Hear Me

“Just curious…Master.”

His look seared her. “You can call me by name.” He stepped directly in front of her and held out his hand. “I’m Sam. Nice to meet you.”

She stared at it curiously, large and calloused and inexplicably familiar. Finally she reached out, and he took her hand and pulled her to him. She was enfolded in his arms, tucked under his chin, and she never wanted to leave.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“…don’t know.”

“Okay,” he said, accepting her words as if it were completely normal not to know her own name. As if she were normal.

“Number forty-five,” she mumbled. “Slave forty-five.”

She curled into his embrace, as if she could climb inside him, breathe only his musk, and be the beat of his heart. He smoothed her hair, ran his hands along her arms, still answering her unspoken pleas even though she could speak.

“I know this must be scary for you,” he murmured. “I’m going to help you however I can, but one day you’ll go back. No, shhh, not right now. You don’t have to leave tonight. But we could try to contact someone. Surely there are people who miss you, who want to know that you’re okay. A family.” He paused a beat. “A husband. Can you remember any of it?”

“Can’t… she doesn’t… she doesn’t know.”

The silence was stark then, so complete between them that the faint buzz of a nearby insect intruded. Nothing had fazed him, not the scars on her body, her overly submissive ways, or even her inability to speak. But now he seemed at a loss, she was at a loss, unable to even say the word I.

I don’t know, was what she had meant to say, but even in her mind she tripped over it. Like she wasn’t even a person anymore. How much had they taken from her? Too much, now this.

“Subby.” His voice raw, as if he’d been shouting. “Who did this to you?”

She swallowed. “I…I…”

I think it was your brother.

Her memories from her old prison were muted but clear enough to make out faces. She had never seen him there, even though her skin tingled with sick familiarity when he touched her last night. But even if he hadn’t abused her, she suspected he was involved with them. How much shipping industry could there be in a group of islands?

More than that, he had known. He had known that she couldn’t speak, he’d known that she had been trained. All without ever meeting her before.

But she only had to get through today. He would be gone tonight.

“How often does he come? Your…your…Brendan?”

“Maybe every few weeks. Sometimes a couple of months go by. Why?”

“Rather be alone.” With you.

He squeezed my arm. “I suppose you’re attached to me because I was the one to find you. But you don’t have to worry about my brother. Not all men are like the ones who hurt you.”

She looked down, wishing she could believe it.

“He’s a good guy.” His gaze was off into the trees, far away. “We didn’t used to get along. When we were kids, we were competitive. Even when we grew up, we would keep in touch just trying to one-up the other. Then something… something happened. I want to say it’s all his fault. For a long time I did think so, but I take responsibility for it now.”

He paused, and she thought he wouldn’t continue. She nuzzled her nose into his chest to prompt him. His gaze snapped back to the present, to her, and he smiled slightly. Then it faded.

“We used to Dom together. It was just something we did. There isn’t any excuse for it. It wasn’t that we just shared the girls… we used them. Pushing them harder and farther and longer just because we had something to prove.”

He sighed. “Then I met a woman. We started dating, then she moved in. Pretty soon she was subbing twenty-four seven, like you. I had so much damn pride. Too much. Then I found out she was seeing my brother.”

A small sound escaped her. She had some idea of where this was going now, of the part she had played in this sibling rivalry. It had been bad enough knowing she had betrayed a nameless Master, distant and aloof from herself, but now that he was opening up to her, now that she knew how much harder he would take it…

“We had shared her when we started dating, only once, and I knew that would be the last time. When I found out she was still seeing him, I went a little crazy. I broke up with her. Didn’t even pay attention to the fact that she was totally dependent on me, just kicked her out. She got mugged and killed a few days later.”

He looked down at her, eyes like swirling mercury. “I finally gave up the fight. Moved down here. So my brother won after all. At least that’s what I thought. But her death affected him too. He came down to visit me, saw some of my furniture, and carted it back to the states. This is as close as we’ve ever been.”