Free Belonging to Them by Brynn Paulin Page B

of the chair where he sat. Sean and David were similarly tense. Jamie just continued to stroke her back. He lowered his forehead to her shoulder so she wouldn’t see how enraged he was.
    “He kept calling,” she told them. “Apologizing, pleading, telling me how awful he felt and how he hadn’t meant it. He wanted me back. He was so convincing, but I kept saying no even though I wondered if I was making a mistake. When he couldn’t get me to say yes, he got violent again. He stalked me, did little things to make my life inconvenient or to scare me. He broke into my house the day before I left. I called the cops but he still managed to knock me around before they got there. He threatened to hurt me bad. The police called it a domestic dispute and hauled him away, but I knew he’d be out the next day—which I was right about according to Kelsey. So I packed up and ran in the dead of the night. And now he’s been fired. I know he’s coming here, and I know he intends to do something bad.”
    “Over my dead body,” Jamie growled, finally looking at her and letting her see how serious he was.
    “Don’t say that,” she whispered.
    “He’s not hurting you,” he vowed.
    “Damn straight,” Sean said. “Let him bring it on. He can find out what it’s like to have the shit kicked out of him.”
    “No,” she protested. “I don’t want him anywhere near any of you. I need to leave. I need to go somewhere where he can’t find me. He’s not going to stop. You might teach him a lesson this one time, but he’ll just regroup and come up with something else. He thinks I’m his, and he’ll be damned if he lets anyone else have me—that’s what he told me.”
    Rage clenched in Jamie’s stomach, deeper than any anger he’d felt toward the suicide bomber who’d changed his life. He was on the same page with Sean, and he was sure Patrick and David felt the same.
    “Guys like him trip up,” Patrick said. He looked at Jamie. “You called Joe?” he asked, referring to the sheriff.
    “Yeah, I called him right away.” Jamie grinned at Rayna. “He wants your friend to get the names of the other women he’s harassed. Do you have a picture?”
    “No, but it’s on the web. Some award he won.”
    “Joe wants it. He used to be FBI. If there’s dirt to be found on your friend, Antonio, he’ll find it. Joe loves small town life, but trust me, something like this gets his blood going. I think he’d like a little more action, but he’s not willing to go back to the city.”
    She gave him a small smile. “I’ll call Kelsey and see what she can get. She seems to know everything that happens at that bank. That’s why I wanted her to help me with this.”
    Getting up, she went into the front hallway to call.
    “What now?” David asked.
    “We keep her safe. That shit’s not gonna take long to surface,” Jamie said.
    “Probably tomorrow,” Patrick said. “I wish I had time to call Sim, but he wouldn’t get here fast enough.”
    Jamie wished the same. Before taking over the garage, his brother had done a stint in the Navy, and had been a SEAL for years before he retired. He personified the laid-back life, but Jamie knew he kept up his skills. If it wasn’t illegal, Patrick could take down Antonio and bury him in the backyard before anyone was the wiser.
    Sim, his ex-dive partner who now a wrote books and magazine articles on military history, was planning a move to Daly, but not for a few months.
    Rayna returned and handed him a piece of paper with two names on it as well as a web address. “This what he wanted,” she said. “I hope he finds something.”
    They all did. Jamie handed the paper to Patrick. “We’re going upstairs,” he said.
    “Can we join you after I take care of this?” Patrick asked. He grinned. “A little diversion?”
    Jamie looked at Rayna, and she nodded. “I really want to feel you holding me,” she said. “All of you. Surrounding me.”
     
    Mostly, she wanted Jamie but the