AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“What do you want? Why are you doing here?” he demanded. They’d both seen Hugh staring at Dev for years. The man had never made a move, though, never done anything other than watch her. Apparently, they’d been fools to write him off as harmless.
Hugh held up his hands. “I don’t want to hurt Devon. I just need to talk to her. It’s important.”
“Her?” Cannon growled out the word, picking up on Hugh knowing Dev wasn’t a guy.
Hugh raised a brow, his expression bordering on smug, which was pretty ballsy of him, considering Hawk had a fist raised while clenching Hugh’s collar. “Yeah. Her. I’m well aware of exactly who she is.”
Gravel flew as Jax skidded into the drive, then the house’s front door opened, and the two women stood there. Briar had her arms crossed while she took in the scene. Dev took a step forward, one hand over her heart while the other covered her mouth.
“Sweetness, go back inside,” Cannon urged, gentling his tone when he wanted to yell for her to get away from this guy, who’d gone from innocuous to highly suspicious.
Dev shook her head, stepping onto the porch, looking like female perfection and not at all male. “Hugh? What are you doing here?”
Exactly. That was the question of the hour. It wasn’t as if the man had any business at the ranch. In fact, no one knew what his business was. He’d always just seemed to be part of the Daly backdrop, but it occurred to Cannon that he had no idea what Hugh did for work or even where he lived.
Until now, he really hadn’t cared.
Though Hawk still fisted the front of Hugh’s shirt, Hugh ignored all the men around him and focused on Devon.
“I’m employed by your grandparents’ estate—by you, now, I suppose. Your mother found out about Walter’s criminal activity, and she’d started divorce paperwork in the weeks before she died. Part of her instructions, through her parents, was to have a guard on you. When her death was imminent, I was assigned to you with the strict rule of making myself known. I wasn’t to do anything unless you were in danger. Plus, you didn’t know me, so why would you listen to me?”
“I’d say having men wanting to traffic her is pretty big danger,” Hawk practically spat, shoving away from Hugh and making a beeline to Devon’s side. “I’m sure you had a way to identify yourself as safe.”
“And I probably wouldn’t have believed him,” she told Hawk before focusing back on Hugh. “You’ve been following me?”
“Yeah, but that’s beside the point. I came here to warn you. That guy, Brandon Tucker, who was flashing around your picture in town, is cagey and dangerous. He’ll do anything to make himself look good to his boss. I’ve spoken to my superiors, and they’ve agree it’s time to move you, get you someplace safer. We have people who can set you up with a new identity. Like witness protection, but it’s not through a government agency. We need to—”
“You don’t need to do anything as far as she’s concerned. How do we even know you’re not one of them?” Hawk said, putting his arm around her. Cannon flanked his other side, not trusting Hugh, either.
She placed a hand on Hawk’s shoulder, making a shushing sound as if she could calm the anger. “Let him talk.”
“If I was one of them, she’d already be back in Chicago. I’m not the bad guy here,” Hugh ground out. Ignoring anyone else, he turned his attention to Dev. “If you don’t come with me, fine. But you need to get as far from here as possible, as soon as possible. It’s a matter of when and not if Brandon finds you. When it comes to wolfhounds for the Bratva brotherhood, there’s none better than Brandon.”
“She can’t go out there unprotected,” Cannon protested. His objection had nothing to do with losing her. It gutted him to think of her alone and scared, or worse, hurt.
“I’ll go with her,” Hugh said. “It’s literally my job.”
Cannon and Hawk closed ranks in front of Dev, as if hiding her from the other man, who wanted to take her from them. Hell, they’d hide her away, they’d run with her, before they’d let anyone take her.
“No,” Hawk growled in unison with Cannon, though Cannon sounded more distressed than feral like his lover. Fuck, he was completely freaked out. They’d waited all this time for Dev, found their perfect third, only to have everything come to a head just when they’d gotten her to admit her feelings for them. No. This wasn’t happening.
The feeling was selfish. He knew it was. But he’d never claimed to be a fucking saint. No matter what, he’d protect Dev to his last breath, but he’d never let her go.
“We’ll take her away someplace,” he said, bristling. “We will do it. Not you.”
“Okay, okay,” Briar said, moving between them and Hugh, Jax hovering close at her side. “Let’s everyone put away their dicks. It doesn’t matter what any of the three of you think. This is up to Devon.”
“No, it’s not,” Hawk gritted out, and even Cannon knew that was the completely wrong thing for his over-dominant partner to say.
“Hawk…” he murmured.
“Excuse me?” Dev demanded over the top of his admonishment.
“Baby girl—”
“Don’t you baby girl me. This is my life we’re talking about here. I get to make the decisions. The fact slept with you has no bearing on that.”
“It’s not about that, and I’m sure you know it,” Cannon defended. It wasn’t completely about that, anyway. But he didn’t dare say that part aloud. He’d let Hawk take the brunt of her wrath.
