Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 103712 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 519(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103712 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 519(@200wpm)___ 415(@250wpm)___ 346(@300wpm)
“Boat.” Stone indicated the harbor camera. “She climbed up from the dock approximately ninety minutes ago.”
“She? You’re sure?”
“Positive.”
Hunter’s low growl dropped to a register that made smart people reconsider their life choices. “And you waited ninety minutes to alert us?”
“I had a handle on the situation.”
Hunter approached the central monitor with predatory focus, the one displaying Stone’s bedroom. The brand on his back, right shoulder glinted under the dim blue lights of the security feed. “That little thief broke into our house?”
“I didn’t feel like digging a hole through two feet of snow.”
His brother’s molten eyes glared at him. “You let her in? A perfect stranger—”
“She was soaked to the bone. A minute longer, and she would have died out there.”
“That’s not the point. She could be dangerous.”
Ash chuckled. “I think we can handle her, Hunter.”
Stone rolled his eyes. Might as well get it all out in the open now. “She’s also been consuming our food and stealing our clothes.”
Ash squinted at the lump of fur surrounding her face. “Is that your old fur coat?”
Hunter growled.
“Just be glad she’s sleeping in my bed. I’ve got the situation under control.”
The three brothers stepped back from the monitors in contemplative silence, each watching the woman sleep and wondering what the next move might be. She’d kicked away some covers, and the sable coat had fallen open to reveal the elegant line of her thigh beneath Hunter’s oversized sweater. The cascade of her hair spilled like gold, catching candlelight.
“She’s exquisite,” Ash said quietly, his voice carrying that dreamy quality that meant fantasies were crystallizing.
Hunter grunted in agreement. “Beautiful women are dangerous.”
“No, not her. She looks like a fallen angel,” Ash argued. “She’s just a lost little lamb who wandered into a bear den.”
Stone glared at Ash. Not a lamb. She was his rabbit. “She wasn’t aimlessly strolling about, Ash. The little zayka was desperate for shelter.”
“An angel in a storm. Let’s wake her up.”
Hunter caught Ash’s sleeve. “Angels don’t commit breaking and entering.” His black eyes were fixed on the monitor. “Angels don’t steal.”
“So maybe she’s not an angel.” Ash’s smile could have cut diamonds. “Maybe she’s something far more interesting.”
Stone switched to thermal imaging replay, showing them her arduous approach to the lodge. “She was nearly dead when she arrived. Hypothermic. Starving. Desperate.”
“Running from something,” Ash observed, back to clinical detachment. “Or someone.”
“Which means desperation drove her actions.” Hunter cracked knuckles, the sound similar to breaking bones. “Desperate people make mistakes.”
“Like trespassing on property belonging to men who always collect their debts,” Stone agreed, leaning against the console with deceptive casualness.
“So we agree,” Ash said. “Violating our sanctuary without invitation means one thing and one thing only. We aren’t going soft.”
“Agreed.” Hunter’s arms bulged as he crossed them over his chest.
Stone glanced at her defenseless form. Her breathing had finally found a peaceful rhythm, and tension no longer pinched her features. “So what’s our response?”
Hunter’s answer dropped like an edict. “Wake her up. Extract information about her identity and purpose. Then decide whether she lives or disappears.”
“We could contact the authorities,” Ash suggested without much conviction. That wasn’t how they operated on The Island.
Stone’s laughter roughened with disbelief. “And reveal what? That someone breached our private club? The one that doesn’t exist in any official capacity?”
“We handle this ourselves,” Hunter decided with finality. “Like we handle everything else that threatens our domain.”
Pragmatic as always, Stone pulled up the Doppler. “The storm won’t break for hours. She’s not going anywhere regardless of our intentions.”
“Who says we want her to leave?” The question came from Ash, and both Stone and Hunter turned.
There was nothing Stone could do to help this golden-haired thief with her desperate eyes now that they saw her. She was as good as theirs. But thinking back to her determination with the fire and how battered she’d been from the cold, he knew she wasn’t built for captivity. “What if she just needed shelter and a warm place to rest? We could just give her a place to catch her breath and let her—”
“She violated our rules,” Hunter pointed out in his unbending militant tone. “You break it, you buy it. That’s always been our policy.”
“She owes us,” Ash agreed with mastered casualness. “At least until the storm passes. We ensure she’s... appropriately grateful for our hospitality, then we decide when and how we let her go.”
“If we let her go.” Hunter’s grin contrasted with the storm of violence swirling in his dark eyes.
Stone switched camera feeds to display the storm still savaging the landscape outside. Wind howled around the lodge like hungry ghosts, snow and sleet turning the world into a frozen hellscape.
“She has nowhere else to go.” Even if she could reach her shitty little boat, she’d never survive the crossing in these conditions.
“Trapped,” Hunter murmured with satisfaction. “Little thief trapped herself in a predator’s den.”