Merrick could see what Dex meant. He would have to tread carefully, since he wouldn’t be around long enough to sponsor her into the club. But he could always look for opportunities to pave the way for that while he was here. At least now he had an in with someone who might have knowledge of everyone who came through the front doors.
With the shooting of Congressman Fredericks, and Stanton’s murder, the stakes were being raised, and Merrick suspected the powder keg they were sitting on was about to explode.
A feeling that Dex shared, according to their discussion last night after he had left Kate Fretwell’s.
Hopefully they could get a handle on things before the fuse burned down.
Chapter 14
Kate glanced around her at the groups of subs in the locker room of The Dungeon. Many had red, puffy eyes like they had been crying, and every group was talking in hushed tones.
There was a much larger than normal crowd in the waiting area outside Master Ralston’s office, and she had to show her ID to gain access to the dungeon floor. She asked the security guard what was happening, but he said he wasn’t at liberty to say.
What the hell is going on?
So far, anyone she had tried to ask had hurried by without answering. Some had even given her hostile looks.
She sighed.
After Dex left, she’d taken a long nap. A shower had been enough to wake her up to take care of at least the work that couldn’t wait until tomorrow.
Then she had stopped by the hospital to visit Uncle Carl. She was happy to find he was out of intensive care and recovering quickly. He was still surrounded by his security detail and family, but they all made her feel welcome. It had been good to see him smile, and to feel the strength in his hands when he squeezed hers.
But on the way to The Dungeon, she had blared her favorite playlist off her iPhone instead of listening to the radio, like she normally would. She wondered if she’d missed a news report that would have explained all this.
Only one way to find out other than going to sit in her car and scan radio stations.
She approached a small group of subs who had been friendly to her in the past. In fact, several of them shared the same Doms she did. Which sounded horrible, now that she thought about it.
“Hey,” she said as she edged into the tight circle. “What’s going on?” She gestured around in a large motion. “I feel like I missed something.”
Joanne, an aspiring actress and screenwriter, began sobbing uncontrollably, and Kate felt like crap for having brought up an obviously painful subject.
In between sobs, Joanne glared at Kate over her cupped hands and finally bit out, “You hated Mark anyway, so why should you care?”
Kate was still at a loss, and she glanced around the circle at the other women for any clues. No one seemed willing to throw her a life preserver, so she tackled it head on.
“Joanne, I do not hate Mark. I think he’s an ass for trying to give me as a gift to that letch Balkins for a night. But I don’t hate him.” There was no pause in the sobbing, but Kate did see expressions of sympathy, and even understanding, from the other women.
“I admit, I lost my temper and dick-punched the asshole.” She shrugged. “I never agreed to be passed around the club like his personal sex toy, and I let him know just how much I didn’t appreciate it.”
“And now he’s dead,” Joanne snapped, and then sobbed into her hands again.
Shock hit Kate as if the woman had slapped her across the face. “Dead?” she repeated, sure Joanne hadn’t meant dead in the literal sense, but as some kind of metaphor. The woman had a habit of overdramatizing things.
Joanne sniffled and raised her tearstained face to glare at Kate again. “Yes, dead. Someone bashed his head in last night, and he was found surrounded by pictures of you punching him in the crotch.”
Kate stiffened as a wave of ice washed through her. She’d been pissed at Stanton, but she hadn’t wished him dead.
“Joanne,” one of Stanton’s newer subs interjected. “To be fair, the rumor is he was also found with several other incriminating pictures, although no one is talking about what kind of incriminating.”
The new sub seemed angry, but not at Kate. Instead, she seemed angry at Stanton, which struck Kate as a bit odd, since the woman had been monopolizing a lot of his time lately along with Samantha. Kate would have expected her to be sad about losing her Dom, but angry just didn’t seem right in this situation.
Samantha.
Kate hadn’t seen or thought about her since she had set Dex’s tool bag inside the aftercare room the other night. “Has anyone seen Samantha?”
Scowls and mumbles of “bitch” and “slut” sounded from around the group.
Subs could be possessive and catty, and apparently, since Samantha had been Stanton’s new favorite flavor of the month, she had earned the other women’s displeasure.