Page 42 of Dirty Discipline, Vol. 1

Before Hallie can comment, Traci continues on, making sure Hallie is paying attention. “Hallie, look at me. This part is the most important part. What you saw last night. What we practice here in Eagle’s Pass, it has nothing to do with beating. Ever. DD is about loving people enough to guide them when they get off course. Protecting them, sometimes from themselves when they make poor choices.” Hallie can’t help but notice the sad look on Traci’s face and she suspects she had made some poor decisions recently. “The HoH’s in Eagle’s Pass do use spanking or corporal punishment if you prefer the term for punishments, but they also use traditional things like grounding, loss of privileges, corner time… stuff like that. Never anything to do lasting harm. Never striking anything but a bare bottom.”

“That can’t be right. I mean Aunt Gina would never stand in the corner.” Too late Hallie realizes her error.

“Is Gina Newberry your aunt?” Traci looks pleased with the new information.

Hallie is not. “You know my Aunt Gina?”

Traci smiles indulgently. “Honey, I know every person who lives in Eagle’s Pass. It’s not that big of a town and we are… well let’s just say we are a very close-knit community. Everyone knows each other.”

Hallie is starting to panic. “Aunt Gina doesn’t even know I was coming. I haven’t seen her or Uncle Adam for over five years. It’s just… well I didn’t really have anywhere else to go. I was hoping they might put me up for a few days while I figure out what I’m gonna do next.”

Traci has stood up and crossed over to stand next to the bed. It startled Hallie when Traci takes her hand. “Hallie, I can absolutely promise you that your aunt and uncle are going to be thrilled to find you are here in town. They never told me your name, but they have talked to me several times about their regrets over not insisting on having you come live with them when your grandma died. They’ve been so worried about you. Please trust me. You are going to make them very happy by coming to stay with them.”

The relief of hearing that her aunt and uncle had loved her enough to talk about her with complete strangers has tears streaming down Hallie’s face. She has to fight not to melt down into an emotional mess. “Do you think you or your husband could call them and tell them where I am? I really would like to see them.”

The surprise on Traci’s face has Hallie pausing, afraid she had said something wrong. “Hallie, I think you’ve totally misunderstood. Troy is not my husband.”

Anger flairs again that this wonderful woman who is fast becoming a friend would put up with the abuse of someone who didn’t even have the decency to marry her. Great. He’s just as bad as Eddie is. Wanting his cake and to eat it too. “What a jerk. I can’t believe you’d let a boyfriend treat you like that.”

“Hallie, Troy isn’t my boyfriend, either.” Hallie gets a flutter in her tummy at the sight of Traci’s sly smile. “Troy is my brother.”

The flutter in her tummy turns to a rolling churn. She had thought Troy was dangerous before. Him and his sexy five o’clock shadow and dimpled grin just turned damn right lethal. Hallie remembers her anger at seeing him beating his sister. She’s not sure if the possibility of what she’d witnessed being a consensual spanking versus a more sinister whipping make her feel better, or worse. She just knows she needs to get the hell out of here.

“Come on in, Officer Leano. Join the party.” Troy shakes his hand before stepping aside to allow the uniformed officer to come into the quickly filling house. After taking his boots off at the front entry, the men make their way to the kitchen where it’s close to pandemonium.

Troy watches as the officer makes his way straight to the tallest man in the room, Brent Carmichael. He had returned this morning, his pretty wife and adorable toddler, Kayla, in tow. Troy hadn’t known it before they arrived, but he’s been able to piece together that Char and Traci are not only good friends, but he suspects Char sees Traci professionally based on some of the comments they’ve shared. Not more than five minutes after the Carmichaels had arrived, a man introducing himself as Lelo Stevens had arrived, trailed a few minutes later by Jason Rolson. Apparently, they are planning an impromptu board meeting in Traci’s kitchen.

Young women barging into unlocked homes is apparently big news in Eagle’s Pass.

Troy manages to stand on the fringe of the commotion, feeling a bit like a fifth wheel. He’s not an official member of the community and as such, isn’t exactly sure what his role is in the current situation. The only thing he knows with certainty is that he isn’t deserting his sister or the waif of a houseguest in the back bedroom currently being examined by Dr. Devon.

Speaking of the devil, Troy glances up to see the good doctor walking down the hall to join in the fray.

After several minutes of catching snippets of conversations he wants to be part of, Troy loses his patience. He takes charge the only way he knows how… letting loose with a loud whistle. The kind his dad had taught him as a kid on a camping trip. It’s come in handy many times since.

It works like a charm. There is dead silence in the room, short of Kayla playing quietly with her doll. Seven pairs of eyes point his direction.

“I’m sorry if this seems rude, but I was hoping to hear all the updates that are going on. So if you don’t mind, can we have one person talking at a time please?”

Brent breaks out into a grin. “Damn. We could use a man like you on the board. You’re one bossy HoH if I ever saw one.”

Troy isn’t sure if that’s a compliment or not. “Not quite yet.” Flashing a glance at his sister, he finishes that thought. “I’m working on it though.” He’s rewarded with her blush. “Anyway, officer, I’m sorry to make you repeat, but I am interested in finding out more about Hallie’s car.”

Officer Leano clears his throat, not entirely comfortable being bossed around by the new guy in town, but complying with Troy’s request, nonetheless. “We found what we presume to be Miss Boudreaux’s older model car, slid off the road. It’s lodged in a rather deep ditch about one and a half miles outside of town. She’s lucky the car hit a tree, which prevented it from sliding even deeper into the gulch. Had that happened, I fear she would’ve been trapped with no way to get the doors open. The vehicle was completely out of gas so she would have found herself freezing before too long.”

A pain akin to heartburn has started in Troy’s chest as he thinks of the panic Hallie must have felt being out there in those conditions alone. No wonder she was frozen to death by the time she arrived. How long would it take to march through deep snow one and a half miles, especially for a little thing like her?

The policeman has continued on and Troy has to drag his thoughts back to pay attention. “The strange thing is that the car is not registered to Miss Boudreaux. The vehicle is registered to a…” He takes a small notebook out of his pocket, flipping pages to an entry before continuing on…” a Mr. Edward Kingston, Santa Monica, California.”

Dr. Devon jumps in. “Her driver’s license had her living in Santa Monica. Perhaps he’s her boyfriend.”

The officer continues. “Well, I’ll get to the bottom of that when I interview Ms. Boudreaux. The car had traces of cannabis in the glove compartment. It’s too late now to run tests, but I want to find out if she was under the influence of drugs at the time of the accident.”

Alarm bells are going off for Troy. “I was one of the first people to see Ms. Boudreaux after the accident. She didn’t look impaired to me. How about you, Trace?” Troy looks at his sister, sending her silent instructions to back him up.

“I agree with my brother, officer. I would have detected if she were impaired in any way. She just looked exhausted and wet. And honestly, she did end up collapsing, but it was due to the concussion she sustained in the accident.”

Leano looks back and forth between the brother and sister knowingly. He then looks at Brent who keeps a straight face before folding. “Fine. My report will show Ms. Boudreaux was not impaired. I do need to interview her, though, to understand how she found herself off the road. Do we know why she was heading into Eagle’s Pass that late on a Friday night, anyway?”

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