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After this, I promised myself, after we handle this situation, I am going to take what is mine. No holding back. If we survive whatever is coming, the gloves were coming off.
I stared at my phone, feeling a dead weight settle in my stomach. At the same time all the blood started to pound through my body. I could feel it everywhere, but especially my chest, my head, and my temples. Moments ago I had been more aroused than I had ever been in my life.
Now I was terrified.
“Someone is here.”
“At the house?”
She sat up and looked around, her huge eyes even wider than usual with fear. Now she was terrified, too. Damn it. That was the last thing I wanted.
“No. In town. I have access to the cameras at the only intersection with a traffic light.”
The tiny town was rich but remote. The kind of place where Silicon Valley Billionaires built rustic weekend cabins. The kind of place where people went to retreat. There were trails, a small waterfall, and a swimming hole.
But with superior internet and an excellent coffee shop.
So the three black town cars could have been a rich family on vacation. But something in my gut told me they weren’t. And that was before they got out of the car.
I pulled out my new laptop so we could take a better look.
“Hold on. There,” I said, stepping back slightly so Anastasia could lean over the laptop. I ignored the sharp lust that spiked through the state of absolute readiness I was in. Ready to fuck, or fight, apparently. It all centered around her.
She made a small sound of distress then stepped away from the kitchen table. Fuck. My hunch had been right.
“You recognize them?”
She nodded curtly, casting me a wary glance.
“My cousins. They are more like brothers to me. Or they were, until I was sent away.”
“That was a long time ago,” I said, my hackles up.
“They won’t hurt me,” she said with a look that said clearly that she was well aware that I would not be as lucky. I didn’t care. I only wanted to keep her safe. “I can stop them from killing you, I think. But they would try and hurt you very badly.”
“I don’t care. As long as you are safe.”
“I am.”
“But they might drag you back.”
Another nod, this one sorrowful.
“They can try,” she said, looking determined. “I’m not that easy to push around anymore.”
A slow smile spread over my face, despite the rush of adrenaline.
“No. You definitely are not.”
“So, what do we do?”
“We could ignore them, hope they go away. Or we could face this head on. Make the first move.”
“I very much like the sound of that.”
“It might be wise to call in some allies.”
“How quickly can they get here?”
“By morning,” I said. “Until then, I say we let them stew.”
Her eyes got wide and then she smiled even wider.
“I like the sound of that, too.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Hunter
I rubbed my jaw, where I could still feel my wife’s sweet lips kissing me goodbye in the middle of the night. I was riding fast and loose, compared to the way I rode these days. I had a reason to live now. Before I met my woman I’d been a wild man. Bent of self destruction to the point of sheer recklessness. I’d lived, and planned to die, by the road.
But now? Everything was different. Claire had changed all that. She’d changed me.
Now my brother needed me to help him save a girl he had fallen for. Vice was the last mother fucker on Earth I would have ever imagined asking for this particular kind of help. That made it all the more important that I showed the fuck up, no matter how badly I would have rather been in bed snuggled up with my beautiful wife.
Yes, I fucking said ‘snuggling’. We still went at it like rabbits, and it was off the charts hot. There was nothing in the world I loved more than getting some serious adult playtime with my woman. But man, the snuggling up to her gorgeous body, smelling her hair, just holding her, was a close second.
Yeah. I was whipped with a capital ‘W’ and I didn’t give a damn who knew it.
So I was holding back on the teasing that was sure to come Vice’s way. He had a heart of stone. We all knew that. He was protective and loyal to a fault with his brethren, but beyond that, he was a lone wolf.
I’d never seen him with the same girl twice. Lord knows the club girls tried to hook him, throwing themselves at him two or three at a time. Sometimes he took them up on it. Sometimes he didn’t. And he never entertained repeat customers.
And now? He was apparently head over heels with a girl he hadn’t even touched yet. That was one thing we were definitely going to give him lots of shit about.
