Everyone is a stranger, except for Zedder and he barely counts. The tiled floor is cool under my feet, but the eyes of two of the men standing in the hallway are heated and ominous. They rake their gazes down any female who wanders near. If Kail wasn’t with me, I’d be wary.
A laughing woman bounces past in a black-and-white ballerina tutu pursued by a man dressed like a firefighter from a photoshoot. I spot a man in a black tuxedo with a coiled whip in hand.
“Who the fuck are all these people?” I say it loudly to get past the music.
“No idea.” Kail encourages me forward, with his hand at my back.
We snag a drink each—champagne goblets, but plastic ones, though I vowed not to consume too much. Whatever Zedder hoped I would do for him and his so-called hacker, surely it is not going to be anything too unusual?
A few of the men and women crowded into a side living room are wearing masks, and some have stripped down to little more than leather and underwear. A man with a nose ring, in a crisscross black leather harness and codpiece, saunters past,leash in hand, leading a woman with shreds of black lace at hips and breasts—she pads along on hands and knees. The leash sways from her red collar.
Subconsciously, I touch the silver collar with the tag engraved withPET, that Kail has me wear. This may have given Zedder ideas at the warehouse, but I wouldn’t take it off for a million dollars.
“Whatever happens tonight, the aim is to get this computer genius on our side,” I remind Kail.
He stops and hooks his finger through the metal ring the pet tag hangs from and slowly brings me to him. “Of course.” His mouth meets mine in a long, heart-stealing kiss.
Then he adjusts the collar and makes sure the tag is at the front.
I have to take a breath and pull my thoughts from the gutter before I can follow him.
We thread past a couple doing something in an alcove, something I don’t quite comprehend until we’re level with them. A woman in a Batgirl-style costume is slowly pegging a man with a Venom mask, with his pants at his ankles, while he hugs the wall of the alcove.
I lean into Kail. “I’ve heard of Batman gadgets but a bat strap-on?”
“Mmm…or is it a bat dildo? Don’t get any ideas, Miss Hailey. Though if I had one…” He pinches my ass. “I could do both your holes at once.”
While I’m still lost in contemplatingthat,he drags me into the gymnasium where it seems Zedder is holding court, to a mostly empty room. It’s very…red in here. The chandelier has been shrouded in red, and the lighting lends the room a Temple of Doom atmosphere. An extra sofa has been moved in, and the gym gear has been spread along the walls. A massive web of black rope hangs from ceiling to floor, a spidery curtain casting shadows on the wall. The ends of ropes droop from the lower edge and drape across the floor, as if the spider forgot to complete its trap.
The ceiling in here has many hidden anchor points, I realize, as we walk along the line of those loose threads. The Laramies were dedicated to their kinks.
Waist-high metal troughs add a medieval touch, and pseudo-weaponry has been stuffed into them, upright—spears; a pair of long, executioner-style axes; and muskets. Stage props, I assume.
“Shucks. Your fancy table with the anchor points is being used.” Kail’s threat to tie me to it has, thankfully, grown harder to accomplish.
“We shall overcome. I wonder if that’s our hacker?”
We stroll over, passing a throuple in the middle of a sex act by the sofa—a woman is enthusiastically servicing two men by giving one a blow job while the other man fucks her at the back. Anal? I can’t tell, but her rear and back are striped by what might be whip or cane strikes.
Another man in a half-face sequined mask and harlequin costume sprawls on the sofa watching, sipping a drink, smiling with thick lips.
This party is already an orgy, and it’s barely begun.
Zedder looks bored, with half-lidded eyes and a drink in hand. The man next to him must be Dawid. He’s pale-skinned but has hair so dark it might be a piece of the night rewoven into sinuous waves. His eyes are bright as blue glass. Both he and Zedder are in casual pants and shirt. Jade green and gray for him, black for Zedder.
An elven-style point shows where one ear emerges from his tangled locks. This man does love his cosplaying.
Maybe there is something in the drink since the men blur for a second. I set aside my goblet on the table, after Zedder signals us and we slide onto the window seat to join them.
A pair of bodyguards, in dark T-shirts and long pants, stand at ease behind them, scanning us. The holstered guns under their arms are a giveaway.
“Dawid, meet Hailey and Kail.” Zedder shifts forward. “Isn’t he perfect? Pretty eyes, pretty ears. Dawid, these two are prepared to make you happy in return for some of your special coding sauce.”
“So you said.” He has an angular jaw you could slice flesh with and smug red lips, as if he’s just kissed the lipstick off a woman and absorbed the color.
A loud moan makes me glance at the only other woman here. She’s still being fucked, and roughly, but in a new position.
Dawid sees my distraction. He stretches out his long legs and crosses his ankles. The smile he gives me is lopsided, with a hint of teeth, like a lazy-ass wolf.
