by Ivy Nelson
Now she sat in the office answering extremely personal questions about herself and anyone she had ever encountered. That was an extensive list considering the number of organizations Darci worked with in D.C.
The questions took her all the way back to her assault in college. It was tense, and she didn’t like revisiting this time in her life.
“Tell me about this Theresa Holden. Are you sure you haven’t had any contact with her since college?” the investigator asked.
“I’m positive,” she insisted. “I don’t know why her name would be on that guest log. Have you asked the people in the apartment she was visiting?”
“We’re looking into that. The resident of that apartment swears they didn’t have any visitors by that name.”
“Isn’t there security footage?”
“We’re having trouble getting a good angle but we’re looking at it. Let’s go through the days and weeks leading up to the first murder.”
She was tired and the invasive interview was exhausting her.
“Tell me about your lunch with Tessa Heath,” he asked.
Just then, Bradley came in to see her looking tense. He asked the investigator if they could take a break and he took her hand and led her into the bedroom. Wrapping her in his arms, he held her tight.
His hug was her undoing, and she burst into tears. She sobbed for what seemed like hours, though it was probably just a few minutes. Bradley just held her, kissing her hair occasionally.
Finally, she raised her head from his chest and looked up at him. With swollen eyes, a red nose, and mascara streaming down her face, she was sure she looked hideous. The look in his eyes told her he didn’t see it that way. Catching her breath as the last of the sobs subsided, she smiled.
“I’m sorry I got your shirt all wet.”
With gentle fingers, he brushed some wayward hair behind her ear. “Don’t be sorry, baby. You can cry on me anytime.”
“I just want today to be over.”
“It’s late. Let me tell the investigator you’re calling it a night. We’ll hide out in here for the rest of the evening. I’ll hold you until you fall asleep.”
It sounded like the best idea she’d heard all day. Standing, he kissed her gently.
“Why don’t you go wash your face and get ready for bed? I’m going to chat with the guys for a few minutes.”
40
♥♥♥
The next morning, Bradley went into work late. Darci needed and deserved extra attention after the trauma of last night, but he also wanted to make sure she was fully on board with the new security protocols that were being put into place.
Now, they sat in his home office with Peter as they went over the changes he wanted to make.
“I know you’ll hate this, Kitten, but I need you to cancel all public appearances for the next week,” Peter said from his perch on the corner of the desk.
Darci scowled at him. “Peter, I can’t. I’m the fucking media spokesperson for the organization. Public appearances are kind of my thing.”
Peter shot her a glare and warning laced his voice as he spoke. “I may not be your dom anymore, but you’ll watch your tone when you speak to me.”
Bradley may be jealous sometimes, but he was glad Peter was a fellow dominant. It made it easier for them to join forces and make sure she did as she was told. And apparently that’s exactly what they would need to do, because instead of being a good girl and agreeing with him, the feisty little submissive poked her tongue out at Peter.
The look of irritation that crossed his face told Bradley that if he weren’t in the picture there might have been a time when he did something about it, so he decided to do it for him. Gripping her chin, he forced her to look up at him.
“You’re lucky that wasn’t directed at me, pet. Do it again and we’ll take this to the bedroom where you’ll find yourself with a red ass.” He took it a step further. “While he is here, you are to listen to Peter’s directions as if they were mine. Is that clear?” As he watched her struggle not to sass him, Peter remained silent, but he offered Bradley a brief nod of agreement. After a moment, Darci nodded. Wanting to make sure she understood how serious he was, Bradley raised an eyebrow. “Pardon me?”
She huffed, and he scowled. “I’m serious, girl. I know you’ve been through a lot, and I sound like an asshole right now, but I will not hesitate to light your ass on fire today. This is life or death. Now I asked you a question and I expect a proper answer.”
For a moment her eyes glistened as if she might cry, and he worried he had pushed too much. Finally, she took a deep breath and relented with a, “Yes, Sir.”
“Good.” Turning to Peter he said, “You have my permission to take her across your knee if she gives you any lip.”
Peter chuckled and winked at Darci. “I don’t think that will be necessary. Darci and I understand one another.” Turning to her he said, “Do as your told, Kitten, and don’t complain about the security. When this is all over, I’ll send Carrie back so you two can have girl time and bitch all you want about the mean men in your lives.”
When she giggled, Bradley knew she was in good hands. He was late enough for work, so he kissed her goodbye and headed into the office.
• • •
“Where the hell have you been? You’re over two hours late, Givens. That’s not like you!”
Bradley had just sat down at his desk when the senator burst in.
“I apologize, Sir. I’m not sure if you’ve heard the news, but my girlfriend is the one who found the latest murder victim. I needed to take time to make sure she was OK this morning.”
“So, this nonsense about you being involved with Peggy Jacobs is true then?” Bradley’s heart sank. He hadn’t had time to look at the news, but it was no surprise that it had come out. Might as well tell the truth.
“Yes, Sir, we dated for a while, but we broke up before she died.” Bradley stood and turned away from the senator, staring out his office window.
“According to the papers, you were in that club the night she was killed.” The disdain was obvious in the man's voice.
“Yes, Sir. I should have come to you right away, but I was in shock.”
“Honestly, I’m shocked myself. How the hell are we supposed to spin this, son?”
“I’m not sure we can, Sir. The truth is, I do enjoy BDSM in my personal life.” The senator groaned and Bradley turned to face his boss again. “I’ll resign if that’s what you want, but I want you to know you still have my utmost loyalty.”
“I’m not that big of an ass, Bradley. I’m not going to fire you. Besides, if I did that you’d go work for your dad and I wouldn’t have a prayer at winning the election.” The senator chuckled, and Bradley smiled because he was right. “I guess it’s a good thing you’re not going with me on this trip, as it is, I’m going to get questions. I think it’s best if you stay off the trail. We’ve been meaning to name a deputy campaign manager, anyway.”
They agreed to keep Bradley out of the spotlight for a while. The senator tried to talk him into publicly denouncing the lifestyle, but Bradley told him that wasn’t an option, so he moved on.
“I want to come out with a statement on this monster terrorizing deviant women.”
Bradley cringed inside but kept his expression blank. “Sir, that’s a bad idea. At least to phrase it like that.”
“What do you mean?”
“It sounds like you are trying to vilify or blame the victims. Murder is murder no matter who the victim is.”
“Well we can work on the language, but I want to come down against this vile community. This BDSD or whatever the hell it is. It disgusts me. Sorry. I know you said you enjoy it but at least you keep it in private. Some of these places are just broadcasting it all over the place. Where is the legislative team on my bill? I want to put out a statement soon.”
Bradley stiffened. He wanted the man to forget about this idea. “I have a meeting with your legislative director today. Let’
s take it to Charlie and see what he has to say. You know Sandra isn’t happy about this either. She’s already given me an earful about you talking to the press without her.”
Atleigh rolled his eyes. “Fine. Talk to Charles, but I want to make an announcement soon.”
Bradley agreed, and they moved on. A little while later the senator stood to leave.
“Tell Sandra I want to see her before I leave for the airport please.”
Bradley nodded.
The man was so exasperating sometimes. What on earth am I going to do with him? It wasn’t the first time he had asked himself this question. He believed in loyalty, but how far was that supposed to extend?
“Everything all right, boss?” Adara asked, when she poked her head in his door.
He nodded and motioned for her to come in.
“I’m sure you’re probably already done with the briefing book, but can you do another pass and include anything that mentions me or these murders?”
“Of course, I already caught some of them just because where you’re mentioned the senator also comes up.” She was twisting a bracelet on her arm as she spoke. “Um,” she paused, still twisting the trinket around her wrist.
“What is it Adara? You can ask me anything.”
“I just… I shouldn’t. It’s inappropriate.” She blushed.
“You have questions about the club?” He wondered if Michael had mentioned he was a member. He doubted it.
“Just forget it, I’ll get you the briefing as soon as possible.”
She rushed out of the room before Bradley could stop her.
A half hour later, he was sifting through Adara’s well organized briefing. Virtually every local blog and newspaper had picked up the story, but so far it had stayed out of the national headlines. It wouldn’t last long though, someone was bound to ask the senator about it in front of the cameras today. It would be important to talk to Darci. Hopefully she wasn’t being bombarded with questions. Trying not to dwell on it, he set up meetings with Charlie and Sandra. Time to clue them in on what might happen over the next few days.
• • •
Jim Perkins pulled Darci into a hug as soon as she came into the office.
“Darci, I’m so sorry about Elise.”
“Thanks, Jim. I’m sorry about the extra security. I know it makes things awkward around here.”
“Nonsense. I’m glad you’re being protected. Besides, now I have a chance to visit with Peter.”
She settled into her office with coffee and her to-do list. At the top, was tracking down Tessa. After so many no-shows and lack of contact, it was probably time to put her case on the back burner, but Darci was connected to the girl. Her story was so similar to her own it didn’t seem fair to let her slip through the cracks. There was still no answer when she tried calling her, so she left a voicemail and sent a text before moving on to the next task.
An hour into writing an op-ed on why the proposed bill on pornography would do more harm than good, Peter stepped into her office with a folder in his hand.
“I need to show you something, Kitten. Did you text Elise on Friday night and ask her to come to your apartment?”
Her eyes grew wide.
“No, of course not! Why would I do that?” He opened the folder. It was a copy of texts sent to Elise’s phone. Sure enough, there on the page was a text that appeared to be from Darci. It reminded her of the Facebook message she got on the way to the club. She pulled her phone out to show it to Peter.
He examined the message and clicked on the profile image. It led to a brand new, practically empty page. The killer had created a fake account and stolen her profile picture. It hadn’t dawned on Darci that there was no message history.
Fuck. It was all a setup. Darci's stomach lurched, realizing the killer had used her to lure Elise to her death. Peter took down her Facebook information and stepped out to relay it to police. An hour later, he came back.
“One more thing for you to look at, sweetie,” he said, sliding a grainy security camera image in front of her. “Do you recognize this woman?”
She gasped. “That’s Tessa Heath.”
“So, it’s not Theresa Holden?”
Darci started to shake her head but took a closer look.
“I guess it could be. I mean I’ve only met with Tessa once. And I only saw Theresa once or twice in college. When I knew her, she had long blonde hair, but the height and weight are about right. I don’t understand any of this, Peter.”
“Me either, Kitten but we’re going to get to the bottom of it. This helps. It could be that the call from Tessa and your lunch weren’t accidental. If Theresa was as angry as you say, she could have been planning revenge for years.” He planted a kiss on her forehead and stepped out again.
Feeling helpless, she buried her head in her hands. She wished she could know for certain if Tessa and Theresa were the same person. The name similarity was a bit suspicious when she stopped and thought about it.
An idea came to her. In college, she had worked for the school newspaper and yearbook committee. At the time, they had been making the move to switch everything to digital, so most yearbooks were online. Maybe she could find a picture of Theresa. She frantically typed the school’s URL into the address bar. Within minutes, she was browsing the yearbook for her freshmen year. When she got to Theresa’s name, her face paled. She ran out of her office and found Peter.
“I’ve seen her more than once.” Peter closed the distance between them and pushed her back into her office.
“Explain.” He was in all business mode now.
“At the benefit the night Marlie was killed. She was the coat check attendant. Then I saw her again on the train. It’s Theresa. Tessa is Theresa. She looked different when I had lunch with her. Maybe she was wearing a wig, I don’t know. But it was her. I know it.”
“This is good, Kitten,” Peter said. He squeezed her shoulders and planted a kiss on her forehead. “I’m going to update Michael.”
Just then, her phone rang.
The name on her screen made her smile. “Hi.”
“Hey, gorgeous. Are you OK?” Bradley asked.
“I’ve been better. It’s good to hear your voice.”
“Have you checked out the news today?”
She hadn’t and told him as much. “I just haven’t been up to reading about Elise yet. Is there something I need to see?”
“Unfortunately, my connection to Peggy, you, and the lifestyle has come out. It hasn’t hit national news yet, but it’s all over the local gossip blogs and newspapers.”
She closed her eyes. They had known this day would come.
“I’m sorry, Bradley. Does the senator know?”
“Yep. Confronted me about it as soon as I got to the office. He was oddly understanding. He swears he won't fire me. Mostly because he thinks if he does, I’ll go work for my dad.”
Darci laughed. “Well, maybe he’s smarter than I give him credit for then.”
“For now, I’m just staying out of the spotlight. I was about to resign as chief of staff and step up as campaign manager, but we’re going to name a deputy campaign manager instead and wait on that for a few weeks. The good news is that means I won’t be traveling with the campaign for a while.”
“I’m so sorry, Bradley. I know you like being on the trail. I don’t like the idea of doing anything to help Atleigh, but I’ll do whatever I can to help you. I’m sure my name is all over the papers today too. Lucky for me, I have bodyguards to keep the reporters at bay.”
They spoke for a few more minutes and she relayed the information about Tessa before Darci hung up and got back to work. She finally convinced herself to read some of the articles floating around. So far it wasn’t a major story, but it wouldn’t be long.
As she read, it occurred to her that Bradley’s parents would know about his involvement in all of this. She wondered how they would feel. They seemed open-minded, but they were still parents who probably didn’t want that
many details about their son’s sex life.
Toward the end of the day, she e-mailed Bradley with a few ideas. Instead of distancing himself from the lifestyle, perhaps he needed to go a different route. Maybe she could talk Atleigh into attending a fundraiser for the ACSL with Bradley in attendance as the keynote speaker. She highly doubted the man would go for it. In the senator’s mind, the ACSL was a vile group that wanted to decriminalize prostitution and encourage everyone to be gay. It just wouldn’t do for the Republican front-runner to be associated with such an organization. She rolled her eyes just thinking about it.
Bradley picked her up from work at six. Rather, Bradley and four bodyguards picked her up from work, but Bradley was the only one she cared about. “I feel like the damn president with a motorcade with all this fucking security,” she whispered to him in the backseat.
“I heard that, Kitten. We had a deal.” Peter spoke from the front passenger seat in a disapproving tone. Darci blushed and cringed. How would Bradley react to Peter using his nickname for her along with his “Dom” voice? Turns out it didn’t faze Bradley at all. He just quirked an eyebrow up at her in clear agreement with the man in the front seat. She sighed. After the conversation this morning, she should have known there would be no winning with these two. At least Michael wasn’t here also.
“Sorry, Peter. I’m just tired, and I hate being smothered.”
“I know baby, but I would rather you be a little smothered than have you be dead.” This time it was Bradley that spoke. His words made her grimace. He was right, and she was rather fond of not being dead herself.
“So, what did you think of asking Atleigh to do something with the ACSL?” she asked, trying to shift the topic away from murder.
