“Fuck you, Calvin!” I try to push past him, but he stops me again, this time roughly seizing my shoulders. “Let me go!” I yell, struggling against his steel hold. “You’re hurting me!”
“You heard her.” Shepard’s clipped baritone reaches my ears, effectively stilling me. “Hands off, motherfucker.”
Calvin instantly releases me and jumps back, putting several inches between us. I whip around and the breath stalls in my lungs. My roughneck neighbors are standing front and center in my yard, murder brimming in their steel-blue orbs. Their body language says it all—coiled stance, firm jaws, and clenched fists. They’re ready to pounce at the drop of a dime. I fear for my ex-fiancé, though he doesn’t deserve my concern. He better tread very carefully or he’ll be leaving here with a black eye or two.
“Touch our woman again and you’re a dead man,” Beau growls, taking a threatening step towards the porch.
“O-ours?” Calvin stammers, his gaze cutting to mine for confirmation. “She’s with all of you?”
“That’s right,” Emmett answers him. “Leave and never come back or it won’t end well for you.”
Calvin clears the porch steps and is speeding down the street under screeching tires in sixty seconds flat. Seven years together and I’ve never seen him move so fast. One problem solved, three more to go. My other three problems are staring me right in the face, hungry expectation shining in their beautiful blue irises. They can join my ex-fiancé in the fiery place where bad people go.
“I had it under control,” I snap, fishing my keys out of my purse. “I didn’t need three crazed knights in shining armor coming to my rescue.”
“That’s not what it looked like to us,” Shepard counters, folding his arms across his chest. “He was manhandling you.”
“It’s our job to protect you,” Beau states, mimicking his brother’s actions. “We’re not going to apologize for that.”
“No, it’s not!” I shout in exasperation. “And who protects me from you three, huh? You’ve all beenmanhandlingme.”
“You like when we manhandle you, though,” Emmett quips self-assuredly, a smirk gracing his sexy lips.
I blow out a long breath. “Look, I just started my period and can’t be around testosterone right now.”
I hurry inside and slam the door behind me, quickly turning the top and bottom lock in place. My cell phone begins ringing, scaring the crap out of me.
“Jesus Christ,” I gripe, digging it out from my purse.
I shake my head, seeing it’s my mother calling.
“I’m not answering that.” I throw my cell phone and purse onto the sofa.
I’m a million percent certain Calvin called and told her about my three boyfriends. I refuse to listen to her lecture me for the next hour.
“Lulu,” I call out, padding towards the kitchen.
That’s strange. She always greets me at the door. I enter the kitchen and my gaze immediately zooms in on the island. I slowly walk up to the bowl of plump peaches and a small white box that wasn’t there yesterday.
“Those bastards broke into my goddamn house,” I mumble, cautiously opening the box.
I find my ruined thong, crusted with semen, from the other night along with a note.We have your pussy. If you want her back, come and get her. I see red. How dare they catnap my poor fur baby? I storm over to their house and bang on the front door.
“Where’s my fur baby you catnapping assholes?!” I shout.
The door swings open, revealing a grinning Shepard. “May I help you?”
Emmett lounges in a plush recliner, a beer bottle hanging loosely from his fingertips. He, too, is sporting a grin at my expense.
“You know good and well why I’m here!” I yell at him. “Give me back my cat!”
“Come inside,” he says, stepping back to grant me entry. “We won’t bite… too hard.”
“Absolutely not,” I clip out. “Bring her to me, now.”
Beau saunters from the back of the house with Lulu cradled in his arms. He lightly scratches the top of her head and she purrs like a motorboat, burrowing into his touch which is surprising. Generally, the volatile feline isn’t friendly towards strangers.
I hold out my arms. “Give her to me.”
