Page 21 of Master Cordell

“What did you do, girl?” Kat asked. “That’s an ‘I fucked up’ expression if I ever saw one.”

She reluctantly filled the women in on the whole fiasco. “So, I really did fuck up. But in my defense, back then, I was still falling back on some of my old habits. Geez, I even dropped to my knees and begged him not to send me away.” A blush burned her cheeks at the confessed memory.

“Ouch.” Boomer’s wife winced in commiseration before continuing. “But trust us. Cordell doesn’t want to send you away. In fact, think about it ... making you the assistant manager of the lifestyle resort he’s running? Even though you were perfect for the position from the start, you’ve proved that. But that doesn’t sound like a man who eventually wants to let you go. That’s a man who needed a reason for you to stick around, so he doesn’t have to let you go, because he’s afraid you don’t feel for him what he’s feeling for you—love.”

There were nods and words of agreement to Kat’s observation from around the table. Was it true? Was it possible Sir did love her, and making her his assistant was his way of keeping her close without confessing his love because she’d told him she wasn’tinlove with him during her bumbling that unforgettable day?

“So, what do I do now? Do I just blurt out that I love him? And what if you’re all wrong? I love this job already. I don’t want to give it up, but I can’t watch him move on to another sub who needs help. That would kill me.”

“But what if we’re right?” her cousin asked.

Chapter15

Opening weekend had been a tremendous success, beyond Cordell’s dreams. While he’d been excited to take the management position when Mitch and Ty had offered it to him, he’d also been nervous as hell. After years in law enforcement, he hadn’t been certain the acute switch in careers would work out for him. But since he hadn’t had anything else lined up to do after his forced retirement from LVPD, he’d given it a shot and was more than happy with the results. Add in working with the sweet submissive he couldn’t get enough of, and Cordell could see himself in the Keys for years to come.

Aside from a few minor hiccups, which were expected since everything was still new and the staff was working on getting comfortable with the routines, there’d been no major issues at Master Key over the long weekend. Thank God. As opening day had grown closer, Cordell had been torn between being confident about a favorable outcome and worrying that something horrific was going to happen and put them on national TV, ensuring the resort’s immediate demise. However, from the praise he and his staff had gotten from the Sawyer family, their friends, and other guests, it appeared Master Key was destined to become a premier hot spot for the BDSM community. Even though about half the resort’s visitors had checked out on Monday and Tuesday, to return to their jobs and other duties after a mini vacation, most had said they’d be back soon. Many had already booked their next trip thanks to Tiffany’s great idea of offering the reduced rates.

While some of the Tampa crowd had returned home, Tori, her fiancés, Nick, Jake, Boomer, and Kat were staying for a few more days, to Tiffany’s delight. The three women and the special events coordinator were currently sitting by the pool, having lunch and going over the plans for Tori, Ty, and Mitch’s upcoming wedding.

Meanwhile, Boomer, Ty, Mitch, and Cordell had just gotten back from a morning of fishing with Dante and Reed in the their boat. Even Cooper had joined them and had fun chasing after any fish that’d flopped around the deck after being reeled in. Over four hours, they’d caught enough grouper for Chef Adley to put it on the menu specials that night. Now, the six men were sitting one table over from the women, having their own lunch. Since they’d both taken a full week off from work, Nick and Jake had driven down from Tampa in the latter’s truck, instead of flying in the company jet with some of the others. Earlier that morning, they’d gone to Key West for the day to visit some friends who were vacationing there.

From where Cordell was sitting, he had a direct view of Tiffany who was dressed in a new flirty red-and-white sundress she’d gotten while on a shopping trip with the women yesterday. It’d been her first day off since the grand opening, and she’d used the time to replace some of the clothing she’d lost during the burglary. He’d been a bit surprised when she’d handed him two bags of shirts, shorts, and pants that she’d picked out for him. It didn’t escape his notice that she knew him so well, there hadn’t been one item he hadn’t liked or that didn’t fit.

Despite the success of the resort and the fact that Tiffany appeared much more comfortable around him again, Cordell was still unsettled about the status of their relationship. With all the work that had needed to be done leading up to the grand opening, he’d had little time and energy to devote to wooing his little submissive. They’d had dinner together almost every night and had played several times whenever they could, but Cordell still hadn’t had the courage to tell Tiffany about his feelings for her. That was pretty sad in his book, considering he was a Dom and retired police officer who’d been shot. After facing down the lowest dregs of society, it took a sweet petite woman to knock his bravery down a few pegs. But tonight, he was determined to tie her down and finally open his damn mouth. Fingers crossed that Mitch had been right about Tiffany wanting more from him.

He was just about to take a bite of the sandwich he’d ordered for lunch, but he stopped short as an explosion boomed from the east side of the island, shaking the ground. People screamed and dove under tables, unsure what was going on. Dropping their food, Cordell and the other men at his table jumped to their feet and ran toward the parking lot to see what in the hell had just happened. They met Troy, Jared, and two others from the security detail by the valet station.

At the far end of the parking lot, down past the cottages, the storage shed was on fire, flames and black smoke pouring out from the windows and through the destroyed roof. Before racing toward the fire with the others, Cordell grabbed Troy’s arm. “Call the fire department and the cops. Then call in more of the security team. I want this place locked down, and the guests kept calm. Don’t let anyone unauthorized down there. Tell them it’s an accident and everything is under control.”

“But you don’t think it is, right?” Troy asked as he pulled his phone out.

“Not after the break-in, no.”

By the time he caught up to the others, they’d already grabbed a few fire extinguishers from somewhere and several hoses hooked up to the cottages’ outdoor water taps. While they did their best to keep the blaze from spreading to the nearby structures, trees, and shrubs, the shed itself was already a goner. It’d been used to store tools, several lawn mowers, gas tanks, paint, and other things for the maintenance staff, but the highly flammable stuff probably caused the explosion. The force had been so great that some of the windows in Kristen and Devon’s cottage, which was the closest, had been blown out.

While the others battled the flames until the fire department arrived and took over, Cordell kept his head on swivel, watching for whoever had torched the place and looking for any evidence. Unfortunately, he was coming up empty.

An hour later, the blaze was out, and the fireman worked to make sure there were no hotspots that could reignite. The fire marshal was on scene along with two detectives. After the security staff reinforcements had arrived, Troy had reviewed the security footage and brought a tablet down to show everyone what he’d found. On the video, they watched as a figure dressed in camouflage barely emerged from the surrounding foliage and threw a Molotov cocktail through one of the shed’s windows. About a minute later, the shed exploded.

No matter how many times they played the video forward and back, they couldn’t get a good look at the perpetrator other than it was a man.

It was another hour before the fire department packed up and left. The fire marshal and detectives took the arson report and collected the remains of the bottle the suspect had used to see if there were any viable prints. Cordell didn’t expect them to find anything since they could clearly see the man had been wearing gloves, but maybe he’d left some fingerprints from when he’d handled it earlier.

Cordell was pissed. Someone had it in for the resort, but he had no clue why. He started across the parking lot with Boomer, Dante, Reed, and Jared after stringing up yellow “Do Not Cross” tape around the area until they could get the last of the ruined shed torn down. They’d also retrieved a few sheets of plywood left over from the construction and boarded up the shattered windows on Devon and Kristen’s cottage.

Mitch was coming back from the pool where he’d checked in with Tiffany and Tori and obviously left Ty with them. As they approached him, a white SUV pulled up, and Cordell recognized it as belonging to Milo Brooks. The contractor who’d built MKR stopped next to the group and rolled down the window. “What the fuck happened now?”

Shaking his head, Cordell responded, “Someone threw a fucking Molotov cocktail into the storage shed and it blew up.”

“What? Holy shit! No one’s hurt, right?”

“No. No one was near it. We caught the guy on the surveillance camera, but he was wearing camouflage and we can’t get a good picture of him. It’s gotta be the same guy who broke into our cottage.”

“And don’t forget the spy cameras we found in the resort,” Jared added.

While Cordell nodded, Milo climbed out of his truck, leaving it running. “Well, I don’t think that’s related to everything else. The cameras, I mean.”

Cordell narrowed his eyes. “You know who put them there.” It was a statement, not a question. He’d gotten to know Milo well, since his company started working on the resort, and liked to think they’d become friends. From the man’s tone, it was obvious he knew something.

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