She stilled, her blood running cold.

“That’s right. Good girl.” He ran his other hand over her bared shoulder, the scar. “So, have you missed me?”

TWENTY

now

Jace bent at the waist, hands on knees, and wheezed with yet another fit of laughter.

Reid gritted his teeth. “Are you done yet, asshole? Because I could use a little help here.”

Reid had tried unsuccessfully to free himself from the cuffs Brynn had secured him with. But all he had to show for it was a whole lot of sweat and a bent sofa bed frame. Jace had been his last resort before calling staff. Now, he wondered if staff may have been a better option.

Jace coughed, trying to get a hold on his laughter. “Dude, I’m sorry. But this is funny as shit. At least she only cuffed you and didn’t stick a plug in your ass or something. What the hell did you do to inspire this?”

Reid laid his head on the pillow and stared at the scattered papers in front of him. “She went through my bag. Saw that I’m working on an appeal for the guy who’s in jail for her mother’s murder.”

Jace’s tone turned serious. “And you didn’t tell her?”

Reid craned his neck and shot him a lethal glare.

Jace raised his palms. “Okay, okay. Not my business. Let me look for the keys.”

After a few minutes of searching, Jace found what he was looking for and released Reid from the bed. Reid wrapped the sheet around his waist and rubbed his reddened wrists. “I seriously fucked up this time, man.”

“Well, that’s obvious.” Jace straddled one of the dining room chairs and frowned. “What haven’t you told me?”

Reid sighed, then spilled the whole story. He hadn’t told Jace from the start about the appeal because he knew his friend would’ve never agreed to get him into the club under those pretenses, but he needed to come clean now.

Jace stayed silent a full minute after Reid stopped speaking, his expression neutral as he processed the information. “So you didn’t come here to help Brynn and win her back like you told me? You came because you needed to know where your star witness was?”

“Yes. No.” Reid scrubbed a hand through his hair. “I don’t fucking know anymore. Most of it was because I needed to know where Kelsey was and, I won’t lie, part of me wanted revenge on Brynn for hurting me all those years ago—I couldn’t wait to remind her what she’d walked away from.”

“But…”

Reid sighed. “But the other part of me couldn’t stand the thought of her submitting to someone else. Couldn’t pass up the chance to touch her again.”

“And now you’re so gone on her, you can’t even see straight.”

Reid recoiled. “No, it’s not like that.”

Jace smirked, the simple gesture cutting through all the bullshit Reid had been telling himself.

Reid closed his eyes and shook his head. “Fuck.”

His friend’s smile turned sympathetic. “Come on, get dressed and we’ll go find your girl.”

Reid had never seen so many naked bodies in one place. The Bacchanal had only started an hour ago, but the guests hadn’t wasted any time getting down to business. Some were dancing, others were sloshing around naked in a large vat, crushing grapes, and the rest were in the grass, fucking in full view. The scent of earth and sex permeated the air, mixing with the sounds of carnal indulgence.

The decadent scene was the stuff of fantasies, but for Reid it was more nightmare than dream at the moment. Finding Brynn in the mass of people was going to be a challenge—especially when she didn’t want to be found.

“Looks like we’re missing quite the party,” Jace said as Reid scanned the crowd for Brynn.

“Do you see her anywhere?”

His friend frowned. “I don’t know how we’re going to be able to pick her out with all this going on. But Grant’s over there by the food. I’ll go ask him if he’s seen her. That guy doesn’t miss much.”

“Yeah, good idea,” Reid said. “I’ll go with you. I’m not going to get anywhere with this method.”

Grant smiled at the two of them as they walked up. Unlike everyone else, he was clothed in his usual jeans and plaid shirt. Reid didn’t know him very well, but based on his interaction so far, he sensed the man didn’t let his guard down very much even at his own resort.

“Evening, fellas. Decided to join the fun?” he asked, sipping on some orange-colored drink.

“Actually, I’m looking for Brynn,” Reid said, keeping his eyes on the crowd. “Have you seen her?”

“I figured she’d be back with you by now,” Grant said, drawing Reid’s attention back to the man in front of him. “I found her sitting by herself on the far side of the property earlier—pretty pissed at you I might add. I got her to walk over here with me, but then she left not long after. I thought she was on her way to find you to work things out.”

“No, I haven’t seen her.” Reid blew out a frustrated breath. “Shit.”

“How long ago did she leave?” Jace asked. “Was she by herself?”

Grant shrugged. “’Bout half an hour or so, I’d guess. And yeah, she was alone.” He looked back and forth between the two of them, his brow furrowing. “Is everything all right?”

Jace clapped a hand on Reid’s shoulder. “Yeah, it’s fine. Reid’s just gone and ticked off his woman. Nothing new. I’m sure she’ll make her way back to the cabin at some point. Let us know if you run across her before we do, though, will ya?”

“Sure, no problem.”

Reid was ready to head out on his search again, but the way Grant was looking at him gave him pause. “What’s wrong?”

He sipped his drink and frowned. “I know it’s none of my business, but you need to be careful.”

“What do you mean?”

He shrugged. “You push a girl like Brynn too hard and she’ll run like a frightened rabbit. She needs a dom who can draw out her submission without crushing whatever’s so fragile inside her.”

Reid bristled—who the hell did this guy think he was? The Dr. Phil of BDSM? “Look, I appreciate your concern, but you don’t even know her.”

The corner of Grant’s mouth lifted. “You run a place like this long enough, and you learn how to read people. I’m only trying to help.”

Reid nodded, his throat tightening, and turned on his heel to head away from the party. He didn’t have time to be psychoanalyzed.

Jace followed behind. “Any thoughts on where she might’ve gone?”

“Not a fucking clue. I guess we can check each of our cabins first. She doesn’t have a car, so she couldn’t have gone too far.”

As soon as Reid’s cabin came into view, his phone vibrated against his leg. He halted his step and yanked the cell from his pocket. Unknown number.

“Hold up, Jace.” Reid put the phone to his ear. “Hello.”

Silence for a few seconds then: “Reid?”

His shoulders sank with relief. “Brynn, look, we need to talk. I’m sorry about everything. I know I should’ve told you. I was wrong. Just please, give me a chance to—”

“Reid, stop,” she said, her voice shaking a bit. “I don’t want to talk about it right now, okay?”

He frowned. Was that… road noise in the background? “Where the hell are you?”

A long pause. “I’m on my way home. I—I, uh, called a cab. I couldn’t find Kelsey. I don’t think she’s at the resort after all, so I’m going home.”

“You called a cab?” He started pacing, and Jace stepped out of his path. “What the hell, Brynn? You know I would’ve driven you home.”

“Don’t you get it? I don’t want to be around you right now. And I don’t exactly have ruby slippers to click my way home. So yeah, a cab.”

“Brynn—”

“Good-bye, Reid.”

The line went silent.

“Son of a bitch!” he yelled to no one in general.

Jace winced. “She bailed?”

Reid kicked a nearby shrub, sending leaves flying. “She’s on her way home. Called a goddamned cab.”

“I’m sorry, man. That sucks,” Jace said, wisely keeping his distance. “Maybe she just needs a little space to cool off.”

“Screw space. The minute Brynn gets back into her little world, she’s going to talk herself out of everything that happened this weekend. She’ll put me back in that little I-hate-you box she keeps me in.”

“You’ll never catch up with her.”

Reid cocked an eyebrow at him.

“Uh-oh, why are you giving me that look?”

Reid flashed his teeth. “No, not in my car.”

Jace’s crossed his arms over his chest. “No way, you’re out of your fucking mind. Only my hands touch the steering wheel of my baby. I’ve seen the dings on your car.”

“You either give me the keys or come with me,” Reid said, staring his friend down.

Jace sighed and pulled his keys out of his pocket. “Come on, but I’m driving and if my car ends up with so much as a scratch, I’m posting the cell phone pictures I took of you tonight on the Internet.”

He narrowed his eyes. “You didn’t take pictures.”

His lip curled. “Never underestimate my penchant for blackmail.”

The purr of the engine filled the car as Jace’s Dodge Viper devoured the open highway in front of them. Reid punched Brynn’s number into his phone again, hoping his persistence or at least her annoyance would make her pick up the phone. But all he got was the same voice mail greeting he’d heard the last three times. He hung up without leaving a message and barely resisted the urge to bang the phone into pieces against the dashboard. “We should’ve caught up to her by now.”

Jace had been driving like a Nascar champion since they’d left The Ranch, but so far, they’d only passed a handful of cars on the pitch-black road—and no cab. His friend frowned, but didn’t take his eyes off the highway. “Maybe they stopped at a gas station or something and we passed them.”

“The two stations we’ve passed so far looked empty. Maybe you just need to go faster.”

Jace shot him a you-gotta-be-fucking-kidding-me look. “Any faster and we’re going to break the sound barrier. I’m trying to get you to Brynn with all our limbs still intact.”

Reid gave a derisive snort and stared at the taillights of the black SUV they were gaining on. Jace cut into the left lane and glanced over as they passed the vehicle. “Huh. Looks like we aren’t the only ones skipping the Bacchanal tonight.”

“What do you mean?” Reid turned to look over his shoulder, but the Escalade was quickly becoming a black dot in the distance, the large vehicle no match for the high-powered sports car.

Jace shrugged. “That was Davis Ackerman. He’s a member at the club.”

Reid grimaced. “Seriously? Women actually sleep with that dirtbag?”

“Some,” Jace said, his tone wary. “But Grant has had to work hard to find him matches. Davis’s proclivities are pretty fucked up from what I’ve heard.”

Reid smirked. “Let me guess, he’s into extreme humiliation? He always excelled at doing that at work.”

“More than that,” Jace said as he passed another vehicle. “He wants the pain sluts—girls who claim they don’t have limits. A few weeks ago, Grant had to call in a medic because Davis had bitten a girl’s neck so hard, it had gushed blood. He’s been warned twice about biting.”

“Jesus.”