“Julian handled it.”
I’ll thank my friend later and have him help me send a message to the mayor of our fair city.
Suddenly, Eloise frowns and looks at something behind me, to my left.
“Something’s wrong over there.”
I let go of her and turn to follow her gaze and watchas a man pulls back with a bullwhip and cracks it across a woman’s back.
She’s strapped to a Saint Andrew’s cross, her back showing, and there are at least a dozen bleeding wounds down her back.
“Some people are into this, firefly.”
“No,” she says, shaking her head. “She’s saying something. Oh my God, it’s Scarlett.”
Eloise runs to the cross, to the front of it, and sees Scarlett’s face.
“She’s screaming her safe word!”
The man pulls back as if he’s going to whip her again, and I wrench it from his hand as I signal for guards to get their fucking asses over here.
“Get him in the cell,” I tell them and recognize that this is the same piece of shit who ignored Beth’s safe word last week. Why he’s here, I don’t know. Loveland should have informed him that his membership was revoked.
What the fuck?
“She’s into it! She doesn’t know what she’s saying,” he cries as he’s dragged away, and I get to work unbuckling Scarlett as Eloise reassures her that she’s safe now.
“We’re here,” Eloise says soothingly. “Oh, sweetie, we’re here. It’s okay.”
“He wouldn’t listen,” Scarlett cries as I unbuckle the last shackle. She falls against me, her legs giving out on her. Careful not to touch her back, I lift her in my arms and hold her by the ass, her legs wrapped around my waist.
“Loop your arms around Rome’s neck,” Eloise says, helping her. “It’s okay, sweetheart. It’s okay now.”
Scarlett is sobbing. I don’t like holding a naked woman in my arms who isn’t Eloise, but Scarlett can’t walk on her own, and her back is so fucked up, I can’t wrap her in something.
“It’s okay.” Eloise’s eyes shine with tears. She gives me a knowing look that tells me she understands my discomfort but also knows that I’m taking care of her friend, and this is not in any way sexual. “Where can we take her?”
“We have an infirmary,” I reply and gesture to another guard. “Call Dr. Asgood and get her here ASAP. We’ll be in the infirmary.”
“Yes, sir,” he says with a nod, pulling out his phone.
“You have a doctor on standby?” Eloise asks, and I simply nod as I stride toward the small room we’ve made into an exam room for the few moments like this, or if one of my men needs to get stitched up.
There are three beds inside, and I set Scarlett down on the edge of the nearest one so her feet dangle off the side. Since she can’t lie down, I grab a blanket and cover her front with it.
She hugs the blanket to her, still crying.
“I saidokraover and over again. I hate that fucking vegetable.” She wipes at the tears on her cheeks and the makeup that’s run down her skin. “He wouldn’t stop.”
“Did you agree to the whip?” I ask her softly.
“No, that’s not my thing,” she says, shaking her head. “He asked if he could use a riding crop anda flogger. I told him I’d safe word when it was too much, and he agreed.”
Motherfucker.
I squat in front of her and hold her face in my hands. My rage has a heartbeat, sending heat through my body. That asshole is going to pay dearly for what he did to this woman. “Scarlett, look at me. I’m so fucking sorry, honey. That should not have happened to you.”
She shakes her head and starts to cry again.
