Reid rolled his eyes and moved closer. “Brant needs to mind his own business,” he grumbled, then enveloped the gruff sheriff in a bear hug. “How have you been little brother?” There was nothing “little” about Mack Jones. He topped both Reid and Brant by about an inch, but the three brothers were about the same in the muscle department. Reid and Brant honed their muscles in the gym during the weekdays while Mack worked out in the mountains, doing activities that would make most people shudder. Repelling down mountains, then climbing up seemingly sheer cliffs and over boulders.
Mack laughed at his brother, returning the hug with interest before moving over to the hidden fridge and grabbing two beers. “Better than you, apparently.”
Reid texted a message on his phone, then accepted the bottle of beer Mack had opened. “I’m doing just fine. No need to worry.”
“Not according to Brant. He mentioned you’d...”
Brant burst into the room. “Damn! Did hell freeze over?” he asked, then hugged his brother.
“I’m here, aren’t I?” Mack teased. “So obviously, it’s frozen solid.”
They always teased their youngest brother that hell would freeze over before he’d venture into the city. Mack was the sheriff of a small town up in the Rocky Mountains. He loved his town and its quirky characters, and he protected them as if they were his bear cubs. He was equally protective of his mountain, helping the park rangers enforce the rules with the tourists that flocked to the woods every year. Didn’t matter what the season, there seemed to be someone getting lost or doing something stupid in the mountains.
Mack didn’t have to work. If he wanted, the man could sit back and relax while living off of the massive income he earned from the dividends from his stocks in Rembrandt Cosmetics. Mack had given his brothers his life savings to help them finance the company years ago. But he loved his job and enjoyed protecting his town and his mountain.
“So who is going to save your mountain when someone decides to camp in the wrong place while you’re here?” Brant laughed, grabbing another beer from Reid’s fridge and popping the top.
“They’ll have to fend for themselves for a while. I heard that my big brother was screwing up a good thing.”
Reid turned to look at Brant, an eyebrow going up, silently asking, “What the hell did you tell him?”
Of the three men, Reid was the most outspoken, Brant was the coldly controlled one, and Mack was laid back and relaxed. But people who knew the three of them understood to never underestimate any of them. They were all powerful in their own ways. Reid manipulated the business world. Brant controlled a financial empire by not just running the financials for Rembrandt Cosmetics, but also investing the brothers’ money and making them all disgustingly wealthy men. And Mack controlled his town and his mountain. No one messed with any of the Jones brothers, except for their sister, Giselle. That woman could give as good as she got. And the brothers teased her unmercifully whenever she and her husband visited. Well, whenever she wasn’t around her new husband, the Crown Prince of Altair.
Reid didn’t want to think about what their baby sister and her husband did at night. Because she might be furious with their taunting and teasing each evening, but by the following morning, she was all smiles and happiness again. Whatever Jaffri was doing, Reid didn’t want details, but accepted that the big brute made his sister happy, so…whatever.
“I’m not the one you should worry about,” Reid announced.
Brant tensed and Mack, always observant, turned his laser focus on his brother. “What’s going on in your world?”
“Not a damn thing,” Brant grumbled. “Mind your own business.”
“Ah, now that sounds interesting,” Mack replied, leaning back. The more relaxed Mack became, the more one needed to worry. “So, what’s her name?”
“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” Brant replied. “Don’t you have a bear to save or a hippy to arrest?”
“All in good time. Hippies don’t move that fast and the bears are out catching fish and fattening up. I have time to hear about whatever is making you angrier than your normally bitchy self.”