Love Under Two Benedicts(7)

“Statewide, sir?” Connors tried not to let his shock show. Fortunately, though he failed in that regard, Fremont assumed the reaction had a different cause.

“Yes, it’s expensive. Don’t worry about that. I’m making arrangements. You’ll have the money you need to pull this off.”

“Thank you, sir. I’m very grateful.”

“Damn right you are,” Fremont said. “You just remember that gratitude, and we’re going to get along fine. Real fine.”

Connors managed to maintain his composure throughout the rest of the meal. He didn’t, in fact, allow himself to get nervous until he pulled into his driveway and watched the garage door open. Cora Lynn, his wife, was not yet home, which was a good thing. It would give him a bit of time to assimilate the good news–bad news revelations of this afternoon and settle his thoughts.

As he let himself into the house and headed for his office, he knew one thing for certain. Something had to be done.

He sat behind his desk and opened the locked drawer on the right. Reaching inside, he pulled out two pages he’d printed from the Internet.

One was a story from five years before, a brash and brazen holdup gone wrong that had shocked and saddened the entire city of Austin. A husband and father along with his young son had been shot to death in a convenience store robbery. Although the shooter had initially gotten away with the help of an accomplice driving a black sedan, he’d later been identified after the local news stations broadcasted the store’s security video.

That shooter, hopped up on drugs, had died in a shootout with police. His accomplice, the man who’d driven the getaway car, had never been identified.

The story went on to detail how the crime was even that much more tragic, for the wife and mother of the victims had sat outside the store in the family car. It was believed she witnessed the shooting and the flight of the gunman.

Wesley set that article aside and picked up the other. This appeared a much happier piece about a restaurant in a small Texas town that was fast making a name for itself as the place to dine in the area. He’d come upon the article by chance when he’d been searching for information on the convenience store shootings. The article had referenced the crime, for the efficient reporter had made the connection—victim turned entrepreneur.

Just when Wesley believed he’d atoned for his sins, just when he was about to take the next step into a career that he hoped to bring him to the governor’s office in Texas and maybe, just maybe as one recent Texas governor had done, to the nation’s capital itself.

He looked down at the face of a pretty brunette. Her hair had been pulled back and out of the way. She used to wear it in a chic cut, just long enough to brush the bottom of her face. In this photograph, taken to accompany the article about her business, her mouth tilted up in a small smile.

The last time he’d seen her face she’d worn an expression of shock and horror, her wide eyes drilling his from behind the windshield of her car.

Wesley felt the meal he’d just eaten sour in his stomach. Sherman Fremont wanted a statewide media blitz, which would undoubtedly feature Connor’s smiling face being flashed on the television screens and newspapers from Austin all the way to a small town he’d never heard of before.

He held up the page he’d printed and looked at the woman for a long time. He couldn’t take the chance she’d see his face and remember him.

If he wanted the life he’d earned, the life he deserved, then he would have to do something about Kelsey Madison, and he’d have to do it soon.





Chapter 3



Kelsey placed her hand on her belly, a simple reaction to the butterflies that wouldn’t settle there. Her last employee had just left. As she did every evening, she walked through the restaurant, seeing that everything had been turned off, closed up, and done.

At five minutes after ten, she stepped out onto the sidewalk and locked the door behind her.

They stood waiting for her, two handsome devils, one light, one dark, wearing identical expressions of mischief, mayhem, and mirth.

No, that last part was only her imagination. The brothers Benedict greeted her with smiles that truly warmed her, body and soul.

Enough of that, Kels. This is supposed to be about sex and nothing more.

Not surprisingly, she felt that reaction, too. Liquid warmth sped her heart and moistened her pussy. She’d focus on the physical and keep her soul out of it.

“Hey, pretty lady.” Matthew held out his hand, and in that moment, she set aside her musings and simply went to them.

She felt her heart bump when Matthew took her hand and used it to pull her inexorably into his arms. His movements slow, as if not to frighten her, he wrapped his arms around her and laid his lips on hers.