With Cherry on Top [Loving in Silver 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) (21 page)

“Hey, sweetheart,” Jake greeted her, patting the bed. “Did you come to play?”

Cherry pushed off from the door and headed for the bed. She rested her palms on the mattress as she leaned toward him. Instead of kissing him as he obviously expected, she stated quite calmly, “If you don’t quit making Gracie miserable, I’m going to castrate you.”

Jake pulled back, startled. Shock was on his battered face. He still hand bandages over his nose and the bruising around his eyes was turning ugly shades of green and yellow. “What did I do?”

“You’re well enough to get out of bed, so do so. Stop your whining. You said yourself that your head isn’t hurting anymore and that your shoulder is feeling better. Between you acting like a whiney toddler, and the fact that you wouldn’t have gone into town if she and I hadn’t played that joke on you, you have Gracie feeling guilty as hell. Now get your ass up,” she said, straightening. “And get dressed. You can eat lunch in the kitchen. Gracie can fuss over you there. If you make one peep about being in pain, I’ll…”

“You’ll what?”

“I won’t give you a blow job for a month.”

Jake looked so horrified Cherry almost laughed. Almost. She forced the scowl to remain on her face until she turned on her heel and left the room. Then she was hurrying down the hall so she could laugh without Jake hearing her. She didn’t want to be mean, but he was working the sympathy angle a little too much. It wouldn’t have bothered her at all, if Gracie wasn’t so miserable. But their little love was blaming herself for Jake getting shot. No matter what they said to her she was still convinced that if she hadn’t played the joke on the jokester, he wouldn’t have been going to town. It was nonsense, of course. Now they just had to get her to believe it.

“What’s so funny?” Gracie asked curiously as Cherry entered the huge kitchen. She was standing at the stove, stirring a huge pot of chicken soup, a Harper family cure-all. “Is Jake feeling better?” There was so much guilt in the pretty green eyes that she almost turned around to go back and smack the man just on principle.

Cherry nodded, smiling. “Yes, he’s feeling much better. I just stopped in to see him. He said he’s going to try getting out of his room for a bit.”

The small pixie face brightened. Then Gracie was off, hurrying around the kitchen, setting a place at the table for Jake. His brothers would probably be coming in for lunch soon. They didn’t always eat a noon meal, but had promised they would today since they were working close.

Sheriff Evans hadn’t made any headway into discovering who the shooter was, or who it was that had run Collin off the road. From his inquiries on the shooting, the Marks brothers had been seen in town at the time, buying feed at the mill. So, it hadn’t been them. It was also determined that they hadn’t been the ones to run Collin off the road, which they had figured, since they had just left the brothers in town. While a few people who lived in the area remembered seeing an unfamiliar green truck, no one knew who owned it, or had been able to see who was driving it. Most just assumed it was someone visiting in the area and didn’t think too much about it. Now that they were aware, however, it was another matter. Mick told Cherry that the truck wouldn’t get by anyone’s notice again, now that everyone was on the lookout for it.

Cherry personally believed the truck would be gotten rid of. It had simply been a tool and would be easily discarded. The shooting was another matter altogether. The sheriff had taken her up to the spot where he found evidence left behind by the shooter. Whoever it was probably didn’t expect the place to be found. The trees were thick and the ground cover was heavy enough to deter all but the most determined investigator.

She had to give the man credit. Gray was quite single-minded in what he had to do to solve the mystery. He was also a very unhappy man. He didn’t like the idea of his friends and neighbors, the people he was sworn to protect, getting hurt. He believed, as she did, that the same person was responsible for the slashing of the tires, the hit and run, and the shooting.

Cherry had stood there on the tree-covered slope, looking across the wide, flat meadow to where she could just see the lane leading up to the ranch. Someone with a hunting rifle and a scope could have easily struck their target. Hunting was a way of life for many in the area. Nearly everyone owned a rifle. Narrowing it down would be somewhat tricky, though they could certainly rule out friends and neighbors with whom the Preston family had no quarrel with. It was the unknowns which were really bothering the sheriff.

But they were only interested in one person. Figuring out who and why was going to be a real problem, despite the few clues left behind, which included a surprisingly clear boot print in the mud beside a creek, a shell casing, and two cigarette butts. They would be sent off to a lab for testing, the results of which wouldn’t happen overnight.

The sheriff only hoped, as they all did, that there was enough DNA present in the butts to identify a shooter. That was, of course, if the suspect’s DNA had ever been put into any law enforcement database. If they hadn’t ever committed a crime, a felony in particular, it was unlikely. Then their chances of catching the shooter would be reduced significantly.

Knowing it was a wait-and-see game, Cherry was able to temper hope with the cold reality of what law enforcement was and was not capable of doing. It was a reality which rarely mirrored what took place on TV in crime dramas.

Jake and Collin had both survived. That was all that mattered. Keeping everyone else safe was a priority. They also needed to figure out just who the real target was. Gracie? The brothers? It could have been any one of them driving the truck. Or was it the five of them? This was a definite possibility, since Gracie and the brothers had finally gotten together as lovers. Someone was obviously angry about it.

No one went into town alone. Mick had taken Gracie and her into town twice. The first time all had gone smoothly. The second trip he had dropped them off in the center of the town so Cherry could pick up her prescriptions, while he went to finish other errands. Gracie had been with her, chatting away happily as she always did. They were about to leave the store when a tall woman came in. It was the same one she had seen at the pizzeria. Sheila was even taller than she was, probably six feet, and about thirty pounds heavier. The look she gave the both of them wasn’t a pleasant one. If Cherry had been asked to give her opinion on what it was, she would say it was hate. She just couldn’t begin to understand why. Gracie was absolutely the sweetest person she had ever met. And she didn’t even know the woman.

“Why are you chasing those brothers, Gracie? Don’t you know they’re just using you?” she asked nastily, looking over the tiny woman at her side. “You need to go find yourself someone else.”

Gracie’s hand trembled in hers. “I’m happy where I am. Mind your own business, Sheila.”

Broad shoulders shrugged. “I’m just trying to save you some pain. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Then she was giving Cherry a measuring look, obviously trying to determine something. Cherry waited. It wasn’t long in coming. “I don’t know what it is about you that kept those guys waiting for you, but now that they’ve had you, it won’t last long.”

So the woman was jealous. Interesting.

“Like Gracie said, mind your own business. If you think you can intimidate me the way you do her, think again. I don’t scare.”

The woman gave them both a scathing look, including a glance at the 9mm handgun holstered on Cherry’s thigh, before she left them standing there in the shampoo aisle. They exchanged a confused glance and headed outside to meet Mick.

Jake came into the kitchen just then, bringing Cherry out of her grim thoughts. One feeling didn’t leave her immediately, however. It was the fact that she was falling back into a place where she had been all those years ago when she had been a cop. It wasn’t adrenaline, exactly. It was more like a craving, a need to know. She had enjoyed working in law enforcement and knew if she hadn’t been attacked and injured so badly, she would have transferred into a job in Silver’s office. It had been a done deal at one point. She had liked working with people, investigating crimes, helping track down criminals. Sure, detectives in vice, homicide, and other departments had been the ones in charge of investigations, but the street cop’s contributions couldn’t be discounted by anyone.

Cherry stilled as she watched the two lovers caress one another in front of the stove, Jake looking contrite for all his bad behavior as he softly apologized and Gracie looking up at him with all the adoration and love a woman could feel for a man.

She saw them, yet she didn’t as an idea began forming in her brain. She wasn’t really considering it, was she? Oh, the men would be so against it. But, yet…

Someone was calling her out of her haze of disbelief and introspection. Cherry blinked, lifting her head to see Gracie waving her hand in front of her face. She shook her head and smiled. “You need something, baby?”

Gracie blushed at the endearment they had all seemed to come to an agreement on. Her eyes sparkled with pleasure. “I was wondering where you went there for a moment.”

“I just had a thought surprise me. I’ll tell you about it later.” Her gaze shifted to Jake. His face really was a mess. She felt bad for him, but was glad he was up and out of the bed. “You better sit down and eat lunch, tough guy. Gracie’s chicken soup will fix you right up.”

Jake moved toward her, wrapping his strong arms around her, though he was favoring his left arm. She saw him wince before his smile returned. “Thanks for kicking me in the ass, Cherry. I guess I was getting a little obnoxious.”

“That’s what I’m here for. And obnoxious is your middle name.”

“Actually it’s Harold,” Jake confessed, bending a little so he could press a kiss to her mouth.

“Harold? Really?” He nodded, grimacing. “It’s, uh, interesting.”

“I was named for my maternal grandfather. Mommy Lois’s father. You’ll be meeting him in September. He always comes for a quick visit before the snow starts. Then he’ll come back at Thanksgiving and won’t leave until after the beginning of the New Year.”

“My middle name is Agnes,” Gracie volunteered. She made a face. “There’s nothing wrong with it, as a name goes, but Gracie Agnes Harper just doesn’t flow very smoothly. And even saying it myself makes me feel like I’m in some deep shit.”

Cherry laughed softly, reaching out to stroke the side of their little love’s face. “It’s a beautiful name, baby.” The woman was so soft and sweet. Cherry believed she was already in love with her. How could she not be? She was not only beautiful on the outside, she was beautiful on the inside. “Want to hear a name that doesn’t flow well? How about Cherry Margaret Belinda Malloy? I was given both my grandmothers’ names.”

Before either could comment she moved them toward the table. They sat down while she went to fill bowls with Gracie’s chicken soup. After placing them in front of the pair she went for the biscuits Gracie had made, as well as the homemade butter her parents had sent over along with a couple dozen jars of homemade canned goods. She opened a jar of the peaches and scooped the halves out into small dishes, spooning a bit of the syrupy liquid over them before setting them on the table.

She was just pouring out glasses of milk when the door into the mudroom opened and the men came in. They left their hats on the pegs before walking into the kitchen. Most men might have just seated themselves at the table and waited for her to serve them. Cherry was pleased when they each got a bowl and filled it with chicken soup before carrying them to the table.

“That’s Gracie’s family recipe,” Cherry told them, knowing that their lover wouldn’t blow her own horn. “I got to sample while she was cooking it. It’s some of the best chicken soup I’ve ever had.”

Gracie sat there blushing as the men tasted the soup then complimented her. “You’re a very good cook,” Collin told her. Then he smiled a smile which reminded Cherry of a wolf’s predatory grin. “We missed you while we were out working. Did Nurse Gracie take care of her patient while we were gone?”

The dark head shook vigorously as her blush increased. “No. Nurse Gracie didn’t have a chance to get to visit the patient.” She frowned as she glanced at the man seated beside her. “He’s been very difficult all day.”

“Ahhh, Gracie,” Jake moaned piteously, “I apologized for being a pain in the ass. What more can I do to make it up to my princess?”

“I’ll think of something,” she told him, gently spooning up pieces of chicken, carrot, and celery. “But it won’t involve sex.”

Everyone laughed at Jake’s crestfallen expression. They finished their lunch in relative silence. Mick, Cody, and Collin went back out to work, leaving the three of them alone. They went to the game room to watch a movie. Sitting together with Gracie between them, they spent a quiet afternoon together, not moving until it was time to start supper. She smiled as she left the pair napping on the couch.

While alone in the kitchen Cherry had plenty of time to give some thought to the wild idea which had come to her earlier in the day. Was she really considering going back into law enforcement? She still wasn’t up to par physically. She had a ways to go before she could even be considered seriously for a job as a deputy. But what did she have to lose? Nothing, she told herself. If she couldn’t get physically fit to where she could perform her job without limitations, then she would forget about a patrol job.

Maybe it had been the decision to accept the brothers back into her life, or spending time with the rowdy Jake, but her panic attacks were virtually nonexistent. It was another thing she would have to work through completely, with more talks with Tad, her therapist, which would help her evaluate possibilities. She would ask his opinion about going back to work as a cop. His opinion couldn’t be ignored. She would take whatever he said into consideration. It was all part of the process. Then there was the physical aspect. She was getting better every day. Better and stronger. But could she get back to her old self? The one strong enough to go over tall fences, run down suspects, and wrestle an uncooperative person to the ground to handcuff them. It was true there wasn’t a lot of crime in Silver, but she would have to be ready for those rare occasions when a fully functioning police officer was required. If she wasn’t physically fit she would be a liability and could put others in danger.