Decker cocked an eyebrow and waited for him to explain. Finn was looking around more wildly now, then he yanked his cell phone out of his pocket and began hitting buttons. “Paper! Pen! I need something to write with!”
Decker dug in his pockets for pen and paper while Finn frantically dialed. “Allie! That cop! What’s his name? No, no, no, better yet, what’s his phone number?”
After a few seconds Finn was calling out numbers. Decker hadn’t found paper, but he had a pen in his hand so he wrote the information on his arm as Finn gave it to him. With a quick “Got it! Thanks!” Finn hung up and dialed the new number without even checking Decker’s arm for accuracy.
“Hi, is this the cop? Chuck, was it? Yes, good. This is Finn Scott, Daphne’s manager—Yes, Daphne Monroe, the singer. I need some information. That photographer guy, the one that’s always following Daphne around. You got his number, didn’t you? When you caught him hiding in the bushes? Allie told me about it—I’m sure there are rules about giving out information like that, but this is an emergency. Daphne’s missing—Yes, missing. We think she’s really upset about something. She may be drunk or high—It’s really important that we find her—I know all this is out of your jurisdiction—Thanks! Yes, I’ll hold while you look it up.”
Then they went through the transfer of numbers again and Finn was making one more call.
“Are you the papa—I mean, the photographer who stal—I mean, follows Daphne Monroe around? No, don’t hang up, please! I’m her manager. I really need your help. Daphne’s gone missing. Yes, she’s supposed to be doing a concert in Reno—Are you here by any chance? Great! Have you seen her?—What do you mean, what’s it worth to me? It’s worth not breaking your fucking neck the next time—Yes, yes, I’m trying to be calm. But you don’t understand. This is an emergency. She may be in serious trouble, and I need to find her.”
There was silence for a minute while Finn paced back and forth in evident impatience. Then his face contorted in an almost comical look of disgust. “Yes, yes, okay, you little worm. You can have an exclusive interview if you just tell me where the fuck she is!”
He listened again for a minute then slammed the phone shut and took off running toward the entrance, pushing through the crowds of people as if they were collectively trying to annoy him by standing in his way.
He threw himself into the rental car and had it in gear before Decker could even get his door closed. Decker was impressed in spite of himself. This was a man on a mission. As they screeched out of the parking lot, Finn finally caught his breath enough to gasp, “He saw her. He knew she was going to be here so he came to get some pics. She’s kind of an obsession of his, I think. Anyway, she got on the back of a bike. It was probably that pissant Blaze again. I swear I’ll kill him if he’s hurt her. Anyway, Johns—the photographer—followed it to a motel on the edge of town. This can’t be good.”
“No, it doesn’t sound good,” Decker agreed.
Within a few minutes they had reached the motel. They went into the office, where a man in his sixties was sitting behind a wooden counter reading the paper. He jerked backward as Finn launched himself against the partition, panting and wild eyed.
“You’ve got to help us!” Finn slammed his hand down on the counter, since the clerk was looking around as if he expected video cameras to be following them.
“What do you need?” the man asked slowly. Not having seen video cameras, Decker noticed he was surreptitiously feeling under the counter. Probably for a panic button. He put a hand on Finn’s shoulder and gave the man what he hoped was a reassuring smile.
“We’re looking for a very attractive brunette who probably checked in here an hour or so ago. She’d been crying.”
The man shrugged, still eyeing Finn warily. “Sorry. Can’t help you.”
Finn slapped the counter again. “Now! We need to know where they are now!”
“Please.” Decker tightened his grip on Finn’s shoulder. His smile felt more forced, but, he hoped, it still projected Don’t-worry-we’re-not-both-crazy to the motel proprietor. He reached in his pocket and pulled out what he hoped was a twenty-dollar bill. He put it on the counter without looking down and slid it forward.
The man’s eyes narrowed. “I can’t tell you what room she’s in. If you want to call in, I’ll transfer you to her room, though. Here’s our number.” He pushed a business card toward them.
Finn stared at it as if it was written in Sanskrit. “Call in? You expect me to call them?”
“It’s what I’d recommend. Otherwise you can sit in the parking lot and wait for them to come out.”
“I can’t wait for them to come out! Daphne could be in danger!”
“Sorry. Best I can do.”
They stared at each other, at an impasse. Decker considered them both, then he tapped Finn’s shoulder. “Come outside with me.”
Finn turned wild eyes on him. “Come outside? But we need to know what room they’re in! This asshole—”
Decker grabbed the card from the table and gave Finn a stern look. “There’s no call to be rude,” he said. He glanced at the man’s nametag. “Eddie here is only doing his job. Come outside.” The last part was said with considerably more force as he dragged Finn to the door.
Once outside, Finn opened his mouth to protest, but Decker pointed him to the row of doors. “You stay on the bottom floor. I’ll go to the second floor. My guess is McFarland won’t answer the phone. Just walk down the row until you hear a phone ringing, then we’ll know which room they’re in.”
Finn’s face registered outrage, then thoughtfulness, then comprehension. He nodded then raced over to take up his post. “Hurry!” he called.
“I’m hurrying.” Decker took the steps three at a time, pulling out his phone as he went. He waited for four rings before Eddie picked up the phone inside while Finn was fidgeting with impatience and yelling, “What’s going on? Is it ringing yet?”
“Okay, now,” Decker called down when Eddie had finally put him through. They both started trotting down their rows, Decker above and Finn below.
About halfway down, Decker knew he’d found it. He could hear yelling, loud and angry, and then the sound of a phone ringing. It was immediately followed by a loud curse and a jangling sound, as if the phone had been thrown against the wall. Then there was a scream. He leaned over and hissed, “Finn! Get up here!”
As Finn raced back to the stairway, Decker pounded on the door. The room went silent, but nothing else happened.
Decker listened for a moment and then yelled, “Police! Open up!”
The door flew open, and Blaze stood in the doorway. He glared at Decker and said, “What the fuck are you—”
“I’ll show you what the fuck we’re doing, you fucker!” Finn blasted past Decker and tackled Blaze, knocking him to the ground.
Daphne let out a shriek, scrambling off the bed where she seemed to have been cowering. “Finn!”
“Are you hurt?” Decker took her in his arms and examined her as well as he could. Her top was ripped, her face was red and swollen, but Decker couldn’t tell if she’d been hit or had just been crying. Debris was scattered across the room, and the phone lay on the floor under a large dent in the wall.
“No, I’m okay, I think.” She gave him a pathetic, lopsided smile and clung to him, simultaneously pointing at the struggling pair on the ground. Her hand was unsteady, and her voice was thick, making him doubt her assertion. “Shouldn’t you—”
“Shouldn’t I what? Finn looks like he’s doing pretty well by himself,” Decker said, watching Finn’s fist connect with Blaze’s nose. But he could hear Eddie clattering up the stairs, shouting, “What’s going on up there?”
“Okay, Finn. Remember that Daphne needs you. Let’s not get thrown in jail today.” Decker pulled Finn to his feet, and Blaze scrambled up as well, blood streaming out of his obviously broken nose. Eddie stormed in the room, looking outraged.
“Thanks for your help. We found who we were
looking for.” Decker gave him a casual smile, as if he and his friends always attacked each other on sight.
“Obviously.” Eddie peered into the room. “Are you okay, miss? Do you need help?”
“I’m fine.” Daphne nestled closer to Decker’s side, watching Finn and Blaze between the fingers covering her eyes.
Eddie gave them a wary look then surveyed the room, his gaze lingering on the phone and the dent in the wall. He glared at Blaze. “Did you do that?”
“I gave you a damn credit card. Take it out of that. Now get the hell out of here.” Blaze turned, smearing the blood on his face with his hand, and went into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him.
Eddie looked from Decker to Finn to Daphne. They all smiled, although no doubt with varying degrees of believability. Daphne was recovering now, although she weaved as she walked forward and threw her arms around Finn’s neck.
“I’m rescued,” she announced thickly. “My heroes.” She gave him a long, hard kiss. Then she turned to Decker, holding her arms out. She took a step, but before she could reach him, she sighed and slumped to the floor.
The men dropped to either side of her, checking her pulse. Confident that she had simply passed out, Decker lifted her up easily into his arms and stood. “I think, if you don’t mind, that we’ll take her away from all this.”
Eddie transferred his astonished gaze from Daphne’s limp form to Decker, then Finn, then the still-closed bathroom door.
“I guarantee you, he isn’t going to object,” Finn told him as he grabbed a blanket off the bed and followed Decker to the door. “If he wanted her to stick around, he wouldn’t have run off into the bathroom. You can add this to his bill.”
“Who did you say he was?”
Finn looked back. “Let’s just say you might want to put that credit card through as quickly as you can. It might not be good in a day or two.”
Chapter 23
Daphne’s eyes opened slowly and painfully. There was too much light. She groaned and tried to cover her face with both hands as she struggled to sit up.
She couldn’t. She seemed to be slumped over someone’s lap, in the back of a car. Arms encircled her tightly, preventing her from moving.
Flapping her hands, she tried to swat at whoever was holding her. “Calm down, Daph,” said Finn’s voice.
“Oh, thank God.” Her eyes squeezed closed again as she relaxed back into his lap. Finn. That’s right. He’d come to save her. And—
“Is Decker still here?” She squirmed, trying to see who else was in the car, until Finn reluctantly let her sit up and slide onto the seat next to him.
“Right here, babe. Do you want to tell us what the hell you were doing?” Decker’s eyes met hers in the rearview mirror, and her elation at remembering his presence in the hotel room drained suddenly away.
“I’m an idiot.” Daphne covered her face and slumped into the corner.
Decker’s voice held a touch of humor. “Not disagreeing with you, necessarily, but we’d really like to hear what happened.”
Finn reached over and stroked her arm. “Come on, Daph. You’ve got to tell us.”
“You’re going to leave me!” Daphne wailed, aware that she was pulling away from him. She would have preferred to throw herself back into his arms, but that wasn’t an option. He’d threatened so many times to quit if she ran off again, and this time she’d screwed up the concert, too. This couldn’t possibly end well.
“I–It’s fuzzy. I don’t know how I got so drunk. I only had one drink. I think. There was a note. Blaze said—”
Both men stiffened. “Blaze said what?” Finn asked, pulling his hand back. There. I knew it.
“I don’t remember exactly.” What had she been drinking? She couldn’t even remember now.
“Back up.” There was no humor in Decker’s voice anymore. “When did you see Blaze?”
“Right after I got back to the hotel.” She looked apologetically at Finn. “Some guy delivered the flowers, and a note. Then Blaze was knocking, and he had some stuff—whiskey, maybe. He said it was to celebrate our new successes. I should have known. He was just trying to get me fucked up.”
“By the looks of things, he succeeded with that. As usual.” Finn looked away from her, out the window.
“Sounds to me like the drink was spiked with something,” Decker put in.
“Maybe.” She rubbed her temples, trying to remember. “That’s right. He kept going on about McFarland contacting him, saying that he wanted to marry me. I told him I was through with McFarland, that I never wanted to see him again. I left, because Blaze was trying to get me to go with him.”
“Where did you go?” Decker glanced at her in the mirror again.
She frowned, trying to bring it into focus. “I went to the festival. I wandered around for a little while because I knew you wouldn’t be there yet, but I started feeling really weird. I should have called the hotel and left a message for you, but I didn’t have my phone. And then—” She stopped, remembering, and looked accusingly at Decker.
“And then?” he prompted.
“And then I heard you say I wasn’t worth it.”
“You heard what?” Finn turned back to her, wide eyed.
She nodded then abruptly wished she hadn’t. Her head started swimming again, and she had to grip the front seat to hold herself steady. Finn didn’t reach for her. Another bad sign.
When she was able to focus on Decker’s eyes again, she was surprised to find they were full of sympathy.
“I wasn’t talking about you, babe,” he said gently.
“You weren’t? Because Blaze said—”
“Blaze had just pulled a knife on us. I was debating whether to use it to cut his nuts off. I decided he wasn’t worth the paperwork.”
“Oh.” She sat back and tried to process that. Her brain still felt like it was full of potato soup, but she was beginning to piece things together.
“So what did you do after that?” Finn asked.
“I left. Blaze found me at the entrance and said you were at the hotel and wanted me back there. But then he took me to that horrible place instead, and he—he was going to rape me. When I tried to stop him, he started screaming and throwing things. He was acting like he was going to kill me. I thought maybe it would be better that way. You guys had given up on me, and I was sure you would quit once you knew I’d gotten drunk again—” Her voice broke, and she put her face back into her hands.
This time, to her surprise, Finn did reach for her. He pulled her back against him and wrapped his arms tightly around her.
“Come on, Daph. You know as well as I do that I’ll never be able to quit. You’re stuck with me.”
Her sobs had started, though, and there was no stopping them. She’d been sure she’d lost them both. She’d seen Decker, had been rushing to thank him for coming to her concert, when she’d stopped suddenly, realizing they’d been talking about her. Then she heard Decker say, “You’re not worth it,” and everything had fallen apart.
“I missed the concert, didn’t I?” she moaned.
“It’s okay, sweetie,” Finn said gently. “For now, just try to calm down.”
“How did you know where to come? And were you yelling ‘Police!’?”
Decker’s head ducked, ever so slightly. “Yeah,” he admitted. “Corny, I know, but I thought it would get his attention. It was either that or ‘Land Shark.’”
“Thank God we got there,” Finn said.
Daphne twisted to look at him. “Why? He was right. I am just a worthless slut. I let you down.”
“Don’t ever say that,” Finn said, grabbing her shoulders and giving her a quick shake. “You’re beautiful and talented and intelligent and if you ever go running off like that again I’ll—well, I won’t quit, but I might kill you.”
“And I might have to help him. Or at least hide the body,” Decker said, slowing down to turn into the small airport.
* * * *
Daphne slep
t off the aftereffects of the drug on the flight back to Grandpointe. Once she was settled in the back, Finn went up to sit next to Decker in the cockpit.
“So what do we do now?” Finn asked, looking out over the view.
“About Daphne?”
“Yes.”
Decker made some adjustments on his controls then shrugged. “I think that depends on you.”
“What do you mean?” Finn squirmed a little.
“I mean, what do you want now? Are you going to quit?”
“No. I meant what I told Daphne.”
“Are you going to continue your relationship with her?”
“Yes.” Finn hesitated then cleared his throat. “I wanted to talk to you about that, actually.”
“Yes?” Decker kept staring out the window. Finn didn’t think it was strictly necessary to watch where you were driving in a plane, but he didn’t question it.
He shifted again, unsure how to go on. “Well, the thing is, how do we do this?”
“Are you still thinking that you want me to join you?”
“Yes, but—”
“But you’re nervous about it.”
“Nothing personal,” Finn began, but Decker waved a hand.
“Of course not. You’d be stupid not to be worried. Polyamory isn’t for the weak or the impatient. You’re going to feel like every issue you’ve ever had is coming back to haunt you.”
“Every issue?”
Decker chuckled. “Yeah. It’s not about sex, remember. It’s about relationship and communication. That means conversations—lots and lots and lots of conversations. Until you think you’d rather die than have to talk about your feelings one more time. But if you want it to be successful, you have to be willing to keep doing it. Are you sure you’re up for that?”
Finn considered it, glancing back at the unconscious woman he loved. “Ask me again in a month. But for Daphne’s sake, yes. I think I can handle it.”
“Okay. Then we’ll need to have some extensive negotiations when we get back to Clifftop. I want to go into this with everybody knowing exactly what the other people want and what’s expected of them. You and I especially need to decide what our relation is to each other.”
The Masters of Falcon's Fantasies [BDSM Menage Fantasies 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 23
