Three Dirty Secrets (Blindfold Club 4)

Shane shifted in his seat as he visibly struggled with an appropriate response. “Jesus. How are you—”

I waved my hand. “Fine.”

He digested the information further. “Lemme get this straight. He brought another woman back to the apartment you live in?”

“Fucked her right on the couch we bought together.”

“I would have thought he’d be smarter than that, seeing as how he’s a doctor.”

“He even had the nerve to blame it on me.” My gaze drifted away from the empty table I’d been staring at, and shifted to the older man across from me. “Matt said I was too detached and cold.”

Shane’s expression gave too much away. He agreed at least a little with Matt’s assessment, but tried to hide it.

“Wow,” I said. “You would have been horrible at going UC.”

My handler’s shoulders straightened and he took a long breath. “You want me to lie to you? You’re smart, so you know you’re a little rough. And, Regan, that’s okay. If I was in your situation, I wouldn’t know how to deal either.” Shane’s expression was serious. “You could talk to someone about it, if you don’t feel comfortable talking with me.”

That was pointless. “Talking won’t change what happened.”

“You’re wrong. It’ll change the way you feel.”

Except I didn’t feel anything. I shook my head. “I did my required time with the Undercover Safeguard Unit.” What more did they want from me? “I was cleared.” I could see Shane wasn’t convinced. “If I feel like I want to talk about it more, I’ll let you know.”

“All right.” The muscles along his jawline tightened. Was he biting back more he wanted to say? “Anything else I should be aware of?”

“No. We could have done this over the phone and I wouldn’t have ruined your Sunday morning with the wife.”

His lips tugged into a half-smile. “Are you kidding? Kelly’s thrilled to have the leverage over me. She’s got big landscaping plans for the front yard, and I’ll have to help execute. Plus, it’s hard to do a visual eval on the phone.”

“I’m fine,” I groaned. It’s not like it was Shane’s fault—the request for a check-in had likely come from above.

“Okay, then.” He finished his coffee and stood. “You want me to give Dr. Douchebag a hard time?”

It came from him like a big brother watching out for his sister, although I didn’t have anything to compare it to. I only had sisters. And I wasn’t sure if Shane was joking. It would be easy to pull Matt aside and ruin his afternoon.

“Please, don’t waste your time.” I stood and downed the last of my coffee. “I’m sure you’re anxious to get to the landscaping.”

He faked a scowl. “My back hurts already.” He took our empty cups and tossed them in the trash. “Keep me in the loop.” It was the catch phrase that had developed between us, our way of saying goodbye.

“Of course.”

For a while Payton McCreary was the queen of the blindfold club, the Madame who stood behind Julius and ran it all. He’d had big shoes to fill when Joseph sold the club and went legit, so Payton had stepped up to help in the transition.

It’d been five months, and now that Julius finally had the swing of things, we saw less of her.

The other girls talked about Payton like she was a legend. She’d started the club with Joseph and been his original girl, but all that was in the past. She’d quit the club, moved away, and came back engaged a year later. She managed the club from time to time to help Joseph out. She got Julius on his feet, and now only filled in at the club when a sales assistant was sick. Usually she filled in for me.

I was surprised to see her in the dressing room on Saturday night. Of all the women at the club, she was the one I gravitated toward. Payton was intelligent, friendly, and what I liked most about her—direct. I tried not to look down on the people at the club, not just because of the breaks it gave us in so many cases, but the people here weren’t actively hurting anyone.

It was illegal, but I didn’t see the world only in hard black and white.

“Hey, stranger,” Payton said, smiling my direction as she set about changing into more professional clothes. Judging by her jeans and t-shirt, she’d probably gotten the call last minute.

“Hey.” I smiled right back at her. “How’s wedding planning going?”

“I don’t know,” she muttered. “You’d have to ask my mother.” Her hands unbuttoned the jeans and pushed them down her long legs. “I keep telling Dominic we should have gotten married in Japan.”

Payton had lived overseas with her fiancé for more than a year. “Why didn’t you?”