“That helps. Thank you, Charlie. I know it isn’t pleasant to remember him. We’ll be on the lookout for him. Is there anyone else you can think of? Do you guys know any of the shadier club owners? Any other ideas on who might be involved?”
I watched as they all thought about it, but I wasn’t surprised when they all shook their heads.
“You have to remember, if anyone comes to mind, you see or hear about something that doesn’t sound right, then relay that through Detective Baker. You have to act normal, like you have no idea what’s going on. It would also look real strange to some people who know you to see you completely act like you don’t care. Be more lax enforcing issues. Pretend you don’t see anything, but don’t ignore a big problem. Talk to whoever you trust, but make sure they know it could put us in danger if they tell anyone else. If it’s brought to your attention by someone, well then, you have to decide on your own. Enforce issues as needed.”
Lucas sighed, I could tell he was tired, and maybe a little frustrated. While we’d learned a little, it was plain that no one here had any idea what had been going on.
“I know all of you will be on the lookout. Remember not to approach us or the bad Doms. This group may have to meet up again, but let us set the times. You can all meet without Alexi and I, but please don’t interfere unless something really bad is happening. It’ll go against the grain for most of you. We need them to dig themselves into a hole that can be used against them when we prosecute them.” Lucas was so sure of himself. It made me smile watching him control the room.
“Edward Tennant owns Demon Gate. He’s pretty sleazy. I wouldn’t put it past him to be a part of this. His club rules are practically nonexistent. Those he does have aren’t enforced much.”
“Oh, I think I know another who would surely be involved. You all know him too. Rogue is a Dom want to be. He has more of a twink look, but his attitude makes up for his… shortcomings.” The smile on Madame Mariska’s face made the whole room chuckle.
“He’s annoying, and uses cruelty to get his way. He could be a part of this, and his club is for… certain types of Doms and subs. The types looking for pain and absolute control.” Chase said, nodding.
“I agree with Madame that Rogue is likely to be involved. But what is it you actually want us to do? If we all just start popping up in these clubs… wouldn’t that be suspicious?” Darian had a good point.
“Don’t worry about going to any of the clubs. Stick to your usual schedule, just be on the lookout. If you do see something, tell Detective Baker. If you see something truly bad, take them out quietly like Chase did. But try to remember not to interfere if you can help it.
“I know you all want to rush in and save them. I understand and I’d be behind you in any other situation, but we’re going undercover to try and find the head of this snake. We want all of the people involved. This may be bigger than just us. If they’re trafficking across state lines… well, we need to know exactly what we’re dealing with. Just let us do our jobs and keep an eye out. Act like you normally would so they don’t get suspicious. Do not approach them or try and dig up dirt. Just watch.”
This op would be very different. People I knew would be looking out for us, and this was kind of personal. I didn’t know Mason, but subs had a link with each other. A knowledge of who we are, just like Doms. So the idea of what Mason went through made me hurt for him. We’d be meeting him next. I needed to hear what he had to say as a cop, but also I wanted to help him, sub to sub.
CHAPTER 6
Alexi
Walking down the hall towards the High Dependency Unit Mason was in, I tried to think of a way to talk to him. Lucas had suggested I talk to him first. He was right that a Dom would just scare him even worse right now. I couldn’t remember which Dom and sub couple Chase had posted. I’d pull whoever it was and we’d go talk to Mason, sub to sub. Maybe I hadn’t been through exactly the same thing, and I didn’t want to tell my story again, but I would do whatever it took to get Mason to trust me. If he could open up, it would give us something more to go on. But as traumatized as he was, trust might be beyond him right now.
We had to show our ID before entering the locked unit. I was glad to see the plain clothes police officer sitting next to the charge nurse. With one uniformed cop stationed outside the door, Mason was well protected. Seeing Bets in the small family waiting room, I stopped there first. I was hoping Bets had at least spoken with Mason.
“Hey Betsy Bear. Has he said anything?”
I could immediately tell she hadn’t had any luck. The look of pinched concern on her face told a story of shared pain. Pulling her to the side and hugging her tight I looked her in the eye. “Are you okay to be here? You look wrecked.”
“I’m okay. He wouldn’t talk to me, but the pain and fear on that boy’s face… Alexi it’s bad. I don’t know how he’s even hanging on.”
“Well, I need to talk to him, sub to sub. I was hoping you’d go in with me, if it isn’t too much.”
I watched as Bets looked to Dom Leo, the concern on his face was apparent as he nodded his consent.
“I can do it, but brace yourself.”
She took a deep breath and squeezed my hand, pulling me towards the slightly open door to Mason’s room. I know she told me to brace myself, but I don’t think I could have done anything to prepare for what I saw. Curled up on the bed was a small emaciated boy. Gauze circled his entire chest and he was bandaged all over. What was most impressive was that every injured spot was in a place that would be covered by clothing. That man had worked every inch of this poor boy. Where there were no bandages, his skin was purple with deep tissue bruises. I couldn’t control the gasp or the tears that welled up in my eyes. Letting go of Bets, I slowly approached the bed.
“You poor boy.” I whispered to him, as if even my voice would hurt him somehow.
I grabbed his hand which was one of the few spots on his body that wasn’t bruised or burned. Even his feet were covered in thick gauze.
“Mason, my name is Alexi. Detective Alexi Weber. I’d like to talk to you if I may. I know you don’t want to talk about what happened. I know from personal experience how you feel. I may not have been hurt the same way you were, but I have been hurt by a man calling himself My Dom. I have the scars to prove it too. I’m here not just as a Detective, but as a sub that’s been in something like your situation. I want you to forget for a moment that I’m a police officer. I want to be your friend and to help you. Will you talk to me?”
Watching his eyes, I could see the fear in them. Mason didn’t want to talk to me. I didn’t know how else to reach him if he didn’t.
“Mason, my name is Bets. I’m not a police officer. I’m a sub. I’m here to help you any way I can. I haven’t been treated badly like either of you. I’ve never been in your position, but I am a great listener, and an even better friend.” Smiling at Bets, I squeezed Mason’s hand just a little.
“She is, you know. Both a good friend and listener. I’ve had the honor of crying on her shoulder many times. I need you to know one other thing though. The main reason I need your help is that I’m going undercover, Mason. My Dom Lucas, who is also a detective, and I are going to try and stop these people who hurt you. We want to help the other subs who are not there of their own free will. To destroy this Circle from the inside so it can’t come back. I don’t want you to think I’m pressuring you. If you don’t want to talk about what happened you don’t have to. That won’t stop us from helping to stop the men who did this to you. We will stop them Mason, I promise you.”
Mason was looking in my eyes as I spoke, judging me. I hoped that whatever he saw was good. After a few moments, I started to think maybe he wouldn’t talk to me. It would be nice to hear what he experienced directly from him.
“I’m afraid you aren’t real. That none of this is really happening and I’m sleeping or they forced some hallucinogenic drug on me again. I don’t think my imagination is this good though. Can you feel someone hold your hand in a d
ream?”
“I don’t know. I never had a dream guy holding my hand, but I do know we are really here. You're really safe. And, we will keep you that way. I’d pinch you, but baby, you don’t need any more pain to tell you you're awake.” Squeezing his hand again, I smiled softly.
“I really don’t want to talk about what happened. I already told that one guy who saved me. I couldn’t talk to that detective who came by earlier. Are you really going undercover?”
Nodding my head I saw pure terror cross his face.
“Please Don’t! No! You Can’t! They’ll hurt you...” Mason’s voice had gotten louder for just a second before falling away again. He was holding onto my hand so hard it hurt. If he needed that, I was there for him. Caressing his shaggy hair out of his face, my eyes never left his.
“It’s okay baby. It’ll be dangerous, we know that. We’ll be very careful, but we have to stop these people. I can’t allow them to do to others what they did to you. I’m scared, but my Patron, Lucas will protect me. Plus, now the FBI is involved. We will stop them, Mason.”
“You don’t know...” Mason whispered, beginning to tremble as his eyes seemed to see something only he could see.
“You don’t know what they do to people. The screams... I can still hear them. I was kept mostly in a dog kennel, in silence, but then there was pain and screaming. Sometimes it was me, sometimes someone else. I can’t tell you who the others were. I don’t know, I was never allowed to look at the other Doms. Don’t raise your eyes, don’t talk, you're there to be their plaything. They passed us around like party favors. It wouldn’t matter what you did, if they wanted to hurt you they did. I was too terrified to make a mistake. I never knew what was a mistake. It was always different, depending on which Dom you got.
“Sometimes they had a basket with all the subs names. They’d pick out names and that was who… who did things.” His whisper petered out, but the glazed look left his eyes as he focused on me again.
“They tell you to follow the rules, but the rules are always different. They set you up to fail and laugh when you do. They fuck with your mind, sometimes with drugs or alcohol. On the days the Doms chose who they took… if you were last picked… they...” I could see the gulp he took.
“If you were the last sub chosen, all the Doms… they all used you. I was only picked last once. When my Dom got me back to his house it was even worse. He acted like I’d done it on purpose to make him look bad.” He was shuddering now, and I couldn’t help the shushing noises I made when I leaned forward and ran my fingers through his hair.
“Baby, it’s okay. You don’t have to tell me anymore if you don’t want. It’s okay.”
Bets had gotten up and was now sitting on the other side of the bed, holding Mason’s other hand. He clung to us, desperation on his face.
“You can’t go in there. Not on purpose. They do things that hurt so much you pray to pass out. Then, if you do, they just wake you up and hurt you more! There’s no rhyme or reason behind what they do. No set pattern to their abuse.
“I know there was one woman, and a guy. The other Doms made fun of him. He was small, and at first I didn’t think he was a Dom, but he… he was the worst. There was no waiting with him. He’d start right in, usually before all the others had finished their drinks. He never wanted to talk beforehand. He’s what my brother would have called a bitch-hole. A real son of a bitch and an asshole. Out to cause as much pain as he could. I don’t know what he looked like, but I remember his voice. It was higher and almost girly.
“When he’d start in on a sub all the other Doms would make fun of him behind his back. Calling him a ‘twink wanna be Dom’. Stuff like that. I don’t know if he heard it, but he had to know he was a laughing stock. He liked to play with fire, they all did, but he really liked it. Blow torch, branding, cigarettes, it didn’t matter what it was, if it burned he wanted to play with it. He’d have these cigars that he’d put out on you, big and long. He’d smoke it for a minute and then burn a sub. Relight it and smoke it some more. Over and over until the cigar was done. The smell made me want to be sick. You could actually smell the burning flesh as he put it out, but also as he smoked it! Who the fuck does these things!” Watching him fight back the terror, his shudders just made me want to crawl into the bed and hold him. The spark of anger I saw in him gave me hope that he would recover.
“Mason, did you ever hear names? What the clubs were called? Anything that you can remember would be helpful.”
He was shaking his head before I even stopped speaking.
“I don’t know about the other Doms but mine never told me where we were going. I was always kept in the trunk until we got there. Most of the Doms just called each other Dom. They called the little Dom ‘the Rogue Twink’ behind his back. I remember that. They called the woman Lady Pain I think. I was doped up when I heard that. I’m not sure if that’s even what was said. I heard a maid or something call my Dom Mr Duggins I think. The voice was very far away. I was kept in my kennel and put in a closet with a deadbolt when the cleaning people came.
“I don’t know any other names and you’ve got my Dom. I watched him be taken away by the police. Isn’t he saying anything?”
I didn’t want to tell him the truth, but he deserved to know.
“Mason I need you to keep an open mind, and listen to what we’ve done. Okay?” His tiny nod and his fear physically hurt me.
“You’re safe. I promise you that. You’ll be protected no matter what and he doesn’t know where you are. My Patron, Lucas, came up with a plan to get us into the group. He chastised me in front of Andrew Duggins and then released him. He told Mr. Duggins that you were claiming you said no just to get him into trouble. He made it seem that there was no case to solve and he was free to go. That’s the short version. The reason he did that was so that Mr Duggins, who has weaseled his way out of several cases before, would think that Lucas was just like him.
“The way he spoke to me, put me down and told me I would be punished was said to try and get Mr. Duggins to trust him. We know that you don’t just have next morning regrets. My Patron had to make it seem like that, like there was no case. It did get us an invite to lunch tomorrow. This may work, but I need you to know that you are safe, and that we will get him.”
“He’s free?” Mason’s pained whisper hurt my heart. I hated having to tell Mason this. I knew it would scare him.
“Can you understand why we did that?”
I watched his face and hoped he could, but the fear was coming off him in waves.
“He. Can. Not. Get. To. You. We didn’t want to let him go, Baby. I know it hurts you. Scares you. But we’ll get these people. All of them.”
Looking into his eyes, I tried to show him my resolve. I would stop these people. It wasn’t just because I was a cop either. I’d heard what Mason had gone through, saw the evidence on his body, there was no way in hell I was letting these bastards continue to hurt innocent people. Watching Mason’s face closely, I saw the moment he rose above his fear. The strength in this boy was amazing. He was a victim, but he would become a survivor.
“I understand. I want to help, but I don’t know if I can. I was so scared that I just don’t know what to tell you.”
“Baby, you tell us what you want to.”
*************
Lucas
“I only saw Mason for a moment. The second I looked into the room, I could feel his fear. I knew if I stayed I would only make it worse, so I smiled at him and left. Bets stayed with him a little while. She said he wouldn't talk, really. She said he was terrified. Having seen his poor little body... how anyone could do that and call themselves a Dom is beyond me. There’s barely an inch of skin not bruised or burned. I can’t imagine what that poor boy went through.” The disgust and anger was plain on Leo’s face, but the inability to do anything was eating at him too.
“I only know what Chase has told us. I’ve met Mason’s supposed Dom, though. The man is disgusting slime. Entitled
and cocky as hell. I think he’s interested in us though. We’ve been invited to lunch tomorrow. Give us some time to work our way in and we’ll stop this. I swear it.” It wouldn’t be much comfort, but Leo knew we would do what was necessary.
“If you need me, let me know. I’m more than happy to help. Anytime.”
Chuckling, I shook my head. Leo was too much of a good boy for us to even consider asking him to help in this situation. He knew it, but wanted me to know he was there for support if needed.
“Thanks, I think we’ve got it for now. Plus, you’d have to get at the end of a very long line. There are plenty of people ahead of you.” Smiling, I turned my head, hearing the outer doors open. Simon and Aaron walked in, but I wasn’t surprised. I knew Aaron wouldn’t be able to stay away from Mason. His heart was too big to allow someone to hurt if he could help.
“Leo. How are you?” Aaron hugged Leo and pounded his back a bit too hard, in a manly hug.
“Ow. You do that on purpose. I’m alright. Bets is taking this pretty hard though and that’s killing me. Plus, I saw him for a minute. Mason... Aaron it’s bad.” He whispered the last bit.
Out of the Ashes (Trust Book 2) Page 10