CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

MIRA

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“We’ll go home and take care of you.”

I may not have had all the experience in the world, but I definitely knew what that meant, and I wish it wasn’t a dirty soundtrack playing on repeat in my brain right along with the fact that Daniel was about to let his brother lick my pussy.

He was going to let his brother taste me. He’d parted my lips, bared my aching clit in offering to the other man’s tongue, and Christian ... he’d been so close. I could almost feel his warm breath through the single fabric between us and I ... I nearly came. Right there. In the middle of an open parking lot.

I wanted him to run his tongue between his brother’s fingers and over my clit. I wanted him to dip deep between my trembling thighs and taste what they were doing to me.

Every ounce of dignity had gone out the window the second they’d cornered me like wolves. The second Daniel caged me against his chest and fingered my pussy, priming me, getting me ready. Not that he’d needed to. After that kiss with Christian, the finger fucking with Daniel, I’m so on edge a gust of wind could send me over.

But there is no wind in the stuffy store lined with rows of things I don’t understand. I don’t even know why we’re here. We should have gone home. I’m upset by the interruption, by the relentless and cruel thrum between my thighs. I’m annoyed. Actually annoyed.

Irritable.

God, what’s wrong with me?

Then I look over to where they stand, twin pillars of raw, primal, fucking delicious masculinity. Both in dark jeans and darker eyes. They stand studying a box of locks, dark heads bent close. Daniel seems to be explaining something while Christian surveys the shelf for another option. His tatted arms are folded over a top that fits him too well across that gorgeous chest.

My gaze drifts to the hand Daniel had stuffed down my pants not five minutes ago. It’s the same one he’d pumped inside me in the car and made me suck off.

I shift to Christian’s hands. The ones he’d wrapped up in my hair while he’d kissed the fuck out of my mouth.

God, the man could kiss.

I’m pretty sure I could cum from that kiss alone if we hadn’t stopped.

Hot, dripping, seconds away from saying fuck it and fucking them both right here, I leave. I abandon the aisle with the two biggest temptations of my life and wander, needing a distraction. Literally anything to keep from stripping down right there and climbing one or both MacAllister men.

A hardware store has never been high on places I would consider sexy. There’s a lot of metal gadgets and grease, and smells like a garage, but rope? A leather strap thingy that hooks on both ends? Who knew cars had so many kinky things? There’s a whole section dedicated to suspension that makes me think work smarter, not harder if Daniel and Christian were to dangle me between them and...

“Well, look at what we have here.”

My head jerks up and away from the link of chain I’d been eyeing. My gaze snaps over to the three enormous men standing less than ten feet away with similar expressions of lust and disgust warping their already ugly faces.

They did something that required grease. Maybe mechanics? But their hands are black with it, and I can smell its pungent odor from where I stand.

The one in the middle, a burly beast with thick, copper curls halfway down his chest and small, cold eyes glowers at me from under the brim of a tattered cap that promoted a fishing company, or fishing, or something with a fish.

The other two flagging him are younger, equally dirty, but they seem more amused than angry.

“Clammy didn’t mention her being so pretty,” the one on the left drawls, wind whistling through the gap in his front teeth. “Almost a shame we gotta talk to her.”

“Don’t call her that,” the middle one barks, voice as big and gruff as he is. “She doesn’t like it.”

Gap-Tooth rolls his eyes. “Who gives a shit. Bitch is too high and mighty for someone named Clemence .”

Clemence .

That bitch. Did she send these goons to talk to me because I wouldn’t take her shit?

“That’s my wife. You’ll watch what you say about her,” the Viking growls, and I like him a little.

Sure, his choice in women is debatable but him sticking up for her was nice.

“Look, if Clemence has a problem with me, she can be a big girl about it and come talk to me herself. Not send her husband. It’s weak,” I state, folding my arms for good measure.

I am not about to let these assholes intimidate me. His wife started it. I finished it.

Gap-Tooth scoffs. “Clammy didn’t send us.” He only smirks when the Viking shoots him a glower. “Lucy did.”

I stared between the three. “Who the fuck is Lucy?” I ask when no one seems forthcoming.

“Why don’t you come with us, and we can talk about it?” the one on the right offers.

My heart and stomach don’t like any of this. Both are thumping and swirling anxiously as I weigh what the hell they want and how fast I can scream for Daniel and Christian before they grab me.

“I’m not here alone,” I warn them. “I suggest you walk away.”

The one on the right chuckles. He’s most likely the youngest. His attempt at a beard is no more than a few pathetic tufts around a weak jaw, unlike the Viking next to him.

“Oh, we know you’re not, but I don’t see your protectors.”

“They’re close,” I retort without missing a beat. “Leave me alone.”

“She’s feisty.” Gap-Tooth snickers. “I like it when they fight. Makes them taste extra sweet.”

My stomach curdles. I can feel the heave of bile shoot up my chest to fill my mouth. My heart cracks in my chest, a rampant hammering so loud I’m surprised no one else can hear it.

“Stupid of them to leave such a pretty thing all alone where anything can happen to her,” Tufty leers, murky, gray eyes on my chest.

“Maybe she likes it. She’s with both of them anyhow. Probably likes it in all the holes.”

I’m trying my best not to react. I know it’s what they want; they’re trying to scare me, but there’s only so much I can stomach before I throw up on their shoes.

“You stay away from me,” I warn them.

The two howl with laughter like I’d said the funniest thing.

“Why? The MacAllisters owe us.” Gap-Tooth rubs a greasy hand across his thin chest, adding a fresh smear of oil across the gray of his t-shirt. “Maybe if they give us you, we’ll be even.”

“A tight, pretty whore for the brother they killed,” Tufty spits in.

“And the sister they took advantage of,” Gap-Tooth adds.

It was the same thing Clemence had said back at the diner. She’d called Daniel and Christian murdering rapists.

I still don’t believe it, but I’m not going to argue with these idiots about it.

“You’re lying.”

“Sure are not,” Tufty assures with a definite shake of his head. “You should ask them. Ask them about Lucy and Wyatt. Ask them why they weren’t supposed to come back to Jefferson. Why nobody here wants them around.”

I say nothing because I don’t know what to say. I can’t defend the boys when I don’t know what these assholes are talking about.

Daniel would fucking never, and I don’t know Christian very well yet, but Daniel is a lawyer. A criminal lawyer. He’s made it his life’s purpose to put murderers and rapists behind bars. He would never sit idly by and let his brother get away with such a thing.

So, either they’re lying and trying to turn me against the boys, or they’re telling me the truth, but only part of it.

“We’re leaving soon,” I tell them shortly. “Trust me, no one is coming back to your lovely town.”

“I don’t know if that’s good enough,” Gap-Tooth grumbles, scratching his bristly jaw with filthy nails. “Now that we’ve seen you. I think we can make a better exchange.”

“If you touch—”

“Mira!”

I spin to find Christian at the other end of the aisle, a beautiful angel of fury illuminated by the harsh light of sun from the windows behind him. His dark eyes spear through the trio over my shoulder with the heat and hatred of a wolf guarding its den.

“Come here. Now!” he snarls through his teeth.

I do not hesitate. I run to him. His fingers close with barely restrained rage into my upper arm, and I am shoved behind him.

“You stay the fuck away from her,” he warns low in his throat.

“She came to us, Chrissy boy,” Gap-Tooth taunts. “Guess she decided she wanted some real dick to fill her cunt.”

I feel the storm surge off Christian in a wave that burns my skin. It ripples around us with the potency of heat coming off asphalt in a heatwave. I think he’s about to charge at the trio, get himself killed...

“Stay away from her,” he says at long last. All he says.

He turns and captures my hand, and I’m dragged after him away from the assholes.

He doesn’t stop until we find Daniel still in the locks and bolts section. His head comes up when we charge into the aisle. His gaze drifts from me to Christian’s and sharpens at the hard edge tightening his brother’s features.

“What happened?”

“Jameson, Boyd, and Dirk are here.”

Daniel’s head jerks back slightly. His lips thin even as he glances in the direction we’d come from.

“Time to go.”

“Why?” I blurt. “We’re in a store. They won’t—”

“Get Mira to the car,” Daniel cuts me off, ignores me entirely to address his brother.

Christian shakes his head. “Not going to happen. Not leaving you here alone.”

“Now!” Daniel hisses. “Get her in the car and stay with her.” He digs into his pocket and pulls out a fistful of keys. He shoves them into Christian’s chest. “Stay with her.”

“Wait. What’s going on?” I look frantically between the two, but they’re staring hard at each other, communicating in a way I don’t understand. “Come with us. Why are you—?”

“We need new locks,” he retorts, which I can’t wrap my head around.

I reach for him, grab a fistful of his shirt. “Fuck the locks, Daniel. Come with us.”

I don’t know what the hell is going on, but despite their best efforts, they’re scared. I can feel it coursing between them. It’s a sour tang in the air and I’m choking on it.

His answer is a hard, painful kiss that steals what little air I’d managed to collect before he shoves me into Christian.

“Now!” he barks.

With a low growl, Christian has my arm and he’s dragging me away.

“No! Daniel...”

“I’ll come back for him,” Christian promises. “I need to get you to safety first.”

I have to practically run to keep up with his long, powerful strides. The bell above the hardware store clangs loudly with our departure.

I have a million questions, a million fears and uncertainties clinging to my throat, but I swallow them all down; everything can wait until Christian gets Daniel. All my questions can wait. Nothing matters except following Daniel’s instructions so that Christian can go back and get Daniel. Once I got them both back, I will ask everything.

At the truck, Christian pulls me around to the driver’s side and unlatches the door. He pushes me inside and stuffs the keys into my clammy fist.

“Can you drive, sweetheart?”

I nod, my throat too pasty to speak.

“Anyone comes near this truck, you floor it, do you understand? Don’t stop until you’re home back in Toronto.”

Now, I’m shaking my head, vicious and wild. “No, I won’t—”

In a motion I don’t see coming, Christian is up on the footrest. His hand is five cruel fingers clamped around my jaw. My face is wrenched to his and he kisses me with an anger and need that sends electric heat coursing through me.

“Yes, you fucking will,” he snarls against my mouth. “I can’t watch my brother’s back if I’m worried about you.”

With that, the door is slammed between us and he’s sprinting back in the direction of the store.