“Accident?” The word fell out of his mouth. “She tell me nothing happened to her today. She say she went to work and then come here for date.”

Caleb’s eyes narrowed. “She lied. She nearly died on the mountainside when the brakes went out on my truck. And before you get pissed off at me, I had that truck serviced last month. There was nothing wrong with the brakes.”

“Did they go out all at once or slowly?” Alexei didn’t like the sound of this. It was very rare for brakes to go out on a modern vehicle with no warning. Suspicion began to creep along his spine.

“I didn’t think to ask her. I think she would have noticed if they were giving her trouble. She was on the mountain. If the truck escape ramp hadn’t been there, if there had been another car on the mountain…” Caleb let the sentence trail off, but the implication was clear.

She would have died. She would have been killed before he’d had a chance to really hold her, to love her.

Alexei could hazard a guess at what had really happened. “The brake fluid slowly drains out. You would not notice it at first. Brakes would work normally. I suspect we will find that computer system was tampered with as well.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“Brakes don’t just go out. Do you know of any reason someone would attempt to harm you? It was your vehicle.” Of course, Alexei had stood at the truck. He’d stood there for nearly half an hour before he’d walked into the office. He’d leaned against it, thinking about how to break through to its owner. Surely no one thought the truck was his.

“No. And don’t jump to conclusions. Brakes do go out. We’ll know more once Long-Haired Roger takes a look at it.”

Long-Haired Roger, who was still down a man because he couldn’t deal with Alexei’s past. “We will see. And then we will talk.” The truth of the situation hit him. “She did not tell me, but she told you.”

Caleb’s head shook sharply. “No. She didn’t call me or anything. It was just chance. I found her walking back up the fucking mountain. She’d passed the Harper Ranch, but she didn’t want to bother them. She apparently was going to walk right by Mel’s place, too. She was walking all the way back to Stella’s.”

“This is no acceptable behavior in woman with two mens.” It wouldn’t be acceptable if Holly only had one man, but it seemed especially wrong that she’d cut two men out of her trouble. She hadn’t even tried to call for help. What good were they if she didn’t lean on them?

“No, it is not,” Caleb agreed. His arms crossed over his chest.

At least they were in agreement on one thing. “What are we to do about this situation, Caleb? I do not believe she will listen to a stern lecture.”

“You think I didn’t already try that? After she stopped crying, I yelled for a good thirty minutes. I gave it my all. I can really yell, man. She didn’t seem bothered by it at all. She just apologized and told me she needed to get to work.”

“We need to work on the controlling scenes with Holly,” Alexei explained. This was what he’d wanted. A partner. Someone to discuss strategy with. Someone who knew what it was like to care about Holly.

“Scene control, buddy. We need scene control.”

And it helped that Caleb could translate for him. “I think she deserves spanking.”

Caleb stared at him for a moment. “Have you been hanging out with Wolf?”

“I do not know any wolves. Though I would be all right with a dog.” Why was Caleb talking about pets?

Green eyes rolled slightly. “Dude, Wolf is a friend of mine. He drove me out to the hospital after we picked up Holly. Do you want to know what he said I should do to Holly?”

“If he is smart man, he tell you to spank her.”

“Well, you would think he’s incredibly smart. He also thought I should tie her up and then spank her and then…well, he’s a really creative guy.”

Alexei would like to meet this man. “So, we are in agreement?”

“I’m not saying no to it. I just want to make sure she doesn’t get hurt.”

Alexei smiled. “She will not be hurt, but she will learn the lesson.”

“To talk to her men.”

“To rely on her men.”

Caleb finally scooted into the booth across from him. “Maybe we should make out a schedule. You know, one of us takes her to work and one of us picks her up. This town can be very dangerous. Serial killers. Biker gangs. Your friends.”

“No more friends. All dead or in jail.”

“You get my point. Bliss can be a dangerous place. And Holly just runs around all on her own. She’s just out there running around like a huge cupcake and all the criminals are really hungry. Do you know what I mean?”

Alexei had no idea, but he nodded anyway. Perhaps Caleb wouldn’t prove to be the best translator.

Caleb continued. “And did you say anything to her about that dress?”

“I tell her dress is beautiful.” Alexei knew how to tell a woman she was beautiful in any language. “Dress is sexy.”

Caleb pinned him with a stern stare. “No. Dress is naked. Dress needs more material. Dress needs a turtleneck. Look, man, if I give on the spanking thing, I want you to stand by me when I tell her to not walk around with my boobs hanging out for every man in the county to salivate over.”

“Our boobs.” Caleb needed to get it right if he was going to ask for solidarity.

“Fine. Our boobs,” Caleb conceded. “The point is those boobs are supposed to be ours. We have to protect them.”

Alexei tried to imagine that talk. It seemed to him that it would end in nonerotic violence. “I worry she take spanking better than a lecture on her clothing.”

“Maybe. But if we’re going to do this, we have to present a united front.”

Great. They would both get slapped. But Alexei smiled anyway. “Yes, we do.”

“Or she will eat us alive.”

Alexei planned on her doing just that, but he didn’t point out the fallacies in Caleb’s plan. He wasn’t about to stop the man now. When Caleb had started talking, he’d talked about just hanging around for the sex. Now they were making rules together.

Yes, Caleb only wanted sex.

Caleb leaned forward. “I don’t know how good I’m going to be at this. I haven’t dated a lot. I haven’t been celibate since my wife died, but I haven’t cared about anyone either. I certainly haven’t been in anything that vaguely resembled a relationship. What if I fuck this up? This is why it’s better if I’m just here for sex. I won’t fuck up sex.”

Alexei leaned forward, too. Finally the man was softening. He was talking about the problem instead of just saying no. “It will be okay. No one knows how a relationship will go. Not a single person in the world know how a relationship will end when they begin.”

“I certainly know that.” A haunted look passed over his face, and Alexei knew he was thinking about his wife. When would Caleb trust him enough to really talk about her? And to talk about why he was hiding his identity?

“We can only care about her. We can only try to protect her. That is all we can ask of ourselves.” Alexei knew all too well how the world sometimes had its say. “So, you are in, my friend?”

“This still doesn’t make us friends,” Caleb shot back, but the words sounded stubborn, as if only forced from his mouth from long-standing habit. Caleb was silent for a moment. “You really think this is her fantasy?”

“Yes, it is.”

The answer had come from Holly. Alexei stiffened, praying she wasn’t going to be upset. Her voice had been quiet, so she must have been close. How much had she heard? “Holly, we were just talking.”

“You were negotiating, Alexei.” She stared at both of them and made no move to take a seat. She clutched her purse.

Caleb’s eyes went straight to her chest. The man might not like the dress, but he certainly seemed to appreciate it. “Maybe we don’t want to be like everyone else in Bliss.”

A single eyebrow arched over Holly’s lovely, wide eyes. “Really?”

Caleb sputtered for a moment as though trying to navigate in uncharted seas. “No, it’s not like everyone else here. They go into it willy-nilly. Do you think Max and Rye really talked it out before they went after Rachel or did they all just fall into bed together? Alexei and I don’t have some weird psychic twin thing. We have to talk.”

“Holly, your wine. It sounds like you’re going to need it.” Zane handed her a glass of white wine. He did it with one hand. His other hand held the receiver of a phone, its corded length stretching halfway across the bar. “And could y’all talk louder? Callie’s having trouble hearing.” Zane put the phone back to his ear. “I asked them, babe. Yes. Alexei and Caleb. And Caleb’s already acting like a bossy asshole. He thinks he can do this better than the rest of us.”

Alexei could actually hear a peal of feminine laughter escape from the phone.

Holly took a nice long swig of her wine. “Great. Now everyone knows.”

“I don’t think I’ll do it better than everyone. I’ll just do it a bit more cautiously,” Caleb said with a frown. “I don’t just jump into things.”

Zane shook his head. “Dude, six years. It took me and Nate six whole years. It took Rafe and Cam five. Sure it took Max and Rye like fifteen minutes, but they’re the only ones you beat, so get to the back of the line on the ‘thinking things through’ show.”

“Zane Derek Hollister, that is not a thing to be proud of!” the phone yelled.

Alexei felt the whole thing spinning out of control. Caleb started to argue with Zane, who was trying to hold two conversations. Holly went bright pink and looked like she might ask for the whole bottle of wine. The door opened, and Laura walked in with her two men. Her eyes lit up, and she started toward Holly.