Captivating Her Racy Heroes [Racy Nights 13] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 2

  “I’d love that. They’ve always fascinated me.”

  Hugh chuckled. “Then you’ve come to the right town.”

  She smiled at him as Emma brought her water with lemon, and two Cokes for the guys. “You two be nice to her. Claude will kill you if you drive off his HR manager. He’s been looking for one since last summer.”

  “They’re being perfect gentlemen,” said Brynn.

  Emma gave her a droll look. “Right.”

  After she left, Brynn laughed. “What on earth have you two done that’s gained you such a reputation?”

  “How much time do you have?” asked Hugh, winking at her.

  “I have all day. So, okay, I know what Ryder does for a living. What’s your story?”

  “I crunch numbers. I’m a financial analyst at Notus. I’m the geek who sits behind a desk all day and tries to figure out how to save a buck here or there.”

  “Ah, I see.” She tilted her head and studied his face. “You don’t look the part. Do you enjoy what you do?”

  A quick shadow of pain crossed his handsome face, and she wondered what secret she’d unearthed. “Let’s just say certain areas of study were expected of me and leave it at that. I chose the only one where I could see myself in ten years.”

  “That sounds sad.”

  He shook his head, his smile too quick and forced. “No sadness today. I like what I do. It’s interesting work, my boss isn’t an asshole, and Notus is a great company to work for.”

  “Well then, you’re ahead of the game. Most people I knew back home were miserable doing what they do.”

  Ryder nodded. “That’s why I stay on the line. I like the work.”

  “Have you had a chance to move into other areas, then?”

  “Yes.” His voice was a bit hard now. What was that about? “But I declined. I love being outdoors and getting my hands dirty.”

  “It sounds like you’re both doing what you enjoy. That’s why I’m here. I was analyzing data and that’s not what I went to school for. Now I finally have the chance to work with people, not computers.”

  Hugh raised his glass. “And in the most charming town in northwest Indiana.”

  She laughed and raised her glass, clinking it gently against his. “I’ll drink to that.” She hoped it proved to be charming. So far, everything was great.

  Ryder looked ready to speak again when the bell over the door chimed, and they all glanced up to watch Sean and three uniformed cops enter the store. Brynn’s heart raced and her palms grew damp. She had made up her mind to approach him and Maddox in the park and get this over with, but now that he was here, she wasn’t sure she how to handle it.

  Sean motioned to Emma and leaned close to tell her something. Emma put a hand to her mouth, and Brynn wondered if what he’d just told her had something to do with the commotion she’d seen in the park earlier.

  “I wonder what happened?” asked Hugh.

  Brynn told them what she’d seen in the park, but also that she hadn’t been able to figure out what was going on.

  “He’ll tell us,” said Ryder. “Hey Sean, what’s going on?”

  Brynn knew there was no point in wishing he hadn’t called to Sean. Clearly everyone in this town knew everyone else, and it had only been a matter of time before she’d had to face him or Maddox again. At least now she’d find out how much each man still hated her.

  Brynn forced her gaze toward the cops. It was time to face the inevitable. Sean nodded toward them, narrowed his eyes, and then widened them as recognition dawned on his face. His gaze became cold and hard, and Brynn wished she’d stayed in Chicago.

  Chapter Two

  Hugh glanced from the look of anger and disbelief on Sean’s face, to Brynn’s face. She looked like an animal caught in a cage. What the hell was going on? He knew Sean had once lived and worked in Chicago, and based on what Emma had said, he guessed Brynn was from there. Had these two known each other?

  Sean marched over with his detective’s swagger more pronounced than Hugh had ever seen it, and stopped just inches from their table. He glared at Brynn. “What are you doing here?”

  She colored slightly but squared her shoulders and looked him right in the eye. “Nice to see you again, too. I live here now.”

  “What?”

  “I’m not the same person you knew ten years ago. I have an MBA from Kellogg. And now I’m working for Claude Busler as his HR manager. Or I will be, once the store reopens in three weeks.”

  “Not in my town.”

  “I don’t think you have anything to say about it.”

  He glanced toward Hugh and Ryder, a question in his eyes. “And when did you get cozy with them?”

  “We’re not cozy yet,” said Ryder, giving Sean a curious look. “We’re having lunch. We just met.”

  Sean eyed him and Hugh. “Do you know who this is?”

  “Look, Chicago was a long time ago,” she said. “You were a different person, too. Why don’t you just return to whatever crisis is going on, and let me live my life. I’ll do the same for you.”

  He gave her a look of incredulity, and for a couple of seconds, Hugh thought Sean was going to arrest her for some bullshit charge. He was that angry. “The crisis you speak of has left a man dead, and a woman with a gash on her head from where he struck her with a gun after he kidnapped her from the park.”

  “What?” Hugh and Ryder asked at the same time.

  “We found Ray Hammond. Since the Fowler police impounded his car last night, we assume he walked here. And then he waited in the woods next to the gym, and when Teresa Rodriquez used one of the portable toilets in the parking lot, he grabbed her and dragged her to an abandoned barn about a half mile through those woods.”

  “Oh shit,” said Ryder. “Is she all right?”

  “She will be. She’s at Memorial having that gash sewed up, and Carson and Garret are with her.”

  “And what about Hammond?” asked Hugh. Ray Hammond had been part of Teresa’s life for at least a decade, had beaten her up twice, and she’d been on the run from him for months. Police sergeants Carson Decker and Garrett Amato were now her Doms, and had been working with the rest of the department to find Hammond.

  “He’s dead. He was shot as he tried to grab Teresa again outside the barn.”

  “Is that why you all were suddenly driving and running from the park earlier?” asked Brynn.

  “Yes.” Sean’s voice was hard and cold, and it was starting to piss Hugh off. Whatever had happened between him and Brynn was clearly in the past. Why was he acting like such a jerk?

  “I was on my way over toward you and Maddox when that happened. Is that Julie who was sitting between you? She’s very pretty.”

  “You don’t need to know who Julie is.”

  Hugh was about to open his mouth and tell Sean to knock it off, but he cut him off again.

  “Don’t tell her anything about anyone in this town. She’ll only use it to hurt them.”

  “All right,” said Ryder. “That’s enough, Sean. She just moved here. What the hell is wrong with you?”

  He and Ryder had known Sean all their lives. He was a few years older than them, but he was also a Dom, just as they both were. The BDSM community in this town had always stuck together. Brynn and Sean must have a very bad history together for him to be acting this way in public.

  “Nothing is wrong with me. But you might want to be careful who you hang around with.”

  Brynn looked like she wanted to crawl under the table and die, and that tugged at Hugh’s heart. Whatever she’d done was in the past. And surely it couldn’t have been that terrible. Claude wouldn’t have hired her if she had a criminal background. And Sean’s own past wasn’t exactly pristine. What the hell was his problem?

  “Fine,” said Hugh. “We’ve been duly warned. Now go do what you need to do, and give Teresa my best wishes for a speedy recovery.”

  “Mine, too.” Ryder looked like he wanted to punch Sean. That was good to know. At least
they were on the same page here. Whatever had happened, it didn’t justify Sean getting in Brynn’s face like this.

  Sean glared at her for a few more seconds, but she didn’t back down, and then finally he left.

  Once he was out the door, Emma rushed over and placed Brynn’s food in front of her. “Ignore him. He acts tough, but he’s really a softie inside.”

  “We knew each other a long time ago.”

  “Oh, well…see there? You’re old friends. Don’t worry about it. Let me know if you three need anything else.”

  Brynn stared at her food, but Hugh doubted she’d eat it. He wouldn’t be able to after a confrontation like that. He touched her hand and she jumped a bit. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you. Do you want to tell us about it?”

  She sighed loudly and rested her hands in her chin. “I suppose someone should hear my side.”

  “Well, here we are. We’re all ears.”

  “How much do you know about Sean’s life when he was working as a cop in the Morgan Park area of Chicago?”

  “Not much, other than he and Maddox McCree got played by the same…” He’d almost inadvertently outed both Sean and Maddox. “Um…they knew a woman named—”

  “It’s okay.” She leaned close, and Hugh caught a whiff of shampoo. He didn’t know the brand, but he liked it. It reminded him of warm summer nights, when the smell of flowers permeated the air. “I knew her, too. Sarina Kole. She was a sub to Sean at one time, and she played Maddox as well. I knew them all back then. I’m a sub, too.”

  He and Ryder exchanged a quick glance. This was getting interesting. And he was glad that everything was out in the open, but he couldn’t help but become a bit suspicious at the mention of Sarina Kole’s name. That woman had been bad news last summer for Sean, Maddox, and Julie. Was Sean right about her after all? Should they both walk away now, while they had the chance to save face?

  “Look, I know what this must look like to you two right now. I know that Sarina and Kane Dodger are in jail for kidnapping Julie and trying to extort money from Maddox. But I wasn’t part of that. By the time that happened last summer, I was already out of school and working as a data analyst. That part of my life is over. It has been for a long time. But Sean and Maddox obviously don’t know that because they haven’t seen me in ten years.”

  “When they last saw you, what was going on?”

  “It’s not pretty. Are you sure you want to hear it?”

  “We’re sure,” said Ryder.

  “Are you both good friends with Sean?”

  Ryder glanced toward Hugh, raising his brows. Hugh didn’t need to ask. He knew what Ryder was trying to communicate. Since she’d come clean about being a sub, it was the least they could do in return. Hugh nodded.

  “We’re both Doms as well,” said Ryder. “And yes, Sean is a good friend. But I think it also needs to be said that we’re both a little pissed off that he came at you like that. So tell us what happened.”

  She finally smiled, and Hugh’s heart gave a little lurch. She was so pretty, with her chestnut-colored hair and eyes the color of emeralds. He wanted to get to know her better, but first he needed convincing that her past wasn’t as notorious as Sean had let on.

  * * * *

  Ryder held his breath, hoping they’d made the right decision in telling her. They’d just met her, and clearly Sean didn’t like her. But if she had a criminal background, Claude never would have hired her, and everyone deserved a second chance. The very least they could do was listen to her side, and then draw their own conclusions. She said that Sean and Maddox hadn’t seen her in ten years, so they probably had no idea she’d changed. Everyone has things in their past they wish weren’t there, including Sean and Maddox.

  She sighed again, straightened up, and glanced from one to the other. “Ten years ago, Sarina was my best friend. We’d both become interested in BDSM when we were still in high school, and there was a club close-by that we’d try to sneak into all the time, but never could. When we finally turned twenty-one, we took to it like ducks on water. But unfortunately, the first Dom we both came to know very well was Kane. I don’t know how much you both know about him, but he’s an abusive asshole.”

  “We know that much,” said Ryder.

  “He used us both. He played us against each other, and he played us against other Doms and subs. Sarina was more astute about what was going on than I was, and it took me a while to figure out that not all Doms are like Kane. She and I grew apart the more I pulled away, and the last time I saw her, she and Sean had become involved.”

  She took a bite of her cheeseburger, and Ryder stayed silent while she chewed it and then swallowed it. Clearly this was a difficult story for her to tell, and he wanted to give her time to get it all out in her own way.

  “I knew she was using Sean at Kane’s direction, and I knew she was playing Kane as well. I wanted no part of it. She’d tried to use Maddox, too, but never got as deeply involved with him as she did with Sean. After he and Sean had a falling out over Sarina, Maddox moved back to Racy. The girl had issues, but so did Kane. I finally got my head out of my ass and saw that, but not before I helped her with a couple of her more elaborate schemes to play Sean and against Kane.”

  She took another bite, then ate an onion ring as well.

  “Sean eventually found out my part in all that, and we had a couple of angry verbal exchanges about it before I got the hell away from all of them for the last time. Kane was getting weird. He was explosive before all that, but he became worse the more Sarina hung out with Sean. I wanted no part of it anymore. I knew it was wrong, and I knew it wouldn’t end well.”

  “From what we heard,” said Hugh, “Sean was pretty involved with Sarina before he finally wised up as well.”

  “You would have had to know her back then to understand. She had a way of wrapping guys around her fingers. They were powerless. Even big, bad wannabe Doms like Kane could fall under her spell in a heartbeat.”

  “So part of why Sean seems to hate you so much might be embarrassment at how easily he fell under Sarina’s spell?” asked Ryder.

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. As I said, we haven’t seen each other in ten years. I don’t know what’s in his head. But once I got away from him, Sarina, and Kane, I enrolled at Northwestern. It took me seven years to earn my undergrad and MBA, but I did it. And I took the job at United Data Analysis because it was available, and I wanted to work. I wanted to forget that part of my life had ever existed.”

  “How did you find out about what Kane and Sarina did last summer?”

  “It made the Chicago papers, although they left out the BDSM parts.”

  Ryder nodded. “Great. Nice to know Racy made the big-town news.”

  “Is that why you came here?” asked Hugh. “To follow Sean and Maddox?”

  Ryder wished he hadn’t asked quite so bluntly, but it was an important question. He wanted to get to know Brynn better, but not if her agenda included some sort of revenge, or if she was still obsessed with Sean or Maddox.

  “No.” Her answer was quick and firm. “Not even close. I came because the job was here and Claude offered it to me. They’re not easy to come by. The fact that this is Sean and Maddox’s hometown is pure coincidence. I was hoping I’d have the chance to explain to them what I’ve been doing for ten years, and that they’d be able to simply forget it as I have, and move on.”

  “I’m sure they will,” said Ryder. “Just give them time.”

  “And what about you two? Do you believe me?”

  “No reason not to,” said Ryder. “And besides…” He took one of her onion rings and popped it into his mouth. “We can’t very well hang out with you all day and show you this charming town if we think you’re here to hurt anyone, now can we?”

  He winked at her, and her reaction made his dick hard. She looked so relieved. It was all he could do not to lean across the table and kiss her. He caught Hugh’s curious look out of the corner of his eye, so he glanced
at his friend. “We are spending the day with her, right? I am, at any rate.”

  “Well I’m not going to let you hog all her time, so yeah. We’re spending the day with her.”

  “Do I get a say in this?”

  They both laughed, and Ryder took another onion ring. “You going to eat these?”

  “I had planned on it, but please, help yourself.”

  “Of course you get a say in it,” said Hugh. “What would you like to see first?”

  “What else is there to see besides downtown and the park?”

  “We could take a drive,” said Ryder. “We’ll show you every street if that’s what you want, and give you the dirt on everyone.”

  Hugh grinned and leaned close to her, lowering his voice. “Including Sean and Maddox.”

  She laughed, and then resumed eating the rest of her food. “That sounds like a perfect way to spend a Saturday. Thank you for not kicking me out of here. I think I’m going to need friends in this town.”

  Ryder wanted to be more than her friend. He only hoped he wasn’t making a huge mistake in believing her. He liked and respected Sean, and as one of Racy’s detectives, he was top notch. But Sean was a bit of a hothead, and he and Hugh didn’t really know Brynn. Still, Ryder considered himself a good judge of character, and nothing about her set off warning bells. Quite the opposite. She was pretty, articulate, and intelligent. And clearly she enjoyed having fun and laughing.

  It would be a welcome change of pace to spend a Saturday with someone like that instead of simply waiting for his cell phone to ring because there was another wind turbine to fix. He’d been on call every Saturday for six months straight because his life was that lonely. Maybe she would be the woman to change all that? He hoped so, because he liked Brynn Winston. He liked her a lot.

  Chapter Three

  Brynn finished her food, then excused herself to the bathroom so she could collect her thoughts. At least the initial meeting with Sean was out of the way. It wouldn’t be quite so bad with Maddox, or at least it shouldn’t be. She hadn’t been as mixed up in his day to day life as she’d been in Sean and Sarina’s. Then again, if Sean and Maddox both shared a sub now, they must have grown close once again. Lord only knew what Sean would tell Maddox about seeing her in town this afternoon.