by Logan Fox
“And she really just left?”
“That’s inconsequential, Miss Buchanan. What matters is that you and I have to reach some sort of arrangement before something… unpleasant happens.”
Unpleasant? Pearl struggled to keep her eyes forward.
“I’m listening,” she said in a light voice. Well, light and unsteady.
“Good. Now, I’ve been thinking…”
The nature of his voice had changed. Pearl turned her head, flinching when she saw he was facing her. He tilted his head, studying her with a wide blue eyes.
Did he need his glasses, or were they just for show? Somehow, the thought of Caden doing anything just for the hell of it didn’t sit right.
She eviscerated the random thought and tried to pay attention to the slightest clues his facial tics could provide.
Which were none: his face could have been an ivory mask.
“Yes?” Her lips felt stiff.
“Since you seem to despise your role of fox so much, I’m willing to give you a brief respite from your vulpine duties.”
She translated his statement in her mind and gave her head a quick, violent shake.
“You don’t want me to fuck your guests anymore?”
Caden conceded this with a bob of his chin. “But, since I’m inundated at the moment, I do still require your assistance.” He waved a hand to the now unwatched glass.
“Oh.” Pearl faced forward, but he caught her chin with a cool hand and turned her back to face him. Her eyes grew wide, fixing on his expressionless face with dread expectation.
“Forget about them for now. He’ll be eating her out for at least another five minutes.”
He released the grip on her chin and folded his hands over each other on the armrest, leaning a little closer to her.
“If you assist me with the foxes until Seth returns, then I can arrange to reschedule your scenes until a later date. Perhaps… a date you won’t be here to fulfill.”
“Ever?”
“Ever.”
“So… I help you out with—” she waved her hand in a vague circle “—stuff, and I don’t have to go in there?”
She pointed into the dungeon without looking.
“Spot on, Miss Buchanan.”
“But… you don’t like me. Why would you want to help me?”
Caden let out a low laugh. “I’m not helping you. I’m delegating. The other foxes can pick up the slack. You only had one regular customer, so our patrons won’t notice if you’re not around anymore.”
She didn’t like his choice of words one bit. It made her think about disappearing girls and dead bodies. About Seth. Gia. Ivy.
“But I’ll stay here?”
“Of course. Not in the den, however. The other foxes might become… envious.”
“Then… where?” Her voice was barely a whisper.
Caden’s crystalline eyes flickered away, back so soon that the movement was nothing more than a tremor.
“With Tanner. He insisted, I’m afraid.”
From the dungeon came Morgan’s willowy, trembling voice.
“Am I wet enough for you to fuck, Daddy?”
And the wolf’s gruff, frantic response. “I’m about to find out, my sweet little slut.”
19
Pretty Little Dead Things
Suzie greeted Pearl with a tremulous smile, pulling open Tanner’s apartment door and motioning her inside with a wave. She wore a neon-pink mini skirt in a fabric as slick and shiny as plastic wrap. It gave her an inch-deep cleavage and the body of a Barbie doll. If her hair had been a lighter shade of blond, she might have passed for one, at a glance.
Pearl wore a pair of standard yellow sweats and her sneakers. She’d given them a wash last night, but they were still a pair of old shoes — nothing could be done about their scuffs and cracks.
“Where’s your stuff?” Suzie asked, frowning at Pearl’s empty hands.
“In New York,” Pearl said dryly, pushing past the girl and glancing down the hallway. “Is he here?”
“No. But he should be back—”
“Whatever.” Pearl peered at Suzie over her shoulder and sighed at the girl’s hurt expression. “Sorry. This isn’t exactly… this isn’t what I signed up for.”
“You’ll do fine. Nothing to it.” Suzie shrugged and led Pearl down the hall. They arrived in the kitchen, Scotty already busy with some exquisite-smelling dish that contained — at the bare minimum — bacon and onion and garlic.
Pearl’s stomach growled. She hadn’t bothered eating last night: she’d been too busy trying to piece together the fragments of her mind. It seemed there were too many pieces: like those self-assembly furniture kits where you were always left with a pair of screws and the disconcerting sensation that you shouldn’t risk putting your television set on the stand for fear it will snap in two.
“He really needs both of us to serve on him?” Pearl asked, watching as Scotty attacked a mixing bowl with a whip.
“No, but I guess he likes eye-candy as much as the next guy.”
From VIP whore to eye-candy. Caden hadn’t mentioned whether she’d still be getting paid for her time here; if she had to clear a few trays and wash some dishes, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. She’d prefer it to sitting beside Caden as they watched fox after fox getting fucked. From what he’d told her yesterday, the second dungeon in the right wing had been closed. She’d spent the entire day witnessing Tina and the other four foxes from the right wing being used up like paper napkins as various patrons filed in for their scenes.
She’d never thought she’d been able to eat through that, but when Caden heated an aromatic rice salad in the auditorium’s built-in microwave, Pearl couldn’t ignore the hunger gnawing at her anymore.
So she’d joined him; munching away at a pasta salad as a dark-skinned man with a thick scar running down his back pounded into Tina. Tina probably wouldn’t have minded, anyway.
Scotty glanced over her shoulder, saw Pearl, and stopped. She turned to her, putting her hands on her hips, and gave her a broad smile. The redhead was beautiful; voluptuous and smooth-skinned, despite her age.
“Ha! You?” She tapped a finger against her temple, her grin hitching up. “You fuck up Mr. Tanner good.”
Pearl looked away from the woman’s infuriating grin, right into Suzie’s face. The girl was staring at Pearl with hooded eyes, her mouth in a straight line.
“He tried to strangle me,” Pearl snapped. “It was self-defense.”
Suzie shrugged, her flickering eyes belying the casual gesture.
“We should eat.”
Scotty was still snickering to herself, but she dished up two steaming plates of the fragrant breakfast scramble she’d prepared.
They sat around the food-littered island in the middle of the large kitchen, wolfing down the breakfast with thick slices of French bread drizzled with olive oil. It was the first proper meal she’d had since arriving at the Fox Pit. It contained enough oil that she used another slice of the bread to wipe it off her plate afterward.
Scotty plonked down a mug of black coffee in front of each girl, followed by a chocolate-glazed donut on a serviette. Pearl groaned, holding her stomach.
“You’re evil, Scotty. Where the hell am I supposed to put that?”
The woman muttered something that sounded like “Too thin,” and left the kitchen, tossing her apron over the back of a kitchen stool on her way out.
Suzie’d already taken a bite from the pastry. “You’ll regret it, if you don’t. She makes them fresh — with buttermilk.”
Pearl didn’t need any further provocation. She bit into the donut, made a noise somewhere between ecstasy and agony, and washed down the glorious confectionery with a long swallow of the rich coffee.
Her coffee was almost finished when they heard Tanner’s voice echoing down the hallway.
“Where’s my hug, baby girl?”
Suzie downed her coffee, used Scotty’s apron to wipe her mouth, an
d disappeared from the kitchen without a word.
Pearl inhaled through her lips, slid off the stool, and tugged her sweats straight. She felt distended and heavy after the huge breakfast, but her mouth still watered in memory. Hopefully, lunatic Tanner wasn’t expecting her to try and squeeze into one of those lycra dresses.
“Pearl!” Suzie called out. “Breakfast!”
Oh. So it wasn’t that Tanner needed a second serving girl. With her here, Suzie didn’t have to serve him. She pushed away a thread of anger and grabbed up a tray from the waiter station against the wall by the door. She slopped a helping of the scramble into a bowl, tossed a few slices of French bread on a side plate, and sauntered out the door with a glower on her face.
Caden hadn’t said anything about smiling.
Tanner gave her a quick scan as she stepped into the room. They weren’t in the dining room, but in one of the smaller sitting rooms. Suzie had draped herself over Tanner’s lap and was toying with a chunk of his hair.
He looked hungover; dark smudges under his eyes, bloodshot corneas, and caution to his movements.
His long-sleeved t-shirt — bright blue and lacking anything except a small triangle on his breast — was baggy around the waist of his knee-length cut-offs. The jeans were torn in several places, but strategically enough to suggest he’d bought them that way. His feet, as always, were bare.
His split lip looked painful — puffy and tight.
As if feeling the weight of her gaze on it, he licked his lip and touched his tongue to the wound as his eyes returned to Pearl’s.
“You just get here?” he asked.
“A few minutes ago.” Pearl set his plates down on the side table beside his couch. It seemed this room’s entire purpose was to house the thousand-inch flat screen LED television against one wall. It was off. Then again, who needed reality TV when you had a Suzie in your lap?
He glanced at the food, gave it a double-take and then cocked his chin to the door.
“Coffee, babes. Black and Herculean strong.”
Pearl turned for the door, but Tanner caught her wrist. When she glanced at him over her shoulder, his eyes were still on the food. He bucked his hips, sliding Suzie from his lap.
“You get it. Daddy needs a minute with the newb.”
Suzie ducked her head, flashing Pearl a small frown as she left the room. Tanner shoved a slice of bread into his breakfast scramble and used it to shovel a mouthful of the steaming food into his mouth. He chewed carefully, his eyes doing another slow study of Pearl’s body before reaching her eyes.
“Looking good, Pearl.” He dusted his hands against each other and patted the sofa beside him. “Whoring really puts a glow in your cheeks.”
She licked her lips, forcing down a hard swallow. Shifting her weight to the other foot, she glanced at his hand and gave her head a shake.
“I’m good over here.”
“I won’t bite,” he drawled, his narrowed eyes calling him out on the lie. “Hard.”
“Have a hankering for another concussion?” Pearl crossed her arms over her chest, the tray dangling from her hand. If it came to it, she could bash him over the head with it.
“Thanks, but no thanks,” he said with a faint grimace. When it became obvious she wasn’t going to sit beside him, Tanner gave the seat a quick swipe with his palm and devoured another bite of his food.
He got to his feet, wiped his hands on the seat of his torn jeans, and strode past her.
“You get any sleep last night?” he asked, in passing.
Pearl frowned at him. “Yes.”
“Good. Then you can hunt me down some good porn while I get a little shut-eye.” He paused on the threshold, throwing her a theatrically wide-eyed look of innocence. “Can’t very well ask Suzie, what with her being a minor and all.”
Her mouth was still open when Suzie came back into the room holding a mug of coffee.
“He’s gone to bed,” she managed.
Suzie sighed and disappeared around the corner. She reappeared a few seconds later, looking annoyed.
“Come on, will you?”
Tanner had taken his shirt off. He had his back to the bedroom door, tossing clothes over his shoulder as he rummaged around the dresser against the west wall. He glanced up when Pearl and Suzie came into the room, flashing them a wide, disarming smile.
“It’s here somewhere,” he said, waving at the mess on his dresser. “Find it for me, would you?”
Suzie set the mug down on his bedside table and went over to the dresser, shoving him out of the way with a smile. Tanner watched her for a few seconds before his eyes slid to Pearl. He cocked his head to the bed.
“Go on.”
She lifted her eyebrows at him, her mouth going dry.
“Give it a bit of a shake down, will you?”
Her eyes slid to the bed. It was unmade. And the sheets were as tangled as if he’d wrestled with a bear in his sleep. Which was strange, because it didn’t look like he’d gotten any sleep last night.
“You want me to make your bed?”
“Not just a pretty face, are we?”
Pearl forced a tight smile onto her lips and went over to the bed. She tugged free the sheets and began remaking the bed with them. Tanner’s fingers slid over her shoulder, halting her.
“New sheets, baby girl. I can afford them, after all.”
Pearl yanked her shoulder free from his hands and bundled up the sheet against her chest.
“Where are they?”
“Sir…” Tanner crooned.
“Where are they, Sir?”
“Linen closet, down the hall.”
“Found it!” Suzie whipped out a thin, wide laptop from underneath a mound of discarded t-shirts. “Where do you want it?”
“Give it to Pearl. She’s gonna find me some hardcore fapping material, aren’t you, Pearl?”
“I’d rather get sheets,” Pearl said, her jaw tightening.
“I’m sure you would. But Suzie can do that, can’t you, baby girl?”
“Sure thing,” Suzie said, grabbing the sheets from Pearl’s hands and slipping out of the bedroom.
Tanner dragged a padded bench from underneath the dresser and waved graciously toward it. Pearl moved on wooden legs to the dresser, watching with a frozen face as Tanner jerked open the lid. The laptop bloomed into life, Pearl blinking in the sudden glare. A busty blond wearing a school uniform three sizes too small for her was plastered on the desktop. Thankfully, most of the image was obscured by the hordes of files and folders littering the desktop.
“Here’s the internet.” Tanner used the discrete touch pad on the laptop to open an application. “And here’s a whole bunch of bookmarks Caden was kind enough to add for me.”
Pearl stared at the list of website names. “You’re being serious,” she said softly.
“Course I am.” He squeezed her shoulder. “Thirty minutes should do it. Would love more, but I have a gangbuster day today.”
“I download them or something?” Pearl asked, maneuvering the pointer to the first website on the list.
“Nah. Just line them up in tabs for me. Hard drive’s pretty much overflowing anyway. That, plus most of these places you can’t download for shit.” His hand stayed on her shoulder, his fingertips twitching against her skin.
“What… am I looking for?” she managed.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, her psyche was yelling at her; abusive, scathing things like what a yellow-bellied loser she was. How she couldn’t stand up for herself if someone rammed a steel pipe up her ass. But she didn’t care anymore. Couldn’t care anymore.
If Tanner wanted her to find him good porn, then she’d find him good porn. If he wanted her to watch it with him while he fucked her, then that’s what she’d do. And, later, she’d go and sit beside Caden as they watched some more porn in 3D, ultra-high-def.
Because who cared anymore? Not her.
“This one?” Pearl asked. It was the first video on the website: a g
irl struggling to wrap her mouth around some guy’s enormous cock.
“Nah. Boring.”
“So what then? Bondage? Bestiality? Barely legal?”
Tanner laughed. “I see you’re getting into the spirit of things.” The sound of a woman’s high pitched moans tore through the laptop’s speakers. Tanner pressed a button on the keyboard, muting the sound. His mouth was by her ear. “No animals. Nothing illegal. And it has to have at least one girl in it. Otherwise, surprise me.”
Suzie reappeared holding a stack of sheets against her chest. Tanner’s hand slid from Pearl’s shoulder. The man went over to Suzie and began giving her a hard time as she tried to make his bed. Their voices — and Suzie’s inane giggles — dipped into a drone as Pearl began scrolling through the websites.
A while later, a hush settled over the room. Tanner had turned off the lights and drawn the shades, so Pearl sat in gloom as she opened up tab after tab of porn videos for Tanner.
Her thoughts began to drift, her eyes glazing as the camera zoomed in on a ball-gagged woman being whipped by a masked, leather-aproned man that looked like he could have been a blacksmith in a previous life.
Why hadn’t Greg been there? He could’ve helped her over the gate. He could’ve fended off the kitsune. He could’ve driven her away and she’d be at home right now — safe and warm and recovering.
Her gaze dropped, running over the icons at the bottom of the screen. Settling on an envelope. Her eyes flickered over the screen again — the woman had started shedding giant, fake tears — and stared at the wifi signal.
She glanced furtively over her shoulder. Tanner had his back to her, spooning Suzie. Regardless of whether the girl was awake or sleeping, neither of them could see Pearl unless they turned over.
Sliding the laptop off the dresser, Pearl turned in her seat, resting the machine on her knees. Now they couldn’t see the screen at all, even if they faced her.
She clicked on the envelope.
Tanner’s emails flashed open.
Pearl’s eyes widened, flickering uneasily to the sleeping pair as her heart began to race.
