Black Dog Security- Complete 5-Part Series

by Camilla Blake

  He nodded and closed his pad. “Just keep your distance. The Steltons are powerful people. They don’t make good enemies.”

  I watched him walk away and swallowed. She definitely knew something was up. I couldn’t believe she’d called the cops on me. Fear faded into annoyance and I wanted to bust her more than ever. I also had to tell someone about it. Even though I was still mad at Branson, he was the only person I could talk to.

  I knew what he was going to say, but I had to tell him. I had to admit that I also wanted to see him. It’d been a long day, wondering what he was doing and if he’d decided to apologize for being a jerk yet.

  I had to go to dinner with Brenda, Sammie, and Devon first, though. I was hungry. All the panic had made me work up an appetite. It gave me longer to consider what I was doing by going to his house, too. I needed to think about it. He would be angry about me following Helena. He’d definitely be angry about me getting caught.

  Just in case I did decide to go over to him after dinner, I dressed in cute underwear and a clingy dress. I touched up my makeup and texted Sammie to let her know I was ready. She was swinging by to pick me up after she got Devon, then we were meeting Brenda at a trendy spot downtown.

  Dinner was delicious and everyone was fun, but my mind was on Branson. I had to go over to see him. If I was being honest with myself, I would’ve gone over to see him even if nothing had happened with Helena. We’d left things weird that morning and I knew that he was running. I didn’t understand why he did the things he did, but I got that revealing himself to me had been hard for him. It made sense that he lashed out afterwards.

  It didn’t make it okay, but I didn’t want to let him go. I wanted him in my bed again. I wanted to talk to him more, too. I wanted to find out why he was so scared of letting me see him. I needed more of him.

  To avoid him hiding from me, I got his address from Lauren. Then, when everyone else went out to a bar, I took a cab to his house and sent it away when I saw the cars in the driveway.

  It might’ve been the margaritas I’d drunk at dinner, but I was feeling brave. I wanted to hash out whatever had happened that morning and then get back to the sex. Maybe I’d had more than enough tequila with dinner that I was horny and wanting to rub against Branson.

  Before I could knock on his door, he pulled it opened and stared down at me with confusion on his face. “What are you doing here?”

  It was still drizzling and I was getting rained on, but as soon as I saw him, I didn’t care. “I came to see if you’re done being a jerk.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest and stepped outside. He was toe to toe with me, looking down into my eyes. “I haven’t decided yet.”

  It started raining harder, but I was frozen there, looking up at him. His hair was already soaked, falling into his eyes. He looked so intense that I lost my breath. I wanted so much. I didn’t understand most of it, but I wanted. “Which way are you leaning?”

  “Definitely towards not being a jerk.”

  I laughed and then Branson was taking me into his arms. He kissed me and held me pressed against his strong body. I wrapped my arms around his waist and slipped my hands under his shirt, wanting to feel his bare body.

  He curled his hands under my ass and picked me up. My dress slipped up as I wrapped my legs around him, and the sensation of my lace panties brushing against his jeans was amazing.

  I brushed my fingers over his jaw and pulled back to look down at him. “Don’t call me a whore again.”

  He kissed my neck and grunted. “I’m sorry.”

  “There’s just something about a man apologizing that’s so incredibly attractive.” I cupped his face in my hands and kissed him deeper, stroking his tongue with mine.

  “Holy shit! Get it, Branson!”

  I pulled away from Branson and found Lauren standing in the doorway, with another tall drink of water, cheering us on. I unlocked my legs from behind Branson’s back and slowly sank down his body until I was touching the ground again.

  Branson gently touched my back. “Come on. Let’s get out of the rain.”

  I let him lead me inside and crossed my arms over my chest, more than aware that I was revealing a lot more than I usually would to practical strangers.

  Branson grabbed a blanket from the back of a large leather couch and wrapped it around me. He looked nervous. I noticed that his hands shook again as he stood next to me.

  “So, you took my advice and called Branson, I see?”

  I laughed. “Yeah. He refused to help me with the case I’m working on, but apparently I find that attractive.”

  Both men shifted awkwardly while Lauren and I grinned at each other. The other man beside her finally stepped forward and held out his hand. “Mercer Dunn. I work with Branson.”

  I shook his hand and smiled. “Is there some kind of requirement that the men who work with y’all have to be gorgeous?”

  Incredibly, both men blushed. I wanted to laugh more, but I was afraid that once I started, I wouldn’t be able to stop. It’d been a long day and I was feeling a little strung out.

  “Let’s not give them big heads. Bigger heads.” Lauren took my arm and pulled me into the kitchen with her. “So, is everything better? You seem less stressed than when I saw you at yoga. By the way, you’re about to lose your spot. People are sharks in that class.”

  I waved my hand. “The last thing on my mind is yoga right now.”

  “I can tell. So, were you the person who kept Branson out last night?”

  Branson cleared his throat from across the kitchen. “Mind your business, Lauren.”

  “He was with me. He was busy refusing to help me.”

  Lauren snorted, but Mercer came farther into the room. I noticed a slight limp when he walked, plus scarring not unlike Branson’s, but he really was a beautiful man. Judging by way Lauren looked at him, she’d more than noticed.

  “What case are you working on?”

  “She shouldn’t be working on a case at all. She’s a secretary at the Stelton Firm.”

  Lauren hissed at him. “Don’t do that. Just because she’s a secretary doesn’t mean that she can’t work on a case.”

  “It literally does mean just that. She doesn’t know what she’s doing. She’s going to get herself hurt.”

  Mercer interrupted. “What’s the case?”

  I met Branson’s eyes and swallowed. What if they thought I was crazy?

  Chapter 22

  Branson

  I looked at Elizabeth, feeling so many things, and waited for her to tell Mercer and Lauren about the case she thought she was working on. The anxiety I’d been feeling all day was calmed by seeing her in my doorway, especially in such a little dress—but now she looked like she had something to say. It couldn’t be good.

  “I saw something. Well, I’m ninety percent sure I saw something.” She licked her lips and met my eyes. “I think I saw my boss, Helena Stelton, murder one of my coworkers.”

  Lauren gasped. “What?”

  “I went back to work to get my phone late one night a few weeks ago and I nearly walked in on Helena and Paul having sex. It was a lot. There was shit happening that I think you have to be trained to do and I was shocked. I heard a thud and there was something red on the carpet, but I thought it was candle wax. Red candle wax. Then I heard these weird sounds…” She shuddered. “They freaked me out because they sounded like pained groaning, but I thought it was just Paul’s weird orgasm sounds. He gasped and… it was horrifying. I convinced myself, though. I told myself it was just the way he sounded.”

  I straightened. I hadn’t listened to her whole story. I hadn’t paid enough attention to how freaked out she seemed by the whole thing. She’d been so much sugar and spice that I hadn’t looked deeper to see that she was genuinely upset by what she’d seen and heard.

  “What happened next? I mean, did Paul not come into work?”

  Elizabeth looked at Lauren and shook her head. Her eyes filled up with tears, but she quick
ly blinked them away and gathered herself before continuing. “The cops were at the office the next morning. Paul Porter was found murdered outside of his house early that morning. He’d been choked and suffocated.”

  Mercer swore and looked over at me. “Why didn’t you mention it? We could’ve taken the case on to keep her safe.”

  I shook my head. “I didn’t think she needed to get involved. The cops were working on it. You know the money and status behind the Steltons. Elizabeth saying anything against them would’ve been suicide.”

  “The cops… Ha.” Lauren shook her head.

  “And you didn’t believe me.” The hurt in Elizabeth’s voice was mostly hidden, but I could tell it was there.

  “Branson, you dick.” Lauren went around the island and hugged Elizabeth. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, it’s been fine. I’ve been doing some investigating and looking for shit to prove that she had a motive for wanting him dead. I found one. But then it was deleted…”

  “What?” I grabbed a bottle of the water from the fridge and put it in front of her. “You talked to your ex, didn’t you?”

  The tops of her ears were hidden, but I knew they’d be red if I looked. “I had to. You wouldn’t help.”

  “All right. Lovers’ quarrel aside—what list?”

  “Paul’s friend at work said that Paul had a list of names. Different women he’d slept with, things about them, details. He’d been talking about a big fish he’d hooked. He was maybe going to reveal who it was that weekend.” Elizabeth leaned forward, getting into it. “Helena Stelton was his big fish. She had to be. The shit they were doing… You don’t just do that on the first time you have sex with someone.

  “She had to be his big fish. Maybe she found out he was going to tell. Maybe she just killed him accidentally, but I doubt it. She’s in control. Always in control. An ex of mine hacked into the system and got the list. When I asked him to send it to me, he tried to bribe me into sleeping with him for it and I told him to fuck off, so he deleted it.”

  Lauren gasped. “What a fucking dickbag.”

  Mercer looked up at the ceiling and sighed. “Okay. Do you have any other proof?”

  “Just what I saw so far. I followed her to a club called Red downtown, though. Maybe if I can get in, I can get someone to talk about the things she’s into. I think if I had some other kind of evidence, the police might have to listen to me more. Or they would’ve. Before tonight.”

  “What happened, Elizabeth?” My gut tightened and I moved closer to her. I was terrified of what she was going to say.

  “Well, that’s what I came over to tell you.” She made a face. “Although what I got instead, earlier, was way better.”

  Mercer and Lauren both tried to hide their smiles, but Elizabeth was unfazed. She just shrugged and fiddled with the paper label on the water bottle.

  “I was following her around and she spotted me. She looked at me like she wanted to murder me. Instead, though, she called the cops. She filed a complaint against me, saying I was harassing her.”

  “Shit,” Lauren said.

  I nodded, suddenly livid. “Yes. Shit is the correct response.”

  “Don’t start, Branson.”

  “No, Elizabeth; I’m going to start. I told you to stay out of it. You know what you’re going to walk into at work tomorrow? She’s not just going to file a police complaint against you and let you keep working for her. She’s going to fire you and put a black mark on your record.”

  “No, she’s not.”

  “Yes; yes, she is. She’s going to have you fired. And you’ll be lucky if that’s all she does. She knows you’re up to something. She didn’t get to her level by being stupid. She’s built a life around her reputation. She’s not going to let a secretary bring her down.”

  “Branson!”

  Elizabeth glared at me. “You’re being an asshole.”

  “And you’re being dense if you think that she’s going to let you try to ruin her. You try to tarnish her name and she’s going to come hard for you, Elizabeth. Now, if you go to the police, she’s got a case to show that you’re obsessed with her. Anything she can say to hurt you, she will.”

  “Don’t fucking talk down to me, Branson. I’m not an idiot. I just couldn’t ignore the fact that a man had been murdered. Maybe you could, but I couldn’t. I had to do something and I am doing something. I’m going to figure it out.”

  “No, you’re not! You’re going to be fired and then you’re going to find yourself in such a fucking predicament that you can’t focus on Helena anymore.”

  “You’re the worst. All you do is talk down to me and tell me that I can’t do anything because I’m a secretary. That’s so offensive. You’re so offensive. You insult me, but you’re not doing anything to solve the murder. I can’t believe that a man who’s supposed to be a hero would walk away from a murder and let it go like the life lost doesn’t matter at all!”

  She’d come closer to me and I’d gotten closer to her and we were almost shouting in each other’s faces, but there was something about her that pushed me to insane levels.

  “I’m trying to make sure your life isn’t in danger!”

  “Oh, like you care!”

  “I fucking do, obviously, or I wouldn’t be wasting so much energy worrying about you and trying to keep you from getting locked up.”

  “Don’t act…” She hesitated. “You worry about me?”

  I winced and rubbed my face. “Let me take you home.”

  Lauren and Mercer just stood back and watched it all happen, neither of them concerned that we were yelling at each other. I guess it didn’t seem weird to them.

  “I’ll take a cab.”

  “No, it’s fine. I’ll take you.”

  “I came in a cab. I can take a cab back home.”

  “Does everything have to be an argument with you? Fuck.”

  “It doesn’t have to be. If you’d just stop arguing, we’d be fine.”

  “Elizabeth.”

  “Branson.” She deepened her voice to sound like mine and stood up straighter. Her shoulders were set and her jaw was out. She’d made up her mind to do the exact opposite of what I wanted.

  Lauren laughed and then turned away when I glared at her.

  Mercer rolled his eyes. “We should look into it, Branson.”

  I’d already planned on it. I just didn’t want to encourage Elizabeth. I wanted her to leave it alone. “We’ll talk later. I’m going to take her home.”

  “Just call us if anything else happens, Elizabeth. Branson is right. Someone like Helena Stelton has a lot to lose. Her family has wealth and the reach to really hurt someone like you. There have been rumors before about them, too. Just be careful.”

  Elizabeth moved around me, taking care not to touch me, and sighed. “I had high hopes for you, Mercer. I was hoping you’d be different than this jerk.”

  Lauren snorted. “Don’t waste your time hoping for miracles.”

  “We’ll talk about it more later, Elizabeth. It’s not in our nature to let something like this happen and just walk away from it.” Mercer nodded at me. “Make sure she gets home safe.”

  I took her arm and pulled her with me out of the house and to my truck. I thought she might jump out and run away, but the rain must’ve cooled her off a bit. She settled in and fastened her seatbelt.

  I got in and started the truck. “Can I talk you into not doing anything else?”

  She unbuckled her seatbelt and surprised me by sliding into the middle seat. Her dress rode up and revealed a dizzying amount of thigh. She just buckled herself into the middle and then rested her head against my arm. “I’m mad at you and I think you can be such an asshole, but I’ve had a long day. For some stupid reason, you’re what I want right now. So, just please don’t tell me I’m stupid for five minutes or so.”

  I wrapped my arm around her and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. She was cold against me and I wanted to protect her in every way. I wasn’t
going about it in a very good way, but I wasn’t perfect. She could see that if she opened her eyes when she looked at me.

  She curled her fingers into my side and a little mewl escaped her mouth.

  My heart clenched tight. “Are you crying?”

  She shook her head against me, but that little helpless sound came again.

  I held her tighter against me. “It’ll be okay, Elizabeth.”

  “How can it be okay? Someone died. I think I saw them die. Helena is going to fire me. You’re right. She already hates me for not wearing pantyhose. Now I’m going to lose my job. I’m going to have to start eating hot dogs three meals a day. Or some other cheap food. I won’t be able to afford drinks. Sammie and Devon will feel sorry for me and I hate that, so I’ll probably stop answering their calls. And you’ll move on to some nice, sweet woman who doesn’t make you so angry all the time.”

  I laughed. It wasn’t the right move, but it wasn’t planned. She was fucking dramatic. It was charming in the strangest way and made me like her more for some reason, which made no sense.

  “Don’t laugh, Branson! It’s true.”

  I pulled into her parking lot and turned the truck off. Taking both of our seatbelts off, I eased her into my lap and looped my arms around her. “It’ll be okay. Somehow. I won’t lie to you. You probably will be fired in the morning. Helena will probably try to hurt you when you try to find another job. I’ll help you, though.”

  “Why? You barely like me.”

  I wiped the tears from her cheeks. “Not true. I’m sorry for this morning, Elizabeth. Being with you was good. Very good. I just haven’t… done that… in a long time.”

  “Could’ve fooled me.” She blew out a breath. “Branson, you’re selling yourself short. I know that these scars run deeper than the surface, but any concerns you have about the outside could all be put to rest if you just saw yourself the way I see you, the way anyone else sees you.”

  I stiffened, put on the spot.

  “I’ve wanted you since the first day. I’ve told you that I wanted you since then. And it definitely hasn’t always been about your shining personality. You piss me off, but when you touch me, I always crave more. There were no ulterior motives. I wanted your help with figuring the case out before, but I didn’t sleep with you thinking that it’d get you to help me.