Darkness & Lies: A Brotherhood Novel (#1) (3 page)

Snuggled deep within their sleeping bags, Cathy was regaling them with tales from her adventures in bank telling while Cheyenne and Hadley listened intently
,
sha
r
ing a few well-earned laughs along the way.

“I’m telling you guys, the man wrote a check for three
billion
dollars, and as if that wasn’t ridiculous enough, he asked for it all in twenties!”  The women broke out in a fit of
laughter
at the absurdity of it.

“What happened then?” Hadley asked, wiping the tears from her eyes.

“I told him I had to have the manager sign off since it was such a large amount
,
then I went
to the
back and called the cops. It was pretty sad too. The guy really thought he was
going to
get that money for a minute there. At least until the officers slapped the cuffs on his wrists and dragged him out
of
the door.”

“That’s really sad.
” Hadley frowned. “I mean, ma
y
be he really needed the money. Maybe he was homeless or something.”

“Or maybe,” Cheyenne smirked, “he was just really stupid.”

Hadley smacked her arm as if
offended,
but she couldn’t hide the smile playing at the corner of her mouth. “
You’re
stupid, Chy.”

“And you’re too soft-
hearted for your own good,” Cheyenne rebutted. “I swear, Lee, one of these days you’re gonna be taken to the cleaners by some poor sap with a good sob story.”

Cathy gave an unfeminine snort. “Too late
,
Chy, Cam already got to her.”

Cheyenne smothered a laugh. Cameron was Ha
d
ley’s husband. Ten years ago they had met in a coffee shop down the block from her apartment. Hadley had noticed his mopey, withdrawn behavior
and being
the bleeding heart that she
was; she
had approached the perfect stranger and asked him if there was anything the matter. Of
course,
he spilled the
classic story about a bad break-
up and a cheating ex and Hadley had fallen for it hook, line and
sinker.

They had been inseparable ever since
—
except for these outings
,
of course, but not for the sake of trying. Ev
e
ry year Cameron would plead his case and every year, to her continued surprise, Hadley shot him down. Cheyenne was the only one who knew it was
because this was a rare
opportunity
for Hadley
to break free of her daily grind and Cam’s clinging vine routine. Hadley needed the
break,
plain and simple.

Cameron was a loving husband and an attentive
f
a
ther,
but he was severely lacking in a lot of areas. While Hadley was playing the role of housewife, maid, mother, chef and chauffeur,
Cameron was working part
time
shifts at the r
efinery. Barely clocking in more than twenty hours a week, he never ceased to come home and demand his ritual beer while he fused his ass to the recliner and got lost in
his video games
for the remaining eight hours of the
day.

Cheyenne had been playing counselor to Hadley’s
pent-up anger
for last few years as tensions began running higher. Not that Cameron had ever noticed t
he change.
However,
men always seemed to wear their blinders where their personal life was concerned; which was why Che
y
enne had remained blissfully single most of her adult
life.

Whenever she found herself getting lonely and that familiar itch to seek out a mate became too strong, she would snuggle up with a bucket of rocky road and her f
a
vorite author, J.R. Ward and her delicious men of the Brotherhood
,
and get lost in the fantasy of hulking, leather clad, emotionally wrecked males
whom
she would be all too happy to dive in and
fix.

And that was wherein the problem lies. No man, u
n
less they were a fictional character dreamed up by a wo
m
an, would ever be that incredibly devoted, loving, attentive and sexy. Not that Cheyenne would ever mark men off her list entirely. She had needs too. It was just that, aside from the perfect specimen dropping out of the clear blue sky, sword in hand ready to defend her to the death, there would never be a man alive that would meet her specifications.

“You really are a bleeding heart though.” Cheyenne caught the wicked gleam in Cathy’s eyes even as her face dropped into a pitiful pout. “Speaking of, you think I could borrow a couple grand? My rent is overdue because I bought these really cute shoes that were
way
out of my price
range,
and my landlord says that if I don’t pay by the end of the week
,
I’ll be on the street. I don’t want to be a streetwalker, Leelee.” Cathy swiped at her face as if she were
crying.

“I know you don’t think I’m falling for those croc
o
dile tears, Cat!” Hadley snapped good-naturedly. “I swear you
two; I
don’t know why I even bother.”

Cheyenne and Cathy shared a look before bursting out laughing
,
earning a quizzical look from Hadley. “One, because you love us,” Cathy said.

“And two,” Cheyenne chimed in, “because if you weren’t here with us, you’d be wiping up spills and chan
g
ing poopy diapers while
Cam
beckoned for another beer because he had such a long and ‘stressful’ day at work.” Cheyenne made air quotes to emphasize her annoyance.

“Stressful my eye,” Cathy snorted. “I’d like to see him survive
one
day in that mad house and come away even
half
as sane or polished as our Leelee here.” She shuddered. “Believe me, I have spent an afternoon in the Silverman household, and I for one, have gained a
new-found 
respect for mothers with toddlers.”

“Hey, it may be rough at times, but I hardly think it was that terrible,” Hadley defended.

“Rough?
Rough
? Leelee
,
my dear, I would gladly walk into a
war zone,
bullets whizzing past my head, before I spent another day under your roof. Those aren’t
children. They
are monsters.” Cathy stabbed a hot pink fingernail at the air between them to accentuate her
point.

“Monsters!” Hadley screeched, taking offense. “My children may be a little high strung at times, but they hardly earn monster status.”

“One of them ate my purse strap, Leelee! In my
book
that qualifies as a monster.”

Silence enveloped the tent; the tension was so thick it could be cut with a knife. The women exchanged looks both heated and unsure. Out of the blue, Hadley erupted in a fit of
laughter,
leaving Cheyenne and Cathy puzzled. They may not have known what set it off, but in a matter of
seconds,
everyone in the tent was holding their sides and gasping for
air.

“You’re right
,
Cat. They
are monsters.” Hadley breathed deeply, her attempt to calm herself an act in
futil
i
ty.

“Yeah, but they’re your
monsters,
and I shouldn’t have said that. I’m sorry.” Cathy leaned over the small lamplight nestled between them and offered Hadley a hug
,
which was accepted
immediately.

“Alright ladies, I think it’s time to hit the sack. We’re going to need all the energy we can get if we’re g
o
ing to rise with the sun.” Cheyenne reached out and flipped the lantern off
,
immediately plugging them into darkness. The wind whipped outside the tent walls as the chilly night air tried its best to beat its way inside.
However,
that wasn’t what kept the women from getting a good night’s sleep. It was the strange animal noises coming from somewhere
nearby.

The sun was just breaking over the horizon when the women stumbled from the tent to join the men in the middle of the small campsite. Cheyenne noticed almost immediately that their tent had already been broken down and packed away. Kris was knelt down in front of the por
t
able cook top heating water.

“Coffee,” Cheyenne croaked. She wouldn’t be fully awake until she had her morning dose the black stuff
,
and the last thing the team needed was an irritable grizzly lea
d
ing them to their death. She would need to be operating on all cylinders to get this mission accomplished.

Kris held up the lid to the thermos. Cheyenne
a
c
cepted and
tossed it back
,
grimacing as it burned a path down her esophagus and smiling serenely when it warmed her insides.

“The guys and I
will tear down in a few.” H
e tipped his head indicating the women’s tent. “I already mapped our next path up the mountain. We’ll cut through the trees to the west. There’s supposed to be a path cutting through there. We’ll follow that. It should be a straight shot from
there.”

Cheyenne stared at
him
blankly, her eyes following his every move as he passed out small cups of coffee to everyone until the pot was empty. He packed fresh snow into the thermos and tucked it away in his pack then turned back to finish breaking down the cook area. Hadley, Cathy, Sebastian and Harold milled about sipping at the foam cups.

Looking around, Cheyenne frowned. “Where
are
Tim and Tabby? Haven’t they gotten up yet?”

The men shared amused looks. Sebastian cleared his throat. “I think Tim was up most of the night.”

A devilish grin spread over Harold’s face. “Yeah, I’m betting Tabs didn’t fare much better. “

“Yeah, we didn’t get
too
much sleep last night e
i
ther,” Hadley said with a yawn. “I think
an
animal got hurt or something what with all that howling going on.”

“Or something,” Kris said under his breath.

Cheyenne, not liking this one bit, pushed the empty lid into Kris’s chest and marched through the snow to the happy couple’s tent. Since there wasn’t a door to bang her fist against, she took a large breath to brace herself for whatever she was about to encounter, and unzipped the tent in one quick motion.

“Rise and shine!” s
he bellowed.

Tabitha and Tim jolted upright, grimacing at the bright rays of sunlight
streaming through the opening.
Clutching the sleeping
bag
they had wedged themselves into to their obviously bare chests, Cheyenne became i
n
stantly contrite. Here was the “animal” that had robbed her of her
much-needed 
beauty rest. Here was the “animal” that had wailed long into the
early-morning 
hours putting her and her team mates in jeopardy. Narrowing her eyes, they
shrank
back letting her know the message was
r
e
ceived.

“Five minutes…”
she growled.

Backing out of the tent and securing the opening, Cheyenne crossed the small site and began tearing down her tent alongside the men. It was all she could do to keep her mind off the irrational fury bubbling inside her.

Four minutes later, they were breaking down the last of the campsite and heading up the mountain in search of their mystery.

Chapter 3

The fiery golden rays of the sun burned thr
ough the black cotton shirt—
th
e only color he wore these days—
scalding his skin. Like the fires of hell, he mused
,
bringing the brown glass bottle to his lips. The bitter liquid coated his tongue before washing down his throat and heating his insides another deg
ree. Beer was his favorite cure-
all. Though it took nearly a dozen to affect the same
results,
he desired as when he first started the
habit.

Cold, dewy moisture dripped from the bottle onto his shirt, soaking through the material and cooling his skin one drop at a time. Closing his eyes, he rested his head on the back of the lounge chair, his vision washed in copper as the sun tried its best to burn a hole into his retinas. He would not care, not one bit if it meant ridding him of the terrible nightmares that plagued his sleeping mind every damned night of every damned day he was forced to live on this damned
planet.