“Cherry Winters is no lady. She’s nothing but trouble, and if you know what’s good for you and your club, you’ll keep an eye on her.”
Roman never lost his grin. “Speaking of trouble, I just got a call from Ren. Seems three new Littles are here tonight as initiates and marked everything on the preferences section of their application. Ren’s pretty sure they don’t know what the hell they’re doing, but they all picked green wristbands. Keep an eye out for them so they don’t unintentionally cause a riot.”
Great. Just what he needed tonight was three Littles running wild in the club. What the fuck had Ren been thinking? “They marked everything as yes? Everything?” Roman nodded. “Well, that’s just great. And they all came in by themselves, without Daddies?”
“That’s right.”
Unbelievable. “Fuck. I’ll take a look around and see if I can spot them.”
Tanner held up a hand and pointed at a man approaching the bar. “Look who else is here.”
Seven Midnight pushed the barstool aside and stood by Tanner. Tanner lifted his glass in greeting. “What brings you out tonight, Seven?”
Seven Midnight was a personal friend of the Daniels family. He’d helped them through a couple of problems in the past few years. He’d recently bought a sizeable piece of land near Wild River Ranch,including the property that The Red Barn occupied. He’d stepped in as Roman’s silent partner.
Tanner and Boone were still trying to track down what that might mean, since Seven was head of the Seattle Cosa Nostra.
Seven signaled the bartender for a drink before answering Tanner’s question. “I’m here to oversee the installation of the new security system. I think you know about it.”
Of course Tanner knew since Wild River Security had designed it. Tanner nodded. “How’s it going?”
“Good. System should be fully operational by next weekend. Thanks to Griff, we’ll have cameras in every corner, upgraded keycard access, and the new panic buttons are discreet as hell.”
Tanner whistled. “Sounds like he did you up right.”
Roman tapped the bar for another round of drinks. “I, for one, can’t wait. The last thing this place needs is another incident like the one with that asshole from Peirson’s Cross last month.”
Tanner nodded, trying to focus. His eye had wandered over to the spanking benches where a naughty Little was getting her ass blistered.
He couldn’t help picturing Junie strapped to that bench, her pretty ass up and waiting for him. Or better yet, the bench in the playroom attached to his suite back at the ranch.
He could almost see her. Her wrists bound, her thighs trembling, that soft, needy little whimper she made when he dragged his hand over her skin before lighting her up. Fuck, he wanted her here. Wanted her on her knees for him. Wanted her calling him Daddy while he reminded her exactly who she belonged to.
He was so caught up in the vision that he didn’t notice Roman had stopped talking. Instead, his friend was staring hard at something over to the right of the spanking bench, jaw tight.
That’s when a woman’s angry voice cut through the low thrum of the club.
“I said no!”
Roman’s eyes narrowed. He shook his head and sighed. “Well, that took even less time than I expected. If you’ll excuse me?—”
Tanner put a hand on his friend’s chest, already pushing off the bar. “I’ll take care of it. I must be losing my mind sitting here because that girl’s voice sounds a lot like Junie.”
Roman’s face took on a knowing expression, and he laughed. “Wouldn’t that be funny?”
“Fuck no,” Tanner said, “I’d better check it out. I’d put money on it being one of those new initiates.”
Tanner loved being back in Wilder, but he missed the adrenaline rush he got riding the rodeo circuit. Still, a good fight, when the situation warranted it, came close enough. That was always a possibility when someone couldn’t takenofor an answer.
Whatever the problem was, as dungeon monitor tonight, it was his job to fix it.
“I’ll tag along. Just in case,” Roman said. “Seven, you might find this interesting, too. We can watch the master in action.”
When they reached the large man, who’d begun shouting at his play partner, he understood Roman’s concern. The guy was obviously a tourist with some serious anger issues. No way should he have even made it past the front door.
Someone Tanner couldn’t quite see yet was getting the brunt of the man’s abuse, and from the angle of the man’s chin, it was clearly a woman.
Tanner’s protective instincts surged hard. “Problem here?” he asked, voice low and edged with warning.
