With or Without You (The Dom's of The Cage Book 4)

by P Nelson

  “I’m not a detective, anymore.” was all Thea thought to say. She wanted to see Dillon, hold him in her arms and cry as he told her he loved her over and over.

  &

  Thea was pissed. After the paramedics checked her at the scene, they escorted her to the VDP building for a debriefing and questioning. What had happened was a witch-hunt starting with her. Never in her life had she been more embarrassed to be a cop in Vancouver. Scratch that. She wasn’t a cop anymore. It had been hours. The time ticked over on the oversized analogue clock she was about to tell them all to go fuck themselves.

  “We want to know who your friends are.” Officer Mertz was taking the role of hard-ass detective too far considering she was the media relation’s officer. Hands planted firmly on the desk in front of her, leaning over the space to try and get into Thea’s space. The act of aggression might have worked a couple of weeks ago, before Dillon had spent every waking minute building Thea back up again. Now, Thea leaned back in her chair. The bad-ass Domme was back.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Thea answered doing her best to sound bored.

  “You know we can’t have mercenaries on bikes driving around the city taking down criminals. The road your friends are travelling is dangerous. Vigilantes fuck up eventually, and bystanders get hurt,” her old partner reiterated for the tenth time. He was leaning back against the far wall beside the one-way mirror where clerks were recording the interview and other senior officials were no doubt waiting for her to fuck up.

  ‘I don’t know what you’re referring to.” Thea uncrossed her jeans-clad legs and crossed them again.

  “So, you maintain Mr Esposito aka the Reverend’s head just blew itself off.” Officer Mertz shoved away from the desk. “Give us credit for having some intelligence.”

  “If you were intelligent, we wouldn’t even be here.” Thea’s tone was reasonable. “You’d be out there trying to find out the identity of the sniper.”

  “Why bother when you clearly know who it is.” Officer Mertz looked like she was on the edge of losing her shit. Thea had to admit she was having fun. A glance over at Bill, and he understood she was playing Officer Mertz, too. Thea recognised without a doubt that Linkin and his men hadn’t been behind the sniper attack. For one, they had come in fast on bikes. If they had a guy in position, it would have been far more expedient for them to shoot him as he came out of the building, rather than after Dillon had beat the crap out of him.

  Dillon. Thea thought of how he had jumped off his bike. He probably regretted his hasty actions now. She imagined his shoulder and knees all bruised from impact with the road. Dillon’s knuckles would be a mess. The part she had only just allowed herself to fully become loved it. Dillon’s caveman had come out, and Thea wanted a piece of him. He called not only to the fading sub inside her, but the Domme who wanted to fuck for control.

  “What the fuck do you have to smile about? You’re not leaving until you give us some fucking names.” Officer Mertz had well and truly lost her shit. Thea grinned at the other woman’s lack of composure. The door opened, and Chief Barnes stepped into the room. Thea was surprised for the first time since she stepped into the VPD building. A face-to-face with the big man meant one of two things. He was either going to charge her, or he was going to release her.

  “Officer Mertz, You’re through here. We’ll discuss the media slant on the grade A clusterfuck once I’m done.” Chief Barnes’s calm dismissal sliced through the tension in the room. If Officer Mertz wanted to argue, she didn’t bother. The other woman stalked out the door the chief was still holding open. “Detective, I don’t think you’re needed any longer.” The chief stared over at Bill.

  “Yes, sir.” Bill pushed off from the wall and met Thea’s eyes, his expression apologetic. Thea wished she could forgive him for what he had done, but despite her reconciliation with her family, bitterness still clouded her feelings over losing her job. The door closed behind him. A heady mixture of relief and anticipation soared through her. She was going to get out of here.

  “I want to apologise.” Chief Barnes walked sedately over to the seat opposite Thea and sat down. “From the beginning, I dismissed your claims about The Supplicants of the Lord Church and Esposito. The whole connection was too convoluted, and there were too many facts missing.” He leaned back in his chair. “When you identified Esposito as being the Reverend, I’m sorry, I thought you were suffering from mild PTSD.”

  Thea wasn’t sure what to say. Never in her whole life had she ever heard the chief apologising to anyone. She remained silent and waiting.

  “We fucked up. But don’t allow what happened to cloud your judgement on what your friends did. They had no right to take justice and punishment out of the hands of the courts and the victims’ families.” He leaned forward. “You have a duty to see the case finished, Thea.”

  Thea. Not Detective Demopoulos.

  “Don’t play on my emotions and think you know me.” Thea sat up in her chair, ready to leave. “I don’t know who shot that motherfucker. But if I ever meet him, I’ll be sure to shake his hand. He did the world a huge fucking favour today. And I don’t have any duties towards the victims or their families. You saw to that.” Thea stood up. “Now, I assume you haven’t figured out how to keep me any longer, so I’m going to go home.”

  “Thea.” Chief Barnes tone cracked with authority. Thea no longer felt the compulsion to obey. Not only was she no longer his employee, but the secret sub inside of her she didn’t know existed had wanted his approval after all these years was fading fast. Replaced by someone stronger, thanks to Dillon. She didn’t look back as she opened the door to the examination room and walked down the hall of silent people. Thea didn’t stop until Joe opened the door of the dark Mercedes waiting in the back lot.

  Chapter Twenty Seven

  “What the fuck happened?” Dillon demanded as he paced Flynn’s opulent office overlooking the harbour in Vancouver and the North Shore Mountains.

  “You know as much as we know, Dillon. Sit down before you give me a headache,” Flynn growled behind his desk. The CEO of Banroch Industries and the owner of The Cage was just as shitty as Dillon. Unfortunately, there was nothing Dillon could say to ease the other man’s worry. Pictures of Calla Jones emerging from her building after one of the three ambulances that responded to the shooting tore off to the hospital. Flynn had been glued to the TV screen trying to determine how much of the blood covering Calla belonged to her and how much belonged to poor Nick.

  Dillon sent a prayer skyward for the man. Linkin had informed them Nick was currently in surgery, his prognosis unknown.

  “It’s been hours,” Dillon complained and flung his body down onto one of the two couches facing one another. He didn’t bother to wait for a reply from Flynn. It had only been the two of them in the office since Joe had deposited him at the door of the building and ordered him inside. Linkin was monitoring everything from some unknown secret man cave he refused to give anyone the address to.

  Pressing his palms into his eye sockets, Dillon tried to erase the picture of Thea running for her life, her only choice to try and jump over the chain link fence to get into the back yard of another building. Linkin had called Joe and him out of their morning sparring session and told them of a hit on one of his internet traps.

  Esposito had accessed one of his accounts. He had paid for a therapy session at Calla’s office. Linkin had told them the Reverend wouldn’t make a stupid mistake, but it could be catastrophic not to investigate further. Joe had grabbed leathers and helmets. Dillon had found himself on the back of a debadged black bike whipping through traffic when Linkin spoke over the intercom. “Shots fired.”

  The blood pounding in Dillon’s ears along with the whine of bike engine as Joe fired up the accelerator had drowned out the rest. He thought his heart might jump out of his chest. He didn’t even think when he saw Esposito running away. He wanted the motherfucker like nothing before.

  Dillon relea
sed his palms from his eyes and stared at the ceiling where a chandelier that was probably worth thousands of dollars shone in the light from the huge windows.

  “I never thought I could act that way.” He sounded perplexed.

  “Just because the caveman doesn’t always come out to play doesn’t mean he isn’t there watching from the shadows.” Flynn came closer. The other man took a seat on the opposite couch; Dillon glanced over to scrutinize his grim expression.

  “You make the Dom in me sound like a pervert stalker,” Dillon huffed and sat up on the couch that he probably couldn’t even afford to have dry-cleaned.

  “The Dom inside of you is a primitive, pervert stalker.” Flynn waved a hand and pretended to relax against the back cushions of the couch. His stiff shoulders and white knuckles gave him away. “You just have better control over your dominant side than most other Doms, including myself.” Flynn turned his head to stare out the window. If their circumstances hadn’t been so grim, the view would have been nice.

  “Who do you think killed Esposito?” Dillon asked. At first, when he saw the news reports, Dillon thought it was one of Linkin’s snipers. When Linkin had time to update them on what had happened, Dillon realised Linkin wasn’t behind it.

  “I don’t know. Maybe Thea saw something or knows something.” Flynn sounded absentminded, as if he was rolling the problem over in his head and not coming up with any definitive answers, either. As the head of Banroch Industries, Flynn’s day rolled on. Despite the man’s concern over Calla, the sub he clearly wanted but had rejected and the rest of the drama, Flynn had carried on his duties as CEO. Dillon had no idea how he managed it. He thought he might go out of his fucking mind at any minute.

  “The whole situation is fucked.” Dillon swung his gaze to the door as a knock sounded. Calla came through, dashing the hope the newcomer might be Thea. Calla’s hair was in a messy bun, she was wearing a stained pencil skirt and a blouse she had obviously borrowed from someone who was a couple sizes bigger than she. Flynn jumped up from his seat and strode over to where his administrative assistant left Calla standing just inside the door.

  Flynn scooped Calla up into his arms. She pressed her face into his shoulder and cried softly. The pair’s obvious feelings for one another forced Dillon to look away. If these two could sort all their shit out, maybe the excruciatingly long wait to see Thea would be worth it.

  “I don’t know what happened.” Calla’s words were clear, and Dillon glanced back to see Flynn pulling her towards the couches. “All I know is Thea came for her Monday morning appointment. She was standing outside my door as my colleague was speaking to a new client. It was him.” Calla let out a squeak as Flynn pulled her onto his lap.

  She wrapped her arms around Flynn and snuggled into his chest. It was obvious Flynn wasn’t about to release her any time soon.

  “Nick shouted for everyone to get down. I grabbed Thea and dropped.” Calla’s voice hitched. “Poor Nick. His neck just exploded. I’ve never seen so much blood.” She started shaking. “Thea went with him. The Reverend. Esposito. Whatever his name was. She didn’t want the rest of us to get hurt.” Calla craned her neck around to stare at Dillon. “I didn’t want her to go. I tried to reach Nick’s gun, but I needed to apply pressure to his wound.”

  “No one is blaming you for what happened, Calla.” Flynn sounded like he was holding back some deep emotions. The relief on his features so acute, Dillon could only wonder why he hadn’t placed a collar around Calla’s neck.

  “The likelihood you could shoot from your position and incapacitate Esposito is less than five percent,” Linkin stated as he came through the door holding a bag with a designer label on it. “Your admin gave this to me.” He strode across the room.

  “Is Nick?” Calla sat up in Flynn’s arms.

  “He’s out of surgery and resting in the ICU. We won’t know anything further about his condition until morning. You saved his life.” Linkin’s tone didn’t indicate thanks or praise for a job well done. He was merely stating a fact. “You should get cleaned up.” He held the bag out to her.

  “Yes, of course.” Calla started to stand up. Flynn held onto her for a second longer before releasing her.

  “There are full facilities behind the door over on the far side of the room. Take as much time as you need.” Flynn pointed to the door on the other side of the room.

  “Thank you.” She took the bag from Linkin without smiling and walked slowly across the room. Dillon took in her slumped shoulders and altered step. Calla might not have physical injuries, but the day had taken its emotional toll on the woman he understood to be a tough little sub. The door to the shower and toilet clicked shut.

  “We don’t have much time before Joe arrives with Thea.” Linkin’s gaze swung between Dillon and Flynn. “It looked like the trace I picked up for the bank payment from Esposito’s account was a hack. We were led to Calla’s office.”

  “Whoever killed Esposito wanted us to be there.” Dillon’s mind was racing.

  “But why.” Flynn stood up and strode over to the windows overlooking his ridiculously expensive view. His body had relaxed again. Seeing Calla shaken, but not hurt, had brought equilibrium back to Flynn. His dominant side secure in the knowledge his sub was safe. Dillon shook his head. Whether or not Flynn chose to accept her as his sub, the caveman inside of Flynn was never going to let her go,

  “At this point, we can only guess,” Linkin spoke to Flynn’s back. “But everything points to our earlier supposition. Esposito, or the Reverend or whatever you want to call him along with the original Supplicants of the Lord Church is a smokescreen for a much larger plot.”

  Another knock on the door sounded, and Dillon shot out of his seat on the couch as Thea strode through. She appeared dishevelled but no worse for the trauma she suffered. He wrapped his arms around her for a full minute, content to hear her breathing against his neck. It wasn’t long before she pulled out of his arms and brought his hands up for inspection. Even with the ice Flynn’s admin had brought in several times, the swelling and bruising on his knuckles was impressive.

  “Did it feel good?” Thea asked in a low whisper.

  “Yes.” Dillon wasn’t going to lie. His fist smashing into Esposito’s face had felt fucking amazing. And he would do it again. “I wish you had a chance to get a few licks in.” Thea shook her head, her gaze rising to meet his.

  “No, I don’t need it.” She breathed in and out a few times. “He’s dead. The whole affair is over.” Dillon stared at her. Her tone indicated she didn’t believe it. He nodded at the couch he had just vacated, and she followed him over.

  “What did you leave out of your report to your ex-colleagues?” Linkin demanded.

  “Back the fuck off, dude,” Dillon shot back. Linkin merely raised an eyebrow at him. That eyebrow had probably killed a man, but Dillon didn’t give a single fuck. Thea was his responsibility, and after today, he had proved to himself he could take care of her.

  “It’s fine.” Thea turned to look at Dillon, her expression confused. “He told me he would be out in an hour. That he had a powerful ally that would spring him.”

  “Did you believe him?” Flynn asked

  “I don’t know.” Thea sought comfort in Dillon’s arms. He hugged her closer. “He certainly believed it.”

  “Fuck,” Flynn swore.

  “Without Esposito, we’re running blind.” Linkin’s face turned grim, his jaw set tight. “The big fish has no need to fuck around with any of Esposito’s old links. We have no way to bring him in.”

  “You’ve known about this all along?” Dillon asked.

  “We had our theories,” Flynn answered for Linkin. “It’s hard to believe some conman asshole would try attempt to extort you any further than he did.”

  “Esposito should have given up when it was clear you weren’t about to play ball with him, Dillon,” Linkin continued.

  “But I never received a demand for money or anything else. Tiffany was the only r
eal threat,” Dillon pointed out.

  “That you were aware of.” Thea spoke from beside Dillon. “We have no idea what the end game to all of this is and how deep the players are.”

  “But for now, we’re safe,” Dillon said the words like an affirmation.

  “Yes. But we have no idea how long it will last.” Flynn’s piercing gaze zeroed in on Calla who came out of the bathroom. Her hair was wet, but she had changed into the clothes Flynn’s admin provided.

  “Unfortunately, all we can do it watch and wait.” Thea stood up and started to walk over to her friend in greeting. Calla threw her arms around Thea. Dillon glanced back to find Linkin and Flynn staring at one another in silent communication. They flicked their gaze over to Dillon. There was no way they were going to allow any more of their friends and fellow lifestylers to get hurt. They needed a plan to go on the offensive. Dillon nodded his head. The newly awakened caveman inside of him fully approved.

  Epilogue

  Four weeks later…

  Thea stood on the dungeon floor in the middle of The Cage listening to a conversation between Master Flynn and Master Linkin. The two of them were discussing ways the members of The Cage could protect themselves. It had been a month since Esposito’s brain matter had hit the ground in the alleyway, but the two men were convinced more trouble loomed ahead. Thea agreed.

  “I have your report on the Saxton case.” Linkin’s gaze fixed on her face. “Very thorough.”

  “High praise from you, boss.” Thea grinned at him. Linkin stared at her for a minute longer before his partner Master Martin and their sub Delaney’s arrival distracted him. The latter sank down into a perfect slave pose for her Masters.

  Thea had taken up her duties as Domme in Residence immediately after Esposito’s case closed. “How’s your new partner?” Linkin asked.

  Linkin had offered her a job in a new department he was experimenting in with his security company. Investigating corporate espionage and, frankly, some boring crap involving overseas bank accounts. But it was a job, and it paid a fuck lot better than when she was a detective. And it turned out white-collar criminals were just as big idiots as the regular thugs on the streets.