The Virgin Master (28 page)

Tom hissed at him. “Be careful! I don’t know these guys.”

Evan looked at the EVT’s who were busy adjusting the gurney. Neither of them looked as if they had heard anything. “Thanks,” Evan said to Tom. “I just…
.
”

T
om sighed and gave Evan a crooked little smile. “I like you
   
more every time I see you. It’s a shame that every time I see you, Jeremy’s badly hurt. He’s strong, Evan.” Tom moved in
closer. “He knows you love him…that will see him a long way.”

No, he doesn’t. I never told him.
Evan felt sudden shame. A simple shopping trip turned into a near fatal event. He had to tell Jeremy soon. Jeremy deserved to know. Every time they were intimate, Jeremy was very vocal about how he felt about Evan. He couldn’t seem to stop telling Evan how much he loved him and how much he wanted him. Evan pretty much just remained silent. He did love Jeremy. Right now it felt like he had never loved anybody so much. Not even Justin. Jeremy took all the punishment his new life dealt out to him, always behaving in a way that would protect
Evan
.

He considered whether or not he could have just walked over to that table and let someone bind him to it, knowing he might be beaten to death in nearly the most painful way possible. He didn’t think he could.
Unless it would be to spare Jeremy.

He watched as Jeremy slipped off to sleep, while Tom continued to work on cleaning up his back. Tom finally got the wounds dressed to his satisfaction and supervised loading Jeremy into the ambulance. Tom pulled Evan aside before he could ask to ride in the ambulance. “Don’t. Don’t ask to ride with him. Go home. I’ll call you and let you know where he is and the cage number.”

“Cage?”

Tom grimaced. “It’s not like it sounds. Sure it’s a wire enclosure, but there’s a regular hospital bed in it. The clinic I work for shares

my beliefs and opinions. Once I get him admitted, you can come and visit.”

“But…”

Tom tightened his grip on Evan. “Think. Don’t lose him over this. That one EVT—Brad—he’s going to question why Jeremy is so peaceful. I know he suspects that I gave him something. I’ll think of something, but he doesn’t need you acting up, too.”

Evan yielded to common sense and nearly blind with worry made his way back upstairs to his apartment. He still couldn’t figure
Frank out. He guessed maybe Frank wanted Jeremy but didn’t wish him any real harm. He just didn’t know. He paced restlessly. Marta had made dinner and left plates in the microwave. Evan thought about eating, but he didn’t think he could. He really needed to talk to somebody. He wondered if Jeff would mind if he came over. Jeff had known Frank for years; maybe he would have some insight. As he started to trigger his communicator to call Jeff, it pulsed with an incoming call.
Frank.

“
Evan? I called to tell you how sorry I am one more time
and to ask you for a favor.”

“Frank, I appreciate your apology, but really, I need one
from Lillian. What could you possibly want from me?”

“
Look, let me pay his medical expenses
. D
on’t sue Lillian.”

Evan fought not to say the choice phrases that first
sprang to his lips. “I don’t think I can do that, Frank. He was worth a fortune
and
now he’s mutilated. Dr. Hatcher doesn’t even know yet whether or not he’ll live. He needs skin grafts. That means several procedures.

Lillian is alive and well and
w
hole
because
Jeremy
rescued
her.
Your
g
randdaughter
…
Carolyn?
is
alive and well and whole because of Jeremy. He knew what could happen. And you know, even if he had known what a prize bitch your daughter is and the price he would have to pay, he would have done it anyway for Carolyn’s sake.”

“You ascribe quite the moral thought process to a simple animal.”

“Come off it Frank. Animals don’t get 4.0’s in the Stanford MBA program.”

Frank sighed. “I hoped we could com
e to some sort
of
truce
here. You leave Lillian alone and I will leave Jeremy alone.”

Evan thought about that.
He knew he needed to discuss something like this with Jeremy.

“
Let me think about it, Frank. I’m too mad to be reasonable right now and I know that. Give me a couple of days. Of course, if Jeremy dies from this, I won’t rest until Lillian loses everything she has or will ever hope to have.”

“Sounds to me like an inappropriate attachment, Evan.”

Evan’s blood ran cold.

“I mean, you deny that he’s an animal. Now you want revenge against a citizen? What else could it be?”

“How about I have a huge investment in him and he would be difficult, if not impossible to replace at work?”

Frank laughed. “Well, I’m going to file a formal complaint. If Lillian does too, well then; bye-bye Jeremy.”

Evan had never been more
glad that his phone automatically recorded all his conversations. Surely threatening a
m
aster to avoid paying compensation would be overstepping some boundaries.

“You know, until you said
that
I was leaning toward giving you the benefit of the doubt and letting Lillian off the hook. I still might. But I won’t if you file those complaints.”

“I’ll hold off for forty-eight hours. If you haven’t agreed to leave Lillian alone by then, you can rest assured that both complaints will go out fastest way possible to Slave Regulation. You know what? You let me have him for one weekend, Friday night to Sunday night, after he’s
healed and you can do anything you want to Lillian and no complaints will be filed. Think on that, too.” Frank hung up.

Evan’s phone rang in
his hand as he reeled from the
implications of Frank’s threats. It was Tom. Evan noted where Jeremy had been admitted and headed as quickly as he possibly could toward the garage, calling Sean on the way.

“Evan? Did Jeremy live through the discipline?”

“Barely. Now I have another problem.”

“I don’t hear from you in years and now you have a plethora of problems I can bill you for. Way to come back into my life!”

“I love you too,” Evan snorted. “I’m sending you a recording of a threatening phone call I just got from Frank Owens.”

“Frank Owens? As in Chairman of the board of James Enterprises, Incorporated, Frank Owens?”

“Unfortunately. He wants to use Jeremy. He even skipped a downtown meeting to try to catch Jeremy alone in the offices so he could rape him.
"

“Whoa, whoa, Ev. Those are harsh words.”

“I caught him holding Jeremy down on the floor trying to
cram
his
cock
in his mouth. That good enough for you?”

“
Really? Wow. Why don’t you just let him have a turn?”

“Sean
…
.I don’t share well.”

“Have you gone and fallen in love with your slave, Evan?
”

Because Sean was one of the few people Evan would trust with his life, he just told the truth.

“Yeah,” Evan sighed. “I
have.”

“Well…welcome back to the human race, buddy. You know how I feel about Lindsay. So, you made up your mind to live, then?” Sean’s voice was soft and caring.

“I guess I have. But…now Frank is threatening that both he and his stupid cunt of a daughter are going to file complaints of ‘inappropriate emotional attachment’ if I don’t back off
L
illian or let Frank have Jeremy for a week-end. I’m sending you a tape of the phone call now.”

“
Hang on. Let me listen to it.”

Evan neared the slave clinic where Tom had admitted Jeremy. It was in the section of town right between the safer areas and the raging slums. Evan parked as close to the door as he could get and went inside, still waiting for Sean’s analysis.

“Evan? You still there?”

“Of course. What do you think?”

“Well,
I think the conversation could be construed as you overreacting to Lillian’s excessive punishment of Jeremy. There is that one section where you state rather unequivocally that you don’t believe Jeremy is an animal…but I don’t see any admission of inappropriate feelings
.
I think you’re good to go to get an arrest
warrant for Frank for terroristic threatening. And of course the suit against Lillian. I imagine the whole thing is on security video over at James?”

“Should
be. Shit. I should get that data preserved right away before Frank thinks to try to buy somebody off. Get to work on the warrant and the law suit. I’ll forward the video on to you as soon as I get it.”

Evan sat down, in the sparsely furnished waiting area of the clinic. He needed to finish this before he saw Jeremy because he knew he wouldn’t be able to do anything else once he did.

“Mark
?
Jeremy was beaten nearly to death down in the food court this evening. Has anybody
contacted
y
ou about the security video yet?”

There was a long pause. “Uh, Mr. Owens told me to erase it.”

“Did you?”

“Did you want me to?”

“
Hell no, Mark. I really need that video to get damages back from Lillian fucking Rourke.”

“It’s about money?”

“Mark….no. It’s not ab
out the money. Jeremy saved her
fucking life and her child’s life and she tried to kill him for touching her. It’s about trying to show some of these people that…well; it’s not right or fair. It’s not even sane to think that way
. So did you? Delete the video?”

“No sir, I didn’t. I thought it was odd that he wanted me to do something like that, so I, uh, I watched it. It made me sick, sir. I mean, I don’t know you that well, but you’ve always been nice to me. I remember how careful you were with him when you brought him home. I saw your face, sir. When you turned your back to that shrew. It was just for a minute, but, it looked to me like you really care about Jeremy.”

“Mark…that’s dangerous talk. But thank you for saving the footage for me. Please, can you send it to my
datapad
, now?
You’re
right;
Mr. Owens does not have the authority to ask for the security video to be edited in any way. Nobody does. Not
even me, okay? Do you have Sean Murrow’s data
ip
address?
”

“Sure do, Mr. James. You want me to send it to him, too?”

“Yes, please Mark. And it’s Evan, all right? I won’t forget this.”

“I’ll send that out right away, Evan. Just let me know if there’s anything else I can do.”

“Did you happen to record Mr. Owens’ call asking you
to delete the data?”

“
All the calls are recorded.”

Evan sighed and tension flowed out of his neck and back. “Send that recording to both of us as well. Okay?”

“Right now, sir.”

“Thank you Mark. A lot.”

"
Okay. You’re welcome.”