“Kitten, speak.” Ben got to one knee, using his most forceful voice. “Now.”
Chase sighed. “Damn it. Kitten, come on. This is ridiculous. You have to talk.”
“I think she’s broken,” Ben said with a shrug, his eyes sliding away from the photos. His voice was even, but Leo knew those photos upset him. “I mean, obviously, but I think she’s even more broken than before.”
“What is wrong with that girl?” Jack Barnes asked.
“She’s Finn’s cousin. She’s a little odd,” Julian said, stating the obvious.
She sniffled a little, her mouth opening as though she wanted to speak. All six Doms leaned forward expectantly, and Kitten’s mouth closed again.
A collective groan went through the room.
“Tie her up, Wolf,” Leo said, his eyes finding Wolf’s. “She finds it comforting. It’s Saturday. She gets tied up on Saturdays. Kitten is a creature of routine. If you tie her up, she might be comfortable enough to talk.”
Wolf started for the door to Leo’s office, but Chase pulled out a length of rope from his pocket.
The big Dom shrugged. “What? Don’t we all have some?”
“Proceed, Mr. Dawson,” Julian said with a long sigh.
Chase began an elaborate pattern, binding Kitten’s hands behind her back and then winding the rope all around her torso. The Dom moved with an economical grace that bespoke of his long practice. While Kitten was being bound, Wolf moved toward his brother.
Leo was closed off, unapproachable. Luckily, Wolf was stubborn.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You knew Ada was dead and that I was involved with her before her death,” Leo replied, his tone bland.
He’d known that but only because there’d been an inquiry by JAG. Leo had been cleared of suspicion. The time of death had been calculated as the same time in which Leo had been on a weapons raid on a Taliban stronghold. As alibis went, it was a pretty good one.
What Leo hadn’t told him was the manner of Ada’s death.
“You wouldn’t have left her bound like that,” Wolf said with utter certainty.
A single eyebrow arched. “Of course not, Wolf. When I left Ada, she was perfectly fine. We’d played all afternoon and then I got called back to base. I would never leave a sub unattended. But that was my rope the killer used.”
“Shit, Leo. This was about you.”
“You think I don’t know that, Wolf? You think I haven’t had to live with this every day since?”
The weight of guilt must be oppressive, and Leo hadn’t bothered to share it. With anyone, Wolf would bet.
“Is that better, Kitten?” Chase asked.
“A spanking would help, Sir,” Kitten said, her voice magically reappearing now that she was tightly embraced by rope.
Chase growled a little her direction. “You get nothing until you talk, Kitten. And if you don’t tell us everything, you’ll be vanilla for a week. No spankings. No bondage. No dungeon.”
Her lower lip quivered. “But tomorrow is Suspension Sunday.”
“It won’t be if you don’t start talking. Kitten, this is not a game. This is very important to Master Leo,” Julian explained.
She sniffled and nodded, seemingly much more in control now that she was bound. “Kitten understands. Kitten is sorry. Those pictures were left on Kitten’s desk. Kitten opened them. They just said Master Leo’s name on the front. It’s Kitten’s job to open his mail. But Kitten was very disturbed by those photos. Kitten likes bondage for fun. That poor woman.”
Tears leaked from Kitten’s eyes.
Julian placed a hand on her head. “I am deeply sorry you had to see those, Kitten. Do you remember anything else? Was anything out of place?”
“The door was unlocked,” Kitten said.
Julian’s eyes went past Wolf’s to Leo’s.
“I always lock it. I have patient files. I lock the inner and outer doors.” Leo’s eyes strayed to the folder with the photos.
Wolf tried the door that led to Leo’s office. Locked up tight. He crossed the outer room in three long strides and dropped to one knee. If Leo said he’d locked it, then Leo had locked the door. The mechanism was a simple bolt lock, and sure enough, Wolf only had to glance at it to see the telltale signs. A few scratches on the metal casing of the lock told Wolf that someone knew how to use a torque wrench and a pick.
“Someone picked it,” Wolf announced.
Julian cursed under his breath. “How the hell did he get past the front desk? I’ll have security see if they can find anything on the cameras. Damn it. I need more cameras.”
“They might help, but I still would have gotten around them. They’re all on a set pattern on this floor,” a voice said from behind Wolf.
Wolf didn’t even think about it. He reacted. He was up and off his feet before the man had finished the word floor. Wolf had his SIG out and at the man’s throat before anyone could breathe.
“Holder?” What the hell was he doing here? And how had Holder gotten the jump on him? Damn, he was out of practice. He needed to get back into the sweet paranoia of his former Navy days.
Holder’s hands came up, showing he didn’t have a weapon. “You’re still fast, Meyer. I thought you would lose your mobility after that IED damn near took your leg.”
Wolf shrugged. He’d lost a lot of things after that damn mine had gone off, but months and months of painful therapy had brought back his mobility. It hadn’t saved his career. “Navy thought so, too. It’s why I’m here instead of the Middle East. Now you better talk and you better talk fast or you’re going to find out that my trigger finger still works, too.”
“Mr. Meyer, would you like to introduce us?” Julian asked. “Perhaps you could bring the intruder into the office before you kill him? It’s so much more private in here, and Leo’s office is due for a remodel anyway.”
“I’m unarmed, Wolf,” Holder said.
But a SEAL was never without a weapon. A SEAL was a weapon. Holder didn’t need a gun to cause damage, and Wolf seriously doubted the man was truly unarmed. Wolf let go and nodded toward the room. Holder straightened his dark shirt. He was pushing forty but there was no middle-aged spread on the man. Holder’s hair had gone a stately silver, but his body was trim and fit, his face hawklike, and his gray eyes bespoke of a sharp intelligence. He was dressed all in black.
He was dressed like a man on a mission.
“Holder. I should have known you were in on this the minute I heard you had called,” Leo said. His mouth was a flat line. “Julian, this is Steve Holder. Former Lieutenant. We were on the same team in the SEALs, though not the same squad. Now he’s one of the founders of a mercenary group.”
“I prefer to call it a security firm,” Holder said laconically in his deep Georgia accent.
“You say potato,” Leo replied with a humorless grin.
“Hello, Holder.”
Holder nodded to Ben. “Dawson. Nice to see you and your brother are still close. You get out at the same time?”
Chase nodded. “Ben left. There wasn’t any reason for me to stay in.”
Holder turned to Julian. “And you must be Julian Lodge. I find it interesting that an investment manager needs four former Navy SEALs as body guards. You must have a lot to protect, Mr. Lodge.”
Wolf watched as Julian’s eyes became sharp. He could see the exact moment that Julian began to see Holder as a true threat.
“Would you like to explain why you broke into my building, Mr. Holder? You have exactly three minutes before I have you hauled bodily out of here by several members of the Dallas police department. I assure you, I can get enough of them in here that you won’t be able to take them all out.”
Holder’s face softened slightly. “I would really rather you didn’t do that. I broke in because I was worried that Leo here wouldn’t see me until it was too late.”