Missionary Position (Masters of the Prairie Winds Club Book 7) (10 page)

Fischer sent out a mental call to Peter and knew his brother would come bursting in their office any minute, but his concern for Lara was growing by the second. He hadn’t been overly concerned about the box until the courier had become evasive in his answers. The messenger was obviously nervous about being questioned, but it hadn’t taken Fischer but a few seconds with the young man to know he was telling the truth. The kid was a student working part time at one of the restaurants Fischer frequented, so even though he didn’t know the teen personally, he did recognize him—and the young man would have certainly recognized Fischer as well.

Questioning the messenger had been an exercise in frustration because the kid really didn’t know who the man was who’d paid him to deliver the package. The young waiter had questioned the man about the contents because he’d worried about delivering something illegal but had been assured the small box only contained harmless personal items. The kid’s physical description of the man who had paid him didn’t match the one they had of Lara’s father or grandfather, and Fischer had tapped into the kid’s thoughts enough to
see
the man so he’d known the young man wasn’t lying. If the Prairie Winds team was right and, the Emmons were operatives, they would certainly know how to disguise their appearance, all he’d be able to do was relay what he’d seen. His abilities often posed ethical dilemmas—how much information should be
taken
without the subject’s consent? When did another person’s right to privacy trump other people’s need for information? Fischer had often struggled with these questions, but today had been a no-brainer, anything that kept Lara safe was fair game.

He’d watched as she looked down at the box and all the blood seemed to have drained out of her heart shaped face. She had completely checked out mentally—he hadn’t needed any psychic skills to recognize
that
disconnected look. Damn, he’d had to gently shake her before her eyes had cleared and he’d known she was back with him. Whatever she’d seen had shaken her so badly he just pulled her close and held her until Peter burst into the room.

“What happened? Is she okay?” Peter’s panic surprised Fischer—probably more than it did Lara, because he was accustomed to his brother responding to a crisis by going into what he and Adam teased their middle brother as being his ‘soldier mode’. Peter had been the mediator when they’d been kids and that had carried over into his adult life. When he entered the military, he’d learned to block out the turmoil around him as best he could, and that required him to remain as emotionally level as possible. So seeing him so frightened on Lara’s behalf was playing havoc with Fischer’s own response simply because that sort of energy was very contagious.

Fischer explained about the delivery and then silently updated Peter on what he knew about the young man who’d shown up with the box. What he didn’t know was why on earth Lara had checked out just by looking at her name written on the top of the box. “Baby, can you tell us what has you so upset when you haven’t even opened the box yet?”

When she pulled back, Fischer felt the turmoil rolling off her as Peter pulled her into his arms. “Come on,
mi amõre
, tell us what this means. We can’t help you unless we know who to kill.” Fischer was grateful his brother had found a way to diffuse some of the tension and was relieved to see the corners of her lips turn up in a shy smile.

She finally pushed back, slowly disengaging herself from Peter’s hold and stepping back. God he hated the way she was rubbing her hands up and down her slender arms as if she were cold. Taking her hand Fischer led her to the large window, he’d noticed when he first met her she would make an effort to stand in the sunshine at every opportunity. He’d assumed she’d become accustomed to the tropical climates where she’d grown up, and even though Houston wasn’t exactly the North Pole, the temperatures could be erratic. She gave him a grateful smile and seemed to relax as the sun warmed her pale skin.

“I’m sorry I freaked out on you, but the handwriting on the box is my dad’s and it threw me for a minute.” Both he and Peter waited patiently for her to continue, it was easy to see she’d been thrown by the delivery. “I heard what you said about the messenger and that sort of surprises me because neither of my parents have ever sent me anything other than a post card or letter. And how did they know to send it here? And how did they get it to someone to even have it delivered? And if it’s in my dad’s writing, then I wonder if my mother knows he’s sent it? I really don’t know what to think about this.”

Once she finally took a deep breath, Fischer nodded, “I’m sure I speak for Peter when I say we are wondering some of those same things. And if you don’t mind, we’d like to get the Wests’ team in here before you open it.” She didn’t voice any objections, just continued looking between them and the box. Peter slipped out of the office but Fischer could hear him speaking on the phone before the door leading to the hallway had even closed behind him. “Come on, let’s go check out the back garden. I’m anxious to see how the landscaping is progressing and you can soak up some more sunshine.”

The building that housed Dark Desires was u-shaped and the enclosed back area had always been little more than an eyesore before they decided to utilize the space. Before they’d erected the tall fence that now enclosed the rectangular space, they’d excavated the entire area and then brought in truckloads of topsoil. The landscape designer they’d hired was a Mistress at the club so she had thoroughly enjoyed incorporating small, secluded areas for scenes as well as a couple of more public areas for demonstrations. Hell, the bondage elements she’d incorporated alone were going to make the area popular. He was particularly proud of the netting over the top, it was virtually invisible to the naked eye during daytime hours, but at night it gave the impression of a star-filled night sky. Being able to see the stars in Houston was a rare treat because the lights of the city washed them from view. But the view would help enhance the feeling of isolation for couples who enjoyed the peace and solitude that was so hard to find in larger metropolitan areas. The net had the added benefit of enabling them to keep the area cooler during the hot Texas summers and it also kept it safe from drones with cameras.

Damn those things were becoming a real problem for their security team and an issue they’d need to address in the very near future. Dark Desires prided itself on being ultra-exclusive and a large part of that distinction was their guarantee of confidentiality. They militantly guarded their clientele’s privacy, and no one wanted their picture taken entering a kink club.

Their membership list included wealthy businessmen who didn’t need their reputations tarnished by narrow-minded hypocrites who would exploit their kinks. They also counted a number of politicians and religious leaders among their members and having their lifestyle choices splattered across the tabloids would destroy their reputations as well as the club’s. Micah Drake had mentioned he was working on a signal that would scramble a drone’s ability to navigate as well as electrically scramble any data they were trying to gather and Fischer was anxious to find out how that was progressing.

He and Lara talked about all the plans for the project and how much progress had been made as they walked through the area. They had been easing her into a position in the office and this was one of the first projects she’d been assigned. It was easy to see she was distracted, but Fischer was impressed with her ability to provide him with critical updates even when he knew her mind wasn’t completely focused on their conversation. As they were inspecting the narrow walkways that had already been laid out using native stone, Fischer got a message from Kent letting him know they’d scanned the box and it was safe for him to bring Lara back in the building. She’d seen the text and gasped, “Safe? Scanned? They thought it might be a bomb or something? Holy crap, why would anyone think my dad would do that?”

He stopped and faced her, “Baby, someone could have imitated your father’s handwriting just to fool you. You have to remember, we’re always going to err on the side of the angels when it comes to you—your safety will always be first and foremost.” Fischer didn’t give her a chance to respond, taking her hand he led her quickly back up to the office.

Peter was relieved when Lara appeared marginally more relaxed when she and Fischer returned to the office, even though she did seem surprised to see Kent and Kyle West as well as Jax McDonald and Micah Drake all waiting for her. Micah stepped forward and smiled at her, “Sweetness, the box appears to be clear, but if you don’t mind I’d like to open it for you. I’ll set the contents out for you to look over. Just in case someone has planted a surprise for you.” When Lara nodded, Micah flashed her a big smile, “Such a good girl, perhaps we can get you to prevail upon Gracie and Tobi to follow your example.”

A snort of laughter from the door let Peter know Tobi and Gracie had finally made their way to the office after making what the men had declared, “The Gracie Detour”. He must have looked confused by their remarks because Jax had rolled his eyes and explained, “I swear that woman pees every twenty minutes, by the time the baby gets here she won’t ever get out of the bathroom.” When he’d looked over at Gracie she’d just grinned and shrugged.

Everyone looked on as Micah opened the box and began setting items on the desk for Lara to look at. There were only three things inside, which seemed odd considering the size of the box and the trouble someone had gone to making sure she’d received it. Lara’s gasp when the Bible was set out surprised Peter, “Lara? Why does this surprise you?”

“My dad would not have sent this to me unless he knew he was in trouble—and even then I’m not sure he would have willingly parted with it. He kept it with him always and was continually making notes in the margins—it drove my mom to distraction. She swore someone was going to think he was plotting world domination he took so many notes about the places we lived.” Peter glanced at his teammates and noted they’d obviously keyed in on the same question he had—why the hell would a missionary make so many notes about the people and places they were living? And the fact he’d done it in the margin of his Bible really set off Peter’s alarms. The only plausible explanation was that Lara’s dad was more than he’d appeared to be, and the worrisome part was that he’d evidently involved his daughter.

“What about this?” Micah held up a gold locket and Lara’s eyes widened.

“Wow, I didn’t even look at that. Seeing my dad’s Bible threw me. The locket is one my mom always wore, it was a gift from her mother. It had a small slip of paper inside with a note but I was never allowed to read it.” Lara popped open the small piece of jewelry but the piece of paper that fell out didn’t appear to be old to Peter. When she gently unfolded the scrap, she tilted her head and he saw small frown lines appear between her brows. “This isn’t from my grandmother, this is also in my dad’s handwriting.”

“What does it say, cupcake?” Fischer had moved closer and Peter could feel the tension radiating off his younger brother. He might not have ever been in the military, but the need to be in control was just as firmly ingrained in him as it was each of the former Special Forces operatives in the room.

“It says, ‘
Seek direction from your heritage to find the common thread…Marilyn Monroe, the Beatles, Seals and Croft, James Bond, and Kiss. Feed at eleven.’
What on earth does that mean?” Lara seemed genuinely puzzled when everyone in the room smiled.

Kyle quickly got Carl Phillips on the phone and was reading the note to him while Peter explained, “Carl is a cryptologist. He works for the Prairie Winds’ teams, and he’s always our go-to guy for these things. I swear he’s never met a puzzle he couldn’t unravel.”