Page 58 of Play With Me
Halloween weekend brings in an entirely different crowd than normal.
Denise taught me never to shame someone for their kinks. But Halloween is…difficult for me to stomach sometimes.
We always put on a show the Saturday night of Halloween weekend. But where stages, tables, and groups are typically set up for regular interests and desires, tonight, they are set up for…morecarnalpleasures.
“Is the blood necessary?” Anders asks, watching Jace spread a plastic drop cloth over the main stage.
“It’s not blood. It’s corn syrup and red food coloring.” Jace dips a finger in the bucket of fake blood next to the stage and makes a show of sucking his finger clean.
“Theatrical,” Anders murmurs flatly.
A loud bang makes me jump before turning to see Luca hovering over the broken-down stage he’s just dropped. He’s dressed in his usual club attire, having said it doubles as a motorcycle club costume. He’s still pissed at me and doesn’t pay us any attention as he starts setting up the stage.
The usual crew who sets up for the events has been dismissed until further notice, and I’m thankful for the employees who have stepped up and offered to help get things ready for tonight.
“So, you’re telling me that people want to fuck covered in blood?” Anders ignores Luca, scratching his head.
Jace laughs, flicking a drop of corn syrup toward him. “Vampire kink. Serial killer kink. Being helpless while someone draws blood from you but trusting them enough not to bleed you out,” he lists off before laughing harder as Anders’ face twists from confusion into concern. “I’m beginning to think you’re vanilla, detective.”
I stifle a laugh as I string the last of the crescent moon-shaped lights around a beam just as my phone dings with a text.
Maya
Can’t Jill pick me up and take me home? This sucks.
Nothing has come out of the night she went missing. Oddly enough, no cameras picked up anything, and Maya still insists he never gave her a name or had any distinctive traits or tattoos.
She’s tired of being babysat, but short of keeping her next to me at all times, I’m out of options. There’s no way in hell she’s staying home by herself.
Anders’ arms encircle me from behind with a soft, “Boo. Wanna tell him hownotvanilla I am?” He snorts when he reads the text as I hold it up for him to see. “You’d think she’d be overjoyed to meet Jackson finally.”
Since Lenni and Tripp live in the same building as Ginny and Jackson, they decided to spend Halloween together so Lenni could get her dose of baby Benjamin. Maya was less than thrilled to find out how she’d spend the evening. She had been too starstruck when she met Jackson earlier to string together a coherent sentence.
Lenni and I watched in amusement, filling in Ginny quietly—who now thinks my teenager’s crush on her husband is adorable—while Jackson struggled to figure out what to do with the stammering girl in front of him.
It had come as a surprise to find out I had a kid, but Ginny and Jackson didn’t make a big deal about it and for that, I’m thankful. And even though I didn’t tell them who Maya’s father is, I think theyboth figured it out pretty quickly when I told them not to question her about it.
“I think that’s the problem,” I tell Anders. “I think she’s embarrassed just toexistin the same room as him.”
Sorry, mijita. Jill has plans tonight. You’ll be fine. Think of him as an uncle. He’s an adult with a wife and a new baby. You’re good with kids. Play with Benjamin.
The roar of a chainsaw has Anders cursing in my ear as he lets go of me to look over where a few security guards are checking the power tools. “What the fuck is that?”
“Halloween here is more of a sexual haunted house. It’s the thrill that gets people off—the jump scare,” I explain, choosing my words carefully. It’s not my thing, but like I said…I don’t shame anyone for their kinks.
“Haven’t you ever wanted to get railed by someone wearing a Freddy Krueger or Jason costume? Or dress up like them and just unleash all hell on a tight, willing pussy?”
Jace’s words make my eyes roll, and I walk away as Anders mutters under his breath, “The fuck?”
Maya sends me a picture of her holding baby Benjamin. She’s looking at the camera while he’slooking up at her. It makes my ovaries pinch, and my chest turn warm.
In another life, I would have loved to have another kid.
I press down, and heart react to the photo before putting my phone away. “Anders, I’m going to go change.”
It wasn’t an invitation to go with me, but as I look over my shoulder, my eyes catch Luca’s angry gaze. He’s wrapping a chain around his hand and elbow, brows set in a deep crease, lips flattened in a grimace.
A petite brunette, the same one Anders had been looking at the first night we did a show—Misty, I think her name is—moves in front of him, asking a question I can’t hear. His eyes dip to hers, raking down her body like a lion sizing up his next meal.