“Hello.” The odd voice sounded from the opposite side of the room. Frank forced his mind back to the work at hand. There would be time to dissect his relationship with Edna after he made sure she was safe.
Relationship. He’d just thought of what they had as a relationship. Damn, he really was in trouble.
“Thank you for seeing me,” the man spoke again, soft and scratchy. He was clearly trying to manipulate his voice, and that made Frank nervous. He’d never heard the man speak, but maybe Edna had.
Why else would he be attempting to disguise his voice? Maybe Edna’s stalker was someone she already knew. That would explain why the man was still in his disguise.
In over a month of tailing him, no one had ever seen the man out of that damn hat he kept pulled down low over his features. Frank had told Edna he had followed the suspect for a week, but that wasn’t the complete truth. His people had finally taken a decent picture of the man last week, but they had been tracking him for longer. Long enough to know that Edna wasn’t the only woman he had been stalking. The sick fuck was a busy man, terrorizing half the sex workers in the city. So far he hadn’t acted on any of his twisted threats, but he was still managing to inflict serious damage.
Rumors of the “red light stalker” were scaring away business on the seedier side of town, seriously affecting the bottom line of the S&M parlors, as well as the more straight-laced bordellos. While Frank never frequented the places, these citizens deserved protection from creeps threatening their livelihood—not to mention their lives—as much as any other person in the kingdom. The new king and queen might be on a mission to close them down, but until they succeeded in making it illegal to traffic in sex, it was Frank’s job to provide the workers of the red light district with equal protection under the law.
“You will refer to me as Mistress, you will not look me in the eye, and you will be punished if you dare to speak before spoken to again. Is that clear?” Edna commanded the man in front of her, still sounding strong and confident.
But then again, why shouldn’t she? The guy was even shorter in real life than he looked in photographs, well under five and a half feet, even with the strange little fedora he had left on his head. Once he’d taken off his bulky overcoat, he was downright scrawny, so scrawny that he seemed reluctant to remove his oversized gray t-shirt. It trailed down over the loincloth that hung limply around his thin, hairless, almost feminine-looking legs.
Scratch that, very feminine-looking legs.
“Shit,” Frank cursed to himself, beginning to smell a rat. His gut was screaming that something was wrong, a feeling that was confirmed when Nate came scurrying into his hiding place.
“Captain, there’s another one!” Nate’s face was pale and sweat beaded on his mostly hairless upper lip. “There’s another stalker in a hat down in the lobby right now.
“Shit,” Frank whispered harshly, fighting the urge to cuss the hell out of his soldier. It wasn’t his fault. Frank had bought the suspect’s identity at first. They were obviously being toyed with.
But by who? And why?
“We managed to stall him,” Nat panted. “We had a janitor say the elevator was broken, but he’ll be here soon. It’s only ten flights up and it’s just a matter of time until he finds the staircase.”
“All right, cover me.” Frank darted a quick look at the surveillance monitor to see that stalker number one was still a safe distance from Edna before he armed his weapon and made for the door.
“Should we stop the second one, sir?” Nate asked.
“Not unless we have to,” Frank returned. “Use your judgment, Officer. If I don’t have the situation in there under control in time, then take him into custody.”
“Will do, sir,” Nate said.
“I knew it!” Edna suddenly screamed.
“Freeze, Queen’s Guard,” Frank bellowed as he burst into the room, nearly dropping his goddamned gun seconds after he found his mark.
What the fuck was going on?
“Captain Frank?” Queen Cindy squeaked. Her blonde hair spilled out in a mad tangle from the cap she had whipped off her head and her big blue eyes started to tear. Her bottom lip quivered and her hand trembled like she was about ten seconds away from a seizure, a fact that wouldn’t have worried him if that hand hadn’t been holding a silver revolver trained right at Edna’s chest.
“Put the gun down, Cynthia,” Frank said slowly, dropping the “Queen” before her name without a second thought. The less power she thought she had in the present situation, the better. He had no idea why she would try to murder her stepmother on the same night she sent him on a mission to save her, but she needed to realize that he wouldn’t be an accessory to whatever she had planned.
He’d take her down like he’d take down any other criminal, especially anyone foolish enough to threaten someone he considered under his protection. Whether it made sense or not, Edna was now on his short list of people he’d kill to protect— no matter what the law, or the queen, had to say about it.
“I thought you were going to be here tomorrow,” Cynthia cried, tears flowing freely down her face.
“Put the gun down, Cynthia. Now,” Frank ordered, his voice hard as he slowly positioned himself between the two women.
“You still haven’t learned to use a day planner?” Edna clucked her tongue. “You really should get organized if you plan to start killing people. Time management makes murder so much more…manageable.”
“Shut up!” Cindy screamed at Edna, her face twisting with rage. “Just shut up. You aren’t always right. You don’t know anything about me, you never have!”
“Cynthia, if you don’t put that gun down right now, I will shoot,” Frank said, hoping his tone would convince her that he was dead serious.
“Frank, you’re supposed to be on my side.” Cindy gulped, her eyes filling with betrayal and hurt as she started sobbing, full force, once more.
“Yeah, Frank, can’t you just help your queen kill me like you’re supposed to?” Edna quipped, not sounding nearly as concerned for her own welfare as he’d like. Not to mention that badgering an unstable teen who was holding a gun aimed at your heart might not be the wisest course of action.
“Edna, be quiet,” he ordered.
“I wasn’t going to kill her, Frank. I could never kill anyone. You have to believe me,” Cindy said, finally dropping the gun as she dissolved into another fit of tortured sobs. Covering her face with her hands, she sunk slowly to the floor where she proceeded to curl into a ball on her side, looking absolutely pathetic in her oversized t- shirt and man-sized diaper.
But pathetic-looking or not, he wasn’t going to breathe easier until that gun was out of her reach.
Quickly, Frank crossed to Cynthia and kicked the gun to the far side of the room, unmoved by the wide, tear-filled eyes she blinked up at him from the floor. She was a beautiful girl, angelically so, but he’d finally gotten a look at the brat that lurked beneath that pretty surface. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t seen through her sooner. He’d always prided himself on being a good judge of character.
“Frank, I really didn’t mean to hurt her, you have to believe me,” she pleaded in response to the chill she no doubt saw in his eyes.
“She just thought I’d be better to look at with a few bullet holes for decoration,” Edna mumbled from behind him.
“Edna, please,” Frank said.
“I’m sorry. This is how I handle being scared to death,” Edna said, her voice rising slightly before she broke off with a shaky breath.
Shit. Pretty soon he was going to have two crying females on his hands and the real red light stalker popping in to the waiting room. He had to establish some sort of order before they lost the chance to catch their second suspect. They could all sit down and try to figure out what the hell was going on with the queen after that was accomplished.
“Get up, Cynthia. Now,” he ordered. “Edna, do your best to get it together, okay? The real guy is on his way up.”
“The real guy? What real guy?”
“We’ve got another suspect on the way. Cynthia might not be our girl, or she might not be working alone.” He reached down and hauled a freshly sobbing Cynthia to her feet.
“What are you talking about, Frank? You mean there’s someone else who wants to kill me?”
“He doesn’t want to kill you,” Cindy said, her voice laced with a healthy dose of bitterness. “He’s in lust with you.”
“What?” Edna asked, her big brown eyes growing even wider.
“He who?” Frank asked, pulling the queen across the room toward the east dressing room. They were running short on time, and he had to make her disappear before the man she was talking about made it to the tenth floor.
“The k-k-k…” Cindy stuttered, the resurgence of her tears making it impossible to understand what she was trying to say.
“Tell me his name,” Frank demanded, giving the girl a sharp shake. “Help me out and maybe you won’t go to jail for the rest of your life.”
“I’m the queen,” she sobbed hysterically. “I’m still the queen.”
“You’re not going to live to be queen of anything unless you start talking in the next two seconds,” Frank whispered into her face, letting the full force of his anger show in his eyes.
“Oh my god,” Cindy said, her tears drying instantly.
“Talk. Now. Fast.”
“The prince— I mean, King Robert, my husband, he’s in love with Edna, or in lust with her anyway,” she said, continuing when Frank gave her a slight shake. “He started writing her those letters, but I didn’t know. When I heard about the stalker I just thought Edna was in trouble, and I wanted to help. I thought maybe we could try to be friends, but when the guards brought in the picture they took yesterday, I saw the coat I’d given Robert. I had it handmade by the lady who used to sew his mom’s clothes, so I knew it had to be him.”
“Oh my god, you’re serious,” Edna said, sitting down on the red couch with a horrified look.
Good, she should be horrified by the thought of any man but me wanting to touch her.
The thought flew through Frank’s mind before he had the chance to consider what little right he had to stake claim to Edna’s body or heart. Still, the king had no right either, and if what Cynthia was saying was the truth, their entire kingdom was getting ready to be turned upside-down. Not even a monarch could get away with terrorizing dozens of sex workers. They were his subjects, and Parliament wouldn’t stand for it.
“Is there anything else we should know, Cynthia? Quickly, we’re almost out of time,” Frank urged, his tone gentling. She was talking, no need to scare her into another round of tears.
“I searched his room and found his journal,” Cindy said. “He did the red light stalker thing to cover his tracks. He’s going to kidnap Edna and make it look like she was murdered. Then he’s going to take her back to the castle and keep her there. He has a secret room in the west wing all ready for her. I found the key. He’s going to keep her there and have sex with her! In my own house! With my stepmother!” Cindy finished with a horrified gasp. Then she started crying again, obviously feeling as sorry for herself as Edna, the woman who would have become the prince’s unwilling sex slave.
The girl was a piece of work, no doubt about it.
“Do you still have the journal?” Frank asked.
“It’s in my coat in the dressing room.” Cindy sniffed and tried to look helpful. “I can go get it if you want.”
“Captain?” Nate whispered urgently, sticking his head out from the door of the dressing room.
“We’ll get it later. Take her,” Frank whispered, shoving Cynthia toward the door.
“The queen?” Nate asked, looking uncertainly from Frank to Cynthia and back again, clearly torn.
“Keep her in there and don’t take your eyes off her. Don’t let her scream or talk or cry. Gag her if you have to. She’s in the custody of the state until Parliament decides her guilt or innocence,” Frank ordered, his eyes holding those of his subordinate until he knew that Nate would obey him.
“Where will you be?” Nate asked, taking Cynthia, gently but firmly, by the upper arm.
“I’ll be right here,” Frank said, crossing to Edna. “If what Cynthia is saying is the truth, we have enough evidence. We’ll let him walk in here and I’ll take care of him myself. Edna, you go with Nate.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Yes, you are. I’m telling you—”
“Frank, we don’t know if Cindy is telling the truth, if there really is a journal or what exactly it says. I don’t want to take the risk that one or both of them might get away with this,” she said, her eyes pleading with him to understand.
“I don’t want you to get hurt,” Frank protested, though he knew she was right. It was exactly what he would have said himself if he were thinking with his mind.
But he wasn’t, he was acting on emotion. How could he allow Edna to put herself in danger when he was still so shaken by seeing a gun trained on her heart? He didn’t want to risk her safety, even to put away a man who obviously couldn’t be allowed to remain in power if the accusations against him were true.
“I won’t get hurt, and you’ll be just a few feet away, right?”
“Right,” he said, the trust in her eyes making his stomach knot. She had faith that he would keep her safe. Now he had to make damn sure he proved worthy of her trust.
“Then I’ll be fine,” she said with a smile. “Now scram before I get nervous and change my mind.”
“You can still change your mind, you—”
“I won’t. I trust you. Otherwise I would have run when Cindy first pulled out that gun. But I just…knew that you wouldn’t let her hurt me. Is that crazy?”
“No, it’s not. I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
Not even myself.
He turned and disappeared into the east dressing room without another word, forcing himself to think about keeping Edna safe and nothing else. There would be time to mourn the loss of what could have been between them at a later date. But he knew now that he couldn’t allow his fantasies involving the woman to become a reality.
If they took care of business tonight, Edna would have the chance at a real life again. She’d made it clear she didn’t relish working on the wrong side of the tracks. She certainly wouldn’t want to start a relationship with a man who felt that a “kinky” lifestyle was the only one that worked for him.
Frank had had relationships that didn’t play by the Dom or sub rules, but they hadn’t fulfilled him in the same way. He craved that sexual charge too much to give it up, and he already cared for Edna too greatly to ask her to spend any more time living a lifestyle she resented. He would help her regain her life, and then he would remove himself from it. It was the best way he could show his regard for her, even if the thought of never seeing her again tore him up inside.
Chapter Five
Edna gripped the whip in her hand and turned to face the dressing room door, where the king would supposedly be making his appearance at any moment. She knew she should be scared out of her mind, but for some reason she wasn’t. Maybe it was simply that she trusted Frank to keep her safe, or maybe it was because she was still having a hard time believing that Robert planned to kidnap her and make her his love slave.
It was ludicrous. The guy who’d fought tooth and nail to be able to date, and eventually marry, her underage stepdaughter was actually in love with Edna and wanted to lock her up in a room and go at it?
It was just plain weird, and she wouldn’t have bought it at all if Cindy hadn’t been so hysterical.
Her stepdaughter was good at many things, but acting wasn’t one of them. Despite the fact that the entire kingdom bought her story of abuse at her stepmother’s hands, Edna had always been able to see through her attempts at deception. No, Cindy genuinely believed what she was saying was the truth. Of course, she could be mistaken. She wasn’t the most stable k
id and tended to jump to conclusions. But if Robert’s secret journal really existed, there wasn’t much chance of that.
God, she could go crazy thinking in circles! She just had to sit tight for a few more minutes, and then she’d know who was crazy—King Robert or his paranoid new queen.
“Shit,” she muttered, jumping at the quiet scrape of the outer door of the dressing room swinging open.
So much for relaxing.
She held her breath and tried to pretend that this was any other client, even as she struggled to catch the sound of a key in a locker or clothes being removed. Would the king risk getting dressed in the regulation loincloth, or would he just walk in? On the one hand, it made no sense for him to make himself vulnerable, but then maybe he had a sincere desire to wear a diaper in front of a woman in six-inch heels. You never could tell with men, especially men who frequented S&M parlors.
Which brought an entirely different idea to mind—what if the king were simply here for a routine session? Would she be able to provide her customary fare, knowing that Cindy and Frank and a dozen men were watching? After what had happened between her and Frank tonight, she didn’t know if she’d be able to go back to playing the Domme with any conviction. It felt too perfect, and oddly powerful, to be the one not in control.
Or maybe it just felt good to be that person with Frank, to be with Frank, period. She’d never felt such an instant, powerful attraction to a man, and she had to admit she was happy he was one of good guys. But it wasn’t only the fact that he’d saved her life that made her heart feel strangely light, it was something else, a secret hope that she wasn’t quite ready to name.
“Hello, my dearest.”
Edna jumped at the familiar voice and something in her throat dove into her stomach. King Robert was really here. Seeing him in the flesh, hearing him call her “dearest,” was doing wonders for her ability to believe Cindy’s crazy story.
Wickedly Ever After Page 5
