Angel
We walked, hand-in-hand, along the beach and when we were far enough away, his hand tightened and then he undid my sarong and pulled me into the water until we were in it to my waist.
“Baby,” he breathed into my hair. I could feel the tension in his body.
“It’s okay. Please stop beating yourself up. It’s okay. It was just like we watched a bit of porn together. That’s all. Maybe we’ll do it again sometime, but how ‘bout on TV, instead of a live show? That’s all it was.”
He groaned a frustrated sound but his body relaxed marginally.
“We are gonna get through this, Dare. We are. I feel it.” I ran my hands down his biceps and caught his.
“You bet your ass we are.” He squeezed my hands, let go, then grabbed my butt in both hands playfully.
I looked into his eyes and held his jaw in my hands.
“I love you so so much. Last night was just a bump in the road. It might not even be our biggest bump but we got this, okay?”
“You’re incredible,” he told me.
“Incredibly lucky, you mean.”
He smiled and we went deeper into the water.
“If we’re heading into a known play zone I’ll give you a sign. I’ll scratch my nose, maybe. So you’re prepared. But most of the rooms that sound like surnames are play zones.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, “Touch the nose piercing. But listen, take cues from me. I know you wanted to take care of me last night and I was caught off guard but I won’t be off guard again. Let me lead. Yeah baby?”
“Okay.”
He let me go, “Gonna swim a bit. Stay here.”
I moved back to a shallower spot, sat down in the water, and watched him dive under.
We would make it through this. I felt it in the deepest part of me, the part that he’d woken back up. The part with hope. We were a team and I had him at my back, looking after me. I was going to be strong and be the same for him.
***
We were dressed, him in a gray suit, me in a purple swingy skirt and ruffled off-the-shoulder white peasant blouse. I was wired to eavesdrop, and we were in the dining room, having breakfast. Mr. Lucas joined us soon after. And the stuff he was saying? Some of it would definitely be good for the task force.
He and Dare started to discuss the partner summit.
“All members coming?” Dare asked.
“You said your brother couldn’t make it and he and you share a vote. There may be a vacancy coming up and we require votes to bring on new members. This could mean he has his own vote.”
Dare gave him a curious look, “A vacancy? Is that something that happens often?”
“Hasn’t happened in five years.”
“Hm,” Dare ate a bite of bacon.
Mr. Lucas raised a hand, “What we are thinking is that he could be a voting member as well as yourself. Gan, myself, Delgado, and another partner who arrived discussed this last night. Haven’t met Tommy face-to-face yet but with what your father shared, what we’ve seen of you, and that conference call we had with you and Tommy after Gan got shot, the Ferranos are what we believe have the right stuff to be part of the senior partner team. If you both want having your own votes and full shares, let me know. Now, normally we would want to meet him in person and assess his suitability first but with all we’ve heard…” he shrugged, “it’s mostly a formality. A meeting will be good, though. After the summit, perhaps you can get your brother here for a visit.”
“I’ll see what I can do to make that happen,” Dare said.
Mr. Lucas continued, “But as for the partners attending, all but a few. Sylvia and Edward will dial in for part of the conference. They don’t attend in-person, haven’t for years. They consider it too risky. The paparazzi are always on their tails.”
“Sylvia and Edward?” Dare inquired.
“Frost. You know who she is, I’m sure.”
“The one in politics,” Dare said softly.
Mr. Lucas nodded, “The very same. Donavan’s mother, Jason’s grandmother. She has been mostly uninvolved for the past decade but we’ve asked that all partners attend either in person or via conference for this meeting. And Edward Douglas.”
“Edward Douglas?” Dare asked, eyebrows raised.
“The Hollywood movie producer, yep.”
“Never woulda pegged him as a kinky fucker, would ya?” Delgado asked as he and Rafe Ruiz joined us.
“He’s been here at least five times a year for the past three years. He has to give the paps the slip and things have been heated so he hasn’t been able to come in a few months. He got some bad press with his divorce so they’re still followin’ him. Occasionally brings carefully vetted actors with him. Once brought an actress to prep her for a role. Your lovely wife here was very helpful in that scenario,” Delgado shared. Dare looked at him with an expression that made my heart skip a beat. Dare didn’t even try to hide that he disliked the turn in conversation.
“My apologies,” Delgado raised a hand, “Forgot there for a moment that you like to think of her as fresh like the pure virgin snow.” Delgado scoffed and rolled his eyes toward Rafe.
Dare gave him a smile but it was evil and sour and threatening. Delgado took the hint and signaled a server who came over and brought him a cup of coffee.
“Mr. Ferrano,” Rafe said, “no pressure at all, but I wanted to remind you that Cleopatra Jade is in suite 704, awaiting her punishment. We have been supplying her with food and drink. She’s not restrained or anything. If you have any instructions…”
“I’ll let you know,” Dare answered casually.
“If you want to be shown there, any of our staff will be happy to accompany you and get you any implements required. The suite is fairly well outfitted.”
“Thanks, Rafe.”
I was finished with my breakfast and Dare had pushed his own plate away, the food barely touched, when Mr. Lucas first joined us.
“What’s on the itinerary for today?” Dare asked.
Mr. Lucas answered, “The other attending partners will all arrive throughout today and will be here around 5:30 or so for cocktails. Tonight, there’s a party. Tomorrow we have our board meeting and then more members but non-partners will come. Tomorrow night, another party. A big one.”
Gan Chen entered at that point and strolled directly to our table, “Dario, could I trouble you for a quiet word?”
My heart skipped a beat.
Dare stood and squeezed the back of my neck and then moved out of the room with Mr. Chen. I felt panic rising. I felt nauseous.
No one would touch me. No one would dare. Would they? There were three strands on my throat, weren’t there? I touched my necklace and counted them. 1, 2, 3. Right? 1, 2 3. Yes, three.
I know he wouldn’t have wanted to leave me unattended, but he was sort of stuck. He couldn’t have dragged me with him, couldn’t have shown distrust.
I sipped my coffee and kept my eyes downcast. X to Y, Angie, X to Y.
Angie? Had I really just thought of myself as Angie?
Conversation continued around me as if I weren’t there, until Rafe leaned over and interrupted my wonky train of thought, which was stuck on repeat.
Angie?
“How are you, Felicia, darling?” he asked.
Not Angie; Felicia.
“I’m good,” I replied. Or rather, lied. I wasn’t fine. I was coming unglued.
“You’ve been missed. Patrons have asked after you.”
It felt like the food in my belly went rancid.
“We’ve had some disappointed patrons who have truly missed you. I just wanted you to know you leave behind a legacy. Girls will aspire to be like you. So, that they can be rewarded like you were.” He sipped from a glass of orange juice.
“Cleo? She’s jealous; she has already been jealous of you for some time. She was enthralled by Donavan and he was enthralled with you, so she lost favor. From there, every opportunity to give you a hard time, she took. And then you getting bought? She needs a reality check with this insubordination. Mr. Chen is recommending to your Master right now that you be the one to punish her. She needs to see you’ve risen above her. If your master agrees to this, I hope you’ll make her punishment poignant.”
My throat went dry. I couldn’t swallow.
Dare returned and his face wasn’t happy as he came in and was even less happy when he saw that Rafe was leaned in toward me and speaking to me. Rafe must’ve caught sight of Dare’s body language as he suddenly but quickly moved back.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Dare demanded.
“I was just talk---”
“Get the fuck back, Ruiz,” Dare demanded.
Mr. Chen stepped closer to Rafe, “Rafe? Explain yourself.”
“He was told last time I was here that no one was to approach her. Did I fuckin’ say that to you, Ruiz?”
“My apologies, Sir. I would be more than happy to give you a play-by-play, every word that I uttered to your Felicia.”
“What is this shit? Your trainer bitch glaring at my wife and this fucking guy completely ignoring my orders about how I want my wife treated?” Dare inquired.
“Dario,” Delgado tried.
“And fuck you, too.”
Oh shit. This wasn’t good.
Mr. Delgado put his hands up defensively.
“Mr. Ferrano, please, I’m very sorry. I only…”
“Is she yours?” Dare clipped.
“Pardon?”
“Is. She. Yours?” Dare was so condescending that Rafe looked like he wanted to shrink into himself.
“No, Sir.”
“So, she’s mine?”
“Absolutely. I just---”
“Baby,” Dare ignored him and addressed me.
I met his eyes, “Yes, Dare?”
“Come over here,” he demanded.
I got to my feet and moved to him and he put his arm around me.
“Come.” He led me out of the room and back to our room.
He was emitting serious angry alpha male vibes.
He slammed our door. I was trembling. And aroused.
“What did he say to you?”
“He told me I’d been missed, that girls were aspiring to be like me so they could be rewarded like me. He said Cleo was jealous and that Mr. Chen would recommend to you that I punish her so that she would know I was above her in status.”
His eyes lit with something unpleasant.
I didn’t know how to respond to that so I just stood there.
“Let’s go.”
I was about to inquire, ‘Where?’ but I didn’t. Not only might we be being watched but he was exuding this authority, this dominance that put me into absolute obedience mode.
I followed him. I followed him down the hall to Rafe’s office. Rafe was sitting at his desk with his head in his hands, looking stressed. Mr. Chen was standing there with him but was on his phone. He ended his call and looked at Dare.
“Ruiz.”
“Mr. Ferrano.” Rafe stood.
“I’d like you to have us taken to Cleo, please.”
“Absolutely. And I overstepped, I apologize. I only…”
“My wife has told me what you said. I’m protective, possessive. She’s mine. I have her because I’m extremely protective and possessive and having her enables me to be…me. You get me?”
“One hundred per cent. I won’t make that mistake again. My truest apologies.”
“See that you don’t. If you find me abrasive and disagreeable, this is just who I am. When it comes to my wife, I will lose my mind if anyone lays a hand on her. She’s mine. Just mine.”
“No explanation required, Mr. Ferrano.” Ruiz had gotten to his feet and fetched a key from a peg board behind a cupboard on the door near the entrance to his office.
We followed him down the hallway. Mr. Chen stayed behind.
“704 has cameras. The cameras are generally left on for punishments. Those punishments being recorded can be helpful for training as well as for patrons later on who enjoy watching. Do you have any objections to this?”
“No,” Dare replied, which surprised me.
He led us into the punishment room where Cleo was being kept. It looked like a medical exam room. In addition to a bench with stirrups and all sorts of straps, there was also a St. Andrew’s cross and a wall lined with whips, floggers, and paddles.
There was also a drawer filled with other punishment implements and there was a small bathroom with a bathtub, toilet, and sink off to the side. I’d been in this room, or another like it at least, both when being punished as well as when attending patrons with a taste for punishment.
She was sitting on the floor in the corner, wearing a beige bra and blue boy short panties, her feet bare, her long straight dark hair in her eyes. She was hunched over, looking a bit defeated, but still looking powerful. The woman was in incredible shape.
Abs of steel. Toned arms and legs. She had honed that body through exercise and some of that exercise occurred when she whipped Kruna assets. I’ve seen her do battle rope workouts in the slave workout room and she works those heavy ropes as easily as she does a whip that weighs nothing.
She looked up at us and her eyes narrowed on me ever so slightly. She wasn’t defeated. She was defiant. And this woman absolutely despised my guts.
“Directions, Mr. Ferrano?” Rafe asked.
“My wife can fasten her to the cross. We’ll take it from here. Have a medic on standby.”
Was this really happening?
“Cleopatra? Move.” Rafe ordered and Cleo got to her feet and slowly moved to the cross, her face held an expression that was something between boredom and disdain. Like she was disgusted that she had to suffer this, because it wasn’t interesting enough to warrant her attention and time.
“Get her fastened, babe,” Dare said.
This was not right. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t! What on earth was happening here? What on earth was going on?
This was really happening.
Despite my brain firing on multiple cylinders but doing a tailspin, my body moved, following his orders. It had to. I went into automatic slave mode when he gave me an order in that tone of voice he was using. I don’t know if I’d ever heard this specific tone before arriving at Kruna the day before, but it was extraordinarily commanding, dominant.
“Make sure she’s fastened tight,” he added.
He was often direct, dominant, but this? I didn’t know how to feel about it. But that said, my body knew what to do. It did what my Master told me to do. She didn’t fight me as I buckled her in at the wrists and ankles. Her eyes were downcast but her look was not submissive.
“Tight,” he demanded.
I was done.
“Come here.”
I moved to him at the wall of whips.
“Which one?” he asked softly.
I was stunned silent.
“Which one of these do you want to beat her with?” His hand cupped my jaw and his thumb stroked my cheekbone.
I stared at him blankly for a split second.
“She’s been a horrible bitch to you for two years. This stops now.” Dare was speaking to me but he was speaking to Cleo, really.
I was like a deer in the headlights. I clamped my mouth shut after realizing it’d been wide open.
“Angelbaby. Which one?”
I blinked.
He gave my ass a slap; I jolted in surprise. He needed me to play a part. I had to snap to it; we were being filmed.
“Which one?” he asked in my ear and then kissed behind it, “Pick one that’ll hurt.”
I pointed at a big wide red whip.
“What’s this one?”
“Dragon’s whip,” I said, fingers trailing the length of it almost lovingly. “That end is pointed like a dragon’s tail. She was always known as the dragon lady so it seems fitting.”
“It certainly does. Take it.”
I lifted it off the hook.
My eyes met Cleo’s and she looked at me like I was a joke.
“Whip her,” Dare ordered.
I was stunned. Not only because I had to do this while being filmed but because Cleo faced me.
“Master, may I speak?” I asked.
“Of course, my baby. You never have to ask me that, you know that.”
“She should be the other way if I’m to whip her. So, I can whip her back and buttocks, not her front.”
“She’s gonna get whipped across the front and the back, my baby. This bitch-faced cunt deserves it. You’re gonna give her some not-so pretty scars, today.”
My eyes met his. His voice was so sinister, so angry. He was pissed off, serious. Not only was I wired for sound for the federal agents to listen but we were being filmed by the Kruna cameras, too. And he was dead serious. My husband was in Master mode and ordering me to whip Cleo with the scarlet red suede dragon’s tail whip that was in my hand. I had to obey him.