Free Code of Control by Jevenna Willow Page B

Need some help?”
    “Get me out of
this!” she screamed. “And kill your brother for me before I get up there. I’ll
maim the corpse into smaller pieces. That should suffice…for now.”
    Devon stepped
away from the hole, laughing. “This is not how a man works his way into getting
laid by a hot babe, bro.”
    “I don’t plan on
getting laid, Devon. I plan to have a willing partner who can trust me without
pause. So far, she’s got a huge hang-up about trust.”
    “By dropping her
down a mineshaft at the end of a rope any trust issue is going to change for
the better?”
    Nolan turned his
head. His brother had no clue. “No. By making her face her fears it is going to
change her attitude for the better,” he said, getting the expected raised brow.
    “You’re one twisted
bastard. Anyone ever tell you that?”
    “Daily,” Nolan muttered,
his attention reverting to the hole. He could just make out the top of her
head. She’d made progress in the last five minutes.
    One hour later, Charlotte
was outside the shaft, standing on solid ground, filthy and covered in cobwebs.
She balled her right fist, drew her arm back and punched him square in the eye.
Nolan took the beating, knowing he’d deserved it. But damn, she had one hell of
a right hook.
    “I fucking hate
you!” she screamed in his face.
    The added upper
cuff to his jaw two seconds later he did not expect, Nolan stumbling backward,
unprepared for the impact. She then stomped her way to the farmhouse, her
clothing covered in sweat, dirt, and a few hundred years of coal dust.
    “I fucking hate
him!” she yelled at no one in particular, although Devon was holding the back
door open for her, allowing the venom-spitting viper entrance before she burst
into flames.
    Upon seeing him
walk their way, Devon closed the door in his face and turned his back on him.
“I’d hate him, too,” his brother agreed, “if in your shoes.”
    In horror, Nolan
watched his twin put his arm around Charlotte, guiding her toward the kitchen,
a quick glance over his shoulder, a selective move that warned he’d won this
round without ever stepping foot into the ring.
    “Do you know
what he…” she started. Charlotte’s voice then trailed off as his twin moved her
along the hallway toward the bedroom. Two seconds later, she stopped dead in
her tracks, whipped around, stared at him, Nolan now standing in the kitchen
with an ice pack to his face. She turned her back on him, slamming the bathroom
door shut, ignoring Devon’s comfort and guide to the bedroom.
    Nolan sat down at
his kitchen table, holding the ice pack to his swelling eye.
    “I say you
deserve the shiner, but I wouldn’t want you dropping me down a mineshaft for
speaking my mind.”
    “She’ll get over
it,” he muttered.
    “Ah, but will
you?” Devon said cryptically.
    Nolan raised his
head. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “You and she…”
His head jerked to the closed bathroom door. “She’s pretty miffed. I doubt
she’ll let you do to her what you already did.”
    “Would you get
off your high horse and stop the sex inquiry?”
    “Why?”
    “It’s pissing me
off,” he muttered.
    “You’re only
pissed because I’m right…and you’re wrong, as usual.”
    “Wrong about
what, might I ask?”
    “Dropping a
beautiful woman down a hole just to force her into facing her fears was as
dumbass a move as you could make, even for you.”
    “It wasn’t
dumb,” Nolan protested.
    “No?”
    “No. What I did
was necessary.”
    Devon reached
for a beer, grabbing two cans instead of one. “Fine, don’t call it a dumbass
move. Call it fucking brilliant, because you not only paved the way for my expertise,
I’m going to jaunt down that road a very happy man.” He then started toward the
bathroom, Charlotte still inside, most likely taking a shower.
    Nolan could hear
the water running, the old pipes creaking. He would not put it past Devon to
waltz into there while Charlotte taking her shower,