Authors Note: Welcome back readers. As promised my monthly update to Bella's story. It is quite a bit longer than the previous chapters as it has now become a monthly treat to write rather than a chore to churn out chapters more rapidly than my mind could think through the story line. I hope you enjoy this installment. ~ellie
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"I don't care what you fucking promised," Rob yelled vehemently. "She can't go home for the weekend. Not now! You fucking arrogant bastard, she's not an object like a car that you can replace if she gets damaged."
Mel gritted his teeth and glared at his friend speaking in a deathly calm and quiet voice, "Look," he said an obvious edge to his voice, "Don't you think I have tried to figure a way around this?" He was tense, and his face betrayed his anxiousness, "I want her safe more than anyone don't you think? We have thirty-six hours to find something damning on Lewis or the kid, or I am taking her home to her parents for the weekend, end of story."
"Even if we find something damning you know that's not enough to keep her safe," Rob was beyond angry. "It's just too much of a coincidence to take the risk." Mel understood his friend's motives. He wanted to save all other slaves from danger because he had failed to save his own, Kitty. The trip to the morgue earlier that morning had obviously been an emotional jolt for Rob.
Mel backed off sitting back down at the desk. "I know," he said quietly, "but its more of a risk to put even more pressure on her at the moment than necessary, I am doing this for her and her family. What I want is for her to be happy not paranoid and insecure." He looked into his friend's eyes, "help me keep her safe, without making her a frightened prisoner here. Neither of us wants that."
Seeing Mel uncharacteristically retreat from the argument, and reason with him instead; Rob let go of the rage that had been building inside of him and sagged back into a chair looking up at the portrait he both loathed and loved. The love of his life, kitty knelt demurely between himself and Mel, he closed his eyes at the painful memory of losing her.
Kitty had been with Rob and Mel at the beginning of their ventures, all three were young and idealistic in their chosen lifestyle. Kitty belonged heart and soul to Rob, but she was equally affectionate with Mel and the trio worked hard to build the club from proceeds made possible from her inheritance of a small mining company which she had sold to Mel and Rob. Mel's business acumen turned it from a company barely breaking even to a world class company with revenue to rival most in the country within a few short years. Every penny of profit Rob and Mel sunk into researching similar clubs around the world and building their own to make it worthy of the great men of the world who shared their ethos.
Kitty was, for all intents and purposes, first girl. She interviewed and trained every girl admitted to the club herself. She and Rob and on occasion Mel were headline events in the exhibition show room. As the club gained patronage through the harshest of vetting programs, so too did the number of staff grow until Kitty finally agreed to having a Dominant, if not a Master assist her in her managerial duties. Rob was Kitty's real power as she was his. Should a girl need punishment it was he who doled out the necessary measures. If masters over stepped their boundaries it was Rob who made sure they understood the repercussions of their deeds, but it was Kitty who watched everything, knew who everyone was and where they were at any given time.
It was Rob and Kitty who ruled the club as Mel ruled their legitimate business partnership and signed the cheques covering all the expenses that the club couldn't meet itself. Mel enjoyed all of the lifestyle he had built with Kitty and Rob. He worked hard to put the company into the top twenty five in the country, and he helped Rob make the club an international destination for those in the lifestyle. The funds of both their labours never seemed to be enough though with the needed refurbishments to the floors above the club in the old heritage building they had bought.
It was in these early years that Mel had married outside the lifestyle. He had courted and wed the only daughter of an equally successful mining magnate. She had a son from a previous, doomed relationship and Mel had adopted him upon their marriage. While more of a business deal than a marriage in the true sense of the word, they both agreed to live their separate lives each preferring a lifestyle that was not widely accepted within societal norms at the time.
It was not a loveless marriage, they were indeed the best of friends, but each needed something different outside of the usual marriage vows. While, for the years of their son's young life, they put up the pretence of a happy marriage for friends and family they eventually spent less and less time together and more time with the type of women they preferred in their own ways.
After the first decade everything had gone so well, the company, the club, the lives of the three lovers all seemed to be heading in the direction they had worked so hard to achieve. Satisfied and content with their success Rob and kitty started to spend time away from the club, reigniting their love and devotion to each other. Mel also travelled and spent time on his own pleasures having worked hard to get where he was in the business world.
It was at this time, when they had begun to relax their total control over things that a rush of rotten luck plagued them. There was a death at the club that almost had them shut down, the murderer citing an urban myth by scrawling on a mirror in the bathroom where the body was found, "Bloody Mary", three times. As the club was investigated and fought off uneducated accusations, there was a run on the stock of Mel's company. Fighting off each attack took time and money neither of which they could afford, but surprisingly the club had flourished on the unwitting publicity the media had given them and damage to the company was minimal.
The investigation of the murder at the club had led to only dead ends and a shadowy figure referred to as Lucifer. The police had no real leads and believed the shadowy figure to be part of urban myth itself, like the boogie man, Lucifer seemed an insubstantial spectre. It was kitty who unwittingly made the connection. As she trawled through the video footage from the cameras on the night of the murder, she saw a man she didn't recognise in the background of the show room. It wouldn't be so hard to borrow a real member's card or be signed in as a guest by a member who had put them forward for vetting. Checking and cross checking the members who were there that night she saw no guests had entered through the main door of the club, and none had been listed. All the emergency exits were alarmed, so someone must have let him through the kitchen door. Again she trawled through video tapes, they had cameras everywhere except the bathrooms until she found the proof she needed.
The trio took the video tapes to the police and walked them through Kitty's discovery. The camera view of the kitchen door had been restricted by a large rack of bread but following the movement of people around it and the video scenes in the dinning room minutes later they could see quite clearly the unknown man before he disappeared into the shadows along the walls. The shock was that the girl who had let him in was the murder victim herself.
The man was subsequently identified, arrested, found guilty and imprisoned. He claimed to be acting on his own. He did not divulge a motive and did not seem at all disturbed at his sentencing. One of the arresting officers had gone to the club to meet with Mel and Rob when it was all over remarking, "Oh did I mention we found your boogie man? The murder worked for Lewis Arfor. Get it? Lewisafor, Lucifer," he had laughed loudly and slapped his knee at the joke.
Kitty had testified in court that she had found the unknown man on the video tape, her knowledge of every club and staff member made her uniquely able to make the distinction. They had celebrated that night and Rob related the story of the comedian cop and the name of their boogieman. "Sounds familiar Kitty said, "Is he a member?"
