“Spoil sport.” Tucker and Quinn laughed while Leo gave her one last lingering once over. “She looks like fun.”
Maggie lowered her eyes. She had the feeling the more she gawked at the men the more encouraged they’d become.
“Well, you’re just in time for Katie’s final punishment. It’s been one hell of a week.”
The gorgeous woman next to him perked up. She glanced at Leo first and then turned to Quinn who bent to whisper something in her ear. The resulting smile made some of the knots in Maggie’s stomach loosen. It was obvious these two men held a great amount of affection for their submissive. She hoped Tucker wanted to watch.
“Sounds perfect. This is my sub’s first visit to Purgatory.”
A tall, broad shouldered man appeared before them, the Purgatory emblem across his chest her first clue he was some sort of employee.
“It’s time, Sirs. The stage is set.”
All of them turned in the direction the man pointed. A raised stage was perfectly placed in the middle of the ballroom.
Leo glanced at Tucker. “It’s good seeing you back at the club, Tuck. I hope this means we’ll be seeing more of you.”
Tucker only raised his chin before the two men moved off taking their submissive with them. Maggie watched them disappear into the crowd as they weaved their way to center stage.
“Come, little one. I think you’ll want to see this.”
He found them a spot a few rows back, where he took a seat before pulling Maggie into his lap. She squeaked as she landed on his thighs with an embarrassingly ungraceful plop. “Sorry.”
“Considering you’re right where I wanted, there is nothing to be sorry for.” He kept his voice low and rich, the timbre working its way through her tight muscles. “Kiss me.”
She automatically responded to the command. With a slight bend of her neck, she pressed her lips to his, opening on a sigh when she felt his tongue working into her mouth. The simple kiss grew hotter and Maggie squirmed in his lap.
All too soon, he broke the kiss and wrapped his hand around her shoulder. “Now turn around and be a good girl. We have a show to get through before I can have my way with you.”
Forced to face front, Maggie worked to keep from frowning. Didn’t he understand yet that she’d come for him. Everything else seemed unimportant anymore.
Then the rest of the dim lights in the club winked out and the hum of the excited crowd grew louder. She gasped when a spotlight came on and illuminated a large piece of equipment standing on the stage with Katie already in place only a few feet away. Maggie clamped her mouth shut to keep any more noises from coming out.
Oh. My. God. Was that an old-fashioned dungeon stock?
Her body went rigid at the sight. The submissive was bent at the waist and sure enough her head and arms had been placed inside wooden stocks and securely locked with big silver chains that looked impossible to escape from.
“Easy.” Tucker’s fingers stroked her bare hip. She hadn’t even noticed him lift her dress. “It’s only a scene and one that was well-negotiated I can assure you.”
“How?” Maggie whispered. “How can you really know this is what she wants?” The pit in her stomach had grown from a hard knot to a fist-sized rock of dread. Seeing Katie imprisoned was eerily reminiscent of the night Maggie had been hauled to jail in handcuffs.
Before Tucker could answer, the Dom called Leo appeared at the head of the stage dressed in simple black clothing and a wicked-looking whip in his hand. Katie struggled in her cage and the air sucked from Maggie’s lungs at the sound of the heavy chains clanking together.
The scene before her began to fall away and instead she saw and heard the chaos of the one club she’d dared enter before. People were screaming and yelling into the darkness, men with guns were surrounding the people. Someone grabbed Maggie from behind and pulled her arms behind her back, wrenching her shoulder. In the blink of an eye, metal scraped against her flesh moments before the locks clicked into place. Sweat trickled down her back and smoke burned her nostrils and throat.
“Maggie!” Tucker’s sharp voice brought her back to the present. His arms were banded around her chest in a grip so tight she immediately knew he’d had to subdue her.
Oh God no.
To make matters worse a few of the other club goers in front of them had turned to stare.
“Are you are okay? What’s wrong?”
Tears filled her eyes before she could stop them. A glance at the stage showed Leo behind Katie with his whip spinning in the air. He was about to throw a strike any second and she couldn’t stand to watch it.
“Red,” she croaked out, barely a whisper.