Page 26 of Their Domme

“Yes.”

Maeve nodded a few times, searching my face. “What else?”

I squeezed my eyes shut and pressed a hand to my stomach when it rolled. Maeve followed the movement and paled, her eyes shooting back up to meet mine. After a small shake of my head, she held the words back, not voicing what she’d realized.

“It’s not simple anymore,” I whispered roughly. “There’s no place that’s safe until this person is gone. I might put myself in constant danger without a care, but now I’m protecting not only my partners, but innocents. Maeve, there is nothing I won’t do to protect what’s mine.Nothing. Get me that information.”

“Nic,” she murmured before taking a deep breath. “I’ll get your information. And a bit of unsolicited advice from an old friend? Ask Roderick to make a will… just in case. You have enough assets from your work. You will want to make sure you have things in place.”

I blinked back tears. “I know. I’m going to talk to him about it soon.”

“I’ll get started on retrieving your information and get in touch for a drop-off. I have Ansel’s number. If I need more than twenty-four hours, I’ll let you know.”

The car doors unlocked, and I reached for the door, but instead of opening it, I faced the woman I loved and hated in equal measure, someone who had helped shape me into the woman I was today. “Maeve?” She hummed, and I leaned over, pressing a soft kiss to her cheek. “In case I don’t get a chance to say it later, thank you. For everything, even if I hated it at the time. I could only hate you so much because of how deeply I love you. Maybe if things had been different… There will always be a part of my heart that’s yours even though you never wanted it.”

Maeve slowly turned, tilting her head to gently brush her lips against mine. “Goodbye, little one.”

She hasn’t used that nickname in years.Tears filled my eyes, and I rushed out of the car, moving as fast as I could until I strode toward the exit of the parking garage. Apparently, this was going to be a thing now—saying my goodbyes just in case this all went to shit later. I was under no illusions about my possible survival rate. Making over women to look like me, then killing them… that was a whole other level of depraved.

A warm breeze hit my face as I stepped out of the parking garage. I glanced around and realized I was only a few blocks from the police station with no ride nearby, no cell phone, and idea of where I was going, but fate had other ideas. A black car pulled up, blocking my path, then the back door opened. Before I knew it, I was being hauled inside, someone’s hand covering my mouth to keep me quiet as the car peeled away.

“So glad you decided to join us, Nicholette,” Sacha purred dangerously from the front seat. Vas let go of me just long enough for him to grab duct tape and press it over my mouth before winding it around my wrists as well.Thank goodness he kept them in front of me.“I’ve been thinking about this reunion for the past four weeks, twelve hours, and thirty-six minutes… in a lot of detail. I hope you’re ready.”

A muffled whimper escaped, then Vas pulled a bag over my head, letting the darkness take over.

I was so fucking screwed.

And horny.

Fuck, I hope I don’t throw up.

Vas

Monday

Holding Nic in my arms felt fucking surreal after a month of her being away. Sacha didn’t say anything else after threatening Nic. He was focusing on driving around, taking a meandering route with extra turns to disorient her. Nic didn’t try to fight or escape, but she didn’t lean into me either, so I hauled her up, holding her tight to my chest. She hadleftus. Right now, when I finally had her back in my arms, I wasn’t going to put up with even a tiny attempt at some defensive kind of distance.

Sacha had spiraled during Nic’s absence, his hair-trigger temper back at full force, replacing the calm man he had become with her around to balance him. My rage, however, had cooled. I became more quiet and calm, at least outwardly. Inside, I was hurt andso fucking angrythat Nic had just left. She’d walked out of our lives at the drop of a hat, taking everything with her, without so much as a glance back at what we had together.

I knew it might be a little more complicated than that, but the fact that someone was stalking her, the same someone who had possibly taken her brother, somehow didn’t matter right now. If she had thought for even a second that I wouldn’t track her down and drag her back to me, then she hadn’t been paying attention when I carved my name into her.Maybe I need to think of another way to get my point across.

“You have so much to answer for, slut,” I told her. She didn’t respond, though I could feel her shiver in my arms. “First, though, I want to know whose shirt this is so I can fucking blow his brains out.” I ran my hand along the men’s shirt she had on, not giving one fuck when I tore it off of her, ripping it apart to leave her in just the cami she had on underneath. Fuck, I couldn’t let myself think of all the people she’d walked by today, looking like this, on display for everyone. It would just piss me off more.

Reaching around her, I cupped her breast, enjoying the muffled moan she couldn’t contain, then I squeezed her hard, needing to make her feel a fraction of the pain she’d put me through. My dick throbbed with her cry, and I was being overtaken by the feel of her soft skin against mine. Fuck talking. I just might need to fuck through my anger before we could get to the talking part. A glare from Sacha told me he knew exactly what I was thinking.Such a fucking prick… but maybe he’s a little bit right.I needed to keep my shit together.

“Don’t worry though. Right now, I might be the least of your worries, to be honest. Sacha ispissed, slut.”

“I’m so fucking beyond pissed off, brother,” Sacha drawled from the front seat, and part of me wondered if I would need to police not only my anger, but his, once we got to our destination.

Nicholette tried to say something, but I couldn’t make it out. She started getting more worked up, so I reached under the hood to loosen it. I wasn’t willing to take it off, but I wanted to make sure she could breathe. We wanted to send her a message, not kill her, so I tore off the tape. She took a shaky breath and mumbled something about our destination.

“It doesn’t matter,” Sacha responded sharply.

“Not the warehouse, the compound, or your apartment,” she retorted vehemently, gaining back her usual strength.

“What makes you think you get any say in where we take you?” I asked. The anger that I was keeping a tight rein on flared, pulling at my control. She had the audacity to mouth off to us right now?

“BecauseIdidn’t take any of my stuff out of your apartment when I left,” she said with a slight hitch in her breathing. Hearing those words made me feel like I’d gotten the wind knocked out of me, and even Sacha glanced back, but Nic wasn’t done dropping bombs on us. “Which means they were in your apartment.”

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