by Becca Van
“Are you okay, Niki?” Hes frowned.
When he lifted his hand toward her, her ingrained instinct to flinch away couldn’t be stopped. She quickly lowered her eyes and tried to get her racing heart and shallow pants back under control. “I’m fine.”
“That’s the biggest crock of shit I’ve ever heard,” Brent said through clenched teeth.
She met his brown eyes head-on. “I don’t care what the hell you think.” Niki had had enough. They saw way too much, and she didn’t want them slowly wearing her down until she found herself confiding in them. Her working for them wasn’t going to work out after all. Hopefully, the position at the library was still available and if it wasn’t, she’d have to find another job.
Without saying a word, she slid from the stool to her feet, grabbed her purse, and headed out.
She didn’t even make it to the kitchen doorway before she was stopped and spun about. Brent looked so angry it was a wonder he hadn’t exploded. “Where the fuck do you think you’re going?”
“Home. I’m not going to be dictated to by you, your brothers, or anyone else.” Niki drew in a deep breath, aiming to quell the tears burning her eyes. She didn’t really want to quit her job because she liked Brent, Hes, and Rig a lot, but she wasn’t going to stay and be treated like a child who didn’t know their own mind. She was a mature woman, and while she hadn’t had much choice in the way she’d lived her life, she did now and wasn’t about to let anyone else keep her behind locked doors.
She was free for the first time in her life, and she wasn’t about to let anyone else cage her ever again. The glacial expression in Brent’s eyes changed to heated as he continued to gaze at her. Niki didn’t know if she blinked at the wrong time because she didn’t see him move, but in the next instant his mouth was on hers.
She tried to keep herself from responding, but it was mere seconds of his lips brushing over hers that sent heat coursing through her veins, which had her muscles loosening as she melted against him. When he licked over the seam of her lips, she gasped, and he quickly delved inside. His tongue curled almost lazily around hers, then glided along before twirling again. His hand left her arm to caress down her side, and then he wrapped his arm around her waist, bringing her up tighter against his body. His body heat seemed to seep into her, making her hotter, and she became restless. The kiss seemed to go on and on, and if it hadn’t been for the hard ridge of his erection poking into and twitching against her belly, she might not have ever stopped.
She didn’t even realize she had her palms splayed over his chest until she got the wherewithal to shove against him and wrench her mouth from his. All the parts that made her female were achy and throbbing with need, but she tried to discount her lust as she got her breath back. Niki tried to pull away when Brent grasped her chin between his thumb and finger to raise her gaze up to his, but he just tightened his grip.
“I’m sorry if you thought I was trying to rule your life, baby, because I wasn’t.” His voice was deeper and huskier than it had been before he’d kissed her, and goose bumps raced over her skin. “We’re used to helping any woman in trouble. We don’t like seeing a female straining to do something a man can do easily.”
Rig stalked up on one side of her, and Hes stepped close to her other side. “We’re not sexist, sugar,” Rig said.
Niki snorted.
“All we’re trying to do is make your life easier,” Hes said.
Niki swallowed and nodded. She was glad they were still trying to explain to her the why of the local men’s inbuilt proclivities to protect and lend a helping hand. While she admired the males in and around Slick Rock for their care, she wasn’t used to it. She’d overreacted but that wasn’t such a surprise to her after what she’d grown up with. But what concerned her the most at the moment was why Brent had kissed her.
Was he trying to control her with sex? To seduce her into complying to his will?
She wanted to know the answers to her questions, but first she needed to apologize. “I’m sorry for throwing a hissy fit. I’ve seen how the men in this town treat women, and I know that their protective ways aren’t because they’re controlling.”
“Is that what you thought I was doing?” Brent frowned. “Trying to control you?”
“Yes.”
Brent released her and turned away. “Fuck!” He spun back toward her. “That’s not what this is about, Niki. I’m just trying to keep you safe. We’ve had more than our fair share of crazies after the women living here. All it would take was for you to get a puncture, stuck out in the middle of nowhere, and have some crazy asshole stop and hurt you. I”—he paused as he pointed to Hes, then Rig—“we couldn’t live with our consciences if something happened to you and we could have prevented it. Would you want us to live with guilt for the rest of our lives just because you got your back up about a few safety measures?”
Niki shook her head. When he put it like that, it made her look like an imbecile even if she knew that wasn’t what he was trying to do. With a sigh of reluctance, she gave in since she liked working for the Lyndon brothers. “If you still want me to work for you and want to buy a cell phone, you can, but”—she held up her finger when Brent opened his mouth—“I give the phone back if things don’t work out between us.”
“They’ll work out,” Rig stated emphatically.
Hes clasped her hand in his. “As long as we know where you are at all times and that you’re safe, there won’t be any problems, honey.”
Niki wasn’t so sure about that, but she’d already created enough angst for one day.
Brent held his hand out to her. She clasped it and tried to hide the shudder of awareness skipping over her skin as heated tingles coursed through her body. “Let’s go into town and you can pick out a phone.”
Niki tugged her hand from his. “Since it’s not going to be my phone but a ranch phone, I don’t need to pick it out. I’m sure you’ll have no trouble choosing one without me there. I have to get the preparation for lunch started and finish cleaning the rest of the house.”
“Are you always this fucking argumentative?” Brent snapped.
“Are you?” she asked.
Brent shook his head, turned away from her, and stomped out of the house.
She had no idea why she was goading him when usually she tried to do everything within her power to remain in the background and not rock the boat. Maybe now that she had no one standing over her with their fists raised, she was getting braver.
Sometimes Niki was her own worst enemy.
Chapter Five
Vinnie had had feelers out all over the city of Chicago for weeks, searching for his boss’s cunt of a daughter. He couldn’t believe she’d managed to escape from right under his fucking nose.
Even though Vinnie hadn’t been in the house when she’d taken off, he’d ordered a couple of his men to watch over her. The stupid fucks had thought she’d been contained when they’d locked her in her room. He’d been so full of fury when he opened her bedroom door and found her room and adjacent bathroom empty, he’d shouted. If only he’d kept quiet and hadn’t brought her crazy old man running. Matteo had backhanded him and ordered him to leave and not come back until he had Nikita with him.
The old man had lost his fucking marbles as far as Vinnie was concerned. He’d started muttering about his lost Katerina and how it was Vinnie’s fault both of his girls were gone. He’d only been a lackey when Katerina had disappeared. The men who’d been escorting her to a clinic for a doctor’s appointment or wherever she’d been going were no longer breathing. Matteo had killed them and made others clean up the mess.
The dumb fuck had also taken back the keys to his Ferrari. Vinnie didn’t give a shit about the car, but he’d had to make it look like he did. He’d been panting after Nikita for the last couple of years, but he hadn’t wanted to rile the crazy old man by revealing how attracted he was to his youngest daughter. However, that hadn’t meant he’d given up on his goal. Every time Matteo h
ad been drunk, Vinnie had started saying how much women were a burden. How much money they cost to keep and feed and how troublesome all females were. He’d virtually brainwashed the old man into giving Nikita to him on a silver platter.
Vinnie had wanted to bed her right away, but he hadn’t wanted the bitch screaming the house down and bringing every single one of the men running. Including her senile old man. He’d started wooing her, hoping she’d come to his bed willingly, but his efforts had been a waste of time. Vinnie’s patience had all but petered out, and he’d decided after getting back to the house he was going to take what he wanted.
The slut had been gone.
Now here he was driving the streets of Chicago, trying to figure out where to go next to put him on the cunt’s trail. An epiphany hit just as he turned to the corner. He pulled over to the curb and tried to calm his racing heart.
Rosita had treated Nikita like a daughter. She’d often run interference between her and her old man, trying to protect the younger woman. His excitement died when he realized that the bitch had done the same to him when he’d been kissing and touching Nikita. The anger in his gut grew and rose up through his chest and into his head. His face was probably red, but he didn’t give a fuck.
After making sure the road was clear, he spun the tires and sped back toward the house. He didn’t care that Matteo was going to be pissed at seeing him again. He needed answers, and the only person with them was living in that mansion. He didn’t care if he had to kill the cow to find out what he wanted to know. Housekeepers were a dime a dozen, but Nikita Russo was one of a kind.
He wanted her under him in his bed, and he was going to get exactly that even if he had to kill her old man.
Niki didn’t breathe easy until Rig and Hes had left the house to do their chores. After she’d prepped and cooked a huge pot of chili and had a tray of corn bread ready to go into the oven, she vacuumed the house and washed the floors.
The timer she’d set went off just as she was about to start dusting. She arched her back stretching her muscles out and hurried toward the kitchen. Even though the chili was cooked, she’d turned the gas off so that it didn’t burn. It was going to need to be reheated and the cornbread baked.
She stood at the stove, staring out the window as she stirred the chili, and when she caught sight of Hes and Rig sitting atop their horses, her stomach fluttered and her body began to heat. The Lyndon brothers were so damn handsome they took her breath away. But it wasn’t just their outer packages that got her all hot and bothered—it was the way they were so helpful. She’d never had a man help her with anything, and while she was no longer cautious about them wanting to take over her life and make decisions for her, she didn’t want to be drawn to them.
They may not know it, but the Lyndon men were a threat to her newfound independence and freedom. She was also tempted to get involved with them. However, no matter what she wanted, she had to think of Kat, too. Her sister had been free far longer than Niki and had managed to live alone without help from a man or anyone else.
And she wasn’t sure if Brent, Hes, and Rig even thought of her that way. For all she knew, Brent could have kissed her because he was frustrated with her when they’d been arguing.
Niki was so confused she didn’t know what to think, and since she’d been locked up tighter than a nun in a nunnery, she had no experience with the opposite sex. Even if she found the courage to take what she wanted, she had no idea how to go about it. She wasn’t naïve, thanks to Rosita, but she’d also learned to keep away from the opposite sex. More than one of her father’s men had looked at her with lust in their eyes, but she hadn’t been turned on at all. In fact, she’d been so repulsed her skin had crawled. Niki hadn’t thought she’d ever get out of that house unscathed, but she had. Well, for the most part anyway.
Strong arms wrapped around her waist from behind, and Niki froze. She was instantly transported back to her father’s home where Vinnie had snuck up so many times behind her, she’d been scared to leave her room if the door had been unlocked.
When she felt his moist breath on her neck, she screamed and started to fight him off. She kicked back and then threw her weight sideways, hoping to surprise him and get out of his clutches. Tears rolled down her cheeks, and she hurt her hip when she fell to the floor, but she pushed the pain away as she scrambled to her hands and knees, crawling away from the abusive bastard as fast as she could. When she’d cornered herself, she pressed her back up against the kitchen cupboard, wrapping her arms around her tucked-up knees as she tried to stop whimpering and shaking.
She squeezed her eyes closed, waiting for a blow to her cheek, but the hit never came. Her heart was pounding so loudly in her ears she couldn’t hear anything else. When nothing happened, she opened her eyes and blinked as she frantically gazed about and met a pair of concerned brown eyes.
Brent was down on his knees a few yards from her, and though she could see his lips moving, she couldn’t hear what he was saying. When he scooted closer Niki instinctively pushed herself back into the corner using her heels as leverage. Logically she knew she was making a fool of herself, but she couldn’t seem to stop. She was so used to being scared as she waited for the next slap, punch, or kick. The next sexual grope she didn’t want.
She tried to shake the images away and get back into the here and now, but the fear had taken hold and wouldn’t let go.
Her legs ached from huddling in the corner, but she couldn’t make herself straighten them to stretch her muscles out.
Violent quakes wracked her body, making her teeth clack together, and she once more lost sight of reality and was swept back into the past.
She tried to stifle the sobs when Vinnie squeezed her breasts so hard, she knew she was going to have the bruised imprints of his fingers in her flesh for weeks. She cried out when he ripped her jeans open, but she couldn’t face any more. Niki buried her conscience deep inside where nothing and no one could hurt her.
She was so lost inside herself she no longer felt, heard, or saw anything.
She was safe.
Hes glanced at Rig when he heard a scream. Without saying a word, he and his brother nudged their horses into a trot toward the house. As soon as he could he jumped from his mount, raced to the stairs, took them three at a time, and burst into the house. Rig was right behind him. He wasn’t worried about their horses since the animals had been trained to stay when the reins were dangling toward the ground.
The scene that met his eyes had his gut tightening up into knots. Niki huddled into the far corner of the kitchen near the stove, her knees drawn up high under her chin with her arms wrapped tightly around her legs. She rocked back and forth with tears rolling down her face, and her breath hitched every now and then.
Brent was down on his knees talking to her, but Hes could tell she didn’t hear a word he said. The tears stopped, but the salty tracks on her face broke his heart. She stared blankly at nothing, and no amount of talking seemed to be getting through to her.
Hes walked slowly up to his brother and crouched at his side. “What the hell happened?”
Brent met his gaze, then shook his head. “I have no fucking idea.”
“Was she like this when you came inside?” Rig asked as he knelt on Brent’s other side.
“No.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “Fuck! I think I did this.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Hes asked quietly. He and his brothers were keeping their voices low and quiet so as not to frighten Niki more than she already was.
“I thought she heard me come into the kitchen.” He paused to take a breath. “I came up behind her and hugged her. She screamed and kicked me, then threw herself sideways. I think she was trying to get away from me. She ended up landing on the floor on her side.” Brent swallowed around the lump in his throat. “She could have fucking hurt herself. If she hasn’t cracked her ribs or hip, she’s definitely going to have bruises. I tried talking to her, but I don’t think she
could hear me. She began sobbing and whimpering as she scrambled onto her hands and knees and crawled into the corner.”
“We need to call her sister,” Rig said. “Maybe she can help. It’s either that or we call a doctor.”
“Doesn’t her sister work at the library?” Hes asked.
“Yeah.” Brent nodded.
“I’ll call Sheriff Sun-Walker. He can get one of his deputies to bring Niki’s sister out to the ranch.” Rig dug into his pocket for his cell phone and punched in numbers.
Brent didn’t listen to what Rig said. He was too worried about Niki to take any notice. She looked so small and fragile. He just wanted to wrap her up in his arms and never let go, but if he did that, he was worried he’d end up giving her a heart attack or sending her further into the catatonic state she was in.
“Hi, Shyann, how are you?”
Kat looked up from the computer she was working at and gasped when she saw the handsome deputy in uniform talking to her boss. She’d heard on the gossip grapevine that the two sheriffs, Luke Sun-Walker and Damon Osborn, were going to hire some more men since their town was growing so quickly, and she guessed this man was one of the new hirelings since she’d never seen him before. He was big. Tall, muscular, and handsome. He was way over six feet tall, and the sleeves of his shirt were stretched tight over his bulging biceps. When he shifted on his feet and turned his head in her direction, she quickly lowered her gaze back to the monitor, pretending she was working even if what she was looking at no longer made any sense.
“Hey, Jalen, how are you and your brothers settling in?” Shyann asked.
“We’re all unpacked. I’m here in an official capacity. I need to have a word with Kat Gilmore.”
Kat’s head snapped up at her name, and she met a pair of the brightest green eyes she’d ever seen. If she weren’t so scared that the sheriffs and deputies had found out who she was, she would have had the time to appreciate the rest of him, but she was terrified. She was so lightheaded she was worried she was about to pass out. It was only when her lungs started to hurt that she noticed she’d stopped breathing. And while she stared at the man expectantly, she tried to convince herself there was no way any of the lawmen in town could know that her last name wasn’t Gilmore.