by Lexi Blake
Tucker stood in the middle of a dungeon, his arms spread wide. “Well at least it feels like home.”
They were in a club. Naturally.
“Welcome to Halsbänder,” Peter said, back to his normally cheery self. “This is a club my wife and I founded a few years ago. In English, you would call it Collars. It’s closed tonight, but tomorrow we’re open and we’re happy to extend you the same rights you have at The Garden.”
“Does Big Tag know anyone who doesn’t own a club he can stash us in?” Owen asked. “Surely someone he knows runs a pet store or is an apartment building manager. It ain’t normal to know this many perverts.”
Rebecca sent her boyfriend a glare. “You’re one of those perverts.”
Owen shrugged. “Precisely why I can call us all perverts.”
Tucker sat down on a spanking bench. “This is normal to me. I could nap right here. This is like a couch to me. There is something wrong with that.”
Halsbänder wasn’t as opulent as The Garden nor as technologically advanced as Sanctum. It was an old-school dungeon but it was neat and clean, done in lush colors. It seemed to branch off into smaller rooms, likely scene spaces and specific fetish rooms.
Yes, same place, different country.
“The dungeon is obviously here on the first floor. The second floor serves as the club’s offices and the research library for my tour guide business,” Peter explained. “I have many, many books on the history of Bavaria in there if you should want something to read. Well, and if you can read in German.”
“Do you have a bunch of books on spanking?” Tucker asked, making himself cozy on the spanking bench. It looked like it was set up for a scene, or perhaps the intensely large purple dildo on a tray not far from Tucker’s head was merely there for aesthetic purposes. Tucker didn’t even wince.
“Of course, but those are in German, too.” Peter started toward the stairs in the back. “Your rooms are on the third floor. You’ll find a fully stocked kitchen there and a media room. My wife and I lived here for a few years, but she now prefers the country.”
“Let me guess, all the movies are in German,” Owen deadpanned.
“You have not seen the Avengers until you’ve seen it in German. It’s an excellent dub,” Peter promised. “Come along and I’ll show you where I’ve put you. Mr. McClellan, you’ll need to share with Mr. Tucker. I’ve got Dante and Sasha in one room, Owen and Rebecca in one and Dr. Adisa in her own.”
And she would sleep alone because he no longer had a shot at coaxing her into bed.
It might be a good idea to wait until we get back to London to revisit the state of our relationship.
Wasn’t that what they always did? One step forward and two steps back. When one of them was ready, the other wasn’t.
She moved toward him and took her suitcase out of his hand. “I’ll go settle in. I’ll see you at dinner.”
He watched as she strode up the stairs with Rebecca and Peter.
Owen looked over at Robert. “It’s not that bad.”
“Of course you would say that.” Dante’s voice always sounded tortured, like someone had torn up his throat and he’d never fully recovered. They suspected he was from somewhere in the Eastern Bloc. He spoke Hungarian, Polish, and English. “You get to leave The Garden on a regular basis. It doesn’t matter to you that we’re stuck in a cage again.”
He looked to his left and saw what he hadn’t before. Dante was standing in the shadows. He peeled away and joined the rest of them. He was wearing his normal uniform of a black T-shirt and dark-wash jeans. He rarely wore anything else.
“I thought we were moving to some swanky hotel.” Sasha was with him. He had a beer in his hand. They were almost one hundred percent certain he was Russian. It was hard to mistake that accent. “You promised us this would be a different trip.” He gestured around the room. “It looks very much the same to me. Dante and I have been holed up with the German, who is far too invested in his own history.”
What was he supposed to say? He didn’t hold the power here. He hadn’t truly had any power in…ever when he thought about it. Was this the rest of their lives? Shut up in dungeons, hidden from the world as much as possible because the world wanted to take a bite out of them again. “We got followed from the airport.”
Dante rolled his eyes. “Of course you did. Someone always seems to know where we are. Have we asked the proper questions about why this is?”
Owen glanced up the stairs like he wanted to make sure the women couldn’t hear them. “And what would those questions be?”
Dante looked at Owen, his eyes narrowing. “I think this should be a discussion amongst the four of us. You should go find your pretty girlfriend and make sure she’s safe. There are some unsavory elements around here, after all. I would make sure to lock the bedroom door.”
Sasha sighed and stepped forward as Owen’s eyes flared and he went from happy-go-lucky guy to raging revenge machine in a heartbeat.
“You lay a hand on my Becca and I’ll show you the inside of your own arsehole,” Owen promised.
Sasha waved a hand. “He didn’t mean this, Owen. No one is going to harm the doctor who is trying to help us. That would be rather foolish of us. Let’s all calm down.”
He didn’t feel calm.
“Guys, this place isn’t that bad.” Tucker had sat up. “They even have a media room, and no one has to clean toilets.”
“You might think differently if you walk into one after Dante’s morning ablutions.” Sasha seemed to think the potential for real violence was gone. He walked fully into the dungeon. “The fridge is stocked with beer. If there’s one thing we can get in this country, it’s good beer. But Dante is right. Someone is watching us always, and we should figure out why that is. They find us very quickly.”
“They did not find us at all, Sasha,” Dante pointed out. “It wasn’t until the new group gets here that we’re suddenly in danger and can’t move about like normal humans.”
“Do you have something to say to me?” Owen didn’t look like he was ready to give up the fight yet.
Robert moved to a place where he could easily get in between the two men. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d gotten caught up in a family fistfight.
Of course, from what he understood about the way Tucker, Dante, Sasha, and Jax had been trained, there had been a lot of violence between them. He’d been in what McDonald had called her alpha team. There had only been three men in their unit—he and Victor and Theo Taggart. The rest had been the unit she tested her therapies on before giving them to the alphas. They’d been trained like fighting dogs, and only the strongest had survived.
“Sasha’s right. We need to calm down.” He knew they’d been moving toward this. What had happened in Colorado and then Toronto had to be addressed. “Our host believes someone followed him. We have a tag and we’re going to look into it. This is a couple of days and then we’ll head home. I promise I’m going to talk to Damon about loosening up the leash. They’re only being cautious.”
“That’s good, Rob.” Tucker always backed him up. “Maybe we can have some boys’ nights out.”
“Maybe we could have some actual fucking freedom,” Sasha said under his breath.
“You know why that’s not allowed. You’re both wanted by Interpol. The fact that you haven’t been turned over is reason enough to know we’re safe here.” This was the fight he hadn’t told Ariel about. It was something between the six of them.
“Or McKay-Taggart is playing a game and we are the pawns,” Sasha said. “Think about it…”
Dante’s face went tight and he elbowed his partner. “Not here. Not with him here.”
“Are you actually talking about me?” Owen asked. “You honestly believe I’m…what? Selling us all out to Levi Green? Selling us out to the arsehole who tried to take my girlfriend from me and sell me to MSS for experimentation?”
“We only have your word for it,” Dante pointed out. “Yours and Dr. Walsh. H
ow can any of you trust a doctor again? Any of them. I think we should point out that our kind Dr. Adisa showed up in Toronto just in time for the Agency to make an appearance. I wonder why that was.”
Oh, his reasonable soul was being tested today. “What exactly are you trying to say, Dante?”
Tucker was the one moving now. He placed himself between Robert and Dante. “He’s being an ass like normal. Come on. We’ve all had a rough day. Let’s settle in and grab a beer.”
“Yes, ignoring the problem has worked well to this point.” Sasha took a long drag off his bottle. “You know I’m sure the big boys are telling everyone it must be one of us. One of us has to be the one selling out the team, but I think it’s one of them.”
“Why? Why would anyone in the company sell us out?” He couldn’t believe it. McKay-Taggart had worked hard to free them.
“I can think of several reasons,” Dante said. “Money being the chief. But there are others. Have we considered that perhaps not everyone cut ties to their former agencies? Perhaps there are some divided loyalties. It’s why I feel Owen shouldn’t be considered one of us. His ties to the company run deep. He spends as much time with Nick Markovic as he does with us.”
“I’m sorry I’m not damaged enough for you, mate.” Owen slapped Rob on the shoulder. “I think I’ll go find Rebecca. You know where I’ll be if you need me. Good luck chasing down conspiracy theories.”
He started up the stairs but not before he’d flipped off Dante.
“You can’t shut him out because he wasn’t tortured as long as the rest of us.” Tucker squared off against the duo. “Owen’s been through a lot, too, and he’s always been loyal to us.”
“Says the man who started out as the one who tortured us.” Dante stood. “As the first of us, I was tortured more than any of you bastards. I see things you do not. Think about it. Ariel was in both Toronto and she was here. I happen to know she was kept updated on the mission to Colorado. She knew when Jax went into the woods. Of course, Ezra is an even better candidate. Keeping his old friends in the loop would be an excellent way to get back to the Agency.”
“You don’t stop at all, do you?” Tucker asked.
“If it’s not one of them,” Dante began, “then it is one of us. I can handle it from one of them. I would understand if it was one of them. If it is one of us…”
He whistled as he walked away.
Sasha stood. “He’s got it in his head that we’re being held prisoner again.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Is it? We might not be forced to fight each other but we cannot leave and we must do what our betters tell us to do,” Sasha said, walking to the stairs Dante had recently disappeared up. “It feels not so different to me.”
“Then we remember that time very differently.” The situation was getting dangerous if those two honestly believed being safe was as bad as being held by a woman who routinely tormented every one of them. “When we get back to The Garden we’ll have a team meeting. We shouldn’t do this without Jax.”
“Jax knows who he is.” Sasha’s tone was spiked with bitterness. “And he’s got a pretty wife to keep him company. I’ve got Dante.”
“Then let’s get the information we need to find out who we are and get some power in this game. I promise you, I won’t allow anyone to use us. There’s a life for every single one of us when this is done.” He had to believe it.
Sasha stopped and emotion tightened his face for a moment. “I will hold you to that.”
He held out his hand. Sasha was often the toughest of his “brothers” to get to. Dante would shrug and go back to drinking during an argument, but Sasha would shut down. “See that you do.”
Sasha reached out and gripped his hand. “I’ll go and see if I can talk to him. Or get enough liquor in him that he’s all right to be around. I’ll make sure he comes to dinner.”
He strode up the stairs and Robert looked to Tucker. He knew exactly the words that had gotten to him. It had likely been a direct hit. “We have no idea if you ever set foot in either of the off-site bases where she kept the men. Where she kept us. We only know that you worked with her at Kronberg.”
“We don’t know that I didn’t,” Tucker replied. He shook his head. “I don’t want to think about that now. What happened with Ari? One minute she was holding your hand and then she had that blank look on her face women get when they’re hurt and don’t want to show it.”
“I hurt her? She was the one who told me we shouldn’t have a relationship while we were working together,” he shot back.
“What had you done before she said that?”
Fuck. “I was pissy about not getting to go to the hotel. I pretty much told her she could be my girlfriend or my boss. I was an asshole.”
“You had a rough afternoon.”
He shook his head. “That’s not an excuse. I don’t get to have a bad day and make hers bad, too.” He thought about the problem for a moment. There was a way to make both their days better. “Hey, didn’t Peter say there was a kitchen here?”
“Yeah.”
“Show me.”
Chapter Four
“She didn’t tell me when she would contact me,” Ariel said quietly over the secure line. “I think we have more problems than Kim hanging around.”
“Solo hanging around might be the best of our problems.” Damon’s upper-crust British accent came over the line. “Ian and I have been discussing the fact that if Solo is getting cheeky, it might mean she’s got more leeway. I agree with Ian’s assessment. Solo is likely working for a group that could be very friendly to us.”
“Then let me tell the lads.” Not telling Robert was killing her. She’d overheard a bit of the argument he’d had with the rest of the Lost Boys. She wasn’t proud of eavesdropping but there had been a weird vibe in the room, a simmering anger she couldn’t deny.
“And risk one of them contacting Green? I think he’s on the ropes with the new developments. I think it would be a mistake to bring this out into the open if what we fear is true and we’ve got a leak. Look, talk to Solo if she contacts you again. Try to get her to tell you what’s happening on her end of this. I don’t think she’s a physical danger to the lads.”
“She’s not. She got close in Colorado. If her plans had been to take one of them for physical testing or questioning, she could have done it then.”
“Excellent. Then you’re not keeping anything from them that could hurt them. This is how this game is played, Ari. We’re almost done. I can feel it.” Damon was quiet for a moment. “We’re close to making some breakthroughs. Theo Taggart won’t tell me exactly what he’s got, but he thinks he’s close to convincing a woman who worked for Hope McDonald’s father to talk to us. We believe Senator McDonald used his place as the head of the Armed Forces Committee to funnel soldiers into his daughter’s program. I sent you a report on the initial findings. You should feel free to share that. They need to know we’re doing everything we can to identify them so once we have the leverage, we can get the charges dropped against each of them. When we do that, they can go home.”
The thought of Robert going home made her heart ache. His home was in The Garden. She wanted his home to be with her. “That would only cover the American military.”
“We’re not sure. McDonald had deep ties across the globe thanks to his connections to The Collective.”
The Collective had been an illuminati-like group of corporations who had set about manipulating global governments and systems to enrich themselves. Kronberg had long been rumored to be a part of it. The Collective itself had retreated, but she had no doubt they would simply lick their wounds and resurface some time down the line. “So we might soon be able to give our lads their real names.”
“That’s the hope,” Damon assured her. “Do what you need to do to keep their spirits up.”
“It didn’t help that we’re stuck in a club again.”
Damon chuckled. “I’ve heard it’s nice. And th
e neighborhood is quiet enough that you should be able to have a bit of freedom. They can take walks, go out for meals, but make sure they never go alone. And tell Robert next time he plans to seduce one of my employees he should do it in a hotel that’s not monitored by the local intelligence agency.”
“I’m certainly not going to tell him that. He was upset enough that his plans got ruined.”
“Are you sure you want to jump into this now?” Damon asked. “If Theo’s right, we could find his family soon.”
It would be smarter to hold off. She knew it logically. She’d spent her whole life being careful. “I think it’s safe to say that being stuck in a club with everyone around us successfully put a kibosh on the date.”
“I’m sorry, dear. It’s probably for the best.”
It was and yet she felt lonely at the thought of not spending time with him tonight. Despite today’s man fit, Robert was usually the nicest man she’d ever met. Oh, she wasn’t fooled by his placid demeanor. She knew there was war going on inside him, but the core of the man was solid.
She wondered if he understood that. She’d always thought his hesitation came from the rubbish idea that he could hurt her physically.
He often forgot who she was. And then there was that part of her he didn’t know about at all.
There was a knock on her door. She glanced to the clock. It was getting late. The pizza had likely arrived. She didn’t want pizza. She wanted to start the day again and not have any of this hanging over them. When she’d gotten on that plane, she’d been filled with anticipation, and all of it was gone now. She’d expected dinner to be a quiet affair with only her and Robert. Now she would have to referee between Owen and Dante. She needed to get the whole group together for a session to get at the underlying problem.
“I’ve got to go, Damon.”
“Be safe.”
She hung up her mobile and slipped it into her pocket before answering the door. She’d expected Rebecca or Owen, but it was Robert who stood in her doorway.