“Your friends…the Raileys,” Talel began and Nora pressed her foot harder on his throat again.

“Careful…” she warned. “You have no idea how much I care about Wes Railey.”

“You’re here and not with the priest. I think I know.”

“What about the Raileys?”

“They wield more influence than any investigators.”

“Wes said his uncle is the governor of Kentucky.”

“And his grandfather is the distinguished gentleman from Georgia.”

Nora rolled her eyes. “Grandpa’s a senator? Lovely. Wesley left that part out.”

“He’s a humble young man. And kind. Too humble and too kind for this ugly business. Too kind for us.”

“Too kind for me, you mean. Tell me something I don’t know.”

Talel lay on the floor in silence. She wanted to kick him in the face and bust it open, but she stayed her wrath. Søren had taught her the lessons of sadism, but he’d taught her the lessons of mercy even better.

“What do you need from me?” she asked, cutting through the conversational niceties. Wesley was an early riser and she’d rather not explain where she’d disappeared to today.

“Can you convince Railey Sr. to make a phone call on my behalf? One call from him would put an end to the investigation.”

“I’ll try. Can’t promise he’ll do it. I’m not his favorite person, but at least I’m not his least favorite person anymore.”

“I’m sure he’ll bend to your will. We all do.”

“I said I’d try. But you killed a horse, Talel. For money. It’s murder…insurance fraud...”

“I’ve easily paid forty million dollars in insurance. It’s my own money they’d give back to me. And it’s hardly fair for a woman with more leather in her closet than I have in my stables to call the death of one animal ‘murder.’”

Nora said nothing as the unpleasant truth of Talel’s words sank in. When it came to issues of morality, she had long ago surrendered the moral high ground. She left that lofty plateau to Søren and his unusual code of right and wrong. Right now she wished Søren was here to tell her exactly what to do. Even during their years apart, she found herself going to him for advice and counsel and guidance, while she ran from his love and power and control.

“Nora,” Talel said, his voice soft and desperate, “they’ll kill me.”

Nora closed her eyes. He was right. When the mob caught up with her father, they’d torn him up with so many bullets cremation had been the only option for his burial. One man…one horse.

“I’ll talk to Mr. Railey,” Nora said, knowing exactly what Mr. Railey would say to her request. She knew what he would say and she knew what she would do. And she knew Wesley would be devastated. Just last night he’d asked her if she’d stay with him or leave. If she did this for Talel, she’d have no choice but to go.

“Thank you, Mistress. Thank you...”

Nora removed her foot from Talel’s neck. He came to his knees and knelt at her feet. Starting at the tip of her toes, he kissed his way up to her ankles, to her calves and up her thighs. Sighing, Nora let him worship her in his favorite manner. She had missed this, missed the foot worship, missed men at her feet. But she couldn’t deny the simple truth that as much as she missed the Underground, she would miss Wesley more.

“But there is a price to be paid for me talking to Mr. Railey for you.”

“I’ll pay it. Anything.” Talel gazed up at her from the floor. Nora tried to not let the sight of his exquisitely burnished flesh and his erotic obedience affect her. She had Wesley waiting at home in bed. She didn’t need Talel underneath her. Wanted…perhaps. But needed, no.

“The price is this.” Nora stepped to the window and left Talel kneeling on the floor. “You’re going to sell every horse you have left. You can keep the money, but you’re out of the horse-racing business. Forever. And you’re banned from the Underground. If I were you, I wouldn’t even set foot in New York.”

Talel stared at her with his mouth agape.

“It’s done, Talel. Don’t bother begging. That shit doesn’t work on me anymore.”

He closed his mouth and visibly swallowed. Standing up, he bowed his head.

“Yes…Nora.”

“Good. You know how much Kingsley loves those dogs of his. You’d be lucky to make it out of Manhattan with your own hide still on.” She hoped the bluff would work. Kingsley couldn’t care less about a dead horse in Kentucky. “You should sell the farm, too, and get out of the state. You don’t deserve to be in the same county as my Wesley. He’d cut off his own hand before he’d hurt anything on earth, for love or money.”

“Then what is he doing with you?”

Only Nora’s training as a Dominatrix kept her from flinching visibly at Talel’s words. But Talel hadn’t been the first man to wound her to the core of her being. That had been Søren. Had Søren said something like that to her, she would have responded with fury or tears. But Talel didn’t merit such a reaction. So instead she merely smiled.

“I ask myself that same question every day, Talel. I’ve decided not to answer it.”

Nora walked back to him and stood in front of his kneeling form. For that comment, for making a liar out of her to Wesley, and most importantly, for killing Spanks for Nothing, she gave him one very special farewell.