“Leave her be, Kurt.” Zak turned to him and added, “You’ll make things worse. A Dom/sub relationship is a sacred union, much like a marriage. She won’t put this behind her overnight.”
“So you’re saying she looked at being with me like adultery?”
“Something like that,” Zak said. “I’ve had contracts with submissives before and if one of mine had slipped under the covers with one of my brothers without asking first? I don’t think I could’ve gotten it up for one last suck good-bye.”
“You’re sick, man,” Hales said. “Listening to you guys talk, sometimes I swear I must’ve been adopted.”
“Says the man who looks exactly like Zak,” Dante said, finishing off his banana.
“How do I make this right?”
“Asks the man who fucked her into this situation?” Dante shook his head. “Now you see why we don’t have too much sympathy for you. You’re insensitive.”
“And I guess Brandon is the most considerate guy in the world?” Kurt still couldn’t get over the fact that Coco followed Brandon out of the kitchen!
“Give her some time,” Zak said.
“So another Dom can move in and take big brother’s place?” He glared at the likely suspect.
Zak shrugged. “I don’t think so.” He frowned. “I’m certain we’re not a fit.”
“Super.” Kurt stomped to the back door and grabbed his cowboy hat in passing. “Because one way or another, she’ll be in my bed tonight. That’s a damn promise.”
* * * *
“She went home.” Liam had thought about going after her but given the look on Kurt’s face when he walked back inside, he was glad he hadn’t. This situation had already turned into a real mess.
“I guess everyone here is blaming me for that?” Kurt searched their faces before leveling a pointed stare on Brandon. “Do you have anything to say about this at all?”
“No.” He nodded at an empty space at the table. “But sit down. We have business to discuss.”
“Now? Today?”
“Why yes, Kurt. Today sounds just fine to me which is why I suggested it. Sit the fuck down. Please. Everything else had to be done today so why the hell not? Let’s just try to do everything in one hour. Want to?”
Kurt stomped across the room as if he planned to walk straight through the kitchen and right on out to the foyer. He tracked horse manure with him, but that was the norm around there. Before he left again, Brandon said, “That problem we were afraid of? The one I discussed with Mom when she first got sick? He surfaced today. He was at the funeral.”
Kurt came to an abrupt halt. “Juan Jahno?”
“Yes.” Brandon crossed his arms and leaned back. “And you pegged it right. They were lovers.”
Liam felt sick. He shook his head and slowly said, “I really don’t think I can do this now. It’s been a long day. It’s been a terrible month. We started out with fences down, cattle wandering all over the county and ended up with a damn war right here on our own property, a war that claimed the lives of our brothers and our mother and now you’re telling us she was fucking around with Juan Jahno?”
“It’s pronounced with a silent H,” Hales said, probably thinking he was cute. “But you had the general idea. Juan and Jahn were named after their biological father. She always claimed he was just a close friend, but he was more than that.”
“He’s a drug lord for crying out loud!” Liam seldom lost his cool, but this was over the top. He’d watched the woman he loved give head to the brother least deserving of her affections. Now that same brother and the others wanted to talk about his mother’s infidelities with a man who impregnated her and gave them two half brothers whom they had mistakenly believed had been their father’s sons, too.
No. The drama had to stop somewhere.
His outburst had disrupted the chaos temporarily. The room was quiet and he hadn’t paid much attention to the fact until Brandon spoke up again and said, “He isn’t a drug lord, Liam. He moves merchandise around.”
“Is that what he told you?” Liam laughed. “Well when he came here to buy your guns, he had a drug lord’s cash or have you forgotten that small detail?”
“I’m sorry you’re hurt. If this is too much for you then go do whatever it is you do when you’re trying to pretend your hands are clean in all this, but right now, if you don’t mind, we need to discuss business because our very livelihood depends on this!”
Mason raised his hands off the table and slapped them against the surface. “Well, fellas, that’s it for me. I’ll excuse myself and turn in for the night. Like Liam, I’ve heard about all I care to hear for one day.”
“This concerns you, too,” Brandon said.