Blake, Abby - Maya's Masters [Viper's Dungeon 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (16 page)

* * * *

Derek shook his head as Cam climbed into the backseat of the squad car. He really didn’t want to explain what he’d learned in the past five minutes. But Cam loved Maya—even if he hadn’t said it yet, it was obvious in everything he said and everything he did—and deserved to know what was happening.

“The drug squad thinks the street gang is just an offshoot of the real crime gang in this town. From the names they gave me, the kid we thought was the leader is probably the son or maybe kid brother of the top man.”

For a moment Cam looked angry enough to demolish an entire building with his bare hands, but somehow he pulled the emotion under control and asked for more details.

“When did Logan and Viper go in?”

“Two and a half minutes ago.”

“Has there been any noise or commotion? Shouting? People moving or loading vehicles quickly?”

“Not yet,” Derek answered, hoping the two police officers watching the building were doing their jobs. They couldn’t see anything from here, and moving the vehicle closer risked tipping off the men inside the building.

“Okay, I’m going to circle around the back of the building,” Cam said as he quietly left the vehicle.

“Don’t be in there when the police arrive.”

Cam nodded, and despite his huge size and injured knee, somehow managed to disappear into the night.

* * * *

Maya couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing. Elise, eyes red from crying but seemingly unhurt, sat in a large chair in an overly decorated, ostentatious office, surrounded by a half-dozen boys pretending to be men.

She didn’t recognize the young man whose nose she’d broken—it had been too dark to see properly that night, and it was why he’d never been charged with breaking and entering—but figured he was the one with the fading bruises from two black eyes. He stepped over to her and tried to intimidate her with his height. Since he was barely two inches taller than her, and nowhere near the imposing height and muscular physique as either of her men, Maya actually found it hard not to laugh.

A hysterical reaction perhaps, but one that earned her a solid slap across the face.

“On your knees, bitch.”

“As soon as you let Elise go, I’ll do whatever you want.”

The kid started laughing, the sound mocking and cruel. “Nah, we decided the sweet thing can stay. Wouldn’t want her to miss the party.”

He turned to his friends, smiling and encouraging them to laugh with him. Maya took the opportunity to place herself between them and Elise.

“Oh, look at that. She’s gone all momma bear on us. You think you can take us all on, whore? Think you gonna win?”

The door opened behind the youth taunting her, but the man who stepped through scared the hell out of her. This wasn’t some kid. He looked hard and dangerous and completely pissed off.

“Junior, what the fuck is all this?”

“Just…ah…teaching a couple of bitches their place, Dad.”

The older man cuffed his son hard across the back of his head. “Stupid fucking kid!” He walked over to stare at Maya a moment and then turned back to his son. “This the one from the restaurant?” When his son nodded, the guy belted the kid across the head again. “I told you to leave that alone. Fuck. You’re as stupid as your whore of a mother.” Maya felt a twinge of sympathy for the kid—despite the threat he’d posed moments ago. He seemed barely seventeen and, if his father’s behavior tonight was anything to go by, couldn’t have had a very happy life.

“Get out. Take your loser friends with you.” The group of young men who’d posed such a dangerous threat a few moments ago now seemed no more than chastised children. The man’s son left the room last, slamming the door angrily.

But then the older man turned back to Maya, finally seemed to notice Elise curled in a ball in the chair behind her, and then gave them both a friendly smile. “I apologize for my son’s reckless actions. He had no cause to bring you here. I’m very sorry.”

Surprised by his words, Maya felt a very small amount of relief drip through her.

But it evaporated instantly when the man lifted a handgun off the table and aimed it at her head.

* * * *

Cam crept around the outside of the building. So far he’d located at least four “security” guards. They wore standard-looking uniforms, but the fact that they carried automatic weapons and stayed in the shadows suggested they weren’t at all what they seemed.

Fortunately, they weren’t very well trained either. Or at least Cam assumed that was the case since they were all currently sleeping and their weapons emptied of ammunition. Cam smiled. He’d recognize Logan’s handiwork anywhere.

He caught up to Viper and Logan a few moments later. Despite the fact that Cam hadn’t been on active duty in over six months and Viper had been a civilian for many years, the three of them quickly fell into a workable team.

They managed to enter the back door using a set of keys they’d lifted from one of the security guards and quietly crept into the building. Drawn by the sound of an angry male voice, Cam, Viper, and Logan headed in that direction.

* * * *

Maya held the young woman as she screamed. It had all happened so fast, she wasn’t even sure exactly what had happened. One moment the guy was pointing a gun at her head. The next, her ears were ringing from the loud sound of the gun being shot, but unless she was mistaken the bullet had somehow missed her. The guy had crumpled to the floor unconscious a moment later, and then Cam was standing in front of her.

She blinked, wondering if maybe she was hallucinating and seeing what she wanted to see rather than what was right in front of her, but no matter how many times she closed and opened her eyes, Cam still stood there with that cocky grin.

Viper nodded, winked, and disappeared out the door.

Elise’s screams finally stopped, but the absence of sound just magnified the ringing in Maya’s ears. Never again did she want to be that close to a discharging weapon.

“Maya,” Cam whispered quickly, “the drug squad is about to raid the building. Derek will be with them. Stay in here. Stay calm, and keep your head down. We were never here.” He turned to leave, but then turned back, grabbed her quickly and pressed a kiss to her lips. “I’m glad you’re safe.”

“Thanks to you,” Maya said as the realization of how close she’d actually come to dying zipped through her.

“Actually,” Cam said with that oh-so-familiar, cocky grin that made her ache to hold him, “it’s thanks to you. If you hadn’t gotten that text to Bianca, we might never have found you.”

“That was pretty clever,” Viper said as he ducked his head back into the room and signaled for Cam to hurry up. But of course, Viper being Viper, he added in his big-brother-style teasing tone, “Bianca always said you two would be able to text blindfolded. I’m glad to find out she was right.”

Cam grabbed his cell phone, dialed Derek, and explained where they were inside the building, and then he and Viper left as quietly as they’d arrived. They were gone for less than ten seconds when Derek came into the room. He spared a smile for Maya and then stood protecting her and Elise as the drug squad officers raided the building and did their job.

* * * *

Two weeks later Cam watched from the doorway as Maya slept in Derek’s arms.

It had literally taken days to get through the official police process of making a statement, but the good news was that the overwhelming amount of evidence most likely negated Maya and Elise’s need to testify in court. The gang had been under police surveillance for quite some time. The drug charges were enough to send the man and his son and at least a dozen others to jail for a very long time. Throw in the myriad of other crimes the police had been able to trace back to the street gang, and it was going to be many, many years before any of them would see freedom.

It didn’t stop Cam from worrying about Maya’s safety though. He’d vowed to stay close until the threat against her was neutralized, but was it possible that she was in even more danger than before? Maybe he should start making plans to stay here permanently.

He shook his head, leaned against the doorjamb, and tried to view the situation objectively.

The lead officer on the drug raid had been adamant that Maya and Elise were no longer in any danger. They were very literally a very small part of a massive investigation. Even without the women’s testimonies the DA expected the same outcome.

So testifying, or staying quiet, didn’t affect Maya’s safety one way or the other. Being a police officer, Derek was in the best position to monitor the situation, and if anything did change, he had an entire network of police officers, ex-SEALs, and Doms he could call on for help. Cam had no doubt that Derek would call him back into bodyguard duty if the situation required it.

But unfortunately that left Cam with the uncomfortable realization that he was now staying because he wanted to. It didn’t seem fair to Maya or Derek that he was still hanging around. The sex was still amazing, seriously kinky, and teaching him a side of himself he’d never before guessed was inside.

Yet, despite the fact that Maya and Derek both made him feel like he belonged, it didn’t change the fact that Maya loved Derek. The last two weeks had been a bittersweet torture of watching them both fall deeper in love.

“Cam?” Maya said sleepily as she tried to sit up in bed.

“Go back to sleep, Maya. I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“Why are you awake?” she asked, clearly ignoring his instructions. A part of him considered spanking her ass for talking in the one room that, as their sub, she’d promised not to, but he didn’t want to wake Derek. Unfortunately, Maya’s words did that for him.

He glanced at the other man and realized the cop was watching him with eyes that saw way more than most people. Cam plastered on his trademark cocky grin hoping that it would convince Derek that all was well. But Derek slid out of Maya’s embrace, dragged on his jeans, tilted his head toward the door, and a moment later they stepped into the hallway.

“What is it?” he asked without preamble. Only Logan had been able to see through him the way Derek did, yet he’d known the other man for years, not a handful of weeks like he’d known Derek.

“I think I should head home.” They weren’t exactly the words that he’d meant to say, but a quick glance at Derek’s concerned expression convinced him that they were probably the most sensible. He couldn’t hang around this loving couple for the rest of his life hoping that Maya would one day learn to love him. It wasn’t fair on any of them.

Derek gave him a curious look, but simply nodded his acknowledgement.

For some reason that just pissed Cam off. “I…ah…have to get a job, find a place to live, maybe figure out some plans for the future,” he hastened to explain, which pissed him off even more. He was the third wheel in this relationship. He didn’t need to justify his actions to anyone, but for some reason he felt compelled to explain his reasons to Derek.

Derek just nodded again, and when Cam opened his mouth to say something else, Derek gave him another of those concerned expressions.

“Maya will be disappointed.”

Cam acknowledged the man’s words with a curt nod. It wasn’t his intention to disappoint Maya, but now that she was safe he couldn’t really justify hanging around any longer. A small part of him admitted that he was also worried that the longer he remained the harder it would be for him to walk away. But as much as he wanted to stay, he knew that eventually he would want more from Maya, and he refused to hurt the woman by demanding more from her than she was able to give. He turned to leave, but the cop’s next words stopped him in his tracks.

“Didn’t pick you for a coward.”

Cam turned back to angrily face the accusation, but couldn’t find words to deny what was in some ways true. His silence damned him, and Derek dropped all pretense of being calm and became very serious. “If you can’t give her your heart, then she’s better off without you.”

“My heart?” Cam asked, bewildered. “She has my heart. She’s always had my heart. For fuck’s sake, Derek, can’t you see that me staying will only mess things up for you and Maya in the long run?”

Cam hadn’t meant to confess so much, and his need to escape the revealing conversation nearly had him running for the door, but again he was stopped in his tracks, this time by Maya’s quiet voice.

“You love me?” she asked in a strangely hopeful tone.

“I’m sorry, Maya. I know you love Derek.” Horrified to realize the blurriness of his vision was due to tears, he slammed his eyes closed and tried to regain his emotional balance. When Maya moved into his arms, he couldn’t help but hold on tight.