Conviction (2 page)

Kelly reefed her chin from his iron grip, embarrassment and anger at his ridiculous statement sweeping over her. Trying to contain her anger and prevent another poorly timed outburst, Kelly took in a deep breath and lowered her gaze once again. “I’m sorry for upsetting you Master James. It won’t happen again.”

“Oh Little One, please don’t make promises you cannot possibly keep.” He paused for a few seconds raising a single eyebrow as Kelly continued to stand before him. “Haven’t you got members to serve?”

“Yes, Sir.” Kelly scurried off to one of the private rooms in the back of the club. She knocked once and waited for the tiny red light above the door to turn off before she entered. Thankfully, it only took a few seconds. When she entered the room she avoided looking around, swiftly laid out the drinks and apologised sincerely for taking so long. She began to explain that they were short staffed but she was dismissed.

When she returned to the bar Kai wouldn’t make eye contact with her and there was no chit chat for the rest of the night. That was the first major sign of the trouble she was in. The second thing was that Master James had appeared to have left. She couldn't see him anywhere. He could have been in one of the private rooms, but he had left his sub free to roam. Her white leather collar was no longer around her neck, her sign of ownership for the night. After all, she was a Momentum sub and could be collared for the night with a simple agreement with any member and un-collared just as fast. Master James had
never
left before closing time.
Ever
. Usually he walked out with the staff as they locked the doors behind them. She figured that since he was Master Xander's best friend he'd been given a few extra privileges.

Kelly chased her tail for the rest of the night. When things finally started to slow down and members began to filter out the doors and into the cool night Kelly’s anger at the situation Master James had put her in had grown and morphed into pure unadulterated fury.

As the clock ticked over to four a.m. Kelly didn’t ask Kai if he needed help to finish thing up before heading home like she usually did. Tonight she wasn’t offering to do extra. She
always
stayed well past her finish time. She
always
helped other staff if they needed it. Well tonight was
not
going to be another night she spent helping everyone else. Tomorrow night she was going to talk to Master Xander about how he expected his waitresses to bite their tongues whilst being treated no differently to the club submissives. She had taken a waitressing job, not a club submissive position. At least she got paid. Momentum’s subs were not paid. They weren’t hookers after all. No, they were training, of sorts and would rotate between the Masters and club members as their learning and needs progressed. Once they were fully trained like Master James’ sub that night, they were expected to work in the club for twelve months, three nights a week. The white collar indicated that they were fully trained, other subs who were new wore different colours. After their twelve months service, they received free membership for five years. It was a good deal. More than good, actually. Kelly wouldn’t earn enough to cover the cost of a year’s membership in twelve months. Not that she wanted to become a member. This was just a job. A shitty ass job with the exception of the pay. That’s what she focused on as she threw her uniform into the staff laundry hamper and pulled on her running gear. After she zipped up her lightweight jacket Kelly pulled her wraps from her bag and began to her right hand before fastening it off and awkwardly starting to wrap the left one. Being left handed she found right handed tasks made her normally fluid motions awkward. She stuck her keys into the last couple of layers between her fingers, leaving three pointing directly up, with the last few wrap-a-rounds of the material holding them firmly into place. The neighbourhood wasn’t terrible but she didn’t take chances with her safety. Not anymore. A flash of memory momentarily blinded her managed to shake it off and headed towards the employee entrance at the exit at the side of the club.

Kelly paused in the hallway, realising that she had to pass Master Xander’s office to leave. She sighed with relief when the door remained closed as she tiptoed past. She couldn’t hear any voices and hoped that he hadn’t come in to the club that night. Maybe it would give Master James a chance to cool off.

Yeah, fat chance
she thought to herself as she took in the brisk late night air. She walked briskly for a block allowing her muscles to unwind from work and warm up for her run. As the hairs on the back of her neck stood up one by one, Kelly didn’t need to turn around to know that she was being followed. A sleek black town car had been cruising up the ride, far too slowly for the lack of traffic that was around.

Unfortunately, for the driver, Kelly knew every nook and cranny, back-street, side-street and alley-way between the club and her tiny apartment. Pulling her hood up over her ponytail she took off at a full run down a side-street. Hearing the car follow her in after a few seconds as she ducked into a narrow walkway that would take her to the next block. The hulking black car wouldn’t never fit and would have to reverse back out of the lane. Hopefully giving her enough time to lose them.

The dark walkway wasn’t a good place to be at this time of the night. Drunks and homeless people littered the sides of the alleyway. One man tried to grab her but only succeeded in pulling the hood off her head. As she came out onto the main road she paused and looked for the sleek black car. Its windows had such a dark tint that all you could see was the reflection of the outside world. She was grateful that she was always aware and cautious of her surroundings. Glad that even her tiny apartment had more than one escape.

When she had gone through the apartments to pick hers, most had been freshly painted, with new carpets and updated bathrooms and kitchens. Hers still had an old school shower over the bath and the kitchen consisted of a tiny sink surrounded by a few measly cupboards. No mod-cons like the others, like a dishwasher. She'd chosen hers for a few reasons. Firstly, hers was the only one that faced out to the road. The remaining apartments faced in the opposite direction overlooking the park at the rear of the block. But Kelly's ground floor apartment had both a front and back door. And despite the assurances from the landlord that it was a good area and not to worry, she had forked out an extra four hundred dollars to have two security doors and window bars put in. That had been a little over three years ago.

Before moving in she had changed her name, even her old friend Candy didn't know where she was, not that she would ever think to look for her. As far as Candy and her previous life were concerned, Kelly was presumably dead.

Candy had been her best friend since kindergarten. Kelly had been eating her lunch on her own, as usual, when one of the biggest kids in the class decided he wanted her one small treat, a strawberry flavoured chocolate frog. She rarely got treats and had tried to hold onto it, but after a round of hair pulling and two good punches in the arm, she had squashed the chocolate and it had oozed out of the packet and into her hand. At this point the boy had started laughing and had yelled out loud enough for everyone to hear that she had poo on her hands. Kelly had just burst into tears when Candy stood between Kelly and the giant bully, Kevin she recalled, and dared him to try and do it again. Despite being only an inch taller than Candy the boy had backed down and found an easier target. Kelly and Candy had been inseparable from then on. All through school and high school. Until six years ago.

Shaking her head to clear her memories, Kelly realised that she had been standing on the side of the road staring in to space and, despite the time of the morning, people were starting to move around her.

“Damn it,” she said as she spotted the black car idling at the corner waiting for her to make a move. Kelly immediately turned left and ran across the road, pulling her hood back up she darted down another side street. She didn’t even really understand why she was running. Whoever this creep was, they already knew where she lived and hadn’t actually tried anything so far, except to scare her. But she didn’t want to take any chances, after all it could be someone from her past. A past she couldn't let catch up with her. Looping through the side-alleys and back-streets before she doubled back a full block from her flat. But when she turned into her drive she came to a dead stop. The sweat the covered her body immediately started to chill. Sitting in the driveway was the shiny black car, its lights dimmed and the engine idling. Instead of fear, Kelly's outrage at being followed and the adrenaline that continued to pump through her veins, fuelled her courage.

After her crappy shift at Momentum, her run in with Master James and Kai not talking to her, she had had enough for one night. Kelly stalked towards the car throwing her hood from her head and unzipping her jacket. Whoever was in that car was going to be sorry. If this stalker-wannabe wanted a fight, they were damn well going to get one.

Over the last three years Kelly had toned her body training up to six days a week at a local boxing gym. Not just fitness but self-defence as well. The owner had put her through extensive boxing training and recently they had started to incorporate kick boxing into her regime. She received training in exchange Kelly maintained the gyms books. The owner, an older protective giant with salt and pepper hair and what he thought was an outstanding moustache, was the only person who knew what and who she was hiding from.

“Get out of the car and let me see you, asshole!” Kelly screamed at the car. She waited a beat before walking a little closer and stopping as she noticed something on the car of interest. The driver had made one mistake. She would never be able to smash through a window or get into the car through a locked door. But this idiot hadn’t thought of everything.

Kelly ran at the car and leaped up onto the bonnet before scrambling up onto the roof. In the next second she'd kicked the raised sun roof so hard it snapped off completely and rolled down onto the windshield with a satisfying thud.

Kelly found herself looking into the
very
familiar ice blue eyes of the man in the driver’s seat. Instinctively, she took a step back overwhelmed and confused, nearly falling off the back of the car in her haste. Apparently, the ass-hat was enjoying the show and sat calmly smirking back at her.

“Hello, Kelly.”

“Master James? What the hell! I was about to rip your head off!” Kelly sat heavily on the roof of the car, not caring about the possibility of doing any damage, and lowered her fists. She had almost been hoping she would actually get to use the keys that were still wrapped tightly in her bound hands. Kelly slid down the side of the car until she was standing on the ground next to the driver side door.

“I suggest you start talking before I call the cops and have you charged with stalking.”

The door clicked open and Master James unfolded his six and a half feet from the confines of the car. It took Kelly all of her resolve not to take a step back from his imposing figure. James stood with his arms folded across his broad chest, his worn leather jacket creaking with each calculated movement and that damn smirk still caressed the sides of his mouth.

“Talk. Now.” Kelly balled her hands into fists involuntarily still shaking from the adrenalin rush and the shock of
who
had been following her. There was now barely an inch between them.

“Usually I’m the one to set the rules, but seeing you asked so
nicely
,” James paused hoping to enrage the fiery redhead standing before him. He could see her hands shaking and knew that had he been anyone else she probably would have hit them by now. “You refused the offer of being escorted to and from the club for your shifts, is that correct?”

“I have spoken with Master Xander about this over two months ago. It’s
none
of your business how I choose to get to work.”

“Unfortunately, it
is
my business, Kelly,” he dropped his arms and relaxed his stance, hoping it would help calm Kelly down before he told her the truth about who he was. “You see, I am one of your bosses.”

“Look, outside of the club I don’t have to call you Master. I am…wait…what did you just say?” James watched what he said sunk in and frowned slightly, his trademark single eyebrow raised as she took a step away from him, her expression going from rage to confusion.

“This is not common knowledge, Kelly, and I would like it to stay that way, for now.”
“Sure… ah, no worries.” Kelly hated the way he said her name, his deep voice caressing each individual syllable. Why had she not noticed until tonight how it sounded coming from his mouth?

“We had some…shall we say
security issues
and all staff are required to be seen home after a shift. We are ensuring the safety of all of our staff, Kelly."

“Why does it affect the staff? Are they in danger?”

“Certain threats were made, we are working on finding out who made them, but until we know for sure that they are bogus, we need to take care of you…
all
of you.” He added hastily before taking a step forward and gently holding Kelly’s elbow. He couldn’t help but notice the small tremor that went through her body when he touched her. Most men wouldn’t have noticed, but he hadn’t been a Dom this long and not learnt to read even the slightest changes in a women’s body.