Shadows in the Dark (Dark Lotus #1)

36. Adrian

Los Angeles, California

I had my briefcase beside my suitcase, then set it down beside the door as I closed it behind me. Once again, work for Benedict Technologies had called me away, only this time, it wasn’t as far away as Japan. Hell, it wasn’t even out of the country. Or the state. My business had taken me to Los Angeles for three days where I would spend the majority of my time at a technology convention. It was here where I would present one of the other projects I had been working tirelessly on.

“You mean to say that you are focused on more than microchips?” one of the other presenters had asked in jest over a zoom call when we were asked to present.

Large urban cities felt a lot like home to me, but they also presented challenges. For as worried as I was over the Japanese girl, video evidence had caught the actual perpetrator who luckily wasn’t me. It seemed as if she had an ex-boyfriend with designs on getting back together with her. He’d tried to woo her, she rejected him, then he made sure no one else could have her.

Sometimes rejection went the other way, too. As previous words of mine began to echo in my head, I could clearly recall warning someone that they would never darken the doorstep of the club again, and she hadn’t.

Was I like that man who’d been arrested in Tokyo the day before? No, I couldn’t be because Blair Carter and I had never been more than occasional sex partners. I wanted an attachment to her the same way one would wish to catch the plague. It made no sense as to why I had been so upset that evening. Maybe it had been her defiance, or something much less innocuous. Like most nights, so much of that one was still a blur.

Being truthful, a lot of my life could be described that way. So many times there were dark periods of time I couldn’t account for, and most of those blackouts occurred at night. They would come on without warning. One minute I would be fine, then in the next, I would find myself somewhere I never should have been.

Once upon a time, a psychiatrist had told me to switch around my sleeping schedule. I’d been confused. No matter what I did before going to sleep, the same thing would happen over and over again. The man had then explained that I should sleep during the day and stay awake all night.

Besides it being fundamentally impossible with my job, I did take a few rare days off of work and tried to do that in hopes that it would help. It hadn’t, and in fact, one of my sleepwalking incidents nearly cost me my life. To humor him, I’d tried to do so, then I ended up almost getting hit by one of the local city buses when I sleepwalked right out in front of the damn thing.

That didn’t help, but it wouldn’t have mattered if it had. I still couldn’t commit to something like that. I’d returned to my psychiatrist and told him that the session was our last.

And it had been. After that, I realized I stood a better chance of encountering fewer people at two o’clock in the morning than I did at two o’clock in the afternoon. Not only was the daylight riskier to me, but it made it even more possible for me blackout in front of others. If that happened, who knew whose blood would end up on my hands. I had experienced enough of that to last a lifetime.

I really needed to just keep my wits about me when in Los Angeles. It wasn’t as if I didn’t have plenty of things to occupy my time. There were several emails to answer and studies to look over. There was also a nearby Lotus where I could truly distract myself with a willing submissive.

None of those women would be the one who had captured my fascination, then refused to let it go. Brynn Davis. Once I’d found out what routine she liked to keep, I realized she was a lot like me which either added to the infatuation I seemed to have, or only complicated it.

“I don’t need this in my life,” I muttered.

Only, something unfamiliar inside of me kept telling me that I did. That same nagging voice kept making me think about her day after fucking day.

I scrubbed one hand down my face. A few days in this city away from Brynn would do me more good than I had first thought. When not close enough to be with her, I would have to think of someone or something else. Only, I couldn’t. I had tried that in Japan and little good it had done. I’d spent most of it believing I had murdered a woman, and when not thinking about the street vendor, the rest of my time there had been spent making countless visits to a damn lingerie store.

Have I become some sort of besotted fool? Some type of love-sick chump?

I shook my head in response. No, it had been a rough couple of months. If nothing else, I was simply so interested in Brynn because she was new to the lifestyle and wouldn’t remind me of any of my past submissives. Only, she did. That long mane of dark brown hair and those gorgeous chocolate orbs. I hadn’t seen something like them since Aria. Or did Brynn’s eyes remind me of someone else’s that I had permanently closed? Aria had my eyes... my face... my stubborn will. Brynn was much more like another woman I had gotten entangled with, and not like my twin at all.

How fucked up am I?

Here I was comparing a woman I had bedded who had unknowingly placed me under her spell to my twin sister at the same time. I was truly the twisted fuck my father thought I was. His words, although in Greek, had echoed in my head for years. It was only when I had fully cut him loose from my life did those voices end.

I needed this trip to Los Angeles for more reasons than one. While I would spend most of my time alone in my room, it was still somewhere I could hopefully make use of so I could process everything. Before relaxing, I needed to get my things unpacked.

Picking up my wardrobe bag, I emptied the contents onto my bed, then meticulously hung my suits up in the closet provided. I used the same hangers I had at home, so it took no more than a couple of minutes to get those, and the matching shoes and ties in there as well.

I then removed the remainder of my clothing from the duffel bag, this time opting to use the dresser to store those items, before grabbing my briefcase. Once I had my laptop powered on and set up, I sat down in the chair. Immediately, I rose and grabbed my wallet and passport from my pocket, and set it down beside the keyboard. My keys and cellphone were last, and I finally leaned back and released a sigh.

The peace I was hoping for didn’t last long as my cellphone started to vibrate on the wooden desk. I rarely received personal calls because I lived such a reclusive life, so it had to be my pilot. He would be the only one to call me this late at night.

I picked up my iPhone, then noticed the number. It was even worse than some potential mechanical failure with the private jet. If Barry was calling me then it had to have something to do with Brynn.

A brief thought crept into my head, but I ignored it as I quickly answered the phone. I hadn’t gone through the trouble of trying to make sure that she was okay to only ignore a call that could be stating that she was anything but fine. While it might’ve been convenient for me and these unwelcome feelings I had developed for her, I couldn’t leave the female to fend for herself.

“Yes,” I said, the worry coming through in that single word, and it causing bile to rise in my throat. “Is she okay?”

Barry was quiet for a moment, then he said a single word that had me freezing in place. “No.”

“What happened? Where is she?”

The worry only increased, and I think my man picked up on it because he finally expelled a breath. “She will be okay though. I managed to get to her in time.”

“In time? What the fuck is going on?”

I got up, then immediately began to pace, continuing to do so as he mentioned a co-worker or boss that had been hassling Brynn at a bar. I remembered her saying something about a co-worker’s goodbye party, but I didn’t press her on any specifics, including who she might have gone there with.

My thoughts turned to jealous ones as I pictured her out on a date with a man who could give her everything she deserved, yet nothing that she needed. No other man would be able to get her off the way that I did. Another might be able to make her smile, but I would make her scream. I became so obsessed with those images that I had begun tuning out Barry until he said something else that had me stopping in place.

“Rape!”

Now rage replaced those feelings of jealousy and a slew of inaudible curses spewed from my lips. Barry tried to calm me down, but it was only when he repeated that he had gotten there in time did I begin to slowly pace once more.

He went on to talk about how this Randall guy had drugged her with something topically, and how he had gotten her inside of his car. I closed my eyes the moment he began to talk about the specifics of the attack, including the man trying to gag her with a pair of panties.

“Where are they?” I asked, and Barry told me that the police had collected them for evidence.

Something struck me, especially when he mentioned them being black and satiny. I had bought Brynn a pair when in Japan, then later her home had gotten broken into. She had told me after taking inventory of everything that the only thing she had noticed was missing were those panties. If these had been the same ones, it meant that the break-in at her house had not been some random neighborhood thing, but a targeted attack instead.

I was now glad I had the foresight to hire him to watch over her. While Brynn had been worried to an extent, she had settled down once it was over. Only my overactive fears and suspicions had refused to do the same. Without her knowing, I had hired this man, and he was able to do exactly what I had hoped he would do if he ever needed to. And, he did. Relief flowed through me at that.

“What happened to her after the police came?”

“She didn’t want to call them or wait for them to arrive.”

“She didn’t?” I asked as confusion set it. It was quite foolish on her part, especially because the creep might mistake her actions and try again another time.

“She offered to buy me a coffee, but I declined. I stayed with her until her ride share arrived, then I followed behind it to make sure she got home safely.”

Again, I was relieved she had made it home, even if the concern inside of me was still growing heavier. I was close to saying something else to him when I heard the beep of another call.

This time, it was the organizer of the panel I was speaking on. I remembered my entire reason for being here in Los Angeles, but there was something I needed to do first.

“I would like for you to continue to watch over her for another couple of days. I will then reevaluate your assignment once I return to town.” The beeping stopped, then started back in again. “I have another call I need to take. Keep in touch, Barry.” I then switched to the other call. “I know I’m running late, but I’m leaving now.”

That had been all the organizer had wanted, so I hung up, then made sure I had everything else in my briefcase before closing it up. I left my laptop in the room, then I headed down to the conference room on the ground floor. Once there, I confirmed that my presentation grid had been received, then took a seat beside other peers in my line of work.

All I wanted to do was call Brynn to check on her, but I had to be careful. She had no idea I’d hired anyone to watch over her, and as such, there would be no way for me to know what had happened to her. Later tonight, I’d make up an excuse to call her, and knowing she would be okay, I began to breathe a little easier.

The weight on my chest lightened, and after a few deep breaths I was able to exhale once more. Still, one name kept repeating itself over and over in my head.

Randall.

The man would pay for touching what was mine. No matter how much I tried to delude myself otherwise, Brynn was unequivocally mine even if it was nothing I could ever confess to her. Actions did speak louder than words, and mine would soon have a lasting impact.