Master for Tonight (14 page)

“Oh, yeah, I know. Go on.”

“So I came home, took a shower, and read on
the couch. I had, at most, about half a bottle of wine. Half.” Kate
held her thumb and index finger a few inches apart.

Mazzie popped another chip in her mouth.
“With you so far.”

“I woke up in my bedroom at sunset
the
next day!
”

“And…?”

“And? No! Wait. Let me start over.”

“No. What is worrying you about what you
told me? You were stressed out, came home, and crashed. At some
point, you went to bed and your body finally got some rest. God
knows, you need it.”

“No. It’s more than that.” Kate sat back
down at the table and scooted her chair closer to where Mazzie sat
before taking a deep breath and continuing.

“When I woke up, I couldn’t stop crying. It
was like someone close to me had died! It hurt that bad! It still
does! Like I lost everything. Everything! And then there’s my
body.” Her voice fell to a whisper and her eyes shimmered with
tears.

“Your body?”

“I felt like I had been having sex for
hours. I could smell it on me.”

“What?”

“Yes.” She paused to let her story sink in,
and gave Mazzie time to think it over.

Mazzie grabbed her by her shoulders, shaking
her. “Were you raped? Did someone break in and rape you? Is this
what you’re trying to tell me? That you were raped and didn’t see
your attacker?”

Kate threw her hands up in exasperation.
“No! If that happened, I would have called the cops, and contacted
you from a hospital. No one ‘roofied’ me, either. You’re not
listening.”

“Yes, I am listening. You’re telling me that
you had sex all night and you have no idea who it was with. How is
that not rape?”

“Yes, and no.”

“What?”

“Yes, I know I had sex all night. I tried to
deny it and come up with any explanation other than that, but I
can’t. And no, I don’t know with whom, but I would not be feeling
this heartbroken and alone if it had been rape. I’m broken inside.”
Kate took Mazzie’s hands in hers and looked into her eyes, pleading
with her to understand. “I can’t go into my bedroom anymore without
breaking down. It almost killed me to move my things out of there.
I can’t step foot in my bathroom because I know—I know—something
important happened in the shower. I felt his hands on me for hours
after I woke up missing all that time. I can barely stand to be in
the living room, but I don’t want to leave my home, either. I’ve
been sleeping in there on the couch so I can listen to the TV until
I fall asleep. And—”

“There’s more?”

“John came over to check on me when Helen
couldn’t reach me.” Kate opened her notebook and pushed it in front
of Mazzie.

“What’s this?” She ran her hand over the
page, glancing up at Kate and back down at the writing.

“When John came over, he said something that
jarred me inside. He said, ‘Let me in.’ I wrote it down so I
wouldn’t forget it.” She tapped the page with her index finger.

“Yes, I can see that.” She shifted back away
from Kate and took a deep breath, letting it out with a whistle.
“Okay. Let who in?”

“I don’t know, but it has to be something he
said to me. The man I was with that night. I know how it must
appear—the writing. Look. I was so shocked at something, anything,
striking a chord in me that I kept writing it, hoping for more. I
thought if I kept writing the words, they would somehow prompt a
memory or a flashback. Something.”

“Did it?”

“No.” Kate’s shoulders shook and she put the
heels of her hands against her eyes.

Mazzie drummed her fingers on the table and
stayed silent.

“What do I do?” Her voice was tiny.

“I don’t know. I don’t know.” She scratched
her head. “I do know one thing. Listening to all this, I need a
drink. How about you?”

“Sure.”

Kate went to the cupboard, pulled out two
wine glasses, and grabbed two bottles of red from the counter.
Sitting them on the table, she went back for the corkscrew.

“This is how that night started. Maybe with
you here, we can figure this out. You know, talk it out?”

“Right now, I need less talking and more
pouring.”

Kate uncorked one of the bottles. She poured
a glass, handed it to Mazzie, and sat with her hands in her lap,
twisting her fingers together.

“Yes?”

“There’s one more thing. I can’t believe I’m
going to tell you this, but you need to know.”

“Hold that thought.” She drank half the
glass down, and set it back on the table. “Okay. I’m ready.”

Kate couldn’t look her in the eyes, but had
to tell her that piece of the puzzle. “I’m having orgasms in my
sleep. It started a few days ago. I wake up just before it hits
me.”

“Shit.” She drained the rest of the glass,
reached for the bottle, and poured another, larger than the one
Kate had given to her. It went to the rim.

“I’m doing it to myself. During the night,
while I’m asleep, I’m getting myself off.” Kate poured the
remainders of the first bottle into her glass, and began uncorking
the second. “When I wake up, I feel like it happened to me again.
That he was with me, but I don’t remember any of the dream.”

Sitting the bottle and corkscrew down, she
looked to the side. “I feel like I’m going crazy. I’m losing my
mind. There is no way to prove this happened at all! But I know it
did! It happened!” The tears she had been fighting fell in rivers
down her cheeks.

Mazzie reached over, patted her hand and
held it in hers.

“We’re going to get through this.”

“You believe me, don’t you?”

“Of course, I do.”

Four Weeks Later

Julian studied his naked reflection in the
mirror, seeing no physical marks that would reveal the torture he
had only been released from a week ago. The deep cuts in his wrists
had healed, as did every other place on his body that Evangeline
had abused.

Still forced to bide his time, he made sure
to be attentive to his Maker’s every need and serve her in all the
ways she wished. Hoping to gain her favor, he had started
initiating the sex between them as often or more than she. As much
as it sickened him, his trickery had paid off. Evangeline had left
him on his own for the night, giving him a wink, and a, “Be a good
boy.” She didn’t say where she was going, and he didn’t dare ask.
He needed to get his plan in motion. He pulled his phone out of his
pants pocket and punched in the number he knew by heart.

“Helen Malloy. How may I help you?”

“
Pareo.
”

“Hello, Julian.”

After making sure she was in a place to
speak without being overheard, Julian got right to the point.

“How is Kate? Did you reach her?”

“I wasn’t able to reach her on the phone, so
I left a note for John to go to her house and check on her first
thing in the morning.”

“What the…? You did what?”

Helen repeated what she said.

What the fuck?
He banged his hand
against his head a few times, blew out a breath, and repeated his
question.

“I knew how important it was to you to make
sure she was okay. I didn’t know it would be wrong to send John. I
couldn’t go check on her, Julian.”

“Well? What did he say? What happened?”

“He said she seemed upset, and he comforted
her.”

“What the fuck does that mean?”

I’ll fucking kill him!
Fuck, fuck,
fucking fucker!

“I don’t know. I didn’t ask. There was an
emergency here. The police had just arrived.”

“Look, Helen. Do not send other people to do
things I ask you to do. And
never
ask John to do anything
with regard to Kate! Am I clear?” He tried to control his anger at
the fucked up turn of events.

What the fuck was she thinking, sending that
cum stain to Kate?

“Yes, Julian.”

“Did you ever speak to Kate yourself?”

“No, but she left me a message saying she
was taking an extended leave. She’s a volunteer. I can’t make her
come in. I tried calling her back, but only reached her voicemail.
I left her a message asking her to call and let me know what’s
going on, as her friend. She hasn’t called me back yet.”

He paced in circles, his free hand clenching
and unclenching.

“Helen?”

“Yes?”

“This was another call from a bill
collector.”

Julian disconnected and pulled up a number
from his contacts list. It seemed to ring forever.

Fucking answer the damn phone!

“Jules! Where have you been?”

“Reese, I need your help with something.
Where can we meet that’s safe?”

“Safe? What’s going—?”

“Reese. We can catch up later.”

“Oh. My. God. You did it, didn’t you?”

“Where, Reese?” he roared into the phone,
his head thrown back and his hand on his hip. His patience was at
its end.

They quickly discussed several options
before settling on a secure location, an abandoned tenement not far
from the shelter.

*

Julian approached the dilapidated building
with trepidation. As he surveyed the premises, he saw nothing
unusual. A few drug dealers and some homeless begging for a hit, as
they had no money. Prostitutes servicing some of the pushers for a
few pills.

Kate can’t be here. Woman’s daft, being here
in the day, much less at night.

He circled the building, passing the tableau
of rank humanity, and reconnoitered the site. Chances could not be
taken. Chances could not be lost. Lives at stake, only one would be
willingly taken.

“Hey, baby, want a good time? I’ll make it
good for you. Promise.” A very young woman emerged from the
shadows, approaching him, stumbling in heels meant to be on a
different stage.

“How much?”

“How much you got and what you want, baby? I
got everything you need.” She glided her body against his, purring
and rubbing her breasts against him.

“No, I’ve got everything
you
need.
Just look in my eyes. I don’t want you to do anything else.
Understand?” Julian moved her to his front, wrapping his arms
around her to keep her steady.

“Yeah, baby. I got you.” She tried to rub
herself against him again, but he lifted her face, capturing her
eyes in his after turning them alight.

“You are under my influence, and you will
obey what I say. You will leave this place. You will leave this
place tonight with your children, if you have any, and move
somewhere else. You will go to university or find employment other
than selling your body for money or drugs. Do you understand? No
more selling yourself and no more drugs. You will not want to do
either any longer.” He reached in his pocket, drew out his wallet,
and placed the cash he had in her hands. “Take this and leave.
There is nothing for you here, but death. Do you understand?”

She nodded, and before she came to herself,
Julian hid in the shadows. She walked past the lurid scene,
flipping off the men cat-calling her, and melted into the
night.

After circling the block once again, Julian
shot up the stairs, to the roof of the tenement, and approached his
friend. He was sitting on the ledge, facing the street, swinging
his legs out and back into the empty air.

“Someone may call the authorities if they
see you.”

“Jules! There you are.” Reese lifted his
legs and twirled around to face him. Hopping off the ledge, he met
Julian midway across the roof. “Nah, not in this neighborhood.
They’d just check my body for cash and jewelry as I bled on the
pavement.” He smirked at his best friend. “So tell me. I can’t wait
to hear those three words.” He slapped Julian’s back.

“Sod off, Reese? Those three, right?”

“Wrong. You can say it once you tell me how
badly you screwed up, and I swoop in to save the day.”

Julian opened and closed his mouth a few
times, trying to decide how to start.

“Just say it.”

“I did it. What I told you I was going to
do. Evangeline found out. I don’t know how, but she did. The bitch
has kept me prisoner these past three weeks, maybe four. I’m not
sure how long she kept me silvered, to be honest. I was out of my
mind.” He sighed and tugged at his necklace. “I’m in love with
her.”

“Evangeline? Shit, man. What did she do to
you?”

“What? No, you bloody plonker! Not
Evangeline. Kate.” Julian sighed. “She made me influence her.”

“Kate?”

“Yeah. Wait. What?”

“Kate begged you to make her forget your
ugly face?”

“No! Are you doing this just to drive me
bonkers, mate?”

Reese doubled over in laughter, and it was a
while before he could speak again. “Sorry, Jules. I know this is
serious, and you know I’m here for you however you need, but you
looked like you could use some loosening up.”

“And why the fuck do you insist on calling
me ‘Jules,’ like I’m a woman?” His shoulders began to jiggle as he
tried to hold back the laughter. He chuckled as he stretched his
neck left and right, working out the kinks.

Reese punched him in the arm and backed
away, holding his arms out to his sides. “I only did it when it was
obvious to me you were pussy-whipped, without even having her
yet.”

“She’s the one. There’s nothing else to
say.”

Reese looked at Julian, his eyebrows raised
and head cocked to the side.

Julian closed his eyes and lifted his head
to the sky. “You were right.”

“Ah! There it is!” Reese slapped him on the
back. “So, what now?”

Julian tapped the sides of his legs with his
fingers and looked down, closing his eyes to say a brief prayer to
his mum before raising them. “I need a favor.”

“Done. Whatever it is. You know that. What
is it?”

“I need you to guard Kate for me. Will you
do it?” His mouth was set in a hard line, thoughts in a jumble of
what he would do if his friend couldn’t, or wouldn’t, do it.