“You don’t own me, Dex. I already quit, so you can’t stop me from leaving.”
“Watch me, darlin’.” His arrogance came off him in waves.
“I have to agree with him.” Slade sent her an apologetic but implacable glance.
“And when I call the police?”
Slade smiled and proved he could be just as difficult as his brother. “There are no cops in River Run. There’s a sheriff, but good luck getting him away from his fishing pole. This whole damn town is owned and operated by Black Oak Oil. No one here will help you leave us.” He was dead serious, and Hannah had to shove down her panic. “I will not be held captive.” Slade scrubbed a hand across his hair, frustration evident in the tense set of his shoulders.
“Hannah…”
“If I’m not a captive, then give me back my phone.”
A long sigh fell from Slade’s mouth. “Whoever is out there knows your habits. He knows your friends. Promise me you won’t call any of them.”
She was done bargaining with them since all the compromises were heavily in their favor. “I won’t promise you anything, Slade. I want my phone, and I want to go home.”
“Can’t you see how dangerous that would be?” Slade asked.
Was it really any more dangerous than staying with them? They’d probably use her for fun and games, tie her heart to theirs, then cut her loose when the fun ended. All their talk of marriage and forever was bunk, and she’d let herself believe it on the plane because she’d wanted to so badly.
“I understand that it’s a risk. The only concession you’ll get from me is that I’m not going back to Dallas. I’m going straight to Two Trees to see my grandmother. I seriously doubt that anyone would follow me. Once I’m gone, this guy, whoever he is, will give up.” She had to believe it. Really, why would anyone follow her?
“And if he doesn’t?”
She smiled, though she was aware the gesture didn’t reach her eyes. “Well, then I’ll know who he is. The first person from Dallas who sets foot in Two Trees will realize that I’ve purchased another gun. And I’ll be ready to shoot.”
“Hannah, tell me what went wrong. I get that you’re upset about the phone. I really do think that a complete communications blackout is necessary until we catch this man.” Slade sounded so reasonable she almost found herself agreeing with him.
“Maybe explaining that to me like I had a brain in my head would have worked.” She could be reasonable. Or, she would have been, had they given her the chance.
Slade took her hand in his. She found herself turning her face up to him. He was so beautiful, with high cheekbones, a strong chin, and thick, dark lashes that framed blue eyes able to go from kind to hot in an instant. She wanted to run her hands through his inky hair and wrap herself around him. She wanted, in that moment, to be everything he desired—soft, submissive, cared for. She could just push the whole problem off in their laps and worry about nothing more than what she would have for breakfast the next day.
But she couldn’t give up everything she’d worked so hard for just for momentary comfort.
As a girl in Two Trees, missing her absent mother and watching her sister self-destruct, she’d known then that a girl had to be able to take care of herself. If she let Dex and Slade have their way now and gave over her independence, they would grow bored with a clinging vine, even though they thought that was what they wanted. She couldn’t build anything with them if they didn’t respect her.
She took a step back and pulled her hand from Slade’s. His face fell.
“Hannah, please. Can’t we talk about this?”
She shook her head. “We could have talked earlier in the day. I would have listened. But now that I understand exactly what you want, I can’t be that woman.” Dex’s face had gone shock white. “What are you saying?”
“Aren’t you listening? I’m saying I want to go home and I don’t want either of you to call me. I don’t want to see you again.” She hated the words. She might regret them, but she would regret it more if she stayed and they walked away when the sex wore off.
Dex’s face was a stony mask. “Message received. You’re still staying here for a day or two so we can hunt down your stalker. If you want to call the cops after that, I’ll take whatever they want to give me. I promise I won’t touch you again. If we can’t figure this out in a day or two, I’ll let you go home, but you’ll have bodyguards until this man is caught.” Hannah didn’t like the tense set of his jaw. She wanted to soothe him, but forced herself to stand strong. “I don’t like it, but I see the wisdom of your plan. No more than two days. After that, I’m leaving.”
Slade’s face was bunched in a sad sort of confusion. “Is this because I took your phone?”
“Not entirely. Let’s call it a pattern of behavior.”
“I didn’t mean to scare you,” Slade said. “Look, if you’re regretting the spanking thing, we don’t have to do it anymore.”
“Stop.” Dex put a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “She’s done. She doesn’t want us. We can’t force her, as much as we’d like to. It’s against the rules. We never gave her a safe word, but if we had, she would have spit it out by now. It’s not your fault. It’s mine. I come on too strong.
Gavin’s right. I’m a fuck-up. Now let’s go and give her some privacy. I’ll start running those reports.”
Dex turned back to her, his face so polite it tore at her heart. “Hannah, I swear we’ll catch this bastard. We won’t let him hurt you.”
Slade’s stare burned into her. “That’s a promise. In the meantime, if you need anything, we’re just down the hall. And here’s your phone. Please, I’m begging you, don’t call anyone.” He slipped the phone into her hand. She clutched it, her stomach in turmoil. They were leaving. That was what she wanted, demanded even. But she couldn’t stand the defeat on their faces. Or the way Dex almost looked through her.
“You’re not a fuck-up,” she said gently.
Dex shrugged as if it didn’t matter. “I am, darlin’. Your rejection isn’t a big surprise. I guess, deep down, I knew you could never really want me.”
Her heart hurt for him. She knew his background. Not a lot had worked out for Dex Townsend. “If you had talked to me, maybe we could have worked it out.”
“I’d only make the same choices again. I’m like a dumb old dog. I’m never going to learn a new trick. I see you in danger, and I’ll do whatever it takes to protect and shelter you.”
“Hannah,” Slade jumped in. “We really were trying to protect you, not take away your independence. I can see why you’d be upset, but this wasn’t some ploy to trick or deceive or use you. We were trying to wrap you up so tight that nothing and no one could ever hurt you. We only wanted a chance to keep you, make you happy.”
“I don’t understand this. One day we’re friends, and the next you’re all over me?”
“We overwhelmed you, I see that now,” Slade said. “The idea of a relationship with two dominant men would be daunting for most women.”
“Relationship? You didn’t even ask me on a date. You just went straight for the panties. No preliminaries.”
The righteous scowl on Dex’s face made her take a step back. “No dates? No preliminaries?
You think that I just woke up this morning and decided I wanted you and took you?” It had sure seemed that way, but his tone suggested something much different. “Didn’t you?”
“So all the lunches and dinners don’t count?”
He and Slade had taken her out at least once a week for almost six months. “Those were about business.”
“They were excuses, Hannah,” Slade said with a sigh. “You’re not our admin. You’re Gavin’s. When we decided we wanted you, Dex and I decided to go slow, ease you into this. It’s not exactly a traditional relationship.”
It wasn’t, but she’d been crazy about the entire James Gang from the moment she’d met them. Something had fallen into place the first time she’d been in a room with all three.
“Aren’t we fucking smooth?” Dex said, bitterness dripping. “She didn’t even realize we were interested.”
Only because she was brutally inexperienced. Hannah hadn’t dated much in high school.
She’d gone to the local college, but by then her grandmother was ill. She’d never had much time to herself, even since coming to Dallas. She was usually busy with work. Now she thought back over the last year and could see some signs she shouldn’t have missed.
“You remembered my birthday.”
“Of course we did,” Slade replied. “We planned it for weeks. We’ve already started planning next year’s, though I will admit it was going to be better than a little cake and a couple of presents.”
They’d given her the eBook reader she’d been coveting, and she loved it. Maybe they’d paid more attention to her as a person than she’d thought. “I liked my party.” They had thrown it for her at one of Hannah’s favorite diners. It wasn’t really their speed.
When she’d gone after work for a down south, home-cooked meal, they’d been waiting for her.
If they’d had nothing but seduction on their minds, it would have been more advantageous for Slade and Dex to take her some place quiet and upscale, get her alone and tipsy, then whisk her back to their lair. Instead, they had invited her friends, sipped iced tea with her, and smiled all evening. When they’d walked her to her door, neither had asked for a “nightcap.” Instead, they’d hugged her, kissed her forehead, watched her walk into her apartment, and left.
“I’m glad you liked it, Hannah.” Slade sent her a sad smile.
She bit her lip. “I don’t understand what you see in me. Or maybe I’m afraid I do, and I don’t like it.”
“What do you think we see in you?” Dex asked.
“A quiet submissive? Do you like me because I do what I’m told?” Dex almost choked, and Slade slapped a hand over his face, howling.
“You don’t do what you’re told, Hannah. Didn’t I ask you a couple of days ago to stock my office with Cokes?” Dex asked.
Hannah winced. He had. “Yes.”
“And what did I get?”
“Green tea is very healthy.” She’d expected him to complain more, but when she’d smiled at him, he’d just said thank you.
“It’s disgusting,” Dex replied.
“And he drank every single one,” Slade countered. “How about the time you took the keys to Dex’s motorcycle and my car after we had a beer at the office happy hour?”
“Yep.” Dex nodded. “I still have that written down in a note for future punishment.” Fine. So she wasn’t always obedient. “I gave them back when I knew you’d be sober. And I only did those things because I was trying to protect you.”
The second the words were out, she wanted to take them back.
Slade sent her a sly glare. “Doesn’t that sound an awful lot like the reason I took your phone, Hannah?”
“It’s not the same,” she argued.
“Why not?” he shot back. “You said that you were trying to protect us. Well, we tried to protect you.”
“I did it because I didn’t want you to get hurt.”
Slade crossed his bulging arms over his big chest. “Still not seeing how it’s different.” Were they both dumb? “I wasn’t just looking out for my sex toy.”
“Baby, we’re not either. I could have one of those in the next five minutes if I just wanted to get laid. Dex, too. We’re in it for way more than sex. If you haven’t figured that out yet, tell me how we can prove it to you.”
“Once you kidnapped me, forced me to come to Alaska with you, and lied to me, you made that impossible.”
They stared at her. She could feel displeasure coming off them in waves. This was how a relationship with them would work. Everything would be a fight. They would always want to control and protect her.
Hannah could handle them. She wasn’t really afraid of being steamrolled, but of herself and how much she wanted them. How much of herself she’d be willing to surrender in order to keep them.
“I refuse to believe that,” Slade insisted. “So we screwed up. You’ve already stopped caring for us?”
No. Never.
“You have to understand that I’m not fragile.” It was a bit of a revelation. She’d always thought of herself as quiet. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t strong.
“If you think we don’t know that, you’re wrong.” Slade smiled again, as though he knew she was coming around.
