Total pages in book: 165
Estimated words: 166103 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 831(@200wpm)___ 664(@250wpm)___ 554(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 166103 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 831(@200wpm)___ 664(@250wpm)___ 554(@300wpm)
“Where are you going?” Judd asked.
“To get our girl, of course. Hux, start ordering some shit for her. We might need to convert one of our bedrooms into a playroom.”
“You can’t go and just grab her,” Hux said, standing. At least now the other man was paying more attention to what was going on.
“Why not?” Owen asked. “We’re all in agreement.”
“Beck isn’t here.”
Owen brushed his hand through the air. “Semantics. He agreed this morning. Kind of.”
Beck had agreed that they needed to try letting someone else in.
“You can’t kidnap her, Owen,” Judd said.
“Why not?”
Fuck.
“You know why not,” Hux said. “You know that’s not the way people do things. It’s illegal, for one.”
“Not if she’s our intended.”
Judd gaped at him. Was he for real right now?
“Not if who is our intended?” Beck walked into the house, staring at them all. “What is going on?”
“Judd’s fully in and I’m going to go get our girl,” Owen explained, moving toward the door.
Beck blocked him. “Whoa, what? Does someone want to catch me up here?”
“Owen’s losing it,” Hux said, sitting onto the sofa. “Judd has suddenly decided that Chloe should be ours and now Owen thinks we’re going to steal her. As our intended.”
“Whoa. Owen. We can’t do that!” Beck held up his hands.
“Why not?” Owen snapped.
“Because we still have to have her agreement. You know it’s not as cut and dried as that.”
“Caleb and the others took Vivi,” Owen pointed out.
“That’s true,” Judd said. He was starting to see how Owen’s view made sense.
“We can keep her here,” Owen said. “Convince her to be with us.”
Beck shook his head. “She’s a guest of the Princes. They’re not going to let us do that. She’s not Escanaian and neither are we. You can’t just do what you want. Not to mention, what if she doesn’t want us?”
That was Judd’s greatest worry. Not whether she wanted his brothers; he thought she did.
But he’d been nothing but a dick to her. There was no way she’d want to be with him.
“We can’t force her,” Beck said. “That’s not what I agreed to this morning.”
“I don’t see why not,” Owen muttered.
Beck sighed, rolling his eyes. The normally unflappable man was looking exasperated.
“Hux and Judd, the police want to talk to you both. They’re just speaking to Chloe right now.”
“What? She should have one of us with her,” Judd said.
“Caleb is there,” Beck soothed.
“But he won’t take care of her,” Owen said with a scowl. “Not like we can.”
“How? By kidnapping her?” Beck shot back.
Hux was surprisingly quiet.
“Look, I agreed this morning that maybe it’s time to let someone in again. To date. But I don’t know . . . we’re kind of a mess right now. And why would she want us? We’re bossy and demanding and overprotective. And we don’t even know if she’ll fit with our lifestyle.”
“You mean because we’re Daddy Doms?” Hux asked.
“Well. Yeah.”
Out of all of them, Beck was the one who had embraced that part of himself the most. He needed someone to take care of, to coddle and discipline.
Judd missed that too.
“She’s a Little.”
They all turned to look at Hux.
“You know that for sure?” Judd asked, hope filling him.
“She told you that?” Beck added, looking skeptical.
Hux shrugged. “Yeah, sort of. But we talked about it today. I took her for ice cream and to the toy store.”
“Ice cream?” Beck gaped.
“Toys?” Judd asked.
“She wouldn’t let me buy her one. But I could tell she wanted to. She said that she’s never let her Little side out. That it’s too dangerous.”
“Dangerous?” Owen asked in a dark voice. “How is she in danger?”
Hux shook his head. “I don’t know exactly. Maybe she thinks Lord Fothersam wouldn’t approve and she’d lose her job? She seems overly concerned about his opinion of her.”
“I don’t like that bastard,” Owen said. “And she doesn’t need a job with us taking care of her.”
“Probably you shouldn’t lead with that,” Beck said dryly.
“Huh?” Owen asked.
“We need to get her to trust us, then we can figure out what’s going on,” Beck said.
“Or we can demand she answer us,” Judd said.
Beck shot him a look. “She’s not going to just answer our questions.”
“Well, she should,” Judd said. “How else do we get her to open up?”
Owen nodded in agreement, while Beck sighed.
“I need to go.” Hux stood up.
Judd frowned over at him. “Are you okay?”
“Yep, got to talk to the police,” Hux said.
“What’s up with him?” Beck asked.
Judd shook his head. He didn’t know. But they’d need to work that out soon.
Fuck. Everything felt very messy.
Maybe Owen was the one with the right idea.
And he couldn’t believe he’d just thought that.
19
Chloe stared blankly at the wall.
Was she in shock?
She’d heard Obian mention that to Caleb. Where were her guys? Why weren’t they here? After Obian left, Caleb returned with some officers to question her.