5. Kitty
5
Kitty
Raul jerks back, gritting his teeth. “That’s it. I’m getting us out of here!”
He backs out from the side of the bench, straight into a cage sitting on his other side, then lets out a string of curses in Spanish.
I cringe at the sound of the metal cage scraping the stone floor. I quickly slip out from between the bench and the dildo display box to hold him off.
“What will you do? You might bench press a tank, but even you can’t break that door down.”
He gives me a death glare. “I may look thick, but I’m not stupid.” He walks to the door and studies it. “Why does the club even need a vault like this?”
Kitty shrugs. “The previous owner might’ve installed it. People who own an estate this size probably have many valuables to protect. The items in here may be worth quite a bit of money in certain communities. There’s a collector for anything.”
Raul doesn’t seem to listen and mutters, “There’s gotta be something we can do. We can’t sit on our asses and let this Fox get away with things.”
“We’re not,” I say, while scanning the wall and the items across from me. I then check the video of us the Fox shared. “It’s not surprising there’s a camera in here. They want to make sure their wiretap is secure. The camera must be somewhere around that suspension frame.”
Raul jerks his chin up. “Explain to me again, why can’t we just rip that thing off the wall?”
I step closer to him and lower my voice. “Because destroying it means cutting off our connection to them. And we don’t know what they already have.”
He leans in to me. “Why are we whispering?”
“They may be listening, and we don’t want to reveal our next moves.”
“What next moves?” Raul gestures to the door. “We’re trapped.” He looks around the room. “Unless we can break out some other way.”
“I think we need to use brain power rather than brawn here,” I point out. I position my laptop so the screen is out of view of the camera. “We have to assume they have audio ability, too. So, whatever we do, we have to keep it in the DL.”
“DL?”
“Down low,” I elaborate.
“Copy that,” he lowers his voice as well. “They’re sending us messages. Can we send them a message?”
“You can try talking to the camera.”
Without warning, Raul turns toward the general location of the camera.“What the fuck are you doing messing with this place, Fox ? Are you fucking stupid, or do you just have a death wish?”
“Well, if they can hear us, they’ll definitely react to that,” I say under my breath, shaking my head at his tactic.
We don’t have to wait long for Fox’s answer. This time, a fox appears in a bondage executor outfit. It flicks a whip at an angry bull who bends on its hunches in submission.
“Cheeky, this one,” I comment as I glance at Raul. Between his mask and his expression, he resembles the poorly animated bull on the screen. I almost swear there’s smoke coming out of his nostrils. “Don’t take the bait. But this is good. Keep going.”
“It’s lucky you have that thing with you.” Raul nods at the laptop.
“I never leave home without it and a few other things,” I say. “Say something else.”
He turns back to the camera and gives a derisive laugh. “Is that your kink, huh? ? Que paso? What happened? Did you get rejected by the club? Now, you’re throwing a tantrum? Looks like someone needs a reality check. Not everyone can be a Dom, however you manifest it.”
I can’t help but smirk. “Okay, cool it there, buddy. We need them to keep the messages coming, not for them to pull the plug altogether. Don’t get them so mad they’ll release the videos.”
“They’ll never do that or they won’t get the money,” Raul says only to me.
“Unless it’s not all they’re after.” I wait for a response from Fox. But after a minute, there’s still nothing. “Shit. What are they doing? Crap, I hate groping in the dark.”
“Huh?” Raul grunts.
“Say something else,” I suggest.
Facing the camera again, he yells, “Hah! Just as I thought. No tienes cojones . You’ve got no balls. Why don’t you show your ass here, and I’ll whip it for you.”
A timer appears on the screen: 10:00, and it counts down.
“Toro,” I call to him, alarmed.
“What’s that?” He bellows at Fox. “What’s happening in ten minutes, asshole?”
A message appears: “Let’s play a game, Toro. If you score, you add five minutes to the clock. If you don’t, you lose five. When the time is up, the videos will be processed and Club Wonderland can say hi to the world and bye to their members. Let’s see who still has their balls in the end.”
I sigh. “Boys and their balls.”
Ignoring my comment, Raul bluffs, “You know they’ll hunt you down, don’t you?”
Fox answers, “Not if I destroy them first.”
Raul and I exchange glances. That sounds personal. Whoever is behind Fox has a grudge against the Kane Family.
“I don’t care what you do to Club Wonderland. I’m not playing your game,” Raul says.
“But you care about her.” The footage of Princessa and Knight reappears. “Who is Princessa? Does she want the world to know she needs to be restrained to come?”
“Don’t react. They’re fishing,” I warn under my breath as we read Fox’s taunting message, trying to keep Raul from exploding. “This is both bad and good. But I need time. We have no choice. We’ll have to play along.”
Raul blows an angry breath and replies to Fox. “What game are we playing?”
“Truth or Dare?” I read Fox’s answer to Raul. “We’ll start simple.”
“Dare,” Raul says. “But Club rules stay.”
“The Club rules don’t matter anymore, but I’ll allow you that request,” Fox answers.
I hesitate to tell Raul what Fox writes next. “I dare you to… uh, strip naked,” I read.
He scoffs. “So predictable. Is that the best you can do?” He taunts the camera, but doesn’t strip. “You think nudity will humiliate me? I don’t give a shit if you blast my naked ass on the internet.”
The timer keeps ticking down. With the lags between the messages, we almost run out of time.
“Four minutes and twelve seconds,” I inform Raul.
Raul yanks off his leather jacket, kicks off his boots, and pulls off his black T-shirt, revealing his broad, thick upper body. An even layer of dark hair covers his bulging pectorals, while his rippling abs show off tan skin. Dark blue tattoos cover his shoulders, upper arms, and round out to his wide back.
I’ve seen Raul in that state of nakedness before while he played soccer with his team during downtime on the last job we worked together, but seeing him now still takes my breath away. I forget the countdown and can’t tear my eyes from him, just waiting for the rest of his clothes to come off. He doesn’t even hesitate.
The leather pants join the pile of clothes on the floor. And holy crap, he goes commando under all that leather? But since he’s facing the camera, I don’t get the full-frontal view, however the side profile is pretty dang impressive. Without shame, I gawk at the splendor that is Raul Rojas. A chime from my laptop forces my hungry gaze away from him to check on the timer. I sigh in relief as five minutes have been added back. Keeping my face averted, I give Raul a thumbs up.
“My turn,” he challenges Fox. “Truth or dare.”
The reply comes swiftly. “This is not how we play, dear Toro. You want more time, you do something for me. Not the other way around.”
I exchange glances with Raul while trying my best not to look at the rest of him. But it’s so hard since he’s so large. And so beautiful.
Focus, Kate!
“Truth or dare,” Fox prompts.
“Dare,” Raul answers fast. “There’s nothing you can dare I’m afraid to do.”
“Strap Kitty onto the punishment horse and flog her ass until she begs for mercy.”