UNDER CONSTRUCTION
(Book One of the Cartel Series)

By Summer Ellis

SMASHWORDS EDITION

PUBLISHED BY:
Summer Ellis on Smashwords
July 2011

Discover other titles by Summer Ellis at http://summerellisbooks.com/published-books/

Copyright 2011 by Summer Ellis
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This is a work of fiction and does not in any way advocate irresponsible behavior. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

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Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.



UNDER CONSTRUCTION
By Summer Ellis


-----


INTRO

I came to, disoriented and queasy. In the gloom of the small warehouse, the grimy concrete floor seemed stained with things I didn’t even want to imagine as I knelt barefoot, in only my silk dress and torn stockings. I struggled to force the sludge from my brain; although, it wasn’t just my head that felt bruised. I’d probably been dumped like a sack of potatoes as pay back for all the kicking and fighting. My arms throbbed and the sound of metal chain links sent shivers whispering across my skin as I tested the cuffs trussing me bondage style, wrists to ankles behind my back, to a vertical pole. 
A rough Russian accent filtered through the room from somewhere behind me. “She is coming around… Perhaps I should hit her again, for dislocating my knee.”
Stiff limbs protested as I jolted to attention, searching the shadows around me.
“Don’t cry, Angel." Another voice, this one soft with a Southern drawl, drew my attention to the far corner of the room. A curvy, petite woman with short black curls and a dazzling smile emerged from the gloom. 
I’ve been abducted by Betty Boop?
Swallowing a slow, shallow breath, I tried to determine where I stood, or knelt as it was, in this mess.
“I know this is a silly question, but who are you and what do you want with me?”

CHAPTER 1

May, Seven Months Earlier

Galveston is one of those places a lot of people just see as muddy water, scrubby streets, and neglected buildings. They don’t stop to feel the breeze flowing off the water, or enjoy the sound of the gulls crying out to each other, stalking the bait fish in the shallows. For a girl from dusty West Texas it was utopian. I loved it.
Sinking down further into the sand, I leaned back on my elbows and tilted my face up toward the sun. The first major heat of the summer had started, a pleasant burn on my bare stomach. “Do you think we could just stay here? I mean like, just pull up an old school bus or travel trailer, and live like hippies, in this very spot.”
“Oh my God, you sound like my mother!” Max laughed, her head shaking. “I swear. The two of you would rather be on an ugly beach than anywhere else in the world.”
“That’s not true,” I replied with a grin. “I’d rather be on a pretty beach... but I’d make do with any beach, rather than none.”
“Well, you can have your sand. I want some damn nightlife.” Max gazed toward the seawall. “Tonight we’re going to the bar, sans dinner. It kills my buzz and food always tastes better after you’re drunk anyway.”
“A lot of things are better after you’re drunk.” I informed her with a laugh, standing to brush the sand off my bottom. “I’ll be back. Do you need anything?”
“No, I’m good. God, do you see this guy walking? Mmm.” She whistled low under her breath.
Chuckling, I made my way over the scorching sand to the seawall, to dig under the seat of my car for my camera. It wasn’t anywhere near as good as the equipment Max owned for her freelancing, but it worked just fine.
I wanted to start building memories - memories in my new life. A recently finalized divorce had rid me of one cheating husband and secured the complete ownership of the construction company we'd started early in our marriage. I was still recovering from a small attack of identity crisis, but it was getting easier.
I turned to snap a few pictures of Max before turning to the shops and hotels along the road. I glanced up from the camera to look closer. “They need character.” 
“They do,” someone agreed from behind me.
I glanced over my shoulder and then turned. An older gentleman, looking very out of place in a business suit, stood there smiling at me. 
Shrugging my shoulders, I felt embarrassment paint my cheeks but didn't stop the grin from sliding across my mouth. “Wow. I think that’s a sign. Talking to myself out loud - I’m obviously crazy.”
“Not at all. I’m positive that many of the great minds of our time spoke their thoughts aloud. I believe it helps the creative process.” 
Something about him made me stand a little taller. Built lean at just under six feet, and with salt and pepper hair, he was in no way threatening. In fact, he was charming without being creepy. There was something about him though, something compelling, as if you’d agree with him before he even said a word. I shifted in my flip flops, hyper-aware of my bordello-red bikini and cut off shorts now.
His head tilted at my hesitation. “Forgive me. I intruded on your thoughts. I’m starting a local project in the next few months, and you seemed to mirror my own opinions. It does need character.” 
Looking up and down the seawall, he shrugged as if to say what a shame.
I pulled myself back to the conversation. I could do professional in my birthday suit, so I focused on that. “Well, I know the hurricane last year really did a number on the locals. I think it took most of them months of fighting to get insurance settlements. If you don’t mind my asking, what sort of project will you be starting? I don’t mean to pry, but I’m a contractor from Houston, so it interests me.”
“Really?” His eyes took on a gleam. “The first job of the season will be a boutique hotel, followed by several smaller retail spaces. Tell me, what type of jobs do you handle?”
His perusal and assessment glance was subtle, but I'd been in the male-dominated construction industry long enough to catch it, as well as note the increased interest. I took it for what it was and baited the trap. 
“To be honest, the company is in a transitional period, looking for our next challenge.” Bending over to pull one of the company brochures from my car, I allowed him a nice, long look before standing up to offer the booklet to him. “We’ve made a name for ourselves by building distinctly custom homes, everything from hidden passages and indoor grottos, to hand carved doors and exotic animal enclosures. Our guys have even carved custom furniture, at the request of several clients. We've been lucky enough to find some of the best hands in the business, so we’re in a great position to expand our horizons.”
He chuckled. “I think the fates must have brought me here to meet you today. I absolutely want my hotel to have a unique flair, and I’m in the process of interviewing contractors right now. Let me give you my business card.” 
I accepted the card and tried not to beam at him. "Absolutely. I'd love to discuss your project further."
Glancing at his watch, he smiled, “I hesitate to leave the company of any beautiful woman, but I’m afraid I was just out for a quick look at the area and have to meet with a business partner shortly. However, please do give me a call.”
“Certainly." His hand slid around mine, sleeve brushing against my wrist, and I blushed. Once again, painfully aware that I was even more underdressed than he was overdressed for the situation, the urge to cover myself was almost overwhelming. 
Two more minutes, just two. 
I shook his hand and smiled my most winning. "Would Tuesday of next week be too late? I’ll be returning to Houston on Monday evening.” 
“That would be fine. I look forward to hearing from you, Ms...”
“Oh, I’m so sorry. McKenna, Alexandra McKenna, of Kingdom Builders, Inc.”
“I’m Victor Belarus, my dear. I’ll speak to you next week.”
“Yes, and thank you.” 
I watched him walk away with a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach. Maybe it was fate. Or maybe it was something else.
	
CHAPTER 2

After the lack of action at the beach, Max demanded a girl's night out. We called Cody, the third musketeer, and she tried to rain check on us as usual- new court case tomorrow, too much to do, etc. We held firm until she finally agreed to meet us for a few hours. 
We took a cab into downtown Houston. The newest hot spot in the city, Heaven and Hell, was at least an hour drive from the beach, but the mega-club had been getting rave reviews and we were dying to see what all the fuss was about. Besides, Hell was supposed to be an underground feral revelry, the naughtiest club in the city for its ‘anything goes’ fetish vibe, so it seemed fitting for my first real girl’s night since the divorce. 
The long car ride left me with an urgent need to visit the ladies room while the other girls went on to find us a table. It wasn't until I'd come back out, and had to climb up on a barstool to see over the crowd, that I realized maybe I should have held off a little longer. There wasn't twelve inches between one person and the next, and picking Max and Cody out of the crowd was like picking two green books out of a library. 
Thankfully this library had index cards. 
I searched through the sea of dark fetish-wear and found the little pocket of sunshine that was my friends. I wobbled a little on my descent from the stool, almost toppling into the person next to me with a squeak. 
“Well, hello there, darlin’. Can I buy you a drink?” 
The hottie extending a hand from the bar wasn't wearing much more than a cowboy hat, and I grinned. I couldn’t decide which I’d rather look at more - the pearl snap nipple clamps, the low slung denim and leather chaps, or the sexy megawatt smile. To be honest, I was a little surprised that his sexual preferences included my gender, but who was I to judge? He was adorable and obviously up for a good ride. Too bad I wasn’t quite ready for that first one night stand yet.
“Thanks, but I’m meeting friends.” I said. 
“That’s too bad. I’d love to be your friend. The offer’s still good if you change your mind,” he persisted, tipping his hat with a flash of dimples. It should have been corny, but he was just sexy enough to pull it off. 
It was tempting, but I walked away mentally reinforcing the promise I'd made myself after the divorce. I wasn’t going to be a wall flower anymore, wasn’t going to live in the bubble - but maybe I’d start with a man who wasn’t wearing a costume.
I joined Max and Cody at a table in the middle of Hell. 
Max grinned. "Have I told you that you look amazing?"
I smirked, wiggling my hips in the little. I knew I would never win any pageants, but I had a cute face and knew how to play up my assets – namely full breasts and a plump ass with a relatively small number of rolls in between so far. "Only about six times, but who's counting? Oh wait, I am. I have to constantly bolster my self esteem around the two of you." 
She shushed me, but it was true. 
Cody was willowy, statuesque, and so unfairly beautiful that at times she devastated the men who faced her in the courtroom before even saying a word. Max had taken one look at her corseted dress and grinned. “Damn, we’re going to have to start calling you Kinky Cordelia! Nice leather.”
Not one to be easily tweaked, Cody sniffed. “At least I’m wearing clothes. Where’s your dress?”
Max giggled, flipping the hem of her miniskirt to flash sequined panties in our general direction. She was your typical petite girl next door, but the thing about Max was, her sexiness snuck up on you. Her easy going attitude and sense of fashion hid the fact that she had the kind of ass that men salivated over, enough wit to keep anyone in stitches, and a temper that could burn a person to ashes when provoked.
“Excuse me,” a waitress interrupted. “Mr. G would like to buy you a round of your choice.” She indicated a big man standing near the employee entrance to the club.
“You tell Mr. G that we’d be happy to accept a round of his best vodka for our newly single friend, Alex,” Max piped up, batting her eyes and blowing him a kiss. “Thank you very much!” 
Mr. G tipped an imaginary hat before turning and exiting the club through the employee entrance.
“Jeez Max, you know that guy or something?” I teased.
“He was just thanking us for coming in and making his club look good. Look at some of these ho-bags, they wouldn’t know sexy from slutty if it hit ‘em in the hoo-ha!” She laughed in her cute little way. “Now, let’s drink bitches!”

-----

A normal person would probably crave a little serenity or at the very least sanity, but even with the drama of the divorce I had the wild urge to break out and do something crazy. I wanted to be someone else, just for a while, leaving the un-fabulous and insecure divorcee behind to become... who, what? 
I didn’t know exactly, but the wild urge and the booze told the cab driver to drop us off at a tattoo parlor around two o’clock that morning. 
Throughout history, people — Native Americans, Vikings, Aborigines, etc. — have used animals as inspiration to exhibit their inner spirit and show their personal strengths. Today we do the same thing, except instead of being the clever fox or the fierce bear, we manifest our inner badass by assuming the persona of our inner gangster or pin-up girl.
Tonight, I decided, I was going to manifest my new inner spirit.
“Alex, are you s-sure you want to do th-this?” Max giggled, almost falling over the curb as she exited the taxi.
“I feel gr-reat, Max, like... like a teenager, but with m-money!” The hiccups weren’t helping, and I laughed at myself, knowing how ridiculous I must sound. “Do you realize how long, long it’s been since I truly just… had fun? Com’on. Where’s your sense… sense of advenshur?”
“Okay, you asked for it. Com’on money b-bags, you’re buying me the biggest tattoo on the wall!”
Max grabbed my hand but stopped abruptly just inside the door. “Oh, mama!” she murmured under her breath; or at least it was meant to be under her breath, but the guy leaning against the counter grinned.
“Bienvenidos chicas! Come in.” 
Oh lord, here we go.
Max had this little addiction; she couldn’t seem to help herself. She liked tough guys; and this tough guy had a smile that said you might as well go ahead and drop your panties sooner rather than later, because it was inevitable. As if that wasn’t enough, he had a sexy voice and massive brown arms with wicked tattoos running the length, perfect for holding a girl down while he had his way with her. 
“Hi,” Max said. The slurring evened out into a sexy purr, and just like that, my drunk friend became a vixen and sauntered up to the counter. “How would you like to tattoo your name on my ass, big man?”
His chuckle was downright evil. “That would make my day. I’m Cash. What’s your name, beautiful?” He took her hand to escort her over to his chair.
“Mackenzie… You know, I’m thinking Cash across my backside might cause people to get the wrong idea about me, but maybe we can work something else out.”
I stood there totally forgotten... so much for chicks before dicks.
“Hey, yo! You wanna get inked?” 
I turned around to nod and had to close one eye to steady the spinning in my head. Finally, able to focus on the skinny little dude motioning me over, I nodded. There wasn't one patch of clear space on his skin; the guy was a walking advertisement for his profession, but he seemed nice enough. “Yep, let’s do it.” 
“A’ight. I can get you over here.” He helped me into his chair and shoved a clipboard at me. “There's a few forms to sign for health concerns. Just so you know, when you sober up, you can’t sue me for whatever the hell you asked me to do tonight, or if the tatt looks fucked up because you bled out all the ink from the alcohol, got it?"
I nodded.
"So, you know wha’chu wanna get done?”
“I’m guessing, you’re not one of those touchy f-feely types that want to help me find something m-meaningful to have on my body for the rest of my life, huh?”
“How about a big, burning skull, you know, something real girly like that?” he joked.
“Cute, but m-maybe we could start with something a little more … like, actually girly.” I once again closed one eye to focus on the sketches lining the walls. “How about a...butterfly?”
“Hell no! You don’t want no fuckin’ butterfly; every girl in the trailer park has one of those. Besides, I’d have to charge you double if you made me waste my talent like that. I’m a fuckin’ artist, you know? Detailed shit… So like, what’s new in your life?”
“Um… I just got divorced from m-my cheating bastard of a husband, and I’m thinking about expanding my construction company.” The mention of my company reminded me. “I met a developer who w-wants—”
He cut me off, “Hold up, hold up! I got it. How about something like this?”

-----

I lay there for what seemed an eternity while Jake, ‘the artist,’ worked his magic. I wasn’t paying attention to much of anything around me, being preoccupied with not flinching, until Max’s gasp caught me by surprise. 
“Seriously? A dominatrix whipping a guy bent over a dollar sign?” Her shout of astonishment turned into gut busting laughter. “Jeez! I get a simple flower, and you..." She had to stop again to control her amusement. "You get a full mural of ‘ode de la triumphant woman’ on your ass!”
I grinned up at her. “Well, go big or go home, right? Besides, what was I supposed to do while you crawled up in his lap, practically begging him to take you right there in the chair? He didn’t even start the damn flower until almost two hours after we got here. Speaking of which… Show me.”
Max shimmied her jeans down a little, peeling the bandage away. She had an angry red outline on her freckled bottom of what would eventually be a gorgeous pink peony. 
I smiled. “Cash does good work; it’s beautiful.”
“It hurts!” She grimaced, putting the bandage back on and pulling up her pants. “I should have picked somewhere I didn’t have to sit or sleep on.”
Cash chuckled as he came up behind Max, wrapping his arms around her. “Ah, mi paloma, I thought you liked the pain. Didn’t you tell me you liked it like that?” Looking over Jake’s work as he nuzzled Max’s shoulder, he commended my choice. “Nice. I didn’t take you for such a badass, chica.”
“Thanks!” I grinned. “I’m not. I think its temporary insanity… but I like it.”
The men exchanged a look and Jake chuckled. "That's how it always starts."

CHAPTER 3

The next day was a revelation in discomfort. We'd decided to forego the long ride back to Galveston and rent a hotel room in the city for a few hours rest. I woke up to my alarm, set an hour before check out, and groaned.
You haven’t known suffering until you’ve had a raging hangover while trying to recover from a masochistic need to literally engrave a pattern into your ass. As bad as I felt, I still had to stifle the urge to laugh in surprise when I turned over. 
Max had stayed out with Cash for sometime after I got dropped off, and I never heard her come in. She wasn’t usually the type to bring a man she just met back to the hotel - but that wasn’t a pile of pillows next to her in the other bed.
Not wanting to intrude on the ‘morning after’ embarrassment, I got up and dressed as quickly as the clanging bells in my head would allow. The music in the elevator was calming, but the ride down had my stomach doing flips and I walked into the hotel lobby gratefully. 
I glanced in to the breakfast room and saw everything was still laid out. I helped myself to a cup of coffee and grabbed a newspaper before settling down to wallow in my own misery at one of the small side tables. To my surprise, Max came around the corner a few minutes later with Cash in tow. They were both smiling, even holding hands. 
I tried to downplay my amusement. “Good morning.”
Cash smiled, kissed Max on the cheek, and went to grab some breakfast. Waiting until he was out of earshot and Max was seated, I asked, “Uh, so… what’s going on?”
“Well, it looks like I might be visiting Galveston more often.”
“Oh really,” I smiled. She was blushing, which meant he’d made a serious impression.
“I know it just seems like I was drunk and he was there; but he’s so nice. He was the one to ask when we could see each other again.”
“So, my KensieCakes is being pursued by a man?” I whispered, using the silly nickname I saved for special torture sessions.
“Oh shut up.” She beamed, “but yeah.”
Cash walked back toward us with a heaping plate of food. “Will this bother to two of you? I could sit somewhere else if either of you aren’t feeling well.”
Max looked at me, and I shrugged. “I think we’re both fine as long as you don’t share.”
He settled into the chair next to Max. “So, Mackenzie tells me you are going to be building a hotel here?”
“Maybe. I’m supposed to speak to a development guy next week about a project he’d like to start. We’ll have to see if he likes my ideas. We’ve never really done anything that big before because the work we do is so detailed and personal to each client. Hotels and retail spaces are usually expected to be more versatile and appeal to the masses, so they can adapt when new trends come through.” My voice trailed off as intimidation set in. I’d never even dreamt of doing something like this, even with John, my ex husband, as a partner.
He shrugged, acknowledging the facts but disagreeing. “When you have something classic it never goes out of style. Have you seen the Hotel Galvez or Tremont House? They are both unique, detailed, beautiful… and people pay to stay there for those exact reasons.”
The truth was so simple. I realized I wasn’t that intimidated after all, flashing a grin at Max. “I like this guy, we have to keep him.”
“I know.” She beamed as he leaned over to kiss her cheek.

CHAPTER 4

One Month Later, June

“OH - MY - GOD.” I hung up the phone, jumping around until I fell to the floor, kicking my legs high and wild. Thank God I was alone.
I just closed the biggest deal of my life… of several lives! I reached for the phone again, still lying flat on my back in the middle of the office. I had to call Joe. 
Joe, my company’s foreman since the outset, and his wife, Barb, were family to me, taking me under their wing as I grieved for the grandparents who'd raised me and died shortly after I married John.
“Joe? We got it! Not only did he love the hotel plans we came up with, but he said if we pull this off within eighteen months, we’ll have the contract for the following five retail spaces. Do you know what this means?” I kicked my feet again. “We’ll clear more money on this deal than we’ve banked in the last three years combined.”
I could almost hear Joe smile, as  Barb laughed in the background. “I knew you could do it, sweetheart. When do they want to start?” 
“As soon as possible, I told them that we needed until mid August to interview the additional craftsmen we’ll need. We can start prelim work after that.”
“I’ll start calling vendors tomorrow to get the contracts in order and set up our supply chains.”
“Actually, that’s not even necessary. I didn’t realize it when I first met Mr. Belarus, but the man’s not just a property developer. He’s a mogul. He owns several manufacturing companies; it’s his way of cutting costs by not having a middle man for the supplies.”
“Well kid, I don’t know what to say other than— hallelujah. Now we just have to make sure that we don’t screw it up. Oh — oh hold on, Barb wants to talk to you.”
Barb came on the line with a squeal of delight. “Alex, honey, I’m so proud of you.”
“Thanks, Barb.”
“I learned how to text, just for you, honey.” My confusion must have traveled the length of the phone line because she cackled in my ear before explaining. “I just texted John to tell him his contaminated dick lost him the best partner he could ask for and millions in cold hard cash.“ 
I gaped, hearing Barb use explicit language for the first time ever. The laughter bubbled up in my chest. “Oh my God, I love you, Barb. I hope his jaw breaks when it hits the floor. Tell Joe I’ll talk to him about our plans tomorrow at the office. Tonight, we’ve got some celebrating to do.”

CHAPTER 5

Mid August

Thanks to the generous budget for the project, I’d been able to rent a small cottage in Galveston close to the job site. The beach was a perk, but the summer heat was repressive and I dressed light for business meetings scheduled later that morning with Mr. Belarus’ various manufacturing supervisors. His chief coordinator was supposed to pick me up, and I was dying to get started.
More than ready, I moved from the front window as a huge, white truck pulled into the driveway, and walked out to meet the driver as he came around the front of the vehicle. Well he-llo there, Big Sexy... A rush of unexpected excitement flowed through me. He is so fine. What I wouldn’t give to have his hands…
“W-AHHHH!” I lost my balance and went down hard onto my bottom. There was no explanation for it; I just fell off my own feet for no reason. 
Dear God, kill me now.
“Are you alright?” He crossed the last few steps between us quickly, and extended his hand. It didn’t look like he was going to laugh, but there was a suspicious twinkle in his eye that I didn’t trust. Yep, he’s laughing on the inside. Send in the clowns.
“Who, me? Oh yeah! I’m fine. It’s my special greeting for new business associates. You know, break the ice with a little unexpected clumsiness and everyone feels more comfortable? Don’t you feel better now?" Giving him my biggest don’t you think I’m cute smile, I tried to cover my embarrassment and got back to my feet. "It works every time.”
 He gave up and laughed with me. “Do you need to go back inside and change?”
“There’s no point in changing. I mean, I’ve got a lot more people to greet today. Heck, if you stick around, you might get lucky enough to observe my infamous spill your drink on yourself or toilet paper on the shoe greetings. They’re big hits at parties.”
“Hmm. Well, for now, why don’t you let me help you into the truck?”
Hoisting myself into the rolling behemoth with his assistance, I didn’t miss the quick appreciative male smirk as my behind hovered in his face and I took the chance to give him a good once over as he walked around to the driver’s side. Tall, with wide shoulders, thick hair, and a cute butt - yum.
I was glad I decided on the sheer, yet conservative blouse and stiletto Mary Janes. My look was professional but feminine and sexy, too. I attempted to pull myself together as he settled into the truck.
“I’m sorry about all that. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Alex.”
“Calen, pleasure.” 
The engine gave a deep rumble as it rolled out of the driveway, making me feel as if I were riding in a tank— in a rawhide, leather scented, beast of a truck. I tried not to wonder about the roominess of the back seat in present company. It just wasn't professional.
But I bet it would be fun.
“Will we be working together, or are you just babysitting me today until I meet all the manufacturing supervisors?” I tried not to sound too eager.
“I’ll always be available if I’m needed, but I don’t have much to do with the process once the materials are delivered to you. Mr. Belarus relies on me to make sure everything runs smoothly during his various imports and exports from the factories.”
“Oh, I see. From what I gather his business is extensive, so you must be a very busy man.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Cale, as he liked to be called, spent the day catching me up to speed on the last minute details as we traveled from one factory to the next. There actually wasn’t as much time to flirt as I’d hoped and by the time he dropped me off at my house again that evening, I was both exhausted and exhilarated. I couldn’t wait to start the job, but I was a little disappointed to be saying goodbye. 
“Well, thank you for all your help today. Any final pointers before I dive into the deep end?”
“Just hold your breath and go for it.” He grinned and handed me a business card. “If that doesn’t work, call me. I’ll come fish you out.”

-----

Things slid smoothly into place over the next few weeks. Joe and the crew went ahead to survey the ground work and start leveling off the site, while I was busy hiring the additional craftsman we needed. 
We were already ahead of schedule, into the foundation and structure phase of the build, and everything was going well, until materials started disappearing. When they began reappearing, it was just too strange, and I jumped at the opportunity to call Cale. 
“Hi, it’s Alex, the project manager for the new hotel in Galveston.” I hesitated, feeling self-conscious as if he might not remember me from the few weeks that had past.
“Hi, Alex.” 
I heard the smile in his voice and it sent a tingle down my spine. I smiled back, like an idiot, before remembering what I was calling for. “Hi, um, I don’t know if this is going to sound crazy, but do you know what’s going on with the materials? They keep pulling a magic act. It’s weird. Like, I’ll have sixteen bags of quick-crete one day, it’ll be gone the next, and then back again the day after that.”
“They’re probably just being moved around the site and what’s left over is returned if it’s not needed.”
“All sixteen bags? Being taken, not used, and returned at the same time?”
There was the slightest of pauses on the line before he replied. “We have other projects underway and sometimes there are mix ups with orders. Maybe my guys realized they made a mistake and came to fix it. I’ll talk to them. It should be all taken care of, but if it happens again, don’t worry about it. Sometimes we have kinks in the system. If you need something that seems to be missing, just let me know and I’ll expedite it to you.”
My bullshit alarm went off like crazy, but there was no way for me to question further without sounding rude. I didn’t want to ruffle any feathers, especially with Mr. Belarus’ right hand man. Besides, he offered to fix it if we didn’t have what we needed, so I tried to let it go. “Really? Well ok. At first I thought we had thieves, but then when the materials were replaced, I just got confused. So, thanks. I’ll talk to you la—”
“Alex.”
“Yes?”
“Have dinner with me tonight?”
The offer, out of the blue, sent my heart hammering in my chest and I felt the blood rush up to my face. “Um, I can’t tonight, Cale. I’ve got other plans. I’m sorry.”
“No problem. We’ll do it another time.”
“Absolutely, sure thing, another time,” Stop babbling and wrap it up, Alex. “Um, I guess I’ll talk to you later. Bye.” Flustered, I ended the call and tried to figure out what the hell just happened. 
I liked Cale. Obviously. In fact, I’d fantasized about him quiet often since we met, but it had been a long time since I’d been on a date. You just panicked. No harm done. Next time you’ll be ready to say yes— if there was a next time. The thought that there might not be a next time seriously upset me, and I decided to move on to more important things. Like, why the hell didn’t I believe him about the materials?
It was better to be safe than sorry, so I called Max to have her order some site security equipment. She knew more about camera distortion ratios and such, having spent much of her time doing freelance photography and surveillance detail for investigation firms. Her ‘girl next door’ appearance almost always guaranteed success, because nobody suspected that such a cute girl would be taking sordid pictures as evidence of someone doing the nasty, instead of bird watching for a college paper.
She had the equipment over-nighted, but it was almost dusk the following day before we could finally install it. That was the nice thing about starting a business from the bottom up, eventually you knew how to do everything yourself if needed, and I didn’t want anyone else to know about the added security until I found out what was really going on.
The night acclimated cameras surrounded the site, camouflaged inside the speaker boxes of the sound system we used for announcements, alarms, and lunch bells. Motion activated, the cameras would scan and calculate the proportions of moving objects. If they were under a certain proportion, like a bird, the camera would deactivate after the initial scan. If there was something of larger mass moving, perhaps a person or vehicle, the camera would record until there was no motion in the area for an allotted time and then deactivate again. We would add an undisguised decoy camera at the front gate. They cost a pretty penny, but I wanted something that would hold up to saltwater and weather without compromising video quality. 
Max was cleaning the cameras and getting them ready as I installed them. I still hadn’t spilled the beans, but this was as good of a time as any. 
“So, did I tell you about Cale?”
“You told me he was tall, dark and tasty.”
“Well… he asked me out.” 
“What? When did this happen?” Excitement filled her eyes, and I dreaded the next part of my explanation.
“He asked me to dinner the day before yesterday... but he didn’t seem mad or anything when I said I couldn’t go.”
“Why would you say no?” 
I winced, already feeling like a coward without her help. “I just panicked, I think, because it was so unexpected. Plus, I think he’s lying to me about some stuff here at work. It was really weird. That’s why we’re putting up some extra security.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t make any dates until you know for sure. We’ll just have to wait and see. Although, I don’t know what he could be hiding. I mean, we’re talking about concrete and insulation and stuff, right?”
“You’re probably right. I’m kind of kicking myself now, because he’s so hot, you know? He’s got that calm before the storm thing going on, like he’d be really good in bed once you get him worked up.” My stomach growled, reminding me I’d skipped lunch that afternoon. “Hey, you want to go grab a bite to eat after this?” 
I could tell something was up when she didn’t immediately answer. Max had a twinkle in her eye, which meant she was fixing to ask me to do something I wasn’t comfortable with. 
“Well, actually, I was going to invite you to a party at Cash’s house. He really wants you to come and meet some of his friends.” 
"I don't have anything to wear."
She laughed. "I already took care of that. We can change in the office."
My stomach twisted into knots, but I tried to stiffen my spine. I would go for two reasons. One, because Max wanted me there and that’s what friends do - and two, because I wasn't a wall flower anymore, dammit! 
Or so I thought.
 I got a look at her choice of outfits and rolled my eyes. “Are you serious? I know I’m trying to bring out my new self, but I really don’t think she's a hooker.”
She burst out laughing. “Fine, here. Take my shirt and shoes.”
After swapping out, I ended up in a pair of pinstripe trousers that rode low across my hips, barely covering my ass. The top of my tattoo peeked out over the waistband. I thought the shirt was a plain white tee until I put it on and realized it was several sizes smaller than I usually wore. My boobs looked like they were going to rip through at any moment. My look seemed to say, ‘Yeah, I’m a ho-bag, but I’m feeling casual today.’ At least, that’s what it said to me, but I was a twenty-nine year-old divorcee who hardly ever partied, so what did I know? I wasn't completely comfortable, but I'd deal with it.
As usual, Max looked great, even after the switch. Braless in the black mesh shirt that looked like someone painted solid stripes to cover only the vital areas, she should have looked like a skank, but ended up just looking plain sexy.
“I have no idea how you pull that off, but you go girl.” I laughed. 
Max laughed and put on her sultry, come-hither face, stalking up to me, her hips swaying. “I’d say the same to you, Sexpot Sally. How about we ditch the party and I just lay you across this desk?”
I giggled as she grabbed my ass, dragging me close to grind our hips together. My hands went to her sides, thumbs brushing that daring line of cleavage, as she brought her lips against mine in a kiss that should have burned down the building.
I loved the taste of her, but pushed away with another laugh. “Stop it, whore! No means no.”
 We’d been playing this game forever. I wasn’t into girls, but sometimes Max made me wonder and she knew it, so she teased me from time to time. I didn’t mind. I was still me, but that didn’t change the fact that she was a great kisser. 
She smiled and brought my fingers to her mouth for a quick nibble before letting go. She went to gather our discarded clothes while humming the song from Lambert, the Sheepish Lion. 
I rolled my eyes and helped grab the stuff. “You know,” I mumbled. “That lion finally got brave and attacked one day.”
She smiled, “Come on, lambkins. I’m not making fun of you. I like you just the way you are.”

CHAPTER 6

We pulled up in front of a three story house that must have been built a hundred years before. When you looked up and down the street, you saw the same kind of house one after the other in a row. It amazed me that, through all the hurricanes and storms, they pulled through with just a little paint peeling and maybe a flooded room or two. From what I could tell, under the strings of party lights, this one was a happy aqua color, probably faded a bit with sun and salt water. 
The noise and people spilling down the front stoop, however, seemed out of place. As we sauntered up the walkway, it didn’t take long for us to get a little attention. “What’s up, mama? How you doin’? Hey baby girl, what’s ya name?”
On the ride over, I’d been nervous, but for some reason I was totally fine now. Maybe I was tired of worrying all the time, or maybe it was those crazy urges again. Either way, the stress melted away as I faced the reality of being single and social again. 
Hell yeah, I still got it.
I smiled and said hello to all the cute little boys. I kept walking, though. They all looked a few years too young, and I wasn’t into the whole Mrs. Robinson thing. Max stopped to talk to a couple at the top of the stairs and I waited for her. A Reggaeton beat was blasting out the front door, and my hips found the rhythm without me even realizing what I was doing. 
A guttural voice from behind surprised me. “You move well.”
I turned and took my time inspecting the guy standing half in shadow behind me. Starting at the bottom with the black combat boots that laced up to meet nicely fitting black cargo pants, I paused and let myself enjoy the firm bare stomach and chest. He was a big man. I thought distantly that he was more solid than Cale, who had wide shoulders but tapered down to very narrow hips. This guy kind of looked like an action hero, except he didn’t preen or flex, just leaned there against the house looking like a wall of warm brown flesh. I finally moved up to the face and was surprised that it didn’t match the movie star image I’d started to built up in my head. The standard features were all there — eyes, nose, mouth — but they were unusual. The eyes were bi-colored, one a deep chocolate with a starburst of green, the other completely green. The nose, slightly crooked, probably broken at least once. His full, almost pillowy, lips were the only thing of ‘movie star’ quality. Ryan Phillipe, eat your heart out…
Realizing I was still standing there looking at him, I joked back with a friendly smile. “I don’t mean to brag, but I am a champion in-the-shower dancer.” 
“I’d like to see that.” He didn't smile back, and my own smile faded as I felt his gaze scald me through my clothes. 
I was fine dealing with the younger guys out there, but this one was intense. He looked like he was getting ready to pounce on me and rip me to pieces. 
Creepy.
I gave him a small shake of my head to let him know I wasn’t down with whatever he was thinking, and moved toward the door to wait for Max. His eyes stalked me as we headed inside, and I couldn’t help but glance behind me to make sure I wasn’t going to get grabbed by the boogey man. 
“What the fuck?” I gasped as soon as we were out of ear shot. “Who was that freak?” 
“What freak?” Cash repeated as he came up beside us. He took a good look and grinned. “Damn. Y'all know how to get your sexy on, for sure.” 
Max laughed and grabbed him for a groping kiss. I waited for them to finish saying hello, before I answered him. “The big dude on the porch, the one with the two different colored eyes.”
“His name’s Banker.” Cash said, his voice going flat. “Don’t mess with him. I don’t think he’s your idea of a good time.”
“Yeah, I got that feeling. What the hell's the deal with the names around here - Cash, Banker - Please tell me you haven’t changed Max’s name to Dollars or Bonds.”
“Ooh, I like it! I could be Bond, Max Bond,” she laughed.
Cash shook his head with a laugh and pulled us along and out to the backyard to meet some friends. “Nah, but I do have a friend named Penny. Everybody, this is mi paloma, Mackenzie, and her amiga, Alex. Ladies, this is Manito, Josh, Chris, Ana, and Gabe.” 
We greeted each of them in turn and accepted the beers that were offered. Cash’s friends were great. They weren’t shy about flirting, and talked above and around each other, trying to one-up the others for best embarrassing 'remember when' story. Apparently from the little snatches of conversation I caught here and there, Cash and several of his buddies, made money in nefarious ways when they were younger. Maybe they still did on occasion. I shrugged and let it go, knowing Max would handle her own business if Cash became a problem.
When the drinks began taking their toll, I excused myself to find the ladies room. I was startled to find Banker lounging in the kitchen. Our eyes met and caught, heat rising to my cheeks as he studied me.
“Um, do you know where the restroom is?” I asked, not really sure what to say to him, but needing to fill the silence.
“Sure, follow me.”
“That’s ok." I held out a hand to stop him. "I can find it, if you just tell me.”
He paused, studying me again for a long moment before settling back against the counter and pointing up the stairs. I nodded my thanks and tried to ignore the glare burning a hole in the back of my head as I went up.
There was no way I was going through that again. On my way back down, I took the other set of stairs, through the front room. I'd just have to walk around the side of the house to get back to the party. 
I stepped out the front door and almost died on the spot. Banker had moved from the kitchen to station himself on the front porch once again. Heat rose to my cheeks again as his eyes narrowed, realizing I'd been trying to avoid him. I ignored the tingle that skittered up my spine and continued on my way, pretending nothing was wrong. Settling back into a chair beside Max, I let the laughter and good humor around me drown out my embarrassment. Almost.
All in all, it turned out to be a great night, and around two in the morning I made my third attempt to leave. “Sorry, but I’ve got a long day tomorrow, so I’m out.” 
“Me too,” Ana agreed, standing up, and side stepping as one of the guys tried to make a grab for her. “I can give you a ride.” 
“Thanks. See you tomorrow, Max.” I gave both her and Cash a kiss on my way out. Laughter and lewd comments about threesomes followed us as we walked to Ana’s car. 
I startled when a hand reached around from behind me to open my car door. I stared at Banker for a second before my pulse slowed down enough for me to mumble a thank you. I tried to brush off the disturbing feeling of being snuck up on. 
It wasn’t a long drive to my rental, and as we pulled up in front of the house I turned to Ana, “Thanks again for the ride. Come by sometime and hang out. I work a lot, but I’m usually home by seven or eight. Stop by anytime.” 
“I’ll do that. G’Night!” I waved and turned to my front door as the car disappeared down the street. 
A shadow crossed the ground an instant before rough hands grabbed me, one at my waist and the other over my face. I froze as I was pulled to the ground. It happened so fast I was almost unable to process what was happening as the weight of a large body pressed me into the concrete walkway.
A man leaned down to whisper in my ear, crushing me even further. “I’m going to take my hand away so you can breathe. But, if you yell, I’ll knock you out and drag you to my car to do whatever I want to with you. Understand?”
I nodded frantically as my heart pounded in my chest. If I didn’t get air in the next two seconds, I was seriously going to pass out. He slid his hand away and I looked up into his face. Basic instinct told me breathing was more important than anything he had planned, so I took my time sucking in large gulps of air.
“Banker.”
“So you asked around about me.”
“Yeah. I was told to stay away from you. Why are you here?” I tried to sound normal, maybe a little angry instead of scared.
“I’m here. That’s all that matters right this second, isn’t it?”
“What do you want?” My voice rose and his fingers moved up to squeeze my jaw. 
“Listen to me. I could rip your pants down to your ankles and take you right here in the front yard and no one could stop me. So how about we just play the game?”
“What game?” His words scared me, because I knew they were probably true. That didn’t mean I was just going to give in, though. “Seriously, what fucking game are you talking about, because this isn’t exactly fun.”
He smirked. “The 'what’s the bad man going to do to me' game. Since you’ve already decided that’s what I am, I might as well fulfill your assumption. Obviously, it won’t matter if you’re having fun or not. Now, get up and be quiet.” He grabbed a handful of my hair, using it to steer me to the door of the house. 
“Stop it— Stop! Help!”
His hand tightened. “Everybody’s asleep for now, but go ahead and keep yelling if you want. Make me shut you up. I dare you.”
I lost my shoes along the way and dropped the keys on the porch. He pushed me down to retrieve them, and I tried kicking his kneecap to scramble away. He moved quickly, avoiding the blow, and pulled me back by my hips, grinding them into his own. “Oh, yes. You want to play, don’t you? Don’t worry, baby. I’ll be your bad man. Get inside.”
I half stumbled and tried frantically to come up with a plan as he herded me through the house and into the bathroom. It was a small space, and with both of us, it shrank to claustrophobic proportions. 
Calm down and play along, maybe he’ll just take what he wants and leave. Don’t be a pussy. You can survive this, just be smart.
 Reaching around me to start the shower, his body pressed into mine and I backed up to keep distance between us. Scalding hot water showered down the back of my shirt and I screamed. Jerking me into his arms and out of the spray of water, he adjusted the temperature and cupped handfuls of cool water onto my back. The tears that had finally broken free slid down my face, but the stinging across my back dulled enough for me to push away from him.
He looked into my face, as if making sure I was okay, and then turned to hoist himself onto the vanity. A handgun peeked out from the waistband at the back of his pants. 
Oh shit. Don't panic.
My legs trembled, but he began to fiddle with the radio on the countertop and our earlier conversation came back to me. Apparently, he wanted me to put my money where my mouth was. I stared into his bi-colored eyes, trying to anticipate what else he’d want from me. I lowered my pants and underwear until they grew wet under my feet, but he surprised me, stopping me before I got to my shirt. 
“Just dance.”
My boast from earlier in the evening came back to haunt me, echoing in my head. 
Play along, you can do this.
My chest felt too small as my heart beat against my ribs, my lungs panting in an attempt to catch up. Swaying around, I braced against the wall of the shower, letting my ass swing from side to side as I hid my face. I picked up the beat, went to a club in my head, dancing with Max, grinding against her as I dug into the music. Turning again, I ran my hands up and down my body.
“I see what you mean. You’re a real pro at dancing in the shower. I’d give you a trophy if I had one.”
My lower lip quivered. The a/c was pushing a draft into the room, and the air winding between my damp thighs was disconcerting. “I’d settle for an honorable mention and a free pass on the ‘bad guy’ game.”
“You don’t want me to be a bad guy anymore? Who should I be now?”
I chose my words carefully, afraid to upset him further. “Maybe you should just be... yourself. That’s what this is about right? You said I decided you were a bad man — so I was wrong.”
“Maybe you were.” He slid off the counter, coming forward to brush the wet hair off my face. “Or maybe it’s what you wanted me to be. So, do I punish you or fulfill your fantasies? Do you even know what you want?” 
Holding my gaze, he took the bar of soap off the shelf, bringing it down between my legs. Starting low on my thighs and moving upward to the apex, he slowly rubbed the soap into me, keeping his fingers behind that barrier, and touching me only with the soap itself. He was gentle, using just the right amount of pressure to have my breath catching in the back of my throat.
Under the circumstances, arousal should not have been an option, but I could feel my body responding, my fear starting to dissolve and mix with the inevitable pleasure of my awakening body. I caught a whimper before it left my throat as he slowly pulled the soap away and returned it to the shelf. He adjusted the shower so that it would pulsate roughly and moved down to rinse me, once again using only the shower head, never actually touching me. The water was almost exquisitely painful on my already sensitive body.
When all the soap was gone, he drew me out of the shower to stand in front of him, both of us watching the other through the mirror. The rough material of his cargos, the erection within, brushed against my bare ass as his hands came up from behind me to caress my breasts through my wet, translucent tee shirt. My nipples hardened, and a flutter went through me.
“You were afraid of me tonight,” he said, almost whispering as he nuzzled my ear, watching my face in the glass. His quiet voice conflicted the hard pinch he gave my nipples, making an arrow of shock run through to my aching center. “Without even knowing my name, you looked at me and decided I was trouble; so, I’m a bad man because I would make you scream with pleasure instead of moaning delicately. I am a bad man because I would make you admit that you would beg for me to force my way inside you like a bitch in heat. I am a bad man because you would crave my particular brand of sex…”
Without warning, he shoved me to bend over the counter and I could only watch over my shoulder as he examined my tattoo. “Is this your fantasy, baby?” he asked quietly, caressing my ass, making baby into an intimate endearment. “Maybe next time you can be the bad lady, hmmm? Maybe next time you can try to scare me. Right now, it’s time to finish your punishment.”
His open hand came down across my ass, cutting off any reply I would have made, and my whimper blended into the music. He spanked me again, hard, before using his now warm hands to squeeze and soothe the sting out of my backside. I whimpered again, angry with myself for enjoying it. He wasn’t actually going to hurt me. I knew that now. The game, the scare tactics, the spanking, it was all punishment for ‘judging him’… and it pissed me off.
I shoved back against him to make some room and turned to hoist myself onto the counter as he had. I opened my legs to him, dared him with my eyes, but didn’t kiss me as I thought he might. Holding my gaze once again, he slowly bent down and spread my thighs wide. His tongue took a long, languorous swipe across my very wet center, and couldn't stop my head from falling back momentarily as a sharp bolt of pleasure seared through me.
He savored the taste of me, rolling his tongue around his mouth and lips before licking again to gather more of my cream. He teased, watching every gasp and unwilling tilt of my hips that answered the stab and flick of his tongue.
Although it was almost impossible to concentrate, I brought my head forward again, waiting, and when he finally closed his eyes to delve farther into my body, I made my move. Reaching down behind him for the gun, I shoved him away from me, sending the heel of my foot deep into his stomach. 
I pointed the gun directly at his chest.
“Is this your fantasy, baby? Well, tell me something— does your fantasy include a woman who’s not afraid to shoot?" My whole body trembled, still caught up in the game, but I didn't back down. I pressed my heel harder into his stomach. "Get out of my house.”
He nodded and I followed him through the house, slamming the front door as he left. I bolted every lock it had. On a hunch, I released the magazine from the gun and swore. 
No fucking bullets; that asshole terrified me with an empty gun.
I moved to watch him through the window as he strolled away into the darkness with his hands in his pockets, a carefree whistle floating in the air. 
Fuck you, Banker.

-----

Sleep was sporadic and did nothing to cool my anger. In fact, the most infuriating thing was that I was still turned on the next morning, because I hadn’t even relieved the pressure myself, refusing to give Banker the pleasure of being right. I would not beg. When I got some, it would be because I damn well said so.
However, after thinking long and hard, I’d decided that I wasn’t going to press charges. You can’t rape the willing, and Banker had been very careful to terrify me without touching me until I knew I wasn’t in danger. Or so I told myself, knowing that truthfully, my desire to get even was really what held me back. That man was going to pay.
I'd forgotten I'd left my vehicle at the jobsite to ride to the party with Max. It was just one more irritation to add to the pile. I caught a ride with Joe and stomped around the worksite half the day, grumbling irritably over small issues, but the constant distraction of work finally pulled me out of my funk. 
Checking the security tapes from the night before, I found nothing out of the ordinary. No further inaccuracies had popped up with the materials either, and I began to believe I was just being paranoid about Cale’s mix-up explanation. 
When the mail arrived, I started sorting distractedly while heating up some left over fajitas for lunch. Setting the bills aside, I looked over the packages and a small box caught my attention. Wrestling it open it with one hand, while reaching for my plate with another, I glanced inside and promptly dropped the box with a gasp. A massive life-like cock rolled across the floor and eventually came to a stop a few feet from the office door. I could see writing on the inside the box and knelt down to read it. 
‘Until…’
That asshole...
With a grunt of disgust, I picked up the box and threw it across the office. It plunked against the wall and then down to the floor just as Max came through the door. 
“Knock , knock,” she called and promptly kicked the dildo toward me by accident. 
I automatically caught it and I couldn’t help but laugh at the look on her face.  The laughter didn’t last long, though. Throwing my hands up in the air, the firm fleshy replica wobbling back and forth in my grasp, I asked her “What the hell is wrong with me? Why do I attract assholes?”
“I... don’t know. Do you need me to leave?”
“No— I wasn’t using this thing. It just came in the mail,” I exclaimed, as if that explained everything.
“Uh, huh. Ok. Well, I mean, we all use them sometimes when we’re lonely, but before you go shopping online again, you should come and hang out with Cash’s friends. I’m sure that any one of those guys would be more than happy to supply the real thing, honey.”
“Max! It’s not like that—” I hesitated. I didn’t want Max to worry, so omitted a lot of the story. “It’s that guy from the party. He hit on me several times last night and then he sent me his fake dick in a box, complete with cryptic note saying ‘Until’, like I’m going to sit by the phone waiting for a booty call. It’s just fucking irritating!”
“Let’s call Cash. He’ll talk to him for you.”
“I don’t want to start trouble Max, I just, I just got caught off guard. That’s all.”
“Well, yeah. I can see how it would be a surprise. Gawd,  it’s huge,” she laughed, grabbing it from me to hold it in her hands and caress like a lover.
I tried to stay serious, but ended up laughing too. It was huge. “And realistic,” I added.
We both burst  into giggles and she started chasing me around the office with it. “You know you want it, baby. Take it all!”
I didn’t expect someone to walk into my office unannounced twice in one day, but as I heard the sound of the door and I turned to find Cale standing there looking confused.
“I’m, uh, sorry,” he said and started to turn away.
“No, Cale, come back,” I urged him, laughing as I tried to regain my composure and my breath. “This is not what it looks like— Oh God, why am I always doing something embarrassing when you come by? This is my friend Max, and that is a practical joke from another friend. Sorry. We tend to act like idiots when no one supervises us.” 
Max tried to ease my embarrassment, snatching up the box to put the thing back where it came from. 
“Yeah, sorry. Can you blame us? I mean, it’s pretty impressive huh?”
Cale’s smile was slow, full. “I’ve seen bigger. On a daily basis.”
Max’s mouth formed a silent ‘Oh.’
“Alex,” Cale said, changing the subject, “I was hoping that tonight you’d be free to have dinner with me. A friend needs me to house-sit and I’d really like some company. You could even stay over if it gets too late. There are six bedrooms to choose from.” He gave me a hopeful smile.
“Um,” I glanced at Max. There was no way I could get out of it with her standing right there, practically glowing at me.
“Yeah. Okay. That would be great. What can I bring to dinner?”
“Just yourself. Can I pick you up around eight?”
“Okay, I’ll be home.”
I waited until he said his goodbyes, left the office, and drove away before turning to Max. 
“Okay, so I guess I’m going to a slumber party.”
“Yeah, um, ‘He sees bigger on a daily basis.’” she quoted, using her fingers to emphasis the words, before motioning to the dildo box. “I’d call in sick to work tomorrow, if I were you.”
“When did we turn into skanks?” I laughed.
“We’re not skanks. We’re just more open to possibilities. It must be the salty air down here or something.”

CHAPTER 7

On the ride home, I decided there was no way I could be more than friends with Cale. He was almost like a supervisor and I shouldn’t mix business with pleasure. After all, I wanted to come out of my shell, but that didn’t mean I had to ruin my career.
 I told myself this as I showered with my never-before-used ninety-dollar body wash. I told myself this as I pulled on my matching green silk thong and bust enhancing bra set. I even told myself this as I carefully applied make-up, rubbed scented oil into my cleavage, and pulled on a short summer dress, adjusting the straps to show just the right amount of skin.
I stopped telling myself when I saw him drive up. Sure, I barely knew him, and I worked with him, but I wanted him. 
Meeting him on the front porch, I smiled as I boldly wrapped him in a hug, pressing the length of my body to his. “Hi. You’re always very prompt, did you know that?”
He rested a hand on my lower back with a smile in return. “Mr. Belarus requires it, so I’ve acquired the habit. If you’re not ready, I can wait.”
“Come on in. I’m ready, but dessert isn’t.”
He stepped back to peruse me from my head to my toes. “Isn’t it?”
I chuckled, actually feeling heat rush to my cheeks as I pulled him inside. “Wow, it’s been a long time since someone made me blush. I, um, I made cookies to bring with us, but they’ve still got about five minutes. Would you like something to drink, maybe iced tea, or a beer while we wait?”
“A beer, if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all, just sit down. I’ll be right back.” I headed back towards the kitchen and drew a deep breath. If I didn’t calm down, I was going to end up jumping the poor man where he stood. God he looked good! 
Sexy denim jeans and a casual white button down shirt that skimmed his hard body were accompanied by only a pair of sunglasses propped on his head and a Movado watch, personifying relaxed elegance and taunting my libido. 
I felt him follow behind me into the kitchen, so I dug out a beer and used the side of the counter top to pop the top off the bottle. I turned and handed it to him with a grin. 
“I know. I’m a badass.”
“I’m impressed. Can you crush a can on your head too?” he laughed.
“Oh yeah, I can do two at a time.” I lied with a grin, moving around the kitchen. “Excuse me. I’ll just scooch around you and check on those cookies.”
He turned with me and as I leaned to open the oven, I felt his hands lightly on my hips. 
“Mmmm. Good enough to eat,” he murmured, as if smelling the cookies.
“Okay, Casanova.” I smiled back at him. “They’re ready. Since you’re so into baking all of a sudden, would you mind taking them out for me while I go grab my bag?”
“Not a problem.” He smirked at me as I left the kitchen.
I grinned to myself on the way to the bedroom. It was interesting seeing this side of Cale. I’d known he had a sense of humor, and even that he was interested in me at least a little, but this kind of blatant flirtation gave me hope for the night to come. The Gods be willing.
“Ready?” he asked, carrying the cookies in one hand and grabbing my bag with the other. 
“Absolutely. Where did you say your friend’s house was?”

-----

The house was in actuality a four story mansion directly on the beach near San Luis Pass. I fell in love. It was an eclectic mix of Tuscan and beach design with turrets, balconies, and a wall of windows facing the beach.
“Oh my God” I gasped. “How does anyone ever break away and leave this place?”
“It’s great, isn’t it?” he replied. “Mr. Belarus has great style.”
I blinked, suddenly uneasy. “Cale, I don’t think we should be having dinner in Mr. Belarus’ home. I know he trusts you, but he barely knows me. I’m just one of his contractors.”
“It’s fine. He likes you. He says you’ve intrigued him more with your ideas than most people have managed in a long time. Besides, you are my guest and I actually live here when I’m not traveling. I watch over the place for Victor since he’s here even less than I am.”
I still had an odd feeling about it all, but didn’t argue further. Truthfully, I was excited to see the rest of the home.
I wasn’t disappointed. The interior was by no means subtle. The ceilings were done in glossy, rich, Brazilian wood planks, which had natural splashes of various yellows, grays, and reds running throughout. The gleaming ceilings met with walls that were textured to give the impression of being inside a sand castle. Driftwood and sea glass artwork stood out in contrast throughout the large open living space. 
“Cale,” I gasped, almost reverently. “It’s like someone built a home that I never even knew I wanted, pulled straight from my heart.” 
I heard a sound from the floor above me and turned to find Mr. Belarus looking down at me with a pleased expression from the walkway above. “That is the most eloquent description I’ve heard yet, my dear, and exactly as I felt when I saw the plans. Please enjoy it to the fullest while you are here. Stay as long as you like.”
“Oh—” I practically swallowed my tongue in surprise. “Thank you, Sir. It’s nice to see you again. Will you be joining us for dinner?” I asked as politely as possible.
“No,” he said, making his way downstairs. “Although it would be a delight to share a meal with such charming company, I’m afraid I’m already late for my plane.” 
He took both my hands in his and bowed over them to place a kiss on each. He swept a look at me from under his lashes and I was surprised to see the heat there. Standing this close, I could see the sparkle in his eyes and the still smooth texture of his skin. He was a handsome man, despite being old enough to be my father. 
“I’m delighted that you will enjoy my place of rest while I’m away,” he said softly. “Perhaps we’ll share dinner when I have returned.”
Murmuring my thanks again, I watched Cale escorted him out in bewilderment. Looking down at myself, I searched for the missing clue with a shake of the head. Maybe the divorce had done something to me, because I must have been throwing off some major vibes. I knew for a fact that, although I was cute, I was just not attractive enough for this amount of attention.
I waited for Cale to return before saying it out loud, “Okay, what’s going on? I’ve never had a problem getting a date, but there is no way in a million years that a billionaire old enough to be my father is interested in having dinner with me.”
“I told you,” Cale said gruffly with a frown. “You intrigue him.”
“That’s bull. I haven’t done anything intriguing in the least. Something weird is going on.”
“I’m intrigued too and I barely know you,” he countered. “However, I’m going to remedy that tonight. While I cook dinner, you’re going to tell me all about yourself.“ 
I took the hand he offered and allowed him to pull me into the spectacular kitchen. Cutting up vegetables for a salad, I told him about my life while he started the steaks and shrimp. 
“So, you were raised all over Texas. Got married young… When did you meet Max?” he prompted me as I started to run out of things to say.
“Max?” I smiled. Max always made me smile. “She was a friend of a friend. We met in college and realized we were like puzzle pieces, you know? We just fit.”
“That must be great to have her around all the time.”
“It is. What about you? Any close friends around? I just realized, I’ve talked this whole time about me. What about you?”
“Me? There’s not much to tell, really. I’ve worked for Victor, Mr. Belarus, since I was fourteen. It doesn’t leave much time for anything else.”
I peered at him over my wine glass. 
“No friends, even at work?”
He shrugged and started plating up the food. 
“Not really. You want to eat out on the deck?”
I let him move away from the subject for now. “Yeah, that would be great.” 
By the time we finished eating, the stars were out, and we decided to take a walk on the beach. 
“So what was with the joke this afternoon,” he asked. 
“Oh that. There was a guy bothering me at a friend’s party last night. I guess it was his way of propositioning me. His note just said, ‘Until,’ like I was going to give up and throw myself into his arms. Anyway, he followed me and tried to show me what I was supposedly missing. I promptly showed him the door.”
“Who is he?” 
“No one special — it’s no big deal. I handled it.” I said. 
Cale’s face was odd somehow, blank even. I glanced down, noticing his clenched fists. He was angry - he was very angry. I tried not to smile. It was kind of sweet. “Cale, don't worry. I’m fine.”
“If this guy comes around again or if you ever need someone, call me. Don’t wait, and don’t try to handle it all by yourself.” 
“Nothing happened,” I tried to reassure him.
“Don’t lie. You’re not very good at it.”
“Okay, fine, but he didn’t hurt me.” I finally did smile. “Mostly I just feel like an idiot. No real harm done, okay? Don’t get worked up. Come on, let’s go back to the house and have some cookies.” 
I held out a hand, which he took after a moment, but instead of heading to the house, he pulled me to him. 
I was ready for a kiss, but I didn’t expect it to send my blood surging through my body in a rush of surprised heat. His hands stayed politely on my waist as his mouth ate me alive from my lips, down my neck, and across my chest. He slowed and drew a deep breath. 
“You’re going to be the end of me,” he whispered as he laved the sensitive skin between my breasts.
It was a strange thing to hear from someone you barely knew, and I wrapped my arms around him to comfort an unease that I didn’t even understand.
“What do you mean?”
He lifted his gaze and there were things hidden there waiting to be said, but he kissed me lightly with a shake of his head and pulled me back toward the house in silence.

-----

As I brushed my teeth and settled down for the night, I thought about the change in Cale. 
When we got back to the house, he brought out the cookies and started a movie. He was pleasant, entertaining even, but the steamy mood had been doused completely. When the movie was over, he gave me a tour of the rest of the house and said goodnight. 
I’d never been attracted to the elusive and inaccessible anti-hero that you read about in novels, so the change in mood made me slightly irritable. 
After opening the turret room window to the night sounds, I slipped my dress and bra off and laid them over the end of the bed. I ruefully crawled under the covers, wearing only my green silk thong, with a drawn out sigh. I didn’t expect to be the only one to see the sexy underwear, much less actually wear them all night.
The bed did feel wonderful though. I lay awake for a time, contemplating what a long week it had been. I knew I was going to have to deal with Banker. Enthusiastic sexual overtures were okay, but not when accompanied by a weapon. He scared me and I was going to punish him one way or another.
It was strange to me, these two men pushing their way into my usually boring life. Banker was forceful and volatile, not really gentle in the least. Cale on the other hand was funny and agreeable, but in truth seemed to be the more guarded of the two. 
The sound of an engine crept into the quietness through the open window, breaking my line of thought. I tilted my head to listen. It was close. Getting up, I wrapped myself in a borrowed robe from the closet and padded down stairs barefoot. There were small lamps periodically throughout the house that Cale had thoughtfully left on in case I needed to come down to the kitchen for anything. 
I reached the front of the house just in time to brush the curtains away and see a black street bike pulling out of the driveway. I listened for any movement in the house before moving back toward the stairs. 
“Cale?”
His sudden change of attitude had been perplexing, but I hadn’t thought anything had happened tonight to make him upset enough to ride off in the middle of the night. 
At a loss and unable to sleep, I decided to look around a bit. Maybe I would find a clue to his strange behavior.
The office, which we skipped in the earlier tour, was done in leather and driftwood. Shelves of books, expensive knick-knacks, and ledgers lined the walls. The computer was inaccessible, so no help there. Although, to be honest, I wasn’t actually interested in snooping through Mr. Belarus’ things anyway.
His truck was the only full size vehicle in the garage. The metal cabinets lining the walls were all locked. 
I grabbed a glass of milk and some cookies from the kitchen, before heading back upstairs to look around Cale’s room. He hadn’t even pulled back the covers on the bed. Moving to the windows that looked out over the front of the house, I was startled to realize he’d already returned and was parking the bike directly below. He paused and I knew he’d seen me silhouetted in the window. 
Realizing I needed a good reason for being in here, I moved into the bathroom and, setting my milk and cookies aside, turned the taps on the jet tub to full blast. By the time he made it upstairs, I’d gathered towels and I was sitting on the edge of the tub swirling my hand through the steaming water. I made sure that the side of my robe dipped low on my bare shoulder invitingly. 
“I couldn’t sleep and came to find you, but you weren’t here,” I said quietly. I struggled for something to say as he reached for the buttons on his shirt, straining my concentration. “Did I upset you tonight? I’m sorry if I did something wrong.”
As he silently shook his head in denial, I stopped trying to talk and watched him strip. I’d never seen him without a shirt. It was impressive. Whereas, Banker was built like a brawler, Cale was built like a wide receiver. His chest and shoulders were strong and tapered to a small compact waist. His skin was a light brown and so smooth that it made my hands itch to rub down his arms to find out if they were as sexy to the touch as they looked. His hands caught my attention. Definitely a wide receiver, great hands.
I was startled as he laid two large pistols on the counter top, his eyes holding mine as if testing my nerve. The unsure, guarded man was gone, and an arrogant asshole obviously invaded his body. I raised an eyebrow in response, suddenly not so tongue tied after all. “Desert Eagles, huh? Too big and bulky, if you ask me. I prefer the Springfield XDM subcompact, for the element of surprise and ease of blowing asshole’s heads off.”
He smirked but didn’t answer. When the boots were gone and he was wearing nothing but well fit denim jeans, he stood and held out his hand to help me to my feet, pulling me close. I felt the heat radiating off of his body through the thin silky material of my robe, reminding me of just how little I was wearing underneath. I knew he could feel it too, but he turned and led me back through the bedroom to deposit me in the hallway and closed the door in my face without saying a word.
Oh hell no! Those were my cookies and milk. I knocked on the door. He didn’t answer. The silent treatment was bad enough, but this was bullshit. I opened the door and walked through anyway. He paused and stared at me with his pants halfway down his thighs as I walked back through to the bathroom. 
I snatched up the plate of cookies and turned to leave again, when a glance into the mirror brought another spurt of anger to the surface. 
Hell hath no fury, mother fucker.
I tugged the belt free on the robe so that it billowed to the sides. Lifting my chest, I made sure that my breasts bounced beautifully with every hip swaying, silk thong clad, make-him-wish-he’d not-been-such-a-bonehead, step.
 As I marched back out of the room with most of my body on full display, I announced haughtily, “I’m not sharing if you’re not.”

CHAPTER 8

“I mean, who does that?” I yelled into the phone at Max the next afternoon. “Who just decides to sneak off in the middle of the night, taking a fifty caliber handgun none the less? Like… in case what? You decide to do a spot of elephant hunting? And then— then, you don’t even take an offer from a woman who’s practically throwing her half naked body at your feet, panting for it? No. You act like an asshole and throw her out of the bedroom!”
“Why don’t you cut the guy some slack?” Max tried to reason with me. “You were the one that pointed out that you work together. He was obviously trying to be a gentleman, so maybe he went for a ride on his motorcycle, instead of riding you. And duh, he took his guns because it’s dangerous to ride alone in the middle of the night.”
 “Yeah, but… it just feels off.” 
 “Ok, so now you’re a psychic?” she said sarcastically. “He’s a big dude. Big dudes like big guns and he’s entitled to some personal protection. Maybe he couldn’t sleep and wanted to clear his head with a ride, but didn’t want to wake you up, so he pushed his bike a little ways away from the house. Why is that so hard to believe? Besides it’s not like he was walking around your house, thumbing through your shit, acting like a psycho, like someone else I know.”
“Maybe you’re right,” I mumbled.
“Yeah, maybe I am. Calm down,” she admonished me before changing the subject. “You missed a great showdown last night. I told Cash about the dildo incident. He was really mad and called Banker over to have a talk. Banker basically told him that what the two of you did in private was none of his business. Then, they started yelling in Spanish, so I didn’t catch much of it. Mostly I understood that Cash didn’t think you enjoyed the rough stuff and Banker laughed and assured him you did. Honey, was there something you wanted to tell me?”
I didn’t know what to say. I hated his approach, but I had enjoyed it after I knew I was safe. Max didn’t need to know what he’d done though. I finally decided I’d give her a short and sweet answer. “Nope.”
“O-kay, well, Cash wanted me to tell you that it would be a bad idea to get mixed in with Banker. He’s ex-military something, but he’s not much of a rule follower. They worked together a few times on jobs and he creeps Cash out.”
“Well, tell him that I’m fine and I’ll handle it, but thank you for sticking up for me. I’ll talk to you later, okay?” 
I looked around my office. There was absolutely no way I would be able to concentrate on paperwork this afternoon. I absent mindedly logged into my computer and accessed the security footage from the previous night. 
I thumbed through some mail as I kept half an eye on the videos auto playing at double speed across the screen. Some birds, some blowing trash… Suddenly my eyes jumped to the screen as I watched a truck pull into the driveway. I hit the stop button and brought the video back to the beginning of the clip. 
Someone wearing all black gear and a mask got out of a huge box truck and carefully tilted the dummy camera towards the sky on the pole at the entrance of the worksite. The truck pulled up and waited for them to pick the gate lock and they headed straight for the material trailer. 
They off-loaded half a dozen bags of concrete and at least a dozen rolls of insulation to my amazement. They used them to replace the concrete and insulation they took from the materials trailer and loaded into the truck. Before they left, they relocked the gates and tilted the camera down again to its original position. 
I stopped the video and sat, thinking. I wanted to run outside and look around in the material trailer, but there was no way to be sure that someone out there working for me right now wasn’t part of the crew that made the exchange. 
The whole visit took less than five minutes. If the dummy camera really had been the only security, I might have checked the mounting bolts to see why the camera had tilted back and forth, but probably nothing more. That’s if I even noticed at all. Most people wouldn’t notice a five minute lapse of camera angle, especially without any indication of theft of materials to prompt them to look. 
One thought made me pause. I mentioned a supply variance to Cale and all of the sudden the thieves started bringing the replacements to make an immediate exchange instead of replacing the lost materials the following night.
The idea that the man I’d stayed with last night might be in on something dirty made the back of my neck itch. Maybe the thieves had just thought I was on to them and changed their M.O. because of the extra security fence and camera I'd installed, but it still didn’t explain where Cale went last night with his big gun or the convenient fact that he invited me out to the beach house on the night of the exchange, almost as if to make sure I wasn’t working late in the office.
Copying the footage over to two separate flash drives, I threw one in my purse and put the other in the safety box inside the false bottom built into my desk, right next to the nine millimeter Glock.
I wasn’t a vigilante, but I’d always believed in self preservation. Banker’s visit the other night had convinced me that I needed to start carrying daily. It might not be a game to the next guy, and it paid to be prepared. Like they said, the definition of Gun Control was just the belief that somehow the woman found raped and strangled to death with her own pantyhose in an alley was morally superior to the woman sitting in the police station explaining how her attacker came to have that fatal gunshot wound.
There were times I worked late by myself in the office, and I’d be damned if I’d end up a statistic.  
I mentally shook my head and brought myself back to the problem at hand. Step one would be to find out what the hell was going on and who the hell was in on it. Obviously, people who knew me and my jobsite were prime suspects.
The phone rang, but I was so focused that for a moment I didn’t realize who was calling. Snapping out of my daze, I picked it up. 
“Hey Cody!” 
I hadn’t seen her in months and felt terrible for not keeping in touch. “I’m sorry I haven’t called lately. I’ve just been crazy down here. How are you, honey?”
"Oh hush!" She shushed my apologies, laughing into the phone. Cody had always had a classy laugh. Not snooty, just a smooth, rich, pleasant tone that made you automatically smile back. “Don’t worry about it. I've missed you. Although, I know you’ve been working hard to get everything going. I just had some interesting news and I wanted to run it by you.”
“Oh?”
“It has to do with the divorce, so tell me now if you don’t want me to continue.” She hesitated.
I thought about it honestly. The funny thing was that although John’s betrayal still hurt to think about, I wasn’t really sad anymore. I guess that tends to happen when you start making a life of your own. Plus, I knew Cody. She was a lawyer down to the marrow of her bones, so she wouldn’t be able to let this go until I heard her out.
“No, I’m ok. What is it?” I asked.
“Well, I was talking to a friend who had something similar happen and she mentioned that she was really irritated that her state had done away with the Alienation of Affection law. Do you know what that is?” she asked eagerly.
“Not a clue.” I said, wondering where this could possibly be going.
“Alienation of Affection is a suit that you can bring against the party that drew your spouse away from you.”
“No shit,” I replied. “I never would have guessed that you could sue someone for being a slut.”
“Absolutely. It’s kind of an antiquated law that was put into effect back in the day, when women were viewed more like possessions and weren’t allowed to work outside the home, and thus could strike out at the other woman because they deprived them of any future they could have built with their spouse and that includes financial as well as emotional deprivation.” She replied excitedly, “Which means, paying you for loss of current and future income, as well as paying for needed therapy to overcome the emotional trauma of losing not just a husband, but the possibility of future children within that relationship.”
I could tell she was already making a list of ways to bend them over her knee and spank them in court. Cody loved lists. Everyone of her books, including fiction, had post-it notes inside with her thoughts and lists of ways that such and such could be used in defense or prosecution of a point.
“That’s nice, but something tells me that Texas doesn’t have a law like that.” I replied.
“Legally, in New Mexico you have the right to bring the suit against her. You and John took residence there for two years while working and she still lives there. It’s where the affair started. The hardest part about this kind of case is proving that you had a happy successful marriage before she came into the picture, and John already made that part of the case easy for us by his statements early in the divorce process.”
“Yeah, but—”
“Alex! You know she cheated with someone else’s husband before yours and she’ll do it again. Let’s teach her a lesson! Let’s teach them all a lesson!” she pleaded. “Look, I’ll do it for free, okay? I just want to nail this bitch for some reason, maybe because she’s a slut or maybe just because she never apologized. I’ve gone over the case file and I know I can make this happen. I know it, Alex.”
I sighed. Cody was a truly driven individual. She was all about poetic justice and absolutely couldn’t stand to let the underdog lose, let the good guy finish last, or in this case, let the cheating bastard to go unpunished. ‘Righteous Indignation Will Prevail’ was practically stamped on her future letterhead.
 I tried to reason with her. “John was my partner, not my provider. There was no loss of income. In fact, I’m doing better now than ever before,” I argued. 
“You’re really going to veto this idea, aren’t you?” she pouted.
“I just don’t see the point, Cody. If I wanted revenge, I would have had you nail his ass to the carpet during the divorce. As for the slut, God willing, she’ll have a dozen STDs before she’s thirty. I just want to get on with my life.” 
“I don’t understand why you’re so nice, but fine. I’ll leave it alone.” I could hear her quietly stewing as she sat on the phone.
I tried to lighten her mood. “Don’t be mad. I could use your help on something else. You should come down. Max and I would love to see you, and we can get you a tattoo.”
“Tattoo? You got a tattoo, Allie?” she said warily, sounding more than a little surprised.
“You’ll just have to come see it for yourself. Max got one too, from her sexy new boyfriend.”
“She told me about Cash. Is he all that and a bag of chips, like she says?” she laughed, letting her disappointment over the lawsuit drain away.
“Ooohhh yeeaahhh,” I told her, drawing out the words to emphasize his hotness.
“That’s it, I’m coming down this weekend. Count me in!” she decided. “Maybe I can get in on some of that action. From what I hear, Max isn’t the only one dippin’ in the honey jar…”
I laughed. It was hilarious when oh-so-properly-educated Cody talked in ‘slang’, as she called it. “A’ight! We be waitin’ for you!” I replied, with a giggle.
“What should I bring?” she asked. 
“Booze and a bikini. I’ll take care of everything else.”

-----

My excitement about Cody’s plans to come down took the edge off the unsettling feeling of knowing someone was moving something through my jobsite without my knowledge, but by the end of the day I was practically pacing the office, waiting for everyone to go home. 
When I finally had the lot to myself, I grabbed the few things that I’d need and hid them against my body with a clip board. I moseyed out of the office and around the jobsite, pretending to inspect the progress. I felt vaguely silly, like a cartoon version of James Bond, but I worried that someone might be watching the site, so I kept an eye out for any look-outs and tried to act natural.
I ambled my way to the material trailer and let myself in, partially closing the doors behind me. There was a portable droplight hooked just above the door and I switched it on to make it easier to see in the dusky shadows. I wondered how the men last night had been able to make such a quick exchange without the overhead light, like they knew exactly where everything was.
The bags of concrete and insulation were to the right. There was nothing suspicious about any of the bags, but I took a couple quick pictures of the outsides and the way they were stacked anyway. Then, I opened up a bag of the concrete and sifted the powder through my fingers. It looked like ordinary concrete to me, no strange smell or anything. I laid down my clipboard with the things I’d gone out and bought earlier in the day. I scooped a handful of the powder into a zip lock bag and then used a thick needle and thread to methodically stitch the concrete bag closed again. 
There was no way for me to open and then reseal the insulation, so I picked up one of the bags experimentally. It didn’t feel any different than normal. It had the same amount of packed-in fluff. It weighed the same. There were no strange noises or rattles.
None of it made any sense. If these were just regular materials that got mixed up, why couldn’t they be exchanged during the daytime? And why would Cale ask me out to that house and then leave in the middle of the night... almost like he wanted me out of the way for whatever was going on here?
I made sure to put everything back the way I found it and left the material trailer. My cell phone chirped on the way to my truck, and I jumped. Who me? Nah, I’m not freaked out!
“Hello?” I answered tentatively, still feeling as if someone might be watching me.
“I was hoping you’d be more excited about my present.” Banker chuckled on the other end of the line. The grinding gears in my brain almost started smoking from abruptly changing thoughts. Nix the work issue— on to the sexy stalker issue.
“Well, creepy just doesn’t do it for me, you know?” I growled. “It’s like, if you told me you were terrified of heights and I sent you a sky diving harness with frayed edges. It just doesn’t send a warm and fuzzy message, you know?”
“I didn’t think you’d be happy, but I figured I’d at least get a reaction. You know, a threatening phone call or a restraining order, or something. You were a pretty good sport about it all. “
“I’ve been too busy to deal with you.” I replied with a sigh. I knew he was messing with me, but the funny thing was that it was kind of amusing in a ‘What the hell’ kind of way. I didn’t know what to expect from him, so at least he wasn’t boring.
“That’s too bad. So I’m guessing that you don’t have time to play tonight? Maybe finish what we started?”
“Do you ever just ask a girl out and have normal one-night-stand-sex?” I said, exasperated.
“I’m not into that.”
“Well, I’ve got news for you, babe. I’m not getting a restraining order and I didn’t have your phone number — or the give-a-shit to ask somebody who did have it, for that matter. You think you’re the only one who can fuck with somebody’s head? I know my way around power tools, Einstein, and plain old payback is for pussies. I’m going to make damn sure you have a life changing experience the next time we meet.”
“See, that’s why I like you. I’m not into victims — sport.”
The dial tone burned into my ear and I growled in exasperation. I drove home and spent the rest of my evening searching the internet for revenge plots, although to be honest, I was disgusted within an hour. There were some really sick people out there.
I just wanted to surprise and possibly annoy the guy, not maim him for life, I thought, lying across my bed in defeat. How do you epically punish a sexually driven bad ass with a twisted sense of humor without causing permanent scarring? 
Inspiration dawned and I smiled into the dark. Ah, sweet revenge.

CHAPTER 9

Cale was standing in my driveway when I headed out to work the next morning. “Can we talk?” he asked, crossing the lawn.
“I don’t know, can we?” I snapped, still angry at him and more than a little wary of the coincidences surrounding his behavior. “You haven’t said a word since you snuck off in the middle of the night. You didn’t even speak to me on the drive back in the morning. So you tell me, Cale? Can we talk?” 
Frustration saturated the deep frown on his face. “Look, I’m asking you straight forward. Why did you snoop through Victor’s home and what the hell were you doing in my room? Don’t lie again, telling me how you were planning my seduction. If you wanted me, you would have said something before.”
Oh no he did not just snap at me.
“I’m a curious soul, Cale. I have a tendency to wander around when someone leaves me alone in a strange house in the middle of the night. I even snoop. I’m a woman, it’s our specialty. Since we’re asking questions, you know, straight forward and all, where the hell did you go?” 
His face flushed purple and he loomed over me. There was a long moment of temper-mounting silence before his gasket finally blew sky-high, his bellows startling the birds from their nests. “I went to the fucking drug store to buy fucking condoms, because I couldn’t fucking get over knowing you were just down the fucking hallway and wishing I were fucking your fucking brains out!” 
Well, fuck.
It occurred to me in that moment all of my neighbors could be hearing this argument over their morning coffee. A giggle bubbled up in my throat, then a laugh. I could see that it was pissing him off more, and that made it worse. Damned if his angry-face wasn't adorable. Howling with laughter now, I covered my mouth with both hands, not that it helped. 
I made a real effort to choke it back. “Why - why didn’t you just say that? And why did you need that huge gun?”
He scowled. “I always have a gun, and if I hadn’t been too busy wondering what the hell you were doing in my room, I would have said so.” He glared at me and dared me to lie to him.
I decided the best defense was one that couldn’t be refuted: the truth. “I wanted to know why you’d been acting so weird all night and why you left in such a hurry. One minute we were having a great time, getting to know each other, sharing that amazing kiss, and then the next thing I know, you start treating me like, like a guest.”
 It wasn’t hard to play the rejected woman, glancing at him from beneath my lashes, because despite all of my suspicions, I actually was upset with how things turned out.
His silent contemplation washed over me for several long moments before he gathered me to him in a semi-hug. I let him tilt my chin up as he spoke. 
“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I was sending off such mixed signals. I was trying to back off, because I truly had noble intentions for the night.” He smirked devilishly, “But when I told you goodnight and you had that sexy, disappointed look on your face, I ended up arguing with myself for at least half an hour. When I decided to give it up, I realized that I didn’t have any protection with me, so I had to go to the store.” 
I could almost believe him. I wanted to, because he was so earnest and the conflicts in his personality didn’t make any more sense than what was happening at the jobsite. 
He took a deep breath and continued. “I’ve always been around people who’ll use every opportunity to stab you in the back to get themselves ahead. That’s what business is about, getting to the top. I should have realized that it was me making you suspicious. I’m sorry for over reacting and being a jerk.”
I felt myself melting into him, although I couldn’t really say why we were so drawn to each other, having only met a little over a month ago. I knew he didn’t have to explain himself, but he apologized anyway and made an effort, like he really wanted to be with me. Lord knows I wanted him, too. I let him cuddle me and responded against his shoulder. “I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have snooped and I shouldn’t have left your room the way I did. It was really immature.”
He laughed. “It was amazingly effective. I spent the rest of the night thinking about you and still got absolutely no sleep.”
I smiled up at him. “You thought about me all night, huh?”
“Oh yeah, that color of green looks really great on you. Of course, anything would look great on your naked body.” His eyes twinkled down at me. “Myself included.”
“Redo?” I asked shyly.
“Hell yes!”
Those words sent tingles skating down my spine and I immediately wanted to drag him into the back seat of his monstrous truck and do wonderfully horrible things to him.
“When?” I murmured, guiding one of his hands down my backside and pressing the full length of my body into him. He grabbed my ass with both hands and hiked me up against his body, so that we were eye level when he took my mouth with another scorching kiss.
I remembered with frustration that I was wearing a skirt when I couldn’t wrap my legs around him and the thought brought me back to reality. I pulled out of the kiss with a laugh, “I’m supposed to be at a meeting.”
“With who?” he asked, kissing and biting his way along my collar bone, still holding me tight against his body.
“The city inspector,” I giggled against his shoulder.
He sighed and let me slide down his body to stand on my own two feet again. “It just couldn’t be with someone unimportant, could it?”
“Sorry.” I looked at the time on my cell phone. “Actually, I hate to say it, but I really have to go, like now. I’m already late and we have to get these inspections passed to move on to the next stage. So, we’ll talk later.” I smiled and gave him a quick kiss before running to my truck.
With a little extra gas and cutting through a few neighborhoods, I reached the job site in record time. Not one of the crewmen commented on my wrinkled outfit or the fact that I didn’t have to reach for a single cup of coffee to shake off the yawns that morning.

-----

I tried to pay attention to Mr. Short, the inspector, but my brain kept switching back and forth between all the complications in my new life: Cale. Banker. Banker’s punishment. The exchanges in and out of my job site. Oh God, please don’t let the inspector find anything illegal onsite! Would Mr. Belarus be back soon? Would he really expect me to come have dinner with him? Was Mr. Belarus involved in whatever was going on? Because I was pretty sure that Cale knew something about it.
 I breathed a sigh of relief when the inspection passed and the inspector went on his way, permitting the project to continue without any changes. It was the smoothest inspection of my entire career, but the most stressful. I walked to my office and plopped down on the couch with a huff. I had to talk to someone about this before I exploded. 
I dialed Max’s number.
“H’lo…” she mumbled on the fourth ring.
“I woke you up. Sorry,” I said, although I wasn’t really. Photographers kept their own hours usually and something told me she wasn’t up working late last night.
“Isss okay. Wasup?” she murmured. I could practically hear her snuggling back down into Cash’s arms. Max had no problem being sexy, but talking about it made her blush. The devil on my shoulder decided that today I would be evil, as only best friends can.
 “Oh I was just calling to say good morning, Unless you and your lover were in the middle of a good morning romp, in which case, could you just put the phone down by the pillow? I promise you’ll barely know I’m there,” I breathed out, creepily.
 I heard a grunt and I could tell by the muffled tone of her voice she’d partially covered the phone with her hand, “Shut up!” she chuckled at me. “Do you actually have something to say or can I hang up now?”
 “Yes, I have something very important to say.” I took a deep breath and sang loudly into the phone “Cash and Mackenzie doing it in a tree! EFF-YOO-SEE-KAY…” I couldn’t finish spelling it out because I was laughing too hard and she was yelling at me that she was hanging up. 
 “Okay, okay, okay,” I broke into her tirade. “Really, I need to talk to you sometime today, but it can wait a bit. Can you come by later?”
 “Yes, fine. Goodbye.” She grumbled. 
I was still laughing when she hung up on me. 

-----

Max came by around lunch time, bringing Cash and food with her. I hadn’t really specified not to bring him, so I couldn’t be upset, but I still didn’t know who was in on this deal. 
After we all settled down around my desk with our lunches, I took a roundabout approach to my introduction. I glanced at Cash. “Ok, so I’m truly not trying to be a jerk, but I need to know— Cash, do you still earn money the old-fashion gangster way?”
Cash answered, not upset or defensive, more curious. “Sometimes I supplement with a little of Mother Nature’s contraband. Other than that, no. Why?” 
 ”Well, I don’t know if she told you, but I had kind of a weird night out there. Cale was gone for almost an hour,” I held my hand up to stop her from interrupting to scold me, “right around the time that this happened.” 
I turned my computer monitor around toward them and played the clip from the night of the exchange. When it finished playing, I continued. “I know it doesn’t look like much, I mean they replaced what they took, but I mentioned to Cale about a week ago that some of the concrete bags went missing and then reappeared the following day. This time, whoever took them brought immediate replacements. Plus, it’s almost like Cale asked me out that night to make sure I wouldn’t be here working late at the office, and there’s the whole thing about him disappearing for a short time that night. I just can’t stop thinking that someone is smuggling something through my job site.”
 ”Drugs,” Cash agreed without hesitation. “Guns and money wouldn’t get handled like that. My bet is that the ‘What’ are drugs, but what I’m not sure of is the ‘Who,’ because I know La Familia that runs local around here, and that ain’t them. As for your boy Cale, I’ve never met him, but it does sound pretty damn suspicious.”
 I looked at him carefully. “La Familia? I’m not trying to start a turf war on my job site. I like my employees and I don’t want anyone hurt.”
 ”I’m not gonna go tell nobody, but you gotta know that if the locals find out on their own, they’re gonna target everyone they think is in on it — that includes the site boss and crew.”
“Do you know anything about specific drugs?” I said laying the bag of powder I’d gotten from the material trailer out on the desk. “I took this sample, but it just looks like concrete to me.” 
Cash opened the bag and after a moment laughed, “That’s because it is concrete. You don’t need to be messin’ with that stuff though, because if it was drugs and they figured out someone messed with ‘em, you’d be in some trouble.”
“So what do I do?” I sighed. 
“You gotta decide that for yourself, chica, but I’ll tell you one thing, if it were me, I’d wanna know who I was dealin’ with before I went telling anybody anything, even cops. You know what I mean? Like, if it’s just a small operation, cool, but if your man is the boss’ right hand and he’s in on it, well then I’d bet your boss is too. He’s a big fish, right? So maybe you might not want to set yourself up as a target until you know who’s the shooter and who they got as backup. Plus, you need evidence to go accusing people like that.”
I bounced my forehead up and down on my desk a few times in mock frustration. It didn’t help. I looked up, “So I need to keep up surveillance. What else would you do, if it were you?” I asked.
“I’d follow them and see what happens when they leave, where it’s coming from, where it’s going, who’s working it.”
“I’ll need help. If I’m right, and Cale took me out to the beach house to make sure I wasn’t here when the exchange happened, then I’m going to need someone who can be here when I’m being diverted. I’d pay whoever you respect and trust not to talk to anyone.”
He raised an eyebrow. ”I’ll get some people together. If you don’t want to get caught, you’re gonna have to have at least five or six different people switching off.”
Dammit.
 ”Something like this could cripple us if our name gets attached to a drug ring or something like that." I nodded with a deep sigh. "Alright, let me know when you’re ready. I’d like to meet everyone.”
 ”No problem.”
 Max came around the desk and gave me a side hug, “Jeez, honey. When you decide to dive into a new life, you do it with gusto.”
 I just shook my head and sighed.

CHAPTER 10

I watched the cameras for the rest of the week, but by the time Cody showed up on Friday night, no new exchanges had been made. I decided to concentrate on hanging out with her and ignore my issues for a few days. 
I met her at the house and we talked nonstop for the first few hours. It was well after midnight when I finally got around to telling her about Banker. Her sense of justice was offended and she instantly became furious. 
I tried explaining again. “He didn’t hurt me. It was a weird game he was playing, so I was thinking—”
She interrupted with an uncharacteristic screech. “AGH! Are you kidding me? He forced you into your house, man-handled and threatened you, touched you without your consent. That’s called rape, Alexandra. I can’t believe you’re letting him get away—”
I yelled over her, “That’s why we’re going to teach him a lesson.”
She stopped shouting mid sentence. Her cheeks were flushed and she could have melted steel with her glare. “What did you say?” she demanded.
“I said we’re going to teach him a lesson, about fucking with people’s heads. You are going to help me, right?”
“What are you going to do?” she asked warily.
“Well, since he likes games so much, I thought we'd try one of our own. You know, like a sexually deviant version of the Alice in Wonderland, maybe? He’s never met you before, so we would start out with you delivering the cheesy 'you're late for a very important date' note. The best part is... he won't know what hit him when he falls down this rabbit hole.’

-----

The trap was baited and set by the next evening. I watched from a few blocks away as Cody stepped from the rented van with her 'special delivery' and sashayed across the dusky street in her sexy white bunny outfit. 
She smiled and did a flirty little wiggle for several guys lounging on the porch. There was no way to hear what she was saying, but I knew from the plan that she’d butter them up and stir up as much interest as possible. We wanted Banker's friends to be very curious and ask embarrassing questions when he came home the next day.
Finally, I caught sight of Banker as he came forward to take the envelope from her. He said something, and she shrugged, twirling a stand of hair around her finger with a smile as she wiggled the fingers on her free hand. I laughed as he placed a bill in her upturned palm.
She's shaking him down!
Cody returned to her vehicle and drove away with a beep-beep and a wave. I turned my car around and headed back to the house we’d rented especially for this occasion to get ready for the guest of honor.

-----

Almost an hour later, Banker’s car pull up in the driveway. We'd left a white rabbit propping the front door open. The house was dimly, but strategically lit in the nighttime shadows. I watched the video feed on the monitor upstairs as Banker entered and approached the table placed in the middle of the foyer. 
He examined the pill left for him with the classic instructions, ‘Eat Me.’ If he was worried about it, he didn’t show it, saluting the room before using the full shot glass I’d labeled ‘Drink Me’ to wash it down.
Time to play. 
I made sure the cameras were set and grabbed my quirt. My boots clicked against the hardwood in the upstairs hallway, drawing his attention, and I took my time on the way down the stairs. 
Pausing on the landing above, I struck a pose and allowed him a good look at the black latex body suit. Strategic cut outs across the chest and crotch were filled with only thin, glossy swatches of crimson silk, hiding very little from him. My hair was pulled back off my face into a no-nonsense bun, and having opted not to wear a mask, I used only dark eyeliner and inky black lipstick for dramatic effect. 
"This is a surprise."
I only quirked an eyebrow in reply. When I finally did speak, it was in a low, caressing tone. “Did you know that people all over the world have fetishes? Some are just quirky. Others are nasty, dirty fetishes. Apparently, I have a rape fetish. I didn’t know it until I met you. If someone had tried to tell me that a man I barely knew could force me into my own home and terrorize me into creaming myself, I’d probably have told them to fuck off, but, here we are. I thought that since you introduced me to a new fetish, I’d introduce you to a few and see how you feel about them.” 
I slinked across the room and held my arm out to indicate another table tucked farther into the foyer. “Go ahead. Pick a card.” 
Banker stood there momentarily watching, before following me over to the table. He ignored the cards and ran his hands up my body, exploring the new textures. 
My heart sped up as the pressure of his hands found their way around my waist and then upward to cup me over then thin, silken material. I needed to stay in control of the situation. “Are you going to ruin my game after I was such a good sport for yours?”
My breasts overflowed in his hands, my nipples hardening into an ache as his thumbs teased them through the wispy material. He smirked. “Maybe we should just finish what we started.” 
Pulling me to him in a quick kiss, he smeared my lipstick before I could pull away completely. I stared him down coolly. “You wanted to play the game, wanted to know if I could be your bad lady, remember? Pick a card or fucking leave.”
He reached out without looking at them and held up a card. 
I smiled. 
“Well, now. That is a nice one. Necrophilia, in case you didn’t know, is the fucking of dead bodies.” Taking him by the hand, I lead him down the hall to the kitchen. "Psychologists have theorized that some would be attracted to corpses as a lifeless and unresisting partner, but apparently necrophilia was such a problem for ancient Egyptians that they had to take preventative measures to stop people from having sex with the dead before mummification. They would let them decay for three or four days before handing them off to the embalmers. Actually, if you want to get technical, the living dead or vampires fall into the same category, so I guess you could say all those swooning teenage girls are necrophiliacs as well.” 
I made sure to nudge him far enough into the kitchen that the camera hidden to one side of the cupboard would capture his reaction, and stood back and to let him take in the scene we’d constructed. 
Using local theater talent had been an inspired idea. The graphic sight of the sexy goth with his fangs buried between the ashen thighs of his decaying mummy-girlfriend was actually very realistic. The makeup and costuming was incredible, as if he ripped open her bindings to reveal the rotting, oozing skin below. 
I was almost disappointed to see the part of her he was most enamored with looking so very alive, but that was the whole point. We wanted Banker to get hot under the collar, and there was nothing like the sight of a dripping wet pussy to get the testosterone pumping. 
“Feel free to jump in, if you get the urge,” I prompted. “Everyone here is into sharing their pleasure.” On cue, the girl lifted an unbound rotting hand towards him and beckoned him forward. 
To my surprise, he answered the challenge, kneeling down beside her. He grabbed a fist full of hair and bindings and pulled her face up to meet him in a kiss so amazingly sensual that I had to fight for composure as my own temperature rose. The girl's eyes were filled with enthusiasm as she tried to pull him back before Banker finally released her. 
He got back to his feet with a gloating smirk in my direction and returned to the foyer. I followed at my own pace. 
You think you're doing so well at this game. That'll change. 
He was already holding up a card when I reached the table. I shook my head and laid it back down, moving to the hall closet and returning with a pair of leather pants and a vest. The pants laced-up through the crotch and the vest was made of leather straps and metal rings for attaching harnesses. My smile was only a little evil as I held them out. 
He rolled his eyes, “I’m not wearing that shit.”
“Please? It’ll make it so much more fun. It's not like I got you anything embarrassing, like a cock ring or anal beads. The least you can do is wear some leather pants. Besides,” I said, batting my eyes and stepping close to his body. “I think they’re sexy, and they’ll be even sexier on a body like yours.”
“What do I get if I wear them?” 
“The same thing I get if you wear them — aroused.  Come on. You can change in here.” I steered him into the downstairs bathroom, and stepped up behind him to block the exit as he stopped abruptly in the doorway. I giggled. “Oops I forgot this one’s occupied.”
He stared at the naked red-head floating in the bathtub. Her face was covered with a gorgeous, dramatic, oriental mask, and her hand slowly stroked a small octopus that was clinging to her, one tentacle locked onto her breast only a hairs breath from the very rosy nipple. Another tiny octopus clung to her inner thigh and another to her ankle. 
I sighed and whispered into his ear, rubbing myself against his back. “The illustration of ‘The Dream Of The Fisherman’s Wife’ is speculated to be the first instance of tentacle erotica, but more recently a well know artist used it to get around Japan’s strict censorship laws, which forbade the depiction of a penis but not penetration by anything else. Some find it terrifying, but others...” 
My voice trailed away as I walked over and reached out to gently stroke the tentacle across her chest, searching her eyes for reassurance. She nodded and I slowly nudged the tentacle over onto the peak of her nipple. She gasped and as her chest moved more rapidly the tentacles clung more tightly. I smirked as she bit her lip before returning my smile. 
I turned to see Banker flushed a bit darker than I’d expected. “Why, I do believe you’re blushing. Would you like to watch what she does with the little ones?” I teased. 
He averted his eyes. I started to usher him back out into the foyer, but he hesitated. Gathering his pride up around him like a shield, he nodded to the pants in his hand. “Did you want me to change or not?”
“By all means. Who am I to stop a grown man from joining the sex-capades?” I leaned back against the counter, waiting. His unexpected embarrassment suggested that maybe he had higher morals than he'd let on. Thinking back to the night he punished me, I realized how very careful he’d actually been with me, soothing my scalded back, not touching me intimately until I caught on to the 'game'. 
Hmmm, a sheep in wolves clothing?
I would have continued the line of thought but his body distracted me, wiping everything else from my mind as he stripped off his clothes with no nonsense movements. He wasn’t wearing much underneath, and I howled in appreciation, “Yowza! Ariel can have her Octa-pussy. I’ll just take a big ol’ slice of that.”
He smirked as he started to lace up the pants. He was having a little difficulty, and I moved forward, rubbing my hand down the front seam. 
I grinned. “Well that’s your problem. You’re going to have to cinch them up tighter to contain all that. Here, I’ll help.” I yanked on each set of lacings, working my way up to the top before tying them roughly and taking a step back. “All taken care of.”
His nipples were hard, but he had a resolute look on his face. “Great. I’m not wearing the vest though.”
“Alright, I suppose I’ll have to live with that. Shall we move on?” I said tweaking his right nipple and moving past him back into the foyer. “Batter up, Sport.”
I chuckled at the next card he pulled. “Ooh good, I like this one. It’s a combination of my personal favorites.” 
Taking him by the hand, I led him upstairs, making sure my ass swayed more than enough to entice him. He would be feeling the effects of that concoction soon, if he wasn't already. 
The door to the first bedroom slid open with a low groan, as if reacting to the action within the room, as I directed him in front of me. 
The room was filled with candles releasing their aphrodisiac-like musk into the air. On one side of the room was a man sitting in an office chair. The end of a striped silk business tie was wrapped around an anchored coat hook on the wall behind him, while the other end tightened in a noose around his neck. His red face betrayed his fervor and an initial lack of oxygen as he stroked himself, playing voyeur to the two women devouring each other on a daybed across the room. The first was dressed in saintly white translucent lingerie - the other, the dark dusky colors and black wings of a demon lover.
I reached around from behind and rubbed my hands down the front of Banker’s body as I explained quietly in his ear, “Exhibitionism is nothing new, but I love it. I love to watch, like Mitch, here. He’s also into autoerotic asphyxiation, or as they’re sometimes called, death erections. See, people at public hangings noticed that the condemned often sported an erection after, and sometimes even ejaculating at the moment of, death. See how Mitch strangles himself while masturbating to heighten the pleasure when he releases? He’ll have to be careful. If he gets too involved in the battle of good and evil over there, he could literally choke himself to death and miss the ending of the big show.”
Banker wasn’t concerned with Mitch at all, but he was taking slow, deep breaths as he watched the fallen dark-angel go down on her lover. His hand unconsciously rubbed across his increasingly sensitive chest and stomach, in the same way my hands had rubbed him. 
He tensed as the saint cried out, her back arching up off the mattress. One of her breasts fell out of her chemise as her whole body pulled tight and quivered like the string on a readied-bow. Her lover moaned into her wetness, sucking noisily in rapid succession, drinking in her release. 
With the waves of climax receding, the saint lurched up, cruel voice clashing with her appearance. “You fuckin’ think you own me now, you dirty cunt? Lay the fuck down. It’s my turn, now.”
The men, Mitch and Banker both, panted in aroused surprise. Even more so, when the dark angel’s voice returned a soft, feminine, and very, very submissive answer. 
“Yes, baby. Please fuck me.” She smiled and carefully lay down with the black feathered wings beneath her. The saint slapped her across an already swollen mouth, berating her for speaking out of turn, before leaning down to kiss the hurt away. The dark angel moaned as saintly lips moved down her body, biting and soothing, biting and soothing, in a cycle of harsh pleasure.
Lost in scene, I had to shake it off and follow as Banker abruptly turned and left the room without a word. He turned to me in the hallway, his face serious now. “I recognized the Ecstasy tablet on the foyer table, but that should be inhibiting my body's response. What was in that shot glass?”
I shrugged. “Liquid Viagra, or dissolved it in the smallest bit of whiskey for color, anyways. They call it Sextasy - Ecstasy and Viagra together. I wanted you to get fired up.”
Wariness rose up behind his eyes. “I’m not going to stroke out, am I?” 
Banker was freaked out - finally. I couldn't stop the smirk. This was too good. “You don’t have any heart problems. I’ve turned the air conditioning down to make sure you won’t overheat. One increases blood pressure, one decreases it, so I mean, I guess there’s always a possibility of something bad, but you’re not the first one to take that combo, so... I’m going to say no to the stroke.”
“I’m finished with this game,” he said, widening his stance as he crossed his arms over his chest. If I didn't know better, I'd say the big man was going to pout.
“Ah, come on. We haven’t gotten to foot fetishes or golden showers or—”
“I’m done.”
“You don’t even have to pull another card,” I appealed. “Just come into the master bedroom - with me.”
"With you?" I let him pull me close, his hands hooking around my waist to lift me up high against his hard body. A shudder went through him and pleasure lit behind his narrowed eyes as he let me slide all the way back down to the floor, silk and latex against warm flesh. His eyes slid shut altogether, and his breathing became unsteady.
I smiled up at him, “I’m guessing this is the 'mellow guy version' of getting off on that Ecstasy, eh?”
Those green-brown eyes opened, dilating wildly.
“It’s building on me,” he said, with a distinctly un-mellow look.
Arms hooked around his neck, I pushed forward to rub myself against the bareness of his chest, biting his lips, slipping my tongue into his mouth to explore the taste of him. And he tasted good. I could get used to this kind of torture. 
His hands came up and pushed the silk off of my breasts to cup me, finally skin to skin. My breath came in heated pants, and I couldn’t help the moan that slipped out as he did that nipple-teasing thing again. 
Almost losing my control, I staggered backwards, leading him into the master bedroom. Cody slipped in behind him, and we both motioned him into the center of the bed. He looked a little surprised but didn’t resist - until we handcuffed him to the headboard. 
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he growled.
I returned his question with a wicked smile and climbed onto the bed, straddling his hips. Cody struggled to catch his ankles and tie them to the footboard as Banker tried to evade her, but it was obvious he was having a hard time concentrating. Every time he bucked, it crushed his cock into the silken crotch of my body suit. I knew he’d be able to feel the heat there, even through his leather pants. 
Leaning forward to brush my body along his, I delivered the punch-line to the whole joke. 
“I want you to realize that I’m hot for you, but I don’t like games. Games that leave you feeling helpless are bad enough, and feeling helpless and turned on at the same time really sucks... but feeling helpless, turned on, and pissed off, all the same time, is without a doubt the worst.” I climbed off his lap and moved across to the bedroom door. “I want you to remember that next time you think you want to play with someone's head. This is either the end of the games, or everyone you know will get a copy of what's recorded on the cameras hidden all over the house, including the camera that is going to film the rest of your evening with my friend, Jake, here.”
Jake the very nice, very burly exotic dancer stood in the doorway, waiting. I smirked over my shoulder as I passed him on the way out of the bedroom. I’d almost reached the top of the stairs when I heard Banker rumble, “If you lick my toes, I will kill you.”
My laughter echoed down the hallway.

CHAPTER 11

It was almost a full week after Cody returned home before I heard from Banker again. I was getting dressed when he appeared behind me in the reflection of the bedroom mirror.
“What the hell?” I swung around to hit him on the arm a few times, as my heart jumped into my throat. “What is wrong with you? You can’t just sneak up on people like that. How did you even get into the house?” 
Plopping down on the bed to catch my breath, I glared as I glanced up to catch the barely hidden smirk. “It’s not funny, you asshole! You almost made me pee on myself and I’d be really mad if I had to pick out another outfit.”
“What’s the occasion?”
“None of your business, but I’ve got a date.” I muttered.
“Date?” His eyebrow shot in the air, remaking his face into a cynical mask of distain.
“Yes. You know, a date? That ritual people partake in to get to know each other, at least a little bit, before they get naked together?”
“And you say I play games. Ha, I just take the more direct route in comparison. A date is just pretending to listen to someone’s life story over drinks before screwing them.”
“I happen to enjoy dates, and for your information, I do listen.” 
He pulled me off the bed and twirled me around to take in the little black dress I was wearing. “Well, you look hot. If you weren’t wearing those fuck-me-stilettos, I’d even say you looked elegant.” 
"Ugh -" I pushed him away from me and stalked into the bathroom in agitation. “You are infuriating and I can’t stand you.” 
I slapped on mascara, watching him out of the corner of my eye as he leaned against the doorjamb between the two rooms. Even the way he stood, so casual and calm in the face of my agitation, was annoying.
“That’s not true. You like me. I keep you on your toes and I get you hot.” 
Shaking my head, I turned my back on him, pretending to check my dress. “Nope, I don’t give a shit about you. Go climb back out the window or whatever you did to get in here, you psycho.”
He sidled up from behind and kissed my shoulder before turning me around to face him. I thought he was going to apologize, but I should have known better. Clutching the backs of my thighs, just below my ass, he hiked me onto the counter without warning. I gasped, dropping the mascara wand into the sink, and sat stiffly in the exact same spot I’d been the last time he was wedged between my thighs in this bathroom. He leaned into me with a scorching kiss - and damned if I didn't kiss him back. 
Oh God! I’m such a whore.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, leaning back to accommodate him as his mouth traveled down my throat.
He shoved the hemline of the dress up and leaned down, his teeth nipping first at the inside of my knees, then my thighs. His hands surged over my body and he moved up to cover my mouth with his again. Fighting hard not to be overwhelmed, I felt the tug-pop of my red mesh thong being forcibly removed. 
I also heard the doorbell.
We both froze, Banker watching to see what I would do, as I tried to figure out exactly that. The knocking propelled me into action. 
Shoving him away frantically, I hopped off the counter like I'd been sitting on fiery coals. I forgot I was wearing four inch stilettos until I promptly fell over, taking all my beauty products with me to the floor. In the span of three seconds, I was back on my feet, jerking my dress down to the proper position, wiping smeared lipstick off on the back of my hand, and smoothing my hair before bolting out the bathroom door. 
“Don’t you dare come out before we leave,” I warned Banker over my shoulder, furious with myself for letting him get to me again.
His response, as always, was infuriating. “You’re going on your date without your panties? Naughty girl.”
“Oh fuck, I really hate you right now. I’m sending your grandmother a special copy of you and Jacob doing it!” 
He laughed. “We didn’t do it."
“Modern technology, baby. I can edit you into anything. Ain’t it, great?” Leaving Banker in the bedroom, I hurried to the front door, and teetered out onto the front porch before Cale could step inside. “Hi!”
He stepped back, his eyes widening. “Whoa, hi, wow. You look sexy. Did you already start without me in there or something?” 
He laughed, fingering my disheveled hair.
“No, I’m afraid nothing that exciting. I, um, had to wrestle my favorite dress from the dog. That’s all.” 
As lies go, it was lame. It got worse as a loud bark came from within the house. I cringed. 
Cale smiled, starting to edge past me into the house. “You got a dog? What kind? I want to meet him.”
Well, shit.
I stepped in front of him. “Oh, no. No. He's still a puppy, and I’m really serious about his training. He’s in time out right now, so you can’t go play with him. He has to learn to keep his paws, and teeth, to himself - I mean, you know, off my dresses and stuff.”
Cale laughed. “Well okay then... you’re so forceful with the training. I like it. It excites me.” 
I laughed and was finally able to steer him down the walkway to his truck. My hand slid around my back to give Banker the finger. A bark confirmed he’d been watching from the front window and I couldn’t help but grin a little. Asshole.

-----

With Cale having to travel, the passing inspection setting off the next phase of the hotel construction, and Cody's visit all getting in the way, we'd barely seen each other in the two weeks since our front yard make-up kiss. 
I reached over and laced my arm through his as he drove to the restaurant. “I’m very glad to see you.”
“Me too, it seems like I’ve been waiting forever to have you to myself again.”
“Ah. How romantic.” I teased. “Not to be too forward, but did you remember to buy the fucking condoms this time, sweetheart?”
He grinned and opened the console of his truck to reveal a distinctive black and gold box. I laughed, “Magnum XL? Ooh, talk dirty to me.” 
“I plan on it,” he replied, lifting my hand to kiss the palm. I had to admit that despite the issues, I was becoming more and more drawn to him. I especially liked this playful, flirtatious side that kept popping up. I felt my body warm and decided to play with him, just a little. 
“Oh no.” 	
“What?” he asked frowning.
“I just realized that I’ve forgotten my panties somewhere.” 
Cale glanced at me, as if not sure he’d heard correctly. “What?”
“I’m not wearing anything under this dress. You’ll have to help me out of the truck so I don’t flash the whole parking lot.” I replied dramatically and slowly crossed one leg over the other. 
“I say we just skip dinner. How does that sound?” He sped up, looking around for directions to the nearest bed.
“Oh, but this our first real date. I really want to sit and flirt with you over dinner.”
“Really?” he sighed. “Or do you just want to taunt me some more with your evil sex Goddess ways?”
“Oh don’t be so dramatic. I’m not a Goddess - just a high priestess of carnal passions.” I laughed fully and kissed his cheek.
He gave in and took me to dinner. We drank cocktails and ate lovely food. He was actually a very funny man. He had a sense of the ironic and sarcastic in his observations that could have been considered mean if they weren’t so hilarious. 
“So tell me, what’s your favorite part of being a tycoon’s right hand man?” I asked after several drinks.
“I like the traveling on someone else’s dime, for sure. I’ve seen more of the world than most people ever will. I’ve watched a couple of hippos fight to the death less than a hundred yards away from me. I’ve scraped gum off my shoe from the top of the Great Wall of China. I’ve turned down a whole harem of Moroccan prostitutes. I’ve seen things that no one else ever will.”
“Wow. Next time you take a vacation, I’m stowing away.” 
“Nah, you don’t want to be with the luggage. It gets searched,” he teased, poking me in the ribs for emphasis, “too thoroughly for a nice girl like you. Besides, you could just come with me as a guest.”
“I was just teasing,” I laughed.
“I’m not. I want you to come next time.”
“We’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we?” I shrugged.
Cale’s cell phone rang and he frowned down at the number. “Sorry, but I have to take this.”
I nodded and continued to eat my dessert while he stepped away from the table. I tried to hide my interest as he paced away, arguing with someone on the other end of the line. His body tightened up more and more each time he spoke, but his voice remained low, too low to hear what he was saying. Regardless, it didn't take a brain surgeon to know something was wrong. Cale turned back and caught me staring. He smiled as if to reassure me, and cut the conversation short. Returning to the table, he apologized.
“I know that’s rude, but unfortunately I’m on call at all times.”
I reassured him. “You don’t have to explain it to me. I know who you work for, remember? Is everything okay? You seem upset.”
“No, actually. I have to go out of town tomorrow. There’s a problem that I have to work out.”
“Oh? Where are you headed?” I asked curiously.
“South Africa... Timber shipments aren’t coming through as planned.” A gleam came into his eye and he smiled. “You could come with me.”
“Africa? Are you crazy? I’m in the middle of building a hotel— besides, to be honest, Africa isn’t one of my top ten destination wishes, you know?”
He pulled my hand over, kissing first the back and then the palm. “It’s actually really beautiful, and we’d be back by Tuesday night. Are you telling me that Joe, the man you say taught you everything you know, couldn’t handle things for a few days without you?”
“No, I’m not saying that, but, Cale, you don’t just invite someone to Africa on a whim,” I laughed.
“What’s the issue? You have a passport, right?”
“Yeah, but, not to sound shallow, aren’t there like, some serious disease outbreaks and civil-wars going on in Africa?” 
“We have a company nurse who can come over tonight and give you most of your vaccinations. We would fly in a private jet to a private air strip near Johannesburg, which is very civilized by the way. You would stay in a beautiful home, and travel into the city with an escort to use my limitless credit card to shop, while I go and take care of business during the day. You could pretend to be a kept woman,” he chuckled. “Not to mention, it would make the trip so much nicer for me.”
I laughed and shook my head in amazement, but my phone chirped, saving me from giving an immediate answer. I smiled apologetically and checked the message that came through from Max.
You were right.
Reality came crashing back down on me. I was having such a good time that I’d forgotten the whole reason that I’d accepted the date tonight. It took a minute to sink in. For the second time, and exchange had been made on the same night Cale just so happened to ask me out on a date. It was confirmed now. He knew something, and I needed to know what it was. 
Do it, I replied. 
We needed information and proof quickly. Max would make sure that whoever followed the truck would get as many pictures and details as possible.
I stuck the phone back into my purse and took a drink of water. “Sorry. Max was trying to decide which way to go with a photo series. You know creative genius, it can’t wait. So - South Africa. I can’t believe I’m even considering it.”
“You know that you want to go. It’ll be an adventure. No more wall flower, remember? You wanted to start making memories, isn’t that what you said?” He smiled and wiggled his eyebrows. 
I wonder how many women he’s lied to and how he got to be such a good actor.
 “Oh, going for the big guns now, huh?” I sighed dramatically, but my mind was racing. Maybe this was stupid or maybe I could learn enough information about whatever problem is in Africa that I’d be able to… to what? Turn Belarus in to the police? The FBI? I had no idea. I just knew that I was in too deep to get out gracefully and not deep enough to get out without injury. “Alright, yes I’ll come. What do I need to bring?”

-----

Cale arranged for us to meet the company nurse at his office, so it was almost one thirty in the morning before I made it home. He suggested that we rain check our plans for a sleepover until we reached Johannesburg, since we’d be leaving so early in the morning. 
I called Max from the driveway as soon as he dropped me off. “What’s going on?”
“We followed the truck back into Houston, but we had to let them go once they exited into a residential area. There was just no way to stay hidden,” she sighed. “Cash says next time, we’ll station someone near that exit and have them switch out and follow from that point on. If for some reason we have to break off again, we’ll add another car and another each time, until we get the destination.”
“Did you get any good pictures or video?”
“No faces, but yeah, I got the entire exchange and the vehicle’s route until the cutoff point. My God Alex, I feel like we’re playing secret agents or something.”
I laughed nervously. “Tell me about it. It’s all too bizarre for real life, you know? Who deals with this kind of stuff? Let’s move to Galveston! Oh by the way, here’s an international mystery for you to solve without getting arrested.” I took a deep breath and told her the biggest part of my evening. “Which by the way, the reason I say international... I’m going to South Africa tomorrow morning.”
“What are you talking about?”
“He says there’s a problem with some shipments that he has to deal with and he asked me to come along.” I held the phone away from my ear in anticipation of the blow up.
“No. Fuck that! What if something happens over there? There’s no one to help you!”
“Actually, I really think he just wants to have someone go with him,” I replied, trying to calm her. “We both know he wants to sleep with me, so I think he’s trying to impress me in typical guy fashion. You know, the whole ‘It’s an adventure, I can show you things you’ve never seen, come spend my money baby’ kind of thing,” I laughed. “In fact that’s almost word for word what he said.”
“Yeah, well what if you’re wrong? What if he knows you know something… or figures it out while you’re in Africa... Af-ri-ca Allie, it’s not like you can just call a cab and come home if you get a hinky feeling.”
Feeling a little worried and desperate myself, I snapped back at her. “What other choice do I have, Max? Should I just walk into a police station and tell them that I don’t have any real evidence, but I think my boss is a bad man and they should go arrest him? Maybe I should go tell Cale that I know he’s a part of a drug cartel, but he doesn’t have to kill me because I would never ever tell a soul, because I really, really like him? Tell me Max, what’s your super safe and effective plan, because I don’t really have a choice here.”
“Quit -” She was yelling into the phone now. “Why can’t you just tell your boss that you got in over your head with a project this big and you want to let someone else take over and finish. You don’t have to be the one to this take on, Allie. You don’t.”
 “Max, yes I do. If I pull out now, they’ll know that I know something, and it might get us hurt. Besides, we might have an opportunity that very few people have, to put away some bad guys. To do that, we’re going to need a lot more insider information, which means we need someone on the inside.” I sighed. “I’m going to South Africa tomorrow. I’ll call you when I get there, and I’ll keep in close contact, okay?”
“Goddammit. You better be careful.”
“Max, Cale isn’t going to hurt me.”
“You don’t know that. You barely know him and it could all be an act. Don’t forget that.” 
I'm almost positive it is.

-----

After checking in with Max, I ran to the all night drug store to grab the survival essentials - sunscreen, bug spray, and a bottle of all-purpose painkillers. I browsed the book aisle for the latest smutty novel from my favorite author to read on the plane: 'Juliette’s sordid sexual fantasies have always revolved around Connor - until he introduces her to his best friend Jonah. Suddenly the potential for pleasure expands in a whole new direction that breaks all the rules…' 
Yes, please.
As I was pulling back into my driveway, I noticed the kitchen light was on. There was only one person that kept popping up at my house without a key. 
I unlocked the front door and stepped inside. “Banker?”
“In the bedroom.” 
Of course you are, I thought, more resigned than angry with him for some odd reason.
“Banker, please.” I moaned, walking into the bedroom to pull off my stilettos. My feet ached almost as much as my head. “I’m tired and stressed out and I have to get up early. I can’t play tonight.” 
“Max called me to ask if I knew anything that could help you on your trip. This is your lucky day, because Uncle Sam gave me the training and resources to do what you can’t.”
“I guess Max told you everything, then?” I griped. “Jeez, this is getting ridiculous. I’m probably going to be shopping more than anything else.”
“Regardless of whether or not you’re in danger, I can help you with the information retrieval,” he stated, holding out two small black plastic disks on his palm. “I’m going to hop a plane and be there as soon as I can, but I’ll need you to put a tracker on the vehicles each of you will be riding in.”
I stared at him, shaking my head until my brain caught up with the conversation. "What do you mean you’re going to hop a plane - and where the hell did those come from?”
“While you’re shopping, I’ll be working. I’m going to follow your boyfriend and find out what the real story is. I want a tracker on your vehicle, so that if anything goes wrong, I’ll have somewhere to start looking for you.”
That got my attention. I looked for signs that he might be kidding, and when I found none, the reality of it all sank in. “You’re serious. The last few weeks have been so strange, so completely bizarre, that I keep expecting to wake up or have somebody jump out of a cake and yell 'gotcha.'"
But this is real, and Cale is a drug dealer, and Banker really is going to follow me to South Africa tomorrow morning to make sure nothing happened to me. I will not panic. 
I took a deep breath. “Well, thank God you know what you’re doing - You do know what you’re doing, right?”
He just looked at me for a moment, before choosing to ignore the insult. “If possible, I want you to drop the trackers into the vents on the dashboard of the car or tuck them into the upholstery somewhere. Nowhere that they could be stepped on or rattle out into view.”
I got out my luggage and started to pack the trackers into one of the front flaps, but he stopped me. Taking a pair of my spiked high heels, he pulled the inner sole of the heel up enough to tuck the small devices underneath. “Just don’t wear these until after you take the trackers out. If they go through the scanner in your luggage, they won’t look suspicious.”
I shook my head and started packing my clothes, but it was a little hard to get anything accomplished when every other dress I packed was pulled back out. I finally snapped, “What are you doing?”
“I like these. Save them for our dates,” he smirked, using his fingers to accent the joke.
I rolled my eyes and went back to the closet. “Oh, all of a sudden you want to take the indirect path?” I mocked.
I heard him follow me into the closet, and would have ignored him, but that became impossible when he reached around and ran his hands up my hips, following the line where my panties would have been if he hadn’t ripped them off earlier.
“Banker -”
“Finish this first, then we’ll finish that.” He forced me around to face him and started to take small bites along my neck and collar bone, removing clothes as he went.
I gave up fighting him. It was obvious, inevitable really, that we were going to have sex sooner or later. He didn't scared me any longer, but his intensity was still there, as strong as the first night we met and it pulled at me. He was going to eat me alive, and if what he said was true, I’d beg for more. 
He swept my legs out from under me, taking me to the closet floor, scattering shoe boxes and anything else that got in the way. It was a passionate, if not a loving or caressing, embrace. My whole body shuddered and undulated as he nipped his way down my chest and stomach, reaching the apex of my thighs. His hands firm, holding me open to him, as he took a long swipe with his tongue, gathering the cream that was already flowing from my body. His teeth had me moaning, bucking under his hands, and several sharp tugs sent unexpected sparks flashing through my body. I reached for him, pulling him up into my kiss, but he was having none of it. 
He pulled away and unceremoniously rolled me over onto my hands and knees, spreading my legs and lifting my hips to his mouth, to further tease my wet core. The unfamiliar openness and vulnerability made me squirm, until a harsh hand came down on my ass. 
“Stay.” 
The one word command irritated me as much as it turned me on. I looked back over my shoulder to tell him what I thought of his high-handed attitude and lost all train of thought. He was stunning, wild, like no one I’d ever been with before. 
He caught me looking. There was a moment of fierce acknowledgment before he bent over me, grabbing a handful of my hair to crane my neck back for a wet kiss as he slid inside me.
 Oh my God! The thought was all consuming. 
Gentle wasn't on the menu. He gave it his all with each bruising drive, releasing my hair to grip my hips as he plunged into me. The pace was just this side of pain, but somehow, with each downward flex he managed stroke just the right spot.
I’d had great sex, but this was more - just more.
It barely registered as he pushed my head further toward the floor, deepening the angle of his thrusts and causing the pressure building inside of me to spike more quickly than usual. One hand reached around to slide a finger across the nerve-point of my pleasure, and the other came down in a sharp, stinging slap across my ass. 
A starburst of electrifying sensation ripped through my body, and I screamed, grinding against him, as wave after wave of pleasure tore through me. His growl of release followed, and he took me to the ground beneath him as the power of it overcame and drained us both.
I lay on the floor in a pile of sweaty, sexy man, and collapsed shoe boxes for several moments, trying to catch my breath. Me screaming? Yeah, that had never happened before. 
When I finally was able to speak, I gave him a lazy smile. “That was interesting.”
He cocked an eyebrow and rolled over to look at me. “Surprised?” 
“What can I say? My husband was decent in bed, but he wasn’t nearly so… aggressive.” I glanced over with a grin, and then laughed. “I’m wondering how bad it’s going to hurt on the plane ride tomorrow. At least now I know why everyone is so obsessed with hardwood floors.”
Again, he gave me the eyebrow and I answered with a giggle. “No carpet burns.”
He smirked and trailed a hand down my stomach. “Next time, I won’t be so careful. Next time, I’m going to mark you.” He caught my gasp with his mouth, as his fingers played around my already abused clit.
I broke away and rolled to safety. “No more. I’ve got a job to do and I have to be in good working order this weekend. Besides, I need some rest, so we have to finish packing.”
True to his word, Banker quickly and efficiently pulled out the most practical but attractive clothes I owned. He added the items from the market with only a slight raise of an eyebrow at my choice of reading material. Within ten minutes, I was packed and ready for a carefree vacation.
I didn’t object when I felt him slide into bed behind me. It felt nice to have someone to sleep with again, for the first time in months, and I knew he’d be gone before Cale arrived in the morning.
“Banker?” I waited for a second, and persisted even when he didn't respond. “What’s your real name?”
“Go to sleep.”
“Banker sounds silly after you’ve been with someone. I just want to know what to call you when we’re here, alone.”
“Bob.”
“Your name is Bob?” My voice was skeptical, but he just didn’t seem like a Bob - maybe something sexier like Drake, or Micah.
“You asked what you could call me. Call me Bob.”
I sighed. Apparently sex, even good sex, didn’t earn me the rights to his real name.
“My new dog, Bob.”
He pulled me into him, forcing my face down on his chest and effectively cutting off any more conversation. I could still smile, though.

CHAPTER 12

It was the steaming pot of coffee waiting for me when I woke up that helped to jump start my morning. I didn’t bother to do much more than straighten my hair and pull it back into a sleek ponytail. It had grown longer in the last few months and brushed just above my waist as I turned in front of the mirror to check out the outfit Banker picked out for me. I looked chic and casual in a matching light orange halter top with braided trim and pair of palazzo pants that were comfortable but still somehow made my backside look plump and squeezable. I added a pair of silver sandals and my favorite set of turquoise jewelry, because I loved the play of bright happy colors off of each other. 
Cale arrived just as I was putting the finishing touches on my makeup. I put on my happy face and bounced out the front door and into his arms. “Hi!” I chirped, a happy smile and extra sparkle in my eyes. Thanks to Banker.
“Well, hello there. I’m glad to see that you’re more excited this morning.”
I stepped back into the house, towing him along by the hand. “I just had to get used to the idea. I’ve never been overseas, but I’m ready for some fun. Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked.
 “Have I told you what a gorgeous woman you are? I don’t think I’ve ever wanted someone as much as I want you right now.”
I laughed and blushed a little. “Well thank you, I don’t think gorgeous is the word I’d use, but…” I sank into him as he kissed my contradiction away. “Mmm.” 
His lips moved away from my mouth and brushed my forehead as he reprimanded me lightly. “Having been taught by personal tutors my whole life, I’ve got a fairly large vocabulary at my disposal, so I don’t need to use words I don’t mean. You are one of the most attractive,” kiss, “one of the most lovely,” kiss, “and one of the most gorgeous women I’ve ever laid eyes on. If you tell me otherwise again, I’m going to bend you over my knee and spank you until you beg.” 
“Beg you to stop, or beg you to spank me harder?” I teased after he’d finished ‘convincing’ me with another long, sensuous kiss.
“The sooner we leave, the sooner we get there,” he said with a chuckle, reading the expression on my face without even trying hard. “I’ll get your bags loaded while you lock up.”
We arrived at the airport to immediately board onto the awaiting private jet, just as he promised. I looked around the plane in awe. It was beautiful with its gleaming surfaces and buttery soft leather interior. I chuckled, eyeing the luxurious couch tucked into one side of the plane.
Who says we have to wait until we get there? 
There was no time to tease him before we got set though, and it didn’t take long to get off the ground. According to the pilot, we’d be in the air for approximately nine hours before stopping off for a short time in London, and then, back in flight for another eleven hours. We would arrive at the private airport near Johannesburg the following morning around three in the morning, our time, but with the time difference it would be around ten in the morning, Johannesburg time.
I laughed and settled in next to Cale, “We’re going to be in this plane for the entire day and night? I only brought one book.”
With a lecherous gleam in his eye, he slid an arm around my shoulders. “Now you know why I wanted company. I’ll just have to entertain you.”

-----

The trip was long, and to my disappointment we didn’t join the mile high club. We did enjoy each other’s company, though. He was an excellent card player, and ended up beating me in several poker matches before I caught on. At some point, it occurred to me that he might share the same tells when he was otherwise hiding something, and I filed them away for future reference. 
We went directly from the small airport to another strikingly beautiful house, which I could only assume also belonged to Mr. Belarus, with panoramic views of the surrounding wild kingdom.
Calen had business to attend to, so after sharing a small informal brunch, he suggested I take a bath and settle in, while he made a few phone calls. Nibbling behind my ear as he stood to leave, he reminded me of our own unfinished business, whispering wicked things to anticipate.
I took myself on a tour of the house first, which was beyond breathtaking, before taking him up on the suggested bath. It was wonderful, but as the time went on, anticipation turned to nerves.
So here I was, wearing nothing but a sheer black slip of silk I'd originally thought to entice him with, literally pacing and worrying. I glanced again toward the bedroom door. Any minute now, he was going to come through that door, and I was going to have to act like nothing was wrong. 
The problem was, I couldn't seem to reconcile the sexy man I knew, who seemed to have such humor and strength of character, with the type of man that would run drugs and lie to me the whole time. There was no doubt that I wanted him, but I couldn’t shake the fear that I was going wake up at some point and realize he was a monster. I was even more worried that I wouldn’t realize it until it was too late. 
Someone was coming this way. I held my breath and listened to the footsteps as they neared. 
Alright girl, get it together! You’re an adult. He’s a hot guy. You want to have sex with him. Don’t worry about the other stuff, just take one for the team - Oh darn, how will I ever get through it?
I smiled, having come full circle back to anticipation, and rushed over to open the door with my best over-the-top seductive voice. 
“I’ve been waiting for y— Oh shit!”
Slamming the door shut again, I burst out laughing in mortification. That was most definitely not Cale. Peeked out around the door, I smiled at the grinning man on the other side. “I’m so sorry, I thought you were him, Cale, I mean. Oh my God, I’m so embarrassed! I’m sorry!”
“I’m not really sure if I’m supposed to be upset.” The slightest trace of Afrikaans laced his voice, and he was, in a word, beautiful. A wide smile, creased with adorable dimples, slid across his face as his black eyes sparkled in amusement. “I’m suddenly very envious of my good friend, which I’ve never been before.”
Blushing both from embarrassment and the compliment, I laughed, “I’m so embarrassed. Please don’t tell anyone I did that.” 
“I would never. I will keep it close to my heart, as a happy secret between the two of us.” His eyes laughed at me and he couldn’t seem to stop himself teasing me a just little more, “A very happy secret.”
“Oh lord.” I chose to let it go and reached around the door to extend a hand. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Alex, Cale’s… guest.”
“I’m Sekai, Cale’s best friend.”  He shook my hand warmly. “I needed to speak to him. Although a smart man would be here with you, I see he is not. I apologize for the disturbance, although I can’t say I’m exactly sorry I came.”
Flirty-McFlirterson. Some friend you are...
“I think he said he needed to make some phone calls. You might check the study if there is one or -” I shut up, realizing I didn’t have a clue where he might be.
“I’ll do that -" His eyes glittered with such vivid appreciation, it made me nervous. He was a ladies man and he wasn’t shy about it. "and I will see you again soon, lovely one.”
I closed the door and leaned against it to absorb what had just happened. 
Best friend? Cale had said he didn’t have time for friends - but then again, he has plenty of time for whatever I was becoming, so... just one more thing that doesn’t add up.
I gave up on my mojo and climbed into bed, grabbing the TV remote. It took me a few minutes to learn the system and find the appropriate channels. There was an amazing array of programs available from all over the world and I wondered absently how many of the languages Cale knew or understood. 
I found a light comedy in English and settled down to chill. I didn’t realize I’d fallen asleep until I felt the bed dip behind me. Cale slid under the covers to wrap an arm around me and pull me up tight against his body.
“I’m sorry, Sweetheart. I didn’t mean to take so long. Are you super tired?” His voice whispered along the same path he followed down my neck, leaving soft kisses in a long line to my shoulder.
My answer was to turn over in his arms, sinking into a long, sensuous kiss. It was like waking from a deep sleep only to realize you’re still in a dream — all soft words and gentle caresses. Our clothes disappeared into the darkness, and his mouth and hands brought me to climax in a slow and steady pace, causing my body to tighten so that I couldn’t breathe for a moment before dissolving into weightlessness. 
Surprise skimmed through me as he guided my straightened legs up against his torso, the backs of my thighs against his chest, before sliding his full arousal deep into my body. Leaning over me, crushing me with the intense heat and pressure of my own thighs against my chest, he slid forward and retreated. The incredible fullness and novelty of the position overcame the awkwardness as he took control. Sliding forward into my heat again, he groaned with pleasure, and I burned from the inside out, gasping for a breath that I couldn’t quite catch. There were no words, just sensation as he filled me over and over again, and I first begged him and then demanded for more… more pressure, more sensation, more of him. He growled as I sank my fingernails deep into his arms, and his final groan was music to my ears as he thrust deep, finally letting go. What was left of my breath was taken away in a rush of wet heat and I melted down into a puddle of happiness. 
I only realized I’d slightly lost consciousness, from the weight on my chest causing a lack of oxygen, when I woke and felt him brushing my hair away from my face to place small kisses along my cheeks and nose.
“Despite almost suffocating beneath my own thighs, that was the most sensual thing I’ve ever had done to my body,” I whispered. “It’s almost like you were a character stepping right off of the pages of a romance novel.”
He grinned. “I’m glad you enjoyed it. I know I did. You are incredible, by the way.” 
I giggled at his male satisfaction. “I’m going to have to work extra hard to top that. I can’t let you have the upper hand. The whole ‘meet you at the door in my underwear’ thing seems totally boring now.”
“You meeting me at the door in your underwear could never, under any circumstances, be boring.” He laughed.
“Sekai didn’t think so either,” I muttered, gauging his reaction.
It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't good.
“Sekai? When did you meet Sekai?” he said, sitting up to frown at me.
“I thought it was you coming to the door earlier, so I went to meet you, but it was your best friend. Don’t worry, we both laughed it off." His frown deepened and I sat up as well, explaining further. “I thought you said that you didn’t really have friends. I didn’t expect there to be anyone else coming to the door.”
“Listen to me. I’ve known Sekai for a long time, but I don’t consider him my best anything. I trust him with my wallet, but not with you. Do you understand?” He sighed, starting again. “Look, I’m not mad at you. I mentioned I had a guest and told him to wait in the kitchen. He should never have been upstairs. It irritates me that he took the initiative to meet you. You didn’t do anything wrong and I’m not mad at you, sweetheart. I was just unpleasantly surprised. I don’t like him taking an interest in you.”
“Why would he introduce himself as your best friend? And why would you trust him with your wallet if not me?” I asked.
“We’ve known each other since we were teenagers, so I guess you could say he’s the closest thing I have to a friend. We work well and often with each other. Occasionally, we’ve kicked back to relax together. He was most likely trying to make a good impression on you, so that if the opportunity arose he could make a move. I know Kai and he will try to seduce you if I’m not around. It’s never really bothered me before, but it does now. I don’t want to share my girlfriend,” he finished, emphasizing what he considered my new status and sealing it with a kiss.
“Well, you’re in luck. I’m not much of a ‘pass the girlfriend around’ kind of girl. I’m more than happy to play the kept woman, and spend your money until you come home and I can ravage your body. In fact, I recommend you take your semi-friend with you on business so you don’t even have to worry about it.”
He chuckled and pushed me back down onto the bed, wrapping me in his arms. “Oh, I see I really had to twist your arm to go shopping, huh? I feel like I know so much about you, but still am surprised when I find out more. Who knew you were a gold digger?” 
I laughed and squealed, twisting away as he tickled and prodded me mercilessly. “I love spending money,” I laughed. “I just never got to do much of it in the past. I promise to come back with lots of presents.”
“You better. I want lots of presents - and I want to see you in lots of pretty new clothes - and I want you to have fun - and I want you to meet me at the door in your underwear before you ravage my body, as promised,” he demanded with a laugh, kissing my defenses away again.
My last coherent thought wasn't a comforting one.
I’m in so much trouble.

-----

I woke a few hours later to the sound of the shower running. According to the clock, it was one o’clock in the afternoon, which meant it was only six in the morning, Texas time, and I’d only had three hours of sleep. Still half-asleep, I slipped out of bed and wandered into the bathroom, pausing at the door to watch Cale lather up an armpit. 
What kind of a bad guy sings Elvis in the shower?
I grinned. “Hey there, Big Sexy. What’s up?”
He turned and smiled, “Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you. I’m going to have to get on my way, but I’ll be back tonight. Listen, Fred is your driver, and when you’re ready, he’ll be downstairs watching TV or in the garden, most likely. Take your time, go back to bed, sleep as long as you want. We’re only here a couple days, so I wouldn’t worry about trying to acclimate to the schedule. Sleep, eat, and shop whenever it feels right to you.” He got out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist, padding over to give me a kiss before patting me on the rump. “Go on back to bed, baby doll. I’ll kiss you before I leave.”
I nodded and moved back into the bedroom before my eyes filled up with tears, feeling a sharp mixture of happiness and pain. It was crazy how easily you moved back into relationship simplicity— a pat on the bottom here and sweet kiss there. I missed it so much, and was freaked out to be finding it again with Cale when all signs pointed to this ending badly. I lay down in bed and closed my eyes tight against the unwanted feelings. 
It wasn’t long before he left the bathroom and leaned over the side of the bed to kiss my forehead. “Hey sweetheart, I’m headed out. I’ll see you this evening.” 
I nodded and answered automatically. “Okay. Be careful.” 
It wasn’t until I was listening to him jog down the stairs that I remembered the tracker I was supposed to put on his truck. 
Shit! 
I jumped out of bed and snatched up my robe. The stiletto hiding the tracker went flying out behind me as I tossed it back in the closet and ran down the stairs.
In bare feet, and half-naked, I bound out the front door just as Sekai was backing the SUV out of the driveway. I waved my arms, running to the passenger side as I formulated a plan. Throwing the door open, I braced my left hand on the car frame, between the doors. Wrapping my right hand around the front of Cale’s shirt, I pulled him to me for a kiss deep enough to light up his world, and let the tracker slip out from under my left thumb, down the slot into which the seat belt retracted. 
I broke away, full of triumph, and grinned. “That’s just so you don’t think about working too late.”

CHAPTER 13

Johannesburg was intriguing, with busy streets in the various districts and walled homes in the residential quarters. Affluent homes and villas were built adjacent to shanty towns of the impoverished crowds, which were a mixed bowl of races and colors.
 Despite the fact that there were obviously a lot of successful people buzzing about their day, I couldn’t help but lose my enthusiasm for shopping as I watched a young mother soothing her baby in front of the store while quietly asking for handouts from the people rushing by, pretending not to see her or care. 
 “Has it always been like this?” I asked quietly, turning to look at Fred, the overly large ‘driver.’ He might have been behind the wheel, but from the top of the head on his six and a half feet tall frame, to the bottom of his steel-toe combat boot wearing feet, he was a bodyguard, plain and simple.
“Yeah, although there have been changes in regards to skin color and opportunity,” he replied with a flat look on his dark face. Whatever Fred really thought about the situation, he gave me a generic answer. “It is an economy motivated toward the success of those that were previously oppressed, and as a result many people are losing their jobs and homes, regardless of fault or skill. There is still much change to come before there will be a balance. Would you like to go somewhere else to shop, Miss?” 
“Call me Alex, please, and no I don’t want to leave, I want to help,” I answered truthfully. “Is there a food market around here?” 
“There is one not far from here, but it is in an area that I do not think Cale would appreciate my taking you into,” he cautioned. His brow pulled together in a frown and he shook his head as if to discourage me from asking any further.
“Fred, you’re a pretty impressive wingman. I don’t think anyone is going to mess with me.” I laughed, squeezing his massive bicep. Fred could probably lift a car if he really wanted to. I quirked an eyebrow and grinned, “Not to mention, I know for a fact we’re both packing.”
“Why would you risk his anger and your safety for one woman you do not know? It makes no sense,” he grumbled.
“One is better than none. Haven’t you ever heard of that Pay It Forward movie?” I smiled.
“I suppose you are right,” he said, a glimmer of speculation coming into his eyes, before he narrowed them and stared me down. “I would not agree to this unless you were sure that you could be discreet. There’s no need for Cale to… worry needlessly.”
“Don’t worry. This will be our little secret,” I laughed. “Can you please tell her that we would like to help and ask if she would like to come with us to the market?”
Fred rolled down the window and called out. The girl shuffled over to the side of the SUV cautiously. I gave a small wave from the passenger seat and smiled as Fred translated my request. Her eyes darted back and forth between us as she licked her lips. She had a pretty voice, which was hesitant as she replied to Fred. 
“She doesn’t want to offend us, but she does not wish to get into our vehicle.”
I nodded and smiled at her, pausing to let Fred translate my reply to her, “It’s dangerous to get into strangers cars where I’m from too. Ask her to please stay close by here, and we’ll bring food. Is there anything she especially needs, maybe something for the baby?” 
She smiled slightly and told us that the baby was still nursing, but anything we brought would be appreciated by herself and her family.
It was a short trip to the market. Fred escorted me through the booths and advised on which items to purchase, mostly grain and beans and bottled water. When I questioned the lack of seasoning or fruit, he gave me a few examples of things that were commonly used, although considered more luxury than necessity for survival. I promptly bought each one and more. When I’d spent every bit of cash I had, there were eight large bags full of food and medicine. I hoped that it would keep her family in health for a while.
The young woman was standing almost exactly where we left her, but as the truck slowed to a stop Fred muttered, “Stay here, I’ll be right back.”
I let go of my seatbelt and settled back, wondering why I wasn’t getting out as well. Fred approached her and spoke for several moments before she nodded slightly. My mouth dropped open, and I watched aghast as he pulled a semi automatic pistol from the holster under his jacket. He pressed it into her hand, motioning as he explained how it worked, and chambered a round before setting the safety. As he climbed back into the driver seat, the woman and I looked at each other with wide eyes before she climbed into the back seat, carefully holding the gun with one hand and her baby with the other. 
 “Did you just give her permission to shoot you with your own gun, so she’d feel safe letting you give her a ride home?” I asked, turning back to the front and not looking at Fred. 
“Yes.”
I felt a smile tug at the corner of my mouth. He hadn’t threatened or laughed or acted put-out by two silly females and an afternoon of grocery shopping. No, he’d been patient and more than accommodating. What a guy… if these ‘criminals’ get any more decent, I’ll have a hard time telling the good guys from the bad guys. 
 ”Fred, you are my new favorite person.” I smiled and settled back for the ride. 
As she gave instructions, I began to notice the sketchy neighborhood growing around us. I shifted in my seat and glanced at Fred. I tried to imagine living here, trying to raise a baby here. I didn’t look down on this girl. In fact, I was actually becoming a little amazed by her. Here I was afraid to live my own life, with all the opportunities in the world at my feet, and she was carving out a life from nothing.
We finally stopped in front of a gathering of lean-to homes. Again, Fred told me to stay in the truck and lock the doors. He wouldn't even let me get out to help carry the bags. I watched as he escorted her past the gawking neighbors to her home. He glanced back several times and I waved to assure him that I was nice and safe, tucked up into the truck. 
I didn’t start to get nervous until he turned into the twisting walkways and disappeared from sight. Gradually more and more aware of being watched, I slid the Glock out of my purse and into my lap. I berated myself silently for being so nervous.
Wow, Allie. You’re a real hero. You buy some groceries for a stranger and then you’re ready to shoot her neighbors just for being curious. 
Still, I felt more secure, and tried to smile politely at the people milling about outside their homes.
The longer I waited and Fred didn’t return, the more nervous I got. It was stupid really. Nothing was going to happen to Fred and no one was going to hurt me. They were people, just like me. I tried harder to convince myself as they moved closer. I heard a tap, tap, tap and swiveled my head to see a man who'd come up from behind the truck, speaking to me through the window. He seemed agitated, making large gestures with his hands toward himself and the neighbors. Others in the crowd started calling out to me as well. I jumped as he slapped the flat of his hand against the window to get my attention. The clap was loud, like a gunshot. I shook my head and shrugged, trying to convey that I didn’t know what he was saying and didn’t have anything more to give, but it only made him more agitated and he took up slapping the window repeatedly, joined by others.
There was a sudden gunshot, a real one, reverberating around the truck, and I jumped again, glad that I’d carefully been keeping my finger away from the trigger of my pistol. Relief washed over me as Fred marched towards me through the parting crowd, but it was short-lived. The man backed away from my window, still shouting, and Fred veered off in his direction. 
The man didn’t back away, and I watched in horror as Fred kicked the man’s knees out from under him. He ended up kneeling with Fred’s gun pointed at his brain from six inches away. The man stopped shouting, defiance etched across his face, and glared even as several women in the crowd cried out. Fred's voice was hard as he spoke to the man, and I grappled with the handle to roll the window down. 
“Fred! Don’t hurt him. Please. Let’s just go,” I pleaded.
Fred nodded, spat angry words at the man, and turned on his heel to walk around and climb back into the truck. 
I rolled the window back up and breathed deeply to quell my nerves. I waited until we were moving before I spoke. “I’m not trying to sound judgmental because I’m really, really glad you came back when you did, but what was that?”
“I should not have taken you there. It will not happen again, I’m sorry Miss,” he answered quietly.
“My name is Alex, not Miss, and I’m not sorry or upset that you took me there. I just want to know what the hell you were saying that required that man to be on his knees to hear it,” I said, shaking my head in amazement.
Fred sighed and finally gave up pouting. “I lost my temper. I did not like to hear him calling you names, as if you were a stupid tourist coming to look at their wretchedness. I told him that Calen Belarus would not take kindly to his lady’s gifts being held in so low regard when she provided enough to keep the whole community fed for a month straight. I told him he should be grateful that you were pleading for his life, because it was nothing for me to dispatch him from his misery.”
My head was spinning, but of everything that Fred said, I latched onto one name. “Calen… Belarus?”

CHAPTER 14

So, here I was, pacing the floor of Cale’s bedroom again. 
Of all the stupid bad luck, not only am I trying to infiltrate a drug cartel by dating the foreman, but now I find out he’s actually the boss’ son! Good job, Allie. Way to get in over your head!
I moved to the desk and pulled out my laptop. I found a new message in my inbox from Max: Allie-Cat, Hope you’re having a great time. We went fishing and caught a BIG FISH. The boys are all trying to decide if we should test our luck on another fishing trip. I think they want to wait for you, so play nice and get home soon. Love, Max
Max was never that chipper in her emails. Translation— they found something big that changed the game plan and they want me to play it cool and get back to the United States before anything else happened.
I hit the reply button and typed rapidly: Kensie-Cakes, I’m having fun and making friends. The people here are unbelievable. No really, you wouldn't believe me if I told you. Anyway, I’ll be back the day after tomorrow hopefully and I love fishing, so wait for me! We’ll see what we catch together. Love, Allie – P.S. Been shopping a lot. You’ll never guess what I found here.
A tremor of nerves trickled down my spine. I was feeling really dumb about getting involved in this, and thought maybe I should have just gone to the cops with my suspicions and said screw the proof, like Max had said. It’s their job to investigate. I mean, who the hell did I think I was? I took a deep breath, trying to calm down and stop being so cowardly. I’m a new woman, damn it. I’d wanted to take chances and see what I was really made of. Well, here I am, and I need to see this thing through.
I padded downstairs to find Fred, because I couldn’t stand to be alone with my thoughts anymore. I found him in the den watching American Idol, which made me smile, despite my nerves.
“Wow, Fred. I would never have pegged you for an Idol-izer,” I teased him, plopping down on the couch next to him.
“Iron Chef is a rerun,” he smirked, leaning to make room for my toes as I scrunched them between his butt and the couch. “Are you quite comfortable?” he said dryly.
“Quite, thank you. My toes were cold.” I laughed. 
We sat there comfortably in silence for some time before I noticed him moving restlessly. “I’m sorry Fred, I’ll move.”
“No. No, you’re fine.” He patted my ankle. Finally, cursing under his breath, he turned to me. “I’m not going to explain myself, but I’m going to tell you something important, so I want you to listen carefully.” Fred’s eyes bored into mine. “You are a lady of the first degree. You are intelligent and good and kind, which is why you need to find a way to extract yourself from Calen’s life. He’s a good man, but everything is not always what it seems in his life.”
“Fred, what’s going on? I really like him, and I’m not the kind of person to just lead someone on and then drop them. Why should I break up with Cale?” I asked anxiously, but we both heard an SUV pull into the driveway. 
“You are a smart woman. I won’t say anything more. You’ll either get out or you won’t,” he growled, getting up and marching into the kitchen.
What the hell was he about to say? I wanted to pull my hair out, but tried to push the forbidding conversation out of my head as I got up to meet Cale at the front door. 
“Hello, beautiful.” He smiled, tipping my chin up for a kiss. 
“How was your day?” I answered, leading him into the kitchen to sit at the bar. “Want something to drink?”
“Sure, I’ll have a beer, please. To answer your question, my day was productive, if not exactly pleasant. How about yours? Did you give Fred a workout?” He smiled at Fred, who leaned silently against the counter.
I almost dropped the bottle in my hand as I realized I hadn’t thought to buy anything as a cover story. I glanced at Fred. I didn’t want him to get in trouble, but I had to at least tell a partial truth. “Uh no, not really. I didn’t do much shopping. Did you know they have a white lion at the Johannesburg zoo? I really want to see it. Are you going to be around tomorrow? It would be fun to go together.” Hoping to distract him, I set the bottle in front of him and slid my arms around his waist to press my body against his from behind.
“I’ve got to work again tomorrow and we’ll be leaving after that,” he said shaking his head. “Why no shopping, sweetheart? I thought you were really excited about it.”
Fred stepped in. “Your lady has a very kind heart. She spent the afternoon buying food for those in need. However, I think I know of some stores near the zoo for tomorrows outing.”
Cale pulled me around from behind him to look from one of us to the other and back again with an enigmatic smirk. “You seem to have gained Fred’s loyalty in a short amount of time. I’m not sure what you’ve been up to, but I guess as long as you’re okay, I’ll let it go.”
Oh, thank god.
I grinned. “You are a very smart man.”
“And you are a very sexy lady. I have something I want to give you,” he said, pulling me into his arms for a kiss.
“I bet you do.”
He chuckled mischievously. “That too. I have a present for you first, though. Come on, sweetheart.”
Fred’s eyes narrowed as I glanced at him. Whatever he was thinking, it wasn’t good. I tried to send him a reassuring smile, before following Cale upstairs.
Once in the bedroom, he sat me on the bed and pulled a small velvet bag from his back pocket. He sprawled onto his side on the bed and held the bag out to me with a smile that could have melted a glacier in the middle of an ice age. 
I felt shy all of the sudden as I reached for the bag. “You didn’t have to get me anything, Cale. It was just nice to come here with you.” I choked on my words in a gasp as I stared down at the sparkling necklace that fell into my hand. 
A golden colored stone the size of a marble glimmered out from between smaller green stones and an intricate weave of filigree.
“Do you like it?”
“It’s beautiful!” I gasped, "I’d have to be crazy not to like it.”
“I wasn’t sure if you would rather have a more traditional white diamond than champagne, but I took a chance.”
“Champagne - are you telling me these are real diamonds?” 
“Well the green stones are emeralds, but yeah the middle is a diamond. Why? You don’t like diamonds?”
I goggled. I couldn't help it.
“You can’t just give a woman you barely started dating diamonds. I mean, we just had sex for the first…” 
The words caught in my throat as the horrible thought settled in, but he cut me off before it could fully form. “This is not about sex. I didn’t give it to you just because you slept with me. Look, don’t do this, please. Listen to me for a second.” Taking one of my hands, he continued. “You are a beautiful woman. You’re sexy, and funny, and I like hanging out with you. I like being with you. The truth is that I’ve never had someone to buy presents for. I wanted you to have something to remember our first trip together. Hopefully, there will be lots of trips and lots of presents after this, but I wanted this one to be special. Let me do this. Please?”
There was a second when my brain screeched to a halt and then I just gave up trying to think. I sighed and shook my head. “Well, sugar daddy, could you help me put it on?”
His warm smiled returned and he raised my hair to latch the necklace, then place a small kiss below my ear. “Sucker. I didn’t think you’d let me win so easy,” he teased.
“The joke’s on you, buddy,” I countered. “I’ve been working on you for weeks. I seriously thought it’d be at least a few more months before you started buying me jewelry. At this rate you’re going to be—” The sentence went unfinished as he kissed me and gave me another present. 

-----

Fred made good on his promise to take me to the zoo and shopping the following day, and I returned with so many bags that we had to make several trips to the SUV to get them all into the house. I bought new clothes, presents for my friends back home, including a beautiful carved hunting knife for Banker, which he’d get a kick out of. I also bought presents for Cale and Fred, who made the mistake of telling me how much he liked the wooden sculptures of a particular street artist. I promptly bought half a dozen of various sizes, because as far as I was concerned, Fred was now and forever, my hero. 
I continued to think about him on the flight home. He refused to talk any further about Cale and I wondered how such decent men got wrapped up in such bad business. On the other hand, remembering how Fred held his gun to the man’s head made me wonder just how decent they really were when I wasn’t around. 
There was a message from Max asking me to come over so she could tell me about an exciting surprise when I got back the following evening. I wasn’t sure if that was code or she really did have something exciting to tell me. Either way, I was very happy as I let myself into my little rental house, but I didn’t dare lie down even for a minute on my soft comfy bed, because I knew I’d pass out cold. Tossing my bags on the coverlet and texting Max to let her know I was on my way, I retraced my steps back out the front door regretfully. Something told me that things were fixing to get heavy.
I had déjà vu as I pulled up in front of Cash’s house to see people spilling out onto the front porch and sidewalk. Apparently, Max forgot to tell me about the party. I anxiously marched through to the backyard, waving distractedly at Ana and a few of the people I met on my previous visit, while searching for Max in the crowd. I was about to start yelling when I turned and finally saw her silhouetted against the curtains in an upstairs bedroom. Taking the back stairs by force, I shoved past couples making out and dancing to the music that blared throughout the house.
Max jumped back from Cash, startled as I shoved past a stubbornly non-cooperative couple and burst into the room. 
“God,  sorry,” I apologized, turning my back and closing the door so that the people passing by wouldn’t see anything being zipped or buttoned back into place. The brutally arousing sight of those long brown fingers dug into my friend’s ass as he ground himself against her was going to be hell to get out of my head. 
I could try to give them a miniscule amount of privacy to put themselves back together, but I couldn’t keep the giggle out of my voice as I tried to make light of the situation. “Talk about giving a whole new meaning to ‘Cash is King!’ If y’all ever decide to release an erotic feature film, I claim first copy.” 
 “Oh my God, shut up!” Max groaned, laughing. “We didn’t expect you to get here so quick.”
“I texted you.”
She laughed and grabbed her phone from somewhere amongst their fallen apparel. “Oh yeah, I just got it.” 
Cash just smiled and shook his head, obviously not embarrassed in the least. Of course, why would he be? From what I’d seen, the man was sexy as hell. What did he have to be ashamed about?
Max hugged me tight. “I’m glad you’re back. I was freaking out.”
I nodded, “There’s a lot to talk about.”
Max exchanged a worried look with Cash. “You’re really not going to like what we have to say. Um, we finally found the drop point. It’s a warehouse outside downtown Houston.” She glanced at Cash again and then back to me. “When the guys tried to get a closer look, they were spotted. There was shooting, and several of the men at the warehouse were killed.”
Holy shit.
“That’s not all. We have the money and the contents of that shipment.” Cash added.
“Oh my God—”
“Look,” Cash cut in. “I’m not going to say that I wish they’d left it, because it was a good haul, but we’re in deep now, so we gotta come up with a plan and be smart.”
“What do you mean, it was a good haul? You’re acting like this was a…a… Oh jeez, the email about a big fish… You think it's a fishing trip. Like, we're just gonna fill the metaphorical boat."
I kept telling myself not to freak out, but the hysterical voice still roared out of my mouth, until I felt arms come around me from behind. I fought against them until Banker’s deep voice cut through my panic, “Calm down. Alexandra. Calm.”
“Did you hear what they did?” I asked, no longer struggling, but still incredulous at how bad things had gotten so quickly. “They fucking stole the—”
“I heard. We all need to sit down and talk quietly.”
"Fine. I'll be quiet." I marched over to a side chair and plopped down defiantly. 
Interestingly enough, everyone deferred to Banker to start the discussion. “From the recent take here in Houston, we know they are dealing cocaine and meth. I followed your man to an area in the timberlands north of Johannesburg. I was only able to get partial views, but from what I can tell, they are hollowing out small pieces of lumber and then corking them with shipments of contraband. Satellite movement tracked the trucks to another compound just outside the port in Durban. We can only assume until we have further surveillance that they are either readying them for export or selling them for imports.”
“Them? The drugs you mean?” I asked.
“Probably diamonds.”
“I thought that conflict diamonds had all but disappeared from the market,” Max said quietly.
Banker smirked. “That’s what they’d like the public to think, but the truth is only uncut stones can be traced. If you start an operation that can layer a few legitimate companies over a location that cuts and processes the diamonds before they hit the market, you’re virtually untraceable. My guess is, those diamonds are cut before they ever leave South Africa.”
My blood ran cold and I reached up to touch the necklace around my throat. “Oh, God.”
No one commented, but the tension rose again as they realized what I was holding. I tried to keep the train of thought moving in a productive direction. “Maybe I’m just dumb, but what does timber and diamonds in Africa have to do with drugs being sold out of my construction site in Texas? That’s the part I don’t get.”
Cash spoke up with a growl, “It’s their payroll. Diamonds pay for guns, which they not only sell but also use to control both the people mining the diamonds and the drugs they run in other parts of the world. Diamonds are forever and guns are a necessity, but drugs disappear with each use and create addicts to return for more product time and time again, making for a bigger profitable cash flow than diamonds or guns could ever show.”
“Shit, shit, shit.” I knew we’d stumbled onto some bad stuff, but I hadn’t known how bad. For some reason, I still didn’t want to tell them about Cale being Belarus’ adopted son - maybe I just didn’t want to believe he was really a part of all of this. I asked the biggest question rattling around in my head. “What are we supposed to do now? This is obviously bigger than we thought, and if we go to the police with the evidence—”
“We’re not going to the police,” Banker countered. “You’re going to sit tight and keep playing along. I have some friends that I need to talk to. They’ll be able to get me in touch with the people who can actually take care of this discreetly and not get us killed.”
“What about the drugs and money that have been stolen, won’t that make them start questioning people?” I asked.
“Probably, but you were out of the country, your staff worked right along as if you were here, Max and Cash actually did go fishing to cover their asses if they were being watched, and if it comes down to it we’ll just say her big exciting surprise tonight was an engagement announcement. There is nothing to tie any of our people here to that little incident.”
I shook my head in disbelief. There was no way we were going to get away with sweeping this under the rug. “Don’t blow this off as nothing to worry about. People involved in this kind of shit get killed or just plain disappear every goddamn day, for real.”
Banker stood up and loomed over us all. “Speaking as someone who has killed a lot of people and made them disappear, I’m telling you to calm down and play it cool.”
Max planted her feet with fists clenched. “Don’t threaten her.”
Banker just rolled his eyes. “I’m not threatening her. I’m telling all of you that we’ve covered our asses as well as we can at this point. We’re not going to change the plan until we have some reliable backup.” 
He turned to Cash, “I’m assuming that you’ve stashed everything.”
Cash nodded. “The money is broken up and hidden in multiple locations.”
Max and I shared a look before she asked the question we were both thinking. “And the drugs?”
“Mi Paloma, I have told you that I only sell what God grows. I do not deal in the chemical synthetics that rape people’s minds and bodies. They have been disposed of.”
“Destroyed?” I pushed, not that I didn’t trust Cash, but there would be a large profit to just sell to dealers that handled that sort of thing.
“Destroyed, gotten rid of, never to be recovered,” he replied.
“Well, then I guess that’s all we can do for now. Awesome. Good night,” I grumbled, digging my keys out of my pocket.
“I have something for you.” Banker stated, followeing me out the door. Instead of turning to go downstairs though, he grabbed my hand and led me down the hall to an unoccupied bedroom. Or so I thought.
“Really, Banker? I don’t think I’m in the mood to get it on right now, especially with everything…” My voice trailed off as a whine sounded from the corner of the room. I knelt down in front of a large cage and released the catch on the door to have a pair of ten pound puppies stumble clumsily into my lap. I smiled and looked up at Banker. “What’s this?” 
“You needed to bring home a dog that Max was supposedly keeping for you to match your cover story, but I didn’t think you’d want a lonely puppy so I got you two.”
“Mastiffs? They’re going to be huge!”
“Size never bothered you before.” He shrugged with a bored expression, but there was a teasing gleam in his eye.
I laughed jumped up to plant a quick kiss on his mouth. “That was a horrible joke, but thank you.”
“No problem,” he said, putting some distance between us. “You can expect to start having body guards or surveillance, if they haven’t already started. Your man will want to keep an eye on you now, to make sure that his enemies don’t harm or contact you.”
 ”Well then, I’ll play dumb and be on my best behavior until you tell me otherwise.”
 ”Don’t worry. There’s no reason for him to suspect anything from you.”
 ”Yeah, well. I can’t help it. I’m afraid I’ll mess up and say something or act weird and he’ll know what I’m doing,” I muttered.
“I’ve been watching the two of you. When you’re with him, you forget everything else. It’s dangerous to trust him as much as you do, but it’ll work in your favor for now.”
Quirking an eyebrow I asked, “You’ve been watching us? Like, when have you been watching us?”
“Come on, I’ll help you take this stuff to your car.”
“Banker, when were you watching us together?” I demanded.
He ignored my questions, packing the doggie essentials into the cage and carrying them out to my car, using the cage like a battering ram to move through the crowd. I followed in his wake with a brand new puppy under each arm. 
It was strange to me that this man who would buy me such sweet puppies was the same man that fifteen minutes earlier admitted to disposing of people, was the same man that weeks ago terrorized me in my own living room, and was the same man that had a secretive military background and friends that could discreetly handle international criminals. 
Of course, what did I know? It was still strange to me that Cale and Fred were supposedly the international criminals in question. But still, what was it with these guys? They were all backwards, like the temp agency mixed up their files or something when handing out assignments.
No matter how I tried, I couldn’t convince myself that Cale was dangerous. I felt stupid for not seeing it, and I felt crazy for giving him the benefit of the doubt, but at the end of the day, it didn’t matter what I thought. The evidence was stacking up and the bad guy’s buddies even seemed to be holding up a big neon warning sign for me. 
I packed the puppies into the car and turned to Banker. “So, I’m going to ask one more time, when were you watching?”
“I’m always watching.”
I mused, trying to read between the lines. “Thanks for Bob and— what should I call the other one?”
“How about… Penelope?”
 “Huh. Ok, Thanks for Bob and Penelope. See you soon, I’m sure.”

-----

I stayed cool as instructed, even when I returned home that night and saw Cale’s huge truck in the driveway. I pulled in behind him as he stepped out. 
“Hi.” I grinned.
“Hi. I was worried. I went home to grab some clothes and when I came back, you were gone. I was hoping to stay over with you tonight.”
“Wow, getting possessive already? I had to go see my other man.” 
“Other man?” 
“Yeah, I picked up a hot little bitch while I was out too,” I laughed going around and opening the cage. “This is Bob Barker, not to be confused with the game show host. And my newest little sweetie is Penelope, also of the Barker family.”
“Your new dog, I forgot all about him. You could have brought him along with us.”
“Next time I might, but I asked Max to pick up Penelope for me and I wanted the two puppies to get to know each other. Aren’t they cute?” I snuggled my face in close to the wiggling bodies before grinning back at Cale. “I’m glad you’re here. You can carry all my junk in.” 
“What do I get if I help you?”
“Oh, I’m sure you’ll con me into something,” I smirked.

CHAPTER 15

The cavalry showed up three days later. 
“I’m Jackson Campbell. I was hoping to talk to someone about a job.” 
 I looked up from my desk at the sound of a rough Brooklyn accent to see a middle aged, well built man, with light brown hair and ice blue eyes enter my office. 
I stood and held out a hand in greeting. “I’m Alex. This is my crew. You seem strong enough, but we actually use a lot of specialized craftsmanship on our jobs. What kind of skills do you have?”
“Oh, I’m real good at all your basic construction stuff,” he stated, cautiously lifting his tee shirt to briefly flash a badge tucked into his waistband. His face never faltered. “But I have a talent for woodwork and the occasional furniture piece. I have some references, if you want ‘em.”
“Yes, that’ll be fine.” I played along. “Um, I tell you what. You look clean cut and I can tell from your hands that you’re used to hard work. I’ll let you work alongside our foreman today and see how you work out. If you fit, you stay. If not, I’ll hand you a hundred dollar bill and you can be on your way. How does that sound?”
“Fine with me. Mind showing me where you want me?” he said glancing towards the door.
“Yep, not a problem. Come on. Now do you like to be called Jackson or Jack or…”
As soon as we stepped outside he interrupted, the rough street accent was replaced by a more intelligent version. “Jack is fine. Your friend, King, told me about the situation. We’re here to observe and gather evidence. You need to continue acting just as you have been, to keep the subjects unaware of our presence.” He glanced at me. “Somehow, you have unwittingly stumbled into a position that several governments have been trying to fill for over a decade. It’s very possible that you are going to help us capture several of the world’s most wanted criminals. How do you feel about that Mrs. McKenna?”
“Just peachy, Jack,” I muttered. “Call me Alex.”

-----

Over the next few days, I tried to ignore the nagging sense of panic building each time I saw Cale, expecting him to turn on me, to tell me that he knew everything. Nothing happened though. 
In fact, Jack and his team grew agitated, their investigation bogging down with the inactivity. No material swaps or mysterious trips out of the country were planned. Suspicions were voiced about me snitching to Cale, until finally, the team decided I would try to prompt him in some way. That was easy for them to say, of course, since they weren’t the ones on the front lines. 
I said as much to Banker at an impromptu party Max threw together on an evening when Cale was working late. Still conscious of possibly being watched, we stood a respectable distance from each other, watching the other party-goers. 
“Why can’t the feds do something on their end?” I griped. My voice was hushed and my mouth hidden from lip-readers behind a raised glass. As always, these conversations made me feel like a cartoon version of James Bond. 
I shouldn't have bothered. His only response was a bored, “Not here.”
Knowing I wouldn't get anywhere if I argued, I eyed his tight black tank top and cargo pants. The outfit never changed, but I had to admit it worked for him. “Wanna dance?” 
“No.”
“Why not?”
“You know why.” 
There was a devilish, almost evil, gleam in his eye. A shiver worked it's way up my spine. “Why do I always get the impression that it would make you happy to hurt me, just a little bit?”
The smiled was definitely evil.
“You’re a very smart woman.”
“And you’re a very confusing man, King.” I quirked an eyebrow at him. What was it about this guy?
“Don’t use that name again.”
“Why?”
“Because I'm asking you not to, because it’s not something I want known, and because if you do I will hurt you, more than a little.”
“I’m not afraid of you anymore.”
"You should be.”
Spies be damned.
I turned and got up in his personal space. “Oh I have no doubt that you have the training and resources, as you said, to hurt me. I just think you like me too much to do permanent damage. I think you want to kiss me- "
My lips brushed along his, just short of any real contact, as I pressed my body to his.
"and I definitely think you want to have sex with me again, but I don’t think that you want to truly hurt me beyond the point of a really— good— hard — fuck.”
“You think too much.” Pushing me away, he turned on his heel and stalked away. 
“Hey, Banker? Score one for me.”
He threw a middle finger high in the air, and my laughter followed him.

-----

I got to put my money where the government’s mouth was when I left that night. They wanted results and they knew how to get them. Banker muttered a quick heads up on my way out, and I attempted to act like I didn’t have a care in the world as I made my way home, still not knowing exactly what to expect but dreading it.
The heads up wasn’t sufficient and it didn’t take long to allow all the frustration and anxiety built up over the last few weeks to bring on the needed tears as I looked around my living room at every broken piece of furniture and every shattered picture frame. I worked myself into a good sob and dialed Cale’s phone number like I’d been instructed to. 
“Hey babe,” he answered distractedly.
“Cale…” I whimpered.
“Alex, are you crying? What’s wrong?”
“Somebody,” I let out the sob I’d been holding back. “Somebody broke into my house!”
“What? Are you inside? Get out of the house,” he told me urgently. “I’m on my way. Get outside right now.”
The tears continued running down my face as I moved out to the front yard to wait for him. I didn’t want him to be one of the bad guys, though. 
“Cale, I’m going to call the police, okay?”
I stupidly hoped for him to give me a last minute indication that this was all a big mistake, that he wasn’t involved in all this craziness, and that the team sacked my house for no reason, but instead, he said,  “No. Don’t call anyone or do anything until I get there. I’ll take care of this. Just stay outside and wait for me.”
My heart sank. "Okay."
When he roared into the driveway shortly thereafter, the look on his face brought another rush of tears to the surface. I finally saw the cool rage in him. It didn’t matter that it was meant for someone that was hurting me. The last shred of my hope fell away to reveal fear of the person that I now saw he was capable of being. Dreadful anticipation, as he walked into the house with guns in hand and murder on his face, made me feel ridiculous that I’d held out this long. 
If it quacks like a duck and the spooks show up at your door, then you’re just the idiot that fell for a really bad guy with a sexy smile. 
I sat down in the grass, wiping the tears from my face. I pushed away each thought that jeopardized the role I needed to play, and by the time he came back outside, I was in control again.
“There’s nobody inside,” he confirmed, taking my hand to raise me to my feet.
“I know. I walked around looking at everything when I got home. Did you find my dogs?” I let him think it was shock that held me stiff as he pulled me to his arms. 
“Yeah. They got out of the house, but they’re still in the back yard.” He tipped my face up and looked at me with hard eyes. “Do you know who did this or why anyone would destroy your house and rob you?”
“No. I don’t even really have nice stuff. I mean, it’s okay, but it’s just stuff, you know? No huge flat screens or anything like that. It doesn’t make any sense. I’ve got to call the police,” I said again, knowing now what his answer would be, but needing to try one last time.
“No. Listen to me. I didn’t tell you before because you seemed so intimidated by him, but Mr. Belarus is my father. He adopted me when I was thirteen. Sweetheart, you have the Belarus name behind you now, and we have access to resources that most police forces don’t even have. I’m going to find out who did this - and I’m going to take care of it.”
I let him see my doubt and fear. “What do you mean, take care of it? You can’t arrest someone without a badge, no matter how much money you have.”
“I can find them and scare them enough that they never think about doing this to anyone again,” he lied smoothly. His eyes, still to angry to hide the truth, said they wouldn’t be alive long enough to learn the lesson. 
“Cale —”
“Sweetheart, there is one thing that I can promise you. If you trust me, I can make sure that you never have to worry about anything again. All you have to do is pack a bag and come home with me.”
His eyes searched mine, almost demanding that I give my trust over to him while pleading that I not ask questions that he couldn’t answer. Once again, the thing between us — whatever it was — had my heart pounding. I tried to remember that he was the bad guy, even as his sincere desire to protect me had me fighting not to give him any more of myself than I already had. 
Well, fuck.
I sighed and nodded, laying my head down on his chest. “There’s something big you aren’t telling me.”
“There are a lot of things I can’t explain about my family, but I can keep you safe and make you happy, if you’ll let me.”
“Okay.” I knew what I needed to do, and at that moment, I hated everyone, myself most of all.

-----

Fred was at the dinner table two nights later when I came downstairs.
“Hello, lady.” 
His choice of nicknames made me smile as I squeezed his shoulder on the way to my place at the table. “Fred! How are you? What are you doing here?”
“Cale said you've had some trouble. I’d been looking for an excuse to transfer back to the States, so I requested bodyguard detail.”
“Bodyguard? For me?” I asked, amazed at how quickly Cale worked. “That seems a little much. My house got vandalized, but it was random. I mean, even my ex-husband would never go out of his way to do something like that. Who do I know that would hurt me?”
“We’re looking into that,” he said. “However, I would expect nothing less than for Cale to protect an important person in his life, regardless of an apparent threat or not. I’ve sent a guy over to look at your security at the jobsite. Tomorrow, you can show me your routine and I’ll inspect the security myself for any tweaks that might be needed. I understand you already have a hidden surveillance system patched in through your loud speakers. That was good thinking.” His eyes bore into mine with intent, but I’d already seen where he was headed and scrambled for a quick answer.
“Yeah, I discovered their effectiveness on other jobsites when material theft was a problem. I installed the cameras when I noticed some of the material missing here, but the surveillance was installed before I really knew Calen. You can rip it all out tomorrow if you want, I don’t care… I know he says there’re things he can’t explain and you told me to get out while I could, but that’s the problem— it’s already too late. He’s important to me and I’m, I’m just trying to not worry about any of those other things, okay? I don’t want to know anything else. I just want to be with Cale.”

-----

Later that night, I woke from fitful sleep to the sound of an argument. Straining, I realized I was hearing Cale and another man. Mr. Belarus had returned. His voice was no longer smooth and cultured but angry and aggressive. I moved slowly and quietly toward Cale’s bedroom door. 
“I don’t care what your reason is,” Belarus ranted. “There’s a very thin line between a good fuck and a major fuck up! Get her out of your system and send her on her way before it goes bad.”
“I’ve never asked for anything from you and I’m not about to start. I’m telling you she’s mine. I take full responsibility. From now on where I go, she goes, and you can like it, or you can blow my fucking head off right now and be done with it. Either way, this discussion is over.”
“Fine, you stupid bastard. If you want to learn the hard way, I’ll let you. But when that gilded pussy distracts you enough to have everything blow up in your face, I’m going to make sure that you personally stare into her pretty little tear filled eyes as you put a bullet between them and then chum her out to the sharks offshore. You will be the one to put her down. It’s your fault she’s involved in the first place. Don’t take this lightly. It’s a lesson that will change you as a man, Son.”
“I’ve never failed you, so don’t insult or patronize me old man. You know everything will be handled, as usual.”
When he turned to walk back into the room, I made my way back into bed, but I knew there was no way that he’d believe I was asleep when I couldn’t even stop trembling. I rolled over and we stared at each other as he stood by the bed. 
“So, that’s kind of scary,” I admitted.
“How much did you hear?”
“Enough to know that your father is really mad that you’re with me, and wants you to get rid of me.”
His sigh was long and heavy before he climbed into bed. “I’m not going to do that.”
“As long as I don’t fuck up whatever it is that you do, that you can’t tell me about, right? You don’t look Italian.”
“I’m not mafia,” he exhaled, grinning despite the wariness around his eyes. “Look, I’m sure that must have sounded— shit, who knows how that sounds to somebody like you? Probably pretty awful and I would understand if you wanted nothing to do with me, but I’m hoping that you still want to be with me. I’ll do everything in my power to keep you safe.” 
I reached up and laid my hand against his mouth. It was so easy to trust him when he was sweet and earnest, even knowing everything that I knew. Banker was right. It was dangerous how much I trusted this man. That didn’t stop me from kissing him.
Cale relaxed slowly as I soothed his worries, rubbing my hands along his tense back and shoulders. 
“Nothing else matters between us,” I lied, wishing it were truth. “Just this, just us. Everything else will take care of itself.”

-----

With the cat out of the bag, I had a short time to do some serious tap dancing, so I started with Fred as we headed into the office the next morning.
“Fred, I almost wish I’d listened to you,” I murmured, looking out the window at the passing buildings to hide my face. “I think being with Cale is going to get me killed.” 
His sharp glance and continued silence pushed me to talk more.
“Mr. Belarus came back last night. I heard them arguing in the hallway. He’s really mad, although I don’t really understand why. He said — he said they’d kill me when I messed Cale up. Although, I don’t know how I can mess up something that I don’t even know about.”
I waited for him to say something, but his jaw tightened and he stared straight ahead, gripping the steering wheel like he was trying to choke the life out of it. I didn’t want Fred angry with me, so I backed off. 
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything. Just, just help me not to mess up, okay? I don’t want my ignorance to get anybody hurt.”
We were almost to the jobsite when he finally answered me. “Are you going to listen to me this time?”
I nodded.
“Do not speak so openly to anyone besides Cale or myself ever again. You will talk to your friends about normal relationship gossip, but you will never discuss work or anything beyond sexual prowess or his inability to put his socks in the hamper.” He glanced at the workers as we pulled into the lot. “You will trust no one besides Cale or me, not even your friends. Make no mistake, Mr. Belarus’ words weren’t a metaphor. From here on out, I’ll handle your security and you will be a simple, happy woman. Or you’ll be a dead woman.”
Sand blew around the car as we parked in front of the office and stared at each other. “I understand. I’ll do whatever you say.”
He followed me into the office and proceeded to turn my business upside down over the next four hours. I tried to be as cooperative as possible and although I flinched, I didn’t argue when he told me to lay off several of the new hires with questionable background checks, including Jack. I knew that wouldn’t make him happy, but didn’t know how to keep him on staff without raising suspicion.
I texted Max to catch her up to speed: Hey if you get a chance come over and meet Fred, he’s visiting from South Africa and helping me iron out a few things with my house. Love ya!
Hopefully she would tell Banker and Jack what I said and they’d be able to figure out amongst themselves what was going on.
However, I wasn’t prepared for Joe being angry. He charged into the office after I made the layoff announcement. “Allie!” he barked. “What the...” He took a deep breath and tried to put on a respectful and professional tone in front of Fred, whom he didn’t know was in the office and wasn’t acquainted with yet. “Could you please excuse us? I need to discuss a few things with Mrs. McKenna.”
“No.”
“It’s ok, Fred. Joe’s like family, with everything going on I haven’t had a chance to tell him about the house. I’ll be alright, if you just give us a few minutes.”
Fred glared at me, “I’ll be right outside.”
Waiting until the door closed, I interrupted the tirade I knew was coming. “Joe, I had to let those men go because of some questionable things in their background check. Fred is running security detail for me for a while because my house got broken into and trashed.”
“What? Your house? Do the police know anything?”
“We’re not sure why it was broken into, but it looked personal because everything was smashed to bits and it’s not like I had a whole lot to steal,” I answered, avoiding the question of the police. “Fred is going to shadow me for a while, just until I feel safe again.”
“Oh, baby girl.” Joe’s expression softened and he came around the desk to hug me. “I’m sorry. I should have known you wouldn’t lay anyone off without reason. Sweetheart, why don’t you come home and stay with Barb and I for a while? We have an extra bedroom and we’d love to have you.”
Hugging Joe felt so comforting, but it made the emotions I was trying not to feel rise closer to the surface, and I couldn’t afford to let myself fall out of the role I was playing. Backing away with a smile, I shook my head. “That’s sounds nice, but I’m staying with Cale. Um, he and I have gotten kind of serious. Fred is a friend of his and they both are kind of over protective, so I think I’d probably better stay over there for a while until he calms down a bit. He was really upset when he saw the mess they made of my house.”
“Well, you know you always have a place if you need it. You just call me if you need me.”
“I will. Thanks. I love you Joe.” 
“I love you too, kid.”

CHAPTER 16

I felt a little bad about how easily I fell into the role of ‘the little wifey’ over the next few weeks. Not openly speaking of house business and having Fred shadowing me everywhere I went became second nature. I was filtering information through Max and Cash as much as possible of course, not that there was much to tell. Cale may have accepted me into his life, but that didn’t mean he discussed business in front of me.
Christmas was only three weeks away and I was making lists when I passed Mr. Belarus’ office one evening while he was reading. 
On a leap of faith, I paused and knocked on the door. “Could you spare a few minutes, Sir?”
His gaze was direct and calculating, but he spoke warmly, his voice back to the cultured elegance that was missing the last time I heard it. “Of course, my dear, come in.”
“Sir—”
“Victor. You must call me Victor, and I will call you Alexandra or perhaps Lady, as Fred has deemed you. The formalities aren’t needed between us. Would you like something to drink? Brandy, perhaps?”
“That… would be nice,” I agreed out of politeness, thanking him as he poured us both a drink and motioned me to one of the leather chairs flanking the fireplace.
He joined me, settling into the opposite chair and smiling as he sipped. “Now, that’s better. What can I help you with?”
“I was hoping to talk to you about Cale.” I fought the urge to fidget as I felt his gaze settle more heavily on me. “I know that you’re not very happy with me being here, not that you’ve been discourteous in any way, but I can tell. I also know there’s something different about your business than what I’m used to dealing with, but I'll be honest. I care for Cale. I don’t expect you to trust me or feel any differently about me after this, but I wouldn’t be who I am if I didn’t come to you and say it to your face. I’ll try to be the best I can be for Cale and prove my loyalty to him. Maybe as time goes on you’ll be able to see it for yourself. I just want you know I’m not a gold digger or anything like that, and I don’t want to get anybody hurt or upset… and that’s all I wanted to say.” I nodded abruptly and stood up.
“Alexandra, sit please.” 
Shit. My mind was screaming at me to run away, but that wasn't really an option, so I sat back down. I met his gaze, eye to eye, as Victor sat staring me down for a long, silent moment.
 Slowly, his eyes drifted away, musing into his brandy. “I knew there was something different about you from the moment I spoke to you on the seawall that day. Since that day, I have found you to be abruptly honest at times, like today, when voicing your thoughts. I’ll be blunt as well. If I understand you correctly, you’ll stand beside Cale or die trying. That is what you were trying to say here, wasn’t it?” 
His eyes abruptly switched focus from his glass to capture mine again. “I could wish for nothing more for my son. Perhaps it was a father’s intuition that day or perhaps my son has just inherited my exceptional taste in strong women.” 
A shiver of fear slid down my spine, even more so when he smiled. His charm was unnerving, knowing what I knew about this man. Even his eyes twinkled as he chuckled, tossing back the brandy swirling at the bottom of his glass. “Come dear heart, drink up and then we’ll have another. It’s time we got to know each other as family should. You can tell me what you are planning with those lists you’re holding.” 

-----

Drinking with your boss wasn't recommended under most circumstance. When Victor Belarus was the boss in question, it was near suicidal. I sipped, prepared to fight for my secrets, but as it turned out, he didn’t try to interrogate me. 
Slowly but surely, I began to relax as my glass was refilled again and again and he entertained me with stories about being a maverick entrepreneur, seducing the wild women of the world, and creating havoc wherever he went. 
“I laugh every time I remember the look on his face, realizing I’d slipped the deal right out from under his nose while he was playing patty cake with my lady...” He guffawed loudly, having not-sipped quite a bit of brandy by this point. “and the best part, when I retrieved her and took her home with me as well, priceless. He would have happily slit my throat if I’d given him half a chance, you can be sure of that!” 
My giggle was interrupted when Cale walked through the door. 
“Baby!” I called out, jumping up to greet him. I wobbled across the room and into his arms, giggling with hiccups. “I-I missed y-you today! S-Sorry. I have the h-hiccups.”
 “I missed you too,” he greeted me, with a raised eyebrow thrown at his father. 
I bounced up and down a little in his arms, “It’s okay Cale. Your d-dad and I had a talk.”
“Is that right? What exactly did you talk about?”
“Oh, he was telling me the f-funniest stories about his l-life. And about you when you were y-younger!”
Belarus waved us over, “Come in son, pour us all another drink.”
“Thank you, but I’ve had a long day, Sir. I’m just going to take Alex up to bed. She looks like she’s had enough anyway. Can I get you anything before we go up?”
Belarus chuckled, “No, Son. You take her upstairs and do as you will. I’m fine. I’ll just stay down here, a lonely old man with his memories.” The following sigh was long and overly dramatic, causing me to giggle again and him to grin.
“Good night little Allie-cat, we’ll talk more later about our Christmas plans. Son, I would like to speak with you in the morning.”
“Yes sir, good night.” Cale nodded and guided me from the office and up the stairs.
“Cale, are you m-mad at m-me?” I asked. “I d-didn’t know how to ss-say no.”
He sighed heavily. “No love, I’m not mad. I’m glad you and my father are getting along. Just be cautious.”
“Oh I w-will!” I said earnestly. “I know he’s got multiple p-personalities. Oh! I did-didn’t mean it like that. I just meant like, he has to be m-more than one person sometimes, I-I mean.”
He laughed, “Baby doll, why don’t you take a deep breath and we’ll get you something for those hiccups before we take a bath?”
“Ooohhh y-yeah! In the big t-tub together,” I giggled. “Did you miss me t-today, while you were working?”
“I did, very much,” he smiled, handing me a glass of water for my hiccups and stripping us both out of our clothes. “Sweetheart, I’ve never asked you, but what’s with your tattoo?”
“Oh, that. I got it when I moved here. I told the guy about getting a divorce— and my company and all that— and he suggested the design. I would have never thought of it, but I like it. It makes me feel tough, not like the wuss I used to be.”
“When did you used to be a wuss?” he demanded in disbelief, sitting me on the edge of the bathtub.
“When I was with John.”
“How were you a wuss? He didn’t hit you or anything…”
“No! No. Johnnie wouldn’t do anything like that, but I should have been better. Only a wuss looses her husband to a twenty one year old bimbo.” The room was spinning around me and I groaned.
“That’s not true,” Cale argued. “If anything, he was a wuss for loosing such a successful and beautiful woman to be with a girl too young to know herself, much less what a man really needs. Face it doll, your husband is a grade-A loser and you deserve better.”
“Oh now! That’s why I can’t help wanting you. Come kiss me.” I smiled seductively, but at the last moment I remembered that my drunk smile usually looked like a devious camel. Oh yeah, I’m a real winner tonight! I thought and busted out laughing. Knowing I must have looked like a loon only made me laugh harder and soon I was in a heap of giggles on the floor next to the bathtub.
“Oh my gosh! That’s it. I’m officially an idiot. Don’t pay attention to me.” I shook my head in-mock disappointment at my behavior.
Cale just laughed, picked me up, and stepped into the warm bath. As the warm water enveloped us and he settled me on his naked lap, he chuckled. “Oh, I’m planning to pay a lot of attention to you, baby doll. Starting here…”

CHAPTER 17

I was grateful that no hangover plagued me in the morning as I dressed quickly for work. I bumped into Cale as I was walking out the bedroom door. 
“Morning baby, did you sleep well?” I smirked.
“Sure, after that saucy wench finally let me go to sleep. I’ve never felt so used in my entire life,” he teased. 
“Saucy wench, eh? Where is she? I have a few words for her,” I grouched, playing along.
“Oh no, I don’t want my sweetheart to get riled up, she’s pretty mean.”
“Well, if I see her around I’m going to give her a piece of my mind,” I said, hugging him on the way out.
“Wait! I’m kidnapping you again. I need to go to London. Come with me.” 
I stopped in my tracks and turned to him with a grin, “London? Like with castles and Sherlock Holmes and ‘Chip Chip Cheerio?’”
“Uh, yeah, I think that’s the same one, although I’ve never actually been greeted that way before.” His expression clearly stated that he thought I was crazy.
“Oh wow, that’s awesome. Can I please bring Max and Cody? We could shop for Christmas together,” I begged. After being told that I moved in with Cale for ‘security reasons,’ Cody wheedled the real story out of Max, which worked out well, because the surveillance team wanted more eyes and ears the next time I went out of the country. I’d been waiting for this opportunity to bring the girls along with me. 
“Err, I guess it’s okay, but we need to leave tomorrow morning.” He blinked, obviously not expecting the request or knowing how to answer it. 
“I promise we won’t make you late. Uh, what time did you want to leave again?” I laughed.
“Around six a.m., and I don’t have to tell you to be careful because you already know that, right?” he said meaningfully. “I don’t want one of your friends to accidentally create an issue.”
“I know. I’ll leave it vague and just tell them that you have to go to London for a business meeting and that this shopping trip is one of my early Christmas presents. I know how to distract them, and Fred will be driving us everywhere. We’ll be fine,” I said with a kiss. 
“Alright. I love you, Alex.” He smiled.
My heart stuttered with emotion as the barb sank deep and tugged, causing my breath to come out in a rush.
“I love you too.” 
I kissed him deeply to hide my worry. I couldn’t help feeling scared and sick to my stomach, because I suddenly realized I meant it. I’m in so much shit…

-----

London was almost invisible under the mist and fog as we approached the landing strip, which was once again a private airstrip.
 Excited to finally be out of the plane, although we’d slept a good portion of the way, the girls and I piled into the back of the SUV and chattered as we drove through the busy mains of the city.
I was surprised when we pulled up in front of a hotel, knowing Cale’s penchant for privacy. He answered without me having to ask. “Sorry love, the flat only has one bedroom.”
The suite was beautiful. The girls settled into their rooms and Fred set his bags aside in the living room. I hadn’t realized that he’d be staying with them, but it made sense that the men would divide and conquer in regards to the security. Since I was more than safe with Cale, Fred would handle watching out for my friends. It was kind of sweet and I said so, wrapping my arms around Cale, who was sitting on the couch, whispering in his ear. “Thank you for letting me bring my friends along, and thank you even more for making sure they’ll be safe. If we were alone, I’d kiss you from the top of your head to the tip of your… um, little toe,” I chuckled with naughty intent. 
“Alone can be arranged.”
I just laughed and scooted off his lap, wriggling out of his arms before he could catch me in a good hold. “Hey Fred! What are we going to do first? You’re the tour guide.”
“What are your combined interests?” He replied somewhat ruefully as the girls sauntered back into the room. We all took turns answering him.
“Shopping.”
“Castles.”
“Food! I’m starving!”
I turned to Cale, “Babe do you have to go to work right away, or can you come out to eat with us first?”
“I have a meeting this evening. I’m all yours until then,” he smiled.
“Yay! I say let’s get go eat something, go shopping for a couple hours, and then Max can go kiss her castle guard on the way to a club tonight, yeah?”
“Awesome!” Max chimed in with a grin. 
Fred shook his head in mock grief. “You can’t kiss the guards, they’re behind a gated fence. Cale, you’re going to make me wrangle three drunk women by myself? You’ve always been a good friend, but I quit.”
We all laughed, and to my surprise Cody slanted Fred a look from under her eyelashes, “That’s right. Three beautiful drunk women, but if you’re really nice, you just might not have to sleep on the sofa tonight.”
There was a pregnant pause until Fred’s face creased into a huge wolfish grin. We all laughed, but I saw the look pass between them that said Cody had effectively thrown down the gauntlet and good ol’ Fred was about to teach her what happened after the big bad wolf blew your house down.
Something was up. Cody knew that Fred was one of the bad guys and she was just here to gather any random info that came her way. I never thought in a million years that she’d become involved with him, even if it was all an act. He was handsome and he had a great body, but Cody knew the score here. 
“Alright.” I interrupted, not happy to see this new development. “Let’s go then.”
The breakfast pastries were to die for. Max and I dove in with gusto, making a scene with loud appreciative noises. It was what we did best together. Cody sat daintily nibbling, attempting to ignore our rude behavior. Cale and Fred watched with a combination of humor and disbelief as I lay over backwards in my chair and groaned loudly and obscenely with my head in Max’s lap, which sent Max into a giggling fit, until finally Cody couldn’t take it anymore and swatted at us with her napkin. 
“Stop it, both of you. I swear to God, I can’t take you anywhere. If you’re going to food fuck, kindly do it outside of polite society,” she ranted loudly. 
All conversation in the café stopped.
I straightened up and grinned, “You lasted longer this time. Either we’re losing our touch or you’re getting freakier, you little minx. You like watching, don’t you?”
“I hate you both,” she grouched and ducked her head in embarrassment until the Café noise picked up again. 
“Random people and their opinions don’t matter.” Fred reassured her. “Besides, I’ll shoot them if they hurt your feelings.” His face was serious, but his eyes were laughing. 
“Would you shoot them if I asked you to?” she teased, pointing at Max and I, who were on our best behavior now that we’d cracked Cody’s calm facade for the morning.
“You know that we love you and only do it for your own good,” Max teased her back.
“Oh yeah, how’s that?”
“If it were up to you, you’d stay elegant and politely amused the whole trip. Like Fred said, random people don’t matter. We’re a whole continent away from your clients and colleagues and that image you think you have to maintain, so have some fun.”
“Alright Oprah, enough analyzing me. Where are we headed now?” she said, switching the subject.
“Shopping,” I sang.
Knowing we’d be too cold at an outdoor market, we started out at a large indoor mall. I was looking at some colorful bangles in a jewelry store when I saw Fred sidle up beside Cody out of the corner of my eye. I ducked around the corner of the booth and peeked through to watch covertly as he slid the pins out of her French twist. He murmured something as he slid two beautiful Jade combs into her hair, holding it back from her face on the sides, leaving the rest to flow down her shoulders. She smiled and they both moved away to look elsewhere. 
I jumped as Cale popped up beside me. “Hey baby doll, what’s up?”
“Just thinking.”
“About?”
“Fred. I’m not sure how I feel about him and Cody. I never thought my friend would take a shine to him like that. It makes me nervous.” 
He chuckled, “Let Fred worry about that. He won’t lead her on, just show her a good time and keep her safe— nothing more than a vacation romance.”
“Yeah, but what about the other stuff? She’s really smart Cale. She might ask the right questions eventually, and I don’t want her hurt.”
His hand soothed me, rubbing along my back, as he steered me away. “Baby, he will lie to her if he has to. Fred knows she’s important to you, and you are important to him, so he’ll handle it. He knows what he’s doing. Now, come with me. I found something I have to buy you, but you need to pick out a color.”
Eventually, all of us ended up at a rave and club-wear booth. The girls and I put on an impromptu fashion show for the men, who sat on the zebra print ottomans outside the tented dressing rooms. Fred's eyebrows did most of his talking, but Cale was vocal in his appreciation - until I found his mute button.  
“Okay, I think this is the one for tonight,” I announced, stepping out from behind the curtain. It was a loose, sleeveless mini- dress, held together at the shoulders with two copper rings. Layered in sheer, blushing pink and nude silks, it plunged in both the back and the front, covering only the essentials.  When I moved, both my navel and the dimples above my ass peeked out, not to mention the obscene amount of cleavage. Combined with four inch copper stilettos, it was a knock-out. 
Fred’s jaw tightened in obvious disapproval, but Cale looked stunned. I executed a small turn and cocked a hip with a smile. “What do you think?”
When Cale continued to just sit there, Fred frowned harder. “Where’s the rest?”
I laughed.
“Fred, don’t be a prude. We’re going clubbing - in London.”
Cale finally piped up. “You’re going to want to pick a backup.”
“A backup?”
“Yeah, a backup, because I’m going to confiscate that thing as soon as we walk out of here. There’s no way you’re wearing it out when I’m not with you to defend my claim.”
“Oh, you don’t trust me, huh? I see how it is.”
“I trust you. I don’t trust the drunk assholes that are going to hit on you all night,” he growled.
“They can try. It doesn’t mean they’ll succeed.” 
I leaned over, probably not the smartest thing to do at that moment, and kissed him. His kiss was sweet, but his voice wasn't. “Sweetheart, I don’t want to seem like a jerk, but you can’t expect to walk around in that and have the same freedoms as a girl wearing jeans and a tee shirt. That dress is an advertisement begging for a good fuck, and I want to be there to let everyone know that the position has been filled.”
“Ugh. Alright.” 
I gave in with a smirk. I’d had no intention of wearing it out that night, but it was fun to tease him.
In the end, Max settled on a strapless, pinstripe cat-suit and pulled her hair back in a no-nonsense bun under a white fedora. Combined with cherry red stilettos, she looked like a mob boss turned porn star.
Cody chose a dress that was more like lingerie - a tight, gold, satin mini . She curled her long hair and piled it high on her head, letting little curls cascade down her throat.
Her dress helped me make my own choice, deciding that Cody and I would be Max’s arm candy. The short, peach silk sheath dress with black lace accents was feminine and sultry. Classic Cuban styled two-tone stockings and black Mary Jane stilettos brought my look back to the boudoir, and I curled my hair, pulling half up into victory rolls to go with my vintage call-girl look.
We came out of the hotel bedroom laughing together and there was a soft expletive. We turned in unison to see Fred making himself busy across the room while Cale stood there looking horrified. We looked at each other in confusion.
“You couldn’t tone it down, just a little?” he asked. “Fred can’t keep an eye on all of you at the same time.”
“Babe,” I laughed “we’re not celebrities. No one is going to snatch us up and run away with us. We’re just like the dozens and dozens of other girls that will be there.”
“You’re beautiful women and that means you’ll be a target.”
Max giggled, edging past him. “Cale you’re good for the ego, but really… it’s okay. Allie and I are both taken, so we’ll only dance with each other. Cody can dance with us or with Fred, but we’ll all stick together, okay?”
I grinned and took him aside. “This isn’t our first rodeo. We’ve been going out together a long time before I met you, and we haven’t lost a girl yet. We know to look out for each other, and to pull a strong arm over to help out if we can’t dislodge a jerk. We’ll be fine.” 
I pressed my lips to his, soft and reassuring, and he growled, pulling me close to deepen the kiss. His hands cupped my ass and squeezed, pulling me up against his body the way he always did when he was getting ready to take me to bed. The moan got away from me as heat flashed low in my belly and I lost track of my thoughts. 
Then I heard it, ‘Wow.’ Click. 
I laughed into his mouth, murmuring against his lips in amusement, “Now, there’s one for the scrap books.”
“Fuck ‘em,” he whispered, lifting me into his arms and starting for one of the suite bedrooms.
“Cale,” Fred reminded him. “It’s already seven thirty.”
He stopped just outside the door and swore, setting me back on my feet. 
I grinned up at him. “Don't worry. I’ll see you later tonight, baby.”
Max, never the shy one, laughed from across the room. "Yeah, she gets super horny when she drinks, so don't work too late - I'm just sayin'."
I'm just sayin'.

CHAPTER 18

The club was packed. Cody had a few drinks and really let go, grinding against Fred with evil intent. We laughed at his struggle to maintain his bodyguard mind-set. He looked relieved when we finally pulled her away for a bathroom break. He told us to stick together, and waited just outside the door.
The restrooms weren’t much better than the club itself. Women of all shapes and sizes competed for space in the mirror, chattering and giggling to each other. The music from outside filtered through, rattling the stall doors and making it hard to hear each other without yelling. 
Cody and Max were shoving each other and laughing like loons, trying to beat each other into the only visible open stall. I grinned and calmly walked down the line, confident that another stall toward the back would be open soon.
Too late, I saw the arm snake out, pulling me into the maintenance closet. A damp cloth covered all but my first scream. A swift shadow moved through the dimness in front of me to lock the door as I struggled to free my face and arms from my assailant. I kicked out at any available feet or shins behind me. I could hear Max yelling and beating on the door from the other side. The room slowly started dimming, and it was only as my laden muscles stopped responding that I glimpsed someone reaching out for me from a window high on the wall.

-----

I came around slowly, both disoriented and queasy. In the gloom, the small warehouse seemed stained with things I didn’t even want to imagine as I knelt barefoot on the grimy concrete floor in only my silk dress and torn stockings. I struggled to force the sludge from my brain; although, it wasn’t just my head that felt bruised. I’d probably been dumped like a sack of potatoes as pay back for all the kicking and fighting. My arms throbbed and the sound of metal chain links sent shivers whispering across my skin as I tested the cuffs trussing me bondage style, wrists to ankles behind my back, to a vertical pole. 
A rough Russian accent filtered through from somewhere behind me. “She is coming around. Perhaps I should hit her again, for dislocating my knee.”
Stiff limbs protested as I jolted to attention, searching the shadows around me. 
“Don’t cry, angel.” Another voice, this one soft with a Southern drawl, drew my attention to the far corner of the room. A curvy, petite woman with short black curls and a dazzling smile emerged from the gloom. I’ve been abducted by Betty Boop?
Swallowing a slow, shallow breath, I tried to determine where I stood, or knelt as it was, in this mess.
“I know this is a silly question, but who are you and what do you want with me?”
“I’m curious. What do you think we want, angel?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never seen either of you before in my life. I don’t have any money with me, but I can get some.”
“She plays stupid. Why do you even bother?” the Russian growled to Betty, pacing in front of me.
“She’ll figure it out soon enough. Let’s start with the basics, shall we?” she moved directly in front of me. “You’re Alexandra Lillian McKenna and you work for Victor Belarus.” 
“How do you know who I am?”
“Angel, it’s not like that’s a big secret. Wait until we get to the hard questions to play coy. It’ll make it more fun. Now, let’s see… so you’ve become Calen Belarus’ constant companion and bed bunny. I can’t blame him. Why leave a sexpot at home when she comes in such a convenient travel size, right?” She grinned and raked her eyes across my body. “Now for the specifics. Your boyfriend is currently at a meeting with some very influential men, attempting to arrange a trade take over in the southern region of Europe. True?”
“I have no idea. Cale is here on business and invited me along for the ride, but I don’t know specifics."
"Now angel, that's just silly, isn't it? Belarus men don't keep random women around, or any women really, so why would I believe you?"
I almost shrugged, but the movement made my shoulders ache more. "I don't know what to tell you. Regardless, you’d have to be stupid to actually think I’m worth anything to either of the Belarus men.” 
Betty stepped back just as the Russian stepped forward and struck me with the back of his fist, catching me off guard. 
I choked back tears. “Hitting me doesn’t change the truth, asshole.”
“No,” he agreed, “but it makes me feel better. I hit you and my knee hurts a little less. See?” 
Another backhanded blow caused my head to pound and the entire left side of my face to throb as if on fire.
Betty sauntered around, “Angel, we have it on good authority that you are the only woman that has ever accompanied Calen on business. I have no doubt that Daddy Belarus would let you burn, but Junior? He will fret, and he will search high and low for you.”
She knelt down to smooth my hair away from my face, kissing my injured cheek near the edge of my mouth. “So to answer your question, we're already getting what we want from you. We are the people that are going to use you for a distraction. A distraction which will prove to be Cale’s downfall, getting in the way of business long enough to foil the deal. Your cooperation isn’t needed. In fact,” she paused to place a kiss on the other side of my mouth and in the center of my forehead. “It will be more fun if you struggle before we get rid of you.”
The Russian grinned and knelt in front of me as Betty moved away. “I’ll just be over here,” she chuckled.
My heart started to pound as the feel of rough fingers spreading high on the inside of my thigh caught me by surprise. I yelped, struggling to get my knees under me and raise myself higher off the floor to get away from the invasion. In the back of my mind, I knew it was pointless, but I still tried to escape the groping hands that roamed my body. 
“Please - Stop. Tell me what I can give you or what I can do to make this stop.”
He chuckled. “There is nothing I want more from you than this.” He ripped my dress down the front, reaching out to grope me again, this time painfully. I cried out again, unable to escape the sharp agony his hands inflicted.
“Don’t worry, angel,” Betty comforted, her voice a mocking sing-song tone. “You’ll probably pass out before he actually fucks you. Olaf loves rough foreplay. It’s his specialty.”
I sobbed out my denial and couldn’t stop the tears that ran freely down my face. He drove his hands down into my bra, digging his fingers into my breasts until I screamed, before pulling them out to pour over the collapsed bra cups. I watched in angry terror as he began unfastening his pants.
“First, I’m going to fuck those incredible tits.” He grinned over his shoulder at Betty. “That’s for you of course. I know how it gets you off. You’re welcome to come over here and I’ll suck on yours while I’m at it.”
She grinned, “Fuck you, Ollie.”
“Ah,” he turned to me, as if we were old friends. “She doesn’t ever forgive me. One time, that's all. One time, I bite off a woman’s nipple, and now this one will never let me near her own.” He cupped my breasts again, this time teasing the tips until they peaked against his thumb. "Ah, see. Your body likes it - it wants this."
I struggled away, but he only chuckled and leaned down, his eyes glued to mine, and slowly sucked one of my nipples into his mouth. He caressed it with his tongue, playing with the peak, before lightly biting down. I started whimpering as the pressure increased slowly. It began to sting. Then, he bit down hard, causing a spike of pain, and I screamed in terror. Just as quickly, he released me with a maniacal laugh. “Not yet. Don’t pass out yet, little one.”
My adrenaline was kicking hard as I looked down. He’d broken the skin and I was bleeding, but my nipple was still intact. Something clicked off inside of me. Knowing in my heart that this was real, it was no game, and that I wasn’t ever leaving this place alive, I didn’t bother to hold my tongue or beg anymore. I concentrated on thinking up and screaming every disgusting threat and insult I’d ever heard, anything to distract myself from what Olaf was going to do to me. 
He stood and thrust his shaft forcefully between my breasts, laughing at my insults. No amount of pulling or twisting released me from the cuffs, and my arms and legs ached and trembled uncontrollably from pulling against each other.
“Oh yes! Spit and hiss at me, little one. Your tits feel so warm, swallowing up my big dick - you like it, don’t you, you little slut?” He laughed again, digging his fingers into the tender tissue of my breasts brutally, bruising and chaffing them as he thrust over and over.
“Cale will hunt you down,” I hissed. “He’ll gut you, letting your intestines fall to the ground to slide under your feet as you run from him! And when he catches you again, he’ll skin you from the top of your head to the tips of your toes and he’ll hang the skin outside to flap in the wind like a parade banner!” 
“Shut up, stupid bitch!”
A sudden kick to the gut forced the air from my lungs and brought vomit rising up in my throat, just as Olaf grabbed me by the hair and shoved himself into my mouth. 
I gagged and choked, unable to breath. In a panic, I bit down viciously, feeling the skin break and tasting blood as it joined the bile burning my nose and throat.
Olaf roared in agony and ripped my head back away from his body. A blinding pain shot through my brain as my head bashed into the pole behind me. I heaved blood and vomit onto the concrete.
 “That’s enough!” A strong, familiar voice crashed through the room. I raised my head and looked into a pair of black eyes that sparkled with irritation. 
“Did I tell you to make free with her?” Sekai asked, his calm voice at odds with the anger in his gaze.
“You said snatch her. You never said we couldn’t play with her.” Betty responded with a smirk. “Besides, it’s not like you can give her back.”
He glared at both of them, even as Olaf writhed on the floor. “Why was I able to walk right in the front door? Oh that’s right— Because you were too busy fucking off to do your jobs. We do not have time for you to think for yourselves apparently, so I will do it for you. From this point on I will tell you what to do and you will do it. Nothing more, nothing less, do you understand? I expected more professionalism from you both. Go watch the front and try not to do anything else stupid.”
Olaf stood up and wobbled toward the door, “I need a doctor—”
Sekai shoved a gun in his face, “Would you like me to give you something for the pain?”
A stream of curses followed them outside as Olaf chose to do as he was told. I sobbed in relief, knowing I was still in trouble, but so grateful that Olaf was leaving that I didn’t care anymore.
Sekai came forward. “I’m sorry. I thought I was working with professionals. It was never my intention for you to be hurt.” 
I looked at him in disbelief. “What is going on? I thought you were Cale’s friend?”
“Cale is not who you think he is.” He knelt beside me, pulling a small envelope out of his coat pocket. Laying out the contents, he motioned to each picture in the row. “My brother is evil. He has done horrible things to help my father control the drug trade.” 
I glanced up in surprise from the morbid pictures of tortured and mangled bodies. “Brother?” I coughed.
“Victor adopted us both and raised us as his right and left hands to oversee his business.” It seemed as if his accent deepened subtly. “Cale started gaining favor when our father realized there were some things I just wouldn’t do to my African brothers and sisters, though.” 
“I knew he was into something, but this? This is crazy,” I hedged, not sure where this was going.
“You must listen to me, I can help you. I can keep you safe. You just have to trust me.” He rubbed the hair back from my face. It felt wrong and I knew I was being played. I needed to be able to move freely if I was going to do anything about it, though.
“I’d trust you more if you untied me.”
“Of course.” He retrieved the keys and began unlocking the cuffs that held me immobile.
I rubbed the circulation back into my hands and pulled what was left of my clothes up to cover my body. I wouldn’t be able to stand up anytime soon, though, thanks to the awkward position I’d been in for so long. 
The slightest movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. Sekai turned and raised his gun just as Banker dropped from a vent in the ceiling and rolled to the side, barely dodging the first shot. 
I did the only thing I could think of and kicked the back of Sekai’s knee with everything my numb legs could muster. He went down hard, trying to keep an eye on Banker as he fell. I kicked again, knocking away the hand he was reaching out to catch himself with, and his second shot coincided with the crack of his head hitting pavement.
“Two out front!” I yelled, hoping Betty and Olaf wouldn’t ambush us before Banker took care of them. Sekai reached up, grabbing for my ankles as I continued to kick crazily, trying to use the hardest part of my heel bones to hurt him. I grabbed the cuffs and swung them, the chains catching him across the face. He cursed, firing wide again, while trying to get to his feet.
He didn't have the chance. Banker’s throwing aim was true, his knife finding its target in Sekai's neck. Warm blood spattered across my face, and everything suddenly slowed down.
I watched as the two guards ran back into the building. Banker took out first Olaf, and then Betty, just as Sekai, his whole body trembling, jerked the knife from his neck. The last ditch effort to save himself only did more damage, and he collapsed onto my legs. I wanted to move, to get away from the blood spreading across my lap, but I couldn't seem to make my body respond. 
I jumped in surprise when Banker lifted me out from underneath him. “It’s okay, Alexandra. You’re okay.”
I nodded rapidly, wiping the blood from my face. I wasn't really sure if it was true. 
He was careful and efficient in checking my injuries before he made me look at him. “We don’t have much time. Cale’s men are in the area and probably heard the shots.”
I watched in ill silence as Banker took Sekai’s gun and put one bullet through the hole in his neck at close range, disguising the wound pattern, and another through his chest, to make it believable.
“You’re going to call Cale. Tell him they were using you to lure him here, so they could murder him and make it look like a rival alliance. You tricked Sekai by pretending to turn to him in grief when he told you about all the bad things Cale did. You stole his gun and shot him before shooting the other two.” 
“What about his father? I can’t tell him I just shot his son. He’ll kill me.”
“Belarus threatened Cale with your life because he knew it wasn’t something Cale would take lightly, because he wasn’t usually the enforcer. The stuff in those pictures was Sekai’s work. Just tell Cale how worried you were for him, and that you knew you had to kill his brother before he killed Cale. He’ll be impressed with your loyalty, and he’ll remind Belarus that you just saved his business from a threat they would have never seen coming.”
“Or, he might just shoot me and call it done.”
He kissed me before handing me the gun, “It’s going to be okay. You can do this. We have to tie up the loose ends, and then we’ll work on an exit strategy.”
“Okay. I’ll try, but if I die, I’m going to kill you,” I muttered, watching him leave.

CHAPTER 19

I pulled Sekai’s bloody phone from his pocket and made the call. Then, setting down the phone, I removed Olaf’s shirt to pull it over my bloody torn clothes before I could think too hard about having to touch the bastard. Betty’s smaller gun got tucked into the back of my underwear and I took both of the dead men’s guns with me to peek out the door of the warehouse, setting the morbid pictures on the ground in front of me.
It was less than five minutes when an SUV slammed to a stop in front of the warehouse. I was scared and I didn’t care if they knew it. I stood in the doorway with both guns raised, knowing I looked crazy with blood smeared across my face and body, wrapped in a shirt that was four sizes too big. 
Fred was cautious as he slipped from the truck, but Cale wasn’t. “Alex— are you okay baby? We have to get you to a doctor.”
“Are you going to shoot me?” I interrupted, still aiming both guns at them. The question stopped him in his tracks.
“What the fuck? Why would I shoot you?”
“I killed your brother.”
“You killed Kai?” His brow furrowed, as if he honestly couldn't understand what I was telling him. I tried to explain.
“I had to. He said that you were a monster and he had to get rid of you, to make sure your deal didn’t go through, so you couldn’t do anymore of this.” I kicked the pictures I’d laid on the ground towards him. “Did you do that stuff?”
He glanced down and then back up at me. “Do you think I did?”
“No, but I need to hear you say it.” The guns trembled in my hands. I wouldn’t be able to hold this stance for long, especially as the adrenaline started to recede and my emotions began to unravel.
“No. I didn’t kill those people and I’m not going to kill you” he answered, moving forward, this time without caution. I nodded, lowering my guns and letting him wrap his arms around me. I sobbed into his shoulder, the details of what had happened pouring out of me in a rush as I watched a second SUV with a cleanup team arrive. 
We left as they started loading the bodies, heading directly to the private airfield, where Cale had a doctor waiting to patch me up inside the jet. Realizing it was just exhaustion and probably a little bit of shock, I didn’t even try to combat the strange fog as it set in on my brain. I had time to change and get cleaned up before Max and Cody arrived from the hotel. 
Max started crying when she saw the swollen, bruised side of my face. They both wrapped me in a tight hug and we stayed that way for a long time, as we each of us let go of our fear. 
It wasn’t until hours later when we were flying over the Atlantic with me cuddled into Cale and both girls squeezed in close to me, that I realized I hadn’t spoken to Fred.
I disentangled myself with a bathroom excuse and walked to the back of the plane. Fred wouldn’t even look at me as I sat down beside him and laid my head on his shoulder. In fact, he stiffened. 
“Fred?” 
He finally looked at me with tired red eyes, but he didn’t say anything, just stared at me. 
“Are you okay? Why don’t you come up front with the rest of us?” I urged him.
“Am I okay?” he asked quietly. “You get kidnapped and beaten when I was supposed to be protecting you, and you ask me if I’m okay? Lady, you can’t even open your left eye. You should be angry, not concerned for me.”
“You couldn’t have known they were going to take me last night, much less from a random ladies restroom in a club.”
He wasn’t listening. I turned to Cale, in the front of the plane, and announced loudly, “Fred did everything he could to help me. He’s my bodyguard— I’m keeping him, and that’s just how it is, okay?”
Cale turned to us. “Okay. For the record, I never doubted his loyalty to you. Fred, I was crazy with worry, but I never believed that you weren’t doing your job last night.” 
I turned back to Fred, who was now embarrassed, and tried again. “I made the choice to go out clubbing, against both of your wishes if you remember, and that was stupid. From now on, we’ll be more cautious. You’re my bodyguard, and my friend. I don’t want anyone else watching my back. With that being said, you’re still on duty, so dust yourself off and let’s get back to what we do. Come up front, okay?” I didn’t give him a choice, taking his hand and dragging him along with me. I refused to let him tear himself down with blame. Fred was one of my only allies across enemy lines, and for however long I was in this family, he was going to be a part of it. I wouldn’t accept anything else.
-----
Every muscle in my body was screaming by the time we made it back ‘home,’ and nothing sounded more appealing than climbing into bed for a week or so. Cale said there was something we had to do first and pulled me towards his father’s office, carrying the bloodied chains and cuffs with him. 
I hadn’t expected to have to face Victor right away, and I was suddenly terrified as Cale violently tossed the cuffs on the desk without warning. 
“What is the meaning of this?” his father demanded.
“Did you know about this?” Cale growled quietly, pulling me forward into the light. With my one good eye, I stared back at Victor as he examined my face, appearing genuinely surprised but not horrified. 
“No,” he stated finally. “I didn’t know about this, whatever this is.”
“Well then let me fill you in,” Cale replied acidly. “Alex was kidnapped, bound, and raped by Kai and his people. He’s dead because he tried to assassinate me and disrupt the deal. It’s thanks to Alex that he didn’t succeed. She chose to protect me when she had the chance to escape.”
“And the deal?” Belarus asked quietly.
“God dammit, of course the deal is done!” Cale exploded, obviously angered at his father’s single mindedness. His father didn’t seem to notice. 
“Good. I’m impressed with Alex’s devotion. On the other hand, I can’t say I’m surprised at your brother’s actions. He was very competitive.”
“Competitive? That’s one way to put it,” Cale growled, his grip tightening on my hand almost to the point of pain. “Regardless, Alex is finished jumping through hoops for you, through being insulted and mistrusted. From this moment on, what’s mine is now hers and if anyone hurts with her again, I’ll chum what’s left of them to the sharks offshore.”
Belarus paused, weighing the threat that had been turned back on him before responding. “You’re my right hand, Son, and you’ve found someone willing to do anything in her power to keep you safe. As I’ve said before what more could a father want? You have my blessing, of course.”

-----

You have my blessing, of course. The announcement kept playing itself over and over again in my head later that night as I lay in bed. I felt it like a vice squeezing down on my chest. 
Cale’s breathing was steady as I gathered my robe and left the room, and then the house, by way of the downstairs French doors. I made it out across the beach before I sank into the sand, tucking my knees into my chest, my head bowed with each sob. 
I knew now that my fate was sealed the day I went into business with Belarus. I started this stupid ‘investigation’ with the crazy idea that we’d take a few pictures and maybe turn in a couple local drug dealers and make the world a better place. The reality of it pulled me deeper and deeper into a bog of violence and now I was stuck. If I contacted the agents and request an evacuation, it would mean losing everyone and everything I loved, either through relocation or death.
I thought about Max and Cody, Joe and Barb, and all of my guys at work. If I left now, they would all suffer consequences as well. The company would collapse. The girls would be under suspicion and maybe have to relocate their own lives.
My only true option was to protect the people I loved by continuing to play my part, and by making sure to keep them as far away from it as possible. 
I jumped when I felt a hand on my shoulder. Fred knelt down beside me. 
“Are you okay?”
“No. But I will be. I’m sorry for waking you, Fred. I’ll come back inside.”
“I don’t mind. Stay a while.” He sat in silence as I dried my tears. 
“Is it supposed to terrify me after Victor gives us his blessing?” I whispered, watching the waves lap at the shoreline in the moonlight. “That seems a little backwards.”
“It’s a complicated family,” he acknowledged. 
“Fred, what happens now?” 
“Presenting a strong but discrete personality is the best thing you could have done. Now you continue to be smart and aggressive and you’ll be fine.”
“Until I’m not.”
He stood, placing a hand on my head. “You’ll be ok. You’re stronger than any of them. You just don’t know it yet.”

-----

The next morning, I let Max know that I’d be coming and Cale watched me pull a loose shirt over my jeans. Knowing that I was overreacting didn’t stop me from strapping a brand new nine millimeter Springfield XDM into my belly band and a subcompact into an ankle holster, along with a variety of small blades. 
“I hate that you feel like you need to do that,” he said quietly. “You should have never had to deal with that side of this life.”
I looked at him without masking the honest resignation on my face. “No, but we can’t rewind reality. I don’t ever want to feel helpless again and if I’m going to be a part of your life, I can’t be weak.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I know.”
“I love you, Alex.”
“I love you too.” I kissed him on my way out the door. 
Fred and I spoke of lighter things on the way across town, both wanting to put the unhappiness of the last few days to rest for a while. As we pulled up in front of Cash’s house, where Max and Cody had been staying, I turned to Fred. “I really want to spend some alone time with Max. If you w– ” I gasped and had to brace myself against the console as a deafening explosion blasted through the air. The house was swallowed in a bright ball of flames and a wall of fiery heat enveloped us, forcing me to turn my face away an instant before my brain caught up and kicked into high gear. 
“MAX!” I tried to open the door, but Fred grabbed at my hands and pulled the door shut again. 
“Alex— No!” he yelled, locking the vehicles doors. 
The trees and houses surrounding the blast started to burn as Fred put the car in gear and floored it. I screamed in horror. “Max — oh my God! Cody! They’re both in there — No, Fred, no! Go back!”
“There’s nothing we can do!” 
Fred called ahead for additional security, taking turns at high speeds, as my mind raced to cope with and understand what just happened. Who would do this? Why would they target someone outside the household? We pulled all the way into the armored garage under the beach house and shock made my legs numb as I woodenly walked upstairs. Cale came forward, immediately questioning Fred as we made our way through the kitchen.
I slipped out of the room and made my way upstairs to the office, pulling the door closed behind me. “Why?” I asked quietly, as Victor Belarus looked up from his paperwork. “I don’t understand. What was the point?”
He laid his hands on his desk and looked at me calmly. There was no remorse or denial in his face. “You wanted to be with Cale, so you must learn the rules. I’ve allowed my son to keep you close, because you have proven yourself loyal to him. However, we cannot afford to have liabilities so near to our family, my dear. We can’t let our circle grow larger than we can properly manage.”
I trembled almost uncontrollably and my vision wavered. Realizing that it was tears causing the temporary blindness, I blinked them out of the way. “I guess you should have killed me too then,” I snarled hoarsely. 
Stepping up to the desk, I pulled the XDM from my waistband and sent the devil back to hell before the thought fully formed in my mind. I felt one of the answering shots as it grazed my hip from the gun hidden underneath his desk, but it didn’t stop me as I watched my bullets rip through his body and out the back side of his chair, spraying blood and gore across his desk and the wall behind him. 
Fred burst through the door first, putting himself between me and the rest of the security team pouring into the office. “Alex, put down the gun!” he yelled, desperately. “Everyone else, hold fire. Alex — Gun, put it down!”
I did as he ordered, crumpling to the floor, my whole being wracked with sobs as Cale finally came through the door. “He killed them— Max, Cody — he killed them both! He didn’t have to. I never said anything. I would have never said anything,” I sobbed. 
Cale stood unmoving, looking from me to the ruined and bloody mess that now sat behind the desk. He seemed transfixed until one of the security guards came forward. “Sir, what would you like us to do with her?”
Shaking his head, Cale came forward, tucking his gun into the back of his waistband and gathering me into his arms. “Go back to your duties and keep your God damned mouths shut. Others will start testing us as soon as they find out the old man is gone. If I find out that any of you let it leak to the other companies, I’ll line you all up in a row and execute you myself. Fred, take a couple of men and deal with the funeral arrangements. Be discrete— and get the doctor up to my room as soon as possible.” 
He shook with emotion, holding me close as he headed out the door and carried me upstairs toward the bedroom. Even in my raging grief, I knew I needed to explain, maybe to even apologize, for killing the man who raised him. “Cale—”
“Shhhh,” he cut me off. “I understand. Everything will be ok, baby. It’s you and me now.”

EPILOGUE

Surveillance Headquarters, Jackson Campbell’s Office
Forty Three Minutes Later

“You’re not going to believe this.”
Jack looked up as a junior officer walked into his office and tossed a handful of grainy photos on his desk. 
“Intel just forwarded these. Your girl took out another Belarus.”
“The other brother?” Jack asked, surprised. 
“Nope. She was outside the house when it blew. Our source says she walked right into Victor’s office and emptied a full clip into his face. Here’s the really unbelievable part— she’s not dead.”
“God damn her! We’ve been working on that case for years!”
“Hey, he’s dead, she saved the tax payers some money, eh? You know what I want to know, though? Why didn’t they kill her on the spot?”
Banker sauntered up, leaning against the doorway as he joined the discussion. “For one, he loves and maybe even trusts her, which is something he never felt for Belarus. Secondly, he’s not stupid. A proven, loyal shooter, willing to go kamikaze for the people she loves? Who better to have as the queen of your castle, especially when you just inherited the throne and know you’re going to have powerful enemies trying to snatch it away?” 
The junior officer chuckled. “Looks like Christmas came a few weeks early this year. Maybe I’ll get to go home and spend time with my kids for once.”
“Maybe.” Banker was quiet as he moved to look out the window, not really seeing anything. 
Jack was the one who finally asked. “So, why isn’t she knocking on our door right now?”

-----


http://summerellisbooks.com/

Thank you for reading Under Construction. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. 
Remember to be look for book number two in the series, RESTRICTED ACCESS.



-----
About the author

Here's the thing - I kill people. Okay, not really. (I promise - no, really, I don't.) 

The story of 'me' is an exasperating one. 

I'm a book whore. I love to read, devour dozens of novels each month. (I won't lie - they're mostly smutty romance novels. Hi, my name is Summer and I'm an addict.)

I'm just like you, though - a regular person. I'm married, no children yet, and I live in a small town on the Gulf Coast of Texas. 

I had no reason to believe I could write novels. Credentials: zip. Experience: nada. If there were a job application and interview process for this, I'd be the secretary behind the desk, taking in resumes. 

One day something happened, though. I downloaded a free romance by a self-published author. Why not, right? If it sucked - well, it was free. 

It was like a light went on inside of me. The book was really decent; the author was a regular person - just like you and me - but she was an avid supporter of self-publishing. She opened the door for me, not that I'd write the next NY Times best-seller, but simply that I could write. It was something I'd always pictured some rumpled artist or educated trophy wife doing. 

I started out writing erotic fiction short stories, and somewhere along the way I found myself writing in more bullets than blow jobs. (Although, I still give a great blowey, if I do say so myself)

With enthusiasm to spare, and decent grammer-skills, I'm focusing on learning to write well. My pace could use some work, and my delivery is really crappy (sorry again for the delay!), but I'm writing. It's enough for now. The rest will come.

Thank you for your support. I love getting feedback and talking to people about my work (or theirs!) so feel free to follow, friend, tweet, email, or message me anytime...

http://summerellisbooks.com/

summerellisbooks@yahoo.com

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Thank you again for your support!