Cowboy Boots and Unadulterated Pleasures [Cowboy Boots 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (3 page)

The last part Colt hadn’t considered, but Brand was probably right. “I just found out and didn’t want to believe it. The thought of someone hurting her…” His voice trailed, and he shook his head. “I can’t wrap my head around the idea that someone would want to abuse her.”

“You didn’t believe it until she didn’t show. Did you?” Kemper asked.

“Believe what exactly?” Colt asked, unwilling to confirm anything specific. Lorenzo Molinelli was a dead man, but he was Colt’s target. Not Kemper’s. Not Brand’s. His.

“She may just marry him, Colt. The Kelly we knew would’ve been down here greeting us. She would’ve walked away from an important business meeting or moved hell and high waters just to have been here.” Kemper massaged his nape. “She’s hooked on this guy. I want to know why.”

“She’s afraid of him,” Brand suggested. “That’s the only explanation. Right, Colt?”

Colt dug his hands in his pockets. Retrieving a small white piece of paper, he said, “I need to make some calls.”

“Well there ya go,” Kemper said, gritting his teeth. “When we don’t get a direct answer, we have everything we need to know.”

“I’m going to find her. Maybe she’ll talk to me,” Brand said, frowning.

“No,” Colt told him firmly. “We wait here. If I know Kelly, eventually she’ll come to us.”

“And if she doesn’t?” Brand asked.

“She’ll wish like hell she had,” Colt said, thinking of all the ways he could arrange to bump into her later in the evening. The shadows watched her every move. She couldn’t take a shower in private. She couldn’t have cocktails with a friend. And God forbid if she had a moment of privacy with Lorenzo.

Then again, from recent reports, Lorenzo hadn’t been fucking her, if he ever fucked her in the first place. Colt had his opinions about that as well. Still, Daniel believed Lorenzo had been tipped off to their surveillance, too, which may have been why the shadows didn’t have a lot of recent activity to report.

According to Daniel, some of Kelly’s trusted friends and employees of the casino had been recently interviewed. Many of them reported seeing Kelly badly bruised, severely beaten at times. Right after that, the shadows closed in and Lorenzo backed off, disappearing for hours on end.

Colt knew what that meant. He’d realized he was being watched.

“Daniel mentioned something about the tip-off,” Kemper said, narrowing his gaze. “He was talking about the beatings. Did they stop after someone reported him, or do you think he suspects Daniel has someone watching him?”

“I can’t be sure,” Colt said. “The beatings didn’t stop entirely, from what I gather. He’s knocked her around a few times, but apparently she isn’t going to work black and blue anymore.”

“And that’s all right with you?” Kemper asked, obviously enraged.

“Fuck no!” he yelled, trying to rein in his temper. The thought of any man raising a hand to Kelly clawed at his soul.

“She was going to work black and blue?” Brand asked, his brows furrowing.

“Yeah,” Colt replied, offering nothing more.

How Crue and Gabe had managed to stay in the shadows while that lowdown piece of trash used Kelly for his own twisted pleasures, Colt would never know. Maybe his brother’s damned lifestyle helped out there, but he didn’t see how. Crue was a Dom with specific rules in place. He didn’t take kindly to those who abused their women.

There had to be an explanation somewhere. Why didn’t Crue and Gabe stop Lorenzo? Were they held back by the Underground Unit’s authority? If so, he’d hold Brock Donovan’s feet to the fire if he’d placed Kelly in unnecessary danger all for the sake of protecting a job.

He expected answers from Gabe and his brother, too. Crue and Gabe cared for Kelly, but they couldn’t love her. That much was a given. A man couldn’t love a woman and let harm come to her. Could he?

Colt took a deep breath and grabbed his cell phone from the coffee table where he’d left his wallet and other personal belongings upon entering their suite.

“How bad is this, Colt?” Kemper asked, studying him intently.

“She’s in pretty deep. We don’t know who the players are or what is involved, but it must be bad for Daniel to call us in.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Brand muttered.

“Who is this Lorenzo guy anyway?” Kemper asked, pacing. He acted as if Lorenzo’s disgusting name poisoned his tongue. “How did he end up in Kelly’s bed, and why can’t we just pay him a visit and give him a warning?”

“Warning, hell. I’d like to kill him,” Colt said.

Brand frowned. “You’re not the only one.”

“We’ll know more after we meet with Daniel. The shadows have been watching her for over three months now. Daniel believes the casino and the Underground Unit as a whole may have been targeted specifically by Lorenzo and his men.

“Other than what Daniel has told me—which is little to nothing—we know Lorenzo has strong ties to several weapons- and human-trafficking organizations in Ireland and Italy. He seems to have endless resources—money, drugs, anything he wants, he has at his disposal.”

“Is Kelly using?”

“God, I hope not,” Colt muttered, dragging his hand down his face. He hadn’t thought about that.

“Her mother was an addict,” Brand reminded them. “Drug use would explain her unusual behavior.”

“He’s right,” Kemper said, twisting his mouth as if he couldn’t fathom the idea.

Brand frowned. “Her mom was hard to handle during her darker years. No one could get through to her. Even Daniel couldn’t reach her. She just ceased to care about the people she once loved.”

“I can’t see Kelly walking down that path. She knows the consequences of casual use. She wouldn’t go there.”

“Colt, you have to prepare yourself for the worst,” Kemper said. “If she really believes she’s in love with this Lorenzo fellow, then anything could be possible. He could’ve introduced her to a drug and she may be hooked.”

“If she’s marrying anyone other than Colt or Crue, drug addiction is a possibility,” Brand said.

Colt took a deep breath. Kelly had a good head on her shoulders. She wouldn’t try drugs. She wouldn’t develop a bad habit she couldn’t break.

He was her only addiction. Well, he knew that wasn’t entirely the case. She had an addiction for him and the rest of them, a bad habit she’d never been able to shake. He closed his eyes and hurriedly prayed that much had remained true.

She’d once told him that very thing while in the heat of passion. He still recalled how her natural curls had fanned around her pretty face. Her dark eyes had moistened with tears as their time together had drawn to an end.

They’d made love for the better part of that particular afternoon, and out of nowhere, she’d said the unexpected. She had told him how much she loved him. While he’d longed to tell her how much he loved her, too, he’d bit back the words. As a lover, he’d done the unthinkable. He’d cursed the idea of expressing himself and withheld information he was required to keep secret.

She’d cried. Through muffled sounds that had broken his heart, she’d explained how she’d always known she couldn’t have him for her own. At the same time, she’d said, “But you’ll always be my obsession, Colt. No matter what the future holds, you’ll always be the biggest part of me.” Then she’d wrapped her legs around his waist, pulled him to her, and whispered, “You’ll always be the very best part of me, Colt. You and Crue. You are the very essence of who I am.”

In return, he’d said, “I’ll never be able to get enough of you.” Those words had often eaten at him. He’d said them to her in a guttural voice, in a raspy tone that might as well have come from a gigolo. They’d fallen from his lips with callousness, as if he didn’t have any concern for her other than using her body for his infinite pleasure. In fact, nothing could’ve been further from the truth. He loved her. He’d known then as he knew today. Kelly Martin was the love of his life.

Kemper snapped his fingers in front of his face. “Are you gonna dial that phone or just cradle it in your hand?”

Brand flicked Colt on the back of his head in passing. “I’m jumping in the shower. We have a few hours of free time before Daniel meets us. If I were you, I’d quit daydreaming about the past and get your head in the game before he shows up. If you look all bedazzled and goo-goo eyes over Kelly, Daniel will yank you off this case so fast your head will spin.”

“That’s the most he’s said in one sentence in well over a year,” Colt remarked after Brand left the room.

Kemper said, “He’s right. How you handle yourself in front of Daniel determines how much you’ll see her. Daniel will either pull you out or he’ll put her in your custody. He knows you’ll protect her with your life.”

“You wouldn’t?”

“Damn straight I would,” Kemper admitted. “But I’m not as foolish about her as you are. When the hell are you gonna tell her how you feel?”

Colt opened his phone and dialed Daniel’s number. “We both know I can’t make that move, and we all understand why. With Daniel breathing down our necks, how can I tell her how I feel? Besides, I haven’t seen her in a year.”

“Your love for my daughter hasn’t disappeared in a year?” Daniel asked, answering the phone. “You boys drive a hard bargain. What’s it gonna take to make you understand? My Kelly deserves better than a man—or men—who are always tapping on death’s door.”

Colt jerked and mouthed, “Fuck my life.”

“Are you all settled in now?” Daniel asked, moving the conversation along.

“We are,” Colt bit out. “How are you, Daniel?” He didn’t care. While he still held a smidgen of respect for Daniel, the past kept him from the relationship they’d once shared, one born and bred from respect and training, one that just as easily disintegrated when trust was broken and power was abused.

“Better now that I know you’re still crazy about my daughter. At least there’s one man out there who won’t let Kelly marry that no-good piece of fucking shit staying there in my hotel.”

Colt held the phone away from his ear as Daniel bellowed his lies. “When are we meeting, Daniel?”

“Have you seen Kelly yet?” he asked, sniffing a few times.

“No, we haven’t.”

“How come?” Daniel barked.

“We just checked in about an hour ago. We had an opportunity to chat, though.”

“Really?” Daniel asked, his voice giving away his humor. “How’d that work out for you?”

“We wasted a little time, but Kelly enjoyed herself.”

“Not too much, I hope.”

“No, Daniel. Not as much as I would’ve liked,” Colt said, taunting him with purpose.

Daniel chuckled. “Well good. That’s what I wanted to hear. Kelly wouldn’t have wasted her time—or yours—if she was as wrapped up in that sorry SOB Lorenzo as she wants me to believe.”

“Daniel, how’d she get messed up with a guy like Lorenzo?” Colt asked, still desperate to understand the foundation of their relationship.

Kemper sat next to him. He tucked his palms behind his head, apparently in deep thought.

“Fuck if I know. Damn SOB lives like a prince. He has an entourage of women, a panel of advisors, and a whole slew of men boarded up in our casino’s hotel.”

“How long have they been here?”

“Lorenzo? He’s been there almost a year. His men just started moving in about three months ago. The girls? They’ve been here about as long. Some of the women are family members, but I’m not sure about all of them. I think he’s banging a good five or six of them. Wish we could get that on film. Maybe then Kelly would dump his ass.”

“Where does Kelly think he is when he goes to meet the other girls?”

Kemper sat erect. He looked as if he could kill someone. Clasping his hands, he let his limbs fall between his splayed legs. His face turned red. He sat there brooding while Colt listened to Daniel’s rant.

He wondered if the old man had a script.

“I have no idea, Colt. I just don’t understand any of this. Kelly throws herself into her work. She seemingly turns the other cheek. Then, Lorenzo calls for her and she goes wherever he tells her. She’ll show up at concierge and greet his guests. She’ll check them into the hotel, often comping our smaller suites that go for over $750 per night. She doesn’t care what this is doing to our bottom line.”

Who was Daniel trying to fool? He didn’t give a damn about the casino’s profits. Brock Donovan had already called Colt and spared no details.

“And you don’t think she knows about the other women?” Colt asked, trying to play along for Kemper’s sake. Daniel was under investigation, but Brock and Riley had warned Colt. He couldn’t let the other operatives know.

Kemper snarled. “Lorenzo has more than a handful in Kelly. He’s disrespecting her. Worse, he’s doing it in a town where his every move is recorded somewhere.”

“Who is that? Kemp?”

“Yes,” Colt replied.

“Guys, I have no idea what’s going through her head.” Daniel sniffed a few times. “She either doesn’t know what he’s up to or doesn’t care. That’s all I can tell you.”

“Maybe she doesn’t want to see what’s in front of her,” Colt suggested, pained by the entire concept of Kelly’s involvement with a two-timing criminal, one who’d apparently covered a lot of tracks, since their intel on Lorenzo was shoddy at best. “What is the likelihood that she’s aware of his extracurricular activities?”

“Slim to none,” Daniel quickly replied. “By all accounts, she loves him and plans to marry him.”

Colt gasped. He didn’t say anything at all then. In fact, he didn’t even realize that his sudden breath had halted the conversation until Daniel said, “Colt, I’m sorry, but I have to be honest with you. If you don’t know this going in then you may make too many assumptions.”

“She doesn’t love him,” Colt assured Daniel.

“I hope you’re right,” he said, snorting. “Hell and damnation. I sure do hope you’re right, boy.”

* * * *

Crue slapped Gabe, jolting him awake. “Our girl returns.”

Throwing his arms overhead, Gabe stretched and yawned. His chair tilted back and he rocked forward. “How long did I sleep?”

“Four hours,” Crue replied, watching as Kelly rushed around the suite she occupied with Lorenzo.

“She didn’t work long today,” Gabe said.

“Nope.” Crue hit a button, and the screen they were watching divided. On the left, Kelly paced the floor. On the right, a magnificent suite with expensive appointments was showcased. The luxurious accommodations were similar to Kelly’s suite, only the floor plans were reversed.