Pressure: A Diamond Doms Novel

by Ivy Nelson

  At her door, she unlocked it and stepped inside. She gave the dark vehicle one more look as she shut the door and it hit her. God damn him.

  You can call your security goons off.

  She fired off the text as she stared at the SUV out her window. His response came seconds later.

  Not happening. You’re not safe until we know who we’re dealing with and why. Deal with it.

  She stuck her tongue out at the phone and sent him the middle finger emoji. Part of her wanted to go to the men parked in the SUV and tell them to leave, but she knew that wouldn’t persuade them. They might leave the parking lot, but they would still watch her. Now that she knew she was being followed, she knew to watch for them.

  At her computer, she stewed over Jodie and Sebastian and the fact that Lance hadn’t been honest with her about going to Colorado. Would someone else be working with him there or was he going on his own?

  Her fingers rested on the keys as she contemplated what to do. She could go to Colorado and trail Lance, but it would be hard to do without him knowing and she’d said she needed space from him. She did. But she also needed closure on this and wanted to see Solitaire open back up. Being there made her realize just how much she missed being in the lifestyle.

  On a whim, she pulled up a fetish website that kept track of local events to see if anything was happening at the local dungeons tonight.

  She was unlikely to play with anyone, but she could at least be among the people she most identified with and maybe getting back into the swing of things locally would help clear her head and give her fresh ideas for tracking Jodie and Forcythe. Not to mention, it would be grand fun to make Lance’s security goons follow her to a BDSM club.

  The website told her that Club Sin was open. It was a public club that just required an ID to enter.

  With a little grin, she went to her closet to see what kind of outfit she could put together for the evening.

  At eight that evening, she slipped into the back of a cab and gave the driver the club address.

  Sure enough, the SUV fell into traffic behind them and followed the entire way. Inside, she went straight for the bar and ordered a drink.

  Her phone buzzed. When she answered it, Lance growled in her ear. “Are you deliberately trying to irritate me or are you just fucking with your security detail?”

  She nearly giggled at his ferocious sounding voice. “Maybe I just wanted to have a little fun. I’m a grown woman, Lance.”

  “If you want to have some fun just meet me at my apartment.”

  “I thought you were heading to Colorado.”

  He sighed. “Not until morning.”

  Was her visit to the club really bothering him? She hadn’t intended to make him jealous, she just wanted to be around other kinky people.

  “I’m sorry,” she muttered.

  “For?”

  “Making you jealous. I wasn’t trying to upset you. Just clear my head. Solitaire made me realize how much I miss being part of the kink community.”

  He was quiet for a minute. “Let the security team take you home, please.”

  With a sip of her drink she contemplated his request. “I can do that,” she finally murmured. “Be safe in Colorado.”

  She punched the end call button before he could say anything else.

  When she finished her drink, she wandered the club and observed the play going on. As she watched a Dom wrap his hand around a subs throat and press her against a wall with a savage kiss, her heart constricted. Would she ever work things out with Lance? Did she want to?

  “Marissa?”

  She turned to find a woman standing behind her. It took a minute to recognize her. “Lana? I didn’t expect to see anyone I knew way back when. How the hell are you?”

  The woman smiled and opened her arms for a hug then stepped back. “Wait. You’re not a hugger, are you?”

  Marissa grinned and shook her head. “Nope. It’s good to see you, though.”

  “What’s it been, five years?”

  Marissa nodded. “Something like that.”

  “I know you had some drama with your Dom at the time, but I was sad when you stopped coming to the rope play nights with us.”

  Marissa grimaced. “I regret walking away from everything. Do those still happen?”

  Lan’s eyes lit up and she nodded. “Sure do. We moved to a cool new warehouse space with some bad ass hard points instead of meeting Bethany’s living room though.”

  Marissa whistled. “Fancy. Well let me know what I need to do to be vetted so I can visit sometime. I miss rope. I’ll need to knock off some of the rust, but I’d love to get into it again.”

  The sub in front of them cried out and Marissa turned her attention to the scene again.

  “I’ll do that. It’s a lot of the same people and I know we’ll all still vouch for you.” The woman’s eyes shifted to a man in the corner and gave him a little wave.

  “I should get over there. We agreed to play tonight.”

  Marissa nodded and patted the woman on the shoulder. “It was great to see you again. We’ll talk soon.”

  Alone again, she surveyed the dungeon and felt a twinge of sadness. Being here alone without a partner was definitely not as much fun but it still felt good to be among people who thought like she did.

  As she watched a Dom expertly wrap Lana in rope, something clicked. Forcythe was on Lance’s radar five years ago which meant he would have a lot of old associates. Maybe she should go back to five years ago and hunt some of them down.

  Feeling energized to get straight to work, she headed for the exit.

  A driver in dark jeans and a black polo stepped out of the SUV. “Miss Sullivan, Mr. Moss asked us to take you home.”

  She gave him a tight nod and slid into the back of the vehicle.

  It was late, so traffic wasn’t heavy, and they had her home in twenty minutes. She bid them goodnight and unlocked her door.

  Settling at her tiny kitchen table that mostly served as her tech station, she fired up her system and went to work digging into Sebastian Forcythe five years ago.

  She knew he was a self-proclaimed opportunist. He had nothing against Lance, just saw a chance to make money selling privileged data to a competitor. But how did he get the data to begin with?

  On a whim, she logged in to Moss Tech and tested her credentials. They were working. It made her smile despite the fact that Lance’s lack of trust still irritated her. He was trying to make it right.

  Where would he store data from five years ago?

  She searched for archives or something that would give her a clue.

  A search for Forcythe brought up an internal memo from three weeks after Lance called the cops on her.

  Forcythe had been a vendor providing tech upgrades to the company receptionists. It seemed to be one of his trademarks when he stole from people. Lance wasn’t the only one he’d stolen from that year.

  It was four in the morning before she had a list of known associates. By six, she was convinced that Sebastian Forcythe was in Colorado.

  She wondered if Lance knew that.

  On a whim, she dug for the dark web chat room she’d been in previously, looking for a way to contact him.

  Was Sebastian the one who hit her over the head? Jodie was too short to have hit her.

  She rubbed her eyes and forced herself to lay down and get some sleep. While she slumbered, she relived their conversation with Sebastian at the prison visitor center.

  She woke with a start and ran to her computer, she knew how to find him and how to lure him out. Twenty minutes later, she was in a chat with Sebastian Forcythe. Her heart pounded as she typed out an invitation to access one of Lance’s apps.

  Her fingers trembled as she waited for a response. Would he fall for it?

  Why are you doing this?

  It took her a minute to decide how best to respond. She didn’t want to be too over the top but she also needed him to believe she was a pissed off woman.
<
br />   He dumped me… again.

  Please believe me, she thought as she waited for his response.

  Oh damn. I got you girl. We’ll need to talk payment if you really want me to do this.

  What about revenge?

  Opportunist.

  Are you still on Nicholas Sutton’s payroll?

  A pause

  I am.

  I can get you back into the Solitaire system too, but we’ll need to meet in Colorado.

  It was several minutes before he responded.

  Tonight. Or not at all.

  Fuck. Could she get on a plane without that damn security team following her? She highly doubted it, but she had to try.

  If she walked to the train station, they would just follow her, and it would be easy for one of them to hop out on foot. Her best bet was calling a cab and having him take her to the airport. The guards wouldn’t get past security before she got on the plane if she timed it right and would take them a few hours to figure out where she was going. Especially if she purchased a couple of tickets to different destinations.

  I’ll be on the next flight out.

  She pulled up a flight reservation site as an idea for losing the security team formulated. She knew she was being idiotic, but if she could meet Forcythe and get a confession from him, it would be easier to put an end to all of this. Especially if he knew where Jodie was.

  In the back of a cab an hour later, she watched as the SUV expertly tailed them. She leaned forward and spoke to the cab driver.

  “I’m sure my asshole ex is in that SUV back there. Can you get a few more cars ahead of him so he doesn’t try to follow me into the airport? He’s really mad that I’m leaving.”

  She prayed the driver would be sympathetic. He was and maneuvered the lanes of traffic until the SUV was another half a dozen cars behind them.

  At the airport drop-off terminal, she jumped out, tossing a wad of too much cash to the driver and ran inside. She’d pulled up her boarding pass on her phone, so she was able to head straight for security. A ball cap she’d tucked into her bag provided a bit of cover as she slid into line.

  Once through security, she looked for her gate and settled in to do more research into Jodie King.

  If she had to guess, Jodie was actually Scarlett and she was a long-time follower of Sebastian Forcythe’s underground hacking cult. From what she’d read, he’d built quite a following of mostly female hackers and he enjoyed taking advantage of them. Jodie or Scarlett if that’s who she was, was obsessed and followed him as if he were her God. If Sebastian told her to seduce Lance and worm into the Solitaire system, she would do it in a heartbeat. If Sebastian told her to set the cabin on fire, she would. It was a fucked-up power exchange relationship where at least one party was mentally unstable.

  As she settled onto the plane, her phone rang. It was Lance.

  “Hello,” she answered.

  “Where the hell are you going?”

  “Spying on me?”

  He growled and it nearly made her giggle. “Damn it Marissa. You know I’m worried about you right now.”

  “I’m going to my sister’s,” she lied.

  “You didn’t think to just tell me or the security detail? Why would you ditch them like that?”

  “Goodbye Lance. Talk soon.”

  She ended the call and closed her eyes. When she landed in Colorado a couple of hours later, she hailed a cab to take her to the diner where she was supposed to meet Forcythe. It was off the beaten path but it was still a public place so she figured she would be safe.

  As she stepped into the restaurant, she looked around for the hacker. The place looked empty. Too empty. Her heart leapt into her throat. Maybe this had been a mistake. Before Sebastian could spot her, she backed out of the restaurant.

  “That’s not a good idea. Get back inside.”

  She froze at the sound of Jodie’s voice. Fuck.

  Slowly, she turned to see the woman holding a gun with a crazed look in her eyes. Marissa swallowed. This was not how she intended to die.

  With hesitant steps, she moved back into the restaurant as Jodie nudged her toward the table where Sebastian sat.

  “I told you this was a terrible idea. She tried to leave,” Jodie said.

  “And here I thought we could trust you,” Sebastian said with a wicked smile.

  Her stomach was in knots and she worried she might lose her in-flight snacks all over the table.

  “I just got nervous is all,” she muttered. “The people at Solitaire are powerful. They could ruin my life.”

  Sebastian pounded his fists on the table. “The people at Solitaire are selfish pricks who need to be taken down a peg and I have the power to do that.”

  Marissa nodded. “And I’ll help you. I can get you into the server room.”

  Sebastian eyed her skeptically. “Fine. Let’s go.”

  Her eyes went wide. “What? Now? There are people there. I meant I would go and text you when to meet me. I can’t just waltz in there.”

  He folded his arms. “You think we’re going to let you leave?”

  Awe Fuck, Marissa thought as she saw the determined looks on both their faces. Not to mention the damn gun Jodie was still brandishing. How the hell was she going to get out of this one?

  Blowing out a breath she nodded. “OK. We’ll need to come up with a game plan then. You can drop me at the foot of the hill I can go up and make sure the place is empty or that everyone is preoccupied.”

  Sebastian was nodding but Jodie waved the silver pistol wildly. “Not a good idea. What’s stopping her from warning everyone there that we’re coming.? I know you trust her, but I saw the way she was mooning over Moss. There’s no way she actually wants revenge. I still say the best revenge would be to kill her and dump her body on the front porch.”

  “As delightful as that sounds, Sutton and Sterling were crystal clear. No bodies or we don’t get paid. And we’re already on thin ice after that little stunt you pulled setting the cabin on fire.”

  “I’m not in this for the money. I’m doing this for you. We can get money from ransomware hacks or something. Let me kill her.”

  Marissa sucked in a breath. Was this bitch fucking serious right now?

  As she looked frantically around the room for the exits, trying to plot her escape, movement caught her eye. Fuck. Who else was here?

  Glass shattered and Jodie screamed, brandishing the gun as she whirled in the sound’s direction.

  Everything was a blur as two men stormed through the broken plate glass and barreled toward Jodie and Sebastian.

  Jodie tried to grab Marissa, but she kneed her right between the legs and hurled a saltshaker at her just as a man who looked oddly familiar tackled her, knocking the gun out of her hand. It clattered across the floor and Sebastian lunged for it. He didn’t move fast enough and was taken down by the second man.

  The familiar man was… “Samuel?” she said breathlessly.

  “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he bellowed. “You damn near got yourself killed.”

  She shrank back at the sound of his fury. The couple of times she’d interacted with him, he’d been so quiet.

  He pulled out a cellphone as he shoved Jodie toward the door. About that time, the parking lot of the diner filled with police lights.

  “Your girlfriend is safe but you better fucking put a leash on her. She’s reckless.”

  He nodded to the other man, someone she didn’t associate with Solitaire and headed for the kitchen as cops swarmed the diner.

  Lance stepped in the door moments after the hoard of officers and he looked none too happy to see her.

  “Your sister’s? Why the hell would you lie to me like that?”

  She stood trembling as she watched the swarm of police around her. “What the hell just happened?”

  “I was about to ask you the same damn thing. Outside. Now.”

  He pointed toward the exit and she dutifully fell into step behind him as he storme
d out.

  When they were outside, he pressed her against a nearby car and glowered.

  “You could have gotten yourself killed, Marissa. What the fuck were you thinking?”

  “I…”

  She trailed off as she watched police place Sebastian and Jodie into squad cars.

  “What’s going on?” she whispered.

  Lance stepped away from her and folded his arms across his chest. “I had a feeling you were lying about your sister’s place, so I backed into the Chicago airport security feeds and figured out which gate you went to. From there it was easy enough to figure out that you were heading for Chicago. At the same time, I get a call from Samuel saying he has a lead on Sebastian and that I shouldn’t ask questions. That’s when I knew you had a lead too.”

  Marissa raked a hand through her short hair and wrapped her arms around herself. The night air was chilly. “How did Samuel find them? What does he do anyway?”

  “That’s not a question you get to ask. But clearly if he hadn’t you would be dead right now.”

  Marissa shuddered and not just from the cold. Jodie’s last words to her floated through her brain.

  “Fuck. I was just trying to help.”

  “I swear to God I want to paddle your ass right now.”

  She closed her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

  Then he was on her again, one arm at her waist the other in her hair as he crushed his mouth to hers. “Don’t ever fucking scare me like that again,” he pleaded as he pulled away.

  An officer approached. “Mr. Moss. We need to take this woman’s statement.”

  Lance whirled on the officer. “It’s freezing out here. Can we take it to a station?”

  The officer nodded and Lance pointed to a car.

  “In. Now.”

  She opened her mouth and he glowered. “If you even think about arguing with me, I will make sure you don’t sit for a God damn week.”

  She hustled to the back of the SUV he pointed to and slid in. He climbed in behind her and ordered her to scoot over.