Page 64 of Recurve Ridge

Robe kept walking into my space until I had two choices: let him run over me or retreat. Choosing life, I backed up in a stumbling quickstep, in no way aided by the amount of caffeine and alcohol mixed in my stomach.

“I’m not a spy. I’m not here to hurt you. I—what do you need from me?” I cried, flinging my arms wide and forgetting I was still clutching my mug. It shot from between numbed fingers and shattered into a thousand pieces beside the bar.

Alan groaned again, swearing beneath his breath.

Robe never stopped walking. He closed the distance between us until his chest brushed mine, leaving us at nose-to-nipple level on my side. The edge of the bar dug into my spine until I arched backward in an attempt not to suffocate against his heavy chest.

“I mean it. I am sorry for listening at the door.” No lie there, after all. Not for the act of listening or what I heard. My apology meant that?—

“Yet, you got caught.” Robe’s large hands rose, one slapping onto the bar top beside my ear, the other cupping the back of my head, cushioning it against the bite of wood behind me.

He lowered his head until his lips almost brushed mine. Warmth draped around us in a heavy, soothing presence. His eyes said he found something humorous about the whole situation, but he didn’t give any other glimpse of that part of him, reserving that peek just for me, a secret between us.

“You asked me what I want, but I don’t know whatyouwant, Mari Merripen.” My name slid off his lips like a weapon, and he savored its edge. “Should I tell you all my secrets, give the lives of every man here into your shaking hands? You have no idea how dangerous you are. So fucking dangerous.”

Someone grunted an objection. Miller, or maybe Jon.

I ignored them all. “I’m not a threat to you.”

Robe’s smile widened, his breath brushing my lips. “If I tell you everything, you can never leave. Whatever you choose, Mari, choose wisely. I can’t let you go if you opt to know us all so… intimately.” His eyes fell shut as though he was contemplating that thought, turning it over inside his active mind.

A mind that I knew never stopped churning.

Robe Huntingdon could call me whatever he liked, but he and the men of Recurve Ridge were lethal, each in their own way. Jon and his passion, Robe and his fire. Alan could be cold and machinelike, while Will’s cheeky grin hid a damaged young man who craved the company of his ilk.

Miller….

I didn’t know what to think about Miller, except perhaps that he had the most heart of all, ruined and broken though it was.

Alan’s words chose that moment to ricochet around my mind in a series of dizzying echoes while I stared at Robe.

“You’re just like us.”

I licked my lips. “But you won’t let me leave. I tried. The answer is always no. Not now. Something else to distract me. Iknowyou’re stopping me from leaving, Robe. A cage is still a cage, even when the bars are made of wood and whiskey.”

As I spoke, his forest-green eyes flicked open. “Miller doesn’t want you here. He believes that letting you go back to where you came from is best. Do you know why he believes that, Mari? Because he knows that without our—withoutmy—protection, you’ll be dead inside a week.” He laughed, a soulless sound. “Hell, you wouldn’t last three days. Your boss”—he spat the words, and I knew he understood every detail of what had happened to me—“would rip you apart. And he. Will. Enjoy. Ruining. You.” His chest heaved as he punctuated each word with a squeeze to the back of my neck. “Is that what you want? A few days of freedom to prove your point, that you can?” His teeth slammed together as he dropped his hand and backed up a step.

“You’re so much more beautiful when you’re ruined.”

A shudder threatened at the base of my spine, but I refused to give my fear the prime real estate it sought. “Thank you for that lovely threat, Robe. It makes a girl feel safe at night.” My cool embraced me for a critical second, doing me proud.

“Mari—”

I shook my head, cutting off his protest. The whiskey buzzed through my system in a swell of numbness. I sent Alan a mental thank-you note for the effort. Planting my feet on the bare wooden planks so I didn’t trip over my own toes or fall to the floor in my tipsy state thanks to the coffee-laced whiskey, I raised my chin in defiance.

“Keep your secrets, Robe.”

No one stopped me as I walked back into the room I’d already managed to escape twice in one day and locked myself in.

16

ROBE

“He’ll warmup to her sometime.” Jon nudged my shoulder with his beefcake of an arm. Hell, the man made me look small.

“He blames her.” I stared into the forest, but the green wall remained still.

From Alan’s and Will’s intel, I had nothing. Gideon’s stronghold remained vacant.

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