3. CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 3

From the moment he'd laid eyes on Dorsey, something stirred within Mercury. Deep in his bones, he'd felt…was it possible to have a soulmate? Even as he questioned it, he'd accepted that Dorsey was his. Like completely, entirely, his.

That said, he couldn't deny the other responsibilities in his life. There was no denying Mr. Nettles was his favorite client. That didn't make him the only one. The fact that Mr. Nettles couldn't pay made Mercury more appreciative of Cedar Falls. No. Since he'd met with Mr. Nettles, he'd known it was his home. One hundred percent where he belonged.

Strange? Yep. Yet…at the same time, the sensations that had gone through him were beyond anything he'd ever felt. Ever.

When he first saw Dorsey, he couldn't help but smile. His dark-skinned beauty was adorable as he interacted with his customers. Dorsey was just as taken with Mercury as he was with Dorsey, and he forgot what he was doing at least twice because he was staring.

It was life changing. Then again, the entire day after meeting with Nettles had been…bizarre. That would be an easy description. Like, way too easy.

"Yes," Dion warned him when he'd gotten back to their shared office. "Most cases we will deal with are this boring. It was one of the reasons I gave you Nettles case in the first place. It at least had some substance to it."

Mercury didn't care that his next appointment had to deal with an asinine concept that involved a neighbor ‘stealing' a bottle of wine. It was one of the reasons he'd wanted to move to a small town. If he never had to deal with another backstabbing asshole who thought he-or she–was better than everyone else in the world, it would be too soon.

Yet, there he was, dumbfounded he was being asked to sue this woman's neighbor over something so stupid and inconsequential.

"Do you have proof?" Even as he asked the question, Mercury winced. Okay, yes, as a lawyer, he'd been taught to question everything until he'd learned the truth. Still, he also knew this was ridiculous, and it was not even a case.

"The wine was there before that bitch came over, and when she left it was gone," the overly bleached woman said as if it made all the sense in the world.

She slammed her receipt down on his desk even as her lips twisted into a smirk. "I bought it for three dollars and seventy-eight cents at the Piggly Wiggly."

He stared at the receipt for several minutes trying not to laugh his ass off. Admittedly, he'd seen the Piggly Wiggly but hadn't actually heard someone claim to have bought anything in the store before. Then there was the fact that this woman wanted to sue someone for three dollars and seventy-eight cents was ludicrous.

He glanced down at the file in front of him. "Look, Ms…"

"No formality needed, Mercury," she butted in. "You can just call me Betty Sue." When she fluttered her lashes at him and smiled at him like a cat stalking her prey, he had to bite back a groan of dismay.

The last thing he needed was the woman trying to flirt with him. Badly, he might add.

"Despite whether or not your neighbor took the wine, you can't sue someone for three dollars and seventy-eight cents. My retainer is two hundred dollars. The court fees are more than that." Was it possible for him to throw this woman out on her ass?

She thrust her chest out toward him as if that would ever make him change his mind. "But she stole my last bottle. That has to count for something," Betty Sue insisted.

"Unfortunately, it doesn't when it comes to the law." He wanted to tell her any judge would laugh their ass off if he tried to file the paperwork.

"But she stole my wine," Betty Sue practically screeched. "If Donald Murphy were still mayor, he would have made certain you never practiced law in this town if you don't think stealing is a crime."

"If Donald Murphy were still mayor, Cedar Falls would have many more issues than one pathetic bottle of wine," Jesse said from the doorway.

"You know, like adultery," a man Mercury hadn't met yet said.

"Like that's not still happening," Vail said from behind the other man.

Jesse nodded seriously. "True. Just because he's not the mayor and doesn't have use of the bedroom he'd installed in City Hall doesn't mean he's not still fucking Betty Sue."

Betty Sue gasped in outrage. "You take that back," she screeched at them. "We uphold the sanctity of marriage."

All three men took a step back. "Might want to push your chair back, Mercury, in case God decides to strike her down for that blatant lie," Jesse warned.

He had no clue what they were discussing, but he was also grateful they'd interrupted. Betty Sue was a bit…much. He honestly hadn't wanted to deal with her but had no clue how to get her to leave.

Maybe moving to a small town wasn't a good idea after all.

Betty Sue glared at Mercury. "Are you going to let them talk to me like that?"

He froze, even as he wondered if this was what a deer caught in headlights felt like. Technically, she had wanted to hire him as her lawyer. Okay, so he wasn't about to take her on as a client, but their meeting was supposed to be confidential. Should he defend her?

He knew he should, but what if he didn't want to? Everything about her seemed…well, he would say crazy, but he didn't like that term. More like out of touch with reality.

Still, he was supposed to be a professional.

"Does she really think I can be controlled?" Jesse asked his friends, who were shaking their heads. "I mean, seriously, Betty Sue, it's as if you don't even know me. Not that I'm that surprised, considering you're a narcissistic bitch who seems to think that because you are fucking the former mayor, your shit doesn't stink, but I thought after all this time you'd have gotten a clue."

The man he hadn't met yet snorted hard. "Come on, Jesse. This is Betty Sue we're talking about. Brains isn't exactly her forte."

Considering she wanted to sue her neighbor for a ridiculously cheap bottle of wine, Mercury found it difficult to disagree with that statement. That she was having sex with a married man made it even more absurd. In North Carolina, if the man's wife wanted to, she could sue Betty Sue and win. Most states didn't feel that way, but the South tended to make adultery a crime of some sort.

"Shut up, Ethan," Betty Sue yelled to the man Mercury hadn't met yet. "You don't have the right to talk about me, especially when you let another man beat you for fun."

Ethan rolled his eyes. "It's called BDSM, Betty Sue. Get a fucking clue. Bram would never ‘beat' me, you snobbish bitch."

Betty Sue shoved her chair back as she surged to her feet. She stalked toward Ethan with her finger out, nearly stabbing him with her long, sharp nail. "Don't you talk to me like that, whipping boy. You are nothing. Lower than nothing. You are the gum on the bottom of my shoe. Gross, annoying, and pathetic."

"Wow," Jesse exclaimed with a slow clap. "Ethan, I gotta hand it to you. That was impressive. I mean, don't get me wrong, when it comes to sarcasm and snark, you are right up there with me, but that time you really went for it. Congrats."

Vail nodded. "I agree. That might have been one of the best interactions with Betty Sue I've seen. And considering Eddie has twice managed to coat her with cherry juice and ice cream, that's saying a lot." Vail patted Ethan as if he'd done something great.

Mercury was confused. Betty Sue was livid and proved that by stomping from the room and down the stairs.

All three men bowed to Mercury, then said, "You're welcome."

The thing was, he was indebted to them for getting her out of there.

"Do I need to call your husbands?" Ryder, who had the office next to Mercury and Dion, called out. "Leave the poor man alone."

Ryder had proven to be a valuable resource in Cedar Falls. He'd not only gotten Mercury hooked up with an amazing house tucked away on the side of mountain far away from neighbors, but he'd been a fountain of information. That said, he might not have been informed as much as needed.

"Go ahead," Jesse said with a shrug. "Parker would back me up when it came to Betty Sue." Then he smirked at both Ethan and Vail. "As for those two, being spanked would be…" Jesse smirked. "Exciting."

Was that true? The thing was, from their expressions, it was. Was it even possible? He'd never known anyone to accept it. That this small southern town would accept not only gays but… those who liked BDSM… made it… well, unbelievable.

Should he even mention it? Even as the thought entered his mind, Mercury damn well knew he couldn't.

Ethan flipped Jesse off. "Please, we all know Bram would be the first person to cheer me on when it came to Betty Sue."

Vail nodded vigorously. "Very true. Okay, technically, he might have something to say about his words, but overall, Bram would have appreciated how Ethan stood up for himself."

Okay. There was no denying the BDSM factor at that point. The question? Was Dorsey part of it? For there was no doubt he was the only one who mattered.