You, Me, and the Crazy Ex: A Club Stigmata Novella

by Luckett, Elle

  “BDSM?”

  I nodded. “He asked me if I wanted to check it out, so we did. I met another guy who was a Dominant and knew what he was doing, and he met a Dominatrix who he later married.”

  “It sounds so normal.”

  “That’s because it is. It’s not dirty, just a choice. You like a good doggie style and reverse cowboy, and I like to be tied down and pleasured to the point of madness. Apples and pears.”

  Skylar sat back in her chair and smirked at me. “I must talk too much about my sex life.”

  I snorted at that, mainly because it was the biggest understatement ever. Skylar had never been shy during our sister talks over the years. The night she lost her virginity, she’d come and fallen on my bed to tell me about every sordid detail. We’d always had a very open-door policy between us, and I was happy to acknowledge that this chat of ours hadn’t been any different. I hadn’t exactly hidden my erotic fascinations from her, but I hadn’t seen any real need to discuss it, either. BDSM had been something that was all mine, even if that was selfish, and a little bit greedy of me.

  “So… you and Denton,” Skylar finally segued, her smile growing as I flicked my glance back in her direction. “You’re so in love with him.”

  “I am.”

  “And you’ve seriously only known him a week?”

  I nodded, feeling the heat flare in my cheeks. “I didn’t expect him, Sky,” I finally said, pulling my legs to my chair on the window seat we were occupying. “I just thought it would be a fun night with a really hot guy, you know, and then we had that date, and I enjoyed his company... like really enjoyed it. We could talk about anything, and it felt so natural when we were together. He kept inviting me back, and I kept going letting myself fall deeper and deeper. Then the idiot tried to spare me from his ex and her bullshit last night and…”

  “Wait. He tried to break it off?”

  I smiled over at my kid sister. “Not sure you can even call it trying. He was headed in that direction, making excuses, alluding to the fact that he cared too much to put me through that shit, then said he couldn’t do it. I figured he must feel the same way I did, so I told him I loved him.”

  “My God, you sure like to fast-track shit, Em.”

  “What’s the point of denying it?” I asked, shrugging. I could feel the truth of the words running through me now I was being made to step back and look at what I was doing through someone else's eyes.

  “You’re not worried you’re gonna get hurt?”

  “Of course, I am, Sky, but I also trust him. I trust him more than I trust my fear. What’s the point of hiding behind my concerns?” I thought about what Kammie had said. “All that time second-guessing myself and my feelings is all time that I could be spending with him.”

  “Spoken like a true Hoffman,” my dad said from behind me.

  Glancing over my shoulder, I saw he was standing at the bottom of the back stairs next to his older brother Paul, who was shaking his head in his usual bemusement.

  “I have to agree with that,” Uncle Paul finally said, slapping my dad on the shoulder. “Because no Henley would ever say something that batshit crazy.”

  “I was going to say logical.”

  Uncle Paul snorted. “That just means you’ve been married too long.”

  “Says the man married to his job,” Skylar interjected with a grin of her own.

  “And y’all wonder why I don’t visit much. The damn women in this house are always ganging up on me.”

  “Quit your whining, old man. You don’t have to live with them.” My dad elbowed his older brother in the gut before heading toward the fresh pot of coffee and glancing out of the back window in the direction of the garage. “Girls, you left your mom out there alone with the model?”

  Uncle Paul made his way across the room and glanced out over dad’s shoulder at the scene. “You talking about the man or the dog?”

  “Only you, Uncle Paul,” I mused, shaking my head.

  “It’s why you love me, kid,” he said playfully. “Why don’t you go spare your wife, Ron, and take the little ray of sunshine with you. I need to talk to your eldest.”

  “But…” Skylar’s protestations died as she met Dad’s glance before she rose with a mumbled, “she’ll tell me everything later anyway,” before following Dad out of the back door.

  “Want a top up?” Uncle Paul asked from the counter as he filled himself a mug of coffee. One look at him, and I saw he was swinging the pot in my direction as translation.

  “Please.”

  He took his time filling up my mug, and then sauntered to the counter to put the pot away with another smiling glance from the back window. He took his time sipping his coffee and nosing around in some cupboards before waving a bag of ginger nuts at me. He headed back and dropped down opposite me in the seat Skylar had just vacated. Uncle Paul looked like an older version of my dad. Handsome, regal, and distinguished, he had more salt than pepper in his hair and beard these days, but his face was still so familiar that I couldn’t help but smile. He brought an inherent aura of safety with him. Just like Denton.

  “You know I had to do a check on this guy as well, right?” he finally said, digging through the cookie bag for a whole one.

  I huffed out a laugh.

  “And?”

  “Apart from the allegations from his ex, he’s crazy clean. Only has one traffic violation, and that was because he caught a traffic cop on a bad day, and they weren’t willing to let him top the meter up while they were writing the ticket out. It was dismissed in court from what I found in the public records.”

  “And the bitch?”

  Paul smiled. “She’s not as bad as you’d think, although she was arrested for a DUI about three years ago and put in for a psych evaluation.”

  “I won’t ask.”

  “I couldn’t tell ya.”

  “Then, what are we looking at with her nocturnal activities?”

  Paul pulled his phone from his pocket and unlocked it, scrolling through several functions before grinning. “Jess set me up with that cloud thing, and she’s already uploaded the images.” He met my eyes and smiled before he handed me his phone. “Scroll away, kid.”

  I took the phone, glanced down at the images, and found myself smiling as I began to scroll.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Mrs. Strake, please come in.”

  Denton’s new lawyer, Emilio Mathis, was an older and well-groomed gentleman. From what little time I’d spent talking to him, I’d come to realize two things.

  One: he didn’t like to lose.

  Two: Denton’s case was a sore spot for him. Emilio Mathis took the whole thing personally, even though he was new to the situation. He’d been grumbling about it since we’d arrived, and I hadn’t been sure why until I was getting a cup of coffee and heard him talking on the phone in a very authoritative voice.

  It was at that exact moment that I realized where I’d heard that voice before…

  Club Stigmata.

  I should have known really. We looked after our own, and we all came from different walks of life, which was the very reason I was working for a Dom in a shipping division of a family run business. I couldn’t really describe how important this little network of ours was, but I could feel it as Denton’s hand found mine under the table at the appearance of his ex-wife.

  Kara didn’t seem to recognize Mr. Mathis for what or who he was, and she slunk into the room in a tidy black dress and low heels, with her lawyer Mr. Matthew Ingram Esq. in tow. He looked way too overconfident, and I saw exactly what he was the moment he offered his hand to me… a fraud, a liar, and in over his head. His success with Denton’s former lawyer had left him complacent, which was a big mistake.

  “I don’t know why I’m here.” Kara pouted, her eyes landing on me with a small smirk. “We’ve already been over this to the point of exhaustion.”

  Emilio Mathis leaned back in his expensive leather chair and watched the two of them as they arr
anged themselves, his hands smoothing down his tie idly before he clasped them together and rested them on the glossy tabletop, his smile patient.

  Kara took her time getting situated. She offered Mr. Mathis a flirty smile as she flicked her perfectly curled hair over her shoulder and crossed her legs with painful exaggeration. When that didn’t work, she moved her attention back to her lawyer and tipped her head for him to get started.

  “What’s this about, Mathis?” Matthew asked with a cocky tone.

  “We’ve had a few things come to light recently, and we’ve decided to bring them to you before we take it back to the courts.”

  Kara huffed out a little laugh and folded her arms over her chest with only one corner of her lip curled in distaste. “How many times are you going to threaten me? I haven’t done anything wrong.”

  Mr. Mathis sat forward slowly, his clasped hands rising in front of him like a snake coiling before a strike.

  “Mrs. Strake, do you realize you could spend up to a year in prison for blackmail?”

  “What?” Her lip was curled in a bemused smile, but her arrogance, so thick only seconds earlier, slipped just enough for us to notice.

  “I can recite the codes and sections for your lawyer, of course, but they would mean nothing to you, and I’m pretty sure he knows where I’m going with this, so do please try and keep up. Let me keep this in layman terms for you, Kara. What you’re doing is illegal. Blackmail, prostitution, vandalism, all of these charges are stacking up to add more and more time to your chit. I have a case as long as my arm to throw up against you in court to dismiss the alimony and throw out the charges against Denton, but my client—the generous soul that he is—would prefer this be over with, so he’s asked me to make you an offer.”

  “Did you just call me a hooker?” Kara spat, her face twisting in disgust.

  “If that’s your preferred terminology.”

  “How dare you?”

  “It’s merely an allegation at this point, Mrs. Strake, but we believe—”

  “Matt?” Kara ground out, twisting to scowl at her lawyer.

  Kara’s lawyer shuffled in his seat, still somehow looking smug. He didn’t seem half as affronted at the accusation as Kara did. “Circumstantial evidence and character witnesses only get you so far, Emilio. They don’t have anything to go on, Kara. Let the words go because they’re just words.”

  Mr. Mathis opened up a folder on the conference table and pulled out one of several envelopes that held the glossy eight by ten photo prints that my Uncle Paul had sent to him in an official capacity. They ranged from our security camera footage, footage from across the street from Denton’s home, to what Paul had taken just three days ago. The envelopes were still sealed, and I could see that neither of the other two knew what was inside. From the gentle stroke of Denton’s thumb over the back of my hand, you’d think he didn’t know either, but he did. I’d had to watch him flip through them.

  “What’s that?” Kara asked, her eyes flicking to mine.

  “One of four,” Mr. Mathis said with the same authority I’d heard from him on his call. “Why don’t you open that one up?”

  Kara didn’t, but her lawyer reached out and took the envelope, peeling it open. He took his time with the small stack, his eyes narrowing a little.

  “Destruction of private property,” Mr. Mathis said quietly. “A little further back in the stack, there are some shots of her turning up earlier in the day. Further back from that, we have months of her showing up on Mr. Strake’s property after she had insisted on an order for him to stay more than one hundred feet away from her.”

  Mr. Ingram looked more displeased than surprised when he cut his gaze to his client. “Statistically speaking, most abused spouses—”

  “Cut the crap, Ingram. Save that shit for the judge.” Mr. Matthis dug through his envelopes and pulled the thickest from the stack before he threw it across the table at Matthew Ingram, Esq. “That’s if you want to take it there… which is doubtful unless you want to get disbarred. You’re as big a fool as Kara Strake is.”

  Matthew took his time opening this envelope. He handled it like it contained something dangerous, and for him, maybe it did. His eyes widened as he pulled the glossy prints out. I’d already seen what he was looking at. Shot after shot was of him and Kara screwing on his desk, slowly progressing into him tying her over his desk, and sodomizing her with a cylindrical paperweight, that was tame compared to the four motel rooms she’d visited after her time with him. Each visit and image became worse and worse, and it showed on Matthew’s face. What had alarmed me the most when I’d looked through them, was that these acts, which I’d always found erotic in the atmosphere of Club Stigmata and my fantasies, appeared dirty and wrong in photographic form when done so gritty and raw in a cheap environment and in exchange for money.

  “Here’s how I see it,” Mr. Mathis said patiently. “We can drag this through court, let the evidence speak for itself, subpoena some of her john’s who we already have names and addresses for. I think a few would even be willing to testify if we cut them a deal. With this much damming evidence, she may even spend some time in jail, or worse, prison. Our other option is your client pays damages for destruction of property, and we reach a settlement here and now, seal the files and leave it behind us.”

  Kara hadn’t said a thing. Her eyes were still on the photographs, tears welling in them as she saw herself in a not so flattering light. I would have felt sorry for her if she hadn’t turned that sadness into a cold stare and set it on Denton with accusation and betrayal.

  “You put an investigator on me?”

  “No,” I said, jumping in before he could respond. “I did.”

  “I’m going to kill you,” she spat, slamming her hands on the conference table and springing to her feet. The sudden action sent the chair spinning into the wall behind her. “I will rip out your throat and shit down your neck, you over-privileged, fake-assed bitch.”

  “You do realize this is all on the record, Mrs. Strake?” Mr. Mathis said casually, closing his file slowly and sliding it to Mr. Ingram, who was sitting open-mouthed, staring down at the photographs in his hands. “I’m recording this meeting, as discussed with your lawyer over the phone. And I believe that is a direct threat, which I am now advising my clients to make a report of at the police department.”

  “Duly noted,” I said, keeping eye contact with Kara. “I’m sorry that it came down to this, Kara. No one should have their lives put under a microscope like this, and I didn’t want to be the one to do that to you, but you left me with no choice. So, I’m going to be the one to lay down the terms to you today, and I’m advising you to listen. You will come nowhere near Denton, his home, or his property in any way. In fact, you’d be better off forgetting he ever existed. If you come near me, Denton, or my family at all, I will pursue the charges. All of this,” I said, spreading my arms over the photographs, “will be dragged out for public consumption. This is your decision now. What happens is all on you. We’re giving you the choice you never gave Denton.”

  “Denny?” Kara asked, turning puppy dog eyes on the man she’d been married to, taken advantage of, and harassed for God knew how many years.

  Denton assessed her with cold eyes, his hand tightening around mine under the table where she couldn’t see it. He was asking me to be patient, and I squeezed back in response. I could give him that. I couldn’t imagine how hard this was for him. He wasn’t an unfair man, but the need to be cruel was probably eating away at him. He had the absolute power to crush her, but that controlled side of him wouldn’t allow it. It was against his nature.

  “I pity you, Kara. At one point I thought I loved you. I thought I wanted you to have my children. I would have given you the whole goddamn world if you’d asked for it. Then I look at these pictures, and do you know what I see?” He paused, his lips curling into a snarl. “I see our marriage. Maybe not the beginning, but certainly the end. You didn’t want to be submissive to just one
man, or any man for that matter. You wanted to offer control for a price, while you topped from the bottom and got what you wanted. It’s always been about what you can get because you’re a taker. You give to get back. You’re toxic. Poison, and you did me a favor by leaving. Now you need to stay away from me and mine. I don’t want to see you or hear your name in my circles again.”

  “Your circles?” she spat with snide laughter.

  “I wouldn’t worry about that,” I said sweetly. “I think your name has been put on a list on every message board and club in the continental United States with a nice warning about exactly who and what you are.”

  “What?” she snapped.

  I shrugged sadly. I wasn’t going to repeat myself because she’d heard me. That decision had been out of our hands. Once Denton had spoken to Thomas and Christopher about the situation on Saturday night, they’d put out a persona non grata to all of their clubs about Kara. From what I understood, the members then posted to every group and organization they were a part as an extended warning. When it came to BDSM, the only action Kara would get would be what she’d been doing: selling control to the highest bidder. A bidder who could be a very real danger.

  I didn’t like that thought. I didn’t like knowing the dark side to this world I loved so much, but it was there, underground, where there were no rules, no safe words, no people looking out for one another, and even, occasionally, deaths occurring when things went too far. Kara was already a part of that, though. This just ensured she couldn’t entrap anyone who followed the rules and lived by a code.

  Denton’s hand released mine and moved to my thigh, where he squeezed with assurance.

  “Cut the cord, Kara,” Mr. Mathis said gently. “Once you let Denton go, all of this goes away.”

  Matthew Ingram coughed, clearing his voice before he gathered the files, dropping the photos inside neatly before thrusting it into his briefcase. “As my last act as your lawyer, Kara, I advise to you take this deal. They’re letting you walk away cleanly. Let your marriage go and move on with your life.”