Newmar, Lola - Unzipping Levi [Scarlett Rose and the Seven Longhorns 4](Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Forever) (11 page)

Wrapped in nothing but the white bed sheet, she chased them out of the bedroom and down the hall. By the time she made it to the front room, the men were already out the doorway. She was right about one thing. There on the porch lay the door, split completely in two. Scarlett tightened the sheet around her and followed them out of the house and onto the cool grass in the front yard. She stood and watched as the three Peeping Toms were chased by her cowboys. By then, Leo and Bryon had shifted into full Texas longhorn bull form. And with the way their orange eyes glowed like fire in the night, her mates did
not
look happy.

Suddenly remembering where Leo kept the closest gun—there were several throughout the house—Scarlett ran back into the house and into the kitchen to pull the heavy handgun from the vintage tin bread box. When she’d finally made it back outside, she saw Levi chasing the man in the trio. The small, terrified man ran behind Rhett’s white pickup in the middle of the driveway, and she watched as he seemed to bring the gun up in slow motion. Scarlett planted her feet in place on the porch and quickly aimed her own gun at the man’s shaking hand then shot, not giving much thought to the fact the sheet was barely holding itself together.

The little man screamed out in pain and instantly dropped the gun before he had a chance harm Levi. When he held his hand up, she saw she had put a large hole in the smack center of his palm, and thick, dark blood poured down his arm.

“Eeeeeeeee!” the man screamed in the most high-pitched shriek she’d ever heard come out of a man’s mouth—or a woman’s, for that matter.

Levi suddenly fully shifted into his red longhorn, and the man turned to continue to run in the other direction. Levi’s bull was red like his other triplet brothers, but Levi had a white patch on his rump. Levi quickly caught up with the stranger and swung his wide head back then forward, ripping the screaming man’s black pants clean of his body in one slice.

“Eeeee! Eee! Eee! Eeeeee!” The man in black continued to run toward the road wearing only his black turtleneck and tighty-whities, his stick-thin, pale legs working with all they had. Scarlett almost wanted to laugh at him because he looked so damn ridiculous. And maybe a little sad even.

The other two women ran quickly behind him. The young blonde waved her arms frantically as she followed the small man. The bitch who poisoned her was on their heels, and they all disappeared into the shadows. Not even a minute later, they heard a truck rev to life then take off down the street.

* * * *

“Can someone please shut him the fuck up!” Dasha yelled from behind the wheel as she sped off into the night. Todd had his head on Alisa’s shoulder as he screamed from the top of his lungs, holding his hand up as blood gushed from the extremely large hole in the smack center of his palm. Goddamn it if that little bitch hadn’t been a perfect shot. Almost shot his hand clean off. They couldn’t go to the hospital for risk of the police being contacted, so they’d have to take care of the wound themselves. Dasha had dabbled in nursing a little back in Russia, and she could tell from the wound that it would likely need to be amputated if it ended up infected.

Her ears rang, and her nerves were on edge. Her knuckles were white from gripping the steering wheel so damn hard.
  

“Eeeee! Eeeeee!” Todd cried out like a woman in childbirth.

Dasha reached into the glove compartment and pulled out a large roll of duct tape she had placed there before they’d left Dallas. She had hoped to be burying two dead bodies tonight, but that hadn’t worked out in the least bit.

An unfamiliar pang of failure took her breath away, and defeat was not something Dasha could ever accept. After tonight, the scheme was no longer strictly business. No one took the reins in her life except she herself, and for that it had become personal.

“Here.” She tossed the tape to Alisa. “Tape that little sissy’s mouth shut before I put us all out of our fucking misery.”

Alisa complied, her hands trembling as she strapped a thick strap of tape over his mouth. It seemed he was in much too much pain and agony to even begin to fight back.

“You’re so fucking useless, Todd!” yelled Dasha as Todd’s screams suddenly became muffled when Alisa secured it in place. “You had a clear fucking shot, and you blew it. Why the fuck are you even here if you can’t help?”

The last thing Dasha was used to was anyone “helping” her or her daughter. They’d been on their own their entire lives. Dasha’s ex-husband, Alisa’s father, had been the most gorgeous man she had ever met. Only a sixteen-year-old child at the time, she’d been green and naive, and most of all, very, very dumb. She dedicated everything to him, and her only payback was weekly beatings and verbal abuse. Still, she loved him more than life itself and remained a devoted child bride to him. Less than a year later, Alisa was born.

That’s when the disappearances began. He wouldn’t come home for days at a time, and he always refused to tell her where he went or who he was with. He’s said it was as much her business as it was the family dog’s because, to him, they were on the same level in his eyes. She even remembered a night when he’d brought home one of his whores. The nasty woman went to hold baby Alisa, and Dasha had lunged for her. But not before her husband stopped her. That night she’d received a broken nose, four cracked ribs, and a concussion. But even then, Dasha couldn’t bring herself to leave him or stop loving him.

Then one day, when Alisa was barely a toddler, he finally walked out. He packed all his things, even things that Dasha had bought with her own money, and left them with nothing. He’d cleaned out their bank accounts and took off with a young Brazilian slut. He said he’d met her at a bar, even said she was his “soul mate.” Even now, she could throw up just remembering the way he’d said it. That had been the last she’d heard of him. Till this day, every year on their wedding anniversary, Dasha would lie in bed and cry and think about the perfect life they all could have had if only her husband hadn’t been so evil.

She promised herself she’d do everything it took to make sure she and her daughter never sacrificed any security ever again. They’d take revenge on the men that had fucked them over, take all their money and rip their hearts out.

She knew people would find it appalling if they knew the things she’d forced her daughter to go through for money. But Dasha was confident that she was teaching her young daughter a very valuable lesson. It was always better them than her. If she didn’t hurt them first, they’d only end up hurting her. Morality was a weakness she’d never suffer again thanks to her plan.

“Mother, he’s in pain.”

“He’s in pain? I’m the fucking one in pain. My ears are practically bleeding from all that pussy screaming he’s doing over there.” She could never find a place in her heart to care about the little pansy of a man. To her, it seemed he was only getting in the way. Her daughter had kicked and screamed until Dasha had finally agreed to let him in on the big plan to kill Charlie and Scarlett and take all the Rose money.

“Mother, you can’t forget that we need Todd if we’re going to put Charlie into cardiac arrest on the wedding night. He’s certified and knows exactly how to do it without getting caught. There’s no way we can risk doing this ourselves.”

Dasha released a long, drawn out sigh as she shook her head. Alisa was right. They just needed to put up with Todd’s bullshit for another few days. He was such a pain in the ass, though, Dasha decided they’d likely have to get rid of him, as well, once they’d gotten what they’d come all the way to America for. Good, old-fashioned green.

Chapter 10

Scarlett gently placed the burning-hot handgun down on the wooden, wraparound porch before scurrying down the steps. She ran with her arms outstretched to her group of mates as they all jogged toward her.

“Oh, thank God they’re gone!” she cried out as she held each of them. She couldn’t even put into words how traumatizing it had been to watch them all in the face of death like that. Of course, the three pipsqueaks speeding down the road were no match for her seven longhorn-shifters, but not even they could have beat a speeding bullet should something have gone wrong. “I would have fucked them all up beyond recognition if they’d touched one hair on y’all’s heads!”

Her men all held her close and laughed, but she was
dead
serious. All these realizations were happening so damn fast, and it put her on edge like nothing before. First she discovered her very own stepmother was out to kill her for whatever fucking reason. Then they found out the trashy blonde had been cheating on her poor, elderly father with his own male nurse. And of course, the moment she decides to try to relax, to forget the fight Levi had humiliated her with and enjoy her gorgeous, yummy mates, she looks over and what the hell does she see? Three little piggies looking in on her, one of which being the asshole who convinced her to try poisoned apple-flavored lube.

“We need a plan,” Leo finally stated after they’d all settled on the porch. “These people are evil, and they are not to be underestimated. They’ll obviously stop at nothing to see that Scarlett is dead. And now they’ve discovered our most well-kept secret of all.”

Scarlett sat on the step in front of Byron and dropped her head in her hands. Byron’s strong, large hands immediately covered her shoulders. He didn’t say anything, but she knew it was his way of providing silent comfort. “This is all my fault, and it’s become such a mess.” She looked up, not missing the sympathy in their beautiful eyes. “What if they tell someone about you being shifters? No, I would just die if they took you boys away from me.” The reality of the consequences of that night started to all set in, bringing the familiar panic and anxiety.

But the men didn’t seem very nervous at all. In fact, they seemed almost confident, very calm and collected as they all lounged around the porch. Byron’s hands then began to gently massage the tension and stress knots in her shoulders and back. “Darlin’, listen to what you’re saying,” he said as he rubbed her, his deep, husky voice turning her on even in such a ridiculously chaotic situation. “How do you think everyone is going to react when they even try to begin to explain what they saw here tonight? People would lock them in the loony bin, lock the door, and then throw away the key. And even if they could get anyone to listen to what those psychos had to say, it’s going to cost them some considerable time to be heard. I say we go tell your father what happened before they get to him first.”

Her father! Oh, God, she’d totally forgotten that bitch would likely go straight to the boss man with what she’d discovered.

Leo shook his head. “It’s not happening tonight. It’s a wonder we aren’t all in shock right now. You especially, Scarlett.”

“For the last time, Leo, I am not made of porcelain, and I don’t break on contact.” She loved how protective her men were, but not how it boiled her blood when they acted as though she was a defenseless kitten. She couldn’t help but feel underestimated.

Leo stepped up to her, brushed Byron’s hands away from her shoulders, then lifted Scarlett until she stood in front of him. “Last time I checked, darlin’, you didn’t devote twelve years of your life to medical school.”

“Excuse me?” Mate or no mate, she wasn’t about to tolerate anyone talking to her like that. This was exactly what pissed her off. The worst thing was she was absolutely sure he knew it but only chose to ignore it. “You are not better than me, Leo Lenox.”

“Never said I was. But I do know more about your health than even you do, darlin’. And you aren’t moving an inch tonight. What you’re going to do is get your pretty little ass back in that house, wash up, and then you are to go to bed to get a decent night’s rest. It does nobody any good to be tired and sick. Now take it or leave it, Scarlett. When it comes to your safety, it’s your only option.”

She looked at the other men, hoping someone would take it upon themselves to get be on her side. But she wasn’t at all surprised when she watched all six of the other brothers cross their arms over their broad chests, an obvious sign they agreed with every word Leo had lectured her with.

She sighed heavily. Although she had her own stubbornness issues, she’d come to realize she was a logical person as well. Times like this, she’d learned to simply pick her battles. She had to realize her mates were only looking out for the best for her. After death knocking on her door a few times, she had to understand they had every reason and right to be afraid for her.

“Fine,” she finally said. “But I’m leaving first thing in the morning, with or without you guys.”