Sexual Expression (Contemporary Cowboys 2)

“It’s the only way we’ll know what’s going on upstairs,” Zak explained. “It takes the locals fifteen minutes from either side of the state line to reach the club. By the time they get here, everyone upstairs could be dead.”

Realization struck a little close to home. Coco studied the door, trying to remember the code and coming up blank.

“Don’t.” Drina grabbed her by the arms, apparently reading her mind. “Don’t even think about it. They will kill you on sight and you know it.”

“If the men upstairs were looking for us, they’ll leave everyone else alive and you know it.”

“What the…” Zak turned around to observe the interaction between sisters.

“Somebody better start talking and I mean now,” Brandon said, handing the phone to Zak. “Contact Dallas. Tell him to get our place locked down, in case this isn’t what I think it is.”

Coco dropped her head. Unfortunately, this was precisely what Brandon thought.

Normally, Brandon would’ve lacked patience then. Instead, he gripped her shoulders and quietly said, “You know we’re not leaving you. Hell, woman, if every last gunman up there wanted you dead, don’t you know me well enough by now to know I would go down with you before I’d hand you over?”

“We all would,” Liam said.

“I wouldn’t go down,” Kurt teased. “I’d take ’em all out in your honor.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Zak said, typing out the text message and winking at Drina every now and again.

“It’s the outfit that’s been after Dad,” Coco finally said. “The guy Drina recognized must be Handsome’s twin brother.”

“Handsome?” Kurt frowned, apparently remembering the name. Wit

h a name like Handsome, he was hard to forget and with the demise he met, it was even harder.

The year before, Kane Cartwell’s best friend, Josh McKay had killed him at Jax Jackson’s place. Handsome had gone there for Brianna and left in a body bag.

“This isn’t good,” Kurt said, digging in his pockets for his phone.

“You’re tellin’ me.” Zak kept sending messages.

“No. You don’t understand.” Kurt sent a text out, too. “Gemma was drunk when I went by your house, Coco. I contacted Chad McDowell and suggested he check in on her, but if your dad’s enemies are in town, we already know how quickly they can saturate Erwin. The McDowells need to take her to their place.”

“She won’t go.” Coco paced, chewing on her thumbnail.

Drina stepped forward. “Why would you contact Chad?”

“Because she seemed upset with Chad and his brothers.”

“For good reason. They cheated on her with some floozy from the racetrack.” Drina turned blood red.

“Floozy?” Zak snickered. “I like that.”

“Why do I get the feeling you’ll like about anything she has to say?”

Drina blushed, but focused on Coco, pretending she hadn’t heard Liam or noticed the fact Zak was ogling her like he couldn’t wait until they were somewhere alone.

“Cheating or not, Chad cares about your sister.” Kurt pointed at Coco. “And don’t give me one of those disapproving looks. I’m not condoning what they did. I don’t know what they did. What I know is they can protect your sister. And whether they’re cheaters or not isn’t the question. The question is do they love her or at least care about her enough to offer her solid protection?”

Drina and Coco stared at one another blankly.

“Do they love her enough to protect her or do I need to call someone from the house to go pick her up?”

“They love her in their own way,” Coco said, glancing at Brandon and realizing he would take that as a dig. Still, she was telling the truth. The McDowells were crazy about Gemma, but for a number of reasons, they’d never tell her or if they did, they’d rescind that love whenever it suited them, particularly when money was on the table and illegal transactions were in play.

Drina balked at that. “If that’s love, I’d rather live the rest of my life without it.”