by Chloe Lang
Jessie watched tears stream down Samantha’s cheek. “You poor thing,” she lied. The bitch had killed two people at least, and who knew how many more, and Phoenix’s horse. She didn’t have a right to cry.
“I know, right. I deserve to be Mrs. Wilde.”
When Samantha placed her head in her hands and sobbed, Jessie didn’t hesitate to act. She burst forward with every speck of muscle and energy inside her, lunging to push the laptop into the shaft. It worked! The metal clanged to the bottom, and Jessie guessed it was at least twenty feet deep.
“Bitch!” Samantha pulled Jessie’s hair. “That didn’t change a thing. I already started the clock. In ten minutes, this whole place will explode.”
Jessie punched, clawed, and bit her captor, but with her ankles restrained, she was no match for the deranged woman. Samantha was able to pull her and the chair up onto the place the laptop had just been—the two boulders on the side of the chasm that the silver computer had fallen into.
“You’re going to die next to my laptop, Jessie!”
Samantha reached for her, and Jessie realized the insane woman was going to push her into the shaft. On instinct, Jessie reacted. She sent a glob of spit into the girl’s eyes, temporarily blinding her.
Blinking, Samantha grabbed her hand. Jessie tried to pull her hand back from the crazed female but couldn’t.
“If I can’t have them, Jessie, neither can you. Let’s die together, and make them all suffer.”
Horrified, Jessie felt the girl tug on her hand and fall back into the shaft. This is it! This is how I die. Still hoping to break free, Jessie closed her eyes and prayed for a painless ending.
But then she felt a jerk, and Samantha’s hand slipped from hers.
I’m not dead. The chair had lodged on the other side of the boulder, keeping her from the fall. Still, she dangled precariously over the rock, looking into the gray below.
The droplight hanging from the bolt sent enough light for Jessie to see her captor and would-be killer was dead. Samantha’s body was twisted into the shape of a pretzel.
She started the clock. How much time do I have left before the explosion? Maybe ten minutes? No more.
Jessie tried to pull herself back over the boulder but couldn’t. Only the chair kept her from falling to her death. Images of the Wilde brothers came to her mind. She wished she could say good-bye and tell them how much they’d meant to her. They’d changed her and made her see herself in a new way. She wasn’t the virgin who’d shown up in Wilde several weeks back. Now she was a confident woman who knew what being loved by such amazing men meant.
Even knowing it probably was fruitless, she continued trying to free herself.
Then instinctively, she also began to scream. “Help me! I’m in here!”
Please, God, I don’t want to die.
Chapter Nine
The nurse walked into the teenager’s room. He was out of his coma and whispering something.
“Rich, you don’t have to talk. I’m so glad you’re with us.”
He blinked and shook his head from side to side slowly. Again, he whispered.
“Are you in pain?” She leaned in close and checked the monitor. Vitals were improving, though he wasn’t out of the woods yet.
His words were loud enough for her to finally hear. “No. Old Mine. She’s taken her to the Old Mine.”
* * * *
Images of Jessie being mangled plagued Austin’s mind. He pushed them aside as he and his brothers ran into the Old Wilde Mine. She can’t be dead. She just can’t.
They’d gotten the call from the sheriff about Rich’s revelation.
Austin’s first thought had been to call Heath, their cousin. He had a two-seater plane. Ranching was his life, but flying was his passion. He even had a commercial license in his wallet. Landing in one of the fields near the Old Wilde Mine would’ve been nothing to him. But when Austin got him on the cell, Heath told him he was in Carson City. He’d gone there to enlist some buddies he knew who worked for the state with some pull to join the search for Jessie.
With all the rain from last night and this morning, they couldn’t get to the mine by ATVs or motorcycles. So they’d saddled their fastest horses, brought some mining gear, and rode like wild men to the Old Wilde Mine. Pushing the beasts so hard wasn’t something he or his brothers ever did, but with Jessie in peril, they had to now.
As they rounded the corner, Austin saw the entrance. What if Rich was lying, confused, remembering something Samantha had shared with him that he believed to be true but wasn’t? But when Jackson silently pointed to the trees up on the hill with Samantha’s horse grazing there, he knew Jessie and the female murderer were inside.
In a flash, he and his brothers leapt from their horses, strapped on the gear, including the hard hats with lights, and bolted to the entrance. Thankfully, Jackson knew this mine almost as good as Pappy Jack.
“Where do we go, lil’ bro?” Austin asked.
“If I know Samantha, she’s gone deep into the mine with Jessie.”
Denver pointed down the tunnel. “Lead the way.”
Twenty minutes in, Austin heard a voice. Jessie’s. “Help! God, let someone come.” The despair in her tone crushed Austin.
With pistols drawn and shutting off their hardhats’ lights, he and his brothers shot down the tunnel toward the woman of their dreams.
Her voice echoed down the tunnel. “How could you have done this, you stupid dead bitch?” She continued to rant. “Breaking your neck was too easy a death for a monster like you.”
Samantha’s dead. No need to be stealth now. “Jessie, we’re coming.”
“Oh my God! Guys, hurry. Before her fall, Samantha set off a timer that will detonate all these explosives in here. There can’t be more than five minutes left.”
“We’re going to save you, pet. I promise.” They rounded the corner and saw Jessie’s legs and her ankles tied to the chair that had apparently kept her from falling down the shaft.
There were enough explosives around the place to blow the all of them clear to California and back.
Without hesitating, he ran to her and pulled the chair back over the boulder.
Jessie leaned into him. “I’m glad you’re all here, but we’ve got to get out of here fast.”
Austin quickly untied her ankles and lifted her up in his arms. He ran for all he was worth down the tunnel. His four brothers followed.
For years, he thought he would leave his brothers someday. Now, after everything he’d seen and been through with them, he couldn’t imagine it.
He’d never believed he could be soft, but holding Jessie in his arms now, he knew better. She’d shown him so much about himself. She was everything to him, the love of his life. The darkness inside him lifted around the light of this amazing woman. BDSM would always be a part of his sexuality, but now with Jessie, he could expand into other avenues. Baby steps, sure. But she deserved his best effort, always.
Racing for the entrance and safety, Austin hoped they’d all make it out in time to get to the future he now desired—a life of sharing Jessie with his brothers.
Chapter Ten
Sitting in Austin’s dining room, Jessie sipped on the herbal tea like an automaton. She didn’t really taste it, merely lifted it over and over to her mouth. She was completely wrung out, every muscle and nerve dull. Like her soul.
Her hair was still damp from the bath Austin had given her. Wrapped in his white robe, she loved the feel and smell of his scent. It was the only thing that kept her grounded.
Lee Carpenter, her biological father, had just left, along with the sheriff. She’d recounted every moment of her time in the mine. She’d forced herself to say the words, pushing them out of her mouth, hoping that when she’d told the story she could be done with it. The case that had brought her to Wilde for the agency was now closed, as were the murders the sheriff had been investigating.
Though Lee had asked her to return to the agency, she’d declined. Je
ssie wasn’t sure what she wanted to do next career wise, but her old job didn’t hold any interest to her now. Facing death between the eyes and coming out alive on the other end had changed her. She wasn’t the same woman who had walked into Wilde. And it wasn’t just the tragedy that had changed her. The Wilde brothers had changed her forever.
Austin walked in with a plate of crackers, cheese, and fruit.
“Seriously, cowboy, I can’t eat. The tea is enough for now.” The brothers had taken her to Austin’s place after the mine explosion. The doctor had made a house call. Once again, he’d given her a clean bill of health, announcing to the five worried cowboys that she was tough as nails.
I sure don’t feel tough. She was glad that the nightmare was finally over.
“Okay, pet, but Phoenix went to quite a lot of trouble to put this together for you. He’s going to be disappointed you didn’t taste it.”
Jessie felt her shoulders sag. Even with the crazy bitch, Samantha, dead, she still had one other worry. Though not life threatening, she knew it was certainly awful enough that her heart would never survive.
She couldn’t handle another moment with Austin’s demand over her head. She looked directly into Austin’s eyes. His demand for her to make the impossible choice had not been resolved. It never could be.
I just want to get this over with. I can’t bear much more. “Where are your brothers?”
“They’re all outside.” He sat the plate of food down. “I asked them to give us a moment together.”
Her heart hurt. Maybe it had been better to be numb. At least when her heart was numb it hadn’t felt like an aching chasm in her chest. “Austin, I just can’t make—”
“Shh. Before you say more, let me talk.” His voice was deep but without the familiar edge. It was gentler than she’d ever heard it before.
Jessie braced herself for another round of his arguments of why she should choose him. He’d pulled her from the mine and saved her life. He deserved her ear one last time. “Okay.”
“Stand up, pet.” The hot cowboy that had captured her heart cupped her chin.
“Yes, Master.” God, how can I leave him? Dread and sadness rolled through her body.
When she was fully on her feet, Austin leaned down and kissed her. For a moment, nothing else mattered. The world stopped turning, and her insides warmed up. Our last kiss. I’ll never forget it. Jessie began to sob into his mouth, unable to hold back her pain of having to leave him and his brothers.
Austin released her lips. “Jessie, don’t cry.”
“I–I...can’t help it. Master, I just can’t choose.”
He pulled her close, and she melted into him. “I know, pet.”
“I love Jackson. I love Phoenix. I love Dallas. I love Denver.” Her entire body began to shake as she sobbed.
He squeezed her tight. “That’s what I want to tell you, pet. You don’t have to choose. I won’t make you.”
“I love your brothers, but I love you, too, Austin.” She closed her eyes. “I can’t live without you either.”
Austin’s eyes were warmer than she could ever remember. “I love you, too, sweetheart. I’ve been a fool my whole life. You made me see that.”
She blinked back her tears and looked into his eyes. “What do you mean?”
“When I was tied to the tree all those years ago, I felt I had no control.” His gaze didn’t falter, but she could see the ancient pain he held in his dark orbs.
“You were only a child.” Jessie reached up and touched the line of his jaw. “It had to be terrifying.”
“It was. But as the hours passed, I made a promise to myself to never give my power over to anyone, no matter what. That included my brothers. I let one single instant rule over everything my parents had taught me. I let that moment in time be more important than the love I received from my family.” His voice remained steady but very quiet.
His honesty was overwhelming, but Jessie had to know more. “Why, Austin? Your brothers have always loved you.”
“True, but for a very long time I believed that sharing a woman would require an act of trust I just didn’t have in me.” He closed his eyes as he continued telling her his deepest secrets. “I vowed that first night at the tree that I would go my own way someday and leave Wilde and my brothers behind forever. They hadn’t changed. I had.”
“You were only a boy.” Jessie’s heart flattened out, thinking about the pain Austin had carried for so many years.
Austin opened his eyes. “I closed off everyone and everything. No one was ever able to break down my walls. I built them too high. Sometimes I think I loved being safe more than I loved anything. I can see that those walls were my own safe word.” He paused and then smiled. “But then this firebrand from DC rolls into town and changes everything. I thought I could back off and let you and my brothers have a life. I was wrong. When you came to my house, you devastated me. I knew I had to have you.”
She shook her head. “Now, you’re willing to let me go? Give me up? Let your brothers have me? Not happening, cowboy.”
He laughed. “You’re too much. Be quiet and let me finish.”
Jessie had a hundred arguments ready to fly. As Austin began stroking her hair, she snapped her jaw shut.
“Where was I? I remember. I was talking about the firebrand from DC.” Austin’s fingers grazed her cheek. “Pet, you’ve seen that when I’m pushed I can be very hardheaded. You’ve helped me see things differently about everything.”
“I did?” she asked meekly.
“Yes. Sure, I enjoy BDSM. It’s become a huge part of my life. In some ways, it saved me. It allowed me to be intimate in a way I could handle. I can’t leave it behind. But now that I know you like the soft side of sex, I’m more than willing to give tenderness a try, too. Not all the time, you understand, but sometimes. I love you, Jessie Greene. You’re mine. I won’t let you go.”
“I love you, too.” She squeezed her eyes shut, hating the choice he was pushing her to. “And your brothers? What about them?”
“How could I even consider keeping a vow that I made as a boy? I knew it the instant we pulled you out of the mine. They’re my brothers. They’d do anything for me. I love and respect them. I won’t leave them.” Austin ran his fingers down her neck and to her shoulder. Then he laughed. “Besides, I saw how you responded to them and they to you during that hot sex show you all put on for me in my office. I’ve gotta see that again.”
Her heart clenched. It felt like it might stop. “You mean you’re staying, and I don’t have to choose?”
“That’s exactly what I mean, pet.”
Relief and rapture shot through her like hot geysers. The world had stopped when he’d made his demand for her to choose the impossible, and now, it opened up again. Her world. Her men. Oh God, yes!
Austin kissed her again, and this time her entire body softened. His tongue shot into her mouth, and she became warm and dizzy.
“What was that for?” She already knew the answer. He was in charge.
Austin pinched her nipples through her shirt, delivering two sharp stings. She could feel the dreamy space approaching.
“It’s time to take you to my brothers. They’re outside waiting for us.”
“They know you’re staying?” Jessie gazed into the cowboy’s dark fiery eyes, and she knew he was telling the truth. “I get my dream?”
“Our dream, Jessie. Yes, they know.” He pulled on her hair, urging her closer to him. “Time to tie you up—shibari-style.”
She remembered how amazing the Japanese bondage play had been.
She was ready to go there again and trust her five cowboys. “Yes, please. Yes, Master.”
As he stripped her of the robe, Jessie felt completely giddy, knowing what he had in store for her. Where she’d been cold and numb before, heat lit her. She felt the coolness of the night air on her skin, and her nipples jutted out even more.
“Follow me, pet.” He didn’t wait for her but marched towards t
he dungeon—she knew very well—in his home.
He slipped the blindfold over her eyes, the light fleeing in an instant. She couldn’t see, but she could feel. The silky ropes caressed her skin, the vines of his love encompassing her body. This was how he told her he loved her. It was his language, and she’d learned to translate it. He wrapped her in the thin bonds with expert precision. Every tie was a connection between the two of them.
In no time, she was completely tied up and blindfolded—helpless. Every nerve popped to life, and shivers shot over her skin. When he placed the headphones in her ears, she could only hear the pounding of a drum solo from his iPod, deafening out all other sounds in the room.
She felt Austin lift her onto the table with wheels. Jessie settled back in the confining darkness as Austin rolled the table with her on top of it out the backdoor.
He’s taking me to his tree and my four other cowboys. A hunger like she’d never felt before welled up inside her. Finally, I get to be with all my men.
When the table stopped rolling along, she felt five pairs of hands touch every intimate part of her body. Strong hands caressed her. Someone pulled off the headphones and then the blindfold.
She was surrounded. They stared down at her like a hungry pack of wolves. She felt deliciously helpless as they stalked around her. Not a one of them wore a stitch of clothing. Their magnificent bodies were on full display. Five gorgeous, gloriously hard cocks jutted toward her.
“She looks beautiful, brother,” Jackson said, a dangerous gleam in his eyes.
Austin smiled down at her. “She does, indeed. I’ll have to teach you all how to tie up our gorgeous bride. I’m afraid she’ll require an awful lot of discipline.”
Austin picked her up and flipped her over his knee. The ropes that bound her kept her in the perfect position. She couldn’t move, couldn’t fight. She was at Austin’s mercy.
