Collar (Changing Roles Book 3)

by Ellie Masters

  Pete puffed out his chest. In a contest between those two, I had no doubt who would come out on top. Submissive to me alone, Kate dominated every other aspect of her life.

  But he didn’t back down. “Don’t get in the way.”

  “Tell me what you’re doing and why, or I’m not moving.” She took half a step in front of me. So fucking amazing how protective she could be. But from the serious tone of Pete’s voice, he wasn’t kidding around.

  I put a hand on her shoulder and reassured her I was in control. “Easy, babe. I’ve got this.”

  Pete focused his attention on Kate, ignoring me. “His DNA is a match.”

  “My what?” There had to be some mistake. “A match for what?”

  Kate snaked out her hand and took mine, gripping hard. “What do you mean, it’s a match? How is that even possible?”

  A crowd had formed behind us, Edge members spilling out from the manor. Most of them stayed on the wide porch, except for Thomas, Kevin, and Lily, who’d marched out to greet us. Kevin towed Lily behind him, grasping her hand, and behind him, Thomas’s determined stride brought him toward a conflict I didn’t want escalating. He held a sheaf of crumpled papers in his hand.

  Kevin shot a questioning look in my direction. “What’s going on? They said they needed you.”

  Pete gripped my bicep, his hold firm and insistent, letting me know I needed to come willingly, but he didn’t cuff me.

  Thomas threw the papers on the ground. “You can’t search the premises. I’ve got five lawyers who say the paper this is written on is crap. Try again in the morning.” He turned to me. “I don’t know what the hell is going on, but anything you need, anything at all, you tell me.” Red-faced, he gave me a look of support. For what, I wasn’t so sure.

  Janice separated from the gaggle of cops. She held her handcuffs, her lips in a firm line, her eyes dark and glittering. A look of triumph was etched into the hard lines of her face.

  She advanced on me. “About time you get what you deserve,” she ground out.

  She snapped open the cuffs and secured one around my right wrist. Without any attempt to be gentle, the bitch wrenched my arm around my back. Why was she being so vindictive? This woman hated me for no reason. She grabbed my other wrist and secured it beside the first.

  “This isn’t right, Pete,” said Kate. “He’s not the killer.”

  Janice barked a laugh. “Says the one screwing a serial murderer.”

  Kate lunged at Janice, trying to get me free, but I was bound, cops were all around us, and I didn’t understand what was going on, especially why they would think I had anything to do with the murders. The only thing I knew for certain was that Kate was my strongest ally, and I needed her not to get herself arrested for obstructing the police.

  I gave her a look and spoke in a tone she would understand. “Kate, stop. I need you out here. Fix this.”

  Kate instantly responded to the force of my command. She backed off, holding her hands up, palms out, eyes still locked with her old partner. “This isn’t right, Pete, and you of all people know it.”

  Kevin gently drew her back. I’d never been so thankful for my best friend. He pulled her far enough away from Janice where I wouldn’t have to worry about her getting arrested for interference. He gave me a look, telegraphing support, telling me he would take care of her.

  Beside him, Lily rocked nervously on the balls of her feet. Her dark, olive-shaped eyes scanned the crowd. Fear shined there, evident in her wide-eyed stare, but so did her faith in me.

  In Kate, I saw none of Lily’s fear. She glanced at the gathering of cops, then fixed her attention on Janice, her entire countenance telling me exactly what I needed to know. Kate had my back.

  While Pete went to speak with Kate, Janice pulled me away. I stumbled forward, my mind trying to catch up with whatever this was that was happening. Janice shoved me into the back of a cruiser. She didn’t even have the courtesy to make sure I didn’t bump my head as I got in.

  As I slid into the back of the car, she whispered in my ear, her voice low. “Next time you fuck with a cop, you might just wind up dead yourself.”

  What the hell? “What are you talking about?”

  “Don’t even pretend you don’t remember.”

  I threw my head back and laughed, the entire situation becoming all too real. Thank God my hands were behind my back. This was fucked-up.

  I tried to keep my voice level, like I didn’t care what she had to say, but I was desperate for information. “Exactly what am I supposed to remember, sweetheart?”

  “You’re such an asshole. You think because you own some damn sex club and titled yourself Master of Masters that you have free rein to do what you want?”

  I gave an exasperated sigh. “If you knew anything about me, you’d understand just how ludicrous that statement is.”

  Her laugh came out a cackle full of madness. “Oh, you’re going to jail, and I can’t wait to stand and testify against you.”

  “Testify?” Why would she testify against me? This woman was delusional.

  Another mad cackle. “Do the words safe, sane, and consensual not mean anything to the great Jake Davenport? They certainly didn’t seem to mean anything that night. I was too fucking embarrassed, but if it means putting you away, I don’t care what anyone thinks. I’ll take the stand and tell them everything.”

  “What are you talking about? I never did anything to you.” Hell, I barely knew the woman. I’d only recently met her, introduced to her at the precinct when they brought me in to help with this case. A case they were now charging me with. Janice made no sense, but from the fire in her eyes and vehemence of her words, she believed every word she spoke.

  “Yeah, you keep with that story. You took things too far, you sick, depraved fuck. We’ll let the jurors decide what the real truth is.”

  Pete came up beside her and interrupted our odd conversation. “Hey, Janice, you ready?”

  “Yeah, just getting our perp tucked away.” She turned back to me. “I’ll see you in court, lover boy. I’d tell you to get a good lawyer, but I know you will. It doesn’t matter, though. All that Davenport money isn’t going to save your ass.” She slammed the car door, sealing me inside the back of the police cruiser.

  I wish I could say I understood what was going on, but I didn’t. How my DNA could be linked to those murders didn’t make any sense. I wasn’t a man who had enemies. My family was rich, but we were generous.

  My father was the Davenport bastard, a sadistic fuck if there ever was one. If he were alive, he would’ve been the perfect mastermind behind these murders. If any Davenport had enemies, it would be him. But he was dead.

  None of this made sense. Obviously someone was setting me up. And Janice? She was crazy as a loon.

  Still, an uneasy feeling came over me. A sense of wrongness, where things weren’t quite matching up. Janice was one. Kate was the other.

  My mind turned over Kate’s comments about the bruising I’d found on her. She’d acted as if I had put those marks on her. That was impossible, unless… I needed to speak with Kate.

  Chapter Four

  Kate

  A nightmare. That’s what this was. Jake shoved into a police cruiser? Janice nearly sliced off the top of his head, slamming him inside that car. She and I were going to have a come-to-Jesus moment if she kept at it. I wasn’t beyond calling her out on police brutality or use of excessive force. Except Jake hadn’t resisted, and she really only shoved him. Still, it would feel good to kick her ass, or anyone’s ass. Hell, just give me my whip and let me at a tree right now. Or those cops. The frustration boiling up inside me needed an outlet, or I was going to explode.

  Pete was acting the fool. He didn’t even have the balls to look me in the eye. My old partner had his head hung low, foot tracing the same damn circle of dirt.

  There’s nothing there, ass-wipe. Look up and face me.

  “Dammit! Tell me what the hell is going on.” I dug my thumb into
the soft spot of his shoulder until he dragged his gaze up to meet mine.

  He winced from the pain I inflicted on his flesh. “Shit, Kate, that hurts.”

  “I know.” It should. I was pressing hard enough. At least now I had his attention, and he was talking.

  Janice had her back to us, preening with a gaggle of her compatriots. She stood so proud, cuffing my Master in front of everyone like a common criminal. She had the audacity to throw her head back and belt out a laugh.

  I leaned in close, my tone harsh and my words sharper. “Start talking.”

  It was mean of me to bully Pete like this. An upwelling of guilt and shame burned through me, but I needed someone to start explaining why Jake was sitting in the back of that cruiser. I couldn’t bully any of the other cops. They’d arrest me. Pete would forgive me…later. I would owe him a couple dozen boxes of doughnuts after this.

  “Shit, Kate!” He tried twisting away, but he wasn’t moving with the hold I had on him.

  My grip held firm. I’d been controlling men for the better part of a decade. I could take down a man twice my size and barely break a sweat. Surely Pete didn’t think he could get free. I dug in, curling my fingers, and put more pressure on the nerve bundle under his skin. That move bought me a few months worth of doughnut apologies. I’d grovel for forgiveness later.

  “Pete, please?”

  He stopped resisting, and I eased up so he could breathe.

  “Results came in from the lab. His cheek swab matched the semen they collected from Elizabeth Westmorland. It’s the same DNA.”

  “No.” My voice cracked on the single word, and I felt all the blood drain from my face. A profound emptiness filled me.

  “The evidence doesn’t lie.” He rolled his shoulder, gently removed my fingers, and rubbed over the indentation they had made in his skin. “That’s going to leave a mark.”

  “It doesn’t make any sense. Someone has to be setting him up.”

  Only I had no theories on who would want to, or how they’d managed to plant the evidence. My gaze slid to Janice, the woman I knew had it in for Jake. “You need to check the chain of custody.”

  Would Janice purposefully implicate Jake? Evidence tampering was a serious offense. I needed to speak with Captain Marshall. He was in charge of this investigation. And Jake needed a lawyer as soon as possible. Instead of standing here arguing with Pete, I needed to get to work. My mind spun with the many ways this investigation could go. My body, however, trembled with fear for Jake’s chances.

  The lines around Pete’s eyes softened, and he gripped my upper arm, trying to be supportive and failing miserably. He pulled me away from the other cops and walked with me toward Kevin, Lily, and Thomas. The three of them stood at the base of the stone staircase leading into the manor. Above them, gathered outside the doors, curious members stood watching the scene before them unfold.

  Pete leaned in close and confirmed my worst fear. “They’re going to charge him with the murders. It’s that serious.”

  I surveyed the cluster of detectives, only a handful of whom I knew, and they had only half a clue how to run a murder investigation. “We haven’t even found a third body. How can they charge him? You see how they’re stonewalling this case, don’t you?” My voice trembled with fear and a sense of hopelessness.

  The blood at Jake’s tree hinted at a third victim, but that was yet to be confirmed. The freshness of the evidence suggested she might still be alive. These assholes had already written her off. The poor girl. We had no idea how long the murderers played with their victims before killing them.

  “Have they even confirmed a third victim? Did they find a body or another video?”

  He shook his head. “No, only that the blood belonged to a female. Other than that, they can’t say. It’s circumstantial at best.” He gave a sigh. “The mayor is out for a quick conviction. It was his daughter, for God’s sake. He’s out for blood.”

  I jabbed a finger at the group of cops standing around, doing nothing. “Doesn’t mean they shouldn’t do their job.” I looked at Pete, determined. “You have to fix this.”

  “Fix it? How am I supposed to do that? The evidence—”

  “Is wrong.” And I would prove it.

  I tilted my head and let a deep, steadying breath ease into my lungs. I fisted and then relaxed my hands, uncurling one finger at a time. My world was crumbling around me, bit by bit. Only a few minutes ago, I had reached nirvana with the man of my dreams—and not from the pain he’d delivered, but from his tender touch. Now he’d been taken from me, and I wouldn’t be able to explore why that had been.

  I breathed out and regarded Pete with an intent expression. “My gut says this is all wrong. Something else is at play. We’re missing something important.”

  Pete’s attention seemed fixed on my wrists. The thick metal rings hanging from my cuffs reflected the cool moonlight. I forgot I was still wearing them, but now I vowed I wouldn’t take them off. Not until Jake removed them himself.

  The cuffs were a symbol of what I’d become, and I was damn proud of who I was. No wonder all the cops were staring and snickering.

  Was that why Janice was laughing? Well, she could laugh her ass off. I bet she never had a man who loved her as deeply as Jake loved me.

  Pete reached out and grabbed my hands, rubbing circles over the backs of my knuckles. “Are you sure your emotions aren’t muddying your instincts?”

  He might be 100 percent right about this, but I wasn’t ready to admit that to him. My gut had never steered me wrong before. My mind raced, parsing every word Jake and I had exchanged over the past hour, the past day, hell, the past week. He had acted odd tonight about the bruises.

  “Oh my God.” Thinking about how I could prove Jake’s innocence had my heart racing, even as I processed the horrible violation I’d been subjected to.

  Kevin joined us. He placed a hand at the small of my back. “You okay?”

  “This is messed up.” My heart raced with the surge of adrenaline. My insides clenched, thinking of that night with Jake and the belt.

  “I agree,” said Kevin. “Jake would never do anything like this. He’d never harm a woman in that way. Now if it were his brother, it might be another matter. Or his dad, but not Jake.” His gaze lingered on the police cruiser with Jake inside. “Never Jake.”

  A chill ran down my spine, prickled my skin, and lifted the hairs at the back of my neck. “It wasn’t Jake.” The world tilted, and I felt myself falling because I knew it was the truth.

  Kevin steadied me, kept me upright. “Whoa, easy there.”

  The ground canted up from the right at an odd angle. Unsteady, I leaned against Kevin. I shouldn’t be surprised. The emotional upheavals of the night were catching up with me. But if Jake’s brother was alive, all this suddenly made perfect sense.

  My vision dimmed, blackness crowding in from my peripheral vision, threatening to pull me under. The DNA of twins was identical. Fingerprints were unique, but their DNA would be a perfect match.

  Kevin cupped my elbow. He bent his knees to get eye-level with me. I’d looked into his background and knew he was a doctor, plastic surgeon if I remembered correctly. He gave me a cursory inspection, focusing in on my pupils.

  He pressed the back of his hand to my cheeks. “Your skin is clammy.” He gripped my wrist. “And your pulse is thready.”

  “I’m fine.” I tried jerking out of his grip, but despite his lithe build, the man was corded with steel. I shivered with the oncoming breeze.

  “You’re crashing hard. You may even be going into shock.”

  I didn’t have time to crash. Jake needed me to be strong and sort out this catastrophe. I needed to find his brother—a brother I had been told was dead.

  Pete supported me on my left, gripping my arm to help steady me. Concern lined the features of his face. “What do you mean, she’s crashing?”

  “Only that Kate has had a challenging night. And all of this”—Kevin gestured at the cops a
nd all the flashing lights—“isn’t helping.” His fingers dug into my arm, not deep enough to bruise, but firm and insistent, telling me I wasn’t getting away with denying what was happening with my body.

  “Kate.” Pete’s voice was surprisingly free of judgment. “You were supposed to be working the case, not…” He waved vaguely toward the cuffs encircling my wrists.

  “Seriously, I’m fine.” But I wasn’t. The world continued to spin. The flashing lights on top of the police cruisers made it even more difficult to focus on the task of staying upright.

  The cop car carrying Jake started to move. Tires thumped over the cobbles, and its headlights disappeared as it rounded the circular drive. Red taillights took the place of the headlights, dwindling away into the dark of night.

  A low growl warbled in my throat. “Pete, it wasn’t Jake.” I struggled for clarity of thought, but Kevin was right. I was crashing hard out of subspace. My entire body was soaked in a light sheen of perspiration. Fine tremors shook my hands. My vision kept graying in and out, and I struggled not to fall over in a faint.

  Pete had always trusted my instincts. They had saved both our asses a time or two when we were partners. I knew he wouldn’t fail me now.

  He folded me into a hug and tucked my head under his chin. “What do you want me to do?”

  His calming words infused me with strength. “Help me figure this out.” I explained my theory. “Jake’s twin. It could have been him.” I turned to Kevin. “Isn’t that right? The DNA evidence could belong to his twin.”

  Kevin pressed his lips into a thin line. “It won’t help. Josh is dead.”

  The surety of his proclamation hit me like a ton of bricks. I refused to believe him. “That can’t be right. He could have faked his death.”

  “Trust me, Kate,” said Kevin. “Josh is dead. Jake’s father went overseas to retrieve his remains. He died bringing Josh’s body back.”