“We need to know who sent her. What she wants. What she knows.”
Joe sighed. “Why does anyone have to have sent her?”
“She could have just been hungry and looking for some shelter,” Garret added quietly.
“And, what? She decided to break in here?” Sawyer looked at them both. How could they be so naïve? “There are signs and traps everywhere.”
There was obviously a flaw in his security system, besides the fact he’d shown Garret how to disable the alarms, and he intended to find it.
He glanced over at the female. She was pacing the room. Her hands ran up and down her arms. He actually felt a stirring of sympathy. Maybe he should have given her clothes back. He’d seen the fear in her face when she’d realized she was partially undressed. It had been necessary, but now he was starting to feel like a bit of an asshole.
He firmed his resolve. She was the enemy. He could not feel sympathy for her.
“It’s awfully cold down there,” Joe said in a low voice. “We don’t want her getting ill.”
Sawyer gave him an incredulous look. “She’s a prisoner.”
“You’re not really expecting her to use that bucket, are you?” Garret added.
His brothers were bleeding hearts. He was not. He had to be the tough one. Left to their own devices they’d probably leave the gate down, forget to set the alarm, leave all their expensive artifacts out on display for anyone to take, and get themselves kidnapped for ransom.
It was up to him to guard this family. Against any enemy.
Even if the enemy was a tiny, blonde female with more guts than most soldiers he’d encountered.
He watched, eyes narrowed as their prisoner drew back her leg and kicked the bucket against the wall. Hard. It cracked into three pieces.
“Well, maybe not that bucket,” he muttered.
3
Joe knew this was a mistake.
He should be in bed, trying to sleep. He was already behind schedule and he was going to need to get up early to catch up.
But no matter how much he’d tossed and turned, he couldn’t stop thinking about the female down in the cellar. Sawyer had relented to letting her use a bathroom, but when he’d gone down to escort her, she’d bitten his hand and attempted to kick him in the balls.
That had, understandably, put Sawyer in one hell of a bad mood. Not only had he refused to take her to the bathroom, he’d also refused to let her have any bedding or clothing.
Even knowing Sawyer would kill him, Joe hadn’t been able to help himself. She might be a little hellion. But she was still a female. And Joe had been raised to take care of those smaller and more fragile than himself.
So had Sawyer. But things had happened to Sawyer. Things that had turned him into the cynical, hard person he was.
Joe pressed his hand to the key pad next to the door. It went green after reading his palm, and the door unlocked. He stepped in and quickly shut the door behind him. It locked automatically.
The female looked up from where she was crouched in the corner of the room, her legs pulled to her chest, arms wrapped around them defensively. Shivers ran through her body and concern filled him.
“Hi. Are you okay?”
She just snorted and glared at him from a pair of mesmerizing, blue eyes. Even though he was disgusted at Garret’s behavior he did understand his attraction to the female. There was something almost ethereal about her. As though she was a creature from another world.
Okay, now he was just being ridiculous.
“I brought you some clothes and a few blankets. Thought you might be getting cold. The clothes are some old sweats of mine. I don’t need them back.”
Her eyebrows rose. “And here I figured I’d get them laundered and straight back to you with a fucking thank you note.”
His eyes narrowed. “Your language leaves a lot to be desired.”