13. Circle Back to That
Blake
We finish with the project in time for dinner. The need to check on Madison beat in the back of my head for the past few hours. She seemed off when she brought me the files. Even her smile had a slight edge to it. But I knew Noah was with her.
When we get to the apartment, Noah and Madison are at the island assembling pizzas for dinner. Seth, Coop, and I slip into our rooms to clean up. I take a quick shower, knowing that we’re all going to fuck Madison again tonight.
The thought of her makes me hard, but I ignore the urge to jack off. Instead, I focus on the discrepancy we found. No one is stealing money from us, but someone is contacting our clients behind our backs.
After our lunch this week, Jason Harper alerted us when someone emailed him about working with Morrigan Technology.
We’ve always had some client turnover, so we hadn’t worried when a client here and there would suddenly no longer need our services. Part of doing business. But this isn’t normal attrition. Someone is poaching our clients intentionally.
After going through several files of clients who left, we have a handful of names. Employees who worked with these particular clients and are still employed by us.
Of course, Rachel works at Harper Associates now, so she may have been the leak there. She has her reasons to want us to pay for the alleged harm we did her. We made her an offer, which she turned down, and then she quit. The end.
We haven’t ruled her out, but it’s still likely a current employee. The meeting with Jason Harper wasn’t that long ago. Madison was there, and she’s only been with us for two weeks.
I stop towel drying my hair and stare at my reflection in the mirror. Only two weeks feels wrong. With all that’s happened, it seems like we’ve had her much longer. No one before her has woven into our lives quite as seamlessly as she has.
After I dress, I return to the living area and watch Noah smiling at Madison. I’ve never seen him this happy before. It strikes me hard as I try to remember over the years any time that Noah was this happy. This carefree. He always had to behave more mature than his age. Being the youngest, he always felt like he had something to prove.
“Noah, stop.” Madison’s laughter fills the room. Noah’s fingers tickle her sides. She’s bent over trying to protect herself.
“Tickling wasn’t a hard limit, kitten.” Noah laughs as he wraps his arms around her from behind and lifts her into the air. “If you really want me to stop, you could use your safe word.”
She squeals with laughter. I lean against the wall, watching them with my heart filling my chest. This is everything to me. Having my brothers with me and having them all happy. And Madison. She’s smart and sexy and so open about everything.
This is what I want. This life right now with these people.
Sure, we have some issues to resolve, but I want this to work.
“Creeping?” Coop settles next to me on the wall.
“Just appreciating.” I glance over at him. “You happy?”
Coop smiles as his gaze goes to Madison and Noah. “Seem to be.”
“Yeah.”
Madison turns her bright blue eyes on the two of us, and her beaming smile makes my heart ache. “What are you two talking about?”
Shaking my head, I walk across the room to the island. “Nothing.”
She cocks her eyebrow at me suspiciously, but she doesn’t lose her smile. Her neck is still bruised. The overall bruising is down, but not the finger-shaped ones. There’s still so much we haven’t figured out. Her roommate is still out there, and so is the mysterious stalker.
“Just dreaming of fucking your sweet ass tonight.” Coop sits at the island and bats his eyes at Madison.
Her cheeks flush with color as she gives him a shy smile back.
“Dinner first.” Seth’s strong voice comes from behind us. He likes order. This whole ordeal with the client poaching pisses him off. It has to be an inside job, which means one of our employees, or more, is betraying us.
I’ve already put out background checks on the employees we suspect. It tears me up inside knowing we trusted the wrong person. Again.
Noah pulls out the pizzas and carries them to the already set table.
“Did you find what you guys were looking for?” Madison asks as she follows Noah.
Seth sits at the head of the table and leans back in his chair. “We don’t know who is involved, but it seems to be less about money than strategically dismantling what we’ve created.”
Madison’s brow furrows as she takes a slice of pizza. “How so?”
“Someone is contacting potential clients and warning them off our company. The clients don’t all go to the same cyber tech company afterward.” Coop rests his forearms on either side of his plate. “It doesn’t make any sense. If someone were trying to get in good with a new employer, you would see the clients all signing on to the same company.”
“And it’s been going on for a while,” I point out. “Whatever employee is leaking our information has done it so slowly that, if Jason hadn’t called, we wouldn’t even be aware of it.”
“We have to look at possible collusion as well.” Seth shakes his head and sighs. “We won’t find the answers today or tomorrow, but we might get some indication of who might be involved. Until then, we need trusted people on our integration teams.”
Which means more work for us, but Seth doesn’t say that.
“But not tonight,” Coop says around a bite of pizza. He swallows before adding, “What’s tonight’s agenda?”
“Madison had a request which I’m going to help her with.” Noah’s voice is nonchalant, but I can tell he’s excited about what she wants.
Madison flushes red again. “We’ll set up, and then Noah will tell you when to come in.”
I’m tempted to say fuck dinner, but I’ll need energy.
“So, Noah’s running the show tonight?” Coop glances at Seth, like he’s eager for him to blow up.
Seth smirks. “It’s about time someone else took charge.”
We chuckle. I give Seth maybe fifteen minutes of whatever Noah has planned before he’s barking orders. Usually we all enjoy his orders, so I don’t fight it. Madison shifts in her chair as her gaze darts between all of us. When her gaze falls on me, I give her a slight smile.
Smiling back, she relaxes into her chair and eats. Conversation shifts to the game we missed today while working. Noah and Madison listen as we talk about what this win means to our team.
The homemade pizza is delicious, and when we finish everyone helps clean up the kitchen. Every time I pass by Madison, I let my fingers drag across her thigh, and she smiles with that needy look in her eyes. I can’t wait to have my fingers drag on her bare skin.
I’m probably not the only one ready for tonight to begin. Honestly, I’d be happy to strip Madison naked and spread her out on the island for all of us to enjoy.
When Noah reaches out his hand for Madison, she takes it and gives us all an excited grin as he leads her to the play room.
Coop heads to the living room and turns on the news. Seth and I join him on the couches.
“So many scenarios.” Coop relaxes into the couch and sighs. “Maybe he’s going to tie her up for us on the bed. Or use the swing.”
Seth makes a noncommittal noise, but his gaze strays to the play room door.
“We have the Taylor’s installation next week.” Seth puts his hands on his knees. “We need to be aware of who is on that project.”
Hunter Adams will be there. He wanted Madison on that team, and his father did too. William Adams seems genuine in his desire to help Madison learn more, but Hunter... I can’t forget her nightmare. The attraction between Madison and Hunter doesn’t appear mutual. I’m not willing to send her into that lion’s den without backup.
“They want Madison on the project. I can go with her.” I won’t let her out of my sight.
“That could work.” Seth rubs his chin. “But should she be out yet?”
“We can’t keep her locked in the tower forever,” Coop says, and he’s not wrong. She can’t just live up here at our disposal.
“We have to assume her roommate and the boyfriend are still lying low. Besides the street, no one has seen or heard from them.” I put my hands behind my head. “There haven’t been any new texts from whoever sent the shower video. I’ve got a man monitoring the old next-door neighbor. Just in case. The only thing that will be a problem there is Hunter.”
“Shit.” Coop’s gaze darts to mine at the mention of Hunter. “Did you see something too?”
I arch an eyebrow at Coop.
He rubs the back of his neck. “He had her cornered in the break room during their meeting here in the office.”
Fuck.
“He cornered her when she went to the ladies’ room at the restaurant.” At the time, it was suspicious, but I wasn’t just suspicious of Hunter then.
“What the fuck?” Seth draws his hand through his blond hair. “Why didn’t you guys tell us about this?”
I take a breath. “I wasn’t sure we could trust Madison then. It was her first day, and she’s got a previous employer acting like she’s his property. I figured they were possibly a thing.”
Seth narrows his eyes. “That still would have been important information. Honesty, remember?”
“I didn’t know if we could trust her.” I shake my head. “Andrea?—?”
“Was a fucking bitch from day one.” Coop turns off the TV.
“None of us saw her true colors,” Seth says.
“But I’m the one who brought her in. I’m the one who said we should take a chance on her.” I can’t help feeling guilty over the whole thing. While we’d played with fucking the same girl in college, we hadn’t really done much since starting our business. It made sense. We were so busy with the business. If we found someone we all were attracted to, why not have someone we could all fuck on the regular?
“And none of us blame you, Blake.” Coop meets my eyes. “Fuck, maybe I should have been more clear about her when we discussed her, but what did I care as long as she fucks?”
“We all had reservations about her. She seemed too good to be true.” Seth meets my eyes. Madison seems too good to be true as well. “But no one is to blame for how that turned out. We all found out we needed to be more honest with each other. And with what we want from this arrangement.”
Standing, Seth stretches his back. “We learned from each woman before Madison. Not every woman can handle us. Not every woman wants to be shared by four guys who aren’t offering her anything but sex and a job. Maybe Madison won’t last, but maybe she will. But while we have her, I propose we enjoy her openness and willingness to try new things. And protect her from assholes.”
“Like Hunter.” Coop gets to his feet. “She’s ours now. If he tries any of that shit with Madison?—?”
“I’ll take care of it.” I stand to join them.
“If you guys are finished stroking each other’s dicks, we’re ready for you.” Noah stands next to the open play room door and gestures for us to enter.