The Naughty List Bundle - Kylie Adams [49]
With cold fury, Sawyer whispered, “He threatened you?”
A chill went up her spine as she remembered again the lengths Alden had gone to just to punish her for breaking things off. And worst of all, she knew he wasn’t motivated by love, but obviously by something much darker. “He used the same type of threats as my father. Alden told me he’d get me fired from my job, and he did. The bank claimed they were just scaling down employees, but Alden has a relative in a management position at the bank.”
“You could sue,” Jordan pointed out, and she saw he was now as angry as Sawyer. It was an unusual sight to see, since Jordan had always looked so serene. Now his green eyes were glittering with anger, his lean jaw locked.
“I…I might have,” she admitted, dumbfounded by their support, “but that night when I was at my sister’s house, someone broke in. She was out on a late date, so I was alone. I could hear them going through the drawers, the cabinets. I know it was the same people who’d been following me. They saw where I was staying and then they came back. They went through everything. I just don’t know why, or what they were looking for. I’m ashamed to admit it, but I don’t think I’ve ever been so afraid in my life. For the longest time I couldn’t move. I just laid in the bed, frozen, listening. When I realized they’d eventually search the bedroom, I forced myself to get up. I didn’t bother getting clothes, I just grabbed up my purse, slipped out the bedroom window and snuck to my car. I saw the curtain open in the front room as I started the engine, then I just concentrated on getting away. I was nearly hysterical by the time I got to my father’s.”
She lowered her face, embarrassed and shaken all over again. Masculine hands touched her, patting her back, stroking her head, and gruff words of comfort were murmured. She was caught between wanting to laugh and wanting to cry.
She pulled herself together and lifted her chin. After a deep breath, she continued, and the men all subsided back to their original lounging posts.
“My father took me seriously this time, at least for awhile. He sent some men over to check out the apartment, but they said nothing seemed to be out of place. The only thing open was the window I’d gone through, and there was no one there when they arrived. Again, my father thought I was just overreacting. He wanted to call Alden, thinking I’d feel better when we got back together.”
Sawyer never said a word, but Morgan grunted. “Did you tell him the bastard had cost you your job?”
She shrugged. “My father said he was just acting out of wounded male pride.”
“Hogwash.” Gabe tossed the rest of the cookies aside to pace around the kitchen. Though he wore only his underwear, he made an awesome sight. “Men don’t threaten women, period.”
“That’s what my sister said. My father had sent men to get her, also, before he decided there wasn’t a problem, that I’d made it all up. Luckily she believed me. She promised not to go back to the house until after a security alarm was put in—a concession from my father, which my sister refused, saying she’d get her own.”
Jordan grinned. “Your sister sounds a lot like you.”
Why that amused him, she couldn’t guess. “In some ways.”
Gabe looked thoroughly disgusted. “Someone is following you around town, looting through your house with you in it, and the best your father could do was offer an alarm system?”
Honey held up her hands. She couldn’t very well explain her father’s detachment when the very idea would be alien to such protective men. Why, even now, they’d gathered in the kitchen, in the middle of the night, pulled from their beds, and no one was complaining. They just wanted to help.
Those damn tears welled in her eyes again.
Morgan flexed his knuckles, and the look on his face was terrifying. Even though she felt disturbed rehashing the whole story, Honey smiled. They were all so overprotective, so wonderful. She couldn’t drag them into her mess. She had no idea how much danger she might actually