by Lexi Blake
Li was right about Kai. And Mitch was beginning to think there was nothing logical or rational about his sub at this point in her life. Laurel seemed to be running on pure emotion and he had no idea how to handle that. “I’m going with Irish on this one, Kai. How do I handle Laurel?”
“Agree with everything she says. She thinks bears and tigers can be best friends, so do you. Absolutely, my love. Let’s go buy two. Trust me, by the time you get around to finding that exotic pet shop she’s moved on to worrying about something else. Avery cried pretty much every single day of her first three months. And then there were three lovely months where we fucked like rabbits, and I hid for the last three. That’s pregnancy in a nutshell.”
“Which is why this is a horrible time to begin a relationship,” Kai pointed out. “Laurel isn’t capable of thinking properly when she’s so emotional and has a ton of stress on her. And starting a D/s relationship is even more risky. I applaud you for taking responsibility for the child, but you might take a step back and concentrate on becoming a father and then later, after the baby is born, then you can work on your relationship with Laurel.”
That sent Li into a fit of laughter. “Oh, yeah, you’ll have so much time for that after the baby’s born. You got no idea what you’re talking about, Kai. I know you’ve got some fancy degree and all, but you have zero idea how the whole marriage and parenting thing works. There’s no logic to you. Look at the big guy there. His wife gave birth and the poor sap ain’t had a decent night’s sleep since. Do you honestly believe he’s capable of logic?”
Kai rolled his eyes. “Big Tag is only capable of sarcasm and sitting perfectly upright while he naps. That’s actually impressive, but not my point. Look, Mitch, you asked my opinion.”
“No. I really didn’t. I asked if you were ready to sign the paperwork on the office space and I got a lecture on how I’m screwing up with Laurel. And you know, aside from the whole crying at commercials thing, we’re doing pretty good.” Better than good. They’d had one fight in the six weeks they’d been together and apparently that was more about her hormones than his being a truly evil person who liked neither animals nor friendship. Her words, not his. After he’d gotten her some mint chocolate chip ice cream and rubbed her feet and watched some horrid show about doctors saving lives in between screwing each other in tiny rooms—she’d cried during that, too—she’d settled down and been the loving, affectionate sub he was crazy about.
They’d found a nice routine, one he’d come to crave. They had breakfast together every morning. He was used to grabbing something on his way into the office, but Laurel preferred to cook. He was getting used to egg white omelets and steel cut oatmeal, but he’d put his foot down when she’d tried to buy turkey bacon. Bacon came from pigs and no one was going to tell him otherwise. After breakfast, they went to work. She came to his office or he went to hers for lunch when they could. And she was always waiting for him when he came home. He would open the door and enter the living room and his gorgeous sub would be waiting there for him on her knees. Most of the time he had her right then and there, but a few nights had come that he could tell how tired she was, and he’d scooped her up and cuddled on the couch with her and ordered takeout so she wouldn’t have to cook.
It was the times when he felt almost compelled to change the routine that scared him the most.
Li shook his head. “Kai’s being pissy because his house exploded and there’s no good place at the new Sanctum for him to live.”
“I am not pissy,” Kai shot back. “I’m annoyed because the place I lived and worked at exploded in a fiery hell ball and took everything with it, including most of my patient notes. I’m having to reestablish everything and I can’t do that without office space. I’m tired of working out of McKay-Taggart. Do you have any idea how not peaceful that office is?”
Li shrugged. “Big Tag wouldn’t let him put in a waterfall or some shit.”
“It’s a reflection pool and it’s very peaceful and calming for my patients, all of whom have been through hell. I also would like to make myself clear on how wrong it is to bring the entire club in on one of your missions, Tag. Look what happened the last time and you were hiding Jesse and Phoebe at Sanctum. The club blew up. Letting Tennessee Smith work an op at Sanctum is going to cause trouble. But is Tag listening to me? No. He’s asleep. That dude can sleep through anything.”
At least Mitch could solve one issue. “Well, I got the paperwork for your new office so you can add all kinds of reflecting pools and stuff and still be close to the club. The building next door came up for sale. It’s industrial, so you’ll have to do some renovations.”
The building next door had already been quietly purchased by Big Tag and his brother-in-law, Simon Weston. They’d come to Mitch with the plan to sell to Kai for a fraction of the price. What Kai didn’t know was his loan had also been secured via Weston’s relatives, the Malones. A whole bunch of very wealthy people were backing Kai’s efforts to help soldiers with PTSD reintegrate into the civilian world. They weren’t telling Kai, who was on a “stand on his own feet” kick after the club exploded.
“I’ll take it. I need some quiet and I can’t get it in that office. I swear I don’t know how Eve does it. I can’t have sessions because someone is always knocking on my door. And damn but there are a lot of babies up there now. Cute little things but…there is one hallway you don’t want to walk down.”
“He’s right about that. The babies can make quite a stink when they want to,” Li explained. “Now, do you want to know what I found out about your case or not? I came down here to give you a report. These two latched on. Kai wanted to nag you and Tag wants lunch at Top. I’m not going to wake him up until someone can shove a forkful of food in his mouth.”
“How are you going to get him to Top if you don’t wake him up?”
“Oh, he’ll sleep walk for ya. You gotta point him in the right direction and he walks fine. And that’s why you have to work all this out with your girl before the baby gets here.” He pointed to Taggart, who didn’t move an inch. “Because this is what you’ll be like after. Ain’t that right, Tag?”
Taggart made some kind of huffing sound and then went still again.
He didn’t even think about what would happen after the baby got here. He tried not to think past the now. Making plans would only screw up a good thing. He passed Kai the documents and all the information on the building he was going to buy. While Kai went over his paperwork, Mitch turned back to Liam.
“Okay, can you tell me what’s going on?”
“I’ve had surveillance on both the Dixon brothers for the last six weeks.”
That didn’t sound right. “I told you I was only interested in what Harvey Dixon did when he got out of rehab.”
Li shook his head. “You did, but I changed up the plan. Look, I have more experience at these things than you do. There’s always a bloody twist. So I’ve been watching both brothers and I did a thorough assessment of Dixon Technologies. The name sounds impressive, and in some ways it is. Harvey was the idea man while Patrick handled the money and the actual business operations. The company itself and the patents they hold are worth roughly three million dollars, but it turns out Patrick is a brilliant investor. He diversified the company a few years ago and now they have assets in excess of nine million. The trouble is there are three siblings involved. Patrick has a twin. Her name is Frances Dixon, and apparently she tends to side with Harvey against Patrick.”
“Good for them. None of this explains why I’m getting my ass kicked regularly.” The phone calls had started two weeks before. He got robocalls at all hours of the night. They began at precisely ten p.m. and went on until six a.m. He’d turned off his phone after the first few and then changed his number.
“Adam traced the calls back to a computer, but it was at a public library. Someone got on the system and upgraded the thing, so to speak. That’s why you only got the calls late a night. They were set up to turn on after the l
ibrary closed and everyone was gone. Obviously this is something a man of Harvey Dixon’s brilliance can do, but it’s also something most hackers can handle. I’ve also used surveillance footage and found the kid who’s been vandalizing the building and your car. His name’s Austin Hunt. Seventeen. Juvie record about a mile long. I took everything to Brighton and he sent his men out to bring the bugger in for questioning, but the kid’s in the wind.”
He looked down at the picture Liam placed in front of him. He was a kid, but he was a kid who had fired a gun at Laurel. “So you think Dixon hired this kid.”
“I think one of the Dixons hired this kid. The question is which one.”
“The real question I have is why any of them would bug me. I’m just the damn lawyer. I’m representing a company that made it to market first. I’m not responsible for the invention. If I drop the case, someone else will pick it up. They can’t stop this from happening.”
Liam sat back. “No, at the end of the day, there’s nothing any of them can do, so I have to either come up with a logical reason for this to be happening or accept that Patrick Dixon is telling the truth and this is all Harvey. Harvey could be paying the kid. According to Derek, Austin Hunt is known for hiring himself out. He’s already worked for a couple of area drug dealers and his father had mob ties.”
But Liam was suspicious, and everyone who knew the McKay-Taggart boys knew Liam O’Donnell was the one with an almost sixth sense when it came to crime. “You want to dig deeper?”
“I do. I know you want this to be cut and dry, but I don’t think it is. I think there’s more here and I need to find some kind of money trail. Whether it leads from Harvey Dixon to Austin Hunt or somewhere else, my every instinct is telling me to find the money. It’s buried deep, but it’s here. In the meantime, you’ve got the new security system both here and at the house. If it escalates, we’ll put someone on you twenty-four seven.”
“How is the guard on Laurel doing?” He wanted to forbid her to work at all, but he was smart enough to know that wouldn’t fly. However, he’d also known the moment she moved into his house that she would become a target. He’d set her up with an air horn and a bottle of pepper spray, and a bodyguard for the hours he wasn’t with her.
She didn’t know about the bodyguard. He pretty much hoped she never found out about the bodyguard.
“I’ve put Remy Guidry on her. He’s one of the five professional bodyguards Tag recently hired. Adam and Jake used to do all our close cover, but that’s not possible anymore. With the corporate accounts we’ve recently signed, we’ve got a lot of bodyguard work.”
“Is he any good?” He didn’t like the idea of the new guy watching over his sub.
“He’s former Navy SEAL. He’s patient and very thorough. Talks like a douchebag though.”
“He talks like he’s from New Orleans, which he is,” Kai shot back. “Remy’s solid, Mitch. He’ll take care of Laurel. He will not take care of you when Laurel finds out you put a six-foot, five-inch Cajun bodyguard on her ass twenty-four seven.”
“Hey, if nothing goes wrong then she never has to know.” He’d already gone over this line of thinking about a hundred times. “And if it does go wrong, she’ll be happy to be alive.”
“Keep thinking that, buddy.” Kai handed him back the signed paperwork. “Can I get a copy of the file you’ve got on Hunt? I can take a look at it. I’m sure Eve already has, but fresh eyes are always good. Harvey Dixon, too, if you have it.”
“Absolutely. There are also some interviews with business magazines and a couple of stories about the family. Anything you find could be helpful,” Li explained. “Could I have a moment alone with Mitch?”
Kai’s eyes narrowed. “Sure. Is this a client thing?”
Li nodded. “We do have confidentiality clauses. He might not have a problem talking about this in front of you, but I have to give him a chance to keep it private.”
“Kai’s cool. He knows pretty much everything. I don’t think I have anything to hide.” Mitch couldn’t imagine what Liam was about to say.
“All right then. While I was looking into the Dixons and trying to see if they had any ties to you we didn’t know about, Adam found out that someone is definitely looking for you and it ain’t Harvey Dixon.”
Maybe it would have been better to ship Kai out. “Are you talking about a man named Flynn Adler?”
Kai sat up. Mitch could guess why. He’d heard the name Adler in connection with Mitch but never Flynn. “Isn’t your father’s name Adler? John Adler?”
“Flynn is my half brother. I have two. Flynn is Dad’s son by his second wife. He’s a couple of years younger than me. Chase is in high school, I think.”
“You think?” Kai asked. “You have two brothers and you never mentioned them?”
Yep, this was why he’d never brought them up in conversation. “They’re my half brothers and I’ve never spoken to them. They’re my father’s legitimate children. Liam, I don’t have anything to do with my father. He gave me money to start my firm. I didn’t want to take it. Margot insisted on taking the money and my father’s contacts. The minute I could, I paid the man back so I didn’t feel pressure to talk to him. He doesn’t want anything to do with me. He never has. Guilt made him loan me that money.”
“From what I can tell, it wasn’t a loan. Did you know there’s a trust in your name? It was started with the exact amount of money he loaned you,” Liam explained.
He wasn’t even going to ask how O’Donnell had found out about that. There was a reason McKay-Taggart was considered one of the best firms in the world. As for the trust, he wouldn’t touch it. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t need his money. Like I said, it’s guilt money. I think he feels it more as he gets older. Now he’s sending Flynn after me. I don’t read his e-mails and I don’t take his calls. As far as I’m concerned, the Adler family doesn’t exist.”
Li nodded. “All right then. I had to ask. He’s been calling you since before the Dixon problems?”
“Yes. The two events are mutually exclusive. Flynn will give up after a while. It’s not a problem, but do get back to me about Dixon.”
Liam stood. “That’s all I have then. I’ll keep in touch. Kai, can you bring the car around?”
Kai stared at Mitch for a moment and then sighed. “I don’t guess you want to talk about the fact that you have a whole family you’ve never mentioned?”
“I don’t. That’s the whole point. I don’t have a family.” Beyond Laurel and the baby. They were going to be his family. He had to make sure he made things right for them.
“All right. I’ll pull up in front of the building.” Kai walked out.
Li followed him. “I’m going to watch for him and then I’ll come back up to get the big guy to the car. Don’t let him fall over or anything.”
And he was left with a very still Ian Taggart.
“What the hell would you do, Tag? What would you do if your dad was still alive and wanted to talk to you?” Big Tag’s father had walked out on him and his brother, Sean. He’d married again and had two children Tag hadn’t met until the year before, and naturally Tag had welcomed them with open arms and sarcasm. Now they worked together, though Mitch was fairly certain Taggart was closer to Theo than Case.
Should he talk to Flynn? He didn’t want to. He didn’t want to get dragged into their lives. He’d wanted it so desperately at one point and now he wanted to forget the Adlers existed.
What would Laurel say? Why did it truly matter what Laurel would say? It didn’t affect her in any way. She wasn’t involved and he meant to keep it that way. She never needed to know they existed as far as he was concerned. So why was he wondering what she would think?
“How did you know you wanted to get married?” He kind of liked sleeping Tag. It was like he had a buddy, but one who didn’t talk. “How did you know you were in love?”
He didn’t like the word. It was imprecise, but Laurel was very soft hearted. She would want to hear it. She wou
ld want to say it to him and hear it back. He was coming to the point that he would have to use it.
“Charlie told me.” Big Tag stretched and pulled off his sunglasses.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up.”
Tag put a hand over his mouth to cover a yawn. “Hey, I woke up to a whiny manheart question and not the sound of two warrior princesses trying to out wail each other. I’m counting it as a win.”
“Okay. I feel better about my life.”
“Yeah, you can for the next seven and a half months or so and then you’re up shit creek, buddy. You going to marry Laurel?”
“I already asked her.” He hadn’t really asked her though. He’d told her he would and in an almost grudging fashion. Not the most romantic of proposals. But what could she expect? If she’d wanted romance, she should have found someone else. “I suppose you knew it was the right time to marry Charlotte because she told you to.”
“Bingo. If I’d had my way we would have simply signed a contract and I would have kept her as my submissive. I would have put a collar around her throat and shown her off at clubs and been very happy.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad.” It actually sounded kind of perfect. He’d tried marriage. Maybe he and Laurel could try a long-term contract. Once a year they would review and renew it.
“You didn’t let me finish. I would have been very happy until she decided she wanted more.”
“Why does there have to be more? I’ve tried this twice, Tag, and it doesn’t work for me. Still, I’m willing to give it a try for the kid’s sake.”
“Does she know that’s why you’re willing to try?”
He shrugged. “I might have mentioned it. I try to be honest with her.”
Tag frowned, his mouth turning down. “That’s where you’re going wrong. Totally wrong. Honesty is horrible. No wonder she won’t marry you. Hey, but that’s a good thing because you don’t want to get married.”
“You didn’t want to get married either.”