Page 56 of Trouble

“Well, yeah, if by‘proper city girl’you mean‘definitely not going to dig her own goddamn toilet out of the ground,’thensure.”

“I can come along and dig it for you, if you really prefer,” Louis offered from his crouch in front of the fire. The slight gleam of amusement in his eyes told me he was definitely enjoying myhorror.

“No thanks,” I hissed, snatching paper and shovel out of Liam’s hand. “I’ve gotit.”

The twins’ chuckle followed me out into the darkclearing.

They both shot me amused looks when I came back in a few minutes later, but thankfully didn’t comment on my traumatized expression as I plopped down on the rolled out square of tarp they’d placed on the floor a little ways off from the fireplace. A small pot was resting on an iron ring over the flames, and food-smells from it made my stomach growl. A kettle hung from a hook on the iron ring—probably where our coffee would comefrom.

“How long do you think we’ll have to stayhere?”

Liam shrugged. At least I thought it was Liam—they’d both moved after I left, and I wasn’t close enough to check their hands for scars. “A while. Our brother Blaine will be working on a plan while we hide out here—he’s got a larger network than wedo.”

I wanted to ask what would happen after their brother pulled said plan together, but frankly, I didn’t think I had it in me. Not tonight. Too much had happened in the past twenty-six hours, and I couldn’t stomach anymore. So I propped myself up against the rough stone wall, ate the plate of beans and sausages Louis offered me, and tried not to think about what the futureheld.

It turned out to be much easier than it’d been during the car ride here. The late time of day—or night—the food, and the crackling of firewood all worked to melt the stress from my body until my eyelids grew heavy and my limbs felt likelead.

“Ready for bed?” one of the twins asked, his voice softer than usual. Probably so as not to stir me from my near-comatosestate.

I nodded and he rolled out a sleeping bag on top of the tarp and unzipped it for me. “Climb onin.”

I kicked off my shoes and obeyed with a pleased hum. It didn’t even matter that I was laying on a dirt floor only covered by a tarp—my mind switched off the moment my head touched theground.

29

Aubrey

Icareda lot more about my lack of mattress early the next morning, when I woke up to every muscle in my body aching from the rock-hard surface I’d been sleeping on all night. I was also sweating buckets, thanks to going to bed in my clothes, and when I rolled over with a groan to try and ease some of my discomfort, my elbow hit solidflesh.

That’s when I realized I wasn’t alone in the sleepingbag.

Whichever twin had climbed in beside me after I’d fallen asleep grunted at the impact and then proceeded to roll over and wrap his arms around mymidsection.

“Stop that!” I hissed, just as desperate to escape his body heat as I was dismayed at the uninvited closeness to one of the men who’d tricked me so gruesomely. It was one thing to trust them to keep me safe from their mafia ties—the intimacy of waking up in the same sleeping bag was something else entirely. Especially when I felt something hard begin to grow against mybackside.

“What?” the redhead grumbled as he nuzzled his nose in against my hair, obviously still mostly asleep. A few feet away, on the other end of the tarp, the other twin cracked open a pair of sleepy, silvery eyes at the disturbance. He was, thankfully, in his own sleepingbag.

“Touching me!” I pushed at his arms until he released me and then fought my way out of the confining bedroll. I scampered to my feet, wincing at my sore back’s protests, and placed my hands on my hips as I glared down at both of them. My less than quiet awakening had seemingly pulled them both out of their slumber. They looked like identical, sleep-mussed images ofconfusion.

“Whywere you in my sleeping bag?” I asked the twin whose grasp I’d justescaped.

“We only prepped for two,” he said, hiding a yawn behind his hand. “One of us had to bunk withyou.”

I opened my mouth to lay into him, but nothing came out. All right, so that was a pretty good reason. Not that that made my foul mood much better. I was still hot and sticky and sore all over, and judging from the light shining in through the open doorway, I’d had less than six hours’ sleep after what’d been the most stressful and traumatizing day in my entire life. What I needed was a shower. Andcoffee.

“I need to wash, but I’m afraid to ask about the bathing facilities,” I said, glancing from one twin to the other. They’d both stripped down, it seemed, from what I could see of their bare, tattooedtorsos.

“I’ll come with,” my bed partner sighed. “Sleeping with you was like holding a damn toaster oven all night.” He climbed out of the sleeping bag, and I was somewhat relieved to see his maroon pair of boxer shorts. That is, until I noticed the unmistakable bulge in them. Quickly, I looked away, only to catch his twin’s amused gaze. He’d clearly seen what I’d been lookingat.

With an irritated huff I grabbed my toothbrush and stomped out of the shack, hoping the flush I could already feel spreading across my cheeks would die down before any of them woke up enough to start teasingme.

Maroon boxers came out a few moments laters, still only dressed in his underwear and with a towel over his one arm and what looked to be a bar of soap, some toothpaste, and his own toothbrush in his hand. He stretched, making all those taut muscles in his abdomen and chest roll in the most mesmerizing way. He looked like a big cat waking up after a nap. A disturbingly sexycat.

I looked away before my cheeks could heat upagain.

“Nothing like waking up in nature,” he said with a happy sigh. “Come on, I’ll show you where webathe.”

Clearly someone hadn’t woken up with a soreeverything.

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