Page 5
No, wait. He didn’t love Hannah. He couldn’t. She was going to be like a sister. That was all.
He would get over this raging desire to have her underneath him.
He could hear her screaming as he walked toward reception.
Slade was right. She needed a gag.
* * * *
Hannah took a deep breath as the airplane finally leveled out.
Slade released his seat belt and stood. “I’m going to need a drink. ” He walked down the aisle and opened a small door, revealing a surprising amount of liquor.
He poured a couple of inches worth of scotch into three crystal glasses and passed them to his brothers.
They offered Hannah nothing. Bastards. She wouldn’t curse anywhere but in her own head.
It wasn’t ladylike, her grandmother had taught her. But deep inside, she was using all kinds of four-letter words to describe the three men who had kidnapped her. Jerks. No, kinky jerks. She’d known that since the minute Dex forced her into the limo and opened his own small suitcase to reveal a rubber ball with ties. He’d threatened to gag her with it, and she’d since refused to speak.
Besides a ball gag, what else had the big cowboy packed? Probably some rope. She looked between Slade and Dex. She’d heard the rumors. They liked to share the same woman, and they frequented several exotic clubs like the ones in those books on her eBook reader.
But they weren’t taking her needs into consideration. So she wasn’t going to fantasize about them tying her up and having their rough and ruthless way with her.
God, what was she thinking? They would laugh their asses off if they knew how often she thought about the three of them. They would laugh even harder if they found out she was a twenty-five-year-old virgin.
“You read the file?” Dex asked as Slade passed him his drink.
Slade’s face went hard as he looked her way. That wasn’t good. Slade was the happy brother.
Gavin was the brooder, and Dex the bruiser. Slade almost always had a smile for her. Now he scowled as he pinned her with his deep blue eyes.
“I read it. Are we in agreement about how to handle this?”
“I think the kid gloves are off,” Dex said enigmatically.
“I think you burned the kid gloves when you hauled her out of the building kicking and screaming,” Gavin said drolly. He took a long swallow of his scotch. “That poor IT guy just about fainted when you shoved past him. ”
Dex gnashed his teeth. “Was that the fucker who offered to fix your computer?” She itched to give them the cold shoulder, but clearly none of them would accept that.
Something had changed. Her men were on edge, and her self-preservation kicked in. She folded her hands in her lap. She wished Lyle hadn’t witnessed her abduction. What must he be thinking?
“Yes. Lyle is the head of the help desk. He’d graciously agreed to come to my house tonight to fix my laptop. ”
“Gracious isn’t the word I would use,” Slade said under his breath.
Her little laptop was currently in its bag, sitting on top of her suitcase in the overhead bin.
How had Dex gotten her things? And how had he known Lyle was fixing her computer?
“You broke into my house. ” It was the only explanation. Lyle had left her a message on her machine this morning. She hadn’t gotten back to him, and now it looked like she wouldn’t.
He shrugged his big shoulders negligently. “Yeah. It wasn’t hard. You don’t even have a damn deadbolt. ”
She’d never really needed one and hadn’t thought about it until about a month ago. “Well, now that I know you’re willing to just barge in, I will certainly buy two or three. ”
“Don’t worry about it,” Dex said with a nasty smile. “You won’t be going back there. ”
“What is that supposed to mean?” What the hell was going on?
Slade turned to her. “Besides, if Dex hadn’t broken in, he wouldn’t have found your cat. ” She softened. Her normally sweet cat must have gone through hell because she’d obviously taken a few swipes at her rescuer. “I really do appreciate that. Though, I would have liked to have seen her. ”
“The vet said she was going to be fine,” Gavin said. “Do you have any idea who would want to hurt your cat? She had a knife wound in her gut. ”
She gasped in shock. Tears followed. “No. I don’t know. ”
All three men growled. Hannah shrank back in her seat. Gavin held up the folder she kept by her phone, the one in which she had been storing all her evidence. She winced.
Dex leaned forward. “You want to amend that statement, darlin’? Because I’m done playing around, and the next lie that comes out of your mouth is going to earn you some punishment. ” Punishment? “I don’t like the sound of that, Mr. Townsend. ” Liar. She liked it way too much. She was pretty sure everyone in the Boeing could hear her heart pound. “And it’s none of your business. ”
She had to put this on a proper footing. She couldn’t let these men intimidate her. They were her bosses—or had been. She couldn’t go back to work for them now, not after they had kidnapped her. Right? Her grandma’s etiquette lessons hadn’t covered this situation.
Dex stood up, but Slade held a hand out. “Why don’t we get the full story before we start in on her?”
Gavin looked between the two of them, an oddly indulgent look on his face. “You really were born far too late, Dex. Genghis Khan could have used you. ” Dex eased back into his seat. If the comment bothered him, he didn’t show it. He simply grunted and nodded toward Slade, who turned to her, arms crossed over his wide chest. He reminded her of a prosecuting attorney about to slice and dice an opponent.
“How long have you known someone was stalking you, Hannah?”
The silky slide of his voice didn’t fool her. He was pissed off. Maybe it was time to come clean. “About a month. ”
All three men huffed.
“Tell us. ” Gavin didn’t ask. He simply commanded.
What would it hurt now? Her secret was out, and maybe they could help. Though she wouldn’t admit it, it felt like a huge weight had just lifted off her shoulders. “It was phone calls at first. I would answer but no one was there, just a lot of breathing. ”
“Caller ID?” Dex asked.
“It showed up as unavailable. He called my home phone, not my cell. ” Hannah remembered being annoyed at first. She’d stopped answering the phone. “Then, after a week or so, he left a message, but in a weird voice. ”
Slade sat back in his chair, his hand going to the folder, fingers tapping against it.
“According to the police report, he used a computer-simulated voice. Burke should be able to get a copy. ”
Hannah took a deep breath and forced herself to go on. “Then I changed my number and made it unlisted. He called me again two days later. ”
“Bastard,” Dex cursed. “He must work for us. ”
“Agreed. ” Slade nodded sharply.
Really? She couldn’t imagine which fellow employee would go to this much trouble to scare her.
“Hannah sent HR a notification when she changed her number. Besides the three of us, HR
was the only one with a record. ”
“So it’s likely someone with access to the HR files. We should have known something was going on when she changed her number. ” Slade cursed under his breath.
Dex nodded, then turned back to her. “How many friends have your new number?” She didn’t have a horde of friends, but she did have a few good ones. “Uhm, I told Wendy and Heather. Oh, and a couple of people from work. ”
“We’ll need you to write them all down,” Gavin said.
“I can do that,” Hannah replied.
“What about Preston Ward, our CIO? You gave him your number after he kissed you?” Dex arched a brow at her.
“What the hell?” Slade stood, staring, his expression thunderous. “He what?” Hannah flushed. “I’ve handled
that. And no, I didn’t. He must have gotten it from HR. ”
“Why didn’t you tell me he’d come on to you?” Gavin demanded, looking none too pleased.
She looked at her boss—former boss—trying to understand the reason for this third degree.
“You’re the CEO. You don’t have time for my troubles. ”
“Like hell,” Gavin snarled.
Slade’s mouth flattened into a thin line that Hannah couldn’t help but think boded ill for her.
Dex speared her with another stare. “What else haven’t you told us?” She confessed the rest. It was like ripping off a Band-Aid. Once she started, she just wanted to get it over with. She explained that this crazy man had somehow gotten her IM address and had started sending her long notes on her laptop about how beautiful she was and how much he wanted her. He’d called one night in a rage threatening to hurt her because she’d come home late. He’d asked if she’d been out with those perverted brothers.
“I think he meant you and Slade,” she said, biting her lower lip. Gosh, she didn’t want to offend them. “He obviously doesn’t understand that we just work together. ” Slade frowned. “I think he understands all too well. ”
Hannah frowned. What did he mean by that?
She pressed on. “Then Mr. Snuggles went missing, and I called the police again, but they said they couldn’t do anything since cats run off all the time. ” Dex pinned her with his steely gaze, making her feel like a bug he was about to dissect. “Yes, the cops can do very little in a situation like this, which begs one question: Why didn’t you tell us?”
“It wasn’t your problem. Y’all are very kind to me. It seemed like a crappy thing to pay back your kindness by pulling you into this mess. ” Hannah didn’t mention that she desperately wanted them to see her as a capable woman, not a burden. “Besides, I didn’t just call the police. I hired a private investigator. ”
She waited for praise. They would see that she had this handled and they would lighten up.
Instead, they just stared at her. She tried not to but she squirmed in her seat.
“His name is Vinny. He came with great references. ” The psychic whose shop he worked out of had thrown in a free tarot reading.
“I think I’ll stick with mine,” Gavin drawled. “But Hannah, a private investigator isn’t protection. You could be assaulted while your private investigator is digging into this. ” Hannah reached for her purse, because she had an answer for that, too. Her hand met with cold metal, and she pulled out her brand new pistol. “That’s why I bought this. See? I’m prepared. ”
Gavin turned a shade of white Hannah was certain no living human should ever be. Slade gasped, but Dex was on his feet in an instant, prying the gun away from her.
“Goddamn it, Hannah, the safety isn’t even on. You could kill yourself with this fucking gun.
What were you thinking?” Dex’s voice resounded through the plane.
“Well, I was surprised that I managed to get through security. ” Thank goodness security in a private airfield was very different than a commercial airport. They had just driven up to the plane. “And I didn’t know about the safety. Maybe I should have read the manual. ” She noticed that Slade’s eyebrow was twitching slightly. “Are you okay, Slade? See. This is why I didn’t want to bring you all into this. It’s very stressful. But I have it handled. You don’t have to worry. ”
Slade closed his eyes. “Right now, I’m not worried that the stalker is going to get you, honey.
I’m worried about what I’m going to do. ”
“What do you mean?”
He didn’t reply. Instead, he reached across the aisle and pulled her over his knee. She gasped as her stomach hit his lap. “Slade, what are you doing?”
“I’m regaining my sanity. ”
“It’s about damn time, brother,” Dex said.
She forced her head up to look at Dex and Gavin. Both men stared at her, but neither moved a muscle to help.
“Do something!” she demanded of Gavin. She knew Dex would be no help.
“Oh, I’m going to,” he assured, leaning forward to brace his elbows on his knees. “I’m going to watch. ”
Hannah took a deep breath. Nothing would ever be the same again.
Chapter Four
Slade’s big hand slid up Hannah’s calf. Shock ricocheted through her body. Tingles skittered across her skin. She fought not to shiver as his palm worked up, up, up her leg in a slow slide.
“Slade. ” Her voice shook. “What are you doing? We should talk about this. ”
“Time for talking is past, baby. ” Slade’s voice sounded hoarse, utterly unlike the sunny man she knew. This man had purpose, and it wasn’t to make her laugh.
Dex was on his knees before her. He gently threaded his fingers through her hair and pulled, lifting her head until she caught his eyes. “You gave up the right to talk, darlin’, when you didn’t tell us that someone is trying to hurt you. So now we’re going to go over the rules. Rule number one, you never hide anything from us. ”