“Don’t you want to know how to bottom for him, too?” I teased.
“Did you talk about that?” Madden grumbled, his cheeks turning a deep red.
“No, he didn’t. I guessed.” I let out a whistle. “Bloody hell, Slater, just let the boy stick his dick in you.”
It was Slater’s turn to send me a nasty glare. “Shut up, Paxton.”
“I happen to agree with him on this one.” Madden grinned and waggled his eyebrows. “Your ass. My dick. Tonight?”
“No.” Slater blanched, and I caught the hurt that flicked over Madden’s handsome face, even though it was only briefly. I wasn’t trained enough to deal with their relationship, though from the outside it was clear what the issue was. Slater was terrified of giving up control, and Madden wanted to take charge for once. Then you added in Slater’s lack of experience in that department and it was a whole new ball game.
“Back to the plan. Me pretending to be River’s Dom. It’s easy. We go into each club around town and find out if anyone knows the guy’s face… somehow. If we get a hit, we could crack the whole case of a sex trafficking ring. Think about all the kidnapped people we could save.”
“Goddamn it. That poor kid, Dima. If I can do anything, I need to.” River sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers. “We can’t just jump into the deep end with this. You need to play a part, and if you want topretendto be my Dom, I’ll need to give you a few lessons.”
“We don’t have time for that. The sooner he gets those pictures to Brickton, the sooner your life goes up in flames. I think we should start tonight.” If desire curled in my gut at the thought of pretending to be River’s Dom, I wouldn’t admit it to anyone, especially not to Slater, who was looking at me with a curious gaze. “Where’s a good place to start?”
“All of them?” River shoved his gold glasses farther up his nose and stared at me with his lips pressed thinly. “Most of the clubs in New Gothenburg aren’t actually formal organizations. You need to know some things before we go running in anyplace. I won’t have you making me look like an idiot. We can start at Club Triple X. It runs simultaneously as a strip clubanda low-key BDSM club, and it’s just on the outskirts of New Gothenburg. If I was someone trying to abduct people, I’d start there. There’s too many eyes in the city.”
I grinned. “It’s settled, then. You can give me tips today on how to be a good Dom, and then we can go to Club Triple X tonight.”
“Nothing will go wrong with that plan,” Slater muttered, just loud enough for me to hear.
“Can we stay and watch?” Madden cupped his hands under his chin. “I can give pointers. Paxton, River likes calling his Domsir.” His eyes practically sparkled with a barely contained impish evil.
“No!” River stood, the chair scraping on my nice floorboards, which made me wince. “Leave. Now.”
Madden pouted up at him with big eyes. “But River, I wanna see what kind of stuff you do. Maybe Evan and I can try some of it at home.”
Slater spluttered and jumped to his feet. The poor guy looked ready to cork it right there. “Let’s go, baby. We have things to do today anyway. We don’t get many days off.”
“But—” Madden let Slater yank him away through the house toward the front door. Laughing, I followed them.
Slater turned to me, an embarrassed smile on his face as he cleared his throat. “Let me know if you need anything, but it’s a decent start of a plan. If we can find this guy, Xander, we can find the others that don’t have families looking for them. I don’t care if we’re getting paid for this or not. It’s the right thing to do.”
I nodded. “If what River said is true, this Dima is one of them. We could try to find him as well.”
Slater stared at me for a smidge too long and then sighed. “The BDSM gatherings are a good place to start. Be cautious and act casual. I don’t know anything about those clubs, but if River is right and they don’t trust cops, you need to fit in, become one of them.”
“And you could give River the spanking he needs, too.” Madden chuckled.
“I heard that, Madden,” River shouted through the house. “Don’t make me dock your pay for your smartass mouth.”
Slater sighed and shook his head at me. “This is when we’re glad we don’t work with them.”
I laughed, and after saying goodbye, I closed the door. Making my way back into the dining room, River hadn’t moved from where he sat. His glasses rested on the table in front of him and he had his head in his hands. I touched his shoulder, and he didn’t startle like I expected him to.
“Are you feeling okay? I can get you some painkillers.”
“That would be nice. I have a headache.” River didn’t move when I turned to go back into the kitchen. I rummaged through my wall cabinets until I found the bottle of tablets. I hated medications and never used them unless I absolutely needed them, but I knew Alex must have had some hanging around. There were times when he’d had terrible headaches to the point he couldn’t think, and he needed any relief he could get.
Grabbing a glass of water, I headed back and set the glass on the table directly in front of him. “Here you go. Some aspirin. It should help.”
He reached for the tablets blindly and took the glass, sipping the water before snatching the medicine out of my hand. He threw them into his mouth and drank more water. “I forgot how much heroin messed with me.”
“Could they have known that, too?” I sat in the chair closest to him and took the time to assess him carefully. While he looked a lot better than he had last night, he was far from being back to normal. His skin was too pale, and his eyes had more redness than what was usual for him.
“That’s a lot of research just to get a pic,” he grumbled, but frown lines formed in his forehead. “Depends on how much Brickton hates me. He’s a fucking bastard on a good day.”
