Darkest Fire (14 page)
“Kathy.” Someone tapped her shoulder, and she realized Andi had been trying to get her attention. It wasn’t easy getting used to a new name.
“Yeah? Sorry.”
“This way.” Andi stepped through a wide doorway, pointed at the marble-tiled floor. “Remember what I said. And look down. There’s tape marking out the area for onlookers. Stay behind it.”
Rin, hesitant to look up, stared down at the blue painter’s tape. “Got it.”
Andi gently pulled her into the large room set up as a bondage dungeon. At a cursory glance, Rin counted eight scenes playing out simultaneously, each at a different piece of bondage furniture. Andi walked her to the scene closest to the door.
Rin didn’t know the proper name for the big wooden structure the woman was chained to. She didn’t know the proper name for the whip thing the man was hitting the woman with either. She only knew one thing—what she saw was shocking. Disturbing.
If that woman was really hurting as bad as she appeared to be, why would she ask for this? Why would she want it? This was painful to watch.
She looked at the man, specifically at his face. Right away, she noticed he didn’t look angry. If she had to label his expression, she’d call it serious, concentrated, focused. “Why do they do it?” she whispered to Andi.
“Every person has their own unique reason, I guess. Just like every person has their own reason for any other choice they make.”
“That doesn’t help me.” Unable to watch anymore, Rin focused on something safer, Andi’s shoulder.
“There’s only so much understanding you’re going to gain about Drako by watching other doms play with their subs.”
“Are you saying I’d need to watch my husband?” Rin couldn’t imagine doing that. What would she think of him afterward? Would she feel the same way about him? She glanced at the dom again, tried to imagine Drako snapping his wrist like that, sending the whip sailing through the air.
“No, I’m saying you’d need to talk to him about it.”
“I don’t think he will.” When the dom glanced her way, his eyes meeting hers, Rin quickly looked down at the floor.
“Have you tried?”
“No. I didn’t want him to feel I was prying or judging him,” Rin said to her feet.
Andi tapped her on the shoulder. “You never know, Rin, he may be relieved you want to talk about it.”
Rin looked Andi in the eye. “Or he may not.”
Andi shrugged.
Rin motioned to the dom with a slight tip of her head. “Does that one know Drako?”
“I can’t say for sure. It’s possible. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him at Drako’s favorite dungeon. Why?” Andi tapped her bottom lip with an index finger. “What if I asked him to talk to you? Privately, of course.”
“I don’t know.”
“They’re used to people asking questions. He’ll think nothing of it.”
Rin stole another glance at him. Would that stranger be able to help her understand Drako’s need for D/s? Maybe. After a brief internal debate, she decided it wouldn’t hurt to talk to him. “Okay.”
“I’ll ask him when he’s done.”
“Thanks.” Rin’s heart pounded hard against her breastbone as she watched the rest of the “scene.” After the dom whipped the woman, he turned her around, making her face out, and brought her to orgasm at least a half-dozen times with several different devices.
After he released the woman, he held her tenderly and stroked her hair, and for the first time, Rin got a glimpse of what appeared to be genuine emotion.
Not long after that, Andi whispered, “Okay, I’m gonna go talk to him. Stay here.”
Rin nodded and turned her attention to another scene. She couldn’t have been watching long before she felt someone watching
her
. Trying to appear casual, she glanced over her shoulder, but there were so many people crowded into the space around the open dungeon area, she had no way of knowing who might have been watching her. Or if anyone had been. She didn’t see anyone staring at her now.
her
. Trying to appear casual, she glanced over her shoulder, but there were so many people crowded into the space around the open dungeon area, she had no way of knowing who might have been watching her. Or if anyone had been. She didn’t see anyone staring at her now.
She went back to watching the dom and sub.
Again, that feeling came back.
Once more, she glanced around, hoping this time she’d catch somebody looking at her.
No such luck.
She thought about moving but vetoed that idea right away. Andi had told her to stay put, and she wasn’t in an adventurous mood. So she did the only thing she could—pretend that prickly feeling at her nape wasn’t there.
“She’s over here.” Andi said from somewhere behind her.
Relieved to finally have her friend, her bodyguard, back with her, Rin spun around.
The dom, his submissive following, was headed her way. He stopped a healthy distance away and gave her a quick up-and-down glance.
Andi motioned toward Rin. “Like I mentioned, my friend has some questions about D/s, and she was hoping you’d be kind enough to answer them.”
The dom crossed his arms over his chest. Up close, this man was much more intimidating. He was not only a very handsome man, with spikey platinum blond hair, chiseled cheekbones, and very defined arm muscles, but he was also very intense. He gave off a vibe that made her feel twitchy, uneasy. “That depends upon the questions.”
Rin cleared her throat. “If I wanted to encourage a dom I know personally to talk with me about D/s, what should I say?”
“Nothing,” the dom responded. “If he wants to talk to you about it, he will. If he doesn’t, he won’t.”
That was no help. Rin was beginning to feel this was a mistake. “So, you’re saying there’s no way to encourage him to open up to me?”
The dom’s gaze sharpened. “Why is it so important to you that he does?”
Rin fiddled with her earring, chewed her lip. “He’s . . . my husband.”
The dom shook his head, turned, and walked away, leaving Rin confused and frustrated. “Did I say something wrong?”
Andi gave Rin an apologetic smile. “I guess he doesn’t want to get in the middle of another dom’s business. It’s a courtesy thing.”
“You could’ve warned me about that.”
“Hey, I didn’t know how he’d react. Everyone’s different, though there is this thing among the doms here. Maybe it’s because this group is so small.”
“And that leaves me . . . ?”
“On your own, I guess. Unless you want me to take you to the bigger dungeon. But there you’re more likely to run into Drako.” Andi looped her arm around Rin’s and started walking toward the door. “Come on. You don’t belong here. If you ask me, the answers you need aren’t here, or in any other dungeon. They’re at home.”
Rin glanced over her shoulder. “I was really hoping to get some advice.”
“Yeah, I know.” Outside, Andi stopped before they headed to the car. “You want some advice, I’ll give you some. Talk to Drako. Tell him you’d like to understand that side of him, even if he doesn’t want you to be a part of it. Ask him all those questions you wanted to ask that dom in there. His answers are the only ones that matter. Nobody else’s.”
Rin had to admit, what Andi said made sense. “I hear you. Thanks for bringing me here anyway.”
“You’re welcome.”
Drako wasn’t ready to admit it to Malek or Talen yet, but he was having serious doubts about his strategy. It wasn’t working.
They’d wasted hours, make that days, waiting for Oram to make a move. Yesterday. All last night. And now they were ready to head out again today.
So far, their visits to the Chimera’s old headquarters had produced absolutely no leads.
How did a guy get ahead of an enemy who had pulled a vanishing act?
Standing in the storage unit, leaning back against the van, Drako watched his brothers rib each other about women. He hated to admit it, but they were out of their element. Not that they hadn’t been prepared for their duty as Black Gryffons. They’d been trained by their father and his two brothers in weaponry, defensive strategy, and martial arts. But their training had definitely been off-balance. When it came to offensive tactics, they’d been taught not a goddamn thing.
This would be the last time they’d go. If they didn’t get something—either from the ongoing search of the building or from an unplanned visit—they’d go back to the drawing board and try to come up with another plan.
Dammit, he wanted this to work.
Talen, who seemed to have keyed into Drako’s dark thoughts, turned to him. “What’re you thinking?”
Drako let his head fall back, his skull resting against cold steel. “I’m thinking I wished our father had taught us offensive strategies, not just defensive.”
“Why would he? The Black Gryffons have existed for centuries, but how many people know about us?”
“Only the Chimera.”
Talen pulled the vehicle’s passenger side door open. “And that’s because the Black Gryffons are a defensive unit. We’re guardians. We protect The Secret. We’re not out there running willy-nilly hunting down bad guys like some comic book hero. We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves, because in the end that’ll only draw attention to The Secret.”
“So what do you think has stopped the Chimera from outing us?” Drako asked, watching Talen load some bottled water into the cooler sitting between the passenger and driver’s seat.
“The fact that they don’t want to share The Secret with anyone.”
“What’s up?” Malek asked, strolling into the storage unit at least fifteen minutes late.
“Just having a little chat.” Talen shut the cooler and turned to face Malek.
“Let me ask you both this, then.” Drako gave each of his brothers a pointed look. “You’ve gone along with my plan so far. But do you agree it’s the best course of action?” Neither brother spoke. But that didn’t mean they didn’t respond. The guilty looks they exchanged with each other told Drako everything he needed to know. “You don’t agree, then.”
“You know we respect you.” Talen crossed his arms over his chest.
“But you think I’m nuts?” Drako finished for him.
This time, Malek spoke up. “Not nuts, just . . .”
“An idiot?” Drako offered.
His brothers shook their heads.
“What, then?”
“I don’t think either of us knows at this point.” Malek again. “We kind of get why you’re doing this. But not really. Obviously, Oram doesn’t know anything. He’s vanished. The Chimera’s quiet.”
“So why am I stirring shit up?” Drako asked.
Malek nodded. “Yeah. Why? It’s not like you. We’ve been the Black Gryffons for ten years. What we’ve been doing has worked all this time.”
He’d asked himself that question—why?—a lot since they started doing this stakeout thing. He thought he knew the answer. They’d talked about it once already. He still felt the same way, didn’t he?
Drako pulled the van’s keys out of his pocket, stared down at them for a second to try to collect his thoughts. “Do you remember what it was like growing up?”
Talen shrugged, stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Sure.”
Malek nodded. “Yeah.”
“We lived with this shadow looming over our heads all the time, but we didn’t know what it was, didn’t know why we were afraid or why we were different. We didn’t go to school, didn’t play sports or join clubs or go on dates like our sisters did.”
“They had to protect us,” Malek pointed out.
“Sure.” Drako sighed. All three of them had shared the same upbringing. They’d been isolated from their peers, left with only each other for companionship, support.
But then again, they didn’t know anything else. Their childhood was what it was, and so maybe they didn’t realize they’d missed out on some things. Wonderful things. Hell, Drako knew he didn’t fully comprehend what a childhood was supposed to be like. All he had for a frame of reference was his own and what he saw on television and in movies. That wasn’t the problem though.
He was now facing the reality of bringing his own children into the world, and bearing the responsibility of protecting them and preparing them to take his place someday.
He didn’t want his wife to live in fear—not that she was now. To protect her from the stress of living under a constant threat, he hadn’t told her anything about the Black Gryffons, The Secret, or the Chimera.
More important, he didn’t want his children to grow up like he had. Like his brothers had. He wanted to be able to take them to the park, the zoo. He wanted to cheer for them as they hit a home run, sank a basket, or scored a touchdown. He wanted them to laugh with friends. And go to parties.
He wanted them to be normal children.
No matter what he did, as long as The Secret remained theirs to protect, and the Chimera continued to try to steal it from them, his children would be imprisoned. In a cell of duty, responsibility, and fear.
Could his brothers understand where he was coming from? Or would it take the pending birth of their first children before they’d see what he meant?
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