Chapter 31
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Wynter
The first thing I was aware of when I woke was a hot, warm body behind me.
The steel arm banded around me was the next thing I noticed.
His even breathing against the back of my neck.
He was curled into me, yet cradling me, like I was his lifeline in his dreams, like he was afraid he wouldn’t return from his slumber without me.
When I’d slept with him at his loft, he hadn’t held me this tight.
Somewhere deep in his mind, he’d been pushing me away. Those guards were gone now.
A week had gone by, and I still wasn’t used to this, to waking up consistently with him in my bed, with him wrapped around me. In me.
His arm flexed, and I smiled. He inhaled and nuzzled behind my ear. “You’re finally awake.”
His deep rumble went straight through my body to my thoroughly sexed core. I’d had more sex in the last week than all together in my entire life.
“I should get out there and help with chores.” He placed a kiss on my bare shoulder. My pajama top was bunched around my breasts thanks to his hand pushing it up.
“You should.” I ground my ass against him. We were basically living together in my childhood bedroom. Mama was delighted, Myles’s brothers liked having him around more, and Foster House wasn’t suffering from his absence.
“You’re going to keep me in trouble with your brothers.” He released me only to shove his shorts down. Next, he was pushing inside me.
I slid my hand down my belly.
His groan resonated between us. “You gonna touch yourself for me, Frosty?”
“I’m going to show you how hot I can get.”
He whipped the blankets off and angled himself to plow into me while watching me finger my clit.
Someone knocked on the door. He jerked so bad he pulled out and nearly fell off the bed. I started laughing and shoved my face into a pillow. He recovered and nipped my shoulder, and I only giggled harder.
“Myles,” Mama called. “There’s someone here for you.”
He stiffened. “Who is it?”
“He says his name is Nicolas.”
Oh no. I craned my head over my shoulder and at Myles. His jaw was stone, his eyes flinty.
“I’ll be right there,” he growled. “Don’t talk to him alone.”
The warm, sexy man behind me turned into a brick wall. He rolled out of bed as taut as a two-by-four and jerked on a pair of gray sweatpants and the navy-blue Foster House hoodie he loved wearing around my brothers and to the distillery when I tended bar.
I scrambled for my clothing.
“Don’t go out there,” he warned.
“Myles.” He’d told me about the conversation, but the thought that a guy would come here and threaten us had seemed absurd.
Didn’t he know there were three Bailey brothers and, depending on the day, two younger Foster brothers here, too?
I wouldn’t discount Mama and the four Kerrigan sisters either.
“Wynn, please.”
I tugged a sweater over me and was immediately swamped. I’d grabbed one of Myles’s, and his sage scent surrounded me. I puffed hair out of my face. “I’ll at least come upstairs.”
“I’d rather you and your mom stayed away from the front door.”
“The front porch is full of snow.” Mama claimed the main door was for decoration only. “He’s probably at the back.”
His stare remained flat. “Wynn.”
“Fine. I’ll just go upstairs and keep an eye on Mom. Do you think he’s dangerous?”
“I don’t know the man.” He pushed out the door.
I rushed after him. Mama was at the top of the stairs, her arms folded.
“I’m sorry,” Myles said as he stormed past her.
I stopped next to Mama.
“As soon as I heard Myles’s tone, I called Tenor,” she whispered. “Cruz is with him. They’re down by the cottonwood bottoms and will be here soon.” She opened the door to the closet by the stairs. “If that man came to cause trouble, he’s going to get some.”
Myles
The asshole had crowded into the kitchen and was making himself a cup of coffee.
Junior. He’d thought giving my grandfather’s name would make me more likely to come out.
In person, he had the same frumpiness as the man from the pictures I’d seen when I’d stalked his social media accounts, the bushy brown hair and the mad-at-the-world scowl.
“Who let you in?”
He smirked at me and put the coffee pot down. “A Keurig and an old-fashioned coffee pot. Living the dream in the mountains, aren’t you, nephew?”
“We aren’t family. Get out.”
The fucker leaned against the counter and took a long drink, making a slurping noise. “Now, the thing is, Myles, my boy. We are family. Your mom didn’t want to think so, and she stole from us.”
“This argument is tired. It’s not my job to educate you on how life insurance works.”
“We gave up so much for that—”
A warning noise rumbled out of my chest. He worked his jaw and took another sip. My fists were balled, and I was ready to haul him outside and stuff him in a snowbank. Then push him off the side of a mountain with the tractor.
“Gianna,” he bit out. “Groceries got more expensive. You know how much formula cost then? Your medical bills. Her medical bills. I had to give up everything. I didn’t get the car I was promised for graduation.
I had to get a job. All the extra went to you and her.
And my brother,” he sneered. “My brother, who smuggled money so he could leave.”
“Nice to hear my father was a smart man. Get out.”
Another casual drink. “I went without so you can live like a king. I want what’s due to me after all this time.”
“There is nothing.”
“Your big fucking distillery.” He gestured at me with his mug. “I saw the pictures. The news articles. How you purchased that building and restored it.”
I took a step toward him. I had hoped things wouldn’t get physical, but I had no worries about fighting this guy.
His attention landed over my shoulder, and his eyes flared wide. I stopped my approach.
“He got that money from my husband, not you, asshole,” Mae said.
I glanced over my shoulder and almost choked.
Mae had the silver barrel of a shotgun pointed right at my uncle.
Her hold didn’t waver. Shock pulsed in my blood, but I shouldn’t be surprised.
Mae had lived in the Montana country her entire life.
She knew how to shoot. Wynn was behind her, ignoring me as much as Junior was.
“Myles asked you to get out.” Mae swung the end of the shotgun toward the front door and then trained it back on Junior. “Do you need a lead filling to hear better?”
Junior set his cup down with a thump. Rage mingled with fear in his face. “I am owed.”
“You’re owed nothing,” I snarled. “I have enough lawyers to tell you officially. Get the fuck out.”
His sharp inhale made me smile. He pushed off the counter and yanked down his ratty flannel like it was a suit jacket. He walked on stilted legs out the door. I banged out after him.
He turned on me, and I shoved him. He raised a fist, but I batted his arm away. Weak. Pathetic.
“I wouldn’t try that again,” Tate called.
Junior spun around. Tate and Teller were getting out of Tate’s pickup. He’d parked next to Junior’s little blue sedan. Had Junior flown and gotten a rental? Driven? I didn’t care as long as he fucking left.
Mae exited but stayed close to the house.
An engine sounded in the distance. The Ranger skidded to a stop in the snowy gravel behind Junior’s car.
A power move. Junior wasn’t coming or going until we allowed it.
Tenor climbed out, looking as always like a big, grumpy man with narrowed eyes behind the thick old frames he wore for chores, glaring like he wanted nothing more than to pound someone’s face in.
Cruz stopped to stand right next to him. The kid had packed on muscle in the weeks he’d been working, and he stood straighter. His trademark smirk was gone.
Another car was pulling in. Lane. He would have no idea what was going on. Cruz gave him one pointed look and lifted his chin toward us. Their silent communication was all they needed. Lane stopped in the middle of the drive and got out of his car, too.
The back door smacked closed and only Junior jumped. Wynn must be outside.
Teller adjusted his gloves. “We got us a trespasser.”
Junior whipped his head from Wynn to Teller. Anxiety played over his face. “I’m leaving.”
“He entered the house without permission, too,” Mae added.
Junior’s gaze was jumping between all of them. I stood firm. Unmoving. I had all the support my mother hadn’t.
“Lots of dangers in these mountains,” Tenor said. To my surprise, the man could be just as menacing as his brothers.
“You know what I’ve learned since I’ve been here?” Cruz asked. He clasped his hands in front of himself. “These men told me that if I went out alone and injured myself, I could get into all kinds of trouble. I could get eaten by…” He rolled a shoulder. “All sorts of things.”
“Whatever finds you first,” Lane said. “I heard all about people getting lost in these hills. I’m a city boy myself, and you know what happened my first day? I got turned around. Confused. It’s easy to get lost.”
“Easy to have an accident,” Tate finished.
“It’s a shame.” This was from Mae. “Happens every year to people who don’t know better.”
Junior’s hands were at his sides, clenching and unclenching. They trembled. He was terrified.
“Probably should get going now,” I said. “Before you have more than legal troubles to worry about.”
“You’re all crazy.” His voice trembled as bad as his limbs. “Crazy.”
“You should remember that next time you mess with one of us,” Tate said. “Whatever problem you think you have with Myles, no you don’t.”
I smirked at Junior. One of us. If Wynn’s sisters were here, the man wouldn’t have a chance. “Go on now. Get going.”
He took a step, eyes rolling around him.
He didn’t take another step until he noticed Mae had lowered the end of the shotgun to point at the ground.
Cautiously, he continued to his rental. It wasn’t until he was behind the wheel that Tenor moved the four-wheeler from behind him.
Lane wasn’t as considerate when Junior tried to leave the driveway.
My uncle had to drive into the snow-packed edges and pray that he didn’t get stuck.
When the car disappeared out of sight, my shoulders unknotted. How dare that asshole threaten the people I care about?
Yet…those people who I worried about had taken care of Junior. Mae by herself had handled him, more than I could’ve ever anticipated.
Emotion swelled in my chest. Regret for all those lost years when I hadn’t had to run, when I could’ve stayed and trusted the Baileys to take care of themselves as well as they cared for everyone else.
Admiration for the way they’d stood by me, unquestioning.
Relief. Gianna’s visit had probably included shouting and fist shaking, but she’d also known when to run.
Junior’s stop had oozed menace. He’d meant to hurt people around me.
The exact scenario I’d worked hard to avoid had played out and… everything was fine.
“So, that’s my uncle, everyone. He’s one of the reasons my mother was fucked up. The other two reasons are my grandparents.”
Cruz scratched the back of his head. “You have some crazy luck in the genetics department, bruh.”
“That’s another five dollars,” Tenor said to him.
Cruz tipped his head back. “I’ve lost a hundred bucks this week already, br—” He stuck his finger at Tenor. “That one doesn’t count. I didn’t finish it.”
“It’s going to take a thousand more dollars before you quit calling everyone bruh,” Tenor replied.
Lane snorted. “Huh. Your uncle is almost as personable as our dad. Can’t wait ’til he gets out of prison and tries to mess with us.”
“We take care of our own,” Mae said. Her finger was tapping the handle of the shotgun. “Don’t you kids ever think you’re not one of us.”
Tenor lifted his chin to Lane. “Ready to get to work finally?”
“I had to buy warmer boots.” Lane went to his car. “Since you’re keeping me outside all day,” he grumbled.
Teller walked toward the house. “Tate can hang out here a while. I’ll go back to the distillery and make sure that idiot doesn’t try something there. We’ll put all the locations on alert.”
“Sorry.” The relief from earlier was ebbing. Humiliation grew bigger, making my skin itch. “For the trouble.”
Teller passed me and slapped my back. “Keeps life exciting.”
Darin used to say the same thing when he dealt with problems caused by nature or his kids or other outside forces. I’d recited several of his sayings over the years and would have to add that one.
“I’m always grateful when I don’t have to use this on a critter.” Mae clutched the shotgun with both hands. “But I also know when I need it. Though there’s power in numbers. Good thing I have so many kids.” She gave me a knowing nod.
She went inside with Teller. Tate was driving away. My brothers and Tenor were already in the shop.
Wynn hugged her arms around herself and smiled at me. My sweater swamped her, and it wasn’t nearly warm enough.
I crossed to her and picked her up. “You’re getting cold, Frosty.”
“Mm—think you can warm me up?”
“Several times. Can you keep it quiet?”
She grinned. “Probably not, but I’m willing to try.”