Crew

“ M ontgomery, get in here,” his boss called. He hadn’t even had time to drop his stuff off at his desk, and his boss was demanding an audience. When he usually called into the office, it was bad news and that was the last thing he needed today.

“One-second,” called, spilling the contents from his arms onto his desk. He stepped into his boss’s office which was inconveniently by his, and sat down in front of his desk. “What can I do for you, boss?” he asked.

“You know that I hate it when you call me that, Montgomery, don’t you?” slowly nodded his head and smiled back at him.

“I do,” he admitted, “but we aren’t really on a first name basis with each other, now, are we?” he asked.

“Never mind,” his boss insisted. “I don’t have time to get into all of that right now. I got the DNA results back from Susan O’Hare’s unborn baby and it’s a direct match to your, um, friend’s father.”

“Shit,” grumbled. “Are you sure the baby was Bobby Marino’s?” he asked. He hated that his hunch was correct about Zane’s father being involved with Susan’s murder. It was the only time he wished that he was wrong. Telling Zane was going to break his heart and that was the last thing he wanted to do to his guy.

“I’m sure,” his boss said. “I need you to get an arrest warrant from the judge and go pick Marino up. We need to bring him in for questioning and I want to be able to keep him for a few days. If we book him with murder charges, his lawyers will have a harder time getting him out on bail.” knew that was true, but he hated doing that to Zane or his father.

“You know, just because he got Susan O’Hare pregnant doesn’t mean that he murdered her. I’ve been staking out The Kink Club for months now and I haven’t found any evidence to support your theory of him killing her,” said. Yeah, he was putting his ass on the line, but he owed Zane at least that much before he brought his world down around him. With Bobby in jail, Zane would have to run the company, and knew how much his guy was trying to avoid that happening.

“I’m not asking you to second guess me, Montgomery. You’re a damn good detective, but I think that you might be too involved with the suspects in this case to do me any good.” picked up on his boss using the plural “Suspects” when he spoke, and he was almost afraid to ask him what he meant. But he needed to know.

“Suspects?” asked. “As in more than one?”

“You picked up on that, huh?” his boss asked. “We’re not only looking at Bobby Marino, but we’re also looking at his son.”

“Zane?” asked. “Why the hell do you think he’s a suspect?” There was no way that his guy could ever be a part of murdering anyone. The thought was laughable, but his boss didn’t know Zane like he did.

“We don’t believe that Bobby Marino acted alone. We have intel that he had help. Susan wasn’t killed at that club. She was killed at a secondary location and dragged to the room she was found in,” his boss said. That made sense. The forensic photos always threw him off a little every time he looked at them. The scene was too clean for the amount of blood that Susan had lost before her death.

“Why conclude that Zane is Bobby’s accomplice?” he asked.

“You do know what the Marinos are involved in, right? They are one of the top mafia families in the state,” his boss reminded.

“I’m aware, but Zane has nothing to do with his family business. He’d never kill anyone, not even to help his father out,” insisted. He worried that his boss wasn’t hearing a word that he was saying. In fact, he looked bored as he tried to defend Zane.

“We’ve thought about all of that, but he’s been labeled as an accomplice, we just need more information before we can arrest him.” That meant that his boss didn’t have enough evidence to bring Zane in and he’d have time to prove that his guy was innocent.

“As for you spending time with Zane Marino, it’s not a good idea,” his boss said. wanted to tell him to go fuck himself—that he’d turn in his gun and badge if he was being ordered to walk away from Zane.

“Not happening, I won’t leave him because you have a hunch. It’s not true—he didn’t kill anyone,” shouted.

“Keep your voice down, . It’s not forever, and you can think of it this way—maybe you can prove his innocence before I can prove his guilt. Work both angles of the case and let’s see what you come up with. I’m not a total asshole.” wanted to disagree with his boss, but he was right. He might just be the only person to keep Zane out of prison, and if he could do that, he’d leave his guy for a few weeks—but nothing more.

“Fine,” he said, “but I’m going to need time. I can’t just up and leave him without having to answer a lot of questions, and I’m assuming that you don’t want that happening.”

“No,” his boss breathed. “I’d like to keep this under wraps until we can get some more answers. His father being arrested will take his attention off our investigation of him.” He hated everything about this plan, but all Zane could think about was proving Zane was innocent, and that became his focus.

“Fine,” agreed, “but I want to be kept in the loop. If you find something out about the case, I want to be the first person that you call.”

“Yeah, yeah, Montgomery,” his boss grumbled. “I’ll keep you in the loop, but you do the same.” nodded and turned to leave his boss’ office. If he was going to have to leave Dakota and Zane, he wanted to spend as much time with them as possible.

felt sick to his stomach knowing that he was going back home to lie to the man and woman he loved. He’d been in love with Zane since they met at the club, and falling for Dakota was the easiest decision that he had ever made. Lying to both of them was going to be hell, but he had no other choice. He wanted just one more night with them, and he planned on making it a good one.

He knew that if he told Zane or Dakota that he was investigating both Zane and his father, they wouldn’t understand. He was doing his job, and maybe his boss was right, and he was too close to the case, but he couldn’t help who he loved. Hurting the two people who had become his world was going to gut him.

He walked into the house and found Zane and Dakota sitting together on the sofa. She was practically in Zane’s lap and was thankful that they’d be able to go on without him. He knew that Zane would take care of their girl, and that was what he needed to focus on now.

“Hey guys,” he breathed.

“How did it go down at the precinct?” Dakota asked. She had the day off, but he knew that she liked to check in on him from time to time. There would be no use lying to his girl because she probably already knew the answer to her own questions. “Did your boss talk to you about the case?” she asked.

“Yeah, but he didn’t have any update. He just wanted to go over what we had so far, to make sure that we’re both on the same page.”

“So, no suspects or anything?” Zane asked. “At this rate, we’re never going to find who killed that woman at the club. Ross and Leo are getting antsy. Clients are asking a lot of questions and rumors have been circulating about a murder taking place at the club.”

“Shit,” grumbled, “that’s the last thing we need. I know that Ross and Leo want this nightmare to be over, but I need to do this properly. I can’t overlook any details just because you’re my boyfriend,” insisted. He didn’t mean to add that last part, but it was too late to take back the words.

“What the fuck does that mean?” Zane shouted, standing from the sofa. This was not the way that he wanted their last night to go. “I’d never ask you to cover for me or the club, ,” he insisted.

“I didn’t mean it that way,” said. “I just can’t let my personal feelings get involved in this case, and my boss thinks that might be a problem since you are part owner of the club, and Ross and Leo are friends.”

“I get that,” Dakota said. She was always trying to keep the peace between the three of them, and he loved her for that. “It’s a conflict of interest. Did he ask you to step away from the case?” she asked. He didn’t have the heart to tell her that his boss had asked him to step away from her and Zane. And he definitely didn’t have the nerve to tell her that Zane and his dad were their primary suspects right now.

“No,” said, “he didn’t ask me to step away from the case.” There, that wasn’t a lie at least. “How about we counter talking about the damn case and go out to have some fun?” he asked.

“Fun like how?” she asked, looking between him and Zane. He looked over to his guy, noticing his wicked smile and could tell that Zane and he were on the same page. nodded and Zane pulled Dakota up from the sofa, tugging her into his arms.

“Come to The Kink Club with us, baby,” Zane said. “It will be fun, and we can get you used to being there. We’ll start slowly—promise.” She looked at him as though he lost his mind.

“My brother will be there,” she insisted.

“No, he won’t be,” chimed in. “He told Zane and me that he and Leo had the night off and that they were going to have a nice, quiet evening at home. Tonight will be the perfect night to go play at the club.”

“I’m not sure that I’m comfortable with that,” she whispered. “What if someone from town sees us? I’m pretty sure that and I will lose our badges for being in a club like yours.”

“Hey,” Zane said, “my club isn’t so bad.”

“I didn’t mean it that way, Zane,” she said, slapping at his upper arm. “I just don’t think that the police department would want everyone knowing that their top detective and his girlfriend police officer were both naked in a kink club.”

“Aww, thanks for thinking that I’m the department’s top detective, honey,” joked. “But Zane is right, we can take things slowly. And if a lot of people show up tonight, we can use one of the private rooms. Let’s go have some fun,” he begged. He wanted his last night with both of them to be perfect and could think of no better place than the club to be with them both, one last time.

“Okay,” Dakota stuttered. “I’ll go get dressed.”

“Hold up,” Zane said. “ and I want to pick out your outfit.”

Dakota groaned, making Zane laugh. “You two will pick something that’s see-through and has two scraps of fabric that barely cover anything.”

“That sounds perfect, do you have anything like that?” asked.

She grumbled something about them both being pigs and walked upstairs to the master bedroom that they all shared. “Come on then,” she shouted back over her shoulder. “I’m wearing a jacket over my outfit if you can call it that.” and Zane followed her upstairs, eager to get their girl naked and on their way to the club. Tonight might be bittersweet, but planned on making it a night to remember.