The Buchanan's Redemption(4)

As outwardly calm as Dillon was, Nolan was his opposite, fairly vibrating with agitation. “Vince, I have a family. A wife and daughter. I can’t have this kind of scandal.” He gestured to Dillon. “And what about Penny and the baby? They’re going to get dragged down by this, too, if word gets out.”

“Don’t you think I’ve figured that out,” Vince said. “Why do you think I had her brought here and not the hospital? Hospitals have a mandatory reporting system. They would’ve taken one look at her injuries and the next call would have been to the cops.”

“On the surface, it’s good thinking but what are you going to do with her after she’s healed? You can’t keep her indefinitely and you can’t keep her from going to the authorities herself.”

“I’ll pay her off,” Vince answered with a shrug. “Everyone has a price. I’ll find hers and get her to sign a legally binding contract that keeps her quiet.”

Nolan groaned. “Shannon’s not going to like this.”

“So don’t tell her,” Vince said, disgusted at how quickly his brother had become pussy-whipped by his new wife. He slid his gaze over to Dillon. “And that goes for Penny, too. Besides, Penny is about to pop and doesn’t need the stress.”

“Don’t tell me what my wife needs,” Dillon warned and the two shared an electrically charged look that snapped with danger. At one time — seemed like an eternity ago — Dillon hadn’t been the only Buchanan between his wife’s lovely thighs but they weren’t allowed to talk about that now that Dillon had staked his claim permanently.

“Chill, Dillon,” Nolan said, rubbing at his forehead. “The last thing we need is you two jackasses posturing and whipping out your dicks to see whose is bigger. We need a solution — and fast.”

“No comparison. Mine is bigger,” Dillon answered with a shrug. Vince glared, temporarily distracted by the urge to indeed, whip his cock out and show up his older brother but he tamped it down forcibly. Now was not the time. “How bad is the girl’s injuries?” he asked, returning to the issue without a blink.

“The doc said she’s pretty badly bruised, including a bruised kidney, but no broken bones, which was something of a miracle given how hard she was beaten.” Vince stopped, before revealing the doctor had said that she also suffered a few superficial vaginal lacerations that suggested forceful penetration, likely digital. He didn’t know why he held back. Perhaps not with Dillon, but with his twin, Vince had always shared everything. Maybe it was some latent sense of chivalry or the fact that he felt mildly protective of the girl, but either way, he kept the most damaging information private. “She has a black eye and a busted lip but the doc said all her injuries will heal with time.”

“Thank God.” Nolan heaved a sigh of relief but he still looked as panicked as a time traveler who’d just been told they’d been given free passage on the Titanic. “You going to keep her here?”

“Yeah, I figured that was best.”

Dillon agreed. “If you’re determined to go the route you’re on, it’s best to keep the situation, and her, contained. I have a few guys I can put on this who will keep a low profile. Maybe if we giftwrap this fucker to the police they won’t have cause to look too deeply into the case.”

“I don’t like this. Maybe Dillon is right and we should think about shutting down the club. I haven’t told Shannon about the club yet and I’m not looking forward to that conversation.”

Vince stiffened. “And why is that?”

“Because I’m not that guy anymore who revels in the kind of thing that happens at Malvagio and I think it’s time to distance myself from it.”

Vince stared, unable to believe the words falling from his twin’s mouth. They’d built Malvagio together. Now he was acting as if it were diseased. “Well, if that’s the way you feel, then I guess it doesn’t matter how I handle things, then.”

“Of course it matters,” Nolan answered irritably, completely missing the point of the rebuff. “I don’t want anything to come back to bite Shannon or Aubrey and a place like Malvagio isn’t something you keep around when you have a lot to lose.”

“Go home to your little family,” Vince couldn’t help but sneer. “Don’t worry your precious brain about it.”

“What’s your problem?” Nolan asked, offended. “Until you know what it’s like to fear losing the very thing that makes life worth living…don’t fucking diss me.”

Vince shook his head, not interested in having this conversation when he knew it was pointless. He looked to Dillon. “What about you?” he asked. “Is it too hot in the kitchen for you, too.”

“Don’t be a dick. I already told you I’d put some of my men on this. I have just as much to lose as Nolan. Everyone in this family needs this put to rest. Whether you keep the club or not is immaterial to the immediate dilemma. Let’s focus on the most pressing threat — finding out who did this and why. Okay?”

Vince nodded, reluctantly slanting his gaze at his twin. “And you?”

Nolan chewed his bottom lip, caught between a rock and a hard place but Vince didn’t care. He’d never known his twin to be such a pussy and it killed him to see Nolan so neutered. If this was the consequence of wedded bliss, people could keep that shit to themselves. He’d rather remain who he was — a debauched, licentious and unapologetic aficionado of pretty female flesh — because there was only one person on this planet who’d had the power to change him.

And she was dead.

“I don’t care who we have to pay off, make disappear, or otherwise ruin…I’m not giving up the club,” he said with finality. “Got it?” Vince stared down his brothers, almost daring them to fight him on this. His blood burned with the need for something he couldn’t quite define and at the moment, all he had was his brothers to knock skulls with. But when neither presented an argument, he considered the conversation over and grabbed his leather jacket. “I’m out of here,” he growled, eager to get back to the penthouse. He wanted to be there when the broken little dove awoke. He had some questions…and one way or another, he was going to get answers.



Neither Dillon nor Nolan tried to stop Vince as he slammed from the house. Their brother had been percolating at a frenzied clip for a while now and neither knew what to do about it. An intervention of some sort had been tossed around but eventually discarded because they all knew that kind of tactic would blow up in their faces in grand fashion.

Before this situation with the club, Nolan’s biggest concern with his twin had been his seemingly hell-bent course with destruction, as if he were trying to punish himself with the pursuit of pleasure until he died of exhaustion. But now, they had this situation with the club to contend with and it made him edgy and freaked out for the sake of his family.

“What are we going to do?” he asked Dillon, looking to his older brother for advice. “He’s determined to do things his way but I’m concerned he’s not caring around how his way affects others.”

“That’s Vince in a nutshell, isn’t it?” Dillon countered dryly and Nolan couldn’t rightly disagree. Vince had always carried an attitude that shouted, “my way or get the fuck off my highway,” which was one of the main reasons he and Dillon had always clashed. But Dillon didn’t seem as concerned as Nolan about their brother. Instead, he was focused on the bigger picture. “We need to more information about what happened the first time around. And I need to know more about this club, Malvagio. Is it operating under the Buchanan Enterprises umbrella?”

“No, we have it housed under its own LLC so as to create a little distance but everyone knows it’s our club.” Nolan swallowed an aggrieved sigh. “We wanted people to know that we owned it. We enjoyed the notoriety.”

“What happens at this club?”

“Anything but it’s all consensual. That’s the one cardinal rule — that and no scat play.” He grimaced at the idea. “Some people are bigger freaks than we are.”

“So basically, it’s a sex club with some heavy BDSM elements in play.” At Nolan’s nod, Dillon digested the information. “Anyone else involved?”

Nolan hesitated but he knew it would come out sooner or later and frankly, Nolan wanted all of this to go away so he could wash his hands of it all. “We have one other partner, Laird Tiechert.”

Dillon did a double take. “Of Tiechert Construction? The developer giant?”

“Yeah.”

“Junior not interested in going into the family business?”

“No. Laird and his father don’t exactly see eye-to-eye on anything.”

“Sounds familiar.”

Yeah, their mutual hatred for their fathers had been the bond between them. But even though Laird’s father was a dick, no one could come close to the Buchanan patriarch — he’d inspired the Craptastic Father of the Year award.

“So how’s it going to affect Laird if his involvement comes out with the club?” Dillon asked.