Chapter Eight

Josh half watched the game playing out on the TV. This was how they spent most Sundays, though normally they would be at the big house watching with the dads on the massive TV in the media room.

But he definitely wouldn't be doing that when they had Nicole so beautifully trussed up. There were limits to his parents' openness. Josh was pretty sure his momma was naked a lot but he'd never had to see it, and for that he was eternally grateful.

There was a reason they never played at a club where he knew his parents would be.

"You want a drink, sweetheart?" Grim was staring at the woman on his lap like she was the most precious thing in the world.

She grinned at him, taking to the whole bondage kink with the enthusiasm of a champion. "Yes, please."

Grim held the glass with the straw to her mouth, and Nic took a long sip of the iced tea she'd asked for. Grim had washed her up and settled her onto his lap and had been serving her treats for two hours.

All the while Josh watched them and wondered if this was how his father felt when he looked at Pops and Mom. Like they were his whole world. Like it was his job in life to take care of them.

"Is something wrong, Josh?"

It was the first time he'd heard anything from Nic except perky acceptance or sighs of pleasure since Grim had played around with the knot he'd made several times. He wouldn't even look away from the TV, just tug on the right rope and let friction do its job, and then Nic would sigh and wriggle and the corners of Grim's lips would curl up in a way Josh had never seen before.

"He's brooding. It's a thing he does," Grim said.

"Really? You know I'm not the one called Grim, buddy," Josh pointed out.

Grim shrugged and set Nic's glass back on the side table. "And yet you are a broody bastard. I'm not the one everyone's afraid of."

"Afraid?" Nicole started to bring her head up.

Grim eased it back down. He'd changed into sweatpants and a T-shirt. They were his "I can get out of these very easily" clothes. "Not like he'll beat them up afraid. Josh can be sunny and happy-go-lucky seeming."

"But then he threatened a whole bunch of people who were leaving church," she said almost sagely.

She was forgetting a few salient facts. "They were being mean to you. I won't let anyone be mean to you."

Her eyes closed as though she was perfectly content. "You can't stop everyone."

"Now that, my sweet pet, feels like a challenge." He liked a challenge. He still wasn't sure if he was going to kick Alyssa's overly privileged ass out of his company come Monday morning. She could find another job. Maybe the church would hire her. He might kick her momma out, too. On principle. If she'd wanted to keep her job, she should have taught her daughter to not be so awful.

Nicole's eyes opened again, and she looked properly wary. "Josh, don't do anything. It doesn't matter. I don't care what a bunch of people I don't know think of me. I spent a whole lot of my life with people thinking I'm some kind of doormat. Being a Jezebel is a lot more fun than a doormat."

He was so interested in her past. Which she rarely talked about. She was good at trying to divert his attention. He'd played her game up until now, but it was time to start being ruthless. Up until now he'd been willing to go along with the whole "this is only for a couple of weeks" thing.

He didn't want a couple of weeks with her. He wanted everything. And there was zero chance Grim wasn't falling for her. Falling? Hell, that boy was already gone. He was staring down at her like she was the sun in his sky. Grim relaxed around her.

Grim was going to get his fucking heart broken if she did what she said she was going to do and left.

"Who would think you're a doormat?" Grim asked, his fingers running through her hair. She was still in her rope dress, but he'd released her hands and they were under her cheek. She looked sweet and sleepy and a bit angelic to him. Though most angels wouldn't lie around naked, their body spread out over two men.

She yawned, and her eyes closed. "All of Childswood."

Grim's eyes met his. A freaking clue. "I thought you were from Chicago."

Her eyes opened, and it was easy to see she was awake now. "Oh, it's my high school. Childswood High. I wasn't popular."

He needed to ease her back down. If she thought they were probing, she would come up with an excuse to leave. He wanted her here and happy. Napping would be excellent since then she wouldn't notice when he slipped away.

It was time to start solving the mystery of Nicole Mason. He knew it was quick, but he was sure. She was the right one for him, and it didn't matter what she was running from. He would handle it.

But he had to make sure he didn't become the thing she was running from.

"I was incredibly popular." He winked at her, giving her a slightly arrogant smirk sure to make her believe he was thinking about himself again. "I was the star of the baseball team."

Grim snorted. "He was terrible at baseball. He couldn't catch to save his life. Now he was excellent at throwing his body in front of running backs. And his golf game is adequate. I was obviously the baseball hero. Or I would have been if my stepfather hadn't decide it was Satan's game. Pretty much any game was Satan's game. Strangely except Jenga. He was totally into Jenga."

She rolled so she could fully look up at Grim. "You know this is why you're a pervert. You had an unhealthy relationship with sex…well, from what I can tell, with everything, and now you feel like you have to make up for it."

"Okay, then how do you explain Mr. Good Sex over there," Grim argued with a wink. He was so flirty with her. She brought out a light side in Grim that Josh had worried was gone forever. "I assure you his parents never used the word shame around him."

"Untrue. There was plenty of shame heaped on me during the brief time I rebelled," Josh reminded him.

Grim nodded. "Yes. It was a terrible time. I thought your dad might disown you."

Nicole's eyes went wide, and she lifted her head to look at Josh. "What did you do?"

She whispered the question like it was a secret.

He wasn't the one keeping secrets. He took her feet in his hands, squeezing lightly until she sighed and bit her bottom lip. She was the most sensual thing. "I rebelled against my father in the most heinous way I could. I thought about going to Texas AM for college."

It had been a brief thing, and mostly to see if his father would lose his mind. He had.

"You see we're a Longhorn family," Grim explained. "And Longhorns and Aggies are a little like the Hatfields and McCoys. We take our college football seriously. During the season, I make it a point to never wear maroon because it makes my dad…makes Jack's eye twitch."

He'd been right the first time, but the fact that Grim had actually gotten the words out proved how fucking good Nicole was for him. He rubbed her feet and her eyes closed again.

"Football. It's always football," she said quietly.

"It used to be our favorite pastime," Grim said. "Now it's torturing you."

He tweaked her nipple, and she yelped before giggling and settling back in.

She was asleep in minutes, and Josh was able to ease from beneath her feet.

"I think I'm going to make a beer run," he said. "I steal anymore of the dads' and Momma will start talking about rehab. Livie will say I'm getting a beer belly."

A brow rose over Grim's eyes. The one that said he didn't buy what Josh was selling. "You think we need more? Maybe we should take it easy."

Oh, his partner knew exactly what he was planning on doing. "It's nice to have extra. You never know when we'll have guests."

Nicole wrapped an arm around Grim's leg, using his lap as her pillow. She shifted, getting more comfortable, but it was obvious she was down for a nap.

Be careful, Grim mouthed.

Josh nodded and stared at them for a moment. Everything he wanted was sitting right there. His best friend and their sweet sub. He couldn't lose them.

And that meant figuring out why she thought she had to leave.

An hour later Josh walked out of the garage and into the parking lot where Al Holt allowed people to park the cars he was going to work on. Al ran a small auto repair business. He did mostly engine work. Any body work would have to go to one of the larger towns to the north, but if someone needed a new alternator or a tune-up, Al and Sons were the way to go here in Willow Fork.

"She's the sedan in the second row." Al was in his sixties, with white hair mostly located around his ears and the back of his head. Normally he wore coveralls, but today he was in jeans and a Cowboys sweatshirt. In the background Josh could hear the sounds of the halftime show.

Al lived over the garage with his son, Greg. Once he'd asked Al why he called the place Al and Sons since Greg was his only son, and Al had given him a grin and told him a man could still dream.

"She seems like a real nice young lady," Al said, not leaving the steps that led down to the parking lot.

"She is a nice lady." He looked up at Al, who'd worked on his family's cars for as long as anyone could remember. He wasn't exactly a friend, but he seemed to respect his fathers and was always polite to his mom. He also spent a lot of time at the local rec center playing checkers with the group of old dudes who practically lived there. Men might not like to admit that they gossiped. They would say they were simply discussing current events. "What's being said about her, Al?"

Al frowned and raised his hat slightly so he could scratch behind his ear. "Well, not a lot until today. I've talked to her a bit about her car, but she seems to keep to herself. Says she was on her way to a new job, but her car broke down. That felt fishy to me, but I stay out of other people's business."

He did, but he often heard things. Al was one of those people who didn't talk much so people often forgot he might be listening in. "Anyone else questioning why she's here?"

"I don't think she's here to cause trouble, if that's what you're asking. I know the sheriff can be nosy, but she hasn't been on his radar up until now. Though if what I heard happened at the church really happened, you might have your dad do that thing where he reminds everyone who he is. I think a lot of people around here think Jack Barnes has gotten cuddly in his advanced years. I'm pretty sure the old scary as hell Jack can show up at any time."

"There's nothing cuddly about my father when his family is being threatened." Josh wasn't sure his father would consider the sheriff trying to move Nic along a threat to his family. After the conversation they'd had this morning, his dad might be okay with it. Which was precisely why he had to figure out what was going on with her. If someone was after her, there was no way his father's protective instincts didn't take over. If he spent time with Nic, his father would see how sweet she was, how perfect she was for him and Grim. "Why would the sheriff suddenly be interested in her? She's been here for a couple of weeks."

A brow rose over Al's eyes like he thought Josh was being na?ve. "You've spent too much time traveling lately. The sheriff's dating Alyssa's cousin. They seem to be real close."

"And I employ most of Alyssa's family. You might point that out to the sheriff if he mentions Nicole's name. Unless he wants to take care of a bunch of unemployed relatives, he'll leave her alone."

"You know as long as she's at that motel, he's got easy reasons to check up on her. He has deputies out there at least twice a day. I've worried about her. Now I hear there's another single lady staying there for a while."

Her new friend. What had her name been? Hannah? Heather? He thought he remembered Nic saying something about her mother being sick, but he'd never seen the woman before. It was possible she lived outside of town and he'd never met her. He needed a last name.

But Nic becoming friends with someone temporarily staying at a motel wasn't what concerned him now. "She'll be staying with us soon, so don't worry about that."

A brow rose over Al's eyes. "You're moving fast, Josh."

"I always knew I would when I found the right one." He'd merely been marking time, waiting for Nicole. He needed to go easier on his sister because he rather thought that was what she was doing, too, but she didn't have a Grim to remind her she wasn't alone. She didn't have a partner to help her.

He still didn't think it would be the Farley brothers.

"Well, the first thing you should do is get her a new car. That one is on its last legs," Al admitted. "She thinks the alternator is all she needs, but nothing is in real working shape on the vehicle. It's old and hasn't been taken care of. That thing has over two hundred thousand miles on it. And I'm pretty sure she was living out of it at some point. I don't like to be nosy…"

He did. "What did you find?"

"She keeps blankets and a pillow in the trunk. I only got in there to inspect the car," Al said.

"Did you find anything else?"

"No, but I didn't look real close," Al admitted. "Look, Josh, if you asked me I would say she's on the run from someone, likely an ex. She has that look about her, and she damn near panicked when I told her how much it would cost. I don't think it was entirely about money. I think she wanted to keep going. I'm sorry, Josh. That part is old, and I can't order it until I have the cash in hand."

Josh waved that concern away. "I'm not upset with you for that. I understand you have a business to run."

"So you want me to arrange to sell that junker for parts?" Al asked. "Like I said, it's old and there are some parts that could make her a couple of hundred. Otherwise, I would have it cubed like your daddy did."

He rather thought Nic would have him cubed. He'd heard the stories about his dad's predilection for smushing vehicles that offended him into small cubes. He'd been told the cube his pops kept in his office used to be a motorcycle. "I don't think we're in a place yet where she would take a car from us, but I'm pretty sure I can get her to stay with us while her car is being fixed. It's an old part, right?"

Al grimaced. "Yeah, and I'm afraid it could take a while even after I order it."

"Oh, I think it should take a couple of weeks. Maybe a month," Josh said. "Maybe it's stuck on a container ship that's trapped in the bottleneck at the Panama Canal. I read something about that."

Al nodded. "It's not that much of a stretch. I did tell her I would have to order the part and I couldn't until she made a down payment. You trying to keep her around?"

"I think that women on the run keep running until they find a place that feels safe enough to take a risk." Josh had been thinking about it all day. He wanted to respect her privacy. No. That was a lie. He knew he should respect her privacy. What he wanted was to know absolutely everything about her, to track her every movement in case she needed him for some reason, to be a couple of steps behind so he could ensure she was safe and no one hurt her either emotionally or physically. That was what he wanted, but he would be content with knowing what she was running from. Then he could plot and plan and get her out of whatever situation had put the lost look in her eyes.

Though when he'd left her, those eyes had been closed, and there had been a peaceful look on her face as Grim petted her.

"Well, I'll be happy to delay the situation for a couple of weeks," Al agreed. "Honestly, I don't feel right fixing the alternator when I know damn well it's going to fall apart again. The whole car is held together with duct tape and baling wire. It would be a miracle if she made it to Austin in one piece."

"Hey, Dad, game's back on," Greg said from the upstairs window. "Hey, Josh. How's it going? Grim doing okay? I heard there's an outbreak. Kind of expected you to be knee deep in cows beside him."

An outbreak? "We had a couple of bred heifers get some tainted feed. We're working with the feed store to figure out what's going on. Where did you hear that?"

Greg leaned over the balcony railing. "Uh, I might have heard something about it from his brothers."

They weren't Grim's brothers. Josh was. Josh and his parents and Livie were his family. "What exactly did they say? And which ones are we talking about?"

"Oh, they were doing the thing where they scream at people going into the park or walking down Main Street." Greg seemed to wave it off. "It was John and Peter. You know how they are. They wave the Bible around and pretend like they're the dress code enforcers. I think the ladies look perfectly nice in their leggings. They're taking an exercise class so I don't see the problem. But those boys take exception. I don't think they read the part about plucking thine own eyes out."

"I could do it for them if they have trouble," Josh promised.

"The women ignore them. But today they were talking about evilness killing the town, and how all the cows are going to die because we put up with wickedness," Greg explained. "I didn't think much of it until I heard from one of the hands what went on this morning. Sorry if he wasn't supposed to talk."

That wasn't the problem. "Nah, it's fine. Grim's handling it. They're being assholes or it's a coincidence. I don't see how they could know, but it's not like it matters. You let me know if they keep talking about it. Al, thanks for helping me out."

He shook Al's hand before the older man disappeared back into the shop. Greg gave him a wave as he returned to watching the game. Josh glanced over at the car and then his watch. He couldn't be gone too long. He pulled his cell phone out and dialed a familiar number as he approached the piece of crap Nicole called a car.

And apparently home every now and then.

The thought made his gut turn. Anything could happen to her out there with nothing but the windows and easily broken locks keeping her from the world. He'd thought the motel was the worst place for her, but sleeping in her car on the streets was definitely worse.

"Hey, Josh. What's going on. Haven't heard from you in a while," a feminine voice said.

Harlow Dawson. She was one of the kids he'd grown up with, the ones who formed his family. Harlow, her sister, Greer, and their parents lived in Dallas, though over the years they'd done a lot of work for the company. Her fathers, Ben and Chase Dawson, were private investigators while her mother, Natalie, was a painter and ran a gallery.

Greer worked with their mom, while Harlow had taken after their dads.

"I've been working. You know how it is." Josh took in the car, holding the key he'd stolen in his palm. Borrowed. He would put it back, but he wanted to take a look first.

"Our parents don't want to travel for work anymore, so they send us. Yes. I certainly do. Be glad you spend your time in sales meetings. You only had to go to college. I had to go to college and then pass Big Tag's kill-the-girl training school. It was terrible. I was in it with some people who I think are training to be assassins, but my dads insisted I go if I was going to do anything dangerous."

Actually, he was happy his training had been in how to handle a ranch and run a business. He'd heard the man they called Big Tag was kind of intimidating, and that was coming from kids who'd grown up around Julian Lodge. Josh had met Mr. Taggart a number of times. He'd made the mistake of hitting on his daughter once.

Oddly, the man hadn't threatened to kill him. He'd gone over a long list of things Kenzie Taggart had mastered—including her black belt in tae kwon do. And then he'd given him a lengthy document he called a release of all liability.

Josh had known when to back off. "Yeah, I try to steer clear of certain parts of Dallas." Not that there wasn't a Taggart who'd been an excellent mentor to him, but the man didn't live in Dallas. "I got a favor to ask, Harlow."

"Of course. Is it work related? Someone stealing from the company store?" The question was asked with a teasing tone. She liked to tease him about his wealth.

Like she should talk. Her fathers were ridiculously wealthy. They worked because they got bored if they didn't. "No, it's personal."

"What's going on?" All the teasing gone, her voice had softened. It was easy to talk to Harlow Dawson because she genuinely cared about her friends. She had a soft heart and hands trained to bash in a man's head. If they hadn't been practically family… Well, she still wouldn't have been perfect for him since Nicole was the one. But she was one of the coolest women he knew.

"Grim and I have a new girlfriend," he explained, looking over the lines of the sedan. It needed a paint job. And a new bumper. The rear had multiple dings, one of which was starting to rust. There was nothing in the back seat, and the front was every bit as neat. She'd cleaned it out before dropping it off. "I'm worried about her."

"Worried about her how?" Harlow asked.

"I think she's in trouble, but she won't talk. She's afraid of something, and I can't push her to tell me at this point."

"How long have you been together? You didn't mention her when I saw you a couple of weeks ago."

He sighed. "I've met her since then. Look, I know it sounds quick, but she's…she's perfect for us."

"Say no more." Harlow stopped him. "I hear about how my mom knew she would marry my dads within a week of meeting them, and then Dad says he knew the minute he met her and it only took a week because Papa screwed things up by taking his sugar, and I'm pretty sure that's something gross I shouldn't have to hear about. So I accept this is serious and you need to figure out what her problems are. I need a name and any information you can give me. Where's she from?"

"Chicago," he replied, taking the key and pressing it into the trunk's keyhole. "Though I'm almost certain it's a lie. Nicole Mason. Might not be her real name. I took a picture of her driver's license. I'll text it to you."

"Okay. I'll start with a skip trace and go from there," Harlow explained.

"She says she's got a job waiting for her in Austin." The trunk flipped open, revealing a neat space. There was a folded blanket, two small pillows, a set of sheets. She had a set of light-blocking shades she likely used when she wanted the illusion of privacy. Something else had been bugging him. "And look for a Childswood High School. If you can't find it, take a look around to see if there's a town named Childswood."

She'd been half asleep when she'd whispered the words. And then totally awake. She hadn't meant to mention the place. She'd covered or maybe she'd told him the truth, but he wasn't sure.

"Got it," Harlow said over the line and then paused. "Josh, maybe you should slow things down if you think she's lying."

"If she's lying, she's got good reason." Under the blanket there was a stack of books. All romance, from what he could tell. She'd hidden those books like they were her treasures. Now that he thought about it, she'd had a couple of books on her nightstand.

"You think someone's after her, but sometimes that person is actually a whole police department. Maybe the FBI," Harlow pointed out.

"Who hurt you?" Josh said sarcastically, and then fucking remembered. "Har, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that. It was a dumb joke."

Someone had hurt her and quite brutally. She had a reason to be suspicious. "It's fine. It was a long time ago." Her voice was unnaturally cheery. "But I do know what I'm talking about. If you don't know this woman's history, then you could be playing a dangerous game, and you don't know the rules."

He gently put back the blankets, covering her books. It looked like she'd taken as much as she could out of the vehicle and into her temporary home.

He was probably going to look through her other belongings, too, and it would be far easier to do when she was staying with them. "The rules don't matter. Not with her. And that's why I'm calling you instead of Uncle Ben. I think you'll keep things quiet until I have everything in place and I'm ready to bring my parents into it."

Uncle Ben was the infinitely more reasonable of her dads. Ben and Chase Dawson were twins with weird connections that sometimes seemed a little on the psychic side. But where Ben had gotten all the normal, all-American Ken doll energy, Chase was definitely Mr. Hyde. He was a great guy, but he sometimes decided he was judge, jury, and executioner. A fact Harlow's ex-boyfriend should have thought about.

"I'll check into this for you, Josh, and you know I'll keep the dads out of it," Harlow replied, her tone softer. "I'm happy for you, you know."

She was still heartbroken, but Harlow was tough, and she knew how to love her friends. "I know. Thank you, cousin."

There wasn't blood between them, but they'd grown up together in a way that felt as close as family.

"I'll get back to you when I know something, and Josh, be careful," she said and the line went dead.

His heart ached for Harlow, but he couldn't even consider the idea the woman who'd curled up on Grim's lap had ever done something seriously criminal. She wasn't on the run from the cops. It was something else. Something traumatic.

He closed the trunk and moved around to the passenger side of the car. There was one place he hadn't checked. The glove compartment. It was normally where car guides went to die, but sometimes a person shoved things there they didn't want others to find.

He flipped it down and sure enough, there was an old driver's manual along with a couple of parking tickets. Not from Willow Fork. There was one from Denver dated two years before, and another from a place called Papillon a few months ago.

So she wasn't the best parker in the world. He could work on that.

But hadn't she said she lived in Chicago until a few weeks ago?

He closed the glove box and pocketed the key, which he would slip into her purse when he got back to the house.

He slid his cell in his pocket and considered the fact that Nic was going to be pissed if she ever found out. He was willing to risk it. What he wasn't willing to risk was losing her. He couldn't protect her if he didn't know what she was involved in, and he didn't trust her not to run if he pressed her too hard.

The crap with Grim's brothers was another story altogether. It was annoyance, but it would bug Grim.

It might be nice to take some of this tension out on John and Peter. But it would have to wait.

All he knew was no one was going to fuck with his family, and Grim and Nic were at the center of the family he wanted to create.

He would protect them from everything. Even themselves.