Page 2 of Absolution

I glanced over to see Bridget, dressed in her usual corset and boy shorts, had plopped onto the sofa next to me.

“You’ve been acting weird lately, and I want to know why,” she explained when I remained silent.

“Hello to you, too.”

She waved me off. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. I want you to tell me what’s going on with you.”

Inwardly, I sighed. Yes, I’d been searching for her tonight, but not for this.Thiswas what I’d been trying to avoid. I didn’t really want to talk about it, but I couldn’t put her off forever. Bridget would wear a person down until they spilled their secrets. I’d learned it was easier to let her in on inconsequential things. There were some secrets too damaging to ever tell.

I blew out my breath. “It’s nothing, really. I’ve just been getting phone calls lately.”

Her brow wrinkled. “What kind of phone calls?”

For so many reasons, I needed to be careful. “Just little reminders.”

A sharp glare was what I received in return. “You’re being cagey, Gina, and you know it.”

She wasn’t wrong. “Someone I used to know will be getting out of prison soon.”

Bridget jolted upright. “The fuck?”

When a dozen heads turned our way, I shushed her. “Keep your voice down for god’s sake.”

“You’re getting threatening phone calls, and you’re telling me to be quiet? Oh, hell no. I’m going to get Connor.”

I grabbed her arm when she tried to launch herself off the bright red couch. I should have known how she’d react. Bridget was nothing if not fiercely protective of her loved ones.

“No,” I ground out, my palms beginning to sweat. “Keep him out of it. I didn’t say threatening. I told you, it’s nothing.”

Bridget shook off my death grip and settled back down on her seat. “It doesn’t sound like fucking nothing, Gina. In fact, it most definitely sounds like something.”

“Everything okay over here, ladies?”

Instantly, I stiffened and my jaw clenched at the voice at my back. Oblivious to my internal rage, Bridget turned to the man whose presence I could feel behind me.

“No, it isn’t. I need you to get Connor for me. Now, Leo.”

Normally, a submissive wouldn’t dare talk to a Dominant the way she just did, but Bridget wasn’t your ordinary sub. She was ballsy and a borderline brat. Only her husband could tame her.

“As you command, Mistress.” His tone was mocking, but the air shifted around me, and I knew he’d done her bidding regardless.

“I wish you hadn’t done that.”

“Babe, you know I love you, so I say this with love; I don’t give a shit. When some asshole is calling you with ‘reminders’, I take that as a threat, even if you don’t.”

I ignored the fact she was right. The incessant tapping sound coming from her high heel against the wooden floor started to grate on my nerves. Not enough time passed before her husband arrived with Leo in tow. Son of a bitch.

“After someone tells me what’s going on, Bridget, love, you and I are going to have a discussion regarding the proper way to speak to another Dom.”

We all heard the warning in Connor’s tone.

“Promise?” Bridget, unsurprisingly, perked up.

Connor closed his eyes like he was praying for patience, while Leo disguised his chuckle with a cough. Disregarding her obvious anticipation for whatever punishment he planned on doling out, Connor forged ahead.

“One of you ladies needs to start talking.”

Instinctively, I had the urge to respond to an obvious command from a Dom, but I clenched my teeth to hold the words back. If Bridget wanted Connor involved, she’d have to be the one explaining.

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