by Ann Jensen
“Get your ass over here. It is time for some serious girl talk. Your gorgeous stalker can join these girls’ stalkers inside.”
Cami shook her head. “He’s a bodyguard, not a stalker.”
“If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it ain’t a lion.”
Cami jogged up and wrapped her friend in a hug. The last few days had been so focused she had forgotten about her friend and felt guilty about that. She had justified it to herself by saying her friend’s skills were only in encryption, but that had been only part of it. Needing to find Rick had been her focus, and that meant moving at a speed her friend couldn’t work at. Hopefully Jojo would understand after they both got back to what should be a normal life. The warm air inside the porch was a welcome change since she didn’t really have clothes suited for long walks in the Colorado fall weather.
Pixie was sitting with her feet up on a cushioned wicker couch while Val sat next to her on another couch the whole enclosed porch was a perfect setup with a beautiful view of the field and the Rocky mountains in the distance while still being warm and sheltered from the cold.
“Good to see you finally out and about.” Val’s welcoming southern tone put Cami at ease.
“Hope you have been enjoying your time with Tek.” Pixie smiled.
Cami felt her cheeks heating. The two of them had mostly been spending time side by side at different computers lost in code. Tek focusing on fixing the nightmare that was his security while she focused on tracking down the hacking group and searching for Rick. They had taken a few breaks.
“Looks like she enjoyed that time,” Jojo teased. “So much that they couldn’t even pop their heads out and say hi to friends and family.”
Cami had totally forgotten she had been keeping Tek from Pixie. She plopped down on a chair. “I’m so sorry, Pixie. I didn’t even think.”
Her laugh was like tinkling bells. “Honestly, I’m still not sure I’m ready to wrap my head around having an older brother. Sharp took me in to get the DNA test, so we’ll know for sure. I couldn’t handle believing I have a brother, then finding out you were wrong.”
There was no doubt in Cami’s mind, but she understood the hesitation. It would be a big change.
Jojo sat down next to her with a dramatic sigh. “Yes, yes, you are about to become an heiress that is wonderful. But I want to know all the details of what my innocent flower has been doing all these long days.”
“Innocent flower?” Pixie laughed. “Aren’t you a stripper at Darklights? I mean I’m not knocking it, a girl needs to earn a living, but innocent isn’t a word I’d use.”
Jojo chuckled and proceeded to tell all her secrets to these two women who were brand new. From her being a virgin millionaire to her quest to find what she wanted sexually by stripping. Cami would have died from embarrassment if it was possible.
Val raised an eyebrow. “Your therapist told you to do this?”
“No. He said if I found myself uncomfortable in a s-situation, I should pretend to be someone else so I could get through it until I was comfortable again. Then I was taking a pole dancing exercise class and thought, I’m pretty good at this. One thing l-led to another, and it seemed to make sense. I mean, how else was I supposed to know what I would like?”
“Well.” Pixie grinned. “I think most women meet a guy, connect, and give him a whirl.”
“That seems inefficient.” Actually, it was what she had done with Tek, so she was arguing against her own actions.
“My girl loves her data. She is probably going to have to try all flavors of the rainbow before she is sure of herself.” Jojo reached over and squeezed her knee.
“Is that all Tek is to you? A flavor you’re trying out?” Pixie looked concerned, and it bothered Cami.
Was she doing that? The heat between the two of them was off the charts and he was so smart she never felt like she was talking over his head, or he was just humoring her. She hadn’t once worried about what happened next or if he would still be there, but the bubble they had been living in was likely to burst soon, and what then? Would he still want to deal with all her oddities after the pressure of being in danger passed? Or worse yet, would he try to use her like so many others did?
“I don’t think so.”
Val leaned forward, putting her elbows on her knees. “The men here fall hard and fast, and they don’t let go. If you’re not serious, Cami, you need to make sure he knows that.”
“They only met a week ago. Don’t you think that’s a bit fast to be asking for commitment?” Jojo’s expression told everyone she felt it was too fast.
“That’s all it took for Sharp and me.” Pixie rubbed her belly with a smile.
”Well, he must be a beast in bed if you agreed that fast.” Jojo laughed.
Val smacked Jojo on the shoulder. “These two are a perfect match and like to show us at every opportunity. Their floor shows are legendary.”
“Floor shows?” Cami was intrigued. Pixie looked like an innocent angel with her blonde hair and green eyes. Everything from the way she looked to how she dressed screamed innocent.
“Oh, don’t let her Pixie style fool you. She loves having people watch her and Sharp fuck like bunnies at the Clubhouse. Her other nickname is Banshee, and she is a badass woman who knows how to take what she wants.” Val winked at Pixie.
“Oh so we’re pulling out the dirty talk then are we, Val?” Pixie’s grin held an almost palpable mischief. “I may like putting on a show, but our Val here likes being tied up.”
“Oh.” Jojo clapped her hands in delight. “So Cami, what kinky games does Tek have up his sleeve?”
Cami thought over the last week and smiled. It was nice to have girlfriends to share this kind of thing with. She looked up at the ceiling and tried to remember everything. “Well, I like ropes, ties, and cuffs. Bondage in general. Edging is horrible and wonderful all at the same time. Knife play is scary but fun. Wax is enjoyable but really messy. We haven’t tried electricity yet, but I have a great idea for a mad scientist and his creation that I thought we could try out, but that will have to wait till I can get the props. Naughty school girl spankings are amazing. If I had to pick, I guess my favorite is slave girl and master because we can work almost anything into that.”
She looked down and giggled at the slack jawed look on the three women’s faces. She bit her lip and wondered if she had over shared.
Jojo recovered first. “You’ve done all that in the last three days? When did y’all sleep?”
“We’ve mostly been w-working on finding Rick and cleaning up the mess at Tek’s company. But doing ph-physical activity to break up mental fatigue is a well-known convention to increase productivity.”
“You are more precious than a wiggling puppy.” Val laughed. “So you would say roleplaying is your thing?”
“Yeah.”
“How about PDA?” Pixie giggled.
Cami considered it. She had been taught public displays of affection were rude so never really thought about it. But if Val was talking about Pixie putting on floor shows, maybe it was different for them. Would she mind people watching while she did intimate things with Tek? There were plenty of fun ways it could work as either a show or a funishment.
“That’s not rude?” she asked to be sure.
“Not on party nights. Actually it’s kinda required to become an Old Lady.” Pixie smiled, not embarrassed at all.
If Jojo’s eyebrows rode any higher, they would have flown off her face. “I knew bikers were a kinky bunch, but public sex is a requirement?”
A bubble of joy flitted through Cami’s stomach because for once she wasn’t the one being shocked. Bonding over girl talk was something she had only ever done with Jojo, and it was nice to be connecting with these women.
“More a tradition than a requirement. Well, sort of. When a man asks you to be his Old Lady, the official ceremony has to be witnessed by at least five Brothers. The letter of the law says she has to ‘show her devotion to
her man and his club’. And tradition is you fuck claim each other in front of the club and vow yourself to the Dark Sons.” Val winked at Pixie. “Some of us like to renew our vows on occasion, and others never do. That is a more personal preference.”
“Oh Lordy.” Jojo fanned herself. “So if my girl wants to join your little club and get one of those fancy vests she needs to get down and dirty with her man in front of witnesses?”
The idea excited her more than she wanted to admit. Not that he had even hinted he wanted that kind of relationship with her. Val and Pixie laughed and nodded, obviously enjoying Jojo’s shock. The door to the house flew open and Dozer stood in the doorway, a grim expression on his face.
His gaze stopped on Cami and he took a deep breath.
“Sorry, ladies. Cami is going to have to come with me up to the Clubhouse.”
Val looked at her husband with a frown forming on her face. “What’s going on, baby?”
He ran a hand down his beard. “Cops are there with a warrant for her arrest.”
Cami’s chest tightened, and she had trouble getting breath. “What for?”
Chapter 29
I don’t wanna work, I just want to bang my girl all day.
The code on the screen was the last thing Tek wanted to be focusing on. Sitting in the luxury of his corporate office felt wrong. The last three days had shown him what really mattered to him. Working side by side with Cami had been like waking up from a long, tedious dream. Her vibrant mind kept up with his in a strange mix of brilliance and debauchery. He loved how she could slip back and forth between working on finding Rick and kinky bedroom games without a pause.
The only reason he was in the office today was for the final inspection of the new code and to talk to the company lawyers. He had come to several decisions and needed to learn how hard they were going to be to implement. First, he had to face Lisen and discuss his plans with her and Kane.
His intercom buzzed, informing him they were here. Tek got up from his desk and moved over to the more casual seating area that held three comfortable chairs, hoping it might make this conversation a little less hard to swallow. What he wanted to do would be a huge risk for the company, and Lisen and Kane had been with him since the beginning.
Neither of them looked happy with him as they walked into the office. While Lisen’s expression was almost hostile, Kane’s look was more a mix of frustrated annoyance. He gestured for them to sit and took the third chair.
“I know we have a lot to discuss–” Tek started.
“You think?” Lisen’s aggravated words cut him off. “The company is in the middle of a crisis, you commit sexual assault, armed gunmen attack, you vanish with your victim, refuse to answer phone calls, barely respond to email, and just show up three days later and demand our presence. I don’t even know where to start unpacking this mess. If it wasn’t for our long history and the hundreds of employees who would be affected, I’d leave you to clean it up by yourself.”
“It wasn’t sexual assault,” Tek protested, though his words were hollow. He had crossed a line and was glad beyond belief Cami had forgiven him.
“Really?” Kane spoke up. “Lisen told me what you told her, and I watched the video of the interaction with the lawyers. Seems to me they couldn’t blackmail you with a video or anything else if you had been a choir boy.”
Both of them had points, but he didn’t feel like getting into it with them. They had been more than coworkers and they deserved some information, so he decided to give them some truth. “Never been a choir boy. Cami has agreed to forgive me and the two of us are together now.”
“Is that a joke?” Lisen raised an imperious eyebrow.
“No joke. Details of that are between her and me. The last week has brought home some very uncomfortable truths. You both know in the last five years this company has grown way beyond what I ever imagined. The original mission has become buried under the work needed to grow into corporate markets. Over seventy percent of our business now is in protecting the rich and powerful, both digitally and physically. I don’t want to spend my time on that anymore.”
Kane leaned back in his chair. “Not going to lie, most of the bodyguard work we do could be done by pretty muscle rather than trained military men, but the paycheck is good.”
“Oh for the love of God, Tek. Is this some sort of early midlife crisis? I respect your goals or I wouldn’t have stayed with you all this time, but the truth is you can’t fund saving and protecting the helpless without the projects that actually pay.” Lisen pinched the bridge of her nose. “Over the years, I’ve looked the other way on your business with the Dark Sons. Now, if you say you worked out things with Cami, fine, though I do want permission to do what it takes to get Joshua back.”
“You got it.”
“If you want me to continue to work for you, you need to be very clear about what your little statement means. This is your company, but it sounds like you want to ditch all the paying work. Not even your money will pay the salaries of all the people who depend on us for long.” Some of Lisen’s anger seemed to have been replaced with worry.
Tek understood her concerns and hoped they would both be interested in what he was offering. “Once we clean up the mess Rick made of the GUI, it is my intent to take a step back. Depending on what legal and contracts says I’m not sure how exactly it is going to take, but my intent is to step away and give the two of you full control of your divisions.”
“It’s not like we don’t have full control now. You don’t interfere much. How would this be different?” Kane looked puzzled.
“I’m breaking off the division that works on missing people and kidnappings into its own company. My plan is to run it personally as a private foundation, with a small team only subcontracting work out on an as needed basis.”
Lisen narrowed her eyes. “Are you planning on selling Vallier Technologies?”
“In a manner of speaking. I’m giving each of you twenty-six percent of the company before the split with the option to buy me out over time at the current market value.”
Kane coughed and Lisen looked as if she had been hit with a stick. The COO recovered first. “Tek, this is an over two-billion-dollar company and you are just going to give over half of it to us?”
“And all the associated headaches. If I were the two of you, I would separate the two sides of the house into their own companies, but luckily that won’t be my decision.” Tek leaned back with a smile. Even if it wasn’t reality yet, the idea that soon he would be free of the day-to-day grind and free to focus on the important things in life was like a giant weight being lifted off his shoulders.
His personal worth was more than he could spend in several lifetimes, so giving this much of it to two people who had made most of it possible seemed right. His cellphone rang. Hawk’s name flashed across the screen.
“Hey, Brother. Going to be a few hours before I can head back.”
“I’m sorry, Tek. We had no warning.” Hawk’s voice was tight. Tek stood and strode towards the door, ignoring the curious looks of Kane and Lisen.
“What the fuck happened?”
Chapter 30
Doing the right thing has never gone so wrong.
The back of Agent Devin’s car was surprisingly clean. Cami wasn’t sure why she had expected dirt and trash, but the sedan looked like it might have been fresh off the sales lot. The gray interior was boring and other than the extra gadgets on the dash, you would never know. The car even had that slightly chemical smell that was usually only found in new cars. Her wrists chaffed under the cold metal of the handcuffs as they held her in an awkward position, propped forward against the seatbelt. She hadn’t been violent or tried to escape, but for some reason Devin thought they were necessary.
The whole situation was surreal, from the walk to the Clubhouse, to listening to her rights being read. Honestly, her mind sort of checked out from the moment Dozer said she was accused of murder. Even as Deep, a man she’d never met,
read the warrants, the only words that sunk into her mind was that there was evidence she had shot someone.
Having never fired a gun at another person, she found that impossible. In fact, it was almost two years since she had fired a gun at a range. How could they possibly have evidence otherwise? Faking digital records. Sure, she knew how to do that, but physical evidence? Wasn’t that supposed to be impossible? She’d never really thought about the possibility.
Cami tilted her head and studied the man in the driver’s seat. What in his past made Devin willing to terrorize a child whose only crime was wanting the truth about his father? Empathy of any sort seemed beyond him. When she’d gotten him removed from the NSA, she had been young and thought it would get him out of her life. Instead of being smart and moving on, Devin spent almost ten years trying to find ways to get her back under his thumb. Obsession might be part of it, possibly revenge, but the focused hatred he displayed was foreign to her. Maybe if she understood what he wanted, she could finally get him out of her life.
“What is the deal this time? Hack the C-Cartel’s and you’ll drop the fake m-murder charge? Or maybe you want me to tell the CIA or FBI I f-forgive you and am okay with you working with them again? Whatever it is, my answer will always be n-no. I d-don’t work under duress.”
“That only worked before because I couldn’t prove what everyone knew you had done. This time I have fingerprints, the gun, and a dead body that says you either play ball or go to jail. I’m good with either solution.”
Fingerprints… Gun... Her thoughts whirled, Tek’s gun! He had let her hold it for comfort while she crawled out from under the car. Did he shoot someone with that gun? But wouldn’t it then have both their fingerprints on it?
She looked out the window as her thoughts raced and saw they were driving way too fast through a small town. Houses and shops lined the street. The traffic was light, so Devin obviously thought he could ignore any posted speed limits. Behind them in a car was Deep and Sharp, while behind them Max and a Dark Son Brother named Highdive rode motorcycles. How had she gone from being on her own to having people she barely knew be willing to follow her to the police station? Her arrest wasn’t a shock. She broke lots of laws. However, murder was not something she’d ever contemplated being charged with.