"d.a.m.n good thing. I love you, too." He'd leaned close so that they were practically nose to nose, and for that heartbeat of time, for Emily Anne, no one in the world existed for her but her men.

She breathed in one lover while the heat of the other blanketed her back, and she was in her own version of heaven.

The moment likely didn't last as long as it felt but when she sat back, she blushed when Grace winked at her.

Each of her men had a bottle of beer in front of him, but Emily Anne didn't even concern herself with the thought that one or both of them would overindulge. They were men, not boys, and had no need to prove anything to anyone.

Luke Bryan's "Crash My Party" had just finished playing. The DJ had been doing a good job of changing up the music and keeping the songs coming. Now however, a slight hush fell as everyone turned toward the DJ booth. Emily Anne looked to see what everyone was staring at.

Ethan stood just outside the booth with a microphone in his hand. "This is Lucy's song," he said.

The heavy guitar riff of Lenny Kravitz's "American Woman" began to blast out of the sound system.

"Oh h.e.l.l, yeah, that's what I'm talking about!" Lucy jumped to her feet, shoving her chair back.

"Show us no mercy, sweetness," Beck said. Then he tossed a wink toward Chloe, who just laughed.

"Well let's shake it!" Charity Connors also got up and laughed when her husband stroked his hand down her bottom as she left his side.

"Hey, Chloe!" Lucy held out her hand and signaled for the woman to come to her. "Let's do it! We make a good team."

"Come on, Emily Anne." Summer was tugging at her hand. Looking toward the dance floor she saw that people had moved back, and into the void that suddenly appeared, the women who'd already left the table sauntered in as if they owned the world.

She realized that just that fast, she was the only woman at the table left sitting.

"This is one of those times when we women show our men just how lucky they are," Summer said. "You could call it a Divine tradition."

A girls' dance! Emily Anne had never been invited up to dance with the girls at any of the parties she had ever attended-not even her own high school graduation dance.

She nearly refused. She wasn't a good dancer and she was on the heavy side. She opened her mouth and understood, at last-none of that mattered. She was with beautiful, confident women who were going to shake what their mommas gave them for the men they loved. And it was all just fine, because she was a beautiful, confident woman, and man, was she ever gonna shake it for the men she loved. It took her no time at all to stake out her own little piece of the dance floor.

She'd never danced before in front of anyone like this-though she had a few times, alone, in front of her mirror. Music was too much a part of her for her to have not done at least that much.

But never like this where others could see her. Not until now.

The beat of the song entered her blood stream and she longed to let herself go. She watched the others, wondering what to do...how to start...and then it hit her. Each woman cast a sultry gaze at her men as they moved closer to the dance floor to watch her. She moved for them alone. There were no correct or learned steps, just a woman's body following a sensual rhythm she instinctively knew her men would respond to.

The heavy drum beat and guitar riff throbbed through her body and she sighed with pleasure as the muscles in her hips finally loosened up. She felt positively wanton as the vocals began again and she became the uninhibited woman of the song.

She lifted her arms in the air and swung her hips back and forth with the beat and then let one hand slide down her side. She gloried in the moment as her earlier awkwardness gave way to the pleasure she took in dancing for Mel and Connor. The men-her men and the others who belonged to these beautiful, confident women she was with-stood at various positions near the dance floor so they could see the woman they loved, and to a one, their eyes were focused only on the one that was theirs.

Mel and Connor stood side by side, equal looks of pride and l.u.s.t on their faces and in their eyes. She brought her other hand up to match the first, and then moved them both slowly down her body, teasing her lovers as her fingers trailed near her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and then down toward her p.u.s.s.y.

She danced for them alone, giving them a picture of what the future was going to be like.

She danced as if her spirit had finally and at long last been set free. And she knew in that moment that it had been.

Their love of her and faith in her had liberated her.

Their role here outside of Divine was nearly done, but they both wanted to see it through. They'd been on the road for nearly two hours and were only a few minutes from their destination. As they'd promised Emily Anne they would, he and Connor had talked, of course they had. Mostly, they'd talked around the real issue-and he believed it was only one issue-that was making them both hang back from joining together to give her the kind of full commitment she wanted, and deserved.

It was time to stop p.u.s.s.yfooting around. Mel nearly laughed out loud at his unintentional mental pun.

"Our woman could have died yesterday." That fear had played heavily on his mind since he'd learned that Baxter had grabbed her. He'd tried to approach that whole nightmare yesterday in professional cop mode and had failed, dismally. What had happened yesterday hadn't been about detached professionalism or police procedure. It had been about that rotten motherf.u.c.ker grabbing his woman. Their woman.

Connor exhaled as if he'd been waiting for Mel to speak. "f.u.c.k, I know. Everything inside me went cold, and in an instant, I understood as I hadn't until that point, that Emily Anne is my world." Connor flicked him a glance. "Kind of underlined for us what's important, and what's not, didn't it?"

"It sure as h.e.l.l did." Mel slid a look over to him. "Being naked with you making love to our woman gets me hotter than I have ever been, and I have to admit..."

"That a part of you wonders if what's making it hotter is looking at my c.o.c.k."

"Yeah, f.u.c.k. That's it."

"And that's partly why I've been worried about the ultimate sharing experience with you. I'm worried that I'll feel your c.o.c.k inside her body, and that will be the big turn-on."

"Yep, we're on the same page, all right." Mel put the SUV's signal on and pulled off the road, shoved the shifter into "park." He unbuckled his seat belt so he could turn and face the man who was at that moment-and likely would be for the rest of his life-the most important man in his world.

Connor did the same. He clearly wanted to get this resolved as much as Mel did.

Mel inhaled deeply and plunged ahead. "So here's a question for you. So what if it does? So what if seeing or feeling each other's c.o.c.ks adds to our arousal? I'm not turned on by you, alone."

"Good to hear, because buddy, I ain't doing you."

Mel burst out laughing. Connor's stoic, unsmiling delivery had been so spot on. So perfect for this moment. Connor grinned, and not for the first time, but perhaps for the most important time to date, it felt to Mel as if the other man really was his brother.

"I ain't doing you, either." Then he thought for a moment. "Now that I think back, when we spoke first to your friends, Dev and Drew, and then to the senior Benedicts...in both instances they completely dismissed the concern, remember? They said that they never even noticed that when they were with their wives."

"Yeah, I do remember. That's what's sort of been hanging me up. Because despite what they'd said, I knew what I'd experienced in those moments so far."

"So maybe it's an element of this relationship with our woman that is unique to us. Maybe, it is a small part of what we are, the three of us, together. Sort of like some added secret spice to the prize winning stew. So what? We both love Emily Anne. We each bring different things to her that she needs. Together, we will be her husbands. What happens in the marriage bed-I've always believed that should be special. Sacred, if you will."

Connor nodded slowly. "I've always felt the same way." He exhaled. "Yeah, so maybe a little shading of what we have and do with her is that." He chuckled. "But that doesn't mean we are or will become bis.e.xual."

"Not that there would be anything wrong if we did. I, for one, don't feel I have the right to judge anyone for their personal lifestyle choices. I never have."

"I feel the same way. There would be nothing wrong if we were, but we're just not."

"No, we're not." Mel fastened his seat belt and turned the key. He looked over at Connor. "So, we're both okay with this now, right?"

"Yeah. I think we really are."

Mel nodded, pulled out onto the mostly deserted country road, and continued the rest of the way to the outskirts of Divine.

Mel got out of the car and looked over at Connor. They'd seen Sheriff Stinson's car pull up just ahead of them, and knew he already had men in the house.

"You know, all the way over here, there was one other thing I was thinking about. We could probably leave things as they are. He's facing two charges of kidnapping, three of forcible confinement, and two of threatening death. I don't think he'll see the light of day anytime soon."

"Yeah, we could leave things as they are," Connor said. "h.e.l.l, for all of that, the man is f.u.c.king crazy. I don't believe he'll be out of jail-or a mental inst.i.tution ever again."

"But," Mel said.

Connor nodded. "But I want him to f.u.c.king pay for what he did to Chloe and Carrie. Not just the money, but the way he deserted them when they needed him most. Do you remember the look in her eyes when we handed her those photos of her and her parents and sister a few weeks back? She'd been so excited, because she hadn't even had any pictures of all four of them together. Do you remember the way she caressed those images and what she said?"

Mel nodded. "I'll never forget. She said that she was a teenager, looking forward to high school graduation, to shopping for her prom dress with her mom, to so many moments, normal moments in a teenaged girl's life. And then she was alone. Alone, and hurt, and scared, and the only one left she could turn to flipped her off and walked away."

"b.a.s.t.a.r.d should burn in h.e.l.l for that alone," Connor said.

"I agree. So let's do this. Let's help nail this b.a.s.t.a.r.d for life."

"Yeah, let's do this, and then let's get back home to our woman," Connor said.

On the way home last night, Emily Anne had fallen asleep in the car. Considering everything she'd been through that day, neither of them had been surprised. They had been in solid agreement, he and Connor. They tucked her into bed between them, and just held her through the night.

They really could have lost her. Mel had lain awake watching Emily Anne sleep. One thought had kept circling in his head. What would he do without her?

Mel didn't ever want to find out. He'd looked over at Connor then, unsurprised to find that man awake, too.

They hadn't spoken, not then. They'd simply nodded, one to the other. Now they'd taken the time to speak those thoughts and make a commitment to each other-because he recalled the ceremony he'd attended when Carrie Rhodes had married Chase and Brian Benedict. There is a special bond between men who share a wife, and the ceremony reflects that. Those men vowed to support each other in a very special quest. Because there was one immutable law when it came to the kind of menage family they were building together.

Only their woman mattered.

Mel pulled himself out of his reverie and put his focus on the job at hand. That part of him that remained "cop" took over. They made their way into the house, taking the time to don latex gloves and put little disposable booties over their shoes-they were, after all, entering a crime scene. Inside the building, there were crime scene technicians at work. Mel noticed Baxter's computer was missing. Hank Stinson came over to them.

"I called Jack Warner and Adam Davis in. Adam's gone through the house and verified there have been no major changes to the inside since the last time he was here. Jack is waiting for us out by the sheds."

Mel caught the look of apology in the sheriff's eyes. "I've had to call the State boys in after all. They're letting me have control of the crime scene for just another couple of hours."

The implications of that were clear to Mel. When the state police arrived, he and Connor had to be gone.

"That should be long enough," Connor said.

They'd talked it over ever since they'd sat together in that tree and watched Baxter come out of his house and head for the outbuilding. Both of them were in agreement. They believed the evidence that would tie Ralph Baxter to the murder of Neil Jackson would be found out in that one particular "shed."

They headed out to the area behind the house. One of the sheriff's deputies had been working trying to find the right key for each lock on the shed that Mel and Connor wanted to look into the most. That key was then marked. Mel knew they wanted to identify each of the keys-all sixty-five of them-on the ma.s.sive ring.

"You might get an anonymous tip about a number of safe-deposit boxes held in the name of Bruce Smith," Connor told the sheriff.

The man grunted. "I hope Mr. Anonymous waits a week or so, until after the news of the arrest of Ralph Baxter, aka Bruce Smith hits the newspapers."

"I'm sure he will," Connor said.

Mel worked hard not to snicker. Clearly, it would be easier to explain the tip after the man's face had been splashed all over the newspapers and televisions of Central Texas.

They reached the shed and Mel and Connor both shook hands with Jack Warner.

"Thanks for coming out, Jack." Hank said.

"Happy to help, Hank. I always knew there was something off with this guy," Jack said. He looked at Mel. "Is Emily Anne okay?"

"She was exhausted last night, but otherwise she's fine. Thanks for asking."

"That was a h.e.l.l of a thing for you all to go through," Jack said. "There's nothing worse for a man than when his woman is threatened."

"Amen to that," Mel said.

The deputy opened another lock then looked at his boss. "That's the last one, Sheriff."

Stinson nodded and motioned that his deputy should open the door.

Mel stood back, letting the lawman enter first. The deputy followed and then Mel, Connor, and finally Jack Warner entered the shed.

The deputy, under direction of the sheriff, opened the large, rolling-type garage door that had been locked completely from within.

But even before the increased daylight entered the building, Mel saw the hulking shape, covered by a dark tarp, in the middle of the floor.

"Huh." Stinson took a few steps forward.

Because they were standing in what essentially was a crime scene, Mel and Connor, along with Jack, stood back and allowed Stinson full honors.

He squatted down a foot or so from the tarp-covered object. "Talc sprinkled in a circle around whatever is under the tarp."

"Likely he put the talc there so he'd know if anyone came close to whatever that is," Mel said.

"Yep."

Stinson signaled his deputy and together they lifted the material and pulled it off.

The men just looked at what they'd uncovered for a long moment. "What's that? An 89, 90?" Jack asked.

"It's a 1990 Ford Fiesta," Connor said. "And I believe that investigation will reveal it as having been registered to Neil Jackson, former public defender working in the Austin area, and last seen in July of 1998."

"That would const.i.tute solid circ.u.mstantial," Stinson said. He moved, and kicked something that skittered across the floor. All eyes went to the piece of concrete. Mel looked beyond the single piece and saw the cracks that appeared to be everywhere.

"h.e.l.l, Jack. You didn't do a very good job pouring this floor."

"I d.a.m.n sure didn't pour this floor, Hank. All the others, yes. But this one was already in place, and not for all that long, either, when I built this building up over top of it. Back then I thought this was a do-it-yourself job and now I can verify it. The concrete is cracking because he added too much drying agent when he was mixing it. If you use too heavy a hand with that stuff, it winds up weakening the concrete. The first shift in seasons and this floor was probably riddled with cracks."

Jack Warner's words echoed in the tomb-like silence of the shed. Mel shivered and looked over at Connor. Connor shook his head, as if barely believing that in the end, Ralph Baxter had proven to be as stupid as all of that.

Then Mel met Stinson's gaze and felt his right eyebrow go up. He needn't have worried about the intelligence of the sheriff of Divine County. Hank Stinson was sharp as two tacks.

Sheriff Stinson looked over at his deputy. "We're going to need a crew to take down this building, and an excavator to pull off this concrete slab."

Mel didn't have to wait around for the police to finish this particular excavation. He knew, in the way that cops and former cops sometimes knew things, what it was they'd uncover beneath the poorly poured concrete floor.

He had no doubt whatsoever that they would find the remains of Neil Jackson.