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Heart in her throat, palms sweating, Sierra eased open the door and squeezed through into the opulent bathroom. No money had been spared here, just like the rest of the club.
Marble sinks, four cubicles that were more like private bathrooms themselves. Soft pink, white, and yellow hand towels were tucked into holders next to each sink, although there was a blower on the wall near the door.
The wall length mirror in front of the sinks was intact, but the framed one beside the blower was in smithereens. Glass shards and blood sprinkled the pink marble floor like diamonds and rubies.
Tabitha kicked a stall door, again and again as it bounced back each time. The sharp smack of wood on wood was deafening, but Sierra heard her fighting for breath, for control, to hide the sobs strangling her.
“—I’ll kill him. I swear to God, I’ll kill him.”
Bang, bang, bang.
“He knows. The fucker knows andstill, he wants to—”Bang, bang, bang.
The stall door swung back toward her, a huge crack running down the edge of the wood, and this time Tabitha used her fists instead of her feet to pummel it. Blood smeared over the light brown surface, dripping to the floor.
“T-Tabitha,” Sierra said softly.
The woman’s head snapped around, her teeth bared in a feral snarl. Eyes wild and so very blue locked on Sierra. “Get the fuck out.”
Lots of negative emotions, Sierra noted. The foremost being unmitigated fury. But underneath there was pain, too much to empathize with without losing herself in it, and the kind of fear only someone who’d been through a terrible, traumatic experience could hide.
Christ, how did Tabitha live with all that bubbling inside her?
“We both know I can’t. I’m pretty much the only thing that’s going to stop half a dozen Dommes storming in here to settle the situation down.” Sierra linked her fingers together across her stomach. “It’s me or them.”
The noise Tabitha made was wolflike. “Fucking Dominants.”
At least she wasn’t pounding the door anymore, Sierra thought. The loudness made her ears ring and her head hurt. “Look, I don’t know what’s happened between you and Grit. It’s nothing to do with me, but if you want to t-talk about it, I’m a pretty good listener.”
At the mention of her Dom, Tabitha’s back went rigid. “Do not mention that backstabbing, betraying, bullshitting fucker’s name in my presence again.”
Oh shit. Here she was tiptoeing around the pit full of vipers at her feet, and she’d just gone and headbutted a hornet’s nest. “Okay, okay. Let’s just avoid him for a few minutes. Do you think you can talk about what’s made you so afraid?”
“Afraid?” The word was deadly cold, just like the eyes now focused on hers. “I’m not afraid of anything. Fuck’s sake, I go up against some of the scariest motherfuckers on the planet and leave them in pieces. Why the fuck would… I mean, it’s not that I’m…”
Not daring to move closer, Sierra felt helpless. Much like Tabitha, she thought as the woman squeezed her fists so tightly, the wounded one spilled blood from her ripped knuckles in a steady stream. “Tabitha, we don’t really know each other. Most of what I know of you is from my friends at Avalon, but I’vebeen the outcast for long enough that I can read people pretty accurately.”
“Oh, I know all about you, Sierra.”
“If that’s meant to be a threat…” It was a damned effective one, actually. “I’m not the enemy here, and I don’t believe you think Gr—the unnamed one is either. If you did, you wouldn’t have run in here; you’d be out the door and gone. You’re strong enough to walk away from him if that was the right thing to do.”
Tabitha growled and ran her hand through her hair. Luckily, not the one bleeding everywhere. “I should. I should tell him to go fuck himself with his big cock and leave his backstabbing ass in the dust.”
“That’s not why you’re in here.” Braver than she imagined she could ever be, Sierra took a step forward. When the woman didn’t leap on her and rip her throat out with her teeth, she took another and another until there was an arm’s length between them. “Let me help, Tabitha. The Dommes might understand that you’re scared and upset, but they’ll still be dutybound to restrain you if they come in here and you’re smashing the bathroom up.”
“Like they could,” she sneered, then seemed to deflate as she glanced around the room. “Fuck, I really went to town this time, didn’t I?”
Blood everywhere, dents in the walls, the broken mirror and door… “Yeah.”
“I ruin everything. I try so hard to be his good girl, but then he throws a wrench in the works and I just fall apart. Turn feral. Become this.” She studied the gnarly gashes on her hand. “You know, I can’t even feel this. That’s how accustomed I am to pain. How effective my training is.”
“What is learned can be unlearned. If you don’t like this part of you, find a way to live with it in a way that doesn’t hurt you, or work with Gr—the unnamed one to make it different.” God,when did she go to psychology school? For all she knew, she was spouting crap to the poor woman. “If I get a towel to wrap around your hand, are you going to murder me?”
Tabitha laughed, but it was haunted. “I wish you were joking.”
“I am.” Hand far from steady, Sierra reached out and gingerly laid it on Tabitha’s tense forearm. “If you know all about me, you understand what shouting and violence does to me psychologically. I think you’re enough of a victim yourself not to punish someone by deliberately antagonizing their triggers.”
“You sound like my brother.”
