Only Consenting Adults

[Author's note: Adam has joined Jodie and Davey, breaking Eve and turning her into Jodie's newest acquisition. Meanwhile, Aidan is under house arrest, staying with Cassie. Syn has been forced to close the Lost and Found and retire from the life she loves. After years of meticulous planning, Jodie has managed to outwit and outmaneuver everyone.

Almost.]

---

BRING THE RAIN

Adam got out of the car as soon as he saw her, crossing the street quickly and falling in behind her as she walked. The woman turned the corner at the end of the block and Adam trotted to catch up, right behind her now, his hands rammed into his pockets, grasping the hard shape contained within.

The woman ducked into a sandwich shop, and he dropped into the line behind her, close enough now to touch. Instead, he kept himself silent, checking and rechecking, making sure the middle-aged blonde woman in front of him was the right person, Colette. He couldn't make a mistake, not with what he needed to do.

She ordered a sandwich, pulling to one side to let Adam step up to the counter. Her eyes scanned him momentarily and he felt a chill, but then she was smiling at the person serving her, the moment dissipating. She hadn't recognised him; she had no idea who he was.

He ordered a sandwich too, queueing up behind her to pay, hovering close to her body. There was a shift in her stance, and he knew she'd sensed him. She paid and walked away, but there was a glance over her shoulder. Adam's guts churned, realising she was alerted now. He needed to pay, to follow her, but the cashier was taking forever. In desperation, he threw a note at her and scooped up his sandwich, heading quickly out onto the street again.

"I will fuck you up."

Adam stopped mid-stride, suddenly face to face with the blonde woman. Her expression was guarded, but not fearful.

"I mean it, dude, you picked the wrong girl."

Adam held up a hand, seeing how she tensed as he did so.

"Colette?" he stammered, "You're Colette, right?"

"You tell me."

The woman's eyes were locked onto him, her expression unflinching. Adam could sense the fight-or-flight response.

"Colette, uh, I'm," he mumbled, "You're Eve's friend, yeah?"

Colette's face hardened. She didn't say a word.

"Look, I have some, uh, can we talk?"

"Sure. Talk."

Colette didn't move, and Adam found himself fumbling for the right words.

"It's about Eve," he said.

"I guessed. Who are you exactly?"

Adam ignored her question, ploughing on with, "She's missing."

Colette's demeanour changed instantly, becoming sterner.

"I know that. We've been looking for her ever since she didn't make it to work on Monday. What have you heard?" she growled.

"I need to talk to you."

"Talk."

"Here?"

"Yeah, right here, right now. Go. What do you know?"

Colette's expression was uncompromising.

"She's in trouble. I know that. She's in awful trouble," Adam told her.

Colette surprised him, stepping close, her face almost touching his.

"What the fuck do you know?" she hissed.

Adam looked down at her. The same height as Eve, but rounder, more voluptuous, blonde rather than dark, but the same intensity, the same air of danger.

"She's about to get shipped out of the country. She's gone by tonight."

Colette reached up, twisting her hand around his collar, pulling him towards her, eyes blazing.

"I don't know who the fuck you are, dude, but you have ten seconds. After that I'm going to fuck you up. Where's my friend?"

"It's more than Eve, it's about much more. I want to tell you. I...."

"Then fucking spill, right now."

"I will, I'll give you everything. I just need to ask one thing."

"What?" Colette snapped.

"I need protection."

Colette grinned up at him, but it was cold, "Let me fucking guess. Immunity? Is that what you want, you piece of shit?"

"Yeah."

"I could just beat it out of you right here on the street."

"We're running out of time."

Colette twisted his collar painfully, bringing his face level with hers. He could see the hate. He could also see the doubt. She had a firm hold on his shirt, but Adam held her gaze. He was all the way in now, all the way down the rabbit hole.

"She said you were her friend," he croaked, "That's why I came to you. I have recordings. I have everything. But we're running out of time."

Colette loosened her grip, and Adam jerked backwards, gasping for air.

"It's big," Adam mumbled, rubbing his neck, "I need you to stop it. You are the one person she trusted."

"What's your name?"

"Gabriel. Gabriel Suskin."

"She never mentioned you."

"I never told her my real name, but I'll tell you everything."

"So, you know everything do you?"

"Yeah."

"How do you know?"

"Because I'm the one they hired. I did it."

Adam took something out of his pocket and held it up for her.

"Everything's on here. But I need protection."

Colette surveyed him, hesitating.

"You've been here before," Adam continued, "Eve told me all about it. You can pick the bullshit from the truth. Look at me, tell me what you see."

Colette didn't reply. Instead, she swiped the tiny black stick from his fingers and rammed it into her pocket.

"I'll take it to my boss," she told him, "You wanna deal, this is the deal."

She leaned close, stabbing a finger into his chest.

"If she's hurt, I will hunt you down, Gabriel, I will find you no matter where you hide and I will end you, badge or no badge. But if this gives us what we need, I'll get you your precious immunity."

"What do you want me to do?"

"You give me the location," Colette hissed, her lips curling into a cold smile, "And I will bring the rain."

---

Cassie was driving, with Syn in the passenger seat. The lights turned amber, but she went through anyway, heading onto the main road out of town. Beside her, Syn was quiet.

"Say it," Cassie hissed.

"Say what?"

"I dunno, some crack about saving the day."

"Why? You obviously are. I don't need to say anything."

Cassie glanced down, saw that she was speeding, and made an effort to slow down.

"Nothing about lost causes?"

"Cassidy, it may surprise you to hear that I'm a hundred percent aligned. Go faster, I can pay the fines."

Cassie gritted her teeth, remembering the strange meeting with Adam. He'd arrived at her house, straight out of the blue, telling her to get to Sanctuary Point, that there would be a need for her to be there. She'd been given a keycard and instructions, and then Adam had left. Cassie had gone back inside the house to find Aidan and Syn waiting for her. She'd told them everything Adam had said, causing Syn to grab her coat, but Aidan had slumped down onto a chair in silence.

Cassie could understand what Aidan was feeling, trapped by the alarm on his ankle tag from getting anywhere near, having to rely on the two women to rescue his wife. She could still see the haunted look on his face as they drove off.

"On the left."

Cassidy saw the entrance, the wide gravel road sweeping up the hill, the stone pillars emblazoned with the name of the place: Sanctuary Point. They crested the rise, coming to a wide oval area of crushed stone in front of a low sandstone building. Cassie pulled into a parking spot and killed the engine.

"What time?" she asked.

"Fifteen minutes," Syn replied, in an oddly calm voice.

Aidan and Eve must have done the exact same thing, Cassie thought to herself, sitting in the car getting up the nerve to act. It had gone badly wrong though, with Aidan arrested and Eve disappeared. Worse: this time, they'd probably know to look out for unannounced visitors.

"Nervous?" Syn asked.

"Yeah," Cassie breathed, "I'm so out of my depth."

She gripped the steering wheel, staring at the wide wooden door that led into the spa's reception area.

"I mean, Eve was trained in this, she's a cop. She didn't come back. Aidan's a big guy, he's able to take care of himself. Who the hell are we?"

"Cassidy, we have something Aidan never had. Two things."

"And they are?"

Syn opened the car door. "Firstly, a concrete plan."

She looked across at Cassie expectantly. "Secondly," she continued, "Momentum."

Syn launched herself out of her seat, closing the door quickly behind her and striding across the car park, pulling on her trench coat. Cassie cursed under her breath and clambered out of the car, jogging to catch up with the long strides of the tall, elegant woman in front of her.

Syn didn't make for the door, she took the path that ran to the left around the building instead, keeping up a brisk pace. Cassie fell into step with her, scanning around. She noticed the security cameras set under the eaves of the roof and felt their baleful glare.

The path connected up with a covered walkway emerging from the back of the main building, sweeping down the hill to a set of chalets set on the gentle slope overlooking the lake. Syn marched between the poles, the trench coat billowing out behind her, long blonde hair streaming over the dark fabric, twisting in the breeze. She was wearing tight black pants and black heels, her hips rolling with each stride. Go in like you own the place, Cassie thought, admiring the woman she had come to share her life with. Here was Madame Syn against the entire world, and she had the advantage.

Syn halted in front of the door of the last chalet, holding out a hand imperiously. Cassie could see the effortlessly superior expression on her face, and for some reason it calmed the churning in her stomach. She handed Syn the keycard Adam had supplied.

Syn tapped the card against the lock and pushed the door open, not bothering to announce herself as she entered the chalet. Cassie ducked in behind her, scouring their surroundings one last time before closing the door. There was no sign that they'd been spotted, but the discreet black dome of a camera glinted in the walkway roof.

Syn went from room to room, finally stopping in the doorway to the bedroom. Cassie came up behind her, but Syn raised a hand, commanding silence. Cassie peered over her shoulder.

On the bed was a woman. Her body was stripped bare, her skin gleaming with a sheen of perspiration. Her hands moved in slow, rhythmic cycles, one caressing a nipple while the other worked delicately between the reddened, puffy folds of her labia. Her head was encased in a leather hood, zipped tight at the back, eyeless, featureless. From within the tight black material, Cassie could hear a low moaning sound.

"Rosa."

Syn called her name and then waited for a response. The figure squirmed, her fingers plunging into her needy pussy, forbidden to cum, only allowed to edge herself until told to stop. Rosa was lost in her own private world of aching, self-imposed denial. Cassie shuddered, recalling the woman she remembered in the gym: the forthright, lively instructor in the spin class urging the girls to go hard or go home, the intelligent, savvy business owner running a successful, growing business with her husband, the star of social media with her toned, sculpted body as a testament to a lifetime of exercise.

And yet, she had succumbed to the conditioning.

"Rosa."

Syn's voice was louder this time, and the figure paused. Syn approached the bed slowly.

"Rosa," she repeated, "I'm here to help."

Syn leaned over the naked woman, laying long, elegant fingers over her arm. Rosa flinched, but then remained still. Syn's fingertips traced over Rosa's slickened skin, up her arm to her neck.

"You can stop now, you've done enough."

Syn caressed the leather hood, reaching behind it and raised her head slightly. There was the sound of a zip.

"Let me have a look at you."

Syn loosened the neck of the hood and pulled it away from her head, letting sweat-soaked strands of dark hair fall around a beautiful face. Syn smiled kindly down at the woman.

"Good," Syn murmured, "Do you remember who I am?"

Slowly, Rosa shook her head.

"I'm here to take you away. You're going to come with me."

Rosa stared up at her, frowning, eyes unfocused. Slowly, she shook her head again. Syn surveyed her for a moment, and then her smile began to fade.

"You need to concentrate, Rosa. We're getting you out of here. I don't know what you took, but you need to fight it. Up."

Rosa didn't move, eyes wide, looking up at the commanding presence of the woman hovering over her.

"You need to get up, now. We don't have time."

Syn cupped the back of her neck, lifting her head. Rosa began to rise, her eyes unable to leave Syn's, allowing herself to be pulled upright.

"Do you have any clothing?"

Rosa blinked. "No," she whispered.

Syn shrugged off her trench coat and wrapped it around Rosa's naked body.

"Now, you will follow me. Eyes on me, can you do that? Let's go."

Syn reached out, inspecting Rosa's face, stroking her cheek. She took Rosa's hand and led her past Cassie toward the front door. Cassie noticed Syn glance at her watch. Rosa met Cassie's eyes for a moment and frowned, as if trying to recall where she'd seen Cassie before. Then the moment passed, and Rosa's eyes glazed over again.

Cassie fell into place behind the other two women, trying to rein in a sudden, bitter fury. Fuck Davey, she thought, he deserved everything that was about to happen to him. Cassie braced herself: sixty seconds to reach the car, then they were home free. Syn opened the front door.

A woman was standing in the middle of the walkway with a younger man whom Cassie assumed to be Davey. Behind her, an imposing man towered over her, thick-chested and silent.

"My God," the woman exclaimed, "Cynthia. It's been such a long time. How are you?"

Cassie found herself stepping around Rosa, shielding the woman in the trench coat from the figures in front of them. Her heart was pounding in her throat, the metallic taste of adrenaline on her tongue. Three of them, she thought, they could make a run for it. It wasn't impossible, but the odds weren't good, not with Rosa. Her eyes darted about, looking for an escape but finding none. They were trapped.

"Jodie, what an unexpected surprise," Syn replied, enunciating each word precisely, "I think you know how I've been. I think you architected it."

Syn glanced down at her watch.

"You sound like a sore loser, Cynthia. That's not like you."

Syn gave the other woman an icy smile. "Oh Jodie, really? Are you still hurting, after all these years?" she replied, "Still playing the game? You couldn't just walk away?"

Syn advanced on the other woman, ignoring Davey. Her bulky companion tensed.

"That's the issue when you insist on playing winner takes all, Jodie. The loser has to lose everything."

"And you're implying that I'm the loser here?" Jodie snorted, a little look of amusement on her face, "When you're clearly trespassing on private property."

"Yes, I believe you're the loser. You lost Harvey when he chose me. You lost Richard. It looks to me like you've lost it all."

"You really think I've lost everything?"

Syn's focus shifted to Davey, and she smiled sweetly at him.

"Davis? The last time I saw you must have been at your father's funeral."

"Yeah," Davey replied, uneasily.

"Of course, you lost your mother before that, didn't you? I'm sorry for your loss. It can't have been easy to lose her, you were so young. How old were you?"

"Sixteen."

"Did anyone tell you the circumstances of your mother's death? Your father? Jodie? Anyone?"

"Cynthia, I think that's enough. I don't know what...," Jodie interjected.

"Anyone?" Syn pressed, staring at Davey now, ignoring the other woman.

"It was a car accident," Davey murmured.

"Ah."

Syn's eyes flicked from Davey to Jodie, "Is that what they told you? I suppose it would have been a lot easier than the truth."

"Cynthia," Jodie hissed, but Davey cut her off.

"The truth?"

"Yes," Syn continued smoothly, "Your mother found out about your father and Jodie. She couldn't handle it."

Syn surveyed the younger man's face dispassionately, seeing his expression begin to change, and then she went in for the kill.

"It was a straight road. The bridge was well signposted."

Syn pulled back now, letting her words sink in, watching Davey recoil in slow motion. Jodie's eyes flashed with bitter hatred, her lips turning in a snarl of rage. But Syn's attention flicked down to her watch and then back to face of the woman opposite.

"Now, Jodie," she breathed, her voice almost too low to hear, "Now you've lost everything."

In the distance, back behind the main building, there was the rumble of cars arriving. Syn smiled, her icy blue eyes boring deeply into her adversary.

"What have you done?" Jodie snapped, "Who...?"

"The cavalry," Syn replied.

She closed the gap between herself and her nemesis, until they were face to face.

"If you're going to try and kill the Queen," Syn murmured, "Just one tip, darling."

Raised voices could be heard, coming closer. Syn's lips parted, her eyes flaring suddenly wide, her face contorting into a broad, wild, feral grin, hands trembling with rage.

"When you take the shot," she snarled, "Don't miss."

---

Aidan sat on the doorstep in the twilight, turning his phone over and over in his hand reflexively. Every car seemed to be the one, but they each passed by, until he found himself struggling to remember what Cassie's car even looked like. His temples were throbbing, like he was desperately hungover or about to succumb to fever. It was unbearable.

The phone pinged and he nearly dropped it. Scrambling to check, he tapped on the message notification from Cassie:

C: The cops are done with us. On our way home

Aidan stared at the message in shock, overwhelmed. His fingers didn't seem to work, tapping out a string of nonsense words that he had to delete and redo.

A: All of you?

He stared at the screen, not blinking.

C: All of us. Rosa is with us

Aidan screwed his eyes shut, feeling the wetness on his cheeks, but not caring. He buried his head in his hands and finally let it all go, weeping like a child in front of Cassie's door in the gathering dusk.

After a while, the phone pinged again, and this time it was a picture of his wife's face, in the back seat of Cassie's car, dark eyes wide, her delicate face solemn, wrapped in a trench coat. He touched the screen with his fingertips, caressing her features. A message appeared below.

C: You need to prepare yourself. No stress. You have to be quiet

A cold fear gripped him, and he looked at the picture again. Now, he could see the signs, the way she stared into the lens like it was a thousand miles away.

A: Okay. What else?

C: Just be kind

Aidan shot to his feet, suddenly overwhelmed with the need to be in motion. He strode down the path, then turned in the direction they would be arriving.

A: How far away?

C: Half hour

The next thirty minutes felt like the longest of his life, standing in the street, waiting for Cassie to drive around the corner. All the time, the same thoughts were going through his head: what if she didn't want to speak to him, or even look at him, or what if she saw him and flew into a rage?

The car appeared, driving slowly towards him. Aidan could make out Cassie behind the wheel, with Syn next to her. There was a shape in the back. Cassie pulled into her drive and got out, holding up her hand to Aidan, forbidding him to approach. She opened up the back door and a head emerged. Aidan felt his guts clench.

Cassie led Rosa up towards the front door, with Syn following along behind. Rosa saw him and her steps faltered, but then she moved forward again, stumbling a little.

"She's a little disorientated," Cassie announced, "Could you open the door please?"

Aidan snapped out of his daze, opening the door to let them in.

"I'm just going to take her upstairs. She needs a bath. I'll give you a call to maybe bring up a warm drink in a few minutes. What does she like?"