The next day, Sam leaned in to hear Abby talk over the sounds of diners at Christa’s Café. The clatter of dishes and people talking made it hard to have an intimate conversation.

“What do you mean he left a note?” Abby asked a second time.

He shrugged, wondering exactly what to say to her. He should have known something was up with Jack. He’d been preoccupied the night before. Now that he really thought about it, Jack had acted pretty odd even for lately. He hadn’t listened to anything Abby had said and barely touched his supper. He’d gone to bed without saying a word to the two of them.

This morning Jack had skipped breakfast. When he asked Jack about it, he’d been evasive, saying something about work.

Then shortly afterward, Sam had found that damn note.

He looked at Abby from his place across the booth. All around them the lunch crowd at Christa’s Café was moving and talking. Sam ignored them all. The town still loved to gossip about him. Marrying Abby had lent fuel to that particular fire, but he had bigger things to worry about now.

If it had just been him, Sam would have shrugged it all off as Jack brooding. Abby deserved more from Jack. “He left a note. I was working in the barn, and when I got back to remind him we were meeting you in town for lunch, the truck was gone. He left this note on the refrigerator.”

Sam passed it across the table to their wife. He watched her hazel eyes widen as she read the terse note Jack had left behind. It was on the ranch’s stationary, but at least it was handwritten.

Something came up and I need to go out of town. I’ll be back in a few days. Love you, Jack.

Abby’s pretty mouth tightened. She reached into her purse and pulled out her cell. There was a certain righteous indignation that went along with pressing the number that called Jack.

“He’s not answering, baby.” He’d already tried it several times. He’d called and sent a couple of texts. There was a big part of him that was scared Jack would pick up. If Jack picked up for Abby, then he would know exactly where his place was in this family.

“Damn it, Jack,” Abby growled into the receiver. “Call me. This note is bullshit, and you know it. You call me and tell me where you are. Sam and I are worried about you.”

She pushed the button to end the call, and Sam relaxed slightly. At least Jack was ignoring them both. Sam reached across the table and stroked Abby’s hand. Out of long habit, he made excuses for the man he’d lived with for years. “He doesn’t like to talk while he’s driving. You know that.”

“He didn’t even tell us where he was going.” Abby drummed her free hand along the top of the booth.

Sam caught his breath. Even though he was concerned about the state of his household, he couldn’t help but love the way looking at Abby made him feel. She was a stunning woman with red hair and a killer body. She was forever bemoaning her weight, but Sam loved her every curve. There was a time when she would have been spanked for disparaging herself. The last time she’d called herself fat, Jack had told her not to be so hard on herself.

Sam missed the real Jack.

Christa Wade walked up carrying a platter of food. The brunette was wearing her usual uniform of jeans and a Western shirt, though all the other waitresses wore pink uniforms. Sam smiled, thinking about the uniform Abby had kept from her short period as a waitress here. It was in the back of the closet with her French maid’s uniform and the hot nurse costume he bought her for Halloween the year before. Abby tried to explain that she’d never have worn that in a hospital, but Sam wasn’t going to let her ruin his fantasy. She’d worked all those years in tiny miniskirts and high heels with a little nurse hat on her head.

“Here you go, guys,” Christa said with a smile. She started chatting about things going on in Willow Fork while Sam thought about his stomach.

Abby had ordered for him, and he fought the urge to close his eyes against what she thought of as a proper lunch. Abby firmly believed the word wholesome and food should go together. Sam had never met a cow he didn’t want to eat. It was a food chain thing.

Christa laughed as she set the burger in front of him. “She’s not cruel, Sam.”

He winced as he noted there were no fries. Christa set down a mound of green stuff alongside the burger. Christa asked if there was anything else she could get them. It took everything Sam had not to respond with fries and ketchup and maybe a hot dog on the side. Christa winked at him as she walked away. He pushed the bowl of salad around with the side of his fork.

“It’s called compromise,” Abby explained. All she had in front of her was green stuff. With Jack distracted, she’d gone on another diet. She’d been eating like a bird, and it was starting to worry Sam. “You get your burger, exactly the way you like it, and I get the satisfaction of knowing you ate something today that didn’t used to have a face.”

Sam sighed and gave the lettuce a tentative try. His wife had some strange ideas about eating. He suspected she got it from years of big-city living.

“Where do you think he went?”

Sam hated the sadness in Abby’s voice. He silently cursed his partner for putting it there. He and Jack were going to have it out and soon. Sam could handle being ignored, but he wasn’t about to let Abby get hurt. He had no idea what was bugging Jack, but he meant to find out. As to where his partner had gotten off to, he did have an idea. He simply wasn’t certain he should tell their wife.

“You know, don’t you?” Abby let her fork drop. Those hazel eyes became laser beams shooting through him. Abby, for all the submission she showed in the bedroom, could be damn bossy when she wanted to be. “Samuel, you better tell me what you know right now.”

“Fine.” He knew there was no real way to keep her from finding out. He wasn’t able to keep things from Abby. “I might know the password to his voice mail, and I might have listened to his messages.”

Abby’s mouth dropped open. Then a slow, appreciative smile crossed her face. “You little sneak. I love you so much right now.”

He winked at her. The day was looking up. She appeared properly impressed with his more criminally inclined talents. He might be able to convince her to spend some time in Christa’s office. He had fond memories of the desk in there. He wouldn’t mention to her that he’d figured out her password, too. He always kept tabs on those he loved. “I checked his voice mail. There was one he’d already listened to, but hadn’t erased. It was a message from Julian.”

“Why do I know that name?” Abby asked as she took a long drink of iced tea.

This was the part he was pretty sure she wouldn’t like. “He’s the man who runs The Club.”

“That’s right,” she said, obviously remembering. Jack had told her about the time they had spent in Dallas. Sam was pretty sure she’d gotten a nicely sanitized version of what went on there. “Julian Lodge. He’s Jack’s old mentor. He sent that lovely bouquet to the hospital when Jack was there. What did he need?”

“He didn’t say exactly.” Sam took a bite of the burger but everything tasted like cardboard to him today. He put it down. “He told Jack to call him in that voice of his.”

Abby leaned in and glanced around, as though worried someone was listening in. He knew she had a lot of questions about the time he and Jack had spent at the BDSM club in Dallas. While Jack had worked there as a resident Dom, Sam had tended bar.

“Which voice is that?” She gasped as she answered her own question. “He’s a Dom like Jack, isn’t he?”

Sam nodded and fought off his shiver. Julian Lodge scared the crap out of him sometimes. “He’s the Dom of Doms, baby. You know how Jack gets when he’s really in control? That voice he gets that you just can’t disobey?”

A smile crossed her face, likely because she was remembering some good times. Hell, he couldn’t stop thinking about it either. Jack would growl in that voice of his, and Abby would be on her knees at his feet, her clothes lost in a flurry of obedience. He loved watching her submit. He wanted so fucking badly to kneel next to her, to know his turn was going to come.

“I know the voice, Sam.” Her tone was husky with remembered pleasure.

“Well, multiply it by a hundred and know that Julian Lodge uses it twenty-four seven.”

She flushed, her skin turning a pretty pink. “Wow, and he taught Jack?”

“Yep, though Jack doesn’t take it as far as Julian does,” Sam explained. Of course, Jack hadn’t been taking it anywhere lately. “Jack likes a sub when it comes to sex.”

Abby’s smile was wry. “Does he? I couldn’t tell. I can’t see his face when my ass is in the air waiting for him to spank it.”

“Sassy,” he tossed at her and continued. “Jack doesn’t try to make every decision for you. He’s very protective, and he can be overbearing at times.”

“Not lately.” Her mouth turned down in a glum frown.

He ignored her. It wouldn’t help to talk about it. “But for the most part, he’s indulgent. That is not the way it is with Julian. Julian’s lovers fall into the slave category.”

Rather than shirking away in disgust, Abby leaned in closer. She was an adventuresome thing. “Really? So he keeps women around, and he makes all the decisions for them? He chooses their clothes? They have to ask for permission to speak?”

Sam nodded. He left out the part about the collars and absolute obedience Julian Lodge required from his slaves. “Yes, that’s about it. Though in all the time I’ve known him, he’s only kept a couple of subs with him at his home, and no one for more than a year. Still, he’s gone through a string of casual subs. How exactly do you know so much about slaves?”

“Well, Sam, you know I like to read.”

He laughed out loud. Abby liked to read, all right. Abby liked to read erotica. It was her substantial collection that had brought them together in the first place. “I forgot. You’re an expert.”

She rested her chin in her hand and sighed. “He’s going to The Club without us.”

“We don’t know that.” He was pretty sure that was exactly what Jack had done, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud.

“Why else would he leave with nothing but a note?” Her eyes were downcast. “I think he’s tired of me.”

Sam leaned forward, catching her hand in his. His heart ached at the sorrow in her voice. “That’s not true, baby. He loves you.”

Her laugh was a hollow sound. “He doesn’t seem to want me the way he used to. I’ve got to face the fact that maybe Jack is one of those men who loves the chase more than anything else. Now that I’ve been caught, someone else will be more interesting to him.”

“No,” he said fervently. “I’ve known Jack Barnes my entire adult life. He’s never loved anyone the way he loves you. He would never have married you if he didn’t know he wanted to spend the rest of his life with you. Something’s wrong. We need to find out what it is. When he comes back, we need to confront him. We need to sit down as a family and figure out what’s wrong.”

Abby thought for a long moment. “I don’t know if talking about it will work. He doesn’t want to talk. I’ve tried. You’ve tried. I don’t know how he would handle it if we put together something with a therapist. I can’t go on like this. I need to know if it’s time for me to walk away.”

“Don’t even talk like that.” He was shocked that she would suggest it. He couldn’t imagine his world without Abby in it. He also couldn’t imagine a world where he would have to choose between them.

“I hope that’s not the reason he’s been distant, but I fear that he wouldn’t tell me even if it was,” she said with grim resolve. “Sometimes a patient needs a shock to the system to get him going again.”

“Shock to the system?” He wasn’t sure he liked the sound of that.

“I’m only saying that Jack thinks everything is fine and that he can handle whatever is going on in that head of his alone. Part of the reason he thinks that is we’ve done everything we could to make him comfortable. Maybe it’s time to make him uncomfortable.”

“How do we do that? It’s kind of impossible to make him anything if he won’t talk to us.”

“I think we should go to Dallas.” Abby sat up straighter than she had before. “You still have a membership to that club, don’t you?”

There was a mixture of horror and excitement flowing through his veins at the thought of what she was saying. It was ninety-nine percent horror, though. He could imagine what Jack would do if they showed up at The Club without his permission. This was a very, very bad idea. “I don’t think going to The Club without Jack is a sound plan, baby. The Club is hardcore. It’s not a place for normal women.”

Her big hazel eyes rolled, and she did that cute little snort she used when he was acting like a dumbass. He thought she used it an awful lot. “Yes, I’m so normal. I’m married to two men. I think I can handle The Club.”

He wasn’t so sure. Her only experience with the world of kink was through romance novels and two men who loved her enough to marry her. Sam knew that the men who inhabited The Club would eat up a sweet submissive like Abigail. She would be the softest thing any of them had seen, and he worried that without Jack, she would be unprotected. He doubted he could convincingly play the Dom. Sam was honest enough with himself to admit he was every bit as submissive as Abby, maybe more so.

He tried for logic. “Besides, we don’t know for sure that Jack went to Dallas. He could be anywhere. We could go up there and be all on our own.”

“Then we’ll view it as a vacation.” Abby picked up her fork again. She smiled, and it melted something in Sam. She seemed more animated than she had in weeks. “We never got our honeymoon and the farthest either one of us has been from the ranch in months is Tyler. If Jack isn’t there and he’s off doing some sort of ranch work, then we simply indulge in a big-city vacation. Jack’s always telling me how I should enjoy my position as the wife of a wealthy man.”

“I think he meant you should do more in the community,” Sam pointed out. “He was talking about taking on charity work. You know you’ve been discussing opening a clinic for a while now.”

“And I firmly intend to do that. If I’m still in a position to do so. In the meantime, I’m going to apply a very liberal meaning to Jack’s words. I’m going to Dallas, and I’m going shopping. Come on, Sam. I know what you want. You’ve always wanted a motorcycle. Let’s get a big, gorgeous hog and drive to Dallas. We’ll get a room at The Club, preferably a suite, and tear up Neiman Marcus with Jack’s credit cards.”

Sam’s jaw dropped. “You know Jack won’t let me buy a bike. Do you have any idea how long I’ve been trying to convince him to let me get a motorcycle? He always tells me I’ll kill myself on it, and he won’t allow it. Besides, I don’t want a Harley, baby. I want one of those ninja bikes like Tom Cruise rides in Mission Impossible. It’s called a Ducati.”

“Well, as far as I can see, he’s not been in the mood to allow or disallow anything lately,” Abby said simply. “You know what they say. When the Dom’s away, the subs will play. What do you say we play, Sam?”

He sat back and thought for a moment. Since he’d been fifteen years old, his whole life had revolved around Jack Barnes. He’d never seriously thought about disobeying his friend. Jack always knew what was best, and he always looked out for Sam. In return, Sam did what Jack told him to do.

But Jack didn’t know what was best now. Jack was floundering, and he doubted that an intervention would help. Maybe Abby was right. Maybe the only thing that would get through to Jack was a shock to his system. Jack believed in a well-run house. In Jack’s mind, a well-run house had one leader—him. What would happen if they questioned that right of his?

Especially since lately he hadn’t been leading at all.

Sam pulled out his cell phone and called information. In the end it was easy. While Jack had all the ambition and power in the relationship, he’d given Sam half the money. Money, Sam rapidly discovered, was power all on its own. Twenty minutes later, he hung up with a smile on his face.

“They’re going to deliver the Ducati out at the house. Can you imagine? They’re going to bring it to us,” he said with a little thrill.

Abby’s smile was perfectly Cheshire Cat-like. “Yes, Sam, that’s what happens when you pay forty-thousand dollars in cash to a salesperson who lives off of commission. He’d probably kiss your feet if you asked him to.”

He could picture himself on the back of that sleek bike. Abby would be behind him with her arms wrapped tightly around his waist. He envisioned himself driving up to The Club with her and tossing the keys to the valet before leading his lady in. Yeah, he could do this.

He then envisioned Jack taking him apart piece by piece for allowing their wife on a motorcycle.

“Don’t.” Abby snapped her fingers and pulled him out of it. “It’s going to be fine. We’ll have fun, just the two of us. The truth is I don’t know if he’ll care that we’re gone at all.”

“He might kill me.” He picked up the burger again. If he was going to die, then it would be on a full stomach. It tasted better this time. Perhaps it was the idea of doing something rather than sitting back and waiting that made everything seem better.

She shrugged. “Then we’ll know he still cares.”

He was going to worry about Jack’s revenge later. For now, he would concentrate on the positive. He had Abby to himself, and he was taking her on a road trip. Where it would lead them, he couldn’t tell. He knew that with Abby, at least he would enjoy the ride.

 

* * * *

 

Four hours later, Sam watched as Abby strapped on her helmet. Sam stood quietly looking at his unbelievably cool new bike as Abby got prepared for the trip. Her hair was pulled back in a low ponytail, and she wore the leather jacket he’d ordered her to wear. He wasn’t letting her on a bike without her skin being protected. She was dressed in a leather jacket, T-shirt, heavy denim jeans, gloves, and motorcycle boots.

It was a good thing he wasn’t the world’s most obedient sub. Though Jack had told him he couldn’t buy a motorcycle, Sam rode them as often as he possibly could. He had friends who let him practice on theirs, teaching him the ins and outs of how to handle a bike.

“I feel like a biker mama.” She grinned as she settled on the back of the motorcycle. She looked hot sitting on the back of his brand-new Ducati Panigale V4 Speciale. She was so cute, he could eat her up. He leaned over and kissed her, slipping her a bit of tongue before breaking off and sliding in front of her.

He smiled as she leaned against him. Why he hadn’t done this a long time ago, he had no idea. He could feel her pressed against his backside. He might never get in his car again.

He started the engine, satisfied with the way it purred to life.

“You ready?”

Abby wrapped her arms around his waist in response.

He took off, and they left the ranch behind them.