His Battered Submissive (Restrained Fantasies Book 3)

by Brandi Evans

  Maddox was breaking apart. Kat was offering him everything he'd told himself they could never have, and he wanted desperately to accept her offer, but that niggling voice was playing its same tune.

  He was putting himself at risk.

  He wasn't part of her future.

  Sooner than he wanted to think about, she'd find the strength to leave and start a new life, one without any tethers to her old one, and he was one giant tether. He needed to accept that, but longing played in her eyes. She may not want him in a year or even a month, but she wanted him now. And he wanted her. He wasn't sure he'd ever wanted a woman more. It was yet another reason he needed to back off, but it was also the one reason he wouldn't. He just needed to make sure she could truly handle it.

  Without warning, he forced her against the wall, trapped her there with his body. Simultaneously, he grabbed her wrists and pinned her hands over her head. All the while, he studied her every nuance. If she couldn't handle this, then she wouldn't be able to handle anything at Restrained Fantasies.

  She sucked in a quick breath.

  Her eyes widened.

  Her jaw tightened.

  They were all signs of fear and surprise, but just as quickly, her expression softened.

  "You surprised me, Sir. That's all. I still want this." She nipped his bottom lip. "I still want you to be my Dom."

  Thank fucking god.

  "We start slowly," he murmured against her lips. "I mean glacially slow. If I think I'm pushing too hard, we pull back. That's a hard line. If you're not okay with that, I need to know now."

  She nodded, a ghost of a smile playing at the corners of her lips. "I'm amenable to those terms, Sir."

  The first time she'd called him Sir had been a slip. This time, it was a soft whisper between lovers. If he had had time, he would have shown her exactly how much he enjoyed hearing the word from her, but time wasn't with them.

  "Carter's gonna be here soon so we can go over the new details of your case before we head to work." He paused, studied her. "I can work from home today if you want me to."

  "I always want you here, but I also want to know Jeff is behind bars."

  Or in the ground. Maddox wasn't picky.

  "Come on." He swept Kat into his arms. "Let's catch a quick shower before Carter gets here."

  She grinned and giggled all the way to the bathroom.

  Chapter 13

  After their shower—and dear god, Maddox wanted to start every morning making love with Kat and then following it up with another fantastic bout of sex in the shower—Kat made French toast. They weren't as good as her pancakes, but if the pancakes were a ten, then the French toast was a nine-point-five. Save for Kat's nightmare and the reasoning behind it, he'd had a fantastic morning.

  After they'd eaten, Carter, Maddox, and Kat gathered around the kitchen island to talk shop. Although Carter hadn't said anything yet, Maddox wondered if his partner had picked up on any changes between him and Kat. Carter was adept in reading body language, so Maddox figured he had a long, unwanted conversation in their near future, but that happened with brothers.

  "I spoke with both Agents Logan and Andrei on my way over," Carter began. "Neither was extremely forthcoming, but Andrei confirmed they'd found Harris' fingerprints on the back railing, next to some vomit they're confident will match back to him."

  Kat shivered. "So, he did it?"

  "Looks that way," Carter answered with a nod.

  "I bet killing the kids affected him more than he planned, hence the vomiting," Maddox suggested, watching Kat, watching for hints she was backsliding emotionally.

  As if needing to absorb the warmth, she wrapped both hands around her coffee cup. Or maybe the move was to cover suddenly trembling hands. In the end, he decided it didn't matter; she was holding it together.

  Strong girl.

  "I don't understand why he did it," she said, voice soft, disbelieving. "It makes no sense to me. Of course, this's coming from the woman he abducted and tortured, so what do I know?"

  Her words kicked Maddox right in the gut, and he couldn't stop himself from taking one of her shaky hands between both of his, not because she needed the contact but because he did.

  "Why is one of the questions Maddox and I had last night, too, but thanks to something Genny said, I have an idea I want to explore. Genny's been reading Strangers on a Train and—"

  "And you're wondering if, maybe, there's some sort of quid pro quo going on here?" The idea bitch-slapped Maddox's mind into gear, but god damn, that would explain so much, like where Harris kept getting his information. He could, quite literally, be paying for it in blood.

  "Possibly," Carter answered cautiously. "I don't want to jump the gun and send us down some unnecessary rabbit hole, but the idea just struck the right chord." Carter paused a moment as if gathering his thoughts. "Do you remember, oh, it was about seven or so months ago, we were working with that detective out of Henderson, Nevada? He said he had a tip that his person of interest in a missing person's case had ties back to Dallas?"

  Maddox nodded. "Yeah. Detective… Valentine, wasn't it? And the missing person was a mother of two?"

  Carter nodded. "Correct on both accounts."

  Maddox turned to Kat. "Henderson is about sixteen miles southeast of Vegas," he explained before turning back to his partner and waiting for additional details.

  "Well, Valentine mentioned something about hearing rumblings of some clandestine organization who matches clients with those who didn't mind work on the less-than-legal side of the law. Either for pay or favors."

  "And you think Jeff is linked to this group?" asked Kat, voice tight and wobbly.

  "I think it's an idea worth exploring," answered Carter. "I don't believe in coincidence, and this connection would certainly explain what you said about him always knowing we were coming for you. And now, I'm seriously wondering if killing that family was "payment" for the information?"

  Or payment in advance for getting Kat back?

  Maddox tightened his grip on Kat's hand as if holding her hard enough would keep her from ever slipping from his grasp ever again. He also kept his question to himself. He'd mention it to Carter when they were alone. No sense giving Kat anything else to worry about. This morning's nightmare aside, she'd been doing much better. She didn't need any added worry. He'd tell her if his speculation turned out to be something more concrete.

  "Jeff went to Las Vegas. It wasn't long before you and I met at that restaurant, Maddox. He locked me in the basement while he was gone. I remember it so vividly because I was happy. Locked in a fucking basement, but I was happy because I knew he wouldn't hit me for over forty-eight hours. I'd been happy, and he'd been what? Killing a mother of two? The fucking bastard!"

  She pushed away from the bar with so much force that her barstool clattered to the ground. Maddox leaped to his feet and drew her against him even before the stool came to a complete stop. He wished he had the right words to help or the ability to take her pain on himself, but he had neither.

  Maddox did his best to channel Caroline. "You're allowed to feel betrayed, sweetheart."

  "What I feel is stupid! I loved this monster. Don't get me wrong, he was horrible, but I never saw this. Should I have? And if I had, could I have prevented—"

  "Don't." Maddox wouldn't let her speak that aloud. "None of what Harris did is on you. You didn't know what he would do, and even if you did, what could you have done?" He didn't give her time to answer. "Not a damn thing. He made sure of that—at least he tried to—but you're stronger than he counted on. You got free, and now, you're helping us catch him."

  "You give me more credit than I deserve, Maddox."

  "And you give yourself too little. Look at you! You divorced that fucker, and you're working to move on with your life. You've got friends who would go to the wall for you. You've got Carter, Raven, and me. Plus, you've got Sarge."

  Sarge popped up from his spot in the hallway and padded over to them. He instantly sat at
Kat's side as if saying, "Hell yeah, you got me, human."

  "Thank you." Chuckling, she gave Maddox a hard squeeze before dropping to a knee and wrapping her arms around Sarge. "You too, boy."

  Sarge licked her cheek, and she laughed again.

  "Thank you as well, Carter." She wiped Sarge's wet love from her cheek. "I'd hug you too, but I'm afraid Raven might shank me or something."

  "No tellin' with my girl." Grinning, he lifted his coffee mug in salute. "She came at me brandishing a putter like a sword once. Man, it was positively adorable."

  "Y'all are positively adorable," Kat returned.

  Maddox was elated to see the light pushing away the shadows that had tried to claim her moments before.

  "What are we going to do next?" she asked.

  "Well," said Maddox, "between you and Raven, you've given us a solid line of investigation we didn't have last night. We'll start by heading to the precinct and contacting Detective Valentine. He's had, what, seven months to gather information on the Group? We'll see where he is and offer to lend our support."

  She nodded. "Speaking of Raven, I think I'll give her a call and see if she wants to have lunch. I don't want to be alone right now."

  Maddox draped an arm over Kat's shoulder. He didn't want her to be alone any more than she wanted to be. Luckily, Carter had a plan for that.

  "How about this?" Carter said. "We work from here this morning, and then, Genny can come over at lunch. She has to work tonight, so she probably went back to sleep after I left."

  "That sounds perfect," Kat said.

  Maddox placed a cup of coffee on Carter's desk and left him to finish his conversation with the Henderson PD.

  Maddox assumed his seat opposite his partner. The calendar might read Saturday, but the precinct bustled with activity. Unfortunately, criminals didn't take weekends off. Yet, the Domestic Abuse Division was isolated far enough back in the building that they didn't suffer the brunt of the noise and distraction, and that was by design. Their victims were often some of the most vulnerable. The Special Victims Division, those traumatized by sexual assault, had a similar set up across the hall. Still, sometimes the noise would bleed through, and today was one of those days.

  Somewhere in the precinct, someone didn't appreciate being hauled in and was making their objection loudly and colorfully known. Something about donut-eating, pig-fucking sons-a-bitch fucking fuckers. As far as originality went, it was pretty cliché, but Maddox gave the man an A for Assholery.

  Carter returned the phone to its cradle and joined in with his own array of colorful language, although at a much softer volume.

  Maddox focused his gaze on his partner. "Problem?"

  "You might say." Carter glanced around the room the way one might if checking for wandering ears.

  Detective Karl Jones sat at his corner desk, head buried in paperwork. His partner, Detective Jennifer Lyons, sat across from him, the contents of her own folder scattered in front of her. Captain Atkins' administrative assistant, Linda Sanders, was at her desk, her fingers moving madly over her keyboard. Nothing out of the ordinary, even for the weekend.

  "Let's get some fresh air," Carter suggested.

  Maddox nodded and, without a word of argument or question, followed his partner to the alley behind the precinct. The pair had held many conversations and debates here over the years, and they weren't the only cops who came back here. Today, however, the spot was blessedly empty. Well, at least of people. A cat pounced on a mouse. The little critter made a frantic dive toward one of the dumpsters, but the feline was faster.

  Maddox turned and left the skeletal kitty to enjoy its victory meal. "Spill it."

  "Detective Valentine's dead."

  A spark in Maddox's gut went red hot. When Carter had wanted to talk privately, Maddox had thought it was something more along the lines of, "So, Detective Valentine found that mom of two dead and Harris is one-hundred percent guilty." He hadn't expected this.

  "Please tell me it was natural causes," Maddox said. "Like choking on a donut."

  "Are we talking officially or what the former partner thinks?"

  "Fucking hell." That non-answer really answered everything.

  "Couldn't have said it better myself." Carter folded his arms over his chest. "Officially, investigators ruled the car wreck an accident, faulty brake lines, but the partner called bullshit. Said Valentine was fastidious with vehicle maintenance, but when investigators checked the work-orders on Valentine's police-issue cruiser, they showed Valentine had ignored maintenance's continued requests to bring his vehicle in for repair. Can you guess what the paperwork showed needed to be fixed?"

  "The brakes."

  "You win the cookie, partner."

  "Double fuck."

  "Again, took the words right out of my mouth, but unfortunately, Valentine's death after digging into the Group, while it may throw about twenty pounds more weight on our theory that Harris works for them, it doesn't help us locate the fucker right now."

  Maddox didn't argue the point, and when he spoke, he kept his words low, as if Kat might somehow be able to overhear them from across town. "We can't tell Kat that Valentine might have been killed for investigating the Group."

  "Why not?"

  "She keeps dreaming Harris kills me, so I'm afraid this information might make things worse."

  Maddox fell back against the brick wall, and Carter followed suit. Somewhere outside the cocoon of the alley, a car drove by, bass thumping at an eardrum-shattering level.

  When the noise level returned to its usual dull, Maddox said, "Sometimes, Kat wakes in the middle of the night screaming for me, and each time fucking kills me. If she learns we're looking into something where another detective was killed for that very reason, I'm afraid her nightmares are going to go back to being like they were when she first moved in. The one she had this morning almost ripped me in two."

  "She has the right to know." Carter's words were soft, non-accusatory.

  "I know, but I also want to protect her from that knowledge until she gets back on her feet again. This most-recent thing with Harris rattled her."

  "I understand that. I do. If I were in your shoes and Genny in Katlyn's, I might make the same decision, but I'm not in your shoes, which gives me some objectivity." Carter paused. "It's her life, Maddox. She's had so much of it usurped and domineered by an asshole who thought he had the right to control her. You're nothing like that asshole. You know that. I know that. All I'm saying is don't fall into that same trap and give her a reason to ever link the two of you in her mind."

  On an intellectual level, Maddox knew his partner was right. "But you don't hear her screams. You don't wake up with an elbow to the face or a knee to the gut as she's fighting with all her strength against the monster in her mind."

  "True. But, then again, I'm not sleeping with her, either."

  Again, no accusation tainted Carter's words. Of all people, Carter understood falling for someone you shouldn't, and because this was Carter, Maddox knew he could say what needed saying.

  "Kat's a sub."

  For a long moment, Carter remained quiet. "She's a… What? When did you find out? How did you find out?"

  "This morning, when she called me Sir and asked me to be her Dom."

  "Fuckin' A." Carter scrubbed a hand over his face. "She's a sub? No shit?"

  "She says so. Says it happened before Harris, too. I'm still having trouble processing it. Although given she and Caroline were college roommates, part of me should have seen this coming, but I'm completely floored."

  "Yeah, well. You're not the only one. I'm guessing you said yes to being her Dom?"

  "Hesitantly, but yeah." Maddox double-fisted his hands in his hair. "I mean, I want to do this for her—hell, for me, too—but I'm afraid it'll be too much for her." He paused, ordered his rushing thoughts. "But mostly, I'm afraid that, no matter what she says she feels right now, it can never last between us. I'm linked to her painful past, and when she finally realiz
es it, I'm afraid she'll leave, and that would devastate me."

  "I wish I could tell you you're overthinking this, but I'd be a liar if I said I didn't worry about that, too."

  The clank of the door handle drew their attention and stopped the conversation, and the captain's administrative assistant stepped outside, something clutched in her hands. When her gaze met Maddox's, she stopped suddenly, and the guilt in her expression would have been comical if it weren't so heartbreaking.

  "Sorry," she stammered. "I, uh, was just, I mean, I needed to…" With a defeated sigh, she held up what she clutched in her hand: a package of cigarettes. "I'd quit this nasty habit a long time ago, but stress, ya know?"

  Yes, Maddox knew. He had a million problems of his own, but he couldn't stop from moving to Linda and giving her shoulder a supportive squeeze. "Anything we can do?"

  Her eyes brimmed with unshed tears, but she shook her head. "No, but thank you." She backhanded away the single tear sliding down her cheek. "Well, if you have a spare time machine at your disposal, I could use one."

  "You and me both."

  Nerves danced in Katlyn's chest and tormented her as the key turned in the lock. Maddox was home; he'd texted her when he'd left the precinct. He'd also texted from the parking lot to say he was here. He always did these things, and she liked that he thought enough of her to keep her informed. It was just, they'd never been lovers before.

  Would he expect something different from her now that they were? If so, what?

  Jeff always had a litany of things he'd wanted to be done before he got home, and she'd always, always made sure to have them done to his exacting specifications. Not that doing every single one of those things had ever stopped him from hitting her when what he'd wanted was to hit her, but she'd tried.

  Maddox isn't Jeff.

  Maddox wouldn't expect those things from her. He wouldn't hit her. She knew this all the way to her bones, and yet, she was scared. No, not scared—anxious would be a better word.