Their Virgin Captive, Page 2

  She set her purse down and looked around for the mail. Nothing. Gavin probably had it. She was going to have to have a discussion with the man about his priorities. A CEO looking at the mail. Hannah sighed. If she let him, he would make the coffee, too. Gavin James was a micromanager. She opened her calendar to get ready for the day ahead.

  “Hannah, I’m sorry.”

  When she looked up, Dex was in front of her desk, six foot five inches of the hottest cowboy she’d ever seen forced into a business suit. Dex had the broadest shoulders and the deepest chest, but what got her every time was how often he showed off his big heart. He tried to hide it, but she knew he’d helped out more than one employee with money troubles or medical bills.

  If she told him what was happening to her, he would move heaven and earth to fix the problem. More than once, the information had been right there on the tip of her tongue, but she held back. Dex had his own troubles, and she could handle hers. She was an independent, strong woman who wasn’t going to panic because some idiot sent her a few letters. And called a couple of times. And had potentially killed her cat.

  She forced a smile on her face. “You didn’t hit me, big guy, so no apologies. Do you want to tell me what’s going on with Gavin that has you feeling violent?” She didn’t want to bring him into her trouble, but she couldn’t stay out of his. Dex and Gavin had a difficult relationship, to say the least. Slade was the bridge between the two, but he wasn’t here, so it was up to her.

  Dex took a long breath and then that “aw shucks” smile was back on his handsome face. “It’s nothing, darlin’. Just a small difference of opinion. Put it out of your mind.” She looked over at the hole in the wall.

  He flushed again. “I’ll have that fixed.”

  The outer doors crashed open, and Slade rushed in. He was one disheveled hunk of male hotness. His dress shirt hung together by one small button at the hips. The rest fell open, exposing his hard pectorals and giving her a breathtaking glimpse of his ridged abdomen. She damn near swallowed her tongue. His inky hair sat slightly askew. And he looked rattled.

  Hannah managed to smile without panting. “You are going to be a big hit in the board meeting.”

  He looked down at his clothes as though it was the first time he’d given it a thought. “I was in a hurry. Hannah, are you all right?”

  “Fine.”

  She picked up the phone, knowing exactly what he needed. This wasn’t her first rodeo, as the folks back in Two Trees liked to say. “Wendy, you have a code blue.” Wendy, Slade’s admin, sighed. “Which part do I need to replace? Tie? Socks? That man is constantly wearing athletic socks with his dress shoes.”

  Hannah looked Slade up and down. He knew the drill, turning in a circle for her inspection.

  “Nope, Wendy. This is a head-to-toe fixer-upper.”

  She hung up the phone just as Slade got a look at her wall. He stared at it a moment before glaring at Dex.

  “Seriously? Please tell me that wasn’t Gavin’s head. Where’s his body? Do I need to call 911?” Slade asked the questions with a sarcastic edge, but Hannah heard his concern.

  Dex simply shook his head. “No trouble at all. I’m going to call maintenance and get them up here to fix this. Then I have a few things to do. I think I’ll skip the meeting.”

  “You can’t skip the board meeting.”

  Dex shrugged as he moved toward the door. “Watch me. I have more important things to do.

  And Hannah, you’re having lunch today with me and Slade.”

  She glanced down at her calendar. “I can’t. I agreed to have lunch with Scott.”

  “Who the hell is Scott?” Slade demanded.

  “He works with the IT teams. He said it was important,” Hannah explained. “I’m sure it has something to do with those installs I’ve been helping to coordinate.” Both men went very still.

  “You’re not meeting Scott anymore. You’re having lunch with us, and we’re going to have a long talk, the three of us.” Dex’s dark eyes held hers for a moment. He was so serious that her heart started racing. When his voice got deep and dark, it made her blood pound.

  “Absolutely.” Slade crossed his arms over his chest.

  “Okay,” she said. She hadn’t sounded that breathy, had she?

  Dex walked out, the doors slamming behind him. Slade shook his head. Even disheveled, he was a gorgeous sight. With thick, dark hair and a face that looked like Michelangelo sculpted it, Slade always made her sigh.

  Gavin opened his door and stepped out. He radiated power. Unlike Slade and Dex, there was nothing less than perfect about his appearance. No suit would ever dare to wrinkle while Gavin James wore it.

  He nodded grimly at her. “Good morning, Hannah. I need to talk to Slade, but I would like you to stay close to your desk this morning.”

  “Of course.” It was an odd request, but one she could handle.

  Slade disappeared into his brother’s office. Gavin closed the door, watching her intently until it shut between them with an ominous thud.

  And then Hannah was alone.

  She reached into her purse and pulled out the number for the private investigator she’d hired two days before. He’d cashed her check but hadn’t returned her calls. Maybe it was time to admit that hiring someone named Vinny who worked out of the back of a tarot reader’s shop hadn’t been the greatest idea. When he didn’t answer, she left another message while e-mailing Scott to cancel lunch. After that, she called the local animal shelters to check if they’d found Mr.

  Snuggles. Her cat had been gone for days, and Hannah was beginning to fear that she was gone forever.

  Her eyes teared up. She was going to have to take action and soon. She felt alone now that her three men were gone. It was a long time until her lunch with Dex and Slade. The office seemed big and empty. She wanted so much to call them back and tell them her trouble.

  But why tell the busy men she loved—who couldn’t possibly love her in return—that someone was trying to kill her?

  Chapter Two

  Slade’s blood pressure rose as he looked down at the photographs in front of him. From listening to Dex and Gavin on the phone, he’d figured out that someone was stalking Hannah, but seeing the sick evidence in front of him was staggering.

  Gavin walked around his desk and sank into the huge wingback chair their father had sat in for forty years. Slade would have burned the big reminder of the son of a bitch, but Gavin had kept it, even after he’d completely redecorated the office.

  “They were addressed directly to Hannah,” Gavin said, his voice clipped. “No return address.

  No postage.”

  “So this asshole brought the envelope into the building? It has to be an employee. No one can get past reception without a keycard.”

  Gavin went pale. Then he flushed with fury. “Goddamn it.”

  “Have you looked through the security tapes?” Slade picked up a photo of Hannah lying on her stomach across her bed, a book in her hand. He couldn’t make out the cover, but he’d bet it was a romance. She always had one in her bag. And every copy was battered and dog-eared as though it had been through many a hand before hers. For her birthday, he and Dex had bought her a new eBook reader and loaded it with credit. The look of delight in her eyes had done strange things to his heart.

  Now, someone was watching her. Stalking her. And from the messages on the back of several photos, the creep knew how he and Dex felt about her. And, Slade suspected, Gavin too.

  This threat seemed so surreal, but the proof was staring him in the face. Someone wanted to hurt Hannah.

  Gavin frowned. “I don’t have cameras outside my office doors. Maybe I should have listened to Dex about that. I’m sure he’s is in the mailroom now, interrogating the employees.” He sighed. “I think I should call in an outside firm.”

  “What happened between you two? He put his fist through a wall.” Slade’s stomach was turning at the idea of some asshole harassing Hannah, but he had to deal with
his brothers’

  problems, too. Gavin would only be talking about calling in an outside security firm if things had gone terribly wrong between them.

  “It’s complicated.” Gavin looked down, a sure sign that he was ashamed of something.

  “How about I uncomplicate it for you? You took one look at these photographs and blamed Dex. Because he wants her badly, you leapt to the stupid conclusion that he was desperate or impulsive enough to become a peeping Tom. And his only choice was to call bullshit and walk out. Simple enough?”

  Gavin’s gun metal gray eyes flashed back up, but there was a weariness to them that had Slade backing off. “Almost spot on. I thought Dex was using the photos to tempt me into joining the two of you in seducing Hannah. I know you want that, Slade. I can’t do it. I just can’t. Dex took offense to my mistake, and now he says he’s quitting as soon as she’s out of danger.”

  “And Dex leaving is all right with you?” Slade wasn’t sure he wanted the answer to that question, but he had to ask.

  Gavin clenched his fists. “No, it’s not. Damn it, Slade, he’s my brother, too. I have no intention of letting him walk out because of a misunderstanding.”

  “I was listening in, Gavin. Dex didn’t misunderstand. You flat out blamed him.” Gavin sat back, raking his hand through his thick, chocolate-brown hair. “Okay, I’ll rephrase.

  I have no intention of losing my brother because I was an asshole. Nor do I intend to allow someone to stalk my admin.”

  Slade bit back a smile. Despite the horrors of the morning, he sensed a little progress. Gavin had admitted that he didn’t want to lose Dex. He was still calling Hannah his admin, but that would change, if Slade had his way. “Have you talked to Hannah yet?” Slade wasn’t looking forward to the conversation. Hannah was going to be terrified when she found out about these pictures. He stacked them, pulling out the least salacious one. They would have to show her so she grasped how serious this was, but he didn’t want to embarrass her.

  “Not yet. I wanted to talk to you first. We’ll do our due diligence and call the police to report the threat, but there’s not much they can do unless this bastard has actually committed a crime.

  They’ll tell her to lock her doors and buy a dog.”

  Slade shook his head. “She’s a cat person. I’m sure Mr. Snuggles will be hell on intruders.

  She’ll purr them to death.”

  Gavin frowned. “Mr. Snuggles is a she?”

  “Hannah was fifteen when she got her,” Slade couldn’t help but smile. “Apparently, she didn’t think to look for boy or girl parts. The name stuck.” Gavin threw his head back and laughed. The rich, deep sound filled the room and made Slade realize just how much he’d missed his older brother’s laughter. It had been so damn long since he’d heard it.

  Gavin had tears of mirth in his eyes when he came up for air. “She has a transvestite cat.”

  “She says Mr. Snuggles is just gender confused.” Hannah loved that damn cat. Slade knew he was going to have to learn to love the little furball, too.

  “Such a silly, sweet girl,” Gavin said, his gaze straying to the photos.

  There it was, that smile—with a healthy hint of lust—that told Slade everything he needed to know.

  “We have to protect her,” Slade pointed out.

  “I have a plan, and I hope you’ll back me on it. It should keep Hannah safe and bring Dex back into the fold.”

  There was nothing Slade wanted more than that. “I’m listening.” Gavin hesitated. “You heard Dex say that he would take Hannah with him when he left, Slade. I know how you feel about her. Maybe you need to talk to him. I don’t want Hannah coming between the two of you.”

  And just like that, Slade’s cock got hard. An image of Hannah between him and Dex assaulted his brain. She would be so small sandwiched by their bigger bodies. They would have to be careful, but they would get inside her, so deep that she wouldn’t know where they ended and she began.

  “Oh, she’s going to be between us.”

  Gavin flushed slightly. “That’s not fair to Hannah. She’s not some club bunny for the two of you to fuck and forget.”

  Slade wasn’t going to take this crap from his brother. He would never play games with Hannah. He’d known from the moment he’d seen her that she was different. “Dex and I love Hannah. We’re not going to forget her; we’re going to build a life with her. This isn’t some one-night stand.”

  “Are you both insane? No one will accept that kind of relationship here.”

  “I’m not going to live my life by some societal dictate. And they will accept us. I have a billion-dollar trust fund. Let them talk all they like, but money opens doors. What would be unacceptable for a normal person is merely a quirk for the superrich.” It was a harsh reality.

  Slade and Dex had talked this out, hashing out plans over months to get what they wanted and protect Hannah from nasty gossip at the same time. Now if Gavin would just get with the program, their lives could begin.

  “That’s an argument for another time,” Gavin conceded. “Now, we have to figure out what to do with Hannah. I was thinking that, perhaps, she needs a small vacation.” Slade frowned. “There is no fucking way I’m letting her run off by herself.”

  “Of course not. But maybe Alaska would be a good place for her now. You did say you have to go see to some trouble there. River Run is isolated, and we own the whole damn town. All three of us can take Hannah and hide out while the security team figures this out.” It took all Slade had not to fist pump in victory. “Perfect. When do we leave?” Gavin sat back in his chair. “Today. But I want to be clear. I’m only going to work things out with Dex. I’ll help with Hannah, if the need arises. But that’s it.” Slade wasn’t fooled. His older brother could lie to himself, but Slade knew the truth. Gavin could more easily monitor the situation from Dallas. Since Slade had always been the go-between for Gavin and Dex, it seemed obvious that Gavin was coming along because he wanted to repair the relationship with Dex…and because he couldn’t stand to let his two younger brothers have Hannah all to themselves.

  Slade contained his excitement—barely. “Understood. I’ll make the arrangements. Then we can talk to Hannah.”

  Gavin nodded as though happy with the decision. “Excellent. We’ll have to convince her to go, you know.”

  Slade would have to convince her of more than just an impromptu trip to Alaska. He was going to have to persuade her—and everyone else—that this ménage relationship could work. To do that, he had to restore peace between Dex and Gavin. Then he had to talk Gavin into sharing Hannah with them. Hell, he also had to convince Hannah that taking on three passionate, dominant men would be a dandy idea.

  “No problem, Gavin.” Slade sounded way more confident than he felt.

  But as he walked out of Gavin’s office to start planning, he vowed to make it work.

  * * * *

  Dex parked his Harley about a block away from Hannah’s apartment and started walking.

  His cell trilled, and he pulled it out of his pocket. Slade. Probably wanting to talk about Gavin.

  Dex growled. He thought about ignoring it, but did what he always did when it came to Slade.

  He gave in.

  But that didn’t mean Dex had to be nice about it.

  “What?”

  “Well, I suppose I should be happy you’re using words and not just grunting.” Dex had no comeback for that. Grunting was a perfectly acceptable form of communication in his book. It got the job done. So did growling, snorting, and just flat planting his fist in another guy’s face. When he found whoever was stalking Hannah, he didn’t intend to give the fucker a nice long lecture.

  Slade’s sigh came across loud and clear. “Damn it, Dex. Where are you? You have to set aside this crap with Gavin and get your ass back to the office. Hannah’s in trouble.”

  “I know that,” Dex practically yelled into the phone. “I’m going to her place. I want to see if I can figure out where t
he jerk has been hiding when he does his stalkarazzi thing.”

  “Maybe that will give us some clues about his identity. That’s a great idea.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s what I do for a living.”

  When would his older brothers finally understand that he was damn good at his job?

  Dex looked up and down the cracked sidewalks of Hannah’s neighborhood. It was old, with a ton of mature trees, but he’d never liked her living here. Hannah’s apartment was in a rundown fourplex. The paint was peeling, and one of her screens was propped against the side of the building. He’d bet it was the one to her bedroom window, and that fucker had taken it off. Had Hannah not noticed? The nearby tree would be a great place for this scumbag to hide and snap pictures. But what the hell was Hannah doing lying around her bedroom with the shades wide open?

  “Look, you do your thing, but be back at the office by one. We’re going to take Hannah to Alaska with us.”

  Dex stopped. “We are? Hannah wants to go to Alaska?”

  “Not exactly,” Slade admitted. “We’re going to talk her into it. We’ll say it’s a business trip.

  But we can keep her safe there until the police figure this shit out and nail this guy. I really do have to go up there. I’m the head engineer. I’ll convince her that she needs to take notes or something.”

  Dex knew he should stay here. He should be the one running the investigation. Damn, it meant Slade would probably sleep with Hannah. There was no way his brother would have such close access to Hannah and not claim her now that they’d decided she was theirs. But he trusted Slade. “Take care of our girl. You explain that I love her, too, but I need to find the bastard who’s stalking her.”

  Hannah’s safety was more important than his dick, though his dick was protesting mightily.

  Dex walked up the stairs to Hannah’s apartment. They wobbled under him. Ratty old place. It reminded him of his last foster home. The house had been falling down around them, but his foster father spent every dime on beer, cigarettes, and the lotto.