Page 36 of Ashes of Sin and Stardust

“I suspected as much. You knew she was with Woodrow?”

“Yes. After they were kicked out of The Underground, I didn’t see her around much. Last time I saw her was when Woodrow and Lindsay tried to beat each other up in The Lounge.”

I nodded. “Simon said the same thing. What are your thoughts on the Woodrow situation?”

“Well, I’ll never trust him again, that’s for damn sure. I never suspected he was that kind of guy... How are we going to handle this? Will it compromise the organization? Especially with the expansion program starting in a few months?”

I shrugged, thinking about how devastating that could be. The Weston House placed former trafficked women with masters and dominants to care for them while they recovered. Sometimes they stayed with them, sometimes they left. Very few people even knew what we did. But if people found out what had happened with Rachel, word could get out and the whole thing could go down the drain.

“I’m not sure, but I still think we need to press charges against Pete. He lied and hid his true nature, and I didn’t vet him well enough before I placed Rachel with him. I think hiding the situation will compromise it more than dealing with it.”

She nodded. “You’re probably right. You need to talk to Alice, make sure you get her side of the story.”

“That’s the plan. I’m also going to touch base with Pete again. He was drunk, and so were his friends. I need to find out how much he remembers.”

“If you see Alice, tell her to call me if she wants to talk. No pressure.”

“Thanks, Becca.”

The following evening, I visited the Valley House hoping to hang out with my friends and talk to Alice. I took the telescope with me and knocked on her bedroom door.

It was unlocked, but she wasn’t inside, so I set the telescope by her window, found a piece of notebook paper, and wrote her a quick note. I decided it would be best to discover it alone rather than deliver it to her in front of other people. I wasn’t sure how she was going to react, and the telescope itself could be triggering to her.

On my way up to the Rec room, I passed the Christmas tree set up in the lobby. There were a few gifts under it, several for me since I’d missed Christmas. One of them was an envelope with my name on it. I tore it open tentatively.

Alice had given me a brat pass.

For the first time since I’d met her, I felt my mouth twist up into a very small smile.Pity she isn’t here to see it,I thought. I tucked it into my pocket and went upstairs.

But something had changed since Christmas. During my time upstairs, Alice didn’t look at me, acknowledge me, or attempt to ask me any questions during the game. She basically pretended I didn’t exist. Even when David asked her an uncomfortable question and I jumped in to divert the situation, she basically ignored me.

The past six months you won’t leave me alone. Now I want to talk to you, and you’re ignoring me. What the fuck?

She eventually snuck off. I let her go even though I wanted to follow her. She looked upset, and she didn’t need me confronting her right now, especially with what was waiting for her in her room.

People eventually went to bed, and I stayed on the couch, staring out the window and wondering what Alice was doing upstairs. I found myself flipping the brat pass card over and over in my fingers.

Ivisited GreenwoodValley over the next few evenings, each time hoping to catch Alice or speak to her, but I never seemed to be able to get her alone. She seemed to have switched her attention from me to Scott Murphy, which made me seethe a little because he was clearly infatuated by her and her delicious skin and her perfect, spankable curves, and there was no way in hellthatwould ever work out.

Plus, it was my name on the collar she was destined to wear around her neck. And I was pretty sure Scott was a sub anyway.

It was a subtle change, but after that night in the game room, realizing I no longer had her attention, every time I saw her the same word popped into my head.Mine. After the fourth day, it was getting frustrating, because she seemed perfectly happy tonotbe mine.

When had I gone from repulsed by her, to possessive over her,I wondered. It must have been when I realized someone else had tried to break my girl. And I would not let any of my girls be broken. I had thought of her asmy girlfor over twenty years. A few months of frustration wasn’t going to change that.

A bunch of us were hanging out in the Rec room one Friday night when Alice burst in with a little hint of madness in her eyes. Her face was flushed, her hair tied up into a messy ponytail, her face free of makeup. She wore jeans and a sweater. She looked completely different, and I liked it. I liked her all done up like a gothic little freak... but I liked her dressed comfortably and in her own skin, too.

Her eyes darted around the room, jumping from the Murphy’s, to DeVon and Tammi, to David and Maggie, and then to a few of the other people talking in the room. She looked upset, or frustrated, like she had something that she needed to say and it was right on the tip of her tongue.

Finally her eyes settled on me. She swallowed, glared, rolled her eyes, and then used her hand to wave me towards her.

Her chaotic facial expressions aside, I was relieved that she wanted my attention again, so I immediately stood and went her way.

“Comeon,” she said, grabbing my hand and pulling me down the stairs.

Her hand was so incredibly tiny. As she dragged me through the hallway and across the lobby to the front porch, it hit me just how small she was. Simon was right, she was definitely under five feet tall, but had the personality of three people. Actually, she seemed to have several different personalities. Maybe that was the condition Becca had hinted at.

She hauled me outside and around to the back of the house and pointed to her telescope. It was set up in the middle of the snow, pointed up at the night sky. I had to stoop and kneel in the snow to see through the eyepiece, but when I did, I felt my mouth fall open at the sight.

---