’t be flippant,” I snapped.

“I’m not. I’m just waitin’ for you to want to use the pool and then you won’t be bitchin’ about it bein’ heated.”

“A cover is a good compromise,” I noted.

“Not if I don’t like the way it looks.”

I shut up and stared at him, knowing he was enjoying this. Therefore it could go on for hours as it had in the past, so I would get nowhere, which was where I got in the past.

Therefore, when I spoke again it was to say, “Let’s not argue.”

Suddenly, he rolled me so he was pressed into my side and also on me and his handsome, morning-stubbled face was close.

God, he was beautiful. His weight was heavy, his body strong, warm. And those eyelashes.

Amazing.

“No, baby,” he murmured, lips tipped up. “Let’s argue so we can make up.”

This gave an interesting slant to our sometimes-heated debates that I suddenly had a hankering to try out.

His body started shaking but before I could see his laughter on his face, his head dipped and he ran his lips up my jaw to my ear.

“I gotta get my girl in the shower so I can get her home and install her insulation.”

My breath was coming fast but I still managed to say, “Buford’s riding with me.”

His head came up. “You’re riding with me and Buford’s stayin’ here. He gets out there and catches a scent of something in those woods around your house, we won’t see him for a year.”

My head cocked on the pillow. “Really?”

“He’s a bloodhound, Emme. Yeah. Really.”

“So does that mean he can never come over?”

“No, that means he can’t come over when I’m installing insulation and can’t pay attention to what he’s doin’ when he’s out.”

“Oh.”

Jacob grinned. “Love it that you like my dog.”

I looked to the side and saw Buford’s paws stretched out on the floor by Jacob’s side of the bed, the rest of him I couldn’t see. He’d ceased his bed-hogging activities when Jacob woke me up to make love to me. Now he appeared to be taking a snooze.

I looked back at Jacob.

“He’s likable.”

He grinned, bent his head and kissed me. He didn’t do it long but it tasted and felt fantastic. Kind of like the first time (and all the times besides) except without me losing my mind and my control and having the best sex of my life (by far).

When he lifted his head, I asked, “Why am I riding with you?”

“ ’Cause you’re sleepin’ here tonight and since you are, no reason for us to take two vehicles.”

My heart tripped. He wanted me back. And soon. Which would mean more sex with Jacob. And soon. And just more time. And lots of it.

I liked that.

“I am?”

“Buford needs company and he can’t come over so you’re comin’ back.”

“Okay,” I agreed.

“Tomorrow night, after we go out on a proper date, we still end up pickin’ up my dog and goin’ to your place or not pickin’ him up and stayin’ at mine.”

A proper date. I liked that too. I hadn’t had many of those and none with Jacob.

And more time.

I liked that better.

And hopefully, since one or the other of us was spending the night, more sex.

“Okay,” I repeated.

He studied me before remarking, “You’re docile in the morning when you’re not talking about pools.”

He was wrong. Usually I was somewhat grouchy in the morning.

But I was docile in the morning when I had back-to-back orgasms I didn’t have to give myself. And, incidentally, I’d never had back-to-back orgasms at all and having had them, my guess would be they’d make anyone docile.

“Let’s not talk about pools,” I suggested and got another grin.

Then I got another kiss.

After that, I got pulled out of bed, across a room and into a shower.

* * *

Two hours later…

I was sitting in my family room surrounded by women with the addition of rollicking children.

This was because, up in my attic, nine men and one woman were laboring. Those men not Jacob were named Chace (I knew him at least), Max, Tate, Ty, Reece, Deke, Bubba and Wood. The woman there was named Twyla.

They were all brawny (Ty especially, that guy was huge; and, not in a mean way, but it must be said, Twyla was brawny too). They were all handsome (not as handsome as Jacob but they were definitely on the mouth-watering end of the good-looking spectrum, and even a masculine woman, Twyla, was not hard to look at either, if you didn’t count her lady mullet). And there were a lot of them, thus it was likely my insulation under the roof of a sprawling mansion would take about an hour to install.

The thing was, they brought their women with them.

I did not know this was going to happen. And when trucks and SUVs started rolling into my vast circular drive (something I was lucky to have seeing as it fit all those trucks and SUVs), I noticed that Jacob, standing next to me with his arm flung around my shoulders, scowling, didn’t know these men were bringing their women either.

And he didn’t like it.

At first, I thought that was weird.

Then, I thought it was wonderful.

I thought that when Faye and Lauren jumped down from their respective husband’s SUVs (those being Chace Keaton and Tate Jackson), Jacob’s lips found my ear and he said, “Say the word, I’ll have a word and move the women out. I know you aren’t big on socializin’ and I got a bad feelin’ about this ’cause got more men who have women comin’. You don’t want company, I’ll deal with it.”

I loved it that he knew that about me and I loved it that he was willing to move to protect me.

But it wasn’t that I wasn’t big on socializing. It was that I wasn’t very good at mingling. Small talk did nothing for me. Connecting in a vague way that was meaningless left me cold.

This was why, back when Jacob was with Elsbeth, he and I almost always ended up during a party or after dinner (or during dinner, even with people around us) holed up away from everyone else, or focused on each other, deep in a conversation or in the throes of a heated debate.


On that memory, it hit me in a way it didn’t hit me when he brought it up that Jacob was kind of right. He was with Elsbeth but I’d never seen him deep in conversation with her and definitely not in the throes of a debate. Their relationship was close, affectionate and loving (a painful memory that wasn’t less painful now, alas), but there were parts of it that weren’t deep.

Those parts, Jacob had, as far as I could tell, only with me.

And I had the close, affectionate and loving bits too. Just not in some of the ways Elsbeth had them (until now).

This thought made me dread surprise-hostessing a bunch of women I didn’t know (though, I did want to meet Faye since Chace was a really good guy I always liked) a whole lot less.

I turned my head, caught his eyes and whispered, “Thank you, honey, but I’ll be okay.”

“Sure?”

God.

So nice!

“Yeah,” I assured him.

His arm around my shoulders gave me a squeeze.

More trucks came up my drive.

So now men (and one woman) were up in my attic and I was sitting in my thankfully big family room with a bunch of women I did not know, though I also kind of did. Or, at least, some of them.

First there was Lexie Walker, the fabulous brunette married to Ty Walker. She worked at the spa I went to in Carnal to have my hair done. She did facials or something in the back room (I got my facials with my friend Erika in Denver). I hadn’t met her but I had seen her around the spa and said hi. I also kind of knew her since she and Ty had made national news when it was exposed he was framed for a murder he didn’t commit by the racist jerkface ex-now-dead chief of police in Carnal (Ty was half black).

The others included Lauren Jackson, a blonde married to Tate Jackson. Both Tate and Lauren were famous too, as they also made national news when she was abducted by a serial killer and her husband saved her.

We’ll just say, the county having a gang of thieves hitting houses and using high school students to do it was unfortunately one in a long line of scary shit that had been happening. Thus, I figured, the reason they’d called in Jacob. I didn’t know police did that, but, seeing as everyone had been arrested and Jacob wasn’t on the job for very long, it was obviously a good plan.

Also in my living room, there was the redheaded Faye Keaton, Chace’s very heavily pregnant wife, as in very pregnant.

And Nina Maxwell, Max’s wife. She lived in Gnaw Bone. I knew Max as he owned a construction company and was a customer at the lumberyard. I’d even met his kids since he brought one, the other, or both on occasion when he was making or picking up an order. But that was business. I’d never met Nina. I’d seen her and Max a couple of times around town, but even though I’d smile and wave and he’d tip up his chin, I never approached mostly because they always were so into each other it seemed like it’d be an intrusion. Or they had their kids and thus their hands full.

Then there was Zara Reece, another blonde, Graham Reece’s wife. She, too, was pregnant but not as far gone as Faye. She also just reopened her shop, Karma, a shop I’d visited frequently before she was forced to close it, and chatted with her impersonally when I did. So I kinda knew her too. Her shop, it must be said, I was glad she reopened because it was awesome.

And last, there was Krystal Briggs, a woman with a very large chest and very attractive hair I’d never guess would be attractive seeing as it was a mixture of flaming red with blond streaks à la Ginger Spice in the heyday of the Spice Girls. But she worked it. She was married to a guy everyone called Bubba who was nearly as huge as Ty.

There were also four children, ranging from small child to toddler, wrestling on my rug. Two were Nina’s. Two were Lexie’s.

They told me Wood’s wife, Maggie, couldn’t make it.

For this, I hid being grateful.

They were enough.

It wasn’t because they weren’t friendly. They were.

It wasn’t because they didn’t quite hide their curiosity about me. I got that.

I got it because Chace and Jacob were tight, Faye was married to Chace, and these women were close. I knew women talked so I’d be an object of fascination, what with Jacob corralling their men to install insulation, which said it all about how a man felt about the woman whose insulation he was installing. The girls had shared early on in getting cups of coffee and settling in that all their men had helped find Faye during her ordeal, Jacob included in that, which, when something like that happened, was an unwanted but definite bonding ritual and these men had bonded through it.

The odd man out in that was Graham Reece, who wasn’t around then. But he was a good friend of Max’s so Max figured many hands made light work, especially if those hands are connected to brawny hot guys (though Max probably didn’t think about the hot part) and he’d asked Reece to come along.

I was glad for the help, which cost me nothing but beer and chips and brownies (that I’d had just enough time and just enough luck the oven was working to make).

But I was overwhelmed because these women were tight.

I didn’t fit in. They had history, a lot of it intense, and it was my experience that a latecomer to that might be welcome but she was never in.

And I’d decided long ago, in college actually, when I’d been bit by a couple of girls who were mean girls and were mean to me, that my time and energy in friendships should be saved for only those who deserved it. Seeing as I liked my own company and my life, filling it with people I genuinely cared about who genuinely cared about me worked.

So I didn’t know how to do the girl posse. I didn’t have a lot of experience with it, by design. And being in a chatty, close-knit one in my own house but still the outsider wasn’t much fun.

I wouldn’t tell Jacob this. He’d worry or maybe ask them to leave.

So I had to suck it up and deal.

I was thinking this when something weird happened.

And that weird something was, with Krystal leading the pack, all of them set about making me not the outsider, folding me in the posse, and doing it genuinely but also honestly.

Krystal started this by asking, “How you holdin’ up with your uber-alpha?”

I blinked, stared because I thought her question was weird, then asked, “Pardon?”

“The mighty have fallen,” Lexie noted, grinning at Lauren, “Only Deke left.”

Deke, I forgot to mention, was a big guy with long blond hair in a ponytail. And he didn’t bring a woman.

“So, Emme, how you holdin’ up?” Krystal repeated.

“I, well…” I started but trailed off, unsure.

“Just so you know,” Faye, who’d brought a couple bags of herbal tea and had a mug of it in her hand that luckily my stove was working in order to boil the kettle to make, was talking to me, “Chace is super-happy you and Deck reconnected. He said he’s always liked you.”

That felt nice since I’d always liked Chace.

Nice enough for me to reply, “Just so you know, Jacob is super-happy Chace found you.”

She smiled at me.

“You call him Jacob?” Krystal asked then looked at Faye. “Does anyone call him Jacob?”

“Not that I know of,” Faye answered.

Krystal looked at me. “What’s with ‘Jacob’?”

Until right then, I didn’t understand I called him that because no one else did, except my mom and dad, but including Elsbeth. I called him that likely to be outside the pack. I called him that unwittingly creating something between us, an intimacy he shared with no one… but me.


And he never said a word.

This made me feel mushy.

“I like the name Jacob,” I told her, and it wasn’t a fib.

“It’s a nice name,” Faye murmured, grinning into her tea.

“Just so you know,” I said to Faye. “Jacob is also super-honored you’re naming your son after him.”

Faye smiled at me again.

“Yes, that’s sweet, Faye,” Lauren put in.

“Okay, is it just me, or has anyone noticed Emme hasn’t answered Krys’s question?” Lexie stated at this point, and my eyes went to her.

“That’s because I don’t know how, exactly,” I admitted.

“Oh boy,” Krystal sat back, looking at Lexie, “this is not good.”

My gaze went to her. “Why?”

She leaned into me and warned, “Do not let that man walk all over you.”

I blinked.

Jacob would never do that. I didn’t even know why she’d think that. I’d said nothing that would lead her to that.

“I—” I began.

Faye got there before me. “Deck’s an alpha but he’d never do that.”

I was relieved she felt the same and verbalized it.

“Bullshit,” Krystal said.

My head jerked.

“He wouldn’t,” Faye replied to Krystal.

“They all try,” Lexie put in.

That wasn’t good news.

“Is the sex good?” Krystal asked me, and my head jerked again.

“I, well… it… we just started—” I stammered, not even knowing why I was stammering instead of telling her that was none of her business.

“I hope it’s good but not great,” Krystal remarked. “Sex slave to an alpha. Bad news.”

This time my head didn’t jerk. I blinked again.

“I’m a sex slave to an alpha and I have no complaints,” Lauren muttered, grinning at Zara.

“Me either,” Zara replied, grinning back.

“I’ve had mine longer than all of you,” Nina announced. “And I’m of a mind that there will never be a time I complain mostly because it’s been years and Max has given me nothing to complain about.”

“Don’t tell me Tate Jackson isn’t addicted to all that,” Krystal said to Lauren, ignoring Nina and throwing her hand up in the air to indicate all that was Lauren, and there was a lot.

She had to be in her forties but she hit that age in a happy way, lots of hair, biker babe look that I thought was the bomb, a fabulous figure. Tate Jackson was extremely good-looking but he hit the jackpot with his wife, and unless he was stupid, which I didn’t figure he was, he would know it.

“This is where things are interesting,” Lexie declared. “I would have thought it’d be hard, especially out here without a huge pool to pick from, for Deck to meet his match but he has. I mean, it isn’t like there are a bunch of skanks around, mountain girls have it going on, but not Jacob Decker caliber of have it going on.” Her eyes pinned me. “That’s good news for you, honey.”

“Pardon?” I asked.

“You. Are. Hot,” Krystal stated, answering my question to Lexie. “That sultry, don’t-give-a-damn, I-don’t-need-a-man, exotic kind of hot.”

Another blink then, “I am?”

“Babe, totally. This is why I’m concerned. You lose that edge, you’re screwed,” Krystal answered.

It was then I found my mouth sharing (and I didn’t know why), “I think last night I told him in the middle of a rant that I was lonely.”

“Oh f*ck,” Krystal muttered.

“You’re lonely?” Zara asked, her warm brown eyes holding a hint of concern.

“Well, I got sick a while ago, like really sick, hospitalized sick.” I watched all the women get concerned looks so I went on quickly, “I’m okay. Totally fine. It’s all good but it wasn’t fun to do that alone.”

“I’ll bet,” Lauren murmured.

“Being sick alone is awful,” Nina declared and grinned. “Being sick around an alpha is a lot less awful.”

I found this comment intriguing.

She and Max had been together a while so it was likely she’d at least gotten a cold or something, so she would know. But Max didn’t strike me as a care-for-his-sick-wife-with-kindness-and-adoration kind of guy. He struck me as a she’ll-get-over-it-I’m-going-to-go-chop-down-some-trees-for-firewood kind of guy.

“Glad you’re better,” Faye said quietly. “But sorry you were sick.”

“Yeah, that sucks,” Lexie agreed.

“I’m okay now,” I assured them.

“We can see that, anyone can see that,” Krystal said, eyes moving the length of me in my armchair then coming back to mine. “Does Deck know you were sick?”

I nodded.

“And does he know you didn’t like to go that alone?” she asked.

I nodded again.

She sat back, muttering, “Not sure what to do with that.”

It was at this point I was beginning to think this conversation was all kinds of weird.

“I couldn’t exactly keep it from him. I was sick for a year and we’re starting a relationship,” I told her.

“A year?” Zara asked.

“Yeah,” I answered.

“Bummer,” Zara replied.

“It’s all good now,” I stated.

“Krys,” Lauren called, and Krystal looked at her. “I don’t get where you’re going with this. It’s not like you aren’t sitting in a room full of women who are hooked to badasses who are doing a little bit of a whole lot of all right.”

I was glad to know Lauren thought this was weird too.

“Yeah, I know,” Krystal returned. “But, A, it took some head butting, a lot of bullshit and a f*ckload of emotion to get you here. And B, no offense, Laurie, but Emme here,” she flung a hand out to me, “is different.”

“She is?” Lexie asked at the same time I asked, “I am?”

Krystal looked at me, her face was normally a hint hard but I saw her eyes were now soft.

She was very, very pretty.

With that look in her eyes, she was a knockout.

“Babe,” she said quietly, “Deck is a good guy. I can’t say I know him all that well, but I know he’d do anything for Chace and Faye and he’s proved that. A man can be a good friend, the best kind of good friend there is, that means he’s a good man. But you aren’t like normal women and I’ve seen a lot of women and the kind I like best is your kind. You got a life. You got a mission, this house. You got your world and your way of doin’ things. And a man like Deck can come into that life and make it all about him just by bein’ Deck. He wouldn’t do it intentionally. With the force of his personality, he’d just do it.”

I didn’t know how she figured that all out about me.

Maybe she had awesome mental powers like Jacob.

She leaned over the side of the couch she was sitting by and into me before she continued.

“He’s into you and, just sayin’, he’s into you because of all that you got goin’ on. Don’t lose that because of who he is, how he is, or that he can give it to you like you like it. Don’t lose it for you. And don’t lose it because, you do, you might lose him.”

Fear gripped my insides as my mind reeled back wondering if, even at this early juncture, that was already happening.

“Krys, you’re freaking her out,” Faye murmured.

She totally was.

“Good,” Krystal stated as she sat back. “She’ll have a mind to all this and not let it happen.”


“You’ll be fine. Deck will be fine. Krys is just a little cynical,” Lauren told me. “Don’t worry, Emme.”

Too late. I was worried.

So worried, I was immensely relieved when I heard my cell phone ring in the kitchen and that meant I had an excuse to mumble my apologies and hurry out of the room.

Unfortunately, I was so intent on taking the call I took it even though the display said “Unidentified Number.”

“Hello?”

“Em.”

Oh no. It was Dane.

I said nothing.

“I… Em… do you know where I am?”

“I know where you are,” I whispered.

“I figured you did. They said they have your ring.”

My ring?

It wasn’t my ring. I didn’t even want it to be my ring when I didn’t know it was a stolen ring. But it being a stolen ring, it was never my ring.

I again said nothing but I did start fuming.

He said something.

“This is my one call. I’ve been waiting to make it so I didn’t wake you or something. I… things aren’t good and I f*cked up with that ring. I f*cked up with a lot. I know you’re probably freaked but I need to talk to you. Babe, please, can you come down to the station? I can have visitors.”

He wanted me to come to the police station where he was incarcerated and have a chat?

Was he insane?

“Today, I was going to break up with you,” I informed him.

“Shit,” he whispered.

He knew it.

He didn’t like it.

And, I guessed, if he wasn’t currently residing in lockup, he would have tried to talk me out of it.

“So, no. I can’t come down to the station because we were done and now we are so totally done, we’ve redefined the word done.”

“Em, this is f*cked up. They don’t have it right. I mean they do, parts of it, but other parts—”

I interrupted him, “Please don’t call me again, Dane.”

“Emme, honey—”

“Ever.”

Then I hung up.

I stood there staring at my phone in my hand trying to figure out what I was feeling.

Outside of feeling totally stupid that I said yes to a date, continued to date and let that man in my bed, I realized I didn’t feel much of anything else. Other than the fact I was relieved I didn’t have to break up with him face-to-face and could do it over the phone during his one phone call after being arrested.

That was weird, insane and made me feel creepy.

But at least it was done.

“Emme?”

I turned my head and saw Faye standing there, watching me closely.

“Hey,” I replied. “You need more tea?”

“Who was that?” she asked, still watching me closely.

“No one,” I answered. “Tea?” I dipped my head to the mug she was still carrying.

She got closer. “Chace can’t say much but I kinda know what’s going on.”

I didn’t speak.

She continued, “That, well, we all, since the kitchen is right off the living room, we all heard it so I know that wasn’t no one.”

They all heard it because they were all listening. Not a surprise or annoying. I figured that was law for girl posses.

“It’s okay,” I told her. “It’s over. I’m good.”

She got even closer and her crystal blue eyes (that were seriously pretty) didn’t leave mine.

“He’s calling,” she said quietly, maybe so the other girls wouldn’t hear, maybe seeing to my state of mind. “You should tell Deck.”

No way. Jacob got bossily serious about Dane and didn’t want to discuss him anymore. I was just getting to know him as Jacob, the man who gave me orgasms during sex, but I knew enough to know he’d lose his mind if he knew Dane used his one phone call to call me.

Not to mention, Krystal was right. I was my own woman who’d taken care of myself for a long time. This wasn’t a big deal. I could deal with the little deal it was, and I didn’t need to drag Jacob into an issue with my recently ex-boyfriend he didn’t like to talk about.

“Really, Faye,” I told her. “It’s all good.”

She got even closer, reached out and took my hand.

“Okay, this is going to seem weird. I don’t know you, but those women in there, I know their stories and I have my own. I know that things happen. And some of them aren’t good things. And I know the men attached to those women, what kind of men they are, having one myself. And last, I know Deck. I know the way I saw him holding you and looking at you when we walked up to your house. I know in the time I’ve known him I’ve never seen him look or hold another woman like that.”

That felt really, really good. Like, blow my mind, make me want to run around singing and dancing, or better, finding Jacob and kissing him hard kind of good.

She kept talking.

“So I know two things. One, it’s important he knows everything that might be going down around you just on the off chance it might turn bad so he can stop it from doing that before it starts. And two, a man calls his woman, it is not good to keep it from him, because that’s sure to turn bad.”

It was then I was seeing the wisdom of doing what I could to amass a girl posse who knew how to deal with “uber-alphas” because they could share their wisdom.

And because it felt nice she cared enough to take the time to advise me.

But bottom line, she wasn’t wrong.

This county had seen serial killers, innocent men being framed for murders and women being buried alive.

Heck, the guy who owned the yard before Dad had murdered a bunch of people and successfully conspired to murder another guy. If town lore could be believed, Nina and Max were involved in this in a bad way, with Nina nearly being a victim and Max rescuing her seconds before that happened. Though, I’d never asked Max about it, seeing as, “So, is it true your ex-friend, the ex–lumberyard owner almost killed your wife?” wasn’t idle chitchat.

Now a gang of thieves that were worse than your average everyday thieves had run amuck throughout the county. And I’d been dating one. One who called me from jail after getting arrested for running amuck.

Perhaps I should tell Jacob that Dane had called.

“I’ll go tell Jacob,” I decided.

“Good thinking,” Faye replied on a smile and a hand squeeze.

I squeezed her hand back and realized this might be my shot at having genuine, real, true friends close to home (and a lot of them, shocker!). They’d given all the signs and even if I was the latecomer, they still were letting me in.

I liked that.

I let her hand go, put the phone down, walked through my house and up two flights of stairs to the opening that led to my attic.

There were stairs folded down. There were also two dozen huge rolls of insulation lining the hall. And at the end of the hall, a massive pile of old insulation that didn’t look nice, fluffy, pink and clean like the new stuff.

I actually felt my heating bills decreasing, and the warmth wash through me that Jacob was doing that for me, as I called up the stairs, “Jacob? Honey?”

“Yeah?” he called back.

“Can I talk to you a sec?”

“Can it wait a minute, babe?”

“Well, not really!” I yelled.

Five seconds passed and I saw his head appear in the opening, leather-gloved fingers curling around the side.

It was then I noted, even just seeing his head and fingers encased in work gloves, or maybe because his fingers were encased in work gloves, Jacob Decker was all kinds of hot.

“You okay?” he asked.


“Can you come down?”

His eyes moved over my face.

Then his head disappeared but his whole body appeared as he climbed down the ladder.

There it was. Proof. Jacob Decker was all kinds of hot and it wasn’t about the work gloves.

He had magnificent thighs. They were thick. Pure muscle.

This was a good thought to hold on to (and a good visual to have) while I waited and watched him reach the bottom and turn to me.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“Dane used his one phone call to call me,” I answered.

After I said that, I took a step back.

This was because his face turned to stone but his hazel eyes started glittering in a way that freaked me right out. It was a look I’d never seen. It was weirdly sexy. It was also totally scary.

Then he thundered, “Chace!”

“Honey—” I whispered but he didn’t reply or even look at me.

His head was tipped to the opening to the attic.

Chace’s head appeared there.

“Jesus, what’s happening?” Chace asked upon one look at his friend.

Jacob was yanking off his gloves as he said, “Come down. We need to take a ride to the station. McFarland used his one call to phone Emme and I need him in a room where I can explain that Emme ceased to exist for him the minute his f*ckin’ fingers dipped in the print ink.”

Chace said nothing but his head disappeared. I heard him talking to the guys as his body appeared and he moved down the ladder.

Just to say, he had nice thighs too.

I didn’t think on that too hard. I moved to Jacob and put my hand on his chest.

His eyes tipped down to me.

Still glittering.

“Really, I made my point on the phone,” I told him.

“And I’ll make my point in person,” he told me.

“Ja—”

His hand came up and cupped my jaw and his face filled my vision.

His voice was scary when he stated, “Emme. No. Get this and get it now. No. I know this guy. You dated him for four months and you don’t know this guy. But I know this guy. And he needs to get my point in person. Yeah?”

My first thought after this pronouncement was, What would Faye do?

And I decided by his scary-glittery eyes, his stony face and his even scarier voice that Faye would advise I just nod and agree, “Yeah.”

So that was what I did.

He nodded back, stepped back and dropped his hand from my jaw.

Chace broke into our exchange by saying (also in a hard, kind of scary voice), “Let’s go.”

There it was. I was right to stand down. Even Chace thought this was important enough to get this done and get it done now, whatever it was.

“Well, uh… good luck,” I said, looking from Jacob to Chace.

Chace was scowling at me, but at my words, he smiled a smile that fortunately reached his eyes.

Jacob’s hand came back to my jaw, his fingers dug in and I was compelled to roll up to my toes, which was good seeing as that meant his head had less distance to go when his mouth landed hard on mine. The kiss was closed mouthed, short, but undeniably angry.

Even so, it still felt good.

He lifted away and muttered, “Be back soon, babe.”

I nodded.

He dropped his hand and moved away.

Chace moved in. “Boys’ll keep working.”

“Okay,” I replied. “Thanks.”

Chace jerked up his chin and moved away.

I sighed, tipped my head back and called, “Anyone need anything?”

“Beer!” was shouted back in a deep voice I didn’t recognize. But then again, I’d only been briefly introduced before Jacob put them all to work.

“F*ck, Deke, it’s barely eleven,” another deep voice said.

So that was Deke.

“I sweat, anytime I sweat, I do it drinkin’ beer,” Deke returned.

“Beer it is!” I shouted, thinking that wasn’t a bad way to go about life.

I hustled downstairs, got a bunch of beers and a bunch of bottled waters.

Then I went back to the girls and hoped that Jacob was not soon going to wipe the floor with Dane in an interrogation room at the Gnaw Bone police station and thus be fingerprinted just like Dane.

The girls knew this was my fear and further proved their genuineness when they had a mind to it and a mind to taking my mind off it.

So yeah.

Girl posse.

Maybe not so bad.