It did.
“I was bound last night. No lasting marks.” On the outside. The inside was another matter, and one she wasn’t ready to address. She headed to the conference room, and Viola followed silently beside her. When they got in, they sat beside each other and greeted the others as they came into the room. Shelby tried returning Darrell’s smile, but it felt shaky. God, she wasn’t looking forward to rehashing what had happened with Mason in front of Darrell.
The man frowned at her, obviously noticing something was off, but she quickly looked toward the door as Rick walked in.
“Thanks for getting here on short notice. I have an update, but first Shelby has a status on her investigation. We’ll start with her.”
Shelby’s hands started sweating, and she looked down as she drew in a full breath, finding the strength to confess. When she looked up, all eyes were on her. She couldn’t drag this out. The sooner she said the words, the faster this would be over with.
She looked directly at her boss because it made her feel more detached. “During my scene last night, I had sexual intercourse with Showalter.” She didn’t say she’d had sex with him during the first scene. She didn’t want her ass chewed for keeping that a secret. The number of times it had happened wasn’t relevant to the case. Although, if it had any importance at all, she’d lay it all out there.
Nobody made a sound, and Shelby was too nervous to look at their expressions. Rick didn’t even flinch. She wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.
“Were you forced?” he asked as he rubbed his chin.
“No, sir. I was a willing participant. I could have used my safe word to stop, but I didn’t.”
“Were you able to get anything out of him last night?”
“Not much.” She swallowed, focusing her energy on the details and not the emotion involved. That was incredibly hard since sex on a normal day for her held a lot of emotion. Sex with Mason was off the charts in that department, in every department. But it was easier to stay detached if she relayed the specifics without the feelings. “He’d intended on me staying the night with him, but when I began asking questions, he ended our evening.”
Rick’s eyes darkened. “Were you made?”
“No,” she said quickly. He had no idea she was an agent. “It took him a while, but he did say he thought his boss was up to no good, and he’s stressed about it. I’m not sure if he would’ve said anymore last night because he’s very closed off. I think he was surprised he said that much to me and used an excuse to put up a wall.”
“What excuse?” Darrell asked, and Shelby wanted to groan at the sharpness of his tone.
She bit her lip and looked at him. “I called him by his first name.”
“What do you normally call him?” Carson asked, perplexed.
“He’s into BDSM,” Viola said, and Shelby was relieved she’d come to her rescue. “What do you think?” she asked sarcastically. Shelby looked at her, and she was glaring at Carson. Then she looked at Shelby and gave her a short nod of encouragement.
“I call him Master during a scene. He and the other Doms that own the club are called Master by all the subs who are members.”
Darrell mumbled something unintelligibly, and Shelby was smart enough not to ask him what he’d said. She was pretty sure she heard the words kill and motherfucker, though.
She swallowed before going on. “He’s rattled. At one point, he was ready to call it quits with my training. Besides his boss, he mentioned details we already know—where he’s from and his POW brother, Caleb, although he said he’s deceased and not a prisoner. He eventually agreed to continue, but next time is not going to be easy.” She took a deep breath and forged ahead to the other hard part of this conversation. “It’s Tuesday night, and it’ll be public.”
“What the fuck,” Darrell boomed, and a few others verbalized their concern and shock. Shelby shut her eyes and waited.
“Quiet!” Rick yelled, not willing to wait out the brief chaos. Once everyone hushed, he continued. “We knew this was a possibility.” He looked at Shelby, and she nodded. He was right. This was a known complication. It was one thing to submit to a man in private. Knowing she had to do that had been hard to accept, but the possibility of being on display had lingered in the back of her mind where she refused to acknowledge it…until last night when Mason had told her it was happening.
“He’s already fucked her,” Darrell sneered. “He could take her right there in front of God and everybody. Tell me again how the hell this helps our case!”
“Because he’s beginning to trust her.” Viola said what they all knew. “And we need him to talk.” There was no reason rehashing all the reasons why. Darrell was just angry, and although not helpful, Shelby appreciated his concern.
“I don’t fucking like it,” Darrell seethed.
“But Viola’s right,” Shelby said, and gave her arm a gently squeeze, thanking her for having her back. “He’s not happy with me right now, but I also think he’s not happy with himself.”
“Which can make him dangerous,” Carson said matter-of-factly.
Shelby glanced at him. “Yes, but I don’t think he’d hurt me.”
“Interesting choice of words,” Rick said as he clasped his hands and leaned back into his chair. “The reason I called this meeting is because Carl O’Brian is missing. We have reason to believe he’s dead, and one of the last known people to talk to him before he disappeared was Showalter.”
Oh God. What was left of Shelby’s tattered heart plummeted before taking off in a sprint. Had Mason been involved?
“That could be a coincidence,” Viola said, waving her hand dismissively while Shelby sat there mute. He couldn’t be a killer, could he? That was crazy. So far beyond white collar crimes. Her thoughts continued to race as fast as the blood in her veins, but at every dark corner, she rejected the idea. Criminal? Maybe. Deadly? Not really. Not Mason.
“Or our Master could be a murderer,” Darrell said, shaking his head. “Boss, we have pull Shelby from her assignment. It’s too dangerous.”
Shelby’s gaze shot to Rick when he didn’t immediately reject Darrell’s suggestion. She understood their concern, but she hadn’t considered they’d take her off the case. If she’d suspected this as a possibility, she sure as hell wouldn’t have fought to keep her sessions with Mason. In some ways, this case was more hers than theirs, and it wasn’t fair to remove her after all she’d been through. She could not let it all be for nothing.
Her boss regarded her as the silence stretched. “Is that what you want?” he finally asked.
“No.” But that answer was laced with double meaning. No, she didn’t want pulled from the case. No, she didn’t want to stop seeing Mason. He might be through with her, and honestly, she was hurt and angry with him, but she wasn’t ready to be done with him in any aspect. She couldn’t wrap her head around the possibility he had something sinister to do with Carl O’Brian. It didn’t add up to her. She wasn’t sure how she’d get through Tuesday night at this point, but from the depths of her soul, she knew she had no other choice.