The Exposure (The Submissive 9)

She wrinkled her nose. “Please.”

“In fact.” Ray lowered his hand to his crotch and gave himself a slow stroke. “If you’d like to contribute to your brother’s share, I’m sure we could work something out.”

Yes, she’d miscalculated. The Taskmaster would have been the better option. She leveled Ray with her best Domme glare. “Bring anything of the sort up again in my presence and I’ll tie your balls in a knot around your dick.”

“Meagan, really?” Jake asked.

“You’re seriously going to let him talk to me that way?”

“A lot of girls like him.”

She stared at him in shock. “You’re an ass.”

He shrugged. “It’s the truth.”

“Obviously, talking with you is out of the question.” She hugged her purse close to her body and turned. “I’ll show myself out.”

Before the door closed behind her, she heard Jake tell Ray, “She’s always been an uppity bitch.”

“You asshole,” she mumbled as she walked toward her car. “I should have let the police have you.”

On her way back home, she thought back to that summer.

Chapter Seven

Seventeen years ago

“There was another fire last night.” Meagan’s father set the newspaper down on the table and took a long sip of coffee. “No one’s been hurt yet, but it’s only a matter of time. Whoever’s doing this is escalating.”

“You think so?” Meagan asked.

“He got lucky this time, or rather the homeowners did. An off-duty fireman happened to see the fire and he was able to dispatch a crew. If he hadn’t been there . . .”

“That’s scary.” Meagan shivered. “I don’t even want to think about it.”

“It was worse this time. The family was inside. I sure hope we can find out who’s been doing this.”

“No clues?” Since her dad worked for the fire department, he would know.

“Not anything I can talk about.”

“You’ll find out who it is.”

“Maybe not,” Jake said, strolling into the kitchen, his hair still wet from his shower. “Not if they’re good. Not if they don’t fuck up.”

Her dad gave Jake a pointed stare. “Watch the language.”

Jake rolled his eyes. “Whatever. The truth is, I bet you never find him.”

“Don’t be a dick. Of course they will,” Meagan said.

“Language,” her father repeated.

She decided to ignore her dad. “Jake, I’m leaving for school in three minutes. If you don’t want to walk, I suggest you get your ass in the car.”

Her father sighed. “Meagan.”

As she walked past the table on the way to the garage, her eyes fell on the discarded newspaper. “Oh my God. I know that house.” She grabbed the paper. “Jake, isn’t that Melissa Coop’s house?”

Jake took a granola bar from the pantry and squinted at the paper. “Might be.”

“It is! Oh my God.”

“Meagan, calm down.” Her father took the newspaper back. “The family was okay. I promise we’ll find out who’s behind this.”

She was still shaken as she got in the car and drove to school. Jake was unusually quiet, not complaining about her taste in music or the way she drove. He drummed his fingers against the door handle, and then picked something out from his nails.

“I can’t believe someone set Melissa’s house on fire,” she said when they were halfway to the high school. “I mean, what do you think? Didn’t you ask her out?”

“Yeah, but she turned me down.”

“I wonder if she’ll be at school today.”

“Don’t know. Like I said, she turned me down when I asked her out. I really don’t know if she’ll be there or not.”

“Doesn’t it bother you that this happened to someone you know? Someone you liked?”

“Not really. I mean, she’s fine, right?”

“The paper said they got out in time. It doesn’t mention if she was hurt.”

“If she was, the paper would have said. They aren’t going to let a moneymaker like that slip by.”

“How is the fact that she’s injured going to sell a bunch of papers?”

But Jake was finished talking. He focused on the passing scenery, probably lost in his own thoughts. She looked down at his fingers still drumming on the car handle.

“Jesus, Jake! What happened to your hand?” A long red gash ran across the top of his hand, surrounded by several smaller cuts.

“Oh, that.” He ran his finger along the line. “Cut myself in the garage last night.”

“Doing what?”

“Fuck off. None of your business.”

“Excuse me for caring. It looks like you needed stitches.”

“Well, I don’t.” He jerked the sleeve of his jacket down in an attempt to cover the gash.

Damn. And people said women were moody.

The rest of the ride to the school passed in silence and when she parked the car, Jake jumped out and hurried into the main building. Meagan shook her head as she watched him disappear in the crowd.

“You heard about Melissa’s house?”

She turned to find one of her friends, Penelope, walking toward her.

“Yeah,” Meagan said, remembering Penelope lived across the street from the Coops. “Saw it in the paper this morning. Horrible.”

“I heard they lost everything.”