Page 53 of Their Domme

Not all of it.

No one had.

“I’m about to head back to a hometown that hated me. To a place I was never truly welcome.” We sat in tense silence for a while before I continued. “There are more bad memories there than good, so I appreciate you looking for me and coming along for the ride, but I can't offer you more than being friends. I love the men I’m with. I care about the friends I have. My life is going to get a whole lot more complicated than everyone realizes, and I can’t drag you into that. More than that, I don’twantto.”

“You wouldn’t have to drag me,” Wrenn whispered brokenly. She turned away from me to face the window, but I saw the tears on her face in its reflection.

“There are too many things you don’t know to bring you in without talking to other people. I don’t know if I could even handle it because right now, my trauma is the deciding factor. My past, my boundaries, and my partners’ boundaries are more important than you and your feelings. So get it together.”

“Or what?”

“Or you’ll be dead in a few seconds, and I’ll only have to worry about disposing of your body.”

“I hate you,” Wrenn hiccuped, though a laugh broke through right after.

“You should join the club,” I joked. “Although I think my stalker is the president, so maybe you can be vice president instead.”

“That’s a horrible joke.” Wrenn wiped her face.

“But accurate,” I shot back, and we shared small smiles, guarded and unsure of each other, as we stared at the road ahead.

Well, fuck, this wasn’t exactly where I’d thought things were going, but I was going to do the best I could. I switched my phone to silent, letting the missed calls pile up, and turned on the radio. My heart was breaking and being pulled in so many directions.

Ansel.

Wrenn.

Maeve.

The babies.

The men I’d left behind.Again. Though just for a little while this time.

What would be left of me if I made it out of this alive?

I wasn’t sure of that answer anymore.

Bodhi

Tuesday

“Son of a fucking bitch! I’m killing him!” Oli yelled from the other room, and something went crashing as my phone started to vibrate. “I just found another one.”

“If you’re going to start acting like Vas, we’re going to need to get less expensive stuff around here for you guys to break,” I told him, grabbing my phone out of my pocket. “Hey, Sacha. What’s up?”

“Come to the compound,” he ordered. There was an edge to his voice that told me he was pissed, but unlike the last month or so, he was actually remaining calm. At least for now.I wonder what Nic did.

“Why?” I furrowed my brow, confused by the deadly calm in his voice. “What happened?”

“Nic took my car and Wrenn,” he growled out, his exasperation clear as I heard something crash on his end.Guess calm is a relative term.“The police will be here soon. There was another body.”

“Oli isn’t done here,” I told him just as my other boyfriend walked into the room, his eyebrows raised in silent question. I waved him over, and he joined me on the couch, settling in close as I put the phone on speaker.

“I only got through three rooms. I’m tearing everything apart,” Oli told him grimly, then he looked at me with a warning in his eyes. “I’ve already found five cameras, and my bet is there are plenty more.”

Cursing filled the line, then Sacha switched to Russian, talking to whoever was around him. After a minute or two, he switched back to speaking to us in English. “A group of men will be coming to the apartment and warehouse in the next ten minutes. The Germans are going to tear everything apart and get it handled for us. Pick up Alexei and Maksim and meet us. We’re following Nic up to Vermont, where we are going to have averylong conversation.”

Click.

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