Alex turned down a street and parked outside a five-story building. “We’ve tried to get her to move, but Reagan won’t leave her apartment. She’s very particular about things.”
Tiny wasn’t quite sure what that meant, but he nodded.
“Just try not to take offense if she’s rude to you. She doesn’t mean to be. Well, most of the time. She’s scared, and she’s trying not to be.”
Tiny raised an eyebrow. He didn’t know what Alex was so worried about. She was one woman. What was the worse she could do?
“I’m hard to offend.”
Alex eyed him then smiled slightly. “Yeah, you do look like you have a thick skin.”
Tiny shrugged.
“Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
***
“Any idiot can set up a few cameras. How do we know he’s any good?” Reagan stated.
She might have meant to whisper, but then again, maybe not. Tiny had been introduced to his client five minutes ago, and he’d already realized she was a straight-shooter. Brutally honest to the point of being a bit mean.
He already liked her.
He heard Tara murmur something, then Alex’s deeper rumble. They’d left Tiny in the living room and retreated to the kitchen to attempt to soothe Reagan’s budding temper. Yep, she’d taken one look at him and nearly exploded. He was used to women being afraid of him. Generally, he didn’t care, but when it was a client, it was counter-productive. So, while he was here, he’d need to do something to put her at ease with him.
He studied the alarm. It was a good model. There were some better ones, but this wasn’t a bad one by any stretch. The lock on the door hadn’t been tampered with. They had to have a key. This was someone she knew.
“I’m supposed to just let him have free range in my apartment when I don’t know him? What if he’s the one sneaking in here?”
The voices were getting closer, and he turned to watch Reagan stride into the room. Behind her walked Alex and Tara. Alex frowned at Reagan, looking frustrated. Tara just looked worried. She ran her hand through her dark hair and gave him a small smile. But it was Reagan where his gaze lingered. Tall and slim, with blonde hair so light it looked silver in places, she was simply breathtaking. She studied him back, her bright blue gaze running up and down his body.
Maybe he should have been insulted by the once-over. Instead, he grinned.
Her eyes narrowed as she stared at him suspiciously. “Well? How do I know it’s not him?”
“What reason would he have to sneak in here?” Alex asked with exasperation. “He doesn’t know you. He lives in Dallas. He’s a security expert.”
“He works for Black-Gray Investigations. You researched them, they have an impeccable reputation,” Tara reminded her.
Reagan still looked hostile, but her shoulders relaxed slightly. “Not impeccable. There are always improvements to be made. I don’t want him touching my stuff.”
“He’s not going to touch anything he doesn’t need to,” Tara soothed.
Hmm, he wasn’t so sure about that. She’s a client, he reminded himself. Off limits.
Tiny knew Reagan had to be feeling vulnerable. She had a right to feel safe in her own apartment. Someone had been in here without her knowledge, and now he was here. Another stranger. It would make him grouchy, too. So he didn’t take offense at her prickly attitude. Like he’d told Alex, he didn’t take offence easily.
“Reagan, please. Let him do his job. I’m scared for you.”
Tara’s words seemed to work where nothing else had because Reagan sighed and nodded. “Fine, I agreed to let him take a look at my security so he can take a look around. I’ll let him do his job.” She pointed at him. “I’ll be watching you, though. Don’t mess up.”
He wouldn’t dare.
Reagan stared over at the so-called security expert distrustfully. He just smiled at her.
“Do you want tea or coffee?” she suddenly asked, remembering her manners. But he wasn’t exactly a visitor, was he? What sort of category did he fall into? She looked over at Tara, who smiled at her. All right, that must have been the correct approach.
“No. Thank you.”
He looked a bit like a thug in her opinion. But that probably helped in his profession.
“Can I do a walk-through?”
She nodded, following him as he walked around, testing windows and taking notes. By hand. Very old-fashioned. He tested the window in her bedroom.
“I don’t think this person is coming in via the bedroom. I’m on the third floor. And how would they disarm the alarm before it went off if they came through the bedroom?” she asked.
“Reagan, why don’t you let him do his job?” Tara asked from the doorway.
She hadn’t been aware she was getting in the way of him doing his job.
“It’s okay.” Tiny nodded at her. “It’s unlikely.”
She waited for him to say more then realized he was finished. “Don’t say much, do you?”
He just smiled. Her heartbeat quickened. When he smiled, it changed his expression. He wasn’t a handsome man, not even close. His features were just a bit too hard, and the scar running down the side of his face made him look slightly menacing. But when he smiled his whole face lightened, and he became almost mesmerizing.
She found herself wanting to see him smile again.
“Umm, Reagan, you okay?”
She turned to look at Tara. “Yes. Fine. Excuse me.” She left the bedroom. Coffee. She needed coffee. She walked into the kitchen and turned on the coffee maker then grabbed some cups from the cupboard. The tension slowly ebbed from her shoulders as she poured out the coffee. Routine soothed her. Helped her find some control. Some normalcy. And there had been little of that lately. She opened a packet of cookies. Placing them on a plate, she set everything out on a tray and carried it into the living room where Alex, Tara, and Tiny stood talking. Well, Alex and Tara were talking. Tiny mostly nodded and made notes.
He turned as she walked in.
“Well?” she asked as she poured out coffee.
“White with one.”
She startled. What? He pointed at the coffee and smiled slightly. Oh, the coffee. She let out a deep breath. She was more rattled than she’d thought. Well, at least no one else would know, she was very good at emotions in check.
He thought she looked ready to bolt. He made an effort to keep his voice low and soothing to put her at ease.
“Yes, here you go.” She poured out the coffee and handed it to him. His fingers brushed against hers, and she stared up at him, wide-eyed.
“Thank you,” he told her, stepping back before he did something completely unprofessional like pull her into his arms and tell her everything would be okay.
“What’s your assessment of the security?” Alex asked then, interrupting them. “Are you going to put some cameras up?”
“Pretty good. But I’ll install cameras.”
“They’ll be recording?” she asked.
“Yes. Hopefully, we can catch this person. The live feed won’t be monitored. Unless you want that?”
“No. I don’t.” She shuddered at the thought. It would be like living in a fish bowl. “Where will you put them?”
“One in each room. In the foyer and outside the building. Just visual no audio.”
She was already shaking her head before he finished.
“Reagan, we need to put up cameras to catch this person,” Tara told her. “Unless you’ve changed your mind and will move in with us?”
Alex sent his wife a look then nodded, looking resigned. “You would be safe at our place.”
“No. I’m not moving. This is my home. This is where all my stuff is. I thought we’d already settled this.” She rubbed at the headache she could feel forming.
“If you put in cameras,” Tara reminded her.
“Yes, but I thought they’d just be in the apartment. I don’t think we can put them in the foyer or outside, the building manager won’t
like it.”
“Why not?” Alex asked. “It increases security for the whole building.”
“He’ll understand once we tell him what’s going on,” Tara interjected.
“Maybe if he didn’t hate me he’d agree.”
“I’m sure he doesn’t hate you.” Tara bit her lip, not looking as certain as she sounded. “Why would he?”
Reagan shrugged. “Possibly because I called him a small-brained fascist with a little man complex.”
Tiny snorted. “That would do it.”
“Jesus, help me,” Alex muttered with exasperation. “Why’d you say that to him?”
Tiny frowned slightly, not liking the way the other man spoke to Reagan.
“He seemed to think I should give him a blow job for fixing my faucet. He even dropped his pants in my kitchen. He had a very small penis. I told him that as well.”
“He did what?” Tara asked loudly. “How does he still have his job?”
“You were easy on him,” Tiny growled, curious.
“I complained,” Reagan told them. “But the owner of the building lives overseas and didn’t reply. I thought about moving, but I like it here. I had to clean my apartment from top to bottom after he left, though.” She shuddered. “Who knows what germs he was carrying.”
“Could he be the one breaking in?” Alex theorized. “He has a key, and now he has a motive.”
“Me refusing to suck his tiny penis is enough of a reason for him to break into my apartment?” Reagan asked. She shook her head. “I really do not understand men.”
“He doesn’t represent all men,” Tiny told her. “Where does he live?”
“Apartment 1A. His name is Donald McDonald. I don’t know what his parents were thinking. If you’re going to speak to him, I’m coming with you.” Reagan’s eyes fairly sparkled with temper. She looked ready for a fight.
Tiny had a huge protective streak when it came to women. And she was his client. His responsibility.
“No.”
She placed her hands on her hips and glared up at him, not a hint of fear on her face. He readjusted his assessment earlier that she might fear him. This woman wasn’t the least bit afraid of him.
“Yes. In case you’ve forgotten, you work for me. You do what I say.”
“Ahh, Reagan…” Alex started to say.
Tiny shook his head at him. This was between him and Reagan. “I work for you. But you do what I say. Stay here.”
“I am not a dog,” she bit out.
He looked her up and down, letting a little of his admiration slip through. “No. You are not.”
She shifted her weight from foot to foot, feeling uncertain. “I don’t have to do what you say.”
He simply raised an eyebrow, then he looked over at Alex. “Keep her here.”
Her mouth gaped open as he left. He didn’t crack a smile until he had the door safely closed, and he was out of firing range. He heard her scream then.
Little woman had a temper on her.
Damn, he really did like her.
Chapter Three
“Can you believe the nerve of him? Who does he think he is? He works for me. He doesn’t get to order me around.” Although she’d been more taken aback than annoyed. And that surprised her. Normally, she would’ve chased after him and given him a tongue-lashing before firing him.
Instead, here she stood. Doing exactly as he’d told her to do.
It was that thought which had her moving toward the door. He did not get to tell her what to do. No matter how cute his smile was.
“No, you don’t.” Alex slid between her and the door.
“Get out of my way. I want to talk to Donald.”
“If he’s the one doing this then it might not be safe to be around him,” Tara told her.
Reagan snorted. “Tiny will be there. Do you really think he’s going to let anyone hurt me?” The words were out before she could take them back.
“No, I don’t. Although, I’m kind of surprised you realize that.”
“He’s a security expert. He was a Marine.” She’d researched all of Black-Gray Investigations employees.
“How do you know that?” Tara asked suspiciously.
Reagan shrugged.
“You hacked into their system, didn’t you? I thought you were going to stop hacking into restricted databases.” Tara gave her an exasperated look.
“What?” Alex asked, his face thunderous. “You’ve been hacking into secure databases?”
Reagan glared at Tara.
“Sorry,” Tara apologized with a grimace.
“And you never told me?” Alex turned to Tara. His frown was fierce.
“Because I made her promise not to. Do you want Tara to be the sort of woman who breaks promises?” Reagan glared up at him, not liking the way he stared at her friend.
“I want her to be the sort of person who doesn’t hold onto secrets that could get her into trouble. Hacking is illegal, Reagan.”
Reagan ran her hand through her hair. Really, she had more important things to worry about right now. “If they didn’t want me to hack into them, then they should have made them more secure.” It made perfect sense to her. “Why are we speaking about this now? I’m going after Tiny.”
“No.” Alex shook his head. “You’re not.” He turned his frosty gaze down at her. “The two of you are going to sit on the sofa and wait. You’d just get in Tiny’s way.”
“Come on, he’s not going to let you past him.” Tara tugged on her arm.
“This is happening to me, you know.”
“I know. But you know how protective Doms can be.”
Doms? “Tiny is a Dom?” It made sense. The way he just took charge. His protectiveness.
“Yeah, Jacey told me that all of Black-Gray’s male staff are Doms. Derrick hired them to protect Jacey when her ex was after her.”
Alex paced in front of the door.
“Relax, Alex,” Reagan told him. “I am not going to try to get past you. I’m not stupid. You outweigh me considerably.”
“Considerably?”
She thought he looked upset, but she couldn’t imagine why. She was the one with the right to be upset. This was her life. Her safety at risk. There was a knock on the door. Alex looked through the peephole then opened the door to allow Tiny entrance.
“Well? Was it him?” she asked, moving toward him. “What did he say?”
“Let him catch his breath, Reagan,” Alex told her.
“He doesn’t look winded to me. And if he’d let me go with him then I wouldn’t have to question him. Well? What did he say?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing? Why?”
“He wasn’t there.” Tiny wished he had been. Especially after what he’d seen. “Interesting place.”
“What does that mean? What was interesting?”
“His apartment.”
“What is interesting about it? Has anyone ever told you you’re a very frustrating person to have a conversation with?”
Alex sat back on the sofa with Tara, both of them grinning. He didn’t understand what they found so amusing.
“I looked around his apartment.”
She gasped. “But that’s illegal.”
“Like you have a leg to stand on,” Alex told her.
Tiny frowned, uncertain what the other man meant.
“What did you find?” she asked. Reagan turned to him, her eyes filled with worry.
A huge collection of pornos. A large recliner had sat on its own in front of a big T.V. Next to the recliner, on a small coffee table, sat a box of tissues and some lube. The place had been a pigsty. Stuff everywhere, and it was filthy. He’d seen some shitholes in his time, but this one was up there with the worst of them.
“Nothing that points to his guilt.” Although, McDonald was still top of the suspect list. “Talked to his neighbor. He’s gone for the week.”
“Gone? He never told me he was going away. Asshole.”
Tiny woul
d still have a chat with him, even if he had to fly back here to do so. No way did he get to coerce women into giving him sexual favors for doing his job. What if he’d grown violent with Reagan? What if he forced the next woman who turned him down?
Yeah, he’d be paying Donald McDonald a little visit.
Reagan was right, it was a weird name.
“Great.” She slumped into a chair. “I’d hoped we’d solved this and could move on.”
“Often the victim knows the perp—,” he started to explain when she turned on him, frowning ferociously.
“I am not a victim.”
His lips twitched. “No. My apologies.”
She nodded regally. Fuck, what was it about her that had him wanting to pull her onto his lap and kiss that frown right off her face? She wasn’t at all his type. She was too beautiful. Too smart. Out of his league.
Stupid fucking idiot.
He pushed aside his father’s voice. The asshole had no hold on him now.
“I can’t get all the cameras up today. Can you stay somewhere else tonight?”
“Nope. I’m staying here. I stayed at Alex and Tara’s for the last two nights. And I hated it.”
Alex rolled his eyes, but Tara just giggled.
“Sorry.” Reagan blushed. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. I enjoyed the movies and ice cream, and I’m relieved we didn’t have to have a pillow fight.”
Pillow fight?
“We had a girls’ night,” Tara explained.
“From what I’d read of girls’ nights, most of the time they evolved into a pillow fight.” Reagan shrugged. “Most of those books were about teenagers, however. Tara tells me adults don’t have pillow fights, they drink tequila shots. Anyway, the tequila shots were… interesting. But I’m staying here tonight.”
“Then I’m staying with you.”
Oh no. No, he wasn’t. Not happening.
Make Me, Sir (Doms of Decadence Book 5) Page 3
