A week went by after the rehearsal dinner, and life proceeded as usual. To be fair, ‘the usual’ in the world of Blake Security could pretty much mean anything. Which was why I was surprised to find myself at home on a Friday night with absolutely nothing to do.

“So there are no active cases that need research?” I asked Oskar, quite certain there must be something we were missing.

“Nope. Noah cleared everything leading up to Jonas and JJ’s wedding. I guess he thought we’d all be distracted. Or he wanted to give his friend time to bone his future bride. Either one.”

Oskar shrugged, his massive shoulders moving beneath his shirt like boulders. The blond giant looked like Thor on steroids but had the humor of a twelve year old boy.

It was interesting that he was considered the most juvenile of our group when I was, in fact, the one just barely enough to drink. Although with a life history like mine, I sometimes felt like I aged in dog years. Currently my mental age was sitting at somewhere around one hundred and forty.

“Great. So where is everyone then?”

Just to be clear, I wasn’t upset about the peace and quiet. It was just unusual. When you live in a penthouse that’s the headquarters for an international security conglomerate, quiet isn’t something you get a lot of.

“The girls are at the bachelorette party tonight. Noah didn’t tell you?”

Shit. That must have been what the boss was talking about earlier. I’d nodded along and smiled in all the right places, meanwhile only hearing every third word. My mind had been running a million miles per hour lately, compounded by even less sleep than usual. Leave it to my luck to have actually missed something important today.

“Right. He did mention that.” My phone rang, saving me from whatever response Oskar was about to give. I squinted down at the screen when the phone abruptly stopped ringing and a text came in. When I saw who it was from, my heart immediately sped up.

Lucia: Plz tell me u r home !

My fingers cramped as I struggled to type back as fast as possible. Getting a text from the boss’s wife when she was supposed to be at her best friend’s bachelorette party was not the kind of situation that inspires confidence.

Matthias: I’m here. What’s going on?

Waiting for the next text seemed like days instead of minutes. Oskar picked up on my panic and put down the bag of chips he was previously inhaling. “What’s going on? Why are you suddenly staring at your phone like that? Is someone sending you nudes?”

“It’s Lucia. I’m waiting for her to text back.”

Oskar raised a blond eyebrow. “Are you dirty texting with the boss’s wife? Because if so, you need to warn me so I can get out of the line of fire when he comes gunning for your ass.”

The look on my face must have clued him in that this was serious because he abruptly stood up straight. “Wait, isn’t Lucia at the bachelerette party right now? With JJ?”

My phone dinged again.

Lucia: Sorry, can’t type well. Handcuffed.

What. The. Fuck.

“Holy shit, dude. We have to find the girls. Now.”

Oskar didn’t waste time talking, just followed me down the hall to my room, aka the security command center. I was typing before my ass even landed in the chair, pulling up the tracker software we used. Lucia had a necklace with a security tracker in it, so in a few moments, I had the GPS coordinates for her location.

“Let’s go.”

While we were walking back out, Oskar was on the phone calling Noah. Then Rafe. But I could barely hear any of his conversation. We stopped in the weapons room and suited up before hitting the elevator down to the garage level. Oskar took the wheel so I could keep working on the laptop I took along. The security software was running, monitoring Lucia’s tracker in case her location changed before we could get into position.

“Where the fuck is Noah?”

Oskar groaned. “Hell of a time for the boss to take a shit. He’s going to be pissed when he finds out something went down and he didn’t know about it.”

Crude but honest. You could always count on Oskar to tell it like it is.

“Her location hasn’t moved. What’s our plan?”

By the time we pulled into the parking lot of the hotel, we’d gone over our plan. I’d also hacked Lucia’s messages and gone back to earlier in the evening to get the room number the party was supposed to be in. This would be less messy if we could avoid involving hotel personnel, but if we had to, we would.

Neither of us batted an eye as we strolled through the hotel lobby and took the elevator up to the eighth floor. We moved slowly but quickly down to room 828.

“Look, the door is open.” Oskar nodded at the door, which was slightly ajar. He drew his weapon, and I followed suit.

Whatever was waiting for us behind this door, we were ready.

At his signal, I pushed the door open and swept into the room, moving my gun back and forth while scanning for threats. I paused at the destruction in the room. There were balloons all over the place, open liquor bottles, margarita glasses and what looked like…

“Are those dildos?” Oskar asked. He looked disgusted but also kind of impressed. “These chicks have some explaining to do.”

Muffled sounds from the next room had us both spinning toward the bathroom door. I pointed two fingers in that direction to let Oskar know that I would go first so he could cover me.

But nothing could have prepared me for what I saw when I pushed open the door.

JJ, Lucia, and two other women I didn’t know were all clustered in the bathroom with their hands tied with rope. Correction, Lucia was restrained with a pair of pink fuzzy handcuffs.

The two women I didn’t know were huddled in the bathtub. Meanwhile, JJ was standing in front of Lucia, awkwardly messing with her cleavage.

Oskar appeared at my elbow, and I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head.

“It’s never been this vivid in my dreams before,” he muttered.

JJ winked. “You’d better not let my future hubby hear you say that big boy. Or Noah.”

“What the hell is going on here?”

I finally found my voice. Because I’m not going to pretend the sight of JJ doing whatever she was doing to Lucia’s breasts didn’t affect me.

“I was trying to hide the cell phone back in Lu’s massive baby bazookas, okay? I thought the crazy stripper was coming back, and we didn’t want him to know we’d managed to hide a cell phone.”

Oskar just continued staring. “Nothing you just said makes any sense, and I don’t even care.”

Now that the apparent danger was past, JJ walked over and elbowed him in the gut. “Stop staring, you hornball, and untie me!”

The sound of a door opening behind us caught all of our attention.

“He must be coming back,” JJ whispered.

Oskar turned, his gun at the ready, just as a shirtless guy rounded the corner. His skin glistened with oil and… was that glitter? When he caught sight of us, he skidded to a stop.

“Oh shit.” He spun on his heel and raced off.

None of us moved. Finally, JJ smacked Oskar on the shoulder with her still-bound hands. “Go after him!”

He groaned. “Seriously. I have to chase the oily half-naked dude?” But he ran off, the sound of his footsteps fading as he left the room.

Once he was gone, I turned to look at the others.

“Start talking."