The Virgin Master (27 page)

Tom swallowed visibly and bent to set his bag on the floor. He squatted by the bag and began to get out the supplies he knew he would need.

*****

Lillian shook out the flogger, ready to start again.

Frank called out to her. “Lillian, honey…don’t you think he’s had enough?”

I wanted to bring James down a peg or two
,
but I didn’t want to actually kill Jeremy. This is better than what we had planned if she doesn’t destroy him.
Frank drew closer to her so that no one else could hear.

“What happened? The idea was to get him to run into you
 
in a line somewhere. Tell me you didn’t fall on purpose.”

Lillian looked down.

“No, it really was an accident. But that’s good, right? No one would believe I would endanger Carolyn like that. How long have we waited for this opportunity? You told me Evan rarely went out, but I thought he was going to just keep him inside the office for the rest of his life.” Then she went back into character, looking at Frank with wide wounded eyes. “You saw what he did to me! He put his hands on me in front of everybody! I think he needs to die for that, but I’m trying to be reasonable.”

Fr
ank played along. “Reasonable? Lillian…there’s no doubt he saved Carolyn’s life and saved you from serious injury and possibly death. You would have fallen over forty feet
and landed on this concrete floor. You expect me to believe that you prefer that to being touched by someone who happens to be a slave?”

“Daddy! They’re fucking animals! He probably got hard just
 
putting his hands on me! I can’t live with that. Not to mention Carolyn.” She shuddered dramatically.

“He never laid a finger on Carolyn, honey. Please. Evan is my friend
.
I’ve known him since he was a toddler. Jeremy is a huge asset to the company and to Evan. You’re tearing him up. How many more times were you thinking to hit him?”

“Well, he’s had thirteen. So he needs seventeen more.”

Tom whipped his head up and he and Evan exchanged nearly equally anguished looks. Frank’s mouth dropped open.

 
“Sweetie
,
that might kill him.” Frank couldn’t have Jeremy maimed or killed. He hadn’t had him yet. Plus he needed him alive to use as a weapon against Evan.

“So? I wanted to do a hundred and I backed way off that. It’s my right!” So saying, Lillian wound up and hit Jeremy with all her might again. Evan couldn’t put a name to the sound Jeremy made. It stabbed him through and he felt like gasping for air.

T
he scrawny kid intoned “Fourteen.”

Frank looked helplessly at Evan. Jeremy’s hoarse cries echoed in
 
the nearly empty space. The savagery of Lillian’s attack had driven away the merely curious bystanders.

*****

 
 
The few remaining had hungry looks in their eyes. Evan couldn’t look at them. The effort of pretending to be unmoved by
watching and listening to Jeremy’s suffering took almost more than he had. He thanked God that this had not in any way aroused him. He did not feel any gratitude for Frank’s efforts to intercede. He knew good and well that Frank just didn’t want Jeremy out of commission too long while he continued to scheme to get his hands on him.

This round Jeremy held out through the count of twenty-five before losing consciousness again. Tom took his pulse, pursing his lips as he found it thready, rapid and weak.

Lillian danced on her toes. “
Your
stupid slave is such a
             
coward that this is taking way too long.”

Evan briefly, but fiercely, fantasized about bashing her head against the floor until there was nothing left but glop. Blood now ran in rivulets down Jeremy’s back and dripped from his buttocks onto the floor. Quite a large pool had formed. He saw Tom making a call and he suspected it was to the veterinary blood bank. He edged over to Tom, fighting the urge to go back over to Jeremy.

“Tom. I can’t stand this. I can’t afford to make a scene either. Do you have something?”

Tom stared at him. “Every time I see you, you ask me to break the law. I can’t treat humans, you know that.”

“Yeah.” Evan lifted his eyes and let Tom see.

“Oh.” Tom breathed and lowered his head. He thought about watching Alexa go through something like this and winced. Digging around in his bag he pulled out a small bottle of pills. He palmed one to Evan after being sure that everyone was watching Frank trying to, once again, talk Lillian down.

“You know,” Tom said, “I’m not sure but there may be an exception to the ‘no touching’ thing if it’s to save a life. I don’t think you can avoid letting her punish him, but there might be higher financial compensation. You might want to call your lawyer.”

Evan held on to the little pill. Just having it in his hand made him feel stronger. He decided to wait to take it until he was nearly broken. He needed a clear head right now. Triggering his communicator he called Sean Murrow, a close friend and his personal lawyer. Sean was not in, but everyone in his office knew to track him down when Evan or Allen called. Jeremy was just beginning to stir when he got through to Sean on his mobile device.

“Evan? I haven’t heard from you in years! I’m betting it’s some kind of an emergency.”

Striving to sound normal, Evan started out the conversation pretty well.

“Sean, man, what can I say? I’ve had my head up my ass for the last four years. But you’re right. Look, I’m sending some security footage to your data pad. Take a minute and watch it. The huge man snagging the woman out of the air before she falls is my personal slave. She’s right now trying to beat him to death to punish him for touching her without permission. Is there some kind of exception for a slave saving a citizen’s life?”

“You got a slave? Well….that’s surprising. Just a minute.”

Evan waited nervously, need to be by Jeremy’s side flowing like fire through his veins, but letting Tom do the honors this time. He heard Sean humming as he watched the video feed. “Evan? This
footage leaves no doubt that the only reason he touched her was to rescue her. There are exceptions, but you can’t delay punishment; you get your day in court for damages.”

“
Sean,” Evan’s voice sounded wrecked, despite his best efforts.
“She’s killing him. She wanted a hundred blows with the flogger and I was able to talk her down to thirty, but still…”

“Evan,” Sean said softly,
“be careful.
Don’t watch. Go somewhere else and have a coffee or something. You can’t afford to let your feeling show about this. I know you…I know just from the sound of your voice that you care about this man. Please don’t make
things worse for yourself then they already are. Get it together my friend. Call me when it’s over and we’ll sue the bitch.”

“Okay,” Evan practically whispered and hung up. Tom had roused Jeremy, who said Evan’s name. Tom put his fingers across Jeremy’s lips and he hushed, although he continued to sob as he tried to straighten up for Lillian to hit him some more.
Evan looked sharply at Lillian and Frank but neither appeared to have noticed Jeremy’s lapse.

Evan turned his back and tried to act bored. He looked at his watch. Surprisingly, less than an hour had passed since
Jeremy made his probably fatal mistake. Tom sidled up to him. “It’s not as bad as it looks, Evan. It hurts like a motherfucker and he’s lost some blood but not enough to be dangerous, not as much as it
looks like. Some muscles have been lacerated, and he’ll have some unattractive scars, but, if he can get through the last five without going into shock, or his heart stopping, he should make a complete recovery.”
 
  

Evan took a deep breath and couldn’t help the small noise that
 
escaped him. He bit down on his trembling lower lip and winced hard as the lash cracked across Jeremy’s back again and Jeremy tried to scream with his ruined voice.

Tom put his hand on Evan’s shoulder. “You must be magic or something. I know I can’t do this, but I have a syringe of morphine with Jeremy’s name on it as soon as nobody’s
watching. Okay? We’ll get him comfortable and pain free as soon as possible. That’s all anybody can do right now.”

Evan shot him a grateful look. “You’re way too nice to me.”

“I like how you treat Jeremy. I like what you’ve done for Alexa. You should see some of the things…well, actually nobody should see….” Tom’s stare went unfocused and far. Wordlessly they pulled away from each other. Evan steeled himself and turned to watch the endgame. If Jeremy had to take it, the least he could do
was
watch it. Jeremy’s back heaved as he struggled for air and tried to scream, his vocal
chords so abused by this time that the scream stuttered off and on, like an old-fashioned car radio going through a mountainous area, cutting in and out of reception.

Finally, it was over. Lil
lian swung her arm and massaged
her shoulder. Evan wanted to rip her arm out of the socket and beat her to death with it. The flogger itself dripped blood onto the tile and a strip of Jeremy’s skin depended from one of the lower knots. She pranced up to him and offered it back.

“Trash it. Can’t get it clean again. I’ll just have to buy a new one.” Once again, Evan found it deep within himself to speak in a nearly normal sounding voice. “Let’s have your card now.”

He held out his hand, holding his elbow close to his side to minimize the shaking. Flushing, Lillian gave him her business card. She had some kind of interior design business. He recognized the address of her office as being well within the golden circle of businesses frequented only by the very rich. Good. He would see just how much of that money he could take from her. He gave her his card in return.

“You’ll be hearing from Mr. M
urrow, my attorney,” Evan said
unable to even look at her.

She nodded regally, and, reclaiming her baby from her father, she stalked off to do whatever it was she had planned on doing in the first place.

Frank went with Evan to Jeremy’s side and bent down until Jeremy could see him.

“I’m sorry. I saw the footage of your rescue. My daughter is a spoiled diva. You have my undying gratitude for saving my grandchild, if that means anything to you at all.”

Frank then turned to Evan, who couldn’t meet his eyes. He didn’t trust Frank’s new demeanor. If not for the risk to the child he would suspect that this entire thing had been some kind of set up
to get Evan to show inappropriate emotions in front of a crowd in public. Evan finally jerked his head once in acknowledgment to Frank and turned his attention back to his lover.

Jeremy couldn’t raise his head although he tried.  He slowly collapsed forward, laying his head and torso down on the table. Evan undid the belts with clumsy hands and Tom, using Evan’s body as cover, concealed his actions from the cameras and bystanders as he stealthily injected Jeremy with morphine.

The EVT’s rolled the gurney over and Tom and Evan lifted Jeremy up on it, face down. The blood delivery had arrived and Tom started an IV with a saline drip and the blood. Evan squatted at the head of the gurney so Jeremy could see him. He tried to smile and his heart clenched; hard, sudden pain flaring in his chest when he saw Jeremy trying to return the smile. He knew the moment the morphine took effect as Jeremy sighed and relaxed. One of the EVT’s gave Tom the evil eye and Tom just looked back at him until the man dropped his eyes.  Tom cleaned Jeremy’s back and then whistled.

“I don’t know if it would just be better to go straight to skin grafts, I’m going to have to use artificial skin to cover all this up. There’s hardly any of his own skin left.”

“I don’t care what it costs. Please just fix him. Scars aren’t going to bother me. He’ll always look perfect to me.”