Page 84 of Dance for Me

Jasper stood, tracing a line around Anarchy’s jaw. “Go home, kitten. Forget this ever happened.” His fingers brushed her lips and she patted them for him. “Thank you for coming. I don’t know how you knew, but I appreciate it.”

She blushed brilliant red. “I was waiting for you at the club when Mistress Connie got the call. I know it’s closed on Mondays but I was hoping you’d be there so we could talk. When she said your name, I followed her, thinking maybe you wouldn’t mind me being here.” Her fingers twisted nervously. “I know it was wrong, but I hung around in the hall for a while before I got the courage up to see if you were in here.”

“Stalking and eavesdropping,” he said sternly. “We’ll definitely be having words about that. Later. Now, make sure you get home safe.”

She looked insanely happy at the prospect of having words. “Would you mind if I stay for a while and keep Master Liam company? It doesn’t feel right, leaving him on his own.”

Jasper frowned. “Liam? Would you like some company?”

Exhausted and resigned to the fact he’d effectively been sidelined, Liam sank into a chair. “Yeah, sure I guess. Company might be nice. I’ll look after your subbie for you, J.”

Braun noted with interest that Jasper didn’t refute the your subbie. “Well then, now that everyone’s taken care of, let’s move. I want to be back here before Bodie wakes up. Atticus, can you use your friends, get an address?”

“Already taken care of. Twenty minutes from here.”

“Oh, that’s not going to look suspicious to the cops,” Connie muttered in exasperation. “The asshole ends up dead, and the prime suspects are twenty minutes away, with no alibi. Yeah, we’re all about to end up in orange jumpsuits, trying not to get shivved by the top dogs in the exercise pen.”

“Look on the bright side, Con,” Loki said cheerfully as they filed out of the room. “Maybe the dedicated and hardworking individuals who run our police department will have abandoned their donuts and arrested the bastard already.”

She sighed in disgust. “Orange really isn’t my color.”

*

Half an hour later, Braun’s plans of vengeance stuttered to a screaming halt. He peered through the windshield from his shotgun position at the patrol cars parked haphazardly over the street, blue lights flashing. Three of them, which told him something bad was going down.

“We sure this is the right place?” he demanded of Atticus.

“That’s the house. My sources don’t fuck things up.”

Connie piped up from where she was sulking in the backseat. “What the hell do you do, Atticus?”

“All manner of bad and sinful things, Connie. You don’t want to know. Shit, they’re cordoning off the place. That’s not just the cops arresting him; someone’s dead in there.” A blue sedan cruised passed the truck, pulled up behind one of the marked units. “Bet your ass that’s a homicide detective.”

Sincerely pissed, Braun ground his teeth as two men exited the vehicle in plain clothes. Both middle-aged. One with a neatly trimmed beard, the other smooth-shaven. “What the fuck? This can’t be a coincidence.”

Atticus tapped his finger on the steering wheel. “Want me to go find out?”

Connie snorted. “Like they’ll tell you anything about an active homicide, if that’s what it is. They’re legally bound not to discuss these things. Maybe we should just be grateful they’re not here to investigate us.”

Atticus glanced over his shoulder. “There’s legally bound and then there’s professional courtesy. Wait here, I won’t be long.” Moving far too fast for a beast of a man, he slipped out of the truck and strolled, bold as brass, down the sidewalk.

“Professional courtesy? I didn’t know he was a cop!” Connie spluttered.

“He’s not,” Loki said easily, kicking back as best he could in his seat. “Atticus is a jack of all trades, has his fingers in every pie imaginable. You need information or someone to kick the shit out of a bad guy, that’s your man. All on the side of the good and righteous, Connie, before you get your G-string in a knot.” He snickered. “Guess you could call him a white knight, galloping across a barren wasteland with his cock swinging like a sword.”

Braun choked on a laugh despite the knowledge slowly sinking into reality. The noises the Mistress made were akin to an old tea kettle left too long on a stove top. “Careful, lad, you’re confined in a very small space with a woman who tortures cocks and balls for fun.”

“I’ll die a happy man, remembering this look on her face.”

“Stop it, all three of you.” Stuck between the bickering pair, Jasper glowered at both Loki and Connie. “You’re Dominants, for God’s sake. Anyone would think you’ve just been released from kindergarten.”

On the sidewalk, Atticus had caught up with the two men, hailing them with a friendly lift of his tree trunk arm. They turned, assessed him, then the bearded one grinned in recognition. “Goddamn it, does he know everyone?”

“Told you,” Loki replied with a grin and a wink for Connie. “Atticus is the Wikipedia of people.”

As Connie snarked back at him, Braun narrowed his eyes and wondered if it was too late to learn how to lip read. Bearded cop was engaged in serious conversation now, while the smooth-faced detective had carried on walking and had reached the uniformed officers unravelling tape around the front of the two-story house.

It didn’t appear to be a bad neighborhood. It certainly wasn’t what Braun had expected in a crime boss's choice of home. They weren’t quite on the outskirts of the city, but far enough the rurality was beginning to creep in.

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