Cuffed by His Charm (Dirty Little Secrets 4)

McKenna gives a soft, sad smile. “Thank you.”

He nods at her and then says to me, “While Alex is working on that, would you mind if I stole you away for a minute?”

I turn to McKenna and she shakes her head, patting my arm. “It’s fine, nothing in here is going to hurt me.”

“I won’t be long,” I tell her, dropping a kiss on her forehead.

I can’t tell from Ryder’s expression what’s up, but as I follow him out of the command center and into the hallway of meeting rooms, he’s far too relaxed for troubling news.

We stride down the hallway, and this part of Ryder’s company looks like any normal executive company, with a receptionist out front, and meeting rooms and offices lining the corridor. Though when we round the corner of the hallway, I understand perfectly what’s going on, as through the glass walls I spot two men sitting at a rectangular meeting-room table.

“This is a surprise,” I say to Micah and Darius when I enter the room.

“I suppose it would be,” Micah says, his bluish gray eyes regarding me closely. He’s dressed to the nines in a designer suit, as always, ready to conquer the real estate world. His black hair is gelled back, all telling me he’s likely come from work. “Sadly, I didn’t have a choice but to come here. You’ve been impossible to get ahold of.”

Only then do I realize how much I’ve been ignoring non-critical messages. Christ, the only time I’ve even looked at my phone was to call Ryder. My emails have gone unanswered, my texts unopened. “I apologize for dropping off the radar.” I take the closest seat, next to Micah, running a hand over my tired eyes. “Things have been . . .”

“Tense and complicated,” Darius interjects, sitting across from me. He’s not wearing his classic suit today, but dressed in workout pants and a T-shirt. His brown hair isn’t nearly as put together as Micah’s, and I assume he was at home, telling me Micah likely arranged this meeting.

Ryder shuts the door behind him then moves to the head of the table, taking a seat. “I’ve updated everyone on your current situation. I didn’t think you’d mind.”

“I’m actually glad you did.” The last thing I want to do right now is explain all that’s gone on, and I’m glad I don’t have to fill in the details. Exhaustion is weighing heavily on me. All I want to do is find McKenna’s brother so I can sleep for a month. “Why are you all here? What’s going on?” I ask no one in particular.

“What’s going on?” Micah repeats, eyebrows raised, and there’s a tinge of anger in his voice. “You’re refusing to talk with any of us. I don’t think you need to be asking that question, I think you need to be answering it.”

His anger is deserved, I know that. I’m looking at my longest friend, the guy I roomed with in college, and part of the reason I own a sex club at all, and I realize what a shit move that was. “To be honest,” I say, letting the exhaustion be heard in my voice, “there isn’t much more to tell than what Ryder’s told you.”

Darius speaks up then, crossing his arms. “You’re still not any closer to finding McKenna’s brother?”

“Sadly, no.” I rub my eyes once more then drop my arms onto the table, fiddling with a pen left there. “Even if I do find him, I don’t know what to do to him.”

“Because you care about his sister?” Ryder asks.

I nod, flicking the pen open then closed. “Going into all this, I’d been determined to destroy the person behind everything for all the shit they’ve caused us. Now . . .”

“Things have changed?” Micah offers.

“Things have become very complicated,” I agree, running my hands across the stubble on my face, the weight of all this pressing on my shoulders. “This began because we thought someone was out to get us.” Maybe that was our own paranoia because we like our privacy. “From what I can tell this isn’t personal at all.”

I take a deep breath, gather my thoughts. “It all began with you,” I say to Micah, “that very first story, but we didn’t know anything at that point.” I look at Darius. “Then your stories came out, and that’s when we found the bugs in the pub.” To Ryder, I add, “Then it was your turn to be the center of the tabloid scandal, and everything unraveled.” Now we know that Evan had likely been hired by the governor and his goon to plant those bugs in the bar because of Evan’s connection to McKenna. They needed an in, and McKenna was their way to do it. The second the governor knew about Evan’s gambling addiction, and his dire need for money, the plan must have all fallen into place. But Evan wanted more money, selling our stories to the tabloids for greed. Everything made sense now.

And yet . . . I didn’t feel better, I felt worse.

“We know who is behind the stories now,” I say, putting a voice to my frustrations, “but all I can see is that if I press charges against the person behind this, I’ll be destroying the person who matters most to me.”

Darius nods and sighs. “Yes, that is quite the complication.”

“For months,” I continue, tapping the pen against the table, “we’ve been focused on finding this person and destroying them, professionally, publicly, whatever. And yet, now . . .”

Ryder interjects, “If you do nothing more than have a firm conversation with McKenna’s brother, ensuring he does not sell any more of our stories, you’re thinking there will be hard feelings between us because you think you’re letting us down, is that it?”

I drop the pen. “If the situation were reversed, I’m sure I might feel that way.”

Micah scoffs, leaning back in his seat, folding his arms. “We understand the position you’ve been put in here, and of course, no one blames McKenna at all.”

Tension I hadn’t known was there suddenly lifts off my shoulders, because the opinion of the men around me matters. Deep down, without knowing it, I had worried that if I didn’t make good on the promises we made to prosecute the person behind this hell they’d put us in, I would be betraying my closest friends. “I think McKenna might need to hear that when this is all said and done.”

“Something that we can easily do,” says Micah with a smile. He cups my shoulder, and adds, “Has this been a pain in our asses? Yes. But we would never want to come between you and your woman.”