Page 52 of Their Domme

I could practically feelSacha’s anger as Wrenn and I pulled away from the compound in his car. Wrenn was staring out the window while I hit the gas, getting us away from the burned down compound and Ashview as soon as possible. We didn’t talk until I had gotten out of the city limits, heading north toward Vermont. It would take about three or so hours to get there depending on how fast I drove. If it was too fast, Sacha would kill me for messing up his baby. The only thing he probably loves more than this car is that damn coffee machine.

Taking Sacha’s car keys had been a spontaneous urge that I couldn’t resist. I hadn’t planned on leaving them behind to go to Milltown on my own, not until I was at the car with Wrenn beside me. Looking up at yet another woman who’d been tortured and done up to look like me… All the revelations from Maeve and her death… I needed time to get my mind wrapped around this shit.Apparently me processing just equals a lot of stupid decisions that are going to get my ass beat.Emotions were stupid like that, but I needed to face some of the realities of my broken childhood on my own.

“Are you going to fill me in on what’s going on, Nicholette?” Wrenn spoke first, not looking in my direction.

“Not everything,” I told her honestly, ignoring my phone buzzing with yet another call from Sacha.He is going to be so fucking pissed when he sees me again.“You’ll need to be more specific about where you want me to start.”

Wrenn snorted. “Always like you to split hairs.” She sobered up then, shifting in her seat so she could look at me. “You have a stalker?”

I squeezed the steering wheel hard enough my knuckles went white, and with a deep breath, I answered her concisely, no details. That was more for my sake than hers if I was honest with myself. “I’ve had more than one, but this one has been consistent since I got to Ashview and started turning tricks. I got notes soon after.”

“Notes?” she asked in a hesitant voice.

“I didn’t live in a house or shelter,” I told her matter of factly. “I lived under a tarp or cardboard box, if I was lucky, in an alleyway. So calling themlettersisn’t entirely accurate. Their content has run the full gamut of creepy—obsessive talk, photos of dead people, you name it. It’s been… something.”

“You don’t have to talk so dismissively about it, you know,” she admonished gently but firmly. “That’s traumatic as fuck.”

“I’ve had a lot of trauma in my life. They can take a number and wait their turn.”

“It seems whoever this is is tired of waiting,” Wrenn replied, and I snorted.

“You could say that.”

“Your guys said they took Thomas,” Wrenn ventured after a few moments of tense silence between us. “And that all this has something to do with a trafficking ring.” Shock made me pause, and a creeping feeling of anger hit me.Just how close did they get in my absence?Just because we were starting to be friends didn’t mean I was ready to do away with all boundaries.

I swallowed hard, thinking of the photos from my apartment. Dead lookalikes. A picture of a scared Thomas staring back at me. “Don’t worry yourself about that. No need to get you in too deep, Wrenn. We aren’t like that anymore. I told you that you didn’t need to come with me… Hell, I told you that youshouldn’tcome with me, but you just flipped me off and got in the car. You are inserting yourself into a world that you don’t understand.”

“Nicholette—”

I shook my head to cut her off. “Leave it alone.”

“What if I don’t want to?” Wrenn whispered, her voice rough.

I quickly looked over to see her brown eyes shining with tears and filled with emotions that I hadn’t seen in years. Cursing, I slammed a hand on the steering wheel. “Friends, Wrenn. That’s what we are. Nothing more.”

“I searched for you for an entire month, working with all of the men you’re with—”

“And thank you for that,” I shot back heatedly. “But that doesn’t make you a fucking saint, Wrenn. I’m with a shit ton of people, and I don’t have time for another person who’s going to fuck with my emotions or expect me to be responsible for theirs.”

“Are you really saying you have no feelings for me whatsoever?” Wrenn asked, her voice steady despite the tears starting to roll down her face.

“I’m not the girl you remember, Wrenn. She’s died so many times over I don’t think I could even picture her anymore. I can’t be that person for you.”

“Who says I even fucking wanther?” Wrenn shot back. “Has it occurred to you that spending even that little bit of time with you made me start to like the person you are now?”

“And what does your girlfriend think about that?”

“I don’t have one,” Wrenn answered after taking a deep breath. “We split up. She was constantly jealous of my job, hanging out with you, everything. It wasn’t working.”

“I can’t do this right now,” I told her firmly, refusing to look her way. I squeezed the steering wheel hard enough I heard it creak under the pressure. “I have too much on my plate—”

“You can’t do this right now with just me or everyone? I saw those new guys!”

“Wrenn,” I warned, my chilly tone stopping the conversation in its tracks. “What I do with my life is none of your concern. We aren’t together. We haven’t been in five years. So don’t you fucking dare judge me for how I put myself back together when you’re one of the reasons I’m broken.”

“I wasn’t judging,” Wrenn countered. “And in case you need a reminder that life isn’t all about you, my life was shit too. I was too close to getting out to jeopardize it. I’m sorry that it was fucked up and that you had a bad hand, but so did I! Or did you forget that while you got all wrapped up in your shit? We werekids, Nicholette.”

It was lucky for her that there wasn’t much traffic. If we were at a standstill, or even moving slowly enough, I would have smacked her and kicked her out of the car. How dare she act likeIwas the fucking bitch in this situation?! As if I didn’t know what had been going on in her life; she was the one that had no idea what happened in mine.

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