Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Brian
Walking into Stronghold, Patrick headed across the club to a table where Rae was sitting, which was not what Brian had been expecting to walk into.
There were two other women with him, and behind him were Law and Julie, who Brian recognized immediately.
At least, he’d spent enough time with Law on the island that he knew the back of that bald head, and it wasn’t hard to figure out that Julie was the one next to him—not too many FemDoms at Stronghold had her petite stature, and none had the combo of her stature and long black hair.
There was a sense of tension in the air, of drama, and he picked up his pace to find out what was going on.
“Iris was feeling uncomfortable because she said Noelle kept glaring at her.” Rae’s voice floated above the crowd, clearly heard as Brian slid around to the side so he could see a little better. Mitch glanced over and saw him, but the others didn’t seem to.
Rae looked cute as hell in a purple corset with lace and ribbons that she wore a lot, her braids in pigtails tied with matching ribbons. Her expression said ‘ready to fight,’ though, and her arms were crossed over her chest, pushing up her breasts.
“So, Domi and I looked over at Noelle to see what Iris meant and saw her glaring at Iris. She started waving her hands around and saying something to the rest of her group, then she jumped up and headed over to knock on your door.”
“And that was it?” Patrick asked.
“That was it,” Domi confirmed with a nod of her head and a glance to Patrick’s left. Leaning around, trying not to draw attention, Brian noted that’s where Noelle was standing. He couldn’t see her expression.
Patrick turned to his right.
“Amy, did you notice anything else from this group?”
“Um… well, no… but I wasn’t really watching them,” Amy said in a rush, sounding extremely uncomfortable.
“So, the first time you noticed them looking at Noelle was when Rae indicated?”
“Um, yes?”
Patrick turned.
“Sam? Carolyn? Marissa? Did you notice anything else?” he asked, his tone long-suffering. Clearly, he felt a certain way about this, but he was making sure to cover all the bases.
The three women shook their heads.
“They were looking at her when we looked over,” Carolyn offered up, sounding more amused than anything else.
“Only because she was glaring at Iris,” Rae retorted back. “We wouldn’t have looked at you at all if she hadn’t started it.”
“That’s not true! Iris has been shooting hateful looks at me all night, then she was obviously talking about me to you!” Noelle butted in tearfully, sounding like she was on the verge of breaking down.
“Yeah, because she told us that you were glaring at her. Which you were,” Rae retorted. “I haven’t seen her shoot one look at you. Why would she? She just wants to be left alone. You’re the one who’s obsessed with her.”
“Because she’s trying to ruin my reputation here and drive away all my friends! Or steal them from me!” Noelle sounded close to hysterical, and she leaned into Patrick’s side as though she was appealing to him to take pity on her… unfortunately for her, he wasn’t buying it.
He frowned down at her. It was a good thing his submissive, Lexie, wasn’t here to see this. She wasn’t super possessive, but she would have drawn the line at the way Noelle was trying to manipulate Patrick.
Noelle seemed to realize she was losing her audience. She sniffled again.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I know I must sound crazy.
I’m just so on edge because of all the rumors going around about me here.
I don’t want to lose my friends. I don’t want everyone talking about me.
I just want to be able to come here and have a good night and not be bullied or harassed or talked about.
” She gulped in air, as if she was about to start sobbing.
“Maybe you should stop glaring at people then,” Rae said.
Patrick shot a look at her, but it was too late.
Noelle let out a wail and ran for the exit.
Quite a few heads turned as she went, concern rippling through the crowd of people.
No one liked seeing a submissive running from the club upset.
A few frowns turned back in the direction of Iris and the others, and Brian frowned back at them.
If they didn’t know what was going on, they needed to keep their opinions to themselves.
Noelle’s dramatic exit was only a tiny slice of the story.
“Noelle!” Amy called out before running after her. Sam hesitated.
“I don’t think they did anything. She’s just… sensitive,” Sam said before heading quickly after Amy and Noelle. Marissa went with her, leaving Carolyn behind. Patrick turned to look at her.
“What do you think? Is Noelle sensitive?”
“She’s a drama queen, is what she is, but it’s fun, right?” Carolyn flashed him a smile and laughed when he shook his head in disgust. There were quite a few people in the club who didn’t like Carolyn for various reasons, and she seemed to thrive on it. She was honest about it, though.
Patrick sighed again and turned back to the table. Law was now standing behind Iris, his arms wrapped around her for support, while Mitch stood between Domi and Rae, an arm draped over each of them. Brian had to resist the urge to go and replace his friend’s arm on Rae with his own.
Yeah.
Totally didn’t have any lingering feelings for her.
Not.
Not any that he was going to act on, at least.
Rae spread her hands wide, giving Patrick a challenging look. There was the inner brat coming out. Also her protective side. She was never going to back down from protecting her friends.
“What?” she asked Patrick.
“Just… try not to look at her.” He sighed again.
“Yes, I know how ridiculous that sounds. I can hear it. But…” He looked around as if remembering that he was out on the main floor, where everyone could hear him.
Tilting his head back, he looked up at the ceiling, probably begging some higher deity for patience, before he returned his gaze to the three women. “Just try not to look at her, okay?”
He couldn’t kick Noelle out for being dramatic. All he could do was try to mitigate the drama.
“Are you going to tell her not to look at Iris, too?” Rae challenged.
“Yes, I am,” Patrick replied firmly. “If everyone could just not look at each other at all, that would be great.”
Well, that was going to be interesting to enforce.
Not that Patrick was assigning any particular consequence. He was just making a request. But Brian didn’t know what he expected to do if it wasn’t followed. This was hardly a usual situation.
Giving them all a look, Patrick turned around as if he was going to head outside to follow after Noelle…
but her friends were already back inside.
Sam headed straight for the bathroom with Marissa and Carolyn on her heels.
Looking slightly miserable, Amy walked up to Patrick.
Brian was about to join his own friends when she happened to glance over him, and her expression lit up.
She held up her hand with one finger raised, asking if he could wait a minute for her.
Brian nodded, rocking back on his heels.
Considering everything that had just gone down, he would wait to join the table of friends, which wasn’t the worst thing.
It would give him a little more time before he had to face Rae for the first time since their trip and pretend he was completely unaffected.
Was she watching him?
He wasn’t sure.
He tried to sneak a peek, but when he looked, she wasn’t looking at him.
Maybe she had been, though.
Maybe you’re full of wishful thinking.
After having a low-voiced discussion with Patrick, who patted Amy’s shoulder before he headed back to his office, Amy wheeled around and hurried up to Brian.
Cute and curvy, she was pretty in a girl-next-door kind of way.
Her long brown hair had been pulled up into messy buns on either side of her head, giving her a vaguely Princess Leia look, and she was wearing a cute little black dress that hugged her curves.
“Hi, Brian. How’s Zach doing? Is he okay?” She bounced slightly in place as she clasped her hands in front of her.
“He’s good. Mostly. Sort of. I mean, it’s kind of hard to define.” Watching her practically vibrating in concern was making him uncomfortable. Taking her by the arm, he pulled her over to two of the empty chairs in the Lounge so they could sit down.
“He just loves Kincaid so much, you know?” she said earnestly, brushing an errant strand of hair out of her face. “He wants to tell his family. He’s just afraid.”
Amy and Zach had become good friends because she was a masochist in a vanilla relationship, though her fiancé was understanding about her needs and was fine with her scening platonically at Stronghold.
It worked for Zach since he was both a sadist and a switch in a committed relationship as well.
They’d been scening regularly to get their needs met almost from the very beginning.
Brian wasn’t surprised that Amy knew as much as she did about the situation. He was a little surprised at how distressed she appeared to be. Then again, she had a soft heart. As evidenced by the way she’d run after Noelle. Just knowing someone she cared about was hurting was enough to distress her.
“I know. And even Kincaid knows that,” Brian said gently.
“It’s just something they have to work through themselves.
” He reached out and took Amy’s hand in his, squeezing it gently.
“Are you okay?” It had suddenly occurred to him that maybe part of her distress wasn’t just over Zach but a reaction to everything that had just happened.
She took a deep breath, getting herself under control and confirming some of his suspicions.
“Yeah… Noelle was just so upset. And angry. And… Sorry. You shouldn’t have to worry about this.”
“No, it’s okay. You can tell me. Sometimes, it helps to unload on a third party who doesn’t have anything to do with the situation. And, to be honest, you look like you could use a hug.”
Looking up to meet his gaze, Amy’s hazel eyes were full of unhappiness as she burst into tears. Brian reacted immediately, without thinking, reaching across and pulling her from her chair onto his lap.
“I’m sorry,” she hiccupped, trying to get herself under control.
“It’s okay,” he murmured, rubbing her arm. “There’s nothing wrong with a good cry now and then.”
“I’m just so stressed out from the wedding, and I thought with my new medication that I’d be losing weight by now, but I’m not.
And Noelle is always so upset about things going on with Iris, but she won’t listen to reason, and she can be so nasty when you tell her that you don’t see what she does…
I know it’s just because she feels hurt and betrayed, but it doesn’t make it easier to deal with.
And Jeremy has been spending all these extra hours at work, and I really needed a good cry tonight, but Zach is going through it, and he’s not here, and I don’t want to scene with anyone else, and that makes me feel horrible because I should be more concerned about what he’s going through—”
“Breathe,” Brian murmured, rubbing her back.
He wasn’t sure she’d actually taken a breath while she was talking.
He’d understood all the words she’d said, but not exactly why she was upset about all of it.
There was one thing he could reassure her about.
“There’s nothing wrong with wanting to have your needs met.
You’re not horrible for needing a scene. ”
She sniffled again, taking a deep breath the way he’d told her to.
“I’m sorry for word vomiting all over you.”
“That’s okay. Word vomit is easy to clean up.”
Self-high-five. He’d managed to make her giggle.
Rae
“I’m gonna kick her ass,” Rae muttered.
“What? Whose ass?” Domi’s head swiveled around, finding what Rae was looking at immediately—Amy wrapped up in Brian’s arms on his lap. “Amy’s?”
“No, Noelle’s. If she made Amy cry, I’m gonna kick her fucking ass.”
It didn’t matter that they weren’t really friends.
There were a few people in the club everyone liked, including Rae, and Amy was one of them.
She was sunshine and rainbows and puppies and kittens, and right now, she was crying.
It made Rae want to punch someone. The fact she was pretty sure the person who had upset Amy was someone Rae already wanted to punch was just icing on the cake.
“Oh. I thought maybe you were jealous because Amy is sitting on Brian’s lap.”
“Sitting on his lap because she’s crying.
” If she’d just started sitting on his lap for no reason, Rae might have felt jealous.
If anything, right now, she felt envious.
She wanted to sit on Brian’s lap and cuddle up.
But she was also concerned about Amy and whatever the fuck Noelle might have said to her.
She definitely didn’t think there was anything going on there other than a distressed submissive and a caring Dom.
“What do you think Noelle said to her?” Iris asked nervously. Law’s fingers stroked up and down her arm, obviously trying to soothe her.
“Whatever she said, it’s not your fault,” he said sternly.
“I know,” Iris huffed, looking a bit mutinous. Even if she did know, she sometimes took Noelle’s behavior onto herself, as if it was her fault Noelle was a shit-stirrer. “I just…” She sighed.
“You can’t control her behavior. The best thing we can do is ignore her. Next time, we’ll make sure you’re seated so your back is to her. That way, even if she’s shooting you looks, you won’t have to see them,” Domi said.
“Plus, she really hates being ignored.” Rae shook her head. “I think she got off on causing drama tonight. She enjoyed making that little scene. She wants the attention.”
“You think she enjoyed it?” Iris asked, looking pained.
Domi and Rae exchanged a glance. Yeah, Rae thought Noelle had been enjoying being the center of attention and having all eyes on her. Iris sighed when neither of them answered and put her hand in her hands.
“I think you’re right. I don’t know how I ever considered her a friend. She really was a good friend sometimes, though.”
“Of course she was. No one toxic is toxic all the time. That’s what makes them toxic.
The fact is they’re really good at pretending to be a kind, caring person for a lot of the time, usually when they’re getting something they want from you or to make themselves look good.
” The way Law broke it down so quickly was impressive.
Rae’s fingers itched, wanting to make notes for her book, but she didn’t have any paper with her.
Turning her head, she found herself staring at Amy and Brian again. They’d gotten to their feet, and Brian was giving her a hug and a forehead kiss. Her heart ached. Was she really going to give up such a sweet, caring, good guy so easily?
Was it time to learn how to fight for someone?