“Let me guess,” I say dryly without even looking up at him. “You stopped off in one of the rooms before you came in here.”
“Orgy Room,” he says, and I can hear the grin in his voice without even looking up. “Some dude in there whacked off while I banged his wife from behind.”
Chuckling, I push the tax report away and lean back in my chair to look at my closest friend and my only confidant. I met Kynan McGrath while I was a young 2nd lieutenant with the Marine Corps. I was fresh out of college, fresher out of officer candidate school, and on my first deployment to Afghanistan. My unit was paired up with a unit from the Royal Marine Commandos, which was led by Kynan. We bonded as we spent months flushing Taliban from small villages, a tedious and dangerous job that was mentally stressful. I was impressed with Kynan, and he with me, and he was the first person I asked to join up with me as a civilian contractor. I knew I wanted out of the military after I’d gotten shot, not because I was afraid but because I was an entrepreneur. I figured if I was going to do dangerous shit in service to my country and its allies, I wanted to be paid well for it. So when my enlistment was up, I didn’t look back. That was ten long, lucrative years ago, but we’ve worked together seamlessly ever since. I’m going to sell The Jameson Group to him when I fully retire. As it stands now, I’m pretty far removed from it. Kynan’s been running everything for the past year and a half as I’ve devoted my attention to The Wicked Horse.
“So getting your rocks off was more important than reporting the final details of your operation to me?” I ask him with a straight face.
Kynan knows me well. His grin gets bigger. “I think you’ve gone soft, dude. You’ve been living in fancy suits and sitting in a comfortable chair for too long. Meanwhile, I’ve been freezing my ass off in the Pakistan mountains gathering intelligence for our country, eating freeze-dried food, and whacking off in my sleeping bag. So yeah… it was more important I visit The Orgy Room before coming here.”
I smirk at Kynan because I agree with him. When I came off missions, first thing I always wanted to do was fuck. In my single days, that would be nameless, one-night stands. Then it was only Michelle, who I met three years after I started The Jameson Group, I wanted to fuck. I was twenty-eight and ready to settle down. We’d dated for only six months before I proposed, but I didn’t have any doubts. She accepted, and I thought things were perfect. Less than ten months after that—and only two weeks before our wedding—I came off a mission a few days early to surprise her, and it was a surprise indeed when I caught her in our bed with Jayce.
The betrayal hurt. I could go into a million different ways in which that betrayal has changed me. But when it boils down to it, it was so much more than the fact she cheated on me. She and Jayce took away the one thing I wanted most in the world, and it’s the reason why I hate them so much.
Nowadays, I fuck one-night stands and frankly, I don’t find it to be unsatisfying at all. No annoying fiancée to please, no expensive wedding to hold, and the knowledge my heart would remain securely untouched.
“Everything go according to plan?” I ask Kynan, pushing my thoughts away from the bitter taste that floods my mouth when I think of Michelle and Jayce.
“Absolutely no problems,” he responds to me.
There was a time when I felt compelled to have him give me a play by play of the mission, but these days, I find I don’t care. It’s a combination of inherently trusting Kynan and getting burned out with The Jameson group. Now that I’ve been running The Wicked Horse Vegas, I find myself completely fulfilled. I have more money than I know what to do with, and I get to have off-the-hook sex whenever I want. Tell me how I could have a better job?
I’ll forever be grateful for the opportunity my former marine buddy, Cain Bonham, presented to me when he introduced me to his boss, Bridger Payne. Cain knew I was looking to back away from The Jameson group and that I had quite a bit of money to invest in a new business opportunity. Cain also knew Bridger was looking to franchise The Wicked Horse in Wyoming. He put us in touch and after several meetings as well as checking each other out, we formed a partnership to open The Wicked Horse Vegas. While the clubs are very different in setup and services offered, they are still clubs that allow people to indulge in their sexual fantasies. It’s just that here in Vegas… we do it with a bit more showmanship and pizazz.
“We’ve been asked to bid on a contract by the French government for an operation they would like us to assist the French Foreign Legion with,” I tell Kynan. “I sent the information to you through our encrypted server. Take a look at it and rough me up a proposal.”
“Sure thing, boss,” he replies confidently as he settles deeper in his chair, propping an ankle on top of the opposite knee. “Anything else before I head home and do about five loads of laundry?”
I hesitate for only a moment about whether to bring this up, but I decide it’s good if someone else knows about it. “Jayce Barnes reared his ugly face again.”
Kynan doesn’t say anything, but his eyebrows rise with curiosity and surprise. He waits for me to continue.
“Actually, his sister showed up at the club yesterday. She asked to collect on the favor I owe Jayce for saving my life.”
“What was the favor?” Kynan asks.
“She needed money. Got in trouble with a loan shark to the tune of twenty-five thousand, and he roughed her up a little bit. Jayce sent her to collect the favor.”
“The favor is for you to give her twenty-five?” he asks for clarification.
Shaking my head, I lean back in my seat. I distractedly pick at the leather armrests before admitting to him, “It was a loan she wanted with special repayment options. She’s broke and doesn’t have the ability to repay it, at least not in a timely manner.”
“And…?” Kynan drawls out.
“So I made a deal with her. Told her I’d give her the money in exchange for working at The Wicked Horse for thirty days.”
Kynan lets out a bark of laughter and then throws his head back to continue laughing even harder. When he finally looks back at me, he says, “Oh man, let me guess… she’s a fucking knockout?”
I give him a grin and nod. “She’s gorgeous. Doesn’t look anything like her brother, thank fuck.”
“What are you going to do—just have her do the nasty to you for the next thirty days? Because, dude, you don’t need that as a repayment option. You got all the pussy you need here in this club.”
My smile morphs, and I know there’s a sparkle of malice in my eyes as I say, “I have something a little more involved for Miss Barnes.”
Now I really have Kynan’s attention as he leans forward in his chair, head tilted with curiosity. “What are you going to do?”
Kynan is well aware of my bad history with Jayce. While Kynan didn’t have the personal hurt I did, he was just as offended because being on a team together and the nature of missions that we do, trust and loyalty are everything. While Kynan felt for me as any close friend would, he was more pissed about the breach of loyalty. He had no qualms with me beating the shit out of Jayce before expelling him from The Jameson Group. Kynan is also well aware I owe a debt to Jayce for saving my life and the fact I’ve been dreading the day I’d have to repay it. He can’t really be surprised I’m not going to pay my debt in an aboveboard manner.