“How can you switch your emotions off so easily? I saw the way you looked at her, Max, the way you made love to her. She’s not the first woman we’ve shared, but I’ve never seen you lose control like that with anyone. How can you give that up?”
“What do you want from me? We both made the decision.”
Max was grateful when Toby turned to look out the window without continuing the conversation. He knew his brother was hurting, but damn it, so was he. Toby had been right about one thing. He had never lost himself in any woman until Maura. She brought out feelings in him that he hadn’t realized he was capable of feeling. She was so sweet and loving, and her desire to please had been his undoing. But their love had been doomed from the beginning and Toby knew it as well as he did. Their differences were too great. And yet she had fit between them like the missing piece of a puzzle.
Just thinking about how eager she had been to let them love her made his whole body tremble with desire for what he knew he would never experience again. She was the woman he had been waiting for his whole life. She had been a dream that he never wanted to end.
He loved everything about her, and the truth was, he hated seeing her on the floor while other men looked at her with blatant lust. Firing her hadn’t been that difficult. But never seeing her again, the pain was tearing him apart. He had to be strong or else or he would do exactly what Toby wanted.
Neither he nor Toby had been sleeping well and tonight was no exception. Usually when that happened they went running. This night they couldn’t run fast enough or far enough. It was light by the time they both finally found their way back to the house, exhausted.
How he would have loved to crawl into bed beside her. In human form, he would have caressed that body until she hungered for more than just his hands. In wolf form, he would have cuddled close to her, enjoying the feel of her hands in his fur, stroking him, loving him. It was better this way, better for Maura. In time, she would forget about him and Toby.
* * * *
Maura woke to the sun streaming in through the French doors that looked out onto a beautiful garden. For a moment she was confused, and then she remembered. She walked to the doors in her bare feet, wearing Joanie’s daughter’s nightgown. The house and the grounds were magnificent. Never had she ever slept in such an elegant room. She padded back to the bed and laid her head back down on the silk pillowcase. She wasn’t accustomed to such luxury.
What, she wondered again, had possessed Joanie to go to the Wolf’s Den when it was obvious she could easily afford more exclusive clubs that catered to older women who were looking for young men? Instead, she put herself out there night after night for Max to politely turn down. Whatever her reasons, they were none of her business, and after the kindness Joanie had shown her, she wasn’t about to say or do anything to insult her new friend.
She heard a soft knock at the door before Joanie entered the room carrying a tray. “You know the saying, ‘If Mohammed won’t come to the mountain…’” Joanie grinned.
Maura sat up in bed and smiled. “You’re too kind.”
“I bet you never thought you’d say that to me,” Joanie said, placing the tray down on the bed.
“You’re right. But you’ve been more than kind to me. I can’t thank you enough.”
“No need to thank me. I owed you. I guess I was a bit jealous of your youth and the fact that my boys were totally taken with you from the moment they saw you. I’m a little ashamed of my behavior. I hope you can forgive me.”
“Of course I forgive you, because honestly, there’s nothing to forgive. Not now. Not after this.” Maura felt more than a little awkward. She wished Joanie would say something crass, so at least she would know how to respond. This was a Joanie she had not known existed.
“Well, then, I guess we’re good. I want you to trust me, because there is something I need to tell you about Max and Toby, and it’s important that you believe me.”
“Whatever it is, please tell me it can wait. This breakfast looks scrumptious, and I don’t want to ruin my appetite.”
“Okay. It can wait but not for too long.”
Joanie sat on the edge of the bed while Maura dove into the scrambled eggs. She hadn’t thought she’d be able to eat anything after what happened, but the more she ate, the more she realized she was famished.
Joanie watched her with on a smile on her face. “There’s more if you’re still hungry.”
“This really hit the spot.”
“When you’re done, there are clothes that I’m pretty sure will fit you in the closet. Find something you like. When you’re dressed, come downstairs.”
Maura picked out a pair of black pants and lavender top that fit her to perfection. Luckily she and Joanie’s daughter had similar proportions. When she went downstairs. Joanie was waiting for her in the library to the right of the foyer. She sat down in a chair next to Joanie’s.
“How are you feeling, Maura?”
“I don’t know. Sort of numb.”
“You’re in love with them.” It was a statement, not a question.
“I don’t think I know what love is.”
“That’s what I told myself once, but I knew the truth, just you like you do. Only it was too late when I realized I had given run from the only two men I would ever truly love.”
“It’s different with me. Max and Toby sent me away. You said you ran away from the men you loved and who loved you.”
“I know why Max and Toby sent you away. It’s not because they don’t love you.”
“When you love someone, you don’t humiliate them by making wild passionate love to them one night and banishing them from your life forever the next.”
“You do when you think the woman you love couldn’t possibly love you back if she knew the truth.”
“I know they’re different. They told me, and Katie told me. I can’t do anything about the fact that I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth. They made their choice.” Maura could feel the tears beginning. She took a deep breath. The last thing she wanted to do was cry all over Joanie again.
“I want to tell you a story, and when I’m done, I think you’re going to have a totally different perspective about everything. If you love them as much as I think you do, you’ll let your love guide you, and you won’t close your mind to what seems impossible.”
Chapter Eighteen
Rhonda barged into Max’s office without even knocking, something she had never done before.
Max looked up from his paperwork, alarmed by the wild look in her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” He felt his heart beating out of his chest.
“I probably shouldn’t be coming to you with this. But I’m worried about Maura. She quit her job at Lucy’s.”
“I told you I gave her a severance package. She probably found something else and doesn’t need Lucy’s anymore.” It took every bit of his willpower not to let Rhonda see how just hearing Maura’s name affected him.
“She didn’t cash your check, Max. Don’t you check on those things?”
“My accountant takes care of that for the most part. How do you know she didn’t cash the check?”
“She called me and then came over for a visit. She said she didn’t want or need your money. That’s when she told me she had found another job. She’s working at the Pink Petunia.”
The Pink Petunia was a sleazy strip club that catered to a clientele that wanted and expected a lot more than drinks. He could tell by the disgust on Rhonda’s face that she knew it, too.
“I tried to talk her out of it. I just hope to God she doesn’t get forced to do anything more than serve drinks.”
“She better not,” Max said, his eyes flashing with anger.
“I’m telling you, Max, she’s lost weight, and there’s just something about her that makes me think she’s hiding something. She hasn’t been herself since, well, since you let her go.”
Max ran his hands through his hair thinking how he’d like to wrap
them around Maura’s throat. How could she even consider working in a place that encouraged prostitution? “What do you expect me to do?”
“I expect you to stop being an asshole. She’s working tonight. I want you to go get her. Talk some sense into her.”
“What makes you think she’ll listen to me when you’re her best friend and you couldn’t talk her out of it? Besides, seeing me is probably the last thing she wants.”
Toby walked into Max’s office unannounced. “Sorry to interrupt. I thought…”
“Christ, doesn’t anybody knock anymore.” Max glared at his brother.
Rhonda turned to Toby. “I was just telling Max that I’m really worried about Maura, but I guess he’s not interested. Right, Max?”
“What’s going on with Maura?”
“She’s working at the Pink Petunia tonight.”
Toby’s voice rose. “Why the fuck is she working there?”
“My thoughts exactly,” Rhonda said, looking back toward Max.
“Well, she won’t be for long,” Toby said, heading for the door.
“Toby!”
“Don’t try to stop me, Max. I’m going to go get her. I’ll drag her out of there if I have to. She wouldn’t be there if it weren’t for us.”
“Don’t be a fool. You can’t go there alone.”
Rhonda smiled at Max. “You’re going to go, too, then?”
“Toby, get Katie and tell her to cover the bar. And you,” he said, pointing his finger at Rhonda, “will have to pick up the slack on the floor.”
“My pleasure,” Rhonda said, relief written all her face.
* * * *
Max and Toby walked quickly past where Joanie was perched on a barstool. They didn’t appear to even see her. After they had disappeared out the front door, Joanie turned to see that Rhonda was staring after them. Catching Joanie’s eyes, she smiled. Joanie smiled back knowingly and nodded her head.
Sometimes people needed a little help whether they thought they did or not. Joanie knew that Maura would have never told Rhonda where she was working. She wouldn’t have known herself if she hadn’t found out by accident when that man Bart had stopped by to see Maura. Of course, she had lied and told him Maura wasn’t there. She didn’t like lying, but she didn’t like Bart either or the way his eyes were wandering to her dead husband’s sports memorabilia that he had kept in a glass case to the right of the foyer.
He asked her to tell Maura he’d see her later that night before her shift at the club. When she acted like she couldn’t remember the name of it, he’d told her. She knew the time had come to take matters into her own hands.
She had thought when she told Maura about her relationship with Max and Toby’s uncles she would understand why they had pushed her away and that Maura would confront them about their secret. However, she had not been able to convince Maura that what she had told her was not the ramblings of an old woman who had lost her ability to separate truth from fiction when it came to her past loves.
Maura had been kind, too kind. Each time Joanie brought up wolves, she had tried to gracefully change the subject. She decided to wait a couple days and talk to Maura again. However, that hadn’t worked out, and now the time for talking was over.
“What can I get you, Joanie?” Katie asked, walking over to where she was sitting at the bar.
“A double Scotch.”
“You’re starting out strong. Something going on you want to talk about?”
“I know you’re one of them, Katie.”
“One of them, what?”
“You howl at the moon, too.”
Katie stared at Joanie for a full minute before she spoke. “So, you want to tell me how many drinks you’ve already had before you came here tonight?”
“My middle name’s Joanie. My first name is Cassandra. Didn’t Sandy ever mention me? I knew your older sister. You look just like her. I heard she passed away. I guess she was almost like a mother to you.”
“You can’t be her.” Katie looked like she had seen a ghost.
“Sometimes I wonder the same thing. However, I can assure you that I’m Frederick’s and Robert’s Cassandra. The woman they loved and who ran away from them with a little help. Your sister loved them, too.”
“Why did you come back here? They’re all dead now.”
“Until now I wasn’t even sure myself. I’m not going to let what happened to me happen to Maura. It took me years to figure out I’d made the biggest mistake of my life, and then it was too late. I was married to someone else, with a child. I can’t go back and change what I did, but I can sure as hell try to change what’s happened between those kids.”
“What have you done, Joanie?” Katie sounded scared, something Joanie had never thought she’d hear from someone as tough and sure of herself as Katie.
“Wouldn’t you just like to know so you can ring the alarm with the rest of your kind. Well, this time, there’s nothing you or anyone can do. There’s no Sandy to make sure Maura keeps on running, never to return. I’m counting on Maura to be a helluva lot smarter and stronger than I was.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“You do?”
“Yes, I guess I do. Sandy knew she had been wrong to deceive you even though at the time she thought she was doing the right thing. Frederick, Robert, Sandy…they were never happy. They all died wishing for something they never had. If Maura loves them, truly loves them, then maybe I’m of enough of a romantic to believe that they can have a happy ending despite their differences. It won’t be easy.”
“Nothing worth having ever is.”
Katie turned away to pour Joanie’s drink. Before she put the bottle down, she poured herself one. Joanie watched her gulp down a double Scotch in seconds flat.
* * * *
Toby jumped in the car beside Max and slammed the passenger-side door as Max sped away from the curb.
He looked over at his brother. “If I hadn’t walked into your office when I did, were you going to just ignore what Rhonda told you about Maura and not tell me?”
“Why did you come to my office anyway?”
“Joanie said you wanted to see me and to just walk in.”
“That’s weird. I never told her that.”
“It doesn’t matter now, does it? The only thing that matters is getting Maura out of that place before she gets raped or worse. You didn’t answer my question.”
Max gripped the steering wheel tighter. “I was going to go myself.”
“Without me. Thanks a lot.”
“I thought it would be less of a scene if only I went.”
“Well, in this case, you thought wrong. You and I both know what the Pink Petunia is. I love you, Max, I really do, but sometimes, like now, all I want to do is haul off and punch you.”
“Save it for later. We might need your hostility.”
The Pink Petunia was all the way on the other side of town in a neighborhood that had seen better days. Before Max turned the engine off, Toby was out of the car, running toward the neon-pink front door. Max ran after him. “Just cool it. You can’t go in there acting crazy. You know who runs this place.”
“I’m not stupid.”
The Pink Petunia was in full swing when they entered the smoke-filled darkness that was broken by scattered spotlights strategically placed above the women as they danced for the customers. Each woman was touching herself erotically while scooping up the money thrown her way.
When their eyes had finally adjusted, Max and Toby scanned the place but didn’t see Maura. A woman dressed in a much more revealing outfit than the Wolf’s Den came up to them and asked what they wanted to drink. The voluptuous blonde had nipples the size of saucers. Max couldn’t help but picture Maura in the revealing top and G-string. He flexed his hands, which curled up in fists. From the look of sheer rage on Toby’s face, he knew his brother was visualizing the same thing.
When the blonde came back with their drinks, Max said, “I’m looking for someone. Her n
ame’s Maura. She’s new here. You know where I can find her?”
“I heard there was a new girl. I saw her earlier, not sure where she is now. But I’m here if you’re looking for some action, baby. I know how to make you forget all about that girl.”
“Thanks, but Maura’s who I’m looking for tonight.”
“That’s a damn shame. How about you, honey,” she said, looking over at Toby.
“Not tonight, but thanks.”
“Well, if you change your mind…” she ended, lingering for a few moments to pull her shirt away from her breasts. “It sure gets hot in here.” She giggled before she walked away, disappearing into the crowd.
“Do you think Maura has any idea what this place really is?” Toby asked, taking a swig of his beer.
Max didn’t answer. His eyes were glued to the woman across the room standing in front of a man who looked familiar. Toby followed his gaze. The man was holding Maura’s arms down at her sides. By the look on Maura’s face, they appeared to be in a less-than-pleasant discussion with a couple other men who had their backs to Max and Toby.
Max put his hand on Toby’s shoulder. “Just wait a minute.”
Toby stopped in his tracks with a growl. “I don’t like the way he’s holding her.”
“I know, but look at the way she’s dressed.” Max wanted Toby to first focus on the fact that Maura was in her street clothes and not dressed for work. She had on a long-sleeved pink blouse that was tucked in her jeans, and her long blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail. Her beautiful face looked worried and agitated all at the same time. As they watched, one of the men in front of her lifted her shirt. Max let out a growl.
They fought their way through the sea of bodies, not caring about the angry looks they were receiving. The man holding her looked their way. He pushed Maura ahead of him toward the back rooms.
Max and Toby followed Maura’s scent into a hallway, but Maura was nowhere in sight. They began opening doors, finding women and clients in various stages of undress and sexual acts. Max cursed as he ran toward the door marked EXIT. They pushed open the door that led them into a parking lot. Maura was being held up against a black car by the same man they had seen her with in the club.
Serving the Wolf's Den (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 13