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  “What about her family?” Nolan asked.

  Sully looked grim. “The fucker deliberately outed her to her family. Pictures and everything. He must have really thought she was a special target to go after her the way he did.”

  Ross, who’d been listening to all of that with his head bowed, finally looked up. “We have a spare room,” he said. “And Essie’s mom lives across the street from us. I know she’d be willing to let her live with her for a while, if needed. Promise us, if things get weird, or don’t work out, you won’t keep trying to force it to work. Keep us in the loop with her. If she’ll work to get herself back on her feet, we’ll all help her as much as we can.”

  “Okay,” Kenny said.

  “I know she’s not some professional victim,” Ross said. “I remember Loren and I talking to her when she first started coming out to events. She’s a smart, hardworking woman. She had her own place, a good job, a car—she just picked the wrong guy. She told us she had a string of vanilla boyfriends over the years, but she’d never felt right settling down with any of them, and so she didn’t. When we warned her about subfrenzy, she assured us she’d be careful and not let some Dom sweep her off her feet and turn her life upside down.”

  Ross sadly shook his head. “I believed her, too. I really thought she was someone who would do well. She seemed keenly self-aware of what she’d been missing in her life and what she wanted. I thought Loren was going to pop a gasket when she realized that asshole had slapped a collar on Betsy and started reining her in.”

  “So what do we do about the guy?” Nolan asked.

  For his part, Kenny hoped a private “discussion” with the man would be on the agenda.

  Somewhere remote.

  With quite a few of them in attendance to lay down the new law to the fucker.

  A Sarasota County sheriff’s cruiser pulled up outside the ER and parked in a specially marked space near the door. The men watched as a female deputy got out, walked into the ER, and spoke to the desk attendant before she was waved inside.

  “I think there’s your answer right there,” Sully said. “If I’m not mistaken, she’s here to talk to Betsy.”

  Chapter Three

  Betsy trembled against Gabe as the other woman stood next to the gurney with her arm protectively draped around Betsy’s shoulders. It sucked that when they were helping her fill out paperwork, she didn’t even know who to put as her next-of-kin contact. Gabe finally filled in Ed Payne’s name and cell number. Betsy knew he’d already been called and would help with the legal end of things, but right now, those were details she couldn’t even begin to process.

  While the doctor examined Betsy and asked her questions, she tried not to fuzz out, to drift away and tune out the world, the pain.

  The shame.

  A couple of times, Gabe had to gently touch her arm to bring her focus back to them.

  “I think you’re right that she has a concussion,” the doctor said. “We’ll get her into radiology immediately.”

  “I can’t afford it,” Betsy tried to protest.

  “Doesn’t matter,” Gabe said. “It’s getting done.”

  “Agent Villalobos, how did you say you were involved in this situation?” the doctor asked.

  “She’s a personal friend,” Gabe said. “Several of us were at another friend’s house, at a barbecue, when she called one of us. Unfortunately, we’ve been suspecting he was abusing her for a while. One of our friends reached out to her a few weeks back and made sure she had our cell numbers.”

  The doctor looked up from the laptop on a rolling stand, where he was taking notes. “But you said she was in a consensual BDSM relationship?”

  This was what Betsy had feared. Not being believed. Being discredited because of that.

  Worse, now her friends were at risk of being outed for standing up for her.

  Bill spoke up. “It started out as consensual, but the man is an abusive predator. No one knew that when she first met him. He didn’t have a record, as far as we knew. But once he started isolating Betsy from her support network, the consensual part of their relationship quickly turned into nonconsensual abuse.”

  The doctor tapped a few more notes into his computer. “And you know this…how?”

  She sensed a change come over Bill. “She’s a personal friend of ours. And in our group of friends, we take care of our own. None of us could do anything to help her until she reached out and asked for help. Just like any other victim of domestic violence. So if you think you’re going to discount her injuries because of her personal interests, doctor, then you’d best get me an administrator here right now to speak with about reassigning her to another on-call physician who will focus on her physical care and not her personal life.”

  The doctor, who didn’t even look like he was thirty, swallowed nervously and shoved his glasses back up his nose with one finger. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to insinuate anything, detective.”

  Bill gave him a curt nod. “Good.” He glanced at Ted, who sat in the corner with his arms crossed over his chest. “Anything you want to add to what I just said, counsellor?”

  “Nope. You said it better than I could.” Ted smiled. “And as a licensed mental health counsellor, that is my professional opinion.”

  * * * *

  When the deputy arrived to take her initial report, Betsy was relieved to see it was a woman. Bill and Gabe stepped outside with the officer for a moment to talk first, while Ted stood and took Gabe’s place by her bed.

  “I feel bad Nolan and Kenny are going to be put out by this,” she said. “I’m afraid for them.”

  Ted gently held her hand, patting it comfortingly. “Don’t worry. They’re Tilly-approved.”

  He smiled, and she tried to return it despite the pain. They’d put stitches in the cut over her left eye, and everything hurt worse than before, especially the wounds on her foot from the chain.

  “I wish I’d listened to her to take more time,” she softly said. “She asked me when I told her about it if it was what I really wanted, if I didn’t want to wait a little longer. I should have listened to her. I thought it was the smart move because my lease was almost up. I thought it made sense to—”

  “Don’t even go there,” Ted warned her. “It happened, and now it’s over. You’re safe now.”

  “He could have killed me and my parents wouldn’t have ever known it. Just dumped my body somewhere. None of you would have even known it.”

  “You’re going to need to approach your parents at some point and talk to them.”

  “I can’t. He said they hate me. That they’re disgusted by me. He made sure of that the first time I said I wanted to talk to him about breaking up.”

  “Wait,” Ted said. “Did you actually talk to your parents?”

  “I heard him talking to them on the phone. He’d switched into one of his sweet, loving moods and smoothed things over with me. Convinced me to play. Then he tied me up and gagged me and called them and I had to sit and listen to him telling them about us. And he sent them pictures.”

  “But you didn’t actually hear their responses? Did he have them on speakerphone or something?”

  “I…” She stared at Ted. “No.”

  “He told you he sent them pictures of you, but did your parents actually say anything?”

  “I…” She swallowed, despite the pain. “No,” she softly said, not daring to allow hope to break through.

  “Okay,” he said, patting her hand again. “For starters, let’s get you healed up and settled in at Nolan and Kenny’s. I don’t specialize in domestic abuse work, but I know a couple of counsellors who do, who are also kink-friendly. I’ll ask around to see if anyone can fit you in for a couple of sessions.”

  Fear filled her. “Can you come with me?”

  “I’m your friend. I’ll help you with the initial consult with them, if you want, but I really shouldn’t be part of your treatment plan. If we can’t find someone to help you, yes, I’ll try to work wit
h you as much as I can. But I have a professional line I have to be careful not to cross since you’re also my friend. Understand?”

  She nodded.

  “As your friend, however, I will volunteer to help you talk to your parents, if you want me to.”

  She nodded.

  “Where do they live?”

  “They moved to Virginia a couple of years ago. My dad works for a defense contractor. They moved their facility from Tampa up there.”

  “Not to get your hopes up, but there’s a good chance Jack never even talked to your parents that night. He might have cut you off from them, but that all might have been faked on his end that night.”

  “I hope so.” She didn’t dare hope, though. Not really.

  Not deep inside her soul.

  The deputy returned with Bill and Gabe. Ted resumed his seat in the corner of the room while the deputy took Betsy’s report and more pictures of her injuries to supplement the ones the ER staff had already taken. Before she’d finished, a male detective had arrived, shaking hands with Bill when he spotted him there.

  They all once again stepped out into the hall to talk while Ted returned to Betsy’s side. “Looks like that’s Bill’s friend he mentioned.”

  “Good,” she said. “Will they arrest Jack tonight?”

  “Probably. There’s pretty conclusive evidence. And there’s the damn chain.” Ted’s face went dark, unreadable. “Let me tell you something,” he softly said. “If you ever find yourself in trouble again, ever, you call any of us. Day or night. We’ll get you a cellphone, program everyone’s numbers into it, and you keep it on you always. Understand?”

  “I can’t afford—”

  “Stop. We get it. He isolated you from everything and took everything from you to keep you dependent upon him. After you’re healed up, we’ll work with you on your resume and get you another job somewhere, start getting you back on your feet. Between us, believe me, we can afford a cheap-ass pre-paid cell phone just so we have peace of mind that you are safe.”

  She wanted to cry, felt like crying, but maybe it was the meds or that she’d already cried what felt like gallons of tears, because she felt empty, barren. “Thank you.”

  “No worries.”

  Everyone returned. After another round of questions interrupted by a trip to radiology for an X-ray, she finished her talk with the detective, who’d phoned in a request for a search warrant for the apartment.

  Oh, the irony. Technically they didn’t need one since she was a resident of the apartment and gave them permission to search it, but out of an abundance of caution to not to do anything to mess up the case, they requested one.

  Despite the ER doctors wanting to keep her for observation, Betsy signed herself out against doctor’s orders and made sure to give the rest of her friends hugs in the waiting room as Gabe wheeled her out.

  Tony and Kel had returned. “We called Ed Payne,” Tony said. “He’ll be meeting with you in the morning to help you file an emergency restraining order.”

  “Thank you.” Everything felt like a pain-filled, nightmarish blur. “Thank you, everyone. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this.”

  With a smaller contingent this time, she rode with Bill, Gabe, and Sully back to the apartment, while Kenny and Nolan, the deputy, and the detective followed.

  Two more patrol deputies and another detective arrived at the apartment as the first detective was taking pictures of the chain, the dried blood on it, for evidence.

  “Search warrant,” the newly arrived detective said, holding up one piece of paper. “And bench warrant,” he said, holding up the other. “Two officers are already heading toward the bar to pick him up.”

  “Do I have to be here when you get him?” she asked, terrified to face Jack this soon.

  “No,” the detective told her. “We’ll need you to come in in the morning and answer some more questions, but you don’t have to see him right now.”

  “Thank you,” she said.

  They got her back in the car. Then, she figured the pain shot she’d received had knocked her out at some point. She awoke to Gabe gently touching her shoulder.

  They were parked outside an unfamiliar house, and Bill, Sully, Kenny, and Nolan stood waiting.

  “We’re here,” Gabe said.

  “Where?”

  “Kenny and Nolan’s. Remember? We told you you’ll be staying here with them.”

  “Oh. Okay.” She did remember something about that, but everything hurt, and now her right ankle, which before had been sore, felt like it had rusty barbed wrapped around it.

  Hell, everything hurt.

  Jack. Oh, yeah. Jack happened.

  They finally got her out of the car. Gabe and Bill, with Sully close behind, walked her up to the front door where Nolan and Kenny led the way inside and down a hallway.

  They flipped the light on in a strange bedroom she’d never seen before, but she recognized her things—what things she’d still had—stored around the room.

  “Tony put your stuff in the bathroom across the hall,” Nolan said. “That’s all yours to use. There’s towels and stuff in there, too, when you’re ready to take a bath.”

  Kenny pulled down the covers for her as Gabe and Bill carefully lowered her to the bed. Sully knelt and helped her remove her shoes, a pained hiss escaping her when he did the right one.

  “Sorry, honey,” he apologized. “Consider that a badge of courage when you’re in a better frame of mind. That was a brave thing you did tonight. You have no idea.”

  “I don’t feel very brave,” she softly said.

  Gabe rooted through her things and found a pair of sweatpants for her to put on instead of jeans, which meant getting her back onto her feet and down to the bed again.

  Gabe and Bill helped her lie down, tucked her in, and Kenny left the bedside lamp on for her when she asked for a light to be kept on.

  They all bid her good-night and closed the door behind them.

  Before she could even roll over, she felt blackness take her.

  * * * *

  Nolan waited until they reached the living room. “Fucking son of a bitch,” he said, his tone murderous. “I will fucking beat the everloving shit out of that bastard if he fucking gets out of jail. I will hunt him down and kill him.”

  Gabe smiled and put her fingers in her ears. “Lalalala—you’d better let me help—lalalala.”

  Bill took a deep breath, which escaped him in a sad sigh. “No one’s killing him. He’ll go through the system and hopefully end up in jail for a while, unless they let him plead out. I know Tony said he didn’t think anyone had pressed charges against the guy, but it doesn’t mean Jack doesn’t have a sheet on him somewhere. If he does, then all the better for this case against him.”

  Sully looked grave. “You two realize there will likely be some press about this, right? ‘Woman kept chained and beaten in BDSM sex dungeon.’ I’m sure that will be the gist of the headlines once this makes the blotter and a reporter gets hold of it.”

  Nolan nodded. “I know. It’s okay. Our jobs are secure. We’re county employees without morality clauses. We’re just her friend. Jack tries to sling dirt at us, it won’t stick.”

  “It’s going to get ugly,” Sully said. “He’ll probably have a public defender—if we’re lucky—who will try to talk the asshole into copping a plea deal. But don’t be surprised if Jack slings mud like a monkey flings its shit.”

  “Thank god he was never invited to any of the private parties,” Gabe said.

  “This is the exact reason why Lucas and Ross carefully cherry-picked the attendance roster tonight,” Sully said. “Tony’s the only one of us who went on the rescue mission tonight who’s extremely vulnerable in this matter.”

  “What about you two?” Nolan asked Bill and Gabe.

  They smiled at each other. “My former boss is a member of Venture,” Gabe said.

  “And Jack doesn’t know who the hell I am or what I do. Either one of us,” Bill said
. “The story we told tonight was that we were at a friend’s house for a barbecue, the call came in, and because we’re law enforcement, naturally we volunteered to help.”

  “But,” Sully continued, speaking to Nolan and Kenny, “if you two can’t handle what might happen, you need to reach out immediately. You heard Ross. He and Loren can take her in, and they’re pretty insulated from anything Jack might try. Doesn’t hurt that Ross is an attorney, too, even though he doesn’t practice criminal law.”

  Kenny looked at Nolan. Nolan was pretty sure the grim expression his partner wore mirrored his own. “We’ve got this,” Kenny assured them. “As long as she needs or wants to be here, we’ve got this.”

  “Okay.” Sully shook with them both again. “I consider that a promise that I’ll hold both of you to.”

  After saying good-night to them, Nolan locked the door behind them before turning to Kenny. “Wow.”

  Kenny headed for the kitchen. “Wow, indeed. Oh, dammit.” He turned. “Our implement bag’s still at their house.”

  Nolan followed him to the kitchen. “If that’s the worst thing you can think of right now, you’re doing better than I am.”

  “I’m not thinking right now,” Kenny said as he rummaged in the fridge and emerged with a bottle of hard apple cider. He held it up to Nolan, who shook his head.

  Kenny closed the fridge and popped the cap with a magnetic church key from the front of the fridge. He drained half the bottle in two swallows.

  “Do we need to set up some ground rules?” Nolan asked.

  Kenny leaned against the counter and slowly nodded. “You’re reading my mind again, buddy.” His brown gaze focused on Nolan. “I’m thinking hands-off, totally, for the foreseeable future. Friends-only.”

  Nolan nodded. “Yep.” He stepped in close, pressing Kenny back against the counter as he wrapped his arms around his partner’s waist. “My thoughts exactly.”

  “What do we consider the gateway to untabling this topic?” Kenny asked. “Just in case.”