“Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, just tired and a little stressed.”
“Well, don’t let my brother or Logan try to intimidate you. They can both be a little overwhelming until you get to know them.” Smiling, she continued, “They really like you. I have never seen them look at another woman the way they do you. Just be opened-minded and give them a chance please.”
“What do you mean give them a chance?” Cane asked, frowning. She didn’t understand what Ali was telling her.
Ali sighed and sat on the bench that lined the wall. “You are going to hear about this eventually since this is a small town and people like to talk. Duncan and Logan share everything including women.”
Swallowing and not believing what she was hearing, Cane asked, “You mean share as in at the same time?”
“Yes. They don’t know that I know, so please don’t tell them I told you, but I hear the rumors just like everybody else. Anyway, it doesn’t bother me as long as they are happy.” Smiling, she said, “I like you, Cane. I don’t know what it is about you, but I feel like we could be sisters. I think you would be great for the both of them.” With that she turned and left.
Great for the both of them? Could she ever see herself with two guys, at the same time? She was definitely attracted to the both of them, but sharing? How could she even think of handling two guys when she made such a mess of her relationship with only one? Dazed by what Ali had just shared with her, Cane left the bathroom and walked over to the table. Duncan and Logan both stood and Logan held out her bag. Damn, how could she have forgotten to take that with her? She was slipping. These people were causing her to let her guard down and that wasn’t good. She knew that Sam wouldn’t give up this soon. Maybe she needed to try and get out of town sooner than Thursday. She had six more days, and at the rate she was going, she would never leave if she stayed that long. Maybe one of the guys could give her a ride to the nearest town. Why did the thought of leaving cause her chest to hurt?
Following the guys out of the diner, they turned toward the sheriff’s station down the block. Logan held the door open for her and she entered. The station was one big room. Looking around, she saw two desks, a counter with a coffeepot and Styrofoam cups on it, and a cell in the far corner with a small cot in it. Duncan pulled out a chair that sat in front of his desk and motioned for her to sit. He went around to the other side and sat. Logan sat on the corner of the desk with his arms crossed over his chest. “Okay, we are listening,” was all he said.
Taking a deep breath, and meeting both their gazes, she began, “Well, the short version is that I have been in an abusive relationship for the past eight years and after the last ‘incident’ six months ago left me in the hospital for eleven days, I finally decided that enough was enough. While I laid in the hospital bed I planned my escape. The money you saw in my bag is all that I have in the world. It took me six months just to stash that. I had to take a little at a time so he wouldn’t notice it missing and become suspicious. Four days ago, he asked me about the money. I denied that I knew anything about it, but I could tell he didn’t believe me. I left that night and basically hopped from bus to bus for three days with no specific destination, and this is where I ended up.” Taking a deep breath, she sat back and waited for their reactions, which didn’t take long to come.
“Shit!” Logan yelled and leaped up from the desk, causing Cane to flinch and throw her hands up to guard her face. It was an involuntary reaction that she couldn’t help. “Oh, God, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you, but you must know that I…we would never lay a hand on you. You are safe with us.” Logan reached over and gently placed his hand on her arm lowered it away from her face. “You can trust us.” Cane looked up at him and then over at Duncan, he was sitting back in the chair not saying a word, but the look on his face spoke volumes. He looked angry like he was ready to kill someone. Cane noticed her hands were trembling, so she clasped them tightly in her lap. She hated to show any sign of weakness.
She couldn’t help but to ask, “Are you guys angry with me?” Immediately Duncan’s face softened, and he came around to her side of the desk. Both guys leaned against the desk in front of her.
“Why would we be mad at you? Like Logan said, we would never hurt you and you can trust us. We will help you.”
“Yes, but Sam is a detective. You can’t help me. Doesn’t that go against your police code? You look out for each other, right? That’s why I never told anyone what he was doing to me. He said no one would believe me because he was on the force and you guys always stuck together.” Cane didn’t even realize that she was crying until she felt the tears streaming down her cheek. Both men reached for her at the same and pulled her into a hug. She stiffened until she realized that they weren’t trying to cause her any harm and slowly began to relax. It felt good to just be held. She felt completely safe in both of their arms, like nothing could touch her. She felt one hand rubbing her back and one on her hair. It was calming and soothing. She felt like she could stay like this forever.
Logan was to first to speak. “Is that why you passed out this morning when you saw me in uniform?” Cane just nodded. “Whoever this Sam is, he is a real bastard. We don’t take up for people like that. He could be the president and we would never condone what he did.” After suffering years of abuse from Sam, Cane was an expert at reading people. She learned what mood Sam was in based on the look in his eyes. The sincerity that she saw in Logan and Duncan’s eyes told Cane that they were telling the truth. They were nothing like Sam. These two men would never turn her over to him. She could trust them to protect her and keep her safe. Feeling like a ten-ton weight had been lifted from her shoulders, Cane couldn’t help but to cry. She sobbed for what seemed like hours, and the whole time they both never let her go. She knew then that she had made the right decision in telling them the truth even if she didn’t tell them the whole story. The stress finally caught up with Cane, and she slowly drifted off to sleep in their arms.
Chapter 5
Logan and Duncan rocked Cane until they realized she was asleep. Duncan picked her up and gently laid her on the cot in the holding cell, placing her bag next to her. He left the door to the cell open in case she woke up. He didn’t want her to wake up and panic, thinking they were locking her up. Walking back over to his desk he sat down and sighed heavily. He watched as Logan paced the room and could tell that he was about ready to hunt this Sam guy down and beat the shit out of him. He couldn’t blame him. Knowing about Logan’s past, he felt the same way.
“I knew that she was hiding something,” Logan said, “but I never suspected this. It’s a good thing we didn’t run a search on her. The bastard is probably watching for that so that he can find her.”
“Where do we go from here?” Duncan asked. “Her confession doesn’t change how I feel about her. And I know you feel the same way, so I think the most important thing is to show her that she can trust us. At this point, she is looking for a reason to jump on the next bus out of town, and we can’t let that happen.”
“You’re right,” said Logan, running his fingers through his hair and sitting down. As if he had been reading Duncan’s mind, Logan said, “I wish I could find the little shit and beat the hell out of him. What do you think he did to her to put her in the hospital for eleven days?”
“Whatever it was it had to be horrible, and with him being a detective on the force she probably felt like she couldn’t press charges.” Both men sat silently, both thinking of the hell that Cane had suffered for eight years at the hands of a man that was supposed to protect rather than torture her.
* * * *
“No! Please don’t. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again!” Cane screamed. She tried to run, but she was cuffed to a bed.
“You bitch! How dare you try to run from me? I gave you everything and this is how you repay me?” Cane could hear Sam screaming, but she couldn’t see where he was in the room. It sounded like his voice was coming from all a
round her.
“Please, Sam, just let me go. You made your point. I will never leave you again.”
Stepping out of the shadows, Sam walked over to the bed with a huge grin on his face. “Oh, I have no doubt, baby, that by the time I am done with you, the thought of leaving me will never cross your mind again.” Cane began to scream and felt hands on her shoulders shaking her. Someone was yelling her name, and she opened her eyes and sat straight up. Logan was staring at her with a worried look on his face. Cane lay back down and took a deep breath. Rubbing her face with trembling hands she softly chanted to herself that it was just a dream. Shivering she realized that she was covered in sweat. Logan must have noticed because he grabbed the blanket folded up at the end of the cot and covered her with it.
“You want to talk about it?”
“I dreamed he found me,” Cane said. “It was awful. He had me handcuffed to a bed and he had this crazy look in his eyes. He couldn’t believe that I would ever leave him and he was going to make me pay. Oh God, Logan! What if he finds me? What am I going to do?” Fresh tears began to fall, and Logan wrapped her in his arms and rubbed her back in small circles.
“Shh… It’s okay, baby, don’t worry. Duncan and I will protect you, I promise. Nothing bad will happen to you here.” Logan gently sat Cane away from him and lifted her face to his so that he could look her in the eyes. “Your plan was great, and it worked perfectly. How can he find you if you didn’t even know where you were going until you got here?”
“I guess you are right, but you don’t know Sam. He will try his best to find me.”
“Well, if he does happen to show up here, then Duncan and I will handle him.”
Feeling better, Cane pulled back to look at Logan. “Thank you for being here. All my life I have never had anyone to depend on but myself. It’s nice to have someone in my corner for a change.”
Logan didn’t respond. Instead, he reached up and tucked a stray hair behind her ear. He left his hand against her cheek and stared into her eyes, and then he slowly leaned down and kissed her. Caught off guard, Cane didn’t have time to react. Suddenly his lips were on hers. They were warm and silky soft. He moved them against hers as his tongue slid out and rubbed her top lip. Moaning, she opened her mouth and he took it as an invitation to take the kiss even further. His tongue entered her mouth slowly as if waiting for her to protest. He traced the roof and sides of her mouth and then rubbed her tongue with his. His taste was sweet and his kiss was so gentle that it made Cane light-headed. Sam had never kissed her like this. He liked to dominate her mouth, and it became quite painful at times when he became too rough. Logan didn’t compare to Sam at all. This was the best kiss she had ever had in her life. He moved his tongue out of her mouth, and Cane followed it with hers. She traced his lips as he sucked her bottom lip in his mouth. Bringing her hands up to the back of his head, she ran them through his soft hair.
“Am I interrupting something?” Cane jumped and looked over to see Duncan leaning against the cell door smiling with a wicked look in his eyes.
“Don’t let me stop you,” he said. “I was enjoying the show.” Staring at him, Cane didn’t see or hear any hint of jealousy in him. Wow, it must be true. They really do share women, she thought.
“I think I need to be heading to my room,” she said as she stood.
“I don’t think you need to be alone right now after the dream you just had,” Logan said.
“It was just a bad dream. I have them all the time, and it’s no big deal.”
Logan was about to say something, but Duncan cut him off. “Ali asked me to invite you to dinner tonight. Maybe you can go for a little bit. It will make us all happy and you don’t have to be alone at least for a little while.” Biting her lip, Cane looked at both men and nodded. They smiled and turned and walked out of the cell. Grabbing her bag from the bed, she followed them out. “Do you need to get anything from your room before we go?” Duncan asked.
“I would like to go freshen up and grab a jacket.”
“Good. I will drive you while Logan finishes things up here and we will meet him at the house.” He and Logan looked at each other and something passed between them. Smiling, Logan turned away. Duncan placed a hand on the small of her back and led her out. What have I gotten myself into?
* * * *
Walking Cane back to her room, Duncan kept his hand on the small of her back. He had no intentions of removing it since she wasn’t complaining. Her body was so warm, and walking this close, he smelled her scent, something flowery and delicious. His mouth watered. He wanted what Logan had, he wanted to kiss her. Quietly, they walked the couple blocks to the bed-and-breakfast. Following her to her room, he stepped inside and closed the door. Once inside Cane seemed to get nervous. He noticed that she was wringing her hands and fidgeting and wouldn’t look at him. Walking over, he cupped his hand under her chin and turned her face toward him.
“Hey, are you okay?”
At first he didn’t think she would answer, but after a minute or two, she sighed. “I just don’t want you to think that what happened with me and Logan earlier is something that I do all the time. I don’t know what happened, I mean, one minute I was crying and the next we were kissing and…well, anyway I have never done that with anyone other than Sam.”
Still cupping her chin, Duncan smiled. “I don’t think that at all. Logan wants you and so do I.”
He could see when Cane actually heard what he said, her eyes widened and she inhaled deeply. He was shocked at what she said next. “So it’s true then?”
“Is what true?” She tried to look away, but Duncan held onto her chin. “Is what true?”
“Um, that you and Logan like to share women.” Not wanting to scare her off but wanting her to trust him, he finally nodded his head.
“I can’t believe that you have only been in town for a day and already someone was eager to spread gossip to you.”
“Please don’t be mad. She didn’t tell me for that reason. She said that she could tell you both liked me and that I would be good for you.” Duncan looked at her and frowned.
“Who told you that?” Biting her lip, he could tell that Cane didn’t want to answer him.
“I’m scared to tell you. I don’t want to get her in trouble. She didn’t mean any harm by it.” Duncan couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Did she really think that he was like that, that he would get angry over something like this? He could see the beat of Cane’s heart through the vein on the side of her neck. From how fast it was beating and her fast shallow breaths, he could tell that she was scared to death at the moment.
“Hey, it’s okay. I’m not mad, and I promise not to get angry at whoever told you. We were going to tell you anyway so it’s no big deal.”
Watching him closely, she took a deep breath and said, “It was Ali.”
“My baby sister Ali? She is sixteen. What the hell does she know about this? How did she even find out?”
Backing away from him, Cane said, “You promised you wouldn’t get mad, and she found out the same way you thought I did, town gossips.”
Holding his hands out as if he was trying to calm a scared animal, Duncan walked slowly to her. “I’m not mad, sweetheart. I could never be mad at her. I’m just upset that she found out that way. She shouldn’t even be thinking of things like this at her age.”
Reaching out, he gently grabbed Cane by the shoulders and pulled her to him. She stiffened at first, but then relaxed and molded her body to his. We fit perfectly, Duncan thought. He planted a kiss on her forehead and slowly trailed them down the side of her face. When he reached her jaw, he made his way over to her chin. Feeling a slight shiver coming from her, he covered her mouth with his. Groaning, he tried to pull her closer and his tongue trailed along the seam of her lips trying to coax her to open up and let him in. When her lips parted, he plunged his tongue in took over her mouth. The kiss went from slow to fast in a heartbeat as she began to suck on his tongue. Wrapping a hand around
her hair, he tilted her head and started kissing down the side of her throat causing her to moan and clench her fingers in his shirt. Kissing back up the other side of her throat, he stopped when he got to the corner of her mouth and kissed it.
Both breathing heavily, he rested his forehead against hers and said, “Ali will be upset if we’re late.” Looking at him with glazed eyes, Cane nodded and went into the bathroom. Damn! That was incredible, Duncan thought. He had never been that turned on just kissing. Adjusting the erection that was pressed painfully against his zipper, he smiled. If he hadn’t stopped when he did, he would have come in his pants like some thirteen-year-old boy. Wouldn’t that have been embarrassing? Although he was upset that Ali knew about him and Logan, he was going to have to thank her for telling Cane and saving them the trouble. And, from Cane’s reaction to kissing him and Logan, he didn’t think she was opposed to the idea. Now the only thing they had to worry about was keeping her in town long enough to make it happen, because he knew now there was no way they could rush things.
Chapter 6
What the hell was she doing? Kissing two guys and completely attracted to them both? She was twenty-six years old, and in that time she only ever kissed one guy, and here she was kissing two guys in one day not even an hour apart. What was next? Pausing from her pacing in the bathroom, Cane looked at her reflection. She knew what was next. They both made that very clear. The question was did she want it to happen? A part of her was scared to death, but another part was saying go for it. Why shouldn’t she have some fun? Hadn’t she suffered enough at the hands of a psycho? She certainly enjoyed kissing the both of them. They kissed the complete opposite of their personalities. That shocked Cane. Logan seemed to come across as the dominant, aggressive type, but his kiss was slow and sweet and gentle like he had all the time in the world. Duncan on the other hand, was the complete opposite. He came across as the calm, gentle one, but his kisses weren’t anything like that. He was aggressive and passionate but nothing like Sam who was way too dominating. She felt like he was trying to crawl into her skin. They both made her feel things that she had never felt before, and it scared her. Deciding not to think about it and let whatever happens happen, she freshened up and returned to the room.
Davis, Keyonna - Nowhere to Hide [Pine Valley] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) Page 4