“So Reagan is staying at your place tonight?” Roarke asked, looking over at Alex. Once a month, poker night was held in one of the upstairs rooms at Club Decadence. Alex glanced around the table at Roarke, Sloan, Mace, and Derrick. Jack and Dylan were regulars as well, but they were currently out of town.
Alex nodded. “Yeah, right now she and Tara are having a girls’ night. Reagan said she’d never had one before.”
“She’s never had a girls’ night?” Derrick asked. “Why not?”
“I don’t know.” Who knew with Reagan?
“I fold,” Sloan said with a grumble. “Reagan’s odd. That’s probably why.”
“She’s not odd,” Alex defended her, although there had been plenty of times when he’d had the same thought. But she was Tara’s friend. And boss. Tara loved working for her. Everyone stared at him in disbelief. “She’s different. We all know that. But she’s one of our subs, and she’s in trouble.”
“Is she a sub?” Sloan asked dryly. “When she got through with Logan the other night, I thought the poor guy was going to cry. She lectured him into submission. And I don’t think Paul has still forgiven her after she gave him what-for. The guy glares daggers at her every time she’s near.”
Roarke sighed. “Paul needs to learn to control himself better. Reagan has a knack of choosing the wrong sort of Dom for her. She needs someone with experience.”
“I don’t think it’s about lack of experience,” Alex said. “She’s been with experienced Doms before, but it was more like she was…”
“Going through the motions?” Sloan questioned. “That’s the feeling I got when I scened with her. Like it was an act. With time, I might have gotten through to the real Reagan. Maybe.”
“Anyway, this is beside the point at the moment,” Roarke said, smiling as he placed down his winning hand.
Alex threw his cards down. He wasn’t in the mood tonight.
“Nothing was taken, though?” Mace asked, speaking up for the first time. Mace was the manager at Club Decadence now that Dylan had taken on responsibility for all of Roarke’s clubs across Texas.
“No, nothing was stolen. The place didn’t even look like someone had broken in. But some of Reagan’s things had been moved, and you know how particular she is about things. She called the cops the first time, but they didn’t believe someone had broken in,” Alex told him. They should have taken her more seriously. Reagan put on a tough front, but she was a woman living alone. She had a right to feel safe. Plus, Tara also spent a lot of time with Reagan, and Alex was worried she might get caught up in this.
“She’s also said she’s had this feeling of someone watching her. I’ll talk to Jack when he gets back into town,” Alex said. Jack Wyatt was a member of Club Decadence and a detective for the Austin PD. “I don’t like that some asshole has been inside her apartment three times. And that they're so subtle. It’s someone she knows. Maybe even trusts.”
“Maybe she should move out for a while,” Roarke suggested.
“She won’t. We could barely get her to agree to come over to our place for one night.”
Roarke rubbed a finger against his chin. “I’ll talk to Hunter. Wouldn’t hurt to have someone look over her security, put in some cameras. Maybe stick around for a while. We need to catch this bastard before he ups his game.”
“Thanks,” Alex said. “I know there are security firms here in Austin, but I’d feel better using someone we know. I’ll pay, of course. But it would be good if they could come sooner rather than later. I don’t like the idea of her staying there alone.”
The others nodded.
“Hunter can be an ass, but he’s the best and so are the people he hires,” Roarke told him. “She’s one of ours, and we protect our own.”
***
“Uh-uh, no way. A bodyguard? I don’t need a bodyguard. I haven’t been threatened.”
“You don’t think someone breaking into your home and moving your things around is threatening? Someone who knows you well enough to know they only have to move a few items in order to make a huge impact? And what about the fact that someone has been following you?” Roarke asked, leaning forward in his chair. Alex stood next to him, leaning against the wall, looking serious.
“I don’t know for sure that someone has been following me.” She didn’t have any concrete evidence.
She’d wondered why Roarke had asked her to come in to Club Decadence earlier than usual. She always came on a Saturday night. In the last two years, she’d only missed a few Saturday nights, twice because she was sick and once due to work.
She was a creature of habit.
“They didn’t break in to steal something, Reagan,” Alex told her. “This is someone who is trying to intimidate you. It’s a threat.”
“I haven’t been harmed.” But they had terrified her. Roarke was right. This was someone she knew. And that made it infinitely worse.
“I’ve changed my alarm code. I’ll also change my lock.”