Their Virgin Captive

  She slanted her gaze his way and pulled her hand back. Gavin missed its warmth. “After this afternoon, someday might come around sooner than you think. I’m not sure I’m ready for that.

  I’m not sure you are, either.”

  He let his hand find the steering wheel again. He’d dug a very deep hole with Hannah. He needed to patiently fill it back in. “I am ready. If you’re pregnant—and even if you’re not—I want to prove to you that I’ll be here every step of the way. We’ll all be here for you.” Because he and his brothers were in this together, he wouldn’t have to worry about Hannah or their children if anything ever happened to him. Dex and Slade would protect and shelter her and the kids. They would pick her up if she was down. No way would his tragic history repeat itself with her.

  Something warm and infinitely secure settled in Gavin’s heart. It felt so right. This was exactly the family he wanted, three planets rotating around one beautiful sun—with lots of little moons to follow.

  “If I have a baby, and he’s not biologically yours, I won’t let you turn your back on him.” Hannah’s words hit him straight in the gut. She really believed he’d abandon her or any of her children? Of course, what else would she think after hearing his part in Nikki’s death? His satisfaction and rosy outlook for the future dissipated. A million gut-wrenching worries rushed to the surface. How could he convince her that he’d changed?

  He raked his hand through his hair then pinned her with an earnest stare. “Never. I will never put myself before you again. I will never turn away if you or one of the children needs me. I know it must seem like I would after hearing about Nikki, but I really didn’t think she was serious or pregnant. Please believe me.”

  The long silence nearly sliced him in two. He had way more fences to mend with her than he’d believed. What the hell was he going to do?

  “Gavin?” Her voice trembled and went straight to his heart.

  God, he was afraid to look at her if her opinion of him was that low. But he’d promised just moments ago to be there for her. He couldn’t renege now. He faced her.

  Her eyes were wide, pooling with unshed tears. “I’m sorry you had to live with that. I’m sorry you’ve been hurting. The man I know would never abandon his own child—or anyone else’s.” Hannah shook her head, her blonde hair brushing her shoulders. She reached for his hand, and he gave it to her. “When you found out Dex existed, you moved heaven and earth to find him. You paid for his college, gave him a good job, and brought him into your family. Many people wouldn’t have done half so much.”

  “I couldn’t leave him there. He’s my brother. I just wish I’d known sooner.” Gavin remembered walking into the dingy house where Dex had lived for the last year of his stay in foster care. More like confinement. The house had been filthy. His foster mother had cared far more about herself and her damned dogs than the kids in her care. Before Dex could even say hello, Gavin had tossed a wad of cash at the woman and packed his brother up in the Benz. Everything Dex had owned fit into a grocery sack.

  “Of course.” She squeezed his hand. “You mean the world to him.”

  “I haven’t always done a good job of showing that I care for him, too.”

  “You’ll be a great father, Gavin.”

  “I’ll do my best every day. I can’t promise everything will be perfect, Hannah. I can only promise that I’ll try. You’ll get everything I have to give, if you give me a chance.” She sniffled and released him, then folded her hands together in her lap. He wanted to hold her, but he hadn’t earned the right yet. “Can I think about it for a while?” At least she wasn’t saying no. Or blaming him for the deaths of Nikki and their unborn child.

  Or throwing things at him.

  He wouldn’t admit it to her, but she’d been hot as hell when she was mad. Hannah in a fury had done all sorts of things to his cock. Even as he’d ducked, all he’d been able to think about was throwing her on the pool table and fighting his way inside her.

  “Of course, sweetheart. Take all the time you need. I want you to be sure.” The house loomed ahead. He wished the drive was longer. Even with all the tension between them, he enjoyed just sitting with her.

  He sincerely hoped that Preston had been Hannah’s stalker. If so, with him dead, she would finally be safe, and he and his brothers could all concentrate on loving her. Gavin knew he should feel something for his former CIO, but after the way he’d treated Hannah, Gavin merely wished he’d gotten a piece of him before he’d taken the coward’s way out.

  If the threat to Hannah was gone, they had no reason to rush back to Dallas. He hadn’t taken a vacation in years. Maybe they could keep Hannah captive just a bit longer.

  With a grin, he thought about the items his brothers had brought. Whips and handcuffs and paddles, not to mention vibrators, nipple clamps, and that pretty pink anal plug—all the things a Dom would need to torture and pleasure a pretty little submissive. The idea of Hannah in nipple clamps, bound and trussed for his pleasure, really turned him on. Because it would be the woman he loved truly trusting him in every way.

  “I don’t like that mischievous look on your face.” She frowned, lips pouting.

  He’d like to shove his rock-hard cock past those plump lips. “Which look is that, sweetheart?”

  “You remind me of a wolf about to eat a fuzzy little bunny.” His dick twitched. If she knew just how predatory he felt, she might jump out of the car.

  “Thanks to my brothers, the little bunny I’m thinking of tasting right now isn’t fuzzy anymore.” Hannah gasped and turned the most perfect shade of red. “Gavin…”

  “I barely got the time to look earlier. Am I right?”

  As he parked the car, Hannah stayed utterly silent. Finally, she turned, wearing the naughtiest grin on her face. “This bunny might not be fuzzy anymore, but she is hopping away. For now.” She opened the door and slid out. Gavin followed, watching her ass sway.

  Their talk had been more promising than he could have hoped. She hadn’t condemned him, hadn’t judged. Her understanding warmed his heart and made him more certain than ever that Hannah was the perfect woman for him. Gavin prayed like hell that he’d get his second chance.

  * * * *

  Slade’s stomach turned as he looked down at Preston’s body. On the surface, the man didn’t look so terribly different from the one he’d fired just hours before. He wore the same suit. His eyes were closed, but he lay too still to be merely sleeping. There was nothing left of Preston Ward in the vessel that lay before him. He was a cold, dead being.

  “That’s him.” Slade forced himself to acknowledge Preston’s identity. He was relieved when the sheriff pulled the sheet back over the man’s lifeless face.

  The sheriff nodded shortly. Mike Akna was a quiet but professional man. As far as Slade knew, he’d never had to handle a case like this. River Run was hardly a hotbed of activity, but Mike radiated a competence that earned Slade’s trust.

  “Thanks, Mr. James. We knew who it was, but paperwork demands a formal identification of the body. We have witnesses who say you and Mr. Ward had an argument earlier today.”

  “I fired him and told him to fly back to Dallas, if that’s what you mean.”

  “Did you or did you not threaten to kill him?”

  Slade felt his eyebrows raise. He looked to his younger brother.

  “I thought this was a suicide,” Dex asked. “When your deputy called, he said Preston had hanged himself.”

  Mike held Dex’s stare, gripping a notebook in his hand. “Someone wants me to believe that.” Slade’s stomach plummeted to his knees. “I didn’t kill anyone.” Dex thumped a hand across his chest to shut him up then slipped into professional mode.

  “What was the time of death?”

  Slade thought if Gavin hadn’t offered Dex a cushy job, he would have made a damn fine homicide detective.

  “No TOD yet. Doc’s not here to take a liver temp. I have a timeline, though. The last time anyone talked to the victim wa
s 2:35 p.m. Preston called the two techs he’d brought with him from Dallas, Scott Kirkwood and Lyle Franklin, and advised them to make arrangements to return home.”

  “He’d been fired,” Slade ground out. “That wasn’t his call.”

  “And they stayed put here for that very reason, according to Ben Kunayak. Ben said that Preston was madder than a wet hen when you threw him out of the office, not depressed. In the parking lot, security heard him shouting that he was going to call Gavin and demand his job back or sue.”

  “Did you check Preston’s cell?” Slade asked. “Had he called Gavin?”

  “I found his cell, but it was demolished.” The sheriff pointed to a table off to the side. Slade could see the decimated phone. It didn’t just look broken, but like someone had tried to disintegrate it.

  “Is the SIM card inside?” The SIM card would tell them who Preston had called. Slade stepped toward the table, but Dex put a hand out.

  “Don’t touch it. Chain of evidence is important. If this isn’t a suicide, then we don’t want to fuck up the evidence since you might be the prime suspect in a murder investigation.” Dex always knew how to put things as succinctly as possible. Slade looked to the sheriff, who solemnly nodded his head.

  “You’re involved, either way,” Mike explained. “He was your employee, and you had an altercation with him shortly before his death. I am definitely going to need a statement. Now, rumor has it that you and both of your brothers were at Marnie’s recently, and there was quite a scene. This man hasn’t been dead for long. There’s no rigor, and his body was still warm when we tried to revive him. I think the TOD will clear you, but we have to go through the motions first. And you’re right, the SIM card is missing. There are also some signs of struggle.”

  “I punched him before his death,” Slade admitted. “That should account for the bruising on his face.”

  Mike nodded, jotting a few notes. “Thanks, but there’s more. Quite frankly, his skin isn’t the right color for a hanging. I don’t believe for a second this man died of asphyxiation. This room has an eight foot ceiling, not high enough for the long fall necessary to break someone’s neck.

  Yet it appears that’s what happened. It takes more force than you would guess to kill a man that way. None of this adds up.”

  Dex looked around the room. The belt that had been used in the hanging still swung from the ceiling. “How did he get up there? Did you move a chair? A table?” Mike wiped a hand across his face and looked like he would really rather be fishing. “That would be question number three. Nothing has been moved except the body, and that was only moved in an attempt to revive him. Ben took him down and tried CPR, but he was gone.” Slade came to several conclusions, none of them pleasant. Preston hadn’t been the tallest man, maybe five foot nine inches. The ceiling was at most eight feet. He would have needed something to lift him to the right height. “So unless he jumped, then someone helped him up there. That means someone killed Preston because he knew something or did something.”

  “Anything going on at Black Oak that I should know about?” Mike asked. “Any takeover attempts? Corporate espionage?”

  Corporate politics could be nasty, but Black Oak Oil was solid. They weren’t developing anything another company would want. They were in the business of finding oil and refining it.

  Slade had a bad feeling that this wasn’t about Black Oak Oil at all. This was about Hannah.

  Everything had been about her, he suspected, like the virus being uploaded to the site. Someone had followed his obsession over three thousand miles. That was sick dedication.

  Someone had watched Hannah much more closely than they’d imagined.

  “Where are the techs, Scott and Lyle?” Slade asked, his voice hoarse.

  He ran through the series of events and came to one conclusion: The murderer—and Hannah’s stalker—had to be one of them. Lyle had been in the office when Dex had carried Hannah out. Scott had planned an “important” lunch with her that very day. Gossip being what it was, either could have easily found out where he and his brothers had taken her. Either could have uploaded the virus.

  “As far as I know, they’re at the lodge. I was going to head over there and talk to them as soon as we wrapped everything up here. They can’t go anywhere until tomorrow. The only way out is by plane, and Jimmy is passed out, according to Marnie,” Mike explained.

  Whichever tech was the guilty party, he wouldn’t want to leave. He would still want Hannah—quickly—before anyone had time to figure out that Preston had been murdered and who’d been the culprit. Reaching Hannah meant traveling to the house. Anyone with access to a car could do that.

  His blood running cold, Slade punched in Gavin’s number. He would tell his older brother to take Hannah into the mountains. Gavin knew that terrain in a way Scott and Lyle wouldn’t.

  Hunting cabins dotted the mountainside. Anyone who wasn’t familiar with the area would need a map to find them. She would be safe. Gavin would shoot anyone who came her way.

  But damn it, the call wasn’t connecting. Poor signal all of a sudden. His phone was useless.

  “I can’t get a signal.” Panic threatened to overtake him. He picked up the nearest landline and dialed the house.

  After ten rings, he gave up. Dex stared at him as though willing Slade to give him good news.

  Slade wished he could lie. “He isn’t answering.”

  Dex swore. “I’m not wasting time. I’m going after her.”

  Slade agreed. “Sheriff, we’re going to need to borrow a car.”

  * * * *

  Hannah left the bathroom feeling a bit more relaxed. She’d showered and finally taken that darn plug out. She’d likely get in trouble for removing it, but she seriously doubted that Dex or Slade had intended that she wear it all day.

  Besides, she wouldn’t really mind the spanking she would get. In fact, she might actually like it.

  Hannah Craig liked spankings. Bye bye, good girl.

  But maybe enjoying a good spanking didn’t make her a bad girl. Maybe it just made her honest with herself. She’d spent so much of her life trying to be what everyone around her expected that she’d forgotten to just be her.

  As hard as she might try, Hannah couldn’t see anything really wrong with loving three men.

  They weren’t hurting anyone. Why did there have to be a boundary on love?

  She didn’t bother to close the curtains as she walked into the bedroom suite. Someone had left them wide open, and the big bay windows offered an amazing view of the mountains. Alaska was stunning. It was such a change from the big city and encroaching summer heat of Texas.

  Everything seemed lush and vibrant in air so fresh and crisp that it was a joy to breathe.

  She felt truly alive for the first time in her life. Being in Alaska helped that feeling, but it was more about her men. Was she really going to let that feeling go because she was mad at Gavin?

  Yes, he’d said some ugly things. But the Lord above knew that she’d said some things in the past that she’d regretted. She didn’t think Gavin would hurt her again. And if he did, Dex and Slade would kick him back in line.

  The sun streamed through the windows, and Hannah opened the French doors that led to the patio with a smile. She was only dressed in her robe, but there wasn’t anyone around to see her.

  It was nice to be alone for a minute. If those boys had their way, it wouldn’t last for long.

  She breathed in the slightly chilly air and thought seriously about dropping the robe to feel the breeze on her skin. If she did, the brothers would find her that way, lounging naked on the patio, reveling in her newfound sensuality. Dex would be the first to attack her, and Slade would follow, their hands, lips, and tongues roaming her body feverishly.

  She would look up, and Gavin would be watching, waiting to see if she would let him in.

  Making love with him would be a nice way to let him know she was willing to talk. Well, maybe not to talk, but she was willing t
o try. She couldn’t let her fear rule her. If Gavin walked out again, then she would deal with it. That was a risk every woman took.

  Her hand grasped the tie of her robe. She was just about to let it drop when she heard a voice.

  “Hannah?”

  She looked up—and realized that she wasn’t so safe here after all.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Scott?” Hannah blinked, unable to believe he’d come here and found his way to the patio beside her bedroom. Why would he do that? He’d been desperately trying to see her the day the James Gang had dragged her off to Alaska. She could only think of one reason he’d come now.

  He was her stalker.

  Hannah took a step back, panic flooding her system. She was brutally aware that she was alone. The quiet of the afternoon, once so peaceful, now felt ominous. She glanced over her shoulder, past her bedroom, to the empty hallway. Where was Gavin?

  “I’m so glad I found you.” Scott sighed. “I feel like I walked miles to get to you. But I couldn’t stop. I had to see you. Hannah, I need to talk to you.” Scott’s face was bunched up, some unnamed emotion animating him. He looked young and slightly vulnerable standing there with the early evening light lighting up his pale hair like a halo. But it was all an illusion.

  “If you wanted to talk to me, you should have given me a call.” Of course, it wasn’t as if she and Scott were best friends. A phone call would have been suspicious. If he had, that likely would have tipped her off. Or if she hadn’t grasped his guilt right away, one of her hovering men would have.

  She wished those men were here now. Slade and Dex were back in River Run investigating Preston’s suicide. Or had his death been suicide at all? Hannah nibbled nervously on her bottom lip as all kinds of possibilities rolled over her. Had Scott killed Preston? How far was he willing to go to take her?

  Would Gavin be able to hear her if she screamed?

  “I tried to call. I can’t get cell service.” Scott’s gaze bounced all over, clearly skittish. “I think he’s blocking it. There are several ways to block local signals. He’s way smarter and more devious than I gave him credit for.”