Page 54 of The Secret Stalker
“Father, why so much hatred towards sex workers when you run a club that sells them?”
“I don’t have hatred towards them. I have standards for my sons. You can use their services, you can fuck as many as you like in whichever capacity you desire. But that is it, that is where I draw the line. Rules are in place for a reason.”
“Mr Bently,” Rory begins. “We are all adults here. We can sit down and discuss the clauses in the members’ contracts and Sophie’s. Surely we don’t need to resort to any form of physical punishment?”
“Mr Glasson, respectfully, no. I drew up the contract, I made the rules and I decide the punishment. Sophie wants to keep her job, so has accepted her fate. You must now decide yours. You can keep your memberships, Rory, Flynn and Tyronne. And your job, Mackenzie, by turning around and walking away. You will stop seeing Sophie and leave her punishment today in my hands.”
“Father, we love Sophie,” says Tye defeatedly.
“You cannot.”
“We do,” I say through gritted teeth.
“Bad luck. That women will not have any part in our business or our family.”
“Disown us then,” I say flatly.
“And you, Tyrone? Do you feel the same way?”
“I choose her,” he spits out. “So take us to her.”
“First things first. Mr Glasson, Mr Finchley, would you like to walk away and keep your memberships at the Clarendon?”
“Never,” Flynn grunts out.
“I will never set a foot in there again,” agrees Rory.
“And Sophie?” asks Tye.
“She can keep her job if she goes through with her punishment.And she can keep you all too, seeing as none of you will be members or staff. Shall we proceed?” he says matter of factly. No emotion, no regret, no sign in his expression or posture that his sons just asked for him to disown them over a woman.
“You said we could deliver her punishment. What is it that we need to do?” asks Rory tensely.
“We can discuss it inside.”
“Take us to her,” I rasp out low and cold. I want nothing to do with this man ever again. My father levels his cold hard eyes on me and nods, then turns and leads us down the corridor to a door to the right. He opens the door and I know where our Sophie is. It takes everything inside of me to walk down after my father and not push him down the stairs to get to her. We get to the bottom and Tye rushes over to see our girl sobbing, her hands and her head trapped in a wooden frame, her whole body trembling in fear.
“What did you do to her?” Tye turns on our father.
“Nothing that she didn’t do herself. And no, I have not laid a finger on her. But you will. All of you will. This is the last time I ask you this. Would you like to dish out Sophie’s punishment, or would you like me and the owners to do it?
“You’re not going near her,” says Flynn, stepping in front of Sophie as Rory bends down, whispering in her ear and moving her hair away from her face and trying to dry her tears.
“Strip,” our father says simply. “Put your clothes over there,” he points to where Sophie’s clothes lay folded on top of a wooden chair.
“Why?” spits out Tye.
“Because this is now your punishment too, boy. You won’t leave her, so strip. Do as I say.”
“Or what? There are four of us, old guy,” bolsters Tye.
The lights in the room suddenly go out and Sophie beginsto scream. “Turn the lights back on Father, this is not funny.” The lights go back on and Father glares at me.
“Did I say this was fun? I said this was punishment. Sophie has agreed to take hers and if you wish to continue seeing her, I suggest you take yours and deliver everything I say. Strip.”
I know what he’s doing, he’s stripping our dignity away from us. This is nothing new. Our punishments growing up were on each other. If Tye stepped out of line, I was punished. If I stepped out of line, Tye was punished. It was the most effective way he could keep us in line and Sophie is now in the firing line because she’s the person we care about the most. He wouldn’t care so much if Sophie was fucking the members, it’s us who have really disobeyed him. Rory and Flynn look to me to see if we need to follow my father’s request. I close my eyes and nod. Fighting my father is bigger than fighting the police, the bikies and god himself. We need to do as he says and get Sophie as far away from him as possible. He’s a man of his word, so I know he’ll disown us but as long as she has taken her punishment and we inflict it, he will leave all of us alone. I just hope that we can all take what my father has in store for her.
Tye lifts his polo shirt up and, remorsefully, Flynn and Rory follow suit, we all take our clothes off and pile them on the chair. My father walks to the end of the room and comes back towards us with a trolley. On top of the trolley are a number of objects that come into view the closer he gets to us. There is a paddle, a crop, a cane, a flogger, plugs of different sizes and lube.
