Chapter One
She’d done it again even though he’d ordered her not to harm herself. Edward Banner gripped the back of his neck as he paced outside of the room of his own personal dungeon. He was so fucking mad that he could taste it. He’d gone to Control, the dominant club that was owned by his friend, William. He’d been needed, and now he was so pissed. If he’d not been needed elsewhere Isabel wouldn’t have been hurting herself.
Fuck!
Rushing from the door to his dungeon, he entered the kitchen and began pacing once again. He thought he could handle this, but he couldn’t. At first, he had intended to dump her ass in the bedroom he’d placed her in. Only, he had seen everything that could help her to hurt herself. He didn’t want her fucking hurting herself. Instead of throwing her into the bedroom, he’d chained her up, keeping her hands locked above her head so she couldn’t touch herself.
He had met Isabel Benson a year ago when she was waitressing at a diner. During that time, he had discovered that she self-harmed, cutting herself. At first, he’d not taken over every single part of her life. She had only been living with him for the past couple of months, since Sophie left for college. He didn’t want Isabel living on her own. Just thinking about the first moment he had seen Isabel he had thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever met. One day he had found her cutting herself. She had looked like a drug addict getting her next hit, only she had been drawing blood from her body. He had believed that he could help her. Now he wasn’t so sure. How could he help someone who clearly had some serious fucking issues? What kind of person cut themselves? He’d tried to get her to talk to a doctor, but she told him no. He wanted her to go to counseling, but she said no. There was no way he could force her, even if he wanted to.
Rubbing at his eyes, he stopped, and simply stood. Half an hour he had been gone, and when he came home, she had added another line on her thigh.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
She wasn’t sorry. If she was sorry she wouldn’t have done it.
After he had brought her home, and spent every available second with her, he had thought that he’d helped. Only he hadn’t really helped. The first time he was away, she went for the knife. That wasn’t helping anyone, not at all.
Storming out of his house, he sat down on the steps knowing that at right this moment he was fucking up. Isabel was chained in his fucking dungeon. Her thigh was dripping blood, and he would have to go and take care of her, but right now, he was so angry. A Dom never went near his woman when he was angry.
Not that Isabel was his woman. No. he was just helping her. Nothing was going on between them, and never would.
“You’re not looking so good.”
Edward looked up to see Ryan, one of the club Doms, coming toward him. Ryan was a Cape Falls regular, and since the town of Cape Falls had tried to make a change to themselves, Ryan had come out as a Dominant man. He now worked at Control, and had even divorced the woman he had been forced to marry and hated.
Cape Falls was not a very good town. It was an old town with old-fashioned values. Up until a year ago, they believed marriages should be arranged, and a woman’s place was inside the home. It had taken a gang raping girls and getting away with it for the town to finally realize the truth. Gabriel, the town Sheriff, had forced them to see the truth, showing the evidence. Since then, the town had been trying to make amends, to finally come into the twenty-first contrary.
Edward was from England, and for him it had been like going back in time while at the town that he now loved. Well, not loved. His friends were here, along with Ryan.
“What are you doing here?” Edward asked.
“You left this at Control. I’m not helping any little subs tonight, so I thought I would come and give this to you, hang out. Catch up.” Ryan held out a cell phone, and he took it.
“Thanks.”
“No problem.” Ryan took a seat beside him. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing is going on with me.” Edward burst out laughing. “That is a fucking lie.” He glanced over at Ryan. In the past year he had gotten to know this man, and trusted him. “Can you keep a secret?”
“Of course I can.”
“You know Isabel Benson.”
“The cute waitress, yeah. I know her. She’s a sweet girl, why?”
“I currently have her chained up in my dungeon. She harms herself, Ryan.”
He watched as Ryan tensed. “Harms?”
“You know, cuts herself.” Edward stood. “Fuck, I thought I could help her, and I hadn’t been helping her clearly. She’s fucking chained up because I didn’t know what to do.” He walked back into his home, and moved toward his dungeon.
Ryan followed him, closing the doors.
“You shouldn’t just leave her. Have you dealt with a self-harmer before?” Ryan asked.
“No. Clearly, I doubt anyone would tell them to chain up a self-harmer. Have you?”
“No, but you’ve got to be careful here. Chaining her up is not going to get the cause of why she does it. Maybe she likes pain? Or is it something else?” Ryan asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You’ve been taking care of her and you’ve not found out why she’s doing it?”
Edward glared at him. “I am doing the best I can here.”
“Chaining her up and looking like shit does not help.”
“You can leave.”
“Nah, I think I need to stick around. You might need some help with this.”
“No, if she wants you to go, then you fucking leave.” Edward opened the door, making sure to keep Ryan out of the way. “Isabel, I have Ryan here. Is it okay for him to be here, or do you want him to go?”
She looked up at him, and he saw her tears. Just seeing how emotional she was hurt him. He had totally fucked up.
“I don’t want anyone else here.”
“Fuck off,” he said, turning to Ryan.
“Edwa