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“Rise and shine, princess,” a low voice rumbles in my sleep.
“He looks like shit,” another voice pipes up.
“A night in the slammer will do that to a person. It serves him right.”
The last voice has me jackknifing to a sitting position, and I groan from the pain shooting through my joints. It wasn’t a dream—I really spent the night in jail.
The uncooperative sheriff drove me to the police station in the center of town. There wasn’t another person in sight as he dragged me through the building. He refused to let me make a phone call and left me in a holding cell without any food or water. I’m pretty sure he turned on the air conditioning too, because it felt like I slept in an icebox last night.
I scan the small room, stopping short when I see the Stafford brothers standing outside the jail cell. Harrison is grinning ear to ear as he leans against the bars, Dylan’s casually sipping from a coffee cup, and Cash snickers while snapping photos of me.
“Will you cut that out?” Harrison says sharply.
“What?” Cash shrugs. “Trust me, these will come in handy if we ever want to blackmail him in the future.” He gestures to his camera.
I knew this was a setup.
“Where’s Presley? Does she know that you’re harassing her boyfriend?” I growl.
“She’s at our parents’ house with Lola,” Dylan says. “And cut the ‘boyfriend’ bullshit. We know who you really are,Mr. Sinclair.”
Oh fuck.
“I warned you not to mess with our sister.” A sly smile passes his lips, clearly indicating that he thinks he’s caught in some elaborate lie.
“You son of a bitch,” I snarl. “You had no right to have me arrested and locked up in a dirty holding cell.”
“Oh, we had every right.” Harrison takes a step closer. “You’ve made Presley’s life a living hell for the last three years,” he states. “I knew there was something familiar about you, and a simple Google search confirmed that you were her boss. The question is, why the hell did you come home with her? And why would you pretend to be her boyfriend? Is tormenting her at work not enough?” His penetrating gaze is unyielding, and there’s no way I’m getting out of here until he gets his answers.
“I needed her help with an acquisition my company finalized last week. When she refused to reschedule her trip, I suggested I come here with her instead. When we arrived and I heard how much your family disliked me, we agreed that I didn’t need to share that I was her boss. So, when your mom asked who I was, it just slipped out that I was Presley’s boyfriend. That’s all there is to it.”
“You lying bastard,” Dylan shouts. “I saw you making out with her yesterday. Why would you take advantage of her like that? She’s not a piece of property you can discard when you return to New York.”
“I would never do that. She means too much to me.”
“What the hell does that mean?” he demands.
“I’m not using your sister… I have feelings for her,” I admit even though Dylan isn’t someone I want to be having this conversation with.
“What kind of feelings?”
“All I can say is that your sister makes me crazy. From the first day she walked into my office, she’s always been on my mind. Since we got to Aspen Grove, she’s consumed my every thought, and I don’t want things to go back to how they were before.”
“Holy shit, you really do like her.” Dylan sounds surprised.
“Yeah, I do. She’s incredibly intelligent and not afraid to call me out when I’m being a pain in her ass. Plus, she’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever laid eyes on.”
“We get it. You can spare us the sappy details.” Cash wrinkles his nose in disgust.
The sound of creaking hinges fills the room as Harrison opens the cell door, gesturing for me to come out. “We’d better get going before the shift changes and people start asking questions.”
“Wait, so I’m not being charged with anything?” I ask, confused about how they could pull this off.
“Nah. Landon and I played hockey together in high school, and he owed me a favor,” Harrison says.
“Unbelievable,” I complain. “Whose property were we really on?”
“Mine,” he answers smugly.
