The past few days I’ve really found my groove. When the guys are gone, I’ve been finding tasty recipes to make for us and, after Holden made me swear to never touch the bleach again, I haven’t had any more incidents of ruining the laundry. Of course, not everything is all roses. I still mess up and get frustrated with my mistakes. But then, spending all evening being worshipped by Holden and Travis as they kiss every inch of my body and share me between them, well, it’s funny how all those frustrations just melt away.

I plug in the vacuum cleaner and it roars to life as I tap the red button with my toe and start pushing it over the rug in the living room. Walking past the television, the smiling face of the anchor lady on the news is muted by the noise. Even though I can’t hear what she’s saying when I’m vacuuming, it’s nice to have some kind of background noise in the house. It gets so quiet in here, it almost creeps me out a little.

I do a little dance, shimmying my hips as I move the vacuum over the rug. With all this time alone in the house, I get lost in reflection a lot. It’s funny, in the couple relationships I’ve had, I never liked cuddling after having sex. I don’t know if it’s because the sex was so unsatisfying or if the guys just weren’t right for me. Either way, when the main event was over, I liked having my own space in the bed. I’d often wrap a blanket around me like a cocoon, protecting me from the touch of those past boyfriends.

It’s not like that with Holden and Travis. After they make me cum so much, all I can do is collapse back on the bed and surrender to the wobbly limbs and quaking tremors running through me. I love being held by both of them. It’s so comforting to feel one guy on each side of me, their arms crisscrossed over me protectively. After so little affection in my life, it just warms my heart and makes me feel so safe to get lost in the fortress they build around me. It’s like nothing bad can happen. Like all the worries, the ones about running away from Hollywood, and my father, and everything else, they all evaporate when I’m in their arms.

I finish up the last section of the rug and smile. Just look at me. I’ve already got supper ready to go and just warming in the oven, the chores done for the day, and I even had a bit of time to read. I never thought it was possible that I could enjoy this kind of life so much, but here I am, loving every second. I kick the off switch and the overwhelming white noise stops rushing in my ears.

“In other news, twenty-one-year-old actress Audrey Lawrence has been reported missing.”

My eyes snap over to the flat screen in horror. My mouth opens into a silent scream as I look at one of my more recent headshots in the corner of the broadcast.

“Fuck.”

“We’re hooooome!” Travis calls out as I hear the heavy thump of their boots shuffling in the front door.

“Fuuuuck!” I rush over to the sofa and grab the remote off the arm, clicking off the screen just as Holden walks into the room.

My heart is beating so hard my pulse flickers in my neck. I try to look natural and give what I hope is an easy smile. I don’t want to look like a fugitive on the run, or whatever spin is being put on my disappearance right now. I try to push the twisting thoughts out of my brain.

“Looks good in here.” Travis rounds the corner with a big smile and a sparkle in his blue eyes.

“Thanks.” I force a smile of my own.

Holden’s face is blank. If he were playing poker right now he could be holding a winning hand or bluffing and I’d have no idea.

“Before we sit down for supper, how about you come up to the office? There’s something we need to discuss.” His lips are in a flat line. Kind of like how my heartbeat is gonna look on a monitor when this mess gives me a full-on heart attack.

“Sure, of course. Is this for business”—I look up from under my lashes and purr—“or pleasure?”

“Business.” He turns on his heel and I hear his feet hit the stairs as he climbs them.

My heart sinks. Does he know? Is he going to give me the boot? Or even worse, contact the authorities and let them know I’m here? I’m not sure, but it must be some kind of law that you can’t help a missing person hide from the police searching for her.

I swallow the lump growing in my throat and quickly wrap up the cord to the vacuum cleaner and start to take it out of the room.

“Here, I’ll do that. You just get all sorted out. Don’t take too long, now, okay? I’m starving.” There’s no indication in Travis’s gentle eyes that he knows anything. However, I’m not sure if Holden would tell him until he talked to me first.

“Thanks,” I mumble and head out.

At the top of the stairs, I take a deep breath and walk as confidently as I can into the office.

“Take a seat.” Holden doesn’t look up from his computer screen as I walk in. He has it turned away from me, so I can’t see if he’s looking up the news story about me or what.

I do as he asks and sit down. I don’t want to jump the gun. I’m fighting every impulse I have to beg him to let me stay here. To ask for his understanding and forgiveness about my lies and help me start my life over. Will he? Or will he be angry enough to turn me in?

I swallow, but it does nothing to ease my dry throat. A shiver runs down my spine and I try to stop myself from trembling by holding my breath.

“Okay, so there’s some important business we need to talk about, isn’t there?” He looks over the top of the screen at me.

“Is there?” My voice squeaks.

“Of course. I mean, you know that even with the arrangement we’ve had these past few days, I still have to follow the laws, right? I can’t pretend you haven’t been working for us.” His dark eyebrows knit together and my stomach ties in knots.

“Please,” I choke on the word. The idea of being brought back to my father and forced to work on some movie that only lines his pockets with more cash almost makes me break down and sob. When I lost my mother, the only parent who ever loved or cared for me, I swore I’d never help him again. I swore he could die begging out on the streets for his last dime and I wouldn’t care. “Can’t you just forget about that?”

“What?” Holden’s hazel eyes grow dark with shadows as he looks at me like he’s reading my soul.

“What?” I repeat, wondering if I’ve made a mistake.

“What are you talking about, Audrey?”

“About working here.”

“You know we’ve gotta do things above board on the ranch. We get enough flack from the tax man as it is. I can’t be paying you under the table and paint a big red bull’s-eye on my back. You think I want the IRS auditing me?”

“Oh! No! Of course not.” I give a sigh of relief and a genuine smile slides over my face as the tension eases free from my body.

“Well then, I need your information so you can get into the system. I know it sucks that the government is going to start taking taxes off, but there’s nothing I can do. My hands are tied.”

“That’s fine. I understand.” I lean back into the chair and feel a cement block being lifted from my chest.

“Great, so I need your full name.” He peers at me.

“Audrey Emily, uh, Lacey.” I give him my fake last name. I know it’s not smart, but with my real name being plastered on the news, what else can I do?

Holden hen pecks the keyboard with two fingers.

“I don’t spend a lot of time typing, as you can see.” He frowns as he slowly spells it out. “There, and what’s your social security number?”

“My SSN?”

“Yep, that’s the one. What is it?”

Shit, I never thought of that. Once he puts that in the system, he’ll get all my real information. “Uh, it’s four-one-two.” I start picking numbers out of the air and Holden plucks them in.

“Yep.”

“Um, five-eight.”

“Okay.” He hits the keyboard.

“Eighteen-sixteen.”

He enters the numbers and smiles. “Perfect. I think that’s all I need. Now let’s get downstairs and get some food.” He stands up and sweeps his hand toward the door.

I stand up, but my knees are shaking and my stomach is doing backflips. There’s no way I’m gonna be able to eat much. I practically feel sick.

“I’ll be right down. I need to use the washroom,” I lie.

“See you down there.” He doesn’t look at me.

I lag behind him and wait until he disappears down the stairs. As soon as he’s out of sight, I rush into my bedroom and grab my cell phone. My thumbs move quickly across the screen as I type my name into the Google search bar. Sure enough, a bunch of news stories come up in a list. Each one of them sporting my face beside the text.

“Damn it.”

I skim the first article and see that my father has pulled another stunt. He’s reported me as a missing person. Just fucking great. Now there’s zero chance the police are just going to let this go. How am I going to stop the guys from picking up on this? How am I going to stay anonymous in this small town? When part of my job is shopping for food and running into town for the guys, how long will it be before someone recognizes me and calls the cops?

Sighing, I try to figure out my next move. I’ll have to think about it later. Right now the guys are waiting on me for dinner. They’re both gentlemen, so I know they won’t start eating until I show up. I try to act normal and head down to the dining room all the while silently praying that somehow, in some way, this will all work out.