Oak, Sophie - Siren in Waiting [Texas Sirens 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (35 page)

He shrugged as he pushed the button that started the coffeemaker. “I never paid you back. Consider it interest.”

“Bo,” she started. The last thing she wanted was for him to think he had to buy his way into a relationship with her. “I love you. You don’t have to do this.”

He turned. “Are we in this together or not? I want to be a partner, Beth. I get that this body is enough to make any woman salivate, but I’m more than just a gorgeous man.”

She couldn’t help her smile. He always made her laugh. And now she didn’t have to stop herself from doing what she’d always wanted to do when she was with him. She walked straight into his arms. “We’re in this together. And I’ll take the interest, Bo. You’ll see. This house is going to be beautiful when I’m done.”

“At least you got rid of that chandelier thing. It gave me the creeps. And can we get rid of the room with all the heads?”

The office was a monstrous altar to the Bellows family’s love of hunting small woodland creatures and stuffing them. “Yes, that’s going to go. I’m knocking down one of the walls to make a breakfast nook. It’s going to be light and airy.”

She was so excited she could hardly stand to wait. The first thing she intended to do was to move that antler chandelier to the curb. She went up on her toes and kissed Bo’s mouth before walking over to where Trev had stashed the fixture. She shook her head. It had probably been too heavy for the ceiling. She would more than likely need the boys to carry it out. She reached out and tested it. It was remarkably light.

She lifted it. It was heavy, but not as heavy as she’d expected. She managed to heft it up. What had caused that chandelier to fall if not sheer gravity?

“What’s going on? You shouldn’t be lifting that.” Bo walked into the dining room, putting down the mug of coffee he was carrying.

“It’s not bad.” She set it down and looked for the fixture that had held it to the ceiling. It was still attached to the base. She’d thought it would be old and ragged, but the fixture was shiny and well kept. The screws were in near-perfect condition.

Why had it fallen?

She walked into the living room and stared up at the hole in the ceiling. She couldn’t see through to the second floor, and there was surprisingly little damage to the ceiling around it. She would have expected more raggedness to the spot, but it was almost as though the thing had simply fallen on its own.

Or had it had a little help?

She needed to get a closer look. She needed to get up there and feel the wood under her hand.

“Is everything okay?” Bo asked.

She gave Bo a sunny smile before crossing to the kitchen again. “Absolutely. Though I’m going to need to find a ladder.”

She opened the junk drawer and found the key to the garage. She was pretty sure she would find what she needed there.

She walked back into the living room and noticed Trev coming in from the porch. The front door opened. Beth felt a deep sense of satisfaction that it made no sound. She’d done a very good job with that door. Trev strode in. His hair was still mussed from the night before. There was a pained expression on his face.

“He needs coffee,” Bo said, putting the mug in her hand and giving her backside a little pat. “You should go and feed the beast. I think that should be your job.”

She grinned up at Bo, the mug warm in her hand. “Will do.” She walked to Trev, whose whole face changed as he caught the scent of the coffee.

“Thank god.” He sniffed it before downing a long swallow. “Good morning.”

She kissed him, brushing her lips against his. “Good morning to you, too. Enjoy your coffee. I’ll be right back.”

She slipped past him and out of the front door. The morning was beautiful, dewy, and warm. She didn’t bother with shoes, letting her feet sink into the thick grass. She turned and looked back at the house. A deep sense of satisfaction settled in her chest.

“Well, don’t you look like the cat who swallowed the canary.”

Beth closed her eyes before turning to face Clarissa. It was Grand Central Station at the Bellows place today. No. It was the Hobbes place. It was hers. And she was done allowing women like Clarissa to intimidate her.

Clarissa was dressed in shorts and a tank top. It was obvious she’d been jogging. Clarissa’s place was roughly a mile down the road. She probably jogged this way every day. Beth decided to go with friendly first.

“Good morning, neighbor.”

Clarissa’s eyes narrowed. “I thought you were going to sell this place.”

“Who told you that?” She hadn’t mentioned anything about this place to anyone outside of Trev and Bo and the gang out at O’Malley Ranch. Beth seriously doubted that Lexi had been gossiping with Clarissa.

Clarissa simply smiled. “Everyone knows you got turned down for that loan.”

“Really? Everyone?” Since when did her banking practices become everyone’s business? “Besides, there are other ways to get money. I took a loan from a friend.”

Clarissa’s eyes narrowed. “I just bet I know how you got it. So Trev has a little cash hidden away?”

“No. Bo loaned me the money.”

Red flushed along Clarissa’s skin. If she’d thought for one moment that Clarissa had real feelings for Bo, she would have kept her mouth closed, but Bo didn’t mean anything to Clarissa but another man in her back pocket.

“Bo and I are together now, and not just as friends. He’s my boyfriend. I would thank you for respecting that,” Beth said.

Beth heard footsteps on the porch and turned to see both of her men step out. Trev leaned against the front post while Bo simply stared at Clarissa.

Beth fought not to blush. “And Trev’s mine, too. You should stay away from him as well.”

Clarissa’s fists clenched. “I’m going to talk to every single client you have. No one is going to want you doing their taxes anymore. You can’t expect that you’ll have a job once everyone knows what a whore you’ve become. How are you going to pay Bo back then? Oh, I guess he’s getting what he wants out of you. It’s going to take a lot of blow jobs to get rid of that debt.”

Trev straightened up. Bo opened his mouth, but Trev put a hand out. Beth got the message. They were behind her, but this was her fight. And she had a decision to make. She could play it safe and hide, or she could embrace the woman she was becoming.

“Somehow I think Bo will be kind when it comes to paying him back. And I have it on the highest authority that my blow jobs are worth a lot of money.” She managed to get through it without laughing, but it was right there. There was a strange joy in telling off this woman who had dealt out such misery. “I think I can safely quit doing people’s taxes and helping with their accounting and concentrate on fixing my house.”

“Don’t forget the blow jobs,” Bo called out.

“And blow jobs. I need time to give a whole lot of blow jobs.”

Trev shook his head but was silent as he took another long swallow of coffee.

Clarissa leaned in, her voice tight with anger. “After I get through with you, your name won’t be worth a thing in this town, Mouse.”

“My name has never been worth anything. And it’s not Mouse. My name is Beth, so when you start telling everyone what a slut I am when I’ve had two men in my whole life, you get it right. You tell everyone that Beth Hobbes is a whore and proud of it. You’re the pathetic one, Clarissa. You’re the one who tosses away men like they were used napkins. I love them. I won’t give them up. You can’t scare me away. You can’t shame me into it. Consider me an immovable object, and get on with your own life. I don’t care what anyone thinks. That’s what you never understood about me. I never really cared. I never really tried to fit in. I was patient and waited until the right men came along. Now go back to your workout. You’re going to need it.”

Beth turned before Clarissa could say a single nasty word. She nodded at her men. “I’m going out to the garage to look for a ladder. I’ll be right back.”

She walked away, her heart pounding just a little. She was really going to do it. There was no way to keep her clients. Some of them might not care, but she doubted the pastor of the Baptist church would allow her to do their monthly bookkeeping after he heard about her crazy threesome. And the principal of the school wouldn’t want it known that his accountant paid back loans with blow jobs. She felt her face flush. She’d really said that.

It didn’t matter. Bo would take care of her. She approached the garage. She should shy away from that, but what was the use in being a couple—or a threesome—if they didn’t depend on each other? She was confident that she could bring this house back to life. She could make it beautiful again, and it would pay out. She would be able to pay Bo back and have some money left over for her next project.

And Deer Run could go hang if they didn’t like it.

Beth stopped and stared at the door to the garage. It was a detached garage. Beth had only been in it once before. It had been stuffed to the point that she’d known she couldn’t get a car in there. All three of their cars were parked in the circular drive. At the time, she’d simply relocked the garage and promised to put cleaning it out on her never-ending list of things to do.

But it looked like someone had decided to move that project up a little bit.

The lock that had been on the door lay on the ground next to the garage. Someone had cut it and tossed it aside. She reached down and grasped the handle, afraid of what she would see. The door squealed in protest as she opened it.

The garage was in shambles. The neat piles of boxes and magazines and old newspapers had been overturned and stomped on. It was utter chaos, as though the people who had trashed the place hadn’t been sure of what they were doing so they had touched every single item in the place.

What the hell was going on?

“Wow, Maudine was kind of a slob.” Bo stood behind her.

But she hadn’t been. Maudine’s house might have been stuffed to the gills, but there had been a pattern to it. Everything had been neatly stacked.

Trev stood beside him, coffee mug in hand. “Someone’s looking for something, and they don’t care how they find it. I think we were wrong that first night, darlin’. I think someone was in this house that night.”

Goose bumps raced along her arm. “What on earth would I have that someone would want?”

“Maybe it’s not about what you have,” Bo said. “Maybe it’s about Maudine.”

“Maudine was a shut-in. She rarely went out, and when she did, she was nasty to everyone. She didn’t have a single friend.”

“She had a relative,” Bo supplied. “Barry Bellows was her nephew, but I don’t think they were terribly close.”

“But Barry was close to Bryce. Barry was Bryce’s partner. Fuck. Who was your loan officer?” Trev reached out and grabbed her hand, squeezing it reassuringly.

“Kevin Jones.”

Bo frowned. “I saw Kevin having dinner with Bryce not two days ago. Bryce sends all his clients to Kevin for loans.”

“I’m seeing a pattern here,” Trev said. “But I don’t know what to make of it. Does Bryce have any connection to that kid who took a shot at Beth?”

Beth shook her head. “That kid’s name is Austin Hall. I talked to the sheriff about him when they brought him in. He’s been in and out of trouble, mostly drugs. I heard someone say that his father deals meth and possibly some other stuff. The sheriff thinks Austin is afraid of his father.”

“Everyone knows where to go for drugs in this town. Nelson Hall cooks meth, but he changes the place so often the cops out here gave up on finding him. But none of that explains why he would send his son in here to shoot at Beth.” Bo reached down and picked up a box. It looked like it held old towels. Maudine hadn’t been big on throwing anything out. “And what was he looking for?”