“Of course. Whatever I can do to help,” Sawyer replied, then added to Kenzie, “Do you want me to send you police protection to your house and store? It would take some explaining, but I’m sure I could swing it.”
Before Kenzie could answer, Porter interjected, “I’ll handle that.”
Her eyes widened with surprise but she stayed quiet. Of course she wouldn’t object now; she was scared and knew she wasn’t safe. He said to Chloe, “Make this your priority, all right? Assign our current cases to the other PIs in the office.”
Chloe closed her laptop. “Done and done.” She stood, glimpsing at Sawyer, and her cheeks colored in a deeper blush before she said to Kenzie, “Porter will keep you safe, and I’m the best clue finder there is; we’ll get something on this guy to get him out of your hair. Promise.”
“Thank you.” Kenzie smiled.
Sawyer rose and approached, squatting in front of Kenzie and taking her hand. “Next time, don’t wait so long to come forward with anything like this. I would hope that you would know you never have to face anything like this alone.”
Of course, he left out that the Club Sin Masters took the safety of their submissives seriously, in and out of the dungeon, and Porter understood Sawyer’s intention, but Kenzie simply replied, “It was complicated.”
Sawyer shook his head and frowned. “When it comes to your safety, it’s very uncomplicated. You’re either safe or you’re not. And when you’re not, you ask for help.”
Kenzie gave Sawyer a sweet smile. “Well, I’m not hoping for a next time, so I think we’re good. Thank you for helping me.”
Sawyer gave a final squeeze of her hand and rose, saying to Porter, “I’ll be in touch soon.” Then he followed Chloe out the front door.
Porter noted the hard expression that Sawyer gave him as he left. Concern, yes, that was there, but there was also annoyance set in his features. Irritation that came often from any Doms who dealt with Kenzie. She put herself at risk because she didn’t trust those around her. Porter understood why that frustrated some, but he was learning that perhaps he had more patience with Kenzie.
He dropped down onto the armrest next to her and sighed. “From here on out, you can’t disagree with me on your safety. No arguments, all right?”
“Okay.”
His brows rose. “Okay?”
“Yeah,
okay.
” Her voice became quiet and small. “You’re good at what you do. I’m just a bookshop owner. Whatever you think is best, I’ll do that.” She hesitated, obviously considering, then added, “You seem hopeful, and I haven’t been hopeful about much in a long time. So I’m going with that—hopeful is better than a wicked hangover any day.”
Porter had to admit her answer surprised him. Yes, he expected her to be more willing than normal since she was in danger, but for her to agree that easily stunned him. He gathered her in his arms and held her tight. “That’s another thing”—she sank into his hold—“no more drinking until this is over. Not even a glass of wine.”
She snorted. “Now you’re just being mean.”
Inhaling her spicy scent and holding her tight in his arms, he rested his mouth by her ear. “You scared me last night, kitten. Don’t ever do that again.”
The next morning, Kenzie exhaled a long breath as Porter pulled his car into the parking lot at the back of her store, sliding into the space beside her car. Relief filled her that her bookshop was still standing and that Adrik hadn’t done anything drastic yet. She grabbed her purse from the car’s floor and exited, passing by the garbage Dumpster on the way to the door.
No matter the hell she currently lived in, she felt better than she had in days. Last night she had slept, and slept well, even though Porter had given up his bed and stayed in the spare bedroom. But just knowing he was there in the house brought comfort. She also figured Porter had access to a gun—after all, he was a PI—and was insanely confident that he could protect her.
Once Porter joined her at the back of his muscle car—which he happened to look incredibly sexy driving—he opened his trunk. She spotted not only a laptop bag, but an overnight bag that she hadn’t noticed before they’d left. “What is that for?” she asked.
“Didn’t I tell you? We’re becoming roommates until this shit is over.” He grabbed his bags and then shut the trunk. “I’m guessing you’ll be more comfortable at your place than mine.”
She gawked at him. Not that she didn’t appreciate the gesture—of course she did—but she didn’t have a spare room. The reading room didn’t have a bed¸ only a comfortable chair. And she doubted he’d fit on her small couch in the living room. “Don’t you think it’s proper to ask me first?”
“Nope.” He headed for the back door of her store. “If I asked you, you would say no and become all difficult about it, so I’m avoiding that conversation. This is happening.” He glanced over his shoulder with a smart-ass grin. “Deal with it.”
She stared after him as he moved with his easy gait, but then she realized she was standing in public wearing nothing but Porter’s oversized T-shirt. Grumbling to herself¸ she approached him, grabbing her keys out of her purse and then opening the door. He followed her up the stairs, and when they entered her house, he scanned the surroundings swiftly, clearly searching for a threat. He finally smiled at her. “Cute place.”
“Thanks.” She shut the door behind him. “Let me grab a quick shower. I have to hurry my ass downstairs. Store opens in ten minutes.”
He placed his bag down by the couch and took a seat, as if he belonged right there. To her surprise, it didn’t feel uncomfortable having Porter in her house, but maybe that was because he was pretty much comfortable wherever he went. As he always did, he seemed to own the space around him.
Leaving
that
thought behind, she hurried into the bathroom. The bad news was that it had taken twenty minutes before she finished, dressed in jeans and a pink blouse, with her hair in a messy bun. She reentered the living room, noticing that Porter had left her apartment. Confused, she rushed downstairs and found him in the bookstore. The good news, she’d discovered that he had opened the store on time, and a customer was browsing the sci-fi section.
Porter sat on one of the oversized chairs in the corner of the bookstore. The Vegas sun accentuated the blond highlights in his sandy-colored hair, and she couldn’t help but watch him work. He never acknowledged her as he typed on the laptop resting on his thighs, staying entirely focused on whatever he was doing. Kenzie moved to the register and booted up the computer, getting it ready for the day’s transactions.
She took quick peeks at him, noticing his intensity, with his brows drawn together. Kenzie mused to herself that his working expression was a lot like his Dom expression, and she shivered, biting back a moan. That’s when Porter focused on her, his look reflecting a man who knew his presence was affecting the woman near him.
Hell,
this was going to be a long couple of days.
Perhaps she didn’t realize how much Porter affected her. Maybe she thought it was only in Club Sin that it would happen. Now her body buzzed with longing for those wicked and sensual touches he had mastered. Warmth burned between her thighs as she strode around the register, moving a bit closer to him, drawn by something so electric. “Thanks for opening the store on time,” she said.
He smiled in his charming way. “You’re quite welcome, kitten.”
God,
this guy confused her. He didn’t have to be here with her, she knew that. Their arrangement never called for that. Maybe, with all this hanging over her, she needed answers. And needed them now. “Why are you doing this for me?”
His reply was instant: “Because you need me to.”
No, that answer wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t personal enough. “Because we’re friends?”
Porter regarded her, then placed his laptop on the table next to him and rose. The heat of his body wrapped around her in the most delicious spell. His masculine aroma tickled her in all the right places. One brow arched in a seductive curve. “I think we can stop pretending that you don’t know why I’m here, don’t you?”
She wasn’t pretending. “As my Dom, it’s your job to keep me safe.”
“Of course there is that.” He brushed his fingers over her cheek, bringing forth a sizzle within her. “I’m here because I want to be. I’m here because
I
want to make sure
you
are safe. It’s that simple.”
Though this wasn’t simple at all, it was entirely confusing. More and more, she sensed herself wanting to allow things to go somewhere deeper with Porter. Yet even as he said this now, his actions showed otherwise. If he cared for her in a romantic way, why wasn’t he grabbing her and kissing her? Why wasn’t he having sex with her out of affection, not out of a way to ease her strain or make her submit? His behavior was that of a Dom, not a lover. Not once had he asked her a personal question to get to know her better. More important, he had yet to ask her out on a date. That’s what lovers did.
As much as she wanted to believe him—and, oh, did she ever—Porter was dangerous to her. There would be a time when this between them would be over, with her store intact, she hoped, and then what would happen?
The barrier between them was there to protect her. She couldn’t possibly be hurt again—she simply didn’t want to deal with that type of pain again. Three times she’d felt her heart break, once with Joslyn, once with her mother, and again when Gran passed away. She’d had enough heartbreak to last a lifetime.
Avoidance worked for her. Some might not understand that, but they also had never gone through what Kenzie had. She didn’t want to be broken. Nor did she want to return to that sad place in life where she had lived for so long. She stepped away from his touch. “Well, thank you for being here. I appreciate it.”
“You don’t need to thank me.” His eyes narrowed at her retreat. “Keeping you safe is a priority.”
Her body sagged against the proof she needed to remind her that he still had his Master status on his mind. Sure, he was weaving a spell of trust around her, but it wasn’t for the right reasons. He wanted her submission not to love and hold, but to prove a point that he was a skilled enough Dom to get it.
Apparently, he was.
Two hours had passed since Kenzie’s bookshop had opened, and it surprised Porter how busy the store had been. He thought a little shop like hers would have slow sales, but Kenzie knew most of the customers by name. They’d greet her and chat for a while over the newest book they were picking up or about things going on in their lives. Porter figured that’s why the store did well. Kenzie provided personal touches that larger companies didn’t.
Throughout the morning, he thought she was incredibly sweet with her customers, showing him another side of herself. She was a great friend to the Club Sin submissives and she was well liked, but this gentler side of her was different.
He liked her this way, not dressed up in sexy clothing, but with little makeup and dressed down in jeans, with a blouse showing off slight cleavage. It also surprised him how much Kenzie read. Her love of books was part of who she was. Whenever the store would go quiet, she’d sit with a book at the register and read. This side of her warmed him. In fact, he had never seen her appear so peaceful.
It reminded him of when she showed her submission, and he realized now this was the look of Kenzie when she was content. He wanted to see more of that state of mind; he just didn’t know how to make it happen. Though as the frustration built like a heavy rock in his stomach, he also reminded himself that Kenzie was slowly showing signs of trusting him, even if they were small signs.
His phone ringing snapped him into the present, and he noticed that Kenzie was watching him over the top of her book with her brows raised. Apparently, he’d been staring blankly at her. He smiled before he reached for his phone, seeing on the screen it was Chloe. “Porter,” he said into the phone.
“Hey, it’s me,” Chloe replied in her soft voice. “So, I’ve been researching this shithead all morning. You?”
“Yeah, me, too.” And what he found he didn’t like. A hardened criminal was an understatement when it came to Adrik Petrov.
“This guy is all types of bad news,” Chloe said, confirming what Porter had already discovered. “I just got off the phone with Sawyer and he gave me details on Adrik’s criminal record, which has everything from assault to gun offenses to drug offenses, and the list goes on and on. The worst part, he has never served a single day in jail.”
“That’s odd.”
“Right? I’m thinking that he must have deep ties in some crime family that allows him to get off with all but a smack on the hand.”
“Bad news for us,” Porter said, keeping his head down so that Kenzie wouldn’t hear that. The last thing he needed was for her to worry more than she already was. Last night when she’d slept in his bed he had checked on her a couple times and noticed her tossing and turning in her sleep. She was restless, and that bothered him much more than he thought it should. “There has to be something that we can use against him.” Everyone had secrets, but criminals had secrets that could ruin them. Porter just needed to find Adrik’s. “Keep looking at anything that we could possibly use as leverage, so that he will leave this corner of the block untouched.”
Porter believed Adrik was simply a power-hungry fucker. Perhaps when Kenzie said no to him she had created a game. It was easy enough to leave the one small building on the corner and build the casino next to it.
Christ,
all Porter wanted to do was keep her safe and away from that trash.
“I’ll give Sawyer a call and see what else he can do,” he said to Chloe, lifting his head as a customer entered the store. Porter’s gaze went directly to Kenzie and he noticed her tense up before she exhaled a slow breath. Frustration rippled through him; he didn’t like her being this scared. As each customer came into the store, she’d tense up until she recognized the customer. He rubbed his eyes, sensing a headache looming. “Keep digging on your end.”
“On it” was all Chloe said before she hung up.
Porter ended the call and immediately dialed Sawyer’s personal cell phone. He answered on the third ring, and Porter said, “It’s Porter. I need you to do me a favor, if it’s not stepping over too many boundaries.”
“Name it,” Sawyer responded.
Porter ran a hand over the back of his neck, feeling both the strain of all this and also the eagerness of the job. He loved hunting for clues, but he wished it didn’t involve Kenzie. “Chloe called and told me about Adrik’s criminal record. Can you look into those case files and see if there were any witnesses? I’m thinking that’s our best lead. We need to develop a case that is solid enough that if we took it to the police it would stick. He needs to feel as if we’ve backed him into a corner.”
“I agree that a witness may be able to help here,” Sawyer said, his voice tight. “Even after all the documents I’ve looked through, this guy has some important friends. It seems that any of the witnesses clam up before trial. But I can certainly dig a little deeper and see if there is anything else or something I missed.”
“People will always talk if they think the situation is safe enough, too.” Porter had seen it time and time again. Sometimes police were held by thick red tape, but Porter wasn’t, and more often than not, that freedom helped him get what he needed so he could close a case.
“I’ll do what I can,” Sawyer replied. “We can’t use anything in these reports to arrest him, since this isn’t an official case. If it ever gets to that point, I’ll have to send it to the special investigations department and they’ll have to open an active case.”
Porter understood well enough. Sawyer was part of the SWAT team. He had no reason to be investigating this case. They couldn’t do this the traditional legal way, mainly because Adrik had seemed to often fall through the cracks. Apparently, he had paid off too many people, and Porter suspected he had judges and possibly others on his payroll.
His focus wasn’t on those dirty judges, or maybe even dirty police, or on the witnesses who had refused to own up to their statements to put a criminal behind bars. He only concentrated on the pretty woman sitting at the register, looking so beautiful with the sun beaming across her face. “Understood. Just do what you can.”
“Of course.” Then the phone line went dead.
Porter placed his phone back on the end table and Kenzie lowered her book to her lap, obviously sensing his perusal. She studied him before she left her seat, and a few minutes later returned with a coffee in her hand. “You look like you need this.”
He accepted the mug with a smile. Reading him well, was she? “Thanks, I do.” No matter the frustration rolling through him, he rather enjoyed that she thought of his comfort. She hadn’t asked what he’d said on the phone or if they’d found out new developments, she only focused on him.
We’re getting somewhere…
Without another word, she returned to her stool behind the register and picked up her book. It might be a small step forward, but it was certainly a step in the right direction. That, as it seemed, was a bright light in this dark day.
He took a sip of his coffee, and the sweet taste of sugar made him smile. “Kitten?”
She lowered her book from her face. “Yeah?”