No Strings Attached

Chapter Nineteen

Shannon sneaked Nate a sly glance from the corner of her eye, watching him overcome his embarrassment was literally too monumental an experience to pass up, and she giggled quietly to herself before regaling Tori with thousands of shopping tales about Prada, and Dolce, and all of the really important things in life ...

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“I’ve actually been trying to get in contact with you,” Jay said quietly, reclining in the seat across from Nate once he’d finished his cooked breakfast, his elbows resting on the arms on the chair, and his fingers forming a steeple underneath his chin, “We need a talk.”

Nate’s fingers tightened around Shannon’s, from where he’d held her hand clasped in his throughout their meal, and she watched his jaw tighten ominously as he swallowed the last bite of his food.

“I’m all ears,” Nate muttered tersely, “London’s done and dusted.”

Jay’s eyes flicked to Shannon for less than a millisecond, but Nate caught the glance and gave a discreet nod of the head to the silent question.

“Well,” Jay’s brows lifted over his eyes as he took a deep inhale – the sculpted muscles rippling under his dark skin, “Maybe the girls can go and do a bit of shopping or something, and we can discuss it then.” Lips pursed lightly, and the skin stretched taut across his cheekbones, anyone could see that behind that endless ice blue gaze, he was angry thinking about the talk to come, maybe even at Nate for letting Shannon see some of the demons. But the second that Tori lay her hand over his strong bicep, he seemed to visibly calm, and his eyes sparked with that glitter of adoration that they took on.

“About that,” Nate started gruffly, leaning back to take a long swallow of his tea, “Shannon knows everything, and will continue to do so.”

Huh?

Shannon’s head whipped around to meet his eyes with shock plain on her features. What was he saying? He couldn’t be turning the tables this much surely! Did she even want to know what was going on with this shit?

“Nate,” she started, cautiously, but Jayden cut her off.

“You’re sure about this?” His eyes narrowed on Nate, with an undercurrent of caution and concern, “Can’t take it back, you know?”

Nate’s eyes turned to stone as he gripped Shannon’s hand against the corded muscles in his thighs.

“I also can’t take back the last five years of my life,” his words were clipped and harsh, “This shit has ruined me, it can’t get any worse, but I won’t stand for any more secrets! Especially with Tourniquet, she needs to know that she’s safe. I’m not saying I’ll be rubbing her face into the nitty gritty details, but she’ll know what’s happening, she needs it.”

It still astonished her, how he could know exactly what it was that she was feeling before she could even put it into words herself. Sebastienne – as irrelevant as he was to her on the radar – well, she wanted to see him get his karmic retribution for all of the really brutal stuff that she knew was going on in that club.

She’d seen girls screaming safe words, bleeding and bruised and still being set upon with whips and chains – and that was only the five girls in the public rooms, for God’s sake! She didn’t even want to think about what might be happening in the private suites.

The place wasn’t a kink club, not really, it was a place where vicious men went to abuse women who didn’t know any better how to get away – almost each and every one of the staff, and at least half of the customers in there looked ravaged by drugs and alcohol. She’d seen track marks in the arms of two of her waitresses, but if what Tori said was true, then the place was now basically a trafficking centre for human import. Sebastienne was bringing in the girls, mostly from Eastern European countries, and then stringing them so high with an enforced narcotic addiction, that they literally didn’t know what was happening anymore.

Which could be viewed as both a blessing, and a curse, for some of those women - at least from what she’d witnessed.

She visibly shivered at the memories – a chill tracing its way down her spine like ivy.

The air around them was fraught with tension as Shannon and Tori both looked nervously between Nate and Jay. Although the two men were the closest of friends, and they’d grown up together, they were also both incredibly masculine, dominant men, who –for want of a better turn of phrase – were absolute bloody control freaks. If there was tension in the air, and fists were about to fly, Shannon thought to herself wryly, then maybe someone ought to clear the breakfast away.

Jayden pulled Tori into his lap suddenly, his hand tracing a path up the outside of one of her slender thighs beneath the hem of her t shirt. Pushing her mass of long blonde curls out of her violet eyes, he dropped a kiss to the tip of her nose, “I don’t want you to see this,” he whispered hoarsely against her cheek, so quietly that Shannon almost couldn’t hear him, and she wasn’t sure she entirely wanted to – the moment seemed intensely personal as Tori stiffened in response, “I’m sorry babe, I’m really fucking sorry, but I can’t let you see that. I don’t want you to know what’s going on with him, it’s too fucking dark and morbid for you, please. I can’t stand it. Please Tor, don’t push this.”

“You never fucking change,” she muttered in irritation, as she pushed herself away from him and charged out of the room. Shannon barely heard the quiet sobs of her friend’s retreat, and she pushed back her chair discreetly to follow after her, her hazel eyes narrowed on Jayden, who was watching everything with a clinical, angry detachment that showed in no part of his face except the muscle that twitched in his sculpted jaw.

Nate’s grey eyes turned back to Jayden – hard as steel, while the rigid, unyielding silence descended over the two of them, until Jay groaned, and ran a hand through his dark hair – leaving it mussed and unruly – and the pristine control shattered.

“Nice one, Romeo,” he muttered angrily, “Now look what you’ve gone and fucking done!”