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The little sub shuffled around on her knees to face Thane fully, her heart-shaped face beaming with the need to please. Her long blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail, making it easy for Jasper to wrap it around his hand like a leash. “Mistress Connie asked Master Atticus if he and Master Braun had reached a decision on what would happen with Alicia. Master Atticus said that Alicia will be attending the care facility for two weeks, to give her and Mistress Connie a chance to breathe. They can tend to Alicia twenty-four-seven and she can socialize with others with her disability.”
And that didn't go down well with the psychologist. “I see. And then?”
Archie's left eye squinted as she tried to recall the conversation. “A permanent decision on Alicia's future will be made after the two weeks. If she is unhappy there, Braun will bring her home. But, ah, given Connie's personal issues at the moment, Atticus might take over guardianship.”
“I think Atticus and Braun should take into consideration everything Connie has already done for that girl, and for them.” Thane pinned Atticus with a glare. “Maybe, it's worth taking the two weeks and letting everyone rest. Mentally, physically, emotionally. The vibes I get off you as a group are turmoiled. Healing now is a good opportunity. We can revisit our options then. It's only fourteen days, sugar,” he murmured when Connie whimpered a protest. “Let the girl have some time away. I'll chain you to my bed every night and ride you until you can't think anymore.”
“They don't know what she needs.”
“Right now, I'm guessing shedoesn't know what she needs, Con. Do this for her. This is part of what's weighing you down, so do it for yourself too.” When his attempts to soothe her failed, Thane closed his eyes and breathed deep. She was proving to be one hard nut to crack. She didn't want to move an inch on anything, just in case it made her seem less than what she was. If she looked hard enough, she'd see she was more than she believed.
“I hope you can get her to open her goddamn ears, because she isn't listening to anyone but herself,” Atticus grumbled.
“She loves Alicia, Atticus. Is that so bad? Every time she gets close to someone, they walk away. Or they reduce her to nothing and dump her to fend for herself.” Thane muttered an apology into her hair when she stiffened. “Or they get forcibly removed. Anyone would start to feel like they had a target on their back, or like something's wrong with them. She only listens to herself, because she's the only one she has to listen to.”
Atticus glowered, but Jasper's head tilted in concern. “Did someone hurt you, sweetheart?”
“No one who matters, J. There's no one for the big oaf to go pound into bloody mush. I doubt if there's more than some bones left in the coffin he was buried in.” Connie sat up straight, shook her hair out, then combed her fingers through it. She had her big girl panties back on. “The past is the past, and he was history the day he left me. I'm not sifting through that shit again.”
Anarchy's big brown eyes narrowed into slits. “The guy who ghosted you? He died?”
Shutters came down in Connie's eyes. “That was the story I told you, yes. Because it was the simplest version of it. He died, painfully, through means made of his own doing, and I refuse to mourn him. He doesn't deserve pity or grief or having his name mentioned again.” And that was, apparently, Mistress Connie putting her foot down firmly on the floor.
Thane looped his arm around her, silently daring her to remove it. Her fingers dug into the muscle, but she didn't push it away. Good. He tightened it a fraction as a reward. “He's not done with yet, sugar.”
She inclined her head. “Yes, he is. Dealing with what he did to me and realigning my thoughts on it is one thing, but heis done. I did some research when I saw his obituary in the paper. He took another untrained submissive from the same club where he found me. The following weekend, actually. Plucked her from a group of friends who'd gone for a night out, against her will, and changed his tactics by holding her hostage. The asshole came close to ruining her in the few short weeks he had her, but he neglected to factor in her Daddy.” Connie's mouth curved into a lush, beautiful smile. “Her Daddy Dom, to be precise. Devin's really not the kind of guy you piss off more than once; he reminds me a lot of Att.”
“Sounds like me,” Atticus agreed. “Is this the he I think it is?”
“Don’t start poking into my past any more than you already have, Atticus. I’ve said it’s done, so it is. And if Thane opens his mouth, I'll shove a ball gag in there for a week. With ginger juice.” She tucked a curl of hair around her ear. “Devin did the exact thing you'd have done,” she told Atticus. “He found his girl in the basement, beat himto a bloody pulp with a steel bar, and left him to die. Quite fitting. I counsel the girl. Part of the reason I took psychology was for her, and for me.”
Thane couldn't blame her for hiding the details of what happened after that night. Hell, he was pleased she'd taken the step—of her own volition—to go into the basics with Atticus and Jasper present. “You wanted to heal.”
“Me, Sadie, whoever needed it. I was on a different path when I met him, but he changed me enough to look at a bigger picture. I owe him that, I guess. I was planning on being an accountant.” She shook her head in disgust. “Can you imagine me crunching numbers day in, day out?”
“No, but I can see you in nothing but a pair of sexy accountant glasses,” he murmured, insanely aroused by the idea of walking into his bedroom to find her sprawled out on his bed with just those damn glasses perched on her nose and her mercurial eyes peeking at him over the rims. “Fuck, time to get you home.”
“No, wait!” Archie was perched upright on her knees, her eyes huge with curiosity. “How did the guy, the Devin guy, get away with murdering the other one? He couldn't exactly hide it, right? There'd be DNA evidence of the kidnappee everywhere, which would lead back to him. Any cop’s logical conclusion would be the boyfriend stepped in to save her and mashed the bad man into bloodied brains and bones.”
“Jasper, you need to get your sub's nose out of those crime journals. You and I will talk about your bloodthirst at a later date, Archie.” Connie shifted on Thane's lap, and his erection threatened to pop out of his pants. “Devin called the police and told them he'd found his missing girlfriend in the basement of a known pedophile. Sadie is tiny, maybe pushing five feet if she stands on her tiptoes. Devin had a few marks on him, and he told the cops he'd gotten them when the asshole attacked him.”
“That’s not their real names, is it?” Thane murmured.
Connie shook her head. “Of course not. Patient confidentiality,” she muttered under her breath. “Plus, if Atticus got hold of their real names, he'd use them to appropriate information I don't want him to have. Not that he doesn’t have it already, but on the off-chance he hasn’t rooted up everything in my past, I’m not giving him directions straight to it.” She cleared her throat. “The perpetratordied on the operating table. The cops were pressing charges, but it so happens several key pieces of evidence were misplaced, and the case ended up being dropped.”
“Ooooh, justice got served,” Anarchy breathed in awe. “It would have sucked if Devin got arrested for saving his little.”
“Indeed, it would. To conclude the story, everything that needed to be attended to, was.” She set her sights on Atticus, then dropped her eyes to her hands. “Atticus, I'm sorry I've been a bitch tonight. Alicia is a sore subject right now, and I hate that I'm reduced to…this. Perhaps two weeks away from the whole damn mess is the right thing, even if I don't like it.”
Good girl, Thane thought proudly. He grunted softly in support.
“I have let things tangle me up and drag me down over the past year. Everything that happened with Bodie, with Archie, and now Alicia…they're chained around my legs. You were right, Att. Don't get a bigger head than you've already got,” she chided when the big Master grinned smugly. “I don't want to spiral anymore. I don't want to lose myself in a bottle or start using drugs as a crutch. It's not me. I've survived worse, and I can survive this. But only because I have you.” She linked her fingers with Thane's. “I have all of you.”
“That's the Connie we know and love.” Atticus rose and stalked over, dropping to one knee in front of her. Even perched on Thane's knee, Connie didn't gain much of a height advantage. “On that note, I think I'm going to go find me a sub and watch her squirm.”
An ugly stab of jealousy jabbed Thane in the belly as he watched Atticus chuck his sub under the chin. Baring his teeth slightly, he warned the bigger man off silently. Amused green eyes met his with what could only be described as a knowing smirk, then Atticus nodded at him. “Keep up the good work, brother.”
“I'm seconding that notion,” Jasper agreed. His fingers collared Archie's throat, tilting her head back. “You know, if you're here on Friday, Thane, I'm doing a fisting demonstration in barn three with my kitten here.” Blue eyes glittering with anticipation, he cut off his sub's sharp squeak of shock. “Ten o'clock.”
