you. After that, we’ll make it up as we go.”
It was seriously difficult to concentrate while sitting on his rock-hard thighs. She squirmed a little to get comfortable, and he groaned. She grew still.
“Hallie,” he warned.
“Fine.” She took a deep breath and started from the beginning.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Trent let his body relax now that his woman was safely in his arms finally telling him the truth. Oh, he hadn’t made her his yet, but there was no doubt that was going to happen. He’d been lost from the first time she’d flashed those pretty eyes at him, and it was time he manned up and admitted it. Seeing her scared and unwilling to bring harm to his family had shoved him headfirst into being all in with her. She was what he wanted and no doubt needed. He’d go slow for her, but it was going to happen.
Fear filled her eyes as she began to speak, and he knew he’d done the right thing. She needed protection, and that he could provide.
Easily.
She took another deep drink of her wine. “I graduated a year ago with an accounting degree and found a great job with a firm called Montgomery and Sons. It’s a cute name, don’t you think? Sounds like a furniture store instead of a numbers place.”
“Very cute,” Trent agreed, reaching down for his wineglass and signaling for Austin to dial Jesse in on the conversation. “Does anybody named Montgomery actually own the firm?”
Austin placed his phone on his thigh, no doubt with Jesse listening in.
She nodded, her head brushing against Trent’s shoulder. “Yes. Silas is the dad, and his sons are Brad and Charles. They really seemed like a nice family, Trent.”
“But they’re not?” Trent encouraged her, noting her very slight emphasis on Brad’s name.
She shook her head. “Apparently not. I worked there for a year, mostly getting up to speed and then taking on a couple of clients on my own. It was a good job, pretty much. So-so health benefits,” she said thoughtfully.
“I take it something went wrong?”
She sighed, a light pink dusting her cheekbones. “For the most part, we all just worked on our own clients and didn’t cross files. I did a good job, and I was steadily building my own accounts. I wish things had just stayed that way, but they didn’t.”
“Because of Brad?” Trent guessed.
“Yes. How did you know?”
He knew because he’d learned to read small changes in voice, movement, and expression so he wouldn’t get his ass killed a million miles away. “It was just a good guess. Tell us the rest of it, sweetheart.” So far, he didn’t want to kill anybody, but he’d bet anything that was about to change.
“I started dating Brad two months ago. Well, three months, I guess. I’ve been on the move for one.”
Zeke made a small movement.
Heat rushed through Trent but he forced his body to remain relaxed. “You’ve been running for a month?”
She nodded again. “Yes.”
Harley padded out from the field, looked around, and flopped down in front of Trent’s chair. The wolf had grass all over his body but didn’t seem to mind.
Trent jerked and his brothers stared at the wolf as if in shock. The animal never came this close.
“He’s so adorable,” Hallie murmured, her voice slightly slurred.
“You were dating Brad,” Trent prodded her. He’d worry about the wolf later.
She snuggled closer to his chest, the movement natural and unconscious. “Brad’s the youngest and it seems his dad and brother don’t take him all that seriously, but I thought he was funny. We went out several times. Then one night, we were supposed to go to a dinner at the mayor’s home. Some sort of fancy fundraiser.”
She exhaled. “I forgot that I wasn’t supposed to go to the office on Fridays after noon.”
Austin stilled.
Trent brushed her hair off her pretty face. “You never went to the office on Friday afternoons?”
“No. I figured it was just family or board members on Friday afternoon, and it was actually nice having that time off every week. It really didn’t seem like a big deal.” She rubbed her nose and settled more comfortably into his arms.
“Until it did?” Trent guessed.
“Yeah. Brad had given me the tickets for the party, and I’d forgotten them at the office, so I swung by right before picking him up at his house.”
Zachary leaned forward toward the fire. “You were driving?”
“Brad didn’t have a driver’s license,” she affirmed. “At the time, I thought it was just a quirk, but I later found