Chuckles rippled around the tables from the Masters, a low hum of solidarity.
Tabitha skewered him with thin, ice-blue lasers. She really would make a fantastic Domme if the submissive lifestyle didn’t suit her. Men and women alike would kneel at her feet, just for a chance to be looked at this way. “She needs to loved. She needs a happy-ever-after, if such things exist. Can you love her for who she is?”
“Tabitha, this isn’t your business to get involved in,” Grit admonished in a firm tone. “Whatever happens between Violet and Boudreaux is none of your concern.”
“I made it my business when I fucked things up for her.” The stare intensified, became a little… unhinged. There was a strange kind of focused madness in her eyes now, dark and dangerous. “If you hurt her, I will hunt you down to the ends of the earth and I will kill you in the slowest, most painful manner I can devise.”
In his peripheral vision, Reaux saw several people stiffen, and the tension around them altered quickly, drastically. They didn’thave to say a word to warn him that taking her seriously right now would benefit him in the long run.
Grit yanked on her hair; not a gentle tug but a reproving yank that surely stung. “Threatening a Master is punishable, Tabitha. Quit while you’re ahead.”
She just shrugged off the pain and flicked her eyes over to Elias and Evander. She inhaled slowly, then blew the breath out heavily as though removing a heavy weight from her shoulders. “I’m the one who stole the medication from the clinic. I broke into Doc Isaac’s office, hacked through the security, and accessed the locked cupboard. My actions were stupid, reckless, and selfish. I realize there will be consequences for them, but I want to apologize for any harm I’ve caused.”
Her statement caused complete and utter uproar. The submissives appeared stunned by the revelation, but the Masters… well, three in particular developed acute cases of instant fury.
As voices erupted in a chaotic jumble, Reaux sat in silence, not listening but thinking.
Pieces of the shattered puzzle were rearranging themselves, slotting into place as the last week scrolled past in his head. The scene, the sex. The gnawing hunger that had streamed through his veins, the violent pounding of his pelvis against Violet’s ass, the threats he’d made about breeding her, filling her with his cum, planting his baby inside her.
Christ.
“How did you fuck things up for Violet?” His voice was lost amongst the three raised ones of the furious Masters lecturing Tabitha. Maybe they couldn’t sense that she was shutting down, closing off from the berating, but he could see it. “Tabitha, what did you take from the clinic?”
The spark in those savage eyes dimmed, then died. As words rained down on her in a storm of anger and disappointment, disapproval and hurt, the sub simply… went elsewhere.
Fuck.
Levi leaned in close. “Doc Isaac discovered the clinic’s supply of Plan B was missing last week. He didn’t say anything to the bosses at first; he did a full stock check in case he’d misplaced them, and to see if anything else was gone. Once he verified the drugs were actually AWOL, he called in Grit and Elias.”
Plan B? Emergency contraception?
Excitement and dread hit his stomach at the same time, creating a rather nauseous sensation as the final puzzle pieces completed the picture.
I made it my business when I fucked things up for her…
I want to apologize for any harm I caused…
He’d slept with Violet a week ago. Fucked her raw, done exactly what he’d promised and filled her with his cum. He’d assumed she was still on birth control, that she was engaging in sexual activities—a natural assumption given her calling and the fact she was a stunning woman in her sexual prime.
She’d left, he remembered. She’d gone out and he’d dealt with business while he waited for her to return. She’d brought Tamsyn back with her, and her mood had been… off. It had gotten worse over the next three days, until she turned herself into a hermit.
Now it made sense.
Violet believed she might be pregnant, or that the chances of her conceiving were high enough to warrant swallowing a pill designed to cause death. She hadn’t talked about it, there’d been no discussion. Just a quick walk from the bedroom to the clinic while their DNA attempted to combine into new life.
Slowly, Reaux stood and excused himself, although he doubted anyone heard him. They were all listening to the ear-blistering chastisement Elias was laying on Tabitha—or in the case of the subs, trying desperately not to get sucked into whirling vortex of verbal blades the Englishman was controlling.
As he made his way toward the exit, Reaux reminded himself that he couldn’t get angry with Violet for wanting to protect herself, even as rage simmered in every cell of his body. They weren’t in a loving, committed relationship, a safe environment to nurture a pregnancy, but then she wasn’t willing to try and forge one.
Despite everything he said, every promise he made, she was intent on shutting him out and living life alone.
No more.
This decision was their joint responsibility, and they needed to hash it out before she did something regrettable. Both sides of the argument had to be aired, listened to, and understood.
He might not like what she had to say, and vice versa, but he wasn’t going to stand by helplessly and let their future blink out of existence.
Wherever Violet was hiding, he would find her.
