Double Entendre: (City of Steel 2) (The Vault)

by Katherine Rhodes

  “Yes,” I said, with a nod. “What did you do when you realized what was going on?”

  “I called down to the desk. I tried to break into the room just after that, but the screaming stopped abruptly, and when they pushed the door open, I got hit with pepper spray, so I never got a look at the attacker.”

  “Cam! You got pepper sprayed!” I nearly leapt across the room to check her eyes.

  She pushed me back gently. “It’s okay. I washed them out, the paramedics rinsed them again. I’ll go to the doctor tomorrow and get double-checked. They hurt a bit. I’ll tear for a while.”

  “Damn it, Cameron.” I sighed. Composing myself, I went back to questioning her. “So that was all you heard? The screaming, then it stopped?”

  “Yes, after I called the desk it stopped. That’s why I went over to kick the door open. I wish I could have done something more.”

  I looked at the recorder in my hand. “Did you hear one or two people screaming?”

  “Two,” she said, without thinking, and then startled herself. “There were two people screaming in that room.”

  Slamming the door open a second later, I walked out to the officer first on scene. “Who is in that room?”

  “What, sir? There is just a body in there—”

  “Fuck,” I bit out and turned, running for the stairs. Cam, Millie, and Lys were right behind me. I banged up the flight, and Millie yelled that it was the second floor. I jumped out of the stairwell and down to where the police tape was with an officer outside the room.

  Slamming through the tape, I shoved past the officer at the door. “Don’t let anyone but the other detective in!” I snapped at him.

  Assessing the room as fast as I could, I found a massive closet on the far side and ran for it. Lys skidded in as the officer held Cameron and Millie back, and ran over to me.

  Glancing over, I nodded. “One, two, three!”

  She jerked the doors open and I braced my feet. The body fell out into my arms, and a great shuddering breath drew in. A wail of horror followed the same breath out.

  “Alive,” I snapped and spun away from the closet, running out of the room. I didn’t want the tiny woman in my arms to see the mess I had only just glanced at on the way in. “Call down to the bus, have a stretcher standing by!”

  Lys and the officer both started chattering into the walkies. I ran down the stairs, carrying her all the way out to the ambulance where they were pulling out the stretcher. I placed her carefully down, and the paramedics pushed me out of the way.

  “Greta…” she breathed.

  “What’s your name?” one of the medics asked.

  “Rielle,” she managed. “Rielle Donato. Where’s Greta? Where’s my fiancée?”

  “Fuck, shit,” Lys hissed behind me.

  “We have to take you to the hospital, Rielle,” the medic said, ignoring her question. “You’re going to need some help.”

  “Greta!” she screamed.

  My heart broke. I could hear her anguish, and the knowledge that her fiancée was dead. No one would tell her that yet. But she knew.

  The doors slammed shut on the ambulance a moment later, the scream still lingering in the air.

  “I don’t know who this is, Detective,” Millie said, “but I want five minutes alone with them after you find them, and before you cart them off to prison.” She turned, and her eyes were nothing but fury. “I promise you, they will never be a flight risk after that.”

  For just a moment, I wished I could give her the chance.

  I stared at the bar top. Lys was pouring something into glasses while Millie, Cameron, and I waited.

  “Your brother teach you?” I asked.

  “Runs in the family, really,” Lys said. “Stat, me, Heloise, Rasputin.”

  “You have a brother named what?” Cameron asked.

  “Rasputin. You don’t even know… Genghis, Jupiter, Heloise, and Rasputin.”

  “Lord God, was your mother high?” Millie asked.

  “Hippie.”

  “You’re not old enough to have a hippie for a mother,” Cameron said.

  “My grandmother was original hippie. I’m third generation hippie. And I got the hell out of there once Stat left. I wasn’t into braiding my armpit hair and smelling vaguely of patchouli and weed at all times.”

  I choked on the water I was sipping. “Lys, I never would have thought that of you.”

  “There’s a reason for that.” She winked and pushed the cold bottle of beer at me. She lifted some kind of pink and blue drinks to the counter for the other two, keeping one for herself.

  Cameron studied the glass. “What is it?”

  “One of the drinks Stat and I thought up. We call it Pink Pussy Power.”

  “It’s just all about the poontang for the lot of you,” I grumbled. I realized what I had said and grimaced, looking over at Cameron and Millie. “Sorry.”

  Cameron lifted the glass as a sign of accepting my apology. Millie nodded.

  “Mistress, do you need a cleaning service in to help with that room?” Lys asked.

  “I’m having it ripped out and redecorated, and I’m putting all new security and scanners and procedures. Whoever this is that got in, had been here before and managed to get the scanners to recognize them. The new system is going to wipe them out on check-out. No more storage. New scans every time. New room, too. I won’t be able to rent that room in good conscience until it’s refurbished.”

  “Ask Nathaniel or Emmy Walsh for their contractor,” I said. “Emmy told me he was amazing and built a secret room for them.”

  Cameron looked at me. “You know the Walshes?”

  “Of course I do.” I shrugged. “Emmy was nearly killed in Club Imperial a few years ago, and that’s how I got sucked into the community. How I wound up as the trust LEO on this beat.”

  “You never told me that,” she whispered.

  “Cam…” I dropped my shoulders.

  Millie appeared between the two of us. “You need to talk. Talk now. Lys, you go home. I’m going to bed. Just tell Fernando when you leave.”

  Lys agreed with her and before I could do anything to stop them, they disappeared from the bar. I was sitting next to my…wife? Almost-ex-wife? Girlfriend’s girlfriend?

  “Simon…” she said quietly. “I’m sorry.”

  Chasing the condensation down the bottle, I took a deep breath. “For what?”

  “For not talking to you,” she said. “I heard what you said to the other witness, and you’re right. I should have talked to you about this. I should have come to you and told you what was going on in my head.”

  “I’m lost and confused, Cam. I don’t think I’ve ever been this lost in my life. My career is solid and it’s the only thing keeping me from going insane right now. I spent two weeks trying to figure out how to confess to Vanessa that I slept with you and then you’re there as her Domme.” I glanced at her. “And that fucking outfit you’re in isn’t doing me any favors. I already confessed that I never fell out of love with you. I don’t know what else I can do to figure out my mind.”

  “I love her, Si.”

  “Vanity?”

  “Yes.”

  “Yeah, you’re not the only one. She’s a very lovable person, despite the fact she likes some pretty twisted sex games. She’s just so…alive.”

  “She really is.” Cameron sighed. “I didn’t mean to, you know.”

  “Nothing that has happened in these past few months has been on purpose. I only realized I was interested when we were in Sadique House on a stakeout.”

  “You took her on a stakeout?”

  I snorted. “I finger fucked her on a stakeout.”

  “What?” She wasn’t mad. She was laughing. “Okay, that’s pretty amazing. First off, you? And second, in public?”

  “Yeah, yeah, I know.”

  Turning the glass around in her hand, she bit her lips to keep from laughing. “Now I’m really sorry I didn’t talk to you. Just how kinky are
you now, Simon?”

  “Not that much, not compared to you or her.” I didn’t add the thought that I could be persuaded now. Because I could. “You look good in leather, Cam.”

  “I feel good in leather.” She grinned.

  I grunted, swallowing my thought. I wasn’t touching anyone or getting involved in any sex games until I could get my head on straight about it. But her words made me want to strip her out of the leather.

  Damn it.

  “Is this too soon after finding out?” Her voice was quiet.

  “You were a vanilla girl. You liked having sex with me. I thought you were happy with how everything was. How did this all happen? When did you start liking women? Why did you leave?”

  “I’ve always been attracted to women,” she said. “I wouldn’t have called myself bi until recently. But there was always a measure of attraction. I knew you were going to want to start talking about kids, and that scared the hell out of me. I didn’t feel like I’d had a chance to explore the world or explore who I was inside. We got married young. And having kids just…overwhelmed me. I ran. I was scared. Terrified. I was never unhappy with you, and now I realize I was stupid.”

  “You’re not stupid.”

  “Aren’t I?” She sipped the drink. “I went to the basement with Vanessa. I saw what you did for her, and I realize you would have done the same for me. You would have been willing to at least listen to me. I fucked up. And now everything is really messed up.”

  Wasn’t it, though? Seriously screwed up. I stared at the bottle for a moment longer. “What do you think we should do with this?”

  “It’s too soon for me to deal with that.” She sighed. “I want to protect Vanity, but I want to deal with my feelings for you, and I want to deal with what I feel for her, and I don’t want to hurt you. And I think it’s too late for most of that.” Cameron took a huge swig of her drink. “How about you? What do you think we should do?”

  “Not a clue. I don’t want to hurt her, I don’t want to hurt you, but my brain isn’t wrapping around all this well and I’m feeling very confused and just want to go to bed and pretend none of this happened.”

  Nodding slowly, she ran her finger around the rim of the glass. “We all just need a little time.”

  “I agree.”

  We both took a drink. Glancing over, I asked one last question before I knew we had to get going.

  “Did you sign the divorce papers?”

  The silence lingered for a moment. “No.”

  Simon

  Sal threw the bar rag at Stat, who swatted it away at Nadine. Nadine gasped and snapped it on Sal’s ass.

  “What? I didn’t hit you with it!”

  “You threw it!” She laughed and snapped it on his ass again. “You get the punishment.”

  “Sucker.” Stat laughed.

  It was a lot of fun watching the three interact with each other. They were fun and funny and clearly there was a lot of history and an amazing dynamic between them.

  Nadine finally got the coffee and cake on the table, after kicking Stat in the ass, and shoving Sal in his seat. She poured each of them a cup and demanded a kiss from each as she did.

  “Did everything go well this morning?” she asked.

  “Not even close,” I admitted. “We have a few clues, but no leads, and we just can’t seem to catch this sadist. And today was the worst possible outcome. They killed someone at the Vault.”

  “Oh, no…”

  “It’s their first official victim.”

  “Official?” Sal asked.

  “We think Mistress Dee was the very first.”

  Stat’s eyebrows went up. “The owner of Sadique?”

  I nodded. None of this would compromise the investigation. “Sorry to pee on your cake and coffee.”

  “No, we worry,” Nadine said. “We have friends who are in the community. It’s scary right now, for all of them. I would love it if this asshole was caught for real.”

  “Me too,” I mumbled.

  “You got back late,” Stat said to me. “If you left at four in the morning…”

  “Paperwork. I had to take some down to the morgue and I had some I had to finish. But there’s a chance I won’t have anything to do tomorrow at my desk. I’ll review a few old cases and just hope that the worst that happens is someone stole Mrs. Jones’s pie from the windowsill.”

  Stat’s brow wrinkled. “Do people still steal pies?”

  “Only when that cartoon mist beacons them.” I managed the answer with a straight face, and then couldn’t stop the laugh.

  “There’s the family resemblance,” Stat grumbled as Sal and Nadine threw their heads back and laughed.

  Sal leaned forward. “So, dude, Nadine said you wanted to chat with all of us. We’re here, so let’s talk.”

  “Wait, first.” Nadine held up a hand. “Why are you here? What made you come here?”

  Taking a deep breath, I told them the whole story about how Vanity and I got together, her poly relationship, the divorce, and Cameron showing up at the table the night before. They were all staring at me with their mouths open, shocked, as I wrapped it up.

  “Well, I gotta tell you,” Nadine said, “that’s a story I would have never expected from you, Detective.”

  “Me neither,” I answered.

  “So, what did you want to chat about?” Sal asked.

  I glanced around at the three of them and let that little flash of idea from the morning surface. “So. How do you three make this work?”

  Stat scratched an eyebrow and looked at the other two at the table with us. “Well, it’s a lot of work. And certainly, with two of us being mostly straight, it wasn’t easy.”

  “The straight thing didn’t last very long,” Nadine said. “Not after we really started to figure this out. But he’s not lying: it’s a lot of work. It does make it easier now that they aren’t so shy about their sexuality.” She looked between the two men. “I didn’t really want to give either of them up. I needed the support at the time, and I was mostly in love with both of them by then.”

  “I made the suggestion,” Stat said. “That we give a three-way relationship a try. Because I was being selfish, and I knew that.”

  “I agreed because I was also being selfish.” Sal gave a one-shoulder shrug.

  Nadine grinned and turned bright red. “The first night they double teamed me was the first night we didn’t fight. They didn’t fight. It got easier after that. A lot more fun. They realized I had enough room for both of them in bed. They each had a different quality that I wanted, and with the three of us, there was time and space for each of us.”

  “Of course.” Stat cleared his throat. “We liked each having fun with her, but curiosity got to us. When there are two guys, there’s two sets of…man-equipment, and it’s hard to not touch the junk. One thing led to another and…”

  “The rest is history,” Sal said.

  “You all share a bed.”

  “The first time we shared a bed, the hostility dropped right off,” Nadine said. “They realized I was there for both of them, and that they could play nice and share. Can I tell you the first time the two of them did it in front of me? Flames. Everywhere. I thought I was going to explode from watching that.”

  “As for everything else,” Stat said, “it all works out. Sal can’t cook for shit, but Nadine and I are pretty good. So, when she’s home, she cooks, and when she and Sal are at rehearsal, I cook. Laundry is a crap shoot. Cleaning the house with three adults is a no-time-flat kind of thing.”

  “We work well.” Nadine shrugged. “A lot of people don’t approve of the three of us, but we don’t care because the people who matter don’t mind.”

  “We must be doing something right because we’re taking steps to make this as legal as possible,” Sal said. “That’s where Mom came in. She was more than happy if Nadine was happy. I didn’t expect that, but I don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”

  Stat leaned forward this time. “It�
��s not easy. But once it works, it works well. If you’re thinking about trying this”—his finger pointed around the table at his two significant others—“you need to sit down with both Cameron and Vanity at the same time and talk it out. It could be the best thing, or it could be the worst thing you’ve ever done.”

  I was thinking about this. They were happy. They looked happy, they looked supported, and they looked like they enjoyed their own company, a lot.

  Sal chuckled. “Mom would have a fit.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “A good one or a bad one?”

  “A good one, believe me. But what’s the chance of both of her sons ending up in a three-way relationship? I mean, astronomical, all things considered.”

  Once more, I scrubbed a hand through my hair. “Do you think that the women would be open to this?”

  “I am not going to answer that,” Nadine said, shaking her head and leaning back. “I’m not. Neither are these two boneheads. You need to talk to them.”

  I nodded. “You’re right.”

  Sal shrugged. “You have a huge advantage over what we had to get over. They already know each other. And they each know you. That was our hardest part. Getting to know each other and trust each other.”

  “But it was also the fun part,” Stat said.

  I felt a foot on my leg, rubbing suggestively. I raised an eyebrow and twisted my lip. “Dude. I’m not into a foursome.”

  “Shit, sorry!” He jerked back. “I thought that was the other hairy Italian brother.”

  “I’m not that hairy,” I said.

  “I am,” Sal said, standing up. “Wanna see?”

  We all yelled at the same time, “No!”

  Vanity

  Darien handed me a scotch and smiled. “You look like you could use it, pet.”

  “I could use a bottle of Everclear and several days of being unconscious,” I admitted.

  He sat across from me. Darien was incredibly handsome and incredibly powerful. He was the definition of a true alpha, and he loved living the lifestyle every second he was awake.

  He was utterly shameless in his desires, and I had seen him hold teleconferences with one of his pets merrily fellating him under the desk. I had been the victim of his wandering fingers while he was reading a book or watching television as he would bring a woman or a man to climax, seemingly without much concern.