Page 84 of Bling

Garrett smirked and Isabelle turned to him. “What’s that look for?”

He chuckled. “Russell’s company is who I employ for all my private security, Doll.”

She giggled. “Of course it is. Well, thank you for keeping me safe,” she said, winking at the camera.

Garrett’s phone buzzed and he glanced down at his screen. “Looks like Jax is about to get signed on.”

When Jax popped up on the screen, everyone murmured greetings.

“What do you have, Jax?” Garrett asked.

“Evening, all,” he said. “I’m assuming you’re OK with me spilling everything to everyone?”

Garrett nodded. “Go ahead.”

“OK. First, we’re digging through a stack of phone records a mile high from Darren Gunn, trying to pinpoint who he’s working with. That’s just based on the information you gave me a little bit ago. We haven’t gotten far, but I do see a few phone calls to Carmen Alvarado weeks after she was terminated. Seems odd to me that he would contact someone who had supposedly stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars from him.”

Isabelle sucked in a breath. That didn’t make sense. Why would Carmen communicate with the person who fired her?

“Second, is Maddox Oliver.”

Isabelle turned and stared at Garrett. “Your brother?” she murmured.

He nodded and turned to the others on screen. “The story is long and not one I really want to rehash but let’s just say we’ve never gotten along. A decade or so ago some things exacerbated the strain on our already tenuous relationship. Ultimately, I wouldn’t put anything past him, but he’s also stayed out of the public eye for the last several years so I’m confused as to why he would be coming after me now.”

“I’ll do some digging on my end,” Lance said. “See if I can connect your brother to either the phone call to Isabelle or the email we got. Not to mention the blog post.”

“What makes you think this brother is involved?” Hunter asked.

Garrett ran a hand through his hair. “That’s a tricky thing and it’s just a hunch for now. One, we found some evidence that he is connected to a company that swiped a contract out from under me. A contract I’ve had since I bought the Colorado facility a couple of years ago. Second, he’s started using the Oliver name again. Part of our falling out included him changing his name and disappearing, but he always vowed to get even. I’ll know more when Jax and Lance finish their digging.”

“I trust Jax and Lance to handle the investigation side of things,” Eli said. “What we have to do now is come up with a response from Solitaire. Holly will wind up being the expert on this, but she’s swamped with meetings in California, so I’ll fill her in later.”

The group spent the next twenty minutes bandying about ideas for a statement to release to members, and in the end, Eli had an extensive list of ideas to take to his wife.

Garrett asked Isabelle to wait for him in the other room while he talked privately with Jax after the meeting ended.

She really just wanted all of this to be over. Her dinner hour with Garrett was supposed to be a sexy fun goodbye before he left town. Instead, it had turned into a stressful meeting about whether or not she was going to be outed as a member of a BDSM club.

While he was finishing his conversation, Isabelle did her best to bring herself back to a calm state with some deep breathing. There was no reason they couldn’t salvage their goodbye.

• • •

When Garrett finished his conversation with Jax, he went looking for Isabelle in the bedroom. She was waiting for him and took him by surprise by dropping to her knees to unbuckle his belt.

“I was feeling bad about not being able to join you in Pennsylvania,” she said, her voice breathy. “I thought I could make it up to you.”

“You haven’t disappointed me at all, Isabelle.” He sucked in a breath as she worked his pants and underwear down his hips enough to free his cock.

“That said,” he continued, tangling his fingers in her hair. “I do like the sounds of you making it up to me.”

He let himself lean against the wall while she raised up on her knees enough to wrap her lips around the swollen tip of his erection, just barely pulling it into her mouth. She stared up at him as her lips traveled further along his shaft.

Slowly, she eased her way down until he felt himself touch the back of her throat. He fisted her hair in his hand as she sucked him deeper, opening her throat for him. Fuck, she was good at this.

She pulled back, still keeping him between her lips, then plunged forward again. After several long slow pulls in and out, she increased her speed and found a rhythm that had him gripping her hair even tighter and bracing his arm against the small table he stood next to.

“Christ, Isabelle,” he muttered as she sucked him even further down her throat.

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