“If you really want to snag her heart, you better have brought some corn bread.”
“Oh, we did,” Vic stated then winked.
She chuckled. “So how are you planning on getting her to have dinner with you?”
“Oh, not a problem. Considering we’re in uniform, she should come with us as soon as we approach. We’re going to tell her we have official police business to discuss with her.”
Ava wondered if Tagart and Carver were still at the bar watching Elise.
“She might get pissed off.”
“We’ll take care of it, if you’ll get her spot covered and let everyone know that the staff room is taken for a private dinner,” Vic said.
She chuckled. “You’ll get twenty minutes out of her maximum, so make the best of it, fellas,” Ava said then turned and hauled ass to the bar where Elise was working. On her way she grabbed Sienna to cover Elise. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Tommy heading toward the bar, and then that sparkle in his eyes she saw earlier now looked darker. He seemed pissed off. Following his line of sight, she spotted Tagart holding Elise’s hand in his own and it appeared as if he were reading her palm. What the hell was that about?
* * * *
Tommy felt his entire body heat up in anger. That fucker was touching his woman. He was the calm one compared to his twin, and if Vic saw this situation, there would be big trouble and bloodshed. He cleared his throat and made his way to the bar, settling right between the Tagart guy and his buddy.
“Can I ask you why you’re holding my woman’s hand?” Tommy asked, standing way taller than the Tagart asshole. He knew he was a big guy and intimidated most, but the Tagart guy just looked him over as if he had no respect for Tommy’s deputy uniform. Now Tommy knew for certain the guy was a dick.
“Tommy, what are you doing here?” Elise asked as she tried to pull her hand from Tagart’s. He wouldn’t release it, and Tommy raised his eyebrows at the guy.
“She’s your woman, you say?” Tagart asked as he caressed her palm with his fingers. Tommy was doing everything he could not to pull the guy from the stool and punch his lights out.
“Tagart, let go of my hand and stop fooling around,” Elise stated. One look at her and he could tell that she was trying to diffuse the situation. Elise could obviously tell that he was going to lose it if Tagart didn’t let go of her hand.
Suddenly Sienna was tapping Elise on the shoulder. “Hey, honey, it’s time for your break. I got the bar covered.”
Elise looked at Sienna and then at Tommy and Tagart.
“Come on, sweetheart, Vic and I have some things to discuss with you. Official police business,” he added as he gave Tagart a mean look.
“Vic is here, too?” she asked, her cheeks turning a shade of pink. He smiled and winked. “Come on. I’ll meet you at the end of the bar.” He didn’t move until she headed away from Tagart first. He wasn’t taking any chances that the jerk might try to make her stay or pull any shit. He didn’t like that guy at all.
She seemed to get the message and headed toward the end of the bar and the exit. He met her there, and together Tommy and Elise walked down the hallway.
“What’s going on? You can’t be telling people that I’m your woman, Tommy. I thought we discussed this yesterday.”
“You might have mentioned something like that, but Vic and I know that you’re just a bit shy.”
“Shy? Me? Where the hell did you get that idea from?” she asked him as he pressed his hand against her lower back and guided her down the hallway. Just the feel of her feminine body so close to him made him want her even more. She was gorgeous and her long brown hair was tied in the back then twisted up in a fun style. Her jeans were tight and low on her waist as usual. He could see that little bit of tattoo he wanted to see more of and kiss along every inch of vine and flower. She was delicious.
They made it to the staff room, and she turned to give him a funny expression.
“Remember last night? We promised dinner and a talk? Well, even though we’re all working tonight, Vic and I thought that taking our break for dinner together could work out just fine.” He pushed open the door and the smell of BBQ sauce filled the room.
“Oh my God, you went all the way out to Cellar County to Big Bob’s?” she asked as she looked at Vic then turned to look at Tommy. Vic had set up the table for a small dinner for three. It looked great.
“Sure did, baby. How about a kiss hello?” Vic asked. Before Elise could retreat from his approach, Vic smoothed his hand over her waist, against her ass, and pulled her to him, planting a kiss on her mouth and devouring any escape or verbal protests. Tommy saw how Vic’s large hand covered her pretty little ass and how he had to lift her a little higher to gain better access to her mouth and body. She was sexy as damn hell.
When Vic released her, Tommy pulled her into his arms and hugged her to him.
“I missed you,” he whispered as he absorbed the feel of his woman in his arms. She gave him a squeeze and he felt triumphant.
“Let’s eat, since we’re on a time schedule here,” Vic stated as he caressed her hair. When she pulled back from Tommy, she looked a bit unsure.
Elise released a sigh. “You can’t keep stopping me from speaking my mind by kissing me.”
“That’s not what we’re doing.”
She raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms in front of her chest. She looked so damn cute. Tommy placed his hand on her hip and she stared up at him. He smiled his best smile and even felt he looked sexy when he did it.
“Come have dinner with us. We wanted to show you that we’re men of our word.”
She didn’t say anything a moment, but hopefully the aromas were beating down her defenses and making her hungry. His craving went further than a piece of BBQ chicken or two.
“Let me get washed up.”
She wiggled her way to the small bathroom while Tommy winked at Vic.
“How hard was it to get her in here?”
“A little difficult with that asshole Tagart and his buddy falling all over her.”
Vic suddenly looked pissed off. Tommy shouldn’t even have mentioned it.
He raised his palm up. “Not a thing to worry about. I took care of it.”
* * * *
Elise was trying to figure out how to handle this current situation. God, she was a sucker for a man in uniform. Make it two and her defenses were weakening. She always liked the Delite deputy uniform. It wasn’t that traditional type of brown. It consisted of a dark royal-blue uniform shirt and dark black pants that had numerous types of pockets on it. They appeared more like SWAT guys than deputies. They were once military, now only civilians again for about a year if her memory served her correctly. She remembered Susanna asking BJ about them.
Tommy looked ready to pounce on Tagart when he showed up at the bar. She couldn’t help but feel concerned, and it seemed like Tagart was trying to cause a fight. She didn’t care for Tagart’s personality. It was like he already thought he had her or could get into her bed at any moment. That pissed her off. She looked at herself in the mirror and remembered Ava’s conversation with her this morning. Could Tommy and Vic really care for her? Could she entertain the connection she felt being drawn to them? she wondered as she headed toward the door. They did go all the way to Cellar County to buy her dinner. That made her smile. They were sweet even though they looked like scary linebackers. She chuckled.
“So, I’ll be really impressed if you have my favorite item off the menu from Big Bob’s.”
“Take a seat right here, baby, right between us,” Vic told her and she did. They even went as far as to set the small table and pour sparkling nonalcoholic grape juice into Styrofoam cups.
Vic pulled out a container covered in foil. He unwrapped it and opened up the top. She smiled wide when she saw the delicious corn bread. Rubbing her hands together, she reached for a piece. Vic pulled the container back and then leaned down closer to her.
“How about a kiss, for figuring out what you like?”
She tilted her head toward him as if saying “really?” and he laughed. “Dig in, honey. We’ll talk about dessert later.”
Damn, did her belly just do a bunch of somersaults? How the heck was she going to eat now, between two sexy, hot men? She shrugged her shoulders then took the piece of corn bread and took a bite as Tommy served up the rest of the meal.
Fifteen minutes later, as they cleaned up and wrapped the remainder of food, which was only two pieces of corn bread and a chicken leg, Vic took her hand and pulled her up onto his lap.
She placed her hand on his shoulder and stared at him. His hazel eyes sparkled as he held her gaze.
“The dinner was great. It was really sweet of you both, to think of me.”
Vic gave a small smile, which was big for him.
“That’s good. So, this Sunday, we’d like to take you out on a real date since none of us are working.”
“That’s okay. I think we should wait a bit.” She tried to get up, but he held her firmly.
“What’s wrong, sugar? We can tell that you’re attracted to us, just like we are to you. Can you give us a reason for your hesitance?”
She lowered her eyes and instantly Devlon entered her mind.
She took a deep breath.
“I really need to get back to work and this is an intense conversation. I’m just not ready to date yet.”
“Does this have something to do with Tagart?” Tommy asked, and immediately she felt Vic hold her tighter. She turned to him and saw only darkness and anger in his eyes. She didn’t like it, and she worried that he might think there really was something between Tagart and her.
She placed her hand against Vic’s cheek and that seemed to pull him from anger to softness.
“Please, Vic, don’t get jealous or angry over nothing. I don’t like Tagart. I know his kind. Please. He’s not even an obstacle, I swear.”
She felt the palm of his hand move up her thigh to her waist. He caressed her as he held her gaze.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“How do I know that you’re just not saying that?”
She couldn’t believe this big, strong, mountain of a man was insecure.
Her body shook and her heart ached as she slowly moved her mouth closer to his. The tears filled her eyes, and she kissed him softly on the lips. That soft gentle kiss turned deep until the sound of double CB radios went off from the hips of both deputies.
She pulled away and laughed. So did Vic and Tommy.
Tommy pulled off the radio and responded saying that he and Vic were on their way.
“Sorry, baby, but duty calls.” She stood up and Vic fixed his uniform as Tommy gave her a quick kiss on the mouth.
“Call us when you’re leaving work? We’re working all night.”
“Thank you again for dinner.”
They both smiled.
After they left the room, Elise took a long-needed deep breath. God, were they amazing, and she was falling for them faster than she ever fell for anyone in her life, including Devlon.
The place was surrounded with insurgents. It was a setup. Vic knew he had no way of escaping. The only way out was the front door at the bottom of the stairs and right now, two of his dead soldiers blocked it and the bad guys were coming in. He heard the gunshots and the rapid fire crunching against the concrete inside the home. Ducking low, he checked his weapon. He was fully loaded with multiple clips on his shoulder and waist. He looked to the right and saw Ted. He pointed toward the stairs to exit and Vic shook his head. In an instant the explosion rocked the building. Ted was sucked through the gaping hole and through the smoke. Vic saw the armed men coming for him. In his mind he saw Tommy, their parents and family. He was going to die. They began to fire their weapons and he did the same as he screamed at the top of his lungs and took a group of them out. He turned and headed down the stairs as the sound of return fire echoed in the streets. Was help coming? Could there be a chance that he would live? He rushed down the stairs, reached for the door, glanced down at his dead brothers, and he heard the click then felt the barrel of the gun against his head. In a thick accent he heard the words, “Die, American scum.”
Vic lunged upward in bed. He was slowly coming out of his nightmare that seemed so real. “Vic?”
He turned and leaped from the bed grabbing the person by the throat and shoving them hard against the wall.
“Whoa, Vic, it’s Tommy. You’re okay. It was a bad one, but you’re in Texas, not Iraq.”
Vic was breathing heavy, but some way, somehow, the sound of his brother’s voice brought him back to the present. He loosened his hold on Tommy’s throat and his brother coughed then took slow, short breaths.
“I’m sorry,” Vic said as he stumbled backward until he sat on the bed and placed his hands over his face.
“Hey, it was a long night at work. We got into that fight with those drunken assholes from the house party on Burbank Avenue. It was bound to sit in your subconscious.” Tommy took a seat next to him on the bed.
Vic snorted then shook his head. “What the fuck are you rambling on about?”
“I don’t know.” Tommy chuckled.