Then I heard a yell. It wasn’t quite a scream, it was a yell. I ran from the room without even thinking, past a man who wasn’t wearing, well, anything.

The door to room 34 was open, and Alex had just come flying through it to hit the opposite wall. She extracted her hairpins and shifted her stance.

“Do you actually need help?”

She grinned at me. The woman came charging out of the room. Saw Alex’s hair pins, turned pale. Turned towards me to run, turned paler and ran further into the building.

“Aww. She won’t get very far.”

“No doors that way?”

“No, the fire escape’s over there.” She pointed and grinned.

I moved into room 34. She had Father William naked and tied to the bed. “Did she have time to do anything?”

He…just stared at me, then shook his head. Alex tugged a sheet and tossed it over his private parts while I worked on getting him untied.

“Ugh. She’s no rope top.”

I glanced at Alex.

“They’re supposed to be easy to remove. Not to give if the person tugs on them, but with a quick release.”

As I wrestled with the knots, I was inclined to agree. William just seemed, well, traumatized. He’d fallen silent. “Find his clothes?”

Alex rummaged. “Here.” As I got William untied, she handed him his boxers.

Then the rest.

I turned my back so he could dress. I was going to kill that girl. No matter how far she’d got with things, I was going to kill her.

I wasn’t going to trust this one to mortal justice.

“You…can look now.”

I turned back around. “I’ll try to forget, okay?”

“You’re a teenager. You’ve at least seen pictures.” He rubbed his wrists. “Thanks.”

“I’m going to have words with your guardian angel for sleeping on the job,” I quipped.
Then I heard another yell. Alex grinned and headed towards it.

“Seb’s at the front door. I’ll take you there then go back to hunting the fake dom.”

He rubbed his wrists again. “As long as somebody takes me…I’m going to have to give myself about a thousand hail marys for this.”

“Only if you actually wanted her.”

She hadn’t even been, I thought, that hot. “She’s the one who deserves penance or worse.”

I was totally going to kill her.