Page 69 of Recurve Ridge

Accounts? Who the hell were they stealing from? They weren’t talking about themselves. Robe didn’t look like he had more than two ancient coins to rub together, though his demeanor said otherwise. He talked of a business in New York City, but without any form of contact, how did he run it? Robe didn’t seem the sort to willingly hand over a large business, and I doubted he owned a failing one. My brain whizzed into action in the way Gideon had trained it to when he hired me as his PA two years ago.

“Maybe everything is in a safe somewhere. At the compound in New York.”

“Could be worth a look. Are you up to it?”

“I’ll handle it.” That gruff voice belonged to Miller, though I could no longer see him or Will. It couldn’t be anyone else. None of the others apart from Alan were supposed to leave the house. “I’ll drive into the city if need be.”

“No,” Robe snapped. “No one is going to Petersen’s filthy little playpen.”

“I might be able to—” Alan started.

“I saidno,” Robe roared.

Even if I hadn’t been eavesdropping, I would have heard that one.

A gasp flew from my lips as my disjointed mind tried to place all of them within the room by their voices. Robe to one side opposite Alan, in their usual clash of bartender wisdom and traumatized millionaire, or billionaire, or whatever the hell Robe was. He might have the bearing of a soldier, but his deportment, even in his chosen rustic setting, spoke of excessive wealth.

I froze, though no one seemed to pick up on my audible mistake at Robe’s outburst. Conversation resumed at a lower, placating level while Robe seethed. I took a step back, still waiting for Will’s dulcet tones to soothe Robe’s mini tantrum.

As soon as the thought occurred to me, I knew Will wasn’t in the room anymore.

A warm hand rested on the back of my neck, halting my unconscious retreat. A soft gust of breath brushed my cheek as I stood frozen for a different reason than before.

Run, run, run?—

Or don’t run.

The sly little whisper slipped across my mind like a lover’s caress. Everest’s bollocks, did Iwanthim to catch me?

My heartbeat increased, reassuring me that yes, in fact, I did want Robe to catch me.

The other, less confident part fainted away at the thought of facing him for the same thing a second time.

What if he evicts me from the house for good?

I could go home. Or… I’d lose my place inhishome.

That same breath brushed the curve of my shoulder, drawing me back to the quandary I’d put myself in.Again.The silent man behind me stood still, his body heat emanating against my back. Other than his firm grip, he made no contact, didn’t shove me through the doorway and into Robe’s warpath or announce my presence where I had no right.

He should have ousted me on the spot, proving Miller right yet again.

“Easy, Mari,” the youngest member of Robe’s family breathed against my cheek. Tall he might be, but the others had height on Will. To a woman who stood at five feet and four inches with a ponytail, however, his six feet made him a mountain in his own right.

“Will,” I whispered, biting back a whimper of relief. “I didn’t mean to—” My shitty lie never made it any further.

“Keep listening, Mari,” Will murmured in my ear loud enough for me to hear his request alone while denying it to any of the men in the other room, including Miller with his elephant ears.

“Why are you—” I started to turn toward him but halted when his lips brushed over my cheek, then rested against the corner of my mouth.

Those soft, arched lips moved in a light kiss as he spoke. “Don’t move.”

I couldn’t if I wanted to, and… I didn’t. Want to, that was. His stubbled cheek pressed to mine in a gentle caress, the contact lighting every nerve ending in my body with heat. The air shifted around us as his other hand settled over my stomach, holding me in place. He didn’t pull me away from my tenuous position, instead settling his warmth against my back.

“We share everything, Mari.”

Alan and Robe had said those words to me on more than one occasion. Though I’d listened at the time, I never took much notice of what they meant until this moment.

Alan’s sweet touches. The way Jon looked at me, and now Will. My connection with Robe, a sense of belonging when he didn’t seem averse to the other boys touching me—or him. Miller’s glares, and that hand in my hair…. I recalled Alan’s kiss on Robe’s lips in the bathroom that day. The jealousy in his eyes, I suspected, came from the fact that someone else had touched me first.

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