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He looks at the ceiling and puts his hands on his head, tipping his chair onto its back legs. Finally, he blows out his breath and looks back to me. “We’re starting a BDSM Club. I want you to join me as my submissive.”
Chapter two
Chapter 1
Present Day
Owen
“Iunderstandthatwewere best friends, but I’m struggling to be comfortable letting Bryce back into the inner circle.”
I lean my chair back on two legs and listen to Matteo Bennett lay out the options for what to do with Bryce Cameron, as I roll an unlit cigar between my fingers. The cigar bar one of our members opened next door to the High Card has become a popular meeting space for the owners of the exclusive BDSM club. The past few months have been chaotic to say the least, and I hate not being able to control the chaos.
Bryce Cameron was one of our more valuable assets because of his knowledge of the Russian gangs who ran this town before we moved in and saw to it that they were dismantled.
He’s also Skylar Cameron’s older brother, and Skyler is Matteo’s girlfriend and submissive. The two had a falling out when Bryce found out he was sleeping with his sister. But they patched things up a bit, and Skylar is still deciding how much of a relationship she wants with the brother who stood by and watched their father beat her.
Like I said, chaos I can’t control. So many emotions and relationships are involved, that any choice we make could cause issues.
“I think you’re the one who has to make this decision, Matteo,” Luke Bowden says. “He was your best friend, and he’s Skylar’s brother. If those relationships are too damaged to trust his work for us, then I believe you and I support not letting him back into the fold. We sent him out of state to make a decision. The time to make that decision is now.”
Victor shows his support of Luke’s statement with a grunt and raises his glass to the Irish mobster.
“I think it’s important to think about what he knows and make sure that he’s not going to use it against us. Otherwise, I’m in agreement,” I offer.
We move on from Bryce, and I give the group a rundown of everything I know about the financial trail I’ve been following since we discovered that a relative of the Russian gang we replaced in Las Vegas might be after revenge.
“Anya Agron, aka Renda St. Claire, was not working alone on her attempt at revenge. We can’t discount a contact we’ve made in Las Vegas being behind all of this. Look at Senator Pratchett.”
Pratchett recently used Zara Blair—now Luke’s wife—to try and take us out. It didn’t work, and Pratchett ended up dead in a seedy motel room.
Our meeting finally breaks, and I glance at my phone. The name on the screen makes me scowl. Tobias-fucking-Hunt has been texting me a lot the last few months. He has no idea I’m in love with his fiancée. And I don’t know how to tell him. We used to be the best of friends, but when the marriage contract between Bellamy and Tobias was signed by their parents all those years ago, things changed. Tobias fell in line with his family’s wishes. Despite the fact that his older brother Gabriel will be the head of the family when their father dies, Tobias seems to still have a sense of duty to take his place in family leadership. I have no such loyalty, no matter how much I love my family. And Bellamy is a woman, so she doesn’t have the weight of becoming family leader on her shoulders. No, she just has to marry whichever man her father decides is most beneficial.
It should have thrilled me that Bellamy was marrying someone safe, but as soon as I heard, I was furious. Then college happened, and Bellamy became mine. For now. I know from family meetings that Tobias is spending less time on his business in California—a mystery to me, and more time on the family business in London. A sure sign that he’ll be ready to marry soon. He’ll be coming to take Bellamy away from me any day now, and it’s going to hurt like hell. Because Bellamy is too fucking honorable not to go through with the contract. She tried for our first couple of years in Las Vegas to talk her father out of it, but it proved useless, and she resigned herself to someday following through.
I shouldn’t have taken our relationship as deep as I have. It’s dangerous and could cause a major rift in our families. Our three organizations work closely together with a hand in much of the organized crime in London and on the U.S. East Coast. And as much as I’m happy to have started my own thing in the states, I know that we have to be careful. The last thing I want to do is bring harm to her family or mine.
I step into the dungeon at the High Card and look for Bellamy. A half hour into my meeting tonight, I sent her a text telling her to take a break, and I expect her to be waiting for me somewhere near the bar. She works hard at the club, and tonight we’re taking time to enjoy each other.
I spot her sipping a cocktail, and a glass of scotch sits at the second place on the small table.
I take my time crossing the room. Bellamy is fun to watch. Her eyes dart around the room, taking in the visual that is everyone enjoying the play space we’ve created here. Her lips part and her tongue darts out to wet them as she sets the cocktail glass down, and her eyes lock onto a specific couple playing on a spanking bench. She twists the silver charm bracelet she wears as a sign of her commitment to me and to this club. I still remember the day I slipped it on her wrist. I never dreamed it would last for as long as it has. Now, I can’t imagine her taking it off to marry another man.
Before I reach her, a familiar face stops at her table, and I pick up my pace.
“Bryce,” I say, offering my hand when I reach them.
“Owen, my man. Good to see you again.” He gives me a hardy shake and flashes a grin.
I don’t smile until I glance at Bellamy.
“Does your sister know you’re here?”
Bryce isn’t as openly kinky as the rest of us, and before Skylar came back into town, he only came to the club to socialize, so he’s largely agreed to stay away for his sister’s sake.
“I’m just here to talk to Matteo. I’ve been feeling iced out lately.”
Saying anything about how he’s to blame would just make things worse, so I give him a curt nod. “He should be back any minute. If you’ll excuse us, I have plans with Bellamy.”
