Protecting Cheyenne (SEAL of Protection Book 5) (10 page)

Silence filled the cab of the truck when Dude had finished speaking. He turned to look at Cheyenne. She was staring at him incredulously.

Dude chuckled. “Yeah, it sounds crazy, but I swear they’re all normal people and they’re gonna love you.”

“Maybe we should go back.” Cheyenne was freaking out. A chemist? Sex slave ring? Arrested? Kidnapping? She was in way over her head.

“Nope. You don’t see it do you?”

“See what?”

“Think about how
we
met, Shy.”

“Oh hell.”

“Exactly. Now when people talk about us they’ll talk about how I saved your life when you had a bomb strapped to your chest. That’s just as dramatic as the way my friends met their women. Relax, Cheyenne.” Dude turned to her as they stopped at a red light and put his hand on her knee. “I would never put you in a position where you’d feel unwelcome. You might be a little uncomfortable at first, it’s hard to meet new people, but I know by the end of the night you’ll have four new girlfriends and you’ll have the respect of the guys on my team. Just relax.”

Chewing on her nail, Cheyenne said, “Okay, I’ll try.”

Dude pulled her thumb out of her mouth and pulled it to his own lips and sucked on it for a moment before letting go. He laughed at the wide eyed look Cheyenne was giving him.

“Don’t chew on your nail. Anytime I see you doing it, I’m going to do that same thing. I don’t care where we are. Keep that in mind.”

“Uh…”

Dude just laughed and patted her on her knee as he turned his attention back to the traffic.

Deciding to be amused, rather than pissed, Cheyenne finally laughed at him. “I’m not sure that’s really a deterrent, Faulkner.”

He just grinned at her. “Oh, I think you’ll find it is if you don’t want to find your nipples hard as rocks and squirming in your seat in front of others. I bet I could have you doing both just by sucking on that thumb.” Dude laughed as he watched Cheyenne shift in her seat.

He didn’t filter the words that came to his mind, just shot them out there. “Jesus, Shy, if my words can do that to you, you’re going to love what my mouth can do.”

“Stop, Faulkner. Seriously. I don’t…I can’t…”

Dude sobered quickly at seeing her unease. “I’m sorry, Shy. I’ll tone it down. I keep forgetting how new this is to you and that you aren’t used to it.”

“I just…Fuck. Why can’t I talk around you?”

“You could talk last night,” Dude reminded her.

“Yeah, that’s because the evil doctors drugged me up. I didn’t know taking hard core prescription drugs loosened my tongue like that.”

The car stopped in front of a small house in a cute neighborhood. There was a small porch and there were various cars and trucks parked in the driveway and along the street. Cheyenne didn’t think she was ready for this after all.

“Hey, look at me for a second, Cheyenne.”

She turned her head and wiped her hands down her thighs. Cheyenne was feeling more nervous about meeting Faulkner’s friends than when she’d been waiting to answer her first emergency call at work.

“If you want to go, we’ll go. We don’t have to do this now.”

That wasn’t what Cheyenne thought Faulkner would say. “But you wanted me to meet your friends.”

“And I still do, but I don’t want you to make yourself sick over it. I rushed this, I know it, I’m sorry. But I like you. And I wanted you to meet the most important people in my life. We’ll have plenty of time to do this later. It was a stupid idea.”

Cheyenne watched as Faulkner reached for the keys still hanging in the ignition. She put her hand out and placed it on his forearm, stopping him from starting the truck again.

“I’m nervous, I won’t deny that, but I want to meet them. I
do
. I don’t get out much, Faulkner. It wouldn’t matter if I met them today or three months from now, I’d still be nervous, partly because I’m meeting new people, but also because they’re so important to
you
. I like you.” Cheyenne dropped her eyes and fiddled with a string hanging off of the seat in front of her. “What if they don’t like me? What if we have nothing in common? I…I want to get to know you better and knowing how important they are to you, I know we could never last if they didn’t like me.”

Dude knew this was an important moment and he struggled to find the right words so Cheyenne would understand. “Trust me when I tell you they’ll like you, Shy. Alabama was a janitor when she met Abe. She spent her evenings cleaning offices in buildings. Caroline is a chemist, but she’d just lost her parents when she met Wolf. She was on her way across the country to a new job because she had no ties to California. No one reported Fiona missing when she was taken. She didn’t have any close friends or family that worried about her. Summer was divorced and was flat broke when she met Mozart and was working as a maid for a dump of a motel. These are not women who’ll judge you. I promise. And in case it wasn’t already obvious, I like you too. And in the extremely low chance you don’t get along with the other women, I’ll still want to get to know you better.” Dude paused for a moment then said, “It’s your choice, Shy. I’d never force you to do anything you didn’t want to do.
Anything
.”

Cheyenne knew there was more to what he’d said than simply meeting his friends, but she put it aside for the moment.

“Okay, let’s go. Shit. I had a damn bomb strapped to my chest, how hard can this be?”

Dude laughed and reached out for Cheyenne. He pulled her to him for a quick hard kiss then let her go. “Wait there, I’ll come around.”

Cheyenne rolled her eyes, but waited for Faulkner to come around the truck and open her door for her.

He tucked her arm in his and they ambled up the front walk to the house. Cheyenne took a deep breath and steeled herself for whatever was going to happen. She decided right there to do whatever it took to enjoy herself. These people were important to Faulkner, and she wanted them to like her more than was probably healthy. She warned herself not to be a dork, a spaz, or a flake. She’d just be herself. Hopefully that’d be enough.

“Faulkner!”

Cheyenne took a step back as the front door burst open and a brunette dynamo slammed into Faulkner. He took a step back and laughed as his arms came around the woman and lifted her off her feet.

“Hey, Alabama. How are you?”

“It’s been too long since we’ve seen you!” Alabama pulled back and kissed Faulkner on the cheek. Suddenly turning and pinning her eyes on Cheyenne, Alabama said, “Oh shit, I’m sorry, it’s just been too long since I’ve seen him. That was so rude of me. Jeez.”

Cheyenne relaxed a bit. She immediately liked this woman. “It’s okay, really.”

Dude leaned down, kissed Alabama on the cheek, then turned to Cheyenne. “Come on, Shy, let’s go inside and I’ll introduce you to everyone.”

Cheyenne nodded and smiled at Alabama as they made their way inside. They went into the living room and Cheyenne froze. Shit. She knew there would be a lot of people there, but seeing them all in the same place at the same time was daunting. Looking around at the muscular men, Cheyenne sighed. She knew it. She leaned into Faulkner and stood on tiptoe. He leaned down toward her so she could reach his ear and she told him earnestly, “I knew it, you
do
hang out with a gang of hotties!”

Dude threw his head back and laughed. God, his Shy was fucking hilarious.

Cheyenne looked at Faulkner with a small smile on her face. She loved when he laughed. She remembered how serious he’d been at the store when he was working on the bomb. Being able to put some levity into his life seemed like the best gift anyone could have given her.

“Girl, you’re officially one of us now. I’ve never seen Faulkner laugh like that before. Ever.”

Remembering where they were and who they were standing in front of, Cheyenne blushed and looked at the woman who’d spoken.

“I’m Caroline. It’s so good to meet you. When Fiona called and said that Faulkner needed her to get some food over to your apartment, it was all we could do not to all bust over there. We’re so glad you came over today. I’m sure you’re freaked, we all were when we had to meet each other. Just know you aren’t alone.”

Cheyenne smiled, liking the other woman immediately. It seemed there was a lot of “saying it like it was” around these people.

“It’s good to meet you too, Caroline. Thanks for having me over today.”

A big man came over to stand next to Caroline. He looked older than the other men, but he was absolutely gorgeous. He had large muscles that Cheyenne could see rippling under his shirt.

“Let me make the introductions before you have to use mind-melding skills to figure out who everyone is.”

Before he could continue, Caroline poked him in the ribs and looked up. “And tell her everyone’s real names. You can’t just use nicknames.”

Wolf smiled indulgently down at Caroline. “Yes, dear.”

Caroline rolled her eyes.

Cheyenne smiled again and relaxed a fraction. They all seemed so…normal. Faulkner put his arm around her waist and she turned to him for a moment. He smiled down at her then leaned down. “Told you they’d like you,” he whispered.

Cheyenne just shook her head. She’d only been there for like two point three minutes, the jury was still out in her mind, but it did look good…so far.

“I’m Wolf, or Matthew if you prefer, and this is Caroline, my wife. Sometimes you’ll hear us call her Ice, that’s her nickname.”

Cheyenne watched as Matthew looked down at Caroline with so much love, and lust, it made her blush. She tried to ignore the big man standing next to her, and concentrated on the introductions.

“Over there is Mozart, or Sam, and his woman Summer. Next to them is Cookie, or Hunter, and Fiona. Then there’s Abe, whose real name is Christopher, and Alabama. And that lonely looking guy over there is Benny, or Kason. He’s the last one of us to find a woman.”

“Hey!” Benny protested, “I’ve got women!”

Everyone laughed.

Cheyenne laughed with everyone else, but inside was quaking. How in the hell would she ever remember who everyone was? She was horrible at names. The first thing she did every time the phone rang at work and she asked the person on the line what their name was, was write it down on a sticky pad next to her keyboard. Shit, she already forgot most of the people’s names already, and she was
just
told them all.

“Everyone, this is Cheyenne Cotton. Please don’t freak her out tonight. Keep all the scary and weird stories to yourself. I don’t want her to run screaming from the house.”

Cheyenne waved self-consciously at the group. God, this was awkward.

“Okay then,” Caroline said, taking charge of the group. “Matthew, you and Christopher go and grill up the steaks. Anyone want to help me with the rest of the grub?”

Cheyenne immediately spoke up. The last thing she wanted to do was stand around while everyone else got the food ready. “I will.”

Caroline smiled at her. “Great. Thanks. I could use the help.”

Cheyenne went to follow Caroline into the kitchen, but Faulkner wouldn’t let go of her waist. She looked up at him questionably.

He just looked at her intently for a moment.

“What?” Cheyenne whispered, suddenly wondering if she should’ve offered to help after all.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For being here. For helping. For trying, for me.”

“They seem very nice, Faulkner. I’m glad you brought me.”

Cheyenne could tell there was more Faulkner wanted to say, but instead he leaned down and kissed her on her forehead. He let his lips linger for a beat longer than was probably proper in front of his friends, with a woman he’d met only the day before, but he soon brought his head back up.

“Go make me food, woman.”

Cheyenne laughed and smacked him on the arm. “Whatever,
Dude
.”

Dude squeezed Cheyenne’s waist affectionately and let her go. She headed off to the kitchen smiling.

* * *

Cheyenne looked around the crowded room contentedly. The evening had been wonderful. She’d relaxed much sooner than she’d thought possible. The women were funny and cheerful and didn’t care if they said something stupid or silly in front of her or the men.

And the men. Holy smokes. Cheyenne actually pinched herself at one point to make sure it was really real. That she was really sitting in a house with six incredibly hot men chit-chatting. It was surreal.

She hadn’t remembered everyone’s name, and she certainly didn’t know which nickname went with which man, but ultimately it didn’t matter. She just went with the flow, and no one seemed to notice.

“I’m stuffed. Jesus, Caroline, did you have to make so much damn food?” Fiona complained. She was sitting in an easy chair on Hunter’s lap. Cheyenne could see Hunter’s hand absently stroking her hip.

“I might have overdone it a bit, but it was all so good wasn’t it?”

“I think if I ate one more bite I would explode like the guy in that Monty Python movie did,” Alabama grumbled laughing.

“I loved that movie,” Cheyenne spoke up. Parroting the line from the movie, she said in a fake British accent, “I couldn’t eat another bite.”

Everyone laughed, and Cheyenne smiled at them all.

“How’s school going?” Dude asked Alabama, knowing she was working toward her degree.

“It’s good. It’s the helicopter parents that are really crazy. There was one mother that actually came to class to take notes for her kid. It was ridiculous. It’s hard sometimes to be in classes with teenagers who have no idea what the world is really like though. If they had any idea how precious an education is they’d work harder at it and not take it for granted.”

“That is so true,” Summer said. “I worked my butt off for my degree and loved every minute of working in Human Resources.”

“I remember when I worked at a University in Texas I’d have to deal with those kind of parents every day. I even had a parent call once for her
thirty one
year old son. He couldn’t figure out how to order a transcript. It’s crazy!” Fiona added, shaking her head.

Cheyenne would’ve loved to have asked questions, but kept her mouth shut and just let the conversation flow around her. Hopefully in the future she’d get to know these women better and would have a better understanding of what made them tick and she could contribute to the conversation and not feel weird about it.

“Ice, did you ever figure out that new compound you were working on?”

Caroline laughed at Benny’s question. “Do you want the technical answer, or the short answer?”

Knowing she could go on all night about chemicals and what she did, Benny smiled and told her, “The short answer.”

“Yes.”

Everyone laughed when Caroline didn’t elaborate.

“Good job then. Congratulations.”

“Thanks, Benny. Hopefully in the future it’ll mean a lot of people won’t have to go through such horrible treatment for some of the worst diseases out there if it does what we think it should.”

There was quiet for a moment in the room, then Summer asked, “So what do you do, Cheyenne?”

Cheyenne shifted uncomfortably on the couch. Faulkner was sitting next to her and of course he noticed. “Summer,” he warned his friend, knowing Cheyenne was still working through her feelings about her job and hating that Summer had unintentionally put Cheyenne on the spot.

Cheyenne quickly broke in, and put her hand on Faulkner’s thigh to ease him. “No, it’s okay. It’s not a big deal. I answer phones for a living.”

“Oh, so you’re in customer service or something?”

“Not exactly. I’m an emergency services operator.”

No one said anything for a moment, then Fiona asked apologetically, “What does that mean exactly? I’m sorry if I should know, I just don’t.”

“Oh no, don’t feel bad, I should’ve explained better. I answer the phone when people call in with an emergency. If there’s a fire or someone’s having a heart attack or something like that.”

“You answer 911 calls?” Caroline asked in a weird voice.

Cheyenne looked at Caroline who was sitting across the room in another big fluffy arm chair. She too was sitting in her man’s lap, and Cheyenne watched as Matthew’s eyes immediately went to his wife. He didn’t look happy at the tone of her voice. He looked worried.

Cheyenne tensed. Oh shit. Was Caroline offended? Did she have a bad experience with 911 in the past?

“It’s okay, Shy,” Dude murmured next to her, sensing her discomfort. He put his arm around her shoulder and pulled her into his side.

“Yeah, I answer 911 calls,” Cheyenne told Caroline carefully.

Cheyenne watched as Caroline unfolded herself from Matthew’s lap and stood up. Cheyenne risked a glance at the other people in the room. The women’s faces were soft, the men’s weren’t exactly hard, but they weren’t relaxed either. Something was happening and Cheyenne had no idea what it was.

Caroline came across the small room to stand in front of Cheyenne. She went to her knees in front of her and put her hands on Cheyenne’s knees.

Cheyenne didn’t know what to do. She risked a quick glance at Faulkner, but his eyes were locked on Caroline. Cheyenne turned back to the woman kneeling at her feet nervously, not knowing what to expect.

“Thank you. It’s obvious you have no idea how important what you do is.”

Cheyenne didn’t know what to say, so she said nothing.

“I’ve always wished I could’ve met the 911 operator that helped me.”

Oh shit, Cheyenne didn’t know if she was ready to hear this story. She tensed and Faulkner tightened his hold on her and grabbed her left hand with his scarred one. Cheyenne gripped his hand as if it was the only thing standing between her and the firing squad.

Cheyenne heard Faulkner tell Caroline, “I already told her this, Ice, but I’m not sure she really understood. Tell her your story. Maybe between all of us we can convince her how she changes people lives.”

“Faulkner…”

“Shhhh, Shy. Listen.”

Cheyenne turned back to Caroline, then flicked her eyes up to Matthew. He was looking at Caroline with affection from his seat across the room. He’d sat up and was resting his forearms on his knees. He looked relaxed, but Cheyenne knew he could be across the room in a heartbeat if he needed to be.

“When I lived in Virginia, I was followed home from work one day. Matthew and the rest of the team were away on a mission. I’d just started my job and didn’t really know anyone yet. A man broke into my apartment and I had to hide in my shower. I was really scared and called 911 almost without thought. Every kid is taught from a young age to call when they need help, and that’s just what I did. I didn’t have a long conversation with the lady on the other end of the line, but she was awesome. She didn’t panic and had the police on their way within seconds of hearing what my problem was.

“I have no idea who she was or what her name was, but she was my lifeline. I’ll never forget her. So on behalf of that lady, and for anyone who has ever called 911, thank you. Thank you for being there. Thank you for caring enough to try to help us. Just thank you.”