Call Me Killer (18 page)

It chilled me, though. The dude’s voice was icy and his submissive looked as if she might pass out.

He released the tension and she sagged, once again bowing her head. Her arms were tied behind her back so her elbows were forced together in what I knew must be a painful position. Looking down at her submissive posture, Marks dropped one hand to his crotch and absently rubbed his dick through his trousers.

Was this guy trying to show us what a harsh, cruel Dom he was?

Admittedly, my own dick had been straining at my seams ever since I’d entered this place, but I wasn't gonna be so obvious about it.

It struck me that Marks was precisely the type Hadley would have gone for. Had it been him she’d been with that time she’d avoided me because her body was covered with bruises? Had he been the one who’d given her that rope burn around her throat?

“There are several ways to induce oxygen shortage in your partner, but keep in mind that this is high risk behavior.” Marks took a hunk of the woman’s hair in his hand and pulled her head back. “If you just want to make it a little difficult for her to breathe, you could try this.”

He reached behind him where there was a small table on the stage with toys. He held up a dildo, anatomically shaped like a large penis. It had a harness and at first I thought it was a strap-on, but then I realized it was a particularly nasty gag. “The length and thickness of this gag will feel uncomfortable to the submissive. Open your mouth, slave.”

The girl obeyed without hesitation, and Marks inserted the hard rubber cock. He didn’t do it gently. From the way her eyes widened, the thing must be going right to the back of her throat. She was clearly doing her best to breathe through her nose. He pulled the straps around to the back of her head and fastened them, then he turned the woman to face the audience.

“She can still breathe, of course, but with her mouth blocked up she’ll have to use her nose. She might feel a little lightheaded, especially if she is being fucked or flogged. And of course, if you are into group play, the gag could be a real penis. Or a succession of them.”

Rory was squeezing my hand. I wasn’t sure if she was turned on or disgusted. Probably the latter. Marks came across as a callous bastard, not a loving, caring Dom.

He forced the woman’s chin up and then ran his fingers down her throat all the way to her breast bone. With the gag in her mouth, the trussed up arms, and the collar and leash, she looked helpless, vulnerable, and very submissive.

“There is only one pathway for air to reach and enter the lungs, and that is through the delicate tissues in the throat. Also running through the throat are the blood vessels that supply oxygen to the brain. Think carefully before you deprive your partner’s brain of blood and oxygen. The tiniest mistake could send him or her to the hospital. Or even the morgue. And you to prison for the rest of your life.”

He removed the penis gag, unclipped the leash, and lifted the choke chain collar over her head. Then he unbound her arms. “I’m finished with you,” he informed the woman. “You may go.”

“Thank you, Master,” she said softly. But I thought she looked a bit disappointed as she rose and walked down from the stage. Maybe she wanted to be humiliated a little more?

“There is no absolutely safe way to demonstrate breath play,” Silas Marks added coldly. “My advice to you? Don’t do it unless you’re a fucking expert.”

There was some confused murmuring among the crowd, who had perhaps expected more of a demonstration. Someone called out, “I thought you were an expert? Isn’t that why they asked you to give a demo?”

Marks gave a cold smile. “My expert advice is don’t try it.” With that, he left the stage.

“He’s not exactly a people person, is he?” Rory said.

“He’s a condescending prick. But he got off on that, no matter what his views are on its safety.”

“I noticed. Let’s go talk to him.”

I wanted to smash him, not chat with the guy. The thought that he might have been mixed up with Hadley…that he might have hurt her or even killed her had taken over my brain. In fact, I was already lunging in the direction he’d gone when Rory grabbed my arm. “Take it easy. Don't lose your cool, Griff.”

“He had something to do with it,” I growled. The other night at the restaurant, I’d discounted her assertion about the billionaires being involved. But I’d fucking changed my mind.

It took money to make someone completely disappear.

And the bastard had plenty of that.

Griff

Dragging Rory along behind me, I pushed through the crowd to the side of the small stage. As door was just closing behind Marks, who had exited the dungeon area.

“He’s taking off.”

“Wait. We have to think this through.”

Fuck that. I was going to grab the guy before he escaped. He probably had a car waiting outside the house to whisk him off to his estate. I didn’t know if he owned an estate, but he was rich as fuck, so he probably did, right? Maybe he had a bunch of sex slaves imprisoned there.

The side door led into a long, dark corridor. No one was back there, but a couple of other doors, all closed, lined the hallway.

I tried the first one I came to. It was locked.

“Griff,” Rory said. “You can’t just go barging into someone’s room. They said there were private rooms where people could, you know, do private stuff.”

I didn’t listen. Marching down to the next door, I twisted the handle. It turned smoothly and the door opened. It was a dimly-lit office of some kind. I saw a large, old-fashioned desk, a couple of easy chairs, a large computer screen, and, turning sharply, eyes narrowed, Silas Marks.

Yes.

“Get out.” He strode toward me. Well, us, since Rory squeezed in beside me. “No one’s allowed in here.”

“Ask me if I give a shit.” I slammed the door closed behind us.

Marks took me in. His gaze then flicked to Rory. His lips parted, but that was the only sign of recognition.

He was no longer wearing his half-mask. I ripped mine off and flung it on the oriental rug. Rory followed my lead.

“It was you, wasn’t it?” I said. “Hadley’s breath play dude. Is that what happened to her? You got careless? Dangerous stuff—you could kill someone.”

I was ready to attack the creep, and it must have been obvious, since Rory again put her hand on my arm. “Griff.” Her voice was calm and surprisingly soothing.

“How the fuck did you two get in here?” said Marks. He stepped back to the desk, swept up a smartphone and pushed a button. Calling in the reinforcements, the coward.

“I hacked our way in,” Rory said, walking right up to him and peering at the screen on his desk. “You should upgrade your security.”

I had the brilliant idea to lock the door behind me. Maybe that would hold off the troops for a few minutes.

Marks raised his eyebrows. “I will. We’re supposed to be proof against hackers. Want a job?” Then, super fast, he reached out and grabbed Rory by her wrist and jerked her to his side. A moment later, his arm was around her throat and he held her body against his like a shield.

I was lunging for the bastard when the way he was twisting Rory’s neck registered.

“Stop right there, O’Malley.”

I did. Forget Hadley—if he hurt Rory, I’d rip out his fucking heart.

Rory squeaked. When she kicked back with one high heel at his knee, he did something to her that turned the squeak into a yelp of pain. He was twisting her neck, and he looked fucking competent. He might be a nerd billionaire, but he had some moves.

The sick realization shot through me that if he’d killed one girl and made her disappear, he could probably do it again.

The arm that wasn’t around her neck was around her waist. He deliberately put his fingers on the front of her hip, almost into her crotch and she yelped again. Her face was turning red, but she looked more pissed than afraid.

I was so enraged steam must have been coming out of my nostrils. “Let her go, you fuck.”

“I’ll let her go when cooler heads prevail.”

“You’re hurting her.”

You’re touching her. No one touches Rory but me. She’s mine.

“She’s a submissive, right? You’ve got her decked out like one. She should enjoy an experienced Dom’s attentions.”

“Let her the fuck go.”

He didn’t. I was terrified that he’d go ahead and break her neck and then call in his goons to get rid of the evidence.

“Or do the two of you idiots imagine yourselves to be a couple of amateur cops? What the fuck do you think you’re doing sneaking into my place and daring to question me?”

“So it’s your place now? You own the fucking club?” Finlay had said something about that. Marks, Cranmore and the Swan bitch owned the place now. “Was it yours back when Hadley was coming here? Answer my fucking question—you were with her, weren’t you?”

“A few times, yes. It’s not a secret.”

Whew, that took some of the breeze out of my canvas. He was admitting it?

Instead of following up on whatever the hell he’d done to my old girlfriend, I was sweating over what he was doing to my current girl. His hands on her body was bad enough, but I was terrified that he might be hurting her or freaking her out. “Let Rory go, asshole.”

“You ready to talk about this man to man?”

The question startled me. Man to man? No doubt he saw it as rich-ass tech billionaire to college drop-out fuck-up? But he didn’t sound as condescending as I’d have expected.

“I am if you are.”

“Okay, then.”

With a smoothness of movement that reminded me of Sean, he loosened the neck-hold. He released Rory in such a way that she was not only free but steady. Her eyes met mine and she nodded, a bit shakily. I guess she looked okay.

I grabbed her arm and pulled her to me. Her heart was pounding. So was mine. She hugged me hard.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. He didn’t hurt me. Well, not much.”

I found myself plastering kisses on her upturned face. Her eyes were shining and my cock picked this absurd moment to jerk into hardness. I wanted to throw her down on the floor and thrust into her. Show this pretentious fucker that Hadley might not have been mine, all mine, but Rory was. No other Dom was touching Rory.

What the fuck was wrong with me?

Marks took advantage of the pause to move around behind his desk. “Have a seat, both of you, Mr. O’Malley, Ms. McKenna.”

Rory stiffened.

“Her name’s McKay,” I said, wondering how he’d even come that close. Oh, right. Connor Finlay. He’d put her picture on his fucking server and he was obviously tight with Marks.

“McKay, is it? Have a seat, Ms.
McKay
.”

Rory and Marks stared at each other and I swear something passed silently between them, although I had no clue what.

Whatever, we sat down together on the leather love-seat across from the desk. The three of us stared at each other. Hostility and aggression still clouded the room.

Rory cleared her throat and took the initiative. “So you had some kind of relationship with Hadley Allison, Mr. Marks? Funny, that information wasn’t in the police files.”

“The files you hacked? You do know you’re not the only hacker in town?”

“Even so, I’d have thought a billionaire’s involvement with a girl who vanished and was presumed dead might have made it into the press.”

“Why? I wasn’t a suspect. And Ms. Allison had a large number of hookups.” His cold eyes flicked to me. “More than enough men to keep the cops busy. Not to mention chicks.”

“You bribed them to keep your name out of it,” I shot back.

“Actually, I didn’t. Bribery is not the way I operate.”

Right, like I believed that.

“My connection with her was minor. In fact, it wasn’t even sexual in the conventional sense. We did a couple of NGC scenes.”

“NGC?”

Marks sneered at Rory, who knew a lot of things, but didn't know the local scene lingo.

“Non-genital contact,” I translated. Not that I believed it. Hadley was all about the genital contact.

“You’re right that she wanted to experiment with breath play,” he went on. “I refused. I know some techniques, yeah, but it’s still high risk behavior. I wasn't willing to risk my own freedom to satisfy her fetish. She was seeking something I wasn’t able to supply.”

“Meaning what?”

His forehead creased slightly and he shrugged. “There was a darkness in her.”

No shit, I thought.

Rory pressed him, though. She seemed to have recovered her cool. “Can you explain what you mean by that?”

“Not easily, no. I’m no stranger to dark desires. Obviously. Neither are many of my friends.”

He had friends?

“But she went deeper than most. Or wanted to. It was as if she was standing on the edge of a suspension bridge over a black chasm. And daring herself to jump.”

“So you gave her a push?”

Although his expression didn’t reveal it, I could tell from his tone that he was pissed. “The only reason we’re having this conversation is that I, too, am not fond of unsolved mysteries. I liked Hadley. But I didn’t want a submissive, or even a casual play partner, whose issues were so heavy. I’m no fucking shrink, and I wasn’t looking to be anyone’s savior.”

Bastard.

“I presume you convinced the investigators that you were somewhere else on the night she disappeared?” Rory asked.

“I was in London speaking at a technology conference. Unlike your boyfriend, Ms. McKen—oops,
McKay
, I was thousands of miles away. And trust me, if anyone made a mistake with a rope around a submissive’s neck, it was a lot more likely to be an amateur like O’Malley than an expert like myself.”

I practically leapt off the love-seat, but Rory grabbed me. “Stop it! I hate the way you males are always attacking each other. Dial down the testosterone, Griff, please.”

“Excuse me if I want to beat his smug face in.”

Marks laughed. “You’ll have to get in line. There’s a whole pack of people who want to do that.” He paused. “Has it ever occurred to you that Hadley might be alive? And that she might not want to be found?”

“No. She’d have never just run off. She was only a week from graduation.”