County Sheriffs 2: Conquering Lovers (Siren Publishing Menage Everlasting) Read online

  Dawson watched as the smile left Bella’s lips and tried to think back over what was said to take the light from her gorgeous green eyes. Kent was frowning now, too, and Dawson realized his friend had seen the change in her eyes and expression. It took a few moments, but he finally remembered what had been said.

  “Misha is our boss’s fiancée. I think you’d really like her. Maybe one day you can come out to our ranch and meet her?” Dawson suggested.

  The dullness left her eyes and a speculative gleam replaced it. “You have a ranch?”

  Was that breathiness he’d heard in Bella’s voice? He sure hoped so, but then he began to wonder if she had a thing for cowboys. He sure as shit hoped not. Or if she did, that at least it was only for him and Kent.

  “Misha’s an unusual name.” Bella frowned again. “I’m sure I’ve heard it before.”

  Dawson cursed under his breath and hoped like hell that Bella didn’t remember where she’d heard Misha’s name. He didn’t want to bring up the painful memories or grief she’d suffered from earlier, but Bella had a quick mind, and before he took another breath, she was blinking back tears again. He wished they’d been able to keep the fact that there was a serial killer quiet from the media, but with five women having been killed, it had been inevitable that the rumors would be rife in such a small town. Every woman who’d been killed near the Pahaska Tepee Resort, bar one, had been a local. There was no way in hell something like that wasn’t going to get out.

  “She l-lost her f-friend, didn’t she?” Bella’s voice quavered.

  “Yes,” Kent answered. “She’s still dealing with the grief, but now that she’s with Clay and Spence, she’s also very happy.”

  “Clay and Spence?” Bella’s voice rose in pitch.

  Dawson nodded as he removed the once-more-full coffeepot from the warming plate before placing his hand on Bella’s lower back and guiding her toward the table again. After he’d poured the coffee and handed the mugs out, he took a sip and tried to get his thoughts in order before he opened his mouth.

  “Clay and Spence are our bosses and the sheriffs of Cody and the surrounding county. They met Misha when her friend Janice was found near the North Fork Shoshone River. Although their meeting wasn’t ideal, they ended up dating and now Misha’s engaged to both Clay and Spence.” Dawson sighed after sipping his black coffee. Bella had made the perfect brew, just like Misha did. There was no need for him to add sugar and/or cream just so he could stomach the taste.

  “She’s going to marry both of them? That’s not even legal, is it?”

  Kent shook his head. “No. She loves them both, but when they get married, she’ll only be legally married to Clay. However, she will be wife to both of them.”

  “Two men?” Bella asked as if she needed reiteration.

  “Yes, two men,” Dawson said. “Does that bother you?”

  Dawson met Kent’s gaze when he saw his friend tense. He held his breath as he waited for Bella’s answer. Her frown turned to a scowl as she met his gaze and glared at him. “No! Shit. Why would I care how someone else lives their life?”

  “I didn’t mean and wasn’t trying to offend you, Bella. I just needed to make sure you weren’t harboring any prejudice. Especially since I’d offered to introduce you to Misha. She’s a wonderful lady with a big heart, and we don’t want to see her getting hurt.”

  Bella shoved to her feet and bent with her palms planted on the table as she looked at him with fire in those green eyes. “You think I’d hurt her?”

  “Of course not,” Kent stated. “We know you would never hurt anyone intentionally.”

  Bella sat down again with a sigh.

  “We need to get back to the problem at hand,” Dawson said. “You need to press charges against Brett Taylor.”

  Chapter Two

  Bella didn’t bother to answer verbally. She’d already told the two handsome deputies she wasn’t going to press charges. While she’d always known deep down that the events leading up to her sister’s disappearance and eventual murder weren’t her fault, she’d started to believe that they had been.

  Brett had started drinking the day they’d been informed that Maria was dead, but the phone calls hadn’t started until the night of her sister’s funeral. The bastard called her in the dead of night while in a drunken stupor to abuse and blame her for Maria’s death.

  The flat tire, the broken jack, and the delayed tow-truck driver had all been out of her hands. Bella had spent the last four months asking herself the same questions over and over again. What if she hadn’t had a flat, or the jack hadn’t been broken, or the tow-truck driver hadn’t already been out on another call? What if she’d just locked her car up, called a cab, and arrived on time to meet Maria? Would she have arrived in time to be killed as well? Would her presence have prevented her sister from being targeted and then taken by a serial killer, and then from being murdered? It had taken sixteen long grief-laden weeks to realize that she was torturing herself, tearing herself up inside. For all Bella knew, she might have been the one hanging around the pub waiting for Maria to turn up.

  No one knew where her sister had been when she’d disappeared. She vaguely remembered dealing with Clay and Spence when they came to talk to her and inform her of her sister’s death, and she had a faint memory of them visiting again and telling her no one had seen her sister near the Heart Mountain Pub, nor had she been seen on any of the CCTV cameras that were placed sparsely around the small country town. There wasn’t a huge amount of crime in Cody or the surrounding county, but that didn’t mean there was none. Of course, there were teenagers who hung out and got into trouble, as well as the occasional traffic accident. There had been a bank hold up two years ago, but the robber hadn’t even been a local.

  Some tourists could get rowdy and out of hand when they were drunk, but as far as Bella knew, their little town was safe. Or it had been until her sister had been found dead. Nearly four weeks to the day after Maria had been murdered, another woman had been killed. Janice Judson had been the last woman killed, and from what she’d heard on the radio, the serial killer moved earlier than usual. That had been over four weeks ago, and though the residents of Cody were on tenterhooks, especially the women, Bella was hoping that the killer had fled the vicinity. She wasn’t about to hold her breath or let her guard down, though.

  Just thinking about that psychopath picking out his next victim and following her about without her even being aware as he planned his next move, made the hair on her body stand on end.

  “Bella, are you okay?” Kent asked.

  She blinked as she came back to the present to find both the deputies looking at her with concern. “I’m fine,” she answered automatically, but she wasn’t fine and wasn’t sure she ever would be again. She rubbed a hand over her face and winced when she touched where Brett had slapped her so hard she’d seen stars. The flesh on her left cheek was hot and tight and hurt like a bitch, but thankfully the ass hadn’t hit near her eye or punched her with a closed fist. If he’d done that, she probably would have ended up in hospital with a broken jaw. Brett was about a foot taller than her diminutive height of five feet even in her stockinged feet, which was why she always wore heels. She hated being so short, but since there was nothing she could do about that except for the ever-present heels, she pushed it from her mind.

  “So are you going to?” Dawson asked.

  Bella knew she should make Brett pay for hitting her, but he was hurting as much as she was, and she didn’t want to add to his pain. “No.”

  “Damn it, Isabella,” Dawson snarled. “You can’t let men like that get away with hurting women.”

  She raised her voice back.

  “He’s drunk and grieving.”

  “You’re grieving, too, honey,” Kent said. “Bet you don’t go around drowning your sorrows and then beating up women.”

  Bella drew in a deep breath before releasing it slowly. “No, I don’t. Everyone handles grief in their own way. Maria wouldn�
��t want me to… She would have wanted me to make sure he was okay.”

  “From what you’ve said, you’ve done all you can, Bella. You need to step back. Don’t let him take his pain out on you. You don’t deserve that,” Dawson said.

  Bella lowered her head and nodded. Both of the deputies were right. She didn’t deserve the way Brett had been treating her. It was on the tip of her tongue to tell them of the late-night phone calls, but from the fierce look in Dawson’s eyes, he wouldn’t need much of an excuse to arrest Brett’s ass. The only reason her sister’s boyfriend wasn’t already in jail was because they hadn’t actually seen Brett hit her. If they’d been there seconds earlier, the deputies wouldn’t have needed her to press charges to keep him behind bars.

  She finally lifted her head, meeting first Kent’s and then Dawson’s gaze. “So are we done?”

  Dawson sighed and combed his fingers through his hair. “We’re done.”

  Kent and Dawson stood the same time as Bella. Dawson dipped his hand into his pants pocket, pulled out a card, and handed it to her. Bella took it and read both sides. It had the Park County Sheriff’s Department phone number on the front, and on the back was Dawson’s name and a cell phone number. She met his gaze again.

  “If you need me, you can call me anytime, day or night, no matter what time it is. Okay?”

  “Thank you.”

  “Take my card, too,” Kent said and passed his card to her. “Do you need a ride?”

  “No, but thanks.” Bella turned and headed for the door.

  She knew they were right behind her, because she could hear their footsteps following.

  “Where do you work, Bella?” Dawson asked.

  “I’m surprised you need to ask,” Bella said.

  “She works at the Chamber of Commerce,” Kent said. “I just remembered where I’d heard your name before, but I’ve never seen you there.”

  “I was probably working in one of the offices out back.”

  “So you help organize all the events going on around the place?” Dawson asked.

  “Some,” Bella replied. “It’s a team effort.”

  “You all do a fantastic job,” Kent said. “Are you going to the homesteader festival on Saturday?”

  “Yes,” she answered before walking down the hall and toward the front door.

  “We’ll see you there, Bella,” Dawson called out.

  She didn’t turn to reply but acknowledged that he’d spoken by waving her hand in the air. Her heart was beating so fast she felt as if she’d just finished a hundred-yard dash. Although her face was still hurting and the skin was hot, the pain had diminished to a bearable level. The fact that she was having trouble catching her breath, her palms were sweaty, and her pussy was wet had nothing whatsoever to do with Brett hitting her. It was all because of the two tall, sexy deputies.

  She might still be grieving her sister’s death and dealing with her sister’s last boyfriend and his shit, but she wasn’t dead. She was a healthy young woman and couldn’t have stopped herself from noticing how handsome Dawson and Kent were.

  She wasn’t the best person to gauge another person’s height, but Dawson and Kent had to both be over six feet tall. They were definitely head and shoulders taller than she was. Dawson had collar-length brown hair and hazel eyes. The green in those sexy orbs had been more prominent when he was pissed, but that mouth—his lips were the perfect bow. The lower lip lush and way fuller than the top, and though his top lip had been thinner, there’d been nothing stingy about it either. The short sleeves of his cotton shirt looked as if they were about to rip because of the strain his large biceps put the material under. And those thighs—she’d actually felt those rock-hard thighs under the cheeks of her ass and the underside of her own legs when she’d somehow managed to end up in his lap. That was an experience she would love to repeat, but when she wasn’t overcome with grief, fear, or pain.

  And then there was Kent. Kent was an inch or so taller than Dawson, and though he’d seemed more outgoing than his friend, she also caught him looking at her with an intensity that sent frissons of…something skittering up her spine.

  Bella shivered. She’d thought she’d seen something in both the men’s eyes on a couple of separate occasions when they’d met her gaze, but the flashes had been so brief she’d convinced herself she was imagining things. However, now she wasn’t so sure she had. When she’d been walking out of their offices, she’d felt them watching her and everywhere their gazes landed, her skin had prickled.

  She was in big trouble where they were concerned, because she’d had a hard time keeping her mind on the conversation. After the initial adrenaline crash and her humiliating breakdown, she’d found her gaze wandering to their mouths time and time again. The worst had been when she’d made the fresh pot of coffee. She’d actually felt the heat emanating from their bodies and felt her nipples harden, and her clit had started pulsing.

  She was glad she didn’t work in the front at the Chamber of Commerce building and was required to wear a skirt to work, because if she had, she knew that her inner thighs would have been covered in her juices. Thankfully, she wasn’t in the public eye very often and was allowed to dress for comfort. Today she’d chosen to wear jeans to work, which was a godsend in more ways than one.

  She’d been so shocked when Brett slapped her face that she’d fallen down onto her ass. Thankfully Dawson and Kent had rounded the corner to the alley entrance after she’d gotten her feet back under her. There had been a crazed look in Brett’s eyes, and she’d been scared he was going to strangle her. He’d smelled as if he’d slept in a full keg of beer, or maybe bathed in it, but the aroma had been days old. The sour stench of his unwashed body, with the booze added into the mix, had been enough to turn her stomach.

  Bella had to agree with Dawson and Kent. She’d done all she could to help Brett deal with his grief, but she wasn’t going to put up with his shit anymore. She was wiping her hands of him, and if he was choosing a path of self-destruction, she wasn’t going to step in his way and get hurt in the process.

  Bella knew her sister, and the corners of her lips curved into a half smile as she imagined Maria standing in front of her with her hands on her hips and a scowl on her face. Maria had been three years older than Bella and had looked out for her always, but her sister wouldn’t take shit from anyone, including Brett. If Bella had been going out with Brett—her stomach roiled with revulsion at such a repugnant thought—Maria would have told her to dump his sorry ass. That had her trying to work out what her sister ever saw in him, but maybe he’d been nice and sweet before her sister had died. Bella had only met Brett twice, briefly, which hadn’t been long enough to form any sort of opinion about her sister’s boyfriend, but she definitely had an estimation now.

  Bella had struck out on her own when she’d found a steady job, and Maria hadn’t even blinked an eye. In fact, her sister had helped her scour the secondhand stores as well as gone with her to garage sales on the weekends until she had enough furniture to be comfortable. The only thing Bella had bought new and wasn’t about to back down on was her bed. Just the thought of sleeping on something someone else had slept on, or had sex on, icked her out. That was one of the main reasons Bella had never been interested in traveling. Sleeping in a motel room, on a mattress that thousands of other people had been on, turned her stomach.

  Maria had jabbed at her over that one when she’d tried to get Bella to come away with her on a long weekend, years ago. Bella had refused adamantly. It didn’t matter that the mattresses were steam cleaned regularly or that the linen was always fresh. Bella would rather go camping with her own sleeping bag and pillow, thank you very much. She knew where she’d been, who she’d been with, and what her personal hygiene was like.

  Bella came back to the present when her shoulder glanced off a lamp pole. She glanced about sheepishly, hoping no one had noticed her distraction, and wasn’t really surprised to find herself a few steps from the Chamber of Commerce stairs
.

  Her empty stomach growled, but she was already late getting back from her lunch, which she never actually managed to buy and eat. Luckily she had a candy bar in her desk drawer, which would have to tide her over until dinnertime.

  Bella missed her sister so much, and the empty space in her heart was sometimes too much to bear, but Maria wouldn’t want her wallowing and giving up on life. She could see Maria in her mind, once more with her hands on her hips, her gaze pinning Bella to the spot and telling her to go after her dreams.

  She mentally shook her head when she heard the door to the Chambers swish open and smiled at the receptionist, who was probably on her lunch break.

  “You seemed lost in thought,” Tiffany said as she came down the steps and stopped next to Bella. She placed her hand on Bella’s arm. “Are you okay?”

  Bella glanced away when she saw the sympathy in the other woman’s eyes. She got that Tiffany was the motherly type and was just looking out for her after her sister’s murder, but sometimes that show of caring was enough to unplug the dam. She blinked back the involuntary tears and, after taking a calming breath, met Tiffany’s gaze again. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

  Tiffany’s gaze locked on to her face, and her caring expression turned to one of fierce anger. “What the hell happened to your face? Is that the reason why you’re late coming back from lunch? You’re never late. Who the hell hit you?”

  “It’s okay, Tiff. Two of the deputies stepped in to help me.”

  “Did you press charges?” Tiffany asked.

  Bella didn’t want to answer that because she knew Tiff would be angry at her for letting Brett off the hook. Apparently, she knew Brett and his parents, and when Bella had told her Maria had been dating him, all expression had been wiped from Tiff’s face and then she’d pointed a finger at Bella. “I don’t like that little shit and wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him. Watch your back when he’s around.”