A Sub to Love [Club of Dominance 4] (Siren Publishing Menage Everlasting) Read online

  Garth leaned forward resting his arms on his knees. “You are still grieving, Justine. We would have been assholes to benefit from that. When we make love to you we don’t want you to have any reason to regret it. We already know you are embarrassed about what happened between us, not that you have any reason to be ashamed, baby. You needed the reaffirmation of being alive after losing a loved one.

  “Derrick and I are as attracted to you as you are to us and it took every bit of our self-control to not strip down and love you. But that wouldn’t have been fair to you, baby. Firstly, you are injured and still in pain. There was no way we were going to take a chance and cause you more hurt. Secondly, when we make love to you, we want it to mean something to you.”

  Garth watched the expressions flit across her face. He knew she didn’t know what he meant and that was okay, since it was too early in the scheme of things for her to know what he or his brother wanted from her. Justine needed more time to get to know them and to learn to trust her own instincts as well as her heart. He’d already figured out she trusted them, if only a little bit. She never would have allowed them to touch her if she didn’t have any belief in their reliability.

  She took a deep breath and then looked at him again. “I need to go home and get some of my things.”

  “That’s not a good idea, darlin’,” Derrick said. “Bart could be lying in wait for you. Why don’t you give me the key to your place and I’ll pack a bag for you?”

  “Okay.” Justine rose to her feet and so did Garth. “I need to get my purse.”

  “I have a better idea.” Garth walked over to her side and took her hand in his. “Derrick and I will take you home and I’ll send Matt and Luke to your place. Their shift finishes in about five minutes. I’m sure they won’t mind helping out. I’ll order some pizzas as a thank you and we can watch a movie while we eat. I don’t want you anywhere near that place, Justine. If Bart is watching, he isn’t going to sit back and do nothing. That man wants you bad and I don’t think he’s going to stop until he gets what he wants. But we aren’t about to let him get anywhere near you. Okay?”

  “Okay.” Justine shivered and Garth cursed his tactlessness. The last thing he wanted to do was frighten her, but she needed to be aware that Bart was a serious threat. If he had his way, Justine would never be out of his sight ever again. He and Derrick had lost their eldest cousin, Louise, years ago to someone just like Bart. If they hadn’t been in the Middle East at the time serving their country they would have hunted that fucker down and taken him out. Ever since then they had vowed to somehow set up a business to protect those weaker than they were. Derrick had come up with the security company business just before their time in the Marines was served. It had taken a lot of hard work and planning, and thanks to Matt and Luke, between the four of them they had just enough cash to start their company. And now, years down the track, they had a very lucrative business and had stopped a lot of people getting hurt.

  Derrick had taken Justine back to the reception area to get her purse and Garth had headed toward the control room to intercept Matt and Luke, but as soon as he reached the door, they both walked out.

  “Did you inform the others about the situation with Justine?” Garth asked.

  “We did,” Luke replied. “Jayden and Josh will be on the lookout for anyone hanging around. Do you think this fucker knows where she is?”

  “Yeah.” Garth sighed with frustration. “She called her brother yesterday with the office phone number and address in case of an emergency, and the asshole called her not an hour later. He’s going to be watching for her at her house and when she doesn’t turn up there he will come here.”

  “Do we have a description of this asshole?” Matt asked.

  “We should by now.” Garth turned and headed down the hall toward the office, his friends following behind. He paused near the reception desk when Derrick handed over Justine’s house keys and rattled off her address. He nodded and then waved Matt and Luke into the office.

  “I want you guys to go to her house and pack her clothes, enough to last a few weeks.” Garth walked over to the fax machine and retrieved the printout. The description lacked any picture. He read through the asshole’s statistics and knew it would be hard to know if he or anyone else came face to face with Bart. The first thing he wanted to do tonight was see if Luke could create an artist’s depiction of Bart with Justine’s help. Hopefully by the end of the night Garth would be able to hand over a sketch to Gary Wade. It would go a long way in helping the law find the fucker who had tried to rape Justine. He wouldn’t be able to rest until the bastard was behind bars for murder and attempted rape.

  Garth went to the photocopy machine and ran off ten copies of Bart’s description and handed them over to Matt before turning to Luke. “We’ll order some pizza for dinner. I would really appreciate it if you could work with Justine and get a sketch of this asshole.”

  “Sure,” Luke said. “Give us about two hours. I’ll need to get home for my charcoal and pad.”

  “No problem. See you soon.”

  Garth followed them out into the reception area where Justine and Derrick were waiting. Although Justine had spent a lot of the day sleeping, she was still too pale and tired looking. From now on he was going to make sure she rested as much as possible and ate regularly. Since she’d been the one working to earn the money as well as keeping house and cooking all the meals, he doubted that she’d had a spare minute to herself. Garth wondered what had motivated her brother to be such a lazy asshole. As far as he and Derrick were concerned, women should be taken care of, not taken advantage of.

  “Are you ready to go?”

  “Yes.” Justine headed for the door.

  “Our truck is out the back, baby. Let me lock up and I’ll meet you at the back door.” Garth locked up quickly and hurried after them. He wanted Justine in between him and Derrick in case that fucker Bart was watching and decided to take a pot shot at her. If Bart wanted Justine, he’d have to go through Derrick and Garth first.

  They paused once they reached the back door of the office while Derrick peeked his head out and scanned the area before giving him the all clear signal. Then Derrick reached back for Justine’s hand and led her out. Garth stayed close to her back and kept his eyes peeled and his hand on the gun in his waistband. He’d slid the pistol into his jeans before leaving the office just in case. He watched the shadows, and even though he couldn’t see anyone, he didn’t relax until she was in the front seat of the truck between him and Derrick.

  Derrick started the truck and pulled out of the rear parking lot. Justine sat quietly between them and stared out the windshield but he could see and feel the tension emanating from her. He needed to get her to relax and let those walls down, and right now the only way he could think to do that was to get her talking.

  “What do you like on your pizza, Justine?”

  She turned to face him. “Anything but anchovies.”

  “Well, that’s good, you’re easy to please.”

  Derrick seemed to take the silence that followed as a cue to interject. “Why did you let your brother treat you like shit?”

  Garth mentally cursed Derrick’s bluntness. Usually he was the tactless one, not his brother. He just hoped Derrick’s candor didn’t make Justine angry. His sibling was trying to understand how Justine’s mind worked, and if he didn’t want to know the same thing, he would have stepped in and redirected the conversation.

  “Mark was all I had,” Justine said quietly.

  “Where are your parents?” Garth asked the question this time.

  “They died in the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers in New York on 9/11. They both worked for the same investment firm in the North Tower of the World Trade Center. They…didn’t make it through the attacks. Their offices were right above where the first plane hit.”

  “Shit, you were only a kid,” Derrick said. “Didn’t you have any relatives to help you out?”

  “Not that I’m
aware of. Neither of my parents had siblings, and their parents had already passed away before Mark and I were born.”

  “So what happened? How did you end up in Oregon?”

  Justine sighed as if reluctant to go into depth, but Garth wanted to hear it all.

  “Mark and I were put into foster care but no one would take the both of us in.”

  Justine went on to explain how they had been separated and she hadn’t heard from her brother until just before she turned eighteen.

  He understood how adrift they both must have felt, but when Mark had turned eighteen and left the foster care system, his priority should have been looking for his sister and then making damn sure she was taken care of. The more he learned about her brother, the more he disliked him, but he wouldn’t have wished him dead.

  Derrick turned into their drive and then parked in the garage. He glanced toward Garth over Justine’s head and he could see the ire in Derrick’s eyes and the way his jaw was clenched tight.

  “Okay, let’s get inside and we’ll show you around.”

  They showed her around the house and then led her to the master bedroom. “This will be your room while you’re here.” Garth swept out a hand to direct her further into the room.

  “But this is the main bedroom. Doesn’t one of you sleep here?” Justine frowned.

  “No.” Derrick leaned just inside the door against the wall. “Our bedrooms are on either side of this one. We want to be able to protect you, Justine. This way no one can come down the hall without either of us hearing them. They’d have to pass our bedroom doors before they got to yours.”

  “Are you sure you want me to have this room?”

  “Yes, baby. Now don’t argue, you won’t change our minds,” Garth said in a firm voice, letting a bit of his inner Dom out.

  “Okay.” Justine sighed. “Thank you.”

  “Come on out to the kitchen.” Derrick pushed off from the wall and held a hand out to her. “You can help me start of pot of coffee. That way you’ll know where everything is.”

  Justine took Derrick’s hand and followed him out. Garth walked behind her and couldn’t stop himself from watching the graceful sway of her hips.

  An hour later Garth heard Matt and Luke pull up outside. He left Derrick and Justine where they were, sitting on the sofa, snuggled up together, watching a movie, and went to the door. He stepped out onto the porch and closed the front door behind him. When he saw the angry expressions on Matt’s and Luke’s faces, he knew something was wrong.

  The men got out of their truck and Matt got a small bag from the back seat.

  “Is that all you got? Where are the rest of Justine’s things?”

  “That asshole has been back to the house.” The muscle in Luke’s clenched jaw jumped. “He trashed the whole place. Nearly everything she owns has been destroyed. The fucker cut up all her clothes and ruined the furniture. I called Gary Wade. He came and brought some of his men over to check it out. But he said that taking fingerprints probably wouldn’t help much and would be a waste of time, because Bart had been living in that house for nearly five years and his prints were bound to be all over the place. He was still getting one of the forensic officers to bring a kit over, though.”

  “Fuck!” Garth turned toward the door and stared at it, picturing Justine cuddled up on the lounge with his brother. She was safe and sound, thank God. He felt sick to his stomach when he realized what she could have found if they had let her go back home. “If he can’t do anything, then what is the point of calling his colleagues in at all?”

  Luke shrugged. “He was taking photos for evidence, and if they find this bastard and can prove he did in fact destroy Justine’s things, then he can be arrested for willful damage, which will add to his murder and attempted rape charge. Gary wants to be able to put this asshole away for a long time.”

  “You’re going to have to tell her, Garth,” Matt said as he followed Garth to the front door. “She’s going to know something’s up since we could only salvage a few of her undamaged clothes.”

  “Shit.” Garth paused with one hand on the doorknob and scrubbed the other over his face in frustration. Matt was right. He wouldn’t be able to hide anything from her. Justine was smart and would know right away that something was wrong. Well, there wasn’t much he could do about it and the more he thought about trying to hide what had happened from her, the guiltier he felt. She had a right to know what went down. The more informed she was, the more vigilant she would be. The thought of that fucker getting to her and hurting her physically made him feel ill, but he and Derrick would do everything within their power to protect her.

  “You’re right, she needs to know.”

  “We’ll help you keep her safe, man.” Luke thumped him on the shoulder. “Everyone at Jackson Security and our BDSM friends will help, too.”

  “Yeah, I know. God, I feel so fucking useless right now.”

  “Hey,” Matt said, “you’re doing everything you can under the circumstances. Just make sure that she is never left alone.”

  “Easier said than done, man.” Garth turned the knob but didn’t push the door open. “That woman has been a pillar of strength, taking care of everyone else around her. How the hell are we going to convince her to put herself in our care?”

  “There is more to that statement than just her safety, isn’t there?” Luke asked.

  “Fucking Dom bastard.” Garth smiled at his friend. He should have known that his fellow Doms would pick up on how he and Derrick felt about Justine.

  “She’s attracted to both of you. Did you think I didn’t see the way she moved closer to you when you introduced her to us? Both Matt and I gave her the once over, but she only had eyes for you.”

  Of course he had seen she was attracted to him and Derrick. He wouldn’t be much of a Dom if he hadn’t. But she had been independent for so long, he wondered if she would trust them enough to really let go and let them into her heart.

  “Yeah, but is she willing to give up that control and be with us?”

  Chapter Six

  Justine wondered why Garth hadn’t brought Matt and Luke inside yet. She had a bad feeling in her stomach and although she wanted to go out to see what was happening she stayed where she was, on the sofa snuggled up to Derrick’s side. It had been so long since someone had held her and made her feel safe and she wanted to stay in his arms for as long as possible. But her mind was conflicting with her heart, because she knew eventually she would have to go back home and she would be alone once more.

  She looked up when the men came into the living room and saw that Matt only had a small bag in his hand and wondered why he hadn’t packed up more of her things. If she was going to be staying with Derrick and Garth for any length of time, she was going to need way more clothes than was in that bag.

  Her stomach clenched and a lump of anxiety formed inside, making her insides churn and feel tight and heavy. Garth looked at her and she could tell he was angry.

  Is he angry at me? What have I done to deserve his anger?

  Matt dropped the bag on the floor and she shifted her gaze to Garth when he began walking toward her. He squatted down in front of her and took her hands in his. Derrick helped her to sit up straight, using his body to nudge her, and she clutched at Garth’s hands and watched as he closed his eyes for a moment. It looked like Garth was trying to gather his thoughts before opening his mouth. When he finally looked at her again, she felt like she was drowning in his beautiful eyes and blinked to circumvent the effect he had on her.

  “Justine, we think Bart may have been at your house.” Garth paused and took a deep breath then exhaled slowly. “Baby, he destroyed nearly all of your things. What’s in the bag was all that Matt and Luke could find that wasn’t damaged.”

  Justine didn’t say anything, she couldn’t. Tears began to roll down her face. She had worked so hard for all the material things she had gathered over the years. She knew it was stupid to cry, because stuff could be replac
ed, even if it would take her a long time, but she just couldn’t manage to contain her emotions. She had lost her brother and although he hadn’t been much of sibling, he was all she had. But now this.

  “Ah, baby, don’t cry.” Garth released her hands and then scooped her up from the lounge. When he sat down he placed her on his lap and held her tight. She buried her head into his chest and hugged him back. Garth rocked her and just held her until she had her emotions back under control. She heard Derrick and the other two men go into the kitchen, and was glad to have some time alone to get herself back under control.

  Garth kissed her head, pushed back a little, and then wiped the moisture from her face. “I know you’re grieving right now, but I promise everything will work out in the long run, honey. Derrick and I will buy you some clothes and when this is all over and if you want to move back home, then we’ll make sure you have everything you need.”

  “You can’t buy…”

  “Shh, baby, you can’t stop us, so don’t bother arguing.” Garth helped her to her feet when the doorbell rang. “That’ll be the pizza. Why don’t you go into the kitchen and help Derrick get out some drinks?”

  Justine watched Garth walk to the door. He looked back over his shoulder and nodded her in the direction of the kitchen, so she hurried to the other room. She figured he didn’t want the pizza guy seeing her, since the fewer people who knew where she was hiding out, the better. She helped Derrick get out the plates, napkins and glasses, and got the iced tea from the fridge. Garth came in just as she placed the jug on the table.

  The men discussed work while they ate and even though she didn’t join in the conversation, she listened avidly and picked up a few more things about their business. By the time everyone had finished eating, Justine was exhausted. She presumed she was just emotionally wrung out and knew a good night’s sleep would help, but she didn’t want to be alone at the moment. So when they all adjourned to the living room, she sat on the sofa between Derrick and Garth. The movie was just beginning when Garth wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her in until she was resting against his side. She inhaled deeply, breathing in his subtle citrusy cologne, which did nothing to hide the smell of his wonderful, natural masculine aroma. Justine could have spent the rest of her life smelling Derrick and Garth, they smelled that good to her.