Then they’d brought him back to the community center. Jordan stood next to Peter, his arms crossed over his chest, the look on his face a mixture of anger and worry.
“I think you bribed your uncle the doctor to give me that shot in the ass just so you could get a cheap thrill,” Peter accused him.
“It pays to have family,” Jordan said. “That’s all I’m saying on the subject. It pays to have family.”
Peter looked at the assembled group of Benedicts, Kendalls, and Jessops, several of whom had joined the impromptu posse he’d organized at the last minute, and nodded. “It does, indeed.”
“I can’t say we’re very happy that you used our woman as a decoy.” Morgan folded his arms and glared at Peter.
“We ought to beat the crap out of you for that one,” Henry agreed.
“I didn’t do it on purpose,” Peter said. “Dennis was there, and she was about to walk into his arms anyway. I just told her when to make her move.”
The dance had officially ended, and the lights had been raised. Samantha and her husbands had fussed over them all, while Ginny poured out cups of coffee.
Adam arrived back at the hall and made a beeline for his oldest brothers. “I ought to throw the both of you behind bars for that stunt you pulled tonight.”
Tamara sipped her coffee and watched the way Ginny’s gaze urgently swept over Adam. She sighed when she saw that he was safe and sound. Ginny must have sensed Tamara’s scrutiny because the young woman met her gaze, blushed, and then looked away.
“What stunt would that be? I just happened to catch—”
“Don’t pull that shit on me. You ‘just happened,’ my ass. I just happened to find the little trip wire you installed.” Adam walked right up and got in Morgan’s face. “You should have told me what was going on, so I could have been there for you.”
“You were there for me. That was you I saw cuffing Preston Rogers, wasn’t it?”
“After the fact. If it weren’t for Peter’s having alerted me—” Adam walked off, clearly at a temporary loss for words. No one made a sound or so much as twitched. Tamara didn’t think she’d ever seen a man as angry as Adam Kendall was at that moment. He exhaled deeply and turned back to face his brothers.
“Look, I understand your mind-set. You thought, being the oldest, that you’d step up and step in and protect everyone else. But I’m the Sheriff of this town. This kind of thing is my job, and when you bypassed me, you diminished that job, and me.”
Morgan exhaled. “Christ, that’s the last thing I meant to do. But you’re right, and I’m sorry.”
Clearly an apology wasn’t what Adam had expected because he looked astounded. But since it had been offered, he nodded. “Okay, then. Good.”
He turned his attention to Peter. “How are you doing, G-man?”
“I’m okay. Just got nicked when Jimmy’s shot went wide is all.”
“Yours didn’t go wide, but you didn’t kill him, either. He’s on his way to Waco by ambulance, with a state trooper riding along as escort.”
“Good.”
Tamara looked from her men, to Peter. “So now that everyone’s here, does someone want to tell us what the heck that was all about? And how did you know to come to the rescue?”
“Preston Rogers and his motley crew have been distributing drugs in concert with a very nasty slimebucket south of the border named Miguel Ramos, who deals drugs, arms, and humans. We’ve known about Rogers for some time, but could never really prove anything.”
“I thought the Piper was too small to be used transporting drugs,” Tamara said.
“They didn’t use the Piper for the drugs, they used it to exchange the money and set the deals in motion. Then about four months ago, Ramos demanded to be paid in uncut diamonds, and the pilot and owner of the Piper saw his chance. He faked a crash, hid the plane, hoping to cash in.”
“Only Rogers found out about it?” Morgan guessed.
“Exactly. We had some good information that he needed to find that Piper ASAP because Ramos doesn’t like to be crossed. Anyway, we located the plane and found the diamonds. Then I put in the tracker and the bug—which was how I knew you needed help—and then waited to see if Rogers would come after it and incriminate himself.”
“Which he did in a very large way,” Henry said.
“I’d say so, yes,” Peter said.
“Well, hell’s bells.” Uncle Goodwin huffed out a breath and got to his feet. “You’ll want to take that Piper as evidence.” He shook his head then met Tamara’s gaze. “Guess we’re back at square one in our business venture.” And then he smiled.
“Guess so,” she agreed, and very sneakily checked Morgan and Henry’s reaction to that statement in her peripheral vision.
“Not necessarily,” Morgan said. Then he straightened from where he’d been lounging against one of the tables and held his hand out to Tamara. “Let’s go home, Red, and…talk mergers.”
Chapter 20
“Now that we’re alone…” Morgan’s sentence drifted off, punctuated by the sound of the front door closing.
Tamara, who’d preceded both men into the cottage, turned to face him, intent on asking him to finish what she hoped was a very personal, very sexy proposition.
Instead, there they stood, her two handsome flyboys. Shoulder to shoulder, arms folded in front of their chests, they wore twin murderous expressions directed at her.
Fighting to hold back her smile, she copied their pose. “Yes? Now that we’re alone?”
“Do you have any idea how utterly terrified we were when Dennis dragged you through that door tonight?” Morgan’s voice had softened. Tamara figured that was probably a bad sign.
“We’ve a good mind to turn you over our knees and paddle the living daylights out of you.” Henry, who could usually be counted on to be adorably charming, looked as if he would gladly chew nails right then.
Oh, they both looked as if they
