Should she answer that? Ian hadn’t exactly told her she couldn’t talk in the locker room. But then he’d sent her a nasty glare every time she even looked like she wanted to talk in the car.
“This is a Dom-free zone,” Serena said. “Unlike Eve, they really are terrified of coming in here. When I’m late, Jake stands outside and yells in.”
Avery nodded. “What happens in the locker room, stays in the locker room. This is where we plan most of our bratty behavior.”
Eve leaned against her locker. “They’re right, you know. We subs have to stick together. It’s just the three of us since Grace started staying home with Carys. We’ve started getting friendly with Jillian. She runs the bar here and is married to Ryan, the Dom in Residence. She has a sister who’s come in a couple of times, but she mostly just stands in the back and looks scared.”
“She’s not scared. She’s curious,” Serena said. “So have you been to The Garden?”
She shook her head. She knew about The Garden with its night-blooming flowers and its big bad Dom owner, MI6 agent Damon Knight. Knight had worked with Ian on a few cases, and he would probably very much like to haul her to London for questioning. “No. We didn’t go to any clubs in London. Ian was working. We went to a club in Paris, though. The Velvet Collar. It’s where I met Ian.”
Serena sighed. “See, you just get the sweetest look on your face whenever you mention his name.”
“It actually surprises me. He’s a little intimidating,” Avery admitted.
“He can be. But he can also be very sweet when we’re alone. Well, he used to be. Now, he’s mostly just an asshole, but he has his reasons.” She looked down at the corset and micro mini. He hadn’t left her shoes or undies, though she hadn’t really expected those. She was going to have to make a decision. Who was she kidding? “Can you help me into this? It’s been a while since I was in fet wear. I didn’t have to wear it at Cuffs.” She looked over at the pregnant contingent. “I didn’t have a Dom there.”
Serena tapped her keyboard. Multitasking seemed to be her default state. “I know. It’s where you were working to find the man who nearly killed Eve. I have it mostly written here, though names have been changed to protect the innocent.”
“He’s going to murder you,” Avery said in a singsong voice, as though she’d said it so many times it now had to be sung.
“He won’t read it. Ian doesn’t read anything but the newspaper and reports.” Serena waved her off. “And it’s not really about you and Ian. It’s just about a woman who’s been on the run for years and her spy husband thinks she’s dead but whoops, she’s not and she comes back for her man. Very little to do with you. What did they call the drug that made it look like you were dead?”
Yep, Ian was going to kill Serena, but Charlie kind of hoped she got to read that book. She definitely hoped it had a happy ending. She pulled her shirt over her head and tried not to think about how her boobs sagged a little. She wasn’t usually nervous. Ian had seen them earlier and he seemed to like them. Or at least his dick had liked them. She stood up a little straighter. She wasn’t a thin thing, but she was nicely curved and no one could accuse her of being fragile.
Eve was studying her carefully. “What just went on in your head?”
Honesty was the best policy, most of the time. “I was feeling self-conscious about being naked. I decided not to be.”
A little smile curled up Eve’s lips. “Good for you.”
“Could you teach me to do that?” Serena asked. “Because I’m always self-conscious.”
She didn’t tell Serena that she’d learned it in the harshest of ways. She’d learned to choose because if she hadn’t, she would have broken.
Never forget. You are my daughter. You are Charlotte, and no one gets to take that from you.
The last words her mother had told her.
Her father had tried. He’d beaten her. He’d denied food for a while. He could force her compliance, make her do things she normally wouldn’t do, but she hadn’t let him change that core piece of herself that remained Charlotte.
Only one man could do that. The one she’d chosen.
“Are you really always self-conscious? Because I’ve learned that most women aren’t really. Serena, do you like what you see in the mirror? Are you comfortable with your body when you’re alone?”
She thought about it for a moment. “Yes. Actually I really am. When I’m alone, I tend to dance around half naked, so yes.”
Most women were. They only started to hate themselves when other people became involved. “Sweetie, then what does it matter what anyone else thinks? You have to decide what’s good enough for you. If you spend your life trying to live up to everyone else, you’ll have a wasted life.”
“Holy shit. I’m totally writing that down.”
Avery smiled. “I like that. I like that a lot.”
“My sister is quite the philosopher,” a familiar voice said.
Wow. The absolute last person she thought she’d see here in Sanctum was Chelsea and yet there she stood in the doorway, a bag in hand. “Hey, Chels.”
Her sister glared at her and then broke down laughing. “I should have known you would be naked somewhere. You never did have body issues like the rest of us.”
“Only because I accept the whole sad package,” Charlie admitted. Chelsea was definitely one of those women who was comfortable up until the moment a man walked in the room. “What are you doing here? I thought you would be in Barbados by now.”
“And leave my big sis? No. I’m not going anywhere without you.” She walked into the room, the only sign of her bad leg a slight limp. “If we’re making a stand, then you have to know I’m standing with you. As to why I’m here in this den of iniquity, well, the British asshole and the American idiot decided I needed a little vacation from my very nice condo and they decided to bring me here. They actually got past security by claiming to be messengers. I’m complaining to management about the doorman. They were supposed to go to the fifth floor, but apparently one of them is damn good at rewiring elevators. He’s also quiet or I would have taken his head off. Your Neanderthal apparently wants to keep the family together.”
“He probably wants to keep an eye on both of us while the whole ‘assassins trying to kill us’ thing gets sorted out.” She had no real idea how they were going to sort it out. She’d kind of hoped she would have some time before they caught up to her. No such luck.
“Are you really an information broker?” Serena asked.
Chelsea’s eyes widened. “Did you pass out business cards?”
Charlie shrugged as Eve was working out the laces on the corset. She slipped the small band of spandex over her hips. It would barely cover her ass, but that was likely the point. She noted that someone had been a little kinder to her sister. It looked like she was holding PVC leggings and a matching tank top. “I don’t lie about what we do.”
Chelsea cleared her throat deliberately.
She took everything so seriously. “Well, of course I lie to the Feds. I was talking about our friends.”
“You’ll have to give me some time to figure out if they are our friends. Where can I get some privacy? As long as I’m here, I could use a workout. My leg is stiff. I’ve been sitting for days.”
“There are changing rooms and showers you can use,” Eve explained, gesturing toward the back of the locker room.
“Excellent.” Chelsea walked back to the dressing rooms, her left leg dragging just a bit. She was probably in extreme pain, but she wouldn’t show it. One of the ways she’d learned to deal with the pain was BDSM. Charlie might not have had a Dom since Ian, but she’d found several willing to help her sister out.
“So she seems oddly comfortable for a woman who was likely dragged out of her home and taken to a sex club. Arms up.” Eve held out the emerald green corset, stretching it around Charlie’s torso before she started in on the laces.
“She has some problems with her legs, especially her left one. A good long flogging gives her some relief. We normally had Doms come out to our place, but she’s been in a few clubs as well.” She took a deep breath because it would likely be her last of the evening.
The door to the locker room opened again and two women walked in. Both were blonde and looked in desperate need of a cheeseburger. One of the blondes had a nice rack and the other had a fake one. They carried in their fet wear in dress bags.
Eve groaned a little. So these girls were not friends. Eve seemed determined to ignore them.
“Hello. You must be the new girl,” the blonde with fake cans said. She was dressed conservatively, though she wore a ton of makeup and had left her blouse opened far past what could be considered professional. “My Master told me you would be here tonight.”
Serena looked up, frowning the blonde’s way. “I didn’t know you had taken a collar, Amanda.”
“I didn’t even know you were dating anyone,” Avery said.
Eve kept working on the laces, her hands moving smoothly.
“She’s had her eye on this particular Master for quite a while,” the other blonde said with a nasty little laugh. She picked a locker and hung up her clothes for the night. “We all should have known that Mandy would be the one to bring him down.”
“Mandy” winked her friend’s way. “You know it, Britney. It was inevitable. By the way, Serena, you look really nice today. I don’t know anyone else who could quite carry off that look the way you do. I didn’t know they made dresses like that anymore.”
Serena shut down, looking back at her computer.
“What did you just say?” Charlie asked.
Amanda shook her blonde head. “I was just complimenting her. Subs have to stick together. Isn’t that what you say, Eve? And you really have to give me the name of your moisturizer. You look so good for a woman your age.”
“I’ll get around to it, Amanda. I’m a little busy with my husband. We all are busy with our husbands and families.” Eve had some claws, but Charlie wasn’t sure she was going far enough.
Amanda glanced back at Charlie and then Eve. “Oh, honey, if you need any help getting that corset on her, I am actually really strong. Don’t worry about it. I think the Master will be busy with me tonight.” She leaned in. “Ryan explained it all to me. The Master needs to pretend to have something going with you so he has to have someone he’s really attracted to around or he probably won’t be able to pull it off. I always knew he would come back to me.”
Charlie wasn’t exactly sure what the blonde’s Master had to do with her, but she didn’t want to prolong the conversation. Amanda walked to the dressing rooms with a confidence most women didn’t have.
It was a confidence Charlie was pretty sure she didn’t deserve.
“Just ignore her,” Eve said, putting the finishing touches on the corset. “We all do.”
Serena was looking down at her screen, but Charlie could tell she was close to tears.
That little blonde bitch had told a pregnant woman she didn’t look nice. Among other things. “Is she always so nasty?”
Avery’s hands moved angrily now. She could probably do some damage with those knitting needles if she wanted to. “She’s hit on every one of our husbands. Even after the whole marriage thing. She also likes to tell me how pregnant I look. I can’t stand her.”
“She’s a brat. An actual real one. She’s really sweet when the men are around, but she’s hateful around the women. I’ve tried to get Alex to kick her out, but she won’t do anything to violate the rules,” Eve explained.
Being nice should be a rule. “Ian doesn’t care that she’s mean?”
“No one really talks to him about her. He’s always been standoffish. I don’t understand why he would…” Serena stopped midsentence.
Everything finally fell into place. “She was talking about Ian. When she talked about her Master. That rat-fink bastard. I knew he was up to something. This is his way of showing me he doesn’t care. Tell me honestly, Eve, has he ever touched her before?”
Eve turned a nice shade of pink. “Maybe once when she first came into the club, but you have to understand…”
She understood. “He screwed everything in a corset who would let him. I’m not worried about that. Tell me if they had a relationship. I want to know if he had a thing for her.”
“No. He can’t stand her. He’s the only one who sees through her bullshit. Charlotte, he hasn’t had a relationship with anyone.”
Serena shook her head. “He never spends more than a couple of nights with any sub, and all of his contracts state that he isn’t interested in anything permanent. The few times he’s trained new subs, he didn’t sleep with them.”
Avery’s mouth dropped open. “How do you know about his contracts?”
“Oh, I really wanted to read one and he keeps copies on Ryan’s computer. Ryan never changes his password, so it was easy for Adam to grab me one. I totally used it as the basis for the contract in Sweetheart in Bloom.” She flushed a little. “Now might be a really good time to remind everyone that what happens in the locker room stays in the locker room.”
Eve rolled her eyes. “You are going to get in so much trouble one day.”
Charlie needed them to stay on track. So he’d picked someone he couldn’t stand in order to annoy her, to show her that he couldn’t be won back. Well, he picked the wrong girl to pull that shit with. If he’d picked someone sweet and nice, then Charlie would have trouble dealing with it, but Ian made everything easy. “So Ian is pretending to have two subs with him tonight. Me because of the whole shooting thing and trying to keep the cops from figuring out who I am, and skinny bitch because he wants to make sure I know he’s only topping me because of the shooting thing. You all let her talk to you like that?”
“She never says anything that can’t be taken two ways. She’s the queen of the backhanded compliment. If I called her out, she would say I took it wrong,” Avery explained.
“No one ever calls her on her shit?” Charlie was really shocked.
Eve sighed. “It’s the South. We all just kind of suck it up and say ‘Bless your heart.’”
Blessing wasn’t what Charlie was going to do with Blondie’s heart. Ripping it out and forcing it down her throat sounded like a much better idea. “Okay, I am going to show you how to deal with this.”
Eve’s eyes widened. “I don’t know if that is such a good plan.”