The Men with the Golden Cuffs (Masters and Mercenaries #2)(23)

“What is this? Some sort of writer’s retreat?” Jake asked, leaning over for a better view.

Liam shook his dark head and bit off a yawn. “I think they call it a reader convention. From what I can tell, a couple hundred sex-starved women get together with a lot of alcohol and chocolate and authors sell them books about more sex-starved women as sad-sack, obviously gay men walk around in very little clothing. No straight man would dress up in chaps when he isn’t working on a ranch. Really, it’s disturbing.”

Ian grinned. “I’m sending him in as a cover model to the convention Serena is scheduled to appear at next month. God, I hope this case is still going by then.”

“I’ll die first,” Liam vowed.

“Could you two just tell us what’s going on?” Adam was getting a little sick of the banter. He wanted to see that tape.

“Fine. I think I’d rather just show you.” Liam started the video. A voice off camera began speaking.

“My question is for Amber Rose. I was wondering how you manage to write your beautiful love stories when your personal life isn’t what anyone would call a fairy tale? Please don’t be offended. I’m asking because I’m going through a divorce, and I just get so depressed. How did you manage it?”

Serena’s face had flushed at the original question, but she softened and leaned forward. “I’m so sorry to hear that. Divorce can be rough. I wrote several of my books before my divorce. I didn’t actually get published until after my husband left me. Honestly, sending that first Texas Sweethearts book to a publisher was both for me and to show him, you know? My husband told me I was a talentless hack. He told me I was a pervert for writing about one woman with two men. I won’t even go into what he said about BDSM. But I had to write. I had to write because this is who I am. He’d already taken years from me. I couldn’t let him take this, too.”

The woman next to her, a pretty woman about Serena’s age with jet black hair, leaned over and spoke into Serena’s microphone. “And now her pencil-dick ex, who can’t give away his crappy ass books, can live his vanilla life without his pervert wife’s nice money.”

The room erupted in laughter. Serena smiled and winked at the dark-haired woman. “Yeah, that’s a nice bit of revenge. I got those first couple of checks, and that really helped my healing process.”

“He must have been pissed!” Someone from the audience shouted.

Serena shrugged. “Yeah, well, he can be pissed. He’s not getting my ‘porn book’ money, as he put it. I will make sure bad things happen before he lays a finger on it. And trust me, I’m a writer. I can come up with some crazy revenge stuff. We plot character deaths over lunch once a week. We could add my ex to the list of jerks we’re going to kill off.”

Liam shut the laptop.

Adam shook his head. “That doesn’t mean a damn thing. We’ve all talked like that.”

“Yeah, well, he did come after her money,” Liam pointed out. “At least she hasn’t killed the f*cker yet. Tell her my services are for hire if she decides to off the *. I don’t like anyone telling a sweet little sub that she’s a pervert. He sounds like an * who doesn’t want the responsibility of caring for a real woman.”

“She isn’t going to kill her ex.” Adam was sure of it. She might talk big in a room full of supportive women. She might even kill his ass off in one of her books, but Serena Brooks was incapable of actually swatting a fly. Her dumb choice of guard dogs proved her soft heart.

“She doesn’t have to kill him,” Jake said. “She just has to make him look really bad. Maybe get him sent to jail. Then he couldn’t come after her money.”

Ian pointed his spoon Jake’s way. “What he said. Dean, I always thought you were the muscle. You’re the brains, too. What’s Adam here for?”

“Fuck you, Tag.” He turned to Jake, but there was no point in arguing in front of an audience. The morning with Serena had softened Jake up, and now all that work was gone with a five-minute video from a year before. It was time to turn to the case at hand. “Do you have anything beyond a couple of careless words caught on tape?”

“Touchy.” Liam brought up a new document on his laptop. “Nothing special. Eve’s got the duty of reading the books. I know she’s paying special attention to the book where Amber Rose’s heroine is stalked by her ex-husband.”

Fuck. None of it sounded good. “How are her financials?”

“Healthy. But everything is connected to her books. She has deposits from her publisher and her agent. Almost all of her money is from those electronic books everyone loves these days. She sells almost everything online. She’s a prolific little girl. In the two years since she started, she’s put out almost fifteen books. Which explains the fact that she doesn’t seem to date. She never leaves her computer.”

“Being that isolated can do odd things to a person.” Ian finished up his lunch. “She’s obviously obsessed with her work.”

“The same could be said of you.” Adam felt fidgety. None of this had gone as planned.

“Do you have a list of her friends?” Jake asked. “I’m going out to talk to her ex-husband this afternoon. I could make the rounds.”

Jake’s tone had flattened. It was his professional voice, the one he used far too often these days.