Sophie Oak - Three to Ride

“No!” Max shouted.

Rye tipped his hat in a gallant gesture. “Ma’am, anyone can see that your assault of my brother’s person was entirely provoked.”

“Good.” Rachel suddenly felt the weight of the entire diner looking at her. She turned, and, sure enough, there were a whole bunch of faces pressed against the glass. Rachel smoothed her apron down and tossed the bouquet on Max’s lap. “I’m going back to work now. You’ll understand if I choose not to see you this evening, Max. I’ve had my fill of men thinking they own me.”

“Rachel—” Max got to his feet.

“Goodbye, Max,” she said. He looked so sad standing there that she wanted nothing more than to wrap her arms around him and tell him she forgave him. It was a mistake she couldn’t afford to make. She forced herself to turn and walk back into the diner. She told herself she could cry over him later.

There was a loud cheer as she walked through the doors and got back to work.

Max stared at Rachel’s retreating figure and tried to figure out how the hell he was going to fix this. It was obvious now that he’d completely overreacted to the situation. He didn’t even understand what the situation was, but he knew he’d done something wrong. No woman had ever tried to brutally kill a man with a bouquet of flowers unless he’d seriously screwed up.

He dusted the rose petals off his shirt and out of his hair. He picked up his hat off the ground and held it in his hand. He would be polite this time. He would follow the rules of courtesy.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Rye stood firmly in his way, a barrier to all he held dear.

Max hadn’t missed the way his brother looked at Rachel. Rye was falling for her, too, and Max didn’t know what to do about it. He couldn’t see Rachel accepting the type of relationship they would want. None of that would matter if he couldn’t convince her to see him again. “I’m going to talk to Rachel.”

The frown on his brother’s face let Max know exactly what Rye thought of that plan. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea, brother. I think she might need a little time to cool down. That honey’s downright mean when you get on her bad side.”

He was going to have to grovel. He knew it would shock most of the people in town, but he was more than willing to do it if it got him back in Rachel’s good graces. “I’ve got to talk to her.”

Rye strode over and put a hand on his shoulder. “She’s not going anywhere. If you walk into that diner, you’ll be doing the very thing she asked you not to do.”

Max let his head fall back in frustration. It was the opposite of the day he’d planned out. He’d bought flowers and champagne. He planned to take her to the Swiss House. It was the nicest restaurant in driving distance from the town. He was going to woo her the way he wanted to. He’d also planned on taking her back to the motel and fucking her brains out, but that was only after he’d made her feel like a princess.

Instead he’d managed to turn his happy kitten into a raging woman scorned because he couldn’t control his damn temper. He shoved a hand through his hair and came back with silky rose petals. “I can’t leave it like this.” He couldn’t. It went against his very nature to sit back and hope things turned out okay.

“We have bigger problems, Max.” Rye lent him a hand and pulled a long green stem out of the neck of his shirt. “There’s a reason she lied about the motel. She’s living out of her car.”

“What?” Max breathed the question. His mind raced. He thought about the tightly packed Jeep. He’d been too eager to take her again last night. He’d completely missed the signs. Now he remembered that she’d had a blanket in the backseat. It hadn’t been neatly folded. It had been laid out and wrinkled up like someone had slept on it. She was sleeping in her car. He’d made love to her, held her, and enjoyed her body and then left her to sleep in her car. Max’s heart started to race. Anything could happen to her. There really were bears in the woods, not to mention the fact that anyone could smash in the window and do what they wanted to her.

Rye slapped him on the back. “Calm down. She won’t need to sleep in her car anymore. We’ll take care of her.”

“We have to convince her to move in with us.” Max was panicking. How long had she been homeless? What had already happened to her?

“I don’t think that’s going to be easy.” Rye crossed his arms over his chest and appeared lost in thought. “Here’s the good news. She isn’t intimidated by your temper.”

Max laughed. “Hardly.” She’d been an avenging goddess coming after him. He’d been intimidated. And strangely aroused.

“The bad news is she now thinks you’re a possessive asshole, and she seems to take exception to the type as a whole.”

“Well, I am a possessive asshole. At least I am where she’s concerned. But hell, Rye, she lied to me. I didn’t just make something up this time. I probably should have asked politely, but you know how I get.” Rye should know. He was the one who had to talk Max down most of the time.

“I do,” Rye said. “If it helps, I don’t think it was you she was mad at, not entirely.”

“It sure felt like it when she wailing on me.” She’d been ready to shove his flowers where the sun didn’t shine.

“She said she was tired of men thinking they owned her. If I had to guess, I would say she’s had a bad boyfriend or two in her time. Maybe she’s been abused. You’re going to have to prove you’re not just like them.”

“Well, I can’t go in after her.” The whole situation was making Max miserable. All he wanted to do was walk into that diner, throw her over his shoulder, and whisk her away to someplace private. That plan probably wouldn’t make Rachel think he was civilized. It would just cement his reputation as a caveman. “She told me not to. If I barge in, I’ll be a bullying asshole. If I wait out here for her, I’m a stalker. If I don’t wait, she could drive off, and I might never see her again. I need to get her alone and talk to her.”

Rye looked back toward the rear lot where Rachel parked her car. “Well, she can’t drive off if she doesn’t have a car. It would be a damn shame if her car got stolen and taken out to our place. I’d have to wait here to give her a ride over to retrieve her car.”

Max thought it was a brilliant idea. His brother was really the devious one. “She didn’t say anything about stealing her car.”

“Of course, if she decides to press charges, I’ll have to arrest you, bro.”

“That’s a risk I’m willing to take.” Max flexed his fingers. He had some work to do. He only hoped Marie had some more flowers left.

By six o’clock, Rachel was dead on her feet. She should have been off two hours before, but she’d let Jen leave early because she could use the cash. She would have worked a complete double if Stella needed the help. She would have done just about anything to avoid the time when she had to drive around and find a place to hole up for the night. Even as she walked through the diner’s double doors, tears were threatening to fall.

Why had Max turned out to be a jerk? It was better this way, she told herself. She’d gotten what she wanted out of it. She’d had great sex with a man who knew what he was doing. It was just the sex that she would miss. Max Harper had given her more pleasure than she’d ever had before. She wasn’t in love with him, and she didn’t want to have anything at all to do with his cop brother.

So why was her heart aching at the thought of not touching him again? She shook her head and sighed. There was nothing to do about it. She wouldn’t be involved with a man who treated her like that. He would take and take and give nothing back. She would just put him out of her mind and focus on the problems ahead. She needed a place to sleep. If she found a spot quickly enough, maybe she could read for a while before it got too dark. Then she’d gaze up at the stars and hope to get some sleep.

Rachel stared at the space where her car should be. A horrible panic spread over her body. The spot where she knew she’d parked was empty. Someone had taken her car. It was all she had in the world. All the money she had was in that car, carefully hidden in the floorboard along with her fake IDs and other important papers. She couldn’t lose her car.

“Rachel?”

She whirled around, and Rye Harper stood there in his khaki uniform. He looked strangely comforting. “Someone stole my car,” she said as she felt tears roll down her cheeks.

Rye shook his head and reached out for her. She was so numb with terror that she allowed him to hold her hands in his. “Rachel, sweetheart, your car is out at the ranch. It’s fine.”

His words sank in, and her terror turned to anger. Max had done this to her? “He stole my car?”

“Max’s youth was…very interesting.”

If Max had done the crime, then Rye had to have been in on it. “You let him steal my car?”

Rye’s face was open with the faintest hint of a grin on his generous lips. “Well, darlin’, I was unfortunately looking the other way at the time. He told me there was a bear coming, and by the time I realized his terrible deception, he was driving off in your Jeep. I think there was some maniacal laughter in there somewhere. Super villains. What are you going to do?”

Rachel didn’t appreciate the comedy. She was angrier than she’d been in a long time. She had felt numb for so long, but now the Harper brothers were bringing all her emotions to the surface. “I want him arrested and thrown in jail.”

Rye sobered, and then he nodded slowly. “If that’s what you want. I’ll take you out to our place, and then I’ll take him in.”