Cheers came from the various rooms.
Anne checked on the bathroom crew. Although disgusted by the stench, the boys were working energetically.
One glanced at her. “And my mama said my room was a pigsty—she ain’t seen nothing.”
The next truck arrived, and Sam started bringing in the load. Silver-gray hair, pale blue eyes, darkly tanned, the rancher might be in his fifties, but he carried the oak dresser as if it weighed no more than a toothpick.
Ben would be as tough, no matter how old he got.
In the bedroom, Anne found Beth waiting and sipping her coffee.
As Sam set the dresser down, Anne told him, “Beth is in charge of this room. She’ll tell you where to put the furniture.”
Beth gave the notorious Shadowlands sadist a nervous look. She’d been married to a truly abusive sadist. Since meeting Nolan, she’d overcome many of her fears, but Anne had noticed that male sadists still made her a bit wary when her Dom wasn’t present.
This would be an excellent time for her to work on that.
Sam’s glance at Anne held amusement, but when he looked at Beth, his face was gentle. He said in his roughly graveled voice, “Didn’t bring my whip, missy. Instruct away.”
Neither one of them missed Beth’s relieved sigh.
Good enough. Smiling, Anne headed to the kitchen, passing Holt on the way in with a bedside stand.
The kitchen was coming along nicely. Sally had the dish cupboards almost filled. Gabi was organizing the canned goods.
“You two move really fast,” Anne said.
“Isn’t this great?” Sally bounced on her toes. “Uzuri thought she’d have to rent a motel room for tonight.”
“We’re going to have everything done even before the others arrive,” Gabi said.
“The others?” Anne tossed her coffee cup into the giant box labeled “garbage.”
“The ones who couldn’t get here early.” Sally set a cup onto a shelf. “Master Z was going to come and maybe bring Jessica and Sophia, depending on how they felt.”
Gabi said, “Cat’s gone for the week. Jake and Rainie are buried in puppy and kitten season. Raoul is out of town, but Kim is coming. Marcus and Cullen will be here soon. Olivia was going to arrive this afternoon, too.”
“My Galen is on the way. Vance is in Atlanta for another day,” Sally said. She listened for a second. “Actually, it sounds as if Galen and Marcus are already here.”
Anne glanced at the time on her phone. “My God, it’s after lunch.”
“Time flies when you’re having fun.” Sally grinned. “I’m really glad you came. At Uzuri’s old place, there we were and no one was sure what to do. We were all getting in each other’s way. You cut through the chaos like a hot knife through butter.”
“Not surprising.” Dan walked into the kitchen, followed by Ben. “Anne leads a team of the toughest sons-of-bitches you’ve ever seen. Directing a moving crew—even one with Sam and Nolan on it—is nothing.”
“Well, no wonder then.” Sally pushed the empty box to one side. “I didn’t realize bounty hunters had teams.”
“If the skip has a history of violence, it’s safer for everyone—including him—if we use a team,” Anne said.
“Sounds smart.” Ben’s gaze was speculative, as if he were putting pieces of her life together like a jigsaw puzzle.
“Hey, Ben,” Gabi said as she closed a cupboard door. “You did a great job of rounding everyone up. I’m glad you realized Uzuri needed help, even if she didn’t want to admit it.”
“You arranged all this?” Anne asked him.
He shrugged. “I was the one who found out she had a problem, so I checked with Z and kicked it off. Mostly, I assigned people to notify other people.” He stepped close enough that her shoulder brushed his chest.
Her skin tingled at just the slight contact with his body, and her quick breath brought her his clean, tangy scent. Stop it. She took a step back.
“I saved your call for myself though,” he added.
No wonder no one else had called. But… “Why? Were you afraid I’d be rude if someone asked me for help?” She didn’t have that bad of a reputation, did she?
“No, Ma’am.” When he moved closer again, she frowned him into stopping.
Because touching him was just too tempting.
His gaze was steady on hers, and then he smiled. “I made the call because I get off on listening to your voice. Even when you’re pissed off, you sound like Lauren Bacall.”
“Excuse me?” She couldn’t keep the frost from entering her voice.