Lyndee's Saviors [Men of Montana] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (11 page)

Recognition struck her features, moving from angry to flirty and coy in a heartbeat. “Well, if it isn’t the Goodall boys, and Austin! What are you all doing here?”

Observant, Lisa watched the men’s expressions transform from happy to irritable as quickly as the woman’s attitude changed. They each looked at each other as if questioning one another silently on who was going to answer her.

Austin spoke up. “Hello, Angela. We’re here shopping for our new girlfriend, Lisa. She needed a few things.”

Lisa had noticed that Austin had spoken with a bit of distain, as if he didn’t really like the woman. The change in attitude from the other two wasn’t missed on her either. Instantly she knew there was a history with this woman, and she wondered why they weren’t with her now. Tall and fit with fiery red hair that lay in curls to right below her shoulders, she was someone men took a second glance at. She had green eyes with specks of gold beneath long red eyelashes while her mouth was a magnificent red bow, the kind that offers a man a full-mouth kiss along with other hidden talents. She wore blue jeans along with a red tank top that showed off her arms and shoulders covered with freckles. Red cowboy boots adorned her feet, though Lisa thought it was a bit too much red color on the woman.

* * * *

Angela looked Lisa up and down, which wasn’t a big stretch given her stature. Jealousy and hatred burned through the woman. How was this little tart going to fulfill the demands of all three of these men? She looked like she was too high maintenance for them from the way the shopping cart was piled up. Also, where had they found her? The outfit she wore looked like it was a reject from the eighties.

Through the awkwardness, she remembered the conversation her brother Connor, who was the sheriff, was having earlier with someone on the phone. He must have been talking to Trey about this woman. Triumph twinkled in Angela’s eyes when she realized this petite woman with her men was a hooker. “So this is the little hooker from the big city,” she purred evilly. “How is she in bed? Is she better than me?”

* * * *

Glares and growls emanated from all three men with the statement while a gasp escaped Lisa’s lips at the hateful woman’s statement. Embarrassment engulfed her fully as redness flooded her facial features. Tears stung her eyes as her feet began to move. The entrance to the store was blurred within her vision as she ran toward it. She had to dodge several carts and multiple people before she finally reached her destination, and once there, she searched out the black dual-cab pickup they had arrived in. Cursing when she found the doors locked, she climbed into the bed and lay down on a blanket in the back that had been placed there for whatever reason.

Hidden from people in the parking lot, she cried quietly, hating that someone else knew the truth about her, and not just anyone, but a spiteful woman that apparently had slept with the men in the past. How was she supposed to look the trio in the eye again, knowing that other people now knew they were sleeping with a prostitute? Leaving was her best option. She wouldn’t subject them to the rumors and backstabbing that was inevitably going to surround them.

After a while a man’s voice near the truck interrupted her pity party. It was authoritative and for some reason familiar. Leaning up a bit, she peered over the side of the tailgate and saw a tall man, a bit taller than her three, with long dark hair pulled back and tied in a leather piece. His back was to her so she didn’t recognize him but was intrigued on why he was so familiar. As people approached him walking to and from their vehicles, he held out a picture and inquired if they had seen the woman in the photo. Everyone who looked shook their heads and some even went as far as ignoring him or avoiding him altogether. She could tell he was extremely irritated when this happened. His shoulders tensed and his stance caused him to look like he was going to pounce on them. Evil emanated from his body and she ducked back down, knowing deep inside she couldn’t be seen by him but didn’t know why.

Holding back her sobs, she lay quietly until she heard the three men approach the truck. The man had approached them. “Excuse me. Have any of you seen this woman?”

* * * *

Austin took the picture from the man, glanced at it, and held himself in check to avoid giving away his feelings. He handed the picture off to Storm, who responded the same way before passing it onto Trey, who spoke for the three of them, his lazy drawl tense. “Nope, can’t say that we have. I’m sure we would have remembered seeing a woman like that. Why are you looking for her?”

“She is my niece and was kidnapped a few days ago by her boyfriend. We think he was trying to take her north of the border.”

“Sorry pal,” Storm said, unfeeling at the bold-faced lie. “We haven’t seen her.”

Pushing the cart full of plastic bags to the truck, Austin turned. “Why don’t you give us your number in case we see her so we can give you a call? I can’t stand it when men take advantage of a helpless woman.”

Austin’s tone was flat and tinged with anger even though he tried to control it. He wanted to take this man down right there in the parking lot but knew that to protect Lisa they had to do this right. He accepted the business card from the man tersely, shoving it in the front pocket of his jeans before grabbing bags and quickly placing them in the truck bed. The slight movement at the tailgate caught his attention and he saw his woman lying there terrified.

“By the way, what is her name?” he asked as he continued to put bags in the bed.

“Lisa,” the man answered without hesitation.

“And yours?” Trey asked guardedly.

“Philip. Philip McKnight.”

Lisa had to cover her mouth with her hand to keep from crying out. The name was familiar but she didn’t know why, but she knew it wasn’t a good name to remember. God, she hated that she couldn’t remember things!

* * * *

When Austin had all the bags in the truck, he turned to the man, trying to hide the hatred in his brown eyes that had turned nearly black. “We’ll be in touch if we see her. I hope you find her soon.”

The man stepped away from the truck, heading toward some more patrons of the store that were walking to their car, asking them the same questions he had asked the men. As the trio moved toward the cab of the truck, Storm and Trey both glanced in the back and saw their woman half covered in plastic bags. Nonchalantly they piled into the cab, Storm in the driver’s seat while Trey was in the passenger seat and Austin sat in the back seat. Starting the engine, Storm pulled forward since there wasn’t a car parked in the space in front of them and drove to the opposite end of the parking lot. There, Austin got out and helped their petite bundle from the truck bed and into the seat beside him.

Cuddling up to the large man’s side, Lisa hid her face against his chest, as if ashamed that she had let Angela get to her. “I’m so sorry about that.”

“You were not the one in the wrong, she was,” Austin said, tilting her chin up to look him in the eyes. “Angela is a self-centered bitch who felt scorned because we no longer wanted her.”

Surprise lit her face at Austin’s statement as thoughts seemed to swirl in her brain. Then another emotion crossed her face as if she was uncertain of something.

Austin saw the emotions sweep through her as her facial expressions morphed from one to another. He knew there was going to be an issue with the way things went down at the store and he intended to stop it before it ever got started.

“Look at me!” he ordered. She hesitated. His hand reached out and slapped the side of her hip since that was all he could come in contact with. Her head shot up. “Angela is nothing to us. She is the sister of Trey’s boss and thought she could charm her way into our lives. She wanted us so she started coming around and flirting. We are men and weak when it comes to women, so we took her. It lasted for about a month and then we found out she was also sleeping with some other men. We dumped her immediately.

“She thought we were going to marry her even after what we found out, so she is bitter. That part of our life is over. We want no one but you, and we want you in our lives for the rest of our lives. You will not be pushed aside once we find out who you are. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done in the past. If you are a criminal and the law is after you, we’ll stand by you no matter what. Even if we have to set up conjugal visits, we will be there for you. Is that clear?”

Austin saw a quick flash of fear in her eyes before it was replaced with a twinkle as she answered, “Yes.”

Surprise filled him when she pressed her lips to his as her hand splayed across his chest. Grabbing both her arms he squeezed and she cried out, as he had forgotten about her gunshot wound. He quickly let go and caught her up in his arms, careful of the hidden injury. “Jeez, little one. I am so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Tears filled her eyes and her bottom lip was between her teeth as she was trying to breathe through the pain. Laying her head on his chest he relished the gesture as if she were a small child looking for comfort. His heartbeat was pounding against the inside of his walls as if trying to escape, as he internally chastised himself for hurting her. A sigh escaped her as he kissed the top of her head before glancing down and seeing the blood spreading across her sweater sleeve.

“Damn it!” he swore, more to himself, but Trey looked back at him as Storm tried to see what was going on through the rearview mirror. Austin chided himself as he realized she had passed out from the gripping pain he had caused her, especially right after the lecture about them protecting her and taking care of her.

Trey instantly removed his shirt, shuffled around in the front seat to face backward, and proceeded to wrap the material around her delicate arm. Austin gently pulled her fully into his lap, cradling her against his chest. He ran his hand soothingly up and down her thigh and that’s when he found out she was sans panties. Hearing Trey’s chuckle, he knew that his cousin was aware of what she wore, or didn’t wear, which he should have realized he knew since he was the one who’d dressed her. His cock throbbed with need at the thought of her walking around the store the way she did. He would have loved to been there helping her try on her shoes.

Feeling wretched for even thinking those fanciful thoughts after hurting her, he tried to calm his libido down some, though resting his hand on her bare hip while she slept felt right. They should have mandated that she didn’t wear underwear while around the house.

Damn! Why was he thinking like this? He knew that he had fallen in love with the small bundle in his arms, and he knew hell or high water wasn’t going to keep him from her. He heard Trey on the phone arranging for Doc to be at the house when they arrived but his voice sounded so far away. Focusing on his love, he buried his face into her neck to keep his cousins from seeing the tears in his eyes.

Storm had seen the action in the rearview mirror and his heart broke for Austin. They all knew he hadn’t meant to hurt her and he was certain that Lisa would understand, but since he was a child he had hated to hurt anything. It was one of his strong suits, especially after he had accidently killed a puppy he found. He had been so ecstatic about the little bundle he found in the woods, and as he was trying to race home to show his parents, he had taken a tumble and had landed on the little fellow. Perhaps that was why he was so taken with taking care of Lisa. She probably reminded him of that puppy— small, fragile, and alone.

“Doc will be waiting when we get home. He was upset that we took her on an outing so soon, so expect a lecture when we get there,” Trey said, sounding stressed and deflated. They had had such a wonderful morning that they all had forgotten about her injuries and that she had a concussion. Yeah, there would be hell to pay for this. They’d be lucky if Doc didn’t take her to the hospital and keep her there until she was fully recovered.

By the time they arrived back at the house an hour later the bleeding had curtailed and the little bundle had woken. Austin wouldn’t let go of her, his hand still resting on her naked bottom beneath the sweater. Her hand had moved down to his rock-hard stomach while she just watched his face, trying to reassure him that it was all an accident and she was all right.

Déjà vu came back after the truck pulled up in front of the house, and Austin carried their little woman into the house and into the master bedroom, laying her on the bed. The doctor was already there, sitting in the living room watching a sporting event on the television as he waited for them. One of the ranch hands felt the man didn’t need to wait outside like he had the last time. When they had arrived, he followed the trio into the bedroom, placed his bag on the bed, and waited for Trey to remove his own shirt that helped absorb the blood. Taking his pocket knife from his pocket, he cut away the sleeve of the sweater so Doc had access to view the damage.

After introductions were conducted since she had been unconscious the first time he attended her, the older man examined the wound after he cleaned the area. Apparently when the flesh had been squeezed, one of the wounds had split open. When Doc removed a syringe from its packaging and drew medication from a small vial, Lisa became agitated.

* * * *

Waking in a stupor, she looked around trying to get her bearings. Leather upholstery rose up to her right with piping that reminded her of the back of a car seat. Looking downward along the length of her body, she saw her hands were handcuffed and her legs tied at the thighs and at the ankles. The handcuffs were tied to the rope around her thighs, and then looking further down, she saw the window in the door. Yes, she was in a car. Panic rose within her as she saw the scenery beyond the glass of tall trees and blue sky scattered with white puffy clouds. They weren’t moving at the time, which frightened her even more.