“Yeah, she’s shell-shocked for sure. She doesn’t know who I am, does she?”
“No. I should talk to her first.”
She nodded, “I think so. I don’t think you should make me blindside her. Handle her with a firm hand and that’ll help.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning she might need more direction from you. You have a lot of power, whether you want it or not, and it doesn’t have to just apply to the bedroom. Your power can help her. Your words, the way you treat her.” Lisa shrugged, “This might not make much sense but praise from a Master means a lot. She’s going to take all her cues from you.”
“I get it. Thanks, Leese.” And I did get it. The way she’d acted when she was afraid or stressed, she looked to me as her protector. She’d done that probably both because I was her “Master” and because I’d taken her from there.
Angel
Dare came back after work with a pizza. We ate on one of the sofas together while watching the news and then I hesitantly asked if he wanted to take a walk as he was coming back from putting our paper plates in the garbage.
“I need to talk to you first,” he said as he pulled me onto his lap, “My brother Tommy’s coming home tomorrow and staying for a bit. He’s got stuff to handle plus he’s gonna help me sort out some business shit our Pop left us with. And whil
e he’s here we’ll strategize on what to do about our Kruna shares. They’re having a partner summit in a couple weeks and he and I have gotta talk about how to play things. See, I’d been hoping that within a few months from now I’d be totally out of most of the business my Pop dealt in. I had plans to start fresh, get my pilot’s license, decide whether or not to fly commercial, be a bush pilot, something. Something different for a while.”
I nodded, feeling a little pang of fear. I was trying to listen to what he was saying but I was stuck on the partner summit bit. I hoped he wouldn’t go to Kruna. I hoped he wouldn’t take me back there. Before the panic had a chance to set in he continued talking, “Tommy’s new bride, Tia, I want you to know a bit about her. I also wanna tell you about something else.”
He had my attention again. I shifted on his lap and put my arm around his shoulder.
“Tia’s father was an enemy of my father. Tia’s mother was my Pop’s first love. Pop went on a revenge spree and screwed Tia’s father over a period of two decades in order to break the man because Tia’s mother chose him over Pop. His last ditch effort was forcing the guy to give Tia to my brother as a payment for his debts. Tia and Tommy are happily married, newlyweds. It didn’t start out happy, especially not for her. I told you I delivered her to him. I never let myself think deep on it but from the start didn’t think it was okay to pay a debt with flesh unless it was your flesh, you know, not deciding that for your kid. Anyway, I went along with what Pop said because that’s what I did. I was loyal to him even when I didn’t agree with all the things he did. It’s how we were raised. Pop was demanding and loyalty to him was first. My brother and I had plans to take the company legit once Pop retired so I was biding my time. I went through the motions and tried not to overthink things. We knew we were in gray areas and Tommy and I were fully entrenched in a lot of it. I’m no choir boy. I’ve done shit I’m not proud of. Turned a blind eye to shit I knew was wrong more often than I can count. But we were planning on transitioning it to something cleaner when we found out Pop was playing way dirtier in the world than we’d ever realized. Through a series of events after a shit storm that put the whole family in danger we decided to break away from Pop. His actions cost Tess her husband and my nephews their father, made Luc go into early labor and almost cost us baby Nicky, and my father’s actions almost cost Tommy and Tia everything. We’re talking kidnappings, shootings, a lot of bad shit. Most of the world doesn’t know that at the end, just before Pop died, me and Tommy forced his hand. He pushed back because he saw our mutiny as the ultimate betrayal and it didn’t end well.”
I listened without saying anything. I wasn’t sure if he was telling me he killed his father or his brother did it or someone else on their orders but he was, in essence, telling me that he and his brother were responsible.
Dare seemed to be studying me and the effect of his words.
“This is something that’s not talked about. Ever. There are people in my family that suspect why Pop really died but it’s not discussed. Don’t bring it up. Don’t ask questions. It will never ever be discussed. You’re going to be around my family so you need a little of the backstory.”
My heart lifted. Maybe it should’ve dropped because of the secrets he was revealing. But it lifted because this meant he saw himself with me long term. That’s what it had to mean. He was telling me his secrets and hoping I could handle them. Could he handle my secrets? Could I bring myself to tell them to him? I didn’t think I could.
“You don’t want a bunch of gory details but you know my Pop was a partner at Kruna so you can imagine the kind of man he was. Let’s just say he was dark. He was power hungry and did not hesitate to snuff enemies out. He didn’t care if you were blood, if you were one of his children even. If he saw you as anything but loyal you were dead to him. My sisters don’t know a whole lot about the details and they, Tia, and you don’t need them but know that our family is on the road to change. I’m in the middle of selling off most of the family business piece by piece to get us out of being so closely tied in with organized crime, racketeering, you get the picture.”
I nodded.
“Okay, here’s where you’re gonna be a bit shaken up, I think.”
I braced. He put a hand on my cheek and didn’t let go. I leaned into his palm.
“I found out when I came to Kruna for you that Lisa, my Pop’s widow, she was a Kruna slave. I never knew. Pop didn’t tell us.” He stroked my cheekbone with his thumb, staring right into my eyes.
I blinked. Then I gasped as it sunk in. Monalisa. I said it out loud, “Monalisa?”
He nodded solemnly and rubbed my back with his other hand.
“I asked her to come over tomorrow. I thought you two could…you know, talk.”
I was dumbstruck. Monalisa was like a celebrity to me.
“All this, does it make you wish you never met me?”
My eyes darted from the floor to his face, “Oh god, no. No way.” I wrapped my arms tight around his neck and put my head on his chest. He leaned back and spun so he was lying on the sofa and I was on top of him. I curled up on top, my cheek to his chest, and I closed my eyes and listened to his heart beating.
I didn’t know how to feel. If he kept me I’d have someone nearby who knew what my life was like. Would that help me heal? Or would Monalisa and I just remind one another of who we really were, how dirty and tainted we were? She’d probably know some of what I’d been through in being broken. I’d know that she’d been through at least some of those same things.
I thought back to that day I met her, the way she stared at my throat, the way she didn’t smile. Now it made sense. I’d heard about her. I’d heard a lot about her. I modeled my A to B in the hopes of becoming like the girl that was my predecessor. I was told she was beautiful, graceful, could command a room or be completely obedient, she was a favorite among the patrons and the staff and other slaves, and her reward was to get married off to a powerful, wealthy, and handsome Master who never brought her back, who never even came back after he acquired her.