Bimbo Builder Academy

She's with him.

The thought sent my mind reeling, the emotions I'd been fighting to hold back flooding through like a gushing river through a broken dam.

"Oh fuck..."

My hand dug into the arm of the couch, fingers clenched tight like I was holding onto a life raft. Then, I was on my feet and heading for the bedroom.

Through the door. Upside down phone on the bedside table. Picking it up. Pressing the power button and holding, waiting for the screen to begin to glow to life.

Why would she?

My thoughts were fractured with worry.

... how could she?

I had been avoiding my phone for a day and a night, but now it might be the only place I could get a clue what Julia had been up to. What she had been

thinking.

There was someone coming into the bedroom behind me as I turned and dropped myself down onto the bed, staring at the phone. I had a vague idea that Lena was talking to me. But I wasn't focused on her. The phone in my hand, slowly illuminating my face as it glowed to life, was the absolute center of my attention.

She's with him.

And they were looking for me.

Maybe.

The principal had said "we'll find him". I wasn't sure who else Julia could be looking for. I stabbed my code into the touchscreen, so fast that my fingers fumbled it and I had to take a slow, unsteady breath before I did it again.

Home screen blinking to life. Notifications rolling down across the top third of my screen.

Message from Julia. Message from Julia. Missed call from Julia. Message from Julia...

I had a dozen missed calls, at least. More messages. I made myself numb and opened the app. I scrolled up, forcing myself not to read them until I got back to the top, where they all began. The time stamp was in the early morning, yesterday.

MITCH! What's going on?

That would have been after I'd told her we were breaking up, then disappeared from our apartment with a strange young woman. I'd missed several calls as Lena had driven us away. Then more texts.

Where are you?

Please tell me what's happening?

I could read as her fear and uncertainty turned to anger.

What the HELL! I can't believe this. Are you ignoring your phone? You asshole. What the hell is going on? Who did you leave with?

Several more missed calls. Several more texts. Her anger turning to uncertainty again. And sadness.

Please... Please tell me what's happening... I'm so confused. Where did you go? Why did you go?

What did I do wrong?

I felt like I was reliving that night, but from her perspective. Sitting alone in the dark in our apartment with her phone as the only possible link to her missing boyfriend. Her fleeing boyfriend.

The messages continued. Raging at me. Begging me to pick up the phone. To just respond once to a text. To let me know that I was okay. I swallowed, my heart hurting more with every beat. I skimmed to the end. I couldn't read those right now. I wasn't sure if I would ever be able to. I had been terrible to her, but that wasn't what I needed to know. I already knew that.

I needed to know why she was...

Ah.

Here it was. Right at the end.

Fine.

She was fed up. I could practically hear her frustrated snarl through the message.

Fine. Just be that way then. Fine. I'm going to find out what's going on. And I know where to go. Where all of this fucking shit started.

I closed my eyes, clicking the phone screen off with my thumb, and wished that, for once, Jules hadn't been so smart. But she was. She knew when I'd started acting strange, and she knew that the Academy must be at the root of it all. I rested the cold screen against my forehead and tried to push away the ache in my chest.

"Mitch..." Lena's voice was close, and I felt her shift on the edge of the mattress beside me. I wasn't really sure how long she'd been sitting there. Or how long I'd been sitting here, reading and reliving my breakup.

I glanced over when the blonde's hand brushed softly across my hunched shoulders. "Yeah?" I wasn't surprised that I felt like crap, but it still felt like I'd been ambushed by the feelings that were pounding through me with my pulse.

"You can't be like this." There was a firmness to her voice that surprised me.

I blinked.

"I need you," she continued, shaking my shoulder a little, like she was trying to snap me out of it. "We all need you. Harrison says that Principal Clayton is on his way here right now, and we need to be ready when he arrives.

You

need to be ready..." Lena trailed off, eyes flickering between the phone screen and my face. It was dark in here, the curtains still drawn against the morning light. "I know you can't be feeling good right now, but you've got to forget about all of that. You have to be in control." A small smile. "Can you do that for us? For me?"

A part of me warmed at Lena's affection and caring, and it struggled with the part that felt stabbed by a shard of ice at my student's words.

For me...

I shook my head to clear it. "I can do that," I croaked. Then, I pushed myself up. I stood next to the young woman in the dark, looking down at her. I wanted to kiss her, to thank her for her firm understanding. I wanted not to kiss her, because my thoughts were full of Julia. Instead, I simply nodded, then strode out into the living room.

We didn't have much time. But I would make sure we were ready.

Two heads turned my way as I entered. Harrison and Danielle had been sitting in an oddly companionable silence, sipping coffee and lost in their own thoughts.

"Alright, guys," I said. I rubbed my hands together. "Time to put the rest of the plan in motion."

Danielle nodded, stood and headed out the front door of Harrison's suite. She had her own assignment. Harrison and I, meanwhile, had to go over his part in our little drama. He had known what to do on the phone, but I hadn't wanted to plan too far in advance in case the call revealed new information. Which it had. Lena watched, arms crossed and a slight frown on her face, as Harrison repeated the plan back to me with an indulgent smile.

"I can do this, you know," he said, patting me on the shoulder.

My mouth made a hard line, but I tried not to brush the comment off too brusquely. While he might give off an air of calm positivity, I didn't like this man. His actions spoke for themselves. And yet I needed him.

Danielle knocked and Lena let her in as Harrison and I finished.

"Alright." I nodded to the man, then followed Lena into the short entry hallway to the left of the kitchen.

Danielle was hustling back in, a towel-wrapped object in her hands. She passed it off to Lena when I motioned to her.

"So you got it?" I raised my eyebrows and stepped aside as Lena sidled past with the bundle.

"Sure," Danielle shrugged, but I could tell she was pleased with herself.

"Good. We may need it. I hope not, though. Hopefully our side of things will go off without a hitch. Can you set us up with the cameras up like you did yesterday?"

Danielle nodded, her face growing serious. "Where do you want everything?"

I hesitated. My plan relied on Danielle's ability to access the security cameras in Harrison's suite, but we needed a safe place for us to hunker down and monitor them.

Shit,

I thought, my mind racing. Things were coming together too quickly, and Julia being thrown in the works had rattled me. Another ball for an already-overburdened juggler to try and keep in the air. Yesterday, Danielle and I had been able to monitor Harrison and Lena's conversation from the room across the hallway. But, since we didn't actually have a key, we'd been automatically locked out as soon as we'd left. We didn't have time to book another room, and it was still too early to check in, anyway.

"We're going to have to set up in this suite," I answered, and I tried to calm myself enough to consider options.

Bedroom?

No. Harrison and Clayton would be talking in the living room, so the bedroom was just too close for comfort. "The bathroom," I told her. "Just pile some towels on the floor, I suppose, and get the laptop set up. We'll watch from there, and we'll just have to hope that our visitor is too busy for a bathroom break."

Danielle nodded swiftly and started to walk past me.

"Danielle..." I said, holding up a hand. There was one more thing I needed from the dark-haired beauty.

The brunette paused, looking up into my face. Her pretty features seemed uncertain, but determined. "What's up?" she asked. She was a real find, I realized. Smart, beautiful, and wanting to do the right thing when she had the chance. Even if she was dragged into a crazy, topsy-turvy, mind-bending situation like this one.

I pulled in a breath, then stepped closer. My hand dropped, both palms caressing her hips.

Danielle's eyes widened with surprise, then her lips parted in a soft groan as my hands slipped up her sides, covering her breasts and squeezing gently.

"Oh..."

"I need to talk to Raven."

* * *

"Lena..."

The blonde turned toward me hesitantly, and I could see she was getting more and more nervous.

"Relax." I forced myself to relax at the same time, loosening my tense shoulders and turning up my lips in a smile.

She matched it weakly. "Sorry." Her green eyes were uncertain. "I'm just... I don't know how I can face him."

I nodded. Joseph Clayton had kidnapped Lena, brainwashed her, altered her personality and planned to sell her as a sex slave to Harrison St. John. For months, the man had had complete and insidiously invisible control over Lena's entire life. In terms of people you don't want to have to face down, it doesn't really get more frightening than that. "I..." I sighed out a breath and set my jaw with conviction. "I know it's hard. I know it's scary. But please trust that I'm watching, and listening. Just two rooms away. And if

anything

happens, anything at all, I'll be there to protect you."

"Like you were last night?" Lena's voice was dull, not accusing, but I still felt the words land hard. Then, before I could apologize, the blonde shook her head. Her straight hair swished around her shoulders. "Sorry, I know what happened with Danielle and Raven and everything wasn't really under your control. You did your best. I just... I'm so worried. What if this doesn't work?"

I didn't have anything to say, no more assurances I could give. If this didn't work, we were out of options. So, instead, I just pressed my mouth into a line. "Are you ready?" I asked, feeling the frames of the LucidSpecs digging into my palm as I squeezed my fingers around them.

Lena blew out a breath. Her slim figure was still tense, but less so. Her emerald gaze was a little less stormy. She nodded slightly. "Okay. Let's get this over with."

I unfolded the reading glasses and placed them gently on the bridge of my nose. The world grew ever so slightly sharper, like Lena's lovely face had snapped into even closer focus. Her lashes fluttered as she looked up into my dark eyes.

"Ah..."

The soft sigh came immediately, her mind opening at the sight of me. The face of her professor and Master from each and every online video course.

It made me want to ask a question that I hadn't had time to ponder.

Who

was

the man from the video recordings? Who was I impersonating every time I wore these glasses?

But that was a question for another time. My lips were already moving. "Just relax..." I murmured, my hands brushing against her bare upper arms as she sagged slightly, eyes going wide. "And let your mind drift away... You're mine, Lena, and you will obey no one else..."

* * *

Harrison sat on the couch without fidgeting. Lena was beside him, staring blankly into space. She wore the outfit I'd purchased for her yesterday in the gift shop, a simple navy skirt and pale white button down with the Regent logo on the breast.

Danielle and I watched closely through the hidden camera above the big windows, towels cushioning us on the tiled floor of the huge hotel bathroom. We were sharing a pair of earbuds so that both of us could listen to what was happening in the living room on the other side of the bedroom wall. There was a rock in the pit of my stomach, hard and cold and unyielding. I clenched my jaw and tried to breathe deeply, but all I succeeded in doing was fending off the anxiety for a few more seconds.

The knock came abruptly. It was fast and harsh, and as Harrison came quickly to his feet it was repeated.

Someone's in a hurry,

I thought.

On screen, we watched as the pudgy businessman straightened his suit jacket, rolled his shoulders, and fixed a stern look on his features. It looked out of place on the usually smiling man, but I suppose he couldn't go into business meetings looking like a happy little cherub. This was his work face. Then, he turned his back to us and walked toward the door.

"Coming!" he called, and I could hear his voice twice, softly muffled through the wall and clearly through my earbud.

His guest abruptly stopped knocking.

From our angle, we could see most of the way to the front door but not quite. Luckily, the camera above the doorframe had a microphone that picked up the sounds of Harrison undoing the lock, turning the handle with a soft

click

and then pulling it open. More importantly, we would be able to hear what was spoken in the entryway.

But, to our surprise, when the businessman opened the door with a simple, "Come in," Joseph Clayton strode right past him with the air of a man who owns any room he happens to enter. The tall, athletically-built principal entered our field of view wearing a suit that looked both simple and expensive. It was made of a grey-silver cloth that seemed to lend a golden hue to his tanned skin. His chiseled, wolfish features were hard. Clayton froze when he saw Lena, sitting in profile. He stood very still, watching her closely.

Lena didn't react, just staring calmly into space. Her face was blank, her eyes blinking slowly every couple of seconds. I wondered how aware she was of what was happening around her. Harrison followed Clayton into the room, and I was just wondering why we hadn't heard the door close behind him when a third person entered the screen.

Thud.

The sound of the door to the suite swinging closed registered vaguely in my hearing, but everything else seemed to slow to a halt.

It was Julia.

My mind spun out.

Why was she here? Did Clayton know I was with Harrison? No, that didn't make any sense. Thoughts rushed through my head. She was wearing an oversized grey tee shirt and yoga pants that clung to her curves. It was a simple outfit, but casually cute, and I was unhappy for Clayton to have seen my girlfriend in it.

Ex-girlfriend,

an extremely unhelpful part of my mind reminded me, but I shook it off.

Not now.

As I struggled to rationalize her presence, though, Clayton was rounding on Harrison and gesturing at the silent Academy student. "What," he said, his anger hot and fierce behind his mask of civility, "is

she

doing here?" He bit off the words, his teeth practically grinding them together.

I had to give Harrison credit. While the vehemence of Clayton's words would have made me fumble and hesitate, the Saint of Sales simply spread his hands. "I could ask you the same," he commented, gesturing to Julia, whose eyes were darting around with evident confusion.

She didn't speak, though, and I wondered again what Clayton had said to convince her to come with him.

Because of our camera's fixed angle, I couldn't see the principal's face as he stared at Harrison. What I

could

see was the frown in the set of his shoulders. "I gave you specific instructions," the man said. "You were not supposed to interact with her outside of the facility until she was completely ready for you. You had no right to take her." His anger was spilling out. I could hear it in his voice and see it in the tense movement of his head as Harrison slowly sidled around the other side of the couch and the principal's eyes followed him.

I hadn't met this side of the man before. Joseph Clayton was used to being obeyed without question, and I was beginning to see how he reacted when things didn't go according to plan.

On the screen of Danielle's laptop, the scene was split in a strange symmetry — Harrison on the right side of the couch, one hand resting on the back, leaning casually; Lena in the middle, prim and upright with her face blank as she stared into the middle distance; Joseph Clayton on the left side, with Julia standing slightly behind him. Now, though it was Harrison who surprised me again.

Harrison

scowled, and on his usually open face the expression was oddly unsettling. "You forget, Joseph, that

I

am the client.

I

am the one who foots

your

extravagant bill. I have the right to inspect my property at any time I wish."

I swallowed down my anger at Harrison's callous description of Lena, reminding myself that he was just acting.

This is the end of it,

I thought.

You just have to get through this, and then it's over.

One way or another, I knew I would be right.

My focus returned to the screen as Joseph Clayton flexed his hands and his mouth worked silently. I could tell the man was furious at being disobeyed, but after a moment his fingers relaxed and he visibly swallowed down what was probably a solid mouthful of frustration.

"What happened?" The principal's voice was crisp and to the point. "How did she end up like this? Tell me everything." He didn't look at Lena as he spoke, his eyes fixed on Harrison's face. It was like the two women in the room weren't even there.

Harrison's scowl loosened somewhat and he nodded. "Alright," but then he gestured at Julia. "But who's this? Another one of your... students? Can I speak freely in front of her?"

Julia's eyes had narrowed, darting between Harrison and Lena and Clayton, and now she started to step forward, tossing her dark hair angrily over her shoulders. She wasn't the type to let two men talk about her like she wasn't in the room.

But Clayton held up a hand, placing it gently on her shoulder. "Please, Julia," he said calmly, and her eyes snapped to his face. "Let me explain to Harrison what's going on?"

My girlfriend —

ex-girlfriend

— frowned, then nodded curtly. "Fine," she said. "But I'm only here because you told me that this man was going to be able to help us find Mitch."

On the other side of the screen, Harrison managed to look confused at the mention of my name, but my eyes were locked in on what happened next. The principal turned fully to face Julia, his hand not leaving her shoulder. I could see the confusion in her eyes, and then a flash of nervousness as her trust in the principal suddenly turned to fear.

My heart pounded and I swear all of my instincts were screaming at me to jump up, to do something, to prevent what I instinctively knew was about to happen.

"No," Clayton told her, and the frown he'd worn for Harrison twitched into a smirk. "You're only here because I knew this meeting would be stressful. And I wanted those pretty lips wrapped around my cock."

Julia started to pull back, to open her mouth to shout or cry out... but the principal's hand was firm and his words were fast and effective as a verbal bullet.

"Sleepy time, gorgeous."

I didn't need to hear the special emphasis that Clayton placed on the words to know they were some sort of trigger phrase. I could see the effects. Instantly, Julia's warm, chocolate eyes opened wide and her flinch backward turned into a leisurely sway. The tension in her expression melted into a placid calm, and then she blinked, slowly, her tongue coming out to wet her full lips.