Protecting Lexi (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (14 page)

Holy Shit! It’s Lenny Cook. Here he is in town trying to buy drugs from a dealer, right in broad daylight. What a goddamn idiot. No wonder he’s such a loser and belongs in prison. I have to contact the local police and Sheriff Adkins without him noticing someone has recognized him.

The bastard was there in Gillette. He was practically in their backyard, and they didn’t even know how close he had gotten to Alexis. Billy was shocked that he was right in front of him. He pretended to not pay attention to the men and proceeded to the store. He walked in and picked up the nearest item by the door just to keep an eye on them. He needed enough time to make some phone calls to alert T.J. and the authorities of Lenny’s whereabouts.

Ten minutes later, Billy watched the men exchange money and drugs and followed Lenny to the dingy, run-down motel he was holed up in. Billy’s first phone call was to Sheriff T.J. Adkins. Adkins told him to sit tight and just wait for them in the parking lot and to let them know if Lenny tried to take off before they got there.

Billy then called Kane and ran down everything he just told the sheriff. Kane told him that he and Max were on their way. They wanted to hitch a ride with the sheriff so they didn’t have all the trucks and cars show up at the same time in the parking lot.

* * * *

“I can’t believe we let this no-good piece of shit get this close to her. Let me get my hands on him first. Just give me five minutes in his motel room and he will never threaten or ever want to utter Alexis’s name ever again while he rots in prison.” Max was pissed. Kane didn’t blame him one bit. Now that they knew where Lenny was, they intended on having a few words with him before the police led him back to prison where he belonged.

“Now wait a minute. You both know I can’t let you get close to him. I am the law, and I still have to stand by everything I was trained to do in a situation such as this. I will, however, let you accompany me in his arrest. You two have to sit in the truck until I bring him out.” The sheriff said while driving on the outskirts of Gillette. “We’re almost to the motel now. I need you to promise me that you both will lay low until I have him handcuffed and restrained.”

Kane couldn’t make that promise. Before they left the house, they had asked Maria to stay with Lexi until they got home. They had told her that Billy had car trouble and needed them to drive out there to Gillette to give him a hand. They asked her not to leave the house for any reason and told her that they would be home as soon as possible.

Before they left, Kane and Max grabbed their Colt 1911 and Berretta 9mm pistols just in case things got hairy. They were trained in the military to shoot first and ask questions later. They just didn’t leak that type of information out to the public. They couldn’t let the enemy get a jump on them if they had a say in it, and Lenny was no exception.

“Billy said he hasn’t left his room since he got there. He probably took a hit of the drugs he bought and is enjoying his high. You could say we’re lucky he has this drug addiction or else we wouldn’t have found his ass this easy,” T.J said as they pulled into the parking lot next to the motel in the spot next to Billy’s truck.

All four men got out of the trucks and walked toward the fast food restaurant as if they were all just going there for lunch or something. They took the booth up front where they had a view of Lenny’s door.

“Okay. This is what’s going to happen. Billy will be waiting in the front, making sure no one crosses the parking lot and gets in the line of fire, if there is one. Max and Kane, you two go around the back of the motel and make sure he doesn’t try to sneak out of the window and pull a fast one on us. I’ll distract him into coming outside, and that’s when we’ll take him down. Hopefully, he’s so high he won’t even know what hits him and he’s in the back of my patrol car and in handcuffs before he knows it,” he said as he stared out the window. “Everyone okay with what you’re supposed to do? Any questions?” They all shook their heads in agreement. “All right then, we need to exit the restaurant at different times so we don’t look conspicuous.”

Kane watched as Billy walked toward the front of the motel. He followed Max as they went around the long way to the back of the motel. They each stood ready for whatever might come their way. Kane could see the way Max’s eyes grew cold and gray, just as they had when they were serving in the Marines and they were about to go under attack. Some things never changed.

Once a Marine, always a Marine.

Kane could hear T.J. knock on the motel door. He couldn’t hear any movement from the room. Either Lenny was hiding and pretending not to be there or he was getting ready to go out the back. Either way, they were ready.

Max and Kane stared at one another in confusion. They both had taken the safety off on their pistols just in case they actually needed them. He could hear the pounding on the door grow louder, still no response. They heard the door open and that’s when Kane’s phone rang in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw it was T.J.

“Yeah?”

“Well, there’s good news and bad news. The good news is Billy and I are here with Lenny…the bad news is he’s already dead,” Billy said on the other end.

Kane released the breath he had been holding in since he had answered. “Okay, we’ll be there in a minute. Kane disconnected the phone and looked at Max as he clicked the safety on his gun back on and watched Max do the same.

“It seems we can’t get our hands on Lenny ourselves. T.J. found Lenny dead in his room before we got there.”

Max watched Kane before he said, “Let’s go see what the hell’s going on.”

Kane had thought of nothing more than this very moment since he found out that Lenny was right where they wanted him. He and Max had talked about it on the ride over as to what they really wanted to do to him once they got their hands on the man who dared to threaten their woman.

Max had said he wanted one minute beating the shit out of him while Kane followed through with putting an accidental bullet in his shoulder as a reminder to him of not to ever think about messing with them ever again. It seems destiny had its own way of handling Lenny before they did.

* * * *

Max was tired, hungry, and highly agitated with the day’s turn of events. They had their highs and lows all in a matter of a few hours. Finding out they knew where Lenny Cook was hiding and would finally be able to get up close and personal with the asshole had been a shock to them. Kane and he were only sorry they didn’t get to kick the shit out of him before he died of a drug overdose in his motel room.

T.J. pulled the truck up to the house, and Max watched as Alexis stepped onto the front porch. Her arms were wrapped around herself watching them as they exited from the truck. She walked down the steps until she was face-to-face with them.

Max stepped forward and enveloped her in a tight hug then pulled away to place a soft kiss on her lips before releasing her into the waiting arms of Kane.

Kane stood before her with his hands on her hips. “Lexi, honey, we have to talk.”

Max could tell she already didn’t like the way this conversation was heading. She glanced over her shoulder to look at T.J. standing by his car door with a blank look on his face.

Kane took her chin into his hand to look into her eyes. “We lied to you today when we told you that Billy had car trouble and we needed to drive out to Gillette to give him a hand with the truck.”

Max could tell she wasn’t happy about the lying-to-her issue. He watched as her body grew tight and tense.

“Baby, the reason why we really went out there was because Lenny Cook was holed up in a motel in Gillette and lucky for us Billy called T.J. first before the police got ahold of him or he made his way here to you,” Kane said.

* * * *

Alexis was shocked by the news that Kane had just told her. She couldn’t believe that Lenny Cook had gotten that close to her.

She stepped out of arm’s reach and stood facing them both. “What happened? Did they catch him and send him back where he belonged?” From the tone of her voice, it was clear that she was terrified of what came next. Is this where her time ended? Is this where she had to say good-bye to the two men she had fallen so hopelessly in love with?

Max said to her as he held her hand, “Baby, Lenny’s dead. By the time we got to the hotel room, he was already dead. Billy had spotted him in town while trying to purchase drugs. That’s when we hightailed it with T.J. to confront him before we turned him over to the local authorities. By time we had a chance, T.J. found his body instead.”

“He’s dead? This is over? I don’t have to fear for my life anymore
?
”
I have to go back to my boring life and leave behind the two best things that have ever happened to me

She worried when they left so abruptly this afternoon. She could tell there was something going on. They had been acting kind of strangely about just going to help Billy out. Alexis knew they were hiding something.

As the day had gone by, her worry had increased She wondered what was keeping her men.
Her men? Where did that come from?
Last night she had confessed her love to them during the heat of the moment. She had never felt so happy and content in all her life. Now that Lenny was no longer a threat to her, would she be asked to leave? Did they even want her to be a part of their lives, or was it only a temporary thing? Even though they had both told her they were in love with her, did they really mean it, or did they just say it because she said it first?

Kane pulled her to his chest and said, “Lexi, let’s go inside and sit down. We’ll tell you everything you need to know.”

Alexis watched as T.J. drove down the driveway away from the house
. Why wasn’t he taking her with him?
Her
protection from Lenny was no longer necessary. Shouldn’t she be in the back of his vehicle on her way back to her home?
Home?
Where was that now? Since she had sold her condo, she had nowhere to live. She didn’t want to live anywhere but here with Kane and Max. They were her everything. She loved them, and last night they had declared their love to her.

Kane led her into the family room and sat next to her on the couch. Max had come from the kitchen with a glass of water he handed to her.

“Maria said to tell you she will see you tomorrow. She needed to get home to her husband,” Max said.

Alexis’s hands were now trembling. She felt she was going to drop the glass she was holding. She didn’t have any clue what was going to happen to her now.

Kane took the glass from her and pulled her to sit in his lap. She laid her head against his shoulder. She felt at ease and relaxed when she was in their arms. They were her strength and power. Max and Kane had helped her to grow a backbone against the evil that she had endured. They had promised her nothing bad would ever hurt her. She always felt warm and safe while in their care.
What am I going to do without them?

* * * *

Kane could tell she was trying to figure out what was going to happen now to her. He and Max needed to assure her that she was meant for them and they wanted her to be in their lives forever. Alexis was their greatest gift of love. She needed to know that they would do anything to have her as their wife, the mother of their children, and that their soul ambition in life was to make her happy.

“Lexi, sweetheart, how are you handling all this? Do you need anything? Do you have any questions you want to ask us?” He could tell she had something on her mind as she looked at her hands in her lap. He lifted her chin so he could see her eyes. He could see she was on the verge of crying.

Alexis’s mouth opened, but before she could say anything, she began to cry. She laid her head against his shoulder once again. Kane held her tight against his body. Max leaned into her back and rubbed her neck as she cried. It broke his heart to hear her cry like this. This was one thing he swore to never do.
I never want Alexis to cry again
.
I promise to do anything in my power to make her smile for the rest of our lives, if she’ll have us.
He would make a solemn vow. No woman of his would ever be sad or unhappy.

“Why did T.J. leave so quickly? Is Peter going to come and get me now that this is all over? Oh God, what am I going do? Where am I going to live?” Alexis got off his lap and began to pace the floor in the family room. She was starting to mumble to herself to where Kane couldn’t hear what exactly she was saying.

“Honey, come sit down here so we can talk,” Max said with pleading eyes.

“Max is right, baby, we have a lot to talk about between the three of us. If you don’t want to sit down, why don’t we go take a walk out to the barn? I think we all could use some fresh air.”

Kane watched as she nodded and said, “Okay. That sounds good.” She and Max walked to the back door as Kane followed. It broke his heart to watch her shuffle her feet and slump her shoulders in defeat, as if she was walking on death row.

He saw Alexis walk to Blossom’s stall and begin to stroke her nose with a gentle brush. She had really brought the horse around. Blossom was now allowing them to get close without causing them havoc. Alexis still went out and fed her carrots every morning and in the evenings after dinner. Kane even caught her talking to the horse one day. She used a soft, gentle voice with her.

Max and Kane stood on either side of her as she pet the horse’s nose. “Lexi, can you come and sit down on the barrel of hay. Max and I have some things to get off our chest.”

Alexis walked over and sat down. Her hands were once again in her lap. This was the first time they had ever seen her so frightened, almost panicky.

Max sat on the stack next to her so he faced her. Kane kneeled down on the floor to be eye level with her as he spoke. “Lexi, we all knew there would be a time where they would eventually find and capture Lenny. We’re just thankful that he wasn’t able to find you first. Max and I believe all that you have endured since the incident has happened for a reason. I believe you were brought here for a much bigger matter than just because of Lenny. We have been looking for someone to share our life with for a long time now. It’s been a dream of ours that one day we would find someone as beautiful, smart, and compassionate as you are.”