[B.S. #2] Bound to Cyn Read online

  “OK, I believe you, but remember that property was also hiding the two-million-dollar stash of his drugs that he lost. So maybe in Carlos’s mind, you ripped him off for the two million dollars and he wants it back now. I don’t know what we can do to protect you other than you working this case with us and keeping close at hand.”

  Chase, his hopeful expression gone at Angel’s words, looked intently at his hands holding his coffee cup “Well, I do like the excitement of your work. But the more I work with you guys, the more I think it would be a good idea to take some training. After all, you guys got your training in the army. I just climbed the corporate ladder, which does not really equip a fellow for this line of work. What do you think? I could go someplace off the radar and train. Next time, I would be able to help you more and also protect myself. The investment business is getting to be a petty cutthroat business.”

  I think that’s a great idea. With you gone and safe, we will be able to concentrate fully on the guy stalking the club. We’ll maybe even figure out Carlos’s involvement in this business and if it does concern you.

  Angel turned to Brad and asked, “Brad, don’t you know a little place out of the country that Chase could go train and get up to speed?”

  Do you mean Sam’s? I’m sure she could get him up to speed in a couple of months. Her place is protected like Fort Knox’s. No one would suspect him being there or be able to reach him. Sam will keep him safe. I think it’s a great idea,” Brad replied with a grin.

  “Don’t I get a say in this?” Chase butted in on the conversation. “This Sam that you’re talking about is a woman. Even if she is an Amazon, I don’t think I like the thought of having a woman training me. Call me old-fashioned but I like my women soft and cuddly, not GI Janes.”

  “Chase, you are not going there to be your usual charming self. You have to take this serious if you want to join us and train with the best. I think we are the best, but we don’t have the time to properly train you. Also, James might have a say in that, if we tried. This way you can just disappear on a holiday. That’s what we’ll tell James if he asks. You’ll be safe from whoever is bothering you and receive the best training outside of the army. And Sam’s is the best. After she left the army herself, she started her training facility. She only takes on the men or women recommended to her. As it is, we might have to do some fast talking to her. But being James’s brother, you might get a pass.” Angel wanted Chase to know this had to be a serious endeavor, not something to take lightly.

  “OK, OK, if you say so, and I think it is best to keep James out of it. He has enough with Avery keeping him on his toes. But can you at least tell me more about this woman? You don’t have to worry about me bringing out the charm. If she’s an Amazon, they have never appealed to me.”

  “Remember our story of being discharged from the army from faulty information and a woman getting shot? Well, that woman was Sam. She was on her own mission in the village at the time. She was screwed by the brass just like we were. Her mission was to get close to an informant living in the village. But that ended after she was shot by Brad. While on medical leave, the big brass decided that she had been careless and shouldn’t have gotten shot. I don’t know why they thought she would know we were in the area any more than we knew she was there, but she was discharged also. That day cost the army some of their best, just because a pencil-pushing higher up wouldn’t be man enough and admit to the fuck up.” Angel was getting angry just thinking about the injustice to the unit and Sam.

  “OK. If Brad can arrange it, I will leave as soon as possible. I really would like to help you on this mission, but I think I can be more valuable if properly trained. Dad and James can’t know anything about it. My firm will be OK for a couple of months. I will leave my VP Charlie in charge and give her Grant’s contact only in case of an emergency. If that’s OK with Grant?” Chase looked around the table as he spoke.

  Brad pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and in a couple of minutes he was speaking to the mysterious Sam. After the usual pleasantries were exchanged, he asked about her taking Chase on. He seemed to mention James’s name a lot, but finally he smiled and snapped the phone shut. “All set. You can leave anytime. Sam is looking forward to training you.” His eyes didn’t meet Chase’s. He just looked at Angel with a twinkle in his eyes.

  “OK, I’ll leave you to plan. I will just go to my office and set things up for my time away and get packed. Where am I going anyway?” Chase asked of Brad.

  “Don’t worry. I will arrange the jet to be ready in three hours. That should give you enough time. Sam will look after you. You’ll come back a new man and no one will ever know where you went, even you. Sam wants it that way,” Brad told him as he dialed their pilot to get the plane ready.

  Chase got up from his seat, looked around at the guys and told them, “I wish I could stay and help, but good luck with the case.” Whistling, he left the office.

  Angel and the guys just looked at each other and grinned. Chase didn’t know what awaited him on the other end of the plane ride. What they wouldn’t give to see his face when he got his first glimpse of Sam, all five-foot-two of her.

  Angel wiped the grin off his face and picked up the picture of the man in front of him on the table. Looking at the face staring back, Angel wondered what his story was.

  Chapter Twelve

  They spent a couple of hours going over everything they knew and trying to get into the mind of the attacker at the club and then called it quits. Grant would go back to surveillance of the club parking lot from his office, and Brad was off to meet a new client. Angel had to get back in his leathers and be at the club before it opened.

  Walking Angel to the elevator, Grant asked him, “Would you like me to check out Cinnamon’s background? I’m going to start digging more into the background of the female members for any connections and adding her to the list would be no problem.”

  Angel told him “No, I’ll get to know her the old-fashioned way. Any woman who looks like Cinnamon can’t have many secrets. I should be able to pick up a few things without having to invading her privacy.” Grant nodded and took his leave.

  Angel arrived at the club just in time to see a very agitated Lance, yelling at a car just pulling away. Angel glanced at the person in the car and caught a glimpse of Cinnamon, and she didn’t look happy. Hurrying up the steps to Lance, he asked him what the hell was going on.

  “That’s a loaded question I can’t answer. I really don’t know. Let’s go into my office.” Turning, Lance grabbed the door to the club and jerked it open. Angel followed him past Bob into his office. Lance rounded his desk and flung himself into his leather chair and gave a loud sigh.

  Angel took a seat across from him and waited while the man ran his hand though his hair and muttered to himself. Angel could see he was deeply disturbed with whatever had taken place between him and Cinnamon.

  Finally, Lance sat up in his seat and stared at Angel. “I really don’t need this right now with Cinnamon. I don’t know what she’s thinking. Right now we need everyone on their toes, especially you with Clay being sidelined with Laura. I understand his choice, I would do the same. But the club’s very existence is in jeopardy. We have to find this guy. People are already starting to call and cancel scenes set up weeks ago. The ladies are getting too scared to come to the club.”

  “We’ll deal with the guy, don’t worry. I want to know what happened between you and Cinnamon. I watched her fly out of the parking lot. I thought you were best friends. What happened? When I left her this morning, she didn’t mention anything bothering her.” Angel’s first concern was with Cinnamon.

  “All I know is, I walked into her office shortly after she arrived. I was going to ask her to take inventory again, but she was on the phone talking to someone when I arrived. After she hung up the phone, she just started off into space. I waited a few minutes, but when she didn’t seem to acknowledge me standing there. I walked back to the door and slammed it. That go
t her attention. You would have thought she had been sleeping, she was so startled. Suddenly she just stood up, gathered her purse and coat, and said she was leaving. I grabbed her arm as she walked past me and I noticed an almost dazed look on her face. I asked her what was up. She just pulled her arm from my hold, looked up at me, and said she wasn’t staying in a place where they manhandled their workers. I followed her out to the parking lot to her car. She just turned back at me with this look on her face. I really can’t describe but it…I know it’s not a look I’ve seen Cinnamon have lately. She told me to leave her alone and jumped in her car. You saw the rest. I don’t know what to make of it. I didn’t manhandle her, and she is my friend and part-owner of the club. I have never referred to her as one of the workers here. I’m lost. Did anything happen between you two last night? I know you stayed the night at her house.”

  “Nothing happened last night, except Chase came over and was talking about some strange phone calls he was having. We had a meeting today, and he has left the country on vacation while we sort this out. Come to think of it, she did act a bit strange this morning and dazed as you mentioned. She was in a hurry to get rid of me. I thought she just had a lot on her mind and wanted to discourage any talk of last night. I was going to question her more carefully today when I saw her. Maybe I should go after her and find out what’s up?” Angel rose from his chair, anxious to follow Cinnamon.

  “Sit back down,” Lance told Angel. “I know how you feel. I want to follow her, too. But I think she’s safe until tonight and we have to concentrate on the club. The sooner we nab this guy, the more time we can spend on Cinnamon. You are the only one of the group that still has a cover here, so we have to continue. Grant sent me clearer shots of the guy and his name. I understand from Grant that it might be connected to your last job, the takedown of the drug lord.”

  “We don’t know for sure yet,” Angel told him sitting down.

  “I don’t think so. We are a BDSM club for God’s sake. I have never, nor would I ever have, any dealing with any drug lord. There has to be something else going on here. I looked at the man’s picture closely and I think I have seen him before, but not here at the club. It isn’t coming to me right now, but give me time. I will remember him. With his looks he can’t have been inside the club. He would have stood out and been shown the door by Bob, if not one of the Doms in this place.”

  “I guess Grant didn’t tell you all that he found out. This guy in the picture was the second-in-command of a cult. The leader was some Ward Comming, who died recently in jail. Still, it doesn’t make sense him stalking this club.” Angel stopped as he could see Lance stiffen up and rise from his seat.

  “Did you say Ward Comming and a cult? God, don’t let it be so.” Lance got up and was now pacing behind his desk. Grabbing chunks of his hair and pulling, he looked like a very disturbed man.

  Seeing how agitated Lance was, Angel stood up from his chair and looked at him. “Does this information mean something to you? More than just some scumbag that’s preyed on people?”

  Lance, not stopping with his pacing, turned to look at Angel. “It’s really not my story to tell, and I hope to God it has nothing to do with her. But this guy coming out of the woodwork, shortly after the Ward guy is killed, is just too much to be a coincidence.”

  “Lance, spit it out. Does this have anything to do with Cinnamon? Come on, man, she is out there alone right now. If it has some connection that you know of, spill it. And sit down. You’re making me nervous and we have to think clearly.” Angel sat back down but kept his body forward in the chair, waiting for Lance to speak.

  Lance resumed his seat and grabbed the phone. Picking it up, he pushed a button and spoke to someone first, then looked at Angel.

  “I need a drink. I’ll explain, but I thought this part of her life was over and done with.” A knock on the door stopped his conversation. A pretty sub walked in, carrying a tray with two glasses and a bottle of Jack Daniels on it. Lance thanked her and poured himself a drink as he watched her close the door.

  Lance took a large swallow of the liquor, that brought tears to his eyes, then he coughed and resumed the story.

  “Cinnamon and I are friends from way back. We were both products of parents with too much money and no time for children. We lived a block away from each other and met when our nannies were in the park with us. We bonded right away.”

  At Angel’s uptight look, Lance clarified, “I mean, we bonded as brother and sister. We both had so much in common, with our parents the way they were. We spent long summers playing in the park. We both went to strict boarding schools but got together a lot when we were kids.”

  “You were just friends?”

  Lance nodded. “Friendship is too small a word. I would say allies fighting on the same side of the same war, but yes, nothing romantic ever happened between us.”

  Angel released a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding. He was glad that he didn’t have to be jealous of Cyn and Lance’s relationship. “Please continue.”

  Lance took another sip of his drink. This part of the story was harder to tell. “We kind of lost touch when she went away to collage across the country. The odd letter or call was exchanged for years. Then one day out of the blue, I got a call from Cinnamon. She was in California and in trouble and asked for my help.”

  “Why would she call you after being out of touch for so long?”

  Lance shrugged. “Maybe because she knew I was the only one she could count on? Of course I grabbed the first plane and went to her. I found her in jail with a bunch of losers. She didn’t look that great herself. I found out after she got out of college she joined a cult.”

  “A cult?”

  Lance nodded. “Did you ever hear on the news about a man named Ward Commings?”

  “Cyn was in The Church of Lost Souls?” Angel asked. Now he knew why he recognized Ward Coming’s name. Ward and his cult of followers were on all the news reports a few years ago. Their weapons bust by the Feds was one of the largest in American history.

  “Yes.” Pausing for another drink, Lance continued. “She was one of sixty members arrested when the Feds raided their compound. What the followers didn’t know, but found out later, was that they were more lost after they joined up with Ward then they were before. When the raid happened they were penniless and dirty. Ward Cummings took their money and their dignity. They were living in a commune without running water or hydro. The ‘evils of modern life’ he told them. Anyway, he had used their money to buy arms parts off the black market. He said it was for the protection of the group but then had the members reassembled the parts and then sold the guns at the market along with their homemade jams, jellies and fresh vegetables. This went on for quite some time.”

  “If he had his followers so brainwashed, how did the Feds get wind of the operation?”

  “Someone who purchased a bad gun complained to the authorities.” Lance stopped and looked down at his glass in his hand then at Angel.

  “Continue.” Angel needed to know the whole story if they needed to help Cyn.

  “Well, the Feds stepped in and this Ward, who lived off the commune in a mansion, took the rap.”

  “Why would he do that?”

  “Because he was the top man, and Ward liked that being known. And besides there was no one else that could take the blame. The V.P., Howard, didn’t live the high life so they couldn’t pin it on him either.” Lance frowned. “But for a while, it looked like Cinnamon might be charged with Ward as she had been his favorite lady.”

  “What?” Angel was livid. It was one thing to get caught up in a cult and another to be seen as the “first lady.”

  “Remember, she was a mess. He had played with her mind so much that she wasn’t the Cinnamon I knew before. At the trial it was hard to tell if she really knew what was going on. She just wanted to go back to her hut and look after her garden. We thought at first it was drugs. But tests proved this wrong. The only time she seemed to come
alive is when she would look at Ward in court. It took some legal side stepping and a lot of praying for the Feds to believe she wasn’t in on the scheme. The thing that saved her in the end was that she never lived with him in the mansion and she was clearly under some sort of mind control. After the trial, the Feds wanted to put her in a mental institute.”

  Angel shuddered. “Cyn doesn’t belong in a mental institute.”

  “Not any more she doesn’t.” Lance chucked humorlessly. “This is where I have to give our families credit. Although they didn’t want anything to do with the trial, afterward they did supply enough money for me to get Cinnamon help and in my custody. The first year was spent visiting head doctors. I really didn’t have too much hope. But after a few months she started to come around.”

  “Thank God they were able to help her.”

  “Yeah it was touch and go for a while, but the Cyn I knew came back to us, mostly. Once she was ninety-nine percent herself, it was just like the old days again, me and her against the world. We spent so much time together building up our friendship again. We talked about everything. Eventually we got talking one day about relationships. She always knew I was a little kinky.” Lance chuckled again, this time with a smile.” I told her about the clubs that I had explored all over America during the years while we had been apart. Our talk that day sparked an interest in me to start a club that would allow me to practice my lifestyle.”

  “And the VSP was born.” Angel smiled. He could only imagine how that confession had gone over with Cinnamon, and the fancy footwork it must have taken to get her involved.

  “Yes, in part. While Cinnamon wasn’t completely sold, she decided that the club should have an alternative spot, for people that support us, but weren’t into the scene like I was. So we started the first Vanilla and Spice Private Playground. Homesickness finally brought us back to Detroit. This club was to be our home base and a place where we were going to finally put down roots.”