The Strand Brothers Series: Complete Set

by Lora Ann

  As she did I came with her, shooting my hot seed inside her molten walls. “You and I together…” my breathing sporadic “…so fucking amazing.” I was wrangling in my emotions for her benefit. She was dealing with too much, and I knew she was using me to forget about her worries. I reached up to release her hands from the bar and she collapsed against me. I lay there rubbing circles on her back while our bodies were still joined. I had to wonder just how long I could keep my feelings from her. I whispered, “I love you,” so softly that I knew she couldn’t hear me, but I had to voice what I felt. She was everything to me. I intended to tell her once we found Keeley. Until then, it was my little secret.

  Chapter Thirty

  Lacey

  There was no way I heard him say those three little words I’d wanted to tell him for some time now. Surely in my post-orgasmic bliss and I hadn’t heard him clearly. Yet something deep within my soul knew he had just proclaimed his love for me. A part of me was on cloud nine, the other was saddened. Let’s face it; E reciprocating my feelings was a huge problem. Utter devastation consumed me as I pulled away from him.

  “What’s going on in that beautiful head of yours,” he rasped.

  I couldn’t make eye contact as I walked towards the doorway. “I need a shower,” I said with a detachment that caused me to wince.

  He jumped up and in a few long strides was next to me. “Why are you running away? Have I done something wrong?”

  God, no! He’d done everything right, but I couldn’t tell him that. Instead I bit out, “I can’t do that again.”

  He nodded needing no further explanation. Fact was, I loved his dominate nature. Plus the kinky stuff was fun and exciting, but I had to start pulling away from him if I was ever going to leave him. As much as my heart rebelled against that, my head knew it was necessary. Keeley came first and foremost. Would she be willing to do the same for you? The little voice in my head asked. Didn’t matter, because you sacrifice for the ones you love. At what cost? For all intents and purposes, it seemed my heart was torn in two by the very people I cared for most. And that really sucked! “I understand my lifestyle isn’t for everyone, Lacey. But for you, I’m willing to try vanilla.”

  My interest piqued as I shot him a sidelong glance. “What is ‘vanilla?’”

  “Normal sex,” he answered on a chuckle. “You know, just your standard positions without any extras.”

  “Oh,” I whispered disheartened. Honestly, I liked being bound and at his mercy. The knowledge he controlled my pleasure was a heady rush I didn’t want to relinquish. What in the hell was wrong with me? Shouldn’t I want a sexual relationship like others have? Wouldn’t normal be much more fulfilling than kinky fucking? I cannot believe I just mentally said the f-word. Seriously? Though in all practicality, I really didn’t know what the issue was with that word. It seemed to have a multitude of usages. Without voicing any of my thoughts—for fear I would give myself away—I simply bobbed my head on the way out of the room. I had to have a reprieve from him. He made my blood boil and my cells sing. Dangerous didn’t even begin to cover it.

  While in the shower, I began to contemplate more on what Even was willing to offer me. In the long run it didn’t matter; I still had to leave him. The thought brought me to my knees as I sobbed at the cruelty of it all. I had finally found my Mr. Right, and now, I would have to destroy not just our love for one another, but trust. The one thing that meant more to him than anything, and I would be the one to take it all away. Did I once think he might be a monster? No, that wasn’t fair. Bad boy…yes, he was that. But he was also a man who knew what he wanted and how to go about getting it—Alpha male through and through. I loved his control and dominance. No, if I were to be honest with myself, ‘vanilla’ wouldn’t work for me. I had a feeling no other man would ever come close to winning my affections again. E was it for me. If I had to leave and learn to live without him, then I wanted no one else—ever.

  I was pulled from my miserable musings by a loud knock on the bathroom door. Wiping my eyes with the back of my hands, I yelled, “Be right out!”

  When I entered the bedroom, E was throwing clothes into a duffle bag. Oh crap! He knew I was hiding things from him. He looked over his shoulder as I approached. “Get dressed quickly.”

  “Why? Where are we going?”

  “We’re meeting Nik in Jackson,” he replied abruptly.

  “What for?” I had thought Nik was coming here to us. I wanted to point that out but could tell he was not in a conversational mood.

  “I’ll explain on the way,” he grumbled. Wow, bossy much? I laughed inwardly because he was nothing but the boss in all things. He gave me a pointed look. “Are you planning on going in that towel?”

  Shocked at his foul mood, I huffed out, “No.” The don’t be ridiculous I kept to myself. I would realize later just how wise the choice to bite my tongue had been.

  On his way towards the door he called out, “You have five minutes.” With that he was gone. And I was left to wonder just what had transpired in the last half hour to cause such a ferocious reaction out of him.

  I met him in the great room where Alex was speaking tersely to someone on his cell phone. I tentatively walked to E’s side. He grabbed my hand and squeezed, which told me something was very wrong. I gulped down my questions while berating myself for being so self-involved that I missed the clues to the situation.

  Alex put his phone in his back pocket as he pivoted towards us. “Ready?”

  Together E and I replied, “Yes.”

  *****

  Our drive was one revelation after another. I learned more about the whole Senator Reynolds and Aimee situation. Now, the panic and fear that was strumming through the SUV made perfect sense. I knew he was a threat to her, had presumably tried to kill her by running her off the road, but the piece to the puzzle that had always been kept from me was finally shared. The man was delusional and completely obsessed with Nik’s late wife. That obsession drove him into a relationship with Aimee, which had somehow taken the turn towards reality, hence, the reason he wanted her dead. In his eyes, she was a poser trying to win his affections. Geez, did you get more screwed up than that. Of course as that thought passed through my train of thought, Alex went on with the story.

  “What I’ve been trying to figure out is if he’s the one responsible for all those missing blonde prostitutes in the area.”

  “O-M-G! I saw that on the news,” I affirmed. “There’s what four or five of them that have disappeared recently?”

  “Six,” Alex added. “Plus there’s a teenage runaway that fits the same description that was reported by one of the shelter workers a couple of days ago.”

  “Wow. Doesn’t that complicate matters more with a runaway?”

  “Yes, it does,” he confirmed. “The fact of the matter is, every single one of them could pass for Rachel.”

  A horrible chill passed down my spine as I grasped E’s hand tightly. “Do you have a picture of Rachel?”

  Alex reached into his briefcase and handed Even a folder. When he opened it, I saw my sister smiling back at me. No, that wasn’t right. The clothes were outdated and… “Wait!” I took the photo out and really studied it. It fell to the floorboard as my body shook from the sobs racking it over and over. E enclosed me in his arms and spoke softly against my hair. I had no idea what he was saying as the horrendous truth was screaming in my head: Caleb had Keeley. Once I could speak, I gasped, “Keeley looks just like her.”

  I must’ve repeated it several times because E affirmed, “You don’t have to keep saying that. I know, baby. I know.”

  I fisted his t-shirt and yelled, “When did you find out!”

  Alex was the voice of reason. “I just told him before we left, Lacey. He wasn’t hiding anything.”

  I swallowed the huge basketball sized lump in my throat. “S-s-sorry,” I stammered.

  “You have nothing to apologize for, sweetness.” He drew me in as close as possible with the constric
ting seatbelts.

  There was ice in my veins as I sat trembling with the all-consuming fear coursing through my bones. My sister was in the hands of a deranged killer. Not to mention everything seemed to point at him in regards to Aimee’s disappearance. What about those other women? Could he have that poor child? Was he behind it all? How did a U.S. senator get away with murdering people and no one figured it out? Yeah, I knew a lot of people in power became corrupt. It had unfortunately been that way throughout history. But it seemed to me that someone would know something and report it by now. Unless this was bigger than I comprehended. “Good Lord, what if there were more? What if he’s not working alone?” I voiced my musings.

  E hugged me tighter. “That’s what Alex has been working his ass off to find out?”

  “But…if Caleb is behind this, and if there are more involved, aren’t you in danger, Alex?”

  “Yes, he is,” E confirmed. “That’s why Detective McLeary, who you met at the crime scene, is keeping him undercover.”

  “You have to be careful, Alex,” I pleaded. I may not know him well but he had been genuinely kind to me. Anyone willing to put their life on the line for others was someone who instantly gained my respect.

  “I have been, Lacey,” he assured. “I don’t plan on slipping up now.”

  They continued to form a plan of action as we drove the winding road to Jackson. I put on my ear buds and hit shuffle on my playlist. My eyes closed on Linkin Park’s “Guilty All The Same.”

  *****

  I awoke to E gently lifting me from the backseat. I guess we had arrived at our destination. “You can put me down,” I said sleepily.

  “I’d rather not,” he admitted, “I enjoy taking care of you.”

  Ah, dang it. When he showed his sweet side, I was nothing but putty in his hands. For some reason, the lyrics from the song I fell asleep to ran through my mind. In a way it did sum up how I felt about the things he had shared regarding his past: we were all equally guilty. But then, did that mean if Caleb was behind these crimes he should be forgiven? Spend his life in prison? Be executed? Ugh! I really didn’t know. My heart broke for not only the victims that were missing, but for their families; not to mention the family of whoever was behind the disappearances.

  “Where’d you go, sweetness?”

  I blinked several times in rapid succession as I came back to the here and now. “Sorry ‘bout that.” I bit my lip in consternation.

  As Even set me down on a couch in the hotel lobby, he tugged my bottom lip from my teeth. “Quit worrying this,” he ran his thumb over the spot my teeth had just sunk in to, “It’s mine.”

  Good heavens! His voice took on a seductive tone with definite possession behind it. We were all a bit out of sorts with this whole Aimee development. However, E was staking his claim loud and clear through the chaos. Maybe that should’ve upset me, but it didn’t. Instead, I was thoroughly turned on. How would I ever walk away from this man who owned me? For whatever reason, I needed my body connected with his. As if my body knew we were getting closer to finding Keeley, and that would mean giving up Even. My naughtier thoughts must’ve played across my features because suddenly E’s eyes darkened with desire. “Behave,” he scolded before he walked away to join Alex at the front desk.

  We entered a massive suite where Nik was frantically pacing with both hands in his long blond hair, pulling so hard I thought he might rip it from his scalp. When his eyes met ours, I could see the wildness in him. The word feral came to mind instantly. Nik was a powerhouse of a man on a good day. Right now, the mountain before me was a volcano on the verge of eruption. The waves of fury collided with my body, sending me back a step. I actually feared for his brothers’ lives as he glared daggers at each of them. Alex approached the wounded animal that was in the form of his brother and gently spoke, “We’ll find her.”

  “It’s all your fucking fault she’s missing,” Nik roared as his fists clenched to the point his knuckles were white.

  He stepped right up to his face and said, “Grab your shit.”

  Nik didn’t hesitate as he picked up a gym bag and stormed towards the door. The floor actually shook from his heavy steps. I immediately stepped out of the line of fire as the door slammed against the wall, putting a huge hole into the drywall. Alex was on his heels keeping his thoughts to himself. Wise man, I thought.

  E tenderly stroked the side of my face. “I need to help my brother.”

  “Yes. I agree with you.”

  “Thank you for understanding.” He brushed his lips against mine before leaving the room.

  *****

  Not being tired, since I had slept on the drive, I decided to learn more about Jackson. Time passed faster than I realized, the clock read 7:30 p.m. Well, that explained why my stomach was rumbling from hunger. I had just decided to call room service when the door flew open. The sight before me took the air right out of my lungs. Alex had some nasty bruises forming on his face, along with a split lip. Nik looked worse with a nasty gash over his eye, which probably needed stitches. But it was Even that had my stomach threatening to spew. “What the hell happened?” I blurted out as I rushed to his side.

  Nik pulled off his shirt and held over his eye as he answered, “Just letting off steam.”

  Like the tempest that had been brewing deep inside me, I rounded on him while stomping my foot. “You beat the ever-loving crap out of your own brothers, and you call it ‘letting off steam’?”

  I watched his nostrils flare, but I really didn’t care about myself at the moment. “Don’t even think about giving me a look like that, mister.” For emphasis, I poked him in the chest with my forefinger. A ghost of a smile actually played on the corners of his lips as he looked over at E. “She’s a keeper.”

  Even was just about to fire back a response when he lost his balance and hit the already damaged wall with a huge thud. I wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pushed with my legs to help him stand upright. “Let’s go clean you up,” I said softly.

  As I was helping E out of the suite, I heard Alex say, “She’s good for him.”

  Nik gave a “hell yeah, she is,” while the door was closing behind me.

  Men! I would never understand their need to release anger towards each other through fighting. Though, why I was surprised that a former UFC champion handled things through the physical, I would never know. Of course, I was aware that Even had trained as well with Jujitsu. From what I understood, Alex was well versed in Muay Thai. E was leaning heavily on me, making me fully aware that he outweighed me by a good seventy-five pounds. Once we reached our suite, I assisted him with removing his bloody, sweat soaked clothes. Normally I would have admired the masculine form before me, but at the moment, my focus was on cleaning him up. We went into the bathroom where I stood in the shower with him and helped wash him off. I was still wearing the little tank dress I had put on for comfort. The only thing I had removed was the cardigan I had on with it. I was still barefoot, so that helped. As I reached up to wash E’s hair, his hands caught mine. When I glanced into his eyes, I saw fire flash back at me. My gaze traveled down his magnificent body, landing on his oh-so-proud cock. I slowly trekked his body with my eyes as I ran my tongue over my upper lip. He growled low in his throat before crashing his mouth against mine. Honestly, it had to hurt. His poor lips had taken one hell of a beating—just like the rest of him. Not wanting to cause him any more pain I pulled back, which was awkward since he still had my hands clasped in his on top of his head. I watched his eyes go towards a robe lying on a shelf just outside the shower wall.

  “Grab the sash of that bathrobe,” he instructed gravelly.

  Without any questions, I did what he wanted. I stood there running it through my hands wondering just how he planned to tie me up in here. He continued, “Tie my wrists to the shower head.”

  My eyes widened as I quizzed, “You want me to bind you?”

  He ran his tongue over his lip as he nodded at me. I have to admit, seeing him l
ick his plump lip made me want to do the same. Lucky for me I’m a tall woman, so I made quick work securing his hands. Once I was satisfied with my handy work, I stepped back. “What now?” I asked rather shyly. Which made zero sense; I mean, I’d done all sorts of kinky sex acts with this man. Being bashful about things was ludicrous at this point.

  “Whatever you want, Lacey,” he replied. “I am submitting to you.”

  My question from a conversation we’d had not so long ago replayed in my mind. Oh my. He wanted me to Domme him. I stood there for a moment motionless. Then instinct kicked in as I reached forward and trailed my fingers along every sore spot I could see on his body. “Nik really did a number on you.” I couldn’t suppress my concern for him, nor the rising anger at his brother.

  “I’m fine. Really,” he reassured. “We’ve done worse to one another.”

  “Still,” I huffed.

  “Lacey. Look at me,” he commanded. “My brother is worried sick right now about his beloved wife. Whether you agree with him or not, I failed him by not staying in San Fran to protect her.”

  I swallowed down my guilt. “You left because of me.”

  “Don’t you see…I would do anything for you?”

  Something in me snapped and I pushed against him with a passion I didn’t know was inside of me. After I ravished his mouth, I went to my knees and devoured his handsome cock. He came hard and fast, as I swallowed every drop he gave. Then I drew my tongue up his body and ardently kissed him again, all the while releasing his hands from the binding of the sash. He grabbed me fiercely and shoved me against the shower wall. My leg lifted of its own accord, resting against his hip. How the man was still hard after his orgasm, I would never know. To my amazement he was and knew exactly what I craved. I was already wet, so he slid inside of my core with no problem. His thrusts were purposeful, possessive, a complete claiming of my body. He pulled out to the tip and breathed, “Tell me you’re mine.”