Their Virgin Captive(49)

Both of them towered over Hannah. They stared openly at her, and then the one wearing a hat walked right back into the saloon without a word.

Fabulous. Everywhere she looked today, she found a man willing to be rude to her. She lifted her chin and walked through the saloon’s double doors.

The Angry Moose was unlike anything she’d ever seen. The walls were covered with animal heads. These people took their hunting very seriously. Moose, bears, dear, even a gopher, all had heads hanging on the wall, a testament to human prowess with a shotgun.

A quick image of Gavin’s head on the wall sprinted through her mind. She shook her head.

Violence wouldn’t change anything. It wouldn’t make her feel better. Maybe it would assuage her for a moment, but she still loved him. In fact, she loved all three of them. The ache from leaving the James Gang behind was going to last forever.

She clutched her suitcase and walked to the bar, ignoring the crowd of men who stopped to stare at her. What was going on? They acted as if they’d never seen a woman before.

A young man with dark hair and Native American features stood behind the bar. His eyes widened as she approached.

“Miss, can I help you? Are you lost?” He leaned over. “Do I need to call the sheriff? He’s not exactly effective, but he’s better than nothing.”

Hannah frowned. “Why would I need the sheriff? I just need to find Billy.” Billy Harris ran the small charter service that would take her from River Run to Anchorage.

From there, she was on her own. But she could find her way back to Texas.

The young man’s face fell. “Uhm, are you Harry Crag?”

She shook her head. “Hannah Craig.”

The bartender winced. “Sorry. Billy isn’t really great with names when he’s plastered.

Unfortunately, that’s most of the time.”



Out of nowhere, a stranger’s hand gripped her arm. “Don’t worry about nothing, Harry. I’ll have you out of this hellhole in no time.”

She could smell the liquor on the man’s breath. This was Billy, her pilot?

Hannah turned to the bartender. “Can anyone else take me home?” The bartender frowned and pointed behind her. Hannah turned. Every man in the bar stared at her. Most had moved way too close for comfort.

“I can take you home,” a deep-voiced man with faded jeans and a naughty smile said. She got the distinct feeling he was not talking about Texas.

“I should take her home, you old coot. I’m way closer to her age.” A man who looked barely old enough to drink pushed to the forefront.

Hannah eased back—and felt the hard edge of the bar at her back. She swallowed. This could get ugly.





Chapter Ten



Dex walked into the house, an unaccountable sense of confidence clinging to him. Despite the fact that the conference call with the Lenox brothers hadn’t yet yielded the name of Hannah’s stalker, Dex had a feeling that they were close. Of course, now they had another problem, a corporate saboteur. Someone had purposefully uploaded a virus to their drilling sites’ computers.

Dex had already put out a call to their other drill sites to lock down their systems and accept no updates until further notice.

“Hey.” Slade walked in behind him, through the kitchen doors, and into the mud room.

“Since we got all the crap settled with the computers, I was thinking we should show Hannah around a bit. She’s probably too sore to ride a horse today, but we could climb in the Jeep and take her up into the mountains.”

“Yeah, good thinking.” Then he frowned. “What about Gavin?”

Big brother was another problem they were going to have to solve. Hannah loved him. Slade would miss him. Hell, if he was really honest with himself, Dex didn’t want Gavin left out, either, despite the awful lies he’d snarled at Hannah last night. If they allowed Gavin to pull away this time, it would likely be permanent. Dex knew it deep in his bones.

“What do you mean? Are you asking if we should we invite him along?” Dex shook his head. “No, we need to figure out what’s eating at Gavin and how to stop it before we let him anywhere near Hannah again. What do you know about Nikki and the night she died?”

Slade zipped a sharp stare his way. “Not much. Nikki was really beautiful. You know, one of those girls who just catches everyone’s attention.”

“I remember.” Dex tended to steer clear of women like her. Anyone who needed that much attention typically didn’t know how to give it back. “Society girl, wasn’t she?”

“Yes. The worst kind. Her family had fallen on hard times, and she was willing to screw her way back to the top.”