“I would like the letter. If it is in my hands, she won’t have any reason to threaten you again.”
“I’m big enough to care for myself, Brie,” Mary answered irritably.
“I won’t be able to rest until I’ve destroyed the damn thing myself. Please, Mary. Do this for me.”
Mary shrugged. “You’re a fool, Brie, but I’ll let you nail your own coffin shut if you insist.”
Lea growled, “Why are you always so negative, Mary?”
“Why are you such a ditz, Lea?”
Brie could sense that they were all on edge. There was no point in prolonging their suffering. Besides, the sooner she got rid of the offending note, the better.
“Do you mind if we go now?”
“And end this lovely girl-chat?” Mary snarked.
Lea stood up. “A minute less of you would be a gift.” She gave Brie a big hug. “If you need me for any reason, call. You hear me?”
Brie laid her head against Lea’s large bosom for a moment, liking the feeling of being nurtured that flooded over her. “I will, girlfriend.”
“Come on, Brie-a-licious. Let’s get this over with.”
The two drove to Mary’s apartment, where Mary retrieved the icebox. She opened it and whistled. “Must be a high quality cooler—the ice has hardly melted.”
Brie took it and set it on the passenger seat of her car, slamming the door shut. “The sooner it’s gone, the better for everyone.”
Just before Brie drove off, Mary stopped her. She looked uncharacteristically worried. “I think you’re making a mistake getting involved in this.”
Brie shook her head. “You don’t understand. I would do anything for Sir. Anything.”
“I know bouncy boobs already said this, but I’ll say it anyway. If you need me, call.”
Brie waved as she drove away. “Thanks, Mary.”
While on the road, Brie kept glancing at the cooler. It reminded her a little of Pandora’s box. Inside were words Sir’s mother wanted him to see. Were they words full of hate or healing?
She knew Sir was off meeting with clients for the day, which was part of the reason she’d asked to see her friends. Thankfully, that left her plenty of time to get rid of the note. She hurried up the stairs and turned on the faucet full blast as soon as she entered the kitchen. Brie slid the heavy block of ice under the heated water and waited, pacing around the kitchen. She became nervous when it seemed to be taking too long. Even though Sir wasn’t due back for hours she wanted the note, and any evidence of it, long gone by the time he came home.
Brie, why did you bring it here? she chided herself as she watched the ice block slowly melt. But she knew why…
She needed to know if the note held hope. Was it possible for Sir to make some semblance of peace with his mother before she died? It was Brie’s greatest wish to help make that happen if she could. No one is completely evil, she thought. Every person has goodness in them. She was convinced that the threat of death could bring clarity to the darkest of hearts.
After what felt like forever, Brie got out a kitchen towel and laid what remained of the cube on the table. She searched through the pantry until she found the toolbox Sir kept there. She grabbed the hammer and started hacking at the ice.
At first it seemed unbreakable, but once the cracks started the ice fell away in shards. As Brie got closer to the center, she noticed that Mary hadn’t covered the letter in any protective material. More likely than not, the letter inside would be unreadable.
Maybe it’s for the best…
But Brie’s curiosity was too great. She continued to hack away until the envelope was free. She stared at it for several seconds before grabbing the scissors and carefully cutting off the top. She felt like a criminal, but there was no stopping now. She had to know.
Holding her breath, Brie drew out the folded note and opened it. It was smeared, but still legible.
Thane,
If my impending death means nothing to you, perhaps your father’s violin will. If you do not consent to meet, I will destroy the violin. Yes, that damn instrument that has been in the family for centuries. It will cease to exist, just like your father.
So you see, son, Mommy has you by the balls.
Time to play by my rules.
“What are you doing?”
Brie jumped, her heart threatening to burst at being caught. She put the letter down by her side and turned to face Sir. “I thought you were out…”
“I had a severe headache and decided to come home today to sleep it off. Little did I suspect my own sub would bang a worse headache into my brain. Now answer the question.”
“I… I—” The tears started to fall.
“Is that from her?” he stated in a deceptively calm voice.
She nodded, her throat closed too tightly to allow speech.
“I won’t even ask how it ended up in such a state.” Sir’s eyes bored into her with a coldness that stabbed her very soul. “You have betrayed me on a level I’d never thought possible.” Sir strode over and took the note from her, crumpling it into a wad before turning on the gas stove.
Brie managed to blurt out, “She’ll destroy the violin!”
He hesitated for a second before throwing the paper onto the flame. It took a while to catch fire, but soon the whole kitchen was filled with the faint smell of the burning paper.
He growled darkly under his breath after the note had burned itself out, and then turned on Brie. His gaze was clouded with anger. “I commanded you not to have any contact with her and yet I find you here, seeking out her correspondence behind my back. I have purposely disregarded every attempt at contact and then you do this…”
Brie was desperate to explain. “Sir, I wanted to destroy the note myself.”
“The fact you disobeyed my orders on something so vital speaks volumes, Miss Bennett.”
Brie whimpered, knowing the use of her surname was a bad omen. “Sir, she threatened Mary and Faelan for not delivering her message. I wanted to protect them and you from its contents. But before I destroyed it, I was overcome with hope that she wanted to make things right by you.”
“Things will never be right between us!” he shouted.
Brie fell to the floor, bowing in supplication. “I’m sorry, Sir.”
He asked, his voice as cold as ice, “Do you realize what you have done?”
She shook her head with her forehead still pressed to the floor.
“You have forced me to react. Had you simply destroyed it, I would be ignorant of her plan and unable to stop it. I thought she had gotten rid of the instrument years ago. Now I am obligated to liberate my father’s violin from the beast.”
She said in the barest of whispers, “You could pretend you don’t know.”
“No, Miss Bennett. That is something I cannot do.” She heard the flip of his phone. “Yes, it’s me. Simply state where and when. No, I will not.” He paused for a moment, then snarled, “If it is a requirement then I must acquiesce.” He slammed the phone closed and threw it onto the table.
“Get off the floor and clean up the mess you’ve made.”
The apartment was full of a black rage that hung in every corner; there was no escaping it, even when Sir retired to the bedroom.
After Brie had finished restoring the kitchen to order, she took the ice chest and went to the basement garage to throw it in the dumpster. It didn’t ease her misgivings, but she couldn’t bear to have anything of that woman’s near her.
She clearly understood Sir’s intense rage, now that she had read his mother’s hateful words, but it gutted her to know his anger was also directed towards her now.
As the rays of the sun disappeared behind the horizon, Sir emerged from their room. His haggard expression alerted her to the fact he was still suffering from a debilitating headache.
“Miss Bennett, I think it best that you find a place to stay tonight. Call me at noon so I can pick you up. You presence has been requested at the meeting tomor
row.”
“Sir, I never meant—”
He turned from her to return to the bedroom. “I will need to meditate if I am to survive tomorrow. Goodnight.” She heard him quietly shut the door.
With a trembling hand, she dialed and then sobbed into the phone, “Mary… I fucked up bad…”
Best Intentions
It had been a month since her birthday party, but what had happened between Ms. Clark and Rytsar still bothered Brie. Sir had always maintained that no questions were off limits, so one morning while she was straightening the kitchen, she inquired casually, “Sir, may I ask what happened between Rytsar and Ms. Clark? It was shocking to see her bow in front of him.”
Sir gave an irritated sigh. “Durov knew you would eventually ask. He’s given me permission to speak about it, because he was upset that your special night had been tainted by her unseemly display.”
“But it wasn’t his fault, Sir. I don’t blame Rytsar. If you feel it’s best I remain in the dark, I trust your judgment and will not ask again.”
“It was for his sake that I have kept silent. I can only give you minimal details, but not one word can be repeated.”
“I give my word not to tell anyone, Sir.”
His eyes narrowed with anger when he started speaking. “I’m furious that she put him in that position in front of so many. It was inappropriate and manipulative. All these years I have supported her, but she pulled that even after I warned her not to.”
“It seems she still has deep feelings for Rytsar.”
“You may be surprised to know it was mutual in the beginning. The sexual attraction between the two was tangible. I remember how surprised I was, as they are both uncompromising personalities, but Dominants have been known to partner up. It’s not unheard of, simply unusual.”
Brie was more than a little startled to hear that Rytsar had once been attracted to the stern Dominatrix. “Hard to imagine either of them being willing to submit to the other.”
He nodded. “Rytsar was an uncompromising Dominant even then, having been raised since he was a child to indulge in his sadistic ways.”
“What do you know of Ms. Clark’s background, Sir?”
Sir was curt with his reply. “It’s irrelevant to the conversation, Brie. Suffice to say she took pride in her skills as a Dominatrix. Durov had failed to pursue her in the manner she was accustomed to and she felt slighted. It was her misplaced pride that caused that night.”
Brie was almost afraid to find out—afraid that knowing might break her heart.
Uninterrupted, Sir continued, “I wasn’t there when it happened, so I can only speak to what I witnessed. I knew Durov had gone off to celebrate the end of semester finals, so I was unconcerned I hadn’t seen him the entire night.
“But around two in the morning I passed by his dorm room and heard muffled screaming. It was low and masculine—men were not something Durov was known to indulge in. When no one answered the door, I was forced to break the lock. I found him bound to his bed, gagged and tortured. His angry screams indicated it had not been consensual.”
Sir looked away. “What had happened had scarred him as a man. It came as a shock when I discovered who’d done it.”
When he turned back to Brie, his mouth was a hard line. She could tell it was difficult for Sir to speak about it, but he continued anyway. “After taking care of his physical wounds, I went seeking justice.”
“I found Samantha crying in a corner of her room. Two things quickly became evident: she was drunk, and she was horrified by what she had done.
“In no way did it excuse her abuse, but she explained how she’d found Durov passed out outside his dorm when she was stumbling home after her own overindulgence. She’d helped him to his bed, where he’d passed out again. Seeing him helpless like that had done something to her. She’d suddenly got a wild hair up her ass to prove she was Domme enough to take him, convincing herself that if he experienced one session with her she’d win over his affections once and for all.
“After tying him up and gagging him so he couldn’t resist, she woke him. According to her, Durov had remained unyielding the entire time, unwilling to give in to her dominance. In her drunken state, she’d become fixated on breaking his resolve. They’d fought a battle of wills where neither had come out the victor. She had left, furious she hadn’t been able to break his ironclad will. What she’d failed to realize was that she had broken him in the worst way possible.”
Brie stopped her work in the kitchen and sat down, horrified, imagining a myriad of reprehensible scenarios.
“Although he had every reason to press charges, he refused. He fell into a deep depression and almost quit college. Thankfully, that fierce Russian spirit kicked in and he eventually crawled out of his darkness and continued on with his schooling.”
“What happened to Ms. Clark?” Brie asked, hoping for some kind of retribution.
“Samantha begged Durov to forgive her. She spent time in extensive counseling, gave up drinking and, per my suggestion, submitted to a well-known Domme for several months to experience submission for herself. She wanted to prove that she was repentant. Although it came as no consolation to my friend, it molded Samantha into an exceptional Domme.”
“I take it he never did forgive her.”
“None of her actions fazed Durov. As far as he was concerned, she was dead to him. He continued on as if it had never happened. When the two met in public settings, he simply ignored her. We all assumed he had moved on, but one night he flipped out for no apparent reason and pushed Samantha to the ground. He wrapped his hands around her neck and tried to squeeze the life out of her. I was barely able to break the stranglehold he had.” Sir closed his eyes. “I came close to losing them both that night.”
The pain Sir still carried was apparent to Brie, but she couldn’t understand why he felt responsible.
Sir finished his account by stating, “Durov went back to Russia the next day. He claimed that time and distance were the only things that would prevent him from killing her.”
Brie looked at Sir and dared to ask, “I don’t understand, Sir. Why did you remain friends with Ms. Clark after she hurt Rytsar so seriously?”
He gave a long sigh of deep regret. “I was her mentor, Brie. I introduced Samantha to BDSM.”
It would be difficult to keep such a shocking revelation to herself when she met with Lea and Mary the next day, but Brie refused to betray Sir’s or Rytsar’s trust. Instead, she planned to concentrate on discovering what was going on between Lea and Tono. She also wanted to find out what had happened to the note Sir’s mother had tried to deliver through Faelan during Brie’s birthday party. Mary should be able to satisfy her curiosity on that count.
Brie decided to meet the girls at the bar they had frequented when they had been training. It brought back a flood of enjoyable memories.
John, the head bartender, sidled up to them, looking Mary over with a flirtatious grin. “Long time no see, gorgeous.” He turned to Brie and asked, “What happened to the long trenchcoats, Brie? I kind of miss the Goth look on you fine ladies.”
Mary, who loved to torment members of the opposite sex, out-and-out lied. “I insisted we come here today. I missed…” she gave him a breathtaking come-hither look, “…the place.”
“Well, I’m honored. Just for that, your drink’s on the house.”
Brie rolled her eyes. Mary was a ruthless user and abuser of her looks, but for some reason men just ate it up.
Once the drinks had been delivered, Brie asked, “So Lea, out with it. What the heck is going on with Tono?”
“Before I spill the beans, I have a joke for you.”
Mary groaned. “No, not another one of your lame-ass jokes.”
Lea smiled eagerly at Brie. “You know you’re kinky when you keep Christmas lights up in your house to hide the real reason you have all those hooks in your home.”
“That wasn’t bad,” Brie said, giggling as she noticed the small white li
ghts over the bar. She poked Lea in the ribs as she asked, “Hey, John, why do you still have Christmas lights up?”
He gave her a goofy grin. “Eh, too lazy to take them down.”
“I bet,” Lea replied with an exaggerated wink.
“I don’t know these two,” Mary exclaimed as she moved to a seat farther away.
Lea turned her back on Mary in silent protest and smiled mischievously at Brie as she took a sip of her drink. “So Brie, you’re the one who set Tono and me up. Why are you surprised we’re together now?”
Mary scooted back over, shaking her head. “Something’s not right here. You can’t go from lusting over Ms. Clark to cozying up with Jute Freak.”
Lea gave her a superior look. “I’ll have you know we’re living together, Miss Smarty Bitch.”
Brie choked on her merlot and started coughing. “Wait. What?”
Lea just grinned and took another drink. It was obvious she was enjoying herself and had no plans to hurry her explanation.
Mary set her rum and Coke down. “Let me get this straight. Not only are you working with Tono, doing Kinbaku demonstrations, but you have partnered up and are living with him?”
“Why is that so shocking?” Lea asked, sounding offended.
Brie’s coughing had ceased and she was finally able to speak. “This is the same girl who wants to explore everything while she’s young and unattached? Seriously, Lea, how can you go from that to settling down with one Dom?”
Mary laughed unkindly. “I think I hear a little jealousy. You know you can’t keep them all, Brie.”
“It’s not jealousy you hear, Mary. It’s utter disbelief.” Brie turned back to Lea. “What’s the real story, girlfriend?”
Lea pouted. “You guys are no fun. I should have been able to run with this for weeks.” When neither girl responded, she sighed. “Fine. Tono thought our sessions would go smoother and be more indicative of a genuine Kinbaku partnering if we got to know each other. He insists that Kinbaku is best showcased when the couple is in sync.”