Owned (15 page)

“Seriously, they took turns sitting in the hallway outside your door that night in case you needed something. They handled all this like complete idiots, but from everything I’ve seen they really care for you.”

“Let’s roll,” Nate interrupted, coming into the room with the wheelchair before I could say anything in return. I was so glad to get back to the ranch, mostly because I wasn’t a fan of hospitals.

It was hard getting in and out of the truck, not just from my shoulder, but my lower tenderness as well. When I saw Dean and Jared standing on the porch waiting for us, I just sighed. After what Jamie told me, I didn’t know what to think, but my body did. I wanted them naked and on top of me doing the best kind of dirty things.

“Come on, Kate, let’s get you some lunch so you can take your pain pills,” Jamie said, slipping her arm through my left one.

“Food works, the pills make me thirsty as all fuck,” I mumbled.

“You’re staring at them like you want them for lunch,” she whispered in my ear.

“I do, that’s the problem,” I sighed. I stepped into the living room and froze. It was filled with flowers, balloons, and even stuffed animals, and most of them said some form of
Get
Well
. “What the fuck?”

“What did you three do, buy out every gift shop and flower store in town?” Jamie asked, laughing and leading me into the kitchen. It was more of the same.

“We felt bad you were hurt, and felt guilty about what happened,” Jared said softly.

“We?” Nate laughed. “There’s no
we
on this one, I got a couple of things, so did Dean. The rest was Jared.”

“Why?” I asked, turning to Jared. “Why do you care?”

“I know I haven’t shown you the right way, Kate,” he answered slowly as if choosing his words carefully so he didn’t screw up again. “And I’m sorry for that, more sorry than you’ll ever know. But I care for you so much. Even before I met you, listening to Nate talk about you. You’re so amazing and you don’t even see it. You’re gorgeous and you take my breath away, just being in the same room as you sets my body on fire.

“You’ve been through more shit in your life than anyone should have to, but you don’t give up. You’re still strong and successful. You have a presence that commands respect and you don’t abuse it. You’re fair and loving. Hell, these two love you so much, they’d kill to keep you safe. That says a lot about you to have friends like that.”

“Okay,” I said quietly.

“Okay, what?” he asked hopefully.

“Just okay, I heard what you said. Your words say one thing, but your actions have showed me something else. How am I supposed to know what to believe?”

“I don’t know. Please give me the chance to show you?” he asked, kneeling in front of me, placing his hands on my knees while I sat at the table.

“I don’t know yet. I need time to think,” I answered, looking down.

“That’s fair. I deserve that. I’ll wait as long as you need, I promise.”

“And what about you?” Jamie asked Dean.

“What about me? I already told Kate I’m in love with her,” he replied, smiling at me. “And I’m not sure what I was ever in trouble for besides being the idiot’s brother.”

“You really said that? On the way to the hospital, in the truck?” I asked in shock. I thought I had made that all up.

“Yes I did, and I meant it,” he said, kneeling next to Jared. It kind of wigged me out because um, well, that’s what men did when they were professing their love… Right before they proposed.

“I thought I made that up, or dreamt it,” I muttered and dropped my eyes so I wasn’t meeting his.

“Nope, I really said it,” he said tenderly. “I love you, Kate.”

“So what does this mean?” Jamie asked again so I didn’t have to. “You both profess your feelings and what, she has to choose?”

“We don’t want her to choose, we both want her,” Dean answered carefully, standing to face Jamie. “We knew we both liked her, but we discussed it and we want her.”

“You want to share her?” Nate asked, finally getting in the conversation.

“Yes, if she’ll have us, yes. Neither of us is willing to give her up,” Dean replied.

“Do you normally share your women?” Jamie asked.

“No,” Dean answered with big eyes, shocked for some reason. Then he did that cute little smirk I liked. “Well once, but it was a drunken one-night stand.” I wasn’t as much of a fan of the smirk after that comment of course. “We’ve never shared a woman for real.”

“You can’t treat her like a whore to pass—” Nate growled.

“She is not a
whore
!” Jared yelled at Nate, startling all of us. “I acted like an ass and was too rough with her, but she didn’t do anything wrong or slutty in any way! Don’t talk about her like that.”

“I know she didn’t, and I’m not saying she is,” Nate replied calmly, the side of his lips twitching. I knew that look. He’d wanted to see how they’d react. Ass. “I’m asking who else you plan to share her with.”

“No one, she’s ours!” Jared snarled, his eyes flashing something weird. I’d seen it before but in my drugged haze it just registered as odd so I didn’t put the pieces together. However, his answer did set off my anger.

“I’m not yours,” I snapped, finally wanting to jump in to clarify one point. “I’m not anyone’s! I’m mine own.”

“I didn’t mean it like that, Kate,” he said, turning to me, lowering his voice instantly. “I meant that we would never share you with anyone else.”

“What if she wants only one of you?” Jamie asked.

“That’s Kate’s choice and we’ll abide by it, but all we’re saying is we both want her. If she’ll have us both, she can,” Dean replied.

“For sex, right? We’re just talking about sex?” Jamie asked, intentionally being the devil’s advocate. Wow, my friends were kind of being evil. But then again, I was glad so there wasn’t ever any confusion as to what the Acker brothers were saying.

“
No
!” they both shouted at the same time, but then Dean continued. “Yes, we both want her physically, but we’re not talking about
just
sex. We want a real relationship with her.”

“I need to lie down,” I said, shaking my head in disbelief as I stood up. But that made me dizzy so I plopped right back down.

“I’ll take you, sweetie,” Nate offered, coming over to me and carrying me to my room.

“Great friends you got, Nate,” I grumbled when he had me in my bed under the covers.

“Yeah. Hell, I never saw this one coming, Kate.” He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment. “But, I’m thinking they really love you. I’ve seen the way they’ve acted when you’re not looking or have been out of it. You’ve had so much happen to you, if anyone deserves that much love it’s you. It would probably take two men to love you like you should be loved. As long as they make you deliriously happy.”

“Thanks, Nate,” I said, kissing him on the cheek. “Are they like you?” I winced at the question, never having slipped up at letting Nate on that I knew what he was. Damn drugs.

He ignored it and gave me that crooked smile. “Or you could just have me and not have to worry about changing your name,” he suggested, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Get out,” I said, laughing.

“What’s so funny?” Jamie asked from the doorway.

“Nate was trying to talk me into choosing him over the brothers downstairs.”

“Oh Lord, that’s just what you need,” she snickered. “Here, I brought your pills and a sandwich. Hit the road, Nate.” We waited until he was gone before we talked.

“I know that look,” I said, eating my lunch.

“What are you going to do?”

“No clue.”

“No, I don’t have any suggestions before you ask,” she said, shaking her head. “All I’d say is do what feels right to you, you’ve always known what you want. If you want both of them, then have them. If you cast one off though, can I have him?”

“I don’t think that’s up to me,” I drawled, taking the last bite of the sandwich. I drank the glass of milk and took my pills. “I’ll sleep on it.”

“Good idea, glad you’re home, Kate.” She kissed me on the forehead before turning to go.

“You’re leaving tonight, right?”

“No, I’m going to stay a while—”

“No,” I said, interrupting her. “You’re leaving. You have to get back, I saw the schedule. I’m fine, I swear, I’ll call you every day.”

“You sure?”

“Positive. You’re starting to bug me anyways,” I answered with a laugh.

“Bitch!”

“I love you too.”

Later on I woke to quite a commotion downstairs. Feeling much better, I got up to check it out. I started hearing the voices clearly when I got out in the hallway.

“Is it about the money?” I heard Jamie yell.

“We have some money. If she needs money to keep up the ranch, we’ll gladly help,” Jared shouted right back. I rolled my eyes. That wasn’t what she was referring to.

“Dude, bro, I think you have that backwards,” Dean replied. “What money?”

“The money from—the business,” Jamie said, catching herself at the last minute. “You know she makes good money owning the company.” No one was even remotely aware that I was now standing in the doorway of the kitchen.

“I figured, she has a lot of plans for renovations, she wouldn’t be planning that if she didn’t have the money for it,” Dean replied with a shrug. “She owns the ranch now. So what?

“That’s not what you meant, is it, Jamie?” Jared asked, eyeing her over suspiciously. “What are you telling us?”

“Nothing, she’s not saying anything,” Nate replied firmly. His tone clearly saying
let it go
. Right, because when that kind of can of worms is opened, people ever drop it.

“Look, we didn’t bring this up, I could give a rat’s ass about money. But it’s obvious that you’re hiding something, something important enough to worry why we’re interested in Kate. That means it’s important enough for her to get hurt over. If there’s added danger, I want to know about it,” Dean said.

“It’s nothing, no one knows about it,” Jamie answered.

“Knows about what?” Jared yelled, throwing his hands in the air.

“About the 8.3 million reasons to see me dead, plus the ranch of course,” I finally answered for them, their shouting hurting my head. They all turned around quickly, looking like I’d caught them with their hands in the cookie jar. “Thanks, Jamie, Nate, good I could trust you to keep a secret.”

“It wasn’t like that, Kate. We—” Jamie sighed, looking tired.

“Then what was it like?” I demanded. I wasn’t letting them off the hook for this one.

“If we had just inherited a lot of money, and right after there wasn’t just one, but two people interested in us, wouldn’t you make sure that wasn’t a factor?” Nate asked gently.

“Fuuuuck,” I groaned with feeling. “Yeah I would.”

“Okay then, just say thank you for loving you enough to make sure,” Jamie chuckled.

“I love you both, you pains in my ass,” I drawled, smiling sweetly. All at once we realized that neither Jared nor Dean had moved. They both had their jaws hanging open, wearing exact looks of shock. “Breathe, guys, it’s not even mine yet.”

“I need a drink,” Dean said, going to the fridge.

“Could you repeat that amount?” Jared asked.

“8.3 million.”

“Dean, grab me a drink too,” Jared muttered.

“When did it go from 5.2 million to 8.3?” Jamie asked, now just realizing it wasn’t what I’d told them before.

“I got all the totals in from the accounts, securities, and bonds the day before I got shot,” I answered with a one-shoulder shrug. “Gramp invested very wisely and since we diversified with the horses, we’ve never had a bad year.”

“How long until it’s all transferred into your name?” Nate asked.

“Mr. Rose says it should take about a week longer,” I answered.

“You got the ranch and 8.3 million dollars. Damn, girl, are you lucky,” Dean said.

“Are you kidding me?” I seethed, my eyes narrowing at him. “You’re an ass. I’d give it all back in a second for my Gramp to be alive again. Did you forget how I got all this? You think I’d choose this over him?”

“I’m sorry, Kate, that’s not what I meant. I know you would give it up in a heartbeat,” Dean said softly, his eyes wide as he realized how bad what he said was. “I know how much you loved him, and it’s tearing you up. I wasn’t thinking, it’s quite a shock.”

“Yeah, you could say that. Now you know why I was still drunk the day you met me,” I answered. Then I filled them in on how the will was set up. Explaining what Kyle got if I died.

“But he doesn’t know how much it is?” Jared asked.

“No, he just knows the list of what I get from the will. I don’t know if he has any clue how much it is, since Mr. Rose wouldn’t tell him.” I was pretty sure the man felt the same way as we did about Kyle.

“On that note, Nate and I have to catch a plane,” Jamie said.

“I’ll give you a ride,” Dean offered.