24. I See You
SOUNDTRACK: Bad Choices by Kode
~ brIDGET ~
As it turned out, Valerie wasn’t even on site when I got there.
I had to show ID to the Vigorí security guards, but I was still on the list, which meant I got the little wristband, and ushered inside with a dry, “May all your nightmares come true.”
It was a play on the club’s motto, Live your dreams, live happily which was written in latin on the napkins and anywhere else Valerie printed the logo , but I knew what it meant.
The industrial nature of the building was unrelenting when you first walked in. Security kept a gray box of a room just inside the door from the street. The only doorway into the club was locked with a code, and it wouldn’t be opened unless you were on the list. That door opened to a long, narrow, black painted hallway with no lighting except strips of purple LED lights along the concrete floor.
But it was when you opened the door at the other end that the magic of Vigorí came alive.
On its other side was the main lounge of the club. A massive, wide oval room wallpapered in red-velvet, lit by dim but sparkling chandeliers, and peppered with thick, brass-riveted leather couches, solid wood tables, and discreet waiters who ran back and forth between the patrons and the bar at the end, making certain that everyone had any social lubricant they could want.
The secret menu at Vigorí included every recreational drug known to man, including many things I’d never heard of before coming here. But at this time of day, only the die-hards were here. The men and women with serious money, and no jobs. And they didn’t need substance-assisted courage. Vigorí was their life.
Even though this wasn’t my first choice for a playground, I got it. Vigorí was a place where a person’s secret, internal needs could come to life without judgment.
And that thought made Sam swim to mind—that boyish grin in stark contrast to the tattoos and rugged strength. I wondered what he’d make of a place like this.
But it was impossible to know, so I put that thought aside and pushed back the hood on my cloak as I scanned the room and tried to decide what I was going to do first.
The cloak would look costumey anywhere else in the world. But it fit perfectly here. And it served the dual purpose of hiding my half-naked body from the men—who were almost always predators—and giving me a flair that was applauded in this place.
I started a slow circuit around the main lounge. I’d get a drink before too long—something to do with my hands. But first I had to decide if I was going to look for Sid first, or if I’d wander around a bit.
Vigorí had five main dens, two more lounges aside from this one, countless shadowy alcoves, and a few lockable rooms for which only a handful of the patrons could retrieve the keys.
Over the years I was a frequent visitor here, I’d been inside every nook and cranny of this place—I thought—but the main dens changed Doms every few months, which meant the content of each Den changed too. If Sid was new, he was probably in the eastern quadrant. I started drifting in that direction, still unsure if I was going to look for him right away, or not.
I actually loved this place. The darkness of it suited me. And it was one of the few environments where I felt vanilla compared to most of the other regulars. I felt comfortable around dark people in a way I never felt outside these walls. Probably because I knew they were all more dangerous than me.
I had my skills—I could take care of myself when I needed to. But mostly, I enjoyed being forced into submission. A practice that was very common here at Vigorí . Yet, whether I was playing the game, or just watching, I loved this place because no one would judge me here. I could be a silent observer, or an obnoxiously loud participant. Whatever I felt like—because I didn’t always feel like the same thing. And no one would bat an eyelid.
I used to spend a lot of time here for that reason. But then stuff happened and I got tired and… I hadn’t been back in almost a year.
Valerie was going to shit herself when she saw the security logs.
As I made the circuit of the room and got closer to the fifth den—the one that changed doms most often—there was a small cluster of people at the door, obviously speaking to someone inside.
I had Sid’s invitation secreted in a pocket inside my cloak, just in case. But I had challenged myself to see if I could talk my way in without using it. Just because I knew it would piss him off.
Doms always hated it when you beat them. In anything. Except the ones that liked to switch, and so were always looking for someone to best them, then take over. But Sid hadn’t struck me as that kind of guy.
I pulled my hood back up as I got closer, dipped my chin to keep my face shadowed, and slipped up behind the people standing in the doorway.
“…shows at five, eight, eleven and two. But we’re full for the late ones, and you have to be screened.”
I smiled when I heard that voice and sure enough, as I took a spot behind two women in bondage gear, and a man in a wrinkled but clearly expensive suit, David, one of the Protectors here, looked at me suspiciously, then his eyes lit up.
“Hey! You’re back!”
I nodded, smiling wider. “Good to see you.”
He wouldn’t use my name—no one in Vigorí used names, except in private. This was supposed to be a place where anyone could come and remain anonymous. A trait that was necessary because it was frequented by a lot of politicians and celebrities.
“You said there’s a show at five?”
“Yeah, yeah. You’ve been in before?”
The others' heads kept turning back and forth between us as they watched this conversation. I considered lying for their benefit, but that would make it too easy. “Not this show in particular, but Valerie—”
“Oh, even Val is saying you have to be assessed. You can’t get in unless he’s talked to you first.”
I frowned. “He? Sid?”
“Yeah. This is the line for assessment. I think he’s got like three or four gaps.”
I gave David a look. “Wait, there’s actual numbers?”
He frowned. “Yeah, you didn’t know?”
“He mentioned limited places, but I just thought he didn’t know I’d been here before.”
“No, no. He only takes twenty per session—at the most. He’ll take less if he doesn’t have the right people there and assessed.”
The whole exchange was baffling for me—since when did a Dom assess audience? It had to be a marketing ploy? But the end result was that I was told to wait for assessment and stood there with the others for a few minutes while David closed the door and went to retrieve Sid.
The two women had their heads together and kept whispering. They were young like me, and their costumes looked like something out of a movie. I suspected they were just rich and looking for an experience they could tell stories about, rather than being in the lifestyle. But who knew? Vigorí attracted all kinds.
The guy was older, and kept looking at me and running his hand through his hair. Like something was bugging him. Me? Or was I just under his eyes? In the end I decided it didn’t matter. I kept to myself, waiting for that door to open again, and when it did, I let the others hurry forward, trying to look like they weren’t hurrying. I kept my chin low and peered out from under the hood—only to find Sid standing in the doorway grinning at me.
“I knew you couldn’t stay away.”
I shrugged, but couldn’t deny that the predatory grin on his face had made my heart beat faster.
“You first,” he said, crooking a finger at me and ignoring the others, who were forced to step aside to let me reach him.
Sid said something to David as I passed through the doorway, then it was closed behind me and I was in the short hallway that was the entrance to each of the Dens. I pushed my hood back as soon as the door was closed since Sid already knew what I looked like, and I was curious what he had set up in here. But as I walked into the Den proper, I was frowning.
If I hadn’t known better, I’d say I had just walked into one of those small amateur theaters that only seats thirty people, and the chairs climb up from the floor—which doubles as the stage.
There were nice touches here—red velvet covered seats with leather arms, the hardwood floor had been revealed and refinished, and the area I would have called the stage was surrounded by luxuriously red curtains that hung in thick folds so there was no wall visible.
At the center of the stage was a massive, four-poster bed in a deep, dark mahogany.
When I first saw it, I thought it couldn’t possibly be real. But I should have known Valerie didn’t cut corners. Not only was the frame made from solid, heavy wood—I couldn’t even make the bed jiggle when I grabbed one of those posts and leaned my entire weight against it—but the bed was covered in genuine silk sheets, and thick furs.
I took it all in, looked at the audience chairs, and frowned as Sid came to stand behind me with his arms folded.
He wasn’t dressed like a punk today—his spiky hair was brushed down and flat, and most of his piercings were out, or subtle. He wore a black collared shirt open at the throat, black slacks, and a black belt. All of them fit him like they’d been custom made, and he stood, welcoming my perusal, smiling like he knew that shirt made his shoulders look even broader and his muscles deliciously tight.
I scanned slowly to his leather boots, then back up to his sly smile.
“Bondage and voyeurism?” I said to him over my shoulder. “I mean, I won’t deny I’d like to see the show, but it’s hardly earth shattering. You’re reducing audiences, why? To choose only the richest or most attractive? Give them a sense of being elite and others the feeling that they’re missing out? Smart, but it won’t last long. Someone will start talking and pretty soon they’ll all know you’re just peddling garden variety bondage—”
“My show is far from garden variety,” he said, but he was still smiling. “Why’d it take you so long to show up?”
I turned to face him and matched his stance, arms folded and head slightly tipped. “Last time I saw you, you tried to tackle me.”
“Did I? I saw a scuffle and your boyfriend come to your aid. Is that your kink? You’re bait and he comes in to play the hero on whatever idiot you suck into your lies?”
“Actually no.” But I also wasn’t telling him the truth because it was none of his fucking business.
He waited. But when I didn’t speak further, he smiled wider. “Art told me you had sass. I like it.”
“I have that effect on men a lot,” I said with a shrug, sweating because it wasn’t actually true. Most men found me intimidating, or wanted to break me.
“Okay, I’ll bite. Why are you here?” he asked, his smile fading as he offered a glimpse of his dom persona—the take no shit, you’re on my turf, kind of Alpha that a lot of the doms strived for, but there was something about him that, oddly, pulled it off.
That jawline caught my eye again. He was clean shaven today, and I once again found myself questioning the familiar line of it.
But I’d seen Cain fight him.
Hadn’t I?
I frowned and made myself focus. “I’m here because I’m bored and you talked a big game. So I thought I’d come see what you were doing.”
“And you wanted to prove that you could.”
I shrugged. “Maybe.”
He snorted, and relaxed, letting his arms drop to his sides and walking past me as he spoke, leaning over the bed and running his hands down the posts and along the head and foot as if he was checking it for weakness. “Well, you did it. David vouches for you, and didn’t get your invite, but still put you on my list. So you won. Well done.”
“All you would have had to do was refuse to assess me.”
He looked up from where he was squatting near the back of bed and peering at the carvings. “Why would I do that? I want you here.”
“You don’t even know me.”
“I know enough.”
I rolled my eyes. “Look, I get that we’ve got this thing going where we sniff around each other and both of us try to be the more mysterious one. But it’s kind of dumb, and… not really what I’m looking for. Do your assessment, see if you’ll keep me in the room. I want to stay and see your show… possibly,” I said, frowning at the very luxurious, but otherwise very normal looking bed.
Sid got to his feet again and opened his mouth, then closed it again, his eyes narrowing. “I think I’ll let you come back for the show,” he said slowly.
I blinked. “That’s it? Your assessment is just… meet people? What the hell is going on here? And why is Valerie going along with this shit?”
He gave me a sharp look that made the hair on the back of my neck stand up, but then he softened those warning eyes with a smile. “No… I’m not going to assess you. I said, I’m going to let you in. I guess you’ll have to come back tonight to see if you like the magic,” he said with a one-shouldered shrug.
I cut him a look. “I said I was done doing the intentionally mysterious thing. It’s melodramatic and juvenile.”
“Then call me the drama, I guess?”
He didn’t say anything more, just remained standing there, smiling at me. For whatever reason, it pissed me off.
“Look, I don’t want to waste my time. Tell me what you’re doing here—if you don’t, and I show up, and it’s boring or you’re doing two-bit street magic tricks with sex, I’ll just walk out. And I won’t be quiet about it.”
“I’ll take the risk,” he said, though he didn’t smile anymore.
Prima Donna Dom didn’t want his little show getting interrupted. So he was an artist? I looked around the space again, shaking my head. “What game are you playing?”
“Come back at five and find out.”
I glared at him, frustrated because there was something about him that told me he wasn’t bluffing. And he wasn’t safe. I’d always been really good at picking a show-boater, and even though this dude did a lot of things that were designed to make people look at him, he didn’t have that flimsy kind of presence—the kind that stunk of desperation and folded as soon as they took off the makeup and turned on the lights.
“Fine,” I snapped and turned on my heel, heading for the door. “See you at five, I guess.”
“Do me a solid and tell the guy who was waiting to come in when you leave? And tell David that the girls are a no.”
“I’m not your fucking messenger.”
“No, but you’re someone who chooses when they break the rules. And you don’t like being impolite to polite strangers, because there’s still a part of you that crumbles under that kind of disapproval. Especially from men.”
“What?!” I whirled around, stopping dead, gaping at him from halfway down that short entryway.
He was standing next to the bed, hands in his pockets. No longer smiling, but not looking tense either. “You heard me,” he said quietly.
I snorted. “You don’t have a fucking clue about m—”
“Something bad happened to you, and it’s held a cloud over your entire life. Now you keep trying to outrun it, but you can’t. You’re not bored, you’re scared. And you didn’t come see if I put on a good show. You came to see if I could make you feel something.”
My jaw dropped. “Who the fuck have you been talking to?!”
Art didn’t know about my dad. Sid didn’t know Nate. And no one local except Gerald and Cain had a clue about the other stuff.
Sid just stared at me, his expression unconcerned, but serious. “Bridget, what you see at five is going to scare you. I’m not sure if that’ll make you run towards me, or away from me. But either way, I’m in.”
I stared at him like he was crazy. “In what?”
“I know what you’re really looking for,” he said, and he did smile this time. “You wouldn’t be my first. I’m saying yes.”
“Yes, to fucking what, Sid? And if you vague-post this one, I’m leaving and not coming back.”
“No, you aren’t, because you’re half-scared and half-fascinated now, so it’ll drive you crazy until you find out whether I’m full of shit or not, but don’t worry, I’m not going to make you wait. I know that you want to be hunted. And I can tell you that, yes, it will make you feel alive. Maybe even alive enough that you don’t want to die anymore. It’s something I only do on the side, but I’m saying… yes.”
I looked at that jawline again and those broad shoulders. He didn’t look as big as Cain had—or maybe it was just the clothes. Black was slimming after all. And all this unrelenting black was deceiving to the eye, especially in this dim lighting.
I didn’t think he was Cain.
But what if he was?
What if this was part of the hunt?
I swallowed hard, my heart beginning to patter faster.
“I haven’t asked a question,” I croaked, way too late.
Sid smirked. “Sure.”
“I just came to see what you’re doing here, and why Valerie is keeping you around.”
“Then come back in about an hour and get that question answered. Or… Stay after the show and I’ll answer any question you have.”
He dropped his chin until he was staring at me out from under heavy brows, and his smile was dazzling—and terrifying—in this half-light. It made a shiver skitter down my spine. The genuine jolt of adrenaline made me have to fight a smile of my own. But I did it because I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction.
“Cool your jets, Sparky,” I said, trying to sound like I thought he was nuts. “You don’t know everything you think you do. I’ll see you in an hour, though.”
“Yes, you will.”
I turned away and stalked back to the door, each step just a little faster than the one before.
And I kind of hated myself, but I passed on the message that the girls had been turned away, and the guy was to go in and talk to Sid.
David nodded and asked me if I was coming back for the session.
“Yeah,” I said, my palms beginning to sweat, though I couldn’t exactly have said why. “I think I am.”
“Great! See you in an hour then.”
And then I fled to the bar to get a drink and maybe watch someone have sex in one of the alcoves with those little windows because I needed to keep my brain busy until then.
What you see at five is going to scare you…
I fucking hoped so. Otherwise it was going to be the biggest anti-climax since Cain disappeared.
And I didn’t think I could handle another one.