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Grant liked the quiet cocoon of the night His resort, The Ranch, didn’t slon until three a his ti was running smoothly, he relished the walk over from the main resort area to his private cabin on the far corner of the property

Noteffect of the breeze blowing through the fields of grapevine, the night bugs singing, and the kind of rich silence that could only be had this far out of the city In fact, there was only one other thing that could tru under his hand

That’s what he’d really been hoping to find tonight—and every night for the last four months since he’d handed off his last trainee to her new do a wo near irown refined, specific He had no shortage of applicants for hisBut the submissives he came across were either not ready for the level of co he’d take theame

The one-off, uncommitted play sessions could sometimes meet his immediate needs in between trainees But it was like a carnivore living on a vegetarian diet He was never truly satisfied He craved the intensity that could only be reached when a sub fully gave herself to him for weeks at a time

So instead of clearing hisexperience of D/s, he was left to rely on the sound of the crickets and the blanket of the night to soften the edges of his thoughts It was really the only time of the day when his brain would shut down and simply be

But when he made the turn around the last bend in the path toward his hoht air He stilled, his ears and body going on full alert—a skill he’d never shaken from his years in the arine followed the screech and then faded

He frowned Probably a driver stopping suddenly to avoid an ani The car had sounded like it had driven off, but Grant didn’t want to assuhway his ranch sat off of wasn’t heavily traveled So if sootten in an accident, the coyotes and bobcats would probably find them before help did

He jogged the rest of the way to his cabin and headed straight for his pickup truck He pulled his keys froas before he’d even shut the door completely The drive up to the main road only took a few ht in the distance, he kicked into overdrive, his truck bouncing along the dirt road like an off-road racer

By the tiate, he could see the front end of a car peeking out of the ditch on the opposite side of the road The soft whine of the dying horn filled his ears “Shit”

He threw the gear into park and juate was chained with a padlock, but he didn’t want to waste ti it unfastened, so he planted a foot on one of the bars and vaulted over it

“Hello?” he called out after landing with a thud on the other side Only the fading horn and the sreeted him He hurried across the road and peered down into what appeared to be a wrecked Toyota The tail end had slid into the ditch, the runoff rainwater fro past the back tires Grant squinted, trying to see into the front seat The headlights were the only illumination besides the moon, and all he could make out was the outline of a person in the front seat

“Hello?” he called again “If you can hear me, I’m here to help you”

No response

Grant hurried around to the other side of the car and carefully worked his way down the et closer to the driver His boots hit the bottoully and water sluiced over his feet Even this close, it was still too dark to see rabbed his cell phone out of his jeans pocket and hit the button to illu the phone out toward the closed driver’s sideThe faint light from the phone spilled onto the profile of a woainst the headrest, eyes closed

His sto that never failed to show up no matter how much injury or death he’d seen in his life No Coed open the door, the soft earth only allowing hiers against the wo thuers