“Give me a second, Warren.” He muffled the phone against his shirt. “What’s going on?”
“Ryan just left me a message looking for you,” Simon explained. “He’s been trying to call you.”
He’d noticed and Alex had let it roll to voice mail because Ryan Church managed Sanctum, and right now Sanctum was at the bottom of his priorities. Besides, Ryan’s next call would likely be to Ian. “Why didn’t he call Ian?”
“I think Ian is the problem, McKay. He didn’t say exactly what was happening, but he said Ian’s in trouble. With traffic we’re at least forty minutes away.”
Alex held the phone back to his ear. “I have to go, Warren. Just e-mail me the files if you can. Thanks for everything.”
He hung up and they took off for the parking lot. No matter what was going on in his world, he would drop it all for Ian.
Chapter Three
“What do you think this is about?” Liam asked, pulling his SUV into the parking lot at Sanctum.
Eve shook her head. She’d gotten a phone call from Ryan almost thirty minutes before. He’d been a bit cryptic, asking her if she wouldn’t mind coming down to the club and dealing with an issue they had.
Alex was stuck in traffic. Ian was nowhere to be found, and Jake and Adam were apparently somewhere in the West End eating chicken wings. That left Liam driving her to the industrial-style building where Sanctum was housed. She’d argued that she could drive herself. She was perfectly capable, but Liam had professed a sudden and deep desire to visit the club he loved during daylight hours.
Yeah, like she couldn’t figure out what that was about. The men of McKay-Taggart were all alpha-male, protect-the-women types. When Grace went out for a coffee run, one of the men inevitably decided that he needed to go, too, and she either found herself with an escort or an errand boy. It was just the way they were. These men had seen all the crap that could happen to a woman on her own and had made a conscious decision that it damn straight wouldn’t happen to one of theirs.
“Did Ryan say anything?” Liam asked, peering out the front window at the unobtrusive exterior of the club. Eve knew exactly why he was asking. He was debating just how much ammo to take. She wasn’t foolish enough to think he was questioning whether or not he should take a piece with him. Oh, no. He always had a gun on him. He just needed to know if he should carry an extra clip or two.
“Well, sweetie, he called me so I don’t think the club’s under siege. I think we can safely bet this is a purely therapeutic visit.” Sometimes Ryan called her in to interview potential members. No one got into Sanctum without a thorough screening. It was the same for new employees.
But he’d been awfully evasive about this visit. And she never did emergency interviews.
“Just stay close to me,” Liam said. He never bothered to hide that thick Irish brogue anymore unless he was undercover. Liam was finally comfortable being Liam.
Could she be Eve again?
She slid out of the SUV, her heels hitting the pavement. She loved the black and gold Givenchys, but maybe the first thing the new Eve should do is buy a pair of flip-flops. She was pretty sure the new Eve wanted some comfy shoes. Not anything horrible. She could find designer flip-flops, surely. And maybe the new Eve could ease up on the diet a bit. Once a week. Twice. Maybe a little chocolate every now and then.
Maybe she would let Alex order for her. He always knew what she liked and when he’d really been her Dom, she could relax and enjoy it. She had…issues. She’d had them all her life, but those years when she’d been married to Alex, they had been under control because he’d been in control.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have permission to enjoy her life again? Some of her peers would say it wasn’t healthy to seek another’s permission, but Eve had learned long ago that it didn’t necessarily matter how a person found happiness so long as they did. And it was beyond healthy to acknowledge one’s weaknesses and to seek a remedy to them.
“Earth to Eve?”
She couldn’t concentrate today. “Sorry. I was thinking about something.”
He gave her a grin. “You were thinking about that bugger again, weren’t ya?”
“I’ve been thinking about a lot of things.” She looped her arm through his because while the parking lot was well taken care of, it was still a minefield when it came to five-inch heels.
“Do you have any idea how far you’ve come in the last couple of months?” Liam modified his walk for her, giving her balance against the slight uphill grade. “When I first came on, you wouldn’t touch anyone, not for any reason.”
“Hey, I’ve learned to trust you guys.” She wasn’t sure when it had really started, but she thought it might have begun with watching Sean fall in love. And then Adam and Jake, and now Li. She grinned up at him. “I figure if you idiots can get your shit together, I should probably get mine.”
Liam laughed. “See. There you go. Ya never used to joke. It looks good on ya, darlin’. We love you, Evie. There’s nothing we want more than for you to get your shit together.”
She gave his arm a squeeze. Having these men around had been a wonderful thing, but she really thought it was their women who were bringing her out of her shell. They’d all been through hell, and they were still standing. Eve was still here, still kicking. They found their strength. She was going to find hers, too.
It was time. Alex had changed. She had changed. The question was could they still be together?
The door to Sanctum opened and Ryan Church stepped out. Eve could hear loud music blasting from inside just for a moment before the door closed again.
“Are you having a party?” Eve asked. Sanctum didn’t open until eight or nine o’clock at night, depending on the day. It was just a little past two in the afternoon. No one except staff should be here, and from what she understood, Ryan ran a tight ship. He was a former CEO who had run into hard times. He’d taken the job of Dom in Residence and manager of Sanctum after his business had gone under.
Ryan had a grim handsomeness to his face. She pegged his age at somewhere around forty. He’d been in the lifestyle most of his adult years, and she’d heard a rumor that he’d even kept a permanent submissive at one point, but she’d left when his fortunes had turned. “Yeah, I guess you could call it a party. A party of one. I’m sorry to call you, but we don’t know how to deal with him. I’ve tried talking to him, but he just ignores me. I tried sending him a couple of subs, thinking maybe they could change his mood, but he just scared the fuck out of them. I now have three crying subs and my bar manager just quit on me because he says he can’t handle Guns N’ Roses. Does he do this often?”