Page 7 of Stilettos & Whiskey (Deputy Gemma Stone)

Snoring woke me up. I opened my eyes and frowned. Gemma didn’t snore and she was in Hawaii with Dante.

I turned my head and bolted upright. Goldilocks wasn’t sleeping on Gemma’s bed, but Lucas was, and the bastard was wearing his itty-bitty swim trunks that showed off his package.

It might be one hundred and eighteen today, but seriously, he needed to cover up like me.

I was wearing one of Dad’s old T-shirts that hung past my knees.

Was he wearing the swim trunks to provoke a reaction? Probably.

I’ve been in love with Lucas since I was thirteen, but when he’s sorta your big brother and treats you like an annoying kid sister, what do you do? I had gotten good at suppressing my feelings until the kiss. For a brief moment, I thought he loved me too, but he didn’t.

Ugh! I wasn’t sure what game he was playing, but he wasn’t going to treat me like one of his bimbos. I grabbed the pillow off my bed and whacked the living hell out of him. “Get out! Get out! Now!”

“Hey! Knock it off!” Lucas erupted to his feet, dodging my blows. “What’s got your panties in a wad?” He snatched the pillow away from me.

“You! And for God’s sake, put some clothes on.”

A spark of laughter in his eyes, Lucas yawned and stretched. “Like what you see?”

An ill-tempered growl broke from me. He was flexing to show off his perfect body. He had inherited his dad’s muscular build, six-pack abs and great ass. “I’ve seen better.”

“You’re still mad about that kiss. How about a do-over?” Lucas gave me his killer grin. “Pucker up, sweetheart.”

My temper flared again. I had seen his charming scoundrel act way too many times for it to work on me. I drew my fist back and punched him in the gut. “Not. Interested. Get out!”

“Ow.” Lucas rubbed his stomach. “No can do, it’s my turn to watch you.”

“I’m fine. Get out!”

Nate stuck his head in the room. “Both of you shut the hell up. Lucas’ projectile vomiting was from food poisoning. Nothing more. Nothing less.”

“Un huh, and he couldn’t find the time to tell me that?”

“We were searching for Gemma, remember?” Lucas snapped.

I flinched. God, I still remembered the gut-wrenching fear that we wouldn’t find her in time. And my utter relief when Gemma rescued herself. “I’m not seeing double anymore and the dizziness is gone. So, leave me the hell alone.”

“You’re not interested in our plan to take down the Evans family?”

He had me there. I sat on the bed. “You know I am.”

Lucas’ flirty demeanor vanished, and he was suddenly a no-nonsense cop. “Almost every police agency in the state wanted in on the task force.”

“More dead bodies?”

“That and the Evans family have been terrorizing rural communities, forcing people to sell their land to them. Dirt cheap.”

“Why is this the first we’ve heard about them?”

“The majority of the Evans clan are in law enforcement or have management positions in city government. They’re very good at burying evidence and making victims disappear.”

I scowled. “Was Roger killing people while on duty?”

“It’s a possibility. Sergeant Bergman is going through all his calls and duty logs looking for irregularities.”

Valiantly trying to ignore Lucas’ muscular chest and bulging biceps I stared down at my hands. “í still can’t figure out why he is fixated on me.”

“Did he ever ask you out?”

Rolling my eyes, I spat, “Hell no. He always acted like Gemma, and I had the cooties. He wouldn’t even look at us or talk to us unless it was absolutely necessary.”

A memory popped into my head, and I groaned, “The bar fight.”

“What bar fight?” A frown shadowed Lucas’s features.

“Gemma and I were having dinner at Billie Bob’s Bar and Grill when these two jerks demanded we dance with them.

We politely declined. The bigger idiot grabbed Gemma’s arm and yanked her to her feet.

She decked him. Which pissed off his buddy, who swung at her, Gemma ducked, and he punched Todd, the bouncer, instead.

Lucas rubbed his face. “And a brawl started.”

“Well, yeah, Todd crashed into a waitress carrying a tray of drinks which she dumped in this big dude’s lap and all hell broke loose.

A lazy smile played at Lucas’s mouth. “Did you try to stop the fight?”

“Nope. We were off duty and kinda drunk. So, we called 9-1-1.”

“And Deputy Evans responded,” Lucas said drolly.

“Yep. The little turd burst into the bar all puffed up like a banty rooster and got his ass handed to him. Gemma and I had to rescue him, and he wasn’t the least bit grateful.”

Lucas grimaced. “It does explain his hatred of you.”

“I’ve come to Frank’s rescue a couple of times and he never gets pissy about it.”

“Frank isn’t a sociopath.”

Ugh. My lower lip was throbbing, and I had the headache from hell. “No, he’s a damn good cop and friend.”

“Time for your meds.” Lucas took a pill bottle off the nightstand and gave it to me.

I read the label. Tylenol 3. One every four hours.

“From one to ten, how bad is your headache?” Lucas handed me a glass of water.

“About an eight.” I popped a pill in my mouth and drained the glass.

Lucas took the water glass from me. “How did Evans manage to get the drop on you?”

“I wasn’t expecting a fellow officer to try to kill me,” I snapped.

He shot back testily, “You’re an Alpha Dog and you’ve been trained to deal with the unexpected.”

“It happened so fast. One minute the paramedics were treating Roger’s head wound, and the next he was shoving me off the edge of the ravine.”

Nate strolled in and sat next to me on the bed. “I just watched all the body camera videos and Julie never had a chance to defend herself. Evans would have shot her too, if it wasn’t for Captain Smith and Frank.” He leaned over and kissed my cheek. “You’re lucky to be alive, squirt.”

“I know and what’s up with this inappropriate sexual conduct charge?”

Lucas and Nate exchanged glances.

“Oh, my, God. How bad is it?”

Lucas blew out a long breath. “It’s an AI-generated video of you pleasuring yourself and begging Evans to have sex with you.”

“What?” I felt the color drain from my face.

Nate hugged me. “It’s badly done, and the woman looks nothing like you.”

“Dad removed the video from the internet,” Lucas quickly added.

“I want to see it.”

Nate shook his head. “No, you don’t.”

“Where’s grandpa?” I knew he would show it to me.

“At the Vulture Mine Command Center,” Lucas answered.

I shot to my feet. “There’s already an assault team ready to breach the compound?”

“Yes,” Lucas replied.

“Why aren’t you there?”

Nate pulled me back down on the bed. “We’re guarding the ranch and you.”

“Who is manning the command center?”

“Devon’s at the command console and Jacob is flying the drone.

I grabbed a pair of shorts out of a drawer and pulled them on. “I want to help.”

“Eat a tamale. If you keep it down, you can run a drone,” Lucas stated.

Giving him the stink eye, I headed for the kitchen. Who died and made him boss.

Lucas and Nate followed behind me.

I glanced over my shoulder. “What? You think Roger Evans is gonna run in and grab me?”

“Dunno. We can’t find him,” Nate replied.

“The little weasel is probably hiding out in Mexico.” I pulled a pan of tamales out of the refrigerator and set it on the counter.

Lucas handed me a plate.

“Thanks.” I put two tamales on it and stuck it in the microwave. “You guys want some too?” I hit the timer.

“We do.” Nate took more plates out of the cabinet.

My eyebrows rose as Lucas put six tamales on each plate. Sometimes I wondered why they didn’t weigh four hundred pounds.

The timer dinged. Taking my plate out, I grabbed a fork and sat down at the kitchen table.

Lucas put a 64-ounce bottle of water in front of my plate. “You’re dehydrated. Drink all of it.”

“Yes, lieutenant.” Did the ass want me to notice the bulge in his swim trunks was getting bigger? Maybe or maybe not. He probably thought I was still a virgin and would get all flustered? Ha!

If I wanted to rattle Lucas, I simply needed to take a page out of his playbook.

Suppressing a smile, I took a bite of tamale and moaned.

“Oh, God, it’s so good.” I suckled my fork like it was a big ass cock, then slowly licked my lips.

“Yum.” I scooped up another bite of tamale and ran my tongue up and down it.

Lucas let out an audible gulp. “How many porn movies have you been watching?”

“I don’t watch porn movies.” Okay, Gemma, Mom and I watched a few for shits and giggles, but he didn’t need to know that.

“You don’t?”

I gave him my Debbie Sunshine smile. “I saw how many women you were sleeping with and decided to see what the fuss was all about. And damn, sex is pretty awesome.”

“You’ve had sex!”

“Well, yeah.”

Lucas’s horrified expression was hilarious. “Do Mom and Dad know?”

“Of course. Dad gave me the safe sex talk, and Mom used a banana to show me the proper way to put a condom on a guy. Gotta say, it’s kinda fun.”

Nate grinned. “I was there when Mom was teaching the girls about condoms and sex toys.”

“Sex toys?” Lucas parroted incredulously.

It took everything I had to keep from laughing. “You know, vibrators, and dildos.”

Lucas’s cellphone rang. He snatched it off the counter. “Lieutenant Stone.” He rubbed his forehead. “How long ago? Un huh. Let me check with Devon.” He walked out of the kitchen.

Nate took the chair next to me. “He really does love you.”

“He has a weird way of showing it.” I took another bite of tamale.

“He fell in love with you when Mom and Dad first brought you home. You were a cute little tyke and so heart broken.”

The pain came rushing back and tears filled my eyes. “I couldn’t save them. I couldn’t save them,” I whispered.

“You’ve read the autopsy report. When you got off the school bus, your parents were already dead,” Nate reminded me.

A tear rolled down my cheek, then another and another. “I know, but I’ll never know any peace until their killer is caught.”

“Why is she crying?” Lucas demanded, looking all official in his Alpha Dog tactical gear.

I quickly wiped my face. “Old memories.”

“We investigated your parents’ deaths thoroughly. The fire was started by faulty wiring in the attic,” Lucas stated firmly.

I pushed my plate of half-eaten tamales away. “You’re right.”

“After the Evans family is in custody, we’ll go over the arson file again. Okay?” Lucas promised.

I nodded. “Okay.”

“Now finish your tamales and drink your water,” Lucas ordered, using his detective lieutenant’s command voice. “The operation begins in an hour.”

“Yes, sir.”