The Clerk
Copyright© 2026 by R. E. Bounds
Chapter 23: Like Glue, Remember?
“How is she?”
“She’ll be okay,” I said, sinking into the couch, letting my heels fall to the floor.
“Does she normally sleep in that?”
“Yeah,” I replied. “It ... um ... helps calm her.”
I had just finished getting Susan into her sleep sack, and Hana had watched me do it. She’d noticed the sack strapped to Susan’s bed before but had never asked about it. But after watching me fasten Susan into it tonight, I think it finally registered.
“She needs it,” I told her seeing the look on her face. “She...” I sighed. “She ... just needs it.”
I then explained everything to her. She already knew some of it—everyone on the station had heard about the girl at the bookstore—the one who wore transport cuffs. Hana had probably taken some of the calls herself. But she hadn’t known why, or the weight of everything Susan had been dealing with the past few years.
“I’m really sorry,” she told me again, her eyes fixed on mine. “I—I didn’t know.”
“No one does,” I said quietly, letting out a slow breath. “It’s not exactly something people would understand.” I paused, searching for the right words. “But it helps her ... I don’t know how to explain it. Being bound ... it just makes her feel better. The signs had been there for years ... But I didn’t recognize it all until recently.”
“What happened tonight must have made everything worse.” Hana then added. “I probably really scared her.”
“You didn’t,” I said softly, leaning back into the cushions as the weight of everything settled over me again. “She understands why you did it.”
Hana’s face stayed tight with worry, her brow still furrowed. It was clear it wasn’t the incident itself that weighed on her, but the fear that she’d added to Susan’s anxiety—especially now that she knew the whole story.
“She knows it wasn’t real,” I went on, trying to ease the guilt she kept clutching. “She knows you did it to keep things from getting worse.”
“She was really upset,” Hana murmured. She attempted a smile, but it faltered—more an expression of weary acceptance than anything hopeful. The kind of smile you give when you understand the situation perfectly but still feel helpless to change it.
“She’s not upset about what you did,” I said again, gentle and steady. “Really, she isn’t. And neither am I.”
I let out a small, weary smile in return. “She’s upset about Bobby,” I added, the words hanging in the air between us. “She ... really liked him.”
“I didn’t realize she was seeing him,” Hana said quietly. “She’s always with Andrew ... I guess I just thought.”
“They’re ... uh ... old friends,” I explained. “Susan and Andrew have known each other forever. So yeah, you’re not the first person to think they’re a thing.”
“But she and Bobby dated?” Hana asked carefully.
“Yeah,” I said. “Well ... not in high school. He was part of the cool crowd,” I added, still giving her that tired, crooked smile. “And as you’ve figured out—we’re not exactly the cool-crowd type.” I let out a weary little chuckle. “But they went on a kind-of-sort-of date a few weeks ago. And he was there on that whole night-out thing that kind of got me arrested.”
“I read the report,” she said, nodding. “I knew he was there. Along with another woman. Bambi, was it?”
“Yeah. I haven’t seen her since that day.” That was all I said. I didn’t want to get into it—not with Hana.
“You won’t,” Hana replied, as if puzzled why I would think otherwise.
But then I asked, “Why?”
“Your attorney didn’t tell you?” she said, still looking confused by my reaction. She glanced aside, trying to piece something together. Then she sighed, realizing I didn’t know whatever it was she assumed I did.
“Her sister—Fawna, is it? She reached out to the department. Wanted to press charges against you and Susan.”
“What?” I asked, stunned. “I—I don’t understand.”
“Bambi told Fawna what happened between the two of you,” Hana said, shrugging slightly, as if to soften the blow of what she was about to explain.
“She’s twenty—or something. She’s an adult,” I said.
“Yeah,” Hana replied. “She’s also been a very naughty girl.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“She was president of her sorority,” Hana said. “It lost recognition because of ... involvement in BDSM activities. One member claimed she’d been assaulted while bound. Since it violated the school’s policies on sexual activity, the administration just shut it down. Rumor is they’re already facing a lawsuit—apparently their on-campus police department has its own issues—and they didn’t want to risk anything more.”
She looked at me. “You think the guys at the station are assholes?” she asked, not really expecting an answer. “They’re nothing compared to the pricks at that school.”
“The chapter is trying to appeal,” Hana continued. “But Bambi was removed as president.”
“She said it was just a kink club,” I said, sounding tired. “She didn’t tell me any of that.”
“It was,” Hana said. “Until the club got shut down for similar reasons. Then she moved the activity under the sorority. You know—became president, appointed all her friends as officers...” She sighed, thinking I’d figure out the rest. “That’s why she came to you.”
“I don’t understand,” I told her.
“The kink club got closed long before she approached you.” She explained. “And when she came to see you and Susan, the sorority itself was already under investigation and on its way to being derecognized, with possible criminal charges being filed by the state, since it’s a state-run school.”
Hana looked at me. I knew she could tell I wasn’t following.
“Fawna was pressing the matter with the sheriff’s department, claiming you’d corrupted sweet, innocent Bambi. It was their way of trying to show that Bambi was influenced by someone else—that she was just a sweet college student who got wrapped up with really bad people. And with you arrested, there being multiple witnesses in your own case against you ... that just made it even better.”
She paused, watching my reaction. “She first met you at a restaurant, right? Susan was chained up along with that other woman from the museum—there was a service? And Bambi got cuffed? Witnesses could be pulled from the store owners that night, saying a young woman was being dragged around in handcuffs—behind her back. That she seemed ... upset, uncomfortable. Like it was being done against her will?”
“According to Fawna, Bambi was influenced by you, Susan, and that woman. Sophie would have been dragged into this, too, from what I understand.”
I looked down. “She was there that night because she needed an alibi?”
“No,” Hana replied. “She was there because she was having fun with her friends. That experience? It just became an opportunity later, when things started falling apart for her. Her going to the bookstore, you hosting the event, only three of them showing up—it was all already unraveling by then. Everyone else had distanced themselves from the situation.”
“Jennifer and Trix,” I muttered. “No—Jessica and Trinity,” I corrected aloud.
I looked at Hana, who nodded. “Her friends,” she said. “Two of the officers at the sorority. They were the only ones still trying to help her at the end—and I think they were trying to help themselves, too. The school, I believe, was expelling them.”
Hana leaned her head back. “I thought your attorney had told you. I’m sorry, Anne.”
It all made sense—why she came to the store, why she wanted us to talk at her club, why she kept pressing the service. The collar.
“So, Sheriff Collins ... well, he can smell bullshit. After Fawna went to him wanting charges filed against you, he started digging. Especially after she implicated Sophie. While those two don’t exactly get along, I think when push comes to shove, they’d protect each other to the ends of the earth. So, when he found out what was going on at the sorority, he told your attorney—then the two of them contacted that agent, who in turn called the state prosecutor handling your case.”
Hana sighed, giving me a weary smile. “The university is big enough that it would’ve had some sway with the state to get the matter ... let’s say ‘resolved’ the way they wanted. Close the sorority, settle with the girl’s family. But instead—let’s just say the state talked to the girl, and she painted a very colorful picture of Bambi, including what she’d learned from others about what she was doing with you and Susan.”
“Bambi was arrested a while back,” she added. “She’s out on bond, waiting for trial. Fawna may be facing charges too. The state is currently investigating to see whether she knew what was going on, or if the wool was just pulled over her eyes by Bambi.”
“Yes, Sheriff Collins was protecting Sophie. Jeffrey, too, once he found out what was happening, and that Sophie was implicated. But the sheriff went to bat for you,” she said quietly. “There’s obviously ... something between the two of you. I figured that out when he saw you at the station with me—in the storage room, in those leg cuffs. If it had been anyone else, you’d be in a cell and I’d be reprimanded.”
“Family history,” I said. “His father and my aunt. It’s complicated.”
Hana nodded.
“I’m sorry, Anne,” she told me again. “I really thought you knew. I know you liked her—Susan made that pretty clear. But if what that girl who was assaulted says is true ... you don’t want to be anywhere near that. Bambi was just using you to save her own hide.”
“Like that Bobby—sure, he’s nice to stare at...” she said, trailing off.
I nodded, not sure what to say.
“She was hoping that maybe...” I began, then let the words die. I didn’t need to finish; Hana already knew. More than I did, apparently.
“He ... he seemed really into her,” I said after a moment. I was still talking to Hana, but the words came out more like a thought I’d tripped over. “But maybe it wasn’t really her after all. Maybe it was the clothes ... the bondage.”
I glanced at her, then brought my wrists together at my waist in a loose mimic of the restraints. “You know. Some guys are into that. The whole submissive thing.” My voice softened, not embarrassed, just stating a fact we’d both seen more times than we liked. “You’ve seen the way some of those men look at me when they come into the station.”
Hana’s expression tightened, and I knew she got it—the kind of guys who weren’t into the woman at all, just the idea of her being tied up and harmless. The ones who saw the cuffs and let their brains run wild, filling in a whole script about submission and control without even bothering to wonder who she actually is. Or care.
“I know dressing this way doesn’t help,” I admitted. “It just makes it worse.”
“You look really nice,” she said quickly. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of.”
She glanced at the heels on the floor and gave a small, almost embarrassed smile.
“Though I still don’t know how you wear those every day,” she added, pointing at them. I think she was trying to lighten the situation. “Just wearing heels that high the other night—”
“You looked really beautiful,” I cut in before she could finish. “It was really nice seeing you in stilettos.” I shrugged. “You have really pretty ankles.”
She laughed. “Just ankles?”
“You didn’t seem to like my miniskirt idea,” I said. “So, I didn’t get to see the rest of you.”
Hana laughed again, then changed the subject.
“So, he’s involved?” she asked. “One of the people caught up in all of that? It ... it just sounded like he was.”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But ... he knows. I learned that tonight. Whether that’s because Chloe told him, or he always knew, or because he’s part of it...” I looked at her, shrugging faintly. “I guess that means all that money was paying for ... I—I don’t know. But I know he knows.”
I offered Hana a weak smile. “So ... who knows how many people are involved in this whole thing.”
“And Chloe’s the ex? Or ... was the ex?”
I nodded. “He told Susan they’d broken up. But then she found a social media post with him and Chloe saying they were back together.”
“Sometime after the arrest,” I added with another shrug. “I—” I shook my head slightly. “I don’t know exactly when. I was kind of locked up in a cell. The days all blurred together.”
Hana just nodded.
“But I don’t know if they’re actually together or not,” I continued. “You heard him—he said they’re not ... that he wanted to reach out ... whatever that means.”
I lay down on the couch, crossing my stockinged legs and pulling my knees up against me in an almost fetal curl. I wiggled my toes, trying to straighten a seam that had twisted to the side. Reaching down, I smoothed it out, then wiggled my toes again. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Hana watching my legs—she did that a lot, especially when I wasn’t wearing heels.
I just lay there thinking about Bambi. It hurt. I knew, deep down, that it had all been too good to be true. I guess I had just hoped—probably the way Susan had hoped with Bobby. I needed to stop thinking about it. Just bury it deep, along with everything else.
“You spend your days listening to people lying to you all the time,” I said quietly. “I apparently suck at knowing when someone’s playing me—was he lying?”
“Where I’m from...” she began, lifting her eyes to me. “When you care about someone...”
She trailed off, looking down and fidgeting with her fingers.
I watched her hesitate, then glance back up at me.
She took a breath. “When you care about someone ... you focus on your relationship with them. That comes first.”
To read the complete story you need to be logged in:
Log In or
Register for a Free account
(Why register?)
* Allows you 3 stories to read in 24 hours.