Page 5 of The Reluctant Siren
She wasn’t a gorgeous woman with a sunny smile and asarcastic wit that could flay a man alive. He would bet Lila had never watcheda man’s back while he snuck into a drug dealer’s office to gather evidence onhim.
He had a very specific type.
“I also think it’s a bad idea to fuck around with employeesI’m supposed to manage,” he pointed out.
Phil sighed and ran a hand over his balding head. “You’reprobably right about that. It causes a lot of drama, and we don’t need thatnow. How is it going?”
He managed to get hired on as the dungeon monitor for thisunderground BDSM club because of his close ties to other groups Phil workedfor. When his old job had been decimated by…well, by him, but he’d done a damngood job covering his tracks…all the higher-ups getting murdered or going tojail, he offered his services here. He had an excellently faked criminal recordgoing back to time spent in juvie. No one knew him as Jensen Wiley. They knew acriminal named Jay Wilson from Los Angeles, California.
The trouble was the bad guys figured out he had a weak spot,so he’d been forced to prove she wasn’t.
“Quiet night,” he reported back. “I haven’t even had to kickanyone out for going too hard.”
What you have to remember is that the submissive isactually in control. She only gives the Dom what she’s comfortable with. It’sthe Dom’s job to figure out if that’s all she needs or if they should push somelimits. Consensually, of course.
Just the thought of her with her husky voice and absolutelyno hangups when it came to sex could get him hard. He’d learned so much fromher. So much about the lifestyle. So much about life and what he wanted fromit.
He needed to remember why he was here. To avenge Tommy. Toprotect Harlow.
His revenge seemed so much less important than protectingHarlow.
Once Cliff Hamilton was dead, there would be no one left whocould come after her. No one left to care that he loved her more than his owndamn life.
Loved her so much he’d been willing to give her up to saveher.
“Good, because you need to know something.” Phil moved in,putting a hand on the wall behind Jensen. The leathers were all for show. He’dnever seen Phil once play with any of the subs who came through the club evenif he would give them all once overs. Decadence was a front for Hamilton’scriminal operation, but it was a working club. Mostly tourists, from what hecould tell. Which is why he had to break things up. Phil also didn’t have thesuper-sane rules good clubs had.
Two drinks max when you’re playing. Usually one beforeand one after. Or if you’re my friend Seth, it’s one before and then a shit tonafter, but he’s not playing at that point. After hours, The Hideout pretty muchbecomes a bar and we all sit around gossiping and Seth plays some songs and oneof the twins tells some insane story no one quite believes. It’s my favoriteplace.
He had never gotten to see her home club, hadn’t gotten tomeet her friends and sit in that bar with her cuddled up on his lap. Theirentire time together had been adrenaline and anxiety, and yet he’d known hecould find peace with that woman.
Would find peace with her one day soon.
“What’s up?” Jensen asked, certain he sounded like he didn’tcare. He’d perfected the look, the tone, the dead-eyed stare that let peopleknow he had no soul.
He feared he might have given up his soul in revenge for hisbrother, but he knew it wasn’t gone. His soul was simply walking around with awoman named Harlow.
“Hamilton is coming through town next week,” Phil said,leaning against the wall. “I want you to check in with the guys in the office.Make sure everything is tight, you know. They’re smart kids who run that partof the business, but they don’t know how the world works. At least not ours.Sometimes I’m sure those fucking kids are going to get us all killed.”
The kids who wrote the code that looked to the world like agig app. The kind where someone else picked up your orders for a fee. And itran that way, for the most part. But if you knew the code, it was an excellentway to order drugs and get them dropped off right at your doorstep. To the copsit would look like late-night tacos or someone picking up your kid’s meds fromthe pharmacy for you. It was the perfect cover.
Hamilton found the coders on the Dark Web, outsiders lookingfor a place to fit in. They probably hadn’t intended to become criminals, butsoon they were in far too deep to ever get out again.
Most of the employees had no idea what was going on. Likehis brother hadn’t. His little brother had thought he was making some extramoney so he could try to pay off the student loans that seemed to never fuckingget smaller no matter how much he paid. He’d been desperate, and criminals tookadvantage of it.
And then one day they gave him a “special” delivery.
Jensen brought his attention back front and center. He hadto focus on the now and not the ghosts that haunted him. Even though he wasdoing it all for them. The two people in the whole world he ever loved.
Well, three. Three. There was one more, and he counted onthat man for everything right now. His other brother. The one he hadn’t shareda mother with. The one who had been there for everything, and now he trustedhim with his greatest love.
“Yeah, I’ll make sure security is tight down here,” hepromised.
Phil sighed, an audible sound even over the pulsating music.“I need you to take care of upstairs, too. I know it’s a lot to ask but I’m ina bind, and I don’t trust anyone else.”
Jensen managed to not drop his jaw. He was moving upstairs?He thought he would have to wait months, maybe years for this kind of chance.“What happened to Austin?”
Phil grimaced. “He has been…reassigned.”
