You Said Forever (Club Decadence) (4 page)

Megan frowned at them both, he could see the wheels turning before she gave a short nod, conceding the argument for now although he expected to be revisiting it again when they were alone.

“Good girl. We begin then.”  He turned and missed the tongue she stuck out at his back.  Regan didn’t and gave a relieved, nervous giggle.

“Something funny, Regan?”

“No, Sir.  Just nervous; no one’s ever spanked me other than Rick and daddy.”

“I hear the Major could swing a mighty powerful paddle in his day.  I bet he wore your naughty behind out a time or two.”

“Daddy’s weapon of choice was Big Bertha.  It makes that bread paddle look like a toy, right Meg?”

“I wouldn’t know Reg.  I never did anything to deserve a paddling.  That was all you and Michael.  I was the good girl, remember?”

“Funny how things change,” Tony murmured to Regan in a stage whisper as he teased his wife.

“I heard that, you know.”

Despite the situation, both Tony and Regan laughed at her offended expression. Then Tony returned his attention to the business at hand.  “Regan, if you’re ready we’ll get this over with quickly and put this incident behind us.”  He stood next to his sister-in-law and pronounced his sentence.  “You’ll receive ten swats, little sister.  Tell me why you are being punished.”

“I was rude and bitchy, Sir.  I also said some mean things that are inexcusable.  I’m so sorry, Megan.”  She turned her head and met her sister’s tearful gaze.  “I love you, Meg and never wanted to hurt you.”  Regan turned her face away in shame laying her check on the desk; her volatile moods were making everyone around her as wretched as she was.

“We’ll leave those jeans up to protect your modesty.  That means I’ll have to put some extra muscle into these swats for you to feel them.  Are you ready?” Tony asked as he prepared to deliver the first swat.

“Cap?”

“Yeah, honey?”

“Um, what I did was very bad, Sir.  I don’t think ten is enough.  Rick would wear my ass out if he were here.”

“I’m sure he would, Hon. And I appreciate your honesty.” Tony laid a warm hand on her shoulder and squeezed.  He knew she needed the punishment to relieve her guilt, even though she had apologized.  He also suspected she was the type of sub that needed a spanking on a routine basis to keep her grounded and on an even keel.  He would talk to Rick about maintenance spankings when he returned.  For now, he planned on giving her only a small punishment to ease her guilt and help her regain control.  “I think ten is enough.  Rick is your Dom and your husband.  I am only your brother-in-law and have to live with your sister.  There’s no way in hell I’m wearing out your naughty ass in front of her then going home to hear about it.  Understand?”

“Yes, Sir, sorry.” She giggled then at the image of her brother-in-law getting the freeze out from her little sister.  “I didn’t think about how Meg would react.”

He chuckled softly. “Not a problem, hon
. But don’t think this is going to be a few love pats.  You were out of line and I mean for you to feel every swat.  If it happens again, you may be sure the count will be doubled and will be delivered on your bare ass.”

“Yes, Sir.  It won’t happen again.”

Tony proceeded to apply ten hard swats to her ass with the wooden paddle and he delivered as promised, they were no love pats.  He focused on her sit spots which being just below the pockets of her jeans were less protected by only one layer of denim.  The blows sounded muffled rather than the sharp ringing crack when given on the bare.  Even though they sounded different they were solid swats and she felt every one, yelping and wiggling with each smack.  When Tony was done, she stood up and started to rub her ass.

“No rubbing, Regan. You know better.”

“Sorry, Sir.  Man he really packs a wallop, Meg.”  Regan joked a little before she saw how upset her sister was.

“You hit her too hard Tony.  She doesn’t have as much padding as I do.”  Megan protested and rushed across the room to hug her.

“No, Meg.”  She chuckled as she hugged her curvy sister.  She certainly did have more padding and Regan had to agree that would come in handy from time to time.  She went on to reassure her.  “I deserved every swat and then some.  I don’t know what’s wrong with me.  You forgive me, don’t you?”

“Of course you’re forgiven, honey.”

Regan turned and looked in question at Tony who gone to replace the paddle on the shelf.  He held out his arms inviting her in for a hug and then squeezed her affectionately. “All’s forgiven little sister.”

She grunted and acted like she couldn’t breathe, trying to lighten the mood.  “Geez Tony, you’re even bigger than Rick.  I’m glad I got stuck with the runt.”

They all laughed at the thought of big, strapping Rick ever being thought of as a runt and the tension in the room was reduced. “Thanks for punishing me, Sir.  I think I really needed that.”

“No problem, sweetie. You’re just like your sister.  Sometimes you need a good spanking to get back in control.”

“Captain!” Megan protested, offended.

“Shh, Angel. You know it’s the truth. Now,” he pushed Regan away to arm’s length and looked at the two lovely sisters side by side, “the reason we came by this evening was to see if you wanted to go to dinner with us.” At her nod, he stepped behind them and with a big hand to each woman’s lower back guided them toward the door. “I will have the pleasure of escorting two of the most beautiful women in Texas.  But, let’s go now because I’m starved and my spanking hand gets a little itchy when I’m deprived of sustenance.”

Megan and Regan looked at each other and rolled their eyes at his arrogance, but both decided it was better to comply so the trio headed out for the evening.

“Oh and Megan, be sure to order one of those bread paddles for our house.”

Chapter Four

A few days later, Rick walked into Cap’s office and waited impatiently for the boss to get off the phone.  Tony noticed his friend’s edginess and wrapped up his call quickly.

“Welcome back, I hear your mission was a success.”

“Yeah,” Rick confirmed as he plopped down into one of the big, leather chairs in front of Tony’s desk.  Rather than leaning back in his usual, comfortable sprawl, he leaned forward, elbows on his knees and hands gripped firmly together. “We rounded up one of Mendoza’s biggest suppliers in Corpus Christi and about a dozen of his dealers.  We’ve really put a crimp in his operations in the south, but we’ll cover all that at the debriefing later.  What I need to talk to you about isn’t the cartel operation.”

“What’s up, buddy?”

“Did you ever make any headway on those email threats you were getting?”

Tony frowned in surprise at the subject and shook his head. “Tech and Lil T have exhausted all their leads, they even got Agents Munoz and Robinson to run what they had through FBI systems and haven’t come up with anything yet.  All they know is they were sent from public computers at different locations throughout the southeast.  Why?”

“Looks like they’re targeting me now.” Rick’s voiced his concern as he pulled a folded stack of papers out of his back pocket and handed them to Tony.  There were copies of five emails that were all sent while Rick was out of town. “The first one came about ten days ago but the threats have escalated.  I guess this asshole got pissed when I didn’t respond.”  Rick referred to the most recent email that had come in the last twenty-four hours.

Be prepared to pay big,

You and all your snake eater buddies.

Paybacks are hell motherfucker.

“Damn, these look similar to the ones I got. Hold on a minute.” Tony reached over to his phone and dialed an extension. “Jonas?  Can you come to my office and bring my file with you.”

“On it, Cap, I’ll be right there.”  Jonas “Tech” Mitchell was the firm’s top computer man.  It concerned Rick that even Jonas hadn’t been able to identify the source of the email threats, he was the best there was.

“The snake eater comment makes me think I made a mistake by focusing on Rossi threats rather than our unit.  Not many people know “snake eater” is a derogatory term for Special Forces or that Rossi is owned by ex-Special Forces, but that not a secret.”  Tony spoke aloud as he read over the emails a second time but Rick could tell he was just thinking out loud.

A few seconds later, Jonas strode into Cap’s office with a thick file folder in his hands. Rick’s brows shot up. “Shit Cap, how many of these have you received?”

Jonas answered for him. “There’ve been about two a week since they started back in August.  I guess maybe a hundred total in the file, more or less.  Their using an onion router and this TOR appears to have thousands of nodes.  I’ve only been able to track to the exit relay but we’ll have to take legal action to take it further.

“English please, Tech.”  Tony requested with a slightly amused look on his face.  Tech had his own special language that few beside Lil T understood.

“Bottom line?  It’s complicated and I’m still working on it.”

“Why didn’t you tell us you were still getting these threats, Tony?  I thought they had stopped when you never mentioned them again.”  Rick understood the tight security around Megan now. They all knew Tony was cautious after the kidnapping but even after the arrests the security measures had continued.  Now he knew why.  He frowned thinking about all the time Regan spent with her twin sister and at her shop.  Cap should have told him.

“I’m sorry Rick, I thought the threats were only directed at me.  It’s been months since the first one and nobody else has received any that we know of, until now.  They have been vague and no specific target has been mentioned, just references to me or people close to me.  I should have told you.  I’ve got Megan under constant surveillance with a man on her 24/7.  I guess we’ll have to expand that to include Regan and maybe beyond that.  Shit!  We don’t have enough manpower to keep tabs on the entire team’s wives, girlfriends, and family.”

Jonas reached for the emails that Rick had received. “Home or office, Chief?”

“My office, oh, and better check with the other guys and see if anyone else has received any of this bastard’s love notes.”

“Will do.  At least they haven’t tracked down your personal accounts, yet.  Let me work on this and see what I can come up with.  I’m also going to check on upgrading our firewall and internal security systems.”  Jonas always loved a challenge but this one had him stumped.  He left the office without another word, his thoughts already consumed with the newest clues.

“I’m going to have to put a man on Regan full time, Cap.  Resources are getting kind of thin with all the personnel we have on the cartel investigation.  Who do we have to spare?”

“I think we’ll have to pool resources.  Meg’s pushing to get back to the bakery but until her doctors and therapists release her I haven’t let her.  Looks like she’s going to get her wish.  I’ll have to set some limits though, once she’s there she won’t be able to resist diving back into work.”  He sighed, thinking about his stubborn wife. She had been frustrated with her slow recovery and would jump at the opportunity to go back to work.  He didn’t want her to have a setback by going back too soon and overdoing it.  “At least if she’s there during the day, T can watch both of them.  We can split commuting to and from work and I’ll do both when you’re on a mission.  I’ll have to cut my bounty cases back but that can’t be helped until we get Dex off the cartel case.”

“I think we may need to add some men.  At least some independent contractors until we get our regulars back full time.”

“I agree.  It’s either that or we scale back all operations.”  Tony rubbed his face in frustration. “I’ve got two assigned full time in the L.A. area and we’re going to have to discuss delaying the opening of a new office there.  It’s a shame because the income potential is huge.  I’ve been turning away cases daily.”

“You got someone in mind to head up that operation? “

“I thought T might be interested, but he said he’d only take it on temporarily.  He doesn’t want to leave the area.  I’d hate to lose him, anyway.  I’ll talk to Kurt and Jonas but I doubt either of them would want to leave.  Kurt just relocated his family and Jonas is about ready to open his mixed martial arts studio.  I’ll talk to the General and see if he has any good candidates for that office and about some independent contractors.”

The General was the commanding officer they had all served under.  Now he was a ROAD warrior, which meant he was retired on active duty and was still called upon when the Army needed him.  He was currently overseeing the special ops and private contractors that were involved in the cartel investigation.  He was also a silent partner in The Club and had been since the opening almost two years ago.  At the time, it wouldn’t have been politically correct for a two star active duty general to be an owner of a BDSM club.  So, Master Peter was an anonymous investor but still a co-owner like Tony’s men.

“I guess we need to bring the General up to speed on these threats.  With the move to San Antonio since his retirement, he’s been seen around The Club a lot more lately, and he and Joanna and the grandkids might be on this bastard’s radar as well.” Rick shook his head in frustration.  “Damn, I hate this.”

“Me too, buddy.  I’ve been dealing with this shit for several months now and it doesn’t make for a good night’s sleep.”  Tony paced back and forth, unusually agitated. “I was planning to be on site next week to get that L.A. office up and running.  The timing is bad for me to be out of town for any length of time.  I don’t want to leave Meg with these threats hanging out there but the two men in L.A. are not comfortable with the business side of things.  I’ve been trying to handle it long distance, but that really isn’t working out too well.”

“I bet T can get things started until we can find someone permanent.”

“I’ll talk to him about it.  It wouldn’t be more than a six month assignment I think, but that leaves us without our best man on the girls.”

“Yeah, but T sounds like the best man for L.A.  With all the personal security we are subsidizing through the firm, we need to add some extra revenue, quickly.”  Rick gave his friend a meaningful look. Implementing 24/7 security on their subs alone would be a major hit to their bottom line but if they had to extend it to family they couldn’t sustain it for long.  “Maybe it’s time to involve the SAPD or the FBI.  I can make a call to the girl’s cousin on the force.”

“I’m not sure how much they’ll be able to offer with just some email threats right now but it’s worth a try.”

“It’s a damn shame too, things were going so well with operations which was good for our bottom line, now we have this shit to deal with.  Eric is not going to be happy.”  Rick couldn’t help chuckle as he pictured their staid, uptight CFO, Eric Dupree.  Although a finance man, he was also an ex-Navy Seal, recruited to the firm by the General himself.  Rick knew that in his day, the man was as fierce a soldier as the men from Tony’s unit.  He brought great business acumen to the table thanks to his degree from some Ivy League school back east.  At the same time, he could kick ass as well as any other member on Tony’s security team.

“I hear you man,” Tony agreed, “but he’ll get over it.  Actually, he might be perfect to take over in L.A.  He knows both business and operations.  I could send T out to help him get things started.”

“Ha!  T is gonna want your ass if you feed him that shit sandwich, man.  You know those two don’t get along.”

“Yeah, something about Eric’s sister wasn’t it?” Tony looked at Rick with a wicked twinkle in his eye.  T had a rep and the guys teased him about needing to install a revolving door in his bedroom because he went through subs at The Club at an alarming rate.  Eric had gotten wind of a budding romance with his sister and put a quick end to it.  Things had remained strained between the two men especially since Eric’s sister Emily was the receptionist at their office.  Tony had to intervene a time of two between them and promised T an ass kicking if he continued messing with employees.  “I’m sure they are professional enough to put their differences aside while on assignment.  Plus, it should be enough to keep them on their toes and our finance guy out of our hair while we figure this all out.”

“You’re one evil bastard, Cap.  But I guess it will teach T a lesson.  That youngster needs to learn once and for all you don’t shit where you eat and you don’t dip your pen in company ink.”

Both men stared at each other for a moment then broke into howls of laughter.  A brief reprieve from dealing with the threats that potentially involved their women was welcomed.

“While Eric’s gone I thought we could get Regan to help out.”

“I don’t know about that Cap.  This is probably not a good time, she’s at loose ends these days.”

“It would give her something to occupy her time and keep her out of mischief.  Plus, we wouldn’t have to worry about security for her here in the office.  Besides, she’s wasting her MBA on keeping books at the bakery.

“Let me think about it.”

“Sure, no pressure, if you don’t think it’s a good time, I respect that.  Speaking of Regan, I need to tell you about a little incident while you were gone.”

“Yeah, what did my naughty wife do?”

“I walked in on a temper tantrum in the bakery office.  She mouthed off to Megan and said some hurtful things.  I paddled her ass for you, over her jeans of course.”

Rick frowned. “She’s been pretty moody lately.  How did she react?”

“It seemed to help her and she settled.  You were gone a while this time and I’m sure Regan was feeling neglected.  It was harder on Megan to watch, I think.  Did she act this way while you were serving?”

“Not that I know of. This only started in the last couple of months but we’re working on it.  Thanks for taking care of her for me, bro.”

“No worries, Chief.  By the way, did I ever tell you about the benefits of maintenance spankings?”