Diane [The Town of Pearl 6] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)
Page 5
“Do you have our cell phone numbers, Diane? I think you should take them and call us to check in. You know, make sure that you’re okay,” Mark said, drawing her attention to him. They all pulled out their cell phones and she felt a bit annoyed.
“That’s not necessary.” She hurried up to finish. “I have Hank’s, Paul’s, and Willie’s, plus Wyatt’s, so I think I’ll be fine. But thank you for caring,” she added.
“I still would feel better if you had ours and we had yours. You can never be too prepared,” Mark said and smiled.
“Okay.” She reached into her purse as the waitress came over.
“Hello, gentleman, so nice to see you again. Hi, Diane.” Marty the waitress said hello. She was staring at Drake, and Drake didn’t even look at her.
“I noticed you by the boutique again, Mark, getting something else for me?” Marty asked, as she held the pen between her teeth and stared at him.
Mark squinted his eyes and then leaned back in his chair all suave.
“I think we’re ready to order,” he said, and Diane felt her stomach twist. Marty was a pretty young redhead. She had a nice body, but her personality outside of Francine’s wasn’t very nice. She actually lived in Turbank but Francine was desperate for another waitress and Marty was recommended by a friend of Francine’s.
“We’ll talk later then,” Marty said and then looked at Diane.
“What can I get you?”
“I’ll take the small chicken Caesar salad please and water with lemon.”
“Hmm,” Marty said as she gave Diane the once-over. Diane was feeling pretty uncomfortable. These men were probably sleeping with Marty or whomever else and dressing them in lingerie from Diane’s boutique and it was making her feel sick. Once the orders were taken, she felt the hand on her knee and jumped, turning toward Mark.
“Ignore her. She was just trying to make you jealous. She’s been after us since she started working here last month,” Mark told her.
“Why would I care?” she replied. He raised one eyebrow at her and stared into her eyes.
“Well, you seemed annoyed by her.”
“I don’t like women who throw themselves at men.”
“Neither do we,” Lucas stated, drawing her attention toward him.
“Well, apparently Marty doesn’t know that. But she does know about all the lingerie you buy at our boutique, as I’m sure other women around town and elsewhere do,” she said, and was surprised by her attitude. She was jealous and right now she should be pretending to not care, but she did care. She didn’t want other women touching them, being with them, and eyeing them over like candy. But then again, who was she to say otherwise?
Lucas leaned forward with his hands still under his chin, he stared at her. She focused on the dimple in his chin. God, he’s beautiful. I love his shoulder-length hair, the firm expression on his face. The way his muscles are bulging from his shirt sleeves. Oh God, my breasts feel full and my nipples are hard. What the hell is wrong with me?
“Everyone knows we like the lingerie you’ve picked out for us at the boutique. Haven’t you ever wondered why we buy the ones you pick out? Why they’re in your size?” Drake asked. Lucas didn’t say anything to her. He just stared at her. It was unnerving.
She shook her head. Were they trying to tell her that they were buying them for her?
Mark moved closer. She could feel his masculinity, his darkness, and the aura that made him so frighteningly appealing. He was so mysterious and sexy.
She felt his arm go over the top of her chair. His forearm brushed gently against her shoulders. “You’re shaking,” he whispered.
She swallowed hard, and slowly looked at him.
“I don’t feel comfortable here like this. I don’t know what type of game you’re playing. I’m not interested in hearing about the other women and the lingerie. I’m not. If this is because of the other night, and the fact that you found me, Mark, changing my own tire on the side of the road, then just quit it now. I’m able to handle myself. I don’t need men to take care of me.”
“I have to disagree. I think you do need looking after. Besides, you should know why we brought the lingerie because we’ve been buying the lingerie for you,” Mark said. She whipped her head around to look at him. She was shocked, annoyed, confused.
“What? Why?”
Lucas chuckled. She glanced at him. At the black shoulder-length hair, the blue eyes, and the button-down shirt with the chain to his dog tags showing. The man was sexy and mouthwatering.
“Because you love lingerie. You love ordering unique styles from across the country and even in Europe. You love it and it interests you, so it interests us.”
“You’re confusing me. Why would I interest you?”
She felt Mark’s thumb and pointer caress her shoulder.
“Because you’re gorgeous,” Drake whispered from across the table. With all three men staring at her and one touching her while the third was so close he could touch her, too, she was losing her control to remain unaffected.
“We want to get to know you, Diane. We’ve been hiding our feelings for long enough,” Mark told her.
She was flustered, annoyed, embarrassed, and mostly scared. They were too much, too intimidating and she thought about getting up and leaving. She didn’t want to make a scene. Yet, hadn’t this moment been something she was waiting for? Something she even fantasized about because of her attraction to them. It was her insecurities, her lack of self-confidence that made her timid here instead of assertive. Then she felt a hand on her legs that were crossed under the table, as well as Mark’s hand squeezing her shoulder.
“Slow down, don’t freak out. Just breathe and take your time,” Lucas whispered.
Drake and Lucas were not the calm ones. Mark, yes, he was calm, but having Luke whisper in her ear and tell her to relax and stay calm was just not even normal.
She turned to look at him.
“I don’t know what type of game you’re playing with me. Stop messing with me and let me leave. This was a mistake,” she whispered.
Mark leaned forward and looked at Lucas, then Drake, and then back to her. “Baby, the last thing we want to do is mess with you. Maybe we’re explaining this wrong,” he said.
She was about to stand up when Marty returned with their drinks.
Marty placed her hand on Lucas’s shoulder. “I know how you like your meat nice and rare, Lucas. Al’s pulling the burger off the grill now.” She held his gaze and ran the top of her pen down her bodice, as she looked his body over.
Diane felt her anger rise as she saw Marty squeezed Lucas’s muscular arm. Lucas didn’t even pull away. She gave him a dirty look as Marty walked away. She wouldn’t be some fling for them.
“Well, on that note, I think I’m going to get my salad to go. Perhaps you can ask Marty if she’s willing to play your games.” She started to stand when Lucas stopped her.
“Don’t go,” he whispered, with those damn blue eyes of his that seemed so lost and sad, yet powerful. It was the closest look she had ever gotten of Lucas, and a rush of heat flowed through her causing her to just stare in awe at the man. He looked down at her lips, and then inhaled as if he were enjoying her perfume. At least she hoped that he was.
Just then Marty returned carrying the food. Diane leaned back in her seat, her heart racing, a thousand crazy thoughts going through her head as Marty continued to flirt. Finally Mark spoke.
“Marty, honey, we have something personal to discuss with Diane here. So if you don’t mind, we could use a bit of privacy,” Mark told her, shocking Marty as well as Diane who felt her face flush.
“We’ll wave you over if we need you,” Lucas added, and Drake turned his back on Marty to look at Diane.
Marty walked away.
“Now, Diane, I think we’re making you really nervous and so we’re going to pull back a little and slow things down a bit, okay?” Mark said, drawing her attention back toward him. But that didn’t stop Lucas from c
aressing her shoulder while he used his other hand to take a fry and pop it into his mouth. She locked gazes with Mark and those überbold brown eyes.
“We’ve been admiring you from afar. We’ve been taking our time, trying to get enough nerve up to ask you out.”
“We’re not real social types, Diane. We like our privacy, and we don’t like crowds,” Lucas added.
Lucas continued to caress her skin just like Mark and it was unnerving, to say the least. “We want to take you out on a date, get to know you better, and let you get to know us.”
“How did you go from buying lingerie for me to going out on a date to getting to know me? Seems kind of fast, don’t you think?” she asked, stalling to come up with an excuse. This whole thing seemed so weird. It was as if she made them as nervous as they made her. But how the heck could that be when they were huge-ass retired military men? She couldn’t help but think that these men had ulterior motives.
She didn’t trust easily. Besides, they didn’t tell Marty that they were interested in Diane, just that they wanted to discuss something personal. That could still lead one to believe that Diane would only be this week’s flavor. As much as she wanted this little spur-of-the-moment lunch to be more, she had to face reality.
Mark reached up and held her chin between his fingers. He stared at her lips and she imagined him kissing her. She liked him despite this odd series of events.
“We’ve watched you from afar for so long. Right now I’d like nothing more than to kiss these soft lips of yours and finally taste you. But I can see the fear and the confusion. You’ve probably never thought about us in this way, have you?” he asked.
She felt badly. She would be lying if she said she didn’t and she hated liars. “I’ve thought about you, Mark. Each of you.”
Drake let out a release of breath he seemed to be holding. “Damn, that makes me happy.”
She looked at him, saw the desire in his eyes and she panicked and looked back at Mark. “But you’re in fast-forward, and I don’t know anything about any of you but the rumors I hear, and of course your obsession with fine lingerie.”
“All for you, Diane,” Lucas added softly. He was the most quiet. He was the one people said was still not right after returning from the war. He didn’t have patience.
“So you say,” Diane replied.
“Come out with us? Let us take you to dinner. Anywhere you like. In Pearl, in Croton, or Turbank, it doesn’t matter to us. Hell, we’ll meet you in Dallas if you asked us to,” Mark told her, and she felt her cheeks warm. He was being honest now, and she liked this part of him better than the one trying to act so suave and tough.
“Can I think about it while I’m away?”
“What’s there to think about?” Drake pushed.
“If you need some time, we understand. I have a business trip out of town, too. How about we call you over the weekend, while you’re in Dallas and see if you’ve made up your mind? Then we can set something up for the upcoming week?” Mark suggested.
She took a deep breath and released it.
“I’ll think about it,” she said.
“Then let’s exchange cell numbers. We were untimely interrupted before,” Drake stated. She slowly rambled off her number, and then they rambled off theirs.
She was shocked at the mix of emotions she felt. Was this really the beginning of something? Could these three men be serious, and actually want to get to know her? How many women had they been with, and would she just be another one? Did she even care? She jumped as her cell phone rang.
Glancing down at the caller ID, she saw that it was Elvira.
“I need to take this.” She answered it, and listened as Elvira spoke. “Okay, I’ll be ready. Thank you.” She disconnected the call.
All three men were watching here.
“Everything okay?” Drake asked.
“Fine. The limo is picking me up at 8:00 a.m. I need to get going soon. I have to pack and make some other arrangements.”
“Well, why not enjoy lunch together? We’re going to miss you for the next five days. That’s not a lie,” Mark told her as he held her gaze and she shyly looked down toward her salad, feeling her belly ache. She liked them, and she prayed they were as sincere and honest as she needed them to be.
Chapter 3
“I’ve answered all your fucking questions. I flew out here to assist in the disappearance of Agent Brenda Corn, and you still think I’m involved with this? What the fuck is going on, Weathers?” Mark demanded as he sat in the chair in the interrogation room at a remote facility in Wyoming. His commander, the man who assigned him to these special cases over the last several years, actually believed him to be involved with acts of terrorism. It didn’t help that Brenda’s commander, Franks, was there, too.
“Calm down, Mark. You’ve been around long enough to know the damn procedure when something like this happens,” Weathers stated as he ran his fingers through his hair and looked toward the fake mirror. It pissed Mark off to be on this side of the mirror and not in the back, reading the prisoner’s body language, eye direction, and demeanor. Instead, he was treated like a prisoner, not an investigating agent.
“I said I would take your fucking lie detector test. I did that. I said I would answer any questions in regards to Brenda and that old operation that you were a part of, too. I did that. What more do you want from me? What the hell is really going on?”
Weathers was silent and then he nodded his head toward the mirror. A few seconds later three agents Mark knew walked in.
Cody Jobs, Ray Segar, and Ned Turk. All good agents. All individuals he’s worked with in the past. In fact, the last case they worked on was before the Wyoming one. It was a case involving a man they never caught—Marzban Samir.
Mark could feel himself growing more impatient and especially now that there were four men in the room who obviously had a clue as to what was happening, and he was the only one who didn’t.
Mark sat forward in his seat.
“Well?”
Weathers took a deep breath and then released it.
“Brenda is involved with Marzban Shamir.”
Mark felt the instant shock to his system. His mouth dropped and then he looked at Jobs, Segar, and Turk, and could see how angry and just plain pissed off they looked. He shook his head. “No way. You’re wrong. There is no fucking way that Brenda would help that Persian asshole. He’s responsible for the death of numerous federal agents. Hell, she wanted to take him out herself when that fuck got diplomatic immunity and couldn’t be charged as an accessory to those murders. She gave the fucking order.” He thought about Marzban. The pompous piece of shit was walking around a billionaire, involved with so many illegal operations, but no one was ever able to prove shit on him. He’s got himself so detached on anything concrete or documentable, that no one can come close to catching him red-handed. Never mind close enough to even arrest him, even if it were a waste of time.
“Mark, I know you two had a thing way back,” Cody said, as he lowered a folder to the table.
“We didn’t have a thing. We worked together. We got close, but we weren’t an item or dating.”
Cody raised his eyebrows as if he didn’t believe him.
“I answered the fucking questions about that earlier. You all heard me while you were hiding behind the fucking mirror like cowards. You want to read a prisoner’s body language, eye response, and demeanor, then it’s best to be right in the same fucking room. You really get the gist of their anger,” he said sarcastically.
“Enough, Mark. These guys are not the enemy. I didn’t have to even give you this much information,” Weathers told him. Mark gave his commander a dirty look.
“Really? Considering all the crazy shit I’ve done for the bureau and for you over the years, you’d think you owed me at least an explanation of what’s happening here. Hell, maybe even let me help.”
“Not happening,” Ray Segar stated.
“Why not?” Mark asked.
“What? How do you know this?”
“Open the folder,” Cody told Mark.
He reached out, feeling the trepidation fill his gut. As he saw the first pictures, he wondered what they were getting at. Brenda walking toward a club or restaurant somewhere. Then a limo outside a place, then Brenda walking beside a man, holding his hand, but the man’s back was toward the camera. Mark glanced up and looked at the other agents and then back down. It hit him fast, the more pictures he saw. Brenda with Marzban, Brenda kissing Marzban, and Brenda getting into his limo smiling. Brenda heading into a hotel. Brenda and Marzban naked, looking out the main window in some high-rise hotel room. He didn’t feel jealous at all. Instead he felt deceived, tricked.
He glanced up at the men. He hadn’t looked at all the photos.
“Keep looking. It gets worse, and the others show some of their handiwork,” Weathers stated.
Mark glanced through, seeing buildings somewhere, he couldn’t tell where they were. They didn’t look like the United States.
“Where were these taken?” he asked.
“Iran,” Ray replied, and Mark felt that ache in his gut.
He stared at the pictures of military vehicles, weaponry, an arson of explosives.
“What are these?”
“A known terrorist group’s new toys thanks to Marzban Samir. The disappearance of a US military shipment across seas by a subcontracted, third-party affiliate to cut out costs was taken over by insurgents,” Cody stated.
“How the hell does something like that happen?” Mark asked.
“Unfortunately, with all the new cutbacks, the security level is low on a lot of these shipments. This one in particular was headed to a US military base near Somalia. However, keep looking at the next pictures,” Cody added.
Mark flipped through them. There were dead bodies. Pictures of what appeared like gangs in cities on US soil, not in the Middle East or abroad elsewhere. Then there were pictures of military boxes, the kind that held weapons. Mark looked up.