by Lexi Blake
Janine nodded sagely. “Ah. So he threatened Leo, and you were protecting him.”
Well, at least Janine got it. “Yes.”
The blonde woman sighed. “And then Leo did his whole overanalyzing intellectual thing. I can see how that went. He couldn’t believe you would think he needed protection so he decided you had used and discarded him. God, he can be such a drama queen. See, this is why Wolf is easier. Wolf would have simply grunted and not stopped following you around. So, has he totally screwed this thing up with you, or does he still have a shot?”
“Wolf? Well, I’m not happy about the plug, but I have to admit, I’m crazy about him.”
Janine shook her head. “No, honey. I was talking about Leo. Has Leo completely screwed this up or can I talk you into giving him another chance?”
Shelley had to take a breath and another sip of her drink. God, hadn’t she spent every moment of every day for the last year wishing that Leo wanted another chance? But he’d shut that down. “He doesn’t want a second chance.”
“He can say that all he wants, but I watched him last night. I’ve talked to him. He’s never gotten over you. When I left him, he barely skipped a smile. He was joking with my new boyfriend at the lawyer’s as we filed for divorce.”
She wondered how much that had hurt. “Leo’s pretty resilient.”
“Not for the last fifteen months,” Janine pointed out. “He’s changed. He’s been quiet and withdrawn. He hasn’t spent time with friends. He’s stopped flirting. Do you understand how worried that makes me? Leo loves to flirt. And he hasn’t flirted. Not since the day he met you.” Janine leaned against the wall, her arms crossing. “He knew he’d found the one. And now you’re with Wolf, and I worry that if you sleep with Wolf, you won’t ever give Leo another chance. And Wolf works fast.”
“Yes, yes, he does.” He’d worked fast, and he hadn’t been alone.
Janine’s face fell. “Well, then, I guess that’s that. I can’t see Leo breaking up something good for his brother. You’re going to laugh at this, but I was actually going to try to convince you to tempt Leo into a ménage. I really think he would thrive in that type of relationship. But he would have to be there in the beginning. I don’t think his pride would allow anything less.”
Shelley stared down at the floor. She wasn’t sure she should say a thing. It hadn’t meant anything. Leo had said it himself. It had been sex and adrenaline. When she’d woken up, he’d been gone, and he’d seemed a bit distant all morning long.
Janine reached out, taking her hand. “I wish you all the best with Wolf. He really is a great guy.”
“How would I do it?”
Janine stopped. “What do you mean?”
“How would I convince him to stay?” She had to try.
“I don’t think it will work now.” Janine’s words had taken on a sympathetic tone. “He’s possessive, and he has his own odd code. If you’re sleeping with his brother, he won’t break up that relationship, and I doubt even if you walked out on Wolf that he would consider it. Certainly not anytime soon. And Wolf seems to really like you.”
She was going to have to say it. “Let me make this plain. I have absolutely no desire to walk out on Wolf. And Leo might not work as fast as his brother, but they have their timing down, if you know what I mean.”
A blank face stared back at her. “I do not.”
How did she put this? There was no Miss Manners for conversation openers about ménage relationships. She stuttered, the words dropping from her mouth in a staccato. “Leo and Wolf and I, well, there was an incident. Some men tried to hurt me. Wolf took care of it, but we were all emotional.”
Janine’s eyes widened. “Oh, you slept with them both. Together?”
She nodded. “I did. But this morning, Leo was a little distant. I don’t think he’s ever going to forgive me for sending him away. I think he’s trying to work me out of his system. I’ve thought about this all morning. I’m crazy about Wolf. I think I’m falling for that man, but can I have a relationship with him if Leo walks away? I’ve tried to cut Leo out of my heart, but it doesn’t work. How am I going to go to Christmas dinner and look across the table at Leo’s new girlfriend?”
Janine relaxed a bit, her shoulders coming down and a satisfied smile crossing her face. “Honey, that’s not going to be a problem. He hasn’t even had a collared sub in years. Leo’s been solitary, even when he was married. You’re the first woman I’ve seen him get animated about. If you want Leo, you have to have a soft touch. Let Wolf work on him. Be the woman he fell in love with. He’ll come back. Hell, if he’s shared a woman with his brother, he’s much further down the road than I would have imagined. Be patient with him. And I know I’m the ex, but you can always call me. I know what it’s like to love Leo.”
A kernel of hope kindled in her chest. What if she didn’t have to let Leo go? What if she could have them both?
“And if you ever want to tell me exactly how big Wolf is, I will listen. I really will. God, that man is hot.”
Finn Taylor walked up. Shelley had seen him with Dani earlier, laughing and caressing her big belly. His humor was gone now, replaced with a grim fierceness. Lucas O’Malley was at his side, the downturn of his lips telling Shelley that something terrible had happened.
A million horrible scenarios played through her brain. “What’s happened? Leo? Wolf?”
God, someone was trying to kill her. What if they’d gotten her men instead? Her heart threatened to crack.
“They’re fine,” Finn said. “But they want you back up in Leo’s condo. We’re going to take you there and stay until they can come up.”
“What’s going on?”
Lucas sighed, a low, tired sound. “Leo’s past is catching up to him. And it looks like you’re in the line of fire.”
Shelley thought about those enigmatic words as she walked out of the penthouse.
* * * *
Wolf felt the tension in the room, and he couldn’t blame the sub for cowering a bit. The room was thick with testosterone, and she was the only sub there, surrounded by six big Doms, all of whom stared straight down at her.
Kitten’s eyes were wide. Her mouth was open. But Wolf wasn’t sure anyone was home.
Of course, after seeing those damn pictures, Wolf had lost his appetite, if not the actual power of speech.
“Tell us what happened, Kitten,” Julian said, his voice a flat monotone. He leaned against the desk Kitten used. The folder with the photographs was right there by Julian’s fingertips, but they had been turned over.
Not that Wolf needed to see them again. He doubted he would ever get the images out of his mind.
A lovely woman with skin the color of rich sand, tied up in a beautiful, masterful tortoiseshell pattern of Shibari bondage. Her dark hair was spread on the mattress she’d been laid out on. A lovely scene, except for the blood and her unseeing eyes. His stomach turned. Someone had brutalized the woman. Leo’s woman.
Leo stood away from the pack, his face a careful blank. Ada had died years before, but Wolf could plainly see those pictures had brought it all back for Leo.
“Kitten, speak.” Ben got to one knee, using his most forceful voice. “Now.”
Chase sighed. “Damn it. Kitten, come on. This is ridiculous. You have to talk.”
“I think she’s broken,” Ben said with a shrug, his eyes sliding away from the photos. His voice was even, but Leo knew those photos upset him. “I mean, obviously, but I think she’s even more broken than before.”
“What is wrong with that girl?” Jack Barnes asked.
“She’s Finn’s cousin. She’s a little odd,” Julian said, stating the obvious.
She sniffled, her mouth opening as though she wanted to speak. All six Doms leaned forward expectantly, and Kitten’s mouth closed again.
A collective groan went through the room.
“Someone tie her up,” Leo said. “She finds it comforting. It’s Saturday. She gets tied up on Saturdays. Kitten
is a creature of routine. If you tie her up, she might be comfortable enough to talk.”
Wolf started for the door to Leo’s office, but Chase pulled out a length of rope from his pocket.
The big Dom shrugged. “What? Don’t we all have some?”
“Proceed, Mr. Dawson,” Julian said with a long sigh.
Chase began an elaborate pattern, binding Kitten’s wrists behind her back and then winding the rope all around her torso. The Dom moved with an economical grace that bespoke of his long practice. While Kitten was being tied, Wolf moved toward his brother.
Leo was closed off, unapproachable. Luckily, Wolf was stubborn.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You knew Ada was dead and that I was involved with her before her death,” Leo replied, his tone bland.
He’d known that but only because there’d been an inquiry by JAG. Leo had been cleared of suspicion. The time of death had been calculated as the same time in which Leo had been on a weapons raid on a Taliban stronghold. As alibis went, it was a pretty good one.
What Leo hadn’t told him was the manner of Ada’s death.
“You wouldn’t have left her bound like that,” Wolf said with utter certainty.
A single eyebrow arched. “Of course not. When I left Ada, she was perfectly fine. We’d played all afternoon and then I got called back to base. I would never leave a sub unattended. But that was my rope the killer used.”
“Shit, Leo. This was about you.”
“You think I don’t know that? You think I haven’t had to live with this every day since?”
The weight of guilt must be oppressive, and Leo hadn’t bothered to share it. With anyone, he would bet.
“Is that better, Kitten?” Chase asked.
“A spanking would help, Sir,” Kitten said, her voice magically reappearing now that she was tightly embraced by rope.
Chase growled in her direction. “You get nothing until you talk, Kitten. And if you don’t tell us everything, you’ll be vanilla for a week. No spankings. No bondage. No dungeon.”
Her lower lip quivered. “But tomorrow is Suspension Sunday.”
“It won’t be if you don’t start talking. This is not a game. This is important to Master Leo,” Julian explained.
She sniffled and nodded, seemingly much more in control now that she was bound. “Kitten understands. Kitten is sorry. Those pictures were left on Kitten’s desk. Kitten opened them. The envelope said Master Leo’s name on the front. It’s Kitten’s job to open his mail. But Kitten was very disturbed by those photos. Kitten likes bondage for fun. That poor woman.”
Tears leaked from Kitten’s eyes.
Julian placed a hand on her head. “I am sorry you had to see those. Do you remember anything else? Was anything out of place?”
“The door was unlocked,” Kitten said.
Julian’s eyes went past Wolf’s to Leo’s.
“I always lock it. I have patient files in here. I lock the inner and outer doors.” Leo’s eyes strayed to the folder with the photos.
Wolf tried the door that led to Leo’s office. Locked up tight. He crossed the outer room in three long strides and dropped to one knee. If Leo said he’d locked it, then Leo had locked the door. The mechanism was a simple bolt lock, and sure enough, he only had to glance at it to see the telltale signs. A few scratches on the metal casing of the lock told him that someone knew how to use a torque wrench and a pick.
“Someone picked it,” Wolf announced.
Julian cursed under his breath. “How the hell did he get past the front desk? I’ll have security see if they can find anything on the cameras. Damn it. I need more cameras.”
“They might help, but I still would have gotten around them. They’re all on a set pattern on this floor.”
Wolf didn’t even think about it. He reacted. He was up and off his feet before the man had finished the word floor. Wolf had his SIG out and at the man’s throat before anyone could breathe.
“Holder?” What the hell was he doing here? And how had Holder gotten the jump on him? Damn, he was out of practice. He needed to get back into the sweet paranoia of his former Navy days.
Holder’s hands came up, showing he didn’t have a weapon. “You’re still fast, Meyer. I thought you would lose your mobility after that IED damn near took your leg.”
Wolf shrugged. He’d lost a lot of things after that damn mine had gone off, but months and months of painful therapy had brought back his mobility. It hadn’t saved his career. “Navy thought so, too. It’s why I’m here instead of the Middle East. Now you better talk and you better talk fast or you’re going to find out that my trigger finger still works, too.”
“Mr. Meyer, would you like to introduce us?” Julian asked. “Perhaps you could bring the intruder into the office before you kill him? It’s so much more private in here, and Leo’s office is due for a remodel anyway.”
“I’m unarmed,” Holder said.
But a SEAL was never without a weapon. A SEAL was a weapon. Holder didn’t need a gun to cause damage, and he seriously doubted the man was truly unarmed. He let go and nodded toward the room. Holder straightened his dark shirt. He was pushing fifty but there was no middle-aged spread on the man. Holder’s hair had gone a stately silver, but his body was trim and fit, his face hawklike, and his gray eyes bespoke a sharp intelligence. He was dressed all in black.
He was dressed like a man on a mission.
“Holder. I should have known you were in on this the minute I heard you had called,” Leo said. His mouth was a flat line. “Julian, this is Steve Holder. Former Lieutenant. We were on the same team in the SEALs, though not the same squad. Now he’s one of the founders of a mercenary group.”
“I prefer to call it a security firm,” Holder said laconically in his deep Georgia accent.
“You say potato,” Leo replied with a humorless grin.
“I’m not sure why I’m a mercenary but you work with Ian Taggart,” Holder pointed out. “What exactly would you call him?”
“Well, I’m going to call him any number of names since you managed to get through his security,” Julian replied. “He’s certainly going to be working this weekend, if you take my meaning.”
Yeah, he bet Taggart would have the whole crew refitting the building with every bit of crazy security equipment money could buy. Wolf could have told him no matter how secure a place was, there was always a way for a man like Holder to find his way in.
“Hello, Holder.”
Holder nodded to Ben. “Dawson. Nice to see you and your brother are still close. You get out at the same time?”
Chase nodded. “Ben left. There wasn’t any reason for me to stay in.”
Holder turned to Julian. “And you must be Julian Lodge. I find it interesting that an investment manager needs four former Navy SEALs as bodyguards. You must have a lot to protect, Mr. Lodge.”
Wolf watched as Julian’s eyes became sharp. He could see the exact moment that Julian began to see Holder as a true threat.
“Would you like to explain why you broke into my building, Mr. Holder? You have exactly three minutes before I have you hauled bodily out of here by several members of the Dallas police department. I assure you, I can get enough of them in here that you won’t be able to take them all out.”
Holder’s face softened slightly. “I would rather you didn’t do that. I broke in because I was worried that Leo here wouldn’t see me until it was too late.”
“Too late for what?” Wolf asked, his every instinct on high alert. Something bad was happening. Those pictures had sent Leo to a dark place. How much had Leo hidden from him?
Holder stared at Leo. “He’s back. I don’t know why he came to me instead of you, but he’s back.”
“Does someone want to bring me up to speed?” Wolf asked. Something was happening between his brother and Holder, some communication only the two of them understood.
“Yes, I would like to know as well,” Julian said, his eyes darken
ing. “Is this about what happened in Afghanistan?”
The room got deathly quiet. Jack Barnes studied the crowd, leaning against the wall as though he was perfectly happy to merely observe. Chase stroked Kitten’s hair, but in an almost absentminded fashion. Ben was the only one in motion. He paced, his fists clenching at his sides. Ben had been on Leo’s squad. Ben knew something, and it didn’t seem to be good.
“Why you and not Ben?” Leo asked, suspicion plain in his voice. “I’m much closer to Ben than anyone from our old team.”
“I don’t have an address,” Ben said with a frown. “Chase is completely paranoid. He’s taken us off the grid. Even our money is registered to several holding companies. If you want to find us, you would have to dig for a long time, and even then, Chase would know someone was coming.”
Leo’s eyes rolled. “God, Chase, please climb on my couch and never get up again. You’re so wrong.”
Chase shrugged, an elegant movement of his shoulders. He never let up on his petting of Kitten, whose eyes had closed in seeming happiness. “I’m perfectly satisfied with every one of my psychological disorders. So the guy who killed Ada is back. Why now? Holder is fairly high profile. He would be easy to track. You’ve gotten careless, Steve.”
Holder flashed a sneer Chase’s way. “I’ve gotten into business. People in the real world don’t hide, Dawson.”
“Yes, that’s why they often get screwed.” Chase made his pronouncement with a look of sympathy for all those who didn’t agree with him.
“I want to know what’s going on with my brother.” If someone didn’t talk soon, he was going to fucking explode.
“Would it do me a bit of good if I told you it isn’t your business?” Leo asked.
There it was. That ache in his chest that bloomed every time his brother shut him out. Why was he even bothering to try? He should go and pick up Shelley and shove her in his truck and take her right back to Bliss. She would love Bliss. His designer sweetheart would adore being married to a cowboy and living in a ranch hand’s house.
Leo moved in his space, his hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Forgive me. It’s a force of habit. I’ll get used to this.” He turned to Ben. “We can talk. No one in this room is going to let the story leave here.”
