Chapter 24
twenty-four
LOGAN
I need a fucking break from the intensity of today but I don’t get one.
When we return to the house, Mac’s waiting for us. As soon as I’ve shed my coat and shoes, he beckons me into my office.
A red-eyed former house submissive is sitting on my couch.
I cross the room and sit next to her. “Annabelle, thank you for coming to talk to us.”
She sniffs and dabs at her eyes with a tissue.
Mac has moved the box that I keep on my desk to the couch next to her.
Bloodshot eyes and red nose aside, she looks rough.
Her curls are snarled and ratty around her face.
Upset or sleeplessness has carved shadows and lines in her rounded, motherly features.
“I’m sorry for being a coward,” she says.
“May I touch you?” I ask and when she nods, I rub her back. “Why would you call yourself a coward?”
“I ran away. Instead of standing my ground and fighting, I ran away.”
Mac sits down in one of the wingback chairs that he’s pulled up across from the couch.
“I know this is gonna sound strange from a man who used to fight for our country but there are times to fight and times to retreat. If you needed to retreat for your safety, that’s not cowardice, Annabelle. That’s survival.”
She nods and mops at her eyes. “I feel terrible for leaving the other subbies in the lurch. I abandoned them. I let everyone down. Master Javier’s been so wonderful with me and I disappeared without a word.”
I continue rubbing gentle circles over her back, feeling her nervousness in the damp fabric. It gave me huge amounts of comfort when Emmy rubbed my back in the museum bathroom; I hope rubbing Annabelle’s back gives her a fraction of that relief.
“D’you feel up to telling us why you left, Annabelle?”
She takes a deep breath and dabs at another tear. “They’re going to ruin my son’s career for this but yes, I’ll tell you.”
Mac sits forward, letting his hands dangle between his knees. “I swear to you, sweetheart, if it’s in my power, I will stop any repercussions from touching you or your family. No one should fear speakin’ up, speakin’ the truth.”
She sniffles. “I believe that, too but they have ammunition on almost all of the house subs. They’re very careful about that before they start hunting.”
The word hits me like a blow in the chest. “Hunting?”
She nods. “They call themselves the Wolfpack. They believe being Doms makes them predators.”
“And the house submissives are their prey?” Mac asks.
“Any submissive. They hunt anywhere. Blunts. Other lifestyle clubs. Private parties.”
“Who are they?” I ask, my voice cracking.
“I only know Emmett and Drew at Blunts but there are more.”
Hearing Drew’s name—again—in the context of our house subs being hurt, sends my blood racing. This is more than a rule about guests.
“I’m not doubting you, Annabelle, I just need to understand why you think that.”
“Emmett likes to brag after he’s come,” she responds. “He says they’re growing the Pack within the club and soon they’ll have the numbers to take over.”
I swallow hard, trying to control the flush of anger.
I don’t know Emmett much better than I know Drew.
Emmett’s mostly at the club on weekends.
He’s never held a role on the management committee.
He hasn’t come to any of the Monday Madness nights I’ve organized.
If I’ve ever done a scene with him, it’s been a group scene.
I don’t have any idea of what he’s like as a Dom.
The only thing I can remember about him, except that Bren jokes he has the second-best hair at Blunts after Rob, is that I’ve seen him around the pool and sauna a lot recently.
But that could just be because I’ve been there frequently of late while Mac teaches Bren to swim.
“I will not let that happen, Annabelle,” I say firmly.
She presses her lips together and flicks her eyes over my face.
I’m not sure what she’s looking for but I give her the same honesty I’d give Emmy.
I will not let Blunts be destroyed. Not by that twenty-two-year-old saboteur, not by a group of predatory Doms who think they have some God-given right to terrify our subs, not by anyone.
“I wasn’t here but the other house subs, they say you left. Master Logan, I’m not trying to insult you. I just . . . I’m afraid. I’m afraid they’ll hurt me again. I’m afraid they’ll hurt my family if I don’t keep my mouth shut. I’m afraid.”
“I’m back to stay,” I promise. “I’ve taken back the role of Master of Training so I can help the house subs fix whatever the hell went wrong while I was gone.
If that includes members getting the idea that they can hurt subs with impunity, that’s the place I’ll start.
I’m your cannon, Annabelle. Give me ammunition and a target. ”
A smile peeks through her tears. “It’d be nice to have a cannon.”
“You have two,” Mac says. “Give us ammo.”
“Emmett began asking me for scenes about a month after I started at Blunts.” She wipes her eyes and sits up a little straighter.
“I was flattered at first. I’m not young and beautiful like your subs.
” When Mac opens his mouth to object, Annabelle shakes her head.
“I’m not putting myself down. I’m realistic.
I love my body but I know I’m the oldest house sub by quite a few years.
I know I’m not the ideal of beauty I see among the house subs.
And I didn’t have any expectations coming to the club.
I was flattered to be hired. Even more flattered when I had so many requests for scenes.
It’s lovely to be wanted again. So I accepted any member who asked me for a scene.
I didn’t talk to the other house subs about them.
I didn’t negotiate my limits. I assumed a Blunts Dom asking to scene with me would know and respect them. Most did.”
Her lower lip quivers and she takes a fortifying breath.
“Emmett began pushing my limits from our first scene. I know what you’re thinking.
That should have been a red flag and I should have refused future scenes but he has a way of saying things to make you feel like it’s your fault.
He said he’d always respect my safe words but that it was his job as my Dom to challenge me.
” She twists the damp tissue between her hands.
“It was anal at first, which I’d done before but not like he wanted it.
Big plugs and toys to stretch me. Very rough and with less and less lube.
I won’t lie, he made sure I had orgasms but the pain was like nothing I’ve put myself through before and I’ve given birth to two babies.
Aside from the pain, he made all the right noises.
He asked for regular scenes. Praised me to the moon and back when I overcame something I thought I couldn’t.
Plenty of aftercare, asking about me, my interests, my family.
Now I realize he was just gathering information to use against me but at the time it was so flattering.
I’m not complaining, please don’t think I am but that investment—it can be lacking at the club.
I’ve done the same number of scenes with Emmett as with Masters Javier and Theo and I don’t know a single thing about their lives outside the club.
Emmett made me feel like he cared about me as a person. ”
She rubs her lips together and dabs at another tear.
“It was all a lie. He wasn’t invested and he didn’t give a shit about me as a person.
Once he found out my son’s in banking, he began using it to push me more and more.
If I didn’t agree to the scenes he wanted, he’d tell my son’s employers and business associates about what I do with my days.
Double-penetration was first. I had to take sick leave for three days to recover after he and Drew went at me.
Then it was two in one hole. You’d think all those plugs and toys would’ve made it bearable but they didn’t.
He scheduled a four-in-two scene with three guests and I just couldn’t.
I resigned and went to stay with my son upstate.
That’s when the threats started. If I didn’t return to the club, he’d make good on his threats against my boy.
My other son stepped in when he saw what a mess I was.
He took me to see a lawyer who told me sex clubs are illegal in New York and that Emmett and the other members have more to lose than I do.
You could be prosecuted just for being members, much less hiring house submissives. Is that true?”
I glance at Mac. His jaw is set but he nods.
“Yes, that’s true,” I tell Annabelle.
Franco and the club’s other lawyers have tried to protect the members as much as they can but the bottom line is that we’re all investors in an illegal sex club.
Annabelle nods. “That made me feel a little stronger. I messaged Emmett back and told him what the lawyer said. I said nothing could make me come back. He changed his tune then and told me to stay away from the club, keep my mouth shut, not say a word to the two of you . . . but Shannie told me she trusts you, that you’re trying to help, and I know keeping quiet won’t stop them.
I’ve seen abuse before; it doesn’t stop.
People like Emmett, they don’t stop once they get a taste for it.
They’ll do it to someone else, if not at Blunts, then someone they hunt in the clubs. Just like that man did to Cappa.”
Mac’s jaw drops.
“I’m sorry, Annabelle, what did you say about Cappa?” I ask.
“Emmett told me that Drew gave Cappa to one of the pack as a reward. He didn’t name names but Emmett said Drew knew what the wolf would do to Cappa.
They’ve been trying to get that date rape drug, roh-something, so that subs wouldn’t remember what was done to them.
The wolf who hurt Cappa—he’s their supplier. ”
“Rohypnol,” Mac spits. He’s flushed; his hands are clenched into fists between his knees. “I will fucking kill them.”