“Do I look scared, Morgan?” Grant asked. He pointed at Blake and said, “Neither one of us are afraid of much when it comes to protecting you.”
“You’re crazy if you believe he’ll stay away because of a cowboy’s threat. Several months ago I tried to detox on my own. It was awful. I had hallucinations and endless nightmares. When I woke up, Kilo asked me who Grant and Blake were and what they meant to me. When I told him you were ex-boyfriends, a series of beatings began. He rewarded me in the end after I told him where you lived.” She gasped as she covered her mouth with her small hand. “I’m so sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?” Grant asked. “I just told you, I gave him directions myself.”
“Yes, but that was your choice. I made a decision to swap information that might have cost you your lives.”
“We’re still here,” Grant assured her. “No harm done. Like I said, I want him to come and find me. I look forward to the meeting.”
Blake immediately sat beside her, stroking her cheek. “Morgan, what else did you tell him?”
She shook her head, the tears flooding her face. “Please let me go. I need to get out of here. Maybe if I run, he won’t come here. I’ll call him and see if I can go home. He might give me a second chance.”
Grant’s nostrils flared. “A second chance? Are you serious, Morgan?”
“You’re not going anywhere,” Blake told her, shaking his head quickly at Grant, hoping he’d let him handle Morgan for the time being. “Honey, this is your home. Right here with me, Grant, Kit, and Kemper. Don’t you see, Morgan? You’ve been running all this time, but you haven’t been returning home, you’ve been sprinting right back into the deadly clutches of a drug you can’t seem to leave behind.”
“You don’t understand. He’ll come here for sure. He’ll find me. He’ll kill you because you have me!”
“He’ll go through an army first,” Blake told her. “If he comes here, Morgan, we will shoot to kill.”
“He will, too! Don’t you understand? I don’t want this! I couldn’t bear it if Kilo killed you because of me.”
“Can you live with yourself if you know you’re the reason Kilo dies or goes to prison?” Grant asked.
She swallowed hard. After a seemingly long consideration, she finally said, “I honestly don’t know.”
Grant shrugged. “Then I guess you need to take a moment and figure that out. If you believe he’ll come here, and you must, you need to prepare for the worst. If Kilo arrives in East Tennessee, whether he’s here tomorrow or the next day, he will leave one of three ways—in a body bag, on a stretcher, or in handcuffs.”
* * * *
“She’s finally asleep,” Blake said, meeting Grant on the front porch.
“Did she talk you into loosening the cuffs?” Grant asked.
“Not a chance,” Blake told him. “There was enough slack. A half-inch more and she would’ve wiggled her way to freedom.”
Grant ran his
hand over his face. “What we’re doing here will be more like training a slave than a sub.”
“That’s what she needs,” Blake assured him, unable to feel an ounce of guilt.
“Are you sure you’re up for that?” Grant asked, his brow furrowing.
“We won’t abuse her. We’ll train her like any other sub we’ve shared. We’ll keep her under control. If we’re not with her, she will be bound to that bed. You and I both know if we give her too much leeway she’ll start using again. She was shooting up meth and Lord only knows what else. If she’s given the chance, she’ll do drugs again.”
“You’re upset because I drew out the addict again.”
“No,” Blake replied thoughtfully. “I would’ve preferred a different tactic, but I understand what you were doing.”
Grant stared off in the distance. “Before someone comes along to tempt her again, we need to show her all the reasons she has to live a full life. If she’s happy and in love, she’ll say no whenever the temptation presents itself.”
“No. That’s not entirely true. An addict has feelings just like anyone else. She could love us like the dickens, be living a full life and happier than she’s ever been, and then bam! Just like that, she’s hooked again. The best way to beat this is through Domination and submission, or a Dom-slave relationship, which I’d prefer. She needs to be so dependent on us that she relies on us to make every decision for her.”
“So you’re hell-bent on training her as a slave.”
“Damn straight.”