“How the fuck did I miss that?” Connor asked.
“She must have bought herself a pretty solid fake ID. And you ruled her out as the thief, you knew she wasn’t the blackmailer, so there was no reason to dig deeper,” Gray told him. “You trusted her. You wanted to believe in her.”
He was a fucking idiot.
“She was my sub.” He should have known. “She lied to me the whole time.”
“Yeah. She should have told you she was a mobster’s sister straight away.” Hunter nodded. “You need to write that into your rules next time.”
Next time? Like there would fucking be a next time. He wasn’t getting involved with another sub.
Hunter pretended to write a note on his palm. “Sub must disclose whether she is related to a criminal, mob or otherwise. Even if sub is on the run and hiding from said criminal.”
“What? You think she was hiding from him?”
Finn snorted. “Dude, a mobster like Freddy Cardello doesn’t just let his sister work in some BDSM club and live in a crappy apartment with no security. He’d have her well protected and watched all the time.”
“Hey, number three. Don’t use the word dude unless you’re about to go surfing. And don’t ever go surfing.”
Finn just rolled his eyes.
“So why was she on the run?” Gray asked. “And could her brother be a threat to her?”
Fuck. Why had he let them take her?
Um, you didn’t have much choice.
No, but he had a choice now.
“I’d like to know how the fuck he found us,” Hunter said in a low growl. “This is a fucking safe house.”
“I never even knew you had this place,” Gray commented.
Hunter shrugged. “Man’s got to be prepared for anything.”
“None of this makes sense.” He ran his hand over her face. “She never indicated she was on the run. I thought she’d moved to Waco because of what happened with her old Dom.”
“What’s that?” Gray asked.
“He lied to her. Pretended to be someone he wasn’t.” He didn’t know a lot more than that. He leaned back with a groan. “Fuck. I was a crap Dom.”
“Yeah, well, didn’t want to say anything . . .”
“Hunter, shut up,” Gray said without heat. “Connor, I’ve never known you to do anything without thinking through all the ramifications first. You’re a careful person. You always do your research.”
“Not this time. I didn’t press her for more information about this Dom, about her past. I didn’t look into her thoroughly. You’d think I’d have learned after Greta.”
Hunter shook his head. “You have the fucking worst luck with woman. First one treacherous bitch then another.”
“I wouldn’t call Ria a treacherous bitch.” Connor frowned.
“She lied about who she was,” Hunter pointed out.
“She was obviously hiding from her brother,” he defended. “She couldn’t have just blurted that stuff out to just anyone. I held shit back about my personal life.” It wasn’t exactly the same thing, of course.
“She broke your rules,” Hunter added. “Put herself in danger.”
“And I did the one thing I promised I wouldn’t.” He should have talked to her. Should never have cut himself off.