Chapter Ten #2
and Beth would be up and down with the babies all night. Hope needed more sleep
and peace now that she was getting close to her own due date.
There weren’t a bunch of crazy teens running around. Oh,
they could come in from other places, but that seemed like a stretch to Shane.
“Maybe Elisa can give us a ride. I would hate to wake up the house, and the
hands are mostly in bed since we start work early.”
“We are three whole-ass adults, and now we don’t have a
single car between us.” Brooke resettled her bag over her shoulder. “Well, I
know I should call my brothers but I…”
“Brooke? Brooke? Are you okay?” Max rounded the corner at
the fastest speed his well-worn boots would take him. “Hal walked out and
announced there was a slasher and you were dead in the parking lot.”
Shane was confused. Why the hell was Max here?
“How does Hal know?” Bay asked, seemingly as confused as
Shane was.
Brooke took that one. “Oh, he listens to the police radio
like most people do podcasts. He gets bored late at night, and I’m afraid he
can do the telephone thing all on his own.”
“Telephone?” Shane asked. He didn’t like any of this.
Moments before he’d been feeling so good about the world, and now he was a mess
of anxiety and Brooke’s brother was here.
Max was looking her over as though trying to assess her
injuries. Which she had none.
“You know the game. You start with one story and then the
person who heard it first has to tell the next, and so on and so on, and that’s
how we end up with aliens invading,” Brooke replied. “Hal doesn’t need a bunch
of people to filter through to get to an outrageous story. He’s good to go
right off the bat. Max, someone slashed the tires on Shane and Bay’s truck. I
was working late at the theater, and they came to pick me up.”
Max’s eyes narrowed. “That better be all you were doing.”
Brooke’s eyes narrowed right back, and her hands made fists
on her hips. She reminded him of her niece in that moment. “In fact, it wasn’t.
They also brought me dinner.”
“Well, you wouldn’t need dinner if you were at home where
you belong,” another voice said. Rye rounded the corner, and he wasn’t alone.
Rachel rushed over to Brooke. “Are you okay?”
The fam was all here. Well, except for the kids, and that
was a blessing because Paige would probably try to defend her beloved aunt. He
could only imagine what the Harper twins were saying about him and Bay.
Brooke waved off her worry. “It was tires. No one threatened
me except my own brothers.”
Rachel looked back at her husbands. “You threatened her? You
know I’ve been quiet in this thing, but I would like some explanations as to
why my sister-in-law is now living with Beth McNamara-O’Malley.”
“Who’s with the kids?” Brooke asked and winced. “I’m so
sorry, Rach. I promised I would watch them tonight and I completely forgot. I
got this job offer.”
“Yeah, I heard about that,” Rye countered. “What’s Cleo
paying you? I would bet it’s next to nothing. Does she know you design for a
living? You’re not supposed to be working in some rundown theater.”
Oh, this was going to turn into a Harper family smackdown.
All of Brooke’s relaxed air was gone, and she was stiff
again. “It’s not rundown.”
“Rye, I thought we were going to back off,” Max began,
looking uncertain for once.
“I have backed off for two weeks, and she’s still with them.
I don’t want anyone taking advantage of my sister,” Rye shot back. “She’s na?ve
and not used to saying no. Like she should to these two. And you did flake out
on us tonight, Brooke. Henry and Nell came over so Poppy could play with the
kids and we could go out to our very non-sexy anniversary dinner.”
“Whose fault is that?” Rachel asked, indignation clear in
her tone. “Not Brooke’s. She’s not the reason we’re not having sex.”
“No, obviously that’s Max’s fault because he was afraid to
get his balls snipped,” Rye argued. “But it was Brooke’s fault for throwing a
hissy fit when she found out we were trying to take care of her.”
“By siccing a private investigator on her.” Shane couldn’t
stay quiet, especially when he’d seen Brooke turn in on herself. “She’s not
na?ve. She’s sweet natured, but she’s worked in a cutthroat business for a
whole lot of years.”
“And look where it got her,” Rye pronounced.
Rachel sighed. “I told you this is not the way to handle it.
Brooke, I knew about the PI. They were so worried about you. When you came home
at Christmas there was obviously something off, but you wouldn’t talk about it.
It was wrong, but in their heads you’re still six and you need them to protect
you from the world. You’re an innocent virgin and they have to make sure you
someday marry well.”
“I told you it’s like Bridgerton,” Shane whispered
to his brother who’d come over to stand beside him while they watched the
throwdown.
“What’s like Bridgerton?” Elisa Leal joined them.
It was obvious she’d walked down from the station. She had a tablet in her hand
and was dressed for her job. Which was deputy of Bliss. She was Nate Wright’s
second in command since Cameron Briggs had left to work with his partners. She
took in the Harper family fight as though it was no big deal. She was used to
Bliss drama.
“Max and Rye are pissed that Brooke is choosing to spend
time with men they don’t approve of,” Bay supplied. “Us. I’m pretty sure he’s
going to tell us if we want to marry her we have to come up with… What’s it
called? Like a downy?”
His brother was the smart one? The genius? “Downy is a
fabric softener. You’re talking about a dowry, and we wouldn’t pay it. They
would.”
“Wait? What? We would get to marry her and they would have
to pay us?” Bay asked. “And this was bad for us how?”
Shane bit back a groan. This was not going to end well.
* * * *
“Rye, you know I’m not a virgin, right?” Brooke was
saying.
Bay was confused, but he was used to that. Sometimes he
didn’t pick up on social cues the way he should. He was almost sure her
brothers should know the answer to that since they’d caught him with his pants
down that first morning. Not literally. He’d had pants on, but there was zero
way he hadn’t spent the night in Brooke’s bed. Since there wasn’t any other
place to sleep.
Was his brother pissed at him?
He shouldn’t have made that crack about what happened at
Kingman Ranch, but he also didn’t want Shane’s anxiety to get Brooke all riled
up. No one was after them. All the talk about the weird things that happened on
the ranch was just that. Talk. Ranch hands liked to mythologize everything.
“I do not need to know anything like that.” Rye sounded
awfully prim.
“Oh, but you did need to know everything a private
investigator could find out,” Brooke accused.
“He was worried about you, sweetie.” Rachel seemed
determined to keep the peace.
Max chose to turn on the deputy. “Why the hell would you put
out that there was a slasher after my sister? I ran all the way here thinking I
would have to fight Jason or that Halloween guy.”
Elisa’s lips curled up. “Because sometimes chaos is fun, and
I know Hal is listening even when the sheriff asked him to stop. I didn’t
exactly put it like that when I called Nate to let him know what’s going on,
but I did know where Hal would take it. So here we are. Now I’d like to figure
out what happened and why that light is out.”
“Because it needs to be changed,” Rye replied, obviously
ready to get back to the fight with his sister.
“It was on earlier.” Mel Hughes stepped into the parking
lot, and Bay realized their truck wasn’t the last vehicle left. There were two.
Mel’s Chevy from like the eighties or something and a big SUV he would bet was
Stef Talbot’s. “The lot was well lit when I parked here an hour ago. I had to
meet with my friend, Ash. He’s having some trouble with portals opening and
needed some advice. Hey, sweetie. I was about to come down and see if you
needed some coffee. I hate that Nate has you on nights. You know that’s when
the worst alien sightings happen. Ash is worried about an invasion.”
Lord. This was about to take a turn.
“My guys brought me dinner and a big thermos of coffee since
I can’t figure out Gemma’s monstrosity. Ash? I haven’t met him. Does he work
for the government?” Elisa grinned her father’s way.
Rachel was arguing with her husbands, completely ignoring
the deputy and Mel. Brooke was standing beside her sister-in-law.
He wondered where Stef was. That was his Navigator. Had it
gotten hit, too?
“Ash and his boy do some work for the government. They’re
super soldiers, created and bred for war, but when their galaxy was finally
peaceful, the public decided they were too dangerous to live,” Mel explained
like all of this was perfectly normal. “He managed to get out with his whole
creche, and they’ve been here on Earth for the last several years. Good man.
Blends in real well and is always helpful when I need him. Now why are Max and
Rye acting like assholes? Beyond Max’s normal level. I heard they kicked Brooke
out because they didn’t like her new boyfriends.”
“Not her boyfriends,” Rye said quickly, turning from his
wife’s lecture. “They are nothing more than an act of desperation.”
“Desperation?” Brooke asked, her eyes narrowing.
Mel gave him a pat on the shoulder as the Harpers started in
again. “Don’t take that unkindly. They’ve been more like Brooke’s daddy than
her brothers. You two seem real nice.”
“You had no right,” Brooke declared.
There was a lot going on around him.
“I didn’t notice the lights,” Shane was saying to Elisa. “We
got here when it was still light, so they wouldn’t have been on. There were a
bunch of cars here then.”
Elisa made a note on her tablet. “It was on earlier when I
did a drive-by on my way in. It’s actually two lights, if you notice. They were
both fine earlier. We don’t have a big civic workforce taking care of things
like streetlights, so whoever’s on duty checks every couple of days. I find it