Imprisoned Match [Ménage.com 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (7 page)

“Mitch already understands that this is all you are going to get. I don’t want anything else and neither does he. Either you want to be included or you don’t. But come morning, we are walking away.”

Anna had turned her head to look at Elliott, not prepared for the fervor in his eyes. The caramel color was still melted into molasses, pulling her in and making her want to be covered in his sweetness. She’d only known them for a short time, and already she could see the dramatic differences between the two of them. Amazingly, the differences were what attracted her to both of them. Mitch seemed to understand who she was here and now, where Elliott made her want to be that innocent woman she used to be. For some reason, she didn’t want to have one without the other. She held her breath, waiting for Elliott to respond.

“No.”

Elliott stormed out of the diner and walked across the street to the garage. Cutting through the back alley, he fished out his keys from his front pocket. What the hell had just happened? Mitch and Anna were keeping secrets, and Elliott didn’t like being on the outside. His brother had had no right to have her investigated, especially without telling him, but now Elliott understood Mitch’s need to do so. Her actions and responses were erratic, as if she were going off the cuff. Either she had a reason or she was a liar and just playing them. His gut feeling—shit, he didn’t know what the hell he was feeling. One minute he had a hard-on from hell and the next, well, he still had a hard-on and it wasn’t him who was going to get relief tonight.

“Elliott.”

Elliott stopped short of his truck, turning to see who had called out his name. Seeing Cooper appear under the streetlight, walking down the back alley from where his gun shop was, Elliott wondered what his friend might need.

“Do you have a minute?”

“Sure,” Elliott answered, when what he really wanted to do was drive home and sulk in a bottle of whiskey. Knowing that Mitch and Anna were going to be with one another while he chose not to participate was going to be hell. He might as well drink himself into oblivion. “What’s up?”

“Stay away from Anna.”

The warning came so far out of left field that, for a moment, Elliott didn’t say anything. Letting those words settle, his first reaction was an immediate need to know everything. How did Cooper know Anna? Why the words of caution?

“You know her?”

“I know we haven’t known each other that long, but I consider you a friend and hope you feel the same,” Cooper said, standing in front of him with his hands on his hips. “Please trust me when I say that you need to stay away from her. She’s involved in something, and whatever it is, you don’t want to be brought down with it.”

“Cooper, you can’t just say shit like that and expect me not to want to know more. Mitch is with her right now. Is she in trouble?”

“She can handle her own.”

“What the hell does that mean?” Elliott asked, taking a step forward. Cooper put his hands up and shrugged his shoulders. “Just tell me what you know and I’ll make the decision on whether we should stay away from her.”

“Tell him,” Brody ordered, his voice coming from the darkness behind Cooper. He stepped into artificial light. His girth was much more pronounced than his brother’s, and he came to stand beside Cooper. “If this were Cyn, we’d want to know.”

“We were involved with Cyn,” Cooper argued. “They don’t even know this woman. You’ve seen what she is capable of. She could get them killed, Brody.”

“From what I just witnessed at the diner, they know her well enough,” Brody informed him. “Look, it’s not like they can fire us. We don’t even work for them.”

“What the hell are you guys talking about, and what have you seen her do?” Elliott was done listening to them bicker back and forth about something that he had a right to know about in the first place. “Spill it before I call Mitch to beat it out of you.”

Brody just laughed at that threat, while Cooper gave a big sigh, indicating he was about to spill the beans. “Fine, but I’m throwing you under the bus if this gets back to Monroe.”

“Whatever,” Brody said, leaning up against Elliott’s truck and crossing his arms over his chest, obviously not worried about either threat.

“A few months back, the ATF came to us for help on one of their cases,” Cooper explained. “We were to pose as sellers of illegal weapons, using our store as a front. We made contact with a straw man, basically a middleman, and he was to find a buyer. The ATF wants to bring down multiple buyers in the area, so we set up the case so that the buyer was at the drop. Things went to shit when Sonny Jones, the straw man we used to broker the deal, took Cyn.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Elliott asked, shocked that this had happened in such a small town without any of this information leaking out. “How did we not know any of this?”

“Agent Monroe made sure that Deputy Thornton was the only one involved. The operation to bring down the buyers is still in full swing, but after having to witness Cyn’s life on the line, we opted out.”

“So where does Anna come into all this?” Elliott was almost afraid to hear the answer.

Cooper and Brody exchanged glances. Elliott almost took a step forward to grab ahold of Cooper’s shirt, wanting to shake the answers out of him. Trying to be patient, Elliott curled his fingers into his hands, holding them at his sides. He didn’t know why this mattered so much. Hell, he barely knew Anna Valdez. Somehow, someway, she’d already become an important part of their lives. He hoped that Mitch didn’t screw that up tonight. And he prayed that whatever Cooper and Brody were about to say didn’t alter the path that Elliott could see the three of them taking.

“Anna was the buyer. She went by the name of Anna Cruz.”

Fuck. Elliott lowered his head, taking deep breaths as his friend delivered the crushing news. This not only changed things, this pretty much ended them.

* * * *

Mitch held Anna against the door to her room, with her legs wrapped around his waist. He was a big man, but for some reason, Anna didn’t fear him like most women. The heat of her pussy absorbed through his shirt, touching his skin and making him want to rip off her panties. Her jeans were somewhere on the floor, along with her sweater and his shirt. They still had too many clothes on, but Mitch couldn’t bring himself to take this any further—at least, not without Elliott.

Tearing his mouth from hers, Mitch leaned his forehead against Anna’s. Their breathing was ragged and a fine sheen of sweat covered both of them. Her warm skin lay against his and he took a moment to relish in the comfort she provided. Even in this position, she melded against him perfectly. What he wanted was a quick fuck, not a long-term relationship or to ruin something good for his brother. He weighed the pros and cons.

“We can still do this,” Anna whispered, her breath caressing his lips. “We can satisfy each other, get whatever this is out of our systems, and go our separate ways.”

“You know one night wouldn’t be enough, Ginger,” Mitch murmured, shaking his head slowly against hers. “I might not be a good man, but I can’t do this to my brother. He wants more with you.”

“He thinks he wants more,” Anna said, speaking louder. She dropped her legs, forcing him to lower her to the ground. “I think he likes the idea of a relationship, not exactly me in particular.”

“That’s bullshit,” Mitch said, taking a step back. “You feel whatever is between us.”

“Maybe,” Anna answered vaguely. Walking across the room in nothing but black panties and a matching bra, she wasn’t in the least embarrassed by her appearance. She grabbed his shirt off the floor though and slipped it over her head. “But you want nothing more than to fuck, so why don’t we do that and call it a night?”

“Because Elliott wants more and I can’t take that away from him.”

“I thought you two were into sharing,” Anna said, making her way to the tiny refrigerator on the far wall. “You each can’t have it your own way, especially with me only wanting yours. A one-night stand would accommodate both of us.”

“Then it looks like all three of us lose out.” Mitch made his way to the chair that was sitting in the corner, next to the bed.

It was a small room but equipped with whatever she might need. The bed was up against the right wall, while a small couch and table occupied the far-left corner. A mini refrigerator and small counter with a coffeepot and sink sat opposite of that. Hell, regardless of how small the room was, anything was better than the cell that he had occupied for ten years.

“Elliott said you wanted a ménage.” Anna had taken two bottles of water from the small fridge and brought them back his way. Handing one to him, she made herself comfortable on the bed. “Isn’t that what this town is famous for?”

“We share women, if that’s what you mean,” Mitch answered, trying to clarify things for her. “But as for a relationship, Elliott just hasn’t accepted that he’s going to have to do that on his own. I’m not cut out for that.”

“Ah, that’s right,” Anna said mockingly. “You don’t think you’re good enough for a woman because you’re a felon. Let me rephrase that, you’re good enough for a fuck, but not good enough for a relationship.”

“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” Mitch was now ready to leave. Who was she to judge him? She was the one with all the secrets, regardless that his contact said she was clean. He knew that to be the truth, just as he knew he’d forever be known as a felon.

“Stop with the ruffled feathers,” Anna said, rolling to her side and propping her elbow on the bed to rest her head in her hand. Her red hair tumbled around her fingers, the golden hue of the light making the strands seem to sparkle. He wasn’t sure where her clip had gone. His T-shirt was a little too big for her, but when she shifted her hips, the material moved up to display her panties. He couldn’t prevent his eyes from taking in the curve of her thighs or the way her dainty feet couldn’t be longer than his hand. The pink of her toes was just an added benefit to the view. He’d always loved pink on a woman. “It’s just obvious you have this self-image that differs from everyone else’s.”

“And what about your self-image?” Mitch asked, sitting back against the chair and stretching his legs out. He threw the conversation toward her. Two could play at this game. “Why deny that there’s something between the three of us?”

“That has nothing to do with my self-image,” Anna answered, looking at him with her blue eyes. There were moments when there was an honest vulnerability in her eyes, but then a coldness crept in, wiping it away. Right now, her openness shined brightly through. She was an enigma. “My not getting involved in a relationship is something I’ve come to accept, which is why a one-night stand sounded pretty damn good. I have my reasons, but they’re personal. You, on the other hand, seem to think because you spent time in jail, you’re not as worthy as your brother.”

With any other person, Mitch would have walked out by now. For some reason, he wanted to stay and convince her that what he believed was the truth. It was very important to him that she understand where he was coming from. He wasn’t sure when he’d lost control of this conversation, but maybe if he was honest for once in his life, he could save the three of them a lot of heartache.

“Elliott is twice the man I will ever be.”

“Why?”

Mitch couldn’t look at her while recalling the past, so he fixed his gaze above her to the window overlooking Main Street. Feeling his scar throb, he brought his hand up to rub it. The curtain had been pulled, but that didn’t stop the streetlights from displaying the shadows of the town. He hadn’t talked about what had happened to anyone since he’d gotten out, but he needed her to know. “I was twenty years old, away at college, and thought I was impervious to everything. I went to every frat party there was on campus, knew everyone there was to know of importance, and had the teachers eating out of the palms of my hands because of my football scholarship. It didn’t hurt that I was actually smart.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Anna said. She had spoken so softly, he wondered if she was afraid he would stop telling his story.

“It was a Saturday night, but we’d been partying all day. I was taking a girl upstairs when we heard a bunch of commotion by the front door. Turned out to be a rival football team that had heard we were hosting an end-of-the-season bash. Obviously, things got out of hand quickly and a couple fights broke out. The campus police showed up and cleared everyone out.”

Anna looked at him quizzically. He knew she was wondering how this could lead to a murder charge. His throat was dry and he realized he’d spoken more in the last ten minutes than he had in months. Unscrewing the cap to his water bottle, Mitch chugged half of it in one swallow. While putting the white cover back on, Mitch finished his story.

“We noticed that our trophy from winning the playoffs was missing, so a few of us decided to go get it back. We shouldn’t have been driving that night, let alone that far. It was the worst decision of my life. A bunch of the players from the other college lived off campus in an apartment complex, so we rode by there first. They were always boasting about their digs, so we knew exactly where it was. Sure enough, the parking lot was full of their vehicles and they were still there, our trophy sitting on top of a car. We pulled in, told them we were taking it back. No one argued with us. We got the trophy and started back to the car when they jumped us.” Mitch stopped and looked over toward the bed. Her nonjudgmental stare prompted him to continue. “I had height as an advantage, and the player that attacked me was smaller and didn’t have the meat of a linebacker. I turned and rushed him, hitting him directly in the middle. Neither one of us realized how close we were to the sidewalk, not that it really would have mattered. He lost his balance and flew backward, hitting the back of his head on the curb.”