Eve rolled her eyes. “You are going to get in so much trouble one day.”

Charlie needed them to stay on track. So he’d picked someone he couldn’t stand in order to annoy her, to show her that he couldn’t be won back. Well, he picked the wrong girl to pull that shit with. If he’d picked someone sweet and nice, then Charlie would have trouble dealing with it, but Ian made everything easy. “So Ian is pretending to have two subs with him tonight. Me because of the whole shooting thing and trying to keep the cops from figuring out who I am, and skinny bitch because he wants to make sure I know he’s only topping me because of the shooting thing. You all let her talk to you like that?”

“She never says anything that can’t be taken two ways. She’s the queen of the backhanded compliment. If I called her out, she would say I took it wrong,” Avery explained.

“No one ever calls her on her shit?” Charlie was really shocked.

Eve sighed. “It’s the South. We all just kind of suck it up and say ‘Bless your heart.’”

Blessing wasn’t what Charlie was going to do with Blondie’s heart. Ripping it out and forcing it down her throat sounded like a much better idea. “Okay, I am going to show you how to deal with this.”

Eve’s eyes widened. “I don’t know if that is such a good plan.”

“Are you going to kill her?” Serena asked with a little smile.

Charlie turned. “No, I’m going to be honest with her. She was honest with me about where she thought my place with the Master was. I’m going to return the favor.”

She strode into the dressing rooms. A woman like Amanda got away with crap by following a very specific set of societal rules. Charlie had her own rules.

She caught sight of herself in the mirror. Amanda wanted her to think she was fat? She looked damn good. Eve had a nice hand with the laces. Her boobs looked huge.

Britney stepped out of the shower section with a towel wrapped around her skinny middle. That towel would likely barely cover Charlie’s boobs, but Britney had it wrapped around her twice. “Oh, god, there’s a chick in the shower with the gnarliest scar on her leg. First that Avery chick and now this one. We’ve become the dungeon for cripples.”

Britney was easy. Charlie walked straight up to her, standing over her. “That’s my sister. Would you like to call her a cripple to my face? Let me explain what will happen if you do.”

“You don’t have to do that.” Britney swallowed twice, obviously unused to anyone calling her on her shit. “Sorry. I’m sorry.”

She moved away and practically scampered out of the room.

“Wow, rude much?” Amanda asked. She was still dressed. She obviously hadn’t made it back to the changing rooms yet. “You’re not going to last long around here if the Master catches you doing that.”

“Are you talking about Ian Taggart?”

“Yes. I’m talking about the hot hunk of Dom I’ve already had a couple of times. I knew he would come back to me. Look, I was trying to be nice out there, but you should understand that he’s just letting you follow him around because you’re some sort of job to him.”

She towered over Amanda. Sometimes her height came in really handy. “I’m his wife.”

Amanda’s face screwed into an ugly mask. It was probably her thinking face. “He’s not married.”

“I have the paperwork that says otherwise, honey. I’m Charlotte Taggart and I have been for five years, so if you think I’m going to let you fuck my husband again, you’re totally wrong.”

Skin flushing to a mottled red, Amanda held her ground. “Well, he’s been cheating on you. With everyone. Hate to be the one to tell you, but your ‘husband’ is kind of a manwhore.”

“Oh, I think you love telling me, but you’re not saying anything I didn’t already know. I forgive him for the sleeping around. He didn’t know he was still married. Now he does. So he’s going to stop. I also forgive him for needing another sub to hide behind. He’s not very self-aware. He’s not good with the whole emotional thing, so I’m patient. But guess what? It’s not going to be you.”

“What are you talking about? Ian wants me.”

“Ian is going to have to live with disappointment because you are a rude, nasty piece of work, and your reign of terror stops now.”

Amanda laughed. “Who’s going to stop me? It’s sure not going to be Eve. Everyone thinks she’s the queen of the dungeon because she’s married to Alex, but she’s just an old hag. Alex married her because he feels sorry for her. And god, I don’t even know what Liam and Jake were thinking when they brought those fat little mice here.”

Charlie heard a gasp and realized Serena and Avery and Eve were standing in the background listening to all the crap Amanda was spewing.

It was time to take her place in the pecking order. Eve was a nice lady, but it was obvious to Charlie that she hadn’t been taking care of business the way she should have. “I like Eve, but Eve is not the queen. The queen is the sub who is married to the king, and there is only one king of Sanctum.”

“What are you going to do?” Amanda asked in a mocking voice. “Are you going to go to Ian and get me kicked out? It won’t work. Ian thinks I’m a sweetheart. All the Doms do. There’s not a lot any of you can do.”

“Oh shit.” Chelsea was standing in the hall that led to the showers. “You can’t kill her here, sis. We don’t have any acid. The showers would work. They’re nice and roomy, but where would we get a couple of gallons of acid at this time of night? And I don’t think even acid would work on those fake tits. We would have to bury them someplace. How are you going to explain walking around with two grade-D implants?”

Her sister was always cool in a crisis. Amanda was staring at her. It was one of those things that no one took seriously when it was said in anger, but Chelsea’s cool and calm demeanor had caught Amanda’s attention.

Charlie matched it. It was fairly easy to make up bullshit. They had never actually taken apart a body. Charlie had killed a couple of men, but she’d never had to bury anyone. Amanda didn’t have to know that. “Chels, she’s not worth killing. I mean the murder part would fun, yes, but there’s all that work we would have to do afterwards. Do you remember the last time we took apart a body? The smell was horrible and we had to wear all that protective gear and it smelled bad, too.”

“You’re joking.” Amanda’s voice trembled just a bit.

“Am I? Well, like I said, you’re not worth it.” Charlie reached up and grabbed a handful of bottle blonde hair. “But I am going to teach you who the queen is.”

Charlie started to haul Amanda out of the locker room. The girls had said that what happened in the locker room stayed in the locker room, but in this particular case, she couldn’t keep her problem secret. It would likely get her in trouble, but some things were worth a spanking. And probably a lecture. And more quiet time.

“Someone help me! Get this Amazon bitch off me!” Amanda was screaming as they hit the lobby.

“Hey!” Alex was standing just outside looking awfully nice in his leathers. “What the hell is going on here?”

Amanda cried out, obviously looking for a savior. “Master Alex, please help me. She’s gone crazy. Please.”

“Charlotte, you will let her go this instant.” Alex proved he had a damn fine Dom voice.

Yeah, he wanted to mediate, but Charlie didn’t have time for that. She definitely wasn’t going to allow Amanda to get him on her side. “She called Eve old and pathetic.”

Alex’s eyes flared. “Are you fucking with me?”

Eve was in the doorway, an amused expression on her face. “Nope. Amanda isn’t the nicest girl.”

“She called me fat,” Serena said.

“She said my scars were ugly,” Avery added. “They are, but it’s not nice to point it out.”

A big bouncer was standing at the front of the door. Charlie was sure he was probably a big bad Dom, but he stared at her, obviously having no idea what to do when one sub attacked another.

“You should open the door,” Charlie suggested. “Miss Amanda here has had her membership revoked.”

“It’s all right, Brian,” Alex said. “As of this moment, Amanda is no longer a member of this establishment.”

“You bastard!” Amanda yelled. Her feet moved fast or Charlie would have been dragging her skinny ass. “I’m going to sue everyone here. I’m going to let everyone know what a bunch of perverts you all are.”

“Really?” a dark voice asked. Charlie looked up, and a tall man with broad shoulders was staring at the scene. “Because I think you should probably consider your other job right about now.”

“Derek? Derek, don’t let them kick me out. You know I can cause trouble,” she threatened.

“I can murder you in a dark alley,” Charlie retorted.

“And I can ignore the murder entirely. You could make it look like a mugging,” the man named Derek offered before switching his stare back to Amanda. “I told you your mouth would get you in trouble. Don’t forget that the chief has a membership here. I don’t think that he’s going to like being outed as a pervert. We’ll have a talk in my office on Monday if you survive the weekend.”

With that the door was opened and Charlie hoisted her outside. She tossed Amanda out and then locked the door behind her. She turned back to Eve. “See, that was very simple.”

“Was it?” Ian was suddenly in the lobby, his massive body taking up most of the space. He was in his leathers, and Charlie fought hard not to actually drool.

She had just taken another one of those liberties Ian tended to object to. Sinking to her knees, she decided to play it safe. She let her head fall forward, her hair brushing the ground as she placed her palms up.