The Heart of the Matter

by P Nelson

  “It’s in the kitchen.” Elizabeth swallowed, a panicked expression on her face.

  “Shit. Mine is too,” Eric ran down the stairs with Elizabeth following. That’s when he heard pounding on the front door. “Stay in the kitchen, Elizabeth.” He ran down to the front door and snagged one of the pool cues off the table and ran for the door. Heart thudding in his chest, he felt like a caveman protecting his home and his woman as he unlocked the door and threw it open.

  “Holy fuck, dude. Wear a shirt much?” Dillon asked as he looked over Eric’s chest with a critical eye.

  “What the hell are you all doing here?” Eric still hadn’t lowered the pool cue, as he took in Dillon, Linkin, Flynn, and Thea as they stood at his front door.

  “If you answered your phone every once and a while, we wouldn’t need to be here.” Flynn did not look amused, and Eric lowered his makeshift weapon. Only something very serious would have dragged Flynn away from the club on a Friday night with all the trouble going on.

  “What’s happened?” Eric’s question shot out of his mouth.

  “Eric, do I need to call 911?” Elizabeth’s worried voice sounded from the top of the stairs.

  “No, beautiful, but it looks like we have some guests,” Eric called back.

  “Does that mean you’re going to let us inside?” Linkin asked.

  “Come on inside, if I’d known to expect guests, I would have baked cookies.” Eric let sarcasm fill his voice as he stepped away from the door. The others filed inside, and he felt a creeping anxiety build up in his gut. Shutting the door, he turned to them. “Tell me what it is now.” He gestured up the stairs. “I want to protect her from whatever the hell brought you guys out here in the middle of the night.”

  “You can’t protect her from this, Eric.” Flynn’s voice was stoic.

  “What’s happened?” Elizabeth’s voice sounded from the stairs, and Eric looked over at her. With her hair mussed and holding the robe close to her chest, she looked like a vision of feminine perfection—except for the frown marring her face.

  “I’m just dealing with something, why don’t you go up to the kitchen and wait for me.” Eric walked over to her and tried to encourage her up the stairs. Every protective instinct inside of Eric was screaming to lock Elizabeth up in a tower where no one could ever hurt her.

  “Flynn is right, Eric.” Thea’s tone was sympathetic but held a thread of authority. “You can’t protect her from this, and she’s just as much a part of this shit show as you.”

  “What are you trying to keep from me?” Her face wrinkled into a frown.

  “Nothing now, it seems.” Eric kissed her forehead. “Come on, let’s put some coffee on.” He followed Elizabeth back up the steps to the main floor of the house confident the others would follow. Elizabeth opened the fridge to get the coffee as the rest of the group filed inside. Linkin set his laptop bag on the kitchen bench and the rest of them stood waiting.

  “Is one of you going to start?” Eric asked, feeling exasperated. Linkin opened his mouth, but Flynn cut him off.

  “No, this is bigger than the sum of its parts, Linkin,” he said.

  “Yeah, and it all starts with me.” Dillon shook his head and sat down on one of the stools at the kitchen island.

  “Do not take this shit on yourself, Dillon,” Flynn’s voice barked out. “It would’ve come around to the rest of us sooner or later.”

  “You don’t know that.” Dillon looked as if he were a hundred years old in that moment. “I brought the wolf to our doorstep, and now everyone else is paying the price.”

  “Would somebody tell me what the fuck is going on?” Eric wrapped his arms around Elizabeth and pulled her tight into his body as if he could protect her from the next words.

  “I really think you guys should just spill it.” Elizabeth half-turned to reach up and stroke Eric’s face, trying to temper him with her gentle touch. “He might lose it. I mean this is one of those moments when he could actually lose his cool, even though I’ve never seen it happen,” her voice trailed off as Eric squeezed her body tightly to get her to stop her nervous rambling.

  “Remember all the shit I went through with Holly Go Lightly?” Dillon’s voice broke through the tension of the kitchen, his question directed at Eric.

  “Vaguely. She was your permanent sub and a fellow porn star.” Eric thought hard trying to remember all the details of the scandal that came out. “She said you coerced her into doing scenes with her, and you were abusive. I’ve known you for years, man, so there’s no way I would believe that bullshit.”

  “Thanks, man.” Dillon half smiled at Eric, and he felt as if he was still missing the point. He sat back and allowed Elizabeth’s presence to calm him until he could get through the rest of this story.

  “What many people don’t know unless they were following close in the media is that Holly, or Tiffany if we want to use her real name, had been recruited by a religious fundamentalist group down in LA while filming.” Dillon spoke in quiet tones and Eric got the feeling this was not a story he shared with many people. “She met some guy who told her porn was the devil’s playground or some shit. Tiffany was always one to look out for her best interests, and she got caught up in this religious group. She told me the guy was going to save her, but I don’t know if I ever got the truth from her.” Dillon was silent for a full minute, lost in thought. “Anyway, she had to prove her loyalty and one way to do that was discrediting the adult film industry by ruining my reputation as a good Dom.”

  “Then, she tried to take it a step further and involve The Cage by saying she had been abused and forced to have scenes against her will while at the club,” Flynn added his tone full of righteous indignation. “Fortunately for me, I have deep pockets and a pit of really fucking seriously rabid lawyers at my disposal. There wasn’t a newspaper, website, or blog writer willing to publish anything so derogatory without proof.”

  “Everyone knows The Cage is one of the safest clubs in the world.” Eric was shocked at what had gone on in the lives of his fellow members in the last year. Dillon, especially, appeared to have gone through an emotional rollercoaster. It was a Dom’s worst nightmare to be accused of abuse by his sub, an unfathomable violation of the power exchange.

  “Everyone in the lifestyle knows,” Flynn replied cryptically. “I will do my best to keep the anonymity of our members even with this new threat to our world.”

  “A new threat?” Elizabeth’s voice sounded low in the kitchen.

  “It seems the church Tiffany was working with and, by all accounts, is still a member has not given up on discrediting the club,” Thea replied to Elizabeth. “We thought when Tiffany tried to frame Dillon for physical abuse, the church would give up and go away.”

  “They’ve only shifted the focus of their hunt.” Flynn’s face had grown hard. “They decided to go after bigger fish than Dillon.”

  “The Cage,” Eric said out loud as all the pieces of a puzzle started to fit themselves together in his head.

  “Yes.” Flynn’s voice was flat. “It seems Elizabeth has been specifically targeted by the church, and they’re using her ex-boyfriend Jerry Matthews as a conduit into the targeting the club.”

  “That seems really farfetched.” Elizabeth stepped out of Eric’s arms to lean against the kitchen counter beside him. “Jerry is being an asshole.” She glanced at Eric. “I know twenty smacks.” The comment had the rest of the Dominants in the kitchen flickering small smiles even though the situation was so serious. “But I would have known if he joined a church. Honestly, he isn’t religious at all.”

  “We haven’t figured out what the connection between the church and Jerry is Elizabeth, but we know there is one.” Thea’s voice was serious.

  “How do you know?” Elizabeth insisted. “He’s just a stupid guy who wanted to get laid by hot chicks at the club. He was happy to be a member until the other night when I wouldn’t take him back as my Dom.”

  “Like I said, we know there�
��s a connection, we just don’t know how deep it runs,” Thea added. Linkin reached for his computer bag and pulled out his laptop.

  “We know because the church has uploaded all the photos that were sent to your colleagues on Monday to its own websites and tried to distribute them to any news outlets willing to run them.” Linkin’s tone was as matter-of-fact as the man. Eric’s stomach dropped.

  “That’s why you’re here in the middle of the night instead of tying up subs,” Eric realised.

  “Yes, now Martin is tying up Delaney and probably eating all that sweet pussy for himself while I get none.” Linkin was typing so quickly on his laptop while he spoke that Eric was surprised he could talk at the same time. He had wrapped an arm around Elizabeth’s shoulders. She appeared to be on the brink of a breakdown again.

  “You said trying to distribute to news agencies.” Eric grabbed onto the one thing in Linkin’s previous statement that might be good news. He nodded as he turned the laptop toward them. A website shone on the screen. At the top in intricate writing was the name The Supplicants of the Lord. Underneath was a bunch of text Eric didn’t bother to read, but what caught his eye was the picture of Eric escorting Elizabeth out of The Cage last week. He was in shadow, but Elizabeth’s full profile was on display.

  With a shaking hand, he scrolled down to the next picture of Elizabeth speaking to the neighbourhood kids with Eric. A caption underneath it stated that the persons pictured here had left a sex-filled orgy at a sex club to go and buy drugs off the street from thugs.

  ‘It’s not true,” Elizabeth gasped beside him, and he looked over to see tears in her eyes. The only ones he wanted to see were the ones he made her have while torturing her sweet body.

  “Of course, it’s not true, Elizabeth.” Thea’s voice was sympathetic. Eric scrolled down to see the rest of the images on the website. There was the one of Elizabeth leaning against his front window while he spanked her ass. How could he be so stupid in exposing her? The caption underneath it said they had gone home to do their drugs and continue their orgy. Eric had seen enough.

  “This is bullshit, and I want to sue these fuckers.” He saw a red haze descend over his vision as Elizabeth quietly sobbed beside him.

  “You going in like a bull in a china shop is what they want.” Flynn’s voice was calm, and it irritated Eric the other man could be so blasé about Elizabeth’s character being defamed on the internet.

  “Fuck you. It’s not your sub out there on the internet for a bunch of sick fucks to judge and ridicule.” Eric felt the blood pumping in his veins, and he needed an outlet. He was furious and Flynn looked like the best target in the room. Flynn squared his shoulders, getting ready to give as good as he got.

  “OK, boys, let’s put our cocks away.” Thea’s voice clipped through the rising tension. “The alpha Dom shit is not going to help.”

  “The only thing keeping this from going viral is me,” Linkin said without a hint of pride or bragging.

  “How did you find out about this?” Elizabeth asked as she put a hand on Eric’s arm. Again, trying to soothe him. He focused his attention on Linkin as he answered.

  “Finally, we’re getting to the important stuff.” Linkin pulled his laptop back over to him and brushed over the keyboard. “Flynn alerted me to the existence of the photos on Monday when they went around your office as you both know,” he added. “I created an algorithm immediately that would alert me if the pictures showed up anywhere on the web. My alarms went off at 8.00 p.m. this evening.”

  “You’re a genius, Linkin,” Elizabeth whispered as Eric tried to get his head around the fact that Linkin had created something so complex and yet was totally useless at social interactions.

  “I know,” Linkin replied, and Eric shook his head. “I’ve also created a filter system that has so far contained the damage these pictures have done.”

  “He means a virus,” Flynn said, and Eric watched as Thea shook her head.

  “You know I can’t know about your illegal internet spy shit,” she retorted, and Eric was caught by a funny look on Dillon’s face as if he wanted to issue twenty to her for swearing. He knew their relationship was acrimonious at best, but it would have been way over the line to suggest he spank her.

  “Yes, a virus.” Linkin shut his laptop with a satisfied expression on his face. “Every time one of the recipients of the file holding those pictures tries to open them, they are taken to a website full of fluffy cat videos. The same when someone tried to view these jerks’ website. Again, fluffy cats.”

  “Fluffy cat videos?” Elizabeth’s face looked stunned.

  “I know.” Linkin wore a disgruntled expression. “I wanted to put in a program that would effectively wipe out the recipient’s hard drive like acid, but Delaney thought this was much better. I don’t understand why.”

  “We know you don’t, big guy.” Flynn slapped him on the shoulder.

  “Thank you,” Elizabeth said on a sob. “Thank you so much, Linkin. You didn’t have to help us at all, and you’ve done so much.” She looked at all of them, and Eric’s heart beat a little bit faster because Elizabeth wasn’t accustomed to having people she could trust help her. This whole experience was new on so many levels.

  “You’re a part of our world now, Elizabeth, and we protect the people we care about.” Flynn’s voice was gruff, but he got hold of his emotions a minute later. If Eric hadn’t been staring right at him, he would have missed the subtle softening in the big bad alpha Dom.

  “I guess the next question is what the fuck do we do now?” Eric held onto Elizabeth tightly knowing there was no chance in hell he was ever going to let her go.

  Chapter 15

  “Here’s where we are,” Thea began as she accepted a cup of coffee from Elizabeth. “Jerry’s mother came down to the precinct and filed a missing person’s report for him earlier this week. Even with his description and car plate number in circulation with the uniforms we haven’t had any leads on where he may be hiding. This leads me to believe he has probably left Canada.”

  “Tiffany ended up down in the States with the church after her arrest and psych evaluation. She was supposed to stay with her sister and get some help, but she figures the church helped to smuggle her across the border.” Dillon sipped his own coffee.

  “Unfortunately for us, if Jerry has gone to ground with this church down south, there’s not much we can do about it even if we get enough evidence to press charges.” Thea put her coffee mug on the table.

  “What charges can you lay on him now?” Eric asked and Elizabeth looked up to study Eric’s hard expression. Something had happened to her normally indulgent and light-hearted Dom in the space of a few minutes. She was still trying to wrap her head around the explosive sex they shared tonight and was having a hard time taking in what everyone was saying around her. Thankful for Eric’s help, she leaned into his side for comfort. He put his arm automatically around her, and she, at least, felt as if she wasn’t alone.

  “We have him on breaking and entering, destruction of property.” Thea’s expression revealed she knew Eric was disappointed. “Hardly anything earth-shattering, if we could prove he was the one who took the pictures we might get him on invasion of privacy, distributing revenge porn, but at this point I don’t know how we’re going to get any evidence of that.”

  “Her naked body is all over the internet right now,” Eric pointed out in an angry snarl. He visibly took a deep breath. “Sorry, it just pisses me off that we can’t do anything.”

  Flynn interjected, “We are doing something. These assholes thought they could pick on a woman who had no resources and no recourse but to do as they wanted. Unfortunately, they decided to go after a sub at The Cage, and we take care of our own.”

  “I’m going to keep the algorithms going. It’s not going to take them very long to realise what has happened when they don’t get any hits on their website and news agencies continue to ignore them,” Linkin stated.

  “Now the imag
es of Elizabeth have been posted on the church’s website, I can have my lawyers go after them with all kinds of jurisdiction that will keep them mired in red tape for years.” Flynn sounded like a ruthless businessman in that moment, and Elizabeth was happy she never had to face him across from a boardroom table.

  “I have my own lawyers,” Eric began.

  “This is club business,” Flynn interjected with authority. “Situations such as these are why we require such high fees from our members. I’m going to go after these bastards hard and make sure they feel the bite for years to come. My club is not an open target, and my members will not be molested.” Elizabeth along with everyone else in the kitchen understood in that moment that this was more than just some asshole’s attacking his business. Flynn was taking this very personally.

  “You have got to let me help in some way,” Elizabeth interjected, and everyone looked at her. She had a funny feeling she was a rabbit in a room full of predators, but she wasn’t going to not participate in something that directly involved her. “The pictures are mostly of me. My ex is somehow involved. Part of this is my fault.” Her voice grew stronger with every word, and she waved a hand at Eric when he was about to interrupt her. “I have a right to help bring these bastards down. They cost me my house, my job, my sense of safety.” She looked up at Eric. “If Eric hadn’t been the kind of man he is, I would be alone right now in a basement suite that had been ransacked, feeling utterly alone.”

  It was the closest she was going to come to saying she was falling in love with Eric out loud and that she felt vulnerable. Elizabeth didn’t like to show she couldn’t do things all on her own, but she realised this was bigger than just her.

  “Good girl.” Thea’s voice held appreciation. “You need to come down to the Vancouver PD tomorrow and file an official complaint about The Supplicants of the Lord and their use of your image on their websites as well as illegally distributing your image to third parties.” Thea looked at Eric. “I know you don’t give a shit, but it’s also important that you come down and make a statement, too. You’re in the pictures. Even if you’re mostly unrecognisable and demonstrating perfect spanking technique, I don’t think you want those images to get out into the public.”