Page 39 of Bad Ruck

I leaned into him and thought carefully. "Not that I can think of, specifically. She invited me to her place a couple of times, buteither I had to work, or had to study. Or I was having dinner with Isaac, Mum and Dad."

Storm growled. "She might have done something to you if you'd gone."

The thought made my blood run cold. "I guess it's possible. She wouldn't have gotten very far with me."

"Absolutely not," my brother agreed. "No one kidnaps my sister and gets away with it. Unless she consents." He gave me a sly smile.

Dallas let out a ragged breath, clearly remembering when he, Storm and Frost bundled me into the back of the car and took me to Frost's cabin. I didn't need to look, to know he was hard now. His expression was already strained.

"If India tried to have Chelsea taken, we might have found out what she was up to sooner," Ice said with a rare hint of regret. "We would have got to her before anything happened and figured it all out."

"You seem very sure about that," Storm said. "That you'd get to Chelsea before anyone laid a hand on her."

"If they tried, Chelsea would have given them hell," Ice told him. "She looks sweet, but she has a mean right hook. Between growing up with me and studying at Brutham Academy, she's learned how to take care of herself."

"Not to mention working at Flirts," I said. "You had to know how to handle people, or they'd take advantage."

I tried to look confident, but he seemed to have more faith in me than I had in myself. If I was held at gunpoint, or drugged, I'd be hard pressed to fight back. If they roofied me like Frost did, I couldn't stop them from raping me. The idea was terrifying.

"You definitely know how to handle people," Dallas said softly. He lightly pressed his head to mine, inhaling my scent and burying his face in my hair. "You know how to handle me."

"You're easy to handle, because you'd never do anything to hurt me," I whispered. "Except in the way I like to be hurt."

"You've done a good job handling Atlas too," Storm said. "He's almost not a complete asshole anymore."

"He'd say the same about you," Ramsey said. He'd sat quietly, listening to the conversation and looking thoughtful, if pissed off at the suggestion India might have tried to have me trafficked.

"Probably," Storm agreed. "He'd be wrong though. I'm still an asshole. And I'm okay with that. Someone has to be, to keep the rest of you in line. For Chelsea's sake."

"You like being in control," Ramsey observed. "Chelsea's sake or not."

Storm shrugged. "Maybe I do. You know what I'm not going to do? Apologise for it. It's who I am, and I'm not going to change for anyone."

"We wouldn't ask you to." I leaned over and put a hand on his. "It's one of things we like about you. You don't hold back. You say what you're thinking and everyone knows where they stand with you. It's a refreshing change from trying to figure out what's going on inside people's heads."

"There's only one thing going on inside my head," Dallas said. He moved his hand up my thigh, and between my legs.

"You don't want to see inside mine," Ramsey said.

I shifted my gaze over to him. "You think I'd be scared of what I saw in there?"

"You should be. I am." He took a sip of his own light beer and shrugged a shoulder.

"That sounds like a challenge to me," I said. "I don't think someone who would take me on a hot air balloon ride to watch the sunrise could really be that bad."

"That might be what he wants you to think." Storm squinted at Ramsey, as if trying to figure him out. "Lull you into a falsesense of security before he… I don't know what. Are you sure you're not working with Carlos Jones?"

"Not a chance," Ramsey said. "I wouldn't work with a trafficker."

"That's good, because any hint that you planned to traffic Chelsea and I'll be the next person on the team to kill someone," Storm growled.

"Don't threaten me," Ramsey said without flinching. "I could end you before you move." He could have out glared Storm with the look he was giving him now.

"You guys are kinda hot," Ice remarked. "No wonder Chelsea is into you."

They both turned to look at him until he grinned with no hint of apology. "What? I'm very taken, but I can admire hot people when I meet them."

"Of course you can," I told him. "They're both very hot." It was probably just as well my brother was taken, because I suspected he would have found a way into our little family of seven. I could see him sharing Frost and Jay with me. Maybe Atlas too. We'd always been close, but that would have been one hell of a tangle.

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