19. Audrey
AUDREY
We sat at a long wood table, the grain visible on its polished surface.
Ridge had laid out a feast of scrambled eggs, bacon, fresh fruit, and biscuits that teetered so high on the serving platter I thought they were going to tip over.
There was more coffee (served in a silver pot), linen napkins, silver that looked like it belonged in an antique shop, and heavy ceramic dishes that matched the coffee mug Ridge had handed me that morning.
Everything looked handmade, in rich earthy colors and designs that felt weighty, like the objects had been carefully chosen over the years and were built to last.
“Where should I sit?” I asked, taking in the four place settings.
“Right there’ll do,” Graham said, pointing to his right at one end of the table.
I took my seat next to him and Ridge and Holden sat across from me, to Graham’s left.
The table was long enough for at least ten, but we were gathered at one end, an intimate party of four — five if you counted Blue, who sat on the floor next to Holden with his eyes glued to the plate of bacon on the table.
“Dig in,” Ridge told me. “From the way you ate that bacon, I’m guessing you have an appetite.”
Graham and Holden were already filling their plates high with bacon and eggs.
I reached for the platter of biscuits and took two, then took the proffered bowl of fruit from Ridge across the table.
For a while, there was no sound but the clink of silver on ceramic, the clatter of serving dishes being set down on the wood table.
“We need to go over some rules,” Graham said once everyone started eating.
“Okay.” I focused on buttering my biscuit.
“You can go anywhere near the house. The tractor barn, the horse barn, the corrals. You can explore the fields around the main compound, but stay out of the woods. And don’t go in the north barn. Ever.”
I spooned strawberry jam onto my buttered biscuit, my stomach growling with hunger. “Why?”
Graham didn’t miss a beat as he shoveled eggs into his mouth. “Because I said so.”
“You’re going to have to do better than that if you want to limit my movement around here,” I said. “I’m not a child.”
Graham chewed, his mind obviously working. Then he put down his fork and leveled his gaze at me. “We don’t have time to send a search party after you in the woods.”
I was almost disappointed it made sense. I would have liked to have a reason to push his buttons.
It wasn’t like me, but clearly I was more than a little off balance.
“Why not the north barn?” I asked, not yet willing to give up.
“That’s because I said so,” Graham said. “And that’s all you’re going to get.”
“How will I know which one is the north barn?” I asked.
Holden shoved a piece of bacon into his mouth. “It’s the one with the padlock.”
Interesting.
“Fine.” I took a bite of the biscuit and just about had an orgasm. The dough was so fluffy, the butter rich and creamy. And the jam was bursting with the sweet taste of strawberries in their prime. “Oh my god… is this jam homemade?”
“Most everything around here is homemade,” Ridge said.
I took another big bite and didn’t bother waiting until I’d finished chewing to talk. “You made this?”
“Well, I can’t say for certain this batch was mine, but yeah, we make our own jam and our own butter. Seems silly not to when strawberries grow wild on the property and the cows give us good cream for the butter.”
My brain was short-circuiting with this new information. If someone had told me the three inked men who hunted me in the tunnels were real-life cowboys, I wouldn’t have believed them.
But cowboys who knew how to cook, keep a house, and make their own jam?
That was crazier than anything that had happened to me in the last forty-eight hours, and let’s face it, a lot of crazy stuff had happened to me in the last forty-eight hours.
“It’s delicious,” I finally said. “I definitely want this biscuit recipe. Ella would love them.”
Why was I talking about recipes to the three men who were, for all intents and purposes, holding me prisoner? Three men who planned to use my body for their pleasure?
And why was I throwing my daughter’s name around like it was totally safe for these men to know it?
Why did it feel safe?
“Happy to give it to you,” Ridge said, taking a drink of his coffee.
“Speaking of my daughter,” I said, “what’s the plan? Because I have to pick her up tonight at six.”
“You’ll stay in the foreman’s cottage when she’s here,” Graham said.
“What foreman’s cottage?”
“Little place out back,” Holden said.
“It’s got two bedrooms and a kitchen,” Graham said. “You’ll be comfortable there, and we’ll leave you alone when… Ella is here.”
The name should have sounded strange coming from him, a man in his fifties who didn’t seem to have children, who gave no indication he’d even been around children.
Instead it sounded just right, like he’d been waiting to say it his whole life.
“The ex going to give you trouble about it?” Ridge asked.
My stomach turned. “I don’t know, but that’s my problem.”
I’d known what I was getting into with the Hunt. It seemed stupid now — I could have ended up with three men worse than the Bulls — but I’d been desperate to protect Ella from Dean.
I was still desperate to protect Ella from Dean.
I’d just have to find another way.
“Our problem now,” Graham said.
“Excuse me?” I’d lost my train of thought thinking about Ella.
“Whether or not your ex has a problem with you being here is our problem now,” Graham said. “Best to get in front of it.”
I thought about it. “I’ll tell him I’m staying with a friend just outside town for the summer. I’ll tell him it’ll give Ella a chance to be outside, play with the animals.”
“Seems to me that asshole’s going to want to know your friend,” Holden said.
I narrowed my eyes at him. The statement seemed less like a stab in the dark and more like something based on intimate knowledge of my situation. “How would you know?”
“You can tell,” Holden said, pushing half a biscuit into his mouth. “The way he treats you at the pick up and drop off at the donut shop.”
I dropped my fork and stared at him. “How do you know about that?”
He shrugged and I hated that I was as preoccupied with the strong lines of his perfect face as I was with the fact that he’d clearly been stalking me.
Or something.
“I liked you,” he said, “after that day at the hospital. I wanted to know more about you.”
“So you stalked me?”
Ridge glanced at Holden. “Told you.”
“Stalked is a strong word,” Holden said. “I was… gathering information.”
“Gathering information?”
“Exactly,” he said. “And then, when I saw what a dick your ex was, I thought you might need help with him someday, so I kept coming, just in case.”
“That’s… that’s… not okay,” I said.
He seemed as unfazed as he always seemed, as all three of these men always seemed. I had the feeling I could set fire to the house right in front of them and they’d calmly grab a fire extinguisher, no questions asked.
“In any case,” he said, “judging from the way your ex acts during pick up and drop off, he’s going to have questions.”
I stabbed at my eggs, my mind spinning: with the knowledge that Holden had followed me, the problem of telling Dean why I was bringing Ella to the ranch, everything.
“Good for him,” I said. “I have questions of my own.”
Ridge lifted an eyebrow. “What kind of questions?”
“Never mind,” I muttered. “I’ll take care of Dean.”
Losing the Hunt meant the Bulls didn’t owe me anything. It also meant they didn’t need to know who I’d wanted dead when I’d signed up to play.
Or why.
“Not alone you won’t,” Graham said.
I must have lost my train of thought, because I had no idea what he was talking about. “Excuse me?”
“You won’t take care of Dean alone. Ridge’ll go with you.”
“I can go,” Holden said.
“You’re going to stay and work on that tractor,” Graham said. “Cool your jets.”
I had the sense that a practiced dynamic was playing out around them: Graham and Ridge the calm, steady ones, Holden prone to getting into trouble.
The problem was, I had plenty of trouble of my own. Handling Dean, keeping him from losing his temper, threatening to sue me for full custody with all his family’s money, required a scalpel not a machete.
I was good with a scalpel, but the three men sitting around me were all machete.
Plus there was the matter of Dean’s criminal activity.
“I have rules too,” I told Graham.
Graham set his fork down again, then steepled his fingers as he stared me down. “Do tell.”
“I lost the Hunt,” I said. “I accept that, and I accept the consequences of living here and doing… whatever it is you want me to do. But you don’t tell me how to handle my daughter or my ex-husband. They’re my business, and they’re off-limits. That’s a deal breaker.”
His jaw twitched, and I had a feeling he was a man used to making the rules, not following them.
Too bad for him.
“Fine.” He pushed the word through his clenched teeth.
“Good.” It was easy not to gloat. I’d won the first of what would be many battles during my stay with the Bulls.
But this was just the beginning.
Living on the ranch for the summer with Ella was going to be the balancing act of all balancing acts. First I’d have to make sure Ella was comfortable here, that she felt safe.
Then I’d need to deal with Dean.
The Ashcroft family was powerful, a well-connected benefactor of the Blackwell Falls Police Department, which was why I’d joined the Hunt.
But Plan A had failed.
Now I’d have to gather enough evidence against Dean that a report to the FBI might stick, and I’d have to do it even if — when — he had objections to Ella and I spending the summer on the ranch.
Lastly, I’d have to manage the men who’d won rights to my body for the next ninety days.
And looking at the three men sitting around me, I couldn’t help wondering if that was the most dangerous balancing act of all.