Page 92 of Vengeance of Childhood Proportions

“Oh, lovely. Is there a brain cell between any of them or are they all just a bunch of pretty faces?”

“We’ll see, but we might want to move things along. There’s talk of bringing in the National Guard.”

Shit. I still had to make it back to Atelihai Valley at least one more time for the Grand Finale. Principal Hagley owed me a fucking explanation. Throughout everything over the past fifteen years, there was one question I’d never been able to answer: why? Why had a State Championship meant so fucking much that he’d covered up my attack?

I wasowedthe truth.

And I planned on making it very public.

I also did not want Master Mal around for that. Even if he didn’t know I was me, his little owl, I didn’t want him to see me like that. Not if I wanted a future with him. There was so much he couldn’t know, couldneverknow. I’d given up my claim on Roman’s life to save Master Mal’s. But I could not,wouldnot, give up Master Mal.

I didn’t know how to make my two lives mesh. But there had to be a way. I couldn’t havefinallygotten my revenge, freed myself from my past, only to be denied a future.

The world couldn’t be that cruel… Could it?

Chapter Fifty-Nine

Mal

What’s the saying?Go big or go home? Well, they went big.

The field agents I had assigned to Atelihai Valley, as well as myself, were brought back to Juneau. My entire murder board was taken down and the conference room was now for ‘case agents’ only. The new asshole I was given a few days ago got a brother when my incompetence was listed as the sole reason the Atelihai Killer had not been apprehended yet, but I was not the sort to just bend over and take it.

I was now suspended for three weeks without pay pending an investigation. Carr swore he’d try to get me back sooner, but only I wasn’t sure I cared.

Holly Marteen wasaliveand not a single person believed me. Even Mira told me that my witness was unreliable and the picture I had of Holly in 2013 was not enough proof just because the brunette was reading a book.

Well, fuck them. I didn’t need a badge or a team to find Holly Marteen. I was going to find her myself. I just had no idea what I was going to do once I did.

My little owl arrived at my house just before dinner was delivered. I was in the middle of fucking her up against the wall by my front door when our food arrived, and was still insideher when I opened the door to receive the bag from the stunned driver.

Despite that the first time I’d ever fucked her had been from behind, I hadn’t taken her that way again. Things were so different with my little owl. Even without the bondage or impact play, I wanted to know about her. I wanted to be with her constantly. I let her sleep in my bed and I fuckinglovedkissing her. Hell, we were talking about going on a vacation!

There was no way around it: I was fucking whipped.Me!Master David wasn’t the only one who could hardly believe I’d put a collar on a submissive.

The fact that I’d taken her as soon as she’d walked through the door, without foreplay, without staging a scene, without making herkneel, was all the evidence I needed that I was falling for my little owl.

And when she cried, “Master!” at the top of her lungs as we both came? I just about came a second time.

Both sweaty and panting with her back still to the wall of my foyer and my deflating cock inside her, we stared at one another. I moved strands of her blonde wig out of her face. The words I’d never said before to a woman were right on the tip of my tongue. I didn’t know what stopped me. I wasn’t the sort to hesitate. I said what I meant and meant what I said.

I wrapped a lock of the blonde wig around my finger. Maybe that was what was stopping me. What did I really know about my little owl? So much had happened that it seemed like such a long time, but it was really only a week ago that she’d removed her mask for me for the first time. Less than that that I had known her real name. I had never seen her eyes without contacts, never seen her head without a wig.

She worked as an artist, but I didn’t know what she made or what medium she used. How bad of an investigator was I that I’d never bothered to ask?

Was I more in love with hersubmissionthan I was with her as a person?

Who was Phoebe Snetsinger?

From the beginning, I had been obsessed with her. I’d tracked her down at the club, fed my fixation for her body. And once I had her in the palm of my hand, I gripped tight and hadn’t let go. It was like I neededhermore than I needed to get to know her. I knewthings, little tidbits I’d picked up on, as well as that one fact she was required to tell me about herself each day.

Bending, I kissed her sweaty forehead. “Join me for a shower, then we’ll pile pillows and blankets in the living room and eat in front of the fire.”

Her smile widened. “Why, Master, that sounds utterly romantic.”

I nipped her bottom lip. “It comes at a cost, pet.” I pulled her wig. “This comes off.”

Her cheeks paled and her eyes widened. “Wh-what?” she stuttered. She shimmied a little, like she wanted to get down, but I held on tight. She knew the words to say if she needed to truly escape.

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