Page 14 of Taken By my Brothers' Best Friends

“We left you with enough money to live comfortably for a few lifetimes, Ruth. I refuse to feel bad for helping you retire at the young age of seventy-two.” I groaned. “But I do need you to do something for me.”

“Fine. Send whatever you need to my burner. I’ll do what I can and call you back on an encrypted line. You haven’t been out of the game long enough to remember security measures, have you?”

“Thank you, Ruth.” I hung up and tapped out the message. I hit send and then wired Ruth even more money for the work she’d have to do. The old woman had carried us through returning from war and I never felt like we’d given her enough.

I decided to look in on Vera, just to make sure she was still breathing, before I went up to bed. It had nothing to do with wanting to see her again.

CHAPTER 12

Vera

I fought to stay in my dream despite the sun forcing its way into my mind. I’d been kissing Pedro Pascal and even though he was a wet kisser, I didn’t mind. It was only when he started licking my entire face that I decided I needed to say something. No man that fine shouldn’t know how to kiss. I groaned as I heard someone laughing and struggled as Pedro slowly disappeared. I reached for him and felt something velvety under my hands. Velvety and alive.

Screaming, I sat up, fully expecting to come face to face with a wild animal. Instead, I came face-to-tongue with Bobby. He was definitely on the furniture and he was wiggling happily in another pair of pajamas. I pulled my shirt up and wiped my face off. “I like you, Bobby, but you are no Pedro Pascal.”

“Pedro Pascal, huh? Is that your type?” Lennon pushed himself off the wall where he’d been leaning and watching. “I didn’t want to interrupt your dream. It seemed like a good one.”

I narrowed my eyes and looked around the room I was in. It took a few seconds for me to remember why I wasn’t in my cabin. The room had floor to ceiling windows that overlooked a lake and nothing else. I frowned and rushed to the window, trying to make sense of what I was seeing. “Where are we?”

“You’re in our safe house. Somewhere you won’t be murdered, so it’s pretty cool.” He walked over to stand next to me at the window and pointed at the lake. “That’s Lake Fickle. We’re about six hours from Devil’s Den.”

A sense of rage filled me. I turned to him and grabbed his shirt. “Are you fucking serious? Y’all kidnapped me and took me six hours away from my home? I should call the cops. I should scream until they send a S.W.A.T. team in here! What the hell?”

He glanced down at my hands gripping his shirt and raised his eyebrows. “You trying to fight me, Hellcat?”

I pushed him away and growled. “Don’t call me that. And let me out of here. I’ll hitchhike my way back home if I need to. I have a lot of things I need to do. I need my laptop. I need privacy. I need to not be trapped in a safe house with three men I can’t stand. At least I’m assuming all three of you are here.”

The door behind me opened and Dean walked in. “Hungry? You’ve been asleep for nearly twenty-four hours. That can be normal after experiencing the amount of adrenaline you did, but it’s hell on your system.”

I took off towards the open door without a moment’s pause. I barely got two feet from my starting position when Lennon wrapped his arms around me and picked me up. “Let me go! I’m leaving!”

Reed came into the room with a tray of food in his hands. He took one look at me and shook his head. “Enough.”

It was infuriating that my body listened to his command but it did. I twisted away from Lennon when he put me down and shot him a dirty look before turning back to Reed. My stomach growled loudly and I crossed my arms. “What is that?”

Dean stepped forward and pointed at the tray. “Pancakes, avocado toast with a fried egg, or biscuits and gravy. Orange juice, water, and coffee. Something has to strike your fancy.”

My stomach growled even louder. The bed was between us and I decided going over it would be the fastest way to getting myself food. I crawled over it and stopped in front of Reed, still on the bed and on my knees. My mouth watered as I inhaled the scents coming from the tray. “Leave the tray and go. Come back in half an hour with plans on letting me go.”

His eyes flashed as he moved closer. Again, he did the thing where I thought he was going to say something and then he just didn’t. He put the tray on the bed next to me and then left the room.

“What the hell is his deal?” I picked up the avocado toast and took a giant bite, moaning as soon as it touched my tongue. “Oh, yeah. This is good. Y’all can leave now.”

Dean left but Lennon lingered. He watched me eat and smirked. “I’ll be back in half an hour.”

I devoured the food and downed the orange juice and water, avoiding the coffee. Coffee didn’t go well with my mouth. I talked too much as it was. Not that I thought my talking was an issue. It just seemed like it was an issue for everyone else.

The next time the door opened I was lying back on the bed, rubbing my stomach. “Why did y’all bring me so much food? I ate it all and now I couldn’t escape even if you rolled out a red carpet to the front door.”

“You couldn’t escape no matter what.” Dean stood over me and when I opened one eye to glare at him, he sighed. “Just accept it. You won’t even get out of this room until we can trust you.”

“What do you expect me to do while locked in y’all’s evil lair? Do you think I’m just going to lie here and stare at the ceiling?” I sat up and groaned. “If I hadn’t just eaten what feels like a small cow, I’d kick you in the nose.”

“I expect you to settle down and then join us in the rest of the house. Until we can trust you, though, you’re stuck in the evil lair within these four walls.” He grabbed the tray and left.

Angry and in pain from my overconsumption, I gave into the urge to scream. If I was going to be trapped and miserable, we were all going to be trapped and miserable. “You suck so bad!”

I grabbed my pillow and chucked it at the door. They kidnapped me and they were expecting me to behave for them? They could go to hell. I refused to behave when I wasn’t being pushed around. If they thought I was just going to turn into Maxie and be a good girl, they had another thing coming.

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