Authors: Shelly Bell
E
VEN THOUGH SHE
was asleep, she sensed that someone was watching her. The last thing she remembered was falling asleep in Sawyer's arms after consummating their vow to remain married. The details of where they'd live and how they'd keep her picture out of the press hadn't been discussed, but it didn't matter. She trusted they'd figure it out.
Warm breath that smelled of oranges and vodka blew across her face. “Rise and shine, sleepyhead.”
She shot up, holding the sheet against her chest to cover herself.
Crouching by her side of the bed was a pleased-looking Oz. “No need to be modest. We're all friends here. If you want, I'd be happy to lose my clothes, too.”
“Get out, Oz, and let us sleep,” mumbled Sawyer, not opening his eyes.
Oz chuckled as he stood. “No can do. We need to have a chat. I wouldn't have broken into your suite if it wasn't important. The guys are waiting in the other room.”
Sawyer rolled over, opening his eyes. “Fuck. Give us five minutes.”
Oz was still chuckling as he closed the door behind him.
She got out of bed and started to dress. “He broke in? Why didn't he just call?”
Sawyer shook his head, his lips slightly tipped up in amusement. “That's Oz. Hell, that's all three of them. They have their own way of doing things. I've gotten used to it over the years.”
He was lucky to have them.
Envy warmed her heart. “They really care about you.”
He stepped into his boxers, sadly covering up that part of him she was hoping to see again soon. “We care about each other. And that includes you now. Are you good with that?”
“What does that mean exactly?”
He stopped dressing and faced her. “It means that if anything happened to me, they'd take care of you.”
“How?” she asked, not wanting to think of a world in which he wasn't with her.
“Financially, emotionally, physicallyâ”
“Sexually?”
He tilted his head to the side, his eyes sparkling. “If you required some sexual healing, I'm sure they'd be happy to help. But it's not about the sex. There's a bond between us, something unique that can never be broken.” He strode to her and snaked his arms around her waist. “You're part of that bond now. That's one of the reasons I flew them out here yesterday.”
“What if I didn't want to be part of that bond? What if I didn't want you to share me with them?”
He lifted a shoulder. “Then I wouldn't.”
“Would you . . . have sex with their women?”
“Currently, none of them are seeing anyone, so it's a moot point, but if they were, I wouldn't do anything you weren't comfortable with.”
Comfortable? That wasn't the word she'd use right now, since the last thing she felt was comfortable. All this talk about sex with other people had made her slick between her legs. And she'd bet anything that Sawyer knew it. “You didn't tell me all this five years ago.”
“I wasn't sure you'd accept that part of me.” He stepped in closer to her, letting her feel the erection he was sporting. Good to know this conversation was affecting them both. “Now, I know how important it is for us to be honest with one another. Role play, BDSM, group sex, it's all just icing on that delicious cake, but I can live without all of it. What I can't live without is you.”
“You're never going to have to worry about that, because I'm not going anywhere. But for the record, I liked last night and I wouldn't mind it happening again someday.” She kissed him gently on the lips, quickly pulling away before she forgot they had people waiting for them in the next room.
Not that those men were easily forgettable. She had a feeling they'd star in her midnight fantasies for years to come.
She brushed her thumb over the cool metal of his wedding ring. “Are Rowan and Oz a thing?”
The arch of his brow and the tug of his lips told her he knew exactly why she was asking. “Unless something has changed without my knowledge, I don't think so. They're both bisexual and pretty sexually adventurous. It's just sex to them. Nothing more than scratching an itch. I've never seen them kiss each other or anything.”
She let go of his hands and trailed a finger down his chest, lower and lower. “It was pretty hot when Rowan fucked Oz. Have you ever . . . ?”
He snatched her hand before she could get to her destination. “Not my thing. But I wouldn't say no if you wanted to fuck my ass with a strap-on one day.” He winked and pulled her toward the door, leaving her breathless with that sinful image in her mind. “Come on, let's go see what they want, so we can go back to bed.”
He led her to the suite's main room, where she found the three men having breakfast. She waited for the embarrassment over last night to wash over her, but it never came. If anything, she was having a difficult time not picturing what they all looked like naked and how she could still feel them on and in her body.
Hunter reclined on the couch, the huge man looking completely at home drinking a cup of coffee. She hadn't gotten a good look at him or the others last night, even after they'd removed their black ski masks. She'd been too punch-drunk on sex. But today, with the hotel lights on and the sunlight filtering in through the blinds, she took her chance.
Among the group of self-professed techies, the bald Hunter appeared most out of place, with a full sleeve of tattoos decorating both his arms and tongue, lip, and eyebrow piercings. He was so broad and muscular, she couldn't help thinking of the Incredible Hulk.
Then again, as her gaze bounced to the dreadlocked Oz, who was eating a chocolate chip cookie while sitting next to Hunter, she realized she wouldn't exactly have pictured him as a computer genius either. Of course, like last night's
Byte me
T-shirt, his
There's no place like 127.0.0.1
T-shirt today proved how looks could be deceiving.
Rowan's appearance surprised her the most. He could have been a model, with his wavy black hair and perfect bone structure. When his intense gray eyes fixed on her, she felt as though he could see straight into her soul.
“About time,” he said, his tone admonishing. “I thought you two would never get up.”
Sawyer stole a couple of pieces of buttered toast off the plate in front of Hunter and handed her one. “Why the hell are you guys up so early? It's like five in the morning out west.”
“Never went to sleep,” Hunter said in his rough voice. “We found something that needed to be discussed with both of you.”
Her pulse kicked up a notch.
Sawyer stopped mid-bite. “Did you locate Jeff Marshall?”
“Yeah. He's in jail for armed robbery,” Rowan said. “Been there for more than a week.”
Sawyer nodded as if not surprised. “Then he's not our guy. So what did you find?”
The guys shared a look between them.
Oz's gaze went to her. “Maybe we should talk to Annaliese firstâ”
“No,” she said firmly. “Whatever you have to say to me can be said in front of Sawyer.”
After exchanging another ominous look with his friends, Oz scratched his head. “When Sawyer first had us check you out, we must have missed it. How many bank accounts do you have?”
She frowned, surprised by his question. “Two. A checking account and a savings account with about three grand. Why?”
Hunter got up from the couch and walked over to her and Sawyer. “We found another savings account in the name of Annaliese Hunt.”
Never in her life had she opened an account in her real name. “Couldn't it be another Annaliese?”
Hunter shook his head. “Your social security number is listed.”
She'd never used it. “Maybe my parents set it up in my name to hide money and forgot to close it.”
“I don't think they would've forgotten about this account,” Oz said. “It's got more than a million dollars in it.”
The room went silent.
Panic surged through her as she spun to Sawyer. What if he believed the money was hers? What if he thought she'd lied to him?
She couldn't lose him. Not now. Not ever. “It's not mine. I swear. You believe me, don't you?”
She waited for him to say something. Do something.
But he kept his gaze on the floor as if he hadn't even heard her.
It felt as if someone was crushing her heart. She couldn't breathe, the ache in her chest making it too painful to inhale.
All that talk about trust.
Well, last night she'd proven she trusted him.
Now it was his turn.
“Sawyer?” she whispered, taking his hand and placing it over her throat and to her collar. “You believe me, right?”
His gaze flew to hers, and he cupped her face in his hands. “I believe you.”
Relieved, she sucked in a breath and threw her arms around her husband, the heavy weight on her chest gone.
Still eating his cookie, Oz joined their side. “Good thing you do, because someone only wanted it to look like it was her account. It was only opened a couple weeks ago. Unless you hid your money under the mattress, there's no way it could belong to you. We were very thorough in our investigation of you.”
“I never thought I'd be saying I'm glad you checked me out before you came to see me,” she said to Sawyer. She turned to Oz. “So who opened the account?”
“We're working on figuring that out,” Oz said. “It's through one of those online banks, and so far, I haven't been able to hack my way into their system to retrieve anything other than the account names and amounts.”
“Can you do it?” she asked.
“Of course. I'm Oz,” he said, as if that explained everything. “My computer is currently running a program to find the match for the password. That will be quicker than accessing the system's back door and shouldn't leave any trail, so we won't have the Feds knocking down our door in the middle of the night.”
Unlike the other two men, Rowan stayed across the room from them. “Any ideas as to why someone would put a million in an account in your real name?”
There was only one thing that made sense.
“Yes,” she said. “To break up my marriage to Sawyer.” She lowered her voice as she spoke to her husband. “If you believed I'd kept the money and that I'd been lying to you these past few days, you'd leave me.”
His eyes grew sad. Sad for
her
. “There are only a few people who know who you really are, Annaliese. And since I know no one in this room is responsible, that only leavesâ”
“My brothers, Mitch and Asa.”
Sawyer scowled. “I told you I didn't trust Asa.”
“It's not him. He would never do this to me. He wants to see me happy,” she said, even though she was plagued with doubt. She wasn't ready to accept that Asa might be lying to her. “But the apple doesn't fall far from the tree when it comes to Mitch. He was evil even as a child. He's got to be behind everything.”
“Why target me?” Sawyer asked.
She didn't know, but she had a guess. “You're the one thing that means the most to me. He's punishing me for leaving the family.”
Still, it didn't feel right to her. Why would he have vandalized her condo and left the squirrel for her? Why not just kill Sawyer?
Sawyer smoothed his hand over her hair. “What are you thinking?”
She was thinking Mitch was far more dangerous than she'd ever given him credit for. “The clothes, the papers, the books . . . He searched through my condo and office. What if he was looking for the black list?”
Without it, she'd have nothing to hold over him, freeing him to take everything she loved away from her.
Sawyer's gaze snapped to Oz. “We need to find him. Now.”
Oz didn't appear in a rush as he nibbled on the last bite of his cookie. “Name?”
“Mitch Hunt, but he's got a couple of dozen aliases,” she said.
Hunter plucked the cookie from Oz's hands and tossed it in his mouth, leaving poor Oz looking devastated. “Right now, we've got to figure out where that million came from. Maybe that will help us narrow down what name he's currently using.”
She took a step toward the bedroom. “I should call Asa and tell him.”
“No,” Sawyer said, grabbing her by the arm. “Not until we know for certain that he's not involved.”
She waved a finger in his face. “Someday you're going to regret not trusting him. He's got a wife and a family now. Even if he was capable of being behind this, he's not going to blow what he's built. I know it's got to be Mitch. I feel it in my gut.”
Sawyer's cell buzzed in his pocket. “Damn it.” He yanked it out and jabbed at the screen. “Hayes.” He paused, listening. “Can't I fax it to you?” A growl tore from his throat. “Fine. I'll be there within the hour.”
He slipped the phone back into his pocket. “For some reason, the airport is requiring my signature on the flight plan for the guys' return flight, and they won't accept a fax.” He jutted his chin at Hunter and Oz. “I'm going to go down to the airport and then come right back.”
She yawned as she followed the guys to the door. “I'll be fine. I'm still pretty tired, so I'm sure I'll fall asleep five minutes after you leave anyway.”
The guys said their good-byes, Hunter giving her a hug, Rowan giving her a curt nod, and Oz kissing her on the mouth, trying to slip in his tongue before Sawyer punched him in the arm.
When they left, Sawyer kissed her thoroughly, as if he'd never see her again. “Do not open this door for anyone, do you hear me?”
“I won't,” she promised, smiling against his lips. “I love you.”
She watched him as he got onto the elevator before shutting the door. Then, after taking a bite of another piece of toast, she got into bed and slipped beneath the sheets.