It Takes Three to Fly (14 page)

“Do you need something?” Shane inquired as politely as he could manage. Only he didn’t sound polite. He sounded ill-tempered and borderline violent, which seemed to amuse Ethan and Brett.

“What did I tell you, E?” Brett asked. “He came around before we had to do something drastic.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Shane countered in confusion.

Ethan gave a half shrug. “We wanted to push you two closer together. What better way to do it than make your stubborn ass jealous?”

“Are you two insane?” Shane demanded to know. “I wanted to kill you. Hell, if it had gotten much further, I would have killed you. I am not even ruling out the possibility of murder right now.”

“You could have tried,” Ethan replied without a trace of unease, “but you would have lost. Brett is a mean son of a bitch when he fights.”

“True,” Brett agreed with a sheepish smile.

“Did Katie-Anne put the two of you up to this?” Shane asked before he thought better of it. And, boy, did he regret that he hadn’t let his brain work before opening his big mouth.

Every man around him looked at him like he’d lost his fucking mind. All of them blurted out something—at the same time. Their words blended and made it hard for Shane to understand any of them.

“What?” Adam asked, his eyes widening in shock.

Ethan frowned and demanded, “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Have you lost your mind?” Brett inquired, staring at Shane like he knew the answer to his own question and was furious because of it.

Deke topped off the barrage of questions with the one Landon had asked him just yesterday. He asked the question guaranteed to make Shane violent. “You say you want to share her, but do you even know her?”

“Of course I know her,” Shane snapped. Losing his appetite, he pushed his plate away. “And I am getting pretty damn tired of people thinking I don’t.”

Ethan plopped down in the booth next to Shane, shoving him aside with a surprising amount of strength. “Scooch.”

Shane grunted but did as Ethan said begrudgingly, his curiosity overriding his animosity. He wanted to know what the hell was going on around him so he had to play along with them. Sliding all the way to the wall, Shane allowed Ethan and Brett to join him, Deke, and Adam.

Ethan grabbed the long, lone slice of bacon on Shane’s plate and bit into it. With a mouthful of food, he asked, “You’re done with this, right?”

Shane gritted his teeth, holding back a growl, but nodded. “I am.”

“Good,” Ethan mumbled then wiped the crumbs from his lips. “So you love her? Am I correct?”

“Yes,” Shane declared. The words fell from his with surprising ease. It felt right to say them aloud, finally. Picking up his coffee cup, he blew on the too-hot-to-drink liquid.

Ethan glanced over at Deke. “Do you think we should tell him? Is he finally ready for it?”

Ready for what?
Shane’s stomach flipped over, and the food inside it seemed to turn sour. It was all he could do to not lose his breakfast on the table. Now, that would really infuriate Lou. The man had an anti-vomiting rule in his café. Fearing the man coming down on them like a ton of bricks, it was a rule no one broke. They got the hell out of there beforehand.

Deke eyed Shane wearily then nodded. “I think so, Ethan.”

“You are not reassuring me,” Ethan said antagonistically. He crossed his arms and twisted his upper body. Glowering menacingly at Shane, he grunted. “I think we should make him do something to prove he’s worthy of the truth.”

“Shut up, Ethan,” Brett ordered with a glower of his own, only he’d sent his to his friend and not to Shane. “He has every right to know. She shouldn’t have kept this all a secret for this long.”

“Agreed,” Adam said. “This is a long time coming, but she is still going to be pissed as hell when she finds out. She is never going to believe that we are doing this for her own good.”

Unease creeped down Shane’s spine, and he asked, “For what? Will someone tell me what the hell you guys are being so cryptic about? What did Katie-Anne do?”

Deke rounded on Shane, facing him entirely, and said, “Don’t make me regret telling you what I’m about to tell you—brother or not. I am risking her friendship for this. Hell, I’m risking a fucking lawsuit.”

Shane frowned, but nodded solemnly. Something was off, and he damn well wanted to know what it was. He would have said anything and done anything at that moment to get Deke and the others to talk. “I won’t. Now, I want to know what the fuck is going on with Katie-Anne. Is she okay? Is she in some sort of trouble?”

Deke took a deep breath as though preparing for a battle, making Shane’s unease turn to downright panic. Whatever was going on was not going to be good for him—or possibly Katie-Anne’s pretty ass.

“Katie-Anne is not who or what you or anyone else around here thinks she is,” Deke stated flatly. “She is TL Jacobsen, and she has been working for me and Adam for the last two years.”

“What?” Shane asked before glancing at every man at the table. He went from one to the next rapidly. Each of them had a look about them that didn’t sit well with Shane. Adam looked concerned, and Deke looked stressed. Ethan looked frustrated, and Brett looked grim.

“When we were visiting you several years ago, I dropped by The Blank Canvas to check out an up-and-coming artist that sold directly to them,” Adam explained, staring intently at Shane with probing eyes. “I had heard about TL Jacobsen from several friends in the art world, so I thought I would see what everyone was talking about.”

Holy fuck.
Shane didn’t like where this was going. Surely, she wouldn’t have hid something of that magnitude from everyone in town.

Adam picked up his coffee and took a sip before going on, “Lainey had a handful of paintings from the reclusive artist, and she showed them to me.” He set his drink down with a sigh. “Apparently, TL was opening a new business and desperately needed a fairly large sum of money to fund it.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Shane muttered, trying to stop him before he made an ass of himself. The man obviously had no clue what he was talking about. “I know what you are going to say, but you just proved yourself wrong. Katie-Anne Blakemore’s trust fund could feed the homeless in several third-world countries. There is no way she couldn’t afford enough to open one measly store.”

“Could she?” Ethan inquired as he waved at Sam who’d just walked through the front door. He indicated that his friend should join them with a flick of his wrist. “Really?”

“Shut up, Ethan,” Adam ordered. “He’s an impatient bastard, and I will address every minute question he has when I’m ready. Just give me some time, damn it.”

Sam came up next to the booth and sat down quietly. He obviously picked up on the stress-filled vibes coming off every man sitting there.

“Fine,” Shane snapped in irritation, “but get on with it.”

“
Anyway
,” Adam stressed as he leaned back in the red, vinyl seat. “We spoke with Lainey about purchasing those paintings and commissioning several more. Over the next year, we bought so many paintings that I honestly lost count. It just made sense for her to be on our staff, so we discussed it with Lainey who set up a meeting for us and TL.”

“Then what?” Shane demanded to know before crossing his arms furiously. He didn’t think he could take much more of this slow torture. Couldn’t they just spell it out for him—fast—like ripping off a fucking Band-Aid? “Everything just magically came out?”

Deke cleared his throat. “Of course not, Shane. Don’t be an ass. We, obviously, were not aware of her identity nor was she ours. When we entered the room, her eyes widened and she took off like a bat out of hell, nearly knocking us over in the process. It took us two solid weeks to convince Katie-Anne to even speak to us about it.”

“Well, you obviously worked the whole damn thing out,” Shane said snidely.

“I bewitched her with my charm,” Adam replied with a big, too-cocky smile.

“Whatever,” Deke said, paying no attention to Adam. “She finally came to our office in Luscious and spoke openly about everything.”

“Everything?” Shane asked nervously, watching Deke carefully for any signs of dishonesty. When he found none, Shane sat back with an, “ooph.”

Adam nodded and confirmed, “Everything we needed to know.”

“She had been working under an alias for some time. She paints, sculpts, and designs various products, most of which Adam and I invest in—even though she is unaware of our affiliation with them.”

Shane wanted to know one thing, and he couldn’t wait for them to get to it. His impatience won out. “Why in the hell would she do all of this?”

“
Someone
once told her she was nothing but fluff,” Deke told him pointedly. “Apparently, she was determined to prove him wrong, and she didn’t care whether or not he found out. All she cared about was knowing that she could pull it off.”

Deke’s answer was worse than a knife to his gut. Shane had said that to her. He’d been the one she was proving wrong.
What the hell have I done?

A sharp elbow to his ribs jarred Shane, and he blinked, looking around at the men in the booth with him. They all seemed to be keeping a close eye on him as though waiting for him to spontaneously combust in the middle of the diner.

“Stop thinking so much,” Ethan said, then elbowed him again. “We still have a lot more to talk about.”

Fuck.
What else could they tell him that would make him feel like a bigger heel than he already did?
I’m sure they have a lot more where this came from, asshole.

A thought struck Shane. “How do you, Brett, and Sam fit into this?”

“We’ll get to that in a minute.” Ethan peered at Adam with a smirk. “You were right. He is an impatient bastard.”

Adam shrugged negligently. “I told you so.”

Cutting Ethan a sharp look, Brett shut Ethan up without uttering a word. At the same time, Deke gave Adam an identical look. But Adam just glared right back at him. The two men’s dominant personalities clashed and neither of them backed down.

“Keep going,” Shane demanded, hoping to interrupt the two men’s battle for dominance. “Don’t stop now.”

Deke broke eye contact with Adam, looking at Shane with a frown before he went on. “Katie-Anne has a past that most people are not privy to, a past that you need to discuss with her and not me. But she is not fluff, Shane, not at all.”

“You’ve seen her, Deke,” Shane said, grasping at straws. He wasn’t ready to concede that they were completely right, and he was entirely, horribly wrong—again. “You know how she acts.”

“Yeah, I do,” Deke concurred. “I have seen her, but it is nothing more than an act. Surely you can see that.”

Shane felt his brow furrow. Ignoring the last statement Deke made, he asked in a strangled voice, “Why would she do that? Even if she did it with me and Landon, why would she feel the need to lie to her best friends or her brother or, hell, to anyone else?”

Sam spoke up for the first time since sitting down. “Don’t you think it is much easier for people to despise the person you are pretending to be than having them hate you for the person you really are?”

“It just doesn’t make sense,” Shane responded as he held on to that last, fragile piece of hope that he wasn’t the biggest fool on the planet.

“Katie-Anne is a very complex woman,” Ethan commented as he plucked a fork from the table and peered at each of the plates on the table. He assessed each plate with his eyes as though trying to choose the best food. “She is one of my closest friends, and I love her.”

“Before you kill my friend, he is not interested in Katie-Anne. None of us are,” Brett reassured him. “It has always been you and Landon for her.”

“Yeah,” Ethan agreed as he speared a piece of fruit off of Adam’s plate. “Our girl has a stupid five-date rule. After five dates, she dumps them—no matter who they are or how she feels. She loves ’em and leaves ’em.” He stuck the fork in his mouth with a moan and ate the fruit. “Well, except, Rafe. He is the only one who managed to stick around.”

“Did you have to go there?” Deke asked, his fury palpable. “He’s not ready to hear about Rafe, their relationship, or their trip to The Edge of Kinky.”

“He has a right to know, and I am going to tell him,” Ethan defended himself. “Seriously, if we are going to lay everything on the table, he needs to know about Rafe. That man knows a lot about Katie-Anne, probably more than most people do. If he wants to be with Katie-Anne, he needs to understand her. Since Rafe is in town with his sister, Izzie, he might want to talk to him.”

Oh yeah, I’ll talk to him. My fist and his face will have a nice, long chat.

Shane gave Deke his undivided attention. “You knew about this, I presume.” He was amazed that he was able to disguise the fury in his tone. The last thing he needed to do was piss them off right now. But later, they would not escape his wrath.

“Of course I knew,” Deke informed him with a grimace. “I am the one who introduced them.”

Shane’s head just about blew off as he realized his own brother’s betrayal. His blood pressure went through the roof, and he leaned across the table and grabbed his brother by the lapels of his tailored jacket. “You knew how I feel about her. You knew how Landon feels. Why in the fucking world would you do that to us?”