Electrified (22 page)

Now it was Monday and the feeling of being free was gone. Gone on a plane, and Sienna was mourning the loss of it. She took some time to unwind, straighten up her place, and check on her garden like she did every Monday, except this one felt markedly different.

She felt an unknown sensation crackling in her nerve endings, more alive, ready to catch life, but withdrawn at the same time because her source of energy wasn’t with her.

Was it just the orgasm? No, it was the coffee, lunch, having Carson in her dressing room, in her house, and the orgasm he gave her there. She had never experienced any single one of those before in life—okay, so she’d had an orgasm, but only by herself—but she’d never had all of them with one man and in such a short time. It was overwhelming.

Even prepping to head to the desert, she felt as though everything she did was brand new, seen through a new light, brighter, more exuberant in its color, but missing something or someone. Carson.

She and Asher were going to spend a night in the Red Rock Desert at one of the spa resorts. Their plan was to get spa treatments and be pampered, enjoy a decadent, relaxing meal, and let the stress roll off of them. Sienna was fine with going away with Asher; she was absolutely certain there wouldn’t be any lines crossed.

In fact, she reminded herself to ask him about Natalie while they were away. She wanted to concentrate on his love life rather than her ridiculous crush. If she opened the floodgates to discuss Carson, Sienna wasn’t sure she would be able to close them.

Around two o’clock, Asher popped over to see if she was ready. The two of them loaded their overnight bags into Asher’s large SUV with blacked-out windows, and rolled down the driveway. Before turning onto the street, Asher noticed the guy sitting across the way in the black sedan moments before she did.

The cowboy.

“Fucking Christ, do you see him, Sie?” Asher yelled.

Sienna jumped in her seat. “Yes, what does he want? Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Is my past catching up with me, Ash?” she said, turning to face Asher as he threw the car in reverse.

“No fucking way. I won’t let it,” Asher said as he punched the gas and the car sped backward. He then called Mike.

“Mike, we got that cowboy yahoo sitting outside my place, waiting to catch a glimpse of Sie like some crazy fucking fan. Get over here and escort him out of town,
way
out of town.” Asher then disconnected the call and threw the phone into the center console, cursing loudly as he parked the vehicle in front of his garage, where they’d started.

“Oh my God, Asher. I never meant to cause you so much trouble.” Sienna shuddered with a full-body shiver. She felt ice running through her veins, numbing her every feeling and sensation, invoking fear, not just for herself but for her friends.

Asher glanced over, then turned off the engine. “It’s not, love. This guy is just an insane Sienna fan. Don’t let your mind get the best of you. We’ll get rid of him and go away.”

“I’m not sure,” Sienna said while rubbing her temple, massaging the growing ache in her forehead. She wanted to believe Asher, but she thought it was so creepy the way this guy kept popping up. Was Elon looking for her? Would he send this amateur? Would Elon even know how to hire someone competent?

The cowboy was an idiot, but it didn’t mean he’d told Elon where she was. Yet.

Asher insisted they go back inside and wait, and Sienna was in a full-blown panic by the time Mike arrived. From the big bay window at Asher’s, Sienna watched him approach the car, where she had no idea what he said. Then Mike got in his own car and followed the sedan out of the neighborhood.

“Okay, Sienna,” Asher said, interrupting her thoughts. “I see the worry all over your face. We’re still going to Red Rock. We’re going to do what we said and relax and have fun. We’re not going to let this ruin our adventure.” Loosening his jaw and cracking his neck back and forth, he grabbed his car keys.

Sienna had no idea how she was going to control her runaway imagination, but she knew there was no arguing. “Okay, Ash. Give me a minute to use the bathroom and have a drink of water.” She turned on the water and stared at herself long and hard in the mirror once she’d locked herself behind the powder room door. She slowed her breathing, taking deep breaths in and holding them for a moment before slowly releasing them. Talking to herself softly, the water drowning out her words, she calmed her nerves and prepped for the worst.

Before long, Sienna and Asher were making the same trek down the driveway as earlier to their destination, but Sienna knew that guy would be back. She had lots of fans. Fans who watched her all the time, came to the club as much as possible, even tried to get their picture snapped with her.

But no one ever came to her house. Actually, no one knew where she lived because the property was legally titled to Asher. The only way this guy would know that she lived with Asher was if he tracked her down, and not because he was a fan. He was something else. Something sinister.

For the very first time, Sienna faced the prospect that she might have to give up the little slice of happiness she’d created for herself. She wouldn’t drag the few people she’d come to care for into her mess of a past. They didn’t deserve the wrath of her old life.

She’d go on this trip with Asher and as soon as she got back, she’d figure out a new and revised plan, and get out of town for good.

Wednesday

C
ARSON SHIFTED
in his first-class seat, put on his noise-cancellation headphones, and motioned for the airline attendant. A good scotch was in order. It had been a long day, and it was time to block everything out and get straight back to work. He’d spent the last couple of nights in his place in Philly, exercised his very neglected motorcycle, allowing the engine to roar all the way to and from dinner with a buddy. This morning he woke up and took a long run along the Schuylkill to clear his head before traveling to meet with his client, then jumped on the last flight out for the day.

Now he needed to find this damn person and close the case. He wanted to be done with the job and those godforsaken clients even more. He never should have accepted the job, but it played on his heartstrings for some weird reason. He didn’t care if it meant he was a cocksucker; he hated this case. Those people rubbed him wrong every which way, and for fuck’s sake, he only wanted to be rubbed in one way, by one woman. One who was about five foot nine and curvy, with perky and voluptuous breasts, a brilliant smile, and scintillating eyes when she was on the pole, that turned caring when she was at home.

Stripper or not, I want her.

After meeting with his most recent clients, Carson had little more to go on in the case. He was heading back to the West Coast to do more of what he’d already been doing—looking for someone who had disappeared without a trace, who clearly didn’t want to be found, and who obviously was hugely misunderstood by their family.

The only additional information Carson gained on this trip was the victim was married.

Married?

Originally contracted by the immediate family, he thought he was looking for someone unconnected. The parents never brought up a spouse, and the victim was young enough for him not to assume there was one. He never would have guessed they would have left out such a pertinent detail. He didn’t ask because he assumed the family gave him all necessary personal information when he requested it, since they should want to give him everything possible to find their kin.

For a while, he considered childhood abuse of some sort, with the victim hitting the road in early adulthood, but this was something altogether different. A spouse who hadn’t been revealed at his initial meeting was now in the picture, and clearly played a larger role than anyone wanted to admit.

Why didn’t he learn about this earlier?

The spouse was “in denial,” the family said. After seven years? Really? Why didn’t the spouse initiate the case? All of them, the whole damn lot, were hiding something. He had to figure out what, and he wanted to do it fast.

Knocking back a bottle of water and two ibuprofen before ordering a mini bottle of scotch, Carson tried to unwind and clear his mind. If he wasn’t thinking about the case, he was fantasizing about Sienna. He wanted to bypass this little operation in Los Angeles this coming week and head straight to Vegas, but she wouldn’t be there.

That was the only thing stopping him. The only thing.

When he had texted Sienna the night before, she texted back that she left on her spa getaway. He didn’t want to disappear into thin air after the weekend they shared, so he thought a text or two was appropriate. Unfortunately, Sienna was short in her replies because she was with Asher, and he was working. He tried not to be resentful or question the whole scenario.

He had no right. He didn’t fucking own Sienna Flower.

Do I want to? No, she’s a small obsession.

The only thing left to do was try to get some shut-eye before landing. Carson closed his eyes, leaned back, and started going over a plan of action for LA, based on where the family thought their missing relative could be hiding out with a similar God-fearing cult as the one back east.

As he made his plan, his mental checklist went something like this: Rent a car, check into a hotel, hit the streets, scout out a few predetermined neighborhoods, Sienna’s tits.

Shit.
He was so screwed.

Thursday

T
HE ENTIRE
week so far had proven to be largely nonproductive for Carson. He was barking up the wrong tree when it came to this case. He needed to clear his head. But which one?

His need to see Sienna was interfering with everything else in his life, and for what? This would be his last weekend in Vegas. He’d spend some time with her, going as far as she would go, get as much of her body and mind and eyes out of his system, and move on.

He couldn’t let his personal life screw with his work anymore. He’d kissed ass long enough at the Bureau and now he was his own boss, but that didn’t mean he could keep fucking up and not solve cases. He made up his mind to spend the next seventy-two hours with Sienna, and hoped to spend a number of them deep inside her.

Carson was itching to go to the Tunnel as soon as he pulled into his home away from home, his hotel on the Strip, even though he knew Sienna wouldn’t be onstage for hours. He also knew she was already there. Maybe she would let him come back and see her? He wanted to text her and ask, but he didn’t want to look as incredibly desperate as he was.

He decided on a quick workout, steam, shower, bite to eat, and then the club for Sienna’s dance. He was going to ask if he could go back to her dressing room afterward. No doubt.

D
ESPITE THE
rocky start, Sienna had made an effort to relax on the trip to the desert earlier in the week. It was nice to be away with Asher, the only person she could truly be herself around. Except these days, Asher always called her Sienna in public. Way back then when the two of them would get together, she was still Lila to Asher.

Sienna was pretty sure everyone at the hotel had thought the two of them were a couple. They’d shared a room, and had lain next to each other in a little cabana by the pool and indulged in a couple’s massage. The two simply enjoyed each other’s company, and there was a lightness of spirit when they were together.

There was no denying Asher was on high alert for Sienna’s safety, evidenced by his insisting on staying attached to her hip even more than usual.

This actually worked in her favor, because he couldn’t escape Sienna when she asked about Natalie. With a lot of prying, Asher finally opened up about what was really going on with the couple, and now Sienna regretted asking. The situation was so complex, she had no idea how to fix it for Asher.

With little to no experience in relationships, Sienna could only listen to Asher and his crazy story. It was all new to Asher, his life was about to be completely upturned when everything came out in the open, and he begged her for some time to digest it himself before they figured out how to solve it. Good, Sienna thought, because she didn’t even know where to begin.