“I was just asking Caleb for a ride to my car, or a phone, really any way I can get back to Portland.” Lucy was beginning to think there was something definitely going on. The brothers didn’t want her to leave. Anxiety dropped in her stomach like a lead weight.

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Elijah said. Lucy sighed with relief. Caleb growled at Elijah, who shrugged and said, “Tomorrow or the next day. The truck needs work. We’ll take you to your car as soon as we fix it.”

Her shoulders dropped, and she blinked with confusion, looking from one brother to the other. What game were they playing with her? Was this all a way to prepare her for kinky sex? If they wanted a threesome, they should just come out and say it. Keeping her from contacting the outside world was not cool. Not cool at all.

“Let me show you the rest of the farm,” Elijah said, taking her hand in his. Caleb growled behind them as Elijah led her through the garden gate and around the front of the house. “Down past the tree line, beyond that meadow, is a creek. We can visit that later.”

Elijah walked toward the large workshop on the opposite side of the house and opened a sliding metal door. He waited for Lucy to enter and followed her inside, with Caleb not far behind.

Inside, she found piles of leather and furs. Looking around the small warehouse, she saw everything from bearskin rugs to finely crafted fur coats and leather jackets. No wonder the brothers could afford such a nice house. These garments were one-of-a-kind masterpieces.

“Wow. I had no idea you did this when you said you were hunters and trappers. I was expecting a bunch of animal heads mounted on boards.”

“We don’t keep trophies. We find them offensive,” said Caleb as he walked toward a workbench.

“Who designs the coats and jackets?”

“Elijah does the designing and sewing. I do the curing. Getting a good cure on a skin or fur is just as delicate a process as sewing a coat.”

“I believe you,” she said, walking farther into the studio.

Caleb rubbed oil into a skin with a rag and then wiped his hands. He grabbed a pelt from a shelf and brought it to her. “Feel this,” he said. He ran the soft fur against her cheek. It was as soft as downy feathers on her skin.

“So nice. But don’t you feel bad about killing all these animals?”

Caleb grunted. “Most of these animals are considered nuisances by the local farmers. If we didn’t trap them for fur and food, they would be hunted and disposed of in a ditch somewhere.”

“Oh.” Lucy ran her hands over the soft furs she found displayed along the shelves and brushed over the gray-and-brown fur coat on a mannequin.

“These are all special order for our clients,” Elijah said, stepping closer to her. His hand grazed the small of her back. She turned to him, heat rising up her spine. Over his shoulder, she could see a MacBook Pro sitting on a desk in the corner.

“Is that a computer?” she asked, walking toward it.

“Yes. We use it for record keeping.”

“Do you have Internet?”

“There’s a line down from the last storm, so the Internet is down. Come, let’s take that walk down to the creek.”

“No phone, no Internet? What’s going on here?” Lucy demanded, digging her heels into the floor. Elijah turned to her and sighed.

“You caught us at a bad time, Lucy. We’ve been a bit stranded out here for the last few days. Luckily for us, we still have electricity from our solar panels, and we are almost completely self-sufficient. I’m sorry we can’t get you out of here more quickly. Please accept our hospitality until we can get you safely back to civilization.”

Suddenly she felt like an ass. If that was all true, she’d suspected them for no reason. Maybe it was all in her head. There had been a harsh storm that passed all the way over Portland a few days ago. It had rained buckets and had flooded the sidewalk outside her apartment building. A storm like that could have definitely knocked down some Internet and phone lines on the coast.

“Let’s make a picnic lunch, and we’ll go down to the creek. It’ll be nice.”

“All right,” she said. Questions still ran through her mind, but she was tired of being suspicious. Going down to the creek for a picnic sounded much nicer than questioning everything Elijah and Caleb said.