“I read it. Are we in agreement about how to handle this?”
“I think the kid gloves are off,” Dex said enigmatically.
“I think you burned the kid gloves when you hauled her out of the building kicking and screaming,” Gavin said drolly. He took a long swallow of his scotch. “That poor IT guy just about fainted when you shoved past him.”
Dex gnashed his teeth. “Was that the f**ker who offered to fix your computer?” She itched to give them the cold shoulder, but clearly none of them would accept that.
Something had changed. Her men were on edge, and her self-preservation kicked in. She folded her hands in her lap. She wished Lyle hadn’t witnessed her abduction. What must he be thinking?
“Yes. Lyle is the head of the help desk. He’d graciously agreed to come to my house tonight to fix my laptop.”
“Gracious isn’t the word I would use,” Slade said under his breath.
Her little laptop was currently in its bag, sitting on top of her suitcase in the overhead bin.
How had Dex gotten her things? And how had he known Lyle was fixing her computer?
“You broke into my house.” It was the only explanation. Lyle had left her a message on her machine this morning. She hadn’t gotten back to him, and now it looked like she wouldn’t.
He shrugged his big shoulders negligently. “Yeah. It wasn’t hard. You don’t even have a damn deadbolt.”
She’d never really needed one and hadn’t thought about it until about a month ago. “Well, now that I know you’re willing to just barge in, I will certainly buy two or three.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Dex said with a nasty smile. “You won’t be going back there.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” What the hell was going on?
Slade turned to her. “Besides, if Dex hadn’t broken in, he wouldn’t have found your cat.” She softened. Her normally sweet cat must have gone through hell because she’d obviously taken a few swipes at her rescuer. “I really do appreciate that. Though, I would have liked to have seen her.”
“The vet said she was going to be fine,” Gavin said. “Do you have any idea who would want to hurt your cat? She had a knife wound in her gut.”
She gasped in shock. Tears followed. “No. I don’t know.”
All three men growled. Hannah shrank back in her seat. Gavin held up the folder she kept by her phone, the one in which she had been storing all her evidence. She winced.
Dex leaned forward. “You want to amend that statement, darlin’? Because I’m done playing around, and the next lie that comes out of your mouth is going to earn you some punishment.” Punishment? “I don’t like the sound of that, Mr. Townsend.” Liar. She liked it way too much. She was pretty sure everyone in the Boeing could hear her heart pound. “And it’s none of your business.”
She had to put this on a proper footing. She couldn’t let these men intimidate her. They were her bosses—or had been. She couldn’t go back to work for them now, not after they had kidnapped her. Right? Her grandma’s etiquette lessons hadn’t covered this situation.
Dex stood up, but Slade held a hand out. “Why don’t we get the full story before we start in on her?”
Gavin looked between the two of them, an oddly indulgent look on his face. “You really were born far too late, Dex. Genghis Khan could have used you.” Dex eased back into his seat. If the comment bothered him, he didn’t show it. He simply grunted and nodded toward Slade, who turned to her, arms crossed over his wide chest. He reminded her of a prosecuting attorney about to slice and dice an opponent.
“How long have you known someone was stalking you, Hannah?”
The silky slide of his voice didn’t fool her. He was pissed off. Maybe it was time to come clean. “About a month.”
All three men huffed.
“Tell us.” Gavin didn’t ask. He simply commanded.
What would it hurt now? Her secret was out, and maybe they could help. Though she wouldn’t admit it, it felt like a huge weight had just lifted off her shoulders. “It was phone calls at first. I would answer but no one was there, just a lot of breathing.”
“Caller ID?” Dex asked.
“It showed up as unavailable. He called my home phone, not my cell.” Hannah remembered being annoyed at first. She’d stopped answering the phone. “Then, after a week or so, he left a message, but in a weird voice.”
Slade sat back in his chair, his hand going to the folder, fingers tapping against it.