Page 90 of Claimed By the Cowboys
Isat staring at the text message, as if it might cease to exist if I looked at it hard enough.
{ Hey Piper, I know things have been getting ugly, but I’m a girl’s girl, and I think we can work some things out if we just have a face-to-face, and chat about it. What do you say? A few drinks, maybe spill a little tea—just us girls? Let me know when works for you, girly. <3 Caroline }
“Well, of all the bullshit I expected her to pull, this was actually a couple of spots down the list.” Dakota snorted unkindly from his place beside me on the couch.
We were all piling onto the sofa in the air-conditioning to watch a family movie after an early dinner, Maisie already nestled into Clay’s lap, a bowl of buttered popcorn balanced in Montana’s.
“Swear jar, seventy-five cents, please,” Montana droned, thumbing over his shoulder at the large glass jar filled with coins and small bills on the kitchen island.
“Colorful language notwithstanding, Kota’s got a point,” Zeke agreed, rubbing a hand over his jaw, already covered in stubble again after his turn as a clean-shaven lawyer the other day. Onlynow that the cat was out of the bag, everyone’s favorite beefcake was using words likenotwithstandingand other legalese here and there.
“What were you thinking her prime strategy would have been?” I lobbed back, unfamiliar with Caroline and her ways, and thus useless in predicting her behavior.
“I would have put money on her trying to get Clay toaccidentallybond her.” Montana shrugged easily.
Clay began coughing on the handful of popcorn he had just chomped down, and Dakota made a distasteful sound.
Zeke gave a half-smile, half-grimace, and shrugged.
“Jeez, is she really that bad?” I ran a worried hand over my belly, trying to imagine doing something so incredibly manipulative and cruel.
“I mean…” Montana lowered his voice, turning up the volume on the animated movie playing on the living room TV to ensure it held Maisie’s attention before he continued. “The way she’s looking at it, b-o-n-d-i-n-g Clay would give her claim to both him and the ranch.”
Zeke nodded, quick to add, “Yeah, in her mind, we’ve all been desperately waiting and counting the days until she returned. She probably thinks that if she gets a couple of drinks in him, the chronically single Clayton Blackwood would end up distracted and excited enough over her feminine omega wiles to overzealously bite her in the heat of the moment.”
My face must have done something awful at this point because, suddenly, the twins were at either elbow, pecking kisses onto my cheeks and muttering reassurances.
“Caroline would find nothing for her if she came here. No, she’d findmore than she bargained for,and not in a good way,” Clay scoffed.
A wild idea began to blossom in my mind. I knew how shitty Pack Adamar was now. I had seen their true colors—cruel and calculated, to say the least.
What little I’d seen of Caroline seemed right in line with Pack Adamar.
“What if I agreed to meet her?”
As soon as the words left my mouth, the others began shouting over one another with their objections.
“Now just hold on. I’m not talking about meeting her to give her what she wants!” I protested, lacing my fingers below my belly to help hold up my more than sizable baby “bump.”
“And what could possibly be gained by that!?” Montana snapped, clearly upset by the idea of giving Caroline any opportunities to dig her claws into me.
“She gave a lot of herself away in the mediation. I’m willing to bet that Pack Adamar has made her think that I’m considered lowly house staff by all of you, because that’s how they thought of me.” Though the admission stung, I let it hang in the air, the boys of Pack Blackwood settling down at my sad words.
“You think that she’ll spill the beans to you?” Dakota rubbed his palms together hopefully.
“If I had to make a guess, she might offer me some kind of payout to turn on you,” I answered flatly, everyone falling silent with the uncomfortable truth.
Clay scooted Maisie, who was sucked into the movie, off his lap and into the corner of the couch with a large throw pillow to lean against.
“I don’t like it,” Clay growled out under his breath as he drew closer to me and the others. “Caroline is a snake, and I don’t trust her not to bite,” he sighed, reaching out to cup one of my cheeks in his big, rough palms.
“You might not like it, Clay, but do you have a better plan?” I challenged, crossing my arms over my pregnant belly.
Zeke beamed, those big green eyes of his, glittering with mischief. “I don’t know Clay. Piper’s not the same shy girl who came to us to be a nanny.” He rocked up and onto his feet to stand beside me, draping one of his muscular arms across my shoulders.
“Yeah, she’s been all in from the moment she volunteered to bite in,” Dakota chimed in, jumping up to join Zeke and me.
“Plus”—Montana gave a wry chuckle—“if she’s tough enough to stand up to you and your temper and sour moods…” He shrugged at Clay, before lifting onto his feet and falling into line behind me.
