“You’re gonna have to do better than that, Shay.”
He flicked me an uncertain glance before he busied himself with the makeshift DJ booth next to the bar.
I had to ask the right question. “Are they working?” Because our community hadn’t been their choice of career all along. Eight years ago when they’d had the idea of starting Mclean House, they were still working as private military contractors. That was their background, and they hadn’t given it up until a few years ago.
Not many knew that about the Tenley twins, but I did. And they’d called me once for assistance.
I had a feeling they’d told Shay about their background too. He didn’t know how to answer me.
Eventually, he said, “I don’t know what you mean by work. This estate is their work.”
I smiled. Yeah, he knew. He was covering for them about something.
It was all I needed to know.
“A word of advice,” I said, a little worried about the pressure on him, “lie better. If someone asks, be dismissive and brush things off with minimal information before you move on to a new subject. Say they’re helping a friend with a work thing.”
He chewed on the inside of his cheek and failed to look like he was concentrating on the playlist. Or I assumed it was the playlist. I couldn’t see the screen from here.
“River and Reese are helping a friend with a work thing,” he said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, we have a party to get started.”
He turned up the volume until the club version of a pop song was drilling into my skull, and he smirked at me.
I chuckled. Well played.
Seconds later, the doors opened in the lobby, and people poured in and raised the volume further.
I went behind the bar and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge as a group of Littles and bondage bunnies rushed into the club area, gushing loudly about their costumes. It made Shay crank up the music even more.
Daddies and other Tops weren’t as good at dressing up, though I spotted a few who’d arrived as everything from superheroes to living, breathing dad jokes.
The groupings of chairs and tables along the walls of the club filled up fast, mainly by Tops. They sent their bottoms to get drinks, which put Shay to work right away.
It was my cue to circle the area.
It’d be a while before I had anything to monitor down here, so I escaped to the patio. Ivy could be a party planner with all the experience she’d gotten in our community. The deck was flooded with pumpkins that glowed in the darkness, the awning was extended above, every table had Halloween decorations and bowls of candy, and the porch light had received a purple filter for the occasion.
No wonder Reese had started paying her a salary, modest as it was. She went above and beyond every time she was in charge of an event. And when I thought about it, the smaller events usually drew the biggest crowds.
Small was the wrong word. But parties—this place usually saw a party every weekend, and they didn’t require as much planning and safety measures as our monthly Games, but they were a lot of work. Cleanup alone took hours.
And as any service member could attest, logistics were key. To map everything out, to order the right things, to calculate and guess—I could go on. We were fortunate to have Ivy with us.
“There you are, Sir!”
I looked back toward the patio doors as Corey stepped out from the smoky, flashy club inferno. And I had to grin at the boy. Dressed only in a tattered cloth around his hips and sandals, it was clear he was here as a Roman slave tonight.
“Ten points for that costume, kid.”
He beamed at me. “I knew you’d get it! Thank you, Sir. I mean Dominus!”
I chuckled. I liked the sound of Dominus.
A whole lot, actually.
“Anyway—I just wanted to let you know Daddy’s on board,” he went on. “He said it’s okay I stay a teensy bit longer for aftercare.”
A teensy bit, huh? How generous of the fuckwit.
“I’m glad,” was my most enthusiastic response.
“Told you he was the best.” The boy nudged me and grinned widely, having no fucking clue that he was treating aftercare like a luxury rather than a necessity. Corey believed he was fortunate. “I’m gonna go dance, okay? We can talk more later, right?”
“Of course. Go have fun.”
I watched him dart back inside, victorious, and the sight left me feeling unsettled. Unsettled and worried.
CHAPTER 4
I suppressed a sigh and folded my arms over my chest as another happy couple entered the club area with a freshly fucked glow on their faces after playtime upstairs.
I’d been right. My night consisted of watching a lot of grinding between the people on the dance floor. We had a DM here merely on principle, to make sure every major area upheld a level of security. But everything that actually required monitoring was currently happening on the second floor. And maybe it was for the best. As tedious as it was, I’d rather watch horny kinksters dance than edge one another to release with various fetishes.