I know she told me that she wanted to be left alone. I had actually gone back inside Paddles to confront Camilla but something told me that I needed to talk to Lexi. Maybe if I had the chance to sit her down and talk to her, she would have a better understanding of why I chose to end things with my ex-girlfriend.

By the time I made up my mind and went back outside the club, I was too late. I watched her close the door to the cab and drive off. Luckily, I had the sense to memorize the number of the cab as I ran back to my car.

Frustration was already starting to set in by the time I got to my vehicle. I was so worked up that I fumbled with the keys and didn’t think I was ever going to get the key into the ignition.

I’m sure it was only a few seconds but it felt like I’d wasted ten minutes just trying to get my car going. Eventually, I got it started and sped off in the direction of Lexi’s house, breaking every speed limit in the process.

No matter how fast I drove, I could never seem to catch up with the cab that Lexi left the club in. By the time I hit the freeway, I couldn’t help but get the feeling that something was wrong.

I pulled out my cell phone and asked Siri to dial Yellow Cab in New York City. Being a busy Saturday night, it was near impossible to get somebody on the line.

Eventually, a dispatcher answered and I was able to inquire as to where the cab had gone. With the way my night had already gone, it should have come as no surprise when I was placed on hold for nearly ten minutes while the dispatcher got the driver on the radio. It turned out that Lexi had been dropped off only a few blocks away from Paddles, though the driver wasn’t entirely sure where she had gone.

Worried about Lexi being by herself in the middle of the city, I popped a very illegal U-turn in the middle of the street and started heading back in the direction that I’d just come from.

When I got back to Paddles, I started making my way up and down every street in the neighborhood, driving slowly so I could look out both sides of the cars, hoping to spot her.

I knew it was possible that she’d gone inside any of the bars or clubs in the area but I had a gut feeling that she hadn’t. Something told me that I needed to drive around until I found her.

As frustrating as New York City can be to drive in during the daytime hours, it is even more infuriating at night. Everything is dark except for the buildings with the flashing lights.

The constant blinking and flashing was enough to make you disoriented if you aren’t looking straight ahead at all times. Keeping your eyes firmly on the road is a lot easier said than done when your sole purpose for driving around is to find someone.

I was getting increasingly frustrated by the second. I’d gone up and down so many blocks that I was going to be out of the district soon, where there would be no more businesses at all.

I couldn’t see her walking around in the residential areas, especially considering the neighborhoods were so bad. If it came down to it, I would have gone into every single establishment one by one until I found her.

That’s what I was getting ready to do when a small commuter parking lot caught my eye. A man was dragging a woman towards the cars in the lot and she appeared to be struggling. Straining to see, I was able to make out Lexi as the woman being dragged. I was even more surprised to learn that I also knew the man who was dragging her.

Kade Nichols was somebody I was very familiar with. We had known each other since grade school and, at one time, the two of us were best friends. We hung out together all the time, even as recently as a couple of years before the night in question.

Kade wasn’t always an asshole.

At one time, we had a lot of fun together. Unfortunately, he had slowly begun to morph into someone I didn’t want to associate with any longer.

Our friendship was founded on a number of common interests. In grade school, it was playing army and military games. In high school, it was watching football and hockey. As adults, our interests became much different from one another with one very huge exception: BDSM. He was actually the person who introduced me to the lifestyle.

I thought it was a little weird at first, especially considering that another man had introduced me to a lifestyle that was so sexual. I questioned his sexuality at first, wondering if he was trying to use bondage as a way to come onto me. I don’t have any problems with someone being gay. Some of the best friends I’d made at Paddles are homosexual. I just don’t swing that way and had no interest in it.

My ass wasn’t what Kade was interested in. He craved the power and control over women that came with the BDSM lifestyle. I came to enjoy it as well but nothing at all like he did. His interest in the lifestyle was far darker and much more sinister. While I liked the women turning over the power to me so that I could tie them up and spank them, Kade wanted to inflict severe pain and punishment.

I was into domination for fun and because I liked how it allowed me to play a character that was so different than I was in reality. I believe Kade was using it as an extension for what he wanted to do in everyday life but couldn’t because it would be illegal.

I’d never sat in on any of Kade’s domination sessions because that would have been weird but word about him got around very quickly. His form of dominating wasn’t about pain for the purpose of pleasure. He seemed to get off on genuinely hurting the women and watching them bleed.

There were a few pain sluts who were turned on by the idea and wanted to see for themselves but afterward, even they thought it was too much. It didn’t take long before he couldn’t get any takers to play with. Pissed off, he stopped coming to the club. I’d been told that he started posting ads on CraigsList to find women to abuse.

That friendship, if there was any left to begin with, was thrown right out the window when I saw that he had Lexi by the arm and was dragging her into a dark parking lot.

There was an alley right next to where he was dragging her so I hung a quick left and threw my car in park, leaving it blocking both ways. I also left my car running and the door wide open. That’s not usually a very smart thing to do in the city but I didn’t plan on being away from my vehicle for very long.

It took me a minute to figure out where they had gone as I had lost sight of them when I pulled into the alley. It was almost as if they vanished from the face of the earth. I stopped running so I could look around but the sound of a woman yelling led me to the back corner of the lot.

I ran over as fast as I could, nearly falling as the gravel slipped under my feet. I made it to the car just in time to see Kade grabbing onto Lexi, trying to shove her feet into the back seat of his car.

I grabbed him from behind, spun him around and threw him to the ground. He looked up at me to see what the fuck just happened but he looked to be completely out of it. He was looking me directly in the eye but it was almost as if he didn’t even see me. He may as well have been looking right through me.

He’d obviously already pissed someone off because he was sporting a black eye and a recently busted lip. While relatively fresh, the marks had been there too long for Lexi to have made them.

Kade picked himself up off the ground, dusted himself off and went back to trying to get Lexi into his car. He was completely oblivious to the fact that I was there. Lexi, who thought the situation was over, started to scream and kick. Once again, I grabbed him by his collar and threw him to the ground.

This time, instead of worrying about him, I reached in and grabbed Lexi by the hand, pulling her out of the psychopath’s car. We got about halfway to my car when I was knocked down with a hard punch to the back of my head.

He climbed on top of me and tried to choke me but I was able to pop my hips and ended up on top. For once in my life, those childhood Jui-Jitsu classes had actually come in handy. He was flailing wildly under my body weight but I had him pinned down.

He struggled hard but gave up quickly when I started raining hooks and punches down onto his face. I was a bit out of control and I didn’t like it. Once I realized I was beating the guy to a pulp, I stopped myself and got off the ground.

Kade was lying there looking like a broken, bleeding shell of a man. It was ironic as I’m sure there’s been plenty of women that he’s left exactly the same way. He had no fight left in him but he couldn’t keep his mouth shut, even as Lexi and I walked away.

“You stupid bitch. Go ahead and go with that asshole. That’s the kind of man you deserve anyway. It’s not like you could have handled a guy like me. I’m too much of a man for you.”

“That’s enough, Kade,” I screamed. “Unless you want some more of what I just gave you, I highly suggest you shut the fuck up.”

“Why? It’s not like I’m lying. She already knows it’s true. She already knows that the only way she can handle me is if she’s so fucked up that she passes out.”

I looked over at Lexi to see if she had any clue what he was rambling about. Her face was red and she was staring down at the parking lot gravel.

“What’s wrong? Cat got your tongue?” he continued. “Why don’t you tell him about our wild night? Tell him about how there were no limits and how I could do whatever I wanted to you. Tell him about all the pictures we took. Tell him everything.”

Lexi started to cry, which only pissed me off more. I hate it when anyone makes someone I care about cry. I gave him a hard kick in the ribs, knocking the air out of him and sending him hard back to the concrete, in the dirt where he belonged.

I helped Lexi get into the passenger side of my car before getting in on the driver side and speeding him away, leaving Kade lying there in the dust of the alley.