Claiming the Enemy: Dustin (Porter Brothers Trilogy 3)

“I’ll talk to him in the morning.” She told herself she would be much firmer in dealing with him.

She couldn’t explain why she was so wary of the good-looking man. She had felt the same wariness before her kidnapping, and since then, it had heightened. She didn’t get the creepy, scary feeling from him that he would hurt her. It was the survival instinct that she had developed that helped her live through being dumped off a side of a mountain.

Gabriel walked with the same lethal grace that Shade did. If Gabriel rode a motorcycle, she would swear he was a Last Rider.

Thinking about him, Jessie decided to ask Bliss if she would do the talking for her. “I promise.”

Dustin grinned, hooking an arm around her waist to pull her closer to him. “Still mad?”

“Furious.” She playfully hit his chest and stepped out of his arms to go toward the house they were building.

“Wait!” Dustin tried to stop her.

“Uh-uh. It’s too late. J.T. already told me when he came by the daycare that you fired him.” Going into the house, she saw the two men inside who had been trying to stay out of sight.

“Tate, Greer.”

“I can explain,” Dustin said, rushing to her side.

“Don’t bother. It’s pretty much self-explanatory.”

Jessie stared across the length of the house being built to the framed doorway that showed the inside of Greer and Holly’s house. Not only were they going to be within spitting distance, they would be kissing.

“It’s your fault. I told you not to tell him that our mother learned from yours last night when you invited them over for dinner. It’s your fault,” Dustin repeated lamely.

She narrowed her eyes on Greer. “Close it back up. And Greer, you’re paying for the drywall.”

“Now, Jessie, let’s not be hasty.” Her brother-in-law heaved the sagging toolbelt higher on his hips. “It makes common sense.”

“How would you know? You don’t have any. Close it back up, or I will. I’m not going to have you coming into my kitchen every time I’m cooking.”

“I’d knock first.”

“Definitely not. Close it. And you can forget about those other bright ideas you three have been talking about.” Picking up steam on her rant, she pointed an accusing finger at Tate. “Which I don’t know why you’re giving suggestions. You don’t have any irons in this fire.”

Tate’s lips quirked. “Sorry.”

Jessie rolled her eyes. “We will not—and I’ll repeat this, so all three of you can hear me—we will not be enlarging my kitchen and living room in the front of my house and taking out Holly’s to make a den and mud room. We are not making one big house. We are living in two. I repeat, two houses!”

“Nothing is set in stone yet. Let’s take our time and think about it,” Greer hedged.

“I’ve thought about it since this morning when J.T. told me you fired him because he refused to build that doorway without my permission!”

“He was being a jackass.” Dustin took a hasty step back when she spun toward him. “We’ll go to the store and get the drywall.” He held his hands up in surrender.

“When I come back tomorrow, it had better be back.”

“It will be, I promise.”

“I’m holding you to this, Dustin Dwayne.”

“You know I don’t like my middle name.”

“I know. Now, I’m going to pick Logan up from school, and we’re going Christmas shopping.” Turning, she went back out the way she had come in.

“You could go out my door. It’s quicker.”

Her shoulders stiffened as she turned around to look at Greer.

“Just saying.” He shrugged.

Pressing her lips into a thin line, she walked through her house and into Greer’s, heading toward the front door, when she heard the men’s footsteps behind her.

Jessie looked around when all three of their phones started buzzing.

“We’ve got company,” Tate stated, looking down at his phone. “Looks like it’s more than one.”

When the men started moving, Jessie stayed to the side of the hallway to let them go first to the door.

Curious about who was coming up the driveway, she forgot about her anger as she went onto the porch to wait.

They all looked at each other as three black SUVs pulled into the driveway.

Jessie moved closer to Dustin, putting her arm through his. “Who is it?”

“Damned if I know.”

As the SUVs parked, Jessie saw Greer move closer to the steps. Something on his face caught her attention.

Unconsciously, Greer touched one of the white strands in his hair as he moved a half a step closer toward the steps.

As the people in the car got out, she heard the drone of motorcycles coming up the hill, filling in the remaining space on the driveway.

Jessie recognized some of the people getting out of the car. Lily and her sister-in-law Penni, whom she had met when she was visiting Lily and Shade.

Jessie’s mouth hung open. “Is that Kaden Cross?”