Harper's Little Spitfire (Harper's Series) (33 page)

“Mac was an idiot to book that appointment and not show, plus none of us knew anything about it till Miranda told me about them arriving twenty minutes beforehand. If he expects to be working shifts for them, he has another thing coming,” Logan told his brothers.

Zeb walked over to the bar, placed three glasses on the top and poured them all bourbon on ice. Handing them out, they said ‘cheers’ at the added contract and swallowed the brown liquid. He hissed at the burn, which disappeared as quickly as it went down.

The phone beeped beside him. Logan answered, “Yes, Miranda?”

“Just letting you know Mac’s on his way up, sir.”

“Thank you. Any calls come through, take a message, and let them know I’m out of the office and won’t be back till tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir.”

Hanging up the phone, he leaned back in his chair. “Mac’s on his way up.” It was about time he showed up. Logan wanted to know what was going on, and what the hell happened at the ranch with Sage. He still didn’t understand why he had behaved that way in the first place.

Both of his brothers stared at him from across the desk, Caleb more pissed than Zeb.

“About bloody time,” Caleb growled.

“I’m intrigued as to why he wasn’t here this morning,” Zeb voiced.

Minutes went by as they all sat in silence until their brother made his appearance in his office.

No one said a word to Mac when he entered the room. Closing the door behind him, he stepped further into the room. “Sorry, had something I had to do. I would have been here sooner, but I couldn’t get away from my earlier engagement.”

Standing from his seat, Logan rested his hands on his desk. “I don’t care what you had going on. If you make an appointment with a client, you be here for it,” he hissed.

Crossing his arms over his chest, Mac sighed. “I double booked myself, Logan. Shit, we’ve all done that in the past.”

“I don’t care, Mac. You’re lucky one of us was here in the office. If we weren’t, we would have lost that large contract, which gives Harper’s Security Corp a bad name.”

“So we got it?” he asked.

“What’s it to you if we did? It’s not like you are working on the contract.”

Mac’s arms dropped to his side, fists clenching, “What? I got that appointment with Liam. It took me weeks to get my foot in the door just to see him.”

“Well, you should have put everything aside to be at the damn appointment today. We nearly lost it because you never showed up, Mac.”

“Like I said, I had prior arrangements,” Mac responded with a growl.

“Sorry, I didn’t see anything in the books stating that.”

“Fuck the book. You hardly put things in yourself in that damn book of yours.”

“I keep track of everything in those books, Mac. If I didn’t, we’d be lost without it; plus, someone needs to be more organised for the rest of us.”

Mac stomped forward, stopping inches from Logan’s desk. Zeb shifted closer behind as Caleb stood from his chair.

Glancing between them all, he sneered, “So it’s going to be like that, huh? My own brothers against me?”

“Mac, you did this to yourself. You’re hardly here, and when you are, you’re constantly growling at everyone around you. No one wants to work with that. The girls in the office are scared shitless of you, and that’s not good on our part. You treat everyone like crap, and even if someone so much as looks at you, you’re ready to explode. It doesn’t look good to us when we show up to the appointments you made and have to make excuses for you, explaining why you’re a no show. We have no idea where you are. You don’t answer your phone when we ring. We have no clue if you’re fucking alive or dead, Mac,” Logan said, controlling his breathing.

“You never talk to us anymore. We all know something is going on with you. We just don’t know what. Then there is what happened with Sage. Did you think we wouldn’t find out about what you did to her, Mac? Fuck!” Logan pinched the bridge of his nose and then looked back at Mac. “How could you have done anything like that to her? You fucking hurt her, Mac. Do you feel any sense of remorse?”

Mac simply stared at Logan. Nothing in his body language or facial expression gave any hint of feeling.

“You seriously don’t bloody care at all that you hurt her, do you? What has gotten into you? You were never like this.”

“You guys don’t know shit about what is going on.”

“Because you tell us fucking nothing, MacKenzie.” Logan was extremely pissed now.

Someone’s phone dinged with an incoming message. All of them pulled their own out and checked; Caleb grinned as he read whatever was sent and typed back. Walking over to Logan, turning his back to Mac, he spoke, “Spitfire’s on her way up here. Something about her security alarm.”

Logan nodded. Looking back at Mac, he hated that they were all acting this way. They used to all get along perfectly; they had the odd one or two fights, but that was it. It went downhill about a year ago. Mac had begun pulling away from them. They saw less and less of him, unless it was at the office or when they hooked up for one of their weekends, but even that was difficult being around him.

Mac wasn’t the same brother anymore; he’d changed. Something was bothering him, he could see it; hell, they all could, he just didn’t know what it was. Even with the women they shared, he acted completely differently. None of them at all complained about the night shared with all of them, but it was as if he was holding himself back from something unknown.

He was going to find out. They were all close. They shared everything together, or rather they used to. He thought of Sage. Not anymore. No one kept things away from the rest of them, no matter how bad it was. They dealt with whatever shit came their way together. They’d always stood together, brothers of blood. They stood as one and went down as one. And no matter the reason, they backed each other, never leaving a man behind or down.

Logan knew he’d have to remind Mac of the pact that they’d made ten years ago. As pissed as they were for his disappearing act, for the meeting, and especially for Sage, they were all there for him, for each other. Simple as that. Maybe he could have a talk with Sage to see if she could find out the issue with him, although he doubted she would want to even speak to him after what happened between them.

~~*~~*~~

S
age pulled her bag tighter against her side as she rode in the elevator to the fifth floor to Harper’s Security Corp. Kaidence and Bri had stayed with her for the last few days, going over her orders that needed to be done. It frustrated her that running her website business with her part-owner, who had helped her get it all together from scratch, was a damn nightmare; they rarely saw eye-to-eye over anything. She suggested one thing, and the other owner suggested something completely different. It took them days, even weeks, to eventually come to an agreement.

Lisa, the joint owner, wanted out of the business. It was cutting way too much into her outrageous lifestyle, and she was willing to sell her half back to Sage. Sage was all for it; not worrying about needing to go to Lisa about anything for their business was a blessing. She had called her sister up the moment she got off the phone to Lisa and begged her to come on board with her.

Well, she didn’t have to do too much begging, since her sister wanted on board from the beginning, but at the time, Lisa had refused adding another owner.

The elevator came to a stop and opened its doors. Stepping out, she turned left and walked down the hall towards the large sign saying Harper’s Security Corp.

She smiled as she saw Kelly behind the main desk.

“Hey, Sage. Been a while since I’ve seen you up this way,” Kelly greeted as Sage leaned over the desk, giving her a hug.

“Hey. Yeah, it’s been way too long,” Sage laughed. “Can I go in?”

“Sure, sweetie. We should catch up soon. Send me a text when you’re available next and we’ll get together.”

“Sounds good to me. I’ll catch you later. Don’t want to keep them all waiting,” Sage replied with a smile.

“No, I’d rather them all in a good mood than not,” Kelly laughed, reaching over and picking up the phone that was ringing.

Shaking her head, Sage walked down and stopped in front of Logan’s office. Turning the handle, she pushed the door slightly open and smiled when her eyes landed on him. Glancing around, Caleb stood near the sofa in the room and Zeb near the desk, closest to Logan. Stepping into the room, her eyes landed on the person standing in front of Logan’s desk. She stilled.
MacKenzie!
Oh, God! She hadn’t seen him since that night back at the ranch. It felt like forever, but it was only what, nearly a week?

Caleb walked over to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulder, pulling her into him. She gripped his shirt as Mac turned and face her.

His eyes darkened instantly when they travelled from her feet up her legs, lingering for a second at her breasts until his eyes stared into hers. Her body tingled when he looked at her, but she refused to allow herself to respond.

“Sage,” he rasped.

“Mackenzie.” He glared at her when she said his full name. No one in the room used it unless they were pissed at him, and oh boy, was she pissed.

Logan moved from behind his desk and sat down on the sofa, arm resting on the back part as he looked between them.

She couldn’t take her eyes from Mac. She hated that her body still wanted him. She wasn’t going to allow him to control her body or thoughts any longer. He didn’t deserve her feelings. Logan lifted his hand and patted the seat next to him. Caleb dropped his arm from her shoulders. She walked over to him and sat down.

Looking between them all, her eyes rested back on Logan.

“Are you having problems with your alarm system again?”

“The stupid thing keeps going off. It’s driving me insane, Logan. I’d rather not have the damn thing,” she huffed.

She was over being woken up at the stupidest times throughout the night. When she woke to the alarm blaring through her house, she went into panic mood. Grabbing her phone and baseball bat, she tiptoed down the hall, checking her place out. When it came up empty, no intruders, she would reactivate it and go back to bed.

After the fourth night of the same thing happening again, she ripped the box off the wall and pulled the wires out, disarming it, screaming at it as she did.

“I told you you’re having the alarm, spitfire. You have no idea how many people who live alone that are broken into. Plus, you being female is more of a problem. You have no man at home with you to protect you if someone happens to break in.”

“I don’t need a man at home, Logan. I can protect myself.” She rolled her eyes at his alpha response. Mac snorted as he stood away from her. Swinging her head towards him, she spat out, “Something funny?”

“What are you going to do if someone breaks into your house, Sage?”

“You should test out that theory and break into my house and see what happens, MacKenzie.” She would enjoy kicking his damn ass if he took one step into her house, and she’d enjoy it immensely.

Taking a step towards her, he grinned down at her. “I taught you everything you needed to learn, Sage.”

He might have taught her a thing or two growing up, but by the tone of his voice, it wasn’t about that. Smiling sweetly back at him, she took delight in saying, “You only taught me so much, MacKenzie. The rest I learned from Logan, Caleb and Zeb.” She wasn’t talking about protecting herself anymore. It was what he did to her in the bedroom. He glared at her.

Looking back at Logan, she asked, “Are you coming over to fix the alarm?”

“Yeah, I will.”

Standing from her seat, she smiled, leaned over and kissed him on the lips. Take that, Mac! “Okay. I need to go. I have heaps to get through before my sister comes over tonight.”

“I’ll be there around three. Shouldn’t take more than ten to fifteen minutes to fix.”

She walked towards Caleb, grabbed his head and pulled his mouth to hers for a hot, steamy and short kiss. Pulling away, she shifted over to Zeb and did the same to him. Stepping back, she grinned as Zeb gaped at her. Caleb had the stupidest grin covering his mouth and Logan sat, shaking his head.

“Thank you. I’ll see you later. Caleb, Zeb, nice seeing you.” Turning towards Mac, she said, “I’d say it was a pleasure seeing you, but it wasn’t.”

Walking towards the door, she pulled it open, stepped out, and closed it behind her without a second glance. Resting against the door, breathing in and out several times, she tried to get her heartbeat back to normal. Seeing Mac played havoc with her body. She pushed all thoughts of him away, not wanting to think about him the way her body wanted her to.

Wiping her hands on her jeans, she walked past Kelly and waved while she spoke on the phone. She liked Kelly, but she wasn’t someone she mingled with. Kelly was way out there. Too much for her. She liked to tart it up every chance she got, and the fact that she worked for Logan as one of his receptionists was an issue; on too many occasions, she had seen her flirting with not only Logan, but also Caleb, Zeb and Mac. No chance did she want to hear any stories about her boys.

Sage could only assume that Kelly had heard the rumours about the boys, and that she wanted on the train ride. She was too obvious with the way she pranced around in her barely-there clothing, and every skirt was shorter than the last. The tight tops and more cleavage showing were a desperate cry for attention.

Laughing at how some people went way too far at getting the attention of someone, she stepped back onto the lift. She soon hit the ground floor and pulled out her phone. Sending a quick message to her sister telling her the time she could come around, she followed with a message to Kaidence, asking if she wanted anything dropped off to her before she arrived home. Opening her bag, ready to place her phone inside, her phone dinged at an incoming message.

Swiping the front of the screen, the message popped up.

Logan: Don’t make any plans for tomorrow night. I’ll pick you up at 7 p.m. Wear something comfortable. But after dinner, I’ll be removing every stitch of clothing you have on. xxx

Well, if her panties weren’t wet before, they were now. A tingling sensation sat in her stomach knowing tomorrow night, she was spending more time with one of them. She smiled in contentment.