“No. She didn’t bother to mention that to me,” Keith replied. “Does Taggart have him?” He walked out of the room and started down the hall, obviously expecting them to follow.
“Yeah, the boss caught him taking pictures of the club from his truck. He was parked across the street, but Ian owns that building, too.” Jill paused, going pale. “He was unhappy about that.”
“You don’t have to come with me.” She couldn’t get that look on his face out of her head. He didn’t want to be here. Anything he did now was because he didn’t want to look bad in front of her sister. She’d been right to keep the information from him. He didn’t want to take care of her in that way. He didn’t want the burden of her problems. He merely wanted a sub, not the real woman.
He turned and there was nothing blank about his face now. “I suggest you keep your mouth shut, Ashley. We have to get through this and then we’ll have a real discussion about the meaning of the word submission. You should have told me what was going on. I’ll be in the conference room after I change. I expect you to talk then.”
He stalked off, leaving her with Jill.
Her sister took her hand. “That was one mad Dom. I’m glad he’s going to be there though. This looks complicated. Honey, I have to tell you something and I want you to hear it from me and no one else.”
Tears pricked her eyes. “What?”
“There’s a reason the child support payments stopped.”
“Because Trevor is an asshole who can’t remember to send me a check from his trust fund?” She had to hold it together. She had to get through this night because whatever Keith had been about to say wasn’t going to go away, and she knew she wouldn’t like it.
“Trevor’s dead.”
The world stopped as she tried to process the words. Trevor couldn’t be dead because he was twenty-five years old. He was Emily’s father and though she’d given up on loving him a long time before, she’d always hoped that someday he would grow up and get to know his daughter. They’d been friends. Sometimes he’d been her only friend in the world it had seemed. He’d been selfish and childish but they’d shared years together.
“Honey, are you all right?” Jill asked.
“How?” She couldn’t imagine it.
Jill took her hand and started to lead her down the hall. “Let’s go sit down and I’ll tell you what I know.”
She followed her sister, thinking about the fact that she might manage to lose two men in one night.
Chapter Nine
Keith stared at the man across the table from him and finally realized what it meant to see red.
“You’re working for Trevor Reid’s father?” Karina had changed clothes and now looked perfectly vanilla and terribly competent in slacks and a tailored blouse. She sat at the conference table, a laptop in front of her.
The man who had apparently been stalking Ashley nodded briefly. He was a greasy looking middle-aged asswipe with a bad comb-over. He’d introduced himself as Ron Harper. Karina had explained that Harper was based in Houston, and she’d discovered he did dirty work for corporations in the south Texas area. “Yeah, but he ain’t paying me enough to deal with this shit. Do you know what that man threatened to do to me?”
Ian Taggart grinned, showing off perfectly predatory teeth. “I offered to show you around. You seemed so interested in what happens here.”
“He put a gun to my head.” Harper frowned. “The other fucker nearly tore my arm off when I was going for my ID.”
Damon Knight was in the room as well. The Brit simply shrugged. “How was I to know you weren’t going for a gun?”
“Because I told you what I was doing,” Harper shot back.
“I’ve been lied to before. It makes a man think. It also makes me want to rip arms off, but Tag wouldn’t let me,” Knight explained in that perfectly aristocratic accent of his.
“No blood on the concrete.” Taggart slapped at the table. “Charlie doesn’t like blood all over the place. You know what they say, happy wife, happy life or some shit. So if we have to kill him, let’s do it clean, boys.”
Karina shook her head. “You’re not helping things. He’s going to pee himself if you don’t stop, and I doubt Charlotte wants to deal with that stain, either.”
“Could someone explain why this guy is here?” Keith was sick of waiting for answers. It was obvious his sub had been keeping serious secrets from him.
I love you, Keith. She’d been so fucking beautiful while she rode him, rocking them both to pleasure. It had been right there. I love you, too, Ashley. The instinct had almost overcome him.
Almost. And then he remembered he was wearing a condom he didn’t need.
“I thought we’d wait on Ashley,” Karina replied. “I also want Adam to verify my findings about him. Some information can be faked and he has a better eye for that than I do.”
Keith felt his fists clench. What the hell was he doing? He couldn’t stay. He damn well couldn’t walk away. He needed to talk to her, to explain. If they could sit down and talk it out, maybe everything would be okay. How was he going to explain to her that he couldn’t see her outside of the club because she had a kid and he couldn’t handle that? How did he explain that he would never be able to handle it? That even thinking about kids made him remember holding his own right before he died.
He’d killed his own kid, and he couldn’t take another chance. He’d gone so far as to make sure he never made another mistake again. He didn’t need to wear a condom because he’d had a vasectomy at the age of twenty-three and couldn’t give her more kids.
She would want more, and he couldn’t be a part of that.
Yeah, how the fuck did he tell her all of those things? She was a woman working toward a future and he lived in the moment.
He thought he’d have more time with her.
The door opened and Ashley walked in with her sister. It was odd to see her in street clothes. He selected her fet wear and left it in her locker. He didn’t see her until she came out to play.
He’d compartmentalized her, like Ryan had said. He’d put her in a place and tried not to think of her outside of it.
She didn’t even look his way. She took a seat at the conference table.
No matter what happened after this, he wasn’t going to sit here and watch her crumble. He stood up and moved in on one side of her before Ryan could take the seat beside her, crowding him out. Until she tossed him on his ass, he was still her Dom. She was still wearing his collar.
Her eyes came up, a little confused.
He put his hand over hers, grateful when she didn’t pull away. “What’s going on?”
“Emily’s father died in a car accident three months ago,” she said somberly.
His heart did a weird flip. Was she mourning him? She could say she didn’t love him all she liked, but death had a way of changing the past.
She gave him the soberest of smiles. “I’m fine, Keith. I’m sad that Emily won’t ever get a chance to know him. He could have changed his mind about her somewhere down the line. I hurt for her. I feel bad because we were friends before we were lovers. It’s just sad.”
Her fingers tangled in his, squeezing lightly.
“Come here.” She needed comfort, and it was his job to give it to her. They were in the club. It was still safe. The fact that they were talking about the outside world made him nervous, but he would do it for her. This whole night was still salvageable. If he gave her the attention she needed, perhaps she could forget the rest. They could go on for a while. He would take whatever time she would give him. He pulled on her hand, tugging her into his lap.
He sighed when her arms went around his neck.
Ryan put a hand on his back, an obvious show of support. “That’s not all the bad news, man. Just wait for it.”
She hugged him again and then slipped back into her chair, her hand still in his.
There was more? Something Karina said finally penetrated his brain. “The private investigato
r is working for the family? Why are they following my…Ashley? They didn’t bother to even tell Ashley her ex was dead so I’m not sure why they would be following her now. How did he die?”
Did they think she had something to do with his death?
“It was a car accident. He wasn’t wearing his seat belt,” Ashley said in a monotone. “You have to understand. The Reids were the wealthiest people in town. They were very concerned with their image as a family, with their bloodline. Trevor was an only child.”
“Sounds very British,” Taggart said.
“Don’t look at me,” Knight shot back. “I’m an orphan. Blood doesn’t mean a thing to me. Talk to Weston. He’s the one in line for the crown. So the Reids consider themselves above everyone else? Is that why he didn’t marry you when you discovered you were pregnant?”
Ashley nodded. “Yes. They were upset when they found out he was seeing me. He actually hid it for a long time. They wanted him to marry someone else. I came from the wrong side of the tracks, so to speak. But he was funny and charming. He had a way of making me agree with him even when I didn’t want to.”
Yes, the little fucker had used Ashley’s natural desire to please the people around her to manipulate her. He’d kept her a secret and talked his way into her bed without giving her anything real back.
Was Trevor Reid any different from him?
“He actually stayed with me after his folks discovered we were together,” Ashley continued. “His dad was furious. He kicked Trevor out. He cut him off from his trust fund. Trevor moved in with me and we seemed to be happy for a while. He asked me to marry him. I said yes. We thought his parents would come around when they realized we were serious. And then I found out I was pregnant. I told him and he shook his head and walked out. He sent me a text saying he wasn’t ready to be a dad.”
“Son of a bitch,” Karina said under her breath.
The fucker should be glad he was dead. He knew it wasn’t right to think that way, but he would like to get his hands around the kid’s throat. “Let me guess. He went back to his parents.”
Jill nodded. “Yes. That was right around the time that Ryan and I broke up. I went home and helped my sister. She tried to reconcile with Trevor, but he wouldn’t see her. He cut her out completely.”
“I ran the asshole down though,” Ashley said with a smile that came nowhere near her eyes. “I found him at a bar with his new girlfriend. I was five months pregnant. Yeah, that was a scene that no one will forget.”
Jill closed her eyes. “The cops got called in. When baby sis blows her top, it really goes south. After that night, his father slapped her with a restraining order. They didn’t want to have anything to do with Emily. They made that plain. When she first got pregnant, they offered to pay for her abortion and nothing more.”
He kind of wanted to kill the parents, too.
He thought of his parents, who had been there when John Michael was born, who tried so hard to be there after he died. Did they still mourn him? Did they sit together at night and wish they’d told their only son the truth?
“None of this explains to me why this asshole is following my…Ashley.” He had to stop. He kept wanting to call her his sub, but he wouldn’t do that around the PI. He had to take his cues from the others. He’d been asked to change clothes. The rest of them had changed as well, and Karina wasn’t showing any signs of submission to the Doms in the room. Taggart was treating her like a partner, and that meant they were all in business mode.
The door opened and Adam Miles strode in, a grim look on his face. He set a folder in front of Taggart, who started flipping through it. From what he’d learned about McKay-Taggart Security, Miles was the computer expert. They called him the head of communications, but Keith knew what that meant. Adam Miles was a hacker and one of the best.
He didn’t look happy with what he’d found.
Taggart nodded his way.
Miles stepped forward. “Were you aware that your employer recently hired an attorney who specializes in custody cases?”
Ashley started to tremble.
Oh, fuck. They were coming after the baby. They’d lost their only child so now they were going to try to take Ashley’s. “Like fuck they are. Who’s the attorney? I can buy the asshole off.”
He had money. He had billions at his fingertips. He could give her that.
The PI shook his head. “Yeah, the attorney is the one who actually hired me. Look, I’m only doing my job.”
“They’re trying to dig up dirt on me,” Ashley whispered.
“I followed you around for a couple of days and thought I was shit out of luck. But then you came here. What is this place? It’s some kind of club, ain’t it? It’s an underground club,” Harper said with a leering smile. “You working here? Or do you just pick up some guy for the night? Who’s with the baby because this looks like a family affair to me. That’s your sister and your brother-in-law. It looks like you’re into some kinky shit.”
If she hadn’t been sitting right next to him, he would have gone over the table at the guy. “If you say one thing about her to anyone, I’ll kill you.”
Derek Brighton walked in followed by another man. Jesse Murdoch. He worked for McKay-Taggart as well, but Derek was Dallas PD. Great. He’d threatened to kill someone in front of a cop. He was batting a thousand tonight. Brighton walked by him, slapping him lightly on the shoulder in what he took as a show of support. At least he wouldn’t get hauled to lockup. Jesse carried what looked like a laptop. Or it used to be. It was pretty mangled.
“Boss, I found this outside in the parking lot.” Jesse grimaced. “You know how clumsy I am. I dropped it. And then I drove over it a couple of times. Three really. I get confused about forward and backward sometimes. It’s the PTSD. Do you think it will still work?”
Taggart took the sad-looking thing and gave his employee a high-five. “Nope. This is an ex-laptop.”
“Hey, that’s my property. It was in my truck,” Harper said. He reached into his pocket. “I’m calling the cops.”
Jesse grimaced again. “Yeah. I think you dropped your phone outside, too. I might have thought it was an IED. Again, PTSD.”
Taggart shook his head. “Poor Jesse. All that time in an Iraqi prison really did a number on him. It’s okay, buddy. You did your best. Did you run over the phone, too?”
“Nah. I kicked it into the sewer. You could go look for it, I guess.”
Keith was starting to like the kid.
Harper was turning a nice shade of red. “Where’s my camera? It was in my truck, too.”
Taggart leaned forward. “You mean the camera you used at my private place of business to take pictures of my clients? That camera?”
“Yes.” Harper’s voice trembled a little.
Taggart smiled. “No idea, man. Jesse, did you see a camera when you looked through his truck? Which, by the way, is sitting on my property. My private property.”
Jesse shook his head. “Nope. I haven’t seen a camera at all.”
He was a good liar. Thank god for Taggart and his team or Harper might have e-mailed his client pictures that could damage Ashley. Keith’s brain raced. He already knew the lawyer he would call. He would put the guy on retainer tonight and slap her ex’s parents with a harassment suit.
“I’m calling the cops as soon as I get out of here. You guys are dicks,” Harper snarled.
Derek pulled his badge. “No need. I’m right here. Mr. Taggart called me in when he realized he had an intruder. I asked him not to shoot you. Next time I suspect he will, so I would watch myself. Mr. Taggart, would you like to file a complaint? I can have the DA here in five minutes.”
Karina shook her head. “She spent a little time with Damon there. She’s still recovering. Better give her ten.”
Derek smiled slightly. “Ten minutes then.”
Harper threw his hands up. “Fine, I get it. You’re power players. I fucked up. Are you going to arrest me?”
Derek sat back,
looking at Karina. “What have you got on him?”
Karina looked down at a list in front of her. “Two arrests in Wyoming for drunk and disorderly. He was a college kid. Divorced twice. Second wife accused him of battery, but it looks like he paid her off. He came to Texas a couple of years ago and now he works nasty divorce and custody cases for corporate types. Reid Industries is one of his major clients.”
Keith looked at Ashley. He knew that company well. “You were engaged to the heir to Reid?”
She nodded. “Yeah. His dad inherited the company. He doesn’t run it anymore. He hired a CEO and settled into small-town life. I think they liked being the lord and lady of the town.”
And they’d judged her. From what he could tell, everyone in that town had judged Ashley.
“I think I’ll forgo arresting you tonight,” Derek said. “But if I see you anywhere near this place of business again, I’ll haul you in.”
Taggart smiled one of his barracuda grins. “I’ll shoot you.”
When he was offered the door, Harper nearly ran.
“I’ll follow him,” Jesse offered. “Make sure he doesn’t hang around.”
“Let’s get this party down to family,” Taggart said with a frown. Everyone left with the exception of Taggart, Ryan, and Jillian. “Ashley, you’re my employee. I’m offering you my services. I’ll get Adam on the parents and the attorney they’ve hired. Keith?”
“I’m calling her an attorney tonight. He owes me a couple of favors. He’s a shark.” He squeezed her hand.
“I can’t afford any of this.” Ashley shook her head. “And I don’t understand. They didn’t want her. They wanted me to abort her.”
“Grief makes people do crazy things,” Taggart said with a sigh.
“The Reids were always obsessed with their bloodlines,” Jill explained. “They expected Trevor to continue the family line. Now that he’s gone, Emily is the only one who could possibly do it. She’s the last Reid.”
“She’s not a Reid.” Ashley’s hands turned into fists. “She’s mine. Only mine because no one else wanted her. She’s a Paxon. They don’t get to take her away from me because their plans didn’t work out. God, Jill, it’s like I’m right fucking back there and everyone is watching me, waiting for me to screw up so they can shake their heads and say they knew I was bad all along.”
Modern Fairy Tale: Twelve Books of Breathtaking Romance Page 109