Deadly Addition (Hardy Brothers Security Book 9) (17 page)

“I like this one,” Ally said, throwing herself on the gray couch enthusiastically.

Mandy rolled her eyes. “That’s too big for the apartment.”

“But, it’s soft,” Ally replied, rubbing the couch appreciatively. “I would totally have sex on every cushion of this couch.”

Two older women looking at another couch about ten feet away in the furniture store dubiously raised their eyebrows as they regarded the four women ogling the sectional.

“I’m sorry,” Sophie offered, holding her hands up apologetically.

“I’m not,” Ally said. “This couch has sex written all over it.”

“It’s a nice couch,” Emma said. “Mandy is right, though. It’s too big.”

“Nothing is ever too big,” Ally teased.

“She’s right on that front,” Mandy said, sinking down on the couch and lifting her feet to rest on the display coffee table in front of her. “This is a comfortable couch. I wish it had been here three months ago.”

“Just buy it,” Sophie said. “You can give me the one in your living room.”

“James loves that couch.”

“You love this one.”

Mandy made a face. “You just want a free couch.”

“Grady doesn’t like the furniture in the house,” Sophie admitted. “He won’t say it, but he’s dying to decorate.”

“It’s funny,” Ally mused. “He’s like the girl in your relationship.”

Sophie stilled.

“And it’s not just because he has prettier hair,” Ally teased.

“My hair is ten times better than his hair,” Sophie countered, sinking down into the armchair at the end of the display. “Ooh, I like this chair.”

“You could totally have sex in that chair,” Ally said.

Emma sent a worried look back to the two older women. “I’m so sorry.”

Ally swiveled, fixing the women with a hard look. “We have sex. Get over it.”

Mandy giggled as she slapped Ally’s thigh. “Don’t be mean.”

“I’m not being mean,” Ally griped. “I just hate being judged for being horny.”

“From what I hear, Emma is the horny one these days,” Mandy said, fixing the model with a suggestive look. “So, you have to tell us, how are those hormones working out for you?”

Emma’s face flushed. “I … .”

“Oh, she’s so cute,” Ally crooned. “Look at how embarrassed she is.”

Sophie patted Emma’s hand. “The men have told us.”

“In fact, they’ve shamed us,” Mandy said. “Apparently, you’re so horny that we look like slackers. It’s undignified.”

Emma rubbed her cheek, trying to brush away the blush. “I can’t believe he told them about that.”

“Why are you ashamed?” Mandy asked. “It’s a badge of honor.”

“It doesn’t feel that way to me.”

“Why not?” Ally asked, genuinely curious. “You’re the superstar these days.”

Emma sighed. “You guys treat sex like it’s a … prize.”

“It is,” Ally said. “As long as the guy you’re doing it with is up to the task.”

“Your brother is definitely up to the task,” Emma said hurriedly. “I just feel … dirty.”

Mandy furrowed her brow, realization washing over her face. “Oh, Emma … .”

“You stop that right now,” Ally ordered. “What happened to you before … that wasn’t sex.”

“That was abuse,” Sophie agreed. “Enjoying your time with Finn isn’t remotely the same thing.”

“I know,” Emma said, wringing her hands. “Okay, I know that in my head. Sometimes, though, I can’t help but … regress.”

Mandy nodded sympathetically. “We don’t know what you’ve gone through,” she said. “We can’t understand. We love you.”

“Never doubt that,” Ally chimed in. “We love you like you’re our sister.”

“We do love you,” Sophie said, reinforcing the emotion. “If you need to talk, we want to listen.”

Emma swallowed hard, looking away for a moment before focusing back on the women who had become her family. “I … it hurt.”

“Of course it did,” Sophie said. “You were a child.”

“Even after that,” Emma said, refusing to make specific eye contact. “Even after he’d … conditioned me. It hurt.”

No one was sure how to respond.

“I hated how he made me feel,” Emma said. “I never thought that
pleasure
could be associated with the act.”

“Is that why you never dated?” Ally asked.

“I dated,” Emma said. “I just never let it get to the point where I would have to deal with anything else. Well, that’s not true. I did have sex with three men after that.”

“It wasn’t good?” Sophie asked.

“I have no idea,” Emma said. “I never felt anything with them. I just thought I should be doing it, so I did it. It was no different than being with
him
. When I stopped screaming with him, when I stopped fighting, I just let him … do it.”

Mandy felt like her heart was being crushed in a vise. “Emma, what happened to you … .”

Emma ignored her. “When I was with those other guys, I never engaged,” she said. “I just let them do it, too.”

“That wasn’t wrong,” Sophie said. “You didn’t know what else to do.”

“When Finn came into the picture, it was like my body just reacted on its own,” Emma said. “I felt guilty at first, and yet I didn’t want it to stop.”

“That’s because Finn is your other half,” Ally supplied. She was usually the one who spouted off, but now she was contained and supportive.

“He is,” Emma said. “I never knew what love was until I was with him. I never knew there was anything besides … disinterest … before him. Now? I still can’t shake those shadows from my brain sometimes.”

“Emma, Finn is the best person you could have ever fallen in love with,” Ally said. “He’s a … .”

“Thinker,” Mandy finished. “You’re a thinker, too. You guys fit. He loves you so much he can’t stand it. You need to let him love you.”

A sales clerk appeared at the fringe of the setting. “So, do we like this?”

Ally snapped her fingers. “We don’t like being crowded. Leave your card on the table – we promise, if we buy something, you’ll get the commission – but you need to go now.”

The man looked confused. “What?”

“Go,” Sophie ordered. “I’m not joking.”

“I was just trying to help.”

Mandy sent him a small smile. “We know. Now is not a good time. Put your card on the table and walk away slowly.”

The clerk obliged. “I … .”

“Go!”

He scampered away.

“I want to believe he loves me,” Emma said. “I do. He says the words, and I believe them. Then, when it’s dark, part of me thinks he only loves me because of the baby.”

“That’s not true,” Mandy said. “Finn has loved you from the beginning. He’s just been too scared to say it.”

“Why?”

Mandy exhaled through her nose and raised her hands, helpless. “They’re Hardys. They don’t know how to express their feelings.”

“Hey,” Ally protested.

“You know how to express your feelings,” Mandy said. “Your brothers, though? No. You shouldn’t be surprised, you picked a guy who has trouble with his feelings, too.”

“I did not.”

“Jake is a Hardy at heart,” Mandy said. “He loves you so much it twists him. Has he told you?”

Ally faltered. “No.”

“Why do you think that is?”

“Because he doesn’t feel it,” Ally said, her face morose.

“He feels it,” Mandy said. “Stop being an idiot.”

“Oh, he definitely feels it,” Emma said. “He adores you.”

“You can see that,” Mandy said. “You can see that Jake loves Ally, and yet you doubt Finn’s love for you.”

“I … .” Emma bit her bottom lip.

“We can see it,” Mandy said. “We can see that he loves you. He adores everything you do. He loves the way you walk, and he loves the way you talk, and he loves the way you smile at him.

“I knew Grady loved Sophie from the very beginning, too,” Mandy continued. “Look how long it took him to admit it. Hardy men are imbeciles when it comes to love. They feel it. They act on it. They have no idea how to express it until they finally do.”

“When James first told you he loved you, did you believe him?” Emma asked.

“I was so tired that night,” Mandy replied. “I didn’t let it sink in. I enjoyed the words, but their meaning didn’t hit me until … .”

Emma raised an eyebrow expectantly.

“Until I felt his heart roll into sync with mine,” Mandy said.

Emma was puzzled. “What?”

“When we sleep together, James likes me on his chest now,” Mandy explained. “It’s been that way since the fire. It’s not every night, and we change positions, but he’s most comfortable when I’m on top of him.

“He likes it when my head is resting on the left side of his chest so I can hear his heart,” Mandy continued. “I can feel my heart slip into rhythm with his. It just happens, like they fit. The first time that happened, I knew he loved me. Now? I can’t sleep without it.”

Ally’s eyes were brimming with tears. “Oh, that’s so romantic.”

Emma brushed a stray tear from her eye and focused on Sophie. “When did you know Grady really loved you?”

“I know he loves me,” Sophie said. “I still worry he’s going to wake up and change his mind.”

“Oh, hell, I still worry James is going to change his mind,” Mandy said.

“You’re married.”

“He’s still the only thing I’ve ever wanted,” Mandy said. “I think it’s natural to worry that you’ll lose what you love.”

“Really?” Emma’s face was hopeful. “You don’t think I’m being insecure?”

“I think you’re being just secure enough,” Mandy said.

“And we know that Finn loves you,” Ally said. “Whenever you’re in doubt, just ask us what we see.”

“It’s hard to see what’s right in front of you,” Mandy said. “Others see it much better.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Ally said, beaming.

After dissolving into a sea of hugs, Mandy finally focused on Sophie. “What? You don’t want to hug tonight?”

Sophie’s gaze was fixed on a point across the store. “Someone is watching us.”

Three heads snapped to attention.

“Subtle,” Sophie grumbled.

Three heads snapped to the coffee table in front of them.

“What do you see?” Mandy asked.

“There’s a guy by the mattresses,” Sophie said, focusing on her fingernails as if she was examining a manicure. “At first, I thought he was just checking us out because … well, you know why.”

“And now?”

“He’s too interested,” Sophie said. “He’s focusing on all of us, and he’s texting someone.”

“It’s probably my mother,” Emma said ruefully.

“Well, we’re safe here,” Ally said. “The store doesn’t close for an hour. Call the guys. Just … don’t act all panicked.”

“I don’t act panicked,” Mandy said, annoyed. “I’m much better in a tense situation than you are.”

“In what world?”

“Um, the real one.”

“You’re dreaming.”

“Someone should call someone,” Emma said, cutting off their argument.

Ally gripped her hand. “It’s okay. We’re totally fine. Mandy is going to call James.”

Mandy nodded, lifting her cell to her ear. “Keep an eye on him, Sophie.”

“No problem.”

James answered on the second ring. “Do you miss me already?”

“Someone is watching us,” Mandy said, not standing on ceremony.

James was all business. “Expand.”

Mandy explained the situation.

“What does he look like?”

“I don’t know,” Mandy said. “He’s in his twenties, maybe early thirties if he stays out of the sun and doesn’t smoke. His hair his blond, and he’s wearing a shirt that no one would wear in this area if they weren’t hanging out in Ferndale.”

“You’re saying he looks gay, right?”

“That’s a horrible thing to say,” Mandy said. “I’m not prejudiced.”

James sighed heavily. “So, what were you saying?”

“He’s either gay or he’s from Vegas.”

James stilled. “Are you safe?”

“We’re in the middle of a furniture store,” Mandy said. “It doesn’t close for an hour.”

“You all stay right there,” James said. “Don’t you dare think of leaving.”

“Why do you think I’m calling you?”

“Because you want me to bend you over our pool table,” James said.

Mandy made an exasperated sound in the back of her throat.

“Oh, that’s happening,” James said. “Maybe not tonight, but it’s happening.”

“James … .”

“We’re on our way,” he said. “Stay in the open, and don’t leave that store. If he approaches you … .”

“We’ll kill him,” Mandy finished.

“Let’s try to stay out of jail, shall we?” James said. “I don’t have a lot of prison fantasies.”