Hero (5 page)

“
I
s he always like that
?” I asked as I watched Dex stalk away. Even in a suit, his bulk was impossible to hide. He’d been just as intimidating in the FBI field office as he had been bare-chested in Decadence. It had taken all my willpower to maintain cool composure when he was facing me down. Although I knew he was concerned about my safety, I couldn’t help being annoyed at him for trying to put an end to my investigation into the Latin Kings before it had even begun. He obviously thought subs were fragile creatures who needed to be protected.

I never should have submitted to him.

“No,” Sharon answered, her eyes curious as her gaze followed his retreating form. “Dex is usually really nice. It’s not like him to go all alpha-male-bossy like that. Smith fills that role around here.”

“Are you saying I’m not nice?” Smith gave her a sharp grin.

“I’m saying you can be an imperious douchebag,” she informed him with a teasing smile.

He laughed, the rich sound booming through the office. “Now who’s not being nice? Should I tell Derek how rude you’re acting?”

She scoffed. “You know he won’t punish me for holding my own at the office. He wants me to put you in your place. You’re insufferably cocky otherwise.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.
Insufferably cocky
is kind of my thing.”

“I can’t wait to kick your ass next time we spar,” Sharon said with a sweet smile. “Your ego needs deflating.”

“My ego’s the exact size I like it. And it can handle more than a few hits from you.”

“James, Silverman,” Kennedy barked out from behind us. We all turned to find him stepping out of the elevator. His hazel eyes fixed on them with disapproval. “This is the FBI field office, not a garden party. Stop loitering and get to work.”

Smith gave him a sardonic salute. “Yes, sir. Right away, sir.”

Kennedy rolled his eyes. “I don’t know why I don’t fire you.”

“Because you’d be miserable without me, boss. You love me, really.”

Kennedy snorted. “Go get me more intel on the Moreno case, and I’ll consider keeping you on the task force. Unless you’d prefer to do paperwork on wrapping up the Alicia Camden case?”

Smith shuddered. “Paperwork is cruel and unusual punishment. I’ll go back to the Moreno investigation.”

“Good. Silverman,” Kennedy turned his attention back to Sharon. “Clayton needs your help dealing with an informant in Brighton Beach. I suggest you go do that now before I put
you
on the Camden case.”

“We’re leaving now, sir,” she said quickly. “Come on, Chloe.” She stepped around her boss and waved for me to follow.

“Have fun, ladies,” Smith called after us as the elevator doors closed.

“How can you stand that?” I asked once we were alone. “Talking about punishment when you’re at work? Don’t the Doms annoy you with their attitudes?”

Sharon herself had casually owned up to being a sub, and it had taken effort to conceal my surprise that she would make reference to her D/s relationship in her workplace. The fact that the entire team was into BDSM really was bizarre.

“Always,” she smiled ruefully. “But they annoyed me before I found my place in the lifestyle. The testosterone in that place in stifling. It’s actually easier to handle now that everything’s out in the open. I give as good as I get. And none of the guys think less of me for being a sub. They respect me for it.”

“But Smith just said he’d tell Derek that you were being rude. Is Derek your Dom?”

Her smile widened. “Yep. But Smith was just joking. He gives everyone a hard time, Dom or sub. You saw how he teased Dex.”

I took a moment to digest that as we left the elevator and crossed the parking garage to Sharon’s black sedan. I slid into the passenger seat and buckled up.

“Dex doesn’t seem to respect subs,” I contemplated aloud. “He said Kennedy shouldn’t let me go out in the field because I’m a sub. He should respect my career.” The final declaration left a sour taste on my tongue as I was reminded of the last man in my life who hadn’t respected my career. Neil had never wanted me to have a life outside our household.

“I’m sure Dex does respect your career,” Sharon said, placating. “He was more concerned about you being a civilian. You being a sub just added to his alpha-protective instincts. He wasn’t trying to be an ass.”

“He was doing a damn good impression of it.”

Sharon glanced over at me before looking back at the road. “I think you two got off on the wrong foot. Dex really is one of the sweetest guys I know. He’s a good man and a good Dom.”

I thought about the soothing way he’d spoken to me when I was bound before him, the gentle praise that had washed over me when he’d held me in his arms.

But that had been when I was submitting to him. Whenever I showed any backbone, he became irritable. I didn’t understand him at all.

“I guess you know him better than I do,” I allowed.

“Did something go wrong with your scene last night?”

“What?” I asked, caught off guard. “What do mean?”

She ducked her head, embarrassed. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to pry, but I saw the two of you go back to the private rooms at Decadence last night.”

“You were there?” Carina had said the team was having a party, but I’d only met Dex. I’d been too occupied with him to talk to anyone else.

“Yeah. I’m always there if the club is open. Derek’s the owner.”

“Wait. Your Derek is
the
Derek Carter?”

She laughed. “Don’t let him hear you say it like that. His ego’s almost as big as Smith’s. It doesn’t need inflating.”

“I’d love to meet him,” I said excitedly, forgetting about Dex for a moment. “Josh Dover, the owner of Dusk, only has the best things to say about Derek and Decadence. It’s why I wanted to come to the club while I’m in New York. It has a great reputation.”

Sharon grinned. “You can definitely tell him that. He’s worked really hard to rebuild that rep over the last few years.”

“Rebuild it? What happened?”

“You must not have been in the lifestyle long,” she surmised. “You would have heard about it otherwise.”

“I’m not in the lifestyle,” I corrected her. “But I’ve been going to clubs for two years. What is it that I haven’t heard about?”

She sighed. “Decadence hasn’t always been a safe place. When I first met Derek, the Latin Kings were running drugs through the club. That’s actually how we became involved. I was undercover at Decadence to gather intel on him. I thought he was a bad guy.”

“The Latin Kings were involved in dealing at Decadence?” I asked, eager to hear more. This was great information for my research. “What happened?”

“It’s a long story, but we busted the Kings, and Derek and I ended up together.”

“I want to hear it,” I insisted. “I came here to learn more about the Latin Kings. I didn’t know they were dealing at Decadence. You said you were undercover? What was it like? How did you know Derek was innocent?”

“I didn’t, at first. I kind of played him. It didn’t go well when he found out what I was really doing at his club. He started working with us, but it wasn’t until I almost died that he admitted his feelings for me.”

“You almost died?” I reached into my purse and pulled out my notepad and pen. “Wait. Start at the beginning. How did the Latin Kings start dealing at Decadence?”

She took a deep breath and launched into the story. “It all started when Derek’s father sold his sister Charlotte to the Kings. He used her as leverage to make Derek cooperate.”

She continued to talk for nearly an hour as we rode around, pausing only when I had a question. The story really was incredible. Actually, it would make a pretty good BDSM romantic suspense novel.

“So all the guys know you’re a sub now,” I said when she was finished recounting everything. “And you don’t mind being at the club with them? Isn’t it weird having them see you being submissive when you can kick some serious ass?”

“I thought it would be,” she admitted. “At first, I gave everyone a really hard time about it. I didn’t want to be seen as weak. But Derek helped me understand that accepting every part of myself makes me strong. I can trust him to take care of me when I need it, and I don’t have to be ashamed of that. And he needs to take care of someone to be fulfilled. Being a Dom isn’t about bossing me around, and being a sub isn’t about being a doormat. We rely on each other, and we’re stronger together than we ever were before.”

“That sounds like one of my books,” I said.

She smiled at me. “Then you must be getting it right. You understand what it’s really all about.” Her glance turned assessing. “But you said you’re not actually in the lifestyle. Why not? You did have a scene with Dex last night, didn’t you?”

I shifted, uncomfortable. “I identify as more of a kinkster than a sub. I like exploring sensations. I’m not interested in a power exchange.”

She nodded, accepting that. “I get it. There’s no ‘one true way’ to practice BDSM. If indulging only in sensation play is what makes you happy, more power to you. It’s nice to meet a woman who knows herself and her needs.”

I looked out the window, turning my face away so she couldn’t read my expression. Her description of her relationship with Derek made something like yearning tug at my heart. In that moment, I wasn’t at all sure that I was a woman who knew my own needs. I only knew that I didn’t want to truly submit to anyone. I couldn’t trust anyone the way Sharon so obviously trusted her Dom. My trust had been betrayed more deeply than I would have ever thought possible, and I wasn’t willing to open myself up to that kind of pain again.

“You should come back to Decadence,” she said, interrupting my brooding. “I’ll introduce you to Derek. You can ask him anything you want about the club scene. He’d be happy to help with your book research. Just don’t ask him about the Latin Kings or Charlotte. That’s still a sore spot for him.”

“That won’t be a problem,” I confirmed. “I don’t want to mix my book research and my journalistic endeavors. My two worlds are already colliding more than I’d like.”

“I used to be the same way,” she said. “It was hard letting my kinky lifestyle spill over into my everyday life. But it’s who I am, and I’ve gotten comfortable with the two coexisting.”

Before I could reiterate that I wasn’t actually in the lifestyle, Sharon’s cell phone rang.

“Silverman,” she answered in a clipped, professional tone. “Okay, I’m on my way.”

She ended the call, then took a sharp left and started weaving through traffic. “Sorry, I need to hurry up and help Clayton out,” she told me. “Our informant is giving him some trouble.”

“An informant for what?” I asked, bracing my hand on the dashboard as we swerved around a corner.

She didn’t take her eyes from the road. “We’ve been dealing with a new drug called Bliss. We’re trying to take down the people responsible for bringing it into the States. It started with the Russian Mafia, but now it looks like Moreno is getting involved.”

“Moreno?”

“Cristian Moreno is a Colombian drug lord. He was working with the Russians until we took out their
Pakhan
a few months ago. Bliss trafficking has slowed down in New York since then, but it looks like Moreno might be trying to take control of distribution. If he does, we’ll have a much bigger problem to deal with. We want to stop this before it starts.”

Her eyes cut over to me briefly. “None of this can go public,” she said, her voice heavy with seriousness. “Kennedy said you could shadow me, so I’m filling you in. But your story is the Latin Kings. You can’t print anything about what’s going on with Moreno.”

“That’s okay,” I reassured her, my body jolting forward as she hit the brakes hard. “I’m getting good material just seeing what a normal day is like for you. Did you get calls like this when you were working against the Latin Kings?”

She nodded. “Before I went in undercover, Clayton had an informant with the Kings. The brother of his fiancée, actually. Clayton met Rose while working that case. I helped him protect her while her brother kept tabs on the Kings for us.” She grimaced. “I could have done a better job of it.”

“What happened?”

“The Kings got their hands on Rose. It was bad. If Javier hadn’t been in deep cover with the Kings, I don’t think we would have found her in time.”

“Javier. You mentioned him before. He’s the one who helped take down the Kings for good in New York?”

“Yes. It wasn’t easy for him. By the end of his time undercover, I think he lost himself. He went a little off the rails. Charlotte helped bring him back to us, though. You can talk to both of them about it, if you want. Javi’s very well-adjusted these days, so I don’t think it’ll upset him to discuss his time with the Kings.”

“Wait. Charlotte. This isn’t Derek’s sister Charlotte, is it?”

“It is. Funny how things work out. When Derek’s father sold Charlotte to the Kings, Javier claimed her to keep her safe from the others. He protected her while maintaining his cover. They’re married now.”

“Wow. I’d love to talk to them. Could you help me set it up? I don’t want to have to ask Kennedy for anything else.”

She shot me a knowing smile. “I don’t blame you. The boss can be pretty intimidating. He’s so much more tolerable now that he’s found Carina, though.”

“He used to be worse?” I asked, incredulous.

“Much,” she affirmed. “I’ll set things up with Javi for you, so you don’t need to worry about Ken. And if you come to Decadence, you can ask Derek anything you want about BDSM.”

“That’s fantastic. Thanks, Sharon.” I beamed at her. I was getting more material for both of my careers than I’d ever imagined. I was thrilled Carina had invited me to New York to work on my Latin Kings story. I needed to take her out for thank-you-cocktails as soon as possible.

“I’m happy to do it,” she said. “But right now, I need to go help Clayton.” The car came to an abrupt stop in front of a nondescript brick apartment block. “I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to leave you for a little while. The informant isn’t being very forthcoming, and he’ll probably be less likely to talk if I bring a stranger. Will you be okay by yourself?”