Chapter Nine
Chapter
Nine
“Get your head outta your
ass, Pretty Boy!” Sam jerked as something smacked into the back of
his head. “Heads up!” When he looked down he saw a pair of rolled
up socks and shook his head. Turning he looked up at the homestead
behind him and glared at man standing on the first floor balcony,
grinning his head off.
“One of these days, Finn
MacGregor, I am going to—” Sam paused as another man walked out
behind Finn and stood behind him with his arms crossed over his
broad chest. “Do absolutely nothing to actually harm you because I
like breathing through my nose and eating solid food.”
Dev raised a sardonic eyebrow from
behind the love of his life before striding back into their rooms.
As soon as his back was turned, Sam lifted his arms like he was
holding his rifle and pretended to shoot Finn from where he
stood.
“I saw that, Pretty Boy.”
Dev’s voice came from somewhere behind Finn, and Sam’s jaw dropped.
“You and me have a training session coming up. Let’s make it for
two o’clock today. Don’t be late.”
How the fuck did he do
that?
“You got it, Dev,” Sam
yelled back, glaring at the now hysterical Finn, in danger of
actually bursting a blood vessel he was laughing so
hard.
“Ha! You got busted!” Finn
said once he was actually capable of talking.
“What did you want, Finn?”
Sam asked as he reached down for the rolled up socks and threw them
back up to him. He watched as Finn’s face cleared of laughter and
as serious a look as he had ever seen came over his
face.
“I wanted to tell you that
I’m happy for you.” Finn’s response took him a little by surprise.
“You’ve been walking around here for the last two weeks with a
smile on your face and a skip to your step. It’s nice to
see.”
Sam felt a flush of color rise in his
face. “Yeah, well, everything is coming together here, and life is
looking good. That’s all.”
Finn shot him a look that said he knew
Sam was talking shit. “Whatever. We both know it might have a
little something to do with CTF, but a whole shitload to do with a
certain sheriff and his bomb disposing hottie.”
A growl of disapproval came from the
house and had Finn rolling his eyes, and Sam grinning. Apparently
Dev did not like that at all. “Oh, for fuck’s sake, Dev, you know
you’re the hottest damn thing to walk in this town on two legs, but
that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate a fine looking man in a pair
of Wranglers!”
Sam grinned. “Trust me when I say he
looks even better out of them.” Finn grinned and opened his mouth
to either ask for details or deliver one of his usual sarcastic one
liners, but he never got the chance. Dev stepped up behind Finn,
silent as always and slapped one hand over his mouth as he lifted
Finn up against him. The two of them disappeared into their room.
From the determined look on Dev’s face and the excited look on
Finn’s he knew they were going to be indisposed for a
time.
Sam turned back to the job site with a
grin. He couldn’t argue with Finn. He had been walking around on
cloud nine for the last two weeks. Begin loved up by two men who
were shattering a lot of the barriers he had built around his
emotions and his heart over the years would do that. He had spent
pretty much every night with either both or one of those men since
he had made the decision to trust them both, and that had been a
surprise in itself.
He had always just assumed that when
they were together, it would be all three of them, but that wasn’t
the case. Nick and Aiden made time for both of them to have alone
time with just him, and he’d made sure to reciprocate and allow
them time together as well. And whether it was one on one, or all
three of them together, Sam always felt like he held an equal share
of the relationship.
He turned and headed for Riley
Marksmen’s office. Riley was the contractor in charge of the
facility build, and he had just finished a house on the property
for him and Marcel to call their own. They had moved into their
house on the weekend, and were planning on a house warming in a
week. From the way he and Marcel were making eyes at each other,
and running back to that house every damn chance they got, Sam
figured they were christening the house in their own way every
minute they got.
He knocked and walked into the
portable offices Riley and his team operated out of. “Jesus, can’t
you two keep it together for like, two hours?”
Riley pulled back from devouring
Marcel whole as he pressed him against the wall of his office. “Why
the fuck would we want to do that?”
Sam thought about that for
a moment, and the image of two men popped into his head. “Yeah, I
can understand that. Do you think you could hold off for a couple
of minutes for me to talk to you, and then you can go back to sucking
face?”
Marcel laughed as he pushed Riley back
from him. “Sure, Pretty Boy.”
Fucking Finn!
“I was only popping in for
a moment anyway. I gotta head over and check on the long range with
Glenn. See you later, amour.” Riley leaned in and growled something
in Marcel’s ear that had him biting his bottom lip.
Marcel moved to leave the office.
“Catch you later, Sam. Oh, and make sure you invite your men to the
housewarming.”
Sam felt a wash of warmth through his
chest at that. It was nice to know that the men who had been more a
family to his than his own accepted not only his unconventional
relationship, but the two men at the heart of it.
He turned back to Riley, who was
grimacing as he settled his black Stetson on his head and sat
behind his desk. Sam couldn’t hold back the grin. “Blue balls, huh
Riley?”
Riley glared at him. “Yes, damn you,
and it ain’t going to go away until I get home tonight.” Riley sat
back with a shit eating grin on his face. “Christ, it feels good to
say that. I know that I live with that man, in a house I built for
him, and he’ll be there waiting for me.”
Sam grinned as he sat down on the
chair across from Riley’s desk. “That’s what I wanted to talk to
you about.”
Riley nodded. “I figured as much. You
wanna talk about the house you’re going to build on the plot of
land Dev gave you.” Devon owned the property the facility was built
on, and he had given him, Marcel, and Glenn large plots of land for
their own homes.
Sam nodded. “Yeah, I do. Hell, it’s
only early days for me, Nick, and Aiden, but if things go the way I
want them to, then I will want a house for the three of us to call
our own.”
Riley grinned. “Aww, it does my heart
good to see you get your happily ever after, Sam
Wilson.”
Sam blushed and shrugged. “Yeah, well,
be that as it may. I wanted to ask about what you needed to know
now in order to get things started.”
The sound of Sam’s cell phone ringing
interrupted them, and when Sam saw that it was Aiden calling him,
he shot Riley a look of apology before swiping his finger across
the screen and answering the call.
“Hey, not that I don’t
appreciate the call, but I thought you were locked in the writing
cave for most of the day.” Sam loved that Aiden was an erotic
romance author. He’d read a few of his books, and had insisted that
the three of them act out the ménage sex scenes he’d written as
soon as Aiden had confessed that Sam had been the inspiration for
many of them.
“Sam.” The tone of Aiden’s
voice had Sam sitting upright. Something was wrong.
“What’s happened? Where
are you?”
“I’m heading to the
hospital,” Aiden said, and Sam heard the strain and worry in his
lover’s tone. “I’m listed on Nick’s file as his next of
kin.”
“What the fuck’s happened
to Nick?” Sam leaped up from the chair and bolted out of the
office, aware that Riley was right on his heels.
“He’s alive, but he’s in
surgery. There was an explosion, and he was hit by shrapnel or
something.” Sam heard the acceleration of Aiden’s truck over the
phone, and from the squeal of rubber on the road, he’d taken a
corner too damn fast.
“Aiden!” Sam shouted down
the phone. “Slow the fuck down and get to the hospital in one
piece, do you hear me? I’m on my way, and I sure as shit do not
want to have to deal with the two of you hurt. Got it?”
Sam listened as he heard Aiden take a
few deep breaths. “Yeah, I got it. Okay, I’m only about a mile out
from the hospital. Get here when you can, Sam, okay?”
He heard the fear in Aiden’s tone as
he reached his truck. Sam was pushed out of the way when he reached
for the door handle, and he glared up at Riley as he opened the
door and slid behind the wheel. Rather than waste time arguing, Sam
ran around the back of the truck and got into the passenger
side.
“I’m on my way, baby,
okay? I’ll be there as fast as I can.” He spent a few minutes on
the phone with Aiden as Riley roared out of the farm and headed in
the direction of the city. As soon as Sam was certain that Aiden
was safely parked at the hospital, they disconnected so Aiden could
concentrate on finding out as much as possible on Nick’s
condition.
“Call Dev,” Riley said as
he expertly handled the truck through a tight corner.
Sam nodded as he dialed. His heart was
pounding and fear was building within him, but he needed a clear
head, and calling his LT was something to do, and kept the fear at
bay for a moment. He cursed all the time he’d wasted not being with
Nick and Aiden. He’d let his past and his own goddamn pride get in
the way, but he was done with that.
****
“I swear to God, Nick, I
will shoot you myself if you don’t lie back down and let me do
this!” Aiden heard the frustration in Sam’s voice and grinned. The
door that led to Nick’s hospital room was slightly ajar, and Aiden
stood outside for a moment listening.
“Fuck, sitting still,
there’s nothing fucking wrong with me!” Nick’s growl rang with
irritation. “All I need you to do is use that goddamn medical
degree you have and disconnect these needles and beeping fucking
machines from me so I can get the hell out of this bed!”