Page 65 of Her Silver Fox Mountain Men

“What are you talking about?” James asks, giving me a rather confused look.

“Igor is afterme. You have no dog in this fight whatsoever. Plus, the girls—”

“Elise, you leave the girls’ safety to me. Trust me, he will not get anywhere near them. But I don’t want you going anywhere, especially not now, not after everything we’ve learned.”

“I don’t understand how can you say that. James, this is the Chicago Bratva we’re talking about. Old-school Russian mob. They don’t take prisoners; they just simply make people disappear. And there is always collateral damage when they come after someone. I don’t want any of you getting hurt, including Janice. Anyone who I am close to is in potential danger. If I leave now, it’ll be better and safer for everyone.”

“Thisis the safest place for you right now,” Oliver says, agreeing with James. “We’re former Army Rangers, remember?”

Not that it had slipped my mind, but I didn’t really consider it either. “Oliver, please. This is hard enough for me as it is. I’m sorry, I just… as soon as I saw those flowers yesterday, I knew it was time to go. I have evidence against Igor. I’ve saved enough money to get ahead of him, and once Mr. Ronald releases my deposit on the cabin, I’ll have him wire it to a post office box near wherever I end up.”

“No,” Roman says. “Absolutely not. You’re staying here so we can talk this through and figure out what’s what. You’re not going anywhere. You’ll be safe here.”

“Roman.”

He gets up and walks over to my chair, his brow still furrowed but his gaze a tad softer. He kneels before me and takes my hands in his. “While I’m furious that you kept so much from us, I can’t exactly blame you either,” he says. “It’s a messed-up situation, and it pisses me off that we didn’t know about any of it sooner. We might’ve been able to avoid him finding you. But it’snot too late to come up with a plan that gets you out of harm’s way without you having to leave Rustic.”

“Why?” I ask. “Why are you willing to go to such extreme lengths for me?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” James blurts out. “All that talk earlier about a relationship… did you think we were just going with the flow and having our fun? Elise, dammit, I’m in love with you, and I’m not letting anybody take you away from me. From us.”

“We all are,” Oliver chimes in.

“Huh?”

“We’rein love with you, Elise,” he says. “I thought you already knew.”

Heat rushes to my face and I’m unsure of how to react. Such words would have sounded much sweeter under different circumstances. “I–I don’t know what to say.”

“Is it mutual? Or are we just three idiot mountain men in love with a woman who doesn’t love us back?” Roman snaps.

“I’m in love with all of you, too,” I quickly reply, meaning every word. “I just wish I could’ve said it under different circumstances, you know?”

James stays by the window as Oliver comes closer. He cups my face in his hands and pulls me into a kiss. “You’re staying here until we come up with a plan,” he says.

“We run an elite private security company, remember?” James adds. “We can—and we will—protect you.”

“Okay, okay,” I concede albeit with a bit of fear and doubt. “I’ll stick around if you think it’s best.”

I attempt to stand but Roman gently pushes me back down. “There’s more.”

“What do you mean?”

“Igor isn’t the only Konstantinov in town,” he says.

“Kara,” I sigh. “I saw her, too.”

“Jesus, Elise. You should have told us,” he says and exhales sharply.

“But I don’t think she saw me. I’m not sure she knows I’m here.”

“But Igor knows,” Oliver frowns. “He has to be the one who sent both bouquets of flowers if for no other reason than to toy with you.”

23

Oliver

Looking at Elise, she doesn’t feel like a stranger and yet in so many ways she is.

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