Whatever happened next, I had that night. Whatever may have come next, I knew I’d have one night with the two most amazing men I’d ever met.
This was more than sex. This was more than exploration, and breaking free of the “good girl” mold. This was real. I just didn’t know how to tell them that.
15
Roman
We left her that night, eventually. We’d both wanted to stay, obviously. I mean, fuck, I never wanted to leave her side. But but we knew we couldn’t.
That didn’t mean Colt or I slept a wink that night after we headed back.
I tossed and turned, until finally, I couldn’t fucking stand it and went out to the bunkhouse porch.
“Think fast.”
I barely caught the beer Colt — who I didn’t even know was awake — threw at me.
“You’re gonna catch me in the fucking head one of these days, and then I’ll have to kill you.”
“Nah, you’re too fast.”
“You better hope you’re faster if you hit me.”
Colt ginned.
“Can’t sleep?”
His smile faded.
“Shit man, that got nuts.”
He whistled. “Yeah, sure did.”
“I can’t let tomorrow happen.”
He looked grim. “Same. We can’t allow that.”
“The fuck are we going to do?”
My friend shook his head as he cracked his own beer. “We could take off. Grab her, steal a truck, and just fucking bounce, but then there’s Gramps.”
I nodded, frowning.
“I mean, that old man can take care of himself if it comes down to it, but—”
“But we can’t do that.”
He nodded.
“Plus we’d be on the run forever, and that can’t last.”
Colt dropped his eyes to the ground, his jaw tight. “They can’t get their hands on her man. I’ll lose my fucking mind if they do.”
“So we can’t run.”
He sighed. “And we can’t let them take her.”
We glanced at each other.
“Fight?”
I whistled lowly. “That’s a stacked fucking deck. There’s what, ten other guards here besides us? Plus Jeb, plus the five bosses from Jersey. Plus their guys.”
Colt grinned. “Two to twenty-five. Not bad. We’ve had worse, right?”
I rolled my eyes.
“The other guards wouldn’t fight. Shit, half of them are here ‘cause of the same sort of shit deal we are.”
“Colt, I love you brother, but those are shit odds, even still.”
We drank our beers, drank another, then a third. Eventually we found our beds, but I stayed awake.
I couldn’t let them have—
And then I froze.
I started to think about our gramps, and about the time he’d taken us hunting out on the prairie.
“You gotta watch out for rattlesnakes, Romeo.”
It was his constant nickname for me, since there was always some girl chasing after me even back then.
“You know what happens when you see one right?”
He’s pointed at the one blocking our path.
“Shoot it?” I’d shrugged.
Grandpa had snorted. “Nah. You miss and it’ll get ya. No, boys, you keep him calm. You keep nice and still, let him get used to you until he forgets you’re there, and then…”
I’d half expected a joke about running away, but Grandpa’s face went dead serious.
“Then, when he forgets you’re there, you walk up nice and calm.”
He stepped towards the snake. Suddenly, he’d snapped, his boot lashing out, making Colt and I jump.
“You catch him by the neck—”
His boot crunched onto the writhing snake, just behind the head. The thing hissed and lashed at him, but couldn’t get free, and couldn’t bite him.
“And then you cut his damn head off.”
The knife was fast, and suddenly, the snake stopped moving, its body going limp as the severed head rolled away.
Grandpa looked at us sternly.
“That’s how you kill a snake. After that, he ain’t gonna bite you, and he ain’t gonna come after you when you walk way.”
I sat bolt upright in bed.
“Colt.”
“What?”
“You asleep?”
“Sound like I am?”
I shook my head. “I know what we have to—”
“You thinking about Gramps and that fucking snake too, huh?”
I stared at my friend, and his eyes went wide.
“Holy shit, I was kidding. Were you really?”
I nodded.
He grinned. “Shit, man. Mind readers.”
“You know what we’re doing tomorrow.”
He nodded grimly.
“Let’s cut the fucking head off this snake.”
16
Johanna
My breath came slowly and heavily as I felt his eyes slide over me. I shivered, looking a the floor and biting my lip, squeezing my eyes shut.
This was it.
I hadn’t seen my men that morning. In fact, it’d been two other guards who’d come to pound on my door and then barge in, leering at me as I’d yanked the covers over myself. They’d thrown a box on the bed and barked at me to shower and to “dress in that” and to “make sure I looked perfect” before they’d slammed the door, leaving me to my horrible thoughts.
It was later, after I’d done as they’d said because I was too terrified not to, that Mr. Pike had waltzed in, grinning his evil smile.
“My my my, you’re looking good enough to eat!”
I flinched under his gaze, hating the black lingerie I’d been made to wear. I wanted an outfit like this to feel sexy and special. And I wanted to wear it for Colt and Roman.
Not for Mr. Pike, and not for a situation like this.
“You ready for today?”
“I— I’m not sure I—”
“Well, you will be,” he grinned. “Today you might just leave this place.”
I looked up quickly, my pulse quickening, and he laughed.
“Not the way you’re thinking, trust me,” he laughed. “But don’t worry, you won’t have to go back to that shit-hole little farm I found you at. No more milkin’ cows or whatever the fuck you wasted your time doing back then.”
I’d never wished so hard that I could be back at that farm, milking and raking and just being out there in the country working. I wanted that so badly, instead of being here, with him.
“My bosses are coming today,” he growled. “And they wanna meet you.”
He smiled wickedly.
“Be on your best fucking behavior, my little filly, or there’ll be hell to pay. Thing is, you might just leave here with one of them.”
He looked me over, making my skin crawl.
“Let’s go.”
He hauled me out, marching me downstairs and out the door to the compound. I felt so naked and exposed in the stupid lingerie he’d put me in, and all I wanted was my guys.
My cowboys.
I wanted Colt and Roman, and their strong arms, and warmth, and ferocious possessiveness. And I wanted them to ride in and take me away from here.
But I knew that couldn’t happen. If it could, they’d have done so already.
Mr. Pike kicked open a door, and pushed me inside, and I instantly shivered as a room full of men turned to me and stared.
The place was almost a barn of sorts — high wooden ceilings, a wooden floor, and some equipment in the corner. A big table stood in the middle of the room, surrounded by chairs occupied by the wicked looking men in suits with greased back hair.
“Well well, Jeb,” one of them chuckled, a silver-haired fat man with evil eyes and a goatee. He stroked it as he stepped forward.
“This your newest?”
“Yessiree,” Mr. Pike said proudly.
The man grinned, his eyes darting over me and making me nauseous.
“Excellent. Has she been broken in yet?”
“No sir, Mr. Vito,” Mr. Pike chuckled. “But she’s willing and pliant enough. Thought one of you fine gents might like her, as a token of good faith to our business dealings.”
Mr. Vito chuckled and clapped Mr. Pike on the back. “Good man, Jeb, good man.” He glanced back at the table of guys. “Hell, maybe we’ll all have a little go with her, huh, fellas?”
They laughed, and I wanted to cry.
“Mmm,” he turned back, stepping closer to me. “You do have some pretty lips, my dear,” he growled. “I bet you suck a mean cock.”
“The fuck is this, Jeb?”
We turned towards one of the other guys in suits, standing next to a metal drum in the corner of the room half covered with a riding blanket.
Mr. Pike frowned. “I don’t know?”
The man turned, grinning. “Aww c’mon Jeb. This one of those stupid practical jokes of yours? The thing is fucking ticking.”
The other men laughed, but I slowly watched Mr. Pike’s face go white.
“It ain’t mine, fellas.”
“Oh fuck off, Jeb,” another man in a suit with a New Jersey accent chuckled. “This is like the time you tried to get a donkey head in Johnny’s bed the last time we came out.”
The men roared with laugher.
“Shit, you’ve been watching too many mafia movies, Jeb, you son of a—”
“Fellas, that ain’t—”
The lights suddenly went out, and the room plunged into darkness.
There was the sound of chairs knocking over, and men yelling for the lights, and a few glowing cell phone screens, and I started to turn, when I was grabbed. My heart jumped into my throat as the hand yanked me back, another closing over my mouth before I could scream.
“Let’s go, angel.”
My heart about melted right there.
It was them.
I felt Roman and Colt’s hands tighten on my arms as they whisked me through the darkness, shoving someone out of the way with a crash before I was suddenly blinded by sunlight.
The side door slammed shut behind us, and I whirled as their hands let me go to see them yanking a chain through the door handle and locking it tight.
“What are you—”
“I need you to trust us, angel,” Roman growled. “Whatever you’re about to see, you need to know we’re not evil men. But the men in there ARE. I can’t even begin to tell you the horrible shit they’ve done, and would have continued to do.
“Would have?”
“We need you to trust—”
“Of course I do,” I whispered. “You just saved me from whatever hell that was. Whatever it is, I trust you.”
Colt held up a small black box with a tiny antenna and a button, his face grim.
My eyes went wide.
“They were going to sell you,” he said, his voice breaking. “Or worse, Jeb was going to give you to those animals, to torture, to use, to degrade, to hurt—” His voice caught, and he shook his head.
The door suddenly exploded outwards, wrenching right off it’s hinges as one of the henchmen from inside crashed through it. I screamed, whirling along with Colt and Roman to see Jeb staggering through the doorway — a gun in his hand.
Twelve men stood behind him in the doorway, each holding a gun aimed at us.
“You two!” Mr. Pike roared, brandishing the gun at Colt and Roman.
The three of us froze as the dozen or so guns trained on us.
Mr. Pike laughed. “Oh, now you’re in deep shit. Hand her the fuck over.”
“Not a fucking chance,” Roman growled.
Mr. Pike pulled the hammer back on his pistol. “I’ll ask you once more, and then I’ll shoot you and your little friend here through the legs, tie you to chairs, and make you watch while every single guy here takes a turn with this bitch. Understand? Now hand her the fuck over.”
I felt the world dim around me, and slowly, I reached down to pick up the little black remote Colt had dropped in the confusion.
“Put that down, girlie,” Mr. Pike hissed. “You don’t know what you’re—”
In slow motion, the button pressed down under the weight of my thumb.
In even slower motion, Colt and Roman’s eyes went wide, and they grabbed me — yanking me down and throwing their bodies over mine in the dirt.
And then the roar.
I can remember the belching heat hissing over us and the sound of wrenching wood and screams as the barn exploded in a massive fireball. Smoke and ash and burning wood showered down over us, and I’d barely caught my breath when the two of them hauled me up.
“Are you hurt?”
I blinked, my eyes wide in stunned silence as I stared at the blazing barn behind them.
“Johanna!”
I snapped my attention back to them.
“Are you hurt?”
I shook my head.
“Then let’s move.”
We ran full tilt towards the garage at the other end of the compound, each of them holding one of my hands.
“We didn’t want you to to be the one to—”
“Hey,” I stopped, and suddenly yanked Colt towards me, kissing him hard. I turned to Roman and did the same thing.
“It’s done, and we’re all here, and safe.”
Their faces were white.
“Were those men as bad as you say they were?”
Roman looked away. “Worse.”
“Then I’m fine. My conscious is clear. Look, I know you’re worried about me, but trust me.” I threw my arms around them, pulling them close and burying my face in their chests. “So long as I have you two, I’m fine.”
We glanced back at the smoking barn, some of the other guards now running towards it, others running away just like us.
“Now, we’re free,” Roman said quietly. “Free to go wherever.”
“Am I free to come with?”
They grinned, pulling me close.
“So long as you swear to never leave,” Colt murmured into my hair.
“I think I can agree to that.”
Ten minutes later, we were out on the open Montana road in one of Mr. Pike’s pickup trucks, heading west with the wind in our hair and the nightmare behind us.
Epilogue
Johanna
“Whoa, whoa!”
The horse neighed under me, chuffing and stomping its feet as we came to a stop at the far end of the ranch. I unsaddled, swinging my leg over the horse and jumping down, before leading him by the bridle to the fence post and trying him up.
“Good boy.” I nuzzled his nose.
I hadn’t been much of a rider before, despite my farm upbringing, but Colt and Roman had fixed that real quick.
“I think you’re a natural.”
I turned, smiling at the two of them — boots, tight jeans, plaid shirts undone a button or two more than they should be, cowboy hats on their heads. I liked my cowboys looking like cowboys.
A lot.
“At?”
“At riding.”
I blushed. “Oh?”
“The horse,” Roman said with a glint in his eyes. “Dirty girl.”
I bit my lip.
They led me through the gate in the fence out to the where the first flags had already been stuck in the ground to mark the future excavation.
For our house.
Jake Stoneham, their “Gramps,” had been nice enough to put us up in his guest house since we’d left Jeb Pike’s ranch, but it was time for our own space. Colt and Roman had bought a few hundred acres next to their grandfather’s land from some older neighbors who were happy to sell to boys they’d known growing up. And Jake himself had given them another few hundred of his own as a welcome home present.
Now, we were building our own life.
And our own family.
I touched my hand to my belly and smiled. It was early — very very early. In fact we hadn't told anyone yet — as if we had anyone to tell besides Jake, re
ally.
You see, it’d taken one look when I rolled back into my aunt and uncle’s farm to see that they knew. One look said they knew exactly what was happening when I’d left with the men that day to go “work for Mr. Pike.”
And that’s all I’d needed.
It’d hurt, a lot, but I’d marched right past them, hugged my little cousins and told them I promised to write, and then I’d walked back to the truck with Roman and Colt and driven away.
That was the last time I’d seen my aunt and uncle, but I had kept up as pen pals with my cousins.
That family had sold me out, but this one? Well, this one we were just starting, and I couldn’t wait.
“Kitchen,” Colt pointed to one corner of the marked up grass.
“Porch,” Roman nodded to the lines of orange spray paint on the ground.
He placed me in front of him, and I smiled as I looked out over the rolling hills. The view was going to be incredible in this place.
“Bedroom.”
I turned to see Colt standing at a new spot.
“Where exactly?”
“Right here.”
“Sorry, you’re being a little vague. Specifically where will the bed go that I’ll be sharing with my two gorgeous men?”
He grinned. “You’re being a tease.”
“Maybe.”
I kissed him, melting against his chest before I turned and pulled Roman down to kiss him as well.
Yeah, a girl could get used to this.
I started to pull back from Roman, when I felt Colt pressing into me from behind, his hands moving to my waist and pulling my ass back against him.
“Ahem,” I ginned. “Aren’t we supposed to be back for dinner?”
“It’s not that far of a ride,” Colt purred in my ear.
“Don’t you want to break in the bedroom?” Roman growled into my lips.
“I thought we were coming out here to see where the bedroom would go.”
“Seems like a shame to come all the way out here and not try it out,” Colt murmured, kissing my neck and making me shiver.
I gasped as I felt Roman move to my collarbone, nipping at the skin there as his hands slid up to cup my breasts through my shirt. They started to kiss me harder, and more aggressively, growling as they tasted my skin. Roman’s fingers found the buttons of my shirt, and he started to open it up one at a time, my breath coming fast.