Page 34 of Submission

“Don’t let my dick fool you,” I tell her. “I’m not happy.”

“Aww, but you’re doing it for me.” She presses another kiss to my mouth. “The woman youlove, remember?”

“Oh, you heard when I said that, did you?” I smirk.

“Of course, I heard.”

“I wasn’t sure.”

“Well, you have to admit that I was a bit distracted. You were in between my legs doing what you do best.”

“That’s not all I do best.”

I lean into a second kiss, but she deftly slips out of my hold.

“What’s the name of the bar? I wonder if I can catch her before she leaves.”

“Megan!” I growl. “Get your little ass back here!”

But she just winks at me and rushes out the door, leaving me with a perpetual hard-on.

I let out a frustrated groan.

Megan heard me tell her that I loved her, but she craftily avoided giving me a response.

With all that’s going on, I’m starting to question why I’ve let this woman distract me from everything that’s supposed to matter to me.

I have feelings for her.

Deep feelings.

But this has got to stop.

I call Parker’s cell to let him know that Megan is on some sort of misguided mission to save Diana and to keep an eye on her while I catch up on some work. But after an hour of mindlessly shuffling files across my desk, I decide to get a change of scenery and walk the club floor. I’ve got a lot of things to think about.

My earlier meeting before Megan’s incident proved to be fruitless. While I did have to cut it short, the man showed me pictures of a few young women but none of them had been Lena. It had been easy to identify their lack of common characteristics with my sister. It was the small things: the shape of their noses,their eyes, their lips. It’s been years since I’ve seen her face, but I’d be able to spot it in a crowd of a million.

But I’m off my game.

Distracted.

And I’m starting to wonder if I’ve thrown myself into a wild goose chase of Jonathan’s making. The violent hit on me at my apartment is not how I thought he would come at me. It was well executed, and if it hadn’t been for Megan, I’d be dead. I don’t think that’s his style. If indeed he’s coming for me, I think he’d try to play with my head. Like a cat batting around a mouse before the kill.

Weeks have passed, and even with all the feelers I’ve thrown out, I’m coming up empty-handed. Vaughn’s information network runs deep, and I’m getting daily reports from his team, but it’s almost as if Johnathan doesn’t exist and my sister didn’t survive. I’m coming up short on leads for both of them, and it’s beyond frustrating.

What if Jonathan laid a trail of breadcrumbs that lead to nowhere? What if he used Steve to get into my head to distract me from whatever his real goal is? Perhaps he did hire the shooter to come to my apartment that night, but only to scare me, not kill me. What assassin shoots that many rounds and misses?

We actually tracked down the shooter a few days later, but he managed to kill himself before the interrogation (torture) could begin. On a street level, I have to respect someone who wanted to leave this earth on his own terms. However, the few clues he left behind are enough to tell me that the person behind this attempt on my life is a new player in my world who’s been hiding in the shadows.

I still don’t know yet if this new player and Jonathon are working together or whether both of them have their own individual goals to steal what’s mine. Whoever they are,ultimately, they are both rivals who must be eliminated. And the hope that has slowly begun to build up inside of me at possibly finding Lena alive must take a backseat. It would be a happy accident if I find her, but I can’t forget that my number one priority is staying alive and staying on top.

Everything else, even Megan, is secondary.

Speaking of Megan, I don’t see her on the club floor observing servers or by the bartender’s station yapping with Gage, so I assume she’s in her office. I find myself hoping that she didn’t catch up with Diana and has rethought her attempt at being a Good Samaritan.

Still contemplating everything I need to handle, I open the door to Megan’s office and see that she’s not alone.

Another young woman stands across from her with a cup of water in her hands as she inspects something on the desktop.

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