8. Chapter 8
Gavin
I wake up with Hannah half on top of me and my arm around her waist.
For a few seconds, I don’t move.
Her curls are spread across my chest and shoulder, one leg tangled with mine. Her cheek rests near the scar along my ribs, and my hand is warm against her back.
She fits here.
The thought settles without argument.
She stays.
Something vibrates on the nightstand.
I ignore it.
Hannah shifts closer in her sleep.
The phone vibrates again.
Persistent bastard.
I reach across her and grab it.
Not my regular cell. That thing is useless this far up the mountain.
The old satellite phone stays charged for work, emergencies, and people who know better than to use the number unless it matters.
Kaden’s name is on the screen.
Shit.
I ease out from under Hannah.
She makes an unhappy sound and curls toward the space I leave behind.
That nearly gets me back into bed.
The phone buzzes again.
I pull on my sweatpants, step into the hallway, and answer.
“Yeah.”
“Is Hannah with you?”
No greeting.
That tracks.
“She’s here. She’s safe.”
Kaden exhales hard.
“Thank fuck. I got back this morning, heard her messages, and haven’t been able to reach her. Her phone’s dead.”
“No signal up here. Battery was nearly gone when she arrived.”
“Two nights ago?”
“Yeah.”
“I got enough from the messages to know something went wrong with Declan. Half the rest sounded like she recorded them while driving through a hurricane.”
Close enough.
I move into the main room and keep my voice down.
“What did she leave out?” Kaden asks.
I fill in the gaps.
The loan in her name.
Sixty-eight grand.
The threats.
The men outside her apartment.
The one who grabbed her.
By the time I finish, Kaden has gone quiet.
I know that quiet.
He’s pissed.
“Send me everything you have.”
“I will.”
“I’ve got people who can trace the numbers that contacted her. I’ll see what they can pull.”
“Good. I’ve already got my own contacts working it.”
“I figured.”
We worked together too long for either of us to expect anything different.
I should leave it there.
Instead, I look toward the bedroom.
There’s something else he needs to hear from me.
“Kaden.”
“What?”
“Hannah and I are together.”
Silence.
Then, “Together how?”
I drag a hand over my jaw.
“You know how.”
“Say it.”
Fuck.
“I slept with her.”
Another pause.
“You slept with my sister.”
“Yeah.”
He exhales through his nose.
I wait.
Hannah was off-limits from the first second I wanted her. Kaden trusted me. Crossing that line was supposed to stay out of the question.
It didn’t.
“This casual?” he asks.
“No.”
“How serious?”
“Completely.”
That answer comes easy.
“And this started when?”
I look toward the hallway.
“Two years ago.”
“What?”
“I wanted her the first time you brought her here.”
Silence.
“You’re telling me you were into my sister that weekend?”
“Yeah.”
“You barely looked at her.”
“I stayed away from her for a reason.”
Another pause.
“You left early.”
“I had work.”
“Yeah, right.”
I don’t bother arguing.
“She was off-limits.”
Kaden is quiet for a beat.
Then, “All right.”
That is not what I expected.
“You’re not going to threaten me?”
“I’m still considering it.”
“Take your time.”
“I know you, Gav.”
The edge leaves his voice.
“You wouldn’t be telling me if it was casual.”
“No.”
“You’ll treat her right.”
Not a question.
“I will.”
“I know.”
That lands harder than it should.
I lean against the wall.
“She’s mine to take care of now.”
Kaden gives a short breath that might be a laugh.
“You really want to phrase it that way to her brother?”
“Probably not.”
“Good.”
“I’m hers too.”
That shuts him up.
“Jesus.”
“Yeah.”
“You’ve got it bad.”
I look toward my bedroom.
“Yeah.”
“Never thought I’d see the day.”
My brow tightens.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing.”
“Kaden.”
“I’ve been unreachable for three days on a mission, I finally get signal, find out my sister is being hunted over some asshole’s debt, and now I have to investigate your love life too. I’m prioritizing.”
I almost smile.
“Send me anything you find.”
“I will. You do the same.”
“Yeah.”
“And put Hannah on when she wakes up.”
“I will.”
The line goes dead.
I’m still looking at the phone when a voice comes from behind me.
“So.”
I turn.
Hannah stands at the end of the hallway wrapped in my sheet, curls wild around her shoulders.
“How much did you hear?”
“Mostly your side.”
Her eyes narrow.
“But considering your side included ‘I slept with her,’ context clues did the rest.”
Fair.
“He called.”
“I gathered.”
She walks toward me, keeping the sheet gathered against her chest.
“Is he okay?”
“Yeah. He was on a mission. Just got back.”
Relief moves across her face.
“He heard my messages?”
“This morning.”
“Oh, thank God.”
“He knows everything now. He’s looking into the numbers that contacted you.”
Her shoulders loosen.
Then she looks at me.
“And you told him about us.”
“Yeah.”
Her eyes close.
“You told my brother we had sex.”
“He made me say it.”
Her eyes open.
“Made you?”
“Persistent.”
“I am never speaking to either of you again.”
“No.”
She blinks.
“No?”
“You’re speaking to me.”
“That was not the important part of that sentence.”
“It was to me.”
Her mouth twitches.
“What else did you tell him?”
“That this isn’t casual.”
Her expression changes.
Small.
But I catch it.
“And?”
“That I’m serious about you.”
She looks down.
Good.
The sheet slips slightly.
My attention follows.
Hannah catches me.
“Eyes up, mountain man.”
I lift my gaze.
“Breakfast.”
“That is not an apology.”
“Wasn’t meant to be.”
She shakes her head, but she’s smiling when she turns back toward the bedroom.
Twenty minutes later, Hannah is sitting at the island in one of my T-shirts while I cook bacon and eggs.
She stopped in front of the stool before sitting and gave the countertop a suspicious look.
“Problem?”
“I’m reconsidering my relationship with this island.”
“It’ll survive.”
“That is not my concern.”
Her face went pink.
Worth it.
Now she watches me over the rim of her coffee while I finish the eggs.
“What?” I ask.
“You’re weirdly good at this.”
“Cooking?”
“Taking care of people.”
I turn off the burner.
“Not people.”
Her brows rise.
I plate the eggs and bacon.
“You.”
That quiets her.
I set the plate in front of her and take the stool beside hers.
She studies me for a second.
“You said something to Kaden.”
“I said a lot of things.”
“You said you wanted me two years ago.”
There it is.
“Yeah.”
“So you were serious.”
“Completely.”
Her fingers tighten slightly around her mug.
“Why didn’t you say something?”
I look at her.
She deserves the whole answer.
Not just the part that started with her.
“You were my best friend’s little sister. Off-limits.”
Her eyes stay on mine.
“And back then, I didn’t trust myself with anything that mattered.”
“That sounds like there’s a story behind it.”
“There is.”
I take a drink of coffee.
“My parents died when I was twenty.”
Her expression changes.
“Both?”
“Car wreck.”
“Gavin…”
“It was a long time ago.”
Doesn’t make it nothing.
I look down at my coffee.
“I was with someone then. Emma. We’d been together since high school.”
“You were serious.”
“Yeah.”
I rub my thumb along the side of the mug.
“After my parents died, I proposed.”
Hannah goes still.
“You were engaged?”
“For three weeks.”
“What happened?”
“Caught her in bed with my best friend.”
Her face changes.
“Your best friend?”
“Since we were kids.”
“Jesus.”
“Yeah.”
That covers it.
She is quiet for a moment.
“That all happened the same year?”
“Yeah.”
“What did you do?”
“Sold the house. Kept this piece of the land farther up the mountain. Left.”
“For the military.”
I nod.
“My parents were gone. The two people I trusted most after them had betrayed me. Wildwood had too many memories I didn’t want.”
The service gave me somewhere else to put my head.
Work.
Orders.
People beside me who did what they said they would do.
Eventually, Kaden.
“Years later, I came back and built this place.”
Her eyes move around the kitchen.
“You built this?”
“Most of it.”
Hannah picks up a piece of bacon but doesn’t eat it.
“And after Emma?”
I know what she is asking.
“There were women.”
She nods once.
“Nothing serious.”
“How not serious?”
“One night.”
Her eyebrows rise.
“Usually.”
“Usually?”
“Sometimes less.”
She stares at me.
“That might be the least romantic sentence anyone has ever said over breakfast.”
“Wasn’t trying to be romantic.”
“No kidding.”
I almost smile.
Then she gets quieter.
“So what changed?”
“You.”
Her fingers still around the bacon.
I hold her gaze.
“I stopped letting women matter.”
Her expression softens.
“Then Kaden brought you here.”
I remember her laughing at something her brother said, curls everywhere, watching me when she thought I wouldn’t notice.
“I wanted you immediately.”
Her lips part.
“You barely spoke to me.”
“I was trying not to touch you.”
Color climbs her cheeks.
“You were Kaden’s sister. Off-limits. And I knew if I touched you, I wasn’t going to want one night.”
She stares at me.
“So you ran away.”
“Strategic withdrawal.”
Her mouth falls open.
“You did not just call running away from me a strategic withdrawal.”
“It worked.”
“For two years.”
“Yeah.”
“And now?”
I look at her.
She’s wearing my shirt, eating breakfast in my kitchen, and her things are already starting to appear around the cabin.
Instead of wanting them gone, I’m thinking about where the rest will fit.
“Now you broke into my house.”
Her eyes narrow.
“That is not an answer.”
“It is.”
“Gavin.”
“Strategy failed.”
Her smile starts small and spreads.
“For the record, I’m glad.”
“So am I.”
The satellite phone vibrates against the counter.
Her smile disappears.
I pick it up. It’s one of my contacts.
FOUND THE TARGET. SENDING LOCATION.
I straighten.
Hannah watches my face.
“What?”
I forward the message to Kaden.
“We found Declan.”
Back to work.