by C. J. Thomas
Oscar gave me a questioning look, like he didn’t know what I was saying. Then I turned back to where I’d last seen the women.
“The divorce was finalized.” He set his wine glass down and smoothed his hands down his front. “It’s finally over.”
“And where did you meet such an attractive young woman?”
His eyes narrowed and I knew Oscar was one to keep the fight at the courthouse—not wanting it to interfere with his public life.
“Forgive me for saying, but I just can’t see why someone like Kendra would go out with a man your age.”
“Listen to you, never able to leave the courtroom.” He chuckled.
I pointed at him and laughed. “Don’t worry, Oscar, your secret is safe with me.”
He cocked his head, and I nodded.
When I turned back around, I saw the women across the far side of the room, making their way back to the table. “We had an interesting case file hit our desk recently.”
The DA leaned forward, listening intently.
“Are you aware of any recent murders involving working women?”
“Who’s your client?”
I shook my head. “No one. Yet.”
“Then what’s your interest? This sounds like the police investigation is still ongoing.”
“You may be right. This one just feels…personal.” I could hear the women laughing and I knew that Giselle could warm a woman like Kendra up, making her feel welcome in no time at all.
“Not working women, but if you’re referring to the young student working in the film industry, then yes, I’m aware,” Oscar said, his face firming up to the work tone I was most familiar with.
The women seated themselves, still laughing about whatever it was they were talking about. Oscar leaned closer to me and said, “Let me know what you find out. That case is certainly interesting.”
“Kendra, tell Kelly what you were telling me.” Giselle smiled.
Kendra started talking, and though I was looking her in her eye, my mind retreated back inside itself. My vision blurred as I was once again consumed by the markings left on the dead woman’s body. “Oh, screw him,” she laughed, waving me off, recognizing that I wasn’t listening. “The three of us will go.”
“Is that Wesley Reid’s place?” Oscar asked.
I blinked, snapping out of my thoughts. “Mojito?”
“Yeah,” Kendra said.
“It is.”
“Speaking of Wes.” Oscar looked at me and he had that serious expression tightening his face. “Blake Stone’s preliminary hearing begins soon. I have to admit, Kelly, I was surprised to learn you didn’t accept his case.”
“Despite what you may think, I do have a conscience.” I laid my napkin across my thighs. “But now that I have one client in the clear, maybe I’ll have time to represent him.”
He laughed and turned to Kendra. “Criminal defense lawyers are all liars working to free the devil. Don’t believe a word he says.”
6
Kendra
“He can wait,” I said over my shoulder to Alex.
She peered down the hallway with a longing gaze.
“I like to be bare and smooth before my massage.” I untied the fluffy loop around my waist and dropped my robe to the floor, making sure the muscular masseur hiding behind the potted plants was looking. “Go on, honey.” I turned back to Alex. “Drop your robe. The man you’re flirting with is looking.”
She huffed out a disbelieving laugh. “Uh-uh. Oh, no. I prefer to stay covered up, thanks.”
“Even with the men you flirt with?” Alex skirted around me, stepped into the waxing room, and plopped her butt down on the empty table. I waved my fingers at the cute masseur, picked my robe up from the floor, and slid on my belly onto the table next to Alex. “Remember the first time you waxed your cunt?”
Alex stared up at the ceiling, a smile tugging at her lips. “Yeah, I remember.”
“And now look at you. It’s like you know what you’re doing.” My legs were bent at the knee as my feet kicked through the air. Aromas of lavender, grapefruit, and eucalyptus filled the air and I felt as comfortable here as I did most places.
Alex’s brows creased.
“What?” My feet stopped swinging and I pushed my chest up off the table, rooting my weight on my elbows.
She frowned. “I miss him.”
“God. Seriously?”
She nodded.
My forehead crashed down to the table. When I peeked over at her with one eye open, she nodded again. “What’s he been gone, like, an hour?”
“Twenty-four.” She covered her face and laughed.
I flopped over onto my back, wondering what happened to my friend who was once my wing-woman when hitting up bars. The estheticians arrived and greeted us. I was quick to tell them the work I wanted done, and I told them to do the same on Alex. Alex glanced in my direction and I said, “You are whipped.”
She raised her brows. “You would be too if you had what I have.”
I gave her an arched look. Her legs were bent and spread but she remained covered in that angelic white robe. Not me, I didn’t care about letting it all hang out. Besides, being naked just made things easier. The way I saw it, clothes just got in the way of living. “Please do share. I’m sure we’d all like to know what it’s like to let Donkey Kong stretch our vagina.” The women working us giggled.
Alex winced as her roots began getting pulled. “Well, if you must know—”
“Yes. I must. We—” my hands swished through the air in a big circle, “—all must know.”
She closed her eyes and a stupid smile spread across her face. “It’s amazing.”
I couldn’t stop staring at her. Was I really hearing her? Was this really the Alex Grace that I knew? The one person I would do anything for? Her face was beaming bright and there was that sparkle in her eye that told me she was head over heels in love. My stomach flipped and I wanted to vomit.
“I wish I could share him.”
My head lifted off the table. “Who says you can’t?”
Her lips parted and now she was just showing off her perfect teeth.
“Shit, girl. Pass him around. Let us have a taste of this oh so uh-mazing sexual creature that has you acting like a housewife having an affair.”
Alex laughed. “I’m hardly a housewife.”
“Yet you chose to stay covered because…?” My hand moved the length of her, pointing at her robe.
Alex tossed her head back and yelped. “Christ that hurt. Remind me again why we do this so often?”
“To get fucked,” I said, making her laugh. I closed my eyes and got to thinking about my role with the Madam. The job, it was good for me. It kept my life fresh and without routine. I liked that. No day was the same, and when I wasn’t working, I had the day to do whatever I wanted. I knew escorting wasn’t for everyone, but it was good to me and I could spend days here, at the spa, hearing how in love my friend was. “Baby doll, tell me this,” I said, turning back to Alex.
Alex rolled her head to the side and met my curious gaze.
“Does it get boring fucking the same man night after night?”
The woman working me snickered.
“You’re unbelievable,” Alex said, smiling.
“The heat has to die down. No fire burns forever,” I reminded her.
“Gas fires do,” she said in a firm voice. “If you let them.”
“Yeah, I suppose. But gas fires—unlike wood fires—also have the chance of exploding, too. Is that a risk you’re willing to take?”
“That won’t be us. With Nash, we’re an even hot burn.”
I reached over and touched her arm. “I don’t know, with him gone you seem cold to me.”
She swatted my hand away. “Trust me. I’m hot.”
“Aren’t you afraid, though?”
Alex turned her head to look me in the eye. “That he’ll leave me?”
“No. That’s not what I was thinking.”<
br />
“Afraid of what then?”
“That he’ll leave your pussy lips flappy like an old hag.”
“You’re disgusting.”
“I’m serious.” My brows knitted tight. “I mean, if he’s as big as you say he is—”
Alex gave me a pinched expression. “I’ll make sure to keep my young pussy tight just for him.”
The woman working me finished up between my legs and I rolled over to stick my ass in the air.
“What about you?” Alex couldn’t look at me while on all fours like I was about to take it from behind. “All this talk about sex is making me think you’re not getting any yourself.”
I reached behind and pulled my ass cheeks apart, not wanting the esthetician to miss a hair. “Finally, you asked. You know, this relationship isn’t always about you.”
“You’re not?” Alex gasped. “But I thought—”
“Yeah, me too.” My tongue smoothed over my teeth and picked up some mint flavor left over from earlier. “But nope. Haven’t fucked a single date.” I rolled onto my back and pointed to my nipples. “Better clean these up too,” I said, jiggling them inside my hands. They still have it, I thought to myself.
“The money is good, right?”
“It’s not why I’m doing this.” The hot wax perked my twins.
“I know. But still.” Alex opened her robe, revealing her chest to have her nipples done as well.
“There’s this man I keep seeing.”
Alex snapped her head around and had a glow in her eye that told me she just couldn’t wait to hear more about this man who kept me awake at night. “Go on.”
“It’s not what you think. He’s not a date.”
Her brows drew together and her lips pursed.
“First time I ran into him, I literally ran into him.” My hands joined the conversation. “I mean, here I was, minding my own business, when out of nowhere, this man is blocking the entire staircase. Smack! My nose hit his chest. His cell went flying and I stumbled back.”
Alex’s eyes went big, growing round like golf balls popping out of her head. “What did he do? Did he apologize?”
I barked out a sarcastic laugh, thinking how Kelly Black wasn’t a man who apologized. “He made me,” I jabbed my chest with my finger, “pick up his damn phone.”
“Then what happened?”
“I picked up his phone!”
“No, I mean after that. How did you see him again? You said you keep seeing this man.” Alex’s voice was loud and fast as she demanded to know more.
“Then, guess who my date is having dinner with last night.”
“No!” Alex’s mouth circled. “Him?”
I nodded just as we finished up. Alex wrapped herself back up and I draped my robe over my shoulder as our feet hit the ground and we started making our way to the other side of the spa. “What are the chances, right? That’s what I was thinking.”
“So, who is he?” Alex hooked her arm in the crook of mine as we slowly padded across the warm bamboo floor.
“Well, let’s just put it this way.” I leaned in close to her ear and dropped my voice down to a whisper so that no one could hear. “My date was the District Attorney.”
Alex touched her neck. “And the man you’re crushin’ on?”
“Criminal defense lawyer.”
“Does he have a name?”
“I better not say,” I said, looking around at the many faces surrounding us.
She grabbed me by the shoulders and dug her nails into my sensitive flesh. “Does he know your background?”
I shook my head. “And I wasn’t about to tell him.”
We started walking again when Alex asked, “What did your date think of all this?”
“See, that’s just it. This guy stole me away after dinner, insisting that he have the first dance.”
“And your date was cool with that?”
My shoulders shrugged. “There was nothing I could do.”
“What about the Madam, won’t she be pissed?” Alex’s gaze was at her feet. “I mean, she’s the one who set this up, pairing you with the right man and all.”
“You should have seen these two men. They were both more into each other’s dates then the ones they went there with. Typical men, jockeying for dominance.”
“The DA?” Alex looked at me again with her mouth falling open as if her mind was catching up to everything I was unloading.
I nodded. “Scandalous. I know.”
“Do you think you’ll see him again?”
“Who, the DA?”
“No. The other one?”
My head bobbed. “I don’t know. I sure hope so, because my pussy is in desperate need of relief.”
7
Kelly
Dozens of missing persons files laid scattered across my desk. I pulled my drawer open and reached for a pair of leather cuffs.
I studied them, holding them up to the light. They were fleece-lined and each had an O-ring restraint to easily attach them to a bedpost or the ceiling.
My fingertip traveled the edge of the leather. It was a tough, ninety-degree cut, but with the soft fleece liner, it should never dig deep enough to cut flesh no matter how tightly clamped around a wrist they were.
My gaze cast back to the photos I had spread across my desk. Each of them highlighted a different area of concern on the young woman’s body. There was a picture of her cut and bruised wrist. Another of her ankles. Lash marks between her shoulders, and bruises from being paddled across her upper thighs. They were marks I knew well, marks similar to ones I’d given to my own Subs.
However, there was a clear difference between the ones I gave and the marks I was looking at now. Only an amateur would do this kind of damage.
I licked the pad of my finger and flipped through more photographs.
Her skin had been cut to the point of bleeding. There were signs of struggle, like she’d put up a fight. None of this was how it was supposed to be. For those of us partaking in this underworld of sexual experimentation, we knew the rules, understood the limitations, all of it decided upon by each participant.
But not here. Not with what happened to her.
With her, there had been no rules, no limitations, and it was like whoever did this to her maybe even got off on raping the victim after she was dead.
My stomach flipped and when I shoved my fingers through my hair, I had a desire to shower. I felt grimy and disgusted by what I was seeing. This, what happened to her, gave a bad name to the rest of us. To an untrained eye, it was all the same and could happen to any Sub willing to get bound.
But I knew the truth. It was written across her body. She had been beaten, restrained, raped. None of it was consenting. This wasn’t what she wanted and it should have never happened. And that was what bothered me most.
I leaned back in my leather office chair and played with my pair of cuffs, thinking.
Inside, I burned with a desire to help convict the son-of-a-bitch who did this. It was an unusual feeling for me, considering I was generally the one who was making sure criminals walked free, not caring if they were guilty or not. But something about this case sparked a need to do what I knew in my heart to be right, and I’d do whatever I could to help the prosecution once they charged the asshole with the crime.
My arm stretched out and I set the cuffs back down on my desk.
It was in all our best interests to get this one solved—not just pushed under the rug—before word got around to exposing the secret society many influential members, including myself, participated in. The last thing we all needed was for our lifestyle to be easily associated with something as horrendous as murder.
I leaned forward and rested my elbows on my desk, continuing to shuffle through the many other women who had gone missing and whose cases hadn’t been solved. There had to be a link between them and this one.
Except I couldn’t find one. At least, not with the information I had.
When I glanced up, my
breath caught in my throat. I swallowed down the lump and gently smiled back at the only photo I had on my desk, still getting choked up when staring into her soft, loving gaze.
I reached out and let my finger brush over her face. I could still remember the day the picture was taken as if it happened yesterday. We’d just adopted a new puppy and she couldn’t have been happier. The leaves were bright green and so full of life after a rainstorm whose scent lingered in the air. It was fresh, just like our relationship. Little did we know that darkness was just around the corner, waiting.
My desk phone lit up and started ringing, snapping me out of my thoughts.
“Kelly, I’m surprised to have you answer so quickly,” the Madam said when I picked up.
“You caught me at my desk.” I licked my lips and forced myself to look away from the framed picture.
“Fantastic!” She cackled one of her famous laughs. “I won’t waste your time.”
I turned my head to the window, watching a pigeon perch on a branch. “What can I do for you?”
“I need you to pay Emmanuel a visit—”
“I’m not interested,” I said, interrupting her.
“But you haven’t heard the best of it.”
I rolled my eyes, relieved to know that my lines were secure. I couldn’t be caught colluding with clients and helping them get away with whatever crimes they were attempting to commit.
“Perhaps if I open up my new recruit you’d be more open to the idea?” Her voice was full of spirit and I knew it was just one her manipulation tactics. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? For me to introduce you. A proper introduction. The way it should have been in the first place.”
My eyes narrowed. “I don’t need you to introduce me to Kendra.”
“That’s because you already did that yourself.”
I smiled, appreciating that we could cut the bullshit and get straight to the point.
“You shouldn’t have done what you did, Kelly.”
“C’mon, Oscar is out of his league with her. You should know that better than I do.”
The Madam went quiet and I leaned back, pressing my shoulders to the back of the chair, thinking how I was one of the few people the Madam couldn’t control. Sure, she had stuff on me, as I did her, but she couldn’t get away with a lot of the shit she could with others. And that was what made our cat-and-mouse relationship exciting.
