I winced as my arms dropped to my sides.

  “The two of you need to calm the fuck down,” the driver said in an annoyed tone.

  “He’s the one taking a damn witness alive so he can fuck her,” the other guy said.

  I turned, my eyes going wide as I looked at Huck. His eyes met mine, and he sighed, rubbing his temples with his thumb and forefinger.

  “God, Gage, what does it take to shut you the hell up?” he asked.

  The guy who he had called Gage pointed at me. “Kill the damn witness and drop her on the side of the fucking road.”

  I inhaled sharply through my nose.

  Gage shrugged when he saw my reaction. As if he was apologizing for something that was inevitable.

  “She’s Hayes’s fiancée,” Huck said. “Or was.”

  Gage looked as if he’d been slapped. His face paled as he looked at me. It was odd to see a killer with clearly no remorse or mercy turn from hard and ruthless to showing actual emotion. Pain flashed in his amber eyes, and he winced as he closed them a moment.

  “Fuck,” he muttered.

  “I’ll shoot him for you,” the driver said to Huck, then glared at Gage.

  They’d all known Hayes. These men, who had just gone into a house and murdered people in cold blood, had all known Hayes. How was this real life?

  Huck reached up and untied my gag. When it fell, I sat there silently. Wondering if this meant I was going to get to live or if the man they’d called Blaise was going to kill me. I was afraid to ask.

  “Why were you at that house?” Huck asked me.

  I lifted my eyes to meet his. “To clean it. To-to-today was my first d-day,” I stammered out.

  Huck ran a hand over his face and groaned. “This is an awfully long way from home for you to be cleaning his house.”

  I frowned at him, then realized he thought I lived in Alabama. Hayes must not have told him much about me. Perhaps they had been estranged. Seeing as how Hayes was going to be a minister and this man was a murderer, that would make sense.

  “My apartment is in Lake City,” I whispered, afraid to incite anger in one of them.

  Huck’s frown deepened, but he said nothing.

  “How the hell did Hayes get hooked up with someone from there?” Gage asked, looking at me with clear mistrust in his eyes.

  Huck’s gaze was back on me. I glanced up at him, knowing he was wondering the same thing. These men had guns and were killers. Probably in a gang. I would tell them anything they wanted to know if I could live.

  “My father lived in Alabama, and his wife went to the Baptist church Hayes’s grandfather is the minister at. When my dad had a heart attack, I, uh, left college to go help take care of him. My father wanted me to go to church because I think he believed I’d bond with my stepmother. I went, and Hayes was there. He followed me to my car after a service and asked me out. Then, the rest …” I shrugged. Sure, I’d left out a lot of details, but I didn’t think they wanted my entire life history.

  “You moved out of your parents’ house after Hayes died?” Huck asked me.

  I realized I hadn’t explained why I was now in Lake City, Florida.

  “My stepmother’s house. My father had another heart attack four months after my return, and it killed him. He left the house and all his belongings to my stepmother. She, uh, doesn’t like me. Never has. So, yeah, I packed my things and drove south. Lake City was the first place I came to where I could afford an apartment and get a job immediately.”

  Huck’s neck flexed, and I could see the muscles in it shift. The hard line of his mouth made him appear deadly, but then he was. I shivered at the thought.

  “She’s the redheaded bitch from the funeral,” Huck said.

  I nodded my head.

  Nothing else was said for several minutes, and I rubbed my sore wrists as I looked out the window. We weren’t in Lake City, but my new employer, who was also dead now, had lived in a much better area.

  “Are you going to take me home?” I finally asked when I realized we were driving farther away from Lake City and not toward it.

  “No,” Huck replied without looking at me.

  “Why not? I thought—I thought you weren’t going to kill me. I swear I won’t tell anyone anything,” I told him. My heart was racing again, but then it hadn’t ever slowed down completely.

  Gage turned around and gave me an annoyed glare. “We don’t know if you’re telling the truth. Fuck, we don’t know that you didn’t get into Hayes’s life on purpose. Who you might be working for and if you were really there to clean that house.”

  I shook my head. “But I told you, Hayes asked me out. I didn’t go after him.”

  Gage laughed then, and although there were crinkles at the corners of his eyes, the gleam in them wasn’t amusement. It was calculating and terrifying. “He was a fucking man. Anyone could have hired you and sent you to wiggle your juicy ass in front of him to get his attention.”

  My jaw dropped.

  “Shut up,” Huck barked at him.

  “We can’t take her to the house. We don’t know if she’s lying or not. What about the shop?” Gage asked.

  “The house,” Huck replied.

  “Gage is right. That’s not a good idea. Shop is neutral. Everyone knows its location and that you own it,” the driver said.

  “We are taking her to the fucking house,” Huck said through clenched teeth.

  I closed my mouth and turned my head to look out the window again. What in the world had I gotten myself into? These people were crazy. Who would hire me to go get Hayes’s attention?

  “Hayes was going to be a minister,” I said just above a whisper. “I don’t understand why you think someone would have sent me to get close to him.”

  I was afraid to look at Gage or Huck. The other guy remained silent as he drove.

  “He was a fucking Kingston. Loving Jesus and shit don’t change that. Not in our world,” Gage said as if that made sense.

  Four

  Huck

  “Where are we?” Trinity asked as she looked around.

  “My room,” I replied.

  “Are … are you going to let me go?” she asked, then bit her bottom lip.

  I didn’t have an answer for that. I wasn’t sure what the fuck I was going to do with her. She’d been in the house of one of the biggest drug dealers in the southeast. He’d taken down one of our men last week. I wanted to believe she was what she had claimed to be. His house cleaner. But first, I had to pull her background. Do some checking of facts. As pissed off as Gage had made me in the damn car, he was right. We didn’t know she hadn’t been some plant. Hayes would have been a weak link, and anyone who did some looking into the family could have found him.

  “I need you to stay down here. I’ve got to go to a meeting, and it’s not safe for you to leave this room. I’m going to lock you in. Don’t unlock that door for anyone,” I told her.

  They were my friends, but they were also loyal to the family. That came first for all of us. I just hoped she wasn’t fucking lying.

  Her gaze swung back to the stairs we had used to get down here. “You’re locking me in a basement?” she whispered.

  I looked around. This didn’t look like a basement. It was an elaborate master bedroom with a living area and bathroom. This had been Blaise’s room until he moved out with his woman to their own place. There was no reason for her to act as if I were locking her in a fucking cell.

  “You’ve got a television,” I said, pointing at the flat screen on the wall.

  She glanced at it, then nodded, but said nothing.

  She could have been fucking killed. If I hadn’t found Gage with her, he’d have put a damn bullet in her if she hadn’t answered his question. There was no reason for her to act as if I were the bad guy here.

  “Listen, you need to stay down here. You’re not safe without me,” I pressed. I needed her to understand and obey me.

  She nodded again.

  My phone rang, and I saw Blaise’s name light up the screen. He was here.

  “I have to go,” I told her, then started for the stairs.

  Why did I feel so damn guilty about leaving her down here alone? Hayes would have been thankful I’d saved her. I had done what my brother would have wanted me to do. Except now, I had her in a world he had never wanted to be a part of.

  “I had no other choice,” I muttered under my breath as if he could hear me.

  When I reached the top of the stairs, I used my key to lock Trinity safely downstairs before heading to the office to meet with the others.

  I could hear Gage ranting about my taking Trinity when I walked into the room.

  Blaise’s eyes swung to me, but there was only concern in his gaze. “Where is she?” he asked.

  “Downstairs,” I replied.

  Gage threw his hands up. “Fucking great. I get that she was Hayes’s woman, and that makes her a priority, but did we have to bring her in here before knowing if she’s as innocent as she claims?”

  I glared at him, although I knew he was right. I’d taken a chance in trusting her at her word. “I took her phone. She had nothing else.”

  “We need her checked out,” Blaise told me.

  I nodded.

  He sighed and leaned back in his chair. “I get why you did it. But Gage is right about bringing her into the house. Are we sure she’s not got a tracking device on her? What all did she see of the house? The shop would have been a better choice.”

  I tensed. “I’ll check her for a tracking device and keep her downstairs until we know she’s clear. If they’d wanted her dead, they would have checked the shop. It’s common knowledge I own it.”

  “Just because she was your brother’s fiancée, don’t skip anywhere. She has to be stripped and checked thoroughly. You know the drill. Until we know for sure, she is not to be trusted,” Blaise said, watching me for any sign of weakness.

  “Have you seen her?” Gage asked Blaise.

  Blaise nodded, and his eyes stayed locked on me. “Can you keep your hands off her?”

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” I asked him. “She was my brother’s fiancée!”

  Blaise inhaled and rubbed his chin. “And he’s gone.”

  Dammit! I wanted to put my fist through a wall. “She’s got big tits and an ass. That doesn’t fucking mean I can’t keep my dick in my pants.”

  Blaise shrugged and stood up. “Good. Do that.”

  I wanted to get away from them. I needed a fucking drink.

  Blaise walked around the desk and headed for the door. “Get her checked out now. We need to know what we are dealing with,” he said, then left the room.

  Gage was looking at me, and I swung my gaze to glare at him.

  “What?” I growled.

  “Go check her for a tracker. I’ll get us some pussy over here,” he said.

  I stalked for the door and headed back to the stairs. I hoped the pussy got here fast. I was going to need it after this. My only other option was letting Levi or Gage check her, and there was no way in hell that was going to happen.

  Five

  Trinity

  This was okay. It wasn’t a closet. I fought the urge to curl into a ball and rock. If I let myself react that way, I wasn’t sure how long I’d be checked out on reality. I could focus and stay calm. I looked around the room. It was massive. Almost bigger than the house I had grown up in. Definitely bigger than the closet in the basement.

  Not the same, Trinity. It is not the same.

  “You’re fine,” I whispered. “You got this. You survived a gun to your head. You can sit in this nice, large room and wait.”

  I felt the tension in my chest tightening, and I took deep breaths. I could not go there in my head. I was in a house with killers or gangsters or whatever the hell they were. I had to stay alert. Even if Huck was Hayes’s brother. That man was nothing like Hayes.

  They would check out my background or whatever they could do and see I was not in some drug gang thingy. I winced, thinking of the things they would also find. I wasn’t sure if the bogus stuff Tabitha and Roy had tried to pin on me would show up. There was no proof because I hadn’t done anything wrong. That’d all started when I threatened to tell my dad about Roy. The next thing I knew, I was getting arrested for crimes I hadn’t committed. Since I had never been charged, then that shouldn’t be on my record. The only item that might show up was the scholarship I had lost. My stomach twisted as I thought about that. No, I wouldn’t go there. I was away from that. It was over. Professor Jonathon Kilgore couldn’t do anything else to me.

  I had to focus on the here and now. This situation was my current problem.

  Philip had gotten me this job for Mr. Esposito. I didn’t think Philip knew the man was a drug lord. Surely, he hadn’t. Pushing that thought aside, I tried to think about the lovely decorations. It was a nice basement. I was sure the other doors led to more rooms. Glancing at my watch, I realized I had been sitting quietly on the sofa for almost an hour.

  Before I had a chance to get more worried than I already was, I heard footsteps on the stairs. Huck was coming back, and I hoped he was ready to send me home. I needed a hot bath, a good book, and possibly three shots of tequila.

  I watched him as he walked into the room, and his gaze found me. His neck was strained, like he was clenching his teeth. Had he been ordered to kill me?

  I swallowed hard, afraid to ask. I didn’t want to die down here. Alone. Having not one person come looking for me. Dying alone and unloved was a sad way to go. There was May at the bank, who I’d gone out to drinks with twice but she ended up leaving with men she’d met at the bar so I’d stopped going with her. I doubted she’d miss my absence. Rochelle was the head librarian, and we always discussed our latest reads when I came in to clean at night. She might be considered a friend.

  “Stand up,” he ordered me.

  I did because I was afraid not to but I wanted to curl up in a ball and hide instead.

  He stalked toward me and stopped a few feet from me. “I’ve got to check you for a tracker, Trinity.”

  Okay … what did that mean? I waited for an explanation, but he continued to stare at me as his neck muscles flexed and his jaw clenched.

  “Take your clothes off,” he grunted.

  My eyes went wide. “What?” My voice cracked.

  “You can fucking let me do this, or one of the others can do it. Trust me, you want me to do this. Gage would probably hold a gun on you most of the time.”

  My hands trembled, and I had to fist them at my sides to make them stop. “Are you serious?”

  He nodded his head.

  “Why?” I asked, trying to think of another way to do this.

  He closed the distance between us, and I had to tilt my head back to look up at him. “I can only protect you as long as you do as you’re told. This isn’t an option. I brought you into our home without knowing if you’re a liar or telling the fucking truth. If you are wired, then it’s my fault. If someone can track you here, it is my fault. You were Hayes’s, which puts you under the family’s protection. Unless you are working with one of our enemies.”

  Okay. So, I had to strip in front of this man or possibly die. I could do this. It wouldn’t be the first time I’d taken my clothes off for an audience, although that had been another mess I hadn’t meant to happen. This was just the first time I’d be doing it for a man I’d watched kill someone. I took a deep breath and focused on a dark spot on the floor. This was a technique I’d learned as a kid. It helped me handle things I didn’t want to do. Things I shouldn’t have been forced to do.

  However, this was a little different than the horror that I’d lived as a kid. Huck wasn’t Tabitha or Roy. The idea of this man seeing my naked body was a completely different situation, but it was still uncomfortable. The main reason being, he was a massive wall of muscle without an ounce of fat, and Gage was right. My ass was fat. It had always been too big. No matter how much weight I lost, my waist just got smaller. My rear end did not.

  My hands were shaking as I pulled the T-shirt I was wearing up and over my head. I refused to look at him when I reached for the button on my shorts and unfastened them, then slid them down my legs before stepping out of them.

  Huck picked up the shorts and inspected them, then laid them on the sofa before doing the same with my shirt. When he laid it on the sofa, I reached for it to cover myself back up when his fingers wrapped around my arm. My eyes shot up to meet his.

  “The rest of it,” he said tightly.

  “You … you want me to take off my bra?” I asked.

  “And panties.” It sounded like a command.

  Oh crap, crap, crap. I took a few moments to try and calm myself before reaching for the clasp behind my back. Slipping it off my arms, I stared at the floor and held the bra out to him so he could inspect it. I couldn’t watch him as he looked it over.

  The panties. I had to take off the panties. Oh good Lord, this was not happening to me.

  You want to live, Trinity. You need them to trust you.

  I decided to do it quickly and get it over with. I stepped out of them and handed them over, keeping my eyes down. I shivered as I stood there, hoping he hurried.

  “Lift your breasts. I need to see under them.”

  I knew my nipples were hard, and I was sure he could see them, but the fact that I had to touch them and draw attention to them made my body flush. I didn’t meet his gaze as I held my breasts in my hands and lifted them up for him to see underneath.

  “Turn around. Hold your arms out beside you,” he said in a husky tone.

  “Why?” I asked in a whisper. I didn’t want him to see my butt. It had dimples in it. The humiliation was just getting worse.

  “I have to check you for a tracker,” he bit out.