Page 114 of Daddy P.I. 3.0

“I’ll copy you in on my response to Logan’s emergency motion then, shall I? I’ll consider it jointly submitted by the Master of Training and the new Master of Fur. Congratulations on your collaboration, gentlemen.”

Theo pushes me toward the door. “Sounds good.”

Since I can read how Chess’ mood has shifted just as well as Theo can, I grab Bull and drag him with me. Theo closes the office door behind us as I hear Chess say, “Up on my desk, my puppy. You need a little grooming.”

The three of us, big, brave dominants, stand in the hallway looking at each other.

“He was about to blow a gasket, wasn’t he?” I ask Theo.

“Yeah. I’ve only seen him do it twice but I don’t need a repeat. He gets more and more caustic until he flays the skin off you. But if it’s any consolation, his near melt-down’s a good indication of how deeply he’s feeling. What’s the thing about his shame? The brother and the submissive he holds in the highest regard?”

I glance at Bull, who grimaces. All of the management committee have seen the CCTV footage of Ten’s confrontation with Brenna in the hallway after she tried to resign from the club, although the committee’s divided over what to do about it. There’s no audio because when I first designed the system we all agreed that what we’d be hearing in the hallway were muffled screams from the dungeons and it wasn’t desirable to have recordings of that. But after Chess saw the CCTV of theconfrontation, he changed his mind. I upgraded all the CCTV in the club in September.

Despite the lack of audio, it’s perfectly clear from the body language in the recording what’s happening. Brenna’s facing a camera when she uses her safe word and every Dom in this club knows what the word “red” looks like on a submissive’s lips.

“Show him,” Bull says.

I pull out my phone and load up the recording of the confrontation, which I have saved on my phone as well as in the club archives, just in case. I hand my phone to Theo who watches it in silence, his lips tightening.

“How long after this did those Neo-Nazi assholes attack her?” Theo asks.

“A few days.”

Theo hands the phone back to me, shaking his head. “Is Ten on probation? There hasn’t been a whisper about any punishment through the club, although I can see why you’d keep this within the committee since they weren’t in scene.”

“No,” I respond.

Theo’s eyes narrow. “Why not?”

“Because DirtyGurl doesn’t want to pursue it and the committee is divided on how to deal with it if she ever does. As you’ve said, they weren’t in scene. However, most of us believe a submissive’s safe word must be honored no matter what the setting.”

“I’m fucking pursuing it,” Theo says.

“Talk to Maude first,” Bull grunts.

“Why?” Theo asks.

“Because you’re not the only one who wants to pursue it,” I say. “Maude has strong views about Ten’s stability and how it needs to be handled. She’s maneuvered him into voluntarily going to therapy with that new girl, Krissy. But trust me, no one is ignoring it.”

Theo’s shoulders drop an inch. “Okay. Look, I work in a bureaucracy. I get that things have to be handled in a certain way and the wheels grind slow. But between this and what’s going on with Emmett and Drew, it looks like the committee’s lost sight of the duty we owe our subs to keep them safe and respect their limits. At least that’s the way it looks to me as an outsider.”

“That’s the way it looks from the inside, too,” I assure him.

“I know I’m going to regret joining the committee in about a hundred different ways but for now, I’m on side. Whatever you need. What do we do? What happens next?” Theo asks.

I glance at Chess’s closed office door. “For now, we wait. We line up support. We talk to the house subs and make sure none of them have agreed to scenes with Emmett and Drew.”

Theo nods. “I’ll take A through M. You take the rest.”

I clap him on the shoulder. In the wake of his assholism over Rick and Bren, I’d forgotten what it was like to have his support. Theo takes charge and gets shit done.

“Agreed. I’m going down to the Nursery to check on my little girl who should be napping now?—”

Theo snorts. “We all know she isn’t.”

“Right. Give me a half-hour. If you want to do this together, we could meet up in the small conference room on the ground floor.”

“Actually, I’ll come with you. Amy said she was going to nap, too. I’m curious as to what that means with her. I think we should make the calls together. Better to be on the same page.”

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