Siren Unleashed, page 19
part #13 of Texas Sirens Series
She wanted to spend as much time with them as she could.
“If the collar doesn’t mean anything, why would you have a problem wearing one?” Janine asked.
“You know why.”
“I do, and that’s why I’m surprised you would dismiss it. That collar would mean something to you, and it certainly means something to Chase. I’m worried about you. I’m worried you’re going to get deeply invested in this relationship.”
“I’m not sleeping with them now.” They’d decided to take things slow. She rather thought Chase was the one behind the edict. He wasn’t happy about the idea of her taking part in the investigation. He got grumpy even talking about her preparing for it. “We’re staying out at the ranch and we have separate rooms.”
It was a good thing. At least that was what she kept telling herself.
“You don’t want to sleep with them? Are you only interested in one of them? I understand that Ben is much more charming, but I don’t believe he can have a relationship that would be workable if his brother isn’t involved.”
She held a hand up to stop that line of thought. “I like them both. I want to sleep with them, but I think you’re right and Chase might need something more.”
It was why she hadn’t fought harder when they’d led her to the room Abby had assigned her the previous night and then left her there alone. Sleeping with him when she didn’t even know if she could handle watching a scene, much less participating in one, seemed like a way to set them all up for heartbreak.
Because she knew damn well those men could break her heart.
“I’m glad they agreed to take it slow. They’re good men. It’s why I’m happy you chose them.”
“I would think you would tell me I was in over my head. I haven’t been with one man in years, much less two.”
“But they aren’t really two men, are they?” Janine asked as though she’d asked herself the question many times. They must be fascinating to a psychologist. “They’re halves of a whole. I believe splitting up would be difficult for them. I think over time it would make Ben feel incomplete and Chase…I think it could be dangerous for Chase. I think Ben forces Chase to acknowledge something other than his own intellect.”
“He’s not unfeeling. I think it’s the opposite. I think he feels far too much.” Janine might have known them for longer, but she doubted Chase had ever shown her the softer side of himself.
“He’s made an impression on you. I’m glad. The fact that he would open himself up makes me think this can work.” Janine sat back. “Do you want this to work? Don’t think about it. Answer me with your first impulse.”
“Yes.” She didn’t want to be the woman who couldn’t accept a good thing when it came her way. The Dawson brothers were a good thing. “Yeah, I want it to work.”
“Then we should talk about how to make that happen. And I’m in contact with them as well about the training I think you should do before they even consider taking you to an underground club with them.” A worried look crossed her face. “I don’t know that’s such a good idea. If they wait a few weeks, Eve will be back at work.”
“I’ve been there. Where those young women are, I’ve been there. We can’t wait. Every minute counts. Every moment is another moment in hell, and I won’t be the one who confines them to another couple of weeks if I can help it.” She’d sat up thinking about it. She couldn’t live with herself if she didn’t try.
Janine nodded. “Then we should get started.”
Chapter Twelve
Three days later, Chase opened the door, impatience in his every move. Three long days of taking it slowly was making him utterly insane.
Damn it. What was that woman doing to him? He was never impatient. Bored. He was bored almost all the time, but never impatient. Now he was anxious and definitely not bored.
He’d spent his days behind a two-way glass watching as the youngest Taggart brothers interviewed employees. He’d checked the IDs on every car that had been allowed in the gates of the resort. He’d run checks on everyone who’d had an appointment at the spa for the last two weeks.
Nothing. Just an angry Gretchen, who couldn’t seem to get through a simple interview, and two other therapists who had perfectly good alibis.
And that fucker Tate, who was starting to annoy him. Tate had answered every question with a question of his own, all of them about Natalie.
The only fun he’d had was watching Case Taggart scare the holy hell out of Juliet Kirkman, though she hadn’t admitted to breaking in. She’d mostly cried and talked about how her children were suffering.
And then there was Natalie.
For three days, he’d been a gentleman. He’d followed Ben’s lead and gotten Nat comfortable with them. He’d talked about his expectations of a sub. Ben had asked her about her former D/s play that hadn’t involved hardened criminals. Even her therapist had come down and had a long talk with Nat while Ben and Chase spent their days at the resort getting their cover down. As far as anyone knew, they were businessmen looking to make some investments and have some fun in the dungeon.
Jack Barnes had been busy, too, allowing Natalie to watch him and his submissives while he studied her reactions. Jack wasn’t sure about taking her in, and Chase was worried, too.
And he was so horny he might die. Three days of getting Natalie used to his touch while keeping his dick out of her was making him crazy, but today they were moving into the playroom. Today, they were going to play.
Logan frowned as he walked in, carrying the bag Chase had requested he retrieve from Dallas. Logan had been fine having Kitten along for the drive, but he’d promised revenge for forcing him to spend time in a small enclosed space with Georgia. Chase rather thought the dude protested way too much. And he’d also kind of hoped that Georgia would stay behind in Dallas, but no, she sulked into the ranch house following Kitten. Kitten smiled brightly.
“Chase, if you don’t tell that backwoods idiot that he isn’t the boss of me, then I’m going to scream. He’s horrible. He’s constantly in my business.” Georgia rounded on the deputy, barely coming to the middle of his chest, but that didn’t slow her down. “You’re an asshole. Capital A. Little s. Another little s.”
Logan growled, a deep sound that caused Georgia to back up. She nearly tripped on her ridiculously high heels. “I’m getting tired of the bratty attitude. I think you might need a time-out. You won’t like it. I promise you.”
Fucking hell, the sexual tension between those two was heavy. Logan wanted his bratastic sister? Chase stared for a moment, trying to come up with what he felt. Nausea. That was what he felt because he was fucking thinking about his feelings. Nat had done this to him.
“Chase, kill him now.” Georgia had backed up but her heels dug into Jack Barnes’s beautiful hardwood floor, and she seemed unwilling to give the deputy another inch.
Georgia was hot for the deputy. Who had a job. And was coming out of his fucked-up period. Everyone had a fucked-up period. It was just a matter of time before life messed up a person’s head. Logan had already faced it. Logan had been smart enough to reach out for help. Logan was almost on the other side.
He could totally pawn Georgia off on Logan. Damn straight. It was the perfect freaking plan. Logan wanted to fuck his sister? Well, Logan was the type who took his responsibilities seriously. Fucking a friend’s sister would be serious to Logan. Chase stared at Georgia with a critical eye. She was actually quite pretty. She had some nice curves on her.
“You make a lovely couple.”
Logan’s eyes went wide. “Dude, don’t you even start that shit.”
“I said the same thing.” Kitten grinned up at him. “Sir is a good matchmaker.”
Kitten was quite liberal with the praise.
Logan glared down at Georgia. “If you pull one stunt here, I swear, I’ll have that ass over my knee. I don’t care what your brothers do. They left you in my care. You’re going to follow my rules, and if you ever lock me in a room again, your ass is going to be red.”
Georgia growled right back. It was kind of cute. “I locked you in the bathroom because you were an unreasonable prick. And what is your fascination with my backside? It’s a perfectly fine color. If you lay a hand on it, I will call the police.”
The police would probably forgive Logan after spending more than two minutes with Georgia. Chase had never seen a man willing to deal with Hurricane Georgia. Yeah. He was a good matchmaker. Especially since pawning Georgia off on Logan meant he could know she was safe.
A vision of a little girl with a sweet smile and cotton candy hair clouded his vision. He would fucking kill anyone who touched her.
Damn Nat. He needed to fuck her and then all this mushy shit would go away. Yeah. Once he’d been inside her, he would see she was exactly like other women.
He was smart enough to call bullshit on himself. Nat was unlike anyone he’d ever met, and he was getting worried that she might be the one and she couldn’t stand the thought of taking a collar. He was far from stupid. She was deeply disturbed at the thought of a true D/s relationship, and he wouldn’t be able to accept less.
Ben could. Ben could make her happy. Ben could modify his needs.
Sometimes Chase hated Ben.
Logan’s lips quirked up in what Chase liked to think of as an alpha smirk. He rather thought Logan wouldn’t have ever found his alpha male if the aforementioned trauma hadn’t happened. He likely would have remained a happy-go-lucky guy who would have eventually fallen for some pretty pussy and been content to be led around by his dick for the rest of his life. Now Logan had to deal with his hard self, the same self Chase had never had a choice but to acknowledge.
He’d been born a prick.
“Do you have my bag?” Impatient. He couldn’t even wait to see if he could throw his sister at an approved suitor. All he could think about was the fact that his little piece of sugar was waiting on him. Was waiting on his ropes and his flogger.
He wanted to shop for her. Suddenly his kit, painstakingly put together over a decade, didn’t seem worthy. He hadn’t been thinking of her when he’d assembled it. He’d been buying the best, but Nat needed what would work for her. He didn’t know if she liked deerskin falls on her floggers or cowhide. He didn’t know what kind of paddle made her sub faster. Did she like the sting of a flogger or a thud? Did her nipples respond to alligator clamps or clover clamps?
It bugged the shit out of him that he didn’t know. It fucked with his head that someone out there might know what Nat needed.
Logan sighed a long breath and handed over a small, inauspicious leather bag. It held the whole of Chase’s kink collection. Deerskin flogger, cowhide flogger, four-foot whip, candles for wax play, knives, silk rope, jute rope, nipple clamps, paddles, canes, crops, nothing that meant a goddamn thing because they hadn’t been selected with her in mind, and it was all he had and he felt utterly inadequate.
“Thanks.” What the fuck else could he say? He grabbed the bag. He didn’t have time to deal with his sister’s damage. Georgia was a pain in his ass. He adored her, but she created her own drama and she kind of loved it, so she was never truly willing to let it go. “You guys are staying here tonight. Dinner is in two hours. Your room is on the second floor. Kitten, you and Georgia have to share. Second door on the left.”
Kitten pouted. “Can’t I stay with Master Logan? Kitten likes to cuddle.” Her face fell. “Sorry. I like to cuddle. It’s hard to remember.”
It was hard for Kitten to remember to refer to herself in the first person rather than the third because she’d been abused by a horrible man. Some submissives needed it. They loved to be simply a servant to their Dom, fulfilling their deep love for service. There was nothing wrong with it when it was a choice. Kitten hadn’t had a choice. She’d been a twenty-one-year-old girl when she’d been kidnapped and tortured into thinking she was a possession and not a human being.
Nat rode a fine line. She needed the submission. It was a part of her soul, but she’d been brutalized into thinking that part of herself was dangerous. Was he the Dom to bring her back from the edge? Or would she only need Ben?
Logan put a hand on her shoulder. “Honey, you’re too sweet to cuddle with. Don’t tempt a man.”
Kitten flushed, her body straightening with a pride she hadn’t had before. Yeah, Logan was becoming a good Dom. He was on his way to being a great one. “Thank you, Sir. But you’re right. Kitten—I need to wait for my Dom. I believe you have another sub to handle.”
“I’m going to find my room.” Georgia turned on her heels. “You better not follow me or I’ll lock you up somewhere again.”
“You better think about that, brat.” Logan followed Georgia up the stairs, carrying three bags on his broad shoulders.
Kitten looked up at him. “Do you think this is a good idea? Taking Nat into a situation like this?”
He sighed. It had been plaguing him for days. “I’m going to watch out for her.”
“I know. I worry that she’s not ready.”
So was he. “Well, we haven’t exactly figured out how to get invited to this club. We’ve spent time in every seedy bar on the highway and have nothing to show for it yet. We might not have to worry about it.”
There was a part of him that didn’t give a shit about finding who killed Stan Kirkman. The missing young women were another story.
Kitten turned to Chase, her face softening. “You could be very good for Nat.”
Chase rather preferred the cowering Kitten in that moment. “I don’t know about that.”
“She grew up in the lifestyle.” Kitten leaned back against the wall, her whole body relaxing. Chase had been her caregiver for months and months after she’d been rescued, but she’d never relaxed until now. For the first time in their long relationship, she was talking to him like a friend. “I didn’t. Finn and I grew up here. I didn’t know places like The Club existed. When I was taken, it was a rather surprising experience.”
“You were kidnapped.” Chase needed her to acknowledge the full brutality of the crime against her. She always tried to soften it. “Not taken. You were kidnapped. Nat was kidnapped.”
Kitten nodded. “Yes. We were assaulted. Hawk was quite vicious. He had many slaves before me. I’ve often wondered what he did with them, but the evidence that they existed was there. Sometimes he would mess up and call me by another name. Then he would hurt me for his mistake. I’ve thought a lot about it lately. I think he was going to do something with Gretchen and perhaps Natalie. He said Gretchen was too old. Gretchen told me once she remembered two other slaves. Nat and I found pictures of them. I think he killed them.”
Chase hugged Kitten. Logan had disappeared and that meant it was his job to console her. He remembered a time when he’d been vaguely attracted to Kitten. She was nice looking and so submissive it hurt. He’d thought briefly about how she would be an easy sub. She would do what he said and never challenge him. He hugged her close, but more because he knew she was Natalie’s friend. He’d been utterly changed in the freaking course of a couple of days. “It’s all right, Kitten.”
“We remember their faces.”
Chase looked up, completely startled. Nat stood in the hallway, her face pale, contrasting to the lovely shade of her hair. Chase took a step back. He knew it was stupid. He was only trying to console a friend but couldn’t stand the thought of betraying Natalie.
Nat frowned at him, crossing the space and taking Kitten into her arms. Her right hand came out, silently requesting he complete the circle around Kitten’s body. Kitten sagged against Nat.
“He was going to sell you. I overheard him talking. He’d found a Dom who was willing to pay a lot of money for you.” Kitten’s voice shook. “It’s why I stole the knife. I didn’t want to lose you.”
Chase let his hands go around Kitten, wrapping around her until they found Nat’s waist. His eyes met hers over their mutual friend’s body. He held them for a moment, the revelation that she could have been killed settling in. Her unique essence would have been snuffed out forever. He wouldn’t have known her. He wouldn’t have ever kissed her or spanked her or had a chance at a future with her.
She gave him a tremulous smile. That was his Nat. She’d been told something terrible, and she tried to make him feel better. His hand found her hair.
He was never going to let her go. He was never going to allow a single other human being on the face of the planet to hurt her. Not for a second.
“It’s all right, Kitten. I’m fine. No one can hurt me now.” Nat’s eyes held his.
He made his silent vow. He would find a way to keep her. He would be a better man.
* * * *
Nat followed Chase out of the main house toward the guest house where the playroom was located. Up until now she hadn’t been in the playroom because Ben and Chase had insisted on taking things slowly. The demonstrations she’d witnessed had taken place in Jack Barnes’s bedroom, a huge, gorgeous monstrosity with places for all three of them. They had made it work, Jack and Abby and Sam. They were happy. And Sam and Abby had happily had their asses spanked. Watching them get tied up had been hard though.
And now she was going to the playroom because it was time to move on.
She’d known it existed, but she’d carefully avoided it every time she’d been here. Jack Barnes had offered to show it to her a long time ago. Nat wasn’t dumb. She’d known what Jack was trying to do. He’d been like Cal and all the other Doms, attempting to gently herd her back into the lifestyle because they believed she needed it.
She thought about her visit with Janine. Her therapist wasn’t particularly happy about the whole “going undercover” thing, but she’d told Nat that she was thrilled with her stubbornness and courage. Two days of talking about trust and the need to move on and Nat was giving it a try.
Her heart thumped in her chest, getting faster as Chase opened the door and let her in. The first floor of the guest house was surprisingly normal since she suspected the upstairs would be a fully decked out private dungeon. What the hell was she doing? She couldn’t go undercover. It was stupid. How was she going to catch a killer? She had a degree in art. She made her living as a massage therapist. What the hell did she know about investigating anything? She could barely do a Google search.
