by Sophia Reed
But Annie. Conway was taken care of. Annie was standing here in front of me having come back more than two hours after the events at the courthouse had ended.
She stood before me looking wild and rebellious. Her color was up, her head up and her curls wild. She was smiling and seemed unable and unwilling to stop. Clearly, whatever situation she'd fallen into, she'd enjoyed herself.
I sat back at my desk, one foot up on the open bottom drawer, the chair partially tipped back. Deceptively casual. Though somehow I didn't think I fooled her anymore.
Something made me wonder if she even wanted fooling anymore.
"Tell me the rest," I said.
Her eyes danced. "He went down like a sack of rocks. Or a – no, can't make that work, but you know, sack, because damn! That's where I got him, most guys protect it better, but he was so damn sure of himself, and Barry was fantastic, you should give that boy a raise."
I smiled at her, but even I could sense the coldness in it. She'd had her moment in the sun. Her smile started to fade. She looked uncertain. I didn't want to drag her down but the facts were she hadn't been in control of the situation. Maybe she would have gotten control, but without Barry?
That made me physically sick to think about. I'd have torn the world apart if I had to in order to get her back. I'd just as soon not have her going through whatever it was before I found her.
And then she'd done what before coming back here? And the way she was dressed. Maybe she was high off the event when she went wherever she went, and she definitely had the figure for it, those big, firm breasts and the tiny waist, the slim hips and great ass. But walking around Las Vegas wearing what amounted to an anime schoolgirl outfit?
No.
"Tell it from the top again," I said, my voice very calm.
She was still bubbling. She was excited the judge had just been taken out like that. Wherever he went, he wouldn't be able to hurt anyone.
But before I said anything, her eyes darkened. "But there's a system in place there. He called security and it wasn't to protect him from the little college co-ed."
I nodded. "What do you think they were going to do?" I stood, slowly, letting her watch me uncoil.
She shivered. "I think it would have started with rape."
I nodded. "You went in planning a seduction."
That got a flash of annoyance. "And the minute I changed my mind, as girls do, I was off limits."
I snorted. "You know there are a good many men who don't stop once they start."
"I know what sexual assault is, too." Defiant, her hands on hips.
"Annie." My voice was warning.
"No. Hang on a second. Because beyond what I did and past what Barry did, which was awesome, there's a problem."
I blinked. "Several. Which are you referring to?"
She didn't react to that. Her mind was on something else. Something that made her what she was.
"Trafficking."
I nodded impatiently. "I'm well aware."
"No," she said, and I felt my hands tighten in anger. "I mean, they had a system in place. It was going to be rape and then the co-ed disappears and maybe what I was offering them was a juicy twit on the half shell –"
I laughed. I couldn't help it. "A what?"
She almost brushed that away before she said, "I mean, I offered myself up as a juicy morsel. A dumb as dirt girl walks in and tries to seduce the judge for no good reason. Gonna get what she wants any way she can get it. He takes her one way or the other, either because she's so stupid she thinks that's what she has to do to get whatever it is she wants, which in that case was a freaking grade, or he just takes her because –"
She paused, looked me in the eye. "Because she's already in the system."
I thought she was thinking of the undercover persona she adopted, the girl Lily who had slept her way up to lead chick in the Brotherhood and all the girls that girl had lost, girls who weren't undercover and didn't have almost-doctor boyfriends or clean apartments or cop fathers. Girls who really were that lost, really were reaching out for someone or something.
Those girls, called before the judge who wanted to what? – impart knowledge? Offer them a second chance? A good spanking and they could go on their way, all forgiven and their records expunged, just this one time, see you don't get in trouble again, missy, and even as she's leaving, his smell still on her, still lodged in the back of her throat, or her ass still red, then security shows up to guide her through the rest of the intake and exit process, she'll be out of there in no time and don't let me catch you reoffending.
Except.
Except nobody saw her after that.
Except that the exit strategy was deep into a sex trafficking ring.
"What do you have in mind?" I asked.
Her eyes met mine for a second, then went distant, her gaze dropping to nothing in particular. Clearly thinking. I watched her hands open and close, open and fist, as she thought. Cops are supposed to be big, strong men, the sexy law enforcement beast, Will Smith, Matt Damon, Tom Selleck, whoever, someone big and muscled and strong.
Thing is - They're all human. They're all fallible and they're all mortal.
With Annie, she was a girl. She was strong, stronger than she looked, and she was definitely in shape, in better shape than when I found her thanks to all those desert morning runs. But she wasn't big. She was still a girl. And maybe the difference is made up by firepower and knowing what the fuck she's doing and by the element of surprise – Surprise! I'm a cop and you're under arrest! – even though as I understood it, she was under long enough that there was no telling because there was always the next job.
I wondered if she sometimes wanted to tell. Just to see the looks on their faces.
I frowned.
The looks on their faces when she brought them down.
She was still thinking. But suddenly I was angry. What she was thinking was unacceptable. About going through something like that again. Through the system the judge had in place. She'd start with the receptionist she'd taken a disliking to. Or to security. She'd hang around. She'd see if there wasn't a way back from having removed what might be the lynchpin.
Or might not. Conway had seemed to move without a lot of thought. Just, wow, oversexed co-ed, let's fuck and then –
"No," I said.
She started to say something and I loomed over her, took her chin in my hand and squeezed until her mouth opened without volition.
"Where did you go before you came back here?"
She tried to look surprised. She failed. Whatever she was thinking, whatever she had done, she had expected this.
"Breakfast."
I narrowed my eyes. "And who said you could do that?"
She yanked her head back from my grasp. "I didn't ask. I went and I did something that makes a difference and keeps some people safe only now I think I may need him back or –"
I grabbed her by the arm. "Today first. Then we'll deal with what you're thinking of for tomorrow."
"Cole! No!" Whatever she'd had in mind, there was real panic in her eyes now.
"Don't. Call. Me. That." I grabbed her arm and yanked her around to the desk, pushing her down so her hands went out to catch her, bracing her over it. I yanked the skirt up and hooked the panties down at the same time I was already starting to unbuckle my belt.
"No!" She sounded frantic.
"Submit. Submit or I'll have Barry come in and hold you."
She spat she snarled so hard. "You wouldn't fucking dare."
I didn't answer. That made today, Barry and the future. I doubled the belt in my fist and put my other hand in the middle of her back. For all her fighting, she hadn't freed herself yet.
"Count," I said.
"No!"
"Count!" And I snapped the leather across her ass so hard it popped and she screamed.
"One! Sir! Don't!"
"Shut up. Start over."
The next blow came down as hard and she only shouted, "One, sir!" a
nd I didn't make her thank me because I was going too fast.
And I was going too hard.
I gave her a dozen. She screamed for four and then broke into tears. When I told her to take off her shirt, she ran. But I'd already tripped the silent alarm and Barry met her in the hall, caught her by the shoulders and brought her back.
"Boss?"
I didn't look. "Take her shirt off." I was finding the right crop.
"Sir. Please."
I could hear her tears even if I wouldn't look at her.
"It's better if you don't fight," Barry said. "Take your shirt off."
"No," I said, finding the crop I wanted. "Take it off her. She's lost her rights."
Barry looked an unfortunate cross between excited and ashamed, with maybe some I'm sorry thrown in. I thought he might argue about the day she'd already had, but he just stripped the shirt off her, shredding the front of it, then tore her bra off.
Her cheeks flamed scarlet under her tears.
"Hold her arms from behind."
She hissed and threw herself forward, breasts bobbing, but he caught her easily, turned her to face me, and held her still.
"Ask me to punish you," I said.
"Fuck you!" She was spitting in rage and humiliation.
"You've just doubled it. You're at 20. I don't want to mark you too badly, so we can go day after day if you want to keep upping the ante."
I saw the fight in her, the conflict between accepting this, and ending it today, and the need to tell me what she thought of me.
I'm pretty sure the word motherfucker went through her mind.
I saw the moment she decided, because she sagged in Barry's arms.
She screamed through quite a bit of the 20, also.
33
Annie
Barry helped me into the hardback chair that Cole indicated. He arranged my skirt after Cole demanded I have nothing between me and the hard cold wood of the chair. I'd hoped the cold would help with the burn in my ass, even for a second, but I was too hot and instantly sweating. My ass had to be vermillion.
At Cole's insistence, Barry flex-cuffed my ankles to the chair legs and my hands behind me. Then without asking he smoothed my hair back off my hot, wet face. I expected Cole to come unhinged at that, maybe threatening to beat Barry if he did such a thing again.
But his face had changed again. Mercurial, as always. He nodded at Barry, apologized for putting him through that, which made me gape, and sent him away.
He shut the office door behind his security chief and sat down across from me on the edge of his desk. He observed me for a couple minutes, so clinically I found myself blushing as hard and red as my ass must still be. Even though he was thinking, his eyes wandered over my body and then settled on my eyes.
I dropped my head. "Sir? Can I get a shirt?" My room was on the other side of this office of his. It had been over a year that I'd been with Cole and still being naked before him bothered me. Never mind how I felt about what had happened with Barry. I'd entered the compound less than 72 hours earlier and I'd been a peer of Barry's. A colleague. I came with information. I helped defuse a potentially volatile situation.
But then it had almost gone south with the judge. And then Barry had been put in charge of part of my punishment.
I was humiliated. Worse, I had liked it as it happened. That one rogue corner of my mind (or heart, or personality, or whatever it was that was out of control and enjoying this).
"No."
"Sir – "
He reached out almost casually and took my left nipple between his fingers and squeezed and twisted it so hard I screamed. Tears flooded my eyes. I couldn't have kept them back if I tried.
"Part your legs." He pushed my skirt up and tucked the hem of it into the waistband, exposing me.
"How am I supposed to do that when they're cuffed to the chair legs?"
He took the other nipple and squeezed and twisted even harder. "This ends today, Annie. Either you submit or we end the contract."
I stared at him, mouth open. Just days ago I didn't have any contact with Cole St. Martin and now I'd had sex with him again and been hurt and humiliated by him again, had already started fantasizing about what I so didn't like when it was actually happening.
He was still watching me. "Spread. Your. Legs."
I separated my knees, as widely as I could. It ached, straining across the bonds. I didn't think I'd opened up much, given how I was sitting, but he nodded.
"We need to get you shaved down again," he said.
The blush was so hard and fast it nearly left me nauseated.
Cole seemed to pull himself together. His gaze sharpened and he picked up the crop he'd used on my boobs. I shivered, wishing I could pull away. The tip of the crop was very thin, very whippy flexible and of very heavy leather. I never wanted to feel it connecting with a nipple again, it was like a bee sting.
I couldn't help wondering what it would feel like wielded between my legs.
Cole tapped the business end of the crop against my nipples, not hard enough to hurt, but with enough intent I stopped breathing. "You're very brave and you're very stupid and you're out of your mind if you think you're going to be able to go after the traffickers and not get hurt."
"Maybe," I said, still too angry to think cleverly. "But you don't have to hurt me."
He swatted my breast for that. Not even hard but I cried out. Cole tilted his head to the side, considering, then leaned over and snapped the crop between my legs.
I screamed. He'd caught me just right, hitting the exact thing I wouldn't want him to. For about a minute there was nothing but me appreciating the severe throb and burn of what he'd done.
Trying to decide if I ever wanted to do anything to have him do that again.
Cole crouched down in front of me, using the handle of the crop to drive up between my legs, just entering me.
"Do I have your attention?"
It was hard to think past how shiny wet that handle was going to come out again.
"Yes, sir." It was grudging but it was there.
"Good." He elongated the word, clearly sarcastic. "You've got mine. Tell me what you want to do about this judge. About the system you believe is in place. Because I believe you're right."
It took a second to round my thoughts back up. The crop now just resting between my thighs was distracting, as was Cole's super close presence.
But he gave me just enough time and I nodded and started. "I think there's a system. I believe it's through the guards who are both county law enforcement and private security. No offense to anyone you have here, but my guess would be it's the private security that works the metal detector and the like who are part of this."
He nodded and to my surprise, agreed.
"Even though the judge was clearly a person who had power in the situation, the way he could order them to give him so much time and then come get me, I'm guessing it's bigger than him."
"Why?" He twisted the handle and it entered me, making me gasp. He seemed unaware.
"Because he was too confident in his power."
Cole gave me a look. "That sounds backwards."
I nodded at him. "I know. That's why it makes sense."
He was recovering from whatever anger had driven him, because he laughed at that. "Not to me. Explain before I beat it out of you."
There was no intent behind his voice.
I thought for a minute, eyes flicking up to the left as I marshalled my thoughts. "Okay. He automatically assumed they'd come when he called. They'd take the time he told them to take. And they'd do what he said when they arrived. To me that means there's someone else over him. Someone who has given him a lot of leeway. Want to try out the merchandise? Enjoy yourself." I shrugged. "If it was him at the top there'd be more trepidation. He'd need to make sure they were outside the door maybe. Or he'd run my ID before starting. Or he'd have been damned sure who was coming in to see him and was she insanely dressed for sex."
His
lips quirked at that one and it made me glad. Nice to know he still had a sense of humor.
"It's important there's someone beyond him, probably a whole organization of someones because that means there's still a network in place."
I'd lost him for a second. "You want there to be a system?"
I nodded, very aware I can't use my hands to gesture. I felt like asking to be cut loose. Like okay, you've had your fun, but this is grownup stuff now, serious stuff, let's start working.
I didn't do anything like that. So didn't need another trip to the woodshed.
Though the thing I just did, not with the judge but my solo celebration afterward, made me wonder if I wasn't setting myself up to get what I got.
Not that I liked having Barry as part of it. Was that one of the things I wouldn't change if I could?
"You're in subspace," Cole said quietly. "Come back to earth. It's time to concentrate."
I snorted a laugh he couldn't possibly have understood and then clamped down on the floaty silly part of me that was thinking inappropriate thoughts about the man who just hurt me and the implement now lying between my wet thighs that he'd used.
"I need to find any other judges who have signed off on warrants and raids like what we went through. James knew about Conway, but where there's one viper, there's usually a nest. Then I have to find a way to get myself to him. Seems like the college girl thing would be a little too coincidental."
"Not like security isn't going to talk. They'll be looking for you."
I started to shrug, feeling invulnerable after a career of not getting caught, then stopped. I'd told them I was prelaw but that was still usually within the criminal justice majors. I'd have to watch myself. It's one thing to want to get snared in a trafficking ring. It's another thing entirely to get snared in a traffic ring when you're not ready.
That stupid sentiment was almost enough to start me laughing again. If I'd been planning something with PD, it would have, because everyone around me would have gotten it.
The way Cole was watching me I didn't think he would. Even more than that, I was a little concerned with the look of concern on his face.