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Liam raised an eyebrow. “Your girl doesn’t do things by halves. If she lost her shit, she lost her shit good and proper. She’s just lucky she didn’t hurt anyone. Fuck’s sake, Grit, it’s the main women’s restroom. There’s normally half a dozen subs in there at any given time.”
“She won’t hurt an innocent.” The steel in his friend’s voice was solid with conviction. “I promise you, Liam, that girl will cut off her own hands before she spills unintended blood. Unless it’s her own,” he muttered bitterly, “then she just slaps a Band Aid on a severed artery and carries on her merry way.”
“I can’t have her tearing the place up whenever you hit a trigger.”
“I’ll pay for the damages. Hell, I’ll give the crew a hand fixing whatever she’s broken. We need Serenity, Liam. That’s the truth; she relaxes here, feels safe enough to open herself to the past. She can’t do that in Phoenix. There’s that little rift still lingering between her and Jasper.”
Liam sighed, wondering how the hell he was supposed to balance the health and wellbeing of one traumatized sub against that of the whole damn club. “In future, you tell her if she needsto vent her shit, she goes to the staff gym. There’re enough toys in there for her to annihilate without exposing her to the public.”
“It’s not going to happen again. We’ve been making steady progress with her triggers—I just caught her unawares tonight. Made a stupid fucking comment about broaching anal because it’s one of the things she can’t get past.”
“All right. I’ll get a crew out first thing in the morning to assess the damage. You’ll have to sort reparation with Elias, but as long as everything can be fixed, we’ll just chalk this up to a traumatic misunderstanding.”
They shook hands on it, and the gratitude on Grit’s face assured Liam he’d made the right choice. Booting Tabitha from the club would cost the club more than a few thousand dollars in repairs; security experts of Grit’s caliber, with his experience and qualifications, didn’t come along often.
Besides, Elias and Evander were adamant they wanted Serenity to be a safe haven for everyone. Not just the regular kinksters and members, but all the misfits and the poor souls who—like Sierra and Tabitha—were the victims of the story.
“Now, we need to figure out how the hell we’re pulling off this scene without your woman decapitating us all.” Liam flicked his gaze to the door when it swung inward, smiling when Mack poked his head through the small gap. “Just in time, Mack. Maverick Morehead, meet Grit. Grit, Mack.”
He stepped through, shaking hands with Grit. “The pixie said you wanted to see me.”
“Yeah. We have a dilemma of sorts.” Liam stroked his beard thoughtfully, working out how to sum up the entire mess without betraying Tabitha’s privacy. “Grit is Tabitha’s Dom. He managed to flip one of her triggers, hence the current disaster unfolding in the restroom. She spent a lifetime being mentally, emotionally, sexually abused.”
Pity and fury warred in those fluid eyes, the blue fighting with the gray even as they darkened in unison. “I’m sorrydoesn’t cut it. How can we help?”
“Our intrepid sub has kindly volunteered you and me to scene with Grit and Tabitha. Sierra wants to include you, as do I, but I should warn you that Tabitha can be…” Liam glanced apologetically at Grit. “Volatile.”
“Especially when she’s scared,” Grit murmured.
“Okay.” Mack’s eyes flicked between them. “What scene?”
“Anal.”
An eyebrow quirked up. “Mmm-hmm. I think I’m smart enough to put the pieces together. Your girl was sodomized against her will, which is now a huge trigger for her, and desensitizing her is the next step. Will this be the first attempt?”
Grit nodded. “Tabby misconstrued something I said earlier, had a small mental breakdown over it, and led us here. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t push it, but Sierra somehow got Tabby to agree to doing a scene, so…”
“You’re not sure you’ll get the opportunity again.”
“Exactly. Liam was right to warn you, though. She was brutalized for a long time; I’m still stepping on landmines. Touching is a sensitive subject and sex… sex is a battlefield.”
“Keep my hands to myself, got it.”
Liam’s brow arched. Mack really was a level above any Dom he’d ever known in terms of acceptance and understanding—and considering who Liam had spent years living, working, and playing with in Phoenix, that was saying something. “All right, so Mack’s on board. We need to limit Tabby’s opportunities to harm anyone, including herself. Can you restrain her, Grit?”
“She’s comfortable with cuffs now as long as I’m in sight.”
Okay, they could work with that. As an idea formed, Liam dragged his bottom lip between his teeth, biting slightly as heshifted thoughts around in his head. “Have you tried any anal play at all? Fingers, toys?”
“A finger to the first knuckle. Anything else and she panics.”
“Wonderful.” He could only thank God that it wasn’t his dick in the firing line. “Mack, can you go across to the Zoo and see how many ponies are playing in the stable area? We need somewhere quiet, away from prying eyes, and some kind of raised area big enough for two subs.” To his knowledge, there weren’t many members signed in with a preference for pony play, and the barn was warm, private. “Grit, you and I are making a stop at the gift store for some supplies, then we’ll collect the girls and meet up with Mack.”
“That was fast,” Grit said, concern marring his brow and forming lines around his mouth.
“I’m good at planning. Does she have a safeword of her own or will red suffice?”
“Rory. Her safeword is Rory.”
