Page 22 of Worth the Risk

Dan helped with background checks and security clearances for the club when Jonas and Sean got backlogged. Neither man had exaggerated when they said there wasn’t much. It was the thinnest he’d seen.

“She listed an address, but there’s nothing showing it’s a motel rather than a private residence. And get this, all her past employers have gone out of business.”

“Huh,” he grunted in surprise. “That’s unusual, but possible, I suppose. Any priors?”

The glare Sean shot his way would have singed a lesser man. “I wouldn’t have hired her if she had any.”

“What else do you have?”

“Nothing,” he replied, as he held up two mostly blank sheets of paper. “No traffic violations. No bounced checks. In fact, no bank account at all.”

“That didn’t raise a red flag?”

“Paying in cash isn’t a crime, and there wasn’t anything here to prevent me from hiring her. Unlike our paying members, a down-on-her-luck waitress isn’t likely to have an investment portfolio or foreign bank accounts.”

The deep breath Dan took must have broadcast his frustration.

“Use your dom super powers to get her to spill her guts,” Mara suggested.

Both men looked at her.

“What? You’re not going to both stand there and tell me you don’t have them.”

“I’m not her dom, Mara,” Dan reminded her.

“It doesn’t matter. Cap folded his arms and arched his dom eyebrow, and I spilled my guts to him and Sean.”

“You didn’t know I was there, nightingale,” her husband said softly, moving to her side.

She turned and raised a hand to his cheek, love for him shining bright in her eyes. “No, but that was the turning point. Besides, you have other powers of persuasion over me.”

When Sean pressed a kiss into her palm, his love for her palpable, Dan couldn’t have felt more intrusive if he’d walked in on them in the middle of sex. He turned to leave.

“She isn’t wrong, bud,” his friend called, stopping him. “You’ve been at this game for a while. You know how to get a submissive to comply.”

“That’s just it, remember? She says she isn’t a sub.”

Silence filled the office for the span of a heartbeat then they all burst into laughter.

“Poor girl,” Mara said, smiling. “With Master D’s superpowers engaged, she won’t know what hit her.”

“I have faith in you, man,” Sean affirmed, also grinning. “But if you still think something’s up, we can have Jonas dig deeper.”

“He’s on it.”

“Yeah? For how long?”

“Three days.”

Sean frowned, and Dan knew what he was thinking. Jonas was good. If that much time had passed without a word from him, a deep dive might not uncover anything, either.

Dan left with more suspicions than he’d arrived with about mysterious, beautiful Bella who seemed to have materialized in his town, his club, and into his life with no credit history, no work references, no bank accounts, and no past. But everyone had one, and he was determined to unearth hers.

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