“Stop pacing,” Liam ordered from behind the desk. He’d removed his own mask, and brushed a hand through his hair, his nerves on edge.

“I can’t.” Cameron threw him a look and returned to his circuit of the room. “I want to go up there and…”

“Don’t think about it.”

It was good advice, but the time for it was long past. From the first moment Liam had passed the woman over, a wordless plea in her eyes, Cameron had felt desire growing, flaring out of control. She’d trembled in his arms, lips parted softly in her fear, and he could feel the curve of her spine, the delicate strength in her neck. She smelled clean, faintly like flowers. And from the look in her eyes while they held her together in the study, she didn’t have the first damned clue what they wanted of her.

It was a unique torment. They’d never gone for innocents. Innocents didn’t want to do what Cameron and Liam wanted. They might both be in their prime, either one of them a catch—just as long as the girl wasn’t too particular about what they did for a living—but taking both of them…wasn’t a thing most girls would do. They’d spent the last few years looking for come-hither glances and long red nails, a certain sway of the hips that said a woman knew just what they were looking for and was only too eager to give it to them. And they’d had fun, a good counterpoint to a job where any day might kill them.

But from the look in Liam’s eyes, having Lily in their arms had told them both the same thing: fun wasn’t enough anymore. Fun, and well-practiced moans, and women who left matter-of-factly the next day without being asked, had begun to make them both feel empty inside. The women they bedded cared nothing for them, and no matter how practiced their hands and their mouths were, it wasn’t enough.

And then…her. Trembling between them, and Cameron could almost have said she knew what they wanted, and she wanted them back. That fine, soft brown hair straggling out of its bun, the rosy lips still parted as if she didn’t know he was rock-hard while he held her in place, and slowly going mad from the way her chest rose and fell… She was so small, 5’5” at the most—and Cameron, the short one, was 6’4”. To look down and see the slope of her neck, the gentle rise as her breasts trembled with her frightened breaths…

Oh, God, he was going to lose it. He was supposed to hold her on his lap in the car, but at the first bounce, he’d had to shove her aside. That round ass bouncing on his lap would have made him come, right there. He was halfway to tearing off her shirt, pushing her skirt away, taking her in front of everyone—

But she’d been their captive, not a willing accomplice to the things he’d in mind.

He dropped into one of the chairs with a groan.

“You’re still thinking about it,” Liam said.

“Like you’re not,” Cameron challenged.

“Of course I am.” Liam looked up, and his ice-blue eyes held something dark, something dangerous. Cameron knew what that look meant. He’d heard the moans of the women Liam turned that look on, and it was making him even harder to think of Lily straddling his friend, held in place by one strong arm, that round ass exposed for Cameron’s fingers.

When his gaze cleared, Liam was looking back at the paperwork.

“So we’re just not going to talk about this?”

“What is there to talk about?” Liam demanded. “She’s our prisoner. We kidnapped her. We can’t…there’s no way even to ask. You saw her, she’s worried we’re going to kill her.”

“You could have taken the time to explain we wouldn’t,” Cameron muttered churlishly.

“I was trying to get out of there with everyone’s clothes still on, and I said no one was going to bother her.”

“But she didn’t believe us, did she? Oh come on, you couldn’t have told her so that—”

“She’s not the kind of woman you can just ask that of.” Liam’s face was strained. “She’s…she knew what we wanted. She knew. Some part of her. But she couldn’t admit it to herself. She’s too innocent for that.”

“She wanted us,” Cameron murmured. His eyes drifted closed at the thought of her spread out on the bed, legs around his waist.

“It doesn’t…” Liam made a strangled sound. “It doesn’t matter. We can’t…”

“I know.” Cameron groaned. “It’s not going to stop me from thinking about it, though.”

“Well, find something to distract yourself,” Liam advised. “Or it’s going to be a long few days.”

He paused, pen hovering over a sheet of paper. “Do you think she’s actually a virgin?”

Electricity shot through Cameron. He didn’t go after virgins, didn’t want the young women with their hair still in ponytails and their bright, innocent faces. He’d never understood the appeal, never been much of one to go for corrupting innocence.

Until now. Now, the thought was enough to make him want a cold shower. Or eight.

“You are going to drive me mad,” he said shortly. “I’m going to bed.”

“Bed?” Liam’s voice was amused. “Or a shower?”

“Shut up.” Cameron resisted the urge to slam the door behind him and climbed the stairs. He was almost shaking with desire, and he turned resolutely away from the old guest bedrooms and toward the room he’d shared with Liam for most of the past year. What he wouldn’t give for there to be a woman there tonight, any woman. It wouldn’t be the same, but it might get him through the night without losing his mind.

A sound caught his ear when he was nearly at the door and he paused outside.

“Not tonight, Devil. Liam will kill me, there’s no way I can go down that road tonight.” It killed him to turn his door handle but he managed. Going into the darkness of his room, Cameron felt like an absolute heel for leaving her there to cry, but his friendship with Liam and his job, gave him the self-control he needed. For now.

* * *

Lily heard the slide of a man’s feet outside her door and stifled her sobs with her pillow. Normally she wasn’t the crying kind of girl, she was a grown woman after all. Hidden in the darkness in unfamiliar territory with two men that confused her beyond all logic only feet away, she lost her stoic composure.

The tears had started as she crawled into the bed, removing her hose and bra before sliding between the luxurious sheets to lie beneath a handmade quilt. Listening to unfamiliar noises, the memory of James’s face just before he’d run up those stairs played over again and again in her mind.

He’d just left her there!

That’s when the sobs had started. When her fantasy world finally collapsed like a building being demolished. Unsurprisingly, she was the one abandoned in the mess left behind. With walls tumbling around, fantasies exploding, and her own naïve stupidity on display like the wires running through the foundation of a collapsed building, she began to sob.

She’d been so stupid, so incredibly stupid!

James had seen her as nothing more than a lovesick woman, a secretary that did her job well, so long as she was fed a few tokens of hope every now and then. Lily remembered the looks he used to give her and realized now they were looks of amusement, not consideration.

He’d been laughing to her face and she’d been too love-struck to see it. She’d been nurturing this dream for so long now that her shame was doubled. She’d not caught on at all. When she thought about the women at work, the way they’d whispered about her so jealously, she wondered if it had really been the case.

Perhaps, being savvier, they’d realized what had been going on and had actually been laughing at her?

Shame burned through Lily, leaving her hot and soaked in her own tears. She longed for a box of tissues and concrete walls to hide her sobs of shame. James had completely snowed her and she’d been far too blind to even see it!

She’d seen what she wanted to and that hurt even more. She’d been deluding herself. He’d lead her on, sure, but Lily had been the one that gave him the ammunition with her long glances, with her absolute devotion, her inability to tell the cocky bastard no when he gave her that crooked grin of his.

Pulling her legs up to her chest beneath the covers, Lily couldn’t console herself. She’d not felt this depth of shame before in her life. She’d felt pain before, the death of her parents, other moments in life, had left her in tears. When her father had died, leaving her an orphan, Lily had come to know what real loneliness was. There’d been nobody there to console her and she’d learned to console herself, to quiet herself and carry on.

She’d managed to work her way through a two-year college, set her sights on a career with a business lead by a man with ambition, and worked her way up the ladder to the man himself. She was used to making goals and working towards them. She wasn’t, however, used to humiliation and failure.

Romance had played no part in her life, though she’d dated. She’d been too focused on making sure she provided for herself. And reaching her goal of working for James, personally. She’d made that a reality.

As she’d worked towards that goal she’d started to develop a fixation on James. A very dangerous fixation, as it turned out.

Cramming her fist between her teeth, Lily bit down on her knuckles, trying to stem the flow of her sobs. Trying to focus her internal pain into an external outlet.

She’d searched the room earlier, but the window was covered with an intricate iron cover that allowed the light through, but even as slim as she was she’d never fit through. The door was locked and there was no other exit. She was truly stuck.

And what would those men do to her? A frisson of fear coursed through her, making her shiver.

She’d felt an attraction to both of them, a rather stupid attraction, but what did that mean? You can’t trust your instincts; she’d learned that the hard way. Her instincts had cried out that James needed a maternal figure in his life, a wife to care for him and love him. What he needed was a damned backbone.

If he was any kind of man she wouldn’t be here right now, kidnapped and helpless. Another situation that shook her to the core. Since her father had died she’d learned to take care of herself, to never depend on anyone. Mainly because there’d been nobody else there to rely on.

In the moment of her greatest need, the only person she’d allowed herself to thaw towards in her adult life had turned and run away. Could she trust these two men? They didn’t seem like typical kidnappers. She’d not been harmed or threatened in any way. Just kidnapped.

Pulling her fist out of her mouth, Lily snorted. How stupid was she? They had kidnapped her! She couldn’t trust either of them!

Nice or not, sweet or not, melting brown eyes or not, those men had taken her against her will. They were capable of anything. The deathly cold stare of the blue-eyed one had told her all she needed to know about her situation. He’d do whatever it took to get the job done, that one.

Liam and Cameron. She still didn’t even know what Liam looked like, only the color of his eyes, only the hue of his flesh. And that he was dangerous. Far more dangerous than Cameron or James. James had been a little boy playing games compared to the ruthlessness she’d seen in Liam’s eyes.

Bundling herself deeper into the bed, resigned to her captivity for the moment, Lily closed her eyes, hoping sleep would come. It was all too much, the entire day, it was all too much to take. With a final sniffle, she sighed and fell into the quiet solace of her dreams. At least there she wasn’t such a ninny.

* * *

Piercing sunlight, bright and warm, burned across Lily’s face the next morning and through her eyelids. Turning over, she tried to figure out what had happened to the blackout curtain on her window. Had the curtain rod pulled out of the wall? Holding a hand to her eyes, she looked in the direction of the light. That’s not right, her window was on the other side of the room.

With sudden realization Lily sat up in the bed, looking around her in horror.

It hadn’t been a nightmare then! She really had been kidnapped!

“No!” She wailed loudly, rage filling her as she threw her pillow at the door. “You bastards! Let me go!”

There was no response and Lily gritted her teeth. What now? She needed the bathroom and some food. Coffee.

Staring sullenly at the door Lily waited, knowing someone would come. Wouldn’t they?

Minutes passed and there was no click at the door, she didn’t even hear feet sliding over the carpet. Going to the door she started to bang on the white panel, her need for the bathroom becoming desperate.

“Hey, hey, hey, what’s the noise about?” Cameron!

At least it was him, and not the scarier one.

“Please, I need a bathroom! Please let me out!”

She heard words being murmured and then the snick of a lock being turned.

“Lily? Are you listening to me?” She heard his call through the door and pressed her ear to the wood.

“I am,” she called back, crossing her legs tightly. “Please let me out.”

“I’m going to, but Liam is right behind me, so don’t get any funny ideas, alright? Now is not the time to play the warrior queen.”

“What? Are you serious? I’m going to squat down and pee on your floor if you don’t let me out of here, I swear to God!” She was beyond being civil.

If she’d not been in such a rush she would have given the two men a good piece of her mind when she heard them chuckling outside the door. Instead, when the door swung open she rushed out, looking around desperately for an obvious sign of a bathroom.

“Which one? Oh my God, hurry!” She was all but dancing on her bare feet now, her hair wild around her, makeup smeared beneath her eyes.

Liam pointed at a door to the left and Lily dived for it. Closing the door and locking it, she quickly took care of business and then sat on the edge of the bathtub to look around. No window, no other doors, nothing sharp. Just a normal guest bathroom.

A new toothbrush, fresh towels, and soaps were sitting on the ornate marble and dark wood of the sink cabinet. Stretching along the length of the room was an expensive-looking cabinet, but it didn’t match the tempting beauty of the bathtub. She’d not had a bath in years! Her apartment only had a shower stall.

Looking at the tub longingly, Lily turned away from it to scrub her face, brush her hair with a brush she found in a drawer of the cabinet, and brush her teeth. Feeling as human as possible under the circumstances, Lily opened the door to find both men standing either side of the door.

“Finished already? You can take a bath if you want,” Liam began, but cut off with a hint of red in his cheeks.

Cameron smothered a laugh and Lily looked down at her feet. They weren’t her friends, she reminded herself, even if the tone they were setting now implied it. She would have to remember that.

“No. I would like some other clothes and some food, if that’s possible. Even a breakfast cereal would work. Maybe some coffee.” She quietly shuffled back to her room, head bowed, missing the pained look exchanged between the two men.

Going back to the room she settled onto the bed, not sure what she should, or could do now. The door closed quietly and Lily wasn’t even sure they’d heard her request. She checked the time on her watch and stared down at it.

A gift from her father, she’d continued to wear the outdated timepiece even though she could always find the time on her phone now. The clock-face read eleven thirty. No way!

She’d not slept past six o’clock since she’d begun working for James, even in her earliest days there. The time had become so routine she’d even got up at the same time on her days off. The watch had either become damaged during her kidnapping or the battery was dying. She didn’t have her phone now and there weren’t any clocks in the room.

When the door opened and Liam brought in a tray of food and a change of clothes, she pounced on the chance to ask him what time it was. It wasn’t that important but it was all she could focus on.

“It’s around eleven forty-five. We let you sleep. Yesterday was rough on you. Do you need anything else? I can have a television brought in to you.” He looked at her steadily, coldly, but Lily saw the flare of his nostrils as he gazed at her.

A hint that he was aware of her, but only a hint. The same as she was aware of him. She’d recognized him by his voice; his face had been unfamiliar when she’d first seen him.

He was a handsome man, beautiful eyes to match the rest of him. He reminded her of an actor she loved to watch, a tall, blonde, Nordic actor with full lips, high cheekbones, and a face meant for a woman’s lips to kiss as her fingers traced paths of their own. Lily swallowed, unhappy with the direction her thoughts were taking.

Both men were giants, both too devilishly handsome for her good. Swallowing around the lump in her throat, Lily licked her lips and looked down at the tray. Toast, hash browns, a cinnamon roll and slices of fruit resting in a bowl. A cup and a carafe of coffee with milk, and sugar lumps in small bowls drew her attention first. She looked up at Liam as she poured the rich coffee into the cup, preparing to thank him but he spoke first.

“I brought the clothes we had. Cameron’s going out to get you more. This should do you for now.” A pair of black lounge pants, a white t-shirt, and a thin jacket that matched the pants. It would suffice.

“More? So that means…” her words trailed off as she realized exactly what they meant. She wasn’t leaving any time soon.

“Yes, you’ll be here until James meets our demands. He’s not contacted us so far.” Liam’s eyes cut away again and Lily wanted to curl up and die.

Another betrayal.

“Thank you for letting me know. And for the food and clothes as well.” Lily spoke as formally as he, trying to hide the pain tearing her up inside.

“Well. I’m sorry it’s simple but we didn’t know if you were a vegetarian or allergic to anything, so we brought this. I hope it meets your needs. I also have a television for you and I’ve brought some books, to help you fill your time.” He disappeared for a moment and came in with a flat screen television and some books. He carried the mid-sized television with one hand, the books with the other. So he was not only strong, he was agile.

Lily looked away, not wanting to be caught staring, and tried to think about other things. Liam connected a cable to the television on the top of the dresser and made to leave.

“I’ll be back later to check on you.” He didn’t say anything else and he left her to pick over the breakfast.

“Liam!” She called out to him, a sudden fear of being alone overriding her better judgment.

He stopped and turned back to her. “Yes?”

“I’m not a vegetarian and I have no food allergies.” It was all she could think of to say.

“I’ll remember that. See you later.” He closed the door quietly and Lily sighed deeply.

She was still alive, at least. Getting up, she sipped her coffee as she went for the remote he’d left on the top of the dresser. Flicking through the channels she found a local channel, hoping to see the midday news. Maybe there was a report about her kidnapping.

She ate her breakfast as she waited, her tension rising as the minutes passed and there was no report about her. A lost ring from twenty years ago had been found by a lady pulling weeds in her flower bed, a car accident had clogged up the highway, and the local government was asking for a tax increase to fund education programs, but not a single mention of her. None.

James had not reported what happened then. Nobody knew she was gone, that was all she could think about as the program ended without a single mention of her name. Sitting back against the headboard, a plush concoction of fabric and padding, Lilly decided if she got out of this she was going to punch James right in his lying mouth the moment she saw him.

In the light of day, she felt her bravery renewed, her fear of the night before, her total anguish at her own stupidity, muted. It was obvious she wouldn’t be escaping but she felt calmer. Somehow she would survive. She didn’t know what the men wanted from her and she pushed away thoughts telling her hostage situations never ended well.

They were different though, Liam and Cameron. Something about them was different from the typical murdering, kidnapping, evil kind of men that took innocent women hostage. She’d gathered that much from the few conversations she’d had with them so far. But if only one person knew she’d been taken as a hostage and they weren’t doing anything publicly…

Maybe she had it all wrong. Sitting up in the bed she looked out at the window where the sky was turning as angry and gray as she felt. Maybe James was working behind the scenes, trying to get her back? Ticking her thumbnail against her teeth, her head spun with new ideas.

“No, he ran away. He left me. Stop being such a ninny, Lily. James doesn’t care and he’s probably still hiding in his safe-room. Idiot.” Settling back into her pillows, Lilly felt depression sinking over her. She might be safe for now but as time passed and James didn’t answer their demands, would Liam and Cameron be willing to let her go? Or would they have to find a way to hide the evidence of what they’d done?

* * *

The day wore on and Liam brought her extra clothes, dinner, some snacks that she could keep in the room and extra drinks, and allowed her to go to the bathroom again. That was the part she hated most she decided, as night fell and a storm began to rage. Having to ask to be allowed to tend to her bodily needs.

Boredom had begun to take hold as the day wore on and she’d begun to read one of the classic novels Liam had brought her. As night fell and the gray skies turned black and a storm began to rage, her fears of the night before returned. What if James never contacted Liam and Cameron?

Tears began to fall as the power went out in the house, the sudden quiet unsettling. Before that, the house had been filled with the low rumble of electric appliances that went unnoticed until they were quiet.

The house was dark. Thunder crashed outside as though the storm was trying to destroy the very earth it hovered over, and Lily’s nerves began to crack once more.

Like a terrified child, Lily hid under the covers with her eyes squeezed shut. But it wasn’t the storm that made her sob so deeply her body shook. No, it was knowing that nobody cared enough to realize she was gone and that James had left her to her fate.

The man she’d loved so deeply was nothing but a selfish prick. How could she have been so blind? Had she really been that desperate? A sudden blast of peach light, seen even through the covers and the flesh of her eyelids, reminded her of the nightgown she’d bought on the company credit card.

She’d bought it in the hopes of wearing it for James. He would never see it, and had never planned to see it, unless he’d perhaps grown desperate. Women threw themselves at him. He’d never have been that hard-up that he’d have turned to Lily for sex.

A new sob broke as she once again felt shame burning through her. She’d made such a fool of herself and now she was trapped in a situation that was none of her own doing. Clenching her eyes tightly shut, she tried to stop herself from crying once more but found that only made it worse. Hopefully, the sound of her tears was hidden by the storm.

* * *

“Have you checked on her since the power went out?” Cameron turned to Liam, his eyes accusing. Liam had denied him permission to see Lily all day.

“Her television was off before the storm, so was her light. I assume she’s asleep. Leave it.” Liam went back to typing at his computer, his thoughts hidden by the stony look on his face.

“We should at least check on her! She might be terrified in there!” Cameron paced the room, his thoughts on comforting the woman they’d taken.

He wanted to touch her, to smell her once more. He’d not been able to get her out of his head all day and now he was like a caged tiger, waiting for that moment of escape.

“I know what you’re thinking and I know what you’re after. You aren’t getting it so leave her be.” Liam didn’t even look up as he spoke, he just kept typing.

“Don’t you feel it, Liam? It’s not just me, it’s her! She wants us! I know it, I can feel it in my bones!”

“I know what you feel it with and it is not your ‘bones’.” Liam looked up long enough to make air quotes with his fingers. “You feel it with your dick. I know because I feel it too. That doesn’t mean we’re going to act on it. She’s an innocent and our captive. It’s wrong.”

“But—” Cameron began but Liam interrupted, his blue eyes hard and flashing with an intensity that came from more than the candles that lit the dark room.

“Cam, she is not here as our pet captive. She is here because we fucked up. We shouldn’t have taken her but she’s here now and Kenneth wants us to keep her until James releases Mary, Winston, and Annalise.”

Cameron stilled as Liam spoke the names of their foster parents and foster sister. The foster sister they had escaped hell on earth with. His nostrils flared and Liam could see a hard edge form in Cameron’s jaw.

“You’re right.” His head bowed for a moment as he remembered exactly what was at stake.

Winston and Mary, their foster parents in the beginning, the people that adopted three lost and broken children who’d escaped from a cult twenty years ago. Mary had seen their faces on the news and had asked her husband, an affluent businessman, to help her take the children in. Arrangements had been made and the children went from poverty and fear to love and luxury.

It had taken Cam months to start speaking again, and Liam still had nightmares about the abuse they’d suffered. Annalise still didn’t speak. She barely communicated with anyone other than Liam, Cameron, and Mary. Their real parents were sent to prison, along with the cult leader, and they’d grown up refusing to see the people who’d subjected their own children to horrific acts of violence.

Cameron and Liam had escaped in the dark cover of night, searching only for a place where fists didn’t hurt them and grownups didn’t do bad things to children, Annalise at their side. They had been found walking down a highway by a policeman. Alone, afraid, and scared, the children were all taken to the station where they’d revealed the horrors they’d lived through. Young and unable to voice their own wants, the children had been taken in by Mary and Winston. The couple had worked hard and nurtured the children back to some form of sanity, and all three had become as integral to the family as their natural-born son was.

Ten years older than the other children, Kenneth now led the family business but Liam and Cameron had their roles. Usually, that involved things that only the most devoted and trustworthy members of family could do. Liam and Cameron did the things required of them gladly.

They repaid the family’s kindness and love with true and total devotion. Sometimes that meant doing ugly things, but Cameron and Liam knew it was for the good of the family. Not the business, not the empire Winston had created, but for the family.

For the first time, the reality of Lily’s position, the similarity to the total lack of control and subjugation he’d felt as a child, hit home. They’d taken her from her life, put her in a box, and though she wasn’t being abused as they had been, she was still their prisoner. Cameron’s fist clenched as the understanding that he was the bad guy finally bloomed in his mind.

Cameron knew the sense in Liam’s words, he did, and he knew his role in this mess, but he’d not been able to get her out of his head all day. The memory of how she’d felt, so soft and warm in his arms, had plagued him.

She’d looked so defeated this morning when she’d come out of the bathroom that he’d planned to spend the morning trying to cheer her up somehow. He wasn’t sure how he’d control the urge to pull her into his arms but he’d find a way. Liam had squashed that idea by keeping him busy all day.

And now, alone and afraid in the dark, she was being left to allow her fears to grow. He knew that’s what she was doing because he’d been there, he knew how thoughts raced inside your mind and the smallest whisper of sound could produce raging terror that just couldn’t be contained. Cameron clenched his fist as he thought about it, wanting to take away that fear even if he was the one that caused it.

“So we’re just going to leave her in there on her own, with the power out and no explanation?” Cameron glared at Liam now.

The two were true friends, their bond formed long ago in their shared childhood, but Liam was in charge. That was just how it was, what he said went.

“Yes. It is obvious it is storming so that will explain the power, if she’s even awake. I suggest you go and take a cold shower, Cameron. You’re starting to annoy me.” Liam tempered the rebuke with a light grin, before going back to his work.

“Fuck you. Fine. I’ll go to bed. I’m not showering in this storm.” He picked up his phone from the chair and made to leave.

“You aren’t still afraid to shower in a storm? How many times do I have to tell you that’s an old wives’ tale?” Liam chuckled to himself.

“People have died, Liam! It’s not funny!” Cameron retorted, flipping Liam off as he pulled the door open.

“It is, and no they haven’t! Some sensationalist newspaper made that up!” Liam didn’t know that for sure but he wasn’t going to tell Cameron that.

“Fuck you, Liam!” Cameron repeated but he said it with a smile this time.

“Cameron?” Cameron turned slowly, something in Liam’s voice alerting him to the fact that he wasn’t going to like what Liam was about to say.

“What?” Cam waited, his dread making him impatient.

“Just remember, Annalise is again in a position where she has no control, where she cannot say no. Think about that when you’re aching to stick your dick in Lily.”

Damnit, he’d been right, those words were like ice water over the head!

“You’re right.”

He closed the door quietly and headed for his own room just down the hall from Lily’s. He’d had to fight with himself all night not to go to her. He’d heard her crying the night before and felt like such a dick for leaving her like that. He’d barely slept and felt the exhaustion now. Maybe he did need to sleep.

He reached his door but turned, hand on the doorknob. For a moment, he thought it had been nothing, and then it came again: a quiet sob from down the hall.

She was awake. And sobbing.

Cameron squeezed his eyes shut and turned the knob, intending to strip off his clothes and drop straight onto the small bed in the corner of the room he kept as bare as a prison cell. He needed release before he saw her again, even if she was crying. Then he might have a shred of self-possession so he wouldn’t make a pass at a crying woman.

But the sob came yet again, and he felt his hand come away from the doorknob and his body walk down the hallway even while he screamed at himself to turn around, to go back to his room, that she wasn’t safe with him. That those luscious, perfectly tempting curls, her heart shaped face and her brown eyes were too much for him not to beg for what he wanted.

What both he and Liam wanted.

But Annalise…Cameron’s thoughts turned to his sister. Would he want someone comforting her in this storm? He knew he would, though he wouldn’t want them to do the things he wanted to do with Lily. Not unless she wanted it, and he knew Lily wouldn’t turn him down.

He hoped Liam was just as distracted as he was, he thought as he reached the door. Smug bastard.

The lock clicked under his fingers and he opened the door carefully.

“Lily?” He spoke her name quietly, not wanting to frighten her.

A sob was his only answer. The power was still out so the room was dark, as dark as a cave except for the bright flashing of lightning outside. Shutting the door behind him—at least a tiny barrier to her escape—Cameron edged into the room and followed the sound of her crying to the bed. He sat cautiously on the edge of it and felt her shift away.

“Please don’t be scared, it’s only a storm,” he said, because he didn’t know what else to say. He wanted to say this wasn’t what they did, and they weren’t going to kill her, and that her boss was one hell of a jerk for leaving her there while he ran for safety. He wanted to say if they weren’t trying to save another life, they never would have taken her. But all of those words seemed inadequate.

“Why shouldn’t I be scared?” She whispered, tears in her voice. “He’s…he doesn’t care for me. He doesn’t care for anyone. And he’ll just let me die here without anybody else knowing about it!” Her voice quavered on the last word, and any shred of resolve disappeared.

“You’re not going to die,” Cameron told her forcibly. “We’re not going to kill you.”

Liam was going to kill him. He’d say the fear they’d kill her might keep her from running away. He’d say if they needed her to make a call to James Dominick, the quaver of fear in her voice had to be there.

And if he was here right now, Cameron knew that Liam would break, too. They’d done things that would horrify other people, but they had a line. No pain. And no innocent people. She should know she wasn’t going to be made to suffer for this jerk, that they would never do to her what James was having done to someone else.

Her sobs paused briefly at his words.

“What?”

“We need to scare your boss. We need him to tell us where he’s hiding the people he kidnapped. But we would never, ever hurt you. You haven’t done anything. You weren’t involved.”

“But I was,” she whispered. “I’m sure I sent some of those emails. When I think about—”

“Then don’t think about it. You can’t truly think you’re to blame for that evil bastard’s doings!” He reached out tentatively, and wrapped his fingers around her hand. She stiffened but didn’t pull away, so he kept his hand there, touching her, marveling at how comfortable it seemed.

“We don’t believe that. Even the guy who hired us would say you aren’t. We’re just trying to get someone back. Remember how Liam said no one would bother you?”

“I do. I’ve spent the entire day in here, thinking about those words. I’ve wondered if James gave his victims the same consideration. I know him, I probably know him better than anyone else on the planet and even I didn’t suspect he could do this. I’m sorry. I can’t give you any reassurances about your own family or anyone else he may have done this to.”

Her voice trembled as she spoke, fresh sobs threatening to escape but she held it together. Looking down at her, Cameron saw the tears in her eyes and his heart wrenched in his chest. James was to blame for this, nobody else.

He wanted to reassure her again but stilled as a thought occurred to him. They hadn’t planned for this. “Your family must be worried.”

“I don’t…have any family.” She looked down. “My mother died giving birth to me. My father died five years ago. No siblings.”

“A boyfriend?” Could he be more obvious?

“No.” Her voice was bitter. “No boyfriend. No cat. No one to miss me.”

He couldn’t believe that, not for a moment. She was too delicious as a person. She’d to have someone that would miss her.

“You’ll go home soon,” Cameron said finally, at a loss. His fingers tightened over hers, and he tried not to leap away when she drew closer. He didn’t know what to say other than that he didn’t want her to go—and he couldn’t say that because he couldn’t let her go even if she asked.

“You’ll keep me safe?” she asked, not understanding the real danger she was in, too focused on the fear that someone might truly kill her. He forgot to worry about the emotional danger she might be in as he looked down, her face closer to his. If he breathed deep enough…

He shouldn’t. He really shouldn’t. But Cameron’s rose in the darkness to the faint outline of her face. He cupped her silky, warm cheek, drew her closer until her breath feathered along his mouth, and with a capitulating groan their lips met.

It was so, so fucking wrong, but so fucking good. She made a little sound in the back of her throat, a sound that almost drove him over the edge of control but he pulled away. He had to. Liam would kill him. One moment more and then he’d go. He had to.