by Sophie Oak
Chase had very precisely summed up their dating lives. At first the women they dated found Chase’s broody intensity fascinating and, in the end, they wanted Ben’s charm and ability to maintain a conversation that didn’t end in a fistfight. More than once Chase had been relegated to the bedroom.
But Natalie was different.
Chase’s head shook. “She’s just hurt right now. She’s broken, but she won’t always be. She’ll get better and she’ll want what everyone wants, a normal boyfriend. I don’t do normal.”
“Have you tried?”
Chase finally turned. “I can’t, man. I know it annoys you, but this is who I am. Does it make a difference that I want to be better for her? I didn’t tell that Gretchen chick to shut up even though I wanted to.”
Ben was surprised. Chase almost always said what went through his head. He prided himself on it.
And Ben understood. Gretchen had been viciously obnoxious. She’d been crying when he’d entered the room, tears coursing down her face. She’d seemed almost haunted by what she’d seen. Nat had been forced to stop her own panic and emotion to try to calm her friend down. Gretchen annoyed Ben. “It makes a difference, man. Do you really think it will all work out if you keep her for yourself?”
Chase laughed, a humorless sound. “No. But she might want me for a little while.”
“Or we might be able to figure out how to work together. Did you ever think of that, Mr. Genius?”
“My IQ is only a few points higher than yours. Well, twenty. Who am I kidding?” He finally slid Ben a long look, his lips curving up slightly. “You really think she could care about me as much as you?”
He was so frustrating, but Ben did understand his fear. “I think she’s completely different from anyone we’ve met. I’m crazy about her, Chase.”
“Me, too.”
“Then we go after her together. And not that lackadaisical way we usually do. This is a serious girl.”
“I’ve already thought about taking her to Dallas. Before I was moving.”
Ben felt the world shift, and he sort of liked where he landed. Chase never thought long term. Never. When it came to a woman, Chase never thought past the next spanking, plugging, whatever his devious mind could come up with. The very idea that he could think about moving a woman to be closer to him was monumental progress. “You’re not moving, Chase. But you do have some damage control to do.”
Chase nodded. “I know. She was very upset. She’s already deeply interested in you.”
And progress came at a cost. Now he got to deal with Chase’s wounded ego. He wasn’t sure he was going to like emo Chase. “I think she’s interested in both of us. Can’t you see she needs us both? I don’t know that I’ve met a woman who needs two men the way Nat does.”
“Mia. Chicago.”
Ben groaned. “Dude, be serious. Mia was a nymphomaniac. Nat actually has problems.” In his mind a nymphomaniac was a good thing to be. “She needs a combination of tender and tough.”
“She needs to submit.” Chase sat back, his eyes thoughtful. “She wouldn’t take her clothes off for you last night, would she? When I got there, she was still dressed and she was on top.”
At least he was talking about the night before in a rational fashion. “She said she had to be on top. I suppose it makes her feel like she’s in control.”
“But she doesn’t want to be in control. Not really. At least not all the time. I started looking into her background last night. She used to be a regular at a Houston club. I called the owner last night and got in touch with some people who knew her.”
“You called people after midnight?”
He shrugged. “They’re club people. They were awake. Mostly.”
And if they weren’t awake, Chase got them up. His brother was an impatient bastard. “What did they say?”
“She was a happy sub. She’d only dated Doms. She played with them, but she wouldn’t take a collar because she hadn’t found the right man. Her parents are the mom and pop of the scene down there. Her dad founded one of the clubs, but she moved to Houston for college so she never went to the San Antonio club.”
Ben could understand that. The idea of walking into a club and seeing his father in fet wear made him a little nauseous.
“Yeah, me, too,” Chase said, obviously picking up on Ben’s line of thought. “But the point is, she was looking for a Dom. Maybe not seriously since she was so young, but all of her relationships prior to the kidnapping were based in D/s.”
Chase was right. “She won’t be really happy until she can truly submit again.”
“She needs it so badly. Ben, I don’t think she’s really cried yet. I think cutting herself was her way of crying.”
“You spanked her last night, right?”
“A little. And she cried. A little. Not what she needed. She did let me hold her though. She sat in my lap. And I got her clothes off earlier. Then I fucked everything up. Why am I being so fucking possessive? I’ve never been possessive. I don’t know that I like the feeling.” Chase frowned, turning to Ben. “It’s fucking with my head. I need to be thinking about this case and all I can think about is Natalie. We shouldn’t have left her with Logan. One of us should have stayed behind.”
Beyond monumental progress. Ben had to stop himself from actually tearing up. This was it. They both cared about the same woman. This was his shot. Chase would fall once and then never again. “I think you need me on this one. I know you’re the brains here, Chase, but I’ve been doing this for a while, too. Natalie is fine. Logan is used to being in charge of a large group of crying females.”
Logan had actually sent him a pitiful look as he and Chase had left him behind with a frantic Gretchen, a weepy Kitten, a somber Natalie, and a surprisingly selfless Georgia. Georgia had been calling for room service, ordering tea and coffee, and asking what she could do to help. For once, she hadn’t been forcing her way to the center of attention.
“Still. Something about this whole thing doesn’t feel right,” Chase said. “Hurry it up. I want to get back to her.”
Ben started the cart again, making quick work of the little road that ran from the main resort to the employee quarters. Chris Linwood was waiting for them. “Try not to piss this guy off again.”
“He’s way too invested in thread count. I don’t get that.” Chase hopped out as soon as Ben stopped the cart. “Where are the CCTV cameras?”
Linwood stopped. He’d been walking toward them, a hand out, but now he pulled back. Yep, Chase had that effect on people. “We don’t tape our employees.”
Chase looked around. “Do you have any security at all?”
Ben nearly groaned. This was why he hadn’t sent Logan with Chase. Someone had to make sure his brother didn’t get them thrown out of the resort. “What my brother is trying to ask is what is the security like? We both understand that this is a place that prides itself on discretion.”
It was a freaking sex resort. Did Chase honestly think they routinely taped the powerful people who came here?
Chris turned to Ben, ignoring the way Chase was studying the building. “We have several well-trained dungeon monitors. Michael is our veteran. He’s been working as a Dom for fifteen years. Tate is our newest addition. The staff includes a bunch of former Special Forces and some ex-cops. They know what they’re doing.”
“How do people get in and out of the resort? Do you use key cards?” Ben asked. The night before he’d had to show ID to get past the front gates.
“Yes. We have one road coming into the resort and it’s guarded twenty-four-seven. New guests are on a list and must show picture identification to get in. However, we have some members of the club who are local, and they have tags on their cars that open the gates.”
“I’ll need a list of those members,” Chase said, pacing up and down the front walk, taking everything in. “And I want the whereabouts of everyone with one of those tags on their cars.”
Chris went a little pale. “Yeah, i
Jack Barnes. The king of Willow Fork. The only man in the world who gave Julian Lodge a run for his money in sheer ruthlessness. “I think we can all agree that Barnes didn’t do this.”
The last thing Ben planned to do was sit Jack Barnes down and force him to answer questions. Ben liked to keep his balls attached to his body.
Chase just kept on. “Barnes wouldn’t trash a girl’s place. He would just kill her. No. But Abigail might. What if sweet Abigail was having an affair with Stan the Furniture King and took exception to losing her lover?”
The look on Linwood’s face was priceless. He actually turned a little green. “You can’t accuse Abby Barnes of having an affair.”
Ben stared at Chase while the grin crossed his face. His brother loved to make people squirm. “He’s joking.”
“I am about Abby,” Chase admitted. “But this smacks of jealous woman. Stan was married, right?”
“Oh, yes. And Juliet didn’t like what went on here. She’s threatened to protest the resort a couple of times. She calls it a whorehouse.”
Ah, the uninformed and intolerant. “Is there any way she could have gotten in here?”
Chris started to lead them into the complex. The staff quarters were as lovely as the resort itself. Though set away from the resort, it boasted the same elegant lines. Chris led them through the Spanish-style arches and onto the patio. A swimming pool dominated the courtyard. “We decided that it might be hard to attract really good staff since we’re so isolated. So Danielle and Julian decided to make the staff quarters seriously posh. There are twenty-five apartments. Most of our staff lives around the area. These are the people we had to import. Our massage therapists, the Doms, the subs who work the dungeon. The specialized workers. Gaby and I both live out here. We have two of the family suites. There’s a pool, a huge media center, a gym, basketball court, everything else you would need to live out here. The parking facilities are in the back. Nat’s apartment is on the second floor.”
Chris pushed the button for the elevator and they got in.
“You don’t need a card to access the elevator?” Chase asked.
“We have ten kids living out here. They range from six months to sixteen years old. If we required key cards, they would never leave their rooms. Seriously, those kids can’t keep up with them. This is a family facility. A ‘no kink’ zone. The third floor is a school. We brought in private teachers and just got our accreditation. Barnes paid for that. Seems his daughter had some trouble with the local kids so he just built a school for her. There’s another entrance for the third floor and that is accessible only by the school employees and students.”
The elevator doors opened and there was no way to miss the yellow police tape that draped Nat’s doorway. The door stood open and the khaki-suited form of the sheriff walked by. Chase immediately ducked under the tape.
Ben followed, his heart seizing just a bit. Natalie’s place was in complete ruins. Her little couch had been torn to pieces, the stuffing pulled out and scattered across the room. It was easy to see that Natalie didn’t have much. A small TV, a couch built maybe for two, no more. A round dining room table with two chairs had deep, jagged scratches covering the surface. Both chairs were broken as were all her dishes.
“How the hell did no one call this in?” Ben couldn’t imagine that whoever had done this hadn’t made a ton of noise. This kind of destruction would have taken a single person a long time and created a ruckus.
The sheriff turned, a tired look in his eyes. “Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. It looks like someone doesn’t like this girl. We’re sure she didn’t do this herself? You know some women might try to throw suspicion off themselves.”
Chase’s eyes narrowed. “She didn’t do this.”
Ben stepped in real damn fast so Chase didn’t give away the fact that they were personally involved and potentially get kicked off the case. Right now the sheriff was cooperating, but if he thought there was something funny going on, he might deny them access to information. “What my brother is trying to say, poorly as usual, is that Natalie’s time has been accounted for from the time she stepped out of your police station to a few minutes ago. Mr. Lodge hired us to check into this case and to keep an eye on her.”
He let that dangle out there, his voice a professional monotone. His words could be taken any number of ways, but the sheriff was a suspicious man himself. Ben would bet a lot that he would think Lodge wanted to monitor her to cover his own ass.
The sheriff tipped his hat back. “Well, that makes things more difficult. And as to one of the other residents hearing something, well, Mr. Linwood informs me there was a little party going on last night.”
Chris rolled his eyes, his mouth flattening. “This section of the building houses the single employees. Most of them work at night. It’s when the tips are the greatest.”
It was also when the dungeon was open, but Ben wasn’t about to mention that. The less the sheriff knew, the better.
The sheriff sighed, his belly heaving up and then sagging back down. “Well, I’m just calling this an act of vandalism. She needs to contact her insurance company. There’s not much I can do here.”
Ben felt himself flush, his indignation a wave that threatened to overtake him. But Chase put a hand on his shoulder.
“You’re probably right, Sheriff,” Chase said, sounding more reasonable and charming than usual. “This seems more like an internal matter to me.”
The sheriff couldn’t get out of there fast enough. All three men remained quiet until they heard the elevator ding. Then Ben rounded on his brother.
“You can’t think this has nothing to do with the case.” Ben was sure of that. Even he could plainly see everything was connected.
Chase’s blue eyes rolled. “Of course not. It has everything to do with the case. The question becomes what about the case set this bitch off.”
“What makes you think a female did this?” Chris asked. “And thank you for getting rid of the sheriff.”
Chase shrugged, staring down at the rug. “He was going to start asking questions. He’s curious about this place. He’s more than likely had pressure on him to close the resort down. It was a race to see which side of the sheriff’s nature would win. His conservative, shut-the-freaks-down side? Or the lazy side that’s two years away from retiring and just wants to take a nap? I simply gave the lazy side a distinct advantage.” He pointed down to the plush carpet. “As to why I believe this is a female perpetrator, there are several reasons. The first being this carpet and the pattern of shoe impressions left here. See how thick the carpet is? It holds the impression of the shoe quite valiantly. That very deep, cloddish print is the sheriff’s. He didn’t even go past the kitchen.”
Ben looked down, picking up on what Chase saw. There was a pattern of small, deep impressions all over the carpet. “Are those stilettos?”
“Yes.” Chase got to one knee, his hand skimming across the carpet. “Unfortunately, they’re not like tire tracks. There’s nothing unique about them.” He glanced up at Chris. “The rules of the dungeon are stilettos or nothing for submissives.”
“Yes, subs can wear stilettos or go barefoot.” Chris sighed. “And we provide stilettos should the sub need them so that could be anyone. Anyone except Natalie.”
“Who was adorably barefoot last night,” Chase pointed out. “We need to order some shoes for her. I get a crick in my neck when I kiss her for too long.”
Ben grinned. By “we” Chase had just told him to go online and buy Natalie some shoes, the first real proof he was willing to work together. “I just picked her up and ordered her to wrap her legs around my waist.”
Chris’s head moved like he was watching a tennis match. “You’re both involved with her?”
And so started the freak show. “Our relationships work differently.”
Chase simply smiled. “Welcome to Texas. Guess your kink doesn’t include sharing.”
Chris held his hands up. “Hey, my kink includes so much I can’t say a damn thing. I’m married to an ex-hockey player. We have a baby girl we adopted from China. We’re practically the face of normality. If Nat is happy, I’m totally cool with it, but keep it on the down low or the sheriff will freak. And no, I’ve never seen Nat wearing anything but comfortable shoes.”
Ben chuckled a little. “Looks like you’re going to have to convince her to indulge your shoe fetish.”
“Well, it’s not like she’ll be walking in them. They’ll be around my neck,” Chase shot back. “So crazy stiletto girl manages to get into Nat’s place. How? Natalie would never forget to lock her door. She would be very careful about it.” He stood, walking to the door and pointing out certain changes. “I take it this isn’t standard.”
There were three chains on the door to go along with the heavy deadbolt and the keyed lock.
Chris shook his head. “No. But I knew how important it was for Nat and Gretchen to feel safe.”
Ben looked down at the floor, catching sight of something interesting. It was a deep groove in the carpet. It wasn’t something that could have been made in a short period of time. This was from something she did over and over again. Two square grooves that went all the way to the bottom of the carpet. “She put a chair against the door.”
Chase frowned. “Yes. And that bitch broke her chair.”
Sure enough, there were splinters of wood splattered all over. Nat’s little chair had been decimated, the symbolism hitting him square in the chest. He could see her placing the chair under the doorknob, gaining comfort from knowing she’d done all she could to keep out the bad guys.
Now her peace of mind was shattered.
“I want to know where Stanley Kirkman’s wife was last night.” If everyone else wondered if Natalie had been sleeping with Stanley, perhaps his wife had wondered, too.
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