Caged Songbird Read online

  “You’re welcome, songbird. I love a wide selection of music, and I’ve always marveled at the power it has to change people—or at least the way people react to or remember a situation. I’ve seen the toughest bull riders in the business moved to tears during the National Anthem. And, I’ve also seen those same guys so exhausted they could barely keep their eyes open until somebody played Don’t Stop Believin’ over the PA and suddenly they’d find their second wind.”

  “I’ve never allowed my manager to carve play lists in stone…and believe me, he’s tried. But I’ve always known it was important to have the freedom to respond to the vibe I’m getting from the audience. There have been times I needed to energize them and times I needed to soothe them. I’ve juggled the order of songs in response to what I was seeing, hearing, and feeling. Everybody thinks the audience feeds off the performer, but I’ve always found the opposite to be true.”

  Colt smiled into the night and wondered if Josie realized everything she said confirmed his original impression—the woman was so deeply submissive in her personal live it actually bled through to her professional life in subtle ways. Listening closely, Colt wondered if she’d stopped to consider how Coral’s description of her life with Sage made her feel.

  As he listened to Josie describe the power of music, Colt remembered a conversation he’d had with Sage when they’d first learned Coral was pregnant. She’d been swinging like a giant pendulum between euphoria and anguish. The morning Colt watched her change from angel to demon when Sage served her decaffeinated coffee, he’d pulled his brother aside and pointed out how music might help even the playing field. Since that morning, they always had upbeat music playing in the background during meals.

  Josie’s soft gasp brought his attention back to the moment—he wanted to kick himself for letting his attention slip. “Did you see that? Oh my God, that was amazing.”

  He’d seen the shooting star and had to agree, it had indeed been spectacular. “Did you make a wish?” Neither of them turned, but he felt her nodding. “Don’t tell me what it was or it won’t come true.” He hadn’t managed to hide his amusement despite the admonishment.

  “Do I even want to know how you know about this particular superstition?” Josie’s laughter was barely contained, and he wasn’t sure if he should be relieved or insulted.

  “Mama Morgan made it her mission to make sure we understood things she considered important—which we interpreted as things she thought might help us connect with the right woman someday. She’s been on a mission to have grandchildren since the five of us reached what she considered the appropriate age. And I might add, she’s been ready for a long time. Coral is not only giving Mom something she’s wanted for a very long time—she is also buying the rest of us time.”

  “Don’t kid yourself. To hear Coral tell it, your mom is already dropping hints to Joelle about how wonderful it is when cousins are close in age, using Ryan as an example.” Colt laughed out loud. Hell, he wasn’t at all surprised. He’d have been more surprised if his mom had been appeased with one grandchild, but he had to admit to being more than a little bit impressed with her creative excuse.

  Maria Randall leaned back in her seat and tried to focus on her breathing. Damn she hated flying…and she really hated flying couch. Her boyfriend had refused to pony up for first class tickets since he was footing the bill…the tight ass was only generous when he was spending his boss’s cash. The meditation technique wasn’t doing a damned thing to lesson her anger. Maria couldn’t believe the bitch she and her boyfriend worked for had given them the slip…again.

  Josephine Alta had been rattling on about taking a break ever since she’d vanished for a couple of days several months ago, and now the bitch had gone missing again. Evidently she didn’t give a rat’s ass her back-up singers, band, and crew were left twiddling their thumbs while she was fucking off in western Montana. At least that was Josephine’s last known location. The trackers Maria slipped into Josephine’s bag had stopped working briefly, and now they were bouncing around the Rocky Mountains. I can’t believe I’m going into the damned mountains looking for her. What the fuck, can’t Todd do anything by himself?

  Marie had confronted Josephine over dinner one night not long before the tour ended, but the ungrateful troll had shrugged off her concerns. “Perhaps you should have saved some of the money you earned instead of partying at every stop, Maria. You all have been well paid and your expenses covered. I mentioned this before the tour even started—hell, that was part of the reason you were being paid so well.”

  Maria’s boyfriend, Todd Richland, was Josephine’s manager and the look he shot Maria had been easy to read. He’d wanted her to stop rocking the boat. Todd’s lack of ambition was beginning to be more of an annoyance than Maria could ignore. As soon as she got what she wanted from Josephine Alta, it would be time to more onward and upward.

  Phoenix’s tenacity was paying off. The list he’d gotten of all the people who had a financial stake in Josephine Alta as a performer from Josie had gone a long way in narrowing down the list of possible suspects. Most of her band, crew, and backup singers had scattered around the country within a day or two of the tour’s end. But one of the singers and Josie’s manager had just boarded a flight in Los Angeles bound for Missoula. It seemed like an interesting coincidence since neither of them had any ties to the area that Phoenix could find. He’d sent an urgent text to Colt, but didn’t expect to hear from him for a while.

  Kip leaned back in the other office chair and propped his booted feet on the desk—a habit that drove Phoenix to distraction. “Get your damned boots off the desk. I know for a fact you weren’t born in the barn—I checked with mom.”

  “Geez, what crawled up your ass? Another girl beat you at your own game?” Phoenix wanted to pick his brother’s feet up and tip his arrogant ass over backward. He’d not only dusted the desk top with what Phoenix doubted was dirt, but Kip had also scored a direct hit on a sore subject.

  How the hell is she acing the games so quickly? Athena had not only named her online persona after the Greek goddess of wisdom and war strategy, but she was also regularly kicking his ass in the games he’d fucking created. Until recently, the few times he’d gotten her to interact with him, she’d been politely distant to the point of being evasive. He and his friend Mitch Ames were both trying to track her, but she’d been staying several steps ahead of them for months.

  Today must be his lucky day because not only had he gotten the hits on Josie’s manager and companion heading their way, but he’d finally found a chink in Athena’s impenetrable armor. He’d managed to tag one of her files, and the next time she accessed it he’d be able to back trace the small marker—at least he’d know where her computer was located. Damn, I hope she isn’t using a computer in some damn library or internet café.

  Kip slapped him upside the head, bringing Phoenix back to the moment. “Hey, big brother, where did you go? Focus, man, Josie needs your help. Any clue who’s tracking her—or rather who’s tracking the signal you’re bouncing all over the eastern slope. Shit, please tell me you aren’t sending some city slicker up into the back trails.”

  Kip didn’t even give Phoenix a chance to answer before he rambled on. “Fuck. You are, aren’t you? You’re going to send a couple of fucking losers into the canyons and then we’re going to have to go up there and save their dumb asses. Damn it, I’ve got a date this weekend, I don’t want to be pulling some damned city boy in fucking penny loafers and his stiletto wearing girlfriend off a mountain. You know how they whine—Christ, what’s wrong with you?”

  Laughter sounded from the door. “Damn, talk about whining—I was worried the paint was going to start peeling off the walls when we walked in.” Brandt was leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed over his chest and grinning like a man who’d just returned from his honeymoon. Lucky bastard.

  “Thank God you’re home. Talk to him. Tell him it’s not a good idea to lead the jack asses track
ing Josie on a merry chase all over the front range. We all know how this will end, and I’ve got other shit to do.”

  Phoenix laced his fingers behind his head, leaned back, and grinned. “What he means is he has someone else to do. Little brother has a hot date this weekend. But I’ve got news for him, Mom has plans for him as well.”

  Kip made no attempt to stifle his groan. Of course, their mom was zeroing in on him. The youngest Morgan brother should have known it was too much to ask that she hadn’t heard Calamity would be returning home this weekend. Him mom had been trying to set him up with their next door neighbor since Caila Cooper first cast her doe-eyes on Kip in elementary school.

  Ryan shoved his way into the room looking around then asking, “What’s going on? Damn, you’d need a machete to cut through the tension in here.”

  “I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but from the smug look on Phoenix’s face and the pinched look on Kip’s I’d say Mama Morgan is trying to micromanage her youngest son’s love life, and that means Caila Cooper is going to be home soon.”

  “Who is Caila Cooper?” Kip had heard Joelle’s sweet voice before she managed to squeeze through the blockade her new husbands formed just inside the door. “Step aside you two, how am I supposed to snoop into my new brother-in-law’s life if I can’t even get into the room?”

  Kip was already moving forward when she pushed herself through the two brutes she’d married. The forceful step had her bumping into him making her laugh. Kip had been the one left at home when everything went down in Texas with Joelle, and he’d made a point of trying to make up for lost time. Not only did he admire the beauty who’d been brave enough to marry his brother and cousin—but she’d also made one of the most important medical discoveries in modern history. “Hey, gorgeous. I’m glad you’re home, but did you have to bring the Snoop Troup with you?”

  He felt Joelle’s soft laughter just before she was yanked out of his hold. “Get your own woman little brother.” Kip winked at Joelle before stepping back. Brandt redirected his attention to Phoenix, firing off questions about what he’d learned since they’d last spoken. Never one to miss an opportunity to escape his family’s scrutiny, Kip slipped out of the room. Maybe with a little luck he could get out of the house before his mom showed up with a copy of Calamity’s itinerary.

  It wasn’t that he particularly cared about avoiding Caila, but after having her pushed at him for years Kip had just about run out of excuses to keep his hands off her. She’d grown up on a neighboring ranch, so he’d known her forever and in some ways that was part of the problem—he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to see her as anything other than the Mistress of Mayhem she’d been as a kid. If there had been a disaster to be had, Caila had experienced it. Maybe he should call his health insurance company for a policy upgrade…just in case their paths crossed in the next few days.

  Kip was on this way out of the back door when he heard his mom’s voice calling from the front. He’d been ready to pull the door shut when she spotted him. “Kip, just the man I was looking for.” Gently letting his forehead thump against the door, Kip cursed under his breath. Damn, I was so fucking close. He could hear his mother’s heels clicking against the wood floors as she hurried toward him. Damn it, where was Coral when he needed her? Her news would be just the distraction Mama Morgan needed. Suppressing his groan, he turned and almost fell to his knees with relief when he saw Sage and Coral standing alongside his dad. Hell, I might get out of this yet.

  Chapter Seven

  Colt was about ready to throw his damned phone into the center of the lake. He’d switched it to vibrate before setting it to the side, but the crazy thing was about to shake itself out of the truck. What the hell could be so fucking important? He’d told Phoenix and Kip where he planned to take Josie—they had to know how pissed he’d be if they interrupted him unless it was damned important. Sighing, he finally reached for the offending device.

  His indecision must have shown even in the moonlight because he heard Josie’s soft laughter. “You’ll regret it, you know.”

  “Regret it?”

  “Yeah. Throwing it in the lake probably seems like a good idea right now, but I’m pretty sure the temporary satisfaction wouldn’t last more than a few minutes. And speaking from experience, those things are freaking too expensive to replace just because slinging it out of the window or into a lake seems like the thing to do at the moment.”

  He could feel her shaking with laughter beside him, and he knew she was right, but the temptation was almost too much to ignore. With an overly dramatic sigh, he pulled her closer and whispered against her ear, “If this isn’t Earth shattering I’m going to give in to another urge and introduce that lovely ass of yours to the joys of spanking.” He smiled into the dark at her soft gasp and the shiver he felt move through her. Colt couldn’t wait to see how she reacted to the bite of pain that bordered pleasure. The line was blurred for most people, and he suspected it was going to be almost indistinguishable for Josie.

  Looking down at his phone, Colt wanted to laugh when he saw a text from Sage. Get your asses back here. My wife has some sort of announcement and won’t talk until you’re both here. Colt shook his head and wondered what sort of mischief his sweet sister-in-law had gotten herself in to this time.

  Turning his phone so Josie could read the message he wasn’t surprised when she immediately started reaching for her discarded clothing. As much as he didn’t appreciate being interrupted, it was damned entertaining to watch her nipples tighten into rigid peaks when they met the cool night air. It was almost a sacrilege to let her cover up all that creamy bare skin, but he couldn’t very well walk in with her buck naked, either. Well, not yet—and not with mom and dad there.

  Colt knew Josie was surprised when they turned off the paved road a few minutes later. They’d definitely taken the scenic route earlier so she’d had no way to know how close they were to the ranch. “You mean to tell me you grew up with that beautiful lake in your backyard?” When he simply laughed, she snorted in frustration. “Holy hell, there isn’t anything about this that is fair to the rest of us. God knows I grew up in a lot nicer part of town than Coral, but our backyard was a far cry from yours.”

  Before he’d even taken the truck out of gear, his mom was running down the stone steps at the front of the house. She all but ignored him and pulled Josie into a crushing hug. “Oh sweetheart, I’m so glad you’re here. Coral insists I shouldn’t worry, but that just isn’t possible.”

  Turning to him, she frowned, “Why is your shirt so wrinkled, Colt? Good grief, that’s no way to dress for a date. You weren’t born in the barn you know. Goodness, we’ll be having a long chat about that later, but for now, hurry along.” Josie looked back at him, the strained look on her face telling him how hard she fighting to keep from laughing out loud. Yes, indeed—he was going to have to give some careful consideration to a fitting punishment for her. It didn’t matter that they were closing in on eleven o’clock, the night was looking more promising by the minute.

  Coral glanced at Sage and worried she’d made a huge mistake not sharing this news with him privately. Making a big announcement seemed like a good idea when she’d first thought of it because she’d hoped the cushion of an audience would keep him from being angry at her for not telling him before their trip. She’d had several good reasons for desperately wanting the break, but none of them sounded nearly as important now.

  Sage was standing across the room talking to his dad and brothers; she could almost see the frustration coming off him in waves. As if he’d felt her looking at him, his focus shifted to her. Even though his gaze softened, the intensity of his desire was still easy to see, and Coral felt herself sigh with relief. Since becoming pregnant, she’d become increasingly insecure, and it frustrated her more than she could even begin to explain. Blinking in surprise, Coral was shocked to find her new husband suddenly standing directly in front of her.

  When did he move? Oh my God, how am I
ever going to take care of the babies when I can’t focus long enough to see someone walk across the room? I’m going to be the worst mother ever in the history of motherhood. He’ll probably take the babies and lock me up in a padded room on the third floor. Holy shit, I wonder if there are any rooms up there he could use? I hope I get satellite television…or at least a radio. Maybe books and a treadmill. And a volleyball and a marker. I could make a Wilson like Tom Hanks did in that movie about the guy who got stranded on a deserted island.

  Gentle fingers sliding down her cheek brought her focus back to Sage. “Pet? You look like you’re ready to bolt. Maybe we shouldn’t wait for Colt and Josie.”

  She saw the concern in his eyes and hated she was making everyone worry. “I’m sorry. Can we wait just a little longer?” Coral was relieved to hear Patsy announce excitedly Colt and Josie had finally arrived. Even though she felt a tinge of guilt about interrupting their romantic evening by the lake, Coral was thrilled Josie would be here for the big reveal.

  After giving her friend a quick hug, Josie stepped back, and Coral found herself facing the family she’d prayed for on so many lonely nights. Patsy Morgan appeared to be the only one who’d taken Coral at her word, her expression reflected expectation rather than anxiety. Coral adored her mother-in-law and was happy to focus on the Morgan matriarch rather than meeting the other concerned faces surrounding her.

  A quick glance at Kip confirmed what she’d suspected before she and Sage left, he’d overheard her side of the conversation with her doctor. She’d still been shell-shocked after finding out how effective Sage’s plan had been to make them parents before their one-year anniversary. He might not have knocked her up on their honeymoon, but it certainly hadn’t been for lack of trying.