“Says here she made it into the ambulance. Was she alive?”
“It’s rare, but it generally happens when the noose isn’t the right height or anchored correctly. The bones snap but the nerves take longer to?—”
I held up a hand to stop him. “I got the picture. Fuck.”
“It’s heartbreaking, what was done to her.”
“‘There is no beast more crueler than man’,” I quoted softly. “Am I crazy, Doc? To think that all of this leads back to her? Mira says I have a stick up my ass about it, but look at all of this.” I gestured to the window and the board. “Itfits. It’sher,” I tapped Holly’s file in my hand. “But I don’t seewho. No one isleft.”
Dr. Robinson studied the pictures, scratching his close-cropped beard. “Maybe there’s someone dead who isn’t dead.”
I snorted. “Just what I need, an order to start exhuming bodies. It’s bad enough I have to do a fucking press conference every morning with no updates.”
The doctor shrugged. “I’m just a coroner. I talk for the dead.” He pointed at the pictures of Harrow, Jamison, Keene, Martell,Wise, Butler, and Ritter-Hogan on my board. “We’re still waiting for forensics back on them. Hopefully that will be able to tell you what I cannot and you’ll be able to find this guy.”
“Problem is,” I confided in the coroner, “even if I do find him, I don’t know if I should slap a pair of cuffs on him or give him a fucking medal.”
Chapter Forty-Five
Holly
The contractwas signed.I was now a collared submissive.
I was waiting inside theSnow Chainslobby, practically bouncing up and down on my feet as Master Mal went to get his car. He was taking me to hishomefor the weekend to celebrate.
He didn’t have to know it wasn’t my first time seeing it.
During the two weeks after he’d fucked me on the stage to when we met up at the bar, Jason had gone to Special Agent Mallory’s house to get a feel for his character and took pictures to include in the dossier he had given me. The amount of bondage in Master Mal’s dungeon was impressive, but he claimed he’d removed all the bondage equipment from his house before inviting me over. I was curious to know what his dungeon now looked like.
While this weekend was considered a test run to get me acclimated to being with him outside of the club, it did not change my status as his submissive. It was official, and I had the collar to prove it.
This was not my Collar with a capital C. That I had to earn. The way Jason explained it to me years ago was that a collar with a little C was like leasing a car, whereas a Collar with a capital Cwas like owning a car. You still had a car, but you couldn’t claim ownership on a lease.
The way Master Mal explained it was that the collar now around my throat signified to all others in the lifestyle that I was his. He called it a declaration, like a promise ring. My collar was nice, black leather with a buckle on the back for easy removal. I was to take it off when we weren’t together, though I was required to wear it at the club whether Master Mal was there or not. However, the fact that it could be removed made it a collar with a little C.
I had toearnmy Collar by proving to Master Mal that I was worthy. I didn’t quite know what that meant, but Master Mal said he would know when it was time. It could take a couple of months, a year… Didn’t matter. And we would have a public ceremony when he presented it to me.
Our next evaluation with Valentino to continue our contract, with or without revisions, was in a month.
I felt Dominique approach me before she started speaking. She was trying to be sneaky, likely to startle me, but her boots gave her away.
“He’ll leave you, you know.” She was trying to twist her voice to be sweet, like a mother giving advice, but it wastoonice to be sincere. “Always does, that one. Contract after contract… But no one stays.”
I kept my gaze straight, though my hand was itching for my knife in the hidden compartment of my corset. I might be a killer, but I didn’t kill people who pissed me off. Well, I did, but there had to be more to it than that.
At least, that’s what I kept trying to convince myself at present. Maybe it would be better if I thought about how needing to hide a body would ruin my weekend with Master Mal.
“Has he told you how many submissives he had last year? It’ll never last, but good try, Dani. It’ll take a lot more than a mousy little pole princess like you to win overthatman.”
Master Mal’s car pulled up to the front. I bent to pick up the small suitcase I bought at a thrift store to make it look like I owned luggage and turned to the spiteful woman at my side. “How’s your pussy these days, Dominique? Getting any good dick? Oh, wait… You still have six more weeks of winter in that chastity belt.” I gave her a big smile as I walked backwards out the front door. “Bye, Felicia.”
Master Mal came around the front of his car to open the passenger door for me. He reached for me, gripping the edges of my mask. “I can’t wait to take this off.”
I touched the hem of his pants. “I can’t wait to get these off of you, Sir.”
Chuckling, he bent to kiss me. I rose up on my toes to meet him. As he lifted his head, he glanced behind me. “Dominique behaving herself?”
I shrugged. “She was her usual sweet self, Sir.”
