The Masters Series 1
Deception
When Garret Riley and Zac Phelps met Mary Jane Delany, they knew she was the perfect submissive for them. Yet, keeping their hands on their little runaway was harder than they thought. So, when she shows up unexpectedly, one man embarks on a devious scheme that could have dire consequences, especially if the other finds out.
Mary Jane Delaney is tired of running. Allowing herself to be caught, she believes she has finally found her place in this world. That is until she learns that one of her loves has lied to her. When the truth starts to come out, she wonders if she’s made a grave mistake.
As two dominant men vie for her affections, Mary Jane must decide if loving a deceptive Master is worth a lifetime of heartache. Can she forgive the man who ruthlessly lied to her, and deceived his own brother? Or is running away again her only option.
Genre: BDSM, Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre
Length: 42,431 words
DECEPTION
The Masters Series 1
Rebecca Joyce
SIREN LOVEEDGE
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Siren LoveEdge
DECEPTION
Copyright © 2014 by Rebecca Joyce
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62741-736-5
First E-book Publication: May 2014
Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2014 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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DEDICATION
Love is like a house. The foundation is trust and understanding, which supports the building blocks of your house. Without a proper foundation, your house crumbles. Nevertheless, never fear, you can always repair your house with forgiveness. Never give up on what you want or love. Never let anyone tell you that you’re not worthy, and never, ever give up on love. The right foundation is just waiting for you to build upon it.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Epilogue
About the Author
DECEPTION
The Masters Series 1
REBECCA JOYCE
Copyright © 2014
Prologue
Simple, Tennessee, 2007
The Thirsty Turtle was the place to be seen, and tonight all of them were officially legal to be in the bar. Technically that had never stopped any of them before, but tonight was special. Tonight was going to be the last time they were all together for a while, and since all of them knew how precarious life could be, they all wanted to do it right.
“All right boys, everyone grab your glass,” Garret Riley, the oldest and the leader of this ragtag bunch of misfits, shouted over the loud music.
“Are we ready?” Nate Curt asked looking at his brothers.
“Hell yeah!” Justice Hightower shouted, bumping into his twin brother Quinton.
“Got it, we’re ready!” Casper and Dustin said.
“We’re good to go over here!” Anthony Campanella and Kyle Whetford yelled.
“Okay, Chip. You are officially a man today. So make it a good one,” Garret said, lifting his shot glass.
Tonight was a night for celebration.
Their youngest brother Chip Patterson had finally reached legal age. The Hightower Brothers had made it home from a yearlong deployment and were due to ship out again in the morning. Garret Riley and Zac Phelps had their first assignment with the U.S. Marshal Service that was going to take them away from the only home they knew, all the way to Miami, Florida. While some headed off to college, the rest were staying behind to take care of the farm.
Life was good.
“Whenever you’re ready, dipshit!” Harley Nelson shouted.
“We ain’t got all night, bro,” Adam Lattimere added.
“Yeah, hurry the fuck up, we have a date,” Tic and Tack Young said at the same time.
“Okay! I’ve got it,” Chip shouted, effectively silencing them all.
“Thank God, my mouth was going dry,” Blake Noble muttered.
“Okay, boys, here it goes…Twinkle, twinkle, little star, what are you drinking at the bar? Is it vodka? Is it Jack? Who gives a fuck just knock ’em back!”
Every single one of them stared openmouthed at their youngest brother and groaned. Garret shook his head and smiled as he tipped his glass back, letting Marvin’s moonshine burn its way down. God, he was going to miss this. It wasn’t very often that he and his brothers weren’t fighting and posturing for dominance amongst the group, and after tonight, it would probably never happen again. Garret guessed why he wasn’t letting Tic and Tack get to him or allowing Quinton’s badgering to affect him tonight was because, after tonight, he never had to see any o
f their ugly faces ever again.
“Hit me again!” Chip shouted over the loud music. Garret smiled and dutifully poured the youngest of Momma’s boys another drink. Out of all of them, only four of them were young enough, and lucky enough, not to remember who their real parents were. As for the others, they had the haunting memory of what their lives were never going to be like, or they were thankful for the kindness of the woman who had taken them in.
Garret fell into the first group.
He remembered what he’d lost.
“You have that look again, brother,” Zac whispered, leaning closer to him, so only he could hear. “This is supposed to be a celebration, not a pity party.”
“Shut up, Zac,” he muttered, pouring himself another shot.
“I don’t know why you’re so gloomy. We leave in the morning. You should be happy. You are finally getting out of Simple. I thought that’s what you wanted?” Zac asked, pointedly looking at him. The problem was it was what he wanted. He had waited for this day for years. He had gone to college, graduated, gotten a job with the U.S. Marshal’s Service, and come tomorrow afternoon, he would be ensconced in Miami, Florida, where he could start over and make a name for himself. The only problem was that it wasn’t Chicago, Illinois.
That was the office he had hoped to get. That was the branch he had requested, and he would have gotten it, too, if it weren’t for his brother, Zac. Who knew the stupid redneck could pass the entrance exam without cheating?
To make matters worse, Zac let it slip that they were brothers, and once the powers that be heard the delightful news, they figured instead of partnering him up with someone unknown, that as brothers, they would make the perfect team. Therefore, they denied his request for Chicago, and the bureau was sending him and Zac to Miami.
Miami! The only things in Miami were spring breakers and geriatric patients.
“When we get to Miami, can we hit the beach first? I hear the girls wear these tiny strings up their asses, and their boobies practically hang out of their tops,” Zac asked, smiling like a loon.
“They’re called G-string bikinis, you moron, and no we can’t. We have to report to the office first and then we have that appointment with the landlord about an apartment.”
“But we’re gonna miss out on happy hour, and the fireworks. Oh! And don’t forget all the rides and cotton candy.”
Garret looked at Zac and wondered if the boy was right in the head. Then he remembered who he was talking about, and he already knew the answer. Sighing, Garret said, “You do realize that we are moving to Miami, Florida, not Disneyland, right? The only fireworks you will be seeing is me blowing a fuse if we miss the appointment with the landlord. Got it?”
“But I can have some cotton candy, right?”
Garret just laid his head on the table and prayed for patience. He loved his brother, he really did, but sometimes, Garret wished that Zac would try to take something seriously. “Zac, if you don’t stop, so help me.”
When Zac didn’t come back with a snappy response, Garret looked up. “What, no literary quip, no Southern saying?”
“I need to tell you something before we leave,” his brother said, seriously. Garret had seen many faces of Zac, but the way Zac was looking at him now had the hairs on the back of his neck standing up. Something was wrong.
Chapter One
Chicago, Illinois, Present Day
Garret Riley sat across the desk from the Director of the Chicago Bureau of the Witness Protection Program, wondering if it was all worth it. For the last year, he had been busting his butt trying to prove himself, not only to his new boss, but to everyone he worked with. When he had accepted the transfer a year ago, he thought it was what he wanted. He was moving up within the ranks, and was on the fast track to the Director’s chair. He had everything he wanted, or at least he thought he did.
Yet, life was not as simple as he thought it would be.
A year ago, he was just a measly federal marshal, partnered with his brother Zachary Phelps. Correction, they were foster care brothers in the care of the State of Tennessee. There was no blood match between them. The only thing they had in common was the love of one woman who had taken them in when the state wanted to wash their hands of them. He wasn’t a bad kid per se. He just didn’t understand why he had to stay in Tennessee when he was from Illinois. There weren’t many things he remembered growing up but he did know that he was born in Chicago, Illinois, and his parents had loved him very much.
His life was perfect until fate reared her ugly head that awful fall day.
He remembered the rain misting the windshield of the car as he sat in the backseat. They were finally heading home after a two-week vacation in the Smoky Mountains. His mom had always wanted to visit Gatlinburg, and his dad had surprised her with the trip a month before, with a cabin in the woods and two whole weeks of nature. Garret had hated every minute of it, but it put a smile on his mom’s face, so he pretended he enjoyed himself.
His parents’ laughter was the last thing he heard before he woke up in a hospital bed, alone. Hatred festered so deep within him. It took root and never let him go. He had been forced to do many things he didn’t want to do, with no choice because he was a minor. He had no voice, no other options. When no one was looking, he escaped, only to be found freezing two days later in an abandoned rail yard. Children Services deemed him a hostile child, and a flight risk. He jumped from county facility to county facility after that, until Momma Love found him. After that, he remembered moments of laughter and happiness, but the hatred still lingered.
He spent his teen years in a small town northwest of Chattanooga, Tennessee, called Simple. It was a true Southern community of hillbillies and rednecks. At first, he thought they were one in the same, but after living there, there was a distinct difference between the two. Hillbillies were loud, cankerous, lazy, and generally obnoxious. They were nosey gossipmongers, who cared more about fun than tradition and doing the right thing. Rednecks were simple folks, who generally enjoyed the quieter Southern way of life. Typically close to their mountain roots, they believe in tradition, loyalty, and family. However, where the rednecks were gentle and nice, their counterpart the hillbillies were just, wow!
His brother Zac was a true redneck and for some God-awful reason, he missed the idiot. He hadn’t spoken to Zac since they’d gone their separate ways in Celestial, Montana, over a year ago, not that he cared. Just thinking of Zac and that town gave him a headache, but Zac had loved it. For all he knew, Zac was still there. He was probably naked, lounging in a chair next to that naked sheriff, drinking a beer while watching a hippie parade as they threw flowers down Main Street. Where Zac was eager to embrace the chaos, all Garret could think about was that he couldn’t get the hell out of there quick enough.
And flee he did.
When Zac offered to finish the case, he didn’t have to tell Garret twice. He packed and headed to the nearest airport within the hour. Free from the only thing that was holding him back, Garret kept his eyes forward on the prize, and never gave his past a second thought. What was done was done, and there was nothing he could to change it. However, his future, well, that was another story, and it began returning home to Chicago.
Life was good at first. The new branch office was eager and happy to have him and within a couple of months, he was running his own team. He had a beautiful apartment, was making new friends, and just when things couldn’t look any better, Miss Hillary Sutton was dropped in his lap. Thanks to that conniving little twit, his face was all over the papers and the evening news. Outside his apartment building, every reporter in the Chicago area was camped out, eager for the latest scoop, and if he was really lucky, he might just be able to avoid legal prosecution.
When he’d received the call last night that the Director wanted him in his office first thing in the morning, Garret knew he was up shit creek, and for the first time in years, he didn’t have his paddle to help him navigate the waters. Nope, he’d left his paddle
back in Celestial acting a fool. Therefore, before he even entered the director’s office, Garret knew what his boss was going to say. It wasn’t news to anyone. Everyone had read the morning papers and seen the clips on television. He had fucked up big-time.
Moreover, this time, there was no partner to help take the blame.
What should have been an easy protection detail turned out to be an agent’s worst nightmare. The case was simple. All he’d had to do was babysit some spoiled debutante until it was her turn to testify. It was an easy gig. Something any newbie out of the academy could have done. However, because of her status and rank in society, the powers that be thought it would be best for a senior agent to babysit the witness. They figured with someone of authority watching over her, nothing could go wrong. That was their first mistake.
Their second was thinking the witness would be cooperative.
He had been with the Chicago office long enough to know that the higher profile cases warranted a gentler hand and a lot of finesse. Except nobody expected what a pain in the ass she would be, nor her nasty potty mouth. Her crying fits alone made Garret want to hand the woman over to the mob, just so he could get a decent night’s sleep. Instead, he bit his tongue, and listened as she cried, whined, bitched, and moaned about everything from the crappy bedroom sheets to the tasteless food that the fucking five-star hotel served. He could still hear her grating voice as she tried to tease, finagle, and persuade him in ways that he believed should be illegal, just to call her BFFs and give them the 411 on her heinous dilemma. God, if she hadn’t escaped, run into oncoming traffic, and gotten herself hit by a fucking car, he would have pushed her out into traffic himself.
Deception [The Masters Series 1] (Siren Publishing LoveEdge) Page 1