Free Bondage Ranch 5: His Little Treasure by Sindra van Yssel Page A

didn’t dig that. They liked uniforms, or better yet doctors, lawyers, bankers. Wealth, and the promise of Caribbean vacations. I can’t provide that. Haven’t even been back to Puerto Rico to see Abuela for a couple of years.
    But Sue still needed her door opened, and he could do it. A moment earlier he’d been thinking that Sue shouldn’t care so much about appearances, and now he was wondering how he looked to Emma. It didn’t matter what people thought, as long as he did the right thing.
    Emma is really getting to me.
    He came back with the lockpicks in hand. There was a small crowd in the hallway now, and he recognized a few of them: John, one of the regular doms, and Ginger, a redheaded sub. He ignored them. He’d picked a lot of locks for people, and there were often people on the street who wondered what he was doing at their neighbor’s house. A few times, they’d called the cops, which is why he tried to have the owner right there with him whenever possible, but he’d found that if he looked like he had nothing to hide, most people accepted his presence. The whole point was to spare Sue the indignity of standing outside her door dressed in a towel.
    As expected, Sue’s door was easy. He walked back to Emma’s door, across the hall and one door down, and opened it. Emma and Sue were sitting on the edge of Emma’s bed, talking.
    “All clear, door’s open,” he said.
    “Thank you, Diego!” Sue leaped up and grabbed her towel just in time to stop it from slipping. “Um, mind if I hug him?” she asked Emma.
    “Maybe when you’re dressed?” said Emma doubtfully. She rose in less of a hurry.
    Sue laughed. “Fair enough. Then hug him for me.”
    Emma grinned and ran forward to hug Diego. “Thank you for helping out my friend Sue.”
    Friend now, hmm? Diego smiled. “A pleasure.”
    Sue chuckled. “I’ll leave you two lovebirds in peace.” She skipped off through the door and down the hallway.
    Diego was glad his face was over Emma’s shoulder, so she couldn’t see his expression. Lovebirds . They were having fun playing, but he wasn’t in love. Hadn’t been in love since Maria. Never would be. Sure, he loved every woman he played with, but that was a different matter. That was just decency, an ability to empathize with a woman he was doing wicked things to. People who didn’t let themselves love that much were dangerous.
    A bunch of people came in to the hall, led by a fast-walking Alex Allison. Her heels clicked loudly on the floor. He let go of Emma to see what was going on. Alex was wearing a shiny golden minidress that hugged every curve, and her matching heels provided her some height, but neither of those were what gave the presence to get everyone’s attention. Behind her were John and Ginger. A few other people filtered in to the hallway, trying badly to look like they weren’t watching the drama. The only one of them he recognized was Laurie.
    “What’s up?” he asked. Alex didn’t look happy.
    Alex glanced at John. “Say what you said to me,” she said.
    John nodded and then turned to glare at Diego. “We saw you break into Sue’s room.”
    Diego looked back and forth between John and Alex. He could understand John thinking the worst; he barely knew the man. But he’d known Alex for years. Alex shouldn’t be jumping to conclusions.
    Maybe it was a mistake, though, to think that Anglos would ever really get over their instinctive suspicion of him. He shrugged, slowly. “Sue locked her key in her room. I looked for you but couldn’t find you, so I helped her get back in.” He lifted the ring of lockpicks and dangled them. He had nothing to hide. “With these.” He glared at John, daring the man to suggest something was wrong with that, but it was Alex he was hurt by, and he moved his gaze quickly to look at her.
    “Oh. Makes sense. Thanks, Diego.” She smiled. “You might want to not do that again for a bit, though, until we find Constance’s jewels. It makes