Page 94 of Hushed

“Or maybe that’s what you want. Do you want me to punish you in front of all my friends?”

She swallowed hard and let out a nervous laugh. “I’ll be good.”

He hummed but said goodbye again and ended the call.

She found Maggie in her bedroom, putting clothes in a suitcase, and she looked around for a way to help.

“Have you packed toiletries yet?”

Maggie shook her head with a blank stare, and Kenzie walked into the bathroom to do it for her. When they were all packed, the security guard outside was ready to escort them down and didn’t bat an eye over the fact that Maggie was coming home with her.

It took forty-five minutes to get from Maggie’s apartment to hers, and by the time they arrived, Maggie was sick again.

While her friend was in the bathroom, Kenzie set about turning the living room into a comfortable space for Maggie tosleep in. Her office was too full of expensive tech to put her in there, and the couch was more comfortable than an air mattress anyway.

“Do you want me to get you a pregnancy test?” she asked Maggie when she came out of the bathroom.

Maggie shuddered. “I need to take one, but if I do, that will make it real, you know?”

Kenzie smiled. “I understand. We’ll wait until tomorrow, OK? And I’ll take a walk over to a drug store and get you one. I’ll bring back bagels for breakfast.”

Maggie wrinkled her nose. “That sounds terrible right now.”

Kenzie’s eyes grew wide. “Even if you’re not pregnant, something is definitely going on with your body if you don’t want bagels.”

Maggie laughed for the first time since Kenzie had arrived. “Tell me about it. Fuck, how did this happen, Kenz?”

Kenzie shook her head. “I don’t have any answers, sweetie. But can you talk me through it?”

She sniffed and nodded. “You remember that club I told you about?”

Kenzie tried to remember which club Maggie could be referring to. She was at a new one every weekend to make contacts for the modeling agency she worked for. It’s why she liked going to gigs with her.

“Pretend I don’t remember,” Kenzie prompted.

“The kinky one I told you to be careful of.”

Kenzie’s stomach twisted. “Do you mean, The Cage?”

Maggie nodded. “That’s the one. I’ve been a couple of times, but a few weeks ago I went, and things were off. This guy kept trying to buy me drinks. After he asked me a dozen times, I let him just to get him off my back so I could tell him I wasn’t interested. But I’m fairly sure he drugged me because I don’t remember a lot after that.”

Kenzie’s blood was boiling by the time Maggie finished her story. Gage needed to hear at least some of it, but she didn’t want to bother him again during the party, so she waited and focused on Maggie.

“I don’t want to tell you a lot, because things are still happening, but I almost had a similar experience at that place. Can I tell Gage what happened? We’re trying to get the club shut down, but this might be connected to a bunch of other crimes like rape.”

“It’s so embarrassing, Kenz. How could I let this happen? I know proper bar safety for a single woman.”

Kenzie hugged her friend again.

“You didn’t let this happen. It happened to you against your will. There’s a difference. We’re going to get you through this.”

The two women stayed up and talked late into the night, until Maggie fell asleep on the couch. By the time she headed to bed herself, Gage had already gone to sleep, and she missed saying goodnight. But her friend needed her, and she was grateful that he’d given her the space.

The next day, she woke up early and walked to the drug store around the corner. In the contraceptive aisle, she found the pregnancy tests and stared at the array of options. She had no fucking clue what kind of test to get. Were some better than others? Or were they all the same? In the end, she settled on buying three different kinds. Just in case.

Kids weren’t on her radar, but as she stood in line with the boxes, she couldn’t help but wonder how Gage felt about kids. It’s not that she didn’t want them at all, but she had so much left to do in her life that she wasn’t sure when they would fit. Even the idea of talking with him about it made her nervous.

At the counter, she tried not to look the clerk in the eye as he scanned the boxes and stuck them in a bag for her. She managed to get out without saying a word, then rushed back to herapartment, hoping to get there before Maggie woke up. A man bumped into her as approached the door, but they kept walking as she went in.

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