Chapter Ten
Ava had stolen only one other car in her entire life, so yeah, you could say she was proud of hot-wiring Jack’s rental car, even if it did mean he’d be coming after her with a vengeance now.
Between keying it earlier today and stealing it tonight, she was off to a much stronger start on her car-related crimes.
This was the kind of thing she would have said while lying in bed next to Ari, and Ari would have looked at her over the top of whatever nonfiction she was reading (probably something about the animal kingdom, usually birds of prey) and shake her head fondly, roll her eyes affectionately.
And then the theft-related impulses would have stayed there, in their bed. Without Ari, all Ava’s worst impulses became reality.
Like stealing a car. Like hunting a billionaire for sport.
Okay, Ari might have actually been partially on board with something like that. Her only concern would have been about Ava’s safety—If you can tell me how you’d do it safely, honey, I’m all in.
Of course, Ava usually hadn’t thought that far.
Now Ava was strapped to a play bench in the specialty wing of Dynamo, a club that featured some private back rooms with a variety of toys and furniture that could make any night more interesting.
She wasn’t here for pleasure tonight—well, not just for pleasure.
If pleasure was part of it, that was a happy accident, if you will.
Ms. Rae was late.
Ava had targeted her in particular, not just because she was a female domme closish in age to Ava, but because Ms. Rae also happened to be Beatrice Rogers, executive assistant to the billionaire Ava was trying to kill.
Get tied up, learn about wax play and impact and sub space, and gather details about Cale Jacobson’s schedule at the same time. Two birds, one stone, one dead billionaire, as the old saying went.
Ava had thought it would be sexy and fun to get onto the bench first, still dressed in her little red dress—in retrospect not her best move—and she had slid her ankles into the smooth leather cuffs.
Outside of the handful of sessions she’d had with Ms. Rae and the experimenting she and Ari had done long ago, Ava was mostly a newbie to kink.
But she enjoyed it. And she enjoyed winning.
Which tonight meant escaping the hit man (!) that she’d ended up with, stealing his stupid car, too, and taking his gun.
Ah, shit.
His gun.
That was in her purse, which was sitting on the chair across the room. If he got to her before Ms. Rae—
The door opened.
“Well, aren’t you darling tonight, Mel?” Ms. Rae’s voice purred behind her.
Ava turned her head. Mel was her much sexier alter ego, someone who met up with dommes at fancy clubs.
Ms. Rae was in a skintight black dress that hugged every curve on her body, her tits spilling out the top.
Ava shivered. Ms. Rae had the same energy Jack did—centered, commanding. A little bit mean, but in a fun way.
Which was a horrifying thing to think about a contract killer, but here they were.
“How are you, love?” Ava asked.
Ms. Rae shut the door and trailed a hand down Ava’s back. “A man came looking for you tonight,” she said. “We should get you up and talk about what you want to do tonight. I have a new flogger I could introduce you to, or the hot pink wax-play candles are back in stock.”
Ava shivered again. Jack, here already? She had less time than she thought.
And Ms. Rae’s flogger sounded deliriously good, but tonight Ava needed information, especially since her window to get that information and get out of here was closing more rapidly than she’d planned.
Specific information about Cale’s party at the end of the month, something she technically knew about but maybe had overstated the depth of her knowledge on.
To a killer. Who, now that she’d stolen his car, probably wanted to kill her even more than before.
“No floggers tonight,” Ava said. She caught her breath. “Who was the man who came looking for me?”
“I’m not sure.” Ms. Rae slid Ava’s ankles out of the cuffs and helped her up. “Listen, he looked like he was bad news. I don’t know if they let him in or not, but if you’re mixed up with something dangerous, don’t bring it this way.”
Ms. Rae worked for a billionaire every day who did worse than anything Ava had done or planned to do, but Ava snapped her teeth shut and kept the thought to herself.
“Of course,” she muttered. “It’s hardly my fault if a creep came to the club looking for me.”
“I think it was multiple creeps, actually,” Ms. Rae said. “And you’re right. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to victim-blame.”
Ava froze. Multiple? Jack wasn’t the type to work with someone, a fact he had made very clear from the beginning of their reluctant partnership, so this meant—
“Mel.” Ms. Rae sat down on the bench and looked at Ava searchingly.
“I’m sure I don’t know your real name. I don’t know much about your life, except for what you’ve told me about the library.
But I have seen the people who came looking for you, and they’re not good news.
So whatever you’re mixed up in—get out. You seem like a nice girl. ”
Ava shifted from one foot to the other. “I’m glad you think I’m a good girl.”
“I said nice.” Ms. Rae arched an eyebrow at her. “Now, are we playing, or are you getting out of here before they find you?”
“Let’s play,” Ava said. “Or talk. Or—I don’t know.”
This was the part she was not good at, no matter what she had told Jack.
The social engineering. Lying, playing, getting information.
She actually kind of liked Ms. Rae, despite the fact that she worked so closely with a billionaire.
People had to work, after all. And if Ms. Rae was paid enough at either of her jobs, she probably wouldn’t be working two jobs to begin with.
“What do you want to talk about?”
“You,” Ava blurted.
She had gotten lucky with cloning Ms. Rae’s phone. She had lucked into all of it, really, and now she was wildly out of her depth.
“Me?” Ms. Rae sat back, her look shifting to guarded.
“I know you probably don’t share much about yourself to be safe,” Ava continued frantically. “But I—”
“You’re right,” Ms. Rae said. “Mel, I care very much about my clients, and providing good service, but it’s important to remember that this is a professional relationship. Maybe tonight isn’t a good idea, after all. We can set up another night, and I’ll refund you for now. How does that sound?”
Ava sighed, shoulders curling forward. “I heard there’s going to be a kink party,” she said. “A big one.”
It was a shot in the dark. A wild one.
“This rich guy hosts it every year,” Ava continued. “Out at a mansion in the mountains. That’s what my friend Kord told me. He said it’s a big gala, but a bunch of them—lots of rich people—have a play party, too.”
Ms. Rae tilted her head, her dark hair brushing over her bare shoulder. “Are you asking if you can have an invite?”
“Yes,” Ava said boldly. “It’s that health-care CEO who hosts it. That’s what my friend said.”
Ms. Rae’s eyes narrowed. “Hmm,” she said. “You’re talking about Cale Jacobson’s gala.”
Ava’s heartbeat thundered in her throat. A shot in the dark, and it had worked? “Yeah,” she said eagerly. “That’s the name he said.”
“His parties are known to be wild, but I haven’t heard anything about a play party happening at the gala,” Ms. Rae said. “And even if I had, I’m sure a party like that would be hard to score an invite to.”
“But not impossible,” Ava said. “You said that young women in the scene, both tops and bottoms, are always in demand. That the scene isn’t always safe, so there’s less of us, so—”
“You’ve been paying attention.” Ms. Rae’s eyes had that sparkle again, the little glint that said she thought Ava was a good girl, all evidence to the contrary be damned.
“I always listen to you.”
Except when Ava was bratting. But that was purposeful, playful, prenegotiated not-listening, not really not-listening.
“Good,” Ms. Rae said. “Well, I’ll Snap you if I hear anything about the party, but I stand by what I said. I think it would be best if we met up a different time.”
She ran her hands down her thighs and then stood, nodding at Ava.
It felt like rejection, though it shouldn’t. Of course, nobody should play if they weren’t into it. Of course. But Ava’s heart stuttered in her chest.
She wouldn’t see Ms. Rae again, she knew that. She would plan with Jack, if he didn’t kill her as soon as he saw her again, and she would find a different way into Cale’s party, and then she would kill Cale or die trying.
But either way, this connection, as limited as it had been, was over.
“Next time,” Ava said softly.
“Next time, Ava,” Ms. Rae said, her eyes flickering briefly before she shut the door behind her.
The door clicked just as the realization washed over Ava in a cold wave.
Ms. Rae hadn’t called her Mel just now.
She’d called her Ava.