Torch (Unbreakable Bonds 3)

“I’m gonna hold you to that,” he murmured, his lips brushing against Noah’s before stealing one last quick kiss.

Noah released Rowe and he leaned back over the desk to grab up the sweater while Rowe turned back to the door to find his friends watching him with stupid grins on their faces. Oh, yeah…they were loving every second of this. Not that he could blame them. Since Mel’s death, he’d pretty much crawled into the ground next to her and had been content to stay there for the rest of his life. And even before her death, he’d worked hard to suppress the side of him that noticed men like Noah.

“Shut up!” he said as soon as he opened the door, but he was met with more laughter. Of course, he was struggling to contain his own smile.

“You know, declarations of love should be done in private.” Lucas winked. “But I enjoyed that too much. Mel would be happy for you,” he finished softly.

Snow snorted, a wicked grin spreading across his face. “Hell, she’d want to video every second of it.”

“I’m happy for you,” Ian said, hugging Rowe. “Even if I am a little jealous.”

“Jealous?”

“Well, he is so damn sexy. Nice abs.”

“Very,” Jude added with a little sigh and a wink at Rowe. Snow wrapped an arm around Jude’s waist and pulled him close so he could pinch his ass. Rowe didn’t buy Jude’s comment for a second, and neither did the doc.

“While I appreciate the attention to my abs,” Noah started, coming up behind Rowe, “maybe we should deal with our prisoner first.”

“Yeah, her brother must be going crazy about now,” Ian muttered. He started toward the stairs but Rowe clapped a hand on his shoulder, halting him.

“Brother? You know these two? How?”

Ian leveled a grim look on Rowe. “Take a wild guess,” he said before heading back down to the first floor.

Jagger. Of course.

The laughter disappeared in a blink and they filed down the metal stairs to the first floor where Andrei was still hovering over the woman bound and blindfolded. Rowe grabbed a metal folding chair and loudly dragged it across the concrete before slamming the legs down in front of the woman. She jumped at the noise, but otherwise made no other sound or movement. Rowe turned the chair backward and straddled it, resting his arms on the back of the chair as he faced her. With a nod, Andrei removed the blindfold and stepped back.

She squinted and blinked, trying to get her eyes to adjust to the bright overhead light, giving Rowe a chance to look her over. She was slender like her brother, with a narrow oval face and angular features. Her brown eyes looked too large for her face and her mouth was pinched. She probably would have been prettier if she smiled. Of course, considering that she and her brother were trying to kill his friends, he wasn’t sure anything could make this woman look pretty to him.

“What the fuck do you want?” she demanded after Rowe sat watching her for a couple minutes without saying a word.

“Who hired you?”

“Fuck you! I’m not saying a goddamn word to you!”

“What were you hired to do?”

“Fuck you!”

This was pretty much what he’d expected, but he had interesting ways of making a person crack. Rowe straightened and scratched his chin. “You see, I thought if you had some useful information, I might bother to keep you alive, but I’ve got other ways to get the info I need.”

Her loud laugh echoed through the room, brittle and forced. “You don’t know dick and you don’t have shit for sources. You think I’m scared of you? You’re fucking nothing. Nothing!”

“Her name is Hanna,” Ian announced.

There was no missing the way the young woman stiffened at Ian’s soft voice. Her breathing became rapid little breaths. She jerked in her seat, trying to look around to see the speaker, but Andrei clamped a hand down on her shoulder, keeping her locked in place.

But she didn’t have to move. Ian walked around to stand just behind Rowe, who twisted to keep an eye on his friend. The young man stood stiff, his arms crossed tightly over his chest, but his eyes remained locked on the woman.

“Her brother’s name is Kyle. They both arrived at Jagger’s a few months before…before I left.”

“Bastard,” Hanna snarled at Ian. She pulled against her bindings and Andrei’s grip as if she planned to launch herself at Ian. And Rowe could believe it. Hatred blazed in her eyes and flushed her once pale face.

“Jagger wanted them both?” Lucas questioned from across the room.

Ian shook his head. “No, he had no interest in Hanna.”

“Shut up, traitor!” She screamed. “Shut up! Shut up!”

“From what I saw, Kyle listened to Hanna. If she was kept happy and safe, then Kyle did what he was told.” Ian’s voice broke.