The Virgin Master (32 page)

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No. But you do know that Frank’s real name isn’t Owens.”
Sean grinned like a shark. “I wondered if you knew.”

“Well
I
still don’t know!” Evan’s anger and impatience
             
began to get away from him.

Sean turned to him. “Frank is the youngest son of Major
Pleshenko
.”

Evan stared at him blankly. “As in the former head of the Russian drug syndicate?”

“That’s the one. His uncle Yuri took over after his father died.”

“So…”

“ You can surely see that James Enterprises, Inc. would provide a ready- made money laundering, drug transportation center. “
             

Evan
gawped. “But why now?”

“I’m not sure yet. Something must be going on under the media radar between the Russians and the Chinese-Colombians.”

“So, all of these maneuvers were to make me look unstable? Or to make me unstable.”

Sean looked at him hard. “How bad is it? Losing Jeremy?”

“You don’t want to know.”

“In point of fact, I have to know.”

Evan ran his fingers thro
ugh his hair and shot a look
at
his
Dad. Allen caught the look and sighed.

“So, son, I guess your resolution not to touch Jeremy and just pretend you had a sexual relationship with him fell to the wayside somewhere?”

Evan barked a short laugh. “That’s one way to look at it. I love him with all my heart and soul. I didn’t think I could ever feel anything like this again after Justin died. But…I always liked Jeremy and enjoyed his company. He’s been so great about everything. The day we had
discipline inspection…he didn’t blame me at all. I had to hurt him, a lot, in front of a witness, and he…hell, he comforted
me
. While he was still bleeding.”  Evan’s eyes revealed him to be far away lost in memory.

“Wait a minute….” Sean interjected. “What do you mean
you always ‘liked Jeremy and enjoyed his company’? Please don’t tell me you knew him before you bought him.”

Evan looked surprised. “Well…yeah. That’s
why
I bought him. I’ve known him for years…well, I met him years ago at Stanford. He was one of my students and he sort of gravitated into my social circle. We weren’t best friends or anything, but he was always invited to our circle’s parties and dinners. After Justin and I moved home, I didn’t hear from him again. Why?”

“
Tell me that there weren’t any rumors that you were lovers.”

“Me and Jeremy? Not likely. We weren’t even ever alone together.”

Sean
snorted
. “If Frank gets wind of this, he can make it look pretty much like what it is only worse. He will say that you rescued a former lover and that you never were able to regard him as a proper slave. Your lack of any previous experience with slave ownership and total lack of interest in it will back him up. This could be bad. Does Jeremy’s family know about your prior friendship?”

Evan nodded. “Yes. So should I talk to them?”

“No, no. That’s one of the first questions they’ll be asked
…
whether or not you tried to influence their testimony. By the way, has Jeremy been anywhere near worth the outrageous price you paid for him?”

Allen actually stepped up to answer that one. “I would say yes. I was just looking at that as a matter of fact. One of the Board members suggested that he has become too valuable to the
Company to let Evan own him personally and that the Company should purchase him outright.”

“Who?”

“Elaine Pickering.”

Sean snickered. “Elaine Pickering? Frank’s girl friend?”Allen and Evan both looked at Sean with surprise. Allen reacted first. “His girl friend? But, she’s, well, she’s
.
…”

Sean chimed in, “Gross? Morbidly obese? Much older
t
t
han
Frank? Yep. Frank’s appraisal of women starts and stops at their checkbooks. She’s way richer than he is. She also really
enjoys
psychoactive drugs. I would bet that Frank rarely has to even touch her. She has a gorgeous personal slave. I’m sure you’ve seen him?”

Evan frowned. “No. She never brings him to the meetings or the social activities. I didn’t even know she had one.”

“She takes him to Frank’s little Friday orgies.”

Evan peered at Se
an. “And you know this because?"

“A man has to have clients.”

“My God. You don’t take
.
…”

“Lindsay? Good God, no. I have a little
twink
I bought
             
just
for that purpose.”
             

Evan’s mouth dropped open. “But, Sean…how can you stand to let him be used like that? Even somebody you don’t care anything at all about? I went to one of those parties before I knew what was likely to happen. I couldn’t stand even thirty minutes of it. I don’t know what to think.”

Sean met Evan’s eye. “You’re not the only one with charges of inappropriate emotional attachment hanging over his head, Ev. If I lost Lindsay, I would just have to die. I think you understand the feeling.” He maintained eye contact as Evan nodded. “One of Frank’s closest friends is Les Bentley, as in the Bentley of Bentley, Arms and Bailey---my firm. I’m pretty sure the only reason I made partner is participation in those little get-togethers.”

Evan swallowed hard. “But still…”

“
I know. I have trouble looking in the mirror from time to time and then I look at Lindsay and our children…I will do anything I have to do to protect her. I can buy the children’s freedom when they reach eighteen and legitimize them. But that’s very, very expensive. I have to do whatever it takes to be sure that Lindsay will be safe and our children will be free. You understand?”

Allen cleared his throat.

“Will
that compromise your representation of Evan in any way? This social connection you have with Owens? Can he put pressure on you?”

“Bentley is way more powerful than Owens. I’ve already discussed the matter with him. He kind of regards Owens as one step above a drug dealer or a pimp. He’ll use his services while despising him at the same time. We’re good.”

Evan shifted nervously, and his voice shook. “I have a lot of questions I didn’t think to ask before they took him. They made me tell him to obey them the same way he would obey me. Are they going to use him sexually? Are they going to whore him out? Did my motion for continued medical care get passed?”

Sean looked shocked. “No, no one will touch him. He’s still your property and you’ve shown you will fight for him. If any one of the Slave Regulation staff touched him or tried to use him like that, you could destroy them in court. It’s happened before. Every member of the staff is aware of that. They’ll feed him and keep him clean. That’s all.”

“I know I can’t visit him, but do I have any right at all to inspect him periodically to be sure they aren’t damaging my asset further?”

Sean grinned at him. “You’re a natural, son. I think, if a hearing is granted and set some distant time in the future, that I can get you inspection rights. It won’t be often
. M
aybe once a month?”

Evan heaved a sigh of relief. “Jeremy will worry. He won’t eat. I’m terrified he’ll get some kind of infection and just die in there. Alone. Is there any way at all I could get some work sent in for him to do? He’ll go stir crazy just sitting in a cell all that time.”

Sean laughed again. “That’s really good. It lends credence to your reliance on him as a work asset. I’ll make that motion right now.” Sean triggered his communicator and spoke in a near mumble to his assistant. “My assistant thinks he can get that on the docket by the end of the week. Who do you want to use to deliver and pick up? Or do you just want to try to get a laptop to him with internet access?’

“Would that mean he could get email? And answer it?” Evan asked, aware that he sounded desperate.

“I can surely get that for him….but Ev
,
they’ll be monitoring the email. You can’t talk to him that way. I can also get regular visits for someone he works with to come in at regular intervals to discuss business with him. Who do you suggest? It can’t be you.”

“I guess Jeff. That’s who he works most closely with.”

“Jeff, it is, then.
”

Sean waited for a second. “
Do either of you have any
more questions?”

Allen stirred. “Is there any way you can think of that
would allow Evan to postpone his annual psych
eval
due to
unusual circumstances?"

Sean mused silently.

“No. The statute requires him to
             
make
the examiner aware of these circumstances prior to beginning. Supposedly, the examiner can make allowances for any undue personal stress.”

“
Riiiight
,” Evan muttered bitterly. “So, no matter what, I have to go?”

Sean nodded. “I would say there’s no getting around it.”

Allen and Evan looked at each other grimly.

“Well, son…it could hardly be worse than last year’s.”

“It was that bad?”

“Two points away from mandatory hospitalization.”

“Good, God. I had no idea.”

“I showed you the results and went over them with you.”

“I don’t even remember.”

Allen drummed his fingers on the desk. “The Board voted that you should be replaced if your next psych evaluation didn’t improve by at least twenty per cent
.
”

Evan nodded. “I’m pretty sure I feel more than twenty per cent better than I did last year, even under the present circumstances.
I’ll take the damn thing and try to be as normal as possible. It will come out however it comes out. Who made that motion?”

Allen smiled grimly. “Frank.”

Sean stood up. “Okay. This is good. I need data feed from these Board meetings. These will go to show that Frank is using the Jeremy issue in his ongoing campaign to weaken James’ stock so that he can take over the company. All we have to show the Board of Slave Regulation is probable cause that Frank would have some other motive besides being a good citizen to file these reports of inappropriate attachment. I have more than enough to establish probable cause. If the Board finds that the reports were fraudulent; they’ll be deleted from your record, you won’t go back on probation
,
and Jeremy will be returned to you. You can then add the damages of losing his services to your ongoing suit for damages against Lillian and I can add a civil suit to our paper on Frank. Of course if they let him work, damages will just be for loss of his sexual service. I’ll look into how that value is calculated and let you know.”

Evan blushed. “Do I have to? I mean, won’t I have to testify about what he does for
me and how it feels and stuff?”

Sean smiled incredulously. “You do realize that you’re going to have to go through that with your case against Lillian, don’t you? That’s critical.”

Evan groaned and hung his head. “I want to take that bitch for all she’s worth if possible. I’ll get through it. Do you have any idea what kinds of questions they might ask me?”