Beth's Little Secret [River Bend Texas Heat 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Read online

  Riverbend, Texas Heat 2

  Beth’s Little Secret

  Beth Hallmark’s secret could get her killed. Mac Tidwell and his brother, Mason, vow to keep her safe from a madman intent on capturing her for himself. They race against time to find and stop him. But sometimes things can be deceiving. Is the stalker who he seems to be?

  Her revelation of her secret stuns Mac and Mason. They struggle to accept her for who she is and realize she is perfect for them. They vow to make her theirs, but first they must keep her safe.

  Mac and Mason realize that they have fallen for her hard. Sometimes loving someone will hide the facts from you. When she’s kidnapped, they struggle to figure out who her captor is before it’s too late. Will they make it in time to save her from the man’s cruel games? Or will he outmaneuver them?

  Note: There is no sexual relationship or touching for titillation between or among siblings.

  Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Western/Cowboys

  Length: 62,279 words

  BETH’S LITTLE SECRET

  Riverbend, Texas Heat 2

  Marla Monroe

  MENAGE EVERLASTING

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting

  BETH’S LITTLE SECRET

  Copyright © 2012 by Marla Monroe

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-61926-819-7

  First E-book Publication: June 2012

  Cover design by Les Byerley

  All art and logo copyright © 2012 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

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  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

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  BETH’S LITTLE SECRET

  Riverbend, Texas Heat 2

  MARLA MONROE

  Copyright © 2012

  Chapter One

  Sheriff Mac Tidwell pulled in behind Bethany Hallmark’s Nissan Pathfinder and cut the engine. She had called about a Peeping Tom complaint a week ago, and now she was calling in that someone had left something on her porch. He steeled himself to see her again. He and his brother, Mason, had been fighting their attraction to the pretty, sable-haired beauty for years now. They didn’t think she was up for their sort of games.

  Now, he was forced to spend time with her again. His cock jerked behind the zipper of his uniform pants. He adjusted it before he got out of the truck. Then he walked up to the front porch and looked at the basket sitting at her front door. Before he could take another step, the door opened, and Beth peered out at him from behind her reading glasses. Her pretty hazel eyes looked more amber today than usual.

  “Beth, how are you doing?”

  “Okay. I want that off my porch.” She nodded toward the basket he had yet to see inside.

  “All right, let me take a look.”

  “Can’t you just take it away and look at it later?” she asked.

  “I need to see it like you found it. Did you look at it from where you are now or from the other side?”

  “I found it when I got home from the store. I was standing right in front of it.” She pointed toward the porch directly in front of him.

  Mac nodded and walked up on the porch to where she had pointed. He pulled off his sunglasses and stuck them in his front shirt pocket before bending over and lifting up the towel that covered the basket.

  Inside the basket lay a pair of handcuffs, a feather, and a candle. The note lying on top said, You’re my favorite one. I’ll give you everything you want. Wait for me.

  “Do you know who sent this to you?” he asked, standing up straight again.

  Beth looked up at him and shook her head no. “Not unless it’s the same guy from last week.”

  “Do you know what he means in the note?”

  “No.”

  “Do you know what the items in the basket are for?”

  “No,” she whispered.

  Mac thought differently. She knew and wasn’t telling. He didn’t have to guess at their uses and thought about pressuring her. He decided against it for now. He needed to gather the evidence and go from there first.

  “Okay, Beth. Go on back inside, and stay while I check everything out here. I’ll knock when I need to talk to you again.”

  “Are you going to get rid of it?”

  “I’m going to take it in as evidence, but other than trespassing, I don’t know what kind of crime is being committed. I guess this could be a stalker, but this is the only evidence we have right now to go on.”

  “Please, just get rid of it.” She leaned heavily on the door then closed it with a soft snap.

  Mac sighed and walked back out to his truck for supplies. He would work it like a crime scene just in case. He didn’t like the looks of the items in the basket. They were typical fetish items. The handcuffs worried him, though. They looked to be police grade at first glance. If Beth had picked up a stalker, he would put a stop to it right quick.

  He didn’t like the fact that she lived where she did, or that she lived alone, but there wasn’t much he could do about it. She wasn’t his to take care of. If she had been, she would have been living with him
and Mason. There wouldn’t be any chance of a stalker getting within ten feet of her. He drew in a deep breath and let it out. Time to get to work.

  Thirty minutes later, he had everything he needed from the porch. He locked up his truck and knocked on Beth’s door. She answered it after checking to see who it was from the window. Good girl.

  “Sheriff.”

  “Beth, we know each other well enough for you to call me Mac.” When she didn’t say anything, he sighed. “Can I come in?”

  She took a step back and let him in then closed the door. She turned around and leaned back against it, hugging herself.

  “Let’s sit down, Beth, and talk. I need to ask you some questions.”

  Beth’s eyes widened for a second, and then she nodded and walked over to the couch where she sat down. He took a chair across from her and pulled out his note pad to write.

  “Tell me about how you found it today. Where had you been?”

  “I usually go to the store on Saturday for groceries. I left here about nine and got back around ten thirty. I had to stop by the post office first. I walked up on the porch with my hands full and just figured it was from someone I knew. I unlocked the door and took my groceries in then walked back out and got another load. When I finished putting everything perishable away, I went back out to get the basket. Something made me look at it before I picked it up. When I saw what was in it, I walked inside and closed the door and called the office.”

  “Did you touch anything inside the basket?”

  “No! I only pulled back the towel then put it back and left it where it was.”

  Mac nodded. He didn’t like asking these questions, but he had to.

  “Do you have a boyfriend who might have brought this over as a joke or something?”

  “No, I don’t have a boyfriend.”

  “Who are the last couple of people you have dated?”

  “What? Why do you need to know that?”

  “It’s just to rule out anyone playing a prank, Beth.”

  “I haven’t dated anyone in over a year. I don’t even remember who the last few were.”

  Mac’s cock twitched at that bit of news. He hadn’t realized she wasn’t dating anyone. He’d worked hard to not know anything about her personal life.

  “So, no bad breakups lately?”

  “No.”

  “What about in the past, Beth? Even two or three years ago.”

  “I–I don’t know. I’d have to think about it.”

  “Have you had any odd phone calls recently?”

  “No.”

  “No hang-ups or wrong numbers?”

  “No, I only have my cell phone, and no one has the number but a few close friends.”

  Mac knew he wasn’t in that close friend category, but he had her number now.

  “Do you have a security system, Beth?”

  “No, I’ve never needed one. I have good locks, deadbolts.”

  “You might want to think about a security system. You’re a young woman living alone. Even if this ends up just being a prank, it would be safer for you living outside of town like you do.”

  “I–I’ll think about it.”

  He stood up and closed his pad. “Okay, I’m going to walk around the house and see if there is anything out of the ordinary. Then I’ll be leaving.”

  Mac reached in his pocket and pulled out a card. He turned it over and wrote his home phone number and cell phone number on the card. He handed it to her.

  “If you remember anything or if something else happens, call me.”

  “Okay. Thanks, Sher…Mac.”

  She walked him to the door then closed it behind him. He heard the deadbolt set and the chain slide across the metal plate. He walked around the house and noticed in several spots that there were areas of trampled grass. They were located in key spots to see inside if her drapes or blinds were open. He didn’t find any other evidence that someone had been there, though. No cigarette butts or candy wrappers.

  She knew more than she was telling him. He knew this because she was scared. He had never seen her that shaken before. She was normally a little timid, which was why he and Mason had agreed that, despite their attraction to her, they would leave her alone. But for her to be scared enough to call the department knowing he would be the one to come out, she had to be a lot more scared than she had let on.

  She had been avoiding him ever since that night after the Fourth of July picnic nearly five years ago. He had thought that because she seemed friendly, that maybe she would be okay with him and Mason courting her. Unfortunately, she wasn’t prepared for both of them at one time, and it had backfired on them. Ever since then they had both kept their distance. Now he was afraid that he couldn’t do that anymore. If someone was after her, they would have to go through him to get to her.

  Chapter Two

  Beth closed the door and slid both the deadbolt and the chain slide closed before all but collapsing against the door. When she lifted up that towel and saw what was in the basket on her front porch, she had stood there looking at her phone for twenty minutes before she got up the nerve to call the sheriff’s department. She knew who would end up coming out. She had been right.

  Beth hadn’t been able to get past that night nearly five years ago when both he and his brother, Mason, had kissed her during the fireworks. She had been so naïve not to have guessed what they were hinting at with their teasing. She knew how things were in Riverbend, Texas. She just hadn’t put two and two together with Mac and Mason Tidwell. She had only been twenty-one at the time and was enjoying the bad boys of Riverbend’s attention. When they had both kissed her and pressed her to see them, she had nearly passed out in fright. Never in a million years had she thought they were serious, and never would she have thought both of them wanted her at one time.

  Now she knew what had scared her so badly back then. It hadn’t been them or the idea of a ménage at all. It had been her arousal at their naughty words in her ears. Beth had been appalled that she wanted all of those things and more. She had been turned on, and it frightened her. That is what she had been running from all these years, because God help her, she still wanted all of it, and she wanted it from the Tidwell men.

  Mac, with his bald head and tribal tattoo on his bicep, was the bad boy of the two sexy men. His dark eyes could pierce your heart from across the room. He stood a little over six feet five inches and was solid muscle. His square jaw and oval face gave him an air of confidence that most men worked at achieving. He had come by it naturally.

  Mason, his younger brother by six minutes, was roughly the same height, but not as muscular as Mac. He had the same dark eyes, but he had a head full of jet black hair that he kept pulled back from his face off his shoulders. Mason was the more refined of the two, but was just as dominant as Mac.

  Ever since she had returned from Dallas to live, she had been more than aware of the Tidwell men everywhere she went. It was as if a string attached her to them, so that if they were nearby, she felt them and noticed them. She had purposefully steered clear of Mac and Mason because she believed the attraction on their side was over. Now she wasn’t so sure.

  And now she had a stalker. She knew that was what he was, because she knew what those items were and what the note meant. He was referring to her last erotic romance novel that had come out a little over two weeks ago. Right after that, she’d had the Peeping Tom, and now this. The feather, the handcuffs, and the candle were all from the book entitled Everything She Wanted.

  She hadn’t told Mac about it because no one in Riverbend knew that she wrote erotic romance. They all thought she did freelance editing for a living, and she did or she had until the book sales had gotten so good. Now she had to work hard to keep up with her writing. Since she didn’t write under her own name, someone had found out who she was, and that scared her even more. Someone knew her secrets. She wondered with a sick feeling in her gut if they knew all her little secrets.

  After her ill-fated date
with Mac and Mason, Beth had called herself a prude and attempted to break out of her comfort zone. She moved to Dallas and started attending classes on Dominance and Submission or the D/s lifestyle. She’d enjoyed it so much she decided to let one of the Doms in the class work with her. One night he took her to a club in Dallas. She’d slowly gotten into the scene only to find out that the Dom she had picked was a little more into it than she was and didn’t like being told no.

  When the scene went bad and she had to use the club’s safe word, she knew she couldn’t trust anyone else, so she stopped going to the classes and the club. Now she didn’t date at all, because she wasn’t satisfied with straight sex anymore. What was the use? She could have an orgasm on her own without the hassle of male egos and emotionless sex.

  She moved back to Riverbend and started writing. She used the pen to write out her fantasies. Only now, someone knew they were hers, and it scared the fuck out of her.

  Beth knew she couldn’t go back to writing now, so she shut down her computer after saving everything to two different drives. She could use a cup of coffee but didn’t want to sit in the house alone. She decided to drive to the diner. There would always be someone there drinking coffee or eating pie. She checked her watch. It was pushing two now. She would spend an hour there and clear her head. By then, she should feel up to writing again.

  Beth grabbed her purse and keys on the way out the door. She stopped and considered a security system as she looked at the locks. She would research it online when she got back. It really didn’t sound like such a bad idea to her.

  Ten minutes later she was pulling in the parking lot of the Riverbend Diner. Mattie and her husbands owned it. These days, she had a college kid helping during the evenings and on weekends. The cute girl waved at her and brought over the coffee pot with a mug.