Anita's Triple Temptation [Men of Montana 4] (Siren Publishing Menage Amour) (37 page)

The one good thing that came of it was the paramedics that had taken her and James to the hospital in Kalispell had taken a shine to her and had been visiting Gwen every time they made a stop there. Apparently, she had been intrigued by James talking about his ménage relationship with Anita while they were waiting to be rescued and found the two men’s attention endearing.

* * * *

The pickup pulled up in front of the house and people began to file out of the house onto the porch. Anita opened the door before any of the three men could help do it for her, earning her a growl from each of them. Stepping out, she waited as her three young boys came running up to her side of the truck.

“Momma! Momma!” came the shouts of the two oldest boys. Eli held his hands up, begging silently to be held by the woman he hadn’t seen in over a week while her mother kept the boys. Kneeling down in the new layer of snow that had fallen the night before, she gathered them all into her arms, holding them close to her, reveling in the physical contact after the fear of losing them forever.

As it turned out, Jeremy began to talk about Virgil’s plans and dastardly deeds
once his lawyer arrived. Dave and Kevin ushered the boys and Anita into the warm house while Storm and Austin helped James from the truck and then into the house where they settled him onto the sectional where he could stretch out his leg. Anita was instructed to sit in the recliner nearest the fireplace though it was turned toward the sectional as were the other two recliners.

Lyndee and Trey stood together looking over some papers while Storm, Austin, Running Wolf, Lawrence, and Angela stood together near the end of the sectional that wasn’t occupied by James. Dave and Kevin were now standing on both sides of Anita, giving her a sense of protection.

Watching the scene in front of her, Anita was warmed by the sense of family. The twins sat next to James while Eli held up his arms wanting to be held by the man. Reaching down, James gathered the youngster into his arms and placed him on his uninjured leg.

“Can we see your gunshot? Huh?” Joey asked excitedly, nearly shaking the couch.

“Boys, leave…” Anita began but was halted when James laughed.

“Not right now, guys.” He ruffled the hair of Joey while Eli played with the buttons of James’s mother-of-pearl buttons on his shirt. “I don’t want it to get infected.”

Again Anita started to say something but was stopped when the two hands, one on each shoulder, squeezed slightly to let her know it was all right.

“What’s infected?” Joshua asked, his nose scrunching up on his little face.

“Well,” James began. “It’s when a sore gets dirty and then it starts to turn really red and ugly. Then, green icky stuff comes out of it, and sometimes, if it gets really bad, the doctor has to cut off what’s infected.”

“Cool!” exclaimed the twins while a frightened look appeared on Eli’s.

The little one raised his hand up, cupping James’s cheek. “Please don’t go away.”

Silence filled the room at the innocent words. James gathered the little guy to his chest, hugging him tightly. “I won’t, little man. I won’t.”

It was a few moments before anyone moved. Tears pricked Anita’s eyes at the tenderness before her and she knew all three of her men were going to be good fathers.

After about ten minutes of everyone socializing, Lyndee and Trey gathered everyone’s attention. “Anita, we have some important business to conduct here with you today. We needed witnesses to this as this is a legal matter,” Lyndee explained, holding a folder in her hands.

A lump formed in Anita’s throat as she tried to tamp down the fear that was beginning to rise. Lyndee and Trey both sat on the coffee table facing her.

Trey was the first to take out a paper from the file. Looking at it for a moment, it looked as if he was trying to decide what to say. “We spoke with the inspector for the acci…Sorry, the incident that killed Craig and there was a check issued for his death. Unfortunately, Virgil somehow was the recipient of that check. The insurance company did resubmit the check.”

Two hands found her shoulders, one from each of the men flanking her as she gasped her surprise. Trey held the paper out to Anita who was shaking as she reached for it. Finally, she had some closure to Craig’s death, not just by Virgil’s admittance of wrong doing, but with the insurance money that would go to her boys’ education.

Letting her eyes drift over the words which were overwhelming to her, they focused in on the amount. Five hundred thousand dollars! “Oh, my God!”

Tears burned her eyes as she looked at Trey. “I don’t understand. I saw the papers Craig filled out on this and it was only for a hundred thousand. Why is the check for so much?”

Lyndee leaned forward, placing her hands on Anita’s knees. “Apparently, after Eli was born, Craig increased the size of the policy so you would be provided for should something happen to you. Now you have plenty to raise your family,” she said, smiling as she looked up at Dave and Kevin before returning her kind gaze to Anita. “And now, you have three men who love you and will do anything for you. I’d say you are ready to move on.”

Anita never could figure out how the woman could be so insightful at such a young age. She wished she was more like her. If she could have a hero besides her men, it would be Lyndee Dwyer.

Through her watery eyes, Anita looked up at Dave, then Kevin, and then over at James who was now cradling a sleepy Eli. They were her men and she knew they loved her. She had to thank God every day for not taking James away from her and for her escaping Virgil’s maniacal grip.

Letting her eyes rest back on Trey, who pulled some more papers from the manila folder, she had to wonder what else was next. What was announced next was shocking.

Virgil had indeed instructed Jeremy to arrange his father’s death along with Craig’s. Jeremy was supposed to inject an empty needle into Scotty to make it look like a heart attack but unfortunately the older man had fought back. Sean and Gene were collateral damage. Virgil’s plan for Anita was to seduce her and when she was ready to move on, he would have the boys killed in an accident to have her totally dependent on him. Gwen had overheard the two planning and had to be silenced. They were going to set it up that Sean and Gene were the ones who kidnapped her and took her and disappeared.

“Virgil’s father died in a one-vehicle accident when the brakes on his truck failed. The brake line had been cut but the mechanic, who was paid off by Virgil, indicated the cut was more of a tear that most likely occurred when the truck drove over something, such as a boulder or tree. Virgil was not the brightest man in the world,” Trey said with a wry chuckle. “We found the senior Mr. Cantrell’s will in a stack of papers in Virgil’s home. It indicates that a year after his death, the company was to be transferred into the worker’s ownership, to be shared equally through stock and leadership. Virgil was to act as the CEO but only in that capacity. The employees were to be his employers. Since Mr. Cantrell died a year before Craig did, we have a check for Craig’s shares made out to you. We have Scotty’s shares, also.”

Trey handed her another check which she took blindly, not bothering to look at the amount, before he continued after a quirk of his eyebrow. “With everything Virgil has put your family through, the employees, or at this point, shareholders of Cantrell Logging, would like to inform you of your share of the company.”

Anita saw Trey’s mouth move but thought she had heard him incorrectly. Dave’s hand on her left shoulder tightened, bringing her attention to him. Looking up at him in confusion she asked quietly, “What?”

“Did you hear what Trey said, darlin’?”

“I don’t understand,” she answered stoically.

Lyndee took her hand in hers, bringing Anita’s attention back to her and Trey. “It means you are now a shareholder in Cantrell Logging. Your boys will be taken care of for the rest of your life, sweetie. They want you to have this. They thought the world of Craig and of you and the boys.”

“I don’t want them to feel sorry for me. I have everything I could want with my men.”

An awkward silence descended on the room at her comment, making Anita squirm slight as everyone’s eyes were on her. She noticed a slight nod of James’s head at which Dave and Kevin moved over to him, standing off to his side, goofy grins on all of their faces. “Anita, can you please come here?” James asked quietly as not to wake the child that finally drifted off in his arms.

Hating to be the center of attention but knowing she couldn’t protest at the moment, she stood slowly and stepped over to the trio. Surprise hit her when Dave and Kevin knelt down before her and James held out a small velvet-covered box. Since his other hand was full, Dave opened it to reveal a white-gold ring with three matching diamonds as the setting.

The tears that had been threatening to fall since Trey had handed her the insurance check finally began to fall. Her hands flew to her mouth to cover any babbling that might erupt for fear little ears would hear her. Sinking to her knees, she looked at each one of the handsome faces before her, unable to believe what she was witnessing.

“Anita, we love you and want us to be a family,” Dave said, the smile on his face unwavering.

Kevin took her hand in his. “You have made us so happy in the past few months. You and the boys, and we want all that you are willing to share with us. We don’t need the money that you are getting, so you can do whatever you want with it, but please be our wife.”

Noticing James’s eyes drift to her son in his arms she knew he wasn’t speaking because he didn’t want to wake him. The endearing scene had her nodding her head as the tears streamed down her cheeks. Finally finding her voice, Anita cried out, “Yes, yes, yes! I’ll marry all of you.”

Dave took the ring from the box and slipped it onto her left ring finger before lifting it and kissing the back of it. Kevin grabbed her face between his callused hands and pulled her forward to cover her mouth with his, gently caressing her lips with his. She felt James’s had on her forearm and squeezed it.

At that surreal moment, Anita savored the joy that her men had given her unconditionally with the support of their friends. She had found a family that supported her and her boys, taking them under their family umbrella so she felt protected and loved by each and every one of them.

* * * *

The next five weeks were difficult for the adults in the home. The boys adjusted well to the three new fathers they had, though James wasn’t able to do much as he recuperated. His wounds were healing nicely under Anita’s nursing but she could tell he was getting antsy not being able to work or perform daily activities. Anita was instructed by all three men to take it easy so she could overcome her injuries but also adjust emotionally from all that Virgil had done to her. Nightmares plagued her when she slept and because James had problems going up and down the stairs, he slept with her in her bed, the only one of the three men to do so.

All three men had discussed not having sex with Anita until James was released by the doctor. Anita had suggested letting her ride James which she thought was hot but they all agreed there would be too many chances of injury, so irritability was rising in the house.

When the older two boys were at school, Dave and Kevin were working and Eli would be down for a nap, James and Anita would lie in her large bed and cuddle or lay together on the sectional. About three weeks into their recoveries, Anita helped James into her car and along with Eli drove over to the arena where the hands were breaking in some new horses the Circle G had acquired.

It provided them with an excursion out of the house which seemed to help Anita’s spirits as much as it did James’s. Of course, Eli was on top of the world being around the horses and the other hands spoiled him. Running Wolf had taken to giving Lyndee and Gina riding lessons, so teaching the boys to ride was easy for him, especially since they all wanted to learn, but Eli was at the ranch more because he wasn’t in school.

The day of James’s six week check-up, a Friday, Anita’s mother had taken the boys and the four of the adults made their way into Kalispell. That morning, Anita was told to pack a bag for the weekend and one for James, also. Dave and Kevin came home for lunch and packed their bags as then the four of them piled into the F-250.

At the doctor’s office, James was given a clean bill of health which cheered him up as his spirits had been dampening the last few weeks. Anita was ecstatic at the doctor’s proclamation of release from care announcement for she knew what that meant.

The foursome made their way to the Tipsy Tavern. Arriving at the tail end of happy hour, they found the bar about half full. Cowboys sat around drinking beers after a day’s work. Vacationing snowboarders and skiers milled around, the women trying to attract the cowboys. Music was playing loudly from the jukebox and a few people were on the dance floor.

As they made their way to a booth toward the back near the bar, Ray called out to Anita before making his way over to her. The guys sat down while she hugged her friend and former boss. “Ray, how are you doing?” she said, pulling away as her men growled.

The dark-haired man chuckled at their reaction as she rolled her eyes. “I’m good, though I miss my favorite waitress.”

Slapping his arm and giggling, she admitted, “I was your worst waitress, Ray.” Turning toward her men, she shrugged. “I was clumsy. I kept breaking glasses, or dropped the orders.”