Victor leaned against the bench as he waited for the coffee to percolate and watched his partner at work. Vice was bent over the control board his headphones on, his posture hunched, and his eyes closed as he nodded along with the music. Vice’s cheeks were dark with stubble, and he had shadows under his eyes. He looked as if they had put in a few hard nights partying, rather than at the control board and in the attached recording room.They were both looking a bit rough, Victor thought wryly. The last few days they had been putting in hard hours in the studio, getting as many tracks down as possible. Their mornings were early, showers perfunctory, and days long. Mirage had taken to bringing their meals to the studio and collecting the plates afterwards to ensure that they ate.But the hard work was gradually paying off. The album was shaping up, and it was solid. It did not have the magic of passion behind it that Mirage’s did, but they were convinced they were doing their best work s
“Thank you,” Vixen sashayed between them, Shadow hard on her heels, and they stepped into the house leaving the three men to bring up the rear.“I trust Vixen,” Raven murmured under his breath. “Listen to what she has to say.”“I think she has you by the balls,” Vice replied. “Are your priorities straight, Raven?”Raven did not answer him, but colour rose up his neck to his cheeks.Mirage was waiting in the seating area and stood as they entered.“Hello Miranda,” Vixen said. “Or do you prefer Mirage? I am Vixen, and this is Shadow.”“Hi,” Shadow wiggled his fingers in a wave.“Hello,” Mirage’s eyes went to Vice and Victor, and then back to Vixen. “Won’t you sit down? Would you like to have a drink? I could do with a drink,” she said.“Champagne?” Vice stepped over to the fridge and pulled out a bottle. “Raven? Shadow?”“Beer for me,” Raven said.“Shadow will have a beer,” Vixen replied.“He must have been a good boy,” Raven commented under his breath, and exchanged a smirk with Shadow
“Do you remember when pulling up to this building was exciting?” Mirage asked Vice and Victor as the limousine slowed to a stop out front of the gleaming tower of glass with its neon highlights of color drawing the eye into the glossy foyer. A bored security guard watched the red carpet out front through the glass doors, to see what celebrity had gotten the photographers that lingered by standing invitation to capture the comings and goings, and she could see Aaron, in a blue suit, near the reception desk. “Now every time I come here; I feel like I am arming up for a battle.”“I know the feeling,” Victor agreed as they waited for the chauffeur to make his way to the door. “It is just further motivation to start our own label.”“Well, into the fray,” Vice smoothed the lapel of his jacket as the driver opened the door, standing back crisply. Vice stepped out, raising his hand, and beaming at the photographers, before reaching back into the limo to hand Mirage out.“Watch your skirt,” he
Mirage froze. She felt as if someone had run an ice cube along her spine. Her heart was a hard, insistent beat against her ribcage.“What are you doing here, Richard?”Mr Rich had seen better days, she thought. She could smell the alcohol on him, and sour body odour. His clothing had been slept in at least once, and his cheeks wore a week’s worth of stubble.He was holding a gun, low against his hip, the muzzle pointed at her.Shit. This is not how I want to die, she thought bitterly. At the wrong end of a bullet fired by a narcissistic rapist. Had he been right? Was that really how the world worked? Was it really a man’s world?F-k that, she decided, angrily. She had started this fighting, and she would go down fighting.She prayed that he had not already been by the boardroom where Vice and Victor were in negotiations with Gabriella and Lucas.“Police are searching my f-king house,” he told her with fury. “I have been f-king fired and no one will touch me. I have f-king protestors o
“Hello, sweetie,” there was no wondering who the woman stroking back her hair was, her eyes were exactly the same shade of Victor’s and there were shadows of him in the shape of her nose and the high cheekbones.“Natalia.” Mirage’s voice was a croak. “Vice and Victor?”“The boys are fine, so don’t you worry about them,” Natalia adjusted the bed, until Mirage was sitting up enough to drink, and held a cup with a straw to her mouth. “You are alright, my darling.”“I feel awful,” Mirage admitted, sinking back into the cushions. “Where is Vice and Victor?”“Nicola has taken those boys in hand and taken them home for showers and food,” Natalia replied. “They were starting to smell.”“How long has it been?” Vice and Victor were not the only ones who smelled, Mirage noted, wrinkling her nose. “I need a shower and toothbrush.”“It is Saturday morning,” Natalia said. “I will ring the nurse.”There were flowers, cards, and balloons all around the room. “Oh, wow,” Mirage said. “Who are all these
“Are you ready?” Vice asked her, his voice low. “If you feel tired…”Mirage could hear the music pouring out of the venue in the occasional breaks in the roar from the crowds gathered around the red carpet as the limousine driver opened the door. The crowd pressed against the barricades trying to see who was in the car.“I am fine,” she assured him. “Fit as a fiddle.”Both he and Victor would happily have kept her home and in bed forever more, she thought, amused.Vice lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles before releasing her. She watched him slide elegantly out of the car, something only he could do, she was certain. The man simply oozed elegance in every movement, like a sleekly coated panther.She heard the crowds scream his name, excitement rising the pitch, and the flash as cameras went into a frenzy, and his laughter, enjoying their admiration. Vain boy, Natalia called him fondly. As usually, Victor’s mother was entirely correct. But Mirage loved the vain boy.“Re
“I would do him,” Shadow decided. They both watched the black-haired PI drinking his coffee at a table on the other side of the room. The PI was hot, Vixen agreed as she stirred her ice coffee with a spoon. Whilst not as big physically as Shadow, who could have easily played football like his former-pro father but preferred the drums, and who often had to duck his head in doorways, the PI was still a large man, around six-foot, built lean, though his shoulders filled the leather jacket nicely, and she would bet he had nice arms – a man did not get that V shape without working out. He had a fine arse on him too, displayed nicely by his habitual jeans, as both she and Shadow had reason to observe in tailing the man around over the last couple of weeks. Ten am, Fridays, coffee, black, and half an hour on his laptop in the café, same table if he could get it, facing out towards the windows. Between ten fifteen and ten twenty, depending on whether she was behind, his mother would walk
Gregory Holmsworth’s country house was set behind a very serious f–k off fence, topped with spikes, and guarded by a security team twenty-four seven. Once admitted past the gates, the drive stretched forever through tree-filled gardens, until suddenly the house appeared through the greenery.It was a very serious looking house, as if Gregory had instructed the architect to make it look like something from a gothic horror film. Beautiful, but forbidding, with a hint that entry did not come with any guarantee of exit.Vixen was not a delicate flower, and in her twenty-six years of life, she had learnt that there were some people that just had decayed souls, and that the law only went so far towards controlling them, but Gregory was a good guy, for all his shady side. She trusted her sense of people, it was what made her a good Domme, and had never led her astray.She parked the Ferrari neatly between a Maserati and a Porsche. Nice, she thought, wishing she could take a snap for her soci