One Dirty Night

Hunter stalked to his slacks strewn on the floor. Yanking them on, he zipped up, then stabbed his arms into his shirt. “Instead of following the rules, lowlife scum think they can do what they want. In my circus! A place of freedom and enjoyment, not abuse and terror. I’ll gut them if they’ve laid a single finger on her.” Whirling on Giselle, his voice tightened. “Why did you wait for me to finish? You should’ve alerted me the moment they stepped foot on my ground.”

“I’ve been watching them. They’ve merely been taking in the sights so far. The girl is currently having a good time. Either she’s open to being with them or they’ve lied to her, but right now, she hasn’t been touched.”

“How old?” Hunter balled his hands.

“I had my suspicions when her ID said she was twenty-two. I used the automatic photo capture and ran a facial recognition check.” Giselle spoke quietly but calmly. “The two men she’s with are her uncle and one of his friends. Her true age is fifteen.”

“And how old is her sleazy uncle?”

“Forty-seven.”

“Jesus.” Nick cursed beside me. “What sort of place are you running here, Hunter?” Standing, he shot down the steps and grabbed his jeans. Shoving his legs into them, he hoisted them up and tucked himself away, judgement oozing out of him. “Those sick bastards have brought a minor here, and you’ve given them the space to—”

“I haven’t given them anything. Yet.” Hunter charged at Nick and shoved a finger in his chest. “Stick around, and you’ll see what they’ll get for being such raping bastards. I have a special treat for predators who think they can prey on innocents.”

“What are you going to do?” I asked, glancing at my dress on the carpet, craving the thin fabric to wrap around my nakedness.

“I’m going to teach them a lesson.” Hunter smirked with sin in his amethyst eyes, the lightning bolt on his cheek slightly smudged from our evening. “I’m going to show them exactly how it would feel to be on the receiving end of whatever games they were about to play with his underage niece, and then I’m going to hand deliver them to local law enforcement.”

“Is that wise?” Giselle asked quietly. “You remember what happened last time you took police matters into your own hands? Perhaps we should just print out the file on him and make a citizen’s arrest? He’ll be dealt with.”

“Not dealt with enough, in my opinion,” Hunter muttered. “You know how I like to make these guys suffer, Gis.”

“File? What file?” Nick asked, glowering at Giselle.

She flicked a look at Hunter, asking permission to share. When Hunter nodded, she said, “We have an advanced database—courtesy of agencies we shall not name. We have technology and protocols in place to protect our guests in every way possible. Every town we go to there are always one or two bastards who can’t help themselves and think they can use our big top as a safe place to do God knows what to victims who are either known to them or snatched off the street.”

Tensing, she muttered, “You wouldn’t have noticed, but…all kinds of biological data are being recorded when you stand in front of my booth and fill in that questionnaire: your temperature to see if you’re sick, your pheromones to see if you’re excited or scared. We even have a sensor on the pen that takes trace samples of your sweat to see if you have noxious substances in your bloodstream.”

So that’s why she looked at her laptop screen as I held it.

Nick glanced between Hunter and Giselle. “I thought this was just a kink fest? Yet now I find out you’re travelling vigilantes ridding the world of rapists?”

Hunter smirked. “Your words, not mine.”

“How many?” Nick crossed his arms. “How many men have you stopped?”

“Don’t forget women.” Hunter shuddered. “They can be deadly when they want to be. I’ve had to save a few unsuspecting boys from being eaten alive by femme fatales.”

“How many?” Nick asked again, deceptively quiet.

Shrugging, Hunter glanced at Giselle. “What’s our last number, Gis? I’m starting to lose count.”

Giselle stepped closer to Nicholas with a beaming smile on her pretty face. “Spectacle of Secrets has operated for seven years. We’ve travelled the world. We’ve satisfied hundreds of thousands of people and…” She puffed up her chest. “Have personally ended the reign of nine hundred and eighty-two paedophiles.”

“Nine hundred…?” I coughed. “That’s…insane.”

A sickening number. And even worse, it represented a fraction of the monsters that truly existed out there.

“When we get to one thousand, I’m hiring someone to help me.” Hunter caught my eyes. “I’m getting jaded. I wasn’t aware of how jaded until I spotted you in your car today.”

My stomach flipped as Hunter came toward me and gathered me in his strong arms. Pulling me off the bed, he wrapped the black sheet around me, then hugged me tight. Pressing his forehead to mine, he stared painfully deep into my soul. “I haven’t felt the kind of lust I did for you in a very long time. Sex has become tainted for me. I mingle with horny guests every night, yet all I see are the monsters who shouldn’t belong.”

Kissing me softly, he whispered, “So thank you, Ella. Thank you for reminding me of why I run this circus. I made this business, not as bait to trap those who deserve to die, but because sex truly is the greatest pleasure we have. Sex given with consent. Sex between one or multiple partners. Sex because lust is agonising and love is consuming.”

Licking the wound he’d left behind on my bottom lip, he sighed. “I doubt we’ll see each other again, little witch, but I want you to know…you took my body tonight but you also took a piece of my heart. I’m half tempted to carry you away with me. To steal you from this town and keep you for myself, but…” He looked up and caught Nick’s eyes where he glowered at us by Giselle.

“Come.” Unwrapping his arms from around me, he took my hand and pulled me toward Nicholas. I couldn’t breathe as he pushed me gently into Nick’s side. “I have a feeling if I stole you, I’d break more than just one heart.”