With or Without You (The Dom's of The Cage Book 4)

by P Nelson

  “I’ll take it under consideration.” Thea kept her response flat. There was no way she was talking to her parents about her life as a dominant. She would have to get into details of how she started off in the life, and if anything gave her hives, it was thinking of her long and ultimate unsatisfactory turn as a submissive. “See you around, chief.” Thea reached behind her and opened the door, only partly listening to the chief’s reply.

  The floor was silent. People stood facing away from her. The eyes on her back, however, burned through her clothing, marking her skin. Motherfuckers. Thea jammed the button for the elevator and waited in silence for the car to arrive. What Chief Barnes didn’t understand was that she had a family who loved her and accepted her for who she was. In the kink world. Pushing open the doors leading out to the back entrance of the precinct, Thea spotted the media hanging around the chain link fence to the car park. Flashes started going off, and there was a roar of noise as the media shouted questions through the cold steel. Pulling the hood of her sweater up to her hide her face, she stared at the stairs in front of her to prevent an embarrassing fall.

  The second thing she noticed was a sleek Bentley pulled up at the bottom of the stairs. A man with broad shoulders stood waiting for her dressed in an impeccable pinstriped suit that probably cost a year of her wages.

  “Mr Banroch, what brings you out on the cool spring morning?” Thea purposefully slowed her step. Master Flynn, the owner of The Cage and the CEO of Banroch Industries wore a muted expression. One eyebrow raised over the dark designer sunglasses on his face.

  “You didn’t expect anything less, did you?” He held out a hand. “Keys.” It wasn’t a question. Even though she bristled inside, Thea dug her keys out and handed them over. Flynn immediately gave them to a broad man, Thea hadn’t noticed before. “Your car will be driven home. However, I think it’s best you come with me.”

  “Yes Mr Banroch.” Thea agreed and climbed into the back of the ridiculously expensive car that she could never, ever afford as a detective. She might not have allowed Dillon to top her, but there was no way she could avoid the alpha Dom of The Cage dominating her.

  Chapter Five

  Dillon rubbed a hand over his face, careful of his swollen eye. Last night was a clusterfuck of epic proportions. Not only had his plan to help Thea gone awry, but now he had a shiner for his efforts. She was apologetic and solicitous as she pressed a cold pack to his face and sent him on his way. His suggestion of a pity blowjob fell on deaf ears. Checking his phone, he frowned at the number of messages. Linkin was stalking him for some apparent reason.

  Swinging his legs out of bed, he headed to the bathroom and took a much-needed piss before poking around at his eye. It wasn’t as bad as he thought, thank the good Lord above. He had a red-carpet event in a week and didn’t need the extra publicity a shiner would bring. After washing his hands, he scooped up his phone and went to the kitchen. A coffee was always a good idea before speaking with Linkin, especially if it was before 9:00 a.m.

  The coffee started to percolate, and the aroma filled his loft apartment. Dillon was opening his laptop when he heard a pounding on the door. It had been more than a year since his ex-sub Tiffany’s attack, but his heart still started to pound. The new security Linkin installed should have notified Dillon if anyone other than he had come up past his nearest neighbours who lived below him. Moving swiftly to where his Louisville slugger lay propped against a wall, Dillon wrapped his fingers around the handle as he heard a familiar voice boom through his reinforced industrial metal door.

  “Let me in, Dillon. I know you don’t have a woman in there.” Linkin’s statement was oddly muffled, but he still understood every word. Curiosity had him dropping the wooden bat and hurrying towards the door and grabbing a throw blanket off the couch to wrap around his hips. He still checked the security camera to make sure it was Linkin before releasing the deadbolt, the best money could buy. The door swung open, and Linkin’s wide shoulders filled up Dillon’s line of sight.

  “You don’t answer the phone anymore?” Linkin’s gaze checked Dillon once over. He stared pointedly at the fuzzy blanket.

  “I like to cuddle up on the couch while I’m watching porn.” Dillon shrugged as he stepped back and let the other man inside his domain. He didn’t need to divulge that the big bad Dom porn star liked to cuddle up with his fuzzy blanket and watch chick flicks. It didn’t happen often. Well, not often enough. Linkin sniffed the air.

  “I like my coffee black.” He strode into Dillon’s loft as if he were about to set up a BDSM scene. Totally focused as he shrugged the black leather case off his back, he said, “You haven’t been on your computer yet.” He glanced at the open laptop waiting for Dillon’s password.

  “Did you break into my apartment building?” Dillon asked as a thought struck him. He lived in Yaletown along with the rest of the Vancouver hipsters.

  “I installed the security system, and it’s my firm’s responsibility to perform maintenance.” Linkin opened his leather satchel and pulled out his own top-of-the-line, military-grade laptop and set it next to Dillon’s. “You’re going to need that coffee.” His gaze bore into Dillon’s eyes making Dillon’s stomach sink.

  “They found another girl.” A lump formed in his throat. Fuck. If he hadn’t fucked up with the undercover cop last night, he might have spared that poor girl.

  “No.” Linkin purposefully glanced at the now full coffee pot and back to Dillon. Whatever it was, Linkin was trying to top Dillon by protecting him. His instincts shrank at the thought of the other man dominating him, but another deeper part of him felt quietly touched Linkin would bother. The ex-military man was not known for his tact or ability to empathize with many people other than his partners Martin and Delaney.

  “Black,” Dillon announced as he moved around the kitchen island and grabbed a couple of mugs of the freshly brewed coffee. By the time he’d finished and walked over to where Linkin had set up his computer, he was feeling as nervous as his first day on a porn set. Setting the mug down, Dillon sat in a chair in front of his own laptop and waited.

  “Your eye looks fine.” Linkin grabbed the mug and took a long drink.

  “It must be shit news if you’re stalling.” Linkin normally just burst out with whatever inappropriate thought crossed his mind.

  “I asked Flynn to come instead of me.” Linkin drank off the rest of his coffee in one swallow. Shit. This was going to suck. “First.” Linkin turned his laptop screen around to face Dillon. It took a moment before his mind could process what his eyes were seeing.

  “Holy fuck.” Dillon thought his brain had rewired itself before reality set back in. “Shit.” It was the front cover of one of the two local rags in Vancouver with Thea’s picture on the front. She was in a leather corset, tight leather pants and hello come on over and fuck me boots. The title of the news story was “The Domme Detective.” He scanned the paper.

  “Flynn is going down to the station to pick her up. She has an interview with the chief this morning. My sources say he’ll suspend her while the investigation into the Reverend killings continues. Once the investigation is over, she’s welcome back into the fold, assuming the story of her extra-curricular activities in the dungeon dies down.”

  “She’s going to be pissed this morning.” Ignoring Linkin, Dillon reached for his phone and called her number. He let it ring a few more times just to be stubborn before hanging up. Thea had made ignoring him an art form. He sent her a text instead. He had made never giving up his mission. “Thanks for coming over and warning me about all this.” Dillon swept a hand out. “But you could have called and saved yourself the trip to Yaletown.”

  “Open your email.” Linkin stood up and moved towards the coffee pot with his mug; Dillon frowned as he sent off another text to Thea. He swivelled around to face his computer and reached out for his own mug. The cup had barely touched his lips as he opened his email. “Hang on a second.” Linkin moved so quickly and quietly it made Dillon jump
.

  “Creep up on a guy,” Dillon muttered with a frown. Linkin stroked his fingers across the keypad of his laptop and nodded his head.

  “Click on the email fourth from the top.” Dillon set his mug aside and studied his screen. There was an email from an unfamiliar address. Normally, he’d have dumped it in the trash; he received a lot of unsolicited tit and pussy pics. In his earlier days, he would have enjoyed opening them all. Now there was only one pussy and one set of boobs he was interested in seeing.

  “How do I know it’s not a virus? I don’t want my computer to get a viral STD,” Dillon pushed back. Yes, Linkin was trying to help him, but he didn’t like the sub treatment. He was starting to wonder what the fuck was going on and how Linkin had information on what was in his private email account.

  “I don’t know it’s not a virus,” Linkin replied as he glanced between his screen and Dillon’s. “But it came from an ISBN address I’ve monitored for a while, and I want to know what was sent.” A chill creeped up Dillon’s spine at Linkin’s words.

  “An ISBN address from where?” he asked as he swirled his finger on the pad to get the cursor over the email.

  “Open it,” Linkin ordered. This time, dominant or not, Dillon responded to the steel in Linkin’s tone, not out of fear or a need to please the other man, only to find out what the hell was going on and how it connected to him. Dillon held his breath and tapped on the email. It immediately opened on the screen.

  I would have loved to chat with you and your friends last night, but I’m afraid I was busy elsewhere. Not to worry though, I’m sure we will all catch up soon enough.

  The Reverend

  “You are shitting me.” Dillon moved his finger to click over an attachment at the bottom of the email. Before clicking to open it, he waited for Linkin to give his approval.

  “Go. Let’s see what this fucker has on us,” Linkin muttered, and Dillon’s eyebrows rose. He was busy thinking about the implications that Linkin had been monitoring the Reverend’s email account or at least a guy who thought he was the Reverend as he opened the attachment. “Shit.”

  The first picture was of him talking to the Dom with wife issues inside The Feather Flogger. Scrolling down, Dillon’s mouth opened in astonishment. This asshole had gotten a front row seat to that ass Lieutenant Thompson giving him a black eye as Dillon argued with his partner. A clear shot of Linkin’s men helping him back to his feet while Thea fumed with her hands on her hips was the second to last picture. The whole group filing into the back of The Feather Flogger rounded up the last of the attachment.

  “Damn. All of them have been burned, including you.” Linkin’s jaw turned sharp, and Dillon thought he could hear teeth grinding.

  “Maybe I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Dillon suggested but knew that anyone who’d been at the dungeon last night or viewed these pictures would know what they were up to. The kink world was a tight community and, despite what people in the vanilla world believed, was just as smart as the rest of the populace. He had a much more important concern. “How did this guy manage to take quality pictures last night?”

  “The angle of the pictures suggests he was carrying a camera like in a kit bag.” Linkin moved closer to his screen and punched in a few lines of code. The picture immediately became full screen and zoomed in on Thea’s face. She was fuming as she led everyone off the dungeon floor. Dillon hoped some of her anger had to do with his black eye but recognised it was probably more because her op had gone south.

  “We have to get this over to the detectives who are taking over the case.” Dillon leaned back in his chair with mixed feelings. His inner monologue shouted at him to keep this email from the cops. They had fucked over his woman after all, and he was never going to forgive them for humiliating her. Unfortunately, Thea was hardly his woman.

  “We’ll share this little piece of evidence, not that they’ll do anything about it,” Linkin mumbled, and Dillon absorbed the waves of tension coming off the big man beside him. “That idiot Barnes doesn’t believe there’s a connection between the Supplicants of the Lord Church and this guy, and I can’t reveal my sources.”

  “Am I supposed to respond to this email?” Dillon asked, unsure about what the hell he was supposed to do.

  “Not yet. Get dressed; we’re going downtown.” Linkin sounded grim as he closed the lid of his laptop. Immediately, the screen on his laptop shuddered before flipping back to the email. “One thing is certain. Whoever took these pictures was at The Feather Flogger last night.”

  “The security feeds.” Dillon shot up out of his chair.

  “We just need to match the feed time signatures with the ones recorded last night from the position of where he took the photos, and we can get an image of this prick.” Linkin sounded optimistic, as he zipped up his leather shoulder case, laptop secure inside.

  Dillon ran for his bedroom to throw on some clothes, his heart racing. “I’ll be ready in five.” They were going to catch this motherfucker, and Thea wouldn’t look at him like he was a dumb himbo porn star.

  Chapter Six

  “Nice ride.” Thea commented as the Bentley swept past the ravenous reporters clamouring to get a picture of her. “You know your face is going to be all over the place now you’ve come to pick me up.” Flynn hadn’t removed his sunglasses. He continued to stare out the window at the passing buildings for a moment before speaking.

  “I’m depending on it.” Flynn looked back at her as he reached into the breast pocket of his suit jacket when they were at a stoplight. He frowned at the message and immediately started scrolling through his phone.

  “You’re hoping to flush the bastard out,” Thea surmised. She looked out her own window, feeling better thinking Flynn had risked his reputation trying to catch a killer rather than protecting her.

  “Yes and no.” When he didn’t explain further, Thea forced her gaze to the most powerful man of her acquaintance, the ultimate alpha Dom. Linkin was a hard second, and Dillon was the ultimate authority on the psychology of the power exchange, but Master Flynn was the reason there were dungeons in the first place. “We protect our own, Thea. Right now, in your head, you’re trying to reject the idea you need help. Stop. Being a dominant doesn’t mean having all the answers, and it also doesn’t mean suffering in silence. We’re a community. Deal with it.” His hard stare bored into her skull until Thea could do nothing but nod. He flicked back to his screen.

  “Gordon, it’s me Flynn Banroch.” Thea’s ears perked up at Flynn’s conversation. “Yes, we have a lead, and we need to come down to The Feather Flogger. It’s early. We may catch the asshole.” Flynn was silent for a minute as he listened to whatever the owner of The Feather Flogger had to say. “Yes, it’s a damn shame Detective Demopoulos has been dragged into this witch hunt.” Flynn flicked his gaze towards Thea again. “We protect our own, and I’ll find out where those pictures came from and who leaked them to the press.” The ice in Flynn’s tone made her shiver.

  Flynn hung up and shifted in his seat, making the leather creak. Thea inhaled the scent of clean car and leather and smiled as she tried to relax.

  “Why are you smiling?” Flynn asked, his stare contemplating her profile.

  “The smell of leather relaxes me. I guess I never had a choice.” Thea raised a hand she hadn’t known was shaking as tears burned her eyes. What a mess. There were going to be many awkward conversations with her parents in future. She covered her face as the first tears hit her cheeks. Flynn made no move to comfort her. He understood she had to wrestle control of her emotions on her own.

  Dillon wouldn’t have cared about protocols and Dom/Domme relations. The thought of his pulling her into his lap and letting her cry it out all over his ridiculously sculpted chest brought a smile to her face. The darkest part of her brain, pertaining to the personality she had left long ago, wished she were a sub again. Wanted to feel Dillon’s protection, his love, and his dominance as she fed it with her submission. But there was
no going back. It would be a lie and do a disservice to them if she tried to submit and accept that he fucked girls for a living. The tendril of jealousy flickering in her heart was the slap she needed to control her tears.

  A handkerchief met her gaze as she lowered her hands, and Thea’s shaking fingers grabbed onto the filmy square. Wiping her eyes and her nose, she stared at the delicate piece of finery and wondered whether she was supposed to give it back.

  “Leave it on the seat.” Flynn instructed as if he had read her mind. The car rocked to a halt and Thea checked the street outside for their location. The backdoor to The Feather Flogger was visible on the other side of the alley. A man stood holding the door open for them. “You don’t need to wait for us. I’ll call when we’re ready to leave,” Flynn instructed his driver as he opened his door. Thea pushed her door handle and slid out of the car pulling her hood back up over her head to obscure her face. No point in embarrassing the VPD any further or pissing all over her partner’s investigation. He might be an asshole most of the time, but he didn’t deserve to be deliberately sabotaged.

  “Good morning, Master Flynn, Mistress Thea.” The tall man called out from the open door with a tight smile.

  “Thank you, Bondie,” Flynn replied. “Master Lovett has been in contact.”

  “Yes, Master Flynn.” The younger man held the door open for Flynn, and Thea nodded to him as she strode inside the back entrance to one of the best fetish clubs open to the public in Vancouver. “The clean-up crew is still working this morning, but Master Lovett ordered us to get you anything you needed. He’ll be over shortly.”

  “Thank you, Bondie. Can you get us a couple of coffees? Mistress Thea has had a trying morning. We’ll be in the control room waiting for the others to arrive.” Master Flynn smiled kindly at the sub while requesting the drinks. Bondie perked up at the thought of helping a well-respected Dom in the community.