Training an Unruly Submissive

by Snow, Serenity

  Did that mean she’d do anything to keep her or did that mean their relationship would only be on Sienna’s BDSM terms?

  She headed to the house to unlock the door before returning for a few bags. She watched Sienna manhandle the few heavy bags, taking in the feminine muscle and the hardness of her soft body.

  “Daydreaming, Kallie darling?” Sienna called over her shoulder. “I hope it’s about what I’m going to do to you tonight.”

  She laughed. “I was thinking more about what I’d do to you.”

  Sienna laughed. “Mmm, you will please me, tonight.”

  She smiled. What was she getting herself into with this dominant spider?

  Chapter Ten

  His fist went through the wall as he fumed. “You were supposed to bring that bitch back here.” He whipped around to face the woman who’d just come into his hotel room looking more than a little rough for wear. Her jaw was swollen, her black hair was in slight disarray and her T-shirt had tear.

  He had chosen her for her skill and success rate, but it looked like that had been a mistake. He’d have to go with his number one and two men who he’d have to bring from another job they were doing for him.

  “I know that,” she answered coolly. “But there was nothing I could do about the spider. You know that the snowy copper is a—”

  “Excuses.” He waved off the rest of her statement with fury pumping through him. That butterfly was not a threat, but her protector the spider was. The butterfly would have been easy to break, but the box-lady was impossible. She was deadly to them all, with her poison being five times greater than theirs.

  “The spider wasn’t surprised,” she snapped out.

  “She still should not have been able to best you three.”

  She dared lift her brow at him in that condescending manner? That little bitch!

  “She’s stronger than you could have thought. Her poison killed faster than we planned for, and it had an acidic quality that we didn’t know about.”

  “That is impossible!” he thundered. He knew there were a few mutant spider and ladybug breeds that kept information about their species limited, but he was certain what they did know was enough in this case.

  “Maybe, but the spider was far more ruthless than you gave her credit for, and I’m certain—”

  “You failed!”

  “Max,” she snapped. “That spider was far more dangerous than she’s known to be over a lover according the curators. So, she might well be mating her. If she is, we need to pull back a few months. The spider’s mating dance can take as long as six years to complete depending on the age of the mate.”

  “No.” He shook his head. “Leave me. I’ll make plans to invade the house and capture the butterfly and get the items that way.”

  “Max, listen to me,” she insisted. “I’m not a spider expert, but I know the box and the lion spiders. I also know the reputation of the lady and this—”

  “Leave me!”

  She shook her head. “I’m not going up against her again soon, so you can damn well find yourself someone else to do it.”

  “If you dare challenge me, I will execute you!” he told her in a hard tone.

  She shrugged. “No, you won’t. You’ll send someone else and that will be your last miscalculation.” She backed out of the room, eyes hard as diamonds and glittering with rage.

  Max smirked at her. He had yet to meet a lesbian who’d turn her back on him. He’d love to get that box-lady in a room alone and with the right plan he’d get his chance.

  “She is right, Max.”

  Max turned to face the woman who’d disappeared into the bedroom before the scorpion’s entrance. She was an attractive woman with her dark hair and chocolate gaze. She was another butterfly, but she had more backbone than the two men, the cop and her curator friend Draden. “What is she so right about, Lima?”

  Lima shrugged. “Sienna is dangerous. Maggie would have counted on her protecting Kallie. She always has looked out for her.”

  “What are the chances that Checkwing hid the items elsewhere? I don’t mind going up against the spider, but I do mind wasting my time.”

  “She didn’t have time to take the items anywhere. They’re in the house. Kallie had the spear when Maggie brought her back from New York after you killed Maggie’s twin. Maggie must have taken it from her and hidden it because I haven’t seen it in years,” Lima said with a calculating look in her eyes. “So, we have to be smart and throw them off guard. I’ve made sure we can get someone in the house.”

  “How?” he demanded, a gleam of excitement threading through him. This was better than what the cop offered. The cop couldn’t get near her, and he wasn’t getting enough information on the investigation.

  “The house is being renovated. There are people in and out of the house all the time, so my guy will keep us informed.”

  “They aren’t using any magic?”

  “Sienna won’t go through the trouble warding the main part of the house,” Lima told him. “She’d have to unlock the wards every morning with people in and out.”

  “The men I have watching the house can’t get in,” Max said with a frown. “I’m told a wall of fire flares every time they try.”

  “Well, that has to be only on the new addition.”

  “The backyard and the side of the house,” Max told her.

  Lima nodded contemplatively. “I’ll check it out myself, but we can still proceed with the rest of the plan.”

  “What’s the rest of your plan?” he asked with a smile. He did like her. She was willing to work for what she wanted.

  Chapter Eleven

  They had barely finished putting away the groceries when the crew and the sheriff arrived. Sienna gave her crew instructions before leading the sheriff to the parlor with Kallie leading the way. The room hadn’t gotten a makeover yet, but the changes that were going to be made were cosmetic.

  “Sheriff, can I get you anything?” Kallie asked. “We have water, and some bottles of tea and soda.”

  “No, I’m fine, Kallie, thanks.” He gave her a faint smile.

  Kallie sat on the settee, and the sheriff took one of the chairs. “We saw Lima in the grocery store,” Kallie burst out and then told him about the conversation. “I bet she’s the reason my mother is dead.”

  Donald’s brows snapped together. “I’m investigating her further since she wasn’t born here,” he admitted. “I can take everything she says with a grain of salt, but the truth is, Kallie, I have been checking out her trips. Draden said the same thing Lima did, but Ella said the only other person who might be able to confirm or deny any part of their allegations is Tamryn. Maggie sent her to Greece, Italy, and Egypt to retrieve items for a new exhibit the museum is putting together.”

  “When will she be back?” Kallie demanded.

  “Ella said she won’t be back for a few weeks,” he said. “I checked with the bank, and she did make a ten thousand deposit two days after she returned from Peru.”

  “You bastard!” she snapped. “They are setting her up!”

  “Kallie darling,” Sienna murmured. “Don’t you find it odd that she just dumped the money into her account, Donald?” Sienna demanded. “That would make no sense.”

  He sighed. “She only has one other large deposit which was nine months ago after she returned from Greece. I’m checking to see if she has an off-shore account or a safe-deposit box. So far nothing had popped under her name or yours Kallie.”

  “Because it doesn’t exist!” Kallie snarled.

  “Did the sorry piece of meat you took into custody tell you anything?” Sienna asked tightly as she slipped an arm around Kallie’s thin shoulders.

  Donald shook his head slowly as he drew his lips into a grim line. “He was too afraid of whoever’s calling the shots to give us anything helpful. On top of that, we found him dead this morning. The best the M.E. can tell so far is that it’s witch’s poison. Something with belladonna in it.”

 
; “Scorpions are allergic to belladonna,” Kallie murmured.

  “He was given water at his request,” the sheriff said with a frown. “All evidence is gone, but I’ll check the tapes to see who gave him the water. As for the prints we got some from outside the house and in the breezeway. Neither of our perps are in the system.”

  “Damn.”

  “I’ve checked around, and both been in town only a few days. They were staying at the hotel. I’m checking out everyone else who’s been in town less than two weeks,” he informed them. “Anyone of them might be Maggie’s contact.”

  “What about rentals?” Sienna asked.

  “I’ll check them out,” he said. “The men obviously weren’t working alone.”

  “What about Lima?” Kallie demanded. “Are you going to check if she talked to him or any of the other newbies in town?”

  He flashed her smile. “Yes.”

  “Good. You should check her phone records and her house, too,” Kallie muttered.

  The sheriff chuckled. “I’ll get right on that.” He turned his gaze on Sienna, who was studying him coldly. “Overkill in the parking lot. Poor Charlie lost his cookies.”

  “Wimp,” she muttered. “I tried to get the woman to talk, but she wouldn’t. I don’t think it’s so much that she’s afraid of her employer as it is loyalty. Black scorpions don’t betray their employers. They die for whatever cause they sign onto.”

  “I’ll have Charlie and Chandra check her out,” he said. “Describe her.”

  “She was about five foot eight with black hair and brown eyes.”

  “She feels like Sienna,” Kallie said. “Dangerous, but not evil. The men were evil. They didn’t care who they hurt.”

  “Sounds like the men were black and gold scorpions while the woman was a black scorpion,” Donald mused. “I’ll pass that on to Charlie. In the meantime, have you found her work computer or her files? Draden thinks the answers are in the files.”

  “No.” Kallie shook her head. “There hasn’t been time to look, but I’ll let you know if I do.”

  Sienna saw him out and returned to the parlor where Kallie was looking out of the window. “It’s going to work out, baby.” She kissed the back of her neck.

  “A butterfly was messing with my head, sending me visions, making me feel things in the parking lot.”

  “How can you know?”

  “My shields are good,” she said. “They weren’t broken. Whoever it was exploited our relationship. They knew I’d freak if something was going to happen to you.”

  “They were trying to keep you from noticing them,” Sienna said.

  “Exactly. Could have been any butterfly in town including Lima.”

  Sienna nodded. “I could die and so could you,” she said gently resting her chin on top of Kallie’s head. “You just have to stay in the moment and be prepared to fight if you have to.”

  “I don’t want to live without you.”

  “Same here, lover.”

  * * * *

  The next morning, four of the elders came over for brunch. Kallie was in no mood for company, but Sienna left her to dine with them before they headed up to her mother’s room. She and Sienna had looked around it last night after the crew left. So, Kallie didn’t expect to find anything there.

  She did hope that a conversation with the elders might shed some light on her mother’s activities in the last few days before she died. She was close to the youngest elder Miranda. The portly blonde woman had a kindly disposition and shared a love of art with her mother.

  Warmth still lingered in her mother’s big bedroom and the old indoor shutters were thrown open, allowing light to filter into the gold-and-black room. The elders went to work stripping the quilt and sheets from the queen bed with its thick mahogany posts. Jasmine moved to the matching dresser with its sensuous curves and began removing clothing while Miranda went to the closet with her cardboard boxes, and Kallie just stood there watching sadly.

  Her childish laughter tinkled on the air as the memory of her playing dress up with her mother slammed into her. Her mother’s love had been boundless, so there was no way she’d meant to leave her with this mess.

  “So how have you been before this, Kallie?” Miranda, the youngest and sweetest-natured of the four elders present asked, holding out a hand to her.

  Kallie went to her and took her soft hand. “I was okay.” She had been fine, relatively speaking, but she hadn’t been happy. She had missed her home and friends.

  “We’re glad to have you back, but we all wish it had been under happier circumstances.”

  “So do I,” she said and accepted the blouse that was handed to her. She stared at it a long time on the verge of tears, and then she felt Sienna’s warm thoughts in her mind, encouraging her to be strong.

  “You’ll get through this, Kallie,” Jasmine said softly and gave her a hug. “Your mother loved you, and she knew you loved her.”

  She met Jasmine’s brown eyes. “I wish I had been able to tell her that, but I was so selfish.”

  “Hush, child,” Betty, the eldest and most outspoken, said. “Forgive yourself and move on.”

  “That’s what Sienna said.”

  “She’s right,” Betty said with a nod. “She is becoming a rather effective counselor. I’m glad I decided to take her under my wing.”

  “We know why you fought,” Miranda said.

  “We all know she was having trouble accepting your sexuality that’s why I paired her with Sienna.”

  “Why were they paired together?” Kallie asked curiously. Sienna hadn’t said a thing about doing any witch training with her mother.

  “Your mother was giving Sienna her training for priestess training,” Betty said. “Sienna is showing very strong leadership qualities. Besides that, I thought since she was the object of Maggie’s displeasure Sienna could help Maggie better than me or any other counselor.”

  “Help her do what?” Miranda asked, glancing to Jasmine.

  “To accept what she could not change,” Betty answered and gave Jasmine a smile. “Jasmine knows very well what I mean.”

  “It’s difficult to accept that my daughter is not the girl I had envisioned,” Jasmine commented.

  “I’m sorry, I’ve caused you pain,” Kallie said to Jasmine.

  “Nonsense,” Betty admonished. “We all knew where your relationship was headed years ago. Your mother and Jasmine both had years to deal with the issues and prepare for the inevitable.”

  “I agree.” Miranda nodded. “Sienna has always been tender with you. I dare say your hand-fasting will be quite the big affair. Jasmine will have her hands full and Sienna will spare no expense on you.”

  “There’s been no agreement,” Kallie said quickly at the distress on Jasmine’s face. “I mean Sienna will probably break up with me soon.” Sienna was the woman she wanted to spend the rest of her life with, yet there were still so many things that could tear them apart and one of them was right in front of her.

  “Has the sheriff found out anything about Maggie’s death?” Jasmine asked, giving Kallie a cool look.

  “Not much. He seems to think her murder has something to do with her trip to Peru and a missing artifact. Lima asked me about her computer and her files.”

  “Lima went with Maggie on that trip to Peru, and she said Lima wanted to sell a couple of artifacts to a buyer who’d been trying to acquire them for years,” Miranda said.

  “They are now missing from the museum, according to Draden, who is now running the museum,” Janice, the fourth elder, commented.

  “Draden wouldn’t have killed her over that and surely you don’t think Lima would have killed her over money,” Jasmine said incredulous.

  “There is no telling about, Lima,” Janice said, shaking her head.

  “Do you guys know anything about a spear and a wand that maybe my mother brought back?”

  “The mythic spear of life, and its companion piece the wand of fire,” Betty said with a frown.
“Your mother and her sister found the spear years ago, but it was lost after her twin’s death.”

  “Maybe the wand is one of the things Maggie brought back,” Jasmine murmured. “It’s a powerful healing crystal that would be worth millions, and it would be worth killing her over.”

  No wonder her mother had been killed. She swallowed tightly. “I should have been here. Maybe she would have confided in me.” Then, she would have been a target for a reason.

  “Maggie wouldn’t have confided something so dangerous in you,” Miranda said. “You’re too young, but you’ll have to find her journals. She would have left you something to help you figure this mess out.”

  * * * *

  After the elders left, Kallie headed to her bedroom with a heavy heart and more questions than answers about the spear and its companion, the wand. She agreed with Miranda, she needed her mother’s journals. The key had to be contained within the pages of one of them unless she’d put all the clues on her computer or in her work files as Lima thought.

  Her office in the basement was the only place left to look. The attic would be a good place to look, but her mother never went up there.

  She sighed roughly as her gaze lit on the bed and the box laying there. Maybe the sheriff would find something before the person after her actually killed her or Sienna.

  She crossed to the bed and stared down at the box before curiously lifting the lid to stare inside. Her lips pulled into an excited smile at the sight of the soft fabric. She removed the neatly folded items, finding several pairs of panties and beautiful camisoles to go with them. She was shocked at what little they would cover and the fact that the very alluring lace and silk panties were crotchless.

  Sienna had to have spent a fortune on these, but how had she known she’d be home? Sienna had said her mother was going to ask her to come home, but Sienna couldn’t have known she’d stay.

  * * * *

  Sienna was glad when the day finally wound down. The new floor was done in the kitchen and the hallway and both parlors had been painted. Tomorrow the windows would be done, and the then the bedrooms would be painted and decorated according to the theme. She’d had to bring in another team member to get the work done faster. She could secure the house better without so many people coming in and out.