The Fire Saga (The Club)

by Katherine Rhodes

  She rolled her eyes and turned back to the cart so she could push it out of the room. “If you shove a speculum up someone’s ass, sir, it needs to be cleaned.”

  Austin grimaced. “That was a graphic depiction I didn’t need.”

  “Get used to blunt statements. No one around here minces words. If you’re security, and I’m guessing you are, then you really need to not react to the straightforward attitude the people around here have.”

  “You don’t have to leave. I’ll take a quick shower and get out of your hair.”

  “I should report you to Mak and Tally.”

  “Don’t. I’m sorry. We had a mean drunk in the bar last night, and he took hours to get out and get in a taxi. I just wanted to crash for a few. I didn’t mean to still be here.”

  Debbie considered him. “I’m not really going to say anything to them. You don’t mind if I get to work?”

  “I actually think you need a day off, but no. It doesn’t bother me. I’m just hopping in the shower so I can get back to work.” Austin headed for the bathroom, but Debbie cleared her throat, and he turned back to her.

  “I need the sheet.”

  He smirked. “You’re going to have to make up your mind if you want me naked or covered.”

  Debbie turned and put a hand on her hip. “Well, if you want the truth, I like me a nice naked man.” She stared him for a long moment. “Let me know when one shows up.”

  Austin held her eye and dropped the sheet so he could ball it up and toss it on the bed. “Let me show you the whole package.” With a wag of his eyebrows, he marched to the bathroom buck naked.

  “You certainly do fit in here!” Her voice was laced with humor.

  Whatever the case, the fact that each room had its own shower and supply cabinet was the best idea ever. Austin took a long, hot shower, thinking about how long he and the others had worked to get that guy out of the bar downstairs. He had been so drunk—he wanted to call an ambulance because he was afraid he was going to have alcohol poisoning. He was going to make a full report to Tally as soon as he was redressed. He didn’t understand how he had gotten that drunk. The bartender had cut him off early, and his tab showed it. There were only five drinks on it, and it was locked down by eleven. That was a bad sign. He hoped they had records when this sort of thing happened. He was starting to get the feel of the club, and that kind of behavior was abnormal and unwelcome.

  Peeking out the door, he saw Debbie dancing around the room, headphones on, cleaning out the drawers and piling things into baskets for whatever reasons she had.

  She was even more gorgeous in person. She had satin black hair, touched with blue highlights and once she had started to recover from the shock his gun caused, her warm hazel eyes lit up and enchanted him. He watched her dance, curves calling to him. But, so as not to shock her once again, he walked to the closet directly next to the bathroom and quickly slipped into the suit he had managed to hang up before passing out in the bed.

  Making sure he still didn’t startle her—because he was sure that her reaction was of someone who had been on the wrong end of a gun, or fist—he headed for the nightstand where he’d put the gun. He strapped it on under his jacket and shrugged on the suit jacket.

  Debbie was standing and watching as he buckled on the holster. “Are you always packing?”

  “You tell me, you saw my junk.”

  She rolled her eyes again. “Men. It’s always about the dick.”

  “Not always,” Austin said as he buttoned the jacket. “Sometimes it’s about the boobs, too.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “What’s there to believe? I believe you have a nice rack yourself.”

  She pointed at him with the dildo she had just retrieved from the drawer. “Watch yourself, buddy.”

  “Threatening me with a rubber dick?”

  “You threatened me with a real one.”

  Austin laughed and stepped a little closer. “I’d like to do other things before we get to that.”

  Debbie gasped lightly. She turned and considered him. “You…you would?”

  “I would.”

  “Is that an official request?”

  “It is.”

  The hesitation was palpable. It only served to convince him that her reaction to him was genuine and it was caused by someone close to her threatening or harming her. She took a deep breath and then smiled. “Well, since I know what the merchandise looks like, why not.” She glanced around. “Just, um...not here.”

  “That’s like taking a chef to dinner in his own restaurant. I’m better than that.”

  “Mmm, that you are.”

  Austin raised an eyebrow. “So, what days are you off?”

  “I can take any day off. I schedule the heavy cleaners that come in, and the day they come in is the day I have off.”

  “Heavy cleaners?”

  She shook her head. “Don’t ask. Not here. You don’t want to know.”

  “I think I already do.” Austin laughed. He had turned on the monitors again to make sure he was not hallucinating, and had probably scared himself for life. He had wanted to bleach his eyes. “So, how about Wednesday?”

  “You picked the one day...I have my daughter’s doctor’s appointment that day.”

  Austin balked. “Oh, God. I’m sorry. I didn’t even think to ask if you were with anyone.”

  Waving him off, she shook her head. “I’m not offended. My daughter is my family. Her doctor’s appointment is the most important thing right now, so how about Tuesday?”

  “Tuesday sounds awesome.”

  “Do you know where Bella Bella Italiano is?”

  “Other end of main street,” Austin answered. “I’ve been driving by and it looked really good. Tuesday night? Meet you there?” He had the feeling that would be more acceptable since she had a daughter and didn’t know how she felt about him coming to her house. He was, still, a perfect stranger.

  Whom she had seen buck naked.

  “Perfect.”

  * * *

  Austin wasn’t happy with the way the suit looked, but simply hadn’t planned to sleep for six hours in The Club. He’d checked to make sure the room was available and just wanted to crash for an hour to head home.

  Complete failure.

  He settled into the security office with a cup of hot coffee that Gianna had waiting for him. She was amazing with coffee. This was some kind of frappamochachino or some frou-frou crap—but soothed his soul going down. Little sugar, and bam. The Elixir of Life.

  Something banged on the wall, startling Austin.

  He sat up in the chair and put the coffee down. There was another bang, and another. It sounded like someone’s headboard smacking the wall, which wouldn’t shock him, except he was between the offices and the kitchen. There were no rooms where there were headboards.

  The banging was disturbing enough, but when there was a guttural yell from beyond the wall, Austin was out of his chair, out the door, and coming around to the office he knew was Tally’s. He scanned the door open with his thumb print and pushed in.

  No one was in the office, but the banging and yelling still filled the room, and Austin headed for the door at the back left. There was no bioscanner on that door, and it opened with a twist of the knob.

  He swung his gun into the room—

  —to find the mostly naked Tally with a whip in her hand, and a completely naked Liam tied down on a rack in the room.

  He spun back out of the room and slammed the door.

  “Shit.”

  That was something he didn’t need to see. He didn’t even need to know it. He suspected Tally was a dominant woman, but he didn’t have a clue that she was actually a Dominant. Christ. He knew too much. With a sharp turn, he walked back out of the office, back to the security room, grabbed his coffee, and marched over to the bar.

  Gianna looked up. “What the hell? You’re white as a ghost.”

  “Gimme a shot of Jim Beam in this thing.”
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  “What—”

  “Gianna, please, just gimme a shot of Jim.”

  She eyed him, but grabbed the bottle and poured in a more than generous shot. Austin sat on the stool and took two hard gulps off the coffee, and a moment later felt the warmth and comfort offered by Mr. Beam speeding through his system. He relaxed on the chair a little and looked at the bartender.

  “Any better?”

  Austin nodded. “I had no idea Tally had a backroom.”

  “Oh, her rack room.” Gianna grimaced. “Yeah...should have warned you about them. They don’t use that room often, but...yeah...”

  “Fuck. Me.”

  “No, that’s what they were doing.” Gianna laughed. “Look, it was bound to happen. It’s happened to all of us. Not necessarily with the boss, but we’ve all pushed the wrong door open. You’ll do it more than once, too.”

  “Now I know not to go hunting down the noises on the other side of my wall.”

  “If it’s that wall, no. Not ever.” She patted the counter and walked away as someone else walked up for breakfast drinks.

  Austin sat and just took a few deep breaths. He’d had a long chat with Liam the other day, asking about the system and its quirks. It was one of the most advanced biometric systems he’d ever seen, and he was fascinated. But he certainly hadn’t needed to see that or know that Liam liked to be on the receiving end of the kink.

  He took another hard draught of the potent coffee.

  “Sorry about that, man.” Liam slid onto the stool next to him, motioning to Gianna. “I’ll have what he’s having.”

  Austin choked on the drink. “Well, shit.”

  Liam snickered. “Should have warned you the other day. I didn’t think you’d be here this early, and I didn’t think we’d be here at all.”

  “I...uh...”

  “Hey, no shame in the game, Austin. I like it kinky. I wouldn’t be with the woman if I didn’t know what she was all about.”

  “No, man, it’s not that. I just didn’t need to know that much about my boss.”

  Liam nodded at Gianna, accepting the coffee, and took a chug off the mug. He coughed a little as the taste of Jim Beam hit his tongue. “Dude. Wow. You were scarred.” He took a more careful sip. “Did you think that neither of the owners of a kink club would be into the lifestyle? Mak is the money, Tally is the lifestyle. They share the brains. That’s the way we run.”

  “How’d you get involved?”

  Liam turned slowly and looked at him. “Really? Have you actually looked at the gorgeous woman whose ministrations I was enjoying? How could I not get involved?”

  “You just laid down and took it?”

  “Uh, no. You don’t do that ever. We had a bit of a rocky start. But she’s worth it. Beautiful inside and out.”

  Austin stared into the cup. “She is beautiful, but she comes off harsh.”

  “She’s a Domme. She’s not only a Domme, but she’s the mistress of this club. She’s not going to put up with anyone’s shit. At all. I had to tell her I would talk to you so she wouldn’t take your head off. Here I am, talking to you. Don’t do that again.”

  “Oh, no problem there. I really didn’t think I’d be here yet anyway. I fell asleep in one of the rooms after the drunk dude last night.”

  “Yeah, that’s why Tally was here. She had to deal with the paperwork of his drunk idiocy.” Liam swirled the coffee. “There were a few things wrong with that whole thing last night. One was that he was flagged early. Two was that he was new and had passed all the entrance screenings with flying colors.”

  Nodding, Austin added his. “Three, I don’t think he was drunk.”

  Gianna leaned on the counter. “I don’t think he was either. I think he was as high as a fucking kite.”

  Liam shook his head. “The hell kind of drug would make you act drunk?”

  Shrugging, Gianna answered, “Benzo, enough of them. Qualudes. Two-m-two-b.” Both men turned and looked at her. She gave them a hard glare back. “What? Do you think I was always a bartender with a kinky bend? No. Hardcore druggie. I loved my coke and heroin. So don’t give me that look.”

  “The things you find out when you just wanted a coffee.”

  The door next to the bar popped open and Debbie dashed in. She trotted by quickly, but spotted Austin before she got too far. “There you are. We have a bit of a problem. There’s an unconscious woman upstairs, and there’s no one with her.”

  “Shit.” Austin jumped off the stool and went to grab Debbie’s arm and take her back up, but she was frozen in place. He tugged, but she didn’t move. He turned to encourage her to come with him, but found her staring at Liam. Hard.

  Liam was frozen in shock, and his voice was barely a whisper.

  “Dana?”

  Chapter Three

  She blinked, honestly unable to form words or move.

  For six months, she had scoured this little town, looking for Liam. Looking for the one glimmer of hope she had been clinging to, to save her from the hell that was her life.

  Here he was, sitting on a stool in the same club she’d been working in all this time.

  “Dana?”

  “Dana?” Austin stepped between them. “Debbie? No, you know what? Let’s just go sort this unconscious woman out and then we’ll figure it out. Come on.”

  Austin, the first guy who hadn’t set off her creeper alarms, the first guy she had been honestly interested in going out with since leaving, was now angry with her and gave her arm a hard pull.

  “Stop!” Liam’s command was harsh, and before she could move, he was in between the two of them. “Don’t you dare touch her like that.”

  “Liam, no.” Dana put a hand on his arm. “Don’t. He wasn’t being malicious. Look, we need to talk, but there really is an unconscious, unescorted woman upstairs. Austin, please? Let’s figure her out first.”

  Austin nodded and turned to walk up the stairs. Dana followed and, to her surprise, Liam followed her. After all the time she’s spent hunting him, she suddenly found she was just not ready to face him. At all. He was more handsome than she remembered and he’d dashed to her rescue immediately.

  But...what the hell was he doing in a kink club?

  Then again, what the fuck was she doing there?

  The woman was starting to come around as the three of them entered the room. She shrieked and tried to shimmy away from them, but couldn’t move because of the way she was tethered to the bed. Both Austin and Liam ran to the bed, and the pitch of her scream rose higher and louder. Dana grabbed their arms at the same time and pulled them back.

  “Let me. I wanted you up here so I could have backup if something went wrong.”

  Dana looked at the woman on the bed, terrified, eyes wide. This poor woman was scared beyond reason and clearly scared of the idea of the men coming at her. Using her own experience, it was ten to one that whomever tied her up was none too gentle.

  Carefully pushing the thought of Liam out of her head, Dana walked to the bed. The woman didn’t scream, but her eyes were still full of fear. Holding her hands where the woman could see them, she approached and carefully reached for her arm to untie it. “Austin, a robe, please.”

  Austin moved quickly, never getting too close to the bed, and pulled a robe from the closet. Dana worked at the second rope and held out her hand for the piece of clothing as soon as she was done. Austin handed it to her, and she helped the woman wrap it around herself. While she settled into it , Dana worked her feet free from the ropes knotted and wrapped and knotted again around her ankles. As soon as her right foot was free, she pulled it up under the robe and waited for Dana to finish the other one, tears sparkling in her eyes.

  “What happened?” Austin’s voice was quiet and concerned, and he kept himself physically back from the bed.

  She shook her head and the pain that wracked her in that moment was clear on her face. Dana sat on the bed and took the woman’s hand. “What’s your name?”

  She heard someon
e behind her tapping on something on the wall while the woman answered, “Bits. Elizabeth. But everyone calls me Bits.”

  “What happened in here?”

  “He...attacked me after he tied me up.” She slid her hands over her face. “I wanted to be tied up, but he drugged me and once he had me on the bed, he beat me.”

  “I’ve called the paramedics.” Liam’s voice was near the door.

  “I’m in a kink club!”

  “If he beat you up, you need to go to the doctor, and I won’t hear you argue.” While his words were strong, he didn’t move from the door. Neither of them moved; the two guys had picked up on what Dana had. This woman was currently terrified of men. “Trust me. The doctors are not going to mock you for being here. They’ll treat you and releases you.”

  “I am one of the ER nurses.”

  There was silence, and Liam let out a chuckle. “Well, that’s seven of you ER attendants that have been in here now.”

  She slowly looked over to where he was standing, her eyes wide. “What?”

  “I can’t disclose who, but at least six of your coworkers from the ER department have been in here. And not to help someone. So don’t worry that you’re going to be ratted out or whatnot. They’ll have to admit to knowing what goes on in here. And with our cover of a nightclub, it’ll be a dead giveaway.”

  “I’m not supposed to fall for shit like this.”

  Dana put a hand on her forearm. “We all fall for shit like this.” She snorted. “We all do. Can you tell us about this guy who did this?”

  Austin stepped forward slowly. “Please. We can search the video records and find out where he came from, what he was doing here. Everything we’d need to know to find him and report him if that’s what you want. We can also make sure he doesn’t come here again.”

  Bits sniffled and winced at the same time. Dana was pretty sure this woman had some serious internal injuries. A moment later, she started to explain. “It...it was supposed to be a one-night fling. No names, no strings. I never got his name. He told me to call him Master. He had a few drinks and we chatted. He was acting a little buzzed, but I figured it would be fine. I’m an asshole.”