Chapter 4
Chapter Four
When the elevator door finally shut him in, Cordell dropped the friendly smile he’d pasted on his face for the three women.
It still hurt that what he felt for Tiffany wasn’t reciprocated.
Out of all the female submissives he’d help recover from abusive or unhealthy D/s relationships, she was the only one he’d ever fallen for.
She didn’t seem to realize how beautiful she was—the contract workers sure did though.
Cordell knew more than one of them had asked her out on a date.
He hadn’t wanted to devalue her status as the resort’s assistant manager by staking claim to her in front of everyone, so he’d seethed in private and watched from afar in case any of the wannabe suitors wouldn’t take no for an answer.
So far, Tiffany hadn’t seemed to have any trouble politely declining the offers.
However, none of those men had come off as the dominant types she was still clearly nervous around, like Milo Brooks the owner of the construction company building the resort.
Despite the Dom treating Tiffany with the respect an assistant manager deserved, it was obvious there were times she was walking on eggshells around him. And he wasn’t the only one.
Two members of Dante’s team had started working at the resort, helping him get the security system up and running.
Both were retired Marines and Dominants in the lifestyle.
While Tiffany had never shown any signs of wariness around Dante—she got along great with him—her meekness showed with Masters Troy Richardson and Jared Payne, despite their pleasant and polite demeanors toward her.
The huge strides Cordell had made with her had come to a grinding halt after their day of taste-testing with Chef Adley.
Unfortunately, Cordell wasn’t sure how to get his relationship with Tiffany back on an even keel.
He was in unfamiliar territory with her at the moment.
The last thing he wanted to do was express his true feelings for her, knowing she didn’t feel the same.
That would just screw things up even more between them.
While their contract had an open end date—not a specific one—he knew, one day, he’d have to let her find a Dom she could love.
For now, though, he was going to be selfish and keep her close.
They still slept in the same bed and played often.
He also remained strict about the rules he expected her to follow.
However, the only time she seemed to flourish and be genuinely happy was when she was working—well, at least when she didn’t realize he was observing her.
When that happened, she was stiff and wary.
How he was going to help her overcome that was beyond him.
When Mitch came down in a few days, Cordell would confide in him and see if the other Dom had any ideas for how Cordell could fix what was obviously so terribly broken.
As the elevator door opened, he pushed the thoughts of his sweet submissive to the back of his mind.
After finding out why Milo had wanted to meet with him on the top floor, Cordell had a stack of mail and tons of emails to go through.
Then he had to sit down with the two reservation agents that’d been hired a few weeks ago and go through the scheduled bookings.
When Mitch, Ian, and Devon had opened The Covenant in Tampa several years ago, they’d coordinated a network with other owners and managers of both private and public BDSM clubs, that eventually spread throughout the US and Canada.
Three weeks ago, an announcement about the new resort had been sent to every private club on the list, and a pre-grand-opening booking rate for rooms and suites had been offered to generate business.
They hadn’t included the public clubs on the invitation list, since many of them didn’t vet their members.
While they couldn’t guarantee every hotel guest was fully trained in play and protocols, each one would receive an email prior to their reservation date with an explanation of what play and activities were and weren’t allowed at the resort.
A list of other information and club protocols would also be attached to the email.
Once the resort was officially open for business, the room rates would go up, and hopefully, with word of mouth, MKR would be booked solid for months to come.
In fact, they were already completely booked for the first six weeks following the grand opening, with more reservation requests coming in every day.
He strode down the hallway of the top floor of the West Wing with a slight limp. His therapist had shown him some new exercises earlier, and Cordell was feeling the additional strain they’d put on the muscles around his repaired hip.
At the end of the long corridor, he entered the three-room suite the head contractor had asked to meet him in. Milo and Jared were there waiting for him, and Cordell didn’t like their grim expressions. “What’s up?”
Using a latex glove-covered hand, his security man held up a small device with wires attached. “Milo found this in the air-conditioning vent in the bedroom.”
Cordell’s eyes narrowed at the device. “Is that a camera?”
“Yup, with Wi-Fi capability.”
Milo crossed his arms. “I was doing a walk-through of every guest room, making a list of things that still needed attention, and I noticed a missing screw on the vent. It was on the floor, so I grabbed one of the ladders and went up to fix it. That’s when I spotted the camera.
And before you ask, I’ve got no idea who could’ve put it in.
There’ve been my guys, painters, electricians, plumbers, HVAC techs, cable guys, carpet layers, tilers, et cetera, in and out of every room over the past five days since I did my last walk-through.
It could’ve been anyone and would only take a minute or two to unscrew the vent, stick it in there, and then put the cover back on. ”
“Fuck.” Cordell ran a frustrated hand down his face. They weren’t even open yet and someone was trying to sabotage the place—or was at least trying to get material for illegally-obtained amateur porn or blackmail. “Is that the only one?”
“In this suite, yeah,” Jared responded. “I was waiting to talk to you first before I started checking all the other guest rooms. Troy’s on his way up with some transmitter detectors, and Dante’s putting a call into Evans up in Tampa to see if there’s a way to track where the videos would be streamed to.
When I’m done checking for more of these, I’ll take this one back to the office.
Do you think you can pull some prints off it?
Milo said he only picked it up by the wire, so hopefully there’s a viable print on the transmitter case. ”
“I’ll grab my old evidence collection kit from the cottage.
If there are any prints, I can scan them into the computer and send them to Brody to run.
” While the resort employees were all being fingerprinted for the security team’s files, the contracted workers hadn’t been.
No one had foreseen a need for them to be.
“Let me know if you find any more cameras. Triple check the dungeon and playrooms too. I’m going to contact the rest of Dante’s team and see if any of them can report to work earlier than scheduled, so we can beef up the security.
If not, I’ll hire some guards from a local firm the Sawyers already vetted in case we needed additional help.
Milo, I want the name of every goddamn worker who had access to this place.
Every single one. I’ll have security badges for you by tomorrow, and there’ll be a guard at every entrance and walking every floor. No badge, no access, no exceptions.”
“You got it.”
Pulling his phone out of his pocket, Cordell left the room and headed for the elevator. He hit the speed dial for Mitch and prepared to give his boss the bad news.
Shit.
“Hi, Dante,” Tiffany said with a large grin on her face as she entered the trailer the security team was using as their base until they could move into their new headquarters in the resort.
Sasha and Sloan were on her heels. When Cooper got up from where he’d been snoozing in his dog bed to greet her, Tiffany gave him an ear scratch.
“Hey, Coop. Who’s a good boy?” The dog let out a soft woof, then sniffed the other two women before accepting pats on the head from both.
She wished she could spoil Cooper with doggie treats, but that was a strict no-no.
Dante had told her it would mess with his specialized training.
The head of security had been frowning when they’d first walked in, as he disconnected a phone call he’d been on, but when he saw the three women his face lit up. “G’day, ladies. What brings you into my lair?”
Not for the first time, Tiffany thought it was a loss for all the heterosexual women of the world that the gorgeous man was gay.
With blond hair, just a little longer than a crewcut, stunning, sharp blue eyes, a muscular body to die for, two delicious dimples, and that Australian accent of his, Dante was totally swoon-worthy.
She didn’t doubt he got hit on by both sexes regularly.
However, from the way he spoke about his Master, Reed Montgomery, he was very much in love with him.
The man was the founder and CEO of Montgomery International (MI), a professional services company, and split his time between Miami where MI was located and his second home in Marathon in the Keys where Dante lived with him.
While she’d known Dante since the day she and Sir had arrived at the resort a few months ago, she had yet to meet Master Reed.
However, that would be rectified later in the day.