her. Yet, the idea of her being frightened tore him up inside.
She’d really gotten under his skin.
“When Brody finds an address, two of us will go get her, question her,” Reyes said coolly. “We’ll get the answers we need.”
“Don’t hurt her.” The words were wrested from him. But he couldn’t not say them.
Reyes’ eyes grew arctic. “Not in the habit of hurting women, but it sounds like this bitch might have it coming.”
Sunny made a pained noise and Duke sent Reyes a glare.
Reyes sighed. “There’s a reason why we don’t usually bring women to these meetings.”
“Just because you’d keep any woman of yours locked in a bullet-proof, fire-proof bunker doesn’t mean all of us like to keep our woman in the dark about everything,” Duke replied.
Reyes just grunted. The man actually looked satisfied at the thought of keeping his woman locked down that tight.
Weird asshole.
Mind you, there was a part of Ink that got it. If he had someone he loved, who loved him back, who meant everything to him, he’d do whatever it took to keep her safe.
Still, unlike Reyes, he knew that barring an apocalypse or some other life-threatening catastrophic event that any woman would castrate him if he tried to keep her locked down like that.
“I’m not protesting over the idea of you questioning her,” Sunny said with a strange glint in her eyes. “If she’s out to hurt Ink then we need to do whatever we have to in order to protect him.”
Everyone turned to gape at her.
Razor blinked and leaned forward. “Is that our sweet, gentle Sunny talking? The one who likes pink things and rhinestones and tea parties?”
Sunny went bright red. And this time Duke’s growl was real.
“No insult meant, darling, you know I love your tea parties.” Razor winked at her.
She groaned and buried her face in Duke’s chest. He rubbed his hand up and down her back while giving everyone a warning look.
Then she raised her face with a sigh. “Just because I’m not some rough talking, beer-guzzling grunting biker doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t protect the people that I care about.”
Although he loved her loyalty, the idea of her trying to protect him made him go cold.
Suddenly, he agreed with Reyes. Which was weird. But women shouldn’t be brought to these meetings. Whatever was going on here, Sunny should in no way be involved.
Duke gave him a nod as though sensing what was on his mind. There was no way Duke would ever allow Sunny to be in the position where she’d have to protect one of them.
“But does no one else think there’s something not quite right here?” she asked.
“The whole thing isn’t fucking right,” Ink said.
“Watch your language,” Duke snarled.
Sunny sighed. “I hear worse every time you leave me in the bar with Jewel.”
“Who’s been swearing around you?” Duke demanded.
Christ. Did he think he could stop the whole bar from swearing when Sunny was around?
She rolled her eyes. “Well, Jewel for a start…that woman has a hell of a mouth on her.”
Jason snorted with laughter.
Reyes sighed and ran his hand over his face. “Jewel’s language aside, what are you saying, Sunny?”
“It’s just she told Ink that it wasn’t all a lie. She asked you not to hate her. They don’t seem like things someone who was trying to…to hurt you would do.”
“She lied to me, Sunny.” He tried to keep his voice gentle, but he didn’t know how she could defend Betsy. “She pretended to care about me, to be a sub, to be a Little just to get close to me. Probably so she could plant evidence to get me framed for killing Senator Robins.”
“How long have you been a Daddy Dom, Ink?” Sunny asked.
He narrowed his gaze. “I started going to clubs when I was twenty, figured out I was a Daddy Dom about a year after leaving the Special Forces, so around six years. Why?”
“And you’re not able to spot someone pretending to be submissive? To be a Little?”
He frowned, thinking that through. “Look, so she was a good actress, all right? I’ve been fucking fooled all the way around.”
And boy did he hate to admit it.
“So if it was all lies, if she was some actress sent to seduce and betray you then why warn you?” Sunny asked quietly.
They were all silent.
“She’s got a point,” Razor said, watching him carefully. “Did you have any clue about any of this before this note?”
“No,” he admitted.
“So she could have continued to get close to you, planted false