Clark, Rachel - Alicia's Awakening (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (12 page)

“Do we know who she was with?”

“We do,” the man says with a grim nod. Apparently, Doug knows who the man is referring to because his hand clenches harder around mine.

“Her neck?” Doug asks clearly, though he sounds like he’s talking through clenched teeth.

“Obvious.”

I want to ask what’s going on. They seem to be talking in code and somehow blaming someone for a woman’s heart attack. But I don’t ask. I stand beside and slightly behind my Dom and try to give him my silent support.

“Are the police involved?”

“I’d say that’s about to become a yes,” the man says with a nod to a pair of uniformed officers approaching them.

“Good,” my Dom says vehemently. The other man frowns but doesn’t comment on Doug’s obvious wish to have a man charged over a woman having a heart attack. Confused, I glance around the area and finally notice two women sitting not far from us. Both have been crying.

As the first man moves to talk to the police officers, another takes his place.

“She knew the risks,” he says in a soft voice.

“So did he,” Doug says angrily. “It was his job to protect her, not kill her.”

The other man shakes his head, not actually disagreeing with Doug’s assessment. The man guides us to the seats beside the two women. He lifts one of them up and then sits down with her on his lap. She quickly curls into his embrace as Doug urges me to take the seat beside the other woman and then sits beside me. I desperately want to crawl into his embrace, but I’m not sure right now that it would be welcomed. Whatever is going on here, it seems that Doug feels responsible.

“This isn’t your fault,” the man says to Doug in a clear echo of my thoughts.

“I trained her. Without me she would never be living this lifestyle.”

“Bullshit,” the man says, glancing at me again as if wondering why I was actually there. “If you hadn’t trained her, it would have been someone else. You can’t take the blame for something you had no control over.”

Doug doesn’t seem convinced, but he holds his jaw tightly like he wants to say more but doesn’t.

We sit there silently for several minutes. I catch the occasional word or two from the quiet conversation between the first man and the police officers. It sounds like a friendly enough discussion, but the body language seems to say otherwise. Doug notices me tensing up.

“Come here, Alicia,” he says as he tugs my hand to pull me onto his lap. “I shouldn’t have brought you. I’m sorry.”

“No,” I whisper quickly. “I want to be here for you.”

“Thank you,” he says as he closes his eyes and encourages me to lay my head on his shoulder. I relax against him, hoping that my presence is enough. After a few more minutes the man finishes talking to the police officers and joins us. He sits beside the woman in the middle, tucking her under his arm as the three men begin to talk.

“Are they going to arrest him?” Doug asks.

“They’re going to talk to him,” the man says, giving Doug a thoughtful look. “I was going to ask you to represent him, but it seems pretty clear that would be a bad move for both of you.”

“You think?” Doug asks sarcastically. I don’t believe I’ve ever heard Doug be anything other than polite and charming. This side of him is a little bit of a shock, and I find myself wondering why I’d forgotten the man was a whole person. For some reason in my head, despite the emotional experiences of the first day of our contract, he’s become a two-dimensional, larger-than-life Dom. When did I start thinking he had no feelings?

I want to smack myself upside the head. Hell, if Lachlan were here, I’d ask him to do it for me—figuratively speaking of course. He’s always been the one I can rely on to point out when I’m not seeing what’s right in front of me.

The familiar ringtone of my cell phone makes me jump in fright, and I wonder if I’m hearing things. It’s the one I assigned to Lachlan’s number. How the fuck did he know to call me exactly when I needed him? I lean back to look at Doug’s face. It seems to be the middle of the night, and I want to make sure it’s okay with my Dom before I answer it. I know enough about Dom-sub behavior to know that defying him in front of other Doms would be very embarrassing for him. Thankfully, Doug nods and helps to swing my bag off my shoulder so that I can grab my phone.

“Hi, Lach,” I say quietly into the phone. I’ve never liked hospitals, so the urge to speak in a low voice is probably suitable for the situation.

“Hi, baby. Are you with Doug?” I glance up at Doug, surprised not only by Lachlan’s greeting—he’s never called me “baby” before—but also by the question.

“Yes,” I whisper.

“His phone is going straight to the message bank. Can you put him on, please?”

“Ugh, sure.” I know they’re friends, but the timing feels so strange. What could Lachlan need to say to Doug that couldn’t wait until he called me later tonight?

“It’s Lachlan. He wants to speak with you,” I say to Doug. He nods, lifts me off his lap, and places me on the chair. He gives the other two men an apparently silent order, because they both nod, and then Doug walks away to get some privacy.

Stunned, and maybe a little bit hurt, I glance at the other two women in our little group. They both seem rather interested by what just happened, but since I don’t know the protocols between subs sitting in a hospital waiting room, I hesitate to start a conversation.

Thankfully, Doug is back quickly.

“Is he coming home early?” one of the men asks.

I’m surprised they know Lachlan at all—let alone the part where he’s been away for so long—but the urge to ask is quelled by the fingers resting at the back of my neck. Doug’s grip is not painful, barely even a touch, but it does remind me of my place.

Thankfully he leaves them there when he answers the question or I might have found myself in a whole heap of trouble.

“He’s booking his flight now. I suggest you keep him away from Robert.”

The other two men nod in agreement. I have no idea who Robert is, or why Lachlan—one of the calmest and most laid-back personalities I’ve ever known—would somehow be a threat to the man, but I’m beginning to grow angry. I want explanations. I want to understand.

I want to cry like a baby.

Shit. This sub training stuff is messing with my head.

And then almost as if he read my mind, Doug leans over, presses a kiss to my temple, and whispers, “I’ll explain it all later.”

I nod, very grateful for his perception, but also feeling guilty for distracting him. We’re here because a friend of his had a heart attack. The least I can do is not be a burden to him.

* * * *

Doug resisted the urge to pull the woman into his arms, settling for the simple touch at the back of her neck. As much as he needed her warmth right now, he had to remember that she wasn’t his to keep—especially now that Lachlan was heading home. Lachlan would see that she was a natural submissive, admit to her he was a trained Dom, and then they’d go off and live happily ever after.

With a bit of luck Doug would never have to see either of them again.

Because, fuck it all, he didn’t think he wanted Alicia to be happy with anyone but him. Seeing them together would just about kill him.

He was still trying to push aside his own grief when Casey’s sister came rushing into the waiting room. “Where is she?” Karly asked frantically.

Doug glanced around her, surprised to realize the young woman was alone. He moved away from Alicia, already missing her, nodded to Callum and Mitchell, and then turned to escort Karly to find the doctor.

Chapter Thirteen

I don’t understand what’s going on, but even surrounded by people who obviously share the lifestyle Doug and I have been leading, I feel very alone without him. Both of the other Doms say something to their subs at almost the same time and then move away to talk to two other men who also seem to be Doms. They don’t go far—barely ten feet and still in sight—but it’s enough of a signal for their subs to turn to me.

“I’m sorry we’re meeting this way,” the young brunette says as she holds her hand out for me to shake. “I’m Sandra, and this is Haley.” I grab her hand timidly, almost grimacing at how little of my usual self I feel right now. I shake hands all the time in my job. It shouldn’t intimidate me.

“Alicia,” I say quietly, glancing at their Doms to make sure I’m not breaking some sort of rule I’m not yet aware of.

Sandra follows my line of sight. “It’s okay. We’re allowed to speak. How long have you been in training?” It seems clear that they’re trying to distract themselves by learning about the new girl, but I really want to know what is happening. I don’t understand the link between a Dom and a heart attack.

“Only a couple of weeks,” I say quickly. “Do you know what happened? Who the woman is?”

Haley starts to cry again and I feel like the world’s biggest asshole. I’ve never been good with people, but I feel so completely out of my depth here.

Sandra wraps an arm around Haley’s shoulders and gives her a moment to collect herself.

“Casey is a friend from the club,” Sandra says in hushed tones. I don’t ask which club she means because I assume they’re talking about the BDSM club Doug took me to a few weeks ago. “She often plays with a Dom who enjoys asphyxiation games. He’s been warned not to. So has she, but well it seems neither of them listened.”

I shake my head, feeling trapped and nervous because I really don’t understand any of this. It’s almost like they’re talking in code.

“Asphyxiation games?” I whisper the question, trying to hold off the panic attack. Doug doesn’t need me losing it in a waiting room while he’s here trying to learn if a sub he trained is going to live or die.

“Oh, honey,” Sandra says, reaching for my hand. “You really are new, aren’t you?” Her question doesn’t seem derogatory, just sympathetic. I nod as I suck on my bottom lip. Shit, what the hell has happened to me? Am I so dependent on my Dom to control my moods that I can no longer function? How the fuck am I going to do my job if I can’t be an independent human being?

“Alicia,” Haley says in a voice rough from crying, “erotic asphyxiation can cause a heart attack twenty minutes after the scene. It’s why it’s banned at our club. Doms and subs are warned about these things while in training.”

Well, apparently I missed
that
memo.

Sandra gives me a smile and squeezes my hand gently. “There she is,” she says cryptically.

“Who?” I ask in annoyance. I’m getting tired of feeling off-balance.

“The woman you really are.”

“Oh,” I say inanely as all my exasperation drains out of me.

“It’s okay,” Sandra says with a reassuring smile, “it can take a little time to get used to, but you’ll soon realize that underneath all that submissive behavior is still a woman capable of kicking ass.”

Haley gives me a smile, as well, and I finally realize that they’re absolutely right. Even without Doug here to avert my spiral toward panic, I’m doing better than I would have before I met him. He has very literally changed my life.

It is obviously a bad time to be getting to know new people, but I’m very glad I met Sandra and Haley. We talk quietly for a little while, but our conversation fades away when Doug comes out of the emergency area and starts talking to the other Doms. I swallow hard when I see the anger on his face.

“She used her safe word,” Haley says in shock.

“She what?” Sandra asks, shaking her head. “No, no, you must be mistaken, honey. They’re too far away to hear them clearly. Robert’s an asshole, but he wouldn’t ignore a sub’s safe word.”