Page 470 of The Daddy P.I. Casefiles: The Second Collection

I lift my head. Theo’s leaning against the wall separating the changing area from the showers with a towel slung over his shoulder and everything else on display. He’s gotten some new tattoos.

“Logan even thinks about resigning and I’ll tie him to Chess’ fucking chair,” Theo continues. “There’s no fucking parole for you, buddy. I’ve been reluctant to get involved in club management before but whatever you need, you have from me now that I’ve heard what’s going on. Drew’s been a Dom half as long as I have and hasn’t ever been in a relationship with a submissive that lasted longer than five minutes. Bull, you’ve been married to your submissives for years. You’ve walked through the fucking fire with them. Why are you letting someone with half your experience and a tenth of your wisdom dictate to you?”

“He’s not dictating to me—” Bull protests.

“The fuck he isn’t. I know shit with Kiki has been hard, man. You’ve got two fucking challenging submissives and I bet they make you question your dominance every day. God knows, Lynn did with me. And, yeah, I believe in giving our submissives what they need instead of what they want,some-fucking-times. But not when it terrorizes them. Not when it makes them run from us. Is that what this fucking alpha theory is at the end of the day? Because that’s not okay. Yes, we can push them but it’s tohelpthem, not to fucking victimize them. I’m with Logan on this. Believe me, I haven’t always seen eye-to-eye with our Master of Training. He’s an asshole?—”

“Thanks,” I say dryly.

“You are,” Bull says.

I lift my towel and flash both of them. “Eat me.”

“But,” Theo says, “he’s right about this. Dominance is earned. We’re not earning our submissives’ trust if we’re pushing them so hard they’re leaving us in fucking droves. Has the turn-over in house submissives ever been this bad before? It hasn’t in my memory.”

Bull and I shake our heads.

“I can’t think of a clearer sign that something’s fucking wrong,” Theo says, crossing his arms over his chest.

Bull rubs his hand over his face. “I hear what you’re both saying.”

“What has Drew said that was more compelling than what we’re saying?” I ask.

I need to know before I hear it from the membership committee.

“His methodology is appealing,” Bull says. “And I’ll admit I’ve been putting it into practice with Twitch and things have gotten better.”

“Have things gotten better because you’re putting this alpha theory into practice or have they gotten better because Kiki’s recovering and Twitch is leveling out now that he knows the other love of his life is going to be okay?” Theo asks. “Give yourselves some grace, Bull. You three have been through hell this year.”

Bull hangs his head, nodding. “I’d like to say it’s down to me but I’ll admit I’m not sure. I love him more than I can fucking say but Twitch is endlessly manipulative. He could very well be leveling out because he wants me to think the things I’m doing are making a difference.”

“Fuck, man.” Theo rubs the back of his neck. “I don’t envy you.”

“Me, neither,” I say, although I know that Emily could manipulate me as easily if she wanted to. Miranda certainly did. The difference is that my little wonder believes in me. Somehow,despite all my mistakes, I’ve earned her trust. “If you want an objective opinion, you know I’d be happy to scene with you anytime.”

Bull pats my arm. “I know. Don’t take this the wrong way. Twitch doesn’t want to scene with Emily. It’s not about her littleness or the age-play or anything like that. Twitch needs to be ruined in scenes and he doesn’t want Emily to see him as anything less than fabulous.”

“Ah.” I nod. “I understand.”

“I don’t,” Theo says. “Fuck, I’d use that against them. Softy. Another thing I don’t understand? Why you don’t use ‘they’ for Twitch. I’ve heard them ask other people to.”

A sly smile breaks over Bull’s face. “Part of our thing.”

“Sure,” says Theo. “It’s just fucking confusing for the rest of us.”

Bull shrugs. “Where did we end up in all of this? I got lost somewhere in the feels.”

I chuckle. “Sorry, mate.”

“No, it’s good,” Bull says. “Maybe I was getting my head turned around. Theo’s right. The last few months have been a lot. I’ve been thrown severely off my fucking stride. Twitch has been acting out like a motherfucker, the way he does, and I’ve been so wrapped up in taking care of Kiki that I haven’t been able to rein him in the way I should. I need to stop fronting to cover up the cracks in our relationship. I thought Georgie was going to fix everything but he’s just a band aid. I need to fix our dynamic before I even consider bringing in someone else.”

I reach out and squeeze his shoulder where it meets his thick neck. “That’s a tough thing to realize and an even tougher thing to say.”

Theo grunts. “Good talk. My balls are getting cold. Are we storming Chess’ penthouse or what?”

I check my phone one last time. Nothing.

“Yeah, I guess I am.”