Page 33 of Sub Mission

The twink giggled. “Oooohhh, yes. He’s a pretty one. He yours?”

“Just answer the fucking question,” I hissed.

“Easy,” the big man warned. “That’s mine so show the same respect I’d show to what belongs to you.” When I turned my glare in his direction, he didn’t back down at all. “The guy you’re talking about was here, but he was sick. It was pretty evident he’d had way too much to drink—couldn’t talk and definitely couldn’t walk on his own. Some other guys from your group helped him get up and said they were taking him home. They told us the table was open and then moved on.”

“What?!” I roared. “When did this happen?” Terror gripped every inch of my body. Baker hadn’t drunk enough to be incapacitated. He’d been drugged. Fucking drugged, right under my nose.

The big man looked alarmed. “Just seconds ago, man. Were those guys not with you? Your man didn’t act…” He stopped talking. “Hell, he couldn’t act like anything. He was too far gone.”

I was surprised when the giant stood up. He had about three inches on me and was nothing but solid muscle. “It pisses me off when shit like this happens. Mischel, stay here and don’t drink anything or let anybody touch you. Blow your whistle if anybody comes near you. I mean it.” He turned to me and said, “They went toward the front exit. Let’s go.”

I had no idea why he was offering to help or if he was leading me to my death, but didn’t particularly care at that moment. If he led me to Baker, I’d deal with what happened when we got there. Between both of our sizes, people cleared a path for their own safety.

“They couldn’t have gotten far,” the man muttered. “This shit is happening more and more often around here.”

We burst through the doors and the cool night air did nothing to help my burn—it was from the inside out. I looked in one direction and he looked in the other. Within a second, I heard him yell, “There they are!”

I turned toward his voice and just started running. He was already racing down the sidewalk. I looked ahead of him and saw three guys practically dragging a lifeless Baker toward a large black SUV. I roared loud enough to wake the dead and as soon as they heard it, they dropped Baker onto the sidewalk and made a wild dash for their ride.

It felt like it was in slow motion as I watched Baker’s body tumble lifelessly to the ground. The back of his head smacked against the concrete hard enough that I heard it from where I was, even over the loud nightlife noise of Miami. Once he hit, there was no movement at all.

I’d passed the guy who’d helped me and was on my knees, cradling Baker in my arms, and calling 911 before he made it to where we were. After giving the information to 911, I hung up and started checking Baker’s vital signs, whispering words of encouragement and love the entire time.

His eyelids fluttered, and he mumbled, “Stop screaming at me.”

At least, that’s what I thought he said. I was just so damned happy to hear him talk that I almost broke out into a chorus of Hallelujahs…and nearly cried tears of joy.

Big guy finally got to us and asked, “You call an ambulance yet?”

“Yeah, they’re on their way,” I answered. When I turned to look up at him, he gave me their plate numbers and a description of their vehicle. “There’s a lot of this bullshit going on around the clubs right now. Date rape drugs are still rampant, but they have a new technique they’ve added to their arsenal. It’s an EpiPen that injects heavy doses of GHB mixed with Ketamine. It’s fast acting and deadly. Get him to a hospital for some IV fluids.” He stood back up. “I need to get back to mine. Good luck.”

I watched him go, shocked that someone would step up the way that stranger had. Fuck, if it hadn’t been for them telling me about Baker, I could have lost him. If it was the same people responsible for the abductions related to Javier’s club, my partner…my subwould have been abused, defiled, and tortured while under my protection. Nausea caused the contents of my stomach to roll and tumble.

“Easy, babe,” I whispered as I cradled his head in my lap. “I’ve got you. I shouldn’t have left you alone. Shhh, you’re safe.” I kept talking, trying to reassure Baker he was safe. I wasn’t sure what he heard or if he heard anything, but I wanted to him to know I had him. He wasn’t conscious and was sweating profusely. His breathing was labored, and it hurt me to watch him gasping for air. After a few more minutes of waiting for the ambulance, I felt his body start to tremble with seizures. The vomit followed shortly after that. I was thankful the drug was being purged from his body but frightened he might choke on the poison flushing itself from his body.

After what seemed like a lifetime, the ambulance arrived and within minutes, we were both loaded in and headed to Mercy Miami Hospital. As they started an IV flowing through his veins, I shot off a text to Landon, giving him the quickest explanation possible until I could give him a more thorough update. I wouldn’t have taken time to do that, but he was blowing up my phone, wanting a confirmation that Baker was safe. Our men had witnessed the attempted abduction but I’d gotten there before any of them had blown their covers. I signed off in seconds and checked on Baker’s vital signs. His BP was low but, other than that, he looked like he was merely sleeping—much better than earlier.

We’d dodged a bullet. My jealousy had almost cost Baker his safety. Had I lost my ability to be professional? To keep focused on the job they were paying me to do? Past victims and future victims depended on me to settle this shit. Was I capable of separating my personal feelings from my job?

Two hours later, I felt much better regarding Baker’s health and even worse about my actions at the club. They’d been pumping fluids through his system and performed a gastric lavage as soon as he’d arrived. Watching them do that to him, inserting the tubes down his throat and in his nose, had been difficult. Seeing the fury in his cloudy blue eyes when he’d woken up to find himself being held down while tubing was inserted into him had been even worse—one of the worst feelings of helplessness and guilt of my life.

Now we were just waiting for the release papers to creep their way through the hospital’s system. Other than yes or no answers, he’d yet to talk very much.Did he blame me? He had to. How could he not?

Landon had been busy. They’d entered the tag numbers into the system and, of course, it ended up being stolen plates placed on the SUV. With the way my luck was going, I should have known it wouldn’t be that simple. He’d now pulled all the men that had been watching our penthouse to start gathering any camera footage they could obtain from surrounding businesses. With all the restaurants, clubs, and even a bank within a two-mile block ofSkittles, there would have to be security cameras that caught the SUV as it traveled to the scene and then raced away. If we were lucky, one of the cameras would capture the money shot and show faces of the vehicle’s occupants. Until then, we were dead in the water on what our next step needed to be. Landon didn’t agree with me, but I’d already told him there was no way Baker would be in Javier’s club tomorrow night. He swore he’d have extra security in place before then and that I was being unreasonable. He was probably right, but I didn’t give a fuck. I wasn’t doing another damn thing to risk Baker’s safety.

“Why did you bring me to the hospital?” he asked, finally breaking the silent treatment torture he’d put me through since he’d woken up and realized what was happening to him.

“Because you’d been drugged, Baker,” I answered quietly. We weren’t in a room and the only thing separating us and the next person were some curtains. We couldn’t afford to trust anyone or assume we weren’t being watched or listened to. I motioned around our curtained area to remind him of our surroundings.

He flipped me off. “I’m not incompetent, Seth. It was a simple question. You knew I’d been drugged and surely had a good idea what it was. I shouldn’t have drunk the cocktail, I know that.” He swore. “I knew better than that. Everybody knows you can get roofied in a club. I was just pissed, I guess.”

Baker didn’t know the entire story. When we were back at the penthouse and after I’d swept for listening devices, I’d explain that it was much more than him getting a dose of a regular date rape drug. They’d given him two EpiPens of some unidentified drug and then added something to his drink. He had no idea they’d been three steps from loading his unconscious body into their vehicle.

He had no idea my entire life flashed before my eyes when I realized he’d been taken.

“We’ll discuss it at home,” I answered softly. “Try to rest as much as you can until they cut you loose.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m not sleepy. Trust me, they goteverythingout of me. Are you fucking kidding me? I didn’t even think they pumped stomachs anymore. It’s like Frankenstein medicine. Seriously? There was no need. I would have slept it off. No biggie.”

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