Open Doors (Suncoast Society #27)(33)

She heard the outer door open and close. Tony entered the dungeon a moment later, his arms laden with shopping bags.

“Holy crap,” she said. “How much more?”

He dumped it on a table. “Yes,” he said, a wry smile on his face. “Much more is a conservative statement.”

“I’ll come help.”

They met Ross and Gilo walking in—both men’s arms also filled to capacity—as she followed Tony out, and she saw all three men’s vehicles were packed with supplies and food.

“Where’s the cake?” Marcia asked.

“Loren bribed one of the bakers at the store to bring it and assemble it here,” Tony said.

“Uh, did she warn them what we do here?” Marcia asked.

“Apparently, she’s a member. And she should be here in about twenty minutes.”

Marcia relaxed. “Well, that’s okay, then.”

Yes, they’d been operating for several years now without any issues. Derrick had even convinced her a website was a good thing, especially when FetLife.com came into existence. But she still didn’t like calling undue attention to themselves or what they did there with the ’nillas, as they called them. Why risk it?

Within an hour, and with the help of what felt like an army of volunteers, they converted their club with instructions given to Ross by Loren the night before, and had what looked like a real wedding ready to go.

If you didn’t look too closely at the bondage furniture over on the far side of the space.

“Not the oddest ceremony we’ve done,” Marcia admitted.

Ross glanced at his phone. “Landry’s on his way.”

“Can I take a swing at the f*cker?” Marcia muttered.

“Me, first,” Gilo said, a dark look on his face.

Ross smiled. “Landry’s a nice guy. Loren and I have signed off on him.”

“That’s not who I meant,” Marcia said.

“Me, either,” Gilo echoed.

Tony slung an arm around Marcia’s shoulders. “I love you, Marcia, but I would be paying your husband to hold you back while Ross and I throw down rock-paper-scissors over the honor of doing that first.” He pointed at Gilo. “And I’d…well, damn. I can’t sic Tilly on you today, can I?”

Gilo smirked. “I’m sneaky. I’ll dart to the front of the line to get my hits in before anyone can stop me while you and Ross are arguing over dibs.”

Marcia and Derrick hadn’t been there the night Cris first returned to the club, forced there by Landry.

It figured the first night they’d taken off from the club in weeks, and drama happened. Well, sort of. A quiet drama no one had known about. Gilo and Tony hadn’t been there, either, or they would have also stepped in. There was a private party going on up in Tarpon Springs at Mac and Sully’s place, and most of the “old-timers” had been in attendance there. Ross and Loren had opted out of that party at the last-minute when a morning toilet repair had turned into an all-day toilet replacement, and Ross felt too tired to make the long round-trip drive to Mac and Sully’s and back.

And Ross and Loren had arrived after Cris and Landry, missing his entrance.

If any of the others had been there manning the front desk, Cris probably wouldn’t have survived the night. Marcia would have gladly taken a couple of whacks at the sonofabitch herself. Whatever they’d left of him, Loren and Ross would have mopped the floor with.

As it was, it’d been a newer volunteer who hadn’t known about Cris and his history with the club, and had let the two men in as guests when their IDs checked out okay on the USDOJ’s sex offender database.

“How can Cris have the utter brass balls to show his face around here after what he did to her?” Marcia asked.

“It wasn’t his choice,” Ross said, slipping his phone back into his pocket. “Landry brought him back with him.”

Then Ross gave them, and the so-far assembled guests, the short version of the full story.

When he finished, Marcia looked at Derrick, who also looked gut-punched. He’d just lost a college friend a few months back to colon cancer.

“Is the guy gonna make it?” Derrick asked.

Marcia now had a whole new understanding of why their Tilly had done this.

And not for the money.

With all of their emotional wounds still raw even a couple of years after having lost Kaden, they couldn’t imagine their friend being able to resist Landry’s offer. It’d only been a little over a year since Kaden’s death, and plenty of people still teared up talking about him.

Especially when they had to give the heartbreaking news to people who hadn’t been to the club in a while and hadn’t yet heard about the man’s passing.

Tilly had a slave’s heart. Anyone who’d known her before Mistress Cardinal came onto the scene in full force had painfully felt the loss in her.

A chance to serve? To do some good? To be an actual nurse?

The ones who knew Tilly best knew she’d never really been comfortable in the pro-Domme role. But Tilly was pragmatic. Ruthlessly so. She made more money doing it full-time than she did as a nurse.

But…

It had almost physically hurt their small circle of friends to see the change in her. A change they all knew she never wanted. They’d seen the woman she’d been before meeting Cris. Broken, lost. He’d nurtured her, strengthened her, helped her grow and become a gorgeous, beautiful, confident woman.