Page 120 of Lesson In Faith

“Not me. Those two.” Merrick lifted his chin at the Mistresses.

“What the hell went on in here?”

“Don’t ask me. I think Ericka’s about to divulge some secrets though, so keep those cuffs to hand.”

“We have a guest, Ewan McGrady, who comes once a month and stays for a weekend. He has some serious perversions,” Ericka said, glancing up at Elias, then Grit. “Red flag perversions. Several of the staff have made comments about him.”

“I haven’t seen any reports,” Grit commented. “Did they report him to security?”

She shook her head as Violet groaned under her breath. “No. I don’t think they spoke to Evander either, although that was mentioned. He hasn’t crossed a line yet, but his behavior is escalating each time he visits, as though he’s testing the waters. He’s been flirting with Linnie—”

A sob burst from the doctor as she curled into a ball on the floor.

“The thing is, they’re from the same county in Nevada. Ewan’s older, considerably.” Misery etched around her mouth, Ericka stroked Linnie’s hair. “He likes his women younger; a predilection that stems back to his teen years.”

A growl rumbled from Elias. “Are you telling me we have a pedophile in my club?”

“He was never convicted of rape, statutory or otherwise. As far as I know, he doesn’t have a criminal record.” Ericka paled at the sound of barely leashed rage in the sadist’s voice.

“If he did, he wouldn’t have been eligible for membership.” Grit lifted his eyebrow at Elias. “Want me to do some digging into this asshole?”

Blue eyes blazing, Eli shook his head. “Don’t bother. Revoke his membership immediately and have him escorted off the property within the hour. I want a meeting with any and all staff who’ve had contact with him, particularly anyone he’s played with. Screen the guests as well.”

“Yes, sir.” Passing the cuffs to Merrick, Grit made a hasty exit.

Crossing over to Linnie, Elias hunkered down on his haunches and took control. “Linnie, I need to hear this from you, no matter how hard it is. I promise you, you are not in trouble. We’ll do everything we can to support you through this, but we need to know what we’re dealing with.”

“Eli, she’s in no state—”

“Quiet, Ericka. Keeping silent hasn’t done anything but bring trouble. She physically and verbally attacked a club Master, which is a termination offence.” When Linnie whimpered, Eli’s hard expression didn’t soften. “I’m willing to be lenient if Merrick is.”

Crap, now all eyes were on him, including Linnie’s. Hating being put on the spot, he just lifted his shoulders. “Be a shame to lose a good doctor over something like this. If she’s gonna get help, I guess we can put this behind us.”

Ericka shot him a grateful look; Violet offered a pleased smile.

Elias just nodded as though he expected nothing less. “Sit up and dry your eyes. Tell me about this Ewan.”

Sniffling, Linnie did as she was told without a single heated glare or snipped word. She was pale, although embarrassment brought color to her cheeks when she met Merrick’s eyes apologetically. Swiping her fingers under her eyes to get rid of the tears, she snuffled a few times but seemed blessedly calmer. “I’m sorry, Merrick. Truly. This whole mess has been building to a head and today… well, I suppose it all just got too much.”

“Why?” he asked gruffly.

“You and Tamsyn… there are similarities between your relationship and what happened with Ewan. I didn’t have anyone to protect me from him, and she… she reminds me of who I was back then.” With a shaky sigh, she ran her hands through her hair, then dropped them into her lap. “I was fifteen when I met Ewan. A group of high school girls hanging out with the boys in the parking lot of a convenience store, making out and daring each other to go inside with fake IDs for beer and smokes. Stupid kid shit, a kind of rite of passage, growing up.”

He'd been there, done that. He sure as hell didn’t miss the constant battle for popularity, the ever-changing hierarchy and sudden plummet from popular to unworthy, and back again on the whims of teenagers who thought they ruled the goddamn world.

“Ewan was twenty-eight, which of course meant he was super cool in our eyes, even though he literally spent every night goofing around with us. He was the big brother of the school football team’s fullback—one of the guys in our group, so it didn’t send up warning flares. When he started working his way through my friends, fucking a different one every week or two, it was just…” Linnie’s jaw tightened. “At first, it was a thrill, you know? Sex was the great unknown, and suddenly one of our own had firsthand knowledge. Then another, and another, but no one was saying any names. We just assumed the boyfriends were putting pressure on, because they were randy as hell.”

A sexual predator let loose among a gaggle of high school girls—underagedhigh school girls. Yeah, that was enough to stir up a frenzied case of misandry, Merrick thought as disgust curdled his gut.

“But the guys were getting annoyed. Their girlfriends were losing their cherries left, right, and center, but not to them. Tempers were starting to fray, relationships fell apart, and eventually it came out that Ewan was the one destroying the group. I was the fourth one,” she admitted softly. “The fourth out of seven. He was good at what he did—he had using the lure of his age and experience down pat, flashing charm and wit like cash. Even when I said no, told him I wasn’t sure I wanted my first time to be something casual and meaningless, the charm was still there, only it was… ruthless. Merciless. He had a way of turning a no into a reluctant maybe, then used cajolery and persuasion like weapons until it was just easier to say yes.”

Violet closed her eyes and leaned forward to press her cheek against Linnie’s. “You know that’s rape, Linnie. Coercion, no matter how it’s applied, is still rape. Given your age, it was statutory rape. Did you report him?”

A soft, bitter laugh. “We were all too embarrassed, especially once we realized he’d duped all of us into fucking him. He bagged all seven of us in one summer, and it broke the entire group apart. I don’t think his brother, Chris, spoke to him again after he found out—Chris had his eye on me,” she said mournfully. “The feeling was mutual, but Ewan… he knew how to make teenaged girls dance to his tune. We weren’t his first dalliances, and we sure as hell won’t have been his last.”

Fordham set his boot against the wall he leaned against and pushed himself forward into the conversation. Eyes dark and thoughtful, he cocked his head. “Are you still in contact with any of the girls from back then?”

“No. There was a lot of heartbreak involved, a whole heap of jealousy dumped into what were close friendships. A couple of the girls were convinced they loved him, that he was their future. The weeks after he broke up with them, they wouldn’t talk about anything but how to get him back, how they were going to marry him, raise a family, blow off college to have the perfect life.” She shook her head ruefully. “I was on that precipice, until I understood he was a user. It took me a month to realize I’d been good for one thing and one thing only—a bloodstain to add to the collection already on his dick.”

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