by Cara Adams
“What did you expect?” asked Aimee.
“I don’t know. Maybe half that. I wasn’t counting. Do we get that much most nights, or is it because I was new?”
“Sixty is a good night. Fifty is average. But you’ll get twenty for a lap dance, more if the man comes while you’re working on him. I can do three lap dances a night easy and my feet don’t ache after it.”
Siyandra picked up her other foot and began massaging her toes. “Not having aching feet would be good but I expect they’ll toughen up soon. Although I can see why you were suggesting Miriam try lap dancing instead of getting punished.”
“She got three hundred for that. One hundred from Henk for agreeing to it and two hundred from the punter. But she was off work for a week so it wasn’t as big a deal as it seems.”
“I think I’ll stick with waitressing. I’m happy with sixty dollars and sore feet. Maybe if I soak in the tub for a while my legs will feel better. After all I don’t need to wake up at eight for work so that’s pretty awesome.”
“The club doesn’t open until five and it’s real quiet until around seven or seven thirty. Mim’s the only who starts work before seven. The barman works alone until she comes on at six thirty.”
“Mim? Oh, Miriam, of course. I didn’t start until nine tonight. Will I always start then?”
“Probably. Henk makes his mind up about the shifts and that’s the end of it. Good night. I’m going to bed.”
“Thanks once again for waiting up for me, Aimee.”
“Yeah, well, we don’t need you dragging the security staff up here.”
Aimee went into the bedroom and Siyandra picked up her shoes and her tips and followed her. She put the money in the nightstand, left her shoes at the foot of the bed, collected her sleeping shorts and shirt, and walked through to the bathroom, shutting the door before turning on the light.
She closed the drain and turned the hot tap full on, watching as steam rose from the tub, before taking off her uniform and underwear. She dropped the thick Lycra panties in the tub so she could rinse them out to wear them the next day. She hoped the other women wouldn’t mind if she hung them on the towel rail to dry, but she was certain Lycra shouldn’t be put in the dryer and she only had the one pair. They were her secret weapon against men pinching her ass and had worked perfectly. Several times she’d felt hands on her butt, but there hadn’t been a single pinch.
She added some cold to the tub and stepped in. It was still very hot but she needed the heat on her aching muscles. Siyandra sank down into the water and thought about everything she’d learned today. There were CCTVs, bugging, women working off mysterious debts, and men who clearly expected extra attention. But none of it was really suspicious. All those things could be explained away perfectly normally. Oh well, maybe tomorrow she’d find out more.
* * * *
“Mr. Cooper? It’s Sierra Bond. I’ve sent you a package of papers guaranteed twenty-four hour delivery. I’ll be in court from nine until around three. Call me after three, or as soon as you have them, and I’ll talk you through the facts.”
“Thank you, Ms. Bond.” Roderick stared at his phone but the attorney had already disconnected from the call. Well, by the end of the day it sounded very much as though he’d know who was behind all the trouble at the BDSM club. It was just in time. There was less than forty-eight hours left of the cooling off period and Tom Moore had already booked his airplane tickets to Barbados. Or was it The Bahamas? Bermuda? Oh well, somewhere hot with beaches. Whatever, word would be out that Cooper’s Farm had purchased the club and then the real work to pull it back into line with the safe, sane, consensual rule would begin.
The bank had already given him the paperwork he needed to make an offer for the rest of the club so the pack would be the sole owners. If he knew who he was opposing he could frame his sales pitch so much better. He hated to think how much a top-notch attorney like Sierra Bond would cost him but it seemed she was going to be worth every cent of her fee.
But who was the minority partner? A criminal? A gang? An outlaw motorcycle club? Someone associated with Sammy? Sammy himself? Or someone from the local community as some of the wolves seemed to think?
Roderick took out the file again and read through Okapi’s summary, then sifted through the details. All the information they had was circumstantial. People watching the property, a woman getting beaten too severely, sex at public parties. It was nothing actionable. In every case people might have perfectly reasonable excuses. Even when Okapi was kidnapped, the two men who were caught red-handed couldn’t be tied specifically to him, the pack, or the farm. But everything smelled off and wrong. Maybe it was only borderline, but Roderick was determined to get it cleaned up. Coopersville was a good town with little or no corruption and no major crime and that’s the way he wanted it to stay.
Besides, diversifying their business was a smart move, and wolves and BDSM were a natural match.
Cooper pushed the files to the side of his desk and concentrated on his other work. Nala had already had enquiries about potential purchasers for her herbs which Keisha had summarized for him and passed to him for his approval. She’d included in the file a hand-drawn map, which Katungi and Rafiki had provided, of fields that would be the right soil types for Nala to begin planting much bigger crops of the most popular and saleable herbs. It looked very much as though the inconspicuous little human had a winner with her herb garden.
Roderick had completely lost track of time and was busy answering a complicated e-mail when there was a knock on his door and Okapi opened it without waiting for a reply.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, sir, but there’s a parcel for you. Only you can accept it. You need to show the courier photo ID and a signature.”
“Sorry, Okapi, I’d forgotten it was coming,” he apologized.
“Is a driver’s license okay?” he asked the delivery man.
“Yes, sir.” The courier scrutinized his license turning it over to check the signature against his scrawl as he signed the electronic receipt machine. Only when the courier was satisfied did he give Roderick the parcel tucked tightly under his arm.
Cooper waited until they both left his office then attacked the sturdy tape sealing the package closed. He needed to use a pocketknife to cut it. This was no ordinary packaging tape. Finally he pulled a sheaf of papers out of the parcel and began reading. It was more than an hour later when he looked up. His mouth was dry and his heart beating faster.
The odds and ends of clues his men had found had been carefully followed and unraveled by the investigators the attorney had employed. She had laid out a clear line from person to person, shell company to shell company. And everything led back to one man. One man he would never have expected to be involved in anything the least bit underhanded. The man was Jeremy John Rinehart III.
Cooper waggled his mouse and looked at the time on his computer when the screen lit up again. Five to three. Carefully he saved all the documents he’d been working on and had left open when the parcel arrived, and closed them down. He pulled up the file he’d kept on the BDSM club, even though he was sure he knew everything in it by heart. He opened his notepad to a clean page, shuffled all the papers Ms. Bond had given him into a neat stack, glanced at the computer again, and as the time on the screen clicked over to three o’clock he dialed her private number.
“Sierra Bond.”
“It’s Roderick Cooper here. Thank you for that extremely detailed file you sent me. What do you advise me to do now?”
“It’s perfectly simple, Mr. Cooper. You authorize me to nail that bastard’s balls to the wall.”
Ten minutes later when he laid the phone down again, Roderick’s brain was reeling. It’d taken her maybe ten seconds to tell him what she could do. The rest of the time had been her explaining to him his role. Up until now he’d considered himself smart and tough. Now he knew he would never be a fraction as quick witted and strong as she was. The attorney’s mind was faster than a comp
uter on crack. His was like Jell-O from trying to keep up with her. But the steps he would take were set.
He took a deep breath then called the bank to ensure the funds he needed were available as he’d arranged previously. Then he spoke to his accountants. “Make the offer for the club. Don’t go above four hundred thousand.”
“But we advised you to go to half a million. It’s worth more than that to you to own the entire enterprise.”
“That was before. Now I know who the minority partner is and he won’t want his name on the front page of the Coopersville Clarion. Don’t go higher than four hundred thousand.”
“Yes, sir. We’ll approach the other firm this afternoon.”
“Thanks. Keep in touch.”
For the first time all day he thought about Siyandra. He’d missed her last night, although Justin and Nathanael had told him at breakfast time about visiting the club. Tonight would be his second night without her. Sharing a meal with the other men had been enjoyable, but he craved her company. She was so very special to him. He hoped the negotiations for the club didn’t drag on too long. He wanted her back on the farm. Back in their bed. Back home safe where he could guard and protect her forever.
* * * *
Siyandra had woken up when Aimee’s alarm had rung, but was sound asleep again when Miriam started to scream. She sat up with a jerk and whirled around, almost falling out of the narrow twin bed as she did so. Miriam was thrashing around in her own bed, quite alone, but obviously in the throes of a dreadful nightmare.
Siyandra scrambled out of her bed and ran across the room, speaking firmly but gently. “It’s okay, Miriam. You’re safe now. Stop crying, Miriam. Wake up, sweetie, you’re okay.”
But Miriam still screamed, her face red and tears falling fast. When Siyandra gently touched her arm her skin was hot and sweaty. Was she ill? Was this more than just a nightmare? Did she have an infection perhaps, from the damage to her back?
Siyandra didn’t know what to do. She kept murmuring soothing nonsense, unsure of whether or not to try harder to wake her up. It was too distressing. Miriam was likely damaging herself with all this terror. Siyandra sat on the edge of Miriam’s bed and lifted the young woman up into her arms, holding her tightly and rocking her as if she was a preschooler. And all the time she kept talking, soothing, trying to calm her.
After what seemed like an endless phase, Miriam shuddered and became silent. Her eyes opened and she pulled away from Siyandra. Siyandra let her go but stayed sitting on Miriam’s bed.
“Oh, shit. I’m sorry. I don’t know what—”
“It was just a nightmare, but you’re really upset. Would you like me to get you some ice water?”
Miriam nodded, lifting the bottom of her sleep shirt to wipe her face. Siyandra went into the living room, picking up the box of tissues from the counter there, and pouring Miriam a glass of ice water from the refrigerator. Miriam gulped the water thirstily, so Siyandra went and refilled the glass, while Miriam started to wipe her neck with a tissue.
“I’m sorry,” the blonde repeated when Siyandra handed her the water.
Siyandra sat down again on Miriam’s bed. “Do you want to talk about it? Sometimes describing a dream frightens the boogeyman away.”
“Nothing will get rid of this boogeyman,” Miriam said bitterly. Then she sighed, straightened her shoulders, and drank the rest of her water.
Siyandra remained silent, but didn’t move away. She wanted to hear Miriam’s story, not just to help Rick, but because the woman obviously needed to exorcise some personal demons. That was no ordinary nightmare. Miriam had been truly terrified.
“My boyfriend—ex-boyfriend—is the only son of a wealthy family. Some men kidnapped me and demanded ransom from his family. I suppose they took me thinking he cared about me. Well, they were wrong.” Miriam’s face twisted in a bitter smile, but pain and agony showed clearly in her deep blue eyes.
“They refused to pay?” asked Siyandra, working hard to keep her voice light and nonjudgmental.
“Not only that, but my boyfriend told them they were welcome to have me as I was frigid. I was a virgin when we met. How was I supposed to know all the hooker tricks he wanted me to do to him?” Miriam burst into tears and once again Siyandra pulled her into her arms and hugged her.
“You’re much better off without him. He might be rich, but it sounds like he’s a heartless bastard, and you’d never have been happy with him.”
They sat and hugged for a while then Siyandra handed Miriam the box of tissue again.
“Yeah, that’s true. But it’s harder to pay off a ten-K debt than I thought it would be.”
“What ten-K debt? I don’t understand.”
“I have to pay Henk ten thousand dollars. That’s what it cost him to buy my freedom from the kidnappers. He said I’d make that much easily by working here for a few months even if I was frigid. All I’d have to do was lie back and say thank you nicely when the men were done. But I won’t do that. That’s why I agreed to be punished. Some subs come here every week to be punished and they really get off on it. But that didn’t work out for me either.”
“It didn’t work out because a true Dom knows how to use the whip or flogger properly to arouse his sub. The man who beat you didn’t do it properly.”
“No kidding.”
“So what are you going to do now, Miriam?”
“Call me Mim. I don’t know. Aimee’s shown me how to do a lap dance. The clients are forbidden from touching the dancer so perhaps I’d better start doing them. The tips are better than waiting tables. Otherwise I’ll never pay off my debt.”
Siyandra jumped up and went to her nightstand returning with the money she’d earned the previous night. “I sent you home last night so you didn’t get your tips. Here, have half of mine. That’s only fair.”
“But what about you?”
“I’m not paying off a debt. I just thought it’d be fun and kinky to work in a BDSM club. If I don’t like it, I’ll go get another job. Actually, that’s a thought. Why can’t you work another job and just give the money to Henk?”
“He won’t let me go. He says he doesn’t trust me not to run away and leave him without his money.”
Siyandra held out the money to Mim and she looked at it longingly then shook her head. “It’s yours. I can’t take it, but thank you for offering to help me.”
The conversation was over. Mim collected her clothing and went into the bathroom, shutting the door. Siyandra put her tips back in her nightstand and climbed into her bed. But she was wide awake now and thinking furiously. Surely it wasn’t legal to make Mim work to pay off a debt Henk had chosen to buy? Wasn’t there some law about “buyer beware” or “buyer’s risk” or something?
There must be a way to free her.
* * * *
Nathanael stomped around the house. Justin was slumped in front of a football game on the television but he was too unsettled to sit still. He looked at the kitchen but he didn’t feel like washing dishes or scrubbing the counter and the floor either. He basically didn’t want to do anything except be with Siyandra, and he wasn’t prepared to go back to the BDSM club. He might rip someone’s head off if they touched Siyandra, and then she’d rip his head off for doing it.
Dammit. Life was no fun without her.
He marched back into the living room. “Justin, get off your fat ass and let’s go for a run.”
“My ass isn’t fat.”
“It will be if you keep sitting on it all the time.”
“All right. I suppose so. Why don’t we collect Cooper and take him with us? He spends a hell of a lot of time sitting on his ass, too.”
“Good idea. Let’s do it.”
Nathanael opened the back door of the house a crack, then went into his room and transformed into his wolf. As soon as he’d shifted, he knew this was the right thing to do. A good hard run would take his mind off Siyandra and settle his itchy nerves.
By the time he’d padded to the bac
k door, Justin was already standing on the deck. Nathanael bounded off the deck, hit the yard running, and stretched his legs, racing at top speed down the road to the office. The rear door was always left ajar for free access of the wolves in shifted form, and he leaped up the stairs and down the hallway to Cooper’s office. His door, however, was always shut. It was shut now but the light was on. Justin was right behind him and he let out a demanding yip. No reply. Sighing, he transformed and knocked on the door.
“Come in.”
He opened the door and Justin brushed past him entering first. Cooper looked up at them and smiled. “You want to go for a run?”
Justin shifted and said, “Nathanael said our asses would get fat if we sat on them any longer.”
Cooper laughed. “I’ll meet you at the back door in a minute then.”
Leaving his door open, they both transformed again and ran out to wait in the rear parking lot. True to his word, Cooper was only a minute behind them, then he led them straight down the road. Nathanael was surprised. All the wolves usually kept to the grassed areas when they ran. The human women sometimes ran along the roads. Nevertheless he ran beside his Alpha wondering what the man had in mind.
Cooper was running fast, but at a speed Nathanael knew meant they were going for a midrange distance. Wolves could sprint farther than many people guessed, but for distance a slightly slower speed was more appropriate. They crossed the Ring Road, then Cooper led them along a track. Now Nathanael knew where they were going. There was a deeply undercut section of the bank of the river not far from here. In summer people would come to picnic on the bank, and the kids would jump into the water.
As he’d guessed that’s where Cooper led them. They jumped off the bank into the water and played briefly, but it was a bit cold even for wolves. Soon they shook themselves dry and ran back up to sit on the grass.
Justin immediately transformed and lay flat on his back, stroking his cock. “Even a cold bath won’t take away this hard-on I’m carrying for Siyandra.”