Anything He Wants: Castaway #2 (Anything He Wants 7) Read Online Free Page A

and let me fall to the wolves.”
    “You didn’t fall,” Jeremiah said, voice as cold as ice, “you jumped. You kept jumping, and now you’re trying to drag me down with you. Our father...”
    “ Your father gave you everything and left me nothing,” Lucas hissed.
    “I didn’t want this!”
    “But you took it anyway, didn’t you?”
    “Hey,” I snapped, aware that the two men looked poised at any point to leap over the tables at the other’s throat. Peering around the room, we didn’t seem to be attracting any attention in the empty outside area, but if the conversation continued that would change. “Can we stay on subject here?” I asked in a low voice.
    Both men turned angry gazes on me, and for a moment I thought they were going to band together against me. As if on cue, a conga line appeared from the bar, breaking up the tension at the table. They sat back down, still glaring at one another, and I breathed a little sigh of relief. “Now what?”
    Lucas glanced at me, then back to Jeremiah. “Do you have your passports with you?”
    I shook my head, and after a moment’s hesitation so did Jeremiah. Lucas nodded. “It should be easy enough to get replacements, provided you,” and he pointed at Jeremiah, “aren’t already an outlaw.” At my confused look, Lucas grinned. “The media is trumpeting the news that our golden boy here has skipped the country, although nobody seems to know why yet. Authorities don’t sound pleased but so far there hasn’t been any arrest warrants posted.” He glanced at Jeremiah. “I have it about right, don’t I?”
    Jeremiah looked away, clearly annoyed by the conversation. I leaned forward to put a hand on his knee but stopped myself in time. Despite my best efforts, my heart ached for the large man. Jeremiah Hamilton thrived on control, and if his brother really had taken away all communication equipment, then he’d lost the upper hand.
    “Tonight we rest.” Lucas spread his arms wide. “Tomorrow, we leave for Dubai.”
    Maybe I should have been used to the weird turn my life had taken by that point, but I still blinked at the sudden news. “Dubai? As in, the Arab nation?”
    “One of the richest.” Lucas winked at me. “I think you’ll enjoy it.”
    “But why can’t I go home?” Perhaps I was whining when I asked, but I figured I was entitled to lodge some form of complaint. “I’m not related to either of you; if it’s really as personal as you say, then I can’t be a target.”
    “And what would you do,” Jeremiah asked, “when you got home?”
    I glared at him. “Contrary to what you obviously think,” I snapped, “I can stand on my own two feet.”
    “I didn’t mean...”
    “Yes you did.” I crossed my arms, irritation bubbling up. “Since I’ve met you two, I’ve been shot at, poisoned, kidnapped – twice I might add – and attacked by strange men. I don’t care how rich you are or how many foreign countries you drag me into, this whole thing is ridiculous.”
    “See?” Lucas spread his arms and gave me a bit smile. “Bet your life has never been this interesting.”
    There was nothing I could say to that. I sat back, wordless, watching in a daze as the conga line disappeared back inside the bar. Two beautiful faces, so very similar to one another, stared at me: Jeremiah’s gaze was as stony as ever, and Lucas grinned at me like a buffoon. As much as I wanted to scream and rail at them, I couldn’t seem to form the words.
    “There are many ways to hurt a man.” Jeremiah leaned forward. “Sometimes, the easiest is to go after those in our care.”
    “What, like the girl you’re sleeping with?” My voice had a nasty, self-recriminating note and I bit my tongue. “You’ve made it clear what I am to you.”
    “Others might see it differently,” Lucas murmured, but I just stared at the table, trying to hang onto my anger.
    “This is stupid,” I muttered after a moment of silence, as the conga line appeared again