Their Virgin Secretary

Chapter Seven

“Please join us, love.”

It took everything Kellan had not to laugh at the nervous look on Kinley’s face as her husband ushered her inside the living area of their suite. Her eyes widened briefly when she caught sight of the five other men waiting for her. He, Eric, and Tate had joined Kinley’s other spouses, the Anders brothers, in their suite’s living area. After a brief meeting with Dominic during which they’d laid out the chaos his wife had aided, Dominic had agreed to allow a polite interrogation of his wife. He’d also vowed she would feel the sting of his hand later.

Even Butch sat with the men while Gigi’s little head poked out of Kinley’s Prada tote. The minute she put the bag down, the dog hopped out, running through the suite to hide behind the drapes as if Gigi knew trouble was coming.

Kinley wasn’t given that option.

“Why don’t you have a seat?” Kellan said to the blonde, taking over the conversation now. “We have some questions for you.”

He had to give her credit. After her initial apprehension, she steadied and sank into the chair they’d left for her in the middle of the room. She held her head high as she looked them over, like a queen gazing down at her subjects. Oh, Dominic so needed to whack that ass.

“Is this an interrogation or can I have a cup of coffee? I didn’t get one since I was pulled away from breakfast.”

Law Anders rose. “I’ll get us all something. I get the feeling we’re going to need it. You’ve been a bad girl, baby.” He softened the assertion by winking her way.

“I love it when you cause trouble, sweetheart.” Riley leaned in eagerly, as though he was getting ready for a show. His smile couldn’t quite hide his excitement.

No wonder Kinley was running rampant. Kellan tried not to roll his eyes.

Dominic frowned. “Hey, you two need to take this seriously. Do you know what she did?”

The Anders brothers shook their heads. Law made his way to the coffeepot in the room, but upon hearing Dominic’s displeasure, he sent a sidelong glance to Kinley.

She looked at her hands, folded in her lap.

“Start talking about Annabelle,” Dominic demanded.

Her head popped up and her smile illuminated the room. “Of course, Master. I could talk about my best friend all day. Where to start? The beginning, then. Belle was born on a crisp autumn morning…”

Dominic growled her way. “That is not what I meant. You’re digging yourself a hole. Consider this your first and last warning.”

That was one more than Kellan would have given Kinley. If she was going to be difficult…well, Kellan had dealt with hostile witnesses before. “Where is Belle now?”

“I’m not exactly sure.”

“Kinley…” Dominic barked.

“Yes, Master? I’m telling you the truth. I don’t know exactly where she is.” Kinley tried to appear cooperative, even contrite.

Kellan wasn’t buying it.

“But you have a very good idea, don’t you?” Dominic drawled.

She pursed her bow mouth, obviously unwilling to answer.

In the face of her mute response, he scowled. “That’s ten. Answer the question, Kinley. This is important.”

“To you, Master?”

“To Kellan, Eric, and Tate. Disappointing them will be disappointing me. Tell Belle’s lovers everything you know about her whereabouts.”

Kinley’s whole face went stormy and stubborn, her eyes narrowing. “Belle’s never had any lovers. She’s a virgin. She was waiting for the right men to come along.” She sent them an acid glare. “I guess she hasn’t found them yet.”

Tate wilted like a fucking hothouse flower. “We’re so sorry about that, Kinley. Honestly, I loved knowing that she’d waited. I kind of wished I’d waited, too, but then our experience together would probably be horrible for her because it takes a man some time to build up stamina. I blew my load in three point seven seconds the first time.”

“Really?” Eric stared at his best friend, rolling his eyes.

“Dude, you were there. And you, like, came in her hand. Belle deserves better.” He turned to Kinley. “Please. We want to apologize and ask her for a second chance. You have to tell us where she went.”

“I like him. He can live,” Kinley pronounced.

Kellan would use whatever she gave him to hunt Belle down. “Excellent, then tell him where to find her.”

“I really don’t know exactly. I was shocked to discover she’d left.” The little brat’s mock surprise crawled all over Kellan.

“She left in your car,” he pointed out. “You gave her the keys.”

“She needed them.”

“But you’re surprised that she left?”

Kinley squirmed in her seat. “She didn’t say why she needed the keys.”

Kell sent an angry glare to Dominic, who crossed his arms over his chest and speared her with a dark glare. “That’s ten more, love. We’re up to twenty. Want to make it thirty? I can arrange that.”

“Come on, Kinley.” Riley sent her a glance that suggested she be reasonable.

Law watched the entire event unfold, a smile playing at his lips, as if his wife’s little defiance amused him.

“You gave her the keys to your car without asking where she was going?” Kell raised a brow.

“She’s my friend. I trust her because she’s got a lovely heart. She’ll return the car to me when she no longer needs it. I just wonder about that male she was with. She called him Sir.” Kinley shook her head as if the situation was so, so sad. “Guess you guys lost out. Sorry.”

“What?” He bit the word out violently. Belle had found another fucking Dom in a few short hours? That was incomprehensible. Impossible. Although given who Dominic’s friends were, it was possible an unattached Dom might have been around the hotel last night after the wedding. At this point, what surprised Kell more was that the guy hadn’t come with two or three friends.

Or maybe that’s who Belle was driving to meet. The thought stopped Kell cold. On the other hand, Oliver and his brothers hadn’t mentioned Belle being with another man. He scowled. Something was fishy here…

“She wouldn’t leave with a man she’d just met and she certainly wouldn’t be calling him Sir,” Eric said, shaking his head. “I’m going to call her again.”

“You snooze, you lose,” Kinley said in a little sing-song voice.

“For your disrespect, that’s yet another ten.” Dominic’s foot tapped against the floor as he glared at her. “Your ass is going to be red after thirty.”

Kinley ignored him, then her purse began ringing. She put a hand over her mouth, blinking as if she was utterly surprised. “Oh, my gosh. Belle’s phone must have fallen into my bag.”

So Belle had gone somewhere in Kinley’s car in the middle of the night without a phone. And possibly with another man. Kellan’s palm itched fiercely.

“Kinley, you had to have seen which direction Belle drove off,” Riley prompted. “Help the guys a little. They seem genuinely eager to have her back.”

“I only saw that my friend was crying and heartbroken because the men she’s longed for turned out to be complete douchebags who refused to touch or collar her. They made her feel inferior simply because she hadn’t slept with a man yet.”

“That isn’t what happened,” Kellan insisted, trying to gather his patience. “And if she was crying and heartbroken over us, why would she be with another man?”

“Well, of course he was going to console her,” Kinley shot back.

Kell was amazed Dominic didn’t take his wife over his knee now. But since he didn’t seem inclined to, it was time to point certain truths out to Kinley and watch her carefully. Every witness had tells. As cool as Kinley was behaving, she would still react to his questions. “You allowed her to drive off without her phone. What if her flight gets canceled?”

Nothing. Not a drop of emotion crossed those pretty features. “She’ll be fine. She has my car.”

“I’ll go to the airport right now and find her,” Tate offered.

“Sit down, Tate.” Eric understood that Tate sometimes needed a handler. Or maybe a leash…

So, based on Kinley’s reply, Kell guessed that Belle hadn’t gone to the airport. He changed tactics. “Do you know how dangerous the highway could be in the middle of the night? If she’s driving any distance, she could break down. Without a phone, she’d have no way to contact you or roadside assistance.”

A flicker of worry crossed Kinley’s delicate face, underscored by the way she shifted in her seat before she shook her head. “The car is in perfect condition.”

“But tires go flat, don’t they? Belle doesn’t know how to change one.”

“She doesn’t,” Tate put in with a nod. “She called me a few months ago when her beater got a flat.”

“It’s a new car, so the tires are new, too,” Kinley defended.

“That doesn’t help if she accidentally runs over glass or nails. She could be all alone, stranded on a highway right now, and you’d never know.”

Kinley fidgeted, looking to a corner of the room, not meeting anyone’s gaze.

“And there are a lot of drunks on the road at three in the morning. What if something happened to her? How long would it take for us to know?”

Kinley bit her lip, then sighed. “She’s fine, okay. She’s already where she needs to be, so you can stop worrying. We bought her another phone and I’ve already talked to her. Don’t expect me to give you the number. She doesn’t want to talk to you. And she wasn’t alone because she had Sir.”

Kellan had his doubts about Sir. “Tell me about this guy. Where did she meet him?”

“I introduced them. All he wants is her happiness. When he kissed her and she put her arms around him, I left them alone. I knew they’d be fine together.” Her eyes slid off and to the right again.

Maybe Kinley wasn’t coughing up the whole truth, he decided, but she wasn’t totally lying, either. Had she packed a blow-up doll in Belle’s bags as a joke? Or maybe they’d taken to naming their vibrators, but then why say they were kissing and hugging? Kell wasn’t sure about that, but he doubted highly that Belle had run off with some guy she’d just met. She hadn’t saved herself all these years only to give her innocence to the first prick Kinley introduced her to.

Unless she was so hurt and angry that she decided to do away with her hymen to spite them. That didn’t sound like the Belle he knew. But he also hadn’t imagined she would skip this morning’s meeting without a word. She was definitely hurt and making decisions that could affect all their futures.

All the more reason to find her.

But Kinley hadn’t cracked so far.

Tate leaned closer to Kinley, his whole face pleading. “Please just tell us where she is. I can’t stand that she’s out there hurting and thinking we don’t care.”

Kinley’s face softened from rage to regret. “Belle asked me not to. I’m sorry, but I won’t betray her confidence. And Dom Dom here can spank me all day long.” She hooked out a thumb in Dominic’s direction. “I’m not talking.”

Dominic stood and held a hand out to his wife. “I’ll add that to the list, too. After this child is born, you should know there’s one hell of a hurricane waiting to hit your backside, love.”

She put her hand in her husband’s. “I accept that. I’ll do anything to protect Belle.”

With a sigh, Dominic tucked Kinley against him and turned to Kellan. “I’m afraid she’s done. She and Belle are like sisters. I can’t say I don’t understand. I wouldn’t break a brother’s trust myself. The truth is, Belle isn’t your submissive since she hasn’t accepted your collar.” He shrugged. “If there’s anything I or the company can do to help you, I’ll arrange that, but I won’t expect Kinley to divide her loyalties anymore.”

“We’ll hire you.” Eric stood, looking incredibly resolved.

Kellan shook his head at his friend. They had a resource they hadn’t yet used because he’d hoped said resource was no longer behaving like a damn stalker. “Hold up on that request. I think we should talk to Tate first. He knows about Belle in a way we don’t.”

Tate flushed.

Bingo. Even a lawyer had tells.

“Let’s go pack up while Tate tells us everything he knows about our girl.” Kellan gave Tate his best big-brother look. “I mean everything.”

* * * *

Tate let the door to their suite shut behind him, wondering if he would get punched once he told Eric and Kell the truth. He was pretty sure they were about to ask him a bunch of questions he didn’t really want to answer. But there would be no pleading the fifth.

Eric turned on him the minute the door shut. “Dude, you told me you’d stopped the stalker stuff.”

He rolled his eyes. “You make it sound like I’m lurking outside her bedroom window, snapping pictures of her while she’s undressing.”

“You wanted to,” Eric pointed out.

Of course. He wanted to even more now that he’d seen her naked. Still, even he knew there were boundaries that, once crossed, got a man slapped with a restraining order.

“But I didn’t. So let’s stop lecturing me and find Belle. I don’t care what Kinley says. She shouldn’t be out there alone. Anything could happen to her.”

He hated not knowing where she was and if she was truly all right.

Kellan ran a hand through his hair, looking tired and wrung out, before he dropped onto the sofa. “We’ll find her faster than Anthony Anders, even without Kinley’s help, because you’ve obsessively memorized everything about her. Haven’t you?”

Frustration welled. “I’m not stalking her. I only followed her home to make sure she was safe.”

“Yeah,” Eric drawled. “You keep telling yourself that, buddy. Let’s dig through that treasure trove of trivia in your head about Belle and figure out where she’s gone.”

She was his whole world, so yeah, Eric’s implication was a safe one. He didn’t see why that made him a stalker. He’d followed her home at night because there had been a rash of rapes in her neighborhood. Imagining what could happen to her if he didn’t see her in safely made him sick. He’d feel better after they installed a security system in her place. Or better yet, after they moved her into their house, into their bed.

And so what if he checked out her Facebook page more often than necessary? They were friends. She’d accepted his request, giving him permission to look at everything on her timeline.

“Think, Tate. If she’s already reached her destination, then it’s within a ten-hour drive from here. She’s likely in Texas, Louisiana, maybe Oklahoma, or even as far as Kansas. Has she talked about having friends in any of those places?”

“She has Kinley here, but most of her friends are in New York or Chicago.” Tate sighed, trying to get his brain to work. Usually he was perfectly clear, but now he understood why his father had warned him that emotion was deadly to logic. All Tate could think about now was the fact that Belle was alone and upset, that she probably hated him…and was planning to spend her life without him. That there was even a remote chance this guy she called Sir had already taken their place.

“I don’t think Kinley has stashed her somewhere,” Eric said. “I watched her face while Kellan questioned her. She lent Belle the car, but I don’t think she helped our girl get to wherever she was going in any other way. They’re in touch, but if Belle got a new phone before she headed out and gave Kinley the number, then I don’t believe she’s staying with or near Kinley. Belle wouldn’t want to disrupt her friend’s life that way.”

“Since Kinley is a newlywed, Belle would refuse to be a hindrance or burden,” Kell agreed.

Tate shook his head. Kell could say he wasn’t interested in anything long term all he liked, but any man who’d studied a woman that closely was definitely interested, even if he was a completely damaged fuck-up and behaving like a pussy.

Hmm, maybe he hadn’t completely forgiven Kellan for last night.

“Right,” Tate agreed. “She doesn’t have a ton of family. Her dad died when she was a kid. No brothers or sisters. Her mom lives too far away. She just lost a grandmother, but Belle didn’t know the woman.” In fact, she’d brought him a copy of her grandmother’s will a few weeks back to look through.

“So she probably hasn’t gone to family.” Eric paced by the windows, staring out as if he hoped she would show up at any moment and open her arms to them.

Tate hoped she would too, but he knew better. What he didn’t know? Where the hell she’d gone.

“Even if we find her, what are we going to say?” Tate asked. “We talked for hours last night about shit between us, but what could we say to persuade her to give us another chance? Belle can be stubborn.”

He couldn’t stand the thought of her shutting them out. He’d tried so hard to get behind her walls, but Belle, while friendly, could be shy and very private. After a year of working with her and watching her more closely than he should admit to, Tate still found her a mystery. Belle possessed layers and layers he might never delve. That realization choked him up.

He’d been her friend because the others hadn’t been ready to be her lover. He’d gotten as close to her as she’d allowed. At this moment, that friendship didn’t seem to be helping him.

“Doesn’t she have a college friend who moved to Oklahoma City?” Kellan asked. “She mentioned something about being shocked that her very urbane friend had fallen in love with the Midwest.”

Yes, but Belle wouldn’t go there. She was hurt. She wasn’t the sort who’d seek a shoulder to cry on. No, Belle suffered in silence. She would go deep into herself. For that, she would want privacy. If she’d taken off somewhere in the middle of the night and abandoned her job before a meeting, that meant Belle sought to start over.

God, she was leaving them and if he couldn’t find her, he might never see her again. Every single second she was gone, she drifted further and further away. The longer they let her stew in her own anger, the less chance they’d have to get her back.

And that dude she called Sir? Tate had to believe that was some exaggeration on Kinley’s part. The Belle he knew wouldn’t turn to someone else now. She would mourn. She would shut down.

“Hey, didn’t she have a cousin who married a guy from Houston?” Eric had pulled out his laptop and started browsing the firm’s vacation calendar. “Yeah, here it is. She went to the wedding six months ago. Maybe we should contact her cousin.”

Belle’s family was few and far between, so she held every member dear, she’d explained to him once. Her father’s death when she’d been so young had been a tragic blow. He remembered the moment she’d told him about that terrible winter vividly. The sun gleamed across her blue-black hair and illuminated the tear on her cheek she’d tried to hold back. She’d fingered the picture she kept framed of him on her desk, looking at it so wistfully. Right then, Tate had ached to tell her that he, Eric, and Kell would be her family. But she hadn’t been ready to hear that any more than she’d been ready to know that he wanted to make a family with her.

Now, Tate paced the suite, trying to shove out the panic that threatened to scatter his logic. Belle liked to feel close to friends and family, but she wouldn’t burden them with her troubles. So that ruled out New York or Chicago. She couldn’t have driven there in ten hours or less anyway. So where would she go? What money did she have without a job? Sure, she had a little saved in her bank account, but nothing that would last long without a paycheck. She’d need a roof over her head.

Jangling the change in his pocket, Tate crossed to the other side of the room, turning all the possibilities over in his head. Somewhere in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana—

Tate’s head snapped up. That was it. Her late grandmother had left her a house in the French Quarter. Belle hadn’t known the woman, but when he’d looked over the will, she’d admitted that she wished she had. It was a free roof in a new town. Somewhere she could start over. According to the documents he’d seen, the house was older and needed both repairs and updating. Belle would probably love to get her hands on the place. She could throw herself into that project. It would take her mind off the fact that her heart had been ripped out by three dumbass men who couldn’t get their act together.

“She’s in New Orleans. Give me two minutes and I’ll tell you where exactly.” He needed his laptop. He’d scanned in the files she’d given him because he’d served as her lawyer in this matter.

Kellan moved in behind him and stared over his shoulder as he started hunting down the file. “Why do you think that?”

“Because her grandmother left her a house,” he explained as he located the document on his hard drive that had been prepared by a Malcolm Gates, esquire. At the time, the man had advised Belle that the will would take a while to go through the probate system.

“How did I not hear about this?” Eric looked over his other shoulder.

“She needed someone to look at the will and the transfer documents. By the time she received them, her grandmother had already been buried. I think she was sad that she’d never get to know the woman. Apparently, she only met her grandmother once. I guess her father and his mother had a falling out and they never repaired it. When we talked about the house, Belle didn’t know what to do. She wondered if she should donate the house to the city as a historical site because she didn’t have the money to fix it.”

“She still doesn’t, does she?”

“No, but if she gets a new job there or fixes it up herself…” Tate shrugged. “You know how she can be when she’s determined.”

“Yeah.” Kellan glanced down at the address on Tate’s screen and whistled. “Shit. That’s right in the middle of the Quarter. That’s a multimillion dollar property. Fixing it up would make it worth a few months of Ramen noodles and bologna sandwiches.”

Tate frowned. He hadn’t known that. “I never saw any documentation about the value. If they sent anything like that to Belle, she didn’t forward it to me. She just said the place needed a lot of work.”

“She’s going to go there and sink herself into refurbishing that property, isn’t she?” Eric asked.

The challenge would call out to her. “I’m almost certain of it.”

“How can we be sure?” Kellan said. “I don’t want to waste time on a wild goose chase.”

“If we rent a car and drive to New Orleans, it’s roughly eight hours,” Tate pointed out. “Even if we were able to catch the next flight, by the time we factor in check-in and wait times, it might not be much shorter.”

“She would have to get into contact with the lawyer to make sure it’s out of probate. If it was, someone would need to let her into the house, get her keys, and have her sign some paperwork to transfer the ownership.”

Eric groaned. “So she called him. Awesome. She bought a burner phone that we can’t trace and she’s going to use it for all her business.”

“Not necessarily.” Kellan grinned. “Do you remember how we tried to teach Belle to put contacts into her phone and she still wouldn’t do it?”

She kind of hated technology, Tate recalled. “Yeah. She would have to get the attorney’s number from an e-mail. She might dump her phone, but she won’t change e-mail accounts.”

Belle wouldn’t even know how. Thank god for that.

“Still, her e-mail is password protected,” Eric pointed out.

Tate felt himself flush. Shit. Yeah, this might be the stuff he didn’t want to admit to.

“You know her passwords, don’t you, you magnificently perverse asshole?” Kellan slapped him on the back.

He pulled up her e-mails because there was just no comeback except that he was her perverse asshole. He sifted through her messages and found what he needed. He also read that, according to the lawyer, the house Belle was very likely settling into at that moment was notoriously haunted.

Lucky for him, he didn’t believe in ghosts.

“Let’s get packed.” He closed the laptop. They were headed to the Big Easy.