by Lexi Blake
“I’m not really supposed to say, but they have your best interests in mind,” Kim said. “I promise you. The faction I’m with is working toward the same objectives you are. They want to shut down the elements inside the Agency that want to continue McDonald’s work. Beyond that, part of my mission is to figure out who all was in on it. We want to know the names of the companies and individuals who funded her work and any person who was complicit in what happened to those men.”
“They don’t want the information for themselves?”
Kim shook her head. “No. They know better than anyone that some knowledge is best left unused.”
She was done playing around. “Why can’t President Hayes just fire the bastards?”
“I’m not confirming or denying anything, but if I was working for the president, I would tell you he’s in a sensitive position. The politics of it could cause a scandal that would rock the Agency. We need firm proof, enough that if it gets out to the press, there’s no question we did the right thing. The man I’m working for has been set up before, and he can’t let it happen again.”
It was as close to a confirmation as she would likely get. “All right.”
“I’m working hard to get the smoking gun we need, but you should understand that Levi has some finely honed survival instincts. He has to know the tides are shifting and once his bosses are out of power, he’ll be out of a job.”
“Good. He shouldn’t have one as it is. The Agency should have backed Ezra.”
“Well, my ex wasn’t the best at politics,” Kim admitted. “He never was good at playing the game, and Levi is a master. I knew if it came down to a choice, they would back Levi. I had to do a lot of work…”
Kim had gone pale.
“What kind of work? Did you try to save his job?”
“No. I had to work hard to make sure his job was the only thing they burned.” Kim shivered. “He knew too much. I had to play dirty to make sure he stayed alive.”
“Kim, what did you do?”
Tears shimmered in her eyes. “I did what I had to do. I would do it again. And again. I won’t ever stop protecting that man. Not even if it kills me.”
She hated how vulnerable her friend looked. Kim was always so strong, always in charge. It was easy to forget she was simply a woman who loved a man. “Let me talk to Ezra.”
Kim laughed, though there was no joy in the sound. “The very fact that you call him Ezra is proof enough that he won’t want to talk about me. It doesn’t matter. We all make our choices and we have to live with them, but by god I’m going to make sure that man doesn’t go down on my watch.”
“Does he know?”
“Again, it doesn’t matter. Just take care of him for me, Ari. I’m going to settle things on my end once and for all, but I need time. Levi hates him.”
“I think it’s more a case of Levi wanting you.”
She shook her head. “I’m a symptom, not the disease. Levi wants me because Beck had me. I don’t know why, but Levi’s hatred of Beck runs deep, and I worry about what he’ll do if this shit goes down and I don’t take him out fully. Do not underestimate him. I’m going to be in and out of Munich for a little while, but you can call if you need me. I might have a lead on your girl.”
“On Veronica?”
“Yes, and don’t ask me. I can’t take you with me. If I can find her, she might be the key to what really went down.” Kim settled her bag on her shoulder. “I’ll be in touch. And maybe I can come out of the shadows and we can get a drink. I don’t have a love life. I need to live vicariously through yours. I miss you, Ari.”
“I miss you, too.” She suddenly wished she could do exactly that. She wanted to go out to the bar and talk about what had happened the night before. She liked Rebecca, but there was a necessary distance between them. Kim knew everything about her. There weren’t secrets being kept from Kim.
There was a knock on the door and then a masculine voice. “Ari, are you all right in there?”
Robert.
Kim gave her a wistful smile and then disappeared behind the stall door.
She hurried to open the door or her personal caveman might bust in. “Sorry.”
He smiled down at her. “Are you all right?”
She nodded and took his hand. “I’m good. That was a lot of information to process. We should get back to the club. I need to write it all up.”
Robert stared at the door and for a moment she worried he might still go in. She held her breath.
And then he turned and started to lead her out.
She prayed Kim worked fast because she couldn’t keep lying to a man she was absolutely certain she was falling in love with.
* * * *
“Paris?” Tucker paced the floor of the kitchen.
The minute they’d returned to the club, Robert had called a meeting. If he could have kept the news from Tucker he would have, but it was too important.
Ariel had been contemplative the whole ride home. He knew the expression on her face well. She was worried about something and it was probably Tucker and his reaction to the news. Now she was occupying herself by making tea.
Robert didn’t want tea. He wanted to be alone with her, but that wasn’t happening anytime soon. “That’s what this Arthur person said. He told Rebecca he saw you getting on a plane to Paris with Veronica Croft shortly before you transferred to Argentina and she quit Kronberg all together.”
“This should be easy enough to check.” Dante sat behind a laptop. “I don’t suppose he gave you the name of the airline?”
Rebecca shook her head. “I didn’t think to ask him that. I should have. Damn it.”
Owen slid an arm around her shoulders. “You did everything perfectly, love. You were great out there. If you’d pushed him he would have gotten suspicious.”
“He wasn’t suspicious at all.” Peter stepped into the kitchen. “When he left, I followed him a few blocks and he called someone, a friend I suppose. Said he’d met with you and that you were still pretty but…well, he’s not a particularly nice man. He called you an ice queen.”
“I’ll show him what I can do with ice. I’ll stuff his dead body in a bloody freezer and then we’ll see how he likes it,” Owen muttered.
Rebecca merely sighed and leaned into him. “He was always a douchebag, but he was friendly. I’m glad I got good information. I think we’ll have better luck with Louisa. I knew her better. I can be a little more open.”
“We’ll go over all of it,” Ariel promised, pouring out the tea. “I’ll make sure you’re prepped and I’ll be with you the whole way. We’re meeting her at an outdoor café, right?”
Rebecca nodded. “It’s one in the Marienplatz we always used to meet at. She’s kind of a bitch but she’s in on all the gossip.”
“I want to know everything about this Veronica person.” Tucker couldn’t seem to stay still. “Was she my lover? Was she my victim?”
“Well, you didn’t do a good job with her since apparently we don’t think she’s dead,” Sasha replied. “Next time you need to be better.”
“Hey.” He’d felt some slight sympathy for the man the night before, but Sasha was still a massive asshole. “This is serious, and Tucker is asking the same questions any of us would in his situation.”
“I don’t see how Tucker getting laid in his previous life has much to do with this. I’m more interested in the fact that they changed their security protocols surrounding McDonald than I am in finding out Tucker here had a woman he didn’t have to pay,” Dante said.
“I’ll get on the Dark Web and see if I can find anyone willing to talk about the protocols,” Peter offered. “I’ll pretend to be a corporate spy. I’ve done this many times to get information, though usually I had government backing. This time if I get caught, I will have to hope Ian is up for a jailbreak.”
“We’ll take care of you,” Ariel promised him. “It would be good if we could have some understanding of their protocols. If Kronberg still has
that information…”
Robert shook his head. He’d thought this through during the car ride back. “It would be old intel. We all know she made her biggest findings after she went on the run. After she left Germany she wouldn’t have been held in check by their protocols. I doubt she shared her findings with them after she left Europe.”
“It would still be helpful to know what her first formulary of the drug looked like.” Rebecca thanked Ariel for the tea and turned back to Robert. “If I know where she started from, I might be able to better extrapolate where she went. I might also be able to figure out if it’s even possible she also made a cure. If Kronberg has her early research, I would love to see it. I want to see how she took the work I did here and twisted it. I want to know how much I’m responsible for.”
“You’re not.” Owen shifted so he could look in her eyes. He caught her face between his big hands. “You are not responsible for any of this, my love. You were trying to help.”
“I should have seen something was wrong,” she insisted.
“You did,” Tucker said. “You knew I was wrong. It wasn’t your fault. It was mine.”
“God, we’re full of martyrs today,” Dante said with a huff. “If only Ezra would show up we would have the holy trinity.”
“Fuck you, Dante,” Tucker said.
“You keep offering and I might take you up on it one day,” he said under his breath. He stood and closed his laptop. “I’ll be in the office. The Wi-Fi is better in there. I’ll let you know if I find anything about the flight. I might be able to track them around Paris if I can find the plane they took.”
“Maybe if I look at some pictures of Paris,” Tucker offered.
“No,” both Ariel and Rebecca said at the same time.
The last thing they needed was Tucker making himself sick.
Sasha shook his head. “I would not recommend this. Haven’t we had enough puking? Leave it be, brother. Let Dante and I see if we can find a paper trail. I think this is one of those stories it’s better we tell you than you live through.”
Because he’d already lived through it once.
“I think that’s a perfect idea, Sasha. You two work on that,” he said. The faster they got the information the faster Tucker might calm down. Unless they found out something else terrible about him. “We also need to look into the Argentina flight. If Reasor went to Argentina, there should be some records.”
“I’ll look into it. If Jax has some time, he could help, too.” Sasha stood up. “I’ll give him a call. I’m going to work for a while. Is the club open tonight? I wouldn’t mind some time with a Domme. Do you have any here who would scene with me?”
Peter nodded. “Of course. You’re more than welcome. Unless someone thinks we shouldn’t be open. I don’t see any reason. We’re a private club and we’ll have security.”
He wasn’t going to shut down the club. He wanted to spend some time with Ariel. If they shut the club, they would spend the evening working, and they could all use some time off. Sasha definitely needed to scene after what had happened the night before. If he didn’t, Robert was worried he would let off steam in other ways. “Please do stay open. Several of us will likely come down and play.”
“I would love to see it when it’s open and full of people. It looks so different,” Rebecca admitted. “I’ve only seen The Garden before.”
Owen leaned in close. “One day I’ll take you to Sanctum. I promise. Come, love. Let’s rest for a bit and then we’ll walk the dungeon tonight. Hopefully Sasha doesn’t convince his Domme for the night to torture his balls. It’s hard to watch that.”
“Speak for yourself,” Sasha said. “It’s a beautiful thing.”
Owen shuddered. “We speak two different languages, mate.”
The three of them walked off.
“Is he all right?” Peter asked. “Perhaps he shouldn’t play. I heard there was trouble last night.”
Ariel sat down beside Robert. “Sasha needs to scene. He’s a switch, but he only tops when he’s feeling good about himself. He often bottoms. It’s part of his therapy. He never pushes it too far. I would select a Domme who’s worked with masochists before in case he does tonight.”
Peter pulled out his cell phone. “I have one in mind. She’s good. I’ll see you two this evening and I’ll let you know how it goes on the Deep Web.”
“Thank you, and thanks for following up with Arthur.” It was good to know Peter was doing his part. This was why Big Tag had wanted the man around. He could work more quietly than the rest of them because he fit in here, knew the language. And he was the type of man who might go unnoticed.
“I’m happy to help. I will say though that there was a woman at the restaurant today who I swear I’ve seen before. I’m putting a description of her in my report. I could be wrong, but she’s a striking woman. I will be on the lookout for her,” Peter said. “I’m going to file my report now. I’ll see you all this evening.”
“Do you think it’s Solo?” Tucker asked.
Ariel seemed to stiffen. “If she is here, we can’t know she’s not here to help us. I thought you liked her.”
“I did,” Tucker replied. “But that was before I knew who I was. Maybe she’s here to bring me in.”
“She’s not going to take you in. If she wanted to do that, she could show up with the authorities and we wouldn’t be able to fight them.” But he would try. He’d thought that scenario through. He couldn’t let them take one of his brothers. He couldn’t trust anyone in the government.
“Maybe she should take me in,” Tucker said. “I don’t think I want to know what I did in Paris. I don’t even like saying the word. Something happened to me there. Or maybe I did something. Veronica Croft was alive after we went to Paris?”
“Yes,” Ariel affirmed. “She was alive. She came back and quit her job and that was the last we know of her. You didn’t kill her.”
“We can’t know that.” Tucker had his hands on his hips, his face tight. “Maybe I waited until I got back.”
“I don’t think so. You went to Argentina before she quit,” Robert pointed out.
“We’ll figure it out, Tucker,” Ariel promised. “Please come out and play tonight. If you’re not feeling like topping, you can bottom for a change. Or I can find you a sex worker. I think you should indulge yourself. It’s perfectly legal here. It won’t be hard to find someone.”
“You know sometimes I don’t even have sex with them,” Tucker said, his voice hollow. “I sit and talk to them. I lie in bed and wrap my arms around them. God, I’m fucked up. I’ll come downstairs and see what happens. I’ll be okay.”
Tucker turned and walked out.
Robert reached for her hand when it looked like she was going to go after Tucker. “Don’t. He needs some space. He’ll talk when he’s ready.”
“But he needs to talk now,” Ariel insisted.
How hard was it on her? She wanted so much to fix them all, to put together their pieces and make them whole again. It wouldn’t happen. They were irrevocably broken and no amount of talking about their feelings would fill the empty holes. But they could learn to live with them. They could find their way. “He needs to know that we’re here. I know you’re the therapist, but you’ve gotten too close to us.”
Her eyes had filled with tears as she looked up at him. “I know I have. I’ve lost my objectivity.”
He pulled her close. “We need you to be involved with us. Tucker needs it desperately. I wasn’t saying something bad about you. In this case, I do know what he needs and it’s space. Let’s give it to him.”
She nodded and wrapped her arms around him, laying her head on his chest. “All right.”
It felt good to be able to hold her. He stroked his hand down her back, happy that she relaxed against him.
He couldn’t help but think about how odd it had been at the restaurant today. She’d left Rebecca alone, and that had seemed out of character for her. Yes, he and Owen had been sitting at a
table close to them, but Arthur hadn’t left and she’d been there to give her impression of the man. “You would tell me if something was going on, right? Something we needed to know about.”
“I would if I could.”
He held her close and tried not to think about the fact that he’d seen a woman go into the bathroom before her. A blonde.
Ariel wouldn’t lie to him.
He forced the thought from his head and started planning the evening.
Chapter Seven
Ariel scanned the dungeon floor, taking in the scenes in front of her. She’d dressed in the locker room, helping Rebecca into her corset and talking about how they wanted the evening to go. That was usually her transition time. Putting on fet wear helped her move into her submissive persona. Not tonight. Tonight she couldn’t seem to shut her brain off. The problems they were facing churned in her head.
Tucker had decided to stay upstairs. Dante was keeping him company. When she’d left the two had been murdering each other in some video game. Should she have stayed with him? He’d seemed perfectly happy, but she knew Tucker’s emotions ran deep.
Sasha had gone into a privacy room with the tall, beautiful Domme Peter had selected for him. Rebecca and Owen were happily wandering the dungeon.
Everyone seemed to be taken care of, at least for the night. Hopefully they would all find some peace. She glanced to her right and suddenly wasn’t thinking about her problems. A woman was bound face-out to a St. Andrew’s Cross. She was topless but far from naked. A miniskirt of what looked to be hot-pink faux fur covered her hips. A long pink and white-striped tail hung between her legs. She was fairly confident the tail was held in place by a plug in the sub’s ass. The woman’s hands were encased in gloves that looked like large cat paws, done in the same pink faux fur as the miniskirt, accented with white, and what appeared to be real metal claws. The cuffs holding her to the St. Andrew’s Cross wrapped around her wrists just below the point where the gloves stopped. On her feet she wore wedge boots covered in stripes of pink and white fur.