Page 113 of Truth or Dare

“He killed my husband. I know he did. You know he did. We all know it. I want you to tell me exactly what happened.”

Oh shit.

Gan Chen arrived at noon sharp. Leanne, my receptionist, saw him in and offered refreshments. He was with two men, one Asian and one who looked Italian. Bodyguards. I was packing heat but had no one at my back. I had Zack and three of his guys in the boardroom and Zack was listening on an intercom and recording the meeting.

Gan declined the refreshment offer and I told Leanne not to allow anyone to interrupt us.

I reached for his hand and we shook. He asked his men to wait in the waiting room and to leave us alone. I guess he’d assessed my office and felt safe enough to converse with just me.

“How are things, Dario?”

“No complaints,” I said.

“And your Felicia?”

“Keeping me busy.” I smirked.

“I gathered that. No transition training? That’s taking a challenging road.”

I shrugged. “I guess I was a little anxious to get her home. She’s somethin’.”

He smiled, looking pleased. “Your father said you’d never taken a slave before but that you’d be a natural. If you are having any difficulties but don’t want to have anyone else work on the training, I’m happy to give you advice. Any time. I, too, prefer to train my own girls. Once I bond with a girl it’s hard to imagine anyone else giving her a correction. I think you and I are probably alike in that regard.”

I forced a smirk. “Sounds like it. Thanks for the offer.”

“I’ve spent time with your Felicia. She loves to be spanked. Throw in a little face slapping, too. She responds exceptionally well to that. It’s better to use spanking as a reward than a punishment. If you want to punish her, withhold –”

I cut him off by saying, “Thanks Gan, but let’s not go there. I’ve grown attached very quickly and the idea of anyone else spending time with her, even prior to her becoming mine, it gets me riled. I’d hate to put our relationship in jeopardy, but I know myself.”

He waved his hand. “Absolutely. Let us carefully back up.”

I poured two glasses of vodka from the sidebar behind my desk. “Five o’clock somewhere, right?” I needed that drink during this conversation like I needed my next breath.

“I’m still on Thai time so let’s.”

“Salut.”

He and I raised glasses and drank.

“So Gan, not to dampen the mood but please tell me more about why you’re here. This Jason situation? What can I do to help?”

Gan took a breath. “He and Felicia were in a relationship prior to her becoming a Kruna asset. For a variety of reasons, most due to potential security breaches that we foresaw with his relationship with her, he was cut out of her life and she was brought in. Jason’s uncle was an important partner. He took control of Felicia and kept her for himself for the first several months she was with us. He did that mostly to punish Jason and so made his escapades with Felicia very obvious to Jason. It was ugly.”

Gan shook his head in memory. “He mysteriously died and we suspect but cannot prove that Jason had a hand in poisoning him. After Donavan’s death Jason tried to acquire her from us a number of times, which myself and the other partners decided was a bad idea. He tried to push around the time your father expressed interest in helping you acquire. Felicia met the specifications and we decided it was serendipitous as we’d meet your needs, help your father, and remove this pesky problem. If she was no longer available Jason would cease to be a pest. See, if he’d been anyone else it wouldn’t have gotten that far but Jason’s grandmother is a senator. She’s very aware of our resort, one of our original seed partners, in fact, rarely involved in the past decade. Unfortunately, he got emotional when he discovered she’d been sold. He did some research and got someone to turn over information and found out where she went. We had a breach of trust at the resort but that breach is in the midst of being dealt with. This is not something that typically happens; I want you to know how seriously security and privacy are handled. As a result, we’re here to apprehend him. He’s enough of a thorn that he is a thorn that will need to be extricated.”

“What can I do to help?” I asked.

“For the moment, just be watchful. We expect to have him apprehended within twenty-four hours.”

“I think you need to have a conversation with Tommy, Lisa,” I suggested.

“No. You tell me. What happened after Tom’s guys drove off with you?”

“You need to get those hands bandaged,” Luc said. “You’re bleeding. You might even need stitches.”

Tessa dashed into the bathroom and returned, looking horrified, shaking her head at me. Lisa had obviously hit the mirror or something.

My phone rang; it was Dex.

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