The Chains That Bind [The Men of Treasure Cove 10] (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Forever) Read online

  “Ethan!” she reprimanded. “We are not adding breaking and entering to my list of crimes.”

  “Oh come on, Mom. They’re not going to say anything. Once you come clean and tell them what happened. They will believe you.”

  “Let’s check out the barn. Maybe we can sleep in there.” Taking her son’s hand, they ran for the barn, and thanked God the doors were open. She figured if it was open, it was okay to walk in, because if the owners wanted to keep someone out, they would have locked the doors. Besides, she was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. She and her son needed somewhere to sleep, and if the barn was all that was offered, then the barn it was.

  The barn was nothing like the house, and it definitely wasn’t the Hilton, but it would keep the snow off them. It smelled funny, but she wasn’t going to complain. She just hoped there weren’t too many animals in here. She wasn’t good with animals. Slowly making their way deeper into the dark dwelling, all was silent until she heard the first noise.

  “What was that?” she whispered, her hand tightening on her son’s.

  “A horse, Mom,” he sighed, pulling her along the wall of the barn.

  She heard another sound.

  “What was that?”

  “Another horse, Mom.”

  “I can’t do this. I don’t like horses. Maybe we should find another place?”

  “Sure, we can go back up to the house, break in, and you can make me a burger while we wait for your friends to get home.”

  “I didn’t raise you to be flippant, Ethan.”

  “No, ma’am, you didn’t, and Grandpa didn’t raise you to run from your fears.”

  “No, he just raised me to be subservient.”

  “Well, it’s a good thing he’s dead then, isn’t it? Because now you can only be subservient to yourself. Come on, Mom. Help me find the tack room. This place is big.”

  “But the horses!”

  “Are in their stalls. Unless they can unlatch the doors, they aren’t getting out.”

  Slowly moving along, she counted five horse stalls. Each one with a large fierce beast in them that could trample her body to death in mere seconds.

  Nope, she wasn’t scared. She was petrified!

  Holy crap! How many horses does one person need?

  The ferocious beast looked at her as she slowly walked further into the barn. She had never been this close to one since she was twelve. She didn’t like remembering that time. That time cost her a broken arm and six stitches on her forehead. Her dad yelled, blaming her. Her mom cried, trying to help, but nothing helped. She was wrong, again, and it cost her the chance at entering the competition. Though she was thankful she didn’t have to ride anymore, she was sorry for what it cost her mother. It was all her fault.

  “Mom, forget about it. You have that face on again. Just let it go. I am going to be fine and so are you. You’ll see.” Her son smiled at her.

  Her one right thing.

  Her son. How she was blessed with such a sweet young man, she would never know. He looked so much like her, yet his personality was all his own. He was strong, determined, compassionate, and her rock. He was nothing like his father. She got lucky with Ethan. Her son was his own man, even if he was only twelve.

  They found several rooms, each housing materials and objects she had only ever seen as a child. When they came to the fourth door, she smiled. It wasn’t pretty, but it would do. There, lying on a wooden bench was a jacket, a thick, warm jacket. She felt bad for what she was about to do, but, figuring it was the season of giving, well, she just hoped the owner didn’t mind giving up the jacket. Okay, she knew she was stealing it, but damn it, her son needed it more than the owner did.

  “No, Mom. You wear it. I have my own coat. I am fine.”

  “But it’s warmer than the one you have!”

  “I said no. You only have that windbreaker on. I have a coat. Take it,” he said sternly, getting his serious face on. She smiled at him. She liked when he got that determined look on his face. So serious and confident, her son was.

  “All right,” she whispered. The jacket was bigger than she was, but she didn’t care. It was wool-lined, and it would help keep her warm. Sitting against the wall in the small room, she found some sort of blanket, and before she could think out what to do next, she was asleep.

  Chapter Two

  “Damn it, Richard, I can’t do that!”

  “Sure you can, Rev. All you have to do is just say the words this Sunday. Here, I even made it easy on you. I wrote down exactly what I need you to say,” Richard Masterson said, handing the Reverend of Treasure Cove, Bram Prescott, a small index card.

  Nobody in Treasure Cove knew exactly what Richard Masterson and his brothers did for a living, and he was thankful for that. What they did know was only speculation, but most of it was just gossip, and Richard preferred it that way. Oh, they still took the occasional investigative case every now and then, but that was not what they really did. Everything was working perfectly, that was until Reverend Bram Prescott showed up in town. Out of everyone in the Mastersons’ past, Bram was the last person they wanted to see. Bram knew every little deep, dark secret about the Masterson brothers, and to make matters worse, they were cousins.

  “No, absolutely not. We are not seven anymore, Dick. Go find someone else to do your dirty work for you,” Bram said with an air of finality.

  “I told you Butthole wouldn’t do it. You owe me one hundred dollars, bro. Pay up.”

  Richard grinned at his brother, Duke. “Oh brother of little faith. What you don’t seem to understand is that Bram will do what we ask, because if he doesn’t, I won’t show up to a certain someone’s parole hearing in three months. We all know it would break Aunt Cathy’s heart if her bouncing baby boy Grayson didn’t make parole in time for his birthday come springtime.”

  “That’s blackmail! Besides, you promised my mom you would lend a helping hand,” Bram retorted.

  “And I will, just as long as you say what’s on that card, this Sunday,” Richard said.

  “First off, that’s blackmail!” Bram shouted. “Richard, please understand. I cannot use the church to advertise your agenda. One, it’s just unethical, two it’s morally wrong, and three if you make me do it, I will call Aunt Rose.”

  “Hey! No bringing the moms into this. We are not five anymore, butt-face,” Nelson Masterson said, getting to his feet.

  “Richard brought the moms into it first!” Bram shouted at his cousin.

  “Oh that was real mature, Bram. Are you gonna cry next?” Jake Masterson said, shaking his head in disgust.

  “Fuck off, Jake,” Bram cursed.

  “Damn, cuz, and you preach the word of God on Sundays with that mouth. Wow, the preachership has lost more morality than I thought,” Levi Masterson commented, entering the conversation.

  Before Bram could answer with a quick comeback, Richard held up his hand. “This isn’t going to get us anywhere. Besides, Bram is outnumbered. It isn’t right, brothers. It would be wrong, with the five of us and only one of him. Besides, both of our moms would whip all of our asses with a switch if we ever tag-teamed him. We’re just gonna have to wait until Grayson is released from prison.”

  “Think again, asshole. Zander, Dew, and Ember will be here next month.” Bram grinned.

  “Fuck!” Duke grumbled.

  “Whelp, there goes the neighborhood,” Jake said, throwing his hands in the air.

  “How quick can we sell out and find a new place?” Nelson asked, looking at Richard, who rolled his eyes.

  “I’m calling Mom!” Levi said, reaching for his phone. All of the brothers and Bram grabbed for the youngest. Nelson, the closest to Levi, snatched the phone out of his twin’s hands. “Are you crazy?”

  “What?” Levi asked as his four angry brothers and one furious cousin looked at him.

  “We are not calling the moms!” all five of them said at once.

  Running his hands through his hair, Bram gave in. “Fine, I wi
ll mention the fact that you guys want to host a get-together, but that’s it! I will not promote your unsavory business venture. You people are just gonna have to figure out a way to integrate yourselves into the community. For starters, it would help if you came to town more often, instead of being such recluses. Seriously, visit Macie’s Diner more often. Come to some of the town’s functions, and for fuck’s sake, get to know your damn neighbors. The people here are real friendly. If you want to promote your business, they are your best bet. In addition, you’ll need to talk with Micah O’Brian and Daniel Meyer. They own a small security firm. They could help spread the word. That’s all I can do.”

  “We’ll take it,” Richard said, shaking Bram’s hand. Just then, the church doors blew open. They all turned and watched as snow floated into the small church.

  The room grew colder. The wind howled. The night looked ominous.

  “We better get home. This storm looks like it’s just getting started. Call if you need anything, Bram,” Richard said, buttoning up his coat.

  “I will. You boys be careful getting home. Call me and let me know you got home safely,” Bram sincerely said, walking them toward the front doors.

  “Yes, Mommy,” Jake said.

  Crammed into Richard’s big black Dually, Levi Masterson sat between his brothers Nelson and Jake. He didn’t mind. He was the youngest. He just wished they would give him a little more room.

  God, they were hulking oafs. Not that he wasn’t, also. It’s just he didn’t flaunt it as his brothers did. He knew the gene pool wasn’t in his favor when he had a six-foot-seven man for a father who played football, rugby, and enjoyed every outdoor sport known to man. His mother was damn near six foot, too. Giants! He came from a family of giants, and according to all the childhood stories he read when he was younger… giants had little brains.

  His mother was one of the smartest women he knew, even if she was Miss Alabama and preferred fashion to books. Nope, his mother was the smartest trophy wife south of the Mason-Dixon line, and she loved every minute of it. Giving birth to three of the most ungrateful, ignorant human beings within four years, his mother tried one last time for the little girl she dreamed about. Instead, she got the biggest oaf of all, and him, the smart one.

  The one surprise they didn’t know about.

  As the most intelligent offspring of Jacob and Rose Masterson and the youngest of five brothers, his intellect didn’t do him any favors. It just got him a lot of grief, into many fights with his brothers, and noogies. God, he hated noogies!

  It all boiled down to time. Time was a bitch, and nothing he could do would change the fact that he was born last. Not that he was the youngest by a significant period of time, just fourteen thousand four hundred milliseconds, or two hundred and twenty-four seconds, or four minutes. He was the youngest by four lousy minutes! The logical explanation for his demise was that his twin came out of the birthing canal first, due to his positioning in the womb, but there was nothing logical about Nelson. No, he preferred the realistic explanation, which was his twin beat the crap out of him in the womb, pushed him aside, and made a break for it, leaving him to fend for himself, knowing that being the youngest of five brothers was the worst thing that could happen living in the family they were being to be born into. Thus began his torturous life as the youngest Masterson son in a family of inept oafs.

  The bane of his existence sat snoring next to him. To make matters worse, he shared the same face with the snoring idiot! How two people could look so much alike and could be completely different was beyond him, and he graduated from MIT. Nevertheless, he was the youngest, and there was nothing he could do about it, not that he didn’t try several times to repudiate his theory.

  Oh, how he wished he could have found the evidence to support his theory.

  Hell, he even thought about going out on his own, but then something would happen, and if it weren’t his twin, his other brothers would need him. They always needed him for some mundane little thing. Well, technically it wasn’t mundane to them. He couldn’t blame them for being mentally inferior to him. It wasn’t their fault. They just got the short end of the genetic strip.

  Nope, they needed him, and there was nothing he could do about it. He was stuck. He just wished that once he could find someone as intellectually smart as him that wanted him for him, and not his brain.

  His phone began buzzing as his brother Richard pulled into the drive. Taking his phone from his jacket, he tapped the screen. “The alarm is going off in the barn,” he informed Richard since his other brothers were sleeping.

  “It’s probably just an animal getting out of the storm. It’s nothing,” Richard said, parking the truck and turning off the ignition.

  Levi was about to agree with him, when the sensor he installed in the tack room went off. “Now another alarm is going off.”

  “Maybe you screwed up the installation?” Duke said, stretching.

  “I don’t make mistakes, ever. Someone is in the barn,” Levi replied strongly.

  “It’s an animal, Levi. Leave it alone,” Richard sighed, opening his door.

  “But…”

  “Leave it be, Levi. It’s late,” Jake moaned.

  “Seriously, bro, let it go,” Nelson added.

  “I’m with them, Lev. This storm is raging. It’s probably some raccoon or something seeking shelter. Drop it,” Duke said.

  Sighing, Levi sat back as his brothers raced for the ranch house. He knew what they said had merit, he wasn’t completely oblivious, but damn it, he knew that those sensors were installed correctly. It didn’t take a genius to hook up a motion detector in a barn. Unless, it was the sensor itself, he thought. He designed the damn things. His mind reeling with possibilities, he exited the truck. Instead of heading into the warmth of his home, he walked into the barn.

  Hitting the adapter application he had installed on his phone, the schematics of the barn filled his cell screen, identifying exactly which alarms went off. The first was by the door. Kneeling and checking the wires to make sure no rodents chewed through the wires, he wasn’t surprised when everything checked out. He knew he had installed the sensors correctly. He wasn’t stupid. Reaching inside his coat pocket, he took out the small electrical voltage reader, and within minutes, he also knew that the sensor was working perfectly, which only left two conclusions, that either his brothers were correct and an animal snuck in, or he was right and they had an intruder on their property. Since he was mathematically never wrong, he chose to believe his brothers were idiots and he was once again right.

  Walking along the length of the barn, he stayed close to the wall, trying not to disturb the horses. It wasn’t that he didn’t like the animals, he did, but they weren’t on his top-five list of favorite things. Nope, horses ranked somewhere between split pea soup and dental visits.

  The further he moved into the barn, the less and less sure he was about searching for the intruder by himself. He trusted his instincts and he knew he was right, but without his four brothers with him, this little incursion was something altogether different. There were too many variables, too many things that could go wrong.

  For the first time in his life, he was second-guessing his ability to think rationally. Putting his phone in his back pocket, he reached under his left arm and removed the nine-millimeter berretta he wore. Guns, he knew. Proficient and sure about his abilities with the weapon, he easily flipped the safety off and took a steadier step. He had been trained extensively and knew the protocol for search and seizure. He just didn’t think he would be by himself.

  Standing before the tack room door, he took a deep breath and slowly opened the door. The room was dark and chilly, not as cold as outside, but cold nonetheless. Taking a step, he reached for the lights and turned them on.

  Nothing.

  The power must be out, he thought as he moved deeper into the room, and just when he thought his brothers might just be right, he heard it. Turning slowly, what he saw was anything but an intruder.
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  “Cami?” Levi’s mind instantly transported him back several years to when he was just a little boy.

  Standing before a tree with his hands in his pockets, as his twin and the rest of his brothers mocked him, he saw her running toward them, and sighed. He didn’t want to do this in front of her, anyone else but her.

  “Boys, thank goodness I found you. I need to talk to you all,” she quickly said, trying to catch her breath.

  “Not now, dollface. Geek-boy has something important to do,” his brother Richard said.

  “But it’s important. I’m—”

  “Not now!” Richard shouted. “Let’s go, geek-boy. Get your ass up here!”

  He felt her presence before he felt her hand.

  “You don’t have to do this, Levi.” Her soft voice filtered over his brothers’ hoots and hollers. They enjoyed tormenting him. They knew he couldn’t do a lot of the things they did. Sports and extracurricular activities never came easily to him. He preferred books, experiments, and electronics to football, baseball, and camping. He wasn’t the outdoorsy type. He knew that, but he could climb a tree. It was easy. He just had to do it.

  “If I don’t, they will keep making fun of me,” he replied, looking at the very large oak before him. His twin, the one he shared his mother’s womb with, was hanging upside down on one of the branches, mocking him, while his other brothers were betting he couldn’t do it. It was a bright sunny day, not a cloud in the sky, and all he wanted was to prove to his brothers that he could climb a tree.

  “Just because they can do it, Levi, doesn’t mean you have to. You are the smartest boy I know. Please don’t do this,” she said, taking his hand, squeezing it.

  “Aw, little geek-boy needs a pep talk,” Duke shouted, and the rest of his brothers started laughing.

  “You leave him alone, Duke Masterson, before I tell your mother what you did last Friday!” she shouted sternly, and Duke quickly shut his mouth.

  Roaring with laughter, his twin Nelson slapped Duke on the back. “Looks like she told you, butthead.”