“Oh! Oh! Ooooooooh!”

After our initial encounter, Channing had taken me farther into the springs. We’d originally been just off the road. His truck had blocked us, but if someone had walked over and looked down from the cliff, there we would’ve been. Farther in meant more privacy.

We were walking back to the truck when we paused, hearing a breathy woman cry out.

“Ooooooh. Yeah! OMG, Matthew!”

A roar came next, and I jumped back from the shock of it.

Channing caught me and started laughing.

“It’s not funny.” I glared up at him as my tank strap fell down one shoulder. He caught it and put it back before taking my elbow and guiding me ahead.

“I’m not sure how to react to hearing her actually spell out OMG and not just say the phrase,” I told him.

“OOOOH HELL YES, my lover!”

Channing kept laughing, his head down almost to my shoulder.

I glared at him. “What’s going on with you? Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

I started forward, but he kept me in place, still laughing. He pulled me closer and whispered into my ear, “That’s Congo.”

Congo…

I was a dumbass.

“Oh my God.”

He snorted. “OMG, you mean.”

“OMG.”

One of the only people to refer to Congo by the name his momma gave him—Matthew Shephardson—was his stalker, or my brother’s stalker, or whoever’s stalker she was now. It was get-off-his-dick, drunk-with-Gus-at-Manny’s Rebecca.

“Come on.” Channing’s voice dropped low and he moved ahead, grabbing my hand. We weaved around some more springs, coming closer to their voices.

“Yes. Yes. Yes.” She was almost chanting now.

There was a large boulder ahead with trees to both sides, but I could see the water leading out from behind the rock, and we could hear them just ahead.

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to sneak up on them.

I mean, this was Congo and Rebecca. She dressed… Well, who was I to judge? I liked tight clothes too, but she spoke like she was an etiquette snob. Who said “classless vixen” or “courted”? Rebecca was an odd mix. I’d just go with that, but Congo too?

The guy could have a gun nearby, and he could grab it in reflex.

Who was scarier? Him or Stalker?

Fuck.

Didn’t matter. Channing had knelt down, and he started to crawl between the rock and one of the trees. He was checking to make sure there were no snakes or other animals, and then he motioned for me to join him.

Yeah. I didn’t think so.

I wasn’t stupid.

I crawled on top of him. I wasn’t going to risk squashing a scorpion.

So there we were, Channing peeking around the base of the rock and me on top of him with my boobs pressing down on the back of his head. We could see Congo and Rebecca on the other side.

I thought he’d be on top of her, and both of them in the water so we couldn’t really see anything.

Not the picture we got. Not at all.

She was on all fours, her legs spread and turned toward us. Her breasts were almost grazing the ground and her head was back, eyes closed and mouth open as he held a good handful of her hair in one hand. Fully mounted behind her, Congo had one knee on the ground and the other up and almost over her hip. His other hand clenched her ass, and his head was up and back too. Veins were popping out of his neck.

Whatever we’d heard before had only been the beginning. They were still fucking.

Seeing that, I felt bad. This was wrong. It was an invasion of privacy.

Channing didn’t feel the same. As I began to slither back off of him, he dug into his pockets and pulled out his phone. He took a photo as he was stepping backward, and then all hell broke loose.

I heard the warning rattle and felt a sudden lurch. I saw the snake from the corner of my eye as Channing yelled and tackled me to the ground. He rolled me away and was up almost as quickly as we’d fallen. There was a commotion, and I jumped to my feet as Congo and Rebecca ran from around the other side of the boulder, still naked except for a gun in Congo’s hand.

Channing grabbed the end of the tail and threw the snake away from us, but it wasn’t far enough. The rattler was pissed and coming back.

“Shoot the fucker!” he yelled at Congo.

“I’m trying!” Congo had the gun raised, but it was pointed at Channing, who was in the way. Cursing, he lowered it and stepped aside. “The thing keeps moving.”

Channing wasn’t wasting time. He snatched the gun out of Congo’s hand, aimed, and shot. He got it in the head. The snake went limp.

“Oh.” Rebecca made a pitying sound. “Why’d you have to shoot it?”

Everyone twisted around to her. Channing’s eyebrows shot up. “Because it was trying to attack us, and I didn’t bring a gun.”

Her mouth curved down as she folded her arms over her breasts. “This was probably its home, and you broke into it. I’d attack too.” She paused, cocking her head to the side. “Why are you guys here?”

“Yeah.” Congo was panting, his hands on his hips.

Both were naked, and neither seemed disturbed by that.

I was trying not to notice. I really was, but his dick still had a half-chub, and Rebecca’s boobs were peeking out from under her crossed arms. She was suffocating them. I wanted to have her put her arms under them or something. It looked painful, and I don’t even have big boobs.

I glanced down. They were small. I felt sorry for them for a second.

The stalker girl was pitying snakes, and I was pitying my own tits.

Somehow, that seemed the most normal thing about this situation too.

Channing flashed a grin and pulled his phone out of his pocket. “What’d you think I was doing here?”

Congo’s head inclined, trying to get a better view of the phone. When he did, his eyes rounded, and he scowled. “No way!” He started for the phone.

Channing laughed like a little girl. He didn’t put it back into his pocket, but he didn’t hand it over. Congo was still coming for it, and Channing was jogging around, typing away.

The snake was completely forgotten, except by Rebecca. I caught her looking at it, almost crying. I would’ve gone to comfort her, but hello? She was naked, and it didn’t seem like that would be corrected anytime soon.

“Come on, Chan! That’s mean.”

“It’s payback for the shit you pulled with Marsch.”

Congo started to run after Channing, and he continued to evade him, dodging, running in tight circles, coming right back and then using Rebecca and me as shields.

We were in fifth grade all over again. I was annoyed.

“I did that for Chad, man.”

“But I paid the piper for you.” If Channing was mad, he didn’t sound it. Suddenly, he stopped. “There. Done.” He tossed the phone to Congo. “It’s gone.”

Congo caught it, studied it. “You fuckhead! You sent it to Moose!”

Channing never stopped smirking. “I sent it to all the guys.”

Blood drained from Congo’s face. “I’m never going to live this down. She’s naked in that image. Her tits are out.”

“What?” Rebecca was coming out of her snake-sympathy coma. She blinked a few times. “Huh?”

Channing kept laughing, but it softened. He nodded to the phone again. “Look at the picture, dumbass.”

He did, and his frown cleared. “Oh.” Congo laughed, showing Rebecca the picture. “It’s the snake.”

My eyebrows shot up.

Channing saw my look. He gestured to the dead rattler. “That one.”

It was a bad joke, but I still felt reassured. No one needed to see Congo and Rebecca. I didn’t need to continue seeing Congo and Rebecca.

“Good.”

Channing reached for his phone. “I deleted that one of you guys right away. I’m not a complete asshole.” He went back to the snake and kicked it over, sliding his phone into his pocket. “Wonder how long this guy is?”

Congo went with him. “He looks around four foot, I bet.”

Now that everything was done, I looked back and forth from Channing and Congo to Rebecca. I was okay with nudity. Hell, I enjoyed showing too much skin myself, but this—this was a different level of comfortable.

“Do you want to get dressed?” I asked.

“What?” Rebecca had gone back to her sad stupor.

“Your clothes.”

“Oh.” She looked down at herself, then shook her head. “Yes, normally it’d be rude to remain unclothed, but we walked out here like this.”

“Yeah.” Congo joined our conversation. “We didn’t want some fucker sneaking up and stealing our clothes.” He smacked Channing in the chest. “They’re locked up in the truck back there.”

“Your truck’s by my truck?”

Congo nodded, running a hand over his head and making parts of himself bounce from the motion.

“Oh God.” I turned away. I now knew for certain that I only needed to see Channing’s cock. Maybe my kid’s, if I had a boy, but that was it. I wasn’t aware that I’d been questioning this need to see other dicks or not, but I knew now. For certain.

I did not need to see another vagina either. My pussy. Channing’s cock. Our children. That was it. Well, maybe I shouldn’t get ahead of myself. There was always porn.

A vision of Congo mounting Rebecca flashed in my head. Nope. I wouldn’t be watching porn for a while.

“You okay, Heather?” Congo asked.

“Yeah…” I was going to have visions of those two in my head forever, but I’d be fine. Nudity wasn’t the end of the world. “I’m good.”

Congo sighed, looking down at himself. “Looks like he’s gone soft. Moose sent me after you. He was worried, wanted to make sure you had backup.” He motioned toward Rebecca, who came to his side so he could put his arm around her. “Becca followed me out here—”

Because she’s a stalker. Hello? We’ve all forgotten here?

“—and I’m not an intrusive asshole. I wanted to give you privacy, but she showed up, and one thing led to another.”

Channing smirked. “Yeah, right. You couldn’t find us, and you know it.” He glanced to me, and I knew we were both remembering the first time. Our situations would’ve been easily reversed if he’d come sooner.

“That too.” Congo shook his head.

We all began to walk toward the trucks. They really had walked naked to the springs. They didn’t go back for sandals or anything.

That wasn’t normal.

We had to go up a ridge, and everyone fell in a single line. Congo started to go first, but Channing made a sound and Congo fell back. Channing went first. I was second. Rebecca was behind me, and then Congo.

Think about the visual if it’d been any other line-up.

Channing and I went to his truck.

Congo and Rebecca went to his and put clothes on. Her car was parked behind his, and Channing and I shared a look at that, but I wasn’t sure what to say, so I didn’t say anything.

Why Congo decided to have sex with her wasn’t in my wheel of answers, but she was a bomb waiting to go off. She was another whole situation they’d have to deal with, just not today apparently.

“Moose sent you to watch over me?” Channing called, standing inside his door. He grabbed some water from the back, handing one to me and tossing another to Congo as he came around to us.

“Yeah, he wanted me to tell you he got a call earlier.”

“A call?” Channing went through his phone. “I’m not seeing anything.”

“He didn’t tell me what it was, just said to have you call him.” He looked over his shoulder. Rebecca had taken up position in his truck, sitting in the passenger seat the way I was in Channing’s. Her face was impassive, no emotion.

It was odd.

Channing’s mouth flitted down a second before focusing on Congo again. “Okay.” He punched in the number and raised the phone to his ear, but kept looking back at Rebecca. After a second, he moved away from the truck so he couldn’t be heard.

We all fell silent, waiting for him.

Until Rebecca announced, “Richter burned down two of his warehouses.”

Congo whipped back to her.

I shot out of Channing’s truck. “What did you say?”

She wasn’t even blinking. “That’s why I came to find you, Matthew. To tell you about Richter’s plans.”

“Channing!” I yelled for him, waving.

I heard him saying something to Moose before hanging up. He came back over. “What?”

I flicked her the shocker hand sign. “The stalker just told us about Richter.”

“Heather.”

“No, Congo!” I snapped.

I’d dealt with her too much. This was a last straw.

“She knew something. She should’ve said it right away.”

The more I thought about it, the madder I got.

Channing’s safety.

Congo’s.

The guys.

The families.

The children.

My family.

“You know something, you spit it out! You don’t wait until after a fuck session with your latest obsession and after we’ve been standing around, taking our goddamn time!”

Channing’s hand curled around my arm. He wasn’t restraining me, but he wasn’t letting me walk up on her, and I really wanted to.

I paused, but she didn’t make a peep.

“Talk!” I yelled.

Channing kept me right in front of him. His hand curled around my other arm too.

Now she blinked. Finally. She registered I was pissed.

“Richter’s burned two of his warehouses down, and he’s going to blame you for it.” She looked right at Channing.

There was no change or inflection in her voice, but she blinked. Again.

“His plan is to set you up, and while you’re arrested, he’s going to move in and take over Roussou. By the time you get out, or prove you didn’t burn his warehouses down, he’ll have thirty of his men in Roussou, and it’ll be impossible for you to get them out.” She turned to me now. “He’s willing to hurt Heather too, if worse comes to worst.”

Congo was watching her like she was the rattlesnake Channing had killed. He eased away from her a foot.

Channing’s hands fell away from my arms. “How do you know this?” he asked.

“I overheard it.”

We waited.

Nothing. She didn’t elaborate.

Enough.

I was full-on raging now.

Smother the fucking fire, Heather. Keep it contained. Don’t get out of control.

Yeah. No. It wasn’t happening.

I went right up to her, my nose in her face, and I didn’t care if she bit. I’d bite right back, and harder.

“You come clean with everything. You hear me?”

Yes. My nose touched hers. I was blasting her with my breath, but to her credit, she didn’t flinch. Neither did I.

“I am not scared of you. You get that? You chose, Rebecca. You chose our side. If you don’t tell us everything you know, I will make it my sole mission that no guy in Roussou will touch you again.”

She blinked back at me. “You live in Fallen Crest.”

“Anywhere you goddamn live. Got it?”

She blinked. A third time. “Got it, but call me Becca, please. I feel like we’re going to be friends now.”

She was psychotic.

I glared at Congo. “She’s your problem. Get all the information out of her.”

I sailed past him, not caring how he reacted to my order. I went past Channing, got back into the truck, and I sat there. I had to calm down.

Be calm. Be controlled. But fuck it. I wasn’t calm at all.

I was already planning someone’s murder.