Chapter 3

3

Penny

T he cabin looks like it hasn't been inhabited for a few years at least. There is a door. When I try it, it swings right open.

Someone has ransacked the place, maybe looking for food or something, I don't know. I step inside, grateful to get out of the rain. I close the door behind me. The lock is completely broken, so I find a big dresser across the room and painstakingly inch it over to block the door.

A cot sits in the corner of the room, and a work table. There's trash all over the floor, collected in little heaps. I shove it to the side with my feet and wonder where I'm going to sleep.

I'm not lying down on that cot, no way. There could be rats living in those blankets.

Instead, I take off my hoodie, which is basically soaked through at this point, and my long-sleeved shirt. My shoes and socks are next. I have an extra tank top in my backpack, and although the pack isn't waterproof, the tank is only a little bit damp. I pull it on and wonder if I should take off my jeans. They're damp, but I'm too cold to remove them.

"This is the worst night of your life, Penny," I say aloud. "And if it doesn't get worse than this, you're fucking lucky, so suck it up and try to sleep."

With that little pep talk, I lean against the dresser and close my eyes.

I don't think I fell asleep—I'm in that in-between stage. But asleep or not, something disturbs me—a weight pushing against the door, causing the dresser to press hard into my back.

Fuck. Someone's outside. And they're trying to get in.

Cameron

We got a lead that our girl is in Grasshopper, a tiny mountain town a few hours away from San Esteban, so now here we are. Me and Stick-Up-His-Ass.

The thing is, I know he can let loose. I've seen him at Low Vice. He usually double-teams a woman with another guy—never the same people, so I don't think he's in any sort of committed relationship. They don't usually leave the curtains open, but one time they did.

So I watched, of course, curious motherfucker that I am. He went about the scene with a level of seriousness that surprised me. The woman was bratty and caused Roark and the other guy all sorts of mischief, but Roark handled her with skill, punishing her, not allowing her to drive the scene but bringing it to a place where everyone would be happy. I found myself jealous. I'm dominant, too. And dominating a brat with someone like Roark would be hot.

Unfortunately he seems to barely tolerate working with me. I doubt he'd be open to finding a woman and fucking her together.

I don't know who died and made Roark Willis the Supreme Emperor of No Fucking Fun Ever, but he seems to take the title seriously. As we travel up Grasshopper's one big street, I put on music because a little punk rock never hurt anyone, and it's the only playlist I have downloaded to my phone. Streaming, maps, everything else no longer works. We're too far out in the middle of nowhere. People living around here must use a different service.

"Shut that shit off," Roark says. "We have to be able to listen."

"To fucking what? The sound of souls dying from overexposure to small-town life?"

"Cameron, I swear to god, if you don't—hey, is that the convenience store that called her in?"

"Yeah." I peer past our rain-spattered windshield to the tiny store in question. Oberon apparently posted a picture of Penny online, offering a hefty reward for information in a post that quickly went viral. The tactic doesn't sit well with me, to be perfectly honest. But I guess all's fair in love and corporate espionage.

Roark starts to drive toward the store, which is about a mile away, but I say, "Hold up. Something's weird with this car."

"Our car?"

"No." I point to one parked haphazardly on the side of the road. "The door isn't even closed all the way."

"Maybe someone abandoned it."

"Recently. Maybe our girl seduced someone, dragged him out to the woods to knock him out so she could come back for the car."

"Are you fucking serious?" Roark scowls. "And what's with calling her our girl ? She's a bounty, a target. Not our girl."

I shrug. "Either way, let's check this out."

He looks like he wants to argue, but Ironwood hammers it into our heads that we should pay attention to our instincts, and my instincts are shouting at me to look at this car.

"Fine," he says, pulling up behind the old sedan.

We climb out of our SUV. Rain immediately soaks through my t-shirt. Roark reaches into our back seat and pulls out a rain jacket.

"You're prepared for anything, aren't you?" I ask.

With a shrug, he says, "Just about."

We walk up to the sedan. Roark sets a hand on the hood, then quickly pulls away. "Engine's warm."

"Right? So then where's the owner?"

There aren't any houses around, just an animal supply store across the road that looks like it closed in the mid-eighties.

Penetrating the sound of rain falling all around us, comes a loud and sharp noise.

A woman's scream.

Roark

For all I complain about Cameron French, he is fast to act. We take off at the same time, running toward the sound of the scream. The woman screams again, shouting, "No! No, fuck you! No!"

The sound of her panic spurs me on. Faster. She's in trouble, and no fucking way am I going to let a woman get hurt on my watch. Not after seeing what my lowlife brother did to his wife.

We race through the forest, following her panicked screams, and reach a rundown cabin. A large man has a woman in his arms. He's trying to carry her out the door, but she keeps gripping the frame, fighting with all she's worth.

"Fuck, that's her," Cameron mutters.

Her?

Seeing my puzzled look, he says, "Our girl," before jumping toward the man and woman.

It is her. Penny Govier. And this monster is trying to haul her away.

Cameron shouts over Penny's screams. "Let her go, man."

"Nah," the guy says, shaking his head of shoulder-length white-blond hair. "We can share if you want. I get first dibs, though, because I found her."

"Please," Penny says. "Please, I have money. I'll pay you to let me go."

"Not interested in your money, sweetheart?—"

While he was talking, I was getting in close. My fist connects with his jaw. His head snaps back and he flies to the ground. Cameron had the presence of mind to grab Penny's arm so she doesn't fall with him.

The guy stands up, looking like he's ready for a fight, but Cameron shakes his head.

"You don't want to mess with him," Cameron says. "He's a very grouchy guy and he kicks my ass regularly in training."

Blondie sizes me up and seems to decide that Cameron isn't lying. He spits on the ground at Penny's feet. "Yeah, whatever. This skank ain't worth it, anyway."

Penny lurches forward, like she's going to haul off and punch him, but Cameron holds her back.

"Get out of here or I'll help her kick your ass," I say.

At that moment, the heavens open up and a deluge of rain pours from the sky. I'd thought it was raining before, but it's nothing on this.

The guy slinks off, swearing under his breath.

Penny's wearing jeans and a tank top, with the top so wet that it's plastered to her tits. She has to be freezing.

"Do you have a coat?" I ask her. "Where's your stuff?"

"In-in-inside," she says through chattering teeth.

Perfect. We have to retrieve Oberon's files that she stole. If we're lucky, they'll be with her other things.

I step into the dark cabin and immediately find a damp sweatshirt and long-sleeved tee, as well as a small backpack. Gathering them up, I go back outside only to find Cameron fucking snuggling our little thief. He has his arms around her and she's leaning into him like he's her new best friend. Or lover.

"What the fuck are you doing?" I ask.

"Body heat," Cameron explains. "She's shivering."

"Did you at least cuff her?"

"Cuff me?" Penny's expression of relief at being saved transforms to panic. "Cuff me, why?"

"We've been sent to collect you," Cameron says.

"No, no ." She elbows Cameron hard in the gut and starts to run.

I drop her things and chase after her. It doesn't take me more than five strides before she's captured in my arms.

Even though she's fighting against my hold, I can't help but notice how soft she feels, how good she smells.

"Clive sent you, and I can't go back to him," she says. "He'll kill me."

That seems a bit extreme. She's going to face the criminal justice system and probably some hefty fines. Likely, she's trying to manipulate me, gain some sympathy so we let down our guard and she escapes.

Not gonna happen.

I pull a set of handcuffs from my jacket pocket and slip them onto her delicate wrists.

"Don't struggle," I say. "I don't want to hurt you."

Her eyes fill with tears, but she blinks them away. My fucking heart. I don't like this. I don't like the look of betrayal in her deep brown eyes. More gentle than I'd usually be with someone we're handcuffing and carting away, I grip her elbow and walk her back to Cameron.

He picks up her things. Her sweatshirt is now soaking wet and covered in mud, so I shrug out of my rain jacket and drape the garment over Penny's shoulders.

"Please," Penny whispers. "Don't take me back to Clive. Take me anywhere but to him, I swear I'll be good, I'll behave."

My cock twitches in interest. I love hearing "I'll be good, I'll behave" from a woman, but this is the wrong context, so I will myself to tamp down the flickers of heat in my groin.

"How about the police station?" Cameron asks.

She pales. "They might be taking bribes from him."

"Look, we'll bring you back to our office, and from there we'll figure out what to do with you," Cameron says, sounding kind and understanding.

Penny doesn't seem to have an argument for that.

We trek through the woods, and it's raining so hard that the trees offer barely any cover at all. My shirt's completely soaked through by the time we get to the car.

Cameron takes one look at the SUV and curses under his breath.

"What?" I ask, angling closer.

"The tires. Fucker slashed the tires."

Sure enough, the sedan is gone, and our tires are completely ripped apart—all four of them.

"Jaxon's going to be pissed," I say. "These were new tires."

"Well, now what?" Cameron asks.

"Is there a motel here?"

He pulls his phone from his pocket and taps at the screen, holding it at an angle to see it past the rain. "Still no signal."

"Fuck," I say, grabbing Cameron's duffel from the trunk and tossing it to him before grabbing my own. "I guess we're sleeping in that cabin."