Siren Unleashed [Texas Sirens 7] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)
Page 14
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.
Had Nat been sleeping with him? He didn’t think so. He’d seen her face the night before when he’d asked her how long it had been. Years. She hadn’t been lying. Unless she’d known he’d been sent by Julian and was playing them both perfectly.
“Do you think she knew who we were before you spanked her?” Ben asked, the question causing his heart to twist a little.
Chase stood, leaving his perusal of the locks on the door. “I don’t think she knew at first, but I know she went off with her boss. She knew when we talked to her last night.”
“Gaby told her. She wouldn’t let her go into anything ignorant. If Nat talked to her about having a…relationship with the two of you, she would have told her why you were here,” Chris explained.
Chase’s lips curved up. “And she still came after me. Brave little sub.”
Years she’d gone with no comfort. Years with no pleasure. That hollowness he’d sensed in her, the one making love to him had filled, wasn’t a lie. Maybe he was the fucking naïve one, but he believed her. She’d known and she’d disregarded it. The little minx had meant to take her comfort and pleasure and probably flee, but they’d caught her and they weren’t stupid enough to doubt her or let her go. Chase, the most cynical person ever to walk the face of the earth, knew Natalie wasn’t the type. He let go of any thought of doubting her. He was in. “Someone hates her.”
“Yes.” Chase stood up and walked across the room. “Someone hates her. And this isn’t the end.”
It wasn’t anywhere close to the end.
* * * *
Nat tried to take a deep breath, but the air wouldn’t quite sink into her lungs.
“Here, try some tea.” The woman with the golden hair who just happened to be Chase and Ben’s sister handed her a small cup.
Nat took it because it was better than dealing with Gretchen. “Thank you.” She took a long sip, remembering the lovely scene that had been interrupted. She’d enjoyed feeding the Dawsons. She’d pretty much loved everything about the morning with the singular exception of Chase telling her she had to choose.
Why was that so hard to take? Why had she shut down? It wasn’t like she knew Ben. Hell, she didn’t really know Chase, but the thought of choosing had frozen her.
She sniffled a little and took a long sip of the tea. And nearly coughed it back up. “What the hell?”
Georgia smiled down at her. “Oh, I had them put a bunch of vodka in the tea.”
“Georgia!” The man named Logan tried to pin Georgia with that Dom stare of his.
Georgia didn’t seem very pinnable. She waved him off. “Alcohol always helps.”
“Give me some of that.” Gretchen grabbed the cup and downed the rest as Kitten stroked her hair. She sniffled, her face still a brilliant red. “I was so sure someone was going to kill me.”
Kitten moved closer. “You’re safe now.”
Nat needed to breathe. She got up and moved toward the balcony. God, at least she might find some freaking peace there. All Gretchen had managed to do was tell her that everything she owned was ruined and since she lived beside her they would never be safe again.
Gretchen was a drama queen.
Nat pushed the curtains aside and walked onto the balcony. The rich seemed to have a completely different lifestyle. Her window looked out over the little pool. Ben and Chase’s enormous balcony had a spectacular view of the grounds.
She didn’t belong here. She belonged in her little place. But now how would she ever feel safe there again? Gretchen was right about that.
“Hey.” Georgia stepped through the doors, glass in her hand. Orange juice. “That hysterical freaky woman took your tea. Gosh, you would think she’d never like gotten her place broken into. That’s what insurance is for and then you get to meet hunky cops.”
“There are no hunky cops out here. The sheriff is a reject from Redneck Island.”
The gorgeous girl wrinkled her nose. “Okay, ewww. Are you still thirsty?”
She could use something cool. Too bad Gretchen had taken the vodka. She gratefully took the glass of juice. “Thanks so much. Gretchen can be a little overwrought.”
Gretchen knew what it meant to be violated. She simply didn’t know what it meant to keep a cool head about her. It was odd because at first, she’d thought Gretchen would be the one she could count on to help her. Gretchen had been bitchy, but she’d seemed strong. Kitten had been so quiet, but it had been Kitten who snuck the knife out of the kitchen, Kitten who held Natalie while she cried because she’d had to kill a man, Kitten who had found a phone and called her cousin.
Finn will help us. Finn won’t let us down. Kitten loves you, Natalie.
Georgia’s hand came up, brushing away tears Nat didn’t realize she was shedding. “Are you all right?”
Nat took a deep breath. “I’m fine.”
Georgia gave her a grin. “I doubt that. It’s why I snuck vodka into the juice. Logan told me not to, but he’s totally fun to disobey.”
“Oh, thank god.” Nat took a long drink. She kind of loved Georgia in that moment.
Ben and Chase’s sister shrugged. “I put vodka in lots of things. It’s the language of love where I grew up. So you’re involved with my brothers?”
She slipped it in, but there was no way to ignore the protective tone. She might be a little sister, but she cared about her brothers. “Not really. I thought I might be, but I don’t think I could choose.”
Cool blue eyes assessed her. “Most women can. Most women choose Ben in a heartbeat.”
“I thought I was choosing Chase. I didn’t know Ben existed. I made a connection with Chase and then I made one with Ben.”
“Okay, I don’t see the problem. They always share.”
“Chase wants me to choose.”
Georgia practically seethed. “That ass. Ben has shared for years.” Her mouth dropped open. “OMG, Chase is totally into you. Is it the BDPTSD stuff?”
“Huh?”
“You know the leather and whips and stuff.”
“Uhm, it’s BDSM, though I’m mostly on the D/s side. And I’m not anymore.” Except she kind of had been last night. And if Chase hadn’t said what he had, she would have let him have her. Even knowing everyone was in the next room. She would have followed his instructions. At least she would have tried.
Georgia smiled, a little uptick of her lips as she leaned on the railing of the balcony. “I was joking a little. I’m not as naïve as everyone thinks. I grew up in a houseful of dudes. And all of my brothers are into this stuff. Winter is even harder core than Chase. I was staying with him one time and I actually walked in on him with a woman suspended from the ceiling. Weird. And then he yelled at me like I was the one who suspended her. Anyway, the point is I know more than I like to tell them. And I know that Chase is into you. That means something.”
Maybe, but it didn’t mean anything but heartache if she couldn’t choose between them. “I’m not going to come between two brothers over what would only be a short-term affair.”
“Not so sure about that.” Georgia stared out over the grounds. “I’ve never seen Chase look at a woman the way he looks at you. Ben is the easy one. Ben wants to be happy. Chase thinks he does. Chase won’t ever be truly happy without Ben because Ben completes him. They’re like these weird halves of a whole. Think about it. I have for a long time. Of all my brothers, Ben and Chase are the ones I feel closest to. Ben is the happy one. It’s almost like his natural state, but he would accept far less than he deserves without Chase. Chase thinks too much. Chase wants too much. If you’re the woman who can give him what he needs, then I think he will give you the world. If you want Ben, then just refuse to back down.”
She made it sound so simple. “I don’t know. He seemed certain.”
“You want me to play a game?” The idea appalled her.
Georgia sighed. “Wow. I thought I was naïve. Everything is a game, Natalie. It doesn’t mean we’re cruel to play. You can play a game with the deepest desire to win and to love that thing you can win. Just be sure why you’re playing. I have friends who play strictly because they can’t stand the thought of not winning. Play the game because you love the prize. Because you can’t live without it. God, I want to play that game. I’m ready to play, but I can’t find the prize.”
Nat felt a deep connection to Georgia. She laughed a little. She seemed to feel for all the Dawsons. She held out the glass and Georgia took a drink.
“See,” Georgia said, her grin making her practically glow, “vodka makes everything better.”
It kind of did. The warmth filled her belly, and she was well aware that it had been a long time since she’d let herself go. It was what D/s had afforded her. She remembered her only Dom. He’d been a truly nice man she’d played with. She hadn’t taken his collar, but she’d trusted him implicitly. She could drink at a party and he would take care of her. He would never let her down.
He’d actually turned out to be gay and in the closest, and she hadn’t called him in the longest time. He’d left a million messages. Why hadn’t she called her friend?
“You’re so sad. What happened? Was it my brothers?” Georgia’s blue eyes glistened with tears.
She shook her head vigorously. If there was one thing she knew, it was that Ben and Chase Dawson wouldn’t hurt her. God. How did she know that? Why did she know she was safe with them? Because Julian said so? Because Gaby did? Because she’d slept like a baby for the first time in years knowing they were watching over her? “No.” She should tell Georgia it wasn’t her business. “I was kidnapped. I was, uhm, hurt.”
Georgia flushed. “I’m so sorry. But Chase will help you. Chase can find him. Chase can take him down.”
Odd. She should want to run, but she simply smiled because those two men wouldn’t flinch from what she’d done. They would just wish she’d made Hawk hurt more. “I took care of him. He’s dead.”
A ruthless smile crossed Georgia’s face. “Good. Look, if you handled that shit, you can handle my brothers. Keep them happy and we’ll be cool. Fuck with them and you’ll find out that I’m way more nasty than I seem to be. I’m going to get us some more ‘orange juice.’” She used air quotes. “I’ll have to get around Logan. He’s superhot but so obnoxious he makes me want to die.”
Georgia walked to the door and into the suite.
Nat looked over the grounds. She needed to get out of here. She needed to see what she had left. Ben had told her to stay put. Chase had remained silent, but she’d felt the weight of his stare. But neither Dawson was her Dom and no matter what Georgia said, they weren’t going to be. Chase had put her in a terrible position and one he’d apparently never forced another woman into.
She peeked into the room. The dude named Logan was following Georgia into the kitchen, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.
She wanted to see her place. It was her apartment. They were her things. Her books. Her clothes. Her life. What right did they really have to keep her out?
The minute the door swung closed behind Logan’s massive form, she slid inside.
She caught Kitten’s eye. Gretchen looked up, too. Gretchen’s eyes were red from crying, her face blotchy. Gretchen seemed to take everything hard lately. She’d just reached her thirty-fifth birthday, the oldest of any of them, but she still seemed so lost at times.
“I’m going to my place,” Nat said quietly.
“Hey, that’s mine!” Georgia’s voice wasn’t quiet at all. It threatened to shake the walls.
Logan said something, but it came out in a low rumble that had Georgia threatening the Dom with what she called a “de-balling” if he didn’t give her back her vodka.
“They told you to stay here,” Gretchen said, sniffling a little. She sat up. “Natalie, why do you always have to disobey?”
Nat just managed to not roll her eyes. “They aren’t my Doms.”
“But you slept with them, Nat.” Kitten stood up, crossing the space between them. “I know the Masters. They want to protect you.”
“I don’t want to be protected.” Not when she would have to choose. It was time to make her stand with them. Whatever she’d had with them had been blown out of the water by Chase’s demand. “Are you going to tell Logan?”
Logan seemed like the kind of Dom who took his shit seriously. If Chase and Ben had told him to keep her here, he might tie her up if he caught her sneaking out, and she couldn’t risk that.
A loud crash blasted out, and Georgia proved she knew a lot of cuss words.
“I believe Master Logan has enough to deal with.” Kitten’s lips curled up. “Besides, he has a truly devious mind. I enjoy his punishments.”
Gretchen nodded. “I won’t say anything. But, Nat, you need to be careful. I don’t know what you did, but you really pissed someone off. I’m afraid for you.”
Nat slipped out the door. It was time to figure out exactly what was going on.
Chapter Nine
Chase didn’t like the looks of the place. Not a single inch of it. And it wasn’t just the overwrought destruction that bugged him. He almost understood that. The woman who’d taken apart Natalie’s home was bat-shit crazy. And she hated Natalie. No. It wasn’t the debris that had his heart twisting.
It was the complete lack of joy in the place.
In his mind’s eyes he pulled the chaos back, placing the items where they would have gone. The chaos righted itself in his head and he was left with a view of Natalie’s private world. Her books. No fiction. Just texts about massage therapy and history books and therapeutic tomes about posttraumatic stress. No frilly romances or high-tech thrillers. Her TV was old. Well, it had been, so she wasn’t crazy about movies.
She did seem to love sporting goods. There were three different baseball bats. And he knew they were hers because he saw the grooves in the floor from where she kept them by the front door, the door to her bedroom, and one had been left in her bathroom, tucked away beside the sink. She was pretty much ready to clock the shit out of anyone in any room of her very small house.
Her house was neat, well organized, and utterly devoid of passion. So unlike the woman he’d held in his arms that morning.
“How long has she lived here?” Ben asked.
“She’s been here for almost two years,” Chris replied. “I’m going to step out for a minute and call maintenance. I’ll get them up here and see what they can fix. I don’t know how fast I can have it livable again.”
“Don’t worry about it. She’s staying with us,” Chase replied. He wasn’t about to allow her to stay here again, alone with her baseball bats. He wondered what Mrs. Stanley Furniture King had been doing last night.
Chris’s eyebrows rose. “Does Nat know she’s moving?”
“She should.” If she didn’t, she would soon. He didn’t actually intend to ask her. She’d requested his services as a Dom the night before. He was going to take her seriously. Likely far too seriously.
Ben stepped up. “I think we can all agree that someone isn’t happy with Natalie. She needs protection. First her client was murdered, and in a way almost certain to bring suspicions on her, then this happens? She can’t be foolish enough to think she should be alone.”
Foolish? No. Stubborn was another story entirely. Her apartment told the story. Two years here and she hadn’t personalized anything. Even her now-broken dishes were a plain white ceramic he would bet she’d bought at a big box store. “She didn’t bring anything from her old life with her, did she?”
Chris stopped, his phone in hand. “Excuse me?”
Ben’s face fell. “Damn. What my brother is asking is how much
stuff did Natalie bring with her when she moved in here? Like the pictures on the walls. Did she bring those?”
Chase could answer that. “No. She either got them from storage or they were already here. I noticed they come from the same artist who did the prints in the hallways to the guest rooms.”
The paintings were bland, the kind of thing that wouldn’t put anyone off and seemed rather soothing if emotionless. It wasn’t the kind of thing an artist would choose for herself.
“Uhm, Gaby brought them up. We had a few left over and Gaby couldn’t stand how Nat didn’t have anything on the walls. Come to think of it, Gaby took both her and Gretchen out to shop for stuff. They just had their suitcases. No furniture or kitchenware. All the books and the TV were bought after she got here. And that TV was secondhand. I think she got it at a garage sale.” He nodded grimly and stepped outside, putting the phone to his ear.
“I read through her file again last night. And I called Finn.” Ben sighed, crossing his arms over his chest. “She was missing for a while. Her parents were forced to pack up her apartment. Why wouldn’t she get her stuff out of storage?”
“She left it all behind. I wonder if it’s still in storage or if she got rid of it all.” She hadn’t been ready to face her old life. She’d gotten a degree in art and the fact that there wasn’t a single sketch pad or canvas in the whole place made Chase ache in a way he would never have thought he could. He frowned. “I don’t know that I like having feelings.”
Ben gave him an odd little smile. “Welcome to my world, buddy. It’s going to be fun to watch you deal with this shit for once.” He sobered a bit. “Seriously, Chase, I want you to be sure about her.”
Because she was fragile. She was delicate. She was on the cusp of reemerging into the world. It scared the shit out of him. He’d chosen his lovers with care before, for their ease and lack of long-term need. Natalie was different. He’d known it the minute he’d looked across the dungeon. He’d seen that pink hair and his world had shifted from a flat vision of black and white to a vivid 3-D Technicolor that he didn’t completely understand. He could walk away now and live the rest of his life in the meager comfort of knowing that his heart was meant to pump blood through his body and nothing else. Or he could finally try to figure out why Julian looked at Dani and Finn, that odd light in his eyes. Julian had changed, becoming more than he had been before he’d found Finn and Dani.