Page 48 of Secret Submission

Then, this Sunday, he’d go meet her parents. Not just her parents—her family. She’d warned him she had a big one, though so far, she’d talked about them in bulk. The aunts. The uncles. The cousins.

He'd always wondered what it would be like to be surrounded by a big family. The only time he’d got even a taste of that was during the occasional family reunions, where all the far-flung second and third cousins showed up. From the sound of it, Julie had more first cousins than he had second and third cousins combined.

“What’s up?” Sanda popped up at his elbow, phone in her hands, her gaze focused on the screen. Connor looked down at her with bemusement.

“You aren’t still looking for my… date, are you?” he asked. He wasn’t sure if he could call Julie his girlfriend yet. Even if he could, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to in front of Sandra. That would likely just push her to greater heights of internet stalking. So far, she hadn’t found Julie, and he was happy to keep it that way a little longer. Maybe after he’d met her family, he’d feel secure enough to let Sandra do some online sleuthing.

“Are you still dating?”

“Yes.”

“Then yes. Though, that’s not what I’m doing right now. I’ve been given a second assignment.” She scowled down at her phone. “My mom wants me to find out some stuff about my cousin.”

“You should do that instead. That sounds much more important.” Funny that he was thinking about cousins, and here Sandra was, investigating hers.

“Oh, don’t worry. I can do both.” She looked up at him and winked. “I’m gonna find her. Just because you haven’t connected with her on social media doesn’t mean I won’t. It just means it’ll take me longer.”

“Uh-huh.” Thankfully, Sandra had no clue what he did on the weekends. He’d never talked about Stronghold or the second floor of Marquis at work. It hadn’t seemed appropriate. He just said he’d gotten together with friends and let people assume it was at someone’s house or a bar.

The lack of personal information he had online and that he’d given out at work was definitely working in his favor.

He probably could have told Sandra more about Julie now, but honestly, he was kind of curious about what she’d manage to come up with if he didn’t. He’d give her until Monday after he met Julie’s family, then he’d tell her and Aubrey all about Julie. Minus a few pertinent details.

She sighed.

“My cousin is almost as bad as you about online details. What is it with you people and not putting your life online?” She shook her head and started walking away again before he could ask any questions about her ‘assignment.’ “Good thing I love a challenge.”

Chuckling under his breath, Connor went over as Kevin finished his rep set.

“Good job, man. I can really see the improvement.”

“Mostly thanks to you being a total task driver.” Kevin grinned, rubbing his leg a little as he stretched it out post-exercise. “I can really feel it. I’m moving a lot better.”

“You are. Let’s go over to the table.” He gestured for Kevin to lead the way. The man was walking almost completely normally, even after the exercises, which was great. That’s what made it easy to tell he’d been keeping up with working his leg at home, which was why his recovery was going so smoothly.

Now, it was time for the massage to loosen things up a little, then Kevin would be on his way home. Pretty soon, he wouldn’t need to come in at all. It kind of sucked that success in his field meant not seeing the person again, especially if they became friendly, but Connor knew that was also the sign of a job well done. At least with the kind of injury Kevin had. Granted, there were chronic conditions that meant he got to see the same person over and over again, but he wouldn’t wish anything painful on someone just so he could keep seeing them regularly.

“You’re a lifesaver,” Kevin said, sighing as Connor dug his fingers into the man’s leg, loosening up some of the muscles that had tightened during the exercises.

Connor grinned. He really did love his job most days.

Julie

It was days like this that Julie hated her job. At least she had her date tonight with Connor to make up for it.

Cassidy was a submissive who had been in an abusive relationship with a dominant. She’d been lucky—they’d come to Stronghold, and Don had gotten kicked out after ignoring her safeword. The problem was her ex wasn’t done with her, and there was nothing she or Julie or anyone could do about it. Not legally, at least.

He’d started stalking Cassidy, at first with notes left on her car or in her mailbox, and now with calls coming from duped phone numbers. Not that he said anything. He just breathed heavily into the phone and made growling noises, which might have been comical under other circumstances, but knowing who it was made Cassidy fall to pieces every time.

Even with the restraining order, there wasn’t shit they could do about it since they couldn’t prove it was him. The police were no help. Basically, until he did something violent, they were useless—and from many of the instances Julie had seen, even after there was violence, the police were often far from helpful.

There was only so much she could do to help Cassidy’s state of mind when her biggest problem was currently external, not internal.

“I just want to stop being afraid all the time.” Cassidy huddled on the couch, arms wrapped around herself, hugging herself. Her long dark hair fell forward, covering most of her face, as though she was trying to hide behind it.

“I know. And you deserve that.” Julie kept her voice soothing, even though she felt like screaming in rage at her own helplessness. It wasn’t fair that Cassidy was having to spend her life in fear while that asshole Don strutted around with impunity.

The fact he’d gotten more fixated on Cassidy rather than moving on didn’t bode well. Neither did the slow escalations from notes to phone calls and the decreased time between contact. That he was going to keep escalating, that he was eventually going to hurt Cassidy again, Julie had no doubt.

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