Nicole Edwards: Zane

“I’m not disagreeing with you,” Sawyer stated more firmly. “But we can’t have it go down like that. Not at the resort.”

Nodding his head, Zane agreed. He wouldn’t make any promises verbally just yet because until he sought his own revenge on the bastard who had damn near taken his life, Zane didn’t know what he was capable of.

“I’ll talk to Travis if you want me to,” Kaleb offered.

Again Zane nodded. This was what he wanted, and he was going to make it happen. One way or another.

Changing the subject, Zane glanced back and forth between both Kaleb and Sawyer. “Either of you want to tell me just what the hell Jake is doing harassing V? And why the hell no one’s told me about it yet?”

His brothers looked startled by the direction his question was going, and they glanced back and forth between one another. Zane felt his irritation level rapidly intensifying. He hated that they felt the need to protect him. As the youngest, he’d battled being coddled his entire life. He was a grown man and as far as he was concerned, V was his to worry about. They didn’t have any right to keep him in the dark.

“Travis is trying to nail down where Jake’s at, but we don’t know anything yet.”

“How long’s this been going on?” he asked Sawyer who seemed to be the only one willing to talk. Kaleb had hastily stuck his face back in his laptop.

“From what we know, about two months. About the same time you woke up.”

Zane wondered whether the timing was coincidental or if Jake had been keeping tabs on Zane’s condition. Either way, it didn’t make a damn bit of difference to him.

“Have either of you looked into it?” Zane knew Travis would be keeping an eye out. His brother was known for having eyes and ears all over the place.

It still surprised him that Travis hadn’t yet figured out where Jake was, nor did they have the names of the other three who’d been with him that day. Zane hadn’t known any of them. In fact, he’d never even seen them. The only thing they knew was that those three weren’t from Coyote Ridge.

“We’ve been talking to Beau. He’s taken an interest in V for the last couple of months. He’s watching her back, but I’m pretty sure she doesn’t know that.”

That wasn’t news to Zane. Beau was his best friend. They’d discussed what happened, and they were both on the same page. V was the most important as far as Zane was concerned and while he’d been in the hospital, Beau had agreed to keep an eye on her. As discreetly as possible.

He seriously needed to meet up with Beau. There were some other things Zane was ready to discuss. Like how they were going to handle Vanessa Carmichael now that Zane was home.

♀♂

“When does Gage get back in town?” V asked Zoey as they sat in a booth at Moonshiners a couple of hours later.

After going home and showering, she waited for Zoey to return and pick her up, for a much needed night out. Nursing a beer and watching the few people mulling about the bar, she wondered whether she should’ve just stayed home.

Although she hoped a drink would help alleviate some of her tension, V knew better than to think it would. Her stress was primarily related to one gorgeous as hell cowboy whom she couldn’t seem to get off of her mind lately. No matter how hard she tried.

“Next week.” Zoey grinned.

“Are you counting down the days?” V still couldn’t believe the bomb her best friend had dropped on her a couple of months ago. After a particularly stressful day, they’d both resorted to a few too many drinks and Zoey’s mouth had gotten away from her. According to her friend, she was happily enjoying a threesome with Gage Matthews and her fiancé, Kaleb. Or rather she had been before Gage set out on the road again. Being a long haul truck driver, Gage was usually gone more than he was home.

“Maybe,” Zoey’s smile lit up her entire face. The woman was something else.

V shouldn’t have been surprised by the news that Zoey was currently the focus of both men’s attention considering the history that Gage and Kaleb had. It wasn’t a secret that the two of them had a penchant for threesomes. Those rumors had come and gone a long time ago. They’d ceased to exist once Kaleb and Gage openly admitted to their trysts years ago.

V was well aware of the stories. There were plenty to go around, and they all involved one or more of the Walker brothers. It seemed each of the brothers had their own kinks, and they all somehow involved ménages in some way. Kaleb and Gage, Sawyer and Greyson, Zane and Beau... They were best friends who were notorious for their threesomes with willing women and not a single one of them denied it.

V knew Braydon and Brendon had had their fair share of rumors, but those two were a little different. Not that she had asked either of them, but from everything she had heard, neither had ever been with a girl unless the other was present. She wasn’t sure whether it was true or not, and she didn’t intend to ask.

The only two V didn’t know much about were Travis and Ethan. People didn’t talk about Travis Walker, and she didn’t know if it were because they didn’t know about his sexual preferences or if they just chose not to poke the bear so to speak. As for Ethan, he was too quiet, and no one actually knew much about him. She knew he’d had a couple of relationships, but they usually were short lived and never discussed.

In fact, the tales that were spun through the years were so common that V hadn’t even considered what might be happening behind closed doors where her best friend was concerned. Never would she have imagined sweet little Zoey Stranford in a threesome. To have heard from her best friend’s mouth had been shocking. It was even more surprising that there weren’t any rumors going around about the trio. V was also surprised that there weren’t any other rumors circulating.

Like ones including her and Zane.

And Beau.

V hadn’t told a soul about the encounter she’d had with Zane and his best friend, nor did she intend to. The first time that it happened, V had been a little out of sorts. Being pinned beneath Zane Walker was a unique form of sensual pleasure, but being sandwiched between both Beau and Zane was almost more than she could handle. It’d changed her. Indefinitely.

Not that Zoey knew that, but V got the impression her friend had picked up on something. Especially considering the way Beau came to her side after Zane’s attack. It had been unexpected, to say the least.

“Are y’all planning a reunion?” V pushed Zoey for more information. It’s what she did. And yes, her best friend pushed back just as hard, and she knew at some point, her friend was going to insist that she talk about things better kept to herself.

Zoey’s face turned pink, visible even in the dim lights of the bar, and her grin said more than words ever could.

V laughed. “You’re looking forward to being the cream filling in that little sandwich, aren’t you?”

Zoey didn’t answer, but she laughed, and then turned her attention to the door, and V’s eyes followed.

Holy shit.

V didn’t know what it was about the sight of all that masculinity as the Walker brothers piled in one after the other, but it gave her goose bumps to see it. There were four of them walking their way.

Women of all ages swooned over the Walker brothers, but V couldn’t necessarily blame them. Every one of them was over six feet tall, packed with muscle and wildly charming. On the days they were decked out in jeans and cowboy hats, like today, V was pretty sure they left women fainting in their path. She almost expected to see it now.

“What’s up ladies?” Braydon greeted the two of them with a seductive, crooked smile as he grabbed a chair and pulled it over to the end of the booth she and Zoey were sitting in.