Stripping Their Hearts Read online

  Prologue

  Harper sat across from Tank Briggs and smiled. “You are going.”

  “Come on, there has to be something more important to do,” Tank grumbled in his deep voice. Harper grinned, any woman who landed this rough and tumble man was in for a treat. She loved teasing him just so she could hear his voice. Of course, Drake and Joel complained about it constantly, since they were her new husbands, but who cared.

  “There is finding this woman is a top priority, not only that, but you need to report to Boulder County Task Force on Monday for a briefing. Killing two birds with one stone, they are in the same state. If you leave today, it will give you three days to find her and verify it is her.” Harper grinned.

  “Damn it, I hate doing shit like this. What if she starts crying or something?” Tank argued and stood. He was huge, standing at six feet six inches, and built like a WWE wrestler. Most people were terrified of the man. Harper knew he was a big teddy bear.

  “Then you hand her a Kleenex and a phone and have her call me,” Harper snorted. “I will hand the phone off to Mel, and she can deal with emotional stuff.” It was funny, the huge six foot six, gorgeous man with muscles everywhere and short black hair that made you want to run your fingers through it, and ice blue eyes that would have most women coming on the spot if they were focused on them, did not do well with tears. Harper knew it and didn’t give a flying fuck, because he needed to learn how to deal with shit.

  “Not okay,” Tank growled. “I was going to go and hang out with my brother for a few days. He is on his last assignment, we talked about this. He is quitting and coming here to work, remember?”

  “Woot, you got bit by the ménage bug! Is he as hot as you? Can you call him so I can hear his voice? Oh, I know, tape record him so we can play it over and over.” Harper clapped.

  These people in Healing, Wyoming were nuts, but Tank couldn’t seem to care, because they were exactly what he wanted, what his brother wanted, without the crazy. Ever since he met the people of Team TEN he had known they were special, not just in their private lives, but in their professional as well. All of them were successful, honorable, and most of all open-minded. Tank turned and frowned at his boss, “That is sexual harassment in the workplace.”

  “No, your brother is not employed here yet, I can sexually harass him all I want,” Harper said.

  Tank rolled his eyes and looked at her. “Tell you what, I will deliver the message to your girl, but I want two extra days off to go and hang out. There is a football game I wanna go to. Sonny gets done with his stuff then you can meet him.”

  Harper grinned. “Of course, go have fun.”

  His eyes narrowed as he looked at his boss, and not for the first time he questioned why the hell he took this job. “There had better not be any tricks.”

  “Me?” Harper said and pushed him out of her office. “Go, have fun.”

  Tank walked down the hallway to his office. He was the head team leader at TRI-X, Inc. It was a company built to help agencies who, for lack of a better word, were undermanned and needed help. They worked with them to solve crimes that were high profile—well they would when they actually were open officially for business. Right now, the entire team was working on a case with the FBI, they inherited it when it was discovered someone in the FBI was on a terrorist payroll.

  Going to the Boulder County Taskforce was an undercover mission. Intel from the files suggested the FBI agent assigned to the Task Force was taking bribes to look the other way when shipments of drugs traveled through the state. Tank’s brother was a member of the Task Force as well and he was looking forward to finally getting to work with his brother. It had been a long time since he had been able to hang with him, so there was no way he was going to pass it up. No one knew his parents had been involved in a ménage marriage on the team; Tank hadn’t shared that with anyone. Growing up, their relationship made sense, it was what Sonny and him wanted, and had been for a long time, but circumstances had stood in their way. Now shit was done and over, and the two brothers were finally going to be on the same page in life. They wanted a woman to share, one who made them whole, just like their fathers and mom.

  Tank thought of his brother, since their parents had died it seemed like they were drifting farther and farther apart. Their little sister had basically ignored all of their calls and Tank wasn’t going to let that go for much longer. He was the oldest and he had let their family fall apart, well no more. Now he was going to make sure he mended fences with his sister, and brought his brother home. Now that he was living in one place, Healing, Wyoming to be exact, he was going to get his family back together, whatever it took.

  Chapter One

  Kit walked into the strip club she had been working in for the last few months with a grimace. She needed to stay under the radar, they were looking for her, and she knew until she had enough money to run farther she was stuck. They would never look for her here.

  “Ms. Kitty,” the manager said and she rolled her eyes. Tommy was an overage sleaze bag from the eighties with a bad comb over. Looking at his pudgy stomach and beady little eyes and ruddy completion was enough to make her want to puke. He had been coming on to her since she started.

  “Tommy,” she said with a sigh and paused. Her tall lithe frame allowed her to actually look down on him, which she knew he hated. Kit had been blessed with good genetics to help as well. Even though she was trained as a paralegal, her long curly red hair and high cheekbones allowed her to slip right into the skin industry, she was hot; unfortunately, she didn’t realize how appealing she was. “Where am I at tonight?”

  “Center stage, girl. You should be able to clean up on tips, there is four bachelor parties going on, and they all want to see you,” Tommy said and she rolled her eyes. He always said people were requesting her when she was on the center stage, more like he wanted to whack off in the corner, for some reason he wanted her to be his headliner. Heck, Steph had been working longer than her, and she was a much better dancer.

  “Whatever,” she sighed, there was no use arguing with him, she had tried, and she always lost because he threatened to fire her. She couldn’t afford for that to happen right now, not when she had successfully blended into the woodwork and was hiding. If she had to go back out there to find a job, it wouldn’t take long for her to be right back on the radar, she knew it.

  “Make sure you shake it good,” Tommy smiled then turned away. God, she needed to have her head examined.

  Four weeks and thirteen days since she had overheard the conversation in the hallway of the courthouse, which led her to run for her life when she discovered that they saw her. The men involved were not people to be trifled with, and because they were also in the law enforcement field, she had nowhere to turn. So, she was playing it safe and hiding, at least until she could think of a way to get the information to the people who needed it before she was killed.

  Her mother had died a few months ago, and she had no clue where her father was, or even who he was, so basically she was on her own with all of this stuff, she didn’t care, her mother and her had been on their own her whole life. She was used to it. Graduating from college, she had dreamed of the day she would find a man she loved and settle down. So far, all she had found was a bunch of losers who seemed to think she was going to cater to their every whim and be their punching bag, Katherine Ivy Trisha Steppe, or Kit as her mother called her, was a magnet for the wrong guys. In addition, it was the reason she was in the mess she was in because the day she had overheard the stuff she shouldn’t have, Kit was hiding in a closet from an attorney who would not leave her alone. The dumbass had followed her everywhere, it was annoying. She had turned him down time and time again, and he still kept asking her out. The
last time freaked her out because he pinned her to the wall in the ladies bathroom and tried to make her see how good they could be together. Um, that wasn’t happening. Kit kicked him in the balls and ran. After that, when she saw him she hid. The last time caused her to overhear the DA, three FBI agents, and a judge talking about fixing a case of drug smuggling. Why they were in the back hallway of the courthouse she will never know, but when she had slipped out after they walked off, she tripped over a broom, making the men realize they had been heard, and she ran.

  Kit was just looking for someone she could trust to turn the information over to. When she first called in to provide an anonymous tip she learned that whoever those men were, they had a long reach, because shortly afterward, she had been sitting in a coffee shop across from the tiny little hotel she had checked into and a van of men pulled in. She recognized one of them as one of the FBI agents who she had overheard. They went into the building and came back out, and hour later were looking around. It was enough for her to know they could find her anywhere if she wasn’t careful.

  Now here she was, sitting on information with no idea where to go with it. Her appointment tomorrow would hopefully give her direction. Working as a paralegal you met all kinds of people. One of them was a PI she knew didn’t exactly follow the rules when it came to investigation, and Kit figured that is what she needed right now. So, she had called and made an appointment under a false name with a bogus story about her husband beating her. She knew the man in question would call her back right away; he didn’t like women who were abused.

  Her thoughts consumed her as she got ready to go on stage, it was sad that only after a month as a stripper she already could feel what it was like for women who did this their whole lives. She had become numb to the yells and cat calls the men called out, as long as she didn’t have to do private shows, which she refused to do, she was okay. The changing room was full tonight, as all of the girls were on stage apparently. At least Tommy hadn’t lied to her about the amount of people who were going to be in the crowd tonight, when everyone was here, it meant the house would be full, and the money would be flowing. Good, Kit thought, maybe she would make enough for a down payment on a crappy car to get the hell out of here with.

  Walking to her small make-up table, she said “Hi” to the girls and smiled as she passed them.

  “Hey,” Ginger called from the front of the room. “Here you got the center?”

  Kit froze, Ginger was a bitch with a capital B. The only one in the whole place who she didn’t get along with. Kit tried to be nice, she really did, but damn she was so over everything that had led her down this road.

  “Yes, I did, do you have a problem with that?” Kit snapped.

  Her friend Steph laughed. “Yeah, Tommy said he wanted some good looking girls out front tonight, Ginger.”

  Apparently, Ginger had been given the backroom where only men who wanted more than a stage show went. Kit hated that room and refused to work in there, Tommy gave all his girls the option for that, she didn’t know exactly what went on in the backroom and she didn’t want to. Steph never worked back there either.

  “Shut the fuck up,” Ginger growled and slammed her make-up down on the table and turned to look at them with hate in her eyes. She was pretty, Kit thought, except when she looked like this, which was most of the time. Kit knew the woman wasn’t too happy with anything in her life, but she inline font-style=“Arial”>wasn’t

  to blame and she would not take shit from her.

  “No, you,” Kit ground out. “I swear we do this every single time I get put on the center stage, what the fuck is it with you? I mean it’s not like it’s glamorous or anything. I mean, showing your tits off to horny old men is not my idea of a life’s goal.”

  “You get more tips and you know it, bitch,” Ginger said. “Besides, you have been her the least amount of time, and yet Tommy kisses your ass and lets you get the best stages.”

  “Holy shit, you seriously are not listening,” Kit said with a disgusted tone.

  “OMG, bitch, you need to stop!” Steph said with an incredulous look on her face. “You do realize we are strippers, right, I mean who the fuck cares where we dance, if you do it well enough people are gonna give you tips.”

  “Listen here,” Ginger said, her face turning an ugly shade of red.

  “Fuck no,” Steph said. “You listen, just get your old raggedy ass done up and shake it on out of here. I don’t have time to listen to you whine about shit I don’t care about.”

  Ginger glared at the two of them then threw a towel on the floor and stomped off. Kit was fuming, but she stood by and let Steph deal with it because really, she didn’t want to get into a fight with Ginger again. The last time she had, all of her make-up was trashed, and she didn’t have the money to replace that stuff yet again. Thankfully, Kit was able to control her temper a little bit this time. Next time though, she was gonna unleash the Kraken, its name was Tiny, that is what she liked to refer to it as.

  “Come on, girl, let’s get you ready.” Steph laughed and rolled her eyes.

  Yep, it was gonna be one of those nights, she thought and turned to her table and sighed.

  *****

  “Hey, Sonny,” Tank said, leaning against his car in a parking lot in Denver, he had just arrived and was ready to get shit done so he could hang with his brother.

  “Tank,” his brother said gruffly. “Where you at?”

  “Gotta deliver a message then I am coming in. Is everything set with my cover?” Tank asked.

  “Yeah, the boss made sure of it. Just come to the front desk and ask for me. I will come and get you,” his brother said and Tank nodded.

  “Got it, be there in a few hours,” Tank said and hung up the phone. He hoped it would only take a few hours, shit, crying females and emotional shit wasn’t his forte. But damn it, Harper asked him, and he had a hard time telling the chick no. Ever since he met her those months ago, he was drawn to the fiery little girl. She was a force to be reckoned with, and he respected the hell out of her. When they called her ‘Rambina’ it fit, because she was freaking scary when it came to weapons.

  Tank had worked for Jolly and Steve, their company was based in Denver, but Tank had worked in California for him. Now he was in Wyoming, and he was finally happy. His real name was Theodore Griffin Briggs, and he was a retired FBI agent. His family was all in law enforcement in some way or another. It made him smile when he thought about the arguments they had over dinners about which agency was the best. His brother worked for the Boulder County Task Force, although prior to that he had been in the Air Force as a Security Forces XO. Sonny was Sebastian Xavier Briggs; their mother was somewhat of a poet she announced, when they had asked why the hell they had such weird names. He towered over women the same as Tank, and although they were two years apart, Tank being the oldest, they looked like twins. When they were together, they scared the shit out of most people because of their size. However, they all just agreed she had been drinking when she made up their names, because according to her, when she met our fathers, she decided they were going to have three children and she named them before they were even a gleam in her eye. His sister was Philadelphia Sophia Briggs, and everyone called her “Philly”, she was a CIA operative and was avoiding them. It was about to get real if she didn’t pick up the phone and call them though.

  A few years ago their parents had died. It had been a shock because they were always so bigger than life, it seemed like they could never die. But they had been ripped out of their lives in a freak boating accident. Their childhood had been picture perfect if you called being raised by a father who was a General in the Army, another father who was a rancher, and a mother who didn’t take shit from anyone. Their extended family was just as forceful and thus, the three Briggs children were all forces of nature as well, at least that was what the neighbors said.

  They grew up in a small community outside of Denver, Colorado where no one cared what happened in the bedroom. They
measured a family by its actions, and the Briggs family was all about honor. So no one cared the patriarchs of the family were brothers who married the same woman, if you needed help, the Briggs family was there.

  Tank flipped his leg over his bike and roared down the road to find the last known home of Katherine Steppe, deliver the message, and get the fuck out. That was at least the plan he was going with, of course it never dawned on him that knocking on the door of Katherine Steppe was going to lead him right where he needed to go in the investigation. It was also going to give him and his brother the shock of their lives when they discovered a woman who didn’t put up with their shit.

  Chapter Two

  Katherine climbed the stairs to her ratty little apartment—it had been a long night. The men were wild and annoying, and she made a butt ton of money. For that, she was happy. However, having more than one guy grab her ass as she walked by to get to the backroom to change, Kit was feeling a little more than irritated, it made her long for her boring sedate life as a paralegal.

  As she reached her door she sighed loudly as she saw the flimsy lock, but the small piece of tape she put over the door was still in place so she knew she could enter without having to worry that someone had found her.

  Tomorrow she was going to talk to someone about the information she had, Kit was sick of all this shit and wanted to go back home. Her comfy house, with her nice, fluffy bed was just calling to her after a night on her feet. It sucked.

  Stepping inside her apartment, she should have felt the bad vibes, but later she would blame the late hour and foggy head for not realizing that someone was sitting in her apartment apparently waiting for her.

  Kit dumped her bag in the entryway and walked into the small kitchen and opened the fridge, intending on getting her last bottle of wine so she could drown her sorrows when she heard a rustle of movement behind her and turned right when the skinny, little crack head appeared in her kitchen grinning.