Her lips curled up in a cynical smile. It was the first he’d ever seen on her. Gavin swallowed down a throat full of bile. His Hannah had learned a lot in the days since he and his brothers had kidnapped her, not all of it good.
“Right, I’m just a country girl without manners or education. I’m nothing but a good time to a man like you. Rest assured, I won’t forget that again.”
It made him sick, but Gavin nodded. “Good. I hope you won’t make a fuss with my brothers.”
“That won’t be a problem.” Her shoulders sagged. Her cynical smile fled, and tears welled in her eyes. “I won’t cause any trouble between you and your brothers. We dumb country girls at least know better than to mess with family.”
She started to walk out of the room, her head held high.
“What does that mean?”
“Piss off,” she snapped, without even turning back to him.
“Where are you going?” he demanded.
“It’s none of your concern.”
“Stay in your room until my brothers get back.” He couldn’t see her again.
She still didn’t turn back to him. “I don’t need to follow your orders any more, Mr. James.
You’re not my boss. You’re not even my lover. You’re just a jerk who used me.” That summed him up in a neat little package. Pain slammed through him, but he swallowed it down. “This jerk thinks it would be best if you remained in your room.”
“What you think doesn’t matter anymore.”
He laughed, a humorless sound. “I guess you don’t love me after all.”
“You’re wrong.” She sighed and kept walking.
With two words, she dismantled him. Gavin staggered back to the piano, clutching his stomach. He felt fucking eviscerated. He grabbed the bottle of vodka and drained the last of it, staring at the piano. He’d never be able to play again without seeing Hannah there. He’d never be able to come back to this house without aching for her all over again.
He was a miserable bastard, and it was only going to get worse. But he knew what he had to do, the only honorable thing he could do. He picked up the phone and dialed his lawyer’s number.
Maybe someday Hannah and his brothers would understand.
* * * *
Hannah walked through the house like a zombie, her feet shuffling across the hardwood floors. The events of the past days played through her brain as she made it to her room. She’d been briefly happy here, but that was over.
She took off her clothes and started the shower. God, she felt dirty. Funny how she could be with two men and feel like an angel, but Gavin had made her feel slutty and cheap.
After washing away the evidence of her mistake, she climbed out and dressed the best she could. With tears blurring her eyes, she packed her things and closed her suitcase. She opened her laptop. With a few keystrokes, she found the phone number to the charter service that flew from River Run to Anchorage. She could find a flight home from there. In a day or so, she would be back in Two Trees. Maybe she could pick up the pieces of her life.
If she could find a way into town.
Next, Hannah pulled up her word processing program and typed out a note to Dex and Slade.
After searching the nearby study, she found no evidence of a printer, so she left the computer open so they would find her goodbye.
Hannah cried as she dragged her suitcase behind her and searched the whole house futilely for car keys or the driver. Neither were anywhere to be found. Darn it, she needed to be gone before Slade and Dex returned. They wouldn’t understand. They’d convince her that Gavin was like a lion with a thorn in his paw—snarling and mean, but really just hurting deep down. They’d convince her that she could heal him. But Hannah knew better. If she remained, she would just cause trouble between Gavin and his brothers.
God, she’d miss these men, and she would never love anyone half so much again, but she couldn’t break up a family.
Why had she thought she could be involved with three men? She hadn’t been thinking at all, at least not with her brain. Her heart and nether regions had proven that they couldn’t make a halfway decent decision between them.
She wandered into the great room where she’d confronted Gavin earlier. If only she’d listened to him. She’d been so sure he was hiding something. Maybe he was, but nothing she’d done had cut through his protective walls. He didn’t want her help or her love.
She stared out the window, wondering how far the walk was into town when the golf carts caught her eye.
She smiled for the first time. Country girls might not be polished, but they knew how to make do.
* * * *
She pulled her golf cart into a parking space behind the Angry Moose Saloon, Grocery, and Lodge. It was the biggest building in the tiny little town. Made of large logs, it resembled a huge cabin. Two burly men walked out of the saloon doors and stopped in their tracks when they saw her.