Four Flames for Angela

He couldn’t wait to get home and have a talk with his brothers. And to figure out a way to spend more time with Angela. They finished their shift at the fire station at seven that morning. After a few hours of sleep and a long discussion over breakfast, they decided to go check on Todd and Angela. They all wanted to spend more time with her and see how she reacted to them. If her reaction was what they wanted it to be, then they’d form a plan of attack. Time to get the girl.

* * * *

River hadn’t planned on kissing Angie, but when she looked up at him, he couldn’t resist himself. He was just going to give her a gentle kiss, but when her lips parted under his, he leaned in and took what she was giving.

If Hunter hadn’t called up the stairs, he wasn’t sure he could have stopped.

River wasn’t as sure as Rock was that Angela was the woman for them. But he was willing to spend some more time with her and see where things went. Usually, as twins he and Rock were on the same page, but not always. This was going to be one of those times. Angela was pretty enough and seemed like a genuinely nice person, but he and Rock had been hurt in the past and he wasn’t going to let that happen again. Not to any of them.

Angela wasn’t the first woman the four of them had been interested in. Maybe she would be the last and maybe she wouldn’t. Time would tell. He was going to make sure she didn’t hurt them though. The last woman they had all tried to date had gone out with them on a dare. She’d never intended for things to be serious. It was all a game to her. River was still hurting from it.

This time he was going to be more cautious. Take time to get to know her and how they could fit into her life and she into theirs. No rushing things. Sawyer and Hunter liked to jump in without testing the water, and that hadn’t worked out well for them. No one was going to hurt him or his brothers this time.

He was enjoying the time they were spending with Todd. The kid was amazing. He was trying to train the puppies to do some tricks, and it was cute how they responded to him.

Later in the afternoon, he sat talking with his brothers and the woman from last night. Heidi had wanted to make sure Todd was okay, and one of her boyfriends had brought her to Angela and Todd’s home to check on him. The two women had spent some time talking before she left. River didn’t know what was said, but Angela seemed more relaxed after.

After Heidi and her man left, they spent some more time talking with Angela and got to know the woman better. She was smart, funny, and sexy as hell.

Chapter Four

The next couple of weeks went by fast. Todd was busy in school, and while he was gone, Angela kept herself busy working on magazine articles for the few clients she had and working on her novel when she wasn’t doing other things.

The men had been busy at the fire station. Some lunatic had been calling in false reports for several days, and they were beyond frustrated chasing the guy and trying to find out what was going on.

Angie was talking to the brothers on the phone, and they were telling her what had happened. “After spending all day chasing this idiot we got a call that the Wild farm was on fire. We didn’t know if it was real or not, but we had to check it out.”

“Aren’t those the men that Heidi is dating?” Angie asked, trying to remember she’d only met the three brothers once.

“Yeah, turns out Heidi had some crazed stalker after her. Some guy she dated once before she met Finn and the guys. He called her and told her he was going to burn down the barn with all her birds in it. So she and her best friend jumped in the car to try and stop him.”

River picked up the story then. “All he really wanted was Heidi. He planned on trying to kidnap her, but didn’t expect her to have Brenda with her. It was a big mess. Everyone is going to be okay, and hopefully now that the guy, Oliver was his name, is in jail everything will settle down.”

“Wow! How scary. I should call Heidi and make sure she’s okay,” Angie said after listening to the story.

“I don’t know if she’s out of the hospital yet, so give her a few days,” Sawyer added.

They talked a few more minutes, explaining why they were all working extra shifts and didn’t have much off time. They each called or texted her every day, and they had stopped by when they had time. She was excited because they were off on Saturday and were planning to stop by in the afternoon with their friend to measure her porch.

Saturday was a day to catch up on everything she hadn’t done during the week. Even though she worked from home, there never seemed to be enough time to keep everything caught up.

She and Todd were busy working in the yard when the large SUV pulled up.

She stood up and dusted the grass and leaves off the legs of her jeans and turned to greet the men, but it wasn’t them. “Thomas? When did you get out? What do you want?” she asked the man standing there grinning like a fool. She could smell the alcohol like it was dripping from his skin and wondered what other substances he had in his system.

Thomas had been in jail when their parents were killed. When he had been sober and not on the drugs, he had been a good brother. Unfortunately most of the time he’d been either stoned or drunk. Angie was still scared of him and what he could do. If he’d been sober, her attitude would have been different.

“Ahh, sis, is that any way to greet your big brother?” Thomas asked, reaching

to pull her into a hug.

Angie sidestepped and avoided the hug before pulling Todd closer. “Thomas. I didn’t know you’d been released. I thought you’d be in longer. How did you find me?” Thomas had been serving fifteen years in prison for burglary and drugs when their parents were killed. That was part of the reason Angie had needed to go into foster care. She and Thomas had never had a great relationship growing up. The few times Angie had heard from him since their parents had been killed hadn’t gone very well. She missed the young man he’d been before the drugs and alcohol became involved, but couldn’t trust the man he was now.

“You sound disappointed. Aren’t you fucking glad to see me?” Thomas stepped closer to where she and Todd were standing. “Hey, little man. Why don’t you go fuck off someplace and play while I talk with my sister here?” And he gave Todd a hard shove, knocking the little boy to the ground.

“Hey! That wasn’t necessary!” Angie yelled angrily, bending down to help Todd up and make sure he was okay. She got Todd up and brushed the grass and leaves from his clothes, pulling him tight into her arms.

“What do you want, Thomas? Tell me what you want so you can leave.” She didn’t want the men seeing Thomas there. They didn’t need to know about him.