by Becca Van
Trent got up from his seat and took the one to her right. Tristan also stood, but instead of moving to the empty chair next to Trent he walked up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders. Her already taut body tightened up even more. She wasn’t used to being touched so much, and she began to wonder if these three men didn’t care about invading her personal space or if they were just the type who liked to touch often.
When Tristan started massaging the tight muscles in her neck and shoulder, she couldn’t help but groan at the pleasurable pain as they began to loosen and her head dropped forward. She inhaled deeply, and this time, when she moaned it was because of their clean, fresh scents and their close proximity. Her lids drifted closed, and she wished she hadn’t closed her eyes, because their handsome, brawny images seemed to be burned into her mind’s eye.
“You’ve been carrying around too much stress, baby,” Tristan said as his thick, strong fingers dug into a particularly stubborn knot along her spine. “You need help and we’re just the men to aid you.”
Tears pricked her eyes again, but she didn’t let them form. She took another deep breath and sighed as the tension in her muscles eased. She was so weary, and she was tempted to unload all her problems on these kind men, but she was also still a little wary.
Sabrina wanted to know why they were so eager to help her. What was in it for them? No one helped out nowadays, not unless there was some reward or monetary compensation. She didn’t have the cash to be able to pay them to protect her.
Tristan’s fingers stopped massaging her muscles since they had loosened up, but instead of moving away he stroked a hand over her head and down her messy hair. Then he lifted her and the chair she was sitting in away from the table, bent down, pushed an arm beneath her knees and the other around her shoulders, and lifted her up, and she gasped in surprise.
“What are you doing?” she asked in an almost breathless whisper and cursed at how dreamy her voice had sounded. Her throat was a little sore, and she hadn’t meant to sound like she was trying to entice him, but that’s what it had sounded like to her. She just hoped it didn’t sound like that to him.
He smiled down at her and winked before he took her seat and lowered her onto his lap. “Just getting comfortable, baby. Trent, pass over her glass of juice. You have a sore throat don’t you, Sab?”
“Yeah. Thanks,” she said to Trent as he passed the glass to her. Sabrina picked it up and sipped a couple of times before placing it back on the table.
“Who is coming after you, Sabrina, and why?” Trick asked, and from the look on his face he wasn’t about to let her put off answering any longer.
Sabrina decided the least she could do was to tell them why she was running. They had been so kind to her, and giving them information was the right thing to do. If the man or men after her found her, at least they would know what they were up against.
“I was Personal Assistant to Harvey Noble of Integrated Computers and Software.” She paused to lick her lips and take another sip of her juice. “I accidentally opened an e-mail of his instead of forwarding it to his in-box like I had been requested to do. The information I read in that e-mail scared the hell out of me, and I was pretty sure Harvey hadn’t seen me open his mail, but I couldn’t be sure. He was walking past my desk when I’d read that mail, but when I looked up he didn’t seem to be taking any notice of me. I marked that e-mail as unread and then forwarded it to him. I was lucky because it was time to knock off so I shut down my computer and left.”
She took another deep breath and released it slowly, trying to circumvent the trembles that started in her belly. Tristan’s arm wrapped around her waist and hugged her tight as if he were trying to offer her comfort and the strength to continue. She appreciated that because it had been so long since she’d felt another human being hugging her. The warmth from his body permeated hers, and she shifted slightly before continuing.
“I had to go back to the office a couple of hours later when I realized I’d left my cell phone in the desk drawer. I felt a little lost without it and didn’t want to wait until the next morning before having it in my possession again.
“I didn’t think anyone would be there since it was after office hours, but when I saw the light on in Harvey’s office I quietly moved toward the door. He was on the phone to someone and when I realized what he was saying I knew he’d seen me open and read that e-mail.”
Trent reached over and took her hand in his. She hadn’t even noticed that her hands were fisted until he straightened her fingers out and laced their fingers together. She squeezed his hand like a lifeline when things felt so out of her control.
“What was he saying, Sabrina?” Trick asked.
Sabrina told them about the threats she overheard, and how she had destroyed her cell phone and run away with only the cash she could withdraw from the ATM.
“I went back to my car, drove to a secondhand car sales lot, sold it for cash, and hopped on the next bus out of Fort Collins.”
“Did you plan your route?” Trent asked.
Sab shook her head. “I didn’t care where I was going, just that it was away from my hometown. I purchased a couple of changes of clothes along the way and was lucky enough to be able to shower at the bus stations each day before getting on the next bus.
“I should have asked the drivers or the ticket sellers where the buses were going, but it didn’t seem to matter. That was until I arrived here and found out there wasn’t another bus for a week.”
“Don’t worry about that now, sweetheart.” Trick leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table and looked at her intently. “What was in that e-mail, Sabrina?”
“It was an e-mail telling Harvey that one of the chips the company had made to spy on the FBI had fried and there was no way to get into the office to fix it unless something else went wrong with the computer.” Sabrina gripped Trent’s hand harder. “I think my boss has been placing spyware into all the computers he’s sold. And believe me when I say that it is bad, that’s an understatement. From what I could gather from the e-mail, he and his cronies can see every keystroke and e-mail coming and going from all the PCs he’s put chips in. His company is huge, with stores all over the country, and he’s sold a lot of computers. Even the White House has ordered a few.”
“Fuck!” Trick roared, making her jump and whimper with fear. He stood up, his chair scraping on the floor, and when he reached for her she flinched and pulled back. He looked so angry, and for a moment she thought he might hit her.
Trick must have seen her reaction because the anger left his face and then he squatted down next to her and cupped her face in his hands. “Don’t ever be scared of me or my brothers, sweetheart. I’ve never hit a woman before and I’m not about to start now. I’m not angry at you. I’m angry and worried about what Harvey Noble is up to.” He leaned forward and kissed her softly on the lips.
Sabrina blinked, surprised yet oddly happy about him having kissed her. When she felt her areolae ruche and her nipples harden she crossed her arms over her chest. The action was uncomfortable and made her nipples ache even more when her limbs brushed over them. But what was more of a surprise was the way her pussy lips seemed to swell and moisten and her clit began throbbing.
Damn! These men are so frickin’ potent they should come with a warning label.
Trick released her face and stood up. He moved over to the counter and removed his cell from his pocket before pressing a button, and he started talking.
“Luke, you and Damon need to get your asses over to our house.” He paused as the other person must have started talking. “No. Right now!” Another pause. “Yes, it’s bad. Do you know any feds or anyone in the White House?”
“No not over the phone. Just get over here, fast.”
Yet another pause.
Chapter Four
“Don’t you fucking tell me you can’t find her,” Harvey screamed into his phone. “I pay you good money to do as you’re told. Hack into the bus termi
nal’s security and see what you can find. I shouldn’t have to tell you how to do your fucking job. Just fucking find her. Fast.”
Harvey disconnected the call and very nearly hurled his cell phone across the room, but he didn’t. He counted to fifty and breathed deeply until the rage burning inside him began to calm slightly. He was in deep shit, and if Sawyer didn’t find that fucking bitch soon he was going to go down. But Harvey was going to make damn sure he took Sawyer with him. He knew he was being watched by the law. Probably the fucking feds as well as the CIA, and he could practically feel the walls closing in around him and hear the bar doors of a jail cell slamming closed behind him.
He’d gone into hiding and hadn’t used his usual cell or his credit cards. He was so glad he’d set up a fake persona a couple of months after the first sale of one of his computers with those chips in them. He knew he should have been happy with the billion-plus dollars he was reportedly worth, but a lot of that money was tied up in his company and he only had a few million in cash accounts. A man could never have too much money or power, and when the idea of that chip had formed, he had spent months perfecting it. He wasn’t about to let the law get in his way. He lived in America, the land of the free, and should be able to do anything he damn well pleased.
He smirked as he thought about the information he had downloaded from the computer chips to his own PC and the terabyte hard drives he’d hidden away with that information on them. Even the White House wasn’t safe, and the damning information he had on some of the politicians and a few high-powered, prominent businessmen could make him a lot more money. In a way, he was glad that the president was on the up and up, but he wondered what the commander in chief would do if he found out some of his senators were dirty. Probably kick them to the curb and throw the book at them.
He rubbed his hands together as he remembered the anonymous e-mails he’d sent out to those dirty fuckers. He would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when they had known they’d been caught. He could see it now. The sweat beading on their faces and them scrambling to try and cover their tracks, but it was too late. Harvey had ordered them to pay money into a numbered Swiss account to keep his mouth shut. Those fuckers had wrought the system while being in positions of government. Each of them using their privileges in ways they shouldn’t have. One asshole was getting cut backs from the building industry and using inside knowledge to buy up land. He was pretty sure there would be a riot if the public found out one of the politicians was using taxpayers’ money to pay for high-class call girls regularly.
Another was using his position to get free flights to anywhere in the world for him and his family. He wondered if the asshole’s wife knew what he was doing. Doubtful.
There were so many people in this country trying to survive in poverty. Not that Harvey gave a shit, but he knew the citizens of America would. If any of the information he had came out, there would be an uproar.
Potus might even be usurped since he was supposed to know what was going on in his own party and had no clue. Of course it wasn’t the president’s fault that the treasurer was skimming funds from the country’s coffers, or any of the other stuff for that matter, but the public would crucify him if anyone knew.
Harvey stared at the stained walls of the seedy motel and muttered a curse. Once Sawyer found and got rid of Sabrina, Harvey was skipping out. He had over a hundred grand in cash in the duffel bag in the closet with his false papers. He’d even taken the measures of changing his appearance. He’d shaved his head and bought clear glasses, and he’d brought chain store clothes. He hated the way the cheap fabric felt on his skin when he was used to quality, but he would put up with it until he could escape, even if it took a few months.
He was planning on buying a one-way ticket to Switzerland and from there…the world would be his oyster. Harvey was worried that the feds and CIA knew what he’d done, but he wasn’t sure. Hopefully they had been watching Sawyer because of Sawyer’s reputation and his long rap sheet. There was no way the authorities could know about the chip unless that bitch had told someone. No. He didn’t think she’d have the guts to rat him out. She was a weak woman and had run. He needed Sawyer to find her, but from the way things were going, he wasn’t holding his breath.
Harvey had met Sawyer in a bar one night, and after finding out what he did for a living, he’d hired him on the spot. Sawyer had been a bodyguard, and he’d found out after that the asshole also had a rap sheet a mile long. He’d been questioned for murder but hadn’t been arrested for it. His hireling had been charged and spent time in the slammer for assault, robbery, and dealing drugs, but Harvey didn’t give a damn. He’d figured that having a man like Sawyer on his team would come in handy, and he’d been right.
Sawyer wasn’t only a muscular thug, he was a geek, too. His expertise had come in handy with all the spyware Harvey had out in America. Sawyer had been helping him keep watch and download stuff on those assholes in the White House and the FBI, as well as the one lone computer they had in the CIA.
But the heat was on now, and he could almost feel the authorities breathing down his neck, and it was all his bitch of an ex-assistant’s fault. It had to be. He didn’t think anyone else in his company knew what was going on, but unless he interrogated all of his employees, he couldn’t be certain, and that would take way too long.
He wasn’t a stupid man, and he decided going into hiding would be more prudent than hanging around and waiting for the shit to hit that fan. He’d told one of the other office managers that he had a family emergency and had taken off. He just hoped that he didn’t have to spend too long hiding in seedy motels, because he was used to living with the best.
It had to be that fucking bitch’s fault. She was a damn mouse, but he hadn’t expected the slut to run. She had to have told someone in the law what she’d read in that fucking e-mail. Although he had no proof of that and Sawyer was probably on the authority’s alert list, he felt like the net was closing in around him.
Harvey wasn’t about to give up without taking Sabrina out. If Sawyer could manage to do that without Harvey having to get his hands dirty, he may very well be able to get away without being sent to jail. Sawyer was going to be his scapegoat even if he didn’t know it. There was no way he was going down if he could help it. With Sawyer’s background, it would be easy to point the finger at him and pretend innocence, but only if the fucker didn’t work out that he was using him, too. If that happened then Harvey could see Sawyer coming after him, and he knew, if he did, there would be no prison bars. He would end up six feet under.
He’d been trying to track his naïve ex-assistant and hadn’t had any more luck than Sawyer had, but Harvey wasn’t about to give up.
He sat staring at the program he’d been running for the last two weeks from his seedy motel room and was just about to give up for the day when an alert went off. His fingers flew across the keyboard, and he smiled coldly when he found that the Slick Rock sheriff’s department had just done a check on Sabrina. Relaxing back in his chair, he rubbed his hands together and then he started laughing.
Got you, you bitch.
Harvey picked up his burner phone and sent Sawyer the details.
Sabrina was going to die very soon, even if he had to kill the bitch himself.
* * * *
Tristan could hardly comprehend what Sabrina had just told them about Harvey Noble. He was glad that she had run and ended up in Slick Rock, but he was scared for her. Harvey Noble and his cohorts weren’t going to give up looking for her until they had found and killed her.
At the moment, she was sitting at the kitchen table with a red nose and shiny cheeks and he could see she was flagging, her energy spent because of her illness, and no doubt from being on the run. He wanted to be able to tell her to go back to bed, but they were waiting on Luke and Damon to arrive so they could figure out what to do.
Even though she was trying to be brave and her expression was stoic, at the moment when his gaze met hers, he
could see the deep-seated fear in those gorgeous blue orbs. He wanted to wrap her up in his arms and never let go, but she’d only just met them, and with everything else going on, he wasn’t sure she’d accept any overtures from him, either sexual or just of a comforting nature. She had spent the last ten or so minutes staring at the now-empty glass of juice, and he could see by the occasional frown that her mind was racing, and her body language had “keep off” signs all over it. Her shoulders were hunched, rounded, and whenever he, Trent, or Trick moved near her she shifted away.
He wanted to know what she was thinking, but somehow he already had a clue where her mind was wandering. There was no way he was letting her leave and spend the rest of her life alone and on the run, constantly looking over her shoulder and never having the chance to settle down. Nor did he think going into witness protection was an option. He had no doubt that Luke and Damon would suggest it, but since Noble was as rich as Croesus, that wasn’t exactly safe either. That asshole could have bought off cops, feds, and anyone else he deemed necessary to keep on his payroll to continue his scam.
What Tristan wanted to know was why that fucker had done what he had. Did he have plans of selling national secrets? Or maybe he just wanted dirt on other prominent officials to blackmail them. No, that didn’t make sense either. The man had more money than anyone could spend in a lifetime from what he’d heard, but if it was all tied up in the business maybe he wanted more. He shook his head mentally. There had to be another reason that bastard was spying on their country. Didn’t there? Surely greed and power weren’t the only motivating factors in Noble’s actions. But Tristan knew men had killed for a lot less and the possibility of cash could be a powerful motivator for some people.
The knock on the front door had Trick hurrying toward it, and then he was back with Luke and Damon.
