Read Online Without a Net by Lyn Gala - Free Book Online Page B

during the whipping, the resignation during the…
    What should Ollie call it? Rough sex? Rape? Part of that depended on how much had been negotiated and agreed upon ahead of time, and honestly, Ollie wasn’t sure those people were into negotiations.
    The worst part was the absolute calm on Buck’s face in the end. Ollie knew how that felt—when you were so blissed-out on submission that the world was a bright and shiny place. But if Buck had been raped, how screwed up did he have to be to get his happy on after that experience? Ollie’s head could not find a way to make all the pieces fit together. Travis might just call it spice, but shade-club sex came with the afterburn of emotional manipulation and the very real danger of abuse.
    Time slowly slid past as Ollie drank his beer and then sat in the dark silence trying to make peace with his own thoughts. When his doorbell rang, he dropped his bottle.
    “Shit,” he muttered, grabbing it and putting it on the coffee table. “Coming!” For some reason, he thought it might be Travis. Maybe not. Drugs and playtime were generally not a good combination.
    Ollie checked the door camera and froze. He had to look twice to make sure he wasn’t hallucinating, and then he opened the door.
    “Captain.”
    “Detective. I’m glad to see you in one piece.” Captain Greyson stood there for a while before asking, “Can I come in?”
    Crap. “Of course,” Ollie said as soon as he got his brain to engage again. He stepped back and gestured the captain inside. That was when he noticed the abandoned drinking glasses everywhere, the pile of shoes, the unwashed dishes, the stack of junk mail. “Ignore the mess.”
    Captain Greyson chuckled. “I do remember what it’s like to be a bachelor, even if those days are far in the past. So, I hear it got intense tonight.” He sat in Ollie’s best chair, which meant Ollie either had to sit or hover over his captain. He sat on the couch.
    “Which part?”
    “I heard about a couple of interesting parts. The lieutenant wanted to know if he could force you to stay on the case, and Kemboi filed a 5-60 against a member of your backup team, which makes me wonder if I need to give my whole staff sexual-harassment training. So, I heard Huda’s version and Kemboi’s, so why don’t you tell me what happened out there?”
    Ollie didn’t know how to talk about all the shit with Buck, so he focused on the only part he could. “Jackson is a het-pride extremist. I’d put money on it after what he said tonight.”
    The captain nodded. “He implied all gay people are into shade. Is that about right?”
    “Yeah. And he made it clear he didn’t think I needed any backup.”
    The captain leaned forward in his chair, a look of horror on his face. “Did he refuse to do his job?”
    “No, it was more about what he implied.” Ollie wished bigots would come right out and say what they meant, but they hid their stupidity behind jokes and claims that they had misspoken. Assholes.
    “He followed Huda into the department, so either he’s an old-fashioned idiot, or you’re right,” Greyson said. “He could be a fundamentalist following Huda because he knows the lieutenant will put up with that when most police would kick him to the curb. Kemboi is furious. He wants Jackson formally reprimanded.”
    “Will you?” Ollie asked. Complaints about harassment did real damage to any cop’s career, but a complaint from the senior detective on scene would be a career killer.
    Captain Greyson sighed. “I’m not sure. If I formally reprimand him, Huda will be forced to stand back and let his man take the hit. These fundamentalists are cowards at heart, and if they see that they don’t have any real protection, they’ll pull back and be more careful.” He sounded almost sad about that, but then Ollie got it.
    “Which would make them harder to catch.” That was the truly insidious thing about hate groups. Whether they targeted blacks or immigrants or