Dark Redemption

by Barron, Melinda

  “So basically I’m off the hook?” Ryan said.

  The deputies said yes, as far as they were concerned things were fine with Ryan. They had officers in surrounding states searching for Bolton. Hopefully they would find him soon.

  When they were gone, Sloan collapsed onto the couch. “That’s good news,” she said.

  “Did you think I’d killed him?” Ryan asked. She couldn’t tell if he was kidding, or not.

  “The thought had crossed my mind at one point,” Chad said. “But it did disappear quickly. Otherwise we wouldn’t be thinking of going into business with you. Or having great sex with you, either.”

  “Do you want to stay another night?” Ryan asked. “It works for me. I have lots of food, and we can continue what we started with the clamps.”

  Sloan crossed her legs and covered her breasts with her arms as if to protect herself.

  “I say we do,” Chad said. “I’m rather enjoying myself, and I think Sloan is, too. Let’s see where the rest of the day takes us, shall we?”

  “We shall,” Ryan said. “I think we will have a great time together.”

  Chapter 5

  The visit from the law officers broke the mood. Although they’d been ready to go hot and heavy with their activities, they’d all sat and stared at each other after the officers had left.

  “Well, that was a buzz kill,” Chad said. “Perhaps we should start on our research for the club?”

  “Good idea,” Ryan said.

  “What about me?” Sloan asked. She wouldn’t be making phone calls, she knew that. There was a part of her that worried they would tie her to the frame and leave her there while they called club owners and asked them about how they’d opened their businesses, and what they thought was the secret to their success.

  “How about you cook dinner?” Ryan said.

  Sloan’s mouth dropped open and then said, “Me?”

  “You cooked this morning and it was great,” Ryan said. “I’m sure you can figure out something else to do. The kitchen is stocked with lots of food and utensils. Go hog wild.”

  “Um, okay,” she said. She thought she’d already let Ryan know that cooking wasn’t her forte, but now she wondered if he’d been listening.

  “Lasagna,” Chad said. “You make a great lasagna. If all the ingredients are not in there you can go to the store while we work.”

  She could do that. Chad loved lasagna, his one concession to his love of carbs. Over the years she’d learned to make it as he liked it. She’d had a lot of failures and tears along the way, but she was happy that he’d offered for her to make something that wouldn’t leave her embarrassed in front of Ryan.

  After making a quick inventory in the kitchen, she made a list, and decided to make a dessert, too. They would be busy most of the afternoon, and she would need something to do once the lasagna was in the oven. She would have the cake ready to bake when the lasagna was finished.

  “I’m leaving,” she called out. She picked up her purse, and dug out her keys and headed toward the front door.

  “Not quite yet,” Chad called out. “Come in the bedroom, please.”

  Sloan felt a spark of what had been happening earlier. Maybe they wouldn’t work on calling clubs this afternoon. Maybe she wouldn’t cook. Maybe they would have great sex, and call out for Chinese food after; it sounded like a perfect afternoon to her.

  After she dropped her keys back in her purse, she put it on the chair and made her way to the bedroom. She thought about taking off her clothes, but knew that she needed to wait for a command from her husband before she did that.

  She entered the bedroom and stopped short. The two men stood near the bed. Ryan had a tube of lube in his hand—and Chad had a large butt plug in his.

  * * *

  This had to be the fastest shopping trip she’d ever made, if she had anything to say about it. It was either that or she might lose her mind. Of course she wasn’t in charge of how long she would be in the store. Nor was she in charge of how many times the vibrating plug in her ass would go off.

  Chad and Ryan were somewhere nearby, wandering the aisles, pushing a cart so as not to attract attention. Anyone who saw them gathering some of the ingredients she would need to cook dinner might think they were a couple getting ready to spend a Saturday evening at home.

  She wondered which one of them had the remote, or if they were trading it back and forth. She knew they had to be close, because she was fairly certain the frequency on the remote wouldn’t work from too far out. As if to prove her point, the plug vibrated and she gasped. A woman that looked to be close to thirty was close by, and she wrinkled her brow at Sloan.

  “Sorry, I have the hiccups,” Sloan said. Then she put her hand over her mouth as if she were holding back a hiccup.

  “I hate that,” the woman said, just as the plug went off again. The woman reached for a package of spaghetti noodles and then left, moving so fast Sloan was pretty sure she thought Sloan was a nut job who was planning to start a one person flash mob.

  Sloan watched as she rounded the corner, and then Chad peered around it, a huge grin on his face. Ryan stepped into the aisle and held up his hand. The plug went off again and Sloan said a silent prayer of thanks that she’d had the forethought to grab a cart, even though they’d told her to use a hand basket. She leaned against it as the vibration hit again and again, sending shock waves to her clit.

  If they kept it going much longer she was going to come, long and hard. The vibration stopped and she nodded to them ever so slightly. She managed to smile just as it went off again, the buzzing making her entire lower region quake and she came, almost falling to her knees as it continued. She knew Ryan’s finger was keeping the button down.

  Her legs were like jelly by the time the orgasm stopped, and she was once again grateful for the cart. From behind her a woman asked, “Are you all right? Do I need to call a manager?”

  “No,” Sloan croaked out. She turned to find a young woman in her early twenties staring at her, her concern evident. “I’ve just had a cold, and I bent over to pick something up and I got light headed.”

  She hated lying to the woman, but couldn’t exactly tell her the truth. One glance at the other end of the aisle showed the men were gone. The plug no longer vibrated. Something told her they’d watched her come, and then hightailed it out of the store.

  “Are you going to be okay?” the woman asked. “You seem disoriented.”

  “Thank you for your concern,” Sloan said, feeling stiff and formal. “I think I should just pick up what I need and head out.”

  “Okay.” Sloan had an idea the woman would be trailing her through the store as Sloan finished her shopping. She ran her shaky finger through her hair and then picked up the lasagna noodles. She hurried to the dairy department where she picked up cheese and eggs, and then went to the bakery for a loaf of French bread.

  The plug remained silent, resting inside her. She felt as if it would zap into play at any moment but it did not. She checked her list and realized she hadn’t brought the ingredients to make the turtle brownies that Chad loved so much. It meant one more trip across the store, and as she loaded the nuts, caramel and dark chocolate mix into her cart she felt as if someone was looking at her. She glanced around and didn’t see anyone. It occurred to her that the young woman who’d been so concerned earlier could be watching to make sure everything was okay.

  But Sloan didn’t see her, or anyone else for that matter. She made her final selections and hurried through checkout. As she made her way to the car she could still feel someone watching her. It wasn’t until she’d loaded her bags into the car and made to get into the driver’s seat that Sean Bolton stepped out of the store, and tipped an imaginary hat in her direction.

  * * *

  “Are you sure it was him?” Chad asked.

  “I’m positive,” Sloan said, her voice tight. She’d been frightened the whole way home, but Bolton had not followed her. When she’d come inside the hous
e she’d been almost hysterical. Chad had held her close. The two of them had gone to the bathroom to remove the plug while Ryan had brought in the groceries. When they’d come into the kitchen, their host had started dinner.

  “That’s my job,” she said in a shaky voice.

  “Relax,” Ryan said. “Just tell us what happened.”

  She repeated the incident, including the fact that Bolton hadn’t followed her home. By the time she was done, Chad had already pulled his phone from his pocket. She knew it was to call Vince, who would in turn contact the deputies who had been here earlier.

  Bolton hadn’t threatened her, at least not with words. But he let her know he was there, and that he knew where to find them. He was after Ryan, and something told her he would use her, or Chad, or both of them, to get to the banker.

  “What do we do now?” she asked.

  “We eat good food, and we make sure the doors are always locked behind us,” Chad said. “Beyond that we’ll see what Vince has to say. Until they find out where this man is, and have taken him into custody, we need to be very careful. We’ll postpone our trip to Denver until they catch him, but we can still do our research.”

  Sloan watched as Ryan put the lasagna in the oven.

  “We’ll do just that,” Ryan said. “You can work on those delicious brownies I’ve heard so much about while we start our phone calls, and wait to hear from the law. It will be a productive night. Plus, I think I’ll have to let out my pants after tonight’s dinner. I hear sex is good for burning calories though.”

  * * *

  Three weeks later, Sloan knew Ryan had been right, although she’d failed to lose weight, despite the amount of sex the three of them had enjoyed. The first week had been a few days, but this last week the three of them had woken in the same bed at Ryan’s house every day.

  It was almost a given that they would leave their jobs and instead of going to their own home they would end up at Ryan’s house. Sloan would make dinner, even though her cooking skills were limited, and the men would work on ideas for the club, which had yet to be named.

  They’d talked to various people across the country about how their clubs were run, but they still hadn’t gone to Denver to see the club Ryan knew about, the one that seemed to be the closest to Santa Fe.

  Even though their lives had fallen into a great routine, Sloan couldn’t help but look over her shoulder every day to see if Sean Bolton was there, waiting with a knife, gun, or worse than that, a lighted match. The authorities assured her that she hadn’t seen him that day at the supermarket. That, mixed with the fact she hadn’t seen him again, convinced her she’d been mistaken that day.

  Which meant life was good. They had good food, good sex, good conversations, good sex, good times, and, well, good sex. She and Chad had not discussed what this meant for their relationship.

  It didn’t seem odd to her that they just seemed to be accepted as a threesome. It was just a perfect fit. They laughed at the same jokes, they read the same books, and they shared the same sexual desires.

  During the last week, Sloan had started to wonder about what would happen with their lives. She wanted to discuss it with Chad and Ryan, but they were so busy with club business that she didn’t want to disrupt. They spent all their nights making calls and drawing.

  She helped with the design part, suggesting colors of walls and rooms that could be used for spankings, bondage and any other activities that club members enjoyed.

  During her break today she’d come up with an idea of what she called the purple room. The walls would be lined with purple velvet material, and there would be an electric fireplace with two wingback chairs. There would also be a good collection of Victorian clothing for the club members to choose from.

  In essence, the room would be a spanking room, something that was near and dear to her heart. She wanted it to be a place where people could role play and enjoy themselves. She wanted to have the money to provide all the clients what they wanted to enhance their time.

  The more they planned, the more she thought this was the best idea they’d ever had, and she had to give credit to Ryan for making it happen. Something told her that Chad needed that push to make the still unnamed club come to life.

  She was shelving books as she thought. She’d done the new mysteries, and the new romances. That morning her boss had asked her to pull popular novels for an end cap display. She needed to do that next. She bent down to pick up the last books in the box when a voice sounded from behind her.

  “You must be thinking of something besides books, because you have a few out of place,” the man said. She turned to find Sean Bolton standing before her. He wore a heavy coat, which he opened to reveal a gun strapped to his side.

  “Behave,” he said.

  “Or what?” she asked, her heart beating rapidly. “You need to offer me some incentive if you expect me to behave.”

  “Behave or I’ll kill you,” he said.

  “You’re planning on killing me anyway, after you draw out Ryan, right?” She shrugged. “You already killed your wife and your neighbor.”

  “They were having an affair,” he replied. “Now, be a good girl and head for the door.”

  “My boss won’t appreciate me leaving early,” she said. “You’re going to have to explain it to her.”

  “Do as I say.” He put his hand inside his jacket as if he were going to pull out the gun. Sloan laughed.

  “You’re going to do this in here?” She shook her head. “You didn’t plan this out very well, did you? Is it just that you’re getting antsy about hurting Ryan, or you think you can kidnap me and draw him out? Why did you wait three weeks from when I last saw you? That confuses me.”

  “I was busy,” he said.

  “Doing what? Finding money? Hurting others?”

  “Quit talking and go toward the door,” he said. The tone of his voice revealed his frustration, and she knew from what she’d heard that he had anger problems, and he couldn’t hold onto his temper.

  Sloan thought about her options. He didn’t have his gun out, and something told her he wasn’t a quick draw, which meant he wouldn’t be able to, hopefully, get his gun out in time to hurt someone in the store. She tried to think of how many people she’d seen in here earlier. Not a lot if memory served her right.

  “You’re a coward, aren’t you?” she asked. “Killing one man and planning on doing the same thing to another. Are you planning on stealing money from Ryan to get what you want? Do you plan on ransoming me? Do you think Ryan cares about me? You’re wrong.”

  “You’ve been fucking him,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “You and your husband. It’s disgusting.”

  “So you’re pissed because we’re having sex? Maybe you should go out and get laid. It might make you feel better.”

  “You bitch,” he said. He turned his head away from her, as if he couldn’t stand to look at her, and Sloan knew it was now or never. She had a hardback book on the shelf next to her hand. Could she use all her strength and slap it upside his head before he reacted to her movement? There was only one way to find out. She picked it up, and drew her hand back, slamming it upside his head with every bit of strength she had.

  Bolton grunted in pain and Sloan knew her attack blindsided him. She drew back and did it once more. He crumpled to the ground and she fell on top of him, hitting him once more for good measure.

  “Sloan, what are you doing?”

  Sloan looked up to see her boss standing above her. “Is he a shoplifter? Do I need to call the police?”

  “More than a shoplifter,” Sloan said. “He tried to kidnap me. She pushed aside his coat to display his gun. Call the cops and tell them how important it is that they get here as quick as possible.”

  Chad arrived almost as soon as she’d called him, and Ryan was not far behind him, which meant Chad called Ryan. The police had been here about fifteen minutes before Vince showed up. By that time Bolton was screaming obscenities at her, and t
he police had cleared out the store.

  “You caught him on your own,” Ryan said, his voice full of either pride or surprise, she wasn’t sure.

  “He’s the one who accosted me in a public place,” Sloan said. “He didn’t think things through. I told him that.”

  “You did great, babe,” Chad said. “I’m proud.”

  “You know how to repay me,” she said. “We never have done the thing we talked about before the police showed up on that Saturday.”

  “That thing it is, then,” Chad said. “But not here, and not tonight. We need to make it special, just for you.”

  “I’ll go for that,” Sloan said. “Just what do you have in mind, time wise, I mean?”

  “You’ll see,” Chad said. “It will be great fun for all three of us.”

  * * *

  Two weeks later they still hadn’t had time for the ‘special’ event, despite the gentle prodding from Sloan. The men had basically ignored her, and after receiving a particularly harsh glare from Chad the last time she asked, she hadn’t brought it up again. She was disappointed by the fact that the session hadn’t taken place yet, because she felt as if she deserved it. After all, hadn’t she single-handedly brought Sean Bolton down? Wasn’t he sitting in jail now, without bond for murdering his wife, and his neighbor? It seemed to her as if she deserved the special session.

  Hopefully it would happen when they went home, since they were now in Denver, standing at the front door of Checkers.

  At Chad’s insistence she wore a red corset, so tightly tied she wondered if she might break the laces if she took too harsh of a breath. She had on a garter belt with black stockings, which featured a red seam up the back. She had on red panties, and a full skirt of lace that fell to the ground. Ballet slippers completed the outfit.

  Ryan had argued that thigh-high boots would look good, too, but Chad said he preferred the dainty slippers. So here she stood while the men paid the fee. They both wore jeans and button down shirts and looked as if they were better suited for a rodeo. They looked incredibly sexy, she thought, and it was confirmed by three women who stood behind them, ready to go inside. All three ladies had been checking out her men, so much so that Sloan had glared at them until they’d turned away.