Page 31 of Duress (Birch Falls #3)

DANE

M y palms are sweaty, and my knees feel weak as I pound my fist on the front door of Everly and Bryce’s house.

She called me today as my shift was ending, her voice timid and uneasy, so soft I almost couldn’t hear her. I had to cover my free ear and stop walking to hear her when she asked me if I could come over tonight.

She said Bryce had left for the weekend to attend a conference.

The prospect of having three days alone with Everly made my heart soar, but the caginess in her tone had me worried Bryce had done something.

Something I might have to kill him for. The fact that I even had that thought and how little apprehension it gives me, should be a blaring alarm that my head is in a completely fucked up place and I should take some time off from work. That or go see a psychologist.

When Everly opens the door, my heart falls. She’s pale, dark circles rimming her bloodshot eyes. Her hair is piled in a messy bun on top of her head. She’s in an oversized sweater, a dark hunter green that makes her eyes deepen so much they resemble a coniferous forest at night. She looks…broken.

“Shit, baby, what’s wrong. What’d he do?” I rush in, cupping Everly’s face in my palms, kicking the door closed behind me. Her eyes widen in surprise, her hands come up and clasp mine but don’t move, like she’s uncertain if she wants to hold them closer or pull out of my grasp.

I thread my fingers into her silky hair, tightening my grasp on her ever so slightly so she doesn’t try to pull away.

I’ve been dying for her touch and out of my mind with worry for the last week as she’s held me at a distance.

My eyes scan every inch of her face, looking for any evidence or even a hint of physical harm.

“I’m okay, Dane. I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine.” It takes a few torturously long seconds for her words to register.

“You’re okay? Are you sure? Did he?—”

Everly puts a hand over my mouth to stop me.

She narrows her eyes at me, and her voice hardens. “I said I’m fine. Please, let go.”

I’m so stunned by her coldness, she slips out of my fingers when she takes a step back. I immediately feel cold as she moves away from my touch.

She must feel the same way. She wraps her arms around her waist and hunches her shoulders like she misses the heat of my body as much as I miss hers.

“I, uh, don’t know exactly what I’m looking for.

I’ve been hunting through Bryce’s office and digging through old files all day, but I don’t know if I’ve found anything useful.

I need your help.” She bites the corner of her plump bottom lip nervously, as if calling me for help is a failure on her part.

“I tried to do it on my own. God, Dane, I didn’t want to have to pull you into this.

” She’s beginning to ramble, a sure sign of an impending anxiety attack, so I reach out and grab her again by the shoulders.

“Hey. Don’t apologize. I’m here. I want to help. I was dying to see you.” I move forward to kiss her, but she pulls back again, turning her cheek to me. Once again, I’m stunned into letting her go. Is she regretting what happened between us?

“Ever—”

“Don’t, Dane.” She steps back, shooting me a pleading look, her eyes softening at the rejection that must be written all over my face. “Let’s just look for evidence. Okay? We have three days to find something while Bryce is out of town. We need to make the most of it.”

I nod and follow her to the study. She’s right—we need to make the most of this time. But I have a feeling her most and my most are vastly different.

Everly sits at Bryce’s obnoxiously large and shiny bespoke desk, files strewn in front of her in various piles that seem to be chaotically organized.

Everly struggles with organization thanks to her ADHD, but fortunately for me, I suffer from the same chaos brain.

I just hope we can get these back into whatever order Bryce had them in.

I lean over Everly’s shoulder, listening to her explain what she’s found so far, but I find myself getting distracted by the sweet scent of her jasmine shampoo.

It’s not as intoxicating as when she smelled like me after showering at my place, with my soap, but my dick takes notice anyway.

I rest my hands on the desk on either side of her, caging her in with my body, my body unable to resist the magnetic pull of hers.

“…so I put these files in this pile because they’re all from ten years ago.

I don’t know how they link together, but it seems weird that he would hold on to them for this long, right?

And this pile is for cases with names that are linked to local important people.

Including your ex-partner, Dominick Reeves. ”

Hearing Dominick’s name brings my mind out of the gutter, and I start paying attention to what Everly is saying. She had a point earlier; we need to take advantage of this opportunity we have. Fucking can wait until we have a reason to celebrate.

“Let’s start with these,” I say, pulling the pile of folders that holds Dominick’s file toward me.

Glancing through it, I see she’s right. Each name seems to be linked to someone important in Birch Falls, or in our state.

I notice the last name of our current attorney general in the stack.

Interesting. I flip the yellow manila folder open and see a mugshot of a young white college-age man with a sullen look on his face.

Brad Hopper. The douche who tried to assault Serena, and the one link tying Dominick to the murder of his buddy Todd.

No wonder he got such a sweet deal for cooperating; he’s related to the AG.

I take pictures of the information with my phone, saving it for later.

In the stack we also find Todd’s file, with his rap sheet of petty misdemeanors, bar fights, and a few cases of sexual assault handled by the campus police that got swept under the rug.

Apparently, Dom did do the world a favor when he killed Todd.

Too bad it was so he could isolate and trap Serena in an abusive relationship.

There’s one more name in the stack that I’m vaguely familiar with.

Andrew Jameson. It doesn’t appear that he was ever charged with anything, but he was arrested and questioned in the disappearance of a young college coed, Cassidy Grainger.

Ultimately, he was released because there was no evidence to hold him.

Knowing what I know about Dom, Brad, and Todd, I’m not inclined to believe that this Andrew character is an innocent victim of wrong place, wrong time. But what is the link between them?

We pore over the information in front of us for hours.

Quietly reading, making notes, and calling out important seeming details when we find them.

When I look up from the search I’m doing on my phone, trying to dig up more information on Jameson, I find Everly looking at me with a longing sadness that casts shadows in her eyes.

When she realizes I’ve caught her staring, she clears her throat, looking back down at the paper in front of her.

Rising from my seat across from her, I round the desk and lean down, wrapping my arms around her shoulders, burying my face in her neck.

Inhaling her scent, I brush my lips against the soft skin of her neck, causing her to stiffen and let out a quiet gasp.

Her hand comes up to clutch my forearm, but she doesn’t pull it away like I expect her to.

Instead, she melts into my hold, letting her head tilt to the side to rest on my shoulder, giving my mouth better access to her tender flesh.

I plant open-mouthed kisses up the column of her throat, along her jaw, until I reach her mouth.

Using my fingers, I turn her head until our lips meet, my mouth capturing hers in a drugging kiss.

I swallow her needy whimpers as she lets me plunder her sweet mouth with my tongue.

Slowly I pull her up from her seat, never breaking our kiss, until I have her pinned flush against me, trapped between the desk and my body.

Her hands roam my body greedily, like she’s letting herself indulge in in the feel of my body.

I have one hand wrapped around the back of her neck, tangled in the silky strands of her hair, while the other slides under her sweater and skates up her body until I am cupping her bare breast in my palm.

No bra? I give her nipple a giddy tweak, drawing another whimper out of her.

The need that had been a low banked fire of glowing coals between us ignites into an inferno.

Picking her up, I slide her onto the desk, wedging myself between her thighs until I can feel the heat emanating from her center. She opens for me, granting me the closeness I crave.

“Dane—” She pulls back, looking at me, her green eyes shimmering with conflict.

She wants this as much as I do, but she’s trying to stop whatever this is between us.

I see the protest forming on her lips, so I lean in and kiss her again, pressing my rigid erection against her core, the thin material of her leggings doing nothing to hide her desire for me.

I thrust, grinding my dick against her clit, as I pinch her nipple again. This seems to crack the last of whatever resolve she has. Her hands come up, wrapping around my neck, pulling me deeper into our kiss .

I press my advantage and lean forward until I have her flat on her back on top of my brother’s desk, writhing under my body with desperate need.

I am going to fuck her on this desk as a fuck you to my shithead brother, and after everything I’ve read tonight about the people he makes a living defending, I’m not going to feel even a little bad about it.