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She gave the detective a full description of both Clint and Bobby, how Clint was lanky with dark hair and Bobby was shorter and more muscular with thick, mousy-brown hair.
“Thank you, Rae. You’ve been very helpful.” Detective McHugh handed her his card, which she already had from Viv, but she took itanyway. “If you think of anything else, please call me. And we have your contact information in case we have further questions.”
That was it. No more questions. Nothing about a fire. No questions about Rae’s pregnancy and whether it was tied to her being trafficked. No gotchas before she left the interrogation room at all. He simply shook her hand and walked her back to the front.
It wasn’t until she was sitting in her Civic, the September sun shining bright into her hot car, that she realized why she felt so hollow inside.
Not once did the detective offer her help after the hell she’d experienced for nearly four long years.
CHAPTER 30
RAE
2024
Rae had hardly slept the night before, after learning about Devon, and her body was wound tighter than the rope she’d used to bind her last client of the day. She felt responsible for her friend’s disappearance, although she knew it was stupid to think that way. After all, she’d done what Devon had asked her to do by keeping her name out of the investigation, but now it didn’t matter because Rae had no choice but to reveal it.
When she’d called Dayton last night, he was confused at first about her one-eighty decision, until she told him about Devon. And now they had little time to prepare for the party the next night, so Rae had asked him to come to her space after she was done with work.
As if she weren’t already feeling enough guilt about Devon, she’d lied to Angel. She’d never told her about Dayton’s proposal, and she said nothing about agreeing to go to the party. Angel had been so busy handling their struggling business budget while trying to prepare for her Bahamas trip, she hadn’t seen the social media posts about Devon yet,and Rae didn’t tell her. Instead, she suggested Angel take the afternoon off to de-stress. Then she arranged for Lily to stay over at Klo’s house the next night so she wouldn’t be home alone while Rae was out.
Rae’s phone buzzed. A text from Dayton:I’m here.
She’d asked him to park in the back of the building so their meeting could be as covert as possible. Maybe she was being paranoid, but she imagined someone watching her business, seeing who came in and out.
She let Dayton in through the back door, and he immediately took off his suit jacket and loosened his tie.
“Fuck, it’s hot out there,” he said, wiping sweat from his forehead.
“I don’t want to know how June’s going to feel.” Rae was a cool-weather person, through and through. “I need it to be October, like, yesterday.”
“Same.”
He followed her down the hallway to the dungeon space. Before she opened the door, she turned to him and said, “Are you ready for a crash course in BDSM practices?”
“I think so.” He didn’t sound like he was ready at all, but Rae wasn’t about to walk into the party with Dayton looking like a scared, lost puppy.
“Just pretend you’re back in college, and you have a final the next day you haven’t studied for yet.” She opened the dungeon door and flipped on her low lights, keeping the brighter recessed lights off to avoid spurring a headache from her lack of sleep.
Dayton draped his suit jacket and tie across her spank bench and rolled up his shirtsleeves. She noticed he had a tattoo of an intricate feather stretching the inside length of his right forearm. The feather was so detailed it looked real.
“That’s a beautiful tattoo,” she said. She had wondered if he was indigenous due to his deep olive complexion, but it felt rude to ask.
He looked down at his arm like he’d forgotten he had it. “Thanks. Got it a long time ago. Do you have any?”
“No. I’ve never been able to decide on a design, but maybe someday.”
He smirked. “Sure you’re not afraid of the pain?”
“Pain is the last thing I’m afraid of.”
Dayton sat down on her furry stool and whipped out a little notepad. He looked like an overly eager student.
Rae went over to him and snatched the notepad from his hands, tossing it to the floor. She thought it best to go ahead and throw him into the deep end. “You won’t need that. You only need your eyes and ears. When we’re at the party, you will not speak unless I ask you a direct question. And when you answer me, you will include the phrase ‘Yes, Mistress.’ You will not interact with anyone else. If someone touches you, I will take care of it. You’ll need to take all the tough man, patriarchy shit you have and tuck it away for the night because you will be mine for the evening.”
Dayton opened his mouth as if he was about to argue with her, but he kept quiet.
“Good. I’m glad you understand.” She began by going over general safety protocols for BDSM and basic types of play he might see at the party. Then she described the types of impact implements used in BDSM play. She walked over to her wall of toys and picked up one of her favorite impact tools. “This beauty is a studded paddle. You can stop looking scared because I’m not going to hit you with it.”
