[B.S. #2] Bound to Cyn (5 page)

Cinnamon rose from her chair, starting to get peeved at Lance’s stubbornness. Why couldn’t he help her without all the questions? She knew what was best for her. And Angel definitely wasn’t it. “Sorry to bother you with my problems. I think I’ll just take a few days off until this guy is caught and the place settles down.”

Lance stood up, also, knowing he had to give in to her. She would leave and he couldn’t spare her right now. He also didn’t want to worry about her if she took off to places unknown. “OK, you win. I think you’re going about this the wrong way. But if you want to avoid Angel, I won’t say anything. And you can’t go away now. I really need you to take up the slack until this guy is caught. I’ll ask one more question only, and then I’ll let the subject drop. Have you thought that Angel might recognize you anyway? After all, he is a trained detective and according to Clay, he’s also somewhat sighted. He saved their asses numerous times in the army. So I won’t say anything. In fact, if asked about the mysterious Cyn, I’ll say she is on holidays starting today and I don’t know when she is returning. Is that OK with you?”

“Yea, that would be great if you would just pretend we’re not the same person. And I don’t believe in anything mystic.” Reaching the door, she grabbed the handle and turned back. “Thanks, Lance. I know you always have my back. I just have to do what I think is best for me.”

A thoughtful Lance watched as she left. He knew she was making a mistake with Angel, but he would play it her way. He just didn’t think she would get very far with her efforts. Angel looked like a guy that wouldn’t let anything stand in his way. And if Cinnamon thought he wouldn’t recognize her in her normal everyday wear, she would soon find out how wrong she was.

Chapter Five

Angel walked with Clay up to the front door of the Playground that night. Clay seemed to be off his game today, answering back with only grunts whenever Angel talked to him. Putting his hand out, he grabbed Clay’s sleeve just before the first step. “What’s up? All day at the office and the drive here you haven’t said a word that made sense. Are you still having problems with Laura? Is there anything I can do? Is something gone wrong with this case?”

Clay shook himself out of his depressed thoughts. He didn’t have his mind on the case. And that’s what bothered him. All of his life the next mission, and now the next case, was always foremost in his mind. But not since he met Laura. He just couldn’t get her out of his mind. He had been watching her place for the last few days and watched as different men came and went. He wanted to jump from his truck every time he saw them and chase them away, but he had no rights now that Laura had given him his walking papers. “No, there’s nothing wrong with the case. In fact if you want, I’ll take the spice side tonight. You can stay in the vanilla bar where you will feel more comfortable.”

“No, that’s OK. I will take the spice side again. Maybe you should call Laura and clear things up with her. That lady sure has you twisted in knots. James and Avery should be back in a few weeks and it will free up some of your time to court your lady.”

“What makes you think I’m having woman problems? I just thought that you would like the vanilla side tonight. Don’t read more into it than that.” Clay didn’t want Angel thinking too hard on his problems. With Angel, he would probably figure out the problem before he could. And while he liked Angel, sometime his insights were too personal and uncomfortable even if he was right.

“OK, have it your way, but I’m taking the spice side tonight. Although, I still don’t agree with everything that is going on, I’ve learnt from Mark to keep an open mind. And I also want to find a certain lady. She eluded me last night, but I hope she will be here tonight. Don’t forget when you have time to ask Lance about her?”

“Are you telling me that you’re smitten?” Clay ginned at Angel. “I’ll ask Lance. I’m sure that he will know who she is. Let’s get going and look at the feed from last night. Grant said he saw nothing but I’d like to take a look, also.”

Opening the door they walked into the entryway to find Bob, the big bruiser, behind his desk already. He looked more like a prize fighter than a doorman.

“Hi, Bob,” Clay greeted him. “Where’s Lance?”

Bob didn’t return his greeting, just pointed toward Lance’s office.

“You coming to look?” Clay turned to Angel at his side.

“No, you go ahead. I’m going to start looking around the spice side before it fills up. Catch up with you later. And don’t forget to ask Lance about Cyn?”

“OK, OK, I won’t. Just remember while you’re looking for your Cyn, that we are also looking for a wannabe Dom.”

Angel paused as he opened the door to the spice bar. “I won’t. Maybe you should take your own advice and call your lady and settle things.”

Clay opened the door of Lance’s office and thought over Angel’s words. He would
definitely
have to deal with Laura. She was taking too much of his thoughts away from the job.

Finding Lance pacing behind his desk, Clay walked in and took a seat. “Pacing won’t help. We’ll get him. Now how about we look over the feed from last night?”

Lance plopped down in his office chair. “You won’t see anything. I looked over it a while ago with Grant and nothing unusual happened last night. A few men made out with their women in the parking lot, tame stuff, but nothing else. I almost think he knows we put new surveillance cameras up. In fact, I mentioned to Cyn earlier about it. She told me to be patient, too.”

“Well, since you bring her up. I know it’s off-topic, but Angel was asking about Cyn and asked me to find out about her. She must have really made an impression on Angel because women come and go in his life. But I never knew one to peak his interest like this Cyn. So, before we get down to business. Tell me everything you can about her and if she good enough for our Angel.”

“Can’t do it, old man. I made a promise and telling you would break it.” Lance picked up the pictures on his desk and started going over them, not meeting Clay’s eyes.

Clay reached over the desk and put his hand over the picture Lance was looking at. “What do you mean that you can’t tell me anything? Is there something shady about her? Angel’s a great guy, you don’t have to worry about that.”

Lance finally looked up. “Clay, I’ve know you for years and there is nothing I would like better than to tell you. But I made a promise to someone. And if I told you about Cyn, I would be breaking that promise. And it has nothing to do with Angel, not in the way you’re thinking. I think from what I’ve seen of him that he’s a great guy.”

“I realize that you have to keep your promise. But Angel is determined to find this lady. If I don’t come back with something for him, he will dig until he finds out for himself. This lady seems to have snagged the big guy, even if she doesn’t know it yet. Angel will be like a dog with a bone and not let up until he finds her. If she’s a friend of yours, I think you better tell me. Maybe, just maybe we can ward him off. With nothing, she doesn’t have a chance.”

Lance looked at Clay with a serious expression. “I don’t like this, but I think I understand. OK, sit back and I’ll tell you. I trust this will go no further than this office. What you tell Angel will be your problem. I just know that Cyn wants to avoid him.”

Sitting back in his chair, Clay agreed that nothing Lance would tell him would leave this office.

“When Angel met Cyn last night, she was over in the spice bar taking inventory for me. Whenever she goes into my side of the club, I make her dress like the rest of the clients, so she doesn’t stand out. Last night when she met Angel she was wearing a black wig and violet contact lens and dressed, shall we say, provocatively. That’s not her. Not the real Cinnamon.

“She’s a very uptight person. She has become that way because of something that happened to her years ago. I won’t tell you about that because it’s not my story, and if you hear it, it will have to come from her. But anyway, she now dresses down, to divert attention away from her. Her hair is a brushed copper colour, natural, that she twists in a bun so tight that it looks like dirt brown. Her brown eyes that used to sparkle with laughter are now just hollow brown orbs hiding all her secrets.

“She came in here this morning and asked that I not tell Angel anything about her. In fact she would like me to tell him that Cyn is on holiday and I don’t know when she’s coming back. She is avoiding him and doesn’t think he will be able to recognize her without the disguise. What she wears every day is as much of a disguise as the one she wears when she’s at the spice side. I told her it wouldn’t work as Angel seemed to have some special senses that you’ve told me about. But she insisted that it had to be this way.

“She’s a great person, I’ve known her since we were kids. No matter how great Angel is, I will abide by her wishes. And now you have to.”

Clay turned Lance’s story over in his mind. In his opinion, the lady was running scared, but who was he to judge? His love life was in the dumps right now.

“Thanks for telling me. So the story is that this Cyn is a worker here and she is on holidays. I can go with that. Angel is on his own in this, but my money’s on Angel. He just seems to be able to ferret out anything he puts his mind to. Good luck to Cinnamon. I know she’s your friend, but she couldn’t have a better man after her. I think she will find out and in the not too distant future. Now that’s out of the way let’s get back to the pictures and the camera feed. I know you and Grant saw nothing unusual, but I would like to take a look anyway. Another set of eyes never hurt.”

Chapter Six

Angel made his way down the steps into the spice bar. This time he walked as if he knew what he was doing on this side of the club. One thing Mark had told him last night was to look like he knew what he was doing, otherwise the Doms and subs would get suspicious. If they could pick up on his uncomfortable vibes, the man that they were currently looking for would spot him right away. He hoped that he could talk Cyn into taking on the job of teaching him more.

Looking around the bar area, he didn’t spot her and hoped like hell she wasn’t already playing out back. He didn’t think he could handle the thought of another man’s hands on her. He knew he wasn’t being reasonable. He had just met her, but he already felt he had a claim on her. He had dreamt of her all night. In the dream she always seemed to escape his grasp just as he was getting close. He thought he knew what his ancestors felt like, when they went on a hunt for prey. While he didn’t think of Cyn as prey, she wouldn’t escape him. The warrior in his blood would not allow anything but full capture and claiming. He just had to find her.

Walking over to the bar, he gestured to the man standing at the end of it wiping it down. As he approached, Angel sized the man up. The man gave the brute at the front door a run for his money with his hard rough features that said he didn’t take any shit from anyone. This didn’t bother Angel. He’d dealt with a lot of hardheaded men while in the army. Usually he treated them like he didn’t notice anything different about them from anyone else and they usually came around.

“What do you want?” the guy rumbled out in a low gravelly voice. “You’re new around here and I don’t have time to answer any questions a newbie would ask. Go ask Lance or Mark. I’m sure that they would be glad to help you.” Turning his back to Angel, he started to walk back down to the other end of the bar.

“I’m not a newbie. If you treat all the customers that way, I’m sure Lance will have to close his door soon.” Angel knew he couldn’t give this guy an inch since he was the type to walk all over a person if he had a chance.

The guy wandered back and gave Angel a look that would have had a lesser man quivering in his boots.

“Is that so? I’ve been in the army and broken men bigger than you under my command. So I would watch what comes out of that mouth of yours. Lance only pays me to make drinks, not put up with the bullshit that goes on in this place. So if you have anything to say, think first and make sure it’s something I want to hear.” The guy had to look up at Angel as he towered over the gruff man by at least a foot.

“You remind me of a Sergeant in the army that I heard about. His name was Talbot. He was a mean son of a bitch, but a fair one.”

“That’s me. How did you know? You psychic or something?” The guy had now turned his gruff look to interest.

“No, I’m not psychic. I was in the army in the D Special Covert Ops Division and your reputation precedes you.”

“That’s the unit that got into a lot of shit and discharged. That’s what I heard anyway. Got caught with your nose where it didn’t belong.” Talbot was back to being an asshole in Angel’s opinion.

Angel felt his back starting to tense up. They had been discharged but not through any fault of theirs. They had been fed faulty information and thanks to Brad’s great sniper vision, he had just winged the woman without too much damage.

“That’s right, we were discharged, but we were a hell of a unit, still are. I’ve just joined the club on an invite from Clay Taylor, another member of our unit. You might have seen him here a few nights ago. He’s Lance’s friend.”

“Yeah, I saw him. If you’re ex-army from Clay’s unit, you must be OK. What do you want to know?” The man seemed to back down at the mention of Clay’s name. Clay had also made himself quite the reputation in the army. “I really have to get ready for tonight’s rush. Which in my estimate will be starting shortly.”

“I’m looking for a woman that I met here last night. She was behind the bar taking inventory. She’s about five-seven with long black hair and violet eyes.”

“Sorry, chum, don’t know anyone with that description. Your best bet would be to ask Lance. Maybe she’s a new hire. Good luck.” With that he turned and this time walked to the end of the bar.

Turning away from the bar, Angel spotted the last person he thought he would see. Standing just inside the entrance door on the top step was Chase. He looked so out of place. Taking in Chase’s nervous glances around the room, Angel almost laughed but couldn’t when he remember his first reaction to seeing this place.