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This message stream is exactly why I must let Leif go. I have more secrets and reasons to keep myself hidden. I hit the button on my phone to delete the texts, then I click on the app that will search and scrub my face from any camera feeds I might have missed. For her safety and mine, I have to make sure neither of us is caught on any of the many cameras out there. From street cameras to storefront security, surveillance is everywhere, and easily accessible if you know the right people. Which I do. The app installed on my phone takes care of my face, and I take a moment to look around, knowing that it’s time to make her life safe so that she doesn’t have to live in hiding anymore. She deserves love, marriage, and a family someday. Lord knows I’m not a good example of that, but she deserves everything for what she’s gone through. So, it’s decided that I will start the process of ending this.
I take one more look at Leif through the shop window before I head to my SUV and make my escape. I have only one focus in my life, and she’s everything.
* * *
Leif
I watch them move out of the shop and observe Ley as she pauses for a moment. She stares at me through the large plate glass window. Her long mahogany waves are up in a bun at the back of her head. She’s in another long-sleeved black compression shirt topped by a thick vest. Black cargo military slacks and boots cover her lower half. Just like she was in the first time I ever saw her. Her peaches and cream complexion is fresh-faced instead of covered in makeup like she’s been the last few months that I’ve seen her. Her hazel eyes with thick lashes stand out without the dark liner around them. This is the complete opposite of the sexy dresses and negligees I’m used to seeing her in when we meet for her appointments. She’s more beautiful now and takes my breath away. This is the woman I want to get to know. This is the woman that first intrigued me, and I want her. I feel myself getting hard just watching as her muscles flex under her clothes.
I reflect on our last session just a few days ago. Her strict contract doesn’t allow for me to comfort her while she is coming out of subspace. I’ve watched her lie against that cross so many times, but this last time I couldn’t take it. I had to touch her, comfort her. I moved to her body. The Dom in me didn’t like leaving her alone. Didn’t like that I couldn’t provide proper aftercare for her. Still complying with her wishes, I left her strapped to the cross as I gently applied cream to her welted skin. I brushed her hair that fell from its messy bun away from her face and looked deep into her golden hazel eyes. She looked back at me and nodded slightly. I took the cue and released her arms from the St. Andrews cross, letting her gently fall into my arms. She looked up at me as I held her. I watched as that wall came over her beautiful eyes and closed me out again.
In that long look, I saw so much. I saw the pain she tries to hide. I saw that she has secrets. But what I mostly saw was her need. Her body was slack against mine, but she trembled as I brushed my lips against her forehead. I’m not letting her get away from me. She thinks she’s going to run, but I’m not going to allow it. I’m her Master, and I will have her completely. She’s ready now.
I saw it. I felt it.
I’ll give her some time. She won’t be able to run from me for long. She craves my whip as much as I crave watching her skin flush from it. Ever since the first moment I saw her, I wanted her. I wanted her submission. I want her body under my own as I take her. For the first time in a long time, I felt something other than I must work.
But right now, I need to deal with my sister and her new husband. I can’t believe she got married without me. We’ve always been close. We had to be. Our parents didn’t want us and shipped us off here to stay with our meemaw. They only wanted the money they knew we’d inherit. But I made sure to send them away after our meemaw passed. My sister doesn’t know it, but I paid them off to go away permanently. Erika and I are not only siblings, but we are also business partners in two highly successful operations. We own this tattoo parlor and the BDSM club.
I did notice that for the first time in a very long time, my sister submitted to someone. She’s a switch but primarily a Domme. However, tonight I watched her be submissive to her husband, Ley’s brother. I mean, Ridley, as I heard my sister call her. The name fits her. She’s strong even when she submits to my whip.
I turn and look at Jas, who’s still standing at the counter in shock.
“Come on, let’s close early. Your hubby would like that.” I grab the cleaning wipes and start wiping down the chairs and equipment. I’ve called my sister Rika since she was born because it’s how our mother pronounced it, dropping the E.
“Ryan would like that.” Jas laughs and cleans up her area and then the lobby. “I can’t believe that woman is Gray’s sister. She came to help me when I was kidnapped last year,” Jas rattles off, and I turn to look at her. She still dresses like my sister in sexy grunge outfits, but now they accommodate her pregnant belly. She is due in a little over a month, and I’m pretty sure that’s a big baby in there because Ryan isn’t a small guy.
“She works for a security company?” Now Ley’s outfit makes more sense.
I look out the window when I hear an engine rev and see a large blacked-out SUV drive by. I know it’s Ley, and I know she’s watching me. I stare at the driver’s side window, hoping it will lower and let me see her.
“I can ask Ryan. He’d know. I think they’re friends. He doesn’t talk about her much, but I’ve heard some things.” Jas breaks me from my staring contest as the vehicle goes by.
“No, it’s okay.” I don’t need Jas’s husband looking into Ley’s past. Besides, I know for a fact they do know each other. I don’t need him wondering why I’m interested, and I don’t need it getting back to Ridley. Her NDA has my hands tied enough.
We finish cleaning up and close out the till for the day. I lock up and walk Jas to her car. Then I head to my silver 1972 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. The roar of the engine calms some of my nerves. I drive the couple of blocks to the warehouse I converted into a home. My passion, besides tattooing, is buying up most of the abandoned warehouses in the area and refurbishing them into new and modern places. I’ve sold a couple afterward or rented them out. Both the tattoo parlor and the BDSM club are in warehouses. I didn’t want to build something new. I wanted to take the old and modernize it. I like the look of the heavy brick walls. After I retired from my first profession, I decided I wanted to revitalize my hometown.
The door slowly rises for my underground garage. I pull in and park amongst my motorcycle, truck, and an SUV similar to the one Ley was driving. I make my way upstairs to the ground level and main floor, where DaVinci, my Rottweiler, greets me. I pat his head as I walk to the bar to pour myself a shot of whiskey. Da Vinci leans into me, his big body almost knocking me over.
“Stand back, dude.” I push on him, and he lowers his head, giving me those puppy-dog eyes. “You’re such a baby.” I laugh at him as he moves back toward me with his tongue lolling out of his big jowls.
I move across the room to my recliner and sit down. DaVinci puts his body between my legs, and I continue to pet him with one hand as I rub my other across my scruffy chin, contemplating how long I’m going to let Ley run from me.
Six
RIDLEY
It’s been two months since I last saw Leif and even longer since his whip was used on me. I no-showed for all of my appointments with him. I could have called and canceled, but I knew he’d talk me into going. All this time I’ve had erotic dreams of him instead of my normal nightmares. The change would be good if I could get myself off, but for some reason my body won’t let me. I only want him.
Franci came home that weekend, and I knew she was upset about something, but I didn’t know what. She’s suffering from nightmares again and afraid of her own shadow. One thing I made sure of after my attack was that she was trained too. I wasn’t going to let her get hurt like I did. Now she comes home every weekend. We binge watch our reality shows, Survivor and The Challenge on MTV. She likes them for the drama, and I like them for the strategy and game play. She doesn’t know that they also give me ideas for torture, but that’s my own little secret.
I hit the punching bag hard, and pain shoots up my arm from my still healing wrist. I wrapped it well with tape before I slipped my gloves on, hoping I could get a good workout in. I push through the pain like I’ve learned to do and continue to hit the bag. Loud rock music plays throughout the gym as I work my body into a good sweat. I sprained it bad when Gray and I saved Erika from being kidnapped. But then I completely fractured it a couple weeks later when I finally started my plan to close out my past.
As I hit the bag again, I remember the little fight he had in him. It was almost a joke how easy it was to sneak up on him. He was the medic with the unit Roger ran. His code name was Bart, after the cartoon. He liked the show and watched it all the time. Reruns, movies, everything he could. Bart was the one who had wanted to rape her. I still remember the moment I fought back and knocked him to the ground so I could escape with her. But this time I didn’t knock him down. He pulled up in his fancy sports car. His body wasn’t as toned as it had been six years ago. He’d gotten a bit of a gut. I watched the barely legal, if that, girl get out of the passenger seat. She was so scared of him. He gripped her arm, and all I saw was him trying to rape Franci. I saw red and came up behind them. I put my gun to the base of his skull, knowing a shot would drop him instantly. His body locked up and he squeezed her harder. I demanded he let her go and reached into his pocket for his wallet. I gave her all the cash and the keys to his car. I told her to sell it and get out. I offered to help her, but she didn’t want that. She took off, and Bart demanded to know who I was. I told him I was an avenging angel, and that’s when he threatened to kill me. Told me he had money and friends.
I loved hearing him beg for his life. I didn’t want to just kill him fast. I wanted to play with him for a bit so that he would suffer like he made me do in that alley. I knew every strike each of them took. Every indiscretion they tried on my body, and he was going to pay for what he did. With my other hand, I slipped the blade from along my belt and stabbed him in the kidney. I was lucky he only nicked mine. He wasn’t as good an aim as I was. He screamed, and I pushed him into his garage, where we fought for only a bit before he bled out. He got a good hit in and broke my wrist, but it didn’t stop me. I took his body out into the ocean off of Florida and dropped him into the deep for the sharks that my Franci loved to have fun with. He was dead already, and I was ready to get home.
That’s one down of the five men I have to kill before I get to Roger. I want him to worry, to know I’m coming for him. He thinks I’m dead, but he’s so wrong. I’m an avenging angel, and I’m ready to be the angel of death for Franci.
