Page 95 of Daddy P.I. 3.0

Once we get around the corner so the Doms can’t see us, some of the subbies take off in a sprint. I’m sure they’re headed for the hiding places at the far end of the Long Gallery. I drag my flight to the side and grab Austin’s hand before he gets too far away.

His deep brown eyes find mine. He’s wearing a ball gag, so we’re going to have to communicate via signals.

“The Doms will head to the far end of the Gallery. We need a closer hiding place that will fit all of us but is deep so they won’t be able to see us if they take a cursory look.”

Austin nods. He pinches his nose with his free hand.

“Smells don’t bother me.” I glance around at the rest of my flight and Georgie. Everyone’s nodding.

Austin tugs on my hand.

We follow him in a line, picking up Tessa. I feel slightly bad about sequestering another house submissive in our hiding space but if another group wanted her, they should have been faster.

Austin leads us to a huge landscape in a really ugly wooden frame about a third of the way down the Gallery. Daddy told me the secret passageways out of the Long Gallery are a house submissive secret. Members aren’t told about them. If members find them during hunts, they’re not supposed to tell each other. Daddy doesn’t think he knows them all—they’re passed down from house submissive to house submissive during their training period and even the Master of Training isn’t let in on the secret. Which is why the rule about using the secret passageways only with a house submissive is so strict. They evidently thread all the way through the club, letting out in other dungeons, the nightclub, the Trattoria’s kitchen, even the underground parking lot.

Austin and Tessa work together to unlatch the picture. It swings away from the wall, revealing a dark tunnel that starts about waist height.

Before I even consider how I’m going to get up into it, Austin catches me around the waist and swings me up into the tunnel. He tosses Tessa straight in behind me. She grabs my hand and leads me into darkness.

Quick breathing fills the passageway as the other subbies crowd in behind us. The passageway isn’t very high. I have to bend over to avoid hitting my head. Austin and Georgie are bent almost double. Daddy will definitely not want to climb into this vent or whatever it is. I can hear the soft rush of air ahead of us, although the tunnel we’re in is still.

Tessa pauses and whispers, “There’s a grate in the floor ahead of us. It won’t support full body weight. We have to walk on the edges. Follow me, put your feet where I put mine.”

“Okay.” I glance over my shoulder into the mouth of the tunnel. Whoever was last in must have pulled the picture closed behind us because there’s only the faintest gray light in the passageway. Matty’s right behind me, her eyes and teeth glinting with excitement. Georgie’s pressed up against her hip, on his hands and knees, which is smart although I hope he doesn’t rip his fursuit.

“Put your hands on my hips,” I suggest to Matty. “We need to step where Tessa steps.”

Matty nods and grips my hips. Wow, her hands are strong like Daddy’s.

Straining in the dimness to see Tessa’s feet, I follow as she starts to move. I feel the uneven rungs and spaces of the grate under my left foot almost immediately and tuck myself as close to the wall as I can to keep my weight off the grate.

Tessa leads me around a corner and I sigh with relief. Even if Daddy or other masters know about this passageway, oncewe’re all around the corner, they won’t be able to see us. I can’t see many of them crawling down this tunnel after us.Notvery domly.

As I shuffle down the passageway after Tessa, I notice a growing smell. It’s not horrible but it’s not nice, either. It’s stale and moldy, like cheese that’s gone off.

“What is that?” I whisper to Tessa.

“Vent from the Spa,” she whispers back. “We think it might be the pool filters. We’ve told the cleaners and they say they’ve taken care of it but the smell never gets much better.”

I don’t think a pool filter should smell like that. I make a gagging noise.

“No joke,” Tessa whispers. “This is the least-used secret passageway and now you know why.”

“Pee-eww,” Matty whispers behind me.

I nod and cup my hand over hers at my hip. Even though we’re playing and I’m notreallyafraid of the stinky dark, it’s nice to feel my flight with me, supporting me, in this strange space.

“Everyone around the corner?” Tessa whispers.

I relay her question down the line. The answer comes back quickly. “All good.”

Tessa shuffles a little further and then sits down. “We can wait here. Austin, you got the count?”

“Yes,” he stage-whispers back.

“What’s the count?” I ask Tessa, sliding down the wall to sit cross-legged next to her. There’s stone at my back and under my butt, so we must have moved out of the vent, even though the smell doesn’t get any better.

“Hunts are timed. Thirty minutes. If the Hunters haven’t found us by then, we win.”

---