CAPTOR (The Alpha Brotherhood) (Standalone Dark Billionaire New Adult Romance) (8 page)

Shane

“So her wrist is alright?” I ask the doctor sitting across from my desk.

“No, it’s not,” he replies.

“If you’d like to retain your position, you can stop glaring at me.”

“Honestly, Mr. Goodson, after the last few days, I’m not sure that I do.”

That I wasn’t expecting. We pay him nearly a million dollars a year to have him on site and on call for our employees. “Are you sure about that?”

“I am not a mob doctor,” he says. “One of my best nurses quit over this.”

“Why on earth would she do something like that?”

“Because you called us in to treat a drugged, unconscious, naked girl and then again less than 36 hours later to see if she’d broken her wrist.”

“I told you that it was a delicate situation.”

“There were bruises on both of Zoey’s wrists, not just the injured one,” he reminds me. I can hardly bear to look at them. “Bruises that weren’t there the first time we saw her.”

I don’t need to explain myself to him, but Adam will have a conniption if we have to find a new physician over this. “When she came to, she became erratic and I had to restrain her.” It’s halfway true anyway. “She has a medical history of mental health issues, correct?”

“Not as far as I’m aware. And if she is that easily destabilized, Zoey should be placed under actual psychiatric care. I’ve never seen bruises like that on someone properly restrained.”

“I’ve made arrangements to bring her a private nurse and psychiatrist,” I lie. “She’s much calmer now.”

“No, she’s too terrified to say a single word about what you did to her,” he confronts me boldly.

I rise to my feet and open my office door. If I don’t get this man out of my sight, I’ll throttle him. “I called you in to look at her wrist and you said that it was fine.”

“It most certainly is not.” The doctor pushes away from my desk and gathers his paperwork. I almost demand that he leaves it, but I won’t risk further alienating him. “Her original injury must have gone untreated. The ulna is twisted, limiting her range of motion.”

“Fuck,” I curse under my breath. “Is there anything that could be done now to repair it?”

“Yes. A specialist could most likely reset the bone.”

“They’d have to break it again though, yes?”

“Right.”

“Well, Zoey is in no condition to endure a procedure like that.”

“Agreed.” He nods, then looks at me suspiciously for a moment before leaving.

Pouring a drink of scotch from the bar, I take my seat and pull up my schedule. Another fucking meeting in less than an hour. A rather important one too, and I’ve already had it rescheduled twice.

I’d push it back again and go home if I could stand to look her in the eyes after what I did. Zoey is a mere twenty stories above me at this very moment, but she may as well be across an ocean. There are cameras all over my place, including her room, so I decide to turn them on. She’s just lying in bed reading one of the books I got for her with a brace on the wrist I nearly snapped.

It’s time to admit it to myself. I have no idea how to handle this. No, I have no idea how to handle her. Perhaps once I get more information on her past, hell, on her present, but I doubt it.

I pick up the receiver and call Maddox. “Please don’t tell me that you are cancelling on Mr. Osaki, Shane. This is very—”

“I’ll be there,” I cut him off. “Have those investigators brought in the files yet?”

“If they had, you’d already have them.”

“I don’t want any electronic copies.”

“We’re all aware of how paranoid you are,” he chuckles.

“Watch it,” I snap. I like the kid, more than I thought I would. That doesn’t mean I’ll allow him to forget who is in charge, especially around our employees. “Have one of the assistants get me a copy of Zoey’s medical records. Claudia, preferably.”

“Definitely. She’s the only one that knows about your…” he trails off, remembering his place in the pecking order. “Anything else?”

“Yes. I need to see Trent. As soon as possible. Set it up.”

“That’s a lot easier said than done,” he says.

“I know,” I laugh. “Which is why you are doing it for me.”

“Shane…”

“Just tell him what’s going on if he wants to wait more than 72 hours.”

“Holy shit, are you serious?” he whispers.

“Do I tell a lot of jokes, Maddox?” I say. “Make it happen.”

“Yes, sir.” It’s getting more and more difficult for him to call me that. Good. The sooner he’s ready to leave the nest, the better.

Trent makes me wait the entire three days and then some, not that I expected anything less. And of course he wants to meet at one of his favorite private clubs late in the evening. I end up waiting on him there for forty minutes, and that’s after I arrived an hour late because I knew he would. When will my older brothers ever tire of these places? Some things are better left in private. It’s uncomfortable being surrounded by so many of my own colleagues in high places that share similar tastes in sophisticated yet pliable women.

I barely recognize my brother when he finally walks in. It appears that Trent hasn’t slept in a week, which again, isn’t particularly unusual. But his fatigue certainly isn’t a result of over indulgence.

I rise to greet him, slightly bowing my head forward in formality. He barely returns the gesture before flopping into the booth, dimming our light, and barking at one of the girls to bring him a glass of water and a medium rare steak.

“Water?” I ask, taking a sip of my wine. “Liver giving you trouble already?”

“You are not in any position to lecture me, Shane.”

“No, I am most certainly not,” I concede. “Thank you for meeting me.”

“I’ve been trying to get you out to dinner for over a month, you fucking hermit,” he yawns. Trent always was my most social brother.

“I meant on such short notice.”

“It’s really not a problem,” he says as he guzzles down a glass of water and motions for another. “And yes, I do realize that you no longer frequent this establishment. But considering the subject matter, I thought it would be the most discreet.”

“So Maddox told you.”

“Indeed he did.” My brother’s eyes widen and he shakes his head at me. “What the hell were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t thinking at all, it just happened,” I confess. “And now she… Trent, I’ve never actually…”

“You don’t have a fucking clue what you’re doing, do you?”

“Not really, no.”

“So tell me again what went wrong when you fucked her?” Right to the point as always.

“I haven’t yet.”

“Wait a second,” he mumbles, cutting into his steak. “Then what’s the problem?”

That’s right. Even Maddox doesn’t know who Zoey really is. None of this will make sense if I don’t tell him. “She isn’t a potential long term submissive, Trent,” I say.

“Why not? You seriously need one of those. Like, a year ago. Maybe you wouldn’t have hurt this poor girl if you—”

“She’s one of Molly’s friends.”

My brother nearly chokes on his next bite. “Oh, boy. So…”

“Yeah.” I stare across the table in silence for a few moments, trying to get a read on him.

His shoulders square defensively and his cheeks puff out as he exhales. “I was under the impression that she didn’t make it.”

If I don’t stop clenching my jaw, I’ll crack another molar. Plus my brother will realize that I know he betrayed me. God damn you, Adam. I went to Trent when our officially contracted investigators came up empty handed, certain that the over protective hard ass had intentionally made sure of it. I honestly didn’t anticipate that my more reckless brother would give a shit about using his illicit contacts to look for her.

“So you just stumbled across her while running around the old neighborhood, then?” Trent says casually, but I know him well enough to spot his unease.

“Something like that,” I reply coldly.

“Well.” My brother composes himself quickly, giving me a false smile. “There are two ways to run a woman.”

“And, in your experience, those would be what exactly?”

“Punishment and reward.”

“Trent…”

“Hey, this isn’t a one night stand or a weekend with a companion that already understands your needs.”

“I’m not trying to control her.”

He laughs heartily, drawing attention that I don’t appreciate. “You can fool yourself, but you can’t fool me, little brother,” he says. There’s really no point in keeping up false pretenses, especially with Trent. After all, that’s why I wanted his advice in the first place. “And shit like this is supposed to be consensual, by the way. How’s she been behaving lately?”

“Now that she’s completely terrified of me? Perfectly.”

“So perfectly it’s boring?”

Empty is the word I’d use, but not to him. “Yes. Though I keep her confined to her quarters for the most part.”

“That’s probably not the best arrangement,” my brother remarks, leaning backwards. His favorite former submissive walks in on another man’s arm. Emma. I think she was the first one he cut loose when he found himself getting too attached. I wonder if he regrets it.

“It’s not like I have her chained up in a damp basement like an animal,” I say. He’s more than grateful when I redirect the conversation. “She’s more than comfortable.”

“Do you even see her at all?”

“She found the camera in her room rather quickly and put a piece of tape over it. I let that slide.”

“Christ, Shane. That is not even remotely what I meant.”

“Oh.” Of course it’s not. “We have dinner every night, if you could call it that. She answers me when I ask her something directly, but other than that she doesn’t speak.”

“Lots of guys find that ideal,” he replies, still watching Emma.

“Well, I don’t and neither do you.”

“I tend to go back and forth.”

“Save it, Trent. We aren’t like Adam.”

“Fine. I’ve grown to prefer The Girlfriend Experience, as they call it.” Or you could call them your actual girlfriends, because they are. “You could not have started this out worse, Shane.”

“I realize that.”

“I assume she’s trying to escape.” He raises an eyebrow, smirking at me.

“She tries different codes on the keypad in her room every so often. But other than the first night, nothing outrageous.”

“The girl is waiting for you to let your guard down. They’ll try to trick you, find your limits, see how much they can get away with,” he explains, eyes glued to his former sub. “Which is why I prefer punishment over reward. Some men go too far, some don’t go far enough, and—”

“Which way did it go with her?” I taunt him, glancing at the object of his affection cooing into another man’s ear.

“That simply ran its course. And you can stop judging me right now. You have a blast from your past hogtied in your spare bedroom for fuck’s sake.”

“She’s not…” Oh hell with it, she might as well be. “Are there any other former collars of yours floating around here that might be more pertinent to my situation?”

“I’m not sure. I actually haven’t been here for a few months.”

“A few months, eh? That’s a record for you right?” I tease him.

“Possibly.”

“Training a new chew toy already, then?”

“Let’s get back to yours.”

“That’s not what I want her to be. This girl… she’s been through the meat grinder, Trent. I’m not trying to break her spirit so she’ll spread her legs on command.”

“I forgot about that part.” A strange expression crawls across my brother’s face. If I didn’t know any better, I’d call it remorse. “I don’t normally get involved with women if they have traumatic pasts. It’s too… tainted for me.”

“Normally?” There’s something he’s eager to get off his chest, so I wait for him to speak. My brothers are always looking for an opportunity to get a confession out of one another. You never know when you’ll need to exploit a vulnerability.

“Shane, I’m doing something slightly insane.”

“I don’t believe that slightly is a degree of insanity,” I reply with a laugh. “But let’s just say it is.”

“I caught one of my employees robbing me and now I’m sexually blackmailing her.”

I swallow my surprise and try to keep it off my face. “That’s a rather concise statement for a quite complex and illegal situation.”

“Yeah, no shit. You think a twisted arm is bad. Shane… when I found her…” He covers his mouth with his hand and closes his eyes. “And then when I got her in my office, made her let me look at the damage. Her back, her shoulders… I really fucked her up,” he croaks, his eyes watering. “Never done anything like that to a woman. And I feel… I am beyond disgusted with myself.”

Sometimes I forget that I’m the relatively normal brother and what the others are capable of. Trent regains his composure just as quickly as he lost it while I’m still left reeling.  “Um,” I hesitate, clearing my throat. “Are you talking about a crucifixion level of torn flesh or…”