Chapter 58


    Richard


    The emergency past, police officers take away the remaining henchmen. White overalled forensics


    sweep the room. Medics carry out the injured and the unconscious.


    James, as slit-eyed and nk-faced as I have ever seen him….


    .... He’s fucking furious….


    …. watches Klempner get stretchered away then nods acknowledgement to me and Michael before


    turning his attention to Charlotte.


    She’s standing in her shredded rags of clothes and as James swings on her, there is no trace of the


    bright pleased smile she first gave him….


    He’s going to roast her….


    …. And she knows it….


    A nod to Michael and he stalks to the far end of the room.


    “Charlotte! Here. Right now!”


    She rolls appealing eyes at Michael who scowls in return, shrugging and muttering something, then


    jerks his head towards James.


    Head low, she slumps across the room, then stands, fingernails biting into her palms


    I have known James as a Dom who, for the most part, has been forgiving of the antics of his sub. Even


    when there was strain between them, it unravelled itself fairly quickly.


    There is nothing of that casual dominance about him now. His face apocalyptic, Charlotte is about to


    get it, both barrels. And I see that Michael, for all that he has apparently tossed Charlotte to her Wolf, is


    nheless watching closely.


    White-faced and furious, he towers over her. Speaking through clenched teeth, “What the hell do you


    think you were ying at there, Charlotte? What does it take to get you to behave in reasonable


    fashion?”


    Elizabeth shivers in my arms. “Master, she….”


    “Shhh…. This is between them.”


    But nheless, I listen in too.


    Charlotte, for a change, appears truly submissive. “I’m sorry,” she says quietly, staring at the floor.


    “Are you?” hisses James. “What exactly are you sorry for?”


    “For what happened outside. I knew you wouldn’t like it, but there was no time…”


    He stares down at her, eyes hard. “You say you’re sorry, but would you do it again? Running off like


    that?”


    Even from here I can see her licking dry lips, the movement of her throat as she swallows….


    Wondering if he’s going to knock the living daylights out of her….


    What would I do? If Elizabeth behaved like that? Even for good cause?


    My beautiful Elizabeth, my wife, my sub, trembles in my embrace….


    It’s not a meaningful question….


    She’s not got it in her to behave like that….


    …. and if she had, I could never have married her….


    I’m pulled from my reverie by Charlotte’s reply. “Yes, I would do that again. I couldn’t leave Beth in here


    by herself. And I had to stop them realising that you were here.”


    James'' eyes soften, losing a little of their slit-eyed savagery. He nces across to Elizabeth, then back


    at Charlotte. “Beth is not your responsibility….”


    “But she is,” insists Charlotte. “She’s my friend. It matters what happens to her. If you’re going to punish


    me, then get on with it. I’d rather not wait, and I’m sorry for upsetting you, but I’m not sorry for what I


    did.”


    His head tilts back, his gaze heading ceilingward for a few seconds, but the first st of his rage is


    ebbing away. When he turns back to her, his voice is milder, although still with an edge.


    “I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to punish you. Astonishingly, I’d like to hear what you have to say.”


    She looks up to him, meets his eye, then away again, blinking fast. “I didn’t want Beth to get hurt.”


    James’ eyes sh to me and Elizabeth. So do Michael’s, before both look away again.


    “And what about you?” he asks. “What about you getting hurt? Michael was beside himself when he


    saw what you were doing…”


    Her voice is close to a whisper. “They were going to gang-rape her.”


    James holds his hands up helplessly, the rage rising again. “And what about you?” he snaps. “Your


    solution is to goad them into gang-raping you instead?”


    Again, her eyes meet his, but now she holds his gaze. “I’m tougher than Beth. And it doesn’t matter for


    me the same way.”


    What the hell…?


    In my arms, Elizabeth stirs. Michael jolts to attention. James looks bewildered. “Doesn’t matter?” he


    says. “Doesn’t matter? Charlotte, we’re not talking about fun and frolics at the clubs, with Michael and I


    close by, watching to make sure things don’t get out of hand. It would have been violent assault, and


    there’s a fighting chance you wouldn’t have survived it. Have you no idea…?” His face is pale, almost


    bloodless.


    She interrupts, her voice snapping. “No idea? Of course, I’ve an idea... You know how I grew up. I


    know exactly what could have happened.”


    He calms but does not look pacified. “Yes, of course you do.…. But, I can’t believe you could be so


    unthinking.”


    “I wasn’t unthinking.…” she insists.


    No…. She never is….


    So, what the hell is going through her head?


    Michael steps forward, holding out a pacifying hand. “James, let me…. Charlotte, tell me exactly what


    was in your mind when you did…. what you just did. And what do you mean? It doesn’t matter the


    same way for you?”


    It seems to be the right question. She hesitates, choosing her words I think, then, “I was thinking that I


    didn’t want them to touch Beth. For me, it would be just.… just, one more thing that’s happened. You


    two, it wouldn’t upset you that there’s been other men…. But it’s not like that for Beth. You’ve seen her


    friends. They’re all polished nails, expensive hairstyles and gossip. If it got out that something like that


    had happened to her, she’d be humiliated. And there’s Richard too….”


    Michael’s voice is arctic. “Richard? Charlotte, I know you felt you had a debt to him….”


    Oh, Christ….


    She did it for me….


    Not for Elizabeth….


    For me.


    Elizabeth takes my hand, squeezes the fingers, but Michael is still speaking. “…. but that debt is paid.


    And more than paid. Do you understand me?”


    She’s resistant, unrepentant. Looking down, “He had to have her back unhurt…. Caesar’s wife.…”


    “…. must be above reproach?” Michael finishes her sentence, iced anger welling. “But you count for


    something too, Charlotte.”


    Stubbornly, she doesn’t reply, still staring at the floor.


    James res, the angry Dom now fully to the fore once more. He jabs a finger at her. “This discussion


    isn’t finished.…”


    *****


    James


    She stands, somehow meek and defiant at the same time. Dishevelled and dirty, her clothes in tatters,


    bruises rising on her face….


    …. and the eyes of a sea-goddess….


    Safe now, her abductors taken away, the area saturated with police, I can talk to her freely, for all the


    good it does.


    Eyes downcast, she almost invites me to punish her.


    Is it an act?


    It hardly matters….


    …. It wouldn’t make the slightest difference to her behaviour.


    And I stand here, wondering what to say, caught between rage and pride….


    …. My Jade….


    What the fuck do I do with you?


    There’s a yell, Michael’s voice. A cry of warning, of fury and desperation. My attention ripped from


    Charlotte, I turn to see what has so rmed him.


    Beth is screaming. Michael is running…. leaping….


    A slow-winding eternity, a split-second stretches out to take the events it contains.


    A man stands at the far end of the hall, framed in the doorway, his gun trained on Charlotte….


    …. The blood ms my fingertips in a single bursting pulse, and my heart bangs with a shock of


    recognition….


    Corby….


    His face is dispassionate, cold….


    …. The professional gunman….


    Michael is hurling himself at Corby, in a desperate tackle, trying to take him down, trying to prevent the


    shot….


    I look one way and the other. There’s nowhere to hide. Nowhere to run….


    …. and Charlotte…. Her eyes are like great green moons in her white face as she looks hopelessly first


    one way then the other, her long hair swinging as she seeks refuge….


    …. and finds none….


    Then she turns to stare Death in the face….


    I seize, her, my Jade-Eyes….


    …. My Love….


    …. and wrapping her in my arms I swing, spinning us both, shielding her with my body….


    Michael makes contact, his full body-weight powering into the assassin, but the gun fires, a single


    shot….


    From N?velDrama.Org.


    Pain….


    Blinding, shrieking, unholy agony….


    I think I cry out….


    Or perhaps it is my Green-Eyes screaming….


    Jade….


    *****


    Richard


    James falls, his blood spurting and at that moment, gunfire zes from all directions. Bullets


    hammering into Corby, his body jumps and jerks under the hail of fire before he lies there, still, save for


    a spreading pool of blood.


    The light shes amber and blue in the night casting oundish shadows on the walls. Michael lies


    panting, his eyes wide with shock. Elizabeth shakes and weeps in my arms. Police gather around


    Corby’s corpse, guns still raised, but the man is quite dead.


    And the only sound is that of Charlotte, dropped to her knees beside her fallen Master, wing at his


    fallen body and shrieking through the tears and blood which drip from her face.


    *****


    ‘Mastering the Virgin’


    This Part of the Story of Charlotte, James and Michael


    Will Conclude In


    ‘Family’


    ‘Mastering the Virgin’