what she had to promise. Anything, as long as he’d stop spanking her.
“Okay, okay,” she said. “I’ll listen!”
At her words, Austin took her arm and stood her on her feet in one swift motion.
Reaching back to immediately rub her sore bottom, Taylor opened her mouth to complain about
how hard he had spanked her, but he held up a finger in warning.
“Not one word or you go back over my knee,” he said. “Now, are you ready to let me explain, or
do I have to keep spanking you?”
Chapter Three
She should tell him to go straight to hell, Taylor thought as she stood there glaring at
Austin Malone and rubbing her sore bottom. Then she should tell him that she wasn’t interested
in his explanations and that she was going to find another private detective. Right before she
walked out of the hotel room. If she didn’t need his expertise so badly, then she would do just
that. Though she wasn’t sure how much expertise it took to drive to Las Vegas and book a suite
at one of the most expensive hotels on the strip.
“First off,” Austin said, “I didn’t lie to you back at the gas station. According to the clerk
there, Wallace and your sister were headed to Vegas. Secondly, I’m not paying for the suite, and
neither are you. It’s complimentary. The guy that’s the head of security here and I were partners
back when we were both with the LAPD. He puts me up whenever I’m in town.”
Taylor felt herself flush with embarrassment at his words. Crap! Could she possibly have
made any more of a fool of herself? she wondered. But how was she supposed to have known
that Austin had gotten the room for free?
“Oh,” she said in a small voice.
Austin shook his head. “You really are unbelievable, you know that?” he said. “I agreed
to take this case when most other PI’s probably wouldn’t because I saw how concerned you were
for your sister. And while you keep telling me that you want me to find her, you keep getting in
my way. I told you to stay in LA and let me handle this, but did you listen? No. Instead, you
followed me up here like some obsessed bloodhound.”
Her color deepened even more. While the spanking had definitely been embarrassing,
being lectured was even more so. She felt like disappearing, she was so mortified. She was trying
to think of something to say to justify following him when she abruptly remembered him saying
he’d known she’d been behind him the whole way.
“Wait a minute! If you knew I was following you back when we were still in LA, why
didn’t you stop me back there instead of letting me come all the way out here and making a fool
out of myself?” she said sullenly.
He clenched his jaw. “Don’t blame me for making a fool out of yourself. You did that all
on your own,” he told her. “And I didn’t stop you because I was hoping that at some point you
would come to your senses and turn around and go back to LA!”
Taylor cringed. Oh God, he must think she was such a flake. Well, she didn’t care what
he thought. She would do anything to find her sister. And now that she was here, it only made
sense she stay. “Well, I’m here now and I’m not going back until we find my sister!” she told
him firmly.
She half expected him to put her over his knee again for being so stubborn. Well, if he
tried it, then he was going to have a real fight on his hands this time, she told herself, because her
ass was still throbbing and she wasn’t going to put up with it again. But to her surprise – and
relief – Austin held up his hands in a show of resignation.
“Fine! Do what you want! It’s quite obvious you’re not going to listen to anything I say
anyway,” he snapped. “I’m going out to check on a lead. I’ll be back.”
Without waiting for a reply, Austin turned and strode toward the door. Taylor
immediately followed. “I’ll go with you,” she said.
Austin spun around to face her. “Like hell!” he said. “You’re staying right here!”
Taylor folded her arms and gave him a defiant look. “You can spank me all you want, but
I’m still going to follow you.”
The words were out before she could stop them and she could only hope he wouldn’t take
her up on the spanking.
A muscle flexed in the side of his jaw, and for one frantic moment, Taylor thought he
might. But he only regarded her in silence. “You don’t give up, do you?” he finally said.
Did she detect a slight hint of grudging respect in the way he’d said that? “No, I don’t,”
she told him.
The private detective continued to regard her silently for another moment before he
shook his head. “Fine, you can come with me,” he growled. “But stay out of the way and keep
your mouth shut.”
Behind his back, Taylor made a face at the private detective as she followed him to the
door. Though she wondered where they were going, she resisted the urge to ask as they rode
down in the elevator. But as they made their way down the crowded strip a few minutes later, she
couldn’t contain her curiosity any longer.
“Where are we going?” she asked him.
Austin scowled at her. “What part of keep your mouth shut didn’t you understand?”
“And what part of I’m going to be involved didn’t you understand?” she shot back.
He muttered something under his breath that she couldn’t hear before saying, “I’m going
to check out wedding chapels, see if anyone remembers seeing your sister or Wallace.”
She frowned. “Wedding chapels?” she echoed. “You can’t seriously believe that my
sister came here of her own free will to marry that creep, Wallace?”
Austin gave her a sidelong glance. “Maybe you don’t want to believe it, but every bit of
information I’ve discovered up to this point indicates that’s exactly why she came here,” he told
her. “Which is why I’m going to check it out.”
Taylor bit her tongue. While she supposed it made sense to explore every avenue, she
couldn’t help but feel they were wasting their time. Regardless of the so-called information
Austin had, there was absolutely no way her sister had run off to get married. But if she argued
with Austin about it, he would probably just drag her back to the hotel and spank her again – if
he didn’t do it right there on the street - so she resolutely kept silent.
An hour later, however, she couldn’t contain her frustration any more. They had been to
almost a dozen wedding chapels, and no one remembered seeing either her sister or Wallace.
“This is a waste of time!” she said. “My sister didn’t come here to get married. And even
if she did, she wouldn’t do it in a place as tacky as that.”
Taylor gave the brightly-painted building they had just come out of a disdainful look. A
Star-Trek-themed wedding chapel, couples could dress up in authentic costumes from the
television show and get married by none other than Captain Kirk. She wasn’t even sure if
marriages conducted in a place like that would even be considered legal in most states.
“Maybe not,” Austin conceded, starting down the street. “But your sister and this Wallace
kid don’t have a lot of money. If they were looking to get married cheaply, this is the kind of
place they’d go. So, we have to check out all of them.”
Taylor
sighed, but said nothing as she fell into step beside him. This was the great
detective work she was paying for? And just how many of these ridiculous, little wedding
chapels were there in Vegas anyway? she wondered.
The next one they came to looked a lot like the place they’d just left - minus the Star Trek
memorabilia, of course – and Taylor couldn’t hide her disdain as she took in the inside of the
place. There were tacky fake flowers and plastic doves all over the place. A petite, elderly
woman came out from the back at their entrance, and she greeted them with a brilliant smile.
“Come in, come in,” she said. “You two lovebirds are our first customers of the evening.
Fortunately for you, that means you’re here ahead of the rush. In another hour, we’ll be so
packed with couples that we’ll be doing the ceremonies in groups of three!”
Taylor was so shocked that she couldn’t even say anything. Who the heck would get
married there? Then her brow furrowed as she realized the woman thought she and Austin were
there to get married. She took an unconscious step back. Heaven forbid! Assuming that the
private detective would set the woman straight, Taylor waited for him to say something, but the
woman hurried on before he could speak.
“Now, we have several different wedding packages to choose from,” she continued,
pointing to a poster on the wall. “There’s the basic, which is the least expensive, but it doesn’t
include much more than the ceremony itself. Which is why I’d suggest going with the deluxe
package. It’s not that much more and it includes music, wedding cake, and a bouquet of flowers!.
Though if you want real flowers instead of the silk kind, then you’ll have to pay extra. And it’ll
take me a few minutes to run next door and get some. We can even provide rings if you don’t
have them. At a very reasonable price, of course.” She beamed at them. “And since you two
want to be sure to remember this momentous occasion, why don’t we include a video of the
ceremony as well? And to make your video even better, we can include several attendees for
each of you, if you’d like. It really makes the video that much more special.”
Taylor stared at the woman, aghast. She didn’t know what astounded her more. The fact
that the woman was treating a wedding ceremony like the buffet bar at the local casino, or that
the woman actually thought she and Austin were a couple. They didn’t even remotely look like
they were a couple! She glanced at the private detective to find him regarding her with an
amused expression on his handsome face. He thought this was funny! She glared at him before
turning back to the woman.
“Excuse me,” Taylor said before the woman could say any more, which was rather
difficult because the woman could put a telemarketer to shame. “But we’re not here to get
married.”
The woman looked at her in confusion. “You’re not?”
“No, we’re not,” Taylor said again. “We’re here looking for my sister.”
Beside Taylor, Austin pulled out the photos of her sister and Andrew Wallace and held
them out to the woman. “We think they may have come in here a couple of nights ago to get
married. Do you recognize either of them?”
The woman glanced down at the photos, and then nodded her head. “I do remember
them! Such a lovely couple.” She gave Taylor a wink. “Not unlike the two of you.”
Taylor frowned. The woman had barely even glanced at the pictures. “Are you sure it
was them?”
The woman smiled. “Oh yes, dear, I’m sure,” she said. “Your sister was a lovely bride!
And what a charming young man she married!”
Taylor swallowed hard. The woman had to be mistaken, she thought. “How can you be
sure it was them?”
The woman laughed. “Oh, I’m wonderful with faces! But if it helps, I think she said her
name was Tiffany.”
Taylor felt her heart plummet. “Could she have been coerced, do you think?” she asked.
The woman’s brow knit at that. “Oh my goodness no, dear,” she said. “Your sister and
her young man are very much in love. It was obvious. They couldn’t keep their hands off each
other!”
Taylor was silent. The woman had to be wrong; that just didn’t sound like her little sister
at all.
Beside her, Austin spoke up. “Did they have one of those videos made? And if they did,
would you happen to have a copy?”
The woman shook her head. “No, they didn’t,” she said. “It was obvious they were on a
budget.” Then she brightened. “But I do have a picture of them.” She winked again. “We always
like to take pictures of the happy couples after the ceremony. All of our packaged include a
complimentary photo, you know.”
Taylor stood in stunned silence as the woman walked over to the counter and picked up
the photo album lying there. She flipped through the pages until she came to the one she wanted,
then held it out for Taylor and Austin to see.
“Don’t they make a lovely couple?” the woman asked with a sigh.
Taylor stared down at the photo, her gaze going from a smiling Tiffany, who was
wearing a simple white dress and holding a bouquet of red roses, to the tall, rangy, blond-haired
man standing beside her. They both looked more like they should be going to their prom, not
getting married, Taylor thought. Oh God, what had Tiffany been thinking?
“Did they happen to mention where they staying?” Austin asked the woman.
The woman shook her head. “No, they didn’t,” she said. “But they did say something
about going to Mexico for their honeymoon. Someplace called San Luis...something, I think.”
Taylor blinked in surprise. Honeymoon?
The woman was eyeing her and Austin thoughtfully. “Are you sure you don’t want to get
married while you’re here?” she asked. “Since your sister got married here, we could say it was a
referral and give you a discount. You two really do make such a lovely couple.”
Taylor stared at the woman in astonishment, not quite trusting herself to speak. To her
relief, Austin answered for both of them, politely but firmly declining the offer. Thanking the
woman for her help, Austin took Taylor’s arm and guided her toward the door. Which was a
good thing, she supposed, because if he hadn’t, she would probably still be standing in the
wedding chapel, dumbstruck.
Though Austin released her arm the moment they stepped outside, he stayed close to
Taylor on the walk back to the hotel. While he told himself it was better Taylor knew the truth
about here sister, he still felt badly for her. He was surprised he felt anything at all for her
considering the fact she had been such a royal pain in the ass. And yet, for reasons he couldn’t
understand, he felt an insane urge to comfort her. He didn’t think she would be very receptive to
anything he had to say however, so he kept silent.
When they got back to the hotel, Austin started for the elevators, but Taylor surprised
him by announcing she needed a drink. He wasn’t really in the mood for one, but she seemed
like she needed the company, so Austin fell into step beside her as she headed for the bar.
Spotting a secluded table in the corner, he led her over to it.
It wasn’t until the cocktail waitress had brought them their drinks –
a cosmo for Taylor,
and a beer for him – that Taylor finally spoke.
“You knew, didn’t you?” she asked in a soft voice.
Austin took a swallow of beer. “That your sister and her boyfriend came to Vegas to get
married?” he asked.
Taylor nodded, sipping her drink.
“After reading in her diary how she felt about this Andrew guy, it seemed likely. And
then, once I got the lead about them stopping for gas in Baker, I was almost sure of it,” he said.
“But I didn’t want to tell you until I knew for sure.”
Austin waited for Taylor to get upset about him hiding his suspicions from her, but
instead she merely toyed with the stem of her glass.
“How could I have been so wrong about her?” she said after a moment.
He shrugged. “Well, you’re not really wrong about her,” he said. “She’s still your sister.
She’s just making some decisions on her own. It doesn’t mean she doesn’t love you and still
need you.”
Taylor finished her drink in one swallow and motioned to the waitress to bring her
another.
“Why wouldn’t she tell me she was dating this guy and that they were going to get
married?” Taylor asked, turning her attention back to Austin. “I didn’t even know she was seeing
anyone seriously.”
Austin waited while the waitress set Taylor’s drink down on the table and had left before
answering. “Maybe she didn’t think you’d approve.”
Taylor shook her head and took a small sip of her drink. At least she wasn’t downing this
one as quickly, Austin thought.
“She’s probably right,” Taylor said. “I don’t have the best outlook on marriage,
considering what happened with our mom and dad. But Tiffany’s always been a lot less cynical
than I am when it comes to love”
Austin sat quietly, absently rubbing the label on the beer bottle with his thumb as he
listened to Taylor talk about what had happened with her parents and what it had been like being
responsible for Tiffany when she was barely out of high school herself. Their father had split
when Tiffany was born and their mother had passed away when Taylor was eighteen. It sounded
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