Page 35 of Gilded Locks

“What the fuck?” both men said at once.

Ash growled. “Hunter probably locked it.”

“Why?”

“Who the hell knows?” Ash snatched his glass and paced the control room. “This is bullshit.”

“Chill.”

“Fuck off.”

“I mean it, Ash. You had no right to go at her like that this morning. You’re already on thin ice.”

“Now, I gotta hear shit from you?”

He sent him a warning glance. “We’re still figuring her out.”

“You guys act like she’s some unsolvable puzzle. She’s a rich little runaway looking for trouble.”

“I don’t think so.”

“I do. Don’t be so fooled by those big innocent eyes. She’s no virgin.”

Stone’s nostrils flared as he ground his molars. “Well, you would certainly know.”

Ash’s low chuckle nearly earned him a second black eye. “She was sent here for a reason, Stone.”

“You too, now? She’s not a fucking spy.”

“That’s not what I mean.”

Stone frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“What if she was sent here as a gift? For us?”

“By who?”

Ash shrugged. “The universe.”

“Give me a fucking break, Ash?—”

“I’m serious. We’re always saying it would take a special woman to tolerate the three of us. What if we somehow manifested this?” He glanced at the monitors. “She could have fought me this morning, but she didn’t. And I know when a woman’s faking.”

Stone lifted a brow. “Coercion and submission are two different things. She submitted because she’s scared we’ll turn her in. That confirms she’s running from something. We don’t have shit until we have her full story.”

“Maybe this is the way to make her talk.”

“By fisting her?”

“Trust. That kind of intimacy requires trust.”

About to call Ash an idiot, he opened his mouth, but something held back his words.

“See, you agree with me.”

He narrowed his eyes but couldn’t deny there was some sense to his theory. If she trusted them, she’d eventually come clean. “There are other ways to figure out who she is.”

“And Hunter has that covered.” He shrugged. “We can go at this from multiple angles.”