Page 19 of Handcuffed By the Bounty Hunters

“Not enough room for me on the cot,” he says.

“So you didn’t get cuddles last night.”

“Nope.”

She pulls out of my arms. I don’t want to free her, but no denying her naked ass as she walks to Cameron is a beautiful sight. His mouth falls open in surprise as she drops, fully naked, onto his lap.

“You should get cuddles, too,” she says, resting her head against his chest.

He opens his mouth to say something, then quickly closes it.

Maybe I wouldn’t mind sharing her with him. Again, I have no idea if she would like that or not, and we’re pretty early on in our acquaintance to ask such a thing. We’ve known each other for less than twenty-four hours. We should still be casual, right?

Fuck, I don’t know how to do relationships. I stand up, pull on my shirt, and gather Penny’s clothes.

“Here you go, little girl. It’s time to leave,” I say. “We’ll walk out far enough to where we have reception so we can call Ironwood.”

Penny shakes her head and stubbornly remains in Cameron’s lap. “I don’t want to. They’re going to hurt me.”

“We will never hurt you,” I say. “I wouldn’t allow it. Never.”

“No? But you want to turn me in.”

“We’re not giving you to Oberon,” I say. “We’re taking you to Ironwood. And we don’t hurt people at Ironwood, we help them. It’s the whole reason I wanted to work there.”

“Really?” Cameron says, looking interested. “You never did tell me your origin story. I only know you were in construction before you joined Ironwood.”

“Construction? How did you go from construction to security and bounty hunting?” Penny asks.

I make sure everything I brought is in my duffel. “The only reason I was in construction was to work with my brother. He owned a company. It fell apart, so I left.”

There’s so much more to the story than that, and Penny seems to sense it.

“Roark,” she says softly, “what really happened?”

I don’t want to get into it, or admit my part in how it started, but I also refuse to lie about or sugarcoat what my sister-in-law went through. “We started drinking a lot after work. It didn’t seem like much, but he was also drinking at home. He was drinking way too much, and he started abusing his wife.”

“Oh,” Penny breathes. “That’s awful.”

“Yeah. And I didn’t see it. I’d see the odd bruise here and there, but nothing that raised suspicion. It should have.”

“You couldn’t have known,” Penny says.

“She’s right,” Cameron adds.

My attention snaps to him—I’d forgotten I was talking to both of them. It doesn’t bother me that he’s here, though. For some reason, I like that he’s agreeing with her and adding weight to the reassurance I desperately need.

“Where is he now?” Penny asks. “And how’s your sister-in-law doing?”

“She’s better. She’s living with her brother and his family. And my brother is getting sober in jail. I haven’t forgiven him yet. Don’t know if I’ll be able to.”

Cameron cocks his head. “Did you know Ironwood is setting up a domestic violence division, to help victims and survivors?”

“It’s what drew me to the company,” I say. “Helping people, not hurting them.”

“All of this is real?” Penny asks thoughtfully, looking between the two of us.

“Yes,” we both say.

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