Her first real live scene. She looked up, still a little nervous around Eve, but the cool, professional woman gave her a wink.
“I think you’re going to love it here, Serena. Just do what Jake tells you. He won’t steer you wrong.” She patted Serena’s hand.
A warm feeling of acceptance suffused Serena. She could belong here if she just opened herself to the experience. Jake reached out a hand and hauled her up as Alex helped Eve off the floor. Alex quickly let her go, but Jake pulled Serena close. Yes, this was what she’d been looking for all her damn life. She felt cared for in Jake’s arms, and knowing that Adam wasn’t far away made her heart beat faster. Two men. Could she keep them? Could she be enough for them?
“You did a good job, baby,” Jake said. “I know that was hard for you, but you handled it beautifully.”
But it hadn’t been hard once she’d made the decision to trust him. She leaned into his strength. For all his hot body and gorgeous face, he was still a man who needed love and affection. She had so much to give if he would just take it.
He kissed her as though he could read her mind. “Come on. I know you want to see everything.”
He led her through the doors and into the dungeon. She followed, ready to begin this new part of her life.
Chapter Eleven
Adam studied line after line of code, the numbers threatening to run together. He’d been at it for three hours, and all that time Serena had been running around the dungeon, her ass in nothing more than a strip of fabric. He wanted to see her in the pretty thong he’d picked out for her. If she had any idea all the filthy, disgusting lingerie he’d already scoped out for her, she would probably run. She would look gorgeous in something filmy and lacy, her cute little feet in some serious fuck-me heels.
But no. He was sitting in the conference room surrounded by computers instead of watching his sweet girl get introduced to kink.
He growled a little as the program kicked back out. Nothing. He didn’t believe it. It was possible that Serena’s stalker was really good with computers and was routing the e-mails through systems, but Adam doubted it. Why use a system in such close physical proximity to Serena? If the person was good, he or she would likely have bounced the e-mails all over the place. No. Adam was sure the stalker was using the libraries’ computers in person.
The problem was, Adam wasn’t happy with the facial recognition software that was on the market. He was playing around with the code, trying to make it better. The answer had to be here. He had time stamps from two libraries that matched up with e-mails sent from their public computers to Serena’s computer.
All he had to do was find the face that had been in both places.
“You still at it?” Liam asked, setting a cup of coffee down in front of him.
Adam ran a weary hand through his hair. “Yes. It’s a lot of shit to get through. I got the delivery records. Surprise, surprise. This asshole paid cash, an address that turned out to be a coffee shop, and a fake name. Joshua Lake. Serena’s big bad Dom.”
“I think she might have a new big bad Dom. I saw the way Jake was looking at her.” Liam sat down on the edge of the desk. “You two planning on double-teaming the girl?”
That was the plan. He actually felt a little bad for Jake. It wouldn’t be easy for him to keep his hands off Serena. He would most likely end up with fucking blue balls. “We’ve been playing it slow and easy with this one. I like her.”
Liam nodded. “I like her, too. She’s an odd one, but I like her openness. I think Jake’s in as deep as you are. Are you absolutely certain she doesn’t have anything to do with this?”
Adam groaned. He was sick of this question. “Yes. I’m sure.”
Liam held his hands up. “I’m not judging the girl. People can have a lot of reasons to pull a stunt like this. I ain’t some perfect man. I don’t expect a woman to be perfect either. I’m just saying that Jake’s got a chip on his shoulder about honesty, and if he finds out she’s been lying, it won’t go so pretty for either of you.”
If there was one thing Adam was certain of it was that Serena was scared of this person. She wouldn’t be scared if she was doing it herself. “I’m sure about Serena.”
Liam went quiet for a minute and then looked at the computer, his eyes squinting as he read the code. “I’m glad you’re sure, man. I got a couple of things that bug me about this case. I read through Evie’s profile. She’s a bit confused, I think.”
“She says this guy must be bipolar.” He hoped somewhere out there the asshole was getting back on his fucking meds.
Liam’s head shook. “She said she thought he must be since the notes and e-mails are so radically different. But I was actually thinking something else. I knew this girl back in Ireland. She had a—what do you call it here? You know, when a guy ain’t got the balls to tell a girl he wants in her pants?”
“Secret admirer,” Adam replied.
“I call them pussies. Anyway, this friend of mine started getting chocolates and then dirty notes. Not the bad kind. The kind that got her hot under the collar, if you know what I mean. So she was thinking that he was trying to play both sides with her. The notes with the chocolates were real sweet, all about love and how pretty she was, and then the other ones were just about fucking. Well, she thought she’d hit the jackpot.”
Adam could see where this was going. “It was two guys, right?”
“Oh, yes. One was a boy who sat next to her in science class, and the other was his asshole best friend who had made a bet as to which one she would prefer. She told everyone she wasn’t interested in either one, but she made arrangements to meet with the dirty boy after school let out. He was a dumb shit. Had to marry the girl eight weeks later. Now they have four kids, and he drinks too much. Really, he’s living the dream. But my point is, she didn’t know it was two men. She simply responded to the darker side of what she assumed was one man.”
Adam looked up from his work. “How do you know she thought it was only one man? She could have figured it out. Someone could have told her.”
“Because I was the dumbass kid who sent her the chocolates. She talked to me about it. She told me she liked the chocolates, but she really liked the bad boy side of her admirer.” Liam’s fingers drummed along the surface of the desk, his mouth frowning.