Page 11 of The Dark Before Light

Oddly, it makes me respect my sister-in-law more.

“Honey, what are you not saying?” Alistair’s effort to sound gentle misses the mark, probably due to the thunderous scowl on his face.

Gail glances at me. The panic in her eyes is too much for me to take. I clear my throat, bringing my brother’s attention to me. “I think she’s dancing around the fact that Dr. Stirling is best known as a celebrity sex therapist.”

Alistair laughs, but when neither Gail nor I join him, the sound abruptly stops. He turns horrified eyes on his wife. “You sent him to a sex worker?”

Gail gasps. “Of course not! Sex therapist.”

“What’s the difference?” he cries. “She asks about your feelings while she tickles your pickle?”

There’s a slight scuff of a shoe behind me, between five and seven feet away. Intentional. I’m sure Sven’s face is impassive, but inside he’s having a good laugh at my expense and wanted me to know it. Arse.

While Gail explains to my idiot brother the difference between sex work and sex therapy—while thankfully stressing the fact Stirling is also a regular psychologist—I rub at my forehead again. If I’m going out tonight, I’m need to catch a few hours of sleep beforehand.

Facing Stirling with weakened faculties is not an option.

“…dominatrix on the weekends.”

Catching the tail end of Gail’s whispered words, my head whips up so fast a muscle twinges in my neck.

“What?”

They stare at me. Gail flushes again, this time bright red from jaw to temples. My brother looks constipated. There’s another scuff behind me, a little louder. Sven’s version of dying of laughter.

Dropping my feet to the ground on either side of the chaise, I lean forward. “Repeat that.”

Alistair squares his shoulders. Color creeps up his neck. “Gail was merely telling me that Talia paid for college by working as a—” He swipes a hand over his face, a wheeze escaping as his fingers pass his mouth. “Fucking hell, this is too much.”

“Dominatrix and kink educator,” finishes Gail, refusing to meet my stare.

There’s a suspicious gasping sound behind me. I throw a glare over my shoulder at Sven, whose eyes are dancing so hard they’re sweating.

Alistair murmurs, “She’s not going to, ehm, whip him or anything, right?”

“Don’t be an ass,” Gail hisses back.

I cradle my pounding head in my hands and groan. “What has my life come to?”

The question still floats in my mind eight hours and a restless nap later as I slip into the back seat of my BMW and Sven settles behind the wheel. He refuses to let me sit in the passenger seat; I gave up arguing with him about it years ago.

He starts the car and circles the drive, heading toward the gate at the bottom where he pauses to push a button on the visor. As the massive wooden slab slowly moves aside, his eyes meet mine in the rearview.

“You sure about this?”

At least he’s not laughing anymore. He has his game face on—or game voice since his face never changes.

While he didn’t attempt to talk me out of this arguably insane venture, I can tell he’s not happy. He doesn’t like taking me to some random address in the Valley despite the fact the other two members of his team left ahead of us to scope it out. I also doubt my relaying what Stirling said at the end of our session—that we’d have the place to ourselves—gave him any comfort.

It didn’t give me much comfort, either.

“Just drive before I lose my nerve,” I tell him.

He drives.

About ten minutes in, he gets a call from one of his men, Gabe. I listen to the report: the location is a small, nondescript warehouse, just as the satellite image search indicated. There’s approval in Gabe’s voice as he tells Sven the building is highly secure, with an abundance of external video surveillance and high boundary walls topped by barbed wire. The entrance and three emergency exits—both sides and rear of the building—have keypad security and more cameras.

I tune the rest out. I appreciate Sven’s vigilance, as always, but if I delve too deeply into what he and the other two do for me on a daily basis, I run the risk of a swift slide into paranoia.

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