Page 80 of Cage

Maintenance work.

The useless landlord quitting the job half-way through.

Even an attempted break in that got disturbed before it got going.

Maybe these seemed like unlikely explanations, but they were possible in theory.

Cage knew from years of experience that it was foolish in the extreme to write off a twist or turn simply because it wasn’t the most obvious option.

With that in mind, Cage had hot footed it back to his apartment. It was possible that Katie had gone there.

There weren’t any other realistic options that Katie could choose.

Sure, maybe she could have gone to a café or bar, but not for this period of time. And not without taking her wallet that Cage had picked up on the table back at Katie’s place.

All bets were on Cage’s home.

Cage had to believe that.

The alternative was just too terrifying.

But when Cage arrived at his place, he saw no sign of Katie.

Worse than that though, there was not a single indication that Katie had been there at any point in the day. Everything was untouched.

No, Cage’s worst fears were coming true.

Katie had gone.

It was at this point that Cage’s mind began to fall back into old ways.

Negative thinking.

Pessimism.

The idea that he could never be a good Daddy.

That he just wasn’t cut out to look after a Little.

Cage began to call Katie’s cell phone.

Over and over.

Each time it rang-out weighing heavier on Cage’s heart.

Cage began to speculate. Rather than being kidnapped, was it possible that Katie had simply run away from him?

After all, making her write those two hundred lines had been pretty harsh. It was the kind of punishment that didn’t come with any kind of up-side. There was no sexy afterwards to it. Only sore hands and two hundred repeated lines.

But if Katie had hated it so much, why had she agreed in the first place?

And why had she even offered to repeat the whole thing after her solitary mistake?

Maybe Katie had gone along with it simply to get Cage out of the apartment as quickly as possible. Then escape.

Cage had seen this kind of behavior before with his police work.

Runaways always tended to have a similar story once you got into it. And nine times out of ten it seemed to involvea breakdown in the home between the runaway and an overbearing or out of control authority figure.

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