Trusting Them by Marla Monroe Read Free Book Online Page A

you. She didn’t seem too worked up over it, but I kept her busy eating and talking to her.” Brady stuffed another piece of bacon into his mouth.
    “I’m going to try talking some sense into her about coming clean with whatever she’s hiding from us.” Brock snatched a piece of bacon off his brother’s plate and smiled at him.
    “Don’t push her too hard, Brock.” Brady suddenly looked serious.
    “I won’t, but if she won’t trust us, we don’t have anything here between us. It takes a lot of trust to build a relationship between two people, let alone three.”
    “I know.” Brady ran a hand over his face and leaned back in his chair. “I just don’t want to lose her is all.”
    “If she leaves, Brady, we never really had her in the first place.”
    They exchanged looks. Then Brock left his brother in the kitchen and climbed the stairs to start working on their woman.

Chapter Five

    The clomp, clomp of boots on the stairs jerked her from her musings. She wondered who would be coming through the door. Would it be Brady and his playful smiles or Brock and his serious expressions? Either one of them riled her blood better than anything she’d ever come across. Not even Glenn had made her blood sing like these two could. But there were two of them, she reminded herself. She hadn’t been able to handle Glenn. What made her think she could handle two men now?
    You’re still running a fever if you’re even thinking about it. There was no way she would ever live with two men. Right now, that was two too many. She still had her ex to deal with. She needed to get out of there and soon. He would start looking for her car soon. Once he found it, it would only be a matter of time before he figured out where she was.
    “What are you thinking about so hard, baby girl?”
    Even though she knew one of them was coming, he startled her. Brock.
    “Nothing, really. Just wondering what I’m going to do when you take me into town. I don’t even know where my car is.”
    “You don’t need to be worrying about that just yet. There is more snow heading in this afternoon but it should fair off tomorrow. So in a couple more days we should be able to get you to town.”
    “Oh, thank God. I mean, I really appreciate all you and your brother have done for me, but I really need to get back on the road.” Jeni swallowed wrong and coughed.
    Brock started over to get her some water when she threw up her hand and stopped him.
    “I’m okay. I just swallowed wrong.”
    He sat down on the edge of the bed and faced her. “We need to talk.”
    “About what?” Jeni had a feeling she knew what he wanted to talk about.
    “You’re running from someone. If you will just tell us who, we can help you.”
    It was worse than she thought. They’d already figured out what she was hiding. What could she tell them? She really didn’t want to involve them.
    “He’s hurt you at least once. Those are his bruises on you, aren’t they?” he demanded.
    “You don’t understand,” she began.
    “Tell me. Help me understand.” Brock leaned in and brushed a tear that had leaked from her eye.
    She didn’t say anything for a long while, then finally gave up and told him the truth.
    “He’ll hurt anyone who helps me. If he finds me here with you and Brady, he’ll try to hurt you. I don’t want either of you hurt.”
    “Don’t you think we can take care of each other? Don’t you trust us to take care of you?”
    “It’s not that.” Jeni tried to reason with him. “I trust both of you, but he doesn’t play fair. He uses his goons to do most of his dirty work. It wouldn’t just be one against one; it would be four or five against two.”
    “Who is he, Jeni?”
    “My ex-husband, Glenn Rosenberg.” Jeni ran her hands over her face, pulling away from him.
    “How long has he been chasing after you?” Brock didn’t give up.
    “Six months. I was heading to Alaska. It’s the last place I would ever go. Or so I hope he