Page 21 of The Devil's Pair

Briley stood in the middle of the living room, staring around, completely enraptured. The house was better than she’d dared to imagine, bigger than it had looked in the photos, closer to the mountain range than she’d thought. All the surveys and certificates were in order, and although she’d have to do some painting and refresh the tiling on the backsplash in the kitchen, she could literally walk in tomorrow and live here. The price was well below what she was selling her place in Utah for, so she had some wriggle room for decoration and buying furniture, and she’dstillhave some savings in her bank account for emergencies.

In a word, it was perfect. Totally, utterlyperfect.

“What do you think, babe?” Dux asked her. “Pretty damn good, right?”

“No kidding it’s good,” Drake chimed in. “If you don’t buy it, darlin’, I might just snap it up myself.”

“So!” The property agent came in from making a call in the backyard and twinkled at Briley, her gaze bouncing between the stunning blonde woman with the mint-green eyes and the double vision of sheer male hotness. “What do you think, Ms. Morris?”

Briley turned to her. “I want it, and I meanyesterday. What are the terms for taking it off the market? What kind of deposit?”

“Oh!” The agent’s enthusiasm had been high since the word go, as probably befitted her profession, but now she wasalmost glowing. “Well, normally I’d say ten percent of the house price, but honestly it’s a seller’s market at the moment, so I’d say twenty-five percent is ideal to secure it with the current owners.”

“Twenty-five?” Briley bit her lip, doing calculations in her head. “So just over sixty-thousand?”

“Sixty-two-thousand, five hundred dollars, to be scrupulously correct. Plus some fees, so add another eight thousand on, just to be safe.”

Briley’s face fell. “I don't have that much in cash on hand. I have about a half of that right now, but the funds from the sale of my other house should be at my disposal early next week.”

“I’m very sorry, but I really don't think the house will still be on the market by then. I have six more viewings just today.” The agent smiled. “As you can see, it’s a great house for the price. Not many places like this come in this far under three-hundred-thousand.”

“I can imagine.” Briley sighed, then looked around the bright room with regret, mentally saying goodbye to the lovely vision of herself curled up in front of that amazing wood-burning stove, watching the first winter snow fall through the massive picture window facing the mountains. “OK, well. Thank you so much for your time.”

That was when Dux spoke up:

“We'll cover the other half of the deposit.”

Briley and the agent both almost toppled over – Briley almost fell backwards in shock, and the agent almost swooned in delight.

“What?” Briley exclaimed. “Oh,no. No, no… I can’t ask you to do that…”

“You’re notasking, darlin’,” Drake said. “We’reoffering.”

“But –”

“Annette,” Dux said, and Briley was so unbalanced from the turn this conversation had taken that she almost lookedaround to see who he was talking to, before she remembered that it washer. “Could we have a word with you privately?”

“Ummm, sure,” she said, still completely freaked out that two men that she’d known for less than two weeks were honestly offering to justhand herover thirty-thousand dollars. Then again, if she thought about it, shehadmet these guys after they’d kidnapped her,thenthey helped her bust into a cult compound,thenthey covered up her murder of said cult’s psychopathic leader, so maybe their relationship was on speed in some ways. Maybe in terms of drama years, she’dactuallyknown the twins for the equivalent of a very tumultuous decade.

She followed the two broadest, sexiest backs that she’d ever seen into the kitchen. She perched next to Dux on the island in the middle of the room, and Drake shut the door then crossed his arms and leaned against it. Before either had said a word, Briley spoke up:

“Thank you,” she said. “But I can’t take the money. It’s – it’s too much.”

“You can and you will,” Drake said, staring at her across the room in that unnerving way that made her tingle and ache all over. “This isyourhouse, Briley, and we all know it. You’ve been lit up brighter than the sun ever since you set foot in it. Youbelonghere.”

“But –”

“No ‘buts’,” Dux told her. “It’s done.”

She looked at them, moved her eyes back and forth between their matching expressions, and she almost laughed. Shestillthought it hilarious to see the exact same set, determined look in visual stereo, and with a pang she realized that soon, this sight would just be a memory.

For now, though, she knew enough of these two men to know that their word was their bond and their law, and they weren’t just going to walk away from this. Theywantedthehouse for her, wanted it more than she did, maybe, and she decided to accept it with good grace and gratitude. After all, she’d have her money soon enough, so this was a loan of maybe four or five days, at the most. She could accept that kind of temporary help; God knows, she’d accepted their help so far, and for far more.

“I’ll pay you back,” she said. “As soon as I get the money from the Utah house, I’ll send youthe deposit money that you loaned me right away.”

Dux cocked his dark head at her. “Who said anything about this being aloan, babe?”

Wrong-footed again, she sputtered, wondering if she was actually going to hyperventilate and die, right here in the beautiful, sunny-yellow kitchen with the exhausted backsplash. “Wait,what? No!No, you said that you’dloanme the other half!”

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