John & Mattie: Texas Kings MC, Book 8

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John & Mattie

Texas Kings MC

Cee Bowerman
 CLBooks, LLC

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical
means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from
the author, Cee Bowerman.
This book is a work of fiction and the product of the imagination of the author. Names,
characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination and/or are used
fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, any events or locations are
entirely coincidental.
 A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
Thank you for joining me on the next story of the Texas Kings MC, located in the fictional
town of Rojo, Tx. In this book, I also mention a town called Grace, TX. It’s also a fictional
town, at least in name, but it’s prejudices and small mindedness is more common in this world
than I’l like to admit.
In this story, a woman falls in love with two men. So, if you’re not into the possibility of
happiness through ‘alternative’ lifestyles, this book is probably not for you. However, if you like
for people to get their happy ending, in whatever way it comes, then read on!
I’d like to thank my readers who have supported me and cheered me on through this, ready
to read about John and Mattie. My Texas Queens MC, Rojo TX group keeps me on my toes
with their knowledge of my characters and eagerness to read more. Thank you for that, I
appreciate it more than you know.
You can always find me on Facebook, and now I’m also on Twitter and Instagram too.
And you heard it here first - but I have a website now too! You’ll be able to see new
information, check up on books, get insight into upcoming characters, and someday soon get
some merchandise with your favorite MC on it.
www.ceebowermanbooks.com

Once again, I’d like to shout out my thanks to the people who help me edit, and the beta
readers who help me keep all the character details in check. My Badass Editors and my Beta
Queens are the best, and I appreciate all their support.
And a big thank you to the newest member of my writing tribe, Ms. Chrissy R. Your sexy
brain and awesome attitude make working a joy. Love ya girl, and so glad you’re on this roller
coaster ride with me. You’re a coffee drinking badass and I’m glad you’re my friend.
Enjoy John and Mattie’s story, get to know Maria, and make sure to leave a review on
Amazon when you’re finished. Find me online and let me know what you think of the story, and
who you might want to hear more about next.
With much love from Texas,

Cee
 1.
Loud Pipes Save Lives (Vegetarian)
Black bean burger on a toasted onion bun, topped with greens and fresh tomato with our
basil pesto mayonnaise

MARIA
“Don’t forget that tomorrow you have a meeting at nine with the fundraiser planning committee,
one at 10:30 with the other mid-level executives, lunch with a client, and then three meetings in the
afternoon. You’ll need to be on top of the reading material I emailed you for the afternoon clients.”
My assistant, Cherry, took a deep breath before she continued. I felt my stomach churn again and my
heart started to race, so I swallowed quickly a few times to hold my nausea at bay. “The budget
report for the senior partners is due by nine in the morning, so I’ll need you to go over the corrections
I made and send it to me so I can get it to the printer and pick up the copies on my way into work in
the morning.”
I nodded my head at Cherry and she nodded back before the elevator doors closed to take me
upstairs to my final, most important appointment of the day. I focused on my breathing and tried to
slow down my heart rate as the elevator car rushed me up to the momentous occasion I had been
focused on for the last five years: my executive partnership meeting with the five men who had started
Chalmers, Prescott, and Adams, Inc.
The three Chalmers brothers, along with Mr. Prescott and Mr. Adams had started this company in
the 1970s and built it up to be a national success that most companies could only dream about. With
branch offices on both coasts, the corporate headquarters was still located here in New Orleans, the
home of the founding members of the firm.
The doors whooshed open and I calmly strode out into the waiting area that led to the executive
suites and conference rooms. The receptionist smiled at me and waved me toward our meeting room
with a tight smile. I swallowed the bile down again as I looked toward the thick wooden doors that
would swing open to my future.
It was a future I wasn’t even sure I wanted anymore.
◆◆◆

“Mrs. Roland?” I heard a voice that sounded like it was coming through a long tunnel. “Are you
okay?”
I shook my head and tried to clear it, the black spots in my vision making it hard to focus on the
hall around me. I took a deep breath and swallowed, once again using every ounce of willpower I
had to stop myself from puking on the expensive rug under my feet.
I lifted my head and tried to focus on the source of the shrill voice that was calling my name, but
the room tilted, and I felt myself falling slowly right before everything went black.
◆◆◆

“Ms. Roland, I’m Dr. Myers, the resident gastroenterologist here at Tully-Beaux Medical
Center.” The doctor, a man who looked like he was about 15 years old, smiled at me as he pulled the
rolling stool over to sit beside my bed. “They gave you some medicine when you arrived here in the
emergency room. Are you feeling better?”
“Yes.” My voice cracked and the doctor leaned over and picked up the cup of ice chips that the
nurse had brought in a few minutes ago. I took the cup from him and tilted it up to my mouth, holding
a piece of ice on my tongue as it melted rather than chew on it and make that horrible sound that drove
me nuts.
“You’ve been here for almost two hours and in that time, your blood pressure has come down
considerably. It’s almost down to a normal reading, but that might change as we talk, so I’d like you
to try to remain calm.”
“Calm?” I heard the monitor beside my bed beep and the doctor’s eyes slid to the side to stare at
the numbers for a second before he looked back at me.
“Couldn’t even hold onto it for five minutes, I see.” Dr. Myers shook his head as he looked down
at the clipboard in his hands. “What do you do for a living, Ms. Roland?”
“I’m a lawyer,” I answered.
“I’m going to assume that your position is a high-stress job,” the doctor stated as he looked over
my chart’s details. “You vomited in the ambulance and the paramedic saw that there was blood in the
fluid. While you were unconscious, we did a few quick tests and the results I have so far show that
you most likely have at least one, but possibly more peptic ulcers. That’s a tear or infection in your
stomach lining that can be exacerbated by stress and a poor diet.”
I blinked at the doctor waiting for him to continue with something I hadn’t already suspected
myself.
“Your blood pressure was at such an elevated level that the paramedics brought you in with a
preliminary diagnosis of stroke risk, Ms. Roland. Do you have a history of high blood pressure?”
“I don’t think so.”
“When was the last time you had a routine physical?”
I looked up toward the ceiling as I thought back to my last doctor’s visit.
“I saw my gynecologist and had birth control inserted in my arm.” I kept thinking and couldn’t
come up with a time frame on when I had that procedure. “It was at least four years ago, I think.
Maybe even five.”
“And you haven’t seen a doctor since then?” the ER doc asked and I could see his confusion.
“You haven’t been sick at all in four or five years?”
I took a deep breath and wondered just how much information I should give this man, wondering
if it would have any bearing on his diagnosis to know what I had done in the past.
“I have been sick a few times, but I just haven’t had a chance to go to the doctor. I happen to have
some extra antibiotics left over from another time, so I take them when I feel something coming on.
It’s not a big deal.”
The doctor slowly shook his head and reached up to scratch the back of his neck.
“I know. I know. It’s not good to do that, but I didn’t have the time to make an appointment or sit
in a waiting room.” I shrugged and then put my hand on my stomach, the semi-permanent position I
rested my hand in almost all the time now. I cringed at the realization. “What time is it? I need to
head back to work. I have meetings to prepare for.”
“Do you understand what chronic stress does to a body, Ms. Roland?”
“Once I get this promotion, I won’t be as stressed. I just need to work a little harder, get into the
position I’m aiming for, and then I’ll be home free.”
“And then you’ll be less stressed?” the doctor asked me with his eyebrows raised. “Because
there’s nobody in that building that will be gunning for the job you’ve been vying for?”
I tilted my head, realizing that he was right. This wasn’t going to go away and it wasn’t ever
going to get any better by ignoring it.
“I’m not a therapist, Ms. Roland, and you can take or leave my advice, but I feel like you should
take a long look at your life and the path you’re on. Pick your head up and look around you to make
sure that the place you’re trying to get is worth your life because, honestly, it’s going to kill you if you
keep going at this pace.”
“I’ll listen to your advice, doctor, and think about what you’ve said. It’s close to what I’ve been
thinking myself. I want to have kids and a house with a big backyard. I want a dog and a cat - maybe
even two dogs and a cat. I want to sleep in on Sunday mornings and make pancakes with whipped
cream smiley faces. I want to sneak off with my husband and have a quickie while the kids are taking
a nap. I want to quit wearing these fucking shoes that kill my feet every day. I just want. That’s it. I
want. Something.” I realized there were tears streaming down my face and I reached up to wipe
them away as I took a deep breath. “And it’s not what I’ve got right now. That’s not what I want
anymore, if I ever really did.”
I poured my feelings out to this man. This stranger. More so than I had to anyone since I moved
from Texas to New Orleans. I had quite a few friends around me that I talked to often although they
were realistically not more than acquaintances. Autumn was my best friend here in town and like a
sister to me, someone I confided in, but the things I was blurting out to this doctor weren’t even things
I realized were there. They were things I had wanted in what seemed like another life.
Another life that I used to imagine had my husband at the center of it.
“Ms. Roland, it seems like you’ve mapped this out before, the life you want. And I’m not one to
tell a person how to live, but I can tell you that if you keep up this stress level, you won’t be around
long enough to make any of those things a reality.”
The doctor stood up and stuck his hand out to me. I reached out and shook it as he smiled warmly
at me.
Once the doctor left the room, I reached over and pulled the table holding the phone closer to the
bed. I needed to call and find out what was keeping Jordan.
I passed out in the executive suites of my office building and not one single person had called to
check on me. None of the men I was trying so hard to impress had even cared enough to have their
assistant call to check on me, let alone do it themselves.
Worst of all, my husband hadn’t even called. He damn sure hadn’t shown up, but he hadn’t even
bothered to phone and fake his concern even though he most definitely knew that I had been taken
away in an ambulance.
I dialed Jordan’s direct line and waited for him to pick up.
His assistant answered. Not Jordan.
“I’m so sorry, Maria, but he had me transfer his phone and said I was not to disturb him. He’s
preparing for this evening's dinner with some prospective clients and wants to make sure everything
is in order.”
 “I know he has a business dinner, but I really need to talk to him. I was taken to the hospital by
ambulance a few hours ago.”
“Oh, yes! We heard about that. Are you feeling okay now?”
“I’m much better. Jordan knows I’m at the hospital?”
There was silence for a few beats as Jordan’s assistant tried to find a subtle way to tell me that
my spouse didn’t find me or my health nearly as important as he found his job.
“Yes, ma’am. He does know.” The assistant, a new one whose name I couldn’t remember,
whispered, “He was walking into the building and saw them pushing you out and putting you into the
back of the ambulance.”
“Well, then,” I snapped. I didn’t mean to lash out at the poor girl, but it was that or start
screaming. “I’ll find my own way home.”
I calmly set the phone on the table and then swung my legs over the bed ready to leave this room,
this building… this life.
◆◆◆

I waited for the crosswalk signal and looked down at my feet. When I put on my black heels this
morning, I loved how they looked with my power suit, but by the time I walked out of the house, my
feet were already killing me.
Now, walking down the sidewalk toward my office, they were screaming in agony.
I glanced up at the sky and wondered about the clouds that were hovering over the city. The heat
was oppressive and we could use a refreshing shower, but I hoped that it would wait until I was
safely inside my office building before the predicted downpour.
Of course, it seemed like this day was just destined to be my worst day ever. Before I made it
three more blocks the sky darkened and rain started pouring. I was drenched and freezing within just
a few minutes and just couldn’t walk any further in this condition. I glanced around and saw that a
few of the shops around me had covered areas in front of their doors. I decided to huddle in one of
them while I waited out the storm and reassessed my life choices.
Since the medics had collected me from the hallway floor outside my boss’ offices, I hadn’t had
my purse when they wheeled me off. Meaning I didn’t have a way to call a cab and even if I had my
phone, I didn’t have the money to pay the fare.
With my now soggy hospital discharge papers clutched in my hand, I hurried under the awning of
a business whose windows were already dark. I stood there in the shadows for a few minutes willing
the rain to slow so I could make it to my office and end this horrible fucking day.
I heard a noise behind me and turned to see a woman unlocking the door to come out, most likely
to head home for the day. Instead, the woman pulled the door open and invited me in.
“Come in, honey. It’s a rager out there. You’re going to get swept away!” The older woman was
almost yelling now just to be heard over the storm. “Come in! Come in!”
Without any other choice, I scurried past the woman and into a dark shop. There was a single
light on above a desk that was situated close to the back of the space and I could see shadows of
shelves and other furniture.
“I’m Amelie Guilott. You come on in here and dry off before you catch your death of cold,” the
lady muttered as she took my arm and pulled me toward the back of the store. “What a pretty woman
like you is doing out alone in this terrible weather even I don’t know.”
“I got stuck downtown without my purse or my phone. I don’t have a way to call anyone or a way
to pay for cab fare.”
“Stuck downtown? And you’ve walked all this way? Where are you headed? Texas?” Amelie
chuckled and I couldn’t stop a smile from crossing my face at her outrage. How in the world I had
gone from drenched rat to parlor conversation in the span of two minutes was completely beyond me.
“You come on up to my place, doll, and I’ll get you dried out and warmed up. We’ll wait out the
storm over a hot drink and you can tell me your troubles while I finish my husband’s dinner.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t want to impose!” I argued halfheartedly. For some reason though, as odd as it
was, I wanted to trail after this woman. I wanted to spill my heart to her and watch her make a meal
full of love for her man.
What the hell is wrong with me? I must have hit my head when I passed out and fell. I knew
better than to go into a dark place with some stranger and then to go even further and just walk into
her home. No one knew where I was or was even worried about me. By the time they knew I was
gone this woman might have my body stuffed in a trunk and on the way to feed her pet gators out in the
swamplands.
I heard her chuckle and wondered what she thought was funny. Before I could ask, she opened a
door and light spilled from a stairway ahead of us. I held the door as Amelie walked through it and
then followed her up.
“My man and I live here above the shop. He works for the road crews and is probably rained out
right about now and headed home to me.”
“If I can use your phone, I might be able to find someone who can come and pick me up.”
“Oh, honey, don’t you bother anyone now. No sense in everyone and their dog being out in this
mess when they don’t have to.” She motioned toward a table set over in the kitchen area of the small
apartment above her store. “You just sit right down and make yourself comfortable. Take those pretty
shoes off and let your toes rest for a minute.”
Honestly, that idea sounded heavenly. I sat down in the kitchen chair and slipped my feet out of
my heels, loving how it felt to be able to wiggle my toes again.
“So, tell me, little miss Maria, what brings you to my street in the rain?”
And for the second time tonight, I poured my heart out to a complete stranger. For the next hour,
she listened to me talk as she fixed dinner, set the table, greeted her husband, and then put the food out
for us to eat.
While we ate, Amelie and her husband Clyde, both asked me questions about my life and what I
wanted to do with it. I felt like I had known both for years and it felt good talking to the two of them
as we ate dinner together. The cynic in me wondered why two strangers would go out of their way to
shelter me, feed me, and make me comfortable. The lonely and scared woman inside me welcomed
their attention and soaked it in like a sponge.
Once we were finished with dinner, Amelie and I washed the dishes before I insisted that I had to
go.
“It’s dark out now, Ms. Maria. Let me change and get a better smell about me and I’ll drive you
wherever you need to go,” Clyde said as he stood up and walked toward the hall I had seen when we
entered the apartment. “My love, take her downstairs and talk to her about her future. I know you’ve
been itching to get your hands on her.”
Amelie laughed and Clyde smiled down at her as he dropped a kiss on her nose when he passed
by.
“You know me so well, my lovely man.”
“Talk about my future?” I asked Amelie, curious about the things Clyde had just said.
 “Why did you choose my door to duck in to get out of the rain?” Amelie asked me.
“I don’t know. It was the first one I saw, I guess,” I told her.
“You passed two shops with the same set up as mine and then you crossed the street and huddled
on my porch. It wasn’t the first one you saw, but it was the first one you were drawn to.”
I didn’t quite understand where she was going with this, so I just smiled at my hostess.
“You came to me because it was what you were meant to do.” Amelie shrugged and said, “Come
downstairs with me while we wait on my man to get changed.”
I followed Amelie downstairs, my curiosity piqued.
“Have a seat, sweet Maria.” Amelie motioned toward a chair that was set up on the opposite
side of the desk from where she was standing. “I would like for you to meditate with me for a few
minutes and then I’m going to help you find the different choices and paths you have in your future.”
“You’re a psychic?” I asked her and then smiled when she laughed and shook her head.
“I’m a little bit of everything and all of nothing just like everyone else is. Just like you.” Amelie
lit a candle and then relaxed in her chair, her hands resting on the desk with the palms up. “Sit with
me and calm yourself for a few minutes. Let your energy flow through your body rather than keeping
it balled up in your abdomen causing you to be sick.”
My eyes widened as I stared at Amelie. How had she known about my stomach problems?
“Sit with me, sweet girl. Let’s see what the world has in store for you.”
I didn’t have anything to lose, so I sat across from her and put my hands in hers. I closed my eyes
and took deep breaths until Amelie ordered, “Match your breathing to mine and clear your mind.
Think of colors and rainbows. Think of your favorite sweets you ate as a child, your favorite pie
after Thanksgiving dinner. Your best friend’s smile when you gave her a gift. Relax.”
I focused on Amelie’s instructions even though I didn’t believe in hocus pocus. It was the least I
could do to show her respect; the woman had sheltered and fed me after all.
“Can you feel the power inside you? It’s there waiting on you to remember how to use it,”
Amelie whispered. “You’ve lost it, put it aside for other things, let it rest while you walked behind
what was making you blue.”
I wasn’t sure what she was talking about. A power within me? I had always been stubborn -
maybe that was my superpower, although for most of my life it had been my downfall.
“I see so many colors in your future, Maria. Right now, your world is blue and gray. You’re
surrounded by it, clasped in its clutches, but ready to find your way out into the light.” Amelie gently
squeezed my fingers as she held my hands in hers. “Oh, Maria. You have such beauty waiting for
you. There is dark and light and as with anything, if you put the two together it will balance you.
That is what you are searching for, Maria - your balance.”
Amelie was right. I needed to find the balance between my marriage and my hopes for a family
and a future and my career ambitions.
“You can find that balance of the dark and the light in the red place. Take a journey with the
seasons and go where the land is red to find your peace. Once you’ve arrived, you will find a tree
whose roots have always held you and arms to hold you now. In the red place is where you’ll find
your balance and realize with the power of three, there is nothing you can’t do.”
Amelie squeezed my hands tightly and I opened my eyes to stare at her. She was smiling at me.
“When you open yourself up, such goodness flows from you. You have such a calm and healing
power within you. When you find your peace, your calmness and healing strength will help those
around you, those that love you.”
I tilted my head trying to figure out what she meant. A red place? I didn’t even really like the
color red. Was she talking about the desert? A tree in the desert? I was so confused.
I saw Amelie move her chair back and then pull out the drawer above her lap. She pulled a
miniature tape out of a cassette player and slid it across the desk to me.
“I want you to have that so you can remember our conversation after you go away.” Amelie
watched me close my hand over the little cassette and then she smiled brightly at me. “And someday,
you bring the light and the dark back to me for a visit and I’ll make another dinner for us to enjoy.”
“I’m not sure I’ll be moving anytime soon, Amelie.”
“You’ll realize that if you go west, you’ll find the red place where you belong - the red place with
the tree and the balance you need to live the happy life you’ve dreamed of.” Amelie reached out and
took my hand. “You’re surrounded by blue and gray; your whole life is consumed with it. You need
to find yourself, find your own colors, and live a bright and wonderful life with the power of three,
Maria. Please.”
“I’ll try, Amelie,” I assured her as she came around the small table and gave me a tight hug. “I
promise.”
For some reason, there were tears in my eyes, but I wasn’t sad. I was something else, an emotion
I didn’t quite recognize. Was it hopeful? Was that what I was feeling?
“That is what you're feeling,” Amelie whispered. “And you should hold it close to you, my
dear.”
“My love, I’m ready when Maria is,” I heard Clyde call out as he walked down the stairs. “Sorry
it took so long, Maria, but I sat down on the couch and got engrossed in the news and then fell asleep.
I woke up and realized I’d been asleep for more than an hour! I figured my Amelie took you home.”
“An hour?”
“Well, yes. It’s almost nine now.”
I had been sitting here with Amelie for over an hour? It felt like minutes.
“Goodbye, sweet Maria. Good luck.” Amelie’s eyes were twinkling and I couldn’t resist another
hug.
This had been the oddest evening of my life, but I felt so good now, so refreshed. I put my hand
on my stomach and realized it hadn’t hurt in hours - not since I cowered from the rain in front of
Amelie’s shop.
I followed Clyde through the store toward the front door and heard Amelie call out just before
Clyde pulled the door closed, “Get rid of the blue and the gray, Maria. Find your red!”
Clyde chuckled as he locked the door to the shop. He popped an umbrella open and covered the
two of us all the way to the car. Once I was in the passenger seat, he rushed around the car and got in
to drive me to my office where my car was parked.
We had gone a few blocks in silence when Clyde finally spoke, “Amelie’s got a gift, Maria. You
should listen to her because she’ll never steer you wrong.”
“I’m going to try and figure out what she was talking about. The gray and blue? I don’t
understand it,” I told him honestly. “I’ll think about it, though. I’m sure something will come to me.”
“Follow what she says and then let us know how you’re doing, you hear?”
“Yes, I will. I promise.”
◆◆◆

JOHN
 “Time to go, sweetheart.” I slapped the blonde on her ass and then rolled over and put my feet on
the floor as I reached for my phone to check the time. “Mattie, wake up. I’m headed to the shower.”
I felt the blonde’s hand move up my back as I tried to remember her name. Amber? Angie? It
was something that started with an A. I knew that much.
“Can’t we spend the day in bed?” Ms. A purred. “I had so much fun last night. I can’t wait to do
it again.”
“Sorry, hon. You only get one ticket for the ride and you punched yours more than once last
night.” I slowly shook my head and shot her a tight smile. “I’m headed to the shower; you can see
yourself out.”
I saw her face change from horny to pissed off, but I didn’t care. She was just one of many who
were fun for a few hours, but would turn into a pain in my ass with too much exposure. Better to get
her out of here now before I lost the will to be nice.
“Come here, baby,” I heard Mattie mumble from the other side of the bed. “I’ll take care of you.”
The covers rustled and I heard Ms. A giggle as I shut the bathroom door. I shook my head as I
turned on the shower and adjusted the water.
People shouldn’t expect me to play nice before my coffee.

◆◆◆

MATTIE
“You could have been a little less of an asshole,” I told John as he walked into the kitchen for his
first cup of coffee. “She was fun. I might want to bring her back here again.”
“You know I don’t like to have women here more than once,” John growled as he got his mug
down from the cabinet. “Gives them ideas.”
“Ideas? God forbid a woman have one of those!” I chuckled. “You’re a fucking caveman, John.
We’re going to be alone forever if you don’t rein that shit in.”
“Women don’t want men like me forever, man. You? They can envision it. Me? Not so much.
I’m not into that bullshit anyway, and you know it.”
“It’s time for us to settle down, John. I want what some of the guys have.” I stared at my best
friend and wished he could imagine the same future I wanted; it would just make it so much easier if
he could. “I want a woman to come home to at night. One we can laugh with. One that will put up
with your fucking moods and laugh with me when you’re a dick.”
“Good luck with that,” John growled as he walked toward the front door. “I’m headed to the shop
to talk to Daughtry and then I’ll be up at the office. You sit there and sip your coffee and dream about
a woman that doesn’t exist.”
I shook my head wondering if John might be right. What woman wanted to spend her future with
two men like us? Both of us so fucked up that a sane woman would probably run screaming for the
hills after more than one night.
Fuck. Who was I kidding? They always wanted more than one night. But none of them had ever
talked about forever. Not even one.
 2.
The Mother Clucker
Egg salad on white with a side of fresh fruit and a pickle

MARIA
Once Clyde dropped me off in front of my office building, I walked through the posh lobby
toward the elevator, smiling at the security guard who was on duty after hours.
I rode to the correct floor and walked out into the waiting area. During the day, a pleasant
receptionist greeted everyone who came and went from this floor, but now her desk was empty.
There were still quite a few lights on, enough to easily see the path I needed to take to get to my
office. As I walked through the carpeted entryway, I glanced over at the sedate furnishings and
décor.
The entire office had been professionally decorated in shades of gray. I had joked with Jordan
years ago that for a multi-million dollar company, CPAMA was boring. There were no colorful
murals on the walls or areas of the building that showcased some of the more successful campaigns
our law firm had been part of, or any of the illustrious clients we represented. Everything in the
building was muted, even the plants that were scattered here and there weren’t healthy-looking; they
were always just on the edge of wilted.
Kind of like me.
I followed the dark gray carpet runner down the hall to my office and flipped the light on as I
walked in. There were two new stacks of folders on my desk and I put my hand on my stomach as it
started to rumble. I decided that now was not the time. I grabbed my purse out of the desk drawer and
hurried out.
Once I was in my car, I took a deep breath and tried to calm my racing heart. The information the
doctor gave me about my blood pressure and probable ulcers was racing through my head. I sat in my
car for a few minutes, realizing that the instant I walked into that office, my stomach had started to
hurt me and my heart began to race.
I tried not to think about the conversation with Amelie, about being surrounded by gray. The
building I worked in was decorated entirely in shades of gray. This place and everything it stood for
was slowly killing me. I had to get away.
I reached into my purse and dug out my phone. I had five missed calls from my friend Autumn, but
no phone calls or texts from Jordan or any of my co-workers. Not a single person in my professional
life had called to check on me today. That told me that the ideas racing around at the edge of my mind
were going to happen. I was ready to quit my job. If today was any indication, no one would even
notice when I was gone.
I flipped the phone open again and hit speed dial to call Autumn. She answered on the second
ring and I could tell by her voice that she had been crying.
“Honey, what’s wrong?” I asked her.
“Taylor. That’s what’s wrong.” Taylor, Autumn’s long-time boyfriend, was a subject I tried to
avoid at all costs. There was something about him that didn’t click with me and I worried that my
friend was going down the wrong path with him. I felt that he was using her for her money, enjoying
the fact that she had millions and he hadn’t had to work for a dime of it. If he stayed with her, he never
would.
Case in point, Taylor had planned a romantic getaway with Autumn. The two of them flew
together to an island in the Bahamas just a few days ago and were staying at a five-star resort for the
next two weeks. All paid for by Autumn.
“What happened?” I put the phone on speaker and started my car for the drive home. “Why have
you been crying?”
“I heard Taylor talking on the phone. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but I heard my name, so I
stopped to listen.”
This couldn’t be good. I shook my head as I pulled out of the parking lot and headed home.
“What did he say?”
“He was talking to some man named Ronnie about an investment and saying that he had brought
me here to butter me up so that I would give him the money he needed. He said he was bored as hell,
wished he was with anyone but me, and couldn’t wait to get home to his ‘sweetheart.’ I’m not going
to give you all the details, but let’s say that Ronnie is a man and he is also Taylor’s sweetheart.”
“Oh, shit,” I whispered. I hadn’t seen that one coming. “What did you do?”
“I canceled his return flight, checked us out of the hotel, and flew home. Without him.” Autumn
said firmly. “I tried to call your office and they said you were out sick.”
“I was. Well, I was there, but then I got sick.”
“Are you better already?”
“It wasn’t that type of sickness.” I braced for the explosion I knew would come with my next
words. “I passed out and was taken to the ER by ambulance.”
“You what?” Autumn screeched. “Where are you now? Why didn’t you call me? Why didn’t
Jordan call me? Why didn’t your assistant tell me what happened when I called looking for you?”
“I’m on my way home now,” I interrupted Autumn. “I’m fine.”
“You’ve been walking around holding your stomach for months now and you passed out today.
I’m almost positive you are not fine,” Autumn growled. “Where are you?”
“I’m driving home.”
“Where is Jordan? Why isn’t he driving you? Should you be driving?”
“Jordan didn’t come to the hospital and I haven’t talked to him all day. He saw them putting me
into the ambulance, Autumn, and he didn’t do anything. He’s with clients this evening,” I whispered.
“That son of a bitch!” Autumn yelled. “I’ll be waiting for you at your place.”
Autumn hung up, so I snapped the phone closed and tossed it into my purse. By the time I got
home, Autumn would have something comforting cooking on the stove, a glass of wine waiting for me
on the bar, soothing candles lit that she was positive would help my mood and health, and she would
be on a rampage wishing for Jordan’s head on a pike out in front of our building.
Because that’s what best friends did when a man treated you wrong. They ate food with you,
soothed you with alcohol, tried to cheer you up, and plotted the asshole’s death.
◆◆◆
 “That fucker,” Autumn growled as I walked into Jordan and I’s condo. She wrapped me up in her
arms and hugged me. The gesture almost brought me to tears. “I’ll cut his balls off.”
I chuckled.
“I will! I’ll cut his balls off and then toss them down the disposal. Charlie will kill me if it clogs
the pipes, but I don’t give a shit.” Charlie was the building manager and he was cranky when one of
the residents messed up his pristine building. Well, technically it was Autumn’s immaculate building,
but Charlie ran it.
I had purchased a condo across the hallway from Autumn after Jordan and I had both been at the
firm for a year. While I was directing the movers with our things, I met Autumn in the corridor. We
struck up a friendship and had been almost inseparable since that day six years ago.
It was almost a year after we met that I found out Autumn owned our building and quite a few
others around town. Months after that, I found out that she had millions in the bank, properties all
over the world, and was on the board of quite a few major companies. Of course, the best part of
learning that information was where I was standing with her when I found out the details.
She and I had been in a thrift store looking for a “quirky” table for her entryway. That afternoon,
she and I had stripped the table, repainted it, and then decorated it to match her other décor.
“Let me go and change clothes and then I’ll come back and we can plot his death.” I chuckled at
Autumn as I pulled out of her hug.
“I’ll get started on dinner,” Autumn said. “I’ve been testing a new recipe and I think I’ve finally
gotten it perfect. You can be my guinea pig.”
I walked down the hall into the master. Once I was standing in my walk-in closet, I took off my
shoes and set them in their spot on the shelf. I stripped out of my clothes and then dug through the
bottom drawer of the dresser to find my comfiest pair of yoga pants and an old t-shirt. I went into the
bathroom to brush out my hair and pull it back away from my face, and then I walked back through the
bedroom on the way to the kitchen.
Something caught my eye and I looked toward Jordan’s open closet door. I veered off my original
path and walked over to the closet and flipped on the light.
Jordan’s shoes were lined up perfectly on the shelves. His suits hung evenly on the racks in the
closet and it struck me that they were all either black, gray, or blue. That was a perfectly natural
selection for men’s dress clothes, but the ties were what had drawn me to this closet. The neckties
were almost all blue. There were a few others that were gray or silver in his collection, but the
majority of his neckties were blue.
My office was gray and my husband was blue. The two colors that Amelie had mentioned were
surrounding me and that I needed to get away from.
My job and my husband were slowly killing me and if I didn’t make my escape, I would never
find happiness.
With a roar, I started ripping Jordan’s clothes off their hangers. I tossed them all out into our
bedroom. When I finished with that task, I started in on the drawers. All his ties went flying, along
with his underwear and socks. In a rage, I threw his shoes out into the bedroom. I heard Autumn let
out a shout, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop. I needed to clean out everything to do with Jordan and
my life. I needed to throw it away and start fresh.
“Honey, are you okay?” I heard Autumn say from the closet door.
“I am not okay,” I growled. “I am done. Fucking done!”
“Really? You’re finished with him?” Autumn asked me, her voice hopeful.
 “Yes, really!” I shouted as I tossed more of Jordan’s things out into the bedroom. I had started on
his golf clothes now and I was enjoying myself. Maybe just a little too much.
As I glanced over my shoulder at her scream, I saw her dancing on top of a pile of Jordan’s
clothes. I couldn’t help but laugh, the sight of her happiness breaking into my rage.
“I’ll get some bags to put his shit in!” Autumn yelled as she ran out of the bedroom. “Keep
going!”
When I finished with his golf clothes, I moved on to his dresser. Jordan’s pile of stuff was
growing - it was almost waist high in the middle of the bedroom floor. As I opened the third drawer
to clear it out, I heard Autumn talking to someone as she came closer to the bedroom. I recognized
Charlie’s voice instantly and when I heard another man speaking, I realized George, one of the
security men that worked the desk in the lobby, was also here.
Two men I didn’t recognize followed Autumn into the bedroom and one of them was carrying a
roll of black trash bags. Without a word, the man ripped a bag off the roll and handed it to his
partner. The two of them started stuffing Jordan’s things into a bag. When it was full, they tied it
closed and started on another.
“Go around and get everything you want to go and put it in the center of the room. We’ll put it all
in storage for Jordan. Charlie and George are changing the codes on all the doors and the elevator.
Jordan won’t be able to get inside in about five minutes.” Autumn was out of breath as she bent down
on the floor to help the two men fill a trash bag. “I also called my lawyer and he’s headed to his
office to draft your divorce papers. He said he'll need to talk to you first thing in the morning for
some details, but he can have Jordan served by lunchtime.”
“Holy shit, you work fast,” I laughed. “I take it that you fully approve of me kicking him to the
curb.”
“You think it’s as much as you approve of me leaving Taylor on an island with no money and no
way to get home?”
“Yep. I think it might be just about that much.” I laughed as I walked into the bathroom to gather
Jordan’s toiletries. I didn’t even think it was sad that Autumn and I were having so much fun with
this. I knew that it would hit me later that I was throwing out five years of marriage like it was just
any old trash, but right now, it felt good.
For the first time in months, the pain in my stomach wasn’t from stress; it was from hunger.
Even though it wouldn’t do any magic on my waistline, this new feeling felt right to me.
◆◆◆

“You look good,” Autumn told me with a smile as she breezed into my kitchen.
“Thank you. I’ve lost two hundred and thirty pounds of ass and I’m feeling much lighter now,” I
said with a smile as I sat down at the table. “Have you heard from George or Charlie about Jordan
yet?”
A little after three this morning, I started getting phone calls and texts from Jordan. He was in a
rage because he had been locked out of the building. One of George’s security men had called the
police because Jordan refused to leave the property. When the cops arrived, Jordan, who was drunk,
was so worked up that the officer feared for his safety and tazed Jordan causing him to fall and writhe
on the floor like a fish out of water.
Autumn and I had watched the video at least ten times before she went back to her condo to go
back to sleep. When we saw him wet his pants in the video, she and I had laughed so much we nearly
peed, too.
This morning my cheeks and abs hurt from laughing so hard last night. My heart was a little heavy
now that the adrenaline had worn off. Those happy children and pancakes with smiley faces were
fading from my future now since I was almost thirty and single.
As I drank my coffee, I scrolled through the texts and emails I had received from Jordan making
sure to keep them on my phone. The threats of violence on both of those, the texts sent from his phone
number, and the voicemails recorded in his voice would come in handy when we went to divorce
court. The fact that he had been charged with trespassing, destruction of private property, public
intoxication, and assaulting a police officer wouldn’t help his case much either.
“I need something new, Autumn,” I told my friend. “The weirdest thing happened last night, and I
am probably certifiable, but I’m going to go with it.”
“Weird other than you losing your mind and kicking your husband out of the house?” Autumn
asked as she sat down across the table from me.
“Yeah. Magical weird. Or something. I don’t know what it is.”
“Did you bump your head when you passed out?”
“No.” I flipped her off and shook my head. “I did not bump my head.”
Autumn laughed and shrugged her shoulders, “You’ve been acting differently, that’s for damn
sure. Tell me what happened and I will either roll with it or call someone and have you fitted for a
long-sleeved white jacket with really shiny buckles.”
I chuckled and sipped my coffee. “You know I don’t like to wear white. I want a pink one.”
“Okay. When the men come to take your crazy ass away, I’ll make sure and suggest that.”
“Really though, do you believe in coincidence? Or that everything happens for a reason?”
“Well, sure. I believe everything and everyone has a purpose. Everything we do affects what
happens next. That’s simple.”
“Say you have three doors to choose from and open door number three, do you believe that
something led you to that particular door or was it just a random choice?”
“Okay, nutso, tell me where you’re headed with this. All that talking in circles makes me need
wine.”
I told Autumn what happened yesterday, what the doctor said to me about my health, and how I got
caught walking in the rain. When I started to explain my instant warmth toward Amelie, Autumn’s
eyebrows rose.
“You’re not an instant friendship kind of person, Ria.” Autumn chuckled. “You and I hit it off
pretty quick, but I’ve seen how you are with most people. They’ve got to work to get in there just for
a polite conversation. I can’t imagine how much work someone would have to put in to get you to
come into their house for dinner and hours of conversation.”
“She just asked. And the more I think about it, the weirder it is.” I took a deep breath and
blurted, “I just realized I never told her my name, but she knew it.”
“You had to have told her your name, honey.” I could tell that Autumn was starting to get worried
about me and I tried to relieve her fears.
“No, I swear. I didn’t tell Amelie my name.”
“Okay. So, it’s odd, but what’s the problem?”
“She told me about my future. Well, what I had to do to get the future I want.”
“You met a psychic and that’s why you kicked Jordan out?”
“No. Yes.” I put my hands up and shrugged. “Fuck. I don’t know.”
“Were you serious last night when you said you were done at the firm?”
 “I was. I am. I passed out in a building surrounded by co-workers and my fucking husband and
not a single person checked on me after the ambulance took me away. I don’t owe them a damn thing,
least of all more of my life.”
“I agree. What about money?”
“I have money. All of my inheritance from my parents’ estates along with the money from my
grandparents.”
“Okay. So, why were you working yourself to death again?” Autumn asked sarcastically.
“Because Jordan and I had a plan,” I whispered.
“And you want to change that plan?”
“I do. I want to have pancakes with smiley faces and get a dog.” I didn’t tell Autumn about the
children, the house, or the quickies with my imaginary husband. “I want to have a life and a family. I
want love.”
“Okay,” Autumn shrugged. “I’m pretty mobile, you know. I don’t really keep a schedule.”
“I need to move away. Want to come with me?”
“Are we keeping the condos and going on a road trip or are we going to rent a moving truck and
take off?”
“Why don’t we keep the condos as a backup plan?”
“That is the sanest and most reasonable thing you’ve said in the last hour.” Autumn dramatically
wiped her brow and sighed. “Where are we going?”
“Somewhere red. That’s where I’ll find my dark and light. That’s where I’ll find my balance.”
“And now we’re back in cuckoo country,” Autumn laughed, “But I’ll go along for the ride.”

◆◆◆

JOHN

“How long is it going to take that order to come in?” Mattie asked me as he walked past my
desk. “I’ve got a customer out there who wants to have his fucking bachelor party here and we don’t
have nearly enough ear protection to go around.”
“Eight days,” I answered him wondering how in the hell it was a bachelor party if they were
coming to the gun range. “They don’t think they’re going to be fucking drinking out here, do they?”
Mattie laughed and shook his head, “I asked the same thing. Guy said they were headed to the bar
after they came here. They’ll have a limo and all that shit. Sounds like a huge shindig.”
“Screw that marriage shit,” I grumbled. “Never happening here.”
“It will happen, John. We’ll find a woman who can’t resist us and want to keep us both around
even when we’re too old to fuck.”
I shook my head at him.
“We need to settle down and find a woman, brother. Come on. At least think about it.”
“Not gonna happen. I’m not the settling down type. Someday you’ll find a woman and marry her
and I’ll come over for Sunday dinner occasionally. I might even let her do my laundry while I’m
there, but that’s all of me she’ll be doing. You’ll get married and pop out babies, I’ll stay single and
free, and we’ll all live happily ever after.”
“I’m going to find us one that will change your mind.”
 “No woman is going to sign up for the two of us for the rest of her life, Mattie. Get that shit out of
your head. We’re fun for a fling, but that’s about it. I know you want what your parents have, but
that’s a fucking unicorn in a field full of four-leaf clovers as far as the real world goes.”
“If it can happen once, it can happen again,” Mattie insisted as he walked out of my office.
“Watch out, John Boy. She’s going to hit you like a ton of bricks.”
 3.
The Rice Burner
Stir fry bowl with tofu, broccoli, sugar snap peas, mushrooms, onions and your choice of
peppers to spice it up. (jalapeno, green chiles or bell pepper)

MARIA
“Mama Shannon! How are you doing!” I squealed, so happy to hear her voice. My best friend’s
mom laughed on the other end of the line. “It’s so good to hear your voice!”
“Hi, sweetheart. How have you been?”
“Life has been crazy, but I’m better now than I’ve been in years. What about you and yours? Is
everything okay?” I loved to hear from Shannon even though it usually only happened in Christmas
and birthday cards, but I realized now that a phone call probably meant an emergency.
“Honey, everything is going so well, I have to pinch myself to make sure I’m not dreaming.”
“Good.” I felt relieved. “I haven’t talked to Willow in ages, not since she got in touch with me
about selling her shop. That was months ago.”
“Willow is getting married, honey.”
“What?” I shouted, jumping up from my chair. “She’s getting married? To who?”
Autumn was staring at me from the couch, her favorite spot when she was over at my place, and
we were being lazy.
“A man named Lazarus. He’s fantastic, Autumn, and you should see the two of them together.
They just fit.”
“Oh, I’m so happy for her!” I was choking back tears, so happy for my friend. “Why didn’t she
call me?”
“I think she’s afraid to bother you. She knows how Jordan feels about us.”
“Oh, fuck Jordan,” I said grumpily. “I ditched his ass months ago. Divorce was final over a
month ago.”
“Really?” Shannon asked, hopefully. “Oh, honey, are you okay?”
“I’ve never been better. I’m healthy again, feeling happy and free and ready to take on the world.
My friend Autumn and I are going on a road trip soon - no specific destination, just somewhere other
than here.”
“How quick can you get on the road?” Shannon asked me.
“Why?”
“Willow’s getting married this weekend.”
“Oh, Shannon, I didn’t get an invitation. I’d hate to crash…”
“No invitations were sent out. You know Willow. She’s a spur of the moment kind of girl. She’s
getting married in the park. No white poufy gown, no big drama - just a wedding that suits her and
Lout.”
“That’s wonderful.”
“She’d love to have you there, honey. It would be the best surprise.”
“This weekend? Do you mind if I bring my friend Autumn?”
“Of course not! I’d love to meet her.”
I looked up at Autumn and saw she was curious about my conversation, “Can you hold on just a
second, Shannon?”
At her murmured agreement, I pulled the phone away from my ear and covered the receiver.
“How about we move up the timeline for our road trip?” I asked Autumn. “We’d need to leave,
like now.”
“Right this minute?” Autumn asked as she sat up on the couch. “Can we have until tomorrow
morning at least so I can get some things arranged?”
“Yeah. We can leave in the morning and drive straight through. My friend Willow is getting
married and her mom wants to surprise her and have me there.”
“Oh, awesome! I’ve always wanted to meet Willow. She sounds like a trip.”
“Shannon?”
“I’m here, sweetie.”
“We’ll leave in the morning and drive up. I think it will take about twelve hours for us to get
there, probably more because we’ll need to stop here and there on the way.”
“I’ve got a spare room for you and your friend if you want it.”
“Thanks, Shannon. I’ll talk to Autumn and see what she wants to do.”
“Let me know when you’re leaving, so I know when to expect you here in town. I’m not going to
tell Willow; I want it to be a surprise.”
“Okay, I’ll talk to you in the morning. I’m so excited!”
“I am too, honey. It’s been way too long.”
Shannon and I said our goodbyes and then I hung up and turned to look at Autumn.
“We can just drive over there and then come home.”
“We can just fly there and stay as long as we want,” Autumn said with a smile. “I’m not sitting in
a car for twelve hours, honey, but I do have a plane to get us there. How long do you think we’ll be
staying?”
“Two weeks?” I questioned. “Pack for at least two weeks. That way, we can visit and relax
with Shannon and her other kids even if Willow is away on her honeymoon.”
“Let’s pack for more than that. We’ll go from your friend’s farther west looking for that red place
your lady told you about.”
“You want to do that?”
“I do. I’m curious about it.” Autumn shrugged as she walked toward my front door. “I’m bored
here, Ria, and I have been for a long time. I thought I could fix that with Taylor, but I realize now that
he was just one of those cute little Band-Aids that are only for show. He wasn’t anything of substance
and he couldn’t come close to patching up the hole in my life.”
“Getting maudlin?”
“No, just realistic. I’m not getting any younger, you know.”
“You’re younger than I am!”
“I’m going to be twenty-six this year, Ria, and I have nothing to show for it. I’m ready for an
adventure.”
 “Then let's go west!” I said as I pointed toward the window of my condo. “Onward!”
“That’s south, Maria,” Autumn shook her head. “Good thing I’m not letting you drive us there.”
“You know what I mean,” I laughed. “I’m going to get some laundry thrown into the washer and
start packing. Is there enough room for a few suitcases?”
“We could take all of your furniture and still be fine, Ria. It’s not a little plane by any means.”
“You’re so filthy rich.”
“I know,” Autumn smiled. “I’m loaded.”
“That’s why you’re my friend. I want you for your money.”
“You’re doing a shitty job of it then. You wouldn’t even let me pay for dinner the other night.”
“It was my turn.”
“You need classes on gold-digging, sweetheart. You’re not getting nearly enough out of me.”
Autumn laughed as she walked out of my condo shutting the door behind her.
“I’m headed back to Texas!” I whispered to myself, excitement making me jittery. “Hell yeah!”
◆◆◆

MATTIE
“I can’t go out with both of you in public!” Brittany scoffed. “What would people think?”
I stared at Brittany for a second as I processed her words. I heard John grunt and get up from his
chair at the kitchen table. The sound of his footsteps receded until I heard the door leading into the
garage slam.
“It’s our friend’s wedding,” I said again. “I want you to meet our family.”
“I’d love to meet your family, Mattie, but nobody can know that the three of us are together.”
Brittany reached over and took my hand in hers. “If I see someone there that my parents know, they’ll
find out about us.”
“You said last night that you want to try this - try us.”
“And I do!” Brittany chirped. I do want to be with both of you! But we can’t be seen in public!”
“What about if we get serious? What if you move in with us or get pregnant? What then? You’d
still want us to hide?”
“My daddy will hate the thought of me dating either of you, but if he finds out that it’s the three of
us, he’ll never forgive me.”
“Don’t you mean he’ll cut off your money?” John asked snidely from the hall. Brittany and I
hadn’t heard him come back in and both of us jumped. “That’s why you don’t want Daddy to know.
You want him to know about one of us, kind of as a little ‘fuck you’ sort of rebellion but admitting to
being with both of us might take things too far and he’ll cut you off.”
“I hate the thought of my daddy being upset with me,” Brittany argued. “It has nothing to do with
money.”
“So, a girl who works in a boutique 15 hours a week can afford all the shit you do? The fancy
purses, the nails, the hair, those clothes? It’s not his money that pays for those things?” John asked,
his eyes narrowing.
“We can get your hair done and buy you pretty things, babe,” I rushed to tell her, afraid that John
was going to run her off.
“No, you can. I’m fucking out,” John said as he turned around to leave again. “It was fun,
Brittany, but only the first few times. After that, you just got tedious.”
Brittany gasped and then her face got red. She snatched her purse off the table and stomped
toward the door.
As she flung the door open, she turned and glared at me - a look I never imagined crossing her
face. “I had a good time, Mattie, but I can only lay around with the trash so much before I start to get
dirty.”
With that parting shot, she slammed the door behind her and I soon heard her little sports car start
up and then tires screeching out of the driveway.
I sat back down in the kitchen chair and put my face in my hands wondering why I always did
this. Why did I believe there was something there when it obviously wasn’t? Why in the hell did I
think I could ever have the love that my parents shared?
Brittany was right. I was trash and the sooner I accepted that fact, the easier life would be.
◆◆◆

JOHN
“I told you that trying to keep her around was a bad idea, man,” I told Mattie as he and I locked up
the house to head over to Lout’s to talk to Willow about her new building. “You’ve got to get this
idea out of your head that you’ll find some hot chick who wants to have babies and live happily ever
after sleeping between us every night. If that’s what you fucking want, then you and I should cut ties.
That will make your chances better, at least.”
“And then what will you do?”
I shrugged and finally answered him, “I’ll just get free and uncomplicated pussy until I’m too old
to fuck, then I’ll die a happy man.”
“Yeah, keep telling yourself that.” Mattie swung his leg over his bike and looked off into the
distance. “I need to go for a ride and clear my head. Tell Willow I’ll be there soon.”
Without a glance in my direction, Mattie started his motorcycle and walked it back out of the
driveway. Once he was in the street and pointed the right direction, he gunned the engine and shot
away, never looking back.
“Fuck,” I grumbled.
From the day I met Mattie when we were 14 years old, he and I had been inseparable. A year or
so later when another friend’s older sister expressed interest in having the two of us together, he and I
both jumped at the chance. Both of us were virgins and she was hot. She was also offering up a
weekend of sex in her parents’ lake house, no strings attached.
At damn near 30 years old, I still wouldn’t be able to resist that offer from a woman. Neither
could Mattie.
He and I had slept with other women by ourselves after that but seemed to gravitate to the ones
who wanted a fling with both of us. Those few curious women who wanted a threesome with two
men hit the jackpot when they met us. As we got older, finding those women became easier and
easier, so Mattie and I just rolled with the opportunities.
On the day we met, I realized that Mattie was everything I wasn’t and could never be. He was
funny and charming, cracking jokes and holding doors open for the ladies. He held them when they
cried during a movie, laughed with them when they needed to, and generally was the perfect
boyfriend. Except a woman couldn’t keep his attention for very long. Nothing could.
I, on the other hand, was the one that could focus on one thing, one person, for hours and never
once waver or get bored. I couldn’t talk to strangers, schmooze customers at work, charm women
into a smile and then bed. I didn’t have it in me to laugh and grin all the time; it wasn’t in my nature.
 Mattie and I were two halves of one person. Apart we were shit, but together we could get shit
accomplished. Whether the task was building a bike, hunting a man down, or pleasing a woman,
together, Mattie and I could do one hell of a job. Apart, we could accomplish all those things and
more, but we weren’t fulfilled. We weren’t happy.
And finding a woman who accepted that would be a miracle. A woman who didn’t care what the
world thought when they found out she slept with two men at the same time. A woman who could
handle the looks and the whispers behind her back. A woman who could ground Mattie when he got
too manic and could perk me up when I got too low.
Basically, we needed a fucking shrink who cooked like someone’s grandma, looked like the hot
cheerleader you remember from high school, fucked like she could never want anything more, and put
up with two demanding men while she kept her own identity in the process.
So, realistically, we were looking for a woman that could never exist outside of fiction or porn.
Seriously. A magical creature that we were never going to find.
And the sooner Mattie figured that out, the happier the two of us would be. We could get back to
our lives, hanging out at the club and drinking with our brothers, fucking club pussy until we were
both sated and spent, and living our lives.
If I weren’t such a selfish son of a bitch, I’d take off for parts unknown and let Mattie live a life
without me. A normal life with the wife, the kids, and a white picket fence. A life that didn’t include
my shit.
But I’d never been accused of being a good person, so there was no sense in trying to work on that
now, was there?
 4.
Cocoa and Vanilla’s Good Lovin’
Large pecan brownie served with two scoops of Blue Bell vanilla ice cream. Comes with
whipped cream and a cherry on top.
(Dessert is free if you can tie that cherry stem in a knot in under a minute without using
your hands.)

JOHN
“Did you get the message from my old lady?” Grunt asked me as I walked through the clubhouse
toward the front door.
“Yeah. We’ll head for the airport in about an hour.”
“Okay. You’ve got to keep it under wraps until right before the wedding. We’ve got a surprise
for Willow and Summer and don’t want this to happen until right after.”
“Okay. This chick Maria's flight arrives in an hour, but you don’t want me to bring her around
until this afternoon?”
“Nope. Do something with her until then. Take her to lunch or some shit. Keep her entertained
until the wedding and then you can be free again.”
“Okay. We’ll think of something,” I told Grunt. “Code still works on your house? I can take her
there to drop her shit off. That will waste some time.”
“Code is the same. Go ahead and do that,” Grunt said with a nod. “Thanks for taking care of this
for me.”
“Not a problem, brother,” I assured him. “So, Lout’s going to be your son-in-law?”
“Yeah,” Grunt chuckled. “Isn’t that some shit?”
“You should make him call you Dad.”
“He could fucking try,” Lout said with a growl as he walked into the room. “I’ll call Grunt
‘Daddy’ as soon as Bird does.”
“Shit. Never thought of it from that angle. You’ll be related to Bird, too, man.”
“Yep. Brothers all the way around now, huh?” Lout laughed. “I’m just ready to get this shit done
and take my woman home.”
“I thought you and Mattie found you a date?” Grunt asked.
“Didn’t work out,” I told him.
“She was a gold-digging little bitch who just wanted to throw up a big ‘fuck you’ to her daddy.
He’s a country club type and I’m sure he just loved knowing she was banging a biker.” Lout paused
and then chuckled, “Or two.”
 I shrugged. I had liked Brittany for the most part. She was a good lay, but outside the bedroom,
she was more irritating than anything. She was way too high maintenance for my taste, but Mattie had
seemed to like her, so I dealt with my irritation for his sake.
“I’m going to grab Mattie from the range and then head over on that errand,” I told Grunt. “See
you guys at the wedding.”
The men all said their goodbyes and before I was out the door, I could hear them ribbing Lout
about attaching that ball and chain. I smiled at the thought of little Willow telling Lout what to do, but
then I remembered her calm demeanor that night not long ago and realized he had found the perfect
woman for him. She wouldn’t have any problem putting the big man in his place when he needed it.
I hoped that someday Mattie could find a woman to do that for him. And now, he and I both knew
that woman wasn’t Brittany.
◆◆◆

“Who is this woman again?” I asked John as we locked up the offices at the gun range that the
two of us ran with the Forresters. Bird Forrester was the president of the Texas Kings MC that both
John and I were patched members of. His father, Smokey, and his brothers Kale, Clem, and Daughtry
owned quite a few businesses around town. John and I were both good with firearms and had our
certifications to teach classes at the range, so we were obvious choices to run this business for the
men.
“She’s Willow’s best friend from a long time ago. Shannon called her about the wedding and the
woman is scrambling to get here in time.”
“It’s good she’s dropping everything to get here for her friend.” I told John. “She’s coming into
the small airstrip?”
“Yeah. I guess she somehow rented a plane?”
“Fuck. That takes some coin.” I shook my head. “Maybe she’ll be our sugar mama.”
“Shit. The last thing we need is another spoiled little rich bitch in our bed.”
“Yeah, but they’re so much fun!” I laughed. “Admit it. The uptight rich girls are the ones who
turn out to be the most adventurous.”
“You want more than adventure, dumbass,” John growled at me.
“I’m not ashamed to say I do,” I said as I got into the passenger side of John’s truck, “but I’ll take
some adventure while I’m waiting on the right woman to come along for us.”
“You’re going to be waiting for a long time.”
◆◆◆

“Autumn! Wake up!” I shook Autumn’s shoulder and tried to get her awake. “We’re almost
there! The plane is about to land!”
“Geez, woman. You act like you’ve never flown before,” Autumn grumbled as she stretched and
yawned on the couch across from mine. “What the fuck?”
“I’m excited to see Willow and her family. You’re going to love them.”
“I’m sure I will, honey,” Autumn assured me. “They sound great.”
“I haven’t seen Willow in years,” I told Autumn as I looked out the window at the clouds. “She’s
always been such a good friend to me even though I’ve been horrible to her. I let Jordan come
between us. He hated Willow.”
“Why?”
 “Because he’s an uptight prick.”
“Gee, that’s the same reason he didn’t like me!” Autumn laughed. “She and I already have
something in common: Jordan’s pompous opinion.”
“Yeah,” I laughed. “And the fact that neither of you gave a shit what he thought and weren’t afraid
to tell him so.”
Autumn yawned again and then stood up to stretch some more.
“I was up too late last night getting stuff in order. That and I sleep really well when I’m flying. I
have no idea why.”
“Did you travel a lot when you were a kid?”
“All the time. Mom and Dad always made sure I was with one of them if I couldn’t be with both
at the same time. I was lucky that they didn’t just pawn me off on a nanny and go about their
business.”
“That’s true. I was lucky to have my parents, too. Of course, we didn’t jet-set around the world,
but we were comfortable at home together. I don’t think my dad missed a single game or program of
mine before he died.”
“What about your mom?” Autumn asked as the plane touched down.
“My mom was the one that brought the drinks and the snacks, wore the t-shirt with my number on
it, and screamed louder than the coach!” I smiled, remembering my mom and dad. “They would have
hated Jordan.”
“Yeah. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a crystal ball so we could look a few years into the future
when we start a new relationship?” Autumn asked with a smile. “I can see it now, sitting down
across the table from some guy you just met and telling him, ‘I’ve looked into the future and I saw that
you’re a total asshole, so I’m going to have to say goodbye now.’ And then you could ditch him
before you became too invested.”
“I kind of got the crystal ball thing already, though. I need to go somewhere red and to find the
light and the dark.”
“Maybe you’ll go into a bar with a red neon sign and find a blonde guy drinking a dark beer,”
Autumn laughed. “Or a dark guy who is drinking a glass of milk.”
“Holy shit,” I whispered as I watched two men get out of a large black truck. “Or a blonde hottie
in ripped jeans and a dark dream with his hair falling in his face.”
“That is awfully specific,” Autumn said as she leaned around me. “Holy shit is right. Good Lord
above, what do they feed the men in Texas?”
“Hell if I know, but I’m going to make sure I’m on the menu.”
◆◆◆

MATTIE
“Damn.” I whistled as I watched the plane roll to a stop on the tarmac. “Willow’s pal rented a
private jet?”
John just grunted beside me. He had a problem with people who flaunted their wealth, but he
didn’t have a problem voicing his displeasure - that was for sure.
“I wonder if she’s hot.”
“Probably married.”
“Nah. I heard Shannon talking to Grunt and she said that the woman divorced her husband a while
back and that was a good thing because he was a total douche.”
 “Well, let’s get the princess unloaded so we can entertain her until the wedding.” John opened his
truck door and slid out of the vehicle to the tarmac.
I opened my truck door and slid out, taking a deep breath as the heat pushed at me. It was hot as
hell today and I’d rather be at a pool somewhere, but duty called. I ambled over to stand beside John
at the front of the truck waiting for the door of the plane to open and ‘Her Highness’ to alight and
mingle with the poor and unclean.
Shit. Now I was starting to sound like John.
We watched as the door opened and the airport employee rolled the steps closer to the plane.
After a minute or two, three men walked down the steps. All three left suitcases at the bottom of the
steps. Two of the men headed toward the small airport and I assumed they were the captain and co-
captain. The other man was an unknown. I knew for sure that Willow’s best friend was a female just
from the small amount I had heard about her, but there were no women in sight.
The man got closer and nodded toward both of us. As he neared us, he stuck his hand out.
“Richard Dorian,” He said as he shook John’s hand and then mine.
John introduced himself, and then I did.
“Autumn and Maria will be out in just a second. They fell asleep on the way here and only woke
up a few minutes ago.”
“Autumn and Maria?” I asked the man.
“Yes, is that not who you were expecting?”
“We were expecting Maria. Didn’t realize that she would be with someone else,” John said as he
watched the plane’s door. “Not a problem though, the truck has room.”
“I’ll be riding with you, also,” Richard informed us. He didn’t ask or request - no, he told us he
would be riding along.
“What are you here for exactly? Are you the other woman’s old man?”
Richard chuckled and then answered, “Not at all. I’m Autumn’s security advisor.”
“Security advisor?” I asked, my eyebrows raised. “She needs a security guard?”
“So, the plane belongs to Autumn and not Maria,” John stated. “Good to know.”
“Yes, this is Autumn’s plane,” Richard confirmed. “And yes, she needs a security guard.”
“Damn, she really must be a princess,” I muttered to John, but Richard heard me and threw his
head back with a laugh.
“Autumn, hell, and Maria, too, are both as far away from princess as you can get,” Richard told
us as his laughter subsided. “I’ve known Autumn since she was a kid and Maria for the last few
years. Both are good women. They won’t give you any fits about petty shit if that’s what you’re
worried about.”
“Good to know. I don’t deal well with that bullshit,” John grumbled. I looked toward him and
saw his face change and heard his sharp intake of breath before he whispered, “Holy shit.”
I snapped my head back to look at the plane and understood instantly what had taken John’s breath
away.
The woman walking down the stairs was a fucking knockout. She had dark red hair and even
from here, I could see that her eyes were a bright blue. She wasn’t wearing anything fancy, but the
sight of her in the clothes she had on was seared in my brain forever. A black, sleeveless dress that
came up above her knee, and a pair of fuck-me sandals that would look great propped up beside my
ears.
“Holy shit,” I whispered. “Which one is that?”
Richard laughed, “That’s Maria.”
 “Fuck me,” I said. “Holy shit.”
“She’ll rip your fucking face off if you mess with her, but the woman’s a sweetheart. Smart as a
whip and damn she can cook,” Richard told us. “Autumn is late for fucking everything, so she’ll be
out in a minute or two.”
By the time Maria got to the bottom step, I found myself waiting beside John just a few feet away.
I didn’t remember moving from the truck to the stairs, it was as if I was pulled there by this woman in
front of me.
“Hi!” the woman said as she dropped the small bag she was carrying and stuck her hand out
toward me. “I’m Maria Micelli, Willow’s friend.”
Once I remembered my name, I introduced myself and then John. Maria turned toward John and
stuck her hand out to shake his, too.
“Thank you for coming to get me. I hope it wasn’t any trouble. We told Shannon we could rent a
car, but her man wouldn’t hear of it,” Maria said as John held her hand in his. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“It’s nice to meet you, too,” I said with a smile. “Let me get your bag for you. Do you have any
more?”
“I do, but we’re going to keep most of them on the plane. We’ll take these for now. We can
always come back and get the other stuff later if we need to,” Maria said as she watched me bend in
front of her and grab two of the suitcases. John was beside me and he grabbed two also. Maria
reached down and picked up the small bag she had been carrying and followed us to the truck.
“Nice plane,” John said to Maria as he took the bag from her hand. He put it in the bed of the
truck along with the ones he had carried over. “You two go all over like this often?”
“No, I’ve never ridden in such luxury.” Maria laughed and then shrugged, “This is the first
vacation I’ve had in more than eight years!”
“It was easier to get away once you lost all that weight,” Richard said drolly from the other side
of the truck. “God knows I like the looks of you more now, that’s for damn sure.”
I saw John tilt his head to stare at Richard just as amazed as I was at his rude comment about
Maria’s weight. I looked her up and down while her face was turned away from me and saw that she
had a hot fucking body. I didn’t think gaining a few pounds would hurt her in the least, but even I was
smart enough to know to never mention a woman’s weight.
Maria just laughed at Richard’s insult and I was glad she hadn’t taken offense. I had known her
for less than five minutes and I already wanted to slay dragons for her. I could tell that John was
feeling the same.
“Are one of you two Willow’s fiancé?” Maria asked.
“Oh, no. Willow's man is one of our brothers in the club. He’s home making himself presentable
right now,” I told Maria with a smile. “Willow is marrying Lout.”
“Lout?” Maria’s eyebrows shot up and I could see she was a little confused at the name.
“It’s his road name. Like a nickname,” John explained to Maria. “Some men have them.”
“So, he’s not a lout then? Is he a good man? Upstanding citizen and all that?”
“Um, yeah. Lout's a good man,” John said, raising one eyebrow at me. “A good man to have at
your back, you know?”
“What he’s trying to say is that he’s a horrible motherfucker if you give him a reason to be, but
other than that, your friend is marrying a stand-up guy,” Richard translated for us. “That’s man-speak
for she found Prince Charming, I guess you could say.”
Maria laughed, not put off one bit by Richard’s language, but John and I were both shocked when
she said, “If he was a horrible motherfucker to Willow, she’d have already shot his ass and found a
spot to bury the body.”
Richard laughed and in just a split second, John and I both joined him knowing that Maria was
completely right. Willow was not a woman to mess with.
“There’s Princess Autumn now,” Richard said with a sigh. “I’m already half fucking melted and
she comes out of the damn plane looking like a cool breeze. I want to trip her.”
Maria threw her head back with a laugh and pushed his arm. The man barely moved but
pretended that she had injured him.
“Are you talking shit about me, Richard?” Autumn said in a very haughty voice. “You’re fired!”
“Again?” Richard snorted. “Maybe let me stay fired for a few days this time? I’ve never been to
Texas and I want to explore.”
“Let’s get the lay of the land and you can do just that.” Autumn smiled at her guard and then
turned to John and Mattie and stuck out her hand. “I’m Autumn, nice to meet you!”
I saw John’s shock as he introduced himself and I felt the same. The woman owned a jet, had
luggage in the back of the truck that probably cost more than most people’s car, and was gorgeous and
funny, too. She wasn’t quite as hot as her friend Maria, but if a man went fishing, he wouldn’t throw
Autumn back in the lake, that’s for damn sure.
“Are you ready to go?” John asked Maria. When she nodded, he opened the rear door on his side
of the truck and motioned for Maria to get in. Taking his cue, I did the same on the other side of the
truck for Autumn and Richard.
“I’m so excited to be back in Texas!” Maria said from the backseat. I turned my head and could
see her wiggling in her seat as she looked out the window at the passing scenery. “I can’t wait to see
Willow!”
“Grunt said Shannon was excited that you were coming,” I told Maria as I watched her out of the
corner of my eye. I glanced over at John and saw that he kept glancing into the rearview mirror, also
keeping an eye on Maria.
“Grunt?” Maria asked.
“He’s Shannon’s old man,” I told her.
“I thought her husband was named Grayson.” When I turned my head, I saw that Maria was
looking at me now rather than out the window.
“I think that’s his real name,” John said quietly. “We call him Grunt.”
“Where will we wait until the wedding?” Maria asked. “Shannon said she didn’t want me to get
there too early and ruin the surprise.”
“We’ll take you to drop off your bags at Shannon’s house and then go grab something to eat,” I
told our passengers. “We can relax over lunch, have a beer, and get to know each other while we
wait.”
“Can you drop Richard and I off at the hotel? I called ahead for reservations,” Autumn asked.
“I’ve got a few phone calls to return and we’ll pick up our rental car and meet you at the wedding if
you’ll give us directions.”
“You’re not staying at Shannon's?” I asked Autumn as I turned around. My gaze passed slowly
over Maria as I tried to focus on her friend.
“No” Autumn shook her head. “I’m a night owl and I like to sleep in. Besides, I’ve never met
Shannon and I’ve got way too much stuff to impose on her.”
“I’m stuff now?” Richard asked as he bumped her shoulder with his. “Brat.”
Maria and Autumn laughed and I thought it was nice to see that Autumn wasn’t uptight with her
employee.
 “I take it from the cuts you’re wearing that the two of you ride?” Richard asked.
“We do,” John answered as he pulled up to a red light. “You ride?”
“I do,” Richard confirmed. “It’s beautiful around here. I wish I had my bike.”
“If you’re going to be here for a few days, I’m sure we can arrange for you to have one to use. We
have extras at the shop that we use when one of our bikes is under the weather,” I offered Richard.
“Let me talk to Daughtry when we get to the wedding. I’ll introduce the two of you. You’ll probably
get along well with Smokey, Hank, and Grunt.”
“He’s saying you’re old, Richard,” Autumn teased. “He's just nice about it.”
“I’ll toss your skinny ass out of this truck, girl,” Richard bantered back. “Then I’ll ride off into
the sunset with Maria and she and I will live happily ever after.”
I was glad to hear Maria snort her disapproval at Richard’s teasing. When I turned to look at her,
she just grinned and shook her head at her friends.
“You guys just need to admit you’re in love and run away together,” Maria told them.
“You are so fucking gross, Maria. We’re practically related. Besides, you know I’m not his
type,” Autumn scoffed.
“Isn’t that the truth?” Richard laughed. “You are not my type at all.”
“You’re not my type, either!” Autumn stuck her tongue out at Richard.
“The only type either of you ever goes for have cloven hooves and horns,” Maria teased them.
“I’ve met all of your exes. They have the same qualities every time.”
John laughed so loudly that I looked over at him in amazement. The last time I heard him laugh
like that was more than a year ago when a drug dealer who had been running from us got bitten by a
rattlesnake and then rolled down the side of a bluff into a cactus. It usually took quite a bit to get John
to let himself go and smile, but to get an all-out laugh was rare.
But this woman, Maria, had accomplished it in minutes.
 5.
Sweet Dreams Are Made Of Cheese
Fresh tortilla chips and a large bowl of our queso blanco with roasted green chiles

MARIA
“Thank you two for taking me all over town.” I smiled at John and then Mattie as we sat together
at an old, scarred table in a quirky burger joint that Mattie had insisted on. “I’m glad Autumn and
Richard are both settled in at the hotel.”
“She’s funny,” Mattie said. “Shit, he is, too. Probably a fun couple to go out and have a beer
with.”
“They’re really not a couple. Richard has been her head security guy since she was a little girl.
He’s more like a father to her than anything.”
“Really?” Mattie asked, curious about the relationship between the two of them. “They seem to
love each other.”
“Oh, they do. They’re inseparable.” I chuckled. “Of course, they say it’s a business relationship,
but we all know that’s bullshit. They are family.”
“She owns a plane and her best friend is her bodyguard?” John asked. “That’s weird.”
“What does one have to do with the other?”
“Most rich folks don’t get to know ‘the help’ like that.”
“Autumn isn’t most rich folks,” I snapped before I looked down at the menu. “And Richard isn’t
‘the help.’ He’s our friend.”
“Sorry that John is dark and broody,” Mattie said as he reached across the table and tapped his
finger on my menu to catch my attention in the loud restaurant. “We don’t let him out of his cave very
often, so it’s hard for him to adjust.”
My gaze snapped up to Mattie’s and I saw his smile. When I glanced over at John, I saw that he
had one eyebrow raised. While I was looking at him, one side of his mouth almost twitched. I
thought it was a shame that he wouldn’t even let himself smile.
“So, tell me about the two of you.” I looked at Mattie. “What’s the story?”
“The story?” Mattie asked
“How long have you been together?”
“Together?” John growled his question. When I looked up, his face was even darker, and his eyes
were drilling into mine.
“Friends? Companions? Fuck, I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking,” I snarled at him, for some
reason ready to go to battle with this cranky, but oh so damn hot, man.
“We’re best friends and have been since we were teenagers.” Mattie smiled to break the tension.
“That’s not an odd question.”
 “How simple was that?” I glared at John.
“Look at all that sass.” John smiled and I was amazed to see the dimples appear in both cheeks.
“Aren’t you a feisty one?”
“Feisty?” My eyebrows rose. Somehow this man’s attitude was infuriating and sexy all at the
same time. “Because I have a backbone, I’m feisty?”
“Yeah. And sexy as fuck,” John growled. “Problem?”
I leaned my head back in shock. I thought his sullen mood was directed at me in anger, but I was
starting to realize that he was just the dark and brooding type, while Mattie was all light and laughter.
“Ahhh, so you think I’m sexy? Is this like the schoolyard where the boy pushes the girl down
because he has a crush and then a few years later, he’s nibbling on her neck?”
“I don’t nibble, I bite.” John stared into my eyes and I could feel the heat across the table. It
engulfed me and gave me all sorts of wicked thoughts.
“He might bite, but I’ll make it all better,” Mattie said softly from my side as he reached over and
lightly touched my arm. “That’s how things work, you know? You’ve got the good with the bad.
Evens out.”
Holy shit. Surely I imagined it, but it seemed like these two men were both hitting on me. They
were working as a team, sort of like a good cop, bad cop scenario. And it was working. I felt every
part of my body start to tingle, especially between my legs. I squirmed in my chair just a little bit to
try and relieve the ache.
I realized John had seen my reaction when he smiled at me again, this time showing his straight,
white teeth. It was almost predatory.
“Does this game work for the two of you very often?” My back was up now because I felt like a
toy the big bad lion was tossing around.
“What game?” Mattie asked, honestly. He was looking down at his menu now and glanced up at
me. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” I mumbled with another glance at John. He was still staring at me. The smile was
gone, but I thought I could see a definite twinkle in his eye.
“What do you want to eat?” Mattie asked. “They’ve got the best burgers.”
“I don’t eat meat.”
Mattie’s eyebrows rose, and he stared at me in shock, “Ever?”
I slowly shook my head.
“Why the fuck did you let us bring you to a burger joint if you don’t eat meat?” John growled.
“We can go somewhere else,” Mattie said, recovered from his shock. “There’s a salad bar at the
new restaurant downtown. We can try it.”
“No, this is just fine. You two gnaw on some burgers like the cavemen I’m realizing you both
are. I’ll find something.”
“Are you going to cry while you watch me chew my burger?” John asked.
“Are you going to cry when I stab you with my fork?” I shot back.
John threw his head back and laughed. Mattie jumped and looked at John like he was crazy and
then he smiled at me and shook his head. The look he shot me felt a lot like approval and for some
odd reason, I felt proud of myself.
Confused about how I was feeling, I looked down at my menu, not focusing on the options, but on
the riot of emotions these two men were causing me. John’s voice snapped me back to reality when I
heard him speak to the waitress.
“She doesn’t eat meat. What do you have that she can eat, or do we need to go somewhere else?”
 The waitress glanced over at me and then back at John, not even shocked at his gruff tone.
“We have a really good pasta salad that doesn’t have any meat in it. It’s got olives and peppers
and a bunch of crunchy, good for you stuff, but there’s no meat.”
“That sounds great!” I told her, surprised they had that option. “I didn’t see it on the menu.”
“It’s not, but some of the old ladies that come in here get sick of burgers, so the cook decided to
try some different stuff out for them. They loved his pasta salad, so he keeps some ready for them.
We’ve also got some fresh fruit back there. Would you like a little of that?”
“I would. Thank you!” The waitress smiled down at me and then looked over at Mattie to get his
order. Once she had John’s order, too, she shot us one more smile and then walked toward the back.
“That’s a welcome surprise.”
“What would you do if they didn’t have anything that suited you?” John asked.
“I haven’t found a restaurant yet that won’t make a grilled cheese or something. But if that did
happen, I’d sit here with you guys while you eat and then have you take me somewhere to grab food
for me when you are done.” I shrugged. “I’m not some princess that’s going to have a little hissy fit,
you know. Not sure where you got that idea.”
“Probably when you walked off a private plane in those fancy-ass shoes of yours,” John
grumbled.
“I’ve always wondered how women learn to walk in shoes Iike you’re wearing. Are there
classes or something? Do you just know automatically? How do you not fall down?” Mattie asked.
I could tell he was honestly curious, not being condescending like John seemed to do quite a bit.
I chuckled for a second and thought back to the first time I tried to wear heels. I told the guys the
story and by the time I was finished, all three of us were laughing.
“Have you ever seen a newborn colt take his first steps? They’re all spindly legs and they
wobble around for a few minutes. That’s what I imagine you looked like in heels the first time.”
Mattie’s smile was infectious and I thought of how different the two men were.
John was brooding and dark. He occasionally joined the conversation, but usually it was with
one or two words at a time. No long comments or very many questions came from John.
Mattie was a conversationalist. He asked questions and honestly wanted to know the answers.
John, I’d noticed, seemed to wait on Mattie to ask things, and then he was also curious about the
answers. For some reason, he just didn’t want to voice the questions.
“Do you wear shoes like that every day?” Mattie asked. “I bet your feet hurt all the fucking
time.”
“Summer wears shoes like that even when she’s just coming up to the shop for a few minutes,”
John said. “She never talks about her feet hurting.”
“Willow’s sister, Summer?” I asked.
“Yeah. She’s Bird’s wife,” Mattie answered. “He’s the president of our club.”
“A motorcycle club?” I asked. “That’s what your jackets are for, right?”
Mattie nodded and then looked away as the waitress approached the table to refill our drinks.
“Does that scare you?” John asked me, his eyes squinted as he waited for my answer.
“That you and your little friends feel the need to climb a tree and crawl up into your clubhouse to
play together and then wear cute little matching clothes while you ride your motorcycles?” I tried not
to grin when I heard John growl and I barely made it. “Or that you are a condescending asshole who
is holding a grudge against me, a person you met not two hours ago, because I flew here in my
friend’s plane and I’m wearing a pair of hot fucking shoes? No. It doesn’t scare me at all, but thanks
for your concern.”
 “You little…,” John started, but Mattie interrupted him before he could finish.
“Our clubhouse isn’t in a tree, but that might be kind of cool,” Mattie said as he rested his hand on
my arm.
I wasn’t sure if it was there to yank me out of the way if John came over the table or try and calm
me if I decided to go after John.
“You want to act like an asshole, then I’ll be sure to treat you like one. You want to look down
your nose at me and treat me like some little bitch, then I’ll act like one,” I said softly as I looked
John in the eye. “It’s your choice, big guy.”
John took a deep breath through his nose and compressed his lips together to keep his mouth shut,
but he nodded slightly in understanding.
“I’m not sure if you’re used to ‘the little women’ jumping when you growl, but I’m not one that
does that.” I leaned back in my chair and tried to relax. “I can’t imagine that Willow has changed all
that much, so I’m assuming you don’t talk to her like you’ve been talking to me.”
“Willow would shoot John herself if he was that much of an asshole to her.” Mattie glared at his
friend. “And then Lout would do unimaginable things to John’s dead body. Just like the two of them
are going to do if they find out that John’s intentionally trying to piss you off.”
“Maybe I’ll do all those things before Willow and Lout have a chance to.” I was still staring into
John’s dark eyes and it shocked me to my toes when he threw his head back and laughed. Again.
Mattie was shocked too and stared at John like his head was about to start spinning.
By the time John was finished laughing, he had tears running down his cheeks and he was out of
breath. Mattie was chuckling as he watched his friend’s mirth and I even had a smile on my face.
“I like you, Red,” John said as he tried to catch his breath. “You get me.”
“Like a fucking rash,” I mumbled as I picked up my tea for a sip.
And with just a few words, John was laughing again. This time Mattie joined him and laughed just
as hard. I smiled to myself, watching both men, glad that when I unleashed my inner bitch, they didn’t
get offended like some people I knew. My ex-husband was at the top of that list, not that I had the
opportunity to unleash on him anymore.
“You three are having too much fun over here!” The waitress smiled as she delivered our food.
“Makes me want to sit down and join you!”
“Sorry, sweetheart. We’re one-woman men,” Mattie said casually. He winked at the waitress,
causing her to blush even after he had just rebuffed her, “But if you had found us a few days ago, we
would have welcomed a pretty woman like you to sit down.”
The pretty waitress giggled as she sat a bowl of pasta salad in front of me and it was all I could
do not to roll my eyes. Mattie was a charmer.
Mattie’s charm and John’s broodiness were what I was going to focus on right now. Not what he
had just said about being ‘one-woman men,’ because that made my stomach flutter and my pussy
clench.
And one man messing up my life would be bad enough, but two? Oh, hell no.
 6.
John’s Heart Attack on a Bun
Thick double cheeseburger with grilled jalapenos, onions, and mushrooms covered in
provolone cheese. All that ‘damn green stuff’ on the side.

MARIA
“You look so happy, Willie.” I smiled at my friend as I held her youngest little girl, her husband’s
niece, that Willow was going to help him raise. “I’m so glad you found your happy.”
“I wish you’d found yours with Jordan.”
“No, you don’t,” I scoffed. “You hated him.”
“He was, well, probably still is, an uptight prick. You can do so much better. He never treated
you the way you should be treated.”
“I know... now.”
“I wish I had known you were going through so much, Ria. I would have helped you in any way I
could.”
“What could you have done from Rojo?” I asked her.
“It’s funny you say it like that. That’s not how it’s pronounced at all.” Willow laughed. “Say it
like ‘row-hoe,’ not ‘row-joe.’”
“It’s a funny word! Can you blame me for getting it wrong?”
“It’s a Spanish word. It means red.”
My heart sped up and I thought of Amelie’s words. The red place. Rojo.
I felt the chair next to me move and I turned my head to see Mattie sit down, John close by pulling
out another chair.
Were they the dark and the light?
John was dark, and not just in temperament. His hair was black, his eyes a deep, mahogany
brown. His skin was tan, not dark, but not nearly as light as Mattie’s.
Mattie’s skin was tan, but paler than John’s. His hair was a sandy blonde, and his eyes were
bright blue.
Whereas John’s facial expression was solemn, Mattie’s was open and almost kind.
Where John was dark, Mattie was light.
They had to be the dark and the light that Amelie was talking about and with the comment Mattie
made earlier to the waitress about the two of them being one-woman men, I felt like they had to be
what I was looking for.
But how in the world could I be with two men?
“You seem awfully serious, Red,” John commented from a few seats away. “What’s going on in
that head of yours?”
 “Do you two share women?”
Mattie choked on his swig of beer and John reached over and slapped him on the back as he
laughed.
“Are you applying for the position?” John asked me.
I stared at him, holding his eyes until he blinked, and then I looked at Mattie who was still
coughing and gasping for air.
“And with that little bomb, I’m going to mingle now,” Willow chuckled as she stood up, her eyes
bright as she tried not to laugh at the predicament I had just put myself in. “Find someone to hold the
baby if your arm gets tired. I’m going to find my husband and get him on the dance floor.”
Willow walked away, her shoulders shaking as she tried to control her laughter.
“You do share women,” I looked at Mattie and then at John. “Willow even knows you do.”
“It’s not like we’ve kept it a secret,” John shrugged. “We’ve got nothing to hide.”
I stared at John for a second and then looked over at Mattie, comparing the two men. And that
comparison had me melting in my chair.
I could imagine that Mattie was a fun lover, the kind of man you could laugh with both in the
bedroom and out of it. With Mattie, a woman would need to expect to be chased around the house
and then kissed senseless in the kitchen right before he brought out the whipped cream and made a
mess.
John, on the other hand, was darker. More intense. I could imagine that life with him would be
wild, up against the wall sex, followed by a good shower and not much conversation.
To have them together? I couldn’t even imagine what that would be like, but I knew that the
second I was alone in bed tonight, I’d be thinking of nothing else.
“You are interested.” John tilted his head and stared at me, his gaze lingering on my lips for a few
seconds before it moved up to catch my eyes. “You should think about it, Red. It might be fun to get
you out of those fancy clothes and shoes and see how the real people live.”
“I know how ‘the real people’ live,” I shot back with a frown, trying to ignore the sexy quirk of
his lips as he almost smiled at me.
“I know you think you do, Red, but we’d love to show you.” John reached across Mattie and
pulled the sleeping baby from my chest and snuggled her against his own. “Why don’t you and Mattie
go dance for a little bit? Enjoy yourselves while you think about it.”
“I’m not sleeping with either of you. Or the two of you,” I growled, but let Mattie take my hand
and pull me up from my chair.
“Yeah, you will. And you’ll fucking love it,” John assured me.
Before I could retort, Mattie pulled me toward the dance floor. When we stepped from the grass
to the wood decking, he spun me around and then pulled me into his arms with a laugh.
“John is an intense guy,” Mattie said as he adjusted me closer to his chest. “I’m the fun one.”
“I’ve noticed that.”
“Don’t let him scare you away.”
“He doesn’t scare me.”
“He terrifies you, but in a good way. I think I do, too. The thought of us together is enough to
make you combust, isn’t it?”
I didn’t comment, irritated that he could read me so well.
“Well, let me tell you, I’ve never seen John act that way towards any woman, not even ones
we’ve taken home for the night. You’ve intrigued him. Me, too.”
“And?”
 “And it’s going to be my mission in life to show you how great it can be with us, so I can move
you into our house and have you sleep between us every night. We’ll stand beside your bed as you
bring our babies into the world and both be with you until we’re old and gray.”
“Oh,” I said, shocked. “Like a forever kind of thing?”
“I’d like that, but John doesn’t think we’ll ever find a woman strong enough,” Mattie shrugged. “I
know what it could be and, if you get to know us, I think you’ll see it too.”
I didn’t say anything to that, too shocked and intrigued to form a coherent sentence. As Mattie
expertly moved us around the small dance floor, I let my mind wander to what could be. I had
originally wondered how hot it would be to have both men for a night, maybe even a weekend. But
Mattie’s words had terrified me and made me yearn for something I never dreamed I’d want.
But if I’d learned anything in my life so far, it was not to follow your heart. I’d done that once
before and lost myself. I wasn’t going to do that again and if I was trying to please two men, it would
definitely happen.
John and Mattie, as alluring as they were, would be my one night of absolute rebellion and fun.
And then, once my itch was scratched, I’d go on my merry way. Alone.
◆◆◆

JOHN
“I see Maria found someone to watch the baby,” Willow said as she sat down in the chair next to
me. She ran her hand over the soft curls on Di’s head and smiled softly. “There’s something about a
strong, handsome man holding a baby that just makes women melt.”
I nodded my head not sure exactly what she was talking about, but I’d take her at her word.
“You’ve set your sights on my friend.”
I slowly nodded, realizing she was right. Whether it was for one night, one week, or forever, I
didn’t know, but I wanted Maria. Every inch of her, body and soul.
“I know Mattie wants forever; I’ve heard him talk about it. If you don’t, that’s fine, but make sure
she understands that.” Willow again reached out and touched her baby’s hair before she pulled her
away from my chest and into her own arms again. “If you want her, make sure it’s for real. I don’t
want her to get hurt and run away from me again.”
“I don’t know what she wants,” I shrugged.
“She probably doesn’t right now either,” Willow said as she adjusted the baby’s head on her
shoulder. “I can see what Mattie wants from here - a big house with a yard, a swing set in the back
for a bunch of kids, some of them dark-haired, some of them blonde, maybe even one or two with red
hair. You can tell by the look on his face he’s done everything but name them. You better bow out or
get on board or not just Maria will be hurt - Mattie might never recover.”
I took a deep breath and looked out at the dance floor watching Mattie twirl Maria around, the
two of them laughing at his antics.
“I don’t know. I might not be worthy of forever,” I admitted honestly.
“But then again, you might,” Willow said almost so quietly I couldn’t hear her. “She’s going to be
a hard sell, John. She’s been hurt so much in the past, I can tell by looking at her that she has closed
off some of herself. Probably because of that prick she was married to. From what little I know
about you, you’re a strong man. You might need to be strong enough for all three of you, at least until
Maria can get her feet under her. Mattie can be her cushion, but you’ll need to be her strength. If
you’re not in it for that, then walk away.”
Willow and I sat there quietly for the next few minutes watching Mattie and Maria have fun on the
dance floor through two more songs before I stood up.
“Are you running away?”
“No.” I looked down at her for a second, hoping she could see the decision in my eyes. “I’m
going to dance with our woman.”
“Hell yeah!” Willow cheered, disrupting the sleeping baby on her chest. She looked down at the
baby and started to soothe her and I took that opportunity to walk away.
I approached Mattie and Maria on the dance floor, but Maria had no idea since her back was to
me. Mattie knew exactly what I was doing and he grinned at me. As the song changed to a slow, sexy
tune by Al Green, I grasped Maria’s hips and moved in close behind her, my face touching her hair on
the opposite side of her head as Mattie’s. I felt Maria stiffen for a split second and then she relaxed
into me, keeping her arms around Mattie’s neck, but touching me with her back from my collar bone to
my rock-hard erection.
She might not know what she was getting into, but I realized that she had already made the
decision to try things with Mattie and me. I didn’t know if she wanted a fling, but I knew I’d take
what she could give me and then ask her for more, just like Mattie would.
◆◆◆

MARIA
I felt Mattie stiffen for a split second and then his head moved closer to mine as we swayed together
with the music. I could smell his cologne and another scent, one that had to be just him. I liked it.
I felt hands move onto my hips from behind, both just under where Mattie’s already rested.
Without a doubt, I knew instantly that it was John behind me. When he touched his face to the side of
my head, his lips whispering a kiss on my ear and then my cheek, I relaxed against him.
I knew that we were inevitable, the three of us. I accepted that and welcomed it, for even just one
night.
As I relaxed even farther into John still holding Mattie in front of me, the outside world
disappeared. I knew that we were surrounded by people I didn’t know and they would see me
sandwiched between two men as we slowly danced to a truly sexual song. Some of those people
would judge us, probably more harshly judge me than they would the men, and I found that I truly
didn’t give a damn.
I was right where I wanted to be at this moment. I felt safe, secure, and wanted in this spot
between John and Mattie. And I would be happy with that, other’s opinions be damned, for as long as
this space between them was available to me.
As I closed my eyes, appreciating the hard length I could feel along my ass where John was
pressed against me and the hard length that Mattie was pressing against my front, I wondered if I was
ready for this ride. I wondered if I was enough woman to tame them both at the same time, bringing
out the wildness inside them that was aching to be free right along with the wildness I was now
yearning for.
◆◆◆

MATTIE
“Come back to our house with us?” Mattie whispered as his arms went around my waist. “I
promise we’ll take really good care of you.”
“I’m still working my mind around what my body wants. How does this work? I have no idea. Is
it okay to touch you and not John or do I have to make sure and keep things balanced?” I stopped
talking when Mattie let me go and John pulled me into his arms.
“You’re not ready yet and we all three realize this isn’t going to be one night together. We’ve got
to set some ground rules all of us are comfortable with, but for right now, with the questions you’ve
asked, I can answer them for Mattie and me both. You can touch either of us anytime you want,
whether the other is around or not. You can kiss us and even make love to us. Not everything you do
has to include us both. Neither of us will be angry if we see you kiss the other, or even if we know
you’re naked with the other one. We might get jealous that it can’t be us right that minute, but if you
soothe our ruffled feathers as soon as you get a chance, we’ll always be fine.” I realized I had not
heard John say this many words if you added up our entire afternoon together and I was a little
amazed. “Right now, I’m going to kiss you and then I’m going to hold you while Mattie kisses you.
Then, I might just kiss you again. What you need to do is figure out if you’re okay with the people
around us seeing that and knowing what is going to inevitably happen between the three of us. We’ll
let you go home alone tonight and give you time to think about if you can accept the glances and shit
that people will throw your way when they find out that you’re with two men, because that will
happen. Right now, we’re surrounded by family and friends, but if we get together, Mattie and I are
going to want to touch you no matter where we are, so you’ll have to be able to accept that. We’re not
anybody’s dirty secret.”
“I’m not scared of other people’s reactions, because I honestly don’t have shit to prove to anyone.
I’m only in this for one night, John, so the world be damned.” I told John right as he swooped down
to kiss my lips. His kiss was demanding, rough and hard, his tongue breaching my lips to explore my
mouth as he held me tight against him. I wanted more. I wanted him closer. I wanted him naked and
inside me.
John pulled away and spun me around. Before my eyes could open, I felt Mattie’s mouth on
mine. He was softer, his touch less aggressive, but just as intriguing. His kisses made me yearn for
more. The hand that he moved around to cup my ass pulled me closer to him and I gasped into his
mouth.
He pulled his head back and said softly, “It is inevitable, baby, and the sooner you see it, too, the
quicker we can start things together. I’m waiting patiently right now, but I don’t know how long I can
do that.”
“Or me. I’m not patient.” John spun me back around and had my mouth under his again in a split
second. Mattie’s hand that had been clutching my ass held on as John spun my body and now Mattie’s
hand was cupping my sex through my dress, his fingers moving deftly as he worked to find my clit.
Just as he did, John pulled away and so did Mattie, as if they had planned the movement ahead of
time.
“I put our numbers in your phone while you were up talking to Willow,” John said. “Use them.”
“You better go or Grunt will leave you here at our mercy.” Mattie laughed. “His woman is tipsy
and he wants to get her home so he can enjoy it.”
◆◆◆

MARIA
 “Holy shit!” Autumn yelled into the phone. “Why didn’t you go home with them?”
“I don’t know. I was wavering, but then they just said to think it over. I think if I had talked to
them for three more minutes, I would have just said ‘Fuck it!’ and gone back to their house.”
“So, call them right now and do it! And when you’re done, I want details!” Autumn said with a
laugh. I heard Richard in the background laughing and then he said, “I don’t want details!”
Autumn and I both laughed about Richard and then we calmed down.
“I haven’t had sex with anyone other than Jordan in almost 10 years,” I whispered into the phone.
“And I wasn’t all that fond of sex anyway. How is it that now, I all of a sudden want to join a
threesome? I can’t even have an orgasm with one man, so I’m fairly sure it’s going to suck even
worse with two.”
“Holy shit,” Autumn whispered. “I had no idea!”
“Well, it’s not really something I shout from the rooftops!” I told her.
“Where is your friend Willow now?” Autumn asked.
“She’s dropping the kids at her sister's house and then she’s going to pick me up for coffee and
pedicures. Want to join us?”
“Will she mind if I butt in?”
“She won’t mind at all. I want you to get to know her. She’s awesome.”
“When she gets there, ask her if it’s okay. If she doesn’t seem to mind, then you two swing by the
hotel and pick me up.”
“We’ll do that. Be ready. She’s going to be all about it.”
“Done. I’m embracing the casual lifestyle here. I’m wearing jeans and a t-shirt and screw anyone
that has a problem with it.”
“Will Richard need to come with us?”
“No. He and I have talked about it and I’m anonymous here. He put the word out at my office that
I’m in Seattle for a meeting and even had the pilot register a flight plan headed that way.”
“Oh, okay,” I sighed in relief. “So, no paparazzi?”
“None. I don’t think they’d have the balls here anyway.”
“They found you in New Orleans and hounded you mercilessly, Autumn. What if they find you
here?”
“Richard assures me that the people around here won’t put up with that shit like they do in other
places. He’s so calm about it that I have no choice but to be. He’s going golfing! Desmond got in
late last night and they’re going to consider this a vacation.”
“Desmond is here?” I loved Richard’s boyfriend, Desmond. He was a businessman who had met
Richard through Autumn a few years ago. The two men had taken things slowly, but they were heating
up, having gone from casual to ‘officially dating’ about nine months ago. “I can’t wait to see him!”
“I’ll make sure they stick around until you and Willow come get me so you can give him a hug.”
“Sounds great. She’ll be here in just a few minutes, so I’m going to let you go.”
“See ya, sis.”
Autumn hung the phone up and then I flipped mine closed. I was excited to have two of the most
important women in my life meet. I knew that they would get along and even become close friends if
given half a chance. They were very much alike in their attitudes and viewpoints, and since both
were strong and fearless women, if they put their heads together, they would be an unstoppable force.
Those two were just the kind of friends a woman needed to have at her side.
 7.
Precious Gems (Vegetarian)
Fresh fruit bowl sprinkled with coconut flakes, pecans, and dark chocolate granola

MARIA
“Hi! I’m Maria.” I stuck my hand out at the man who had accompanied Willow and he shook it
with a smile.
“Hank,” he nodded. “Nice to meet you.”
“And you. You’re driving us around today?” I asked him, making small talk since Willow had
disappeared into her little sisters’ room for a minute.
“I am. Lout asked me to keep an eye on his wife while he took care of some business today.”
“Shouldn’t they be on their honeymoon?”
“These two don’t do anything normal,” Hank scoffed. “Inherited three kids and then decided to
get married a week later. Crazy people.”
“Maybe it’s true love.” I said it with a straight face, but Hank’s eyebrows went almost up to his
hairline and I had to laugh. When Willow came out of the bedroom, she smiled at the two of us and
asked, "What’s so funny?”
“True love,” I answered. “It cracks sane people up.”
“It really does,” Hank added, and then we were laughing again.
“I thought there was a little true love going on last night between you and the boys.”
“The boys?” Hank asked with one eyebrow raised. “You’re the one that’s got John and Mattie all
in a fit? Oh, that’s nice. Real nice.”
“They’re in a fit? What does that mean?”
Hank shrugged but didn’t answer.
“He won’t say anything else because that would be giving away their secrets somehow. It’s a
‘brother’ thing,” Willow told me as she shook her head. “These guys take their secrets very
seriously.”
“As they should” I smiled at Hank. “If I want to know something about either of those men, I’ll
ask them. How’s that?”
“Sounds like a plan,” Hank answered as he walked toward the front door. “Let’s go pick up your
friend and then we’ll all go get a manicure or something.”
“You’d get a manicure with us?”
“Why not?” Hank asked. “I’d rather have someone rub my feet while I almost nap, though.”
“Pedicures all around!” Willow shouted as she got into the passenger side of the truck. “You’re
my very favorite keeper, Hank.”
“Keeper?” I asked as I got in behind Willow. “Why do you need a keeper?”
 “Some people aren’t fond of my Cocoa - the guys call him Lout, and those people will also not be
very fond of me. So, Hank’s going to be with me for a while today until Cocoa gets things in order.”
“How is he going to do that?” I asked.
“It’s probably going to include some sort of violence, but I’m not sure about the specifics. He
doesn’t tell me things like that,” Willow shrugged. “Plausible deniability, he says.”
“So, even if he does terrible things, they’re okay if you don’t know about them?”
“No. If he does bad things, he has a reason. I just don’t have to know what that reason or those
bad things happen to be.” Willow looked over her shoulder and smiled at me. “You’re a lawyer,
Ria. You get it, right?”
I nodded and smiled at Willow. If it can’t be proven you knew the details of the crime, a person
can’t be prosecuted for things related to it. That was a simple one.
“You’re going to make a great old lady for our Lout, Willow.” Hank complimented her. “A damn
fine woman.”
“Thank you, Hank.” Willow was blushing. “I’ll try.”
“Can you be a good woman for our dynamic duo?” Hank asked me as he glanced at me in the
rearview mirror. “Or do you have too much lawyer in you?”
“I’m not sure that ‘the dynamic duo’ and I have a future that my ability to keep secrets matters in.
They seem to be a here and now kind of a team.” I shrugged. “And, if they did need me to keep
secrets, I am a lawyer. We do have a way about us.”
Hank snorted, “Oh, yeah, you do.”
“She’s a business lawyer, not criminal,” Willow informed him. “Which might come in handy with
me opening my new venture. I want to talk to you about that today.”
“Let’s get Autumn and then soak our feet for a while and then we can discuss business,” I told her.
“Oh, we’ll be discussing John and Mattie, too, Ria. I don’t even care that Hank will be
listening.”
“Shit,” Hank sighed. “Lout’s going to owe me so much that he’ll never be able to repay it.”
“It might be good to have a man’s insight into this, you know?” Willow asked as she stared at
Hank’s profile. “We’ll probably have a few questions for you.”
“I’ll stay outside while you ladies have your toes done,” Hank growled.
“Now that won’t be at all helpful. I’ll feel so much safer with you by my side.” Willow fluttered
her lashes at him as she smiled.
“You got something in your eye?” Hank asked.
“That shit never works in real life,” Willow groaned. “Damn movies.”
I laughed at her and asked, “Since when have you ever been the sweet little woman that asks
nicely?”
Hank snorted.
“I’m nice!” Willow slugged him on the arm. “Asshole.”
I laughed right along with Hank and after a few seconds of pouting, Willow joined us.
“You girls are going to give me gray hair,” Hank grumbled.
“You’ve already got gray hair,” I pointed out. “At least in your beard.”
“I didn’t have any when I picked this one up earlier.” Hank aimed his thumb at Willow. “She’s
going to give Lout a run for his money for the next 50 years. That’s for sure.”
“If you think I’m crazy, you should get to know Maria. The woman’s a nutcase.” Willow
chuckled.
“I am not!” I said, almost shouting.
 “She organized a riot when our school kicked a girl off the volleyball team for drinking at a
party,” Willow explained to Hank. “Of course, the girl had signed the contract for her scholarship
saying she’d behave, so she was in the wrong, but the four football players who also got busted at the
party didn’t even get a slap on the wrist. Maria organized the masses and we marched on the dean’s
office. Since the football team was on the way to the playoffs, he couldn’t kick off four of their
players, so he had no choice but to let the girl back on her team, too.”
“Double standard bullshit is what that was,” I growled, angry all over again.
“Good for you, honey! Fucking football players,” Hank bitched, angry right along with me.
“Weren’t you some football bigwig in your day?” Willow asked him.
“Yeah. That’s how I know football players are assholes,” Hank retorted.
I nodded my head. At least the man was honest.
◆◆◆

The chatter around me didn’t even puncture the little bubble of bliss I was reveling in until I heard
John and Mattie mentioned. I sat up a little straighter and opened my eyes.
“Well, that perked you right up, didn’t it?” Autumn teased.
The three of us were side by side having pedicures and Hank was across the way getting one of
his own. He said his need for a foot rub outweighed the chance of hearing us talk about ‘boys’ but he
was going to hedge his bets and sit as far away from us as possible.
I glanced over to see that Hank was reclined back as far as the chair would go. One arm was
slung over his face, the other resting on his wide chest as his body shook and moved from the massage
efforts of the chair.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I told my two friends.
“You’re going to get naughty with John and Mattie,” Willow said. “We know it, you know it, hell,
even Hank knows it.”
“No, I don’t!” Hank called out from across the room.
The three of us laughed, but Willow continued.
“What’s the problem, Ria?”
“There’s more than one,” I grumbled.
“Start at the top,” Autumn ordered. “We’ll shoot them down one at a time.”
Willow giggled and then waved her hand to get me started.
“I just got divorced and I’m not ready for a relationship.”
“Uh-huh.” Autumn nodded. “Although your marriage wasn’t really all that for the last couple of
years of it.”
I saw Willow’s eyebrows raise before she said, “Okay that makes argument number one invalid.”
“I wouldn’t know what to do with one man at this point, let alone two.”
“I can list about 50 things to do with them,” Autumn purred, a dreamy look on her face.
“Yeah,” Willow breathed. She finally caught herself and blushed. “My bad. I will not think
about Lout’s brothers that way. I will not.”
“Fuck, I would,” Autumn said. “But then again, I got a look at your husband for a few minutes
yesterday. You’ve probably got your hands full there. Good Lord above, that man is pretty.”
Willow’s eyes got dreamy and she sighed.
“Get to the real part, Maria. Spill it. Let’s talk about what you said on the phone earlier” Autumn
ordered. “You tell it or I’ll tell it.”
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 “Well, what do you say?”
“I say do it, Patsy, and be quick about it,” Chick declared, when unable to
discover a sign of any person in the front part of the house.
“I’m with you,” Patsy muttered. “Head straight across the lawn to the east
end of the veranda.”
They vaulted the wall while he was speaking, then covered the distance at
record speed. After waiting and listening for a few moments, they felt sure
that they had not been seen. To climb the trellis and reach the veranda roof
then was child’s play, and both then began an inspection of the curtained
windows.
Chick found one through which he could work his knife blade, thrusting
up between the sashes, and in a very few moments he had succeeded in
throwing the lock.
Noiselessly raising the lower section, he then pushed aside the curtain
and peered in, finding that the window opened into the hall on the second
floor. Listening, he could faintly hear voices from below, but could not
distinguish whose, nor what was said.
“Come on, Patsy,” he whispered, with a significant glance at him. “Have
a gun ready. I’ll lead the way.”
“You won’t be far in advance,” muttered Patsy dryly.
Crawling quietly through the window, one after the other, they tiptoed
toward the broad, angular stairway leading to the lower hall.
“Keep on, old top,” whispered Patsy, now with a revolver in each hand.
“The sooner we get them the better.”
“I think so, too.”
“They’re in one of the side rooms. Ah, that was the chief’s voice.”
“Come on,” Chick muttered, starting down the stairs.
Patsy followed close at his companion’s heels.
They had made only the first turn in the stairway, when the voice of
Mortimer Deland, rising high with the last threatening words he was
addressing to Nick Carter, coupled with his fierce commands to his three
confederates, fell loud and clear on the two detective’s ears.
Chick Carter glanced at Patsy and pulled out a second revolver.
“Fire the house, will he?” he whispered hurriedly. “There’ll be firing of
another kind done here, if necessary.”
 “You bet!” nodded Patsy, with brows knitting.
“Shoot to kill, if you have to shoot.”
“Kill goes!”
“They’ll come out this way,” Chick said hurriedly, as they reached the
foot of the stairway and paused for an instant near the front door.
“Had we better rush in on them?”
“We might meet them on the threshold and get into too close quarters,”
said Chick, after an instant’s thought. “We’d better get them after they come
into the hall.”
“I guess you’re right.”
“Slip across into that front parlor and be ready to nail them from that
side,” Chick directed. “I’ll cover this part of the hall.”
“I’ve got you,” Patsy nodded. “Give a yell when you’re ready.”
He darted across the hall with the last and into the dim, luxuriously
furnished parlor.
Chick crouched back of the rise of the stairs.
Both scarce had gained these positions when the four crooks, with Nick
in their midst, issued from the dining room and headed toward the front of
the hall.
Chick waited until they were midway between the several doors, that no
swift leap into either room should save any of them. Then he uttered the yell
for which Patsy Garvan was waiting.
“Now, Patsy, get them!”
Nick Carter heard him, and then saw both. As quick as a flash, he
shouldered both Deland and Henley to the middle of the hall, then leaped
quickly back into the dining room, out of range of a chance bullet.
Chick saw the idea, and a shriek instantly followed his yell.
“Hands up, you fellows! We’ll drop the first man who resists!”
“Every man!” roared Patsy, with both guns leveled.
There were four weapons covering the crooks, with bullets enough in all
to have riddled them.
Only one of them acted under the impulse of desperation—Jim Henley.
His shotgun, with which he had been prodding Nick in the back, leaped to
the hollow of his arm.
 Bang!
It was Chick’s revolver that barked. The shotgun fell to the floor, and
Henley with it, shot through the head.
Nothing more sanguinary and determined was needed. Deland and his
other two confederates instantly threw up their hands—and kept them up till
Patsy and Nick Carter were ready to fit them with bracelets.
That ended the sensational features of the extraordinary case. Henley died
within an hour, and two hours saw the other three in the Tombs, two to be
convicted and sentenced a fortnight later, and Mortimer Deland to return to
finish his unexpired term in the State’s prison.
Arthur Gordon was found, as stated, bound hand and foot in an upper
room of the old house. Though intensely grateful to the Carters for his rescue
and liberation, he was a thousand times more surprised at what they told
him. Up to that moment he had not dreamed of the true identity of Pauline
Perrot, who had, as Nick had inferred, artfully wheedled him into meeting
her on a supposed business matter with a friend that evening, only to throw
him into the hands of Henley, Foster, and Brigham.
The gratitude of Mr. Rudolph Strickland, and the joy and relief of
Wilhelmina, when Gordon was brought home safely and the truth made
known, were all that the most vivid imagination could picture. Their reward
to Nick and his assistants, too, was in corresponding proportion.
It afterward appeared, too, that all of Nick’s suspicions and deductions
were absolutely correct; and that Deland, in assuming the character of
Dayton, had done so only to have a quick refuge from Gordon’s office, if it
became necessary, and a character in which he could bury Pauline Perrot at a
moment’s notice.
Nick Carter had thwarted him completely, however, and had secured him
temporarily, at least.

THE END.
“Blood Will Tell; or, Nick Carter’s Play in Politics,” will be the title of
the long, complete story which you will find in the next issue, No. 156, of
the Nick Carter Stories, out September 4th. In this narrative you will read
of the final round-up of Mortimer Deland. You will also find the usual
installment of the serial now running in this publication, together with
several interesting articles.

DEMONSTRATED.
It was a saying of a wise man that we have one mouth and two ears in
order that we may listen twice as much as we speak.
A teacher once quoted this remark to his pupils, and not long afterward,
to see how well the instruction was remembered, asked:
“Why is it that we have two ears and only one mouth, Brown?”
Brown had forgotten the philosopher’s explanation, but thought the
question not a very hard one.
“Because,” he said, “we should not have room in our face for two
mouths, and we should look too crooked if we had only one ear.”
“No, no,” said the master, “that is not the reason. You know, don’t you,
Smith?”
“Yes, sir,” answered that hopeful. “So that what we hear may go in at one
ear and out at the other.”
 SNAPSHOT ARTILLERY.

By BERTRAM LEBHAR.

(This interesting story was commenced in No. 153 of Nick Carter

Stories. Back numbers can always be obtained from your news dealer or the
publishers.)
 CHAPTER VIII.

MELBA GALE.

“Guess I’ll borrow your motor cycle, old man, if you don’t object,” said
Hawley to his host.
“What! You don’t mean to say you’re going to Oldham again?” the latter
protested. “How about your doctor’s orders to keep quiet and avoid all
excitement?”
“I shall try to avoid excitement as much as possible while I’m in town,”
the Camera Chap replied dryly. “But I’ve got to go this time. When duty
calls, physician’s orders don’t count, you know. Here’s the telegram, old
man. You can see for yourself that it’s really a case of must.”
His host perused the telegram and shook his head disapprovingly. “I can’t
say I think much of a boss who won’t leave a man alone during his vacation
—especially when that man has been ordered by his physician to keep his
thoughts away from business. This managing editor of yours must be a
peach, Hawley.”
The Camera Chap laughed. “Oh, Paxton is all right. There isn’t a whiter
man in the newspaper game. The Sentinel must need that picture badly, or
you can be sure they wouldn’t have bothered me with it. May I have the
motor cycle?”
“Of course, if you are determined to go. But if I were in your place, I’d
send them back a telegram that they’d have to get another man to do the job.
Seems to me that they could have got the picture just as easily by wiring to a
local photographer and leaving you alone. Surely anybody can take a picture
of a building. No particular skill required for that.”
Hawley smiled grimly. “Some buildings are harder to take than others.
I’ve a sort of an idea that this snapshot of the city hall is going to be one of
my masterpieces. I’m eager to get at it.”
His host shrugged his shoulders. “I can’t see why the job should appeal to
you so greatly. I thought you liked snapshots which involved risk. Surely
there isn’t anything particularly thrilling about taking a picture of a
building.”
 Perhaps it is needless to say that the Camera Chap’s host was not aware
of the new anticamera bill which the Oldham council had recently enacted.
Hawley did not enlighten him.
Five minutes later, just as the Camera Chap was about to start, his friend
made an astonishing discovery.
“Why, you absent-minded beggar!” he exclaimed laughingly. “You’re
actually going off without your camera. Don’t expect to be able to take a
picture without it, do you?”
The Camera Chap grinned. “I’m leaving it behind purposely,” he said.
“No use taking my big camera for this job. I’ve got a kodak in my coat
pocket, and that’ll serve the purpose just as well—better, in fact, for this
particular snapshot.”
Of course, Hawley would have preferred to have taken his larger camera
with him, but he realized that it would have been sheer folly to have
attempted to photograph the city hall with anything larger than a kodak.
With six months in prison staring him in the face, he had to be content with a
smaller picture.
The pocket camera, however, had an excellent lens, and, of its class, was
the very finest instrument obtainable. The Camera Chap always carried it
with him so as to be prepared for such emergencies as this. On many
occasions in his eventful career it had enabled him to turn defeat into victory
after he had been foiled in his attempts to use his more conspicuous
apparatus.
“It really is kind of odd that Paxton should have given me this
assignment,” Hawley mused, as he motored down the steep mountain road
which led to Oldham. “He was so emphatic in urging me to obey my
physician’s orders to forget that there was such a thing in the world as a
camera. When I gave him my telegraph address and told him not to hesitate
to send for me in case I was needed, he replied that he wouldn’t think of
doing so unless the entire city of New York was burning and there wasn’t
anybody else to photograph the conflagration. Paxton always means what he
says, too. Funny that he should have sent me this telegram.
“But, then,” he added, anxious to make excuses for his managing editor,
“I suppose he figured that this was such an easy assignment that it couldn’t
do me any harm. Of course, he doesn’t know about this new anticamera law.
If he had known of it, no doubt he would have preferred to go without the
picture of the city hall rather than have asked me to run the risk of going to
jail.”
The Camera Chap had traveled two-thirds of the distance to Oldham,
when suddenly, as he approached a bend in the road, there came to his ears a
sound which caused him to put on more speed, in spite of the fact that the
motor cycle was already going at a rate which the steep down grade and the
unevenness of the road rendered somewhat dangerous.
It was a scream which caused him thus to risk his neck—the piercing,
startled cry of a woman. It appeared to come from just beyond where the
road turned.
Rounding the curve without taking the precaution of slowing down,
Hawley came in sight of an automobile—a small runabout—standing in the
roadway. At the steering wheel of this machine sat a girl who was cowering
in terror from a ragged, rough-looking fellow of the hobo type, who stood on
the running board.
The Camera Chap took in the situation at a glance. Evidently the
runabout had broken down, and the tramp, seeing that it was stalled on this
lonely country road, and that its sole occupant was a girl, had not hesitated to
annoy her.
The noise of the approaching motor cycle was warning enough for the
ruffian. Before Hawley could get to him, he had jumped from the step of the
car and dashed through the thick brush which lined the roadway.
The Camera Chap applied his brakes and brought his motor to a stop
alongside the car. Then, with a reassuring word to the girl, he jumped from
his wheel and went in pursuit of her annoyer.
But the bushes were so thick at this point that the slight start the fellow
had was sufficient to enable him to get away. Hawley went crashing and
floundering through the brush for some time in the hope of hitting the trail of
the fugitive, but finally had to give it up as useless.
“I’m afraid I’ve lost him,” he said, somewhat crestfallen, as he returned
to the girl in the automobile. “I don’t suppose he can have gone very far, but
these bushes are worse than a maze at a county fair.”
“It’s no matter,” said the girl, with a smile. She seemed to have recovered
a great deal of her lost composure. “I’m just as pleased that you didn’t catch
him. I really don’t think the fellow meant any harm. He asked for money.
The reason I screamed was because he looked so rough. The road here is so
lonely that I lost my nerve when he came through the bushes and climbed
onto the car. I suppose if I’d given him a few cents he’d have gone away
quietly enough. I’m afraid I’m rather silly to be scared so easily.”
“Not at all,” said the Camera Chap. “I guess anybody would have been
scared under the circumstances. What’s the matter with the car; a
breakdown?”
“Oh, no,” the girl replied. “There’s nothing the matter with the car. I
stopped merely because I—I was waiting for somebody whom I expect to
meet here.”
Her hesitation and the vivid blush which accompanied these words
enlightened Hawley as to the gender of this somebody for whom she was
waiting.
She was an exceedingly attractive girl, and Hawley found himself
envying the man whom she expected to meet. But as he had no desire to
intrude upon this tryst, he stepped over to his motor cycle, and turned to the
girl inquiringly.
“Guess I’ll be getting along,” he said, “unless, of course, you prefer to
have me remain until the arrival of this—er—person you’re expecting. Are
you afraid to be left alone here?”
“Oh, no,” she answered, in a tone which told him of her eagerness to get
rid of him. “I’ll be all right, thank you. Please don’t let me detain you. I
don’t intend to stay here. I’m going to turn the car around and ride slowly
back toward Oldham until I meet—the friend I’m expecting.”
“That’s a very sensible idea,” Hawley said. “While the machine is in
motion you’ll be in no danger of annoyance from any more tramps.”
He doffed his cap, and was just starting the motor of his cycle when the
girl called to him.
“I quite forgot to thank you for your timely assistance,” she said, giving
him a gracious smile, which did a lot to atone for her evident anxiety to have
him depart. “I assure you that I am very grateful.
“I live in Oldham,” she went on. “If you would care to call on us, I am
sure my uncle, with whom I live, would be glad of the opportunity to add his
thanks to mine. My name is Melba Gale, and——”
“Gale!” the Camera Chap repeated, speaking more to himself than to the
girl. “That must be merely a coincidence, of course. Surely you are no
relative of Gale, of the News?”
 “Do you mean the New York Daily News?” the girl inquired, some
astonishment in her tone. “I have a cousin who for several years has been a
reporter on that paper. It is with his family that I am living. I am an orphan,
and my Uncle Delancey’s house has been my home ever since I was three
years old. Do you know my cousin?” she asked, looking at him keenly.
“I have met him,” the Camera Chap replied evasively.
“In New York?”
“Yes.”
“Then, perhaps you can tell me,” the girl began. Then she broke off
suddenly as, glancing over her shoulder, she caught sight of a young man
mounted on a bicycle who was approaching from the direction of Oldham.
It needed only one glance at her flushed, radiant face to tell Hawley that
this was the lucky man who was expected.
The Camera Chap would scarcely have been human if he had been able to
refrain from staring at the latter. Naturally, he was curious to see what the
fellow looked like.
And, as the bicyclist drew near, Hawley experienced another great
surprise.
This young man who was hastening to meet Miss Melba Gale, niece of
the proprietor of the Oldham Daily Chronicle, was no stranger to him.
It was his friend, Fred Carroll, proprietor of the Chronicle’s bitter rival,
the Oldham Daily Bulletin.
 CHAPTER IX.

TIMELY WARNING.

“Hello, Frank!” exclaimed Carroll, in an astonished tone as he jumped

from his wheel. “I certainly didn’t expect to find you here.”
“I am equally surprised to see you, old man,” the Camera Chap replied
dryly. Then he added, a twinkle in his eye: “I didn’t know you were in the
habit of going bicycle riding during office hours.”
“I don’t make a habit of it,” Carroll returned, with a guilty grin. “The fact
is—— Why, hang it all, Hawley, you infernal old busybody! What business
is it of yours, anyway?”
As the Camera Chap’s name was mentioned, the girl’s brown eyes
opened wide with surprise, and she uttered a faint exclamation; but neither
of the young men heard it.
“It’s none of my business at all, old scout,” Hawley admitted, laughing.
“And, moreover, I’m going to make myself scarce immediately. I’ve got a
hunch that this is one of those cases where two is company and three is a
tremendously big crowd. Besides, I have a pressing engagement in town and
have got to get a move on.”
“Wait just one minute, please,” cried Miss Gale, as the Camera Chap was
mounting his motor cycle. “Fred, is this Mr. Hawley, the New York
Sentinel’s camera man? Because, if so, I am just in time.”
“Just in time for what, Melba?” inquired Carroll, while the Camera Chap
stared at her wonderingly.
“To prevent him from going to Oldham,” the girl answered. “It was solely
on his account, Fred, that I sent you that note asking you to meet me here. I
wanted to tell you to warn Mr. Hawley of the trap which had been set for
him.”
“The trap!” exclaimed Hawley and Carroll in chorus.
“Yes,” said the girl. Then, turning to the Camera Chap, she exclaimed
tensely: “You spoke just now of having a pressing engagement in town, Mr.
Hawley. Isn’t it your intention to take a photograph of the city hall?”
 “It is,” Hawley replied. “I am on my way to get that picture now. But how
in the name of all that’s wonderful, Miss Gale, do you happen to know about
my assignment?”
Instead of answering his question, the girl asked him another.
“You received a telegram to-day, did you not?” she said. “A telegram
supposed to have come from the managing editor of the New York
Sentinel?”
“Supposed to have come from the managing editor!” Hawley repeated, a
suspicion of the truth suddenly dawning upon him. “Do you mean to say,
Miss Gale, that——”
“I mean to say that that telegram was a fake,” she declared, without
waiting for him to finish. “It didn’t come from New York. It didn’t come
over the wire at all. It was composed and written by my cousin on one of the
typewriters in the Chronicle office. It was part of the trap which my cousin
and the chief of police have set for you, Mr. Hawley.”
“I see,” said the Camera Chap quietly. “Their scheme, of course, was to
lure me to Oldham to take that picture, and then have me sent to jail for six
months for violating the new law. Clever little plan. And it came pretty near
succeeding, too. I had no suspicion that the telegram wasn’t genuine. If you
hadn’t warned me, Miss Gale, I should surely have walked right into the
trap. I can scarcely find words to thank you enough.”
“How did you manage to find out about it, Melba?” Carroll inquired, with
a fond glance at the girl.
“Chief Hodgins was at our house last night,” she replied, “and I
overheard him and my cousin discussing the plan. They didn’t know that I
was listening, of course; but I managed to overhear enough to enable me to
understand what they intended to do. The chief expressed doubts as to
whether the scheme would work. He said that Mr. Hawley would probably
hear about the new anticamera law, and would not be so foolish as to run the
risk of going to jail. But my cousin said that he was confident that the
telegram would do the trick. He said that Mr. Hawley had never been known
to balk at an assignment, and that no amount of danger could keep the rattle-
brained fool—those were the words he used—from coming after that picture
if he thought the Sentinel needed it.”
Carroll looked at the Camera Chap admiringly.
 “That’s a mighty fine tribute to get from an enemy,” he exclaimed
enthusiastically. “You ought to be proud of that compliment, Hawley, old
fellow.”
“My cousin didn’t mean it for a compliment,” declared Miss Gale. “He
stated it merely as a fact which would insure the success of their plan.”
“That makes it all the more of a compliment,” Carroll said. “Tell me, little
girl, did you let those fellows know that you were wise to their game?”
“No, I didn’t. My first impulse was to tell my cousin just what I thought
of such a contemptible trick, and warn him that if he attempted to carry it out
I should certainly interfere; but upon second thought I decided to say nothing
to him. I thought it would be a better plan to notify you so that you could
warn Mr. Hawley to pay no attention to that fake telegram.”
“That was a much better plan,” the Camera Chap declared. “I am very
glad, Miss Gale, that you didn’t say anything to your cousin. Had you done
so, it would not have been possible for me to carry out the idea that has just
occurred to me. I think I have a little surprise in store for those fellows.”
“You’re not contemplating taking any legal action, are you, old man?”
Carroll inquired anxiously. “I suppose you could prosecute them for forgery
or conspiracy, or anything of that sort. They richly deserve it, of course. But
for Miss Gale’s sake I hope you won’t do it.”
“Of course not,” said Hawley indignantly. “What do you take me for,
Fred? I’d be a fine specimen of humanity if I were to repay Miss Gale’s
kindness by trying to send one of her family to prison. And she’d have to be
the chief witness for the prosecution, too; otherwise I’d have no case. Do
you think I’d be capable of that? Legal action is quite out of the question, of
course, under the circumstances. Besides, I don’t like going to court.”
“Then what is this surprise which you say you are going to give them?”
Carroll inquired.
The Camera Chap chuckled. “You’ll have to excuse me for not answering
that question now, Fred. If I did, it would spoil the big laugh which I think I
can promise you later on.”
 CHAPTER X.

THE PHOTOGRAPH.

Less than half an hour later, the Camera Chap entered the Invincible
Garage, on Main Street, Oldham.
“I want to check my motor cycle here,” he said to the man in charge.
Then, taking from his pocket the small camera of expensive make with
which he had intended to take the snapshot of the city hall, he added: “I’d
regard it as a great favor if you’d take care of this, too, for a little while.”
“Sure,” assented the garage man, holding out his hand for the camera. “I
suppose you want to make sure that you won’t run foul of the new law, eh?”
he remarked, in a jocular tone.
Hawley nodded gravely. “I don’t want to take any chances,” he explained.
“You see, I happen to be quite a camera fiend. Whenever I run across
anything worth photographing, I simply cannot resist the temptation to take a
snapshot. So, as I am a peaceful, law-abiding citizen, I think it will be a wise
plan for me to leave my camera in your custody. If I haven’t it with me, I
can’t very well be tempted to break the law, can I?”
“Not very well,” the garage man answered, with a broad grin. “But, say, if
you’re so keen on taking pictures, why don’t you get a permit from the chief
of police? Then you can take all the snapshots you want.”
“Maybe the chief wouldn’t give me a permit,” the Camera Chap replied
dryly.
“Sure he would,” the garage man declared confidently. Hawley was a
perfect stranger to him. “The law wasn’t made to prevent people like
yourself from taking pictures. It is true that the chief of police has full power
to grant or refuse camera permits at his discretion; but anybody can get one
—provided he ain’t connected with the Bulletin.”
“Why the discrimination?” the Camera Chap inquired, with seeming
innocence.
“It is very evident that you’re a stranger here, sir, or you wouldn’t risk
that question. It is generally understood that the Bulletin was the cause of
this anticamera law being passed. You see, there’s a bitter fight going on
between the Bulletin and the town government; and, the other day, that
newspaper scored heavily by publishing a couple of snapshots of the chief of
police, which made him boiling mad.”
“Indeed!” exclaimed Hawley, with well-feigned astonishment. “I
shouldn’t think the chief would object to having his portrait published. Is he
such a modest man?”
The garage man grinned again. “Nobody ever accused big Bill Hodgins
of modesty that I know of. But you see, sir, these weren’t ordinary portraits.
Some nervy photographer—I understand it was a young camera man from a
New York newspaper—sneaked into the chief’s private office at police
headquarters while he was taking a midday snooze and took two snapshots
of him fast asleep at his desk. Those were the pictures which the Bulletin
published on its front page. Naturally, Bill Hodgins was peeved.”
“Naturally,” the Camera Chap agreed. “What an outrage! Really, some of
those newspaper photographers go a little too far sometimes. Under the
circumstances, I don’t blame the chief for refusing to grant a camera license
to anybody connected with the Bulletin.”
“No, indeed,” said the garage man. “But, as I say, anybody else can get
one; so, if I was you, I’d go straight to police headquarters and apply for a
permit.”
“Oh, I guess I won’t bother,” said Hawley. “I don’t intend to stay in
Oldham very long, so it is scarcely worth while. Just take good care of that
camera of mine, will you, old man?”
The Camera Chap sauntered up Main Street until he came to a store
which sold sporting goods, toys, and cameras. Entering this shop, he stepped
up to the toy counter.
“I want to get a present for my little nephew,” he announced to the
saleswoman. “Don’t know exactly what I want yet, so I’ll look around a bit,
if you don’t mind.”
It didn’t take him long to make a selection from the large variety of toys
displayed on the counter and shelves. Then, with his purchase in his hand, he
was just about to leave the store, when, apparently, a sudden thought came to
him.
“By the way, you sell cameras here, don’t you?” he inquired.
“Yes, sir—at the rear of the store,” the saleswoman replied.
Hawley stepped up to the photographic counter and purchased a small
film camera.
 “Wrap it up in good, strong paper, please,” he requested the salesman. “I
want to conceal the fact that I’m carrying a camera.”
“Haven’t taken out your license yet, eh?” said the salesman, with a smile.
“No, not yet,” the Camera Chap replied.
“Well, why not drop into police headquarters right now and attend to it?
Then you won’t have to be afraid of getting into trouble. It’ll only take you a
couple of minutes.”
But Hawley did not drop into police headquarters, although he passed
right by that building on his way to the city hall.
Chief Hodgins happened to be standing in the doorway as the Camera
Chap passed. He was engaged in conversation with the younger Gale.
“I’ve got a feelin’ that he ain’t coming,” the big chief remarked uneasily.
“You can depend upon it that he’s heard about this law and is afraid to take a
chance.”
“Don’t worry. He’ll come, all right,” declared Gale confidently. “The
only thing that could keep him away would be a suspicion that that telegram
of ours wasn’t genuine, and I’m pretty sure he won’t suspect that.”
Then suddenly Gale caught sight of Hawley, and poked his companion in
the ribs.
“Look! Here he comes now,” he whispered excitedly. “What did I tell
you, chief?”
“By Jiminy! It’s him, sure enough,” the head of Oldham’s police force
muttered. “I’ve only seen him once—and that time I only got what you
might call a fleetin’ glimpse of him—but I’d know the rascal anywhere. I
could pick him out of a thousand.”
“Don’t let him see us,” Gale whispered cautiously, pulling his companion
farther back into the hallway of the headquarters building. “Compose
yourself, chief.”
This last remark was called forth by the fact that Chief Hodgins’ round
face had turned scarlet, and his little, beady eyes seemed about to leave their
sockets. His fat fingers opened and closed convulsively, and he fairly
trembled with the fury which the sight of the Camera Chap aroused within
his breast.
“I can hardly keep my hands off him,” he growled.
 “Don’t do it, chief,” Gale urged. “Go easy or you’ll spoil the whole game.
In a few minutes you’ll have the satisfaction of marching him to jail. That’ll
be much better than physical violence. See, he’s heading straight for the city
hall; and I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts that that brown paper package in his
hand is a camera. He must be a bigger idiot than I thought him if he
imagines he can fool us by such a bluff.”
“Come on,” said Hodgins impatiently. “Let’s trail the loafer. I’ve got six
of my best men stationed around the city hall, laying in wait for him. I
assigned the best detectives on my force to the job, but they may fall down,
and I’m not taking any chances. Come on, young feller. We’ll make this
pinch ourselves.”
“Great!” exclaimed Gale, a gleam of malicious satisfaction in his eyes.
“I’ll enjoy taking an active part in the arrest, chief. I’m just as anxious as
you are to see that chesty Camera Chap laugh out of the other side of his
mouth. I’ve got several old scores to settle with him, and I wouldn’t miss
this opportunity for a mint of money.”
They waited until Hawley was half a block ahead, then they crossed to
the opposite sidewalk and followed him cautiously up Main Street, taking
care to keep far enough back to prevent his recognizing them in case he
should glance behind him.
But this precaution proved unnecessary, for the Camera Chap did not
once turn his head in their direction. Apparently blissfully unconscious of
the fact that he was being shadowed, he kept right on until he reached the
white, domed building which housed the local government of Oldham.
Here he halted and carefully surveyed the edifice, shifting his position
several times as though he had difficulty in making up his mind which
viewpoint would best serve his purpose.
Gale and the chief of police had ducked inside the doorway of a store.
From this place of concealment they watched him closely, and a grunt of
joyous anticipation came from Hodgins as they saw him remove the paper
wrapping of the package in his hand and reveal a film camera.
“What did I tell you!” Gale whispered exultantly. “I knew I was right
about the contents of that package. In another minute or so he’ll have
snapshotted himself into jail.”
“He’s taken the picture already,” growled Hodgins. “I just seen him turn
that little knob at the side of his camera; and he’s got the confounded thing
pointed straight at the city hall. That’s plenty good enough for me.”
He was about to step out of the doorway, but Gale hastily pulled him
back.
“Hold on, chief,” he whispered, smiling at the policeman’s ignorance of
photography. “He hasn’t taken the picture yet. He’s merely focusing, and the
law doesn’t forbid that. Wait until he squeezes the bulb and exposes the film.
Then we’ll have the goods on him.
“And say, chief,” he added eagerly, “let me have a few words with him
before you place him under arrest, will you?”
“Huh! What do you want to say to him?” growled Hodgins suspiciously.
Gale smiled sardonically. “I just want to have a little fun at his expense,
that’s all. It’ll be great sport to kid him. It can’t possibly do any harm—
there’s no danger of his getting away, so please do me that favor, will you?”
The Camera Chap seemed to be having some trouble in getting a
satisfactory focus. He fidgeted with his camera for several minutes before he
was quite content with the reflection in the view finder. But at last he was
ready to take the picture, and there was a faint clicking sound as he squeezed
the bulb.
The noises of the street, of course, prevented Gale from hearing this
click; but he saw Hawley’s fingers compress the rubber bulb, and he knew
that the psychological moment had arrived.
Stepping out from his place of concealment, he confronted the Camera
Chap just as that young man was in the act of restoring his photographic
apparatus to its original paper wrapping.
If Gale had loved Hawley like an only brother, his face could not have
been more expressive of cordiality as he advanced toward the latter with
hand outstretched.
“Well, if it isn’t good old Hawley, as large as life!” he exclaimed
effusively. “My dear fellow, this certainly is a pleasant surprise.”
The Camera Chap looked startled. “Hello, Gale,” he said nervously,
apparently failing to see the other’s outstretched hand. “This meeting is a
surprise to me, too. But I can’t stop to talk now. I’m in a big hurry. He was
about to move on, but Gale detained him by clutching his coat sleeve.
“Don’t be in such a rush, old fellow,” he said pleasantly. “Surely you can
spare a couple of minutes. There are so many things I want to say to you. In
the first place, what on earth are you doing in Oldham?”
“I am taking a little vacation,” Hawley replied, trying to wrench his arm
free from Gale’s detaining grasp.
“Is that so? That’s queer. I’m taking a little vacation, too,” said Gale. “My
folks live in this town, you know. But say, old man, I’ve had a rare piece of
luck. I’ve accidentally stumbled across a rattling good yarn which I’m going
to put on the wire in a little while. The New York Daily News will be tickled
to death to get it.”
“Indeed!” exclaimed Hawley, making another ineffectual attempt to free
his imprisoned coat sleeve. “But really, Gale, I must be going. I’ll see you
again some other time.”
“Don’t be in such a hurry,” Gale protested. “I must say, Hawley, you’re
not a bit sociable to-day. I want to tell you about this story I’ve had the luck
to pick up. It’s a peach; and I think you’ll be interested. It’s about the arrest
of a well-known New York newspaper man,” he went on, with a sardonic
laugh. “A fellow in your own line, Hawley. They’re going to send him to jail
for six months.”
Never had Gale seen the Camera Chap more panic-stricken than he
appeared now.
“Let me go!” he gasped. “What the deuce are you holding on to me like
that for? I tell you I’ve got to get away. I’ve got an important engagement.”
“Just a minute, old chap,” said Gale softly, taking a tighter hold on his
victim’s sleeve. “I really can’t let you go until I’ve told you how very glad I
am to see you.
“By the way,” he added, pointing to the camera in Hawley’s hand, “I see
you’ve been doing a little work during your vacation, too. Did you get a
good picture?”
“Oh, no,” Hawley replied nervously. “I didn’t take a picture at all. I——”
He didn’t finish the sentence; for just then some one stepped up behind
him, and a big hand clutched him by the coat collar. “You lie!” a hoarse
voice bellowed. “You miserable whelp, you’re caught with the goods this
time.”
The large hand and the hoarse oath both belonged, of course, to Chief of
Police Hodgins. As he grabbed the Camera Chap, the six plain-clothes men
who had been lying in ambush pounced out of their various hiding places
and surrounded the prisoner.
 The latter smiled grimly as he glanced swiftly around at this circle of
scowling faces.
“Gee whiz!” he exclaimed. “You’re certainly taking no chances on my
getting away, chief. If I were a murderer or a desperate bank burglar I could
scarcely expect a bigger bodyguard.”
“You’re worse than a murderer or a bank burglar,” growled Hodgins.
“And you’d better keep your mouth closed, or we’ll close it for you.”
He snatched the camera from the prisoner’s hand and snapped a pair of
handcuffs on his wrists. He had no fear of Hawley’s making his escape; but
he used the handcuffs because he wished to make things as unpleasant as
possible for that young man.
As they started to march their captive down Main Street, Gale, walking
close beside the Camera Chap, laughed like a villain in a melodrama.
“Without exaggeration, my dear Hawley,” he chuckled, “this is quite the
happiest day of my life.”