Pleasing Her Racy Doms [Racy Nights 6] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (16 page)

“Not quite,” said Thayer. “Cherilyn, Dean was able to find out a few things. This guy was part of the same team as Chuck, and now he’s AWOL. He was suspected of feeding troop movements and other key pieces of information to the Taliban. And he had Chuck’s tie. That means either Chuck gave it to him, or he took it.”

Cherilyn couldn’t move. Her feet literally felt like lead. Her entire body suddenly went cold, as though someone had encased her in ice. “I don’t understand,” she whispered.

“Neither does Dean. That’s all he could get out of his contact.”

She shook her head. “No. They don’t suspect Chuck of that. It can’t be true.”

Thayer rose and walked toward her. “I don’t know if they do, Cherilyn. But you know that no one in Racy would ever believe that of him.” He pulled her into arms but his body might as well have been a stone statue. It gave her no warmth or comfort.

“Why did he come here? Why did he have Chuck’s panther tie?”

“We don’t know that, love.” Evan was next to her. She hadn’t even heard him get up or walk over. “But, Cherilyn, this changes nothing. We’re here for you, no matter what.”

“What?” She had trouble processing even the simplest words. Was this what it felt like to lose your mind?

“I said we’re here for you. We’re not going to let anything happen to you.”

“You can’t be with me twenty-four-seven.”

“Yes we can,” said Thayer. He looked at her with the same confident gaze that had first pulled her in. “In fact, let’s go upstairs. You’re going to pack.”

“Huh?”

“Let’s go.” He took her hand and started to lead her toward the stairs. “You’re moving in with me today. We aren’t going to leave you here alone.”

“Thayer, I can’t just do that.”

He stopped walking and looked at her with such hurt that she almost started to cry. “Why not?”

“I…I live here. I…” She glanced around. She hadn’t lived in the truest sense of the word for eighteen months, and suddenly that became reality in a way it never had before. This was the home she and Chuck had shared. Had she truly known him? Was it possible he’d betrayed his own country? No. She didn’t believe that. She never would.

But she didn’t want to stay here anymore. She was afraid to be alone, and if this Jay Nichols person had been in Racy for three weeks, he might have been watching her for that long. She glanced from Thayer to Evan. “Are you sure about this? It’s a huge step.”

Thayer looked relieved and Evan almost smiled. “Cherilyn,” said Thayer, “I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life.”

Packing up what she thought she’d need to live in Thayer’s condo temporarily took longer than she’d anticipated, but the guys never became impatient or tried to talk her out of taking a particular item. In the middle of their packing her cell phone rang. It was her boss, Nancy Barr, telling her that they were finally going to be able to start work in the morning.

If all this hadn’t been going on, Cherilyn would have been happy to return to her normal routine. But now, having to deal with her job in a temporary location felt like one more thorn in a bush full of them. A large bush that was quickly becoming overgrown and would soon choke the life out of her.

“It will be okay,” said Thayer after Cherilyn disconnected the call. “We’ll help you keep an eye on things here. Do you have a spare key you can give one of us?”

“I have several. I’ll give you each one. But what about my mail?”

“Can you walk to the post office at lunch tomorrow and ask them to forward it to my address?”

She nodded. “Sure, but there’s going to be gossip if I do.”

He shrugged. “I don’t mind if you don’t.”

She couldn’t help but smile at the look on his face. He wasn’t upset by that possibility. He really wanted her with him. He wasn’t just doing this because of the fact that Jay Nichols might be watching the town house. A thought occurred to her. “If Nichols abandoned his car, he has no way to get back to Racy.”

“A guy who has fake IDs and isn’t above abandoning a rental he had over two weeks late, or who has no qualms about trying to break into a business or jump into a river to get away won’t have any trouble securing another vehicle.”

Evan was right. This guy would be back. It was simply of question of when.

“You wouldn’t by any chance be trying to get out of moving in with me, would you, sub?” Cherilyn could tell that Thayer was teasing, but she played along.

“Well, I don’t know. What about Evan?”

Thayer pulled her close. “What about him?”

“You’ll have me all to yourself. Where does that leave him?”

“He should have asked you first.”

She laughed. How did they do that? They were able to pull her out of the worst mood within minutes. “Can we invite him for a sleepover?”

Thayer rolled his eyes. “Sure. That would be great fun. Maybe we can paint each other’s nails and talk about boys.”

She snuggled against his body. “The only boys I want to talk about are you two.”

“He’s not going to have you all to himself,” said Evan, giving her a wink. “I’ll camp out on the sofa if I have to.”

“Then I’m in good hands.” Cherilyn smiled at her men. She felt safe and protected when she was with them. Nothing bad would happen to her now. How could it, with both of them watching over her?

After they got her settled into Thayer’s condo, she asked if they needed to return to the gym.

“No,” said Thayer, “Dave is taking care of things. Why don’t we go for a walk downtown? It’s a nice day, and we can see the progress on the rebuilding.”

Cherilyn smiled as she linked her arms in theirs. “That’s a wonderful idea.”

They drove to Riverfront Drive and parked at the gym, and then they walked toward downtown. The day was breezy but not cold. It felt good to be outdoors and breathe in the fresh clean scents of spring, as well as the fragrance of the first flowers. Riverfront Drive hadn’t been affected by the tornado to any serious extent, and now that the trees had leaves, the street appeared to be lined in green.

It was only when they turned the corner onto Market Street that the extent of damage to the plants could be seen in stark relief. There was a clear line where the storm had torn off the tops of the trees. Their dead branches stood like monuments to the power of nature against the sky. Some of them had been cleared away, but not all.

Most of the buildings were now covered in tarps and temporary roofs, but it would be six months minimum before this street came close to resembling what it had once been. It was still hard to believe places like Luke’s Bar, Cathie’s Printing Shop, and Dan’s Bakery were gone. Luke Rodriguez was in the process of renovating an empty space on Riverfront and hoped to reopen his bar next month, but Cathie Snyder and Dan Rutherford hadn’t fared as well. Last Cherilyn had heard, Dan had decided to finally retire and Cathie was trying to run the business out of her home.

“I almost feel like we’re in the way here,” she said. Even though there were other people on the street, and a few had gathered in small groups to watch the workers, Cherilyn felt uncomfortable. It was as though they’d come out to gawk at a bad accident.

“I wonder if they truly can restore the buildings?” Evan asked.

“Maddox said Ellis has assured everyone they can,” said Thayer.

“The money raised at the benefit should help, no?”

Evan smiled at her. “That, and the fact that Maddox and Ellis both have pledged to use as much of their own money as needed.”

“I love it that both of them care about this town so much.”

Thayer gave her a sideways glance full of embarrassment. “Keep this under wraps, okay? My parents have done the same thing. It’s just that they don’t want anyone to know. They contacted Ellis within hours of the tornado striking, as soon as they heard that it had destroyed most of downtown.”

Cherilyn stared at him for a long time, wondering if it was only his parents who had contributed, or if he had as well and simply wasn’t going to brag about it. She’d always felt proud to be from Racy, but when she heard stories like this it made her want to cry. This was a special town because of the people who lived in it. People like Maddox, Ellis, and the two men she was with right now.

“I’m hungry,” said Evan, glancing toward the corner of Market and Riverfront, where Nan’s Place was.

“Oh no,” said Cherilyn. “Two days in a row is most definitely my limit for that kind of food.”

“Then how about Italian? Let’s go to Gino’s.” Gino’s Ristoranti was the closest thing Racy had to a fine restaurant. And Gino was a gym member, so he always made sure he had several dishes on the menu that gave his customers options like lower carb or vegan.

“Sounds good to me,” said Thayer.

* * * *

Cherilyn was so disorganized Monday morning that she was almost late for work. She’d loved sleeping the night before with both Evan and Thayer, but the men had left for the gym at five in the morning, and it had taken her twice as long to get ready for work simply because she wasn’t in her own space. She knew it was temporary, but she was stressed over the whole ordeal.

The warehouse wasn’t quite ready when she arrived, and she and her coworkers spent most of the morning rearranging furniture and making phone calls to try and resolve dozens of issues that had to be taken care of before any real work could be done. She never had a chance to go out for lunch, let alone go to the post office, so when Thayer called in the afternoon to ask her how things were going, she told him she’d have to check her mail on the way back to his place.

He told her that he or Evan would take care of it, and Cherilyn nearly started to cry. She was way too emotional about everything today. Everyone was. People who usually didn’t get upset were barking and snapping at others. It didn’t help that as the workday drew to a close, the computers still weren’t working right.

Cherilyn and Olivia Kelly, one of the other administrative assistants who worked for the city, went in search of Gina Santori around three in the afternoon because the city’s e-mail program had crashed yet again. Gina Santori, sister to Vito, who was the current owner of Gino’s Ristoranti, was head of IT for the city.

They found her in a makeshift storeroom, sitting on a box with her head in her hands, and she was crying. Cherilyn closed the door and she and Olivia pulled over boxes to sit with Gina. Gina was always such a tough cookie that Cherilyn immediately thought something had happened with a family member.

“No.” Gina wiped her eyes, clearly embarrassed she’d been caught crying. “No. I’m just so damn frustrated. I’ve been on the phone constantly with my contacts at Notus since the damn tornado hit. All of this was supposed to be ready today.”

Notus was the power company that owned and operated the wind turbines that supplied most of the power to Racy among other places.

“And it isn’t even that. We have the necessary power. The problem is the lines from the street. That dumbass Bernie Crumb and the rest of the idiot squad who masquerade as city government employees wouldn’t listen to me. I told them what we’d need brought in from the street to make sure everyone had their e-mail and Internet connections working as needed. And now of course that it isn’t, somehow that’s
my
fault.”

“What can we do?” asked Olivia. “Want me to have Harrison and his buddies rough them up for you, hon?”

Cherilyn and Gina laughed. Olivia’s brother Harrison was a sergeant on the Racy police force.

“You think it would work?” asked Gina. “Either that or Vito and I can get our family from Chicago to come here and talk to them.” Gina’s family in Chicago had long been rumored to be connected to the Mafia.

“I think what we all need is a girls’ night out,” said Olivia.

Gina stared from one to the other, a look of gratitude on her pretty face. “I’d like that, you two. Really I would.” She gave Cherilyn a sly grin. “That is, if your two main squeezes will let you out. Vito told me how cozy you three were at his place last night.”

Olivia’s green eyes grew wide. “
What
? Which two guys? Who are they? You didn’t say a word to me all day.”

“We haven’t had time.”

“Never mind that. Spill it. Right now.”

* * * *

Cherilyn wasn’t sure how to broach the subject of going out on Friday night with Gina and Olivia. She wasn’t even sure where they’d go because Luke’s Bar wasn’t ready to reopen yet, and the only other bar in Racy was a rough place where all three women had agreed they wouldn’t be comfortable.

They made dinner together in Thayer’s condo and were eating it when Evan asked her how the first day in the warehouse had gone. “Terrible.” She launched into an explanation of what a mess everything had been, and how she and Olivia had found Gina crying in a storeroom in the afternoon. When she told them how Gina had said Bernie and others had blocked her efforts to have everything ready, Thayer and Evan both shook their heads.

“Doesn’t surprise me a bit,” said Thayer. “Typical response from him and his cronies.”

“She called them ‘The Idiot Squad.’”

The guys laughed. “Perfect,” said Evan. “I always thought Gina was a smart-mouth girl, but it sounds like she can hold her own.”

“That’s right. You two were in the same grade with her, right?”

Evan nodded.

Cherilyn took a deep breath and spoke. “She said something about a girls’ night out. I’m not sure what the protocol is, but would you two mind if I went out with her and Olivia on Friday?”

Thayer gave her a sexy grin and Cherilyn’s panties grew wet. “Protocol?”

“You know what I mean.”

“There’s no protocol, love,” said Evan. “Only rules.”

“Okay then. We didn’t discuss the rule for me going out with my friends.”

Thayer reached over and ruffled her hair. “You’re so damn cute. Of course you can go out with your friends. And thank you for asking us first. We do expect that. But when you get back here, we will also expect your full and undivided attention.”

“Yes, Sir. I shall be more than happy to give you both that.”