by C. M. Allen
"Yeah, sure, I'll be there in twenty."
"See you then."
"Yes, okay." Disconnecting the call, I looked at her now with her head down, seeming to realize what she'd really put me through when she kissed another man. "I have to go; they think they've found that girl you saw in the dungeon."
At that she snapped her head up. "Oh my God, is she alive?"
Shaking my head, I placed my hands on her shoulders. "No, she was found dead in a dumpster near the club."
Tears started to well up in her eyes. "That poor woman. He knows I saw him Archer, what am I going to do?"
Pulling her closer, I hugged her tightly, kissing the top of her head. "Look you're with me now and I will protect you. He's not going to get to you here. But I do have to go and talk to the Detective right now to see if they have any clues as to who this guy is. Will you be okay here by yourself or do you want me to send Gage over to stay with you while I'm gone?"
"No I'll be fine, really. Your building is like a fortress with the security, so I know he can't get in here." I kissed her slowly and tenderly on the lips, but then deepened it into a passionate one before ending it and kissing the tip of her nose, tapping it as I informed her. "This doesn't get you out of your punishment or the discussion we were having by the way. It only delays it."
She nodded her head. "I know, Archer. You're like a dog with a bone, you just can't let anything go."
Gripping her chin, I pulled her eyes up to meet mine. "When it comes to you angel, you'll never know just how true that statement really is."
Pulling up to the crime scene, I spotted Detective Hamilton speaking with a couple of the other officers. Getting out of the car, I head towards the taped off area and approached the officer on watch. "I'm here to see Detective Hamilton. I'm Archer Jennings."
Lifting the tape up, he said, "Yes, he left your name, you can go through."
I thanked the officer and strode over to where everyone stood around. "Detective."
Turning around, he walked towards me with his hand stretched out, shaking mine. "Good evening, Archer. So, I can tell you what we have so far. Her name was Gretchen Johnson, twenty-eight years old, both parents are deceased, but she had an older sister who is coming in from California to identify the body tomorrow. She worked at the Kinkade law firm as an assistant for William Kinkade." He lifted the sheet that laid over her body. "Do you recognize her at all?"
Looking over her lifeless body, I couldn’t recall ever seeing her at the club. "No, I don't. Was she new to the lifestyle like the other victims?"
"Yes. It seems that is one of the things all these ladies have in common, he's somehow plucking only the novices that don't know the rules yet."
"I know Will Kinkade, maybe I can go visit him and see if I can get anything out of him."
"That would be fine, but I will be at his office Monday afternoon. If you want to catch him off guard, which is what I'm assuming you're up to, you'll need to get there before me first thing Monday morning. And Archer, I want any and all information you get out of him. Agreed?"
I knew that he was allowing me to meddle in this case as a favor, so I assured him. "Everything I find out you will know." Shaking hands, we parted ways and I headed back home to Sloane.
CHAPTER
24
Sloane
When I woke up this morning, I looked next to me and found the bed empty. Sliding out, I put on a T-shirt and shorts and walked out to go look for Archer, hoping he wasn't still mad about last night. As I padded down the hallway towards his office, I heard him talking to someone. Knocking on his door, it opened up moments later. "Good morning, Sunshine," Slade said with a big smile.
Standing on my tiptoes, I reached up to give him a hug. "Hey Slade, how are you?"
"I'm good, how are you doing, honey? I heard you had a little scare at the club last night?"
Not knowing just how much Slade really knew about Archer's involvement in the club, I looked to Archer for my answer. "I was telling Slade here about how I took you with me to the club last night to see if we could find anything out from the members about these newest attacks."
"Yes," I answered. "I made him take me with him because I wanted to help try and find this psycho who's terrorizing and killing these women, including his childhood friend."
Looking at me like he knew that I wasn’t telling the whole truth, he began to look back and forth between Archer and I with suspicion written all over his expression. "Yeah, well, there's something I think I need to tell the both of you," Slade rubbed the back of his neck, seemingly choosing his next words carefully. "I know that you're a member of The Dark Playroom, Archer."
For what felt like an eternity, neither one of us said anything at this revelation. Then Archer finally spoke up. "How long have you known?"
"For the past month and a half now. I ran into Dominic at my brother’s restaurant and he accidentally let it slip, thinking I had already known from the conversation we were having."
"Shit."
"Hey man, don't be pissed at Dom, he didn't do it intentionally. He honestly thought I knew, which in-reality he really only confirmed what I had already suspected."
Archer let out a heavy breath. "Guess I can't get shit past you. Does Dalton know, too?"
"You mean the biggest controlling Alpha male himself? Yeah, he knows, dude," Slade chuckled. "And hey, he gets it the most, you know how ah..."
Stopping mid explanation, Slade turned to me like he was checking for my reaction to what he was about to reveal, so I decided to inform him of what I already knew. "It's okay Slade, I already know all about Dalton's controlling ways. I made air quotes with my fingers.
"Yeah, well, we all know how you women like to talk I guess." He responded with a chuckle.
"Okay, now that we have all of that settled, I'm going to go take a shower while you two finish up in here. It was good to see you again, Slade."
As I started to walk out of the room, I heard Archer call my name.
"Yes?"
"Don't forget that other matter that we still need to address." Confused at first about what he'd been alluding to, it finally dawned on me that he was referring to my punishment for kissing Jared and my bratty behavior last night. The thought caused an ache to develop between my legs and a blush to color my cheeks. Winking at me, he sent me on my way with his final words. "I'll be in to find you in a bit." Glancing at Slade before I walked out, I could tell by the shit eating grin that he plastered across his face that he was already imagining all sorts of kinky things. Walking back to the bathroom, all I thought about was what my punishment would be and how much I looked forward to it. Suddenly thrown by my own thoughts, I started to giggle to myself.
Man I have issues.
Finishing up my shower, I was drying myself off when I looked up towards the bathroom doorway and spotted Archer standing there, staring at me, looking so hot with his arms crossed. I had no doubt I was about to find out just how severe my punishment would be. "Hey, did Slade leave already?"
He pointed to the floor in front of him. "Drop your towel and come here... now."
Pausing only for a moment, I found my courage and dropped the towel before walking over to stop right in front of him. Pulling my chin up to look into my eyes, he asked. "What do you think your punishment should be, Sloane?"
I shrugged my shoulders. "I'm not sure. But I know what I did hurt you and I'm sorry for that."
"Am I ever going to have to worry about something happening between you and Jared again?"
"No, you won't. I won't hurt you like that again by opening myself up to that kind of situation with him or anyone else ever again, Archer. I promise, you can trust me."
Looking down at me for a moment, he finally kissed my forehead. "Then that's good enough for me."
I watched in suspense as he stalked over to the closet and waited for him to come out with one of his secret little toys for me, but when he came back out only caring a shirt, I couldn't help but feel disap
pointed. "So, you're not going to punish me?"
Changing shirts, he gave me a peek at his beautiful body that I wanted to have so badly draped over the top of me right now, making me squirm and beg under him when he replied. "No. You gave me your word that it won't happen again, and I believe you."
"Oh. Okay, I just thought..."
"You just thought what, Sloane?" He asked, walking up to me, and dragging his finger over my collarbone. "That I was going to pull you over my knee and spank that beautiful ass of yours until your pussy was soaked for me? Or maybe run my tongue over your clit until you were begging me to let you come and leave you hanging on the edge until I thought you had had enough? Is that what you were thinking was going to happen when I came in here?" He finished, capturing my face, and punctuating his words with a tender kiss on my lips.
When he turned to walk into the bathroom, I mumbled under my breath. "Well, it's what I was hoping for anyway."
Stopping mid stride, he pivoted with a smirk spread over his face. "And therein lies your punishment, angel."
My eyes widened as I realized what he was doing. "You're not punishing me because I want it?"
"Now you're getting it," he winked at me as he entered the bathroom, shutting the door behind him.
Flopping down on the bed, I let out a frustrated breath. "Asshole."
CHAPTER
25
Archer
The tension between Sloane and I lingered all day yesterday, but as the evening came, we began to slide back into a more comfortable mode with each other. This morning, though, had brought some of it back with our argument of her work situation. I wanted Gage to drive her in, but as always with her stubbornness she refused, and I had to resort to a covert operation with him shadowing her, without her knowing. Even though I knew eventually she would catch on. But if she thought for one second that I was going to leave her out there on her own and unprotected, she was crazy. Pulling up to the offices of the Kinkade Law firm, I got out and allowed the parking attendant to take my vehicle as I made my way inside to the front desk. Seeing a pretty petite blonde woman behind the counter look up and smile at me, she asked. "Hi, how can I help you today, sir?"
"My name is Archer Jennings and I'm here to see William Kinkade."
"Do you have an appointment, Mr. Jennings?"
"No, I don't. But I would really appreciate it if you could ask him if he will see me. You would be doing me a huge favor."
"Sure, Mr. Jennings. Let me see what I can do for you. You're welcome to wait in our lounge area," she said, pointing to a lobby behind me.
"I'd be happy to, thank you."
While I sat there waiting to see Will, I thought about the last time we were at the club together with a sub, who required more than one Dom to fulfill her insatiable appetite to be dominated. Interrupting my thoughts, I heard Will call out my name. "Archer, it's good to see you. How have you been?" He greeted with his hand outstretched to shake mine.
Getting up, I shook his hand. "Good. And yourself?"
"Good, good. Just saving asses like always. So, what can I do for you? You're not in any legal trouble, are you?"
“No, not me, I'm good. Is there anywhere we can speak in private, though?"
"Sure, let's go up to my office." As we approached his office, I found another cute blonde behind a desk and started to think about his past subs, realizing they too were all blondes. "Allison, please hold all my calls." He told her as she looked up at us with a big smile.
"Yes sir, Mr. Kinkade."
Entering the office, I headed to one of the chairs that sat in front of his desk as he shut the door and joined me behind his desk. "So, what's going on, Archer?"
"I'm here about Gretchen Johnson."
His eyes widened for a fraction of a second, before he quickly regained control over himself. "Did you know her?" Will asked.
"No. But Detective Hamilton is helping me on a case I'm working on myself to try and solve, and he called me last night about her death. We both think it's related to the one I'm dealing with."
"Wait. I thought you owned a security company with Dalton Cross, and Slade Malone? Did you leave that venture?"
"No. The case I'm working on is a favor for a childhood friend of mine whose sister, that was also a friend of mine, was killed in the same manner as Gretchen. She too was new to the BDSM world."
Rubbing his hands over his face, he seemed to scrub away the mask he was wearing in the process, and I could see the cracks in his armor more clearly. "It's my fucking fault she's dead, Archer."
Stunned by his confession, I asked. "Are you saying that you killed her?"
He shook his head. "No, no, but I'm the one who introduced her to that world. I was the reason she was even there in the first place. But I didn't know that she had gone back without me until I got the message late Saturday night on my voicemail. By the time I called her back all I got was her voicemail and no answer. Then Sunday morning I awoke to Detective Hamilton's message that he was coming this afternoon to question me. If you're working with him on this, why didn't you two come together?"
"Because of our membership to the club. He doesn't know we are members, and as far as I'm concerned, I would like to keep that little tidbit about myself private as I am sure you do, too. So that's why I figured I would talk to you alone."
Letting out a breath, he leaned back in his chair. "Well, I'm sure it's all going to get out about me now after this."
Leaning forward on his desk, I told him. "Look, Detective Hamilton is a good cop, he won't divulge anything that will affect your business dealings, as long as you're innocent that is."
Sitting forward quickly, he questioned. "Wait, does he think I killed Gretchen?"
"No. Not that I'm aware of, but you obviously had some sort of relationship with her and as we all know those closest to the victim are always the first ones to be looked at and cleared. As long as you have an honest alibi for where you were Saturday night at the time of her death, you'll be fine." Watching him for a moment, he doesn't answer. "You do have an alibi, right?"
"Yes, I'm not worried about that. But I am worried about the person that can vouch for me, she's not going to like our little arrangement being brought to light."
Knowing that this was probably going to create a sticky situation for him I advised him. "If I were you, I would give her a heads-up as soon as I leave this office and before the Detective visits you."
"I will, thanks for coming to see me, Archer."
"No problem, I know you'd do the same for me if you were in my shoes."
I got up to leave and shook his hand. "Anything you ever need, don't hesitate to call me."
"Thank you, I will. And good luck with that call you have to make."
Chuckling, he replied. "Thanks, I'm really going to need it."
Arriving at our office building, I was getting off the elevator and heading to my office when my phone beeped with a text from Riker.
Riker: I see you're here at the office, so come see me as soon as you can. I finally got Jared's file unsealed, and you're not going to like what was in it.
Letting out a curse, I made an about face and made my way back to the elevator, going down one floor to where Riker’s office was and knocked on his door. "Come on in, Archer!"
Walking in, I sat down in one of the chairs. "Okay, lay it on me. What am I dealing with here?"
"Well, to put it bluntly, one sick little fucker."
Perking up at his words, I asked. "What exactly did you find, Riker?"
Taking a deep breath, he began. "I found out that Jared did a stint in a psych ward for almost two years as a teen. Apparently, he was obsessed with a girl that he went to middle school with. He stalked her at school, her home, and when she was out with friends, he was always showing up wherever she was, scaring her. He became so obsessed with her that he broke into her house one day, went into her bedroom and put her undergarments on as well as her clothes and laid in her bed because he said he wanted to feel
closer to her. The girl's mother came home first, found him in her daughter’s room and called the cops."
"What the fuck kind of sicko is this guy? I need to call Gage, and make sure he has a good eye on Sloane."
"Wait. There's more you need to hear first."
"More?" I asked, grabbing for my phone. "I thought the rest of his police record was clean."
"It is, but when I found that in his sealed records I started digging around some more and found that there was a report filed with the campus police when he went to college. He supposedly stalked a woman and she reported him, but nothing ever came of it as far as with the local authorities for some reason, because I checked. But Archer... you really need to see the pictures of these two women."
Taking two photos out of the file, he twisted them around for me to get a look at. "Holy shit!"
"That's the same reaction I had. They could both be Sloane's twin."
CHAPTER
26
Sloane
Leaving for work this morning was made nearly impossible with Archer and his protective ways. On the one hand, I loved that he wanted to keep me safe. On the other, I was still struggling with him always trying to tell me what's best for me and couldn't help but push back. While I loved the control, I gave up to him in the bedroom, it was his control he tried to have over me in all the other aspects of my life that made me struggle with our relationship. I just wish he could learn somehow that I knew what's best for me sometimes, and that it would override his decisions from time to time. And even though I told him I didn't want Gage to bring me into work this morning, I saw that he had him tail me anyway and sit in his car outside the café. After the morning rush finally died down, I told Reyna that I needed to go out and talk to Gage. Walking up to his SUV I saw him start to laugh, and my guess was that he knew I spotted him a long time ago.
Rolling down his window, he said, "Good morning, Sloane. How long have you known I was here?"
