“I have to add daughters as being off limits,” Pete commented, “Lexie in particular.”
Lil T actually flushed, which made Jones grin. T had clearly forgotten their connection.
“My money’s on Jonas,” Pete added. “No one will come to your rescue when he takes you to the mat this time.”
“It was a lucky shot, nothing more.”
“Bullshit, he had you pinned and crying like a girl in under three minutes.” Rick laughed. “He offered to train you, but you refused if I recall.”
“I’m not wrestling in pajamas anytime soon. It’s not my style.”
“Fine by me, youngster, I’m comfortable with that style. I’ll wear my jammies and still kick your ass.”
Everyone laughed. T was often the target of their teasing and they tended to gang up on the big guy. Jonas sat down across from him and smiled. It galled the big man to be taken down, time and again, by someone smaller. Brute strength was fine, but it didn’t compensate for speed, agility and skill.
“OK you two, lets ‘save the pissing contest for later and get down to business.” Cap took his seat and passed out some briefing portfolios. “I had another visit from a club member this morning. I’m getting a little tired of mixing business with pleasure, as you’ll soon see.”
“Damn!” Lil T exclaimed he opened the file. “This is Mayor Blackthorn.”
“Yes, and he wasn’t happy to have to share these rather embarrassing pictures.”
“I’d say,” Rick piped up. “Imagine if his constituents found out their elected city official likes having his cock and balls crammed in a cage, while his Domme rams a sizeable strap-on up his ass.”
“Yeah, it sure gives exit polling a whole new meaning,” Dex deadpanned, to prolonged snickers.
Jonas flipped through the other pictures. Seeing the older sub taking a ten-inch rubber dildo up his ass was definitely not as titillating for him as it was for his buddies. What followed the pics was a typed letter on plain white paper. As he read it, he cursed under his breath.
“Problem, Jonas?” Sean, who had been quiet until now, had obviously noticed his agitation.
“Yeah, listen to this.”
Get off on humiliation and taking it up the ass much, you sick fuck?
What’s next, letting pretty boy tie you with hemp and suspending you from the flagpole?
If he can pull himself away from demeaning his sweet little Florence Nightingale, that is.
You and Judge Jenkins make quite a pair.
That idiot didn’t heed my warning,
Now, sit back and watch him crash and burn on YouTube.
You’re next to go viral. Mayor McSleaze.
If you don’t get that house of vice and immorality closed, once and for all.
There’s plenty more where these came from Henry.
“Damn, Jonas,” Sean exclaimed. “He knows about Lexie.”
“She was in the papers; any local knows about Lexie,” Rick supplied.
“Yeah,” T countered, “but how many know she’s engaged to a Shibari master that prefers hemp and excels in suspensions?”
“Jute.”
“What?”
“I don’t use hemp. That was a guess. It’s someone that knows a little about me and Lexie, but unless they’re purposely being inaccurate to throw us off, it’s not someone who’s close enough to know that, or has worked with me or been to my class.”
“It could be Lil T,” Rick joked.
“Fuck off, Chief.”
“What? You didn’t know about the jute, kid.”
“Maybe we should close down for a while,” Dex suggested, ignoring their bullshit. Silence filled the room. They had all been thinking the same thing, yet no one had really presented it as an option until now.
“Then the blackmailer wins and our trail goes dry,” Cap countered.
“We can’t let this asshole target our members one by one,” Sean said, agreeing with Dex. As managing partners, concern for their membership was foremost in their minds.
“Pass me that laptop, Cap,” Jonas demanded. He quickly pulled up a search engine and YouTube. Ignoring the speculative planning around him, he typed in keywords, searching for Jenkins’ video. It took him less than three minutes to find what he was looking for.
“The blackmailer isn’t bluffing.” Jonas clicked a few times and a slide show appeared on the wall-mounted screen. Jenkins’ bare ass was emblazoned across the sixty-inch screen. Graphic pictures of a three-way between the judge and two women began to roll, scrolling forward to a track of ‘Paparazzi’ by Lady Gaga. Toward the end of the still pics, Sean erupted from his chair, “Mother Fucker!”
All eyes turned to Sean, then back to the screen as Jonas paused the slide show. On screen was the two-year-old picture of Jenkins with Shelby and Mara.
“It’s gone viral already with 200,000 views, and it was only posted yesterday.”
“You’ve got to get it taken down, Tech. Mara doesn’t need this crap, too!” Sean exploded.
“I’ll do my best, bud, but I can’t do anything about reposts and shares.”
Sean cursed again and stormed out of the room, a crash and other slamming noises echoing in his wake.
“Go after him, Dex, before he destroys the place.” Cap’s order was hardly necessary as Dex was already out the door before he finished speaking
Chapter Twenty-Seven
As soon as they entered Rossi’s main lobby, a door slammed down the hall, and Lexie heard Jonas’ angry voice. She stopped in her tracks, causing Kyle to slam into her from behind, yet again.
“Hell, Lexie, you’ve got to stop doing that.”
She put up her hand, trying to get him to be quiet. She could tell he was hearing what she was because he tensed behind her and put a hand on her shoulder.
She heard Cap’s voice. “We have to have a positive ID, Jonas. The video from the clinic didn’t give us enough for facial recognition. No one else has seen Victor.”
“No.”
“We can protect her,” Cap promised.
“No dammit! I forbid it.” Jonas’ voice was razor sharp. “I will not put her in harm’s way.”
“We can lock her down and keep her safe,” Rick said.
Knowing they were talking about her, she felt she had a right to listen and stepped around the corner. She watched Jonas going toe to toe with the two bigger men, unfazed.
“Meg or Regan? Would either of them be considered for this bullshit?”
They both hesitated.
“That’s what I thought. The answer is no.”
Jonas was livid, she could tell from the volume and vibration in his voice. She had never seen him in such a state. Maybe she was foolish, but she approached him, her footsteps echoing on the tile floor.
Jonas whipped around and their eyes met. Rage flared in the blue depths. “FUCK!” he roared. Then he approached Cap. Lexie gasped as he got right in his face and said in a voice she didn’t recognize.
“I’m done. After this mission, cash me out; buy my shares, whatever it takes. You do not put the client or the company before my woman. Ever!” He turned and walked away. Catching Lexie’s upper arm, he hauled her down the corridor beside him. As they turned the corner, Dex, who had been observing quietly, fell in step behind them.
“Back off Dex, I’m not in the mood.”
“I’m with you, man. Cap and Rick were wrong to ask you to do this.”
That got his attention, but he didn’t slow down. Arriving at a door marked maintenance, he used a keycard to enter. Guiding Lexie in ahead of him, he turned to Dex and nodded for him to enter, too.
When the door was closed behind them, Dex explained. “They did the same thing with Elena, if you recall. I know exactly how you feel.” He glanced at Lexie a minute before his eyes swung back to Jonas. “She wasn’t mine at the time, so other than training her and trying to keep her safe, I really didn’t have a say, especially when she agreed. She had a need for revenge. If she was my woma
n, then no, that shit wouldn’t fly.”
Lexie spoke for the first time. “I agreed, Jonas. If this is the only way to catch them—“
“No.” Jonas barked.
“Jonas—”
“I said no, Lexie. This is not happening. If you were in the surveillance room here at Rossi, that’d be different.”
“Um… where would I be, if not here? I don’t understand.”
“The contractors who were running the surveillance feeds fucked up. We don’t have remote video.”
“That means I’d have to be at that slave party? No one told me that. I’d have to think about that.”
“You don’t have to think about anything because you are not doing this,” Jonas said emphatically.
Lexie looked at Dex for guidance since Jonas wasn’t looking at the big picture. “I’d like to see Victor stopped. Can you keep me safe, Dex?”
“I can, Lexie. Jonas can. Any one of us could, Cap, Rick, Sean or T, that is, but we all have key assignments.”
“Kyle?”
He hesitated, his eyes switching to Jonas. Not Kyle. Lexie wondered whether the shooting had something to do with their hesitancy about Kyle. This whole thing was effed-up. It needed to be shut down.
“This is a waste of time. I’m taking Lexie home. I’ll be back in thirty to take my position.” He took her arm again. “Let’s go.”
“Jonas, the cartel and Victor have to be stopped.”
He ignored her as he pulled her down the hall.
“Jonas.” Lexie was getting tired of being ignored and dragged around like an errant child. She dug her feet in, but they had reached the lobby and her shoes slid on the tile floor.
“Jonas, please.”
His fingers tightened around her upper arm as she resisted.
“You’re hurting me.” He wasn’t really but she had to get his attention.
Instantly, the pressure was gone, but she found herself pushed up against the wall and he was in her face. “You don’t seem to understand, Sunshine. In this situation, we are not in a fucking democracy and you do not get a vote. You are not sticking your neck out. I won’t allow it.”
“You won’t allow! I am not a child and can make my own decisions.” She pushed against him, but he didn’t budge. He leaned into her, a hand sliding up her chest to her throat where he paused, his hand splayed, fingers resting against her pulse point. His eyes blazed into hers, his focus now entirely on her.
“Not on this. Ever since I saw you shot, hanging to life by a thread, you lost that right. I heard the heart alarm screaming when your heart stopped—twice. You’d lost so much blood they couldn’t transfuse it fast enough. There wasn’t even enough blood and oxygen to circulate to your brain so you could wake up and you slipped into a coma for seven fucking days. You couldn’t take a breath on your own without a tube down your throat and a machine doing it for you. You couldn’t eat without being fed through a needle. After all that happened, I took the right to decide away from you. Seven days you hovered on the edge of death and every minute I prayed that you wouldn’t go over that edge. During that time, I made a vow to keep you safe no matter what. If you get angry with me, so be it. If I have the option of you being pissed at me but still alive, I’m taking that deal, baby—every time. You get me?”
She stared at him, all anger having leached from her as he spoke of his ordeal while she’d been blessedly unaware. Jonas hadn’t been so lucky. She understood his need to keep her safe, especially while the wounds were so raw.
“Baby, answer me. Do you get me?”
“Jonas, you quit Rossi over me.”
“I did. I’d do anything for you, Lexie. So I need you to do this for me. I can’t lose you and don’t think I could bear to go through another seven days.”
“Jonas.”
“I’m asking again for your answer. Do. You. Get me?”
“You love me and you want me safe at all cost even if you have to quit Rossi to make it happen. Yeah, dulcedo, I get you.”
He stared at her for a moment, silently, his eyes searching. “Yeah, you get me.” Then he kissed her hard, the hand at her throat sliding up and around to the back of her neck, his fingers entwining in her hair. He lifted his head after only a few seconds. “Let’s get you home.”
With an arm around her waist, Jonas guided her through the lobby and down the corridor to the elevators. As he extended his hand to push the call button, a faint rumbling noise sounded and a tremor shook the building. Lexie’s arm around his waist tightened, the hand on his chest curling into his shirt as she gasped in alarm.
“Was that an earthquake?”
“No, that was an explosion downstairs.”
He was quickly turning her back toward the Rossi offices when the elevator dinged and the doors started to open. She hit the wall as he shoved her behind him, shielding her body with his own as he pulled his weapon. A cloud of dust and smoke preceded the form of a large man staggering out of the elevator. He was covered in dust and bleeding from a head wound.
“T!” Jonas exclaimed as he moved forward to help him. Pushing a shoulder under his arm, he hooked Lil T’s arm around his neck and took his weight—not an easy task. “Lexie, get the door.”
He handed her his key card and told her the passcode to the keypad. As they entered, they saw Cap, Rick and Dex heading their way, weapons at the ready.
“Cameras went out after some kind of explosion in the lobby,” Dex said, his eyes scanning Lil T for injuries. “You okay, T?”
“I got my bell rung pretty good. I was just stepping into the elevator when the lobby was rocked. Blew out the doors and all the glass. I didn’t see much else except a wall of flames coming toward me. If the initial blast hadn’t thrown me into the elevator, I’d have been Italian barbeque by now.”
“Initial blast?” Cap asked.
“Yeah, as the doors were closing there was another smaller one, then I felt a third just before I got out here.”
Just then, the building shook again and the lights flickered.
“We’ve got to get out of here before the whole place comes down. Fuck knows how many other devices are planted around. Let’s get to the chopper.” Cap issued his orders as he hurried them toward the rear of the suite where the stairs to the roof were located. As they rushed along, they collected all personnel still there after hours.
“What’s going on?” Lexie said as she clung to Rick’s hand. With Jonas busy helping an injured T, Rick had taken charge of her, tugging her along with the rest of the men.
“A diversion is my guess,” Rick answered.
“Bombing a building is a diversion? Isn’t that a little extreme? Who does that?”
“The Mendoza Cartel,” Jonas answered.
“Holy crap on a cracker!” Lexie muttered.
Gathering up Kyle and two other men who were working the surveillance room, they started up the stairs to the rooftop.
“Has anyone heard from Sean or the others who were on preliminary stakeout?”
“Nothing from Sean since the meeting when he lost it,” Dex muttered. “I’m afraid he’s gone fuckin’ Elvis.”
“What does that mean?” Breathless, Lexie asked this of Rick as she practically ran up the stairs behind him.
“That means he’s missing in action.” Rick didn’t sound winded at all to her as he answered. The men all had long-legged strides capable of a two-step pace with ease. Lexie, even at close to six feet tall, had to do double-time, taking two steps to every one of theirs. They followed Cap, who was covering even more ground ahead of them.
Panting, Lexie paused at the next landing to catch her breath. Having run up only two flights, she made a mental note to get back to the gym. Rick wasn’t about to give her a breather. Without missing a beat, he bent low, caught her middle with his broad shoulder, and lifted her. With his charge dangling down his back, he continued his climb.
Shocked speechless, she heard him say, “Can’t fall behind, beautiful. If I lose you, your Sen
sei would be all up in my shit.”
Her hand gripped his belt in back for peace of mind. It was unnecessary because he held her so snuggly with his muscled arm wrapped around her thighs. Pushing herself upward, she swept her hair out of her face with one hand and looked back at the rest of the crew trailing in their wake. Jonas and T were immediately behind them. T had blood running down his cheek from the gash in his head. The blood combined with the dust and soot from the explosion, making him look like something out of a horror movie. Scalp wounds were notorious for bleeding profusely, usually looking much worse than they actually were. She eyed it clinically, thinking it may need a few stitches.
Despite his injury, he was grinning at her. Amazed at his demeanor, she asked, “What are you grinning at?”
“Just admiring the scenery, baby.”
“He’s looking down your blouse, Sunshine,” Jonas explained with a frown. “Knock it off, T. If you hadn’t already taken a blow to the head, I’d give you one myself.”
Lexie looked down and saw that her wrap top had separated to reveal most of her purple lace bra. She grabbed it. Unfortunately, this caused her to flop against Rick’s broad back and she had to sacrifice the grip on her hair. Once covered, she looked up at T with a scowl. “No wonder they give you hell about your age. What are you, thirteen?”
“I’m older than you, darlin’,” he challenged.
“Then act like it,” she replied.
“Children,” Jonas said with waning patience, “we’re in the kind of situation where being quiet would be helpful.”
Cap stopped up ahead of them and in a harsh whisper ordered silence. As he did, she heard a loud banging coming from overhead.
“Fuckin’ hell, they’re on the roof,” Rick announced.
“We can’t go back down,” Dex said from behind them. “I smell smoke.”
“Dammit!” Cap growled in frustration. “There’s a hidden crosswalk to the next building. You can’t see it from outside and only a few of the tenants know about it. It wasn’t even on the original blueprints so odds are they don’t know about it.” He looked at Jonas. “We can get through to the east stairwell on twelve and walk down if you can hack that security panel, Tech.”
Unbind My Heart (Club Decadence) Page 34
