Capturing Callie (8 page)

She felt Ian’s entire body shake and then felt his cock shooting hot seed against her cervix. She was still lost in the swirls of color dancing through her brain as Jace pulled his spent cock from her mouth and Ian lowered himself on top of her, as they all took deep, drawing breaths trying to slow their pounding hearts and draw much-needed oxygen into their lungs.

Ian finally rolled to his side, taking her with him, and she felt him pull her leg over his hip and hold it firmly as Jace gently removed the plug from her ass. She hadn’t realized Jace had left the bed until he returned with a warm washcloth and set about cleaning her. When she tried to pull away in embarrassment, she felt Ian’s arms tighten around her like steel bands. “Be still and let him care for you. Remember, it is our right and privilege as Doms to take care of you.” And then he laughed softly. “And thank God one of us has enough energy left to do it.
Carlin
, I don’t know when I have come so hard I couldn’t even move afterward. You are amazing, my pet.”

Somehow, they managed to get her tucked into the bed, and when she settled against Ian’s chest, she heard the door click closed as Jace left the room. “Sleep, my sweet
Carlin
. You need your rest because I intend to wake you in a bit and make sweet love to you again…and then probably again, long before you will want me to. But you will submit your body to me, won’t you, pet? And I’ll enjoy the feel of the hot velvet walls of your pussy hugging my cock again and again.” His fingers danced over her highly sensitized skin, and she felt chill bumps race up her spine and down each of her limbs. With her head resting on Ian’s lightly tanned chest, she let the sound of his heartbeat lull her into a blissful sleep.

* * * *

As Jace Garrett walked back to his office, he thought back on his time with Ian and Callie and smiled. Damn, the woman was as naturally submissive as any he’d ever met and as sweet as they came. He could easily see why Ian was falling for her. Whether or not his friend would admit he was falling fast and hard was another matter. There was something very special about Callie Reece, and he was going to enjoy helping Ian train her in the lifestyle. He didn’t see his role as anything other than a “third” for them, and that was fine by him. While he certainly liked Callie a lot, the spark that would be necessary to make a lifetime commitment to a woman just wasn’t there. He figured he would always see her as a sort of little sister—but
not
.

After he’d spoken with Ian McGregor and Jace Garrett last evening, Mitch Grayson had stayed up well into the night making calls and setting up numerous search programs. When he’d gotten back to his office at ShadowDance this morning, he hadn’t been at all impressed with what he’d learned. And after making a few calls late this morning, he’d been pissed as hell. He’d called Ian at the agreed upon time and began relaying what he’d discovered.

“I don’t have much good to report, I’m sorry to say. But I’m going to tell it to you straight and fast because I don’t want your girl walking in during this conversation. Callie Reece was reportedly raped at a river party at the end of her junior year of high school. According to friends of her sister, she was sent to finish high school with an aunt and uncle in Kansas. And they are the only reason Callie was able to attend college. Worse yet, it seems Callie’s mother blamed her daughter for her diminished social standing, which of course she claimed was a result of the rumors circulating about the ‘alleged’ rape.”

In Mitch’s opinion, the younger sister had obviously inherited the mother’s gift for selling tickets on the Guilt Express because Callie had been sending her younger sister money for several years. Mitch had dug a little deeper after Jace had let him know “Cut Crystal’s” career of choice and hadn’t learned anything encouraging.

“From what I’ve been able to find out, Callie’s father had been a moderately successful businessman, but his wife’s champagne tastes and her habit of bedding any man
or woman
she thought would boost her social ‘rank’ eventually eroded his business, and less than a month after his business’s collapse, Frank Reece was found dead behind their home. Local law enforcement termed the death ‘suspicious’ but his wife was able to collect her husband’s life-insurance money and quickly relocated to southern California. She remarried a very wealthy, much older man within six months.”

Taking a deep breath, Mitch continued, “Now, here’s where it gets ‘dicey.’ The two young men accused of the rape were both from very prominent families, so information is hard to come by. But it seems Chrissy got sloppy drunk a few months back and started talking to some of her friends at the strip club where she works. She told them how her mom had demanded money from both families to ‘deal with a pregnancy’ that had never been and that Callie had never received any of the money or even known what their mom had done.”

Mitch could tell that Ian was seeing red already, and he knew his friend was going to like the rest of the story even less. Ian asked, “Do you know who these men are?”

“Yes. You aren’t going to fucking believe this, one of them is the son of a prominent US Senator and is currently being heavily vetted for a prestigious appointment within the State Department.” Mitch looked at both men and just waited. Grant Westmore was the only son of John and Nanette Westmore. They were definitely one of Washington’s power couples. John Westmore was well known for his ability to “tie up loose ends” and word on the street was that anyone who managed to get in his way was likely to mysteriously disappear.

It was Jace who responded first. “Fucking Grant Westmore? That little weasel has been put on a pedestal so high he probably gets nosebleeds. How much danger is Callie in?” Ian and Mitch both shook their heads. Leave it to Jace to sum everything up in three sentences and capture the entire essence of the situation.

Mitch wasn’t about to hedge. He laid it all out. “Well, you know the kind of clout Nan Westmore’s family yields. Hell, her father was one of the most corrupt senators this country has ever elected, and his connections to organized crime are legendary. But it’s Senator Westmore who concerns me the most. He has been known to refer to his son’s rape of a young woman five years younger than he was as his ‘son’s wild night with the local slut.’ And it seems he’s been on a campaign to smear Callie for some time. He’s leaving nothing to chance, he has made sure no one in the hotel industry will hire her despite the fact she was top in her class and the reports from her internship practically glow in the fucking dark. The old bastard has essentially blackballed her career, making her a victim yet again. Oh, and Grant’s partner in crime died in a very strange automobile accident less than a year ago. No witnesses, brake failure, convenient timing, you get the idea.”

Waiting a few seconds for the information to sink in, Mitch watched as Ian McGregor clenched and unclenched his fists in a show of frustration that Mitch had rarely seen, despite having worked with the man on several very demanding projects. Mitch continued, “The amazing thing is—despite the fact she seems to know what’s happening to her career-wise, she has a remarkable work ethic and record. She is genuinely well liked by all of her coworkers, even though most of them wish she’d stand up for herself with her boss. Seems the ass hat takes great pleasure in bullying her. Personally I think he’s on the good senator’s payroll. Too bad whoever owns that rag doesn’t can his happy ass.” He looked up at Ian and grinned.
Oh yeah, my friend, I’m betting the dick-twit, as Rissa would say, will be out within the hour.

“Honestly, I’m worried she’s going to be the victim of a
random
mugging gone bad in that nasty-assed neighborhood where she lives. Christ, guys, have you seen the squalor she’s been living in? And that sister of hers is a real piece of work, too. She isn’t and never has been a student at any university in the United States, and if my math is correct, she’s taken in excess of thirty thousand dollars from her sister in the past several years in
assistance
for her fictional college education, prom dresses, etc. Just FYI, Alex and Zach said they are setting up a lottery drawing to see which of us gets to go kick her ass.”

Ian and Jace hadn’t said much up to this point, but Ian finally said, “Tell them Jace already won that opportunity. He’ll be heading out in a couple of weeks. If I wasn’t worried about how heartbroken Callie would be if anything happened to her sister, we’d just let Senator Westmore’s goons have at her because I’m sure that she’s on his list as well.” Mitch knew exactly what Ian had planned, the man was thinking so loud he might as well have been shouting his intent out loud. Mitch agreed with Ian, if anyone could scare Chrissy Reece straight and bring the wild child to heel, it was Jace Garrett.

Mitch finally asked when he was going to get to meet Callie. He’d wondered where they’d stashed her during their conversation. Ian smiled and then answered, “She is just now coming down the stairs. I asked a masseuse from Club Isola to come over and see to it she was nicely relaxed for your chat.”

Watching Ian lead Callie Reece closer and seat her in front of the monitor, Mitch was immediately struck by how much she reminded him of Bree Hart in spirit, and she was even more petite than his sweet wife, Rissa.
Christ, she looks like a tiny angel. And there is something familiar about her, but what is it?

Ian spoke first, “Callie, I’d like you to meet Mitch Grayson, he is a friend and colleague. He has quite a lot of experience working with women who have been the victims of different types of violence.”

Mitch watched as Ian looked at Callie with an affection that he well recognized. “It’s nice to meet you, Callie. I’ve heard a lot about you.” He smiled when he heard her mentally saying she’d just bet he had—
like how she’d tried to sneak on to the island to spy on Ian’s kinky party pals, then gotten her ass paddled, then had a meltdown and crushed a glass so that she was now sporting stitches in her palm. Oh yeah, big prize that Calamity Callie was—just ask anyone….her mom…her sister. Pickle fudge, all those As in college and what do I have to show for it? A job I hate, an apartment most homeless people would pass up, a United States senator who thinks I’m the bad guy because his son and a pal raped me, a mom who blames me for screwing up her social life, and a sister who can’t seem to get her head out of her ass no matter how much I try to help her.

When Mitch heard her mentally sigh, he felt a wave of exhaustion wash over him, and he knew it had come directly from the heart of the woman who was over seventeen hundred miles east of him. He had no idea how she could look so together on the outside when she was so utterly broken on the inside. And he also knew she would thrive under the right Master. What he didn’t know was if Ian could be that man—the man had some major fissures in his own foundation.

Callie seemed to refocus, and Mitch smiled at her and said, “Callie, if you’ll notice, Ian and Jace have left the room.” She seemed startled by the realization that she hadn’t even registered their departure. “They wanted you to be able to speak with me freely. I assure you, anything you tell me that you do not want me to share with them, will remain confidential—well, unless it relates to your safety, and then I’m afraid I won’t feel the obligation to keep that information to myself.” He grinned when she smiled. He was grateful his attempt to lighten the mood seemed to have worked.

“I’ve found that sometimes victims want the significant people in their lives to have the information, but it’s just too painful for them to speak the words to someone they know is going to be upset by them. Maybe you understand what I mean? It might be good for Ian and Jace to know what happened, but simply by virtue of the fact that they care about you, you know it would be too difficult to tell them yourself. Does that sound about right?” Mitch knew he’d nailed it when her eyes went as wide as saucers and she merely nodded. Of course he was picking up random pieces now, but her mind had gone pretty blank when she’d realized they were alone. He’d heard women tell him the exact words he’d just spoken to Callie, and for the hundredth time, he was grateful for all those hours he spent working at the women’s shelters.

“Could you maybe tell me something about yourself so that I feel like I know you a bit before I tell you anything? Because this is a bit weird, you know?” Mitch knew she was struggling to get her feet under her, because this whole situation had blindsided her.

“Sure, I’m a retired Navy SEAL whose specialty was communications. I am one of two husbands in a polyamorous marriage, and we live in Colorado. My wife Rissa is expecting soon, and she is a fireball. Both Bryant Davis and I are Doms, and Rissa is our submissive as well as our wife. Well, at least she lets us believe she’s submissive. Quite frankly, sometimes it’s a bit difficult to determine who’s running the show—especially right now.” He laughed and was relieved to hear her soft laughter. He heard her thoughts clearly now, and he was glad to know she was relaxing and had decided he was genuinely a nice guy who seemed to have her best interests at heart even if he was a pal of Ian’s. “How about this? I know it’s hard to start, so why don’t you tell me about the incident yesterday that prompted Ian to call me?” He saw her glance down at her hand, and when she returned her eyes to his, he could see the unshed tears.

“Well…I got lost in the memory of something that happened to me in high school. And if I was a betting person, I’d bet you already know all about this or we wouldn’t be having this conversation.” She took a deep breath, and Mitch could see her gathering her resolve. “At the end of my junior year, I went to a beer party down at the river outside of the town where I’d grown up. I didn’t drink, and that made some people think I was being a snob. That wasn’t it, I just didn’t like the taste of beer and I had driven so I knew I couldn’t drink. Anyway, when I was walking back to my car, I was ambushed by a couple of drunk guys who were home from college for summer break. They were several years older than I was, but I knew who they were because their families were big shots in our small town.” She took several deep breaths, and he could see she was thinking about her next words. He waited patiently while she fiddled with the hem of the shirt she wore. “They raped me, Mr. Grayson. And one of the things I have regretted the most in my life is letting my mother talk me out of pressing charges against them.”