“Did I say you could speak?” The chill in his voice kept her silent, and in silence, he finished the drive, then escorted her to Marcus’s house.
Marcus let her in. “Sam, what are you doing here?”
“Met her at the courthouse.” His light blue gaze pinned her in place. “Do yourself some thinking, girl. And you call Raoul and explain why you ran, or I’ll beat your ass myself.” He gave her another hard look and stalked away.
After refusing to join Marcus and Gabi for supper, Kimberly did what Sam had ordered. At least the thinking part.
God, she’d loved seeing Master R. Had wanted to throw herself in his arms. Damn the Overseer for messing everything up. Master R might have hugged her, held her, kissed her. She sighed. But would that have answered her questions?
Kim scrunched down farther on the patio chair and watched the giant inflated swan drift aimlessly in the pool, batted by the tiny breeze. Just like me, she decided. Unable to make a decision at all.
She sighed and started thinking, trying to discard the past bullshit and her preconceived notions of how the world should be.
Did she want to live with him?
Did she want him in charge? Because he would be. He couldn’t help it. And okay, she liked it. Mostly. No matter how much she’d told herself otherwise, when she’d asked him to be her master again, it hadn’t been totally because of the slavers and her recovery. She wanted him in charge more than just in the bedroom. The acknowledgement made her wince. How much more?
Would he try to make her into something she didn’t want to be?
How could she not? Like her mom said, he’d taken a knife for her. But risking your life to save a person was very different from being in command over them in all the day-to-day stuff. She put her feet on the chair and laid her head on her knees.
The memory of his family’s accusations was like sand in her shoes. She could walk, but it abraded her nerves. She didn’t believe them, yet she needed to find out what had happened with Master R’s wife before she could resolve any of the other questions.
Her plane left tomorrow morning.
She returned to the living room where Gabi was playing with her cats, Hamlet and Horatio. “Where’s Marcus?”
“He had to run back to his office for something. Did you finish your thinking about Raoul?”
Kim gave her a rueful smile. There was nothing like a girlfriend to know what was going on without explanations. “Mostly. But I need some help. I met Raoul’s family in the hospital. He’d told me his family doesn’t talk to him because of his lifestyle, but they said he was abusing his ex-wife. I… It’s been bothering me.”
“Damn, I bet. But Raoul? Abuse someone. No way.”
“That’s what I told them. But, Gabi, I need to know.”
“Mmm. I get that.” Gabi tossed the fuzzy mouse, and the two cats gave chase. “He was already divorced before I met him. Before Marcus and Jessica too. But I bet Jessica can tell us who to ask.”
One phone call and a nice drive later, they met Jessica at the door of the Shadowlands. Despite her nerves, Kim laughed at the look on the guard’s face when he saw them. Ben didn’t approve of their casual shorts and T- shirts and had made them remove their sandals and sneakers. He also carefully explained that Z, Marcus, and Master Raoul weren’t present…as if the knowledge would give them second thoughts.
This early on a Friday night, the Shadowlands was just revving up, and only a few stations were occupied. Cullen manned the bar, his back to them, and from the way Gabi and Jessica headed for the nearest, darkest sitting area, Kim started to worry. “You aren’t going to get in trouble, are you?”
The two exchanged glances and snickered. Jessica said, “I’m not allowed to be here without Z. Ever. If he sees us, Master Tattletale Cullen will be sure to tell him-if he doesn’t toss me out all by himself.”
Gabi gave Kim a rueful grin. “Same here. Marcus’ll throw a fit. See how much I love you?”
“Oh God, I’m sorry. Just point the trainee out and leave before anyone sees you. I can-”
Jessica shook her head no. “Sally doesn’t know you. She might be gossip girl, but she’s really discreet who she shares with.”
“Kim, we love our doms, but there’s times when a girl’s got to do what a girl’s got to do.” Gabi grinned at Jessica. “Besides, we’ve been so angelic lately, we’re in danger of losing our official ‘brat’ status.”
“Can’t have that,” Jessica agreed. “And there’s our target.” She pointed to the food tables and waved, catching the eye of a pretty brunette who grinned and headed over.
She had an energy that reminded Kim of a child, all enthusiasm, no worries about dignity. Then Kim frowned. Wasn’t this the submissive who that nasty dom had slapped?
“Hey, guys.” The brunette glanced around. “Where’re your masters?”
“You don’t want to know,” Jessica said firmly. “Sally, this is Kim, who is-”
“Master Raoul’s submissive.” Sally’s eyes widened. “I didn’t see your fireplay scene, but I saw you together afterward. God, he really dotes on you, doesn’t he?” Her envy was obvious and heartening.
“I-” Kim sighed. “Maybe. But I have a question about his past. Can you help?”
“Sure. If Jessica says it’s okay, then I figure it’s okay.” Sally nodded to a group of chairs by the munchie tables. “Sit and I’ll get provisions. Gossip is hungry work.”
“She’s so cute,” Kim whispered to Jessica as they sat down, and Gabi headed for the bottled water. “I can’t believe she doesn’t have a dom of her own.”
Jessica grinned. “She’s totally sweet and fun, but during a scene, usually some poor sucker of a dom finds out she’s also incredibly smart. She’s had a couple of relationships, but she can’t give up control unless a guy is sharper and stronger than she is.”
Gabi set down bottles of water, giving the bar a wistful look. “I sure could use a drink.”
Sally brought over a plate of tiny egg rolls and another of minipizzas, then dropped into a chair. “Okay, what information do you need?”
Kim hesitated. This felt like a betrayal, poking into Master R’s business, but-
“Raoul’s ex,” Gabi said firmly, winking at Kim. “Something ugly happened with her, and Kim needs to find out what.”
“Oooh,” Sally waved her hand in the air. “Pick me, teacher. I know the answer.”
Jessica and Gabi laughed.
Sally sobered and said slowly, “There’s like two parts to this, and I shouldn’t know this first part, right? But it’s not like I snooped or anything. See, Master Raoul had just filed for divorce, and he was here real late with Master Dan, and they’d both been drinking more than normal.” She grimaced. “Um, I’d rather they not find out I spilled. I got the impression Dan’s the only person who knows.”
“I won’t tell him,” Kim promised firmly.
“Dan drinks?” Jessica asked.
“He stopped a while back.” Sally munched down an egg roll. “It boils down to this: Master Raoul came home, went into his dungeon, and found his wife screwing her sister’s husband. Very willingly.”
“Holy shit,” Gabi said. “Poor Raoul.”
“Yeah.” Sally opened a bottle of water. “It gets worse. The bro-in-law had whipped the hell out of her first.”
Kim frowned. “She made love to the guy after he hurt her? That doesn’t make sense.”
“Oh, it does. See, she was a serious pain slut-even kinda warped about it, you know? Into scars and blood,
