2. Carly

Standing before the broken glass windows of her salon, Carly’s hands trembled as she dug her phone out of her back pocket. All six of the floor-to-ceiling windows had been smashed, and the inside of the salon had been vandalized as well. Lainey, her best friend and business partner, wasn’t due to be at the salon for two hours, which meant she was standing on the sidewalk in the early morning light by herself.

Usually she wouldn’t have been there so early, but she hadn’t been able to sleep the night before, having been kept awake by thoughts of a tall, muscular hunk of a man with the most intense green eyes that she’d ever seen. As she’d tossed and turned, she’d mentally kicked herself for not talking to the man… even though she didn’t plan to get involved with anyone. She had finally given up and decided to come in early, so here she was, looking at all of the damage to her salon.

Carly called 911, peering around to ensure no one was lurking nearby. It was only six in the morning and the sun was rising, creating strokes of orange and pink colors across the sky. If she weren’t staring at the crime scene in front of her, she would have appreciated the view. She had often imagined recreating the beauty of the sunrise with a makeup look for her YouTube channel. Sunrises always seemed to make her creative juices flow.

She had been hoping to prepare for her first client of the day who was coming at nine, but that was now out the window. Literally. She looked down at the sidewalk and saw several of her makeup brushes scattered on the ground among all the shattered glass.

Fuck. Those things weren’t cheap.

After getting off the phone with the 911 dispatch, who informed her they were sending officers her way, she called Lainey. She hated having to tell her about the break-in, especially since she had a feeling that it was a targeted break-in and that Carly herself was the target.

“Hello?”

“Lainey, it’s Carly. I… uh… fuck… sorry to call so early. The salon was broken into sometime during the night. Police are on their way, but you need to call your clients and reschedule your appointments for today unless you can go to them.”

“What? What do you mean it was broken into? Are you okay? I’m on my way.”

Carly felt terrible as she heard the alarm in Lainey’s voice. She didn’t want to scare her friend. She could hear Lainey moving briskly in the background.

“I’m fine. They smashed all the windows, and from what I can tell, the inside is a mess. I haven’t actually gone in yet.”

“Why didn’t the alarm company contact us?”

Carly suspected that whoever had done it was smart enough to disable the security system, so the alarm wouldn’t have gone off, but she wouldn’t tell Lainey that. Not yet, anyway.

Two police cars pulled up, and Carly suddenly felt uneasy. Her ex-husband had made it clear to her that he was friends with many police officers in the city, so she wasn’t even sure if she could really trust them.

“The police are here, so I gotta go. I’ll see you when you get here,” Carly said before ending the call.

“Carly Sterling?” one officer asked.

She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin, trying to make herself look more confident than she was feeling at that moment, and nodded her head.

“That’s me.”

The officers looked at the broken windows and the glass scattered on the ground and then looked toward her.

“I’m Officer Miller, and this is Officer Mayfield. This is quite a break-in.”

She nodded, wrapping her arms around herself.

“Have you gone inside?” Officer Miller asked.

She shook her head, “No.”

They nodded and asked for her keys. She thought it was silly since they could just walk right in through one of the window frames, but she handed them over and waited outside as they instructed her to do. The men did a quick sweep of the small salon and came back out to where she was standing.

“Did you have anything in there worth stealing, ma’am?”

She let out a small laugh, “Not unless you think a Tom Ford eyeshadow palette is worth smashing out six windows for.”

The two men looked at each other in confusion. She rolled her eyes. Men really had no idea how expensive good makeup was.

“Nothing big worth stealing. My collection of makeup brushes cost as much as my car, but as you can clearly see,” she waved down toward the scattered brushes, “they weren’t stolen.”

Yeah, she sounded kind of bitchy, but it was that or tears, and she wasn’t going to show any weakness to these men. She was a strong independent woman and didn’t need anyone’s sympathy.

“Do you know who might have done something like this?” Officer Miller asked.

Carly nodded, “I know exactly who did it. It was my asshole ex-husband.”

Both men looked at each other and then back at her.

“What makes you think it’s your ex-husband?” Officer Mayfield asked.

Shit. She didn’t want to get into all of it with these guys. But what else was she supposed to do? He was pissed and trying to get back at her, and the right thing to do would be to let the police handle it. But from what James had told her, it sounded as though he was friends with most of the higher-ups on the police force. Not good for her wanting to make a report about him.

Luckily, Lainey pulled up, coming to a screeching stop in her SUV before jumping out and running over to where Carly stood. Her eyes went huge as she surveyed the damage, bringing her hands to her mouth in shock.

“Who are you?” Officer Miller asked.

“This is Lainey Abbott. She owns the salon with me,” Carly said.

“Miss Sterling, we need to know why you think your ex-husband is responsible for this before we can go question him.”

Carly slumped her shoulders as she felt Lainey’s eyes move from the broken windows to her. It was one thing to keep it a secret when it had only affected her, but now it was affecting Lainey, and she deserved the truth.

“You think James is responsible for this?” Lainey whispered.

Carly nodded and looked over at her friend worriedly. She hoped like hell that Lainey wouldn’t hate her after all of this or decide she wanted to separate their business because of the drama that she brought on.

“My ex-husband is James Wheeler.”

The men’s eyes widened slightly before they looked at each other.

“James Wheeler, the attorney who ran for mayor but was exposed for hiring prostitutes and cheating on his wife, who was run out of the mayoral race because of it, that James Wheeler?” Mayfield asked.

Carly looked down and nodded. She was ashamed to say she had been married to that womanizer. He was a piss poor excuse for a man, and she hated that she had ever been associated with him. Damn, she had been blind.

“I was the one who exposed him, and he’s pissed at me,” she said quietly.

She waited for them to turn into total assholes, tell her she was out of luck and on her own or else laugh at her, but instead, they shocked the hell out of her.

“I always hated that guy. Fucking jackass. What kind of man cheats on his wife?” Miller said.

“An idiot, that’s who. He’s a piece of shit. I haven’t liked him since the first time I met him.” Mayfield said.

“He wouldn’t have won mayor anyway. Most of the police department hates him, and you can’t win a city if you don’t have the police backing you,” Miller chimed in again.

Mayfield eyed Carly, “He cheated on you?”

She nodded, “Yep. With a lot of prostitutes.”

Mayfield shook his head and whistled, “I can tell you that if I had a wife like you, I wouldn’t so much as look at another woman. He lost out, kiddo. You deserve better anyway. Now, let’s see what we can do about all of this.”

Carly let out a sigh of relief and smiled at the man. Even though he was much older and not at all her type, she appreciated the kind words. Lainey grabbed her hand and squeezed.

“I’m so sorry, Lainey,” she said.

Her friend shook her head and smiled, “You don’t need to be sorry. It’s his fault. Not yours.”

“It is my fault. A few weeks ago, he did something similar to my car, and I didn’t report it because I was afraid to go to the police. I thought he had a bunch of friends in the police force.”

Lainey’s eyes widened, “When you said your car was in the shop…”

“It was getting the windows replaced,” Carly finished.

Lainey’s face paled, and she squeezed Carly’s hand even tighter.

Carly spent the next twenty minutes giving the officers a statement before they started taking pictures of the damage.

“We’ll email you the photos so you can send them to your insurance company. Do you have a company in mind that can come do cleanup?” Miller asked.

Carly shook her head, “No. We’ll start the cleanup ourselves and call someone if we need help. We need to find somewhere that can replace our windows, though.”

Mayfield smiled, “I have the number for a guy. Give him my name. He’ll make you a priority.”

After getting the phone number of the window guy, the officers warned the women to be extra aware of their surroundings and take additional precautions with their safety for the time being. Officer Miller told her that since they didn’t have hard proof that James had broken in, arresting him would be difficult. James was a ruthless criminal attorney and knew what to say to cover himself.

Carly knew all of that, and that was why she hadn’t called the police when her car windows had been busted. She was also smart enough to know that James probably wasn’t the one who actually did the job. He would have hired people to do it for him. God forbid he get his hands dirty or mess up his fake tan.

Gag.

Lainey told her that she had called all their scheduled clients for the day and canceled, letting them know what had happened and telling them they would call back to reschedule their appointments within the next day or two. Carly nodded, and the women went into the salon and started cleaning up.

Lainey swept while Carly went around with a garbage bag and picked up debris that needed to get thrown away. Unfortunately, that meant throwing away almost all of her makeup palettes and brushes because they had been destroyed. Carly felt awful for getting her friend involved in her mess. Even if it wasn’t her fault, she still felt guilty.

“I’m so sorry, Lainey. I’ll pay for all the damages myself.”

Lainey paused her sweeping and glared at Carly, “Absolutely not. We have insurance for this kind of thing. Besides, we are in this together. We are a team, and you’re my best friend. Don’t be sorry. I just wish you would have told me what had happened to your car. I thought you were just getting an oil change or something.”

Carly shrugged, “I knew if I told you that you would tell me to go to the police, and I really didn’t want to. I also didn’t think it would escalate. I just kind of thought he was pissed and having a little tantrum. He was always so good at them.”

“Well, it’s clearly more than that,” Lainey told her.

They waited for the window guy to come and take measurements. He was kind and offered to board up the salon until the glass came in, which would take a few days. Knowing that, the women called their clients and offered to travel to them for their appointments until the salon was back up and running.

After everything was as secure as possible in the shop, Carly and Lainey walked out to their cars together, hand in hand. Lainey pulled Carly into a hug.

“I know you think that you need to be all strong and shit, but you don’t, okay? You aren’t in this alone. Do you want to stay at my house for a while? We could color and play dolls. You know, get our mind off all this adult crap.”

Carly smiled and shook her head. Her best friend was always trying to convince her that she should try out being a Little, but Carly always turned her down. She loved her friend dearly and didn’t think any less of Lainey for being a Little, but Carly had worked too hard to become independent and strong after her divorce to let that guard down, no matter how relaxing Lainey said it was. Although, not that she’d ever admit it, Carly had wondered a time or two about it.

“You know I’m not a Little. Thank you, though. I’ll be fine. I’m going to go home and call my brother. He has connections, and I’m sure he’ll use them to make sure that James rots one way or another.”

Lainey gave her a small smile. Carly’s brother was a Marine, the same as Lainey’s husband. However, while Carly could communicate with her brother regularly, Lainey hadn’t been able to speak to her husband in nearly six months because he was on a special ops mission and had to go completely ghost. Carly couldn’t imagine how lonely that would feel, not knowing where her husband was or if he was even alive.

“Call me if you need anything. You could always come over, and we could binge watch Grey’s Anatomy and eat junk food,” Lainey said before she drove away.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Carly said with a smile.

Carly climbed into the cute little red Volkswagen bug that James had hated because it wasn’t some snooty Bentley or whatever he liked to drive. Searching her contacts, she hit her brother’s name on her phone before she started her drive home.

“Hey, baby sister,” his voice came over the speakers in the car.

She smiled at hearing his voice, “Hey, Greyson. Sorry to call you so early. It’s what, like six in the morning there?”

Her brother was based in South Korea, and she always had a hard time keeping up with the time difference. Half of the time when she called him, it was the middle of the night where he was, but luckily, he never complained.

“Try five in the morning, but I’m a marine, and I wake up with the birds. What are you up to over there?”

“Uh, well, I think James tried to give me another scare.”

She heard a string of curse words from her brother and smiled to herself. He could use such colorful language sometimes.

“What did the bastard do now? I’m going to kill him, Caroline. I swear, I’m going to fucking kill him.”

Carly wrinkled her nose at him calling her by her full first name. She had never liked the name Caroline and her brother was the only one who could get away with calling her that.

“All of the windows in the front of the salon were smashed and the place was turned upside down.”

“Dammit, Caroline, I told you this would happen again. Did you call the police this time? I’m getting you a bodyguard, and you aren’t going to argue with me about it this time. Fuck!”

She knew she wouldn’t be able to talk her brother out of this. When her car was vandalized, she argued with him and told him she didn’t want a bodyguard. She told him that she was sure it was just a one-time thing that James had done to be a jerk and to try to get back at her. But it was evident that he was doing more than simply getting back at her. He was trying to scare the shit out of her - and it was working.

Thoughts of the enormous muscular bodyguard from the day before came to her mind, and she felt herself blushing at the thought of him protecting her. He was so built that the t-shirt he had been wearing was tight enough to show off every muscle in his chest, shoulders, and arms, and she had to force herself to focus on the bitch of a celebrity instead of staring at him the whole time. Why couldn’t she have him as her bodyguard?

Yeah, right. Besides, you don’t want a man. Men suck. Look at what James did to you.

“Fine, but I’m still going to live my life the way I want to live it, Greyson. I’m not going to live under a fucking rock because some asshole is trying to scare me,” she snapped.

“Caroline, language!” her brother scolded.

She rolled her eyes. He was so damn frustrating sometimes. He could curse up a storm, but he scolded her if she did it.

She knew he was into BDSM and was a Daddy Dom. It was something that she’d accidentally found out when she was a senior in high school after hearing his ex-girlfriend calling him Daddy. When she had confronted him about it, he had been upfront and explained the whole dynamic to her, providing way more information than she had been prepared for. And secretly, she was much more intrigued than she had let on. But just because he was a Daddy Dom to the women he dated didn’t mean he could tell her what to do.

Dumb brothers.

“Greyson Sterling, I am thirty years old, I own a business, I live independently, and if I want to say fuck or shit or asshole, I’m going to say it.”

The line went silent, and for half a second, Carly wondered if her brother had hung up on her until he let out a long sigh.

“I’m getting you a bodyguard. I’ll get him in touch with you. I have to get going. I have a training mission that I have to go get ready for and I still need to eat breakfast. Listen to me, until your bodyguard arrives, you stay locked in your house. Got it? I’m not playing around about this, Caroline. I mean it.”

“Sure. Right. Hide from the danger instead of standing up for myself. Got it. Anything else, Sir?”

She knew she was pressing Greyson’s buttons. It was something she had been very good at ever since they had been kids, but she was tired of him thinking she needed him to take care of her. Sure, she had called him, but it hadn’t been because she wanted him to go all dominant drill sergeant, telling her what she needed to do. Right?

She was a strong, successful woman, not one of those submissive Littles that he liked to date. Sure, he always seemed to be telling her that he thought otherwise. But what did he know? He was just her big dumb brother who she loved and respected, even though he drove her mad sometimes.

“I love you, Caroline. I’m just trying to protect you,” he said firmly.

She softened a little at his words. He was irritated and trying to keep his temper intact, and she felt a little bad for poking at him. Even when they were at odds or having a sibling squabble, they never got off the phone without telling each other they loved the other because in Greyson’s line of work, another day of living was never guaranteed.

Carly let out a deep breath as she pulled into her parking space at her townhome. She knew deep down that he was doing what he felt was right so he could protect her.

“I love you too, Grey. Be safe.”