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Dominic runs a tight ship. They’ll get
     you what you need. Sorry I couldn’t handle it personally, but this pregnancy
     has been giving Jessa hell for a couple of months.”
    “She’s perfectly good now.” A gorgeous redhead threaded her
     arm through Cole’s and turned her face up to his. “I just needed to get through
     the vomiting-up-my-toenails phase.”
    There was that smile of Cole’s. Lan watched, a knot of
     jealousy in the pit of his stomach. He hated this envy. He didn’t want Jessa or
     begrudge Cole his happiness. He just wanted a little of his own.
    “Jessa!” Alea’s smile turned genuine as she approached the
     auburn beauty. What he wouldn’t give to have that smile directed at him...
    “I heard you were here,” the princess said. “How is baby
     Caleb?”
    Lan supposed it had been inevitable that Alea would become
     close to her saviors’ wife. Alea’s friendship with Jessa made her happy. As far
     as Lan was concerned, that pretty much was all he needed to know about the
     woman. If Alea loved her, then she had to be good people, as his granny would
     say.
    He watched as Alea talked to her friend, her posture relaxed
     for once. Cole’s brother, Burke sauntered up, sliding his arm around Jessa’s
     waist as they chatted with Alea.
    When everyone was occupied, Cole’s face turned serious. With
     an almost imperceptible cock of the head, he motioned Lan to follow him. They
     stepped out of the conversation, just far enough so they couldn’t be overheard.
    “What’s going on between you and Alea?” Cole asked.
    “I’m her bodyguard. That’s it.” And that was where it would
     stay because she had zero interest in him.
    “Bullshit. Do you think I don’t have eyes? I saw the way you
     looked at her. Man, I’m not trying to mess with you. I like very few people.
     Alea is one of them. You’re one of them. That girl is still in trouble. Even if
     Dominic’s guys found out that Khalil was the one behind her kidnapping and
     she’s out of danger, she’s still in trouble.”
    Because she hadn’t gotten over what had happened during her
     abduction. How was she supposed to get over that? She wouldn’t let them see her
     fear or pain, so how the fuck were they supposed to help her?
    “I don’t think there’s a damn thing I can do. She doesn’t
     want me.”
    “Is she into one of your crew?” Cole’s face creased as
     though he was thinking through a problem.
    “No. She doesn’t like any of us.” Would it be better or
     worse if she wanted Dane or Coop? Maybe. At least someone would be happy.
    “Again, I call bullshit. The minute we stepped over here,
     she started casting glances this way, and she’s not staring at me.”
    Lan let his eyes slide toward her. Sure enough, Alea jerked
     her gaze back to Jessa Lennox as quickly as she could. In fact, a little crowd
     had formed around her now, as Jessa and Alea had been joined by a familiar,
     pretty blonde, Hannah James. Her husbands, the James brothers, ran Black Oak
     Oil and had long-standing ties with the Bezakistani royal family.
    Husbands. It seemed like everyone was getting on the marital
     bandwagon lately. Everyone except the one woman who had grown up surrounded by
     plural marriage.
    “You were with her those first few days after you rescued
     her, right?” Lan asked.
    “I was.” Cole’s tone turned grim.
    “How bad was she?” He’d read the medical reports, but they
     were clinical. Sure, he knew the date of her kidnapping, where she’d been held,
     when she’d been rescued. He knew she’d been tortured. But none of that really
     explained the ordeal that had shaped the woman he knew now.
    “Unimaginable. Look, she should be the one to tell you, but
     I’m starting to worry that she’ll never confide in anyone. She looks healthy
     now. She’s a hundred and eighty degrees from the skinny, drug-addicted girl I
     carried out of that brothel. In fact, she looks great, until I see her