Chapter 40

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Jake returned to the car and gave Boris directions to the hospital. When they arrived Jake almost couldn’t get out of the car. Although his muscles were finally fully under his control, they were nearly too weak to support him.

Mark was sitting in the waiting room. He stood and greeted them.

“They took your mother into an examining room first thing. Jan’s with her.”

Jake went to the reception desk.

“My mother was just brought in a few minutes ago. Her name is Ellen Fielding. I’d like to see her when it’s possible.”

“She’s with the doctor right now,” the clerk said. “Someone will let you know when there’s news. Is your father here?”

“I don’t have a father. It’s just me and my mother.”

“Okay. Please, have a seat for now.”

Jake read her. Ellen had been examined immediately by a doctor. The police and a rape counselor had been called. She expected Ellen to be admitted to the hospital in about two hours.

Jake sat with Mark and Havel. He called Carol and told her that they were at the hospital and asked her to spread the word to Shannon, Christine and the DeRizzo women.

“Mark,” Jake said, “I want to thank you for being so good to Ellen last night. She had a great time.”

“Your mother is a special woman, Jake. I’m sorry about what happened.”

“She’s strong. Much stronger than she seems when you’re just getting to know her.”

“I don’t understand what happened at that motel,” Mark said. “Your father was unconscious on your mother and you were lying outside bleeding.”

Jake took a deep breath. This had better be good.

“You got there after all the fireworks were over. I got a key card from the desk clerk —”

“He just gave it to you?”

“I told him my father had accidentally locked me out of the room and asked for a key card. He was very helpful.”

“That doesn’t make me feel very good about hotel security. Then what happened?”

“I opened the door and found him on my mother. He heard me but he couldn’t get up fast enough. A good, stout stick to the side of his head put him down.”

“I didn’t see a stick. And how come you were laying on the sidewalk bleeding on yourself?”

“I’m not sure what became of the stick. It’s probably under the bed. I’ll tell you the rest if you promise you won’t repeat it to anyone.”

“Okay, just tell me what happened.”

“I’m not exactly sure. I was so scared that I started to run back out the door to get Boris. I think I tripped on the threshold and took a header. The next thing I know you and Jan are there and I’m lying in my own blood. I was pretty shook up.”

“How come Boris wouldn’t let us come help you?”

Jake drew a blank. “Uh, Boris, why not?”

“I didn’t know you’d cold-cocked him. He might have been armed. I didn’t want any more hostages.”

Mark subsided. Jake breathed a sigh of relief.

Thanks, Boris. That was fast thinking.

After an hour a policeman appeared and approached Jake. He radiated frustration.

“What do you know about the attack on your mother?”

“Nothing. I was just told that she had been attacked and that they were bringing her here. Can you tell me anything?”

“What happened to your face?”

“It was completely unrelated.”

“What happened?”

“I was hurrying to get here. I tripped and went down face first.”

“Who told you about the attack on your mother?”

“Jan Harrison.”

“She didn’t tell you anything more?”

“No. Can you tell me what happened?”

“No, not until I find out,” he said, a touch of growl in his voice. He turned to Mark and Havel.

“Can either of you tell me what happened to Miss Fielding?”

“They’re friends of mine. They’ve been with me. They don’t know any more than I do.”

“Is that right, gentlemen?”

Mark and Havel both agreed with Jake.

After the police officer left, Mark looked over at Jake.

“I hope you know what you’re doing.”

“Mark, if I know anything, it’s that this is the only way to keep Ellen safe in the future.”

After a while, a doctor came out. The receptionist directed him to Jake.

“Ellen Fielding is your mother?”

“Yes.”

“Is there an adult I can talk to? Perhaps your father.”

“No. It’s just her and me.”

“Your mother was attacked. She suffered physical injuries that are not serious. She has two dislocated fingers. She is bruised. There are some other minor injuries, uh, related to the nature of the attack. She’s also been through an emotionally difficult experience. She’s been admitted to the hospital and given a sedative. She may already be asleep. Her friend, Mrs. Harrison, is with her.”

“How long will she be here?”

“She’ll be released tomorrow.”

“May I see her?”

“It’s probably not a good idea. It’s hard for a mother to deal with her children when something like this happens. It might be better to wait until the morning.”

“We are close. We have no one else. I think that she would want me to be with her.”

“She’s in room 331. Please, don’t press her if she appears to be getting upset.”

Jake, Havel and Mark made their way to Ellen’s room. Jake asked Havel and Mark to wait in the lobby while he checked up on her. He stood outside the room. He could sense Jan within. She was radiating concern. Ellen was asleep.

Can I come in, Jan?

Yes.

He walked into the room and gasped. The left side of Ellen’s face was bruised and her eye was swollen shut. There were bruises on her throat. Her left hand was in some kind of brace.

The rightness of what Jan was saying hit Jake hard. He realized that he had been viewing Ellen as a traditional rape victim, injured by being forced into an intimate act against her will. He tried to reevaluate how Ellen had experienced the attack given her particular psychology.

What is devastating to her, Jake, is that she has lost the compass that tells her her place in the world. She stopped seeing herself as worthy of being your sub when she disobeyed you by failing to prevent your father from having sex with her.

Jan continued.

And as bad as that is, there is something much worse. She liked it. Harris acted as a master does. He dominated her. He forced her to serve. She found herself responding to his dominance. She became sexually excited. She felt her need to submit being met in a profound way. She preferred his style of dominance to yours. It’s this disloyalty that is the source of her despair. Your father’s biggest crime was to drive a wedge between her and her master. If you want to heal her, you have to restore the basis of your relationship with her — obedience and submission. You have to punish her.

Does Ellen need a different master? A better one?

Jan sighed.

Before today she didn’t realize that the way you dominate her doesn’t fully meet her needs. She had nothing to compare you with. She just knew that what she had with you was better than how things had been before she had a master. Besides she loves you.

Jan paused a moment in thought. But now she understands her needs better. She sees that there is a more intense level of domination than what she has experienced with you. It’s a level that touches something deep within her. If you return to the relationship that you had before today, it will feel lacking to her. She would probably still love you with all her heart but she will know she is missing something. If you love her enough to help her meet that need, you only have two options—find someone who will dominate her like that or train yourself to do it.

Jake felt a coldness inside at the prospect of losing Ellen.

Jan patted his shoulder and turned for the door.

Jan, I can’t thank you enough. You are a friend beyond measure.

Jan kissed him and left. Jake settled into a chair and watched Ellen’s mind.

Suddenly Jake realized that he could put the genie back into the bottle. If he did it right, when Ellen woke up again, she would not remember what had happened to her. Jake would not have to turn into a hard-case dominator.

Jake followed association bundles from Ellen’s memories of Harris at her gym until he found the memories of her with Harris that morning. He saw that association bundles had already connected to the incident and were heading out from there to other parts of the cortex. He could disable the associations. Then when she woke up, he could find the recall indexes that mapped into the events.

Jake jumped up to ask Jan her opinion but caught himself before he got to the door. He knew what she would say. Innocence is another name for ignorance. Ellen had learned important things about herself and self-knowledge is a good thing.

And Jan had not come out and said it plainly, but he knew she thought Jake had been coasting, shirking his duty as her dominant. He had stopped digging into Ellen’s personality to develop a better understanding of her needs. He had become content with the status quo. If he took these memories from Ellen, the time of reckoning would come on him as soon as Jan realized what he had done.

But Ellen was his sub. It was his decision to make, not Jan’s. Jan would just have to understand. They would all have to understand.

Not that they would. Leanne, Kara — hell, probably everyone who knew about his abilities — would think he had misused them just to make things easier for himself. He would not be able to dispute the truth of that.

But making her forget the day would reduce the risk that Jake would lose Ellen. He could still learn more about Ellen’s needs. That would be a happy ending, would it not? It would show that he was being responsible, that he was taking his duty as Ellen’s master seriously.

But there was no way it would work. Other people would talk to Ellen. She might accept that Jake had done it for her own good if he insisted, but it would open up a can of worms that could only mean trouble. Ellen would begin to wonder if Jake had altered her in other ways.

Worse, the rest of his women would wonder the same thing. And well they should. He had always had the intuition that it would ruin his relationships with his women if they suspected he was changing them either surreptitiously or against their will.

Harris had created a dilemma that had Jake well entangled. The consequences were going to play out no matter what Jake did.

If he couldn’t avoid it, maybe he should treat it as an opportunity. Maybe there were kinds of domination that Ellen needed that Jake would enjoy doing with her. He was not going to beat her, that was for sure. But what was he willing to do?

He had enjoyed the role-playing with Shannon where he would threaten to humiliate her in public using sex. He suspected that this was something that was going to go beyond mere threats before long. The threats of violence were fun, too, provided it did not go beyond playing.

Maybe he could change his attitudes about Ellen serving him. He felt uncomfortable asking her to do things for him, but if she needed more of it, he was being selfish to fight it. She was already doing all those things that mothers did around the home, but he could order her to do them anyway. He could control the way she did them. What would be nicer than watching her vacuum the floor braless? And, heaven knows, it certainly wouldn’t be the end of the world for him to wake up to a blowjob every morning either. There were probably lots of little ways he could dominate her more minute by minute. He didn’t begrudge the time and effort it would take.

He sensed Ellen’s sleep becoming shallower. What would he say to her when she woke up? He did not know. He only knew that he would have to find a way for her to feel controlled again. He walked to the door and shut it in the hope that they might have more privacy. The eye that was not swollen shut followed him back to his chair. He pulled it close to the side of her bed.

She was troubled. Given what she had just been through, Jake didn’t find that surprising. But even given the circumstances, she didn’t feel like Ellen. He’d never felt so much fear in her. He followed it to its source.

Harris had installed several controls in her mind. He had linked fear to thoughts or intentions of hurting or disobeying him, the same technique that he used on his other victims. Ellen’s mind was bouncing between angry, vengeful thoughts about Harris and the resulting fear. Jake stripped out the link.

The difference it made in her emotions was huge. Even outwardly he could see her becoming calmer. That was the easy fix. Now for the harder one.

“My beautiful sub has had a rough day, I see,” he said to her, his voice quiet. “In some ways, you performed well today. In other ways your conduct was unacceptable. So bad, in fact, that it threatens the very foundation of our relationship. I won’t tolerate that. Are you following me so far?”

Ellen nodded.

“So here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to build on the things you did right. We will make you even better at them. I couldn’t have been prouder of you when I learned that you had shot that son of a bitch. When we are done, you’ll be even better at defending yourself, me, and the people we love. One of the ways you will serve me is by protecting me and the other members of my family. When I’m done with you, you’ll be able to outshoot Annie Oakley. No enemy of my family will ever be able to get to any of us again. No one in my family will ever have to go through what you endured today.”

She tried to speak but ended up coughing instead. Jake reached for a water pitcher and poured from it into a cup that he put in Ellen’s good hand. She took a sip.

“Yes, Jake.”

“Do not call me Jake!” he hissed. “You don’t deserve to call me by my name. Until you are punished for your shortcomings, you will refer to me only as master when we are alone.

“There is nothing that you could have done to prevent my father from having sex with you. So I will not punish you for that or for obeying him. But I will punish you severely because you let yourself be aroused by what he did to you. I will not tolerate that kind of disloyalty. It is critical to our relationship that you understand how you failed me. If you have any questions, ask them now.”

“I failed you by letting him fuck me. I am unworthy of you.”

Jake grabbed the chest of her hospital gown and used it to pull her up until her face was near his.

“Damn right you are unworthy of me,” he said in a low, dangerous voice, “not that that makes any difference. You are tied to me. You are my slave. You gave yourself to me and I claimed you. I will not let you go. You are mine until the day you die.”

He let her fall back onto the bed

“And I take my responsibility for you seriously. At this moment our relationship is broken, but I will start to fix it today. And when I have put it right, I will expect you to not break it again in the future. Tomorrow you will be released from this hospital, and you and I are going to work out our problems together. And I promise you it will hurt.

“Let’s figure out exactly how you failed me. Did you have sexual intercourse with him?”

“Yes, master.”

“How many times and in what ways.”

“He fucked my vagina and my anus, once each.”

“Did he come inside you?”

“Yes, master.”

“Where?”

“In my anus.”

“Did he use a condom in your vagina?”

“I believe he did, master.”

“In your anus?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Did you have any other contact with this penis?”

“No, master.”

“Did you ask him to fuck you?”

“No, master.”

“Did you try to resist him?”

“Yes, master.”

“Did you tell him that you did not want to have sex with him?”

“Yes, master.”

“Did you become sexually aroused when he fucked you?”

“Yes, master.”

“Did you have an orgasm?”

“Yes, master.”

“How many times?”

“I’m not sure. They ran together.”

“Did you enjoy the way he dominated you?”

“Yes, master.”

“After this discussion is finished, I will not entertain any further talk that you failed me by letting him have sex with you. You didn’t let him do anything. He made you do it. You couldn’t have stopped him any more than you could stop me if I chose to take you against your will. You met your obligation because you would have resisted him if you had had free will in the matter. Do you understand me?”

“Yes, master.”

“In the same way, you are not guilty of obeying him because you had no choice. It is stupid to say that you should have done something that nobody can do. Understand?”

“Yes, master.”

“Then do not say again that you broke either of those two rules. You are not to blame for the things he made you do.”

“Yes, master.”

“But I wish you had handled your emotional reaction to him better. There you are to blame. You were sexually aroused by the thought of being dominated by him and by the sex itself. Do you have any justification for such disloyalty?”

“No, master. Though I don’t know how I could have stopped myself from coming.”

“Then I will teach you to control your sexual responses. When I am done with you, you will have learned how not to have an orgasm until I tell you that you may.

“Now let’s talk about the more serious offense. You took pleasure in being dominated by him. Did you find his methods more satisfying than mine?”

“Yes, master,” she said in a whisper staring down at her chest.

“And whose fault is that?”

“It is mine, master.”

“Yes, it is. But it is also mine. It is your fault because you did not tell me that you had unmet needs. It is your fault that you let his domination touch you emotionally. It is my fault because I didn’t look deeply enough to see that you needed it. My fault is grave because I have abilities that I could have used to see into your heart. I won’t make that mistake again. I’ve learned some important lessons on how to be a better dominant.

“But my failure in no way excuses your failure. Tomorrow I will punish you. I won’t wait for your injuries to heal. Our reconciliation is too important to put off because of physical discomfort.”

“Yes, master, I understand.”

Jake was relieved that Ellen seemed relieved. The shame diminished but it was not gone.

“There are people who want to see you. Are you up for visitors?”

“Yes, master.”

“We should tell your mother that you are here.”

Ellen began to panic.

“My father will go crazy.”

“We won’t tell your father, just your mother. At least at first. He will find out eventually. It’s too bad I can’t just introduce him to my father. Then he’d be able to work out some frustrations.”

“Master, I don’t understand.”

“You know that I captured my father, don’t you?”

“No, I didn’t realize that. I assumed you just rescued me from him.”

“We captured him. He’s still in the motel room. He’s paralyzed and unable to use his powers. I’ll deal with him later. Think about what you want to do when you meet him. If you want some kind of revenge against him, I will probably allow it. We’ll talk about this more tomorrow.”

“What are you going to do with him?”

“He’s done a lot of harm. I’m going to get him to tell me about it and I’ll clean up what I can. His life as he knew it is over. I’m going to make sure that he never hurts you again, even if I have to kill him to do it. I’ll also wring all the information out of him that I can. I will make him pay reparations. I’m going to kick the crap out of him, too.”

“Master, I don’t want you to kill anyone.”

“Stop it! You are my sub, not my master. It is not your decision to make. I will discuss it with Boris and Jan. I might even talk about it with you. But I will choose. And tomorrow I will punish you even more for presuming to tell me what to do.”

Ellen dropped her eyes. “Yes, master.”

Jake stood and kissed her gently on the lips. Then he grabbed Ellen by the hair, pulling it hard.

“I love you more than anything. That is why before tomorrow is over you will have learned to be a better submissive. In a moment, I’m going to invite our friends to join us. When they come, you will show them that you are strong and that my father has not broken you. You are not a victim.”

“Yes, master.”

Jake opened the door and went out to the waiting room. Boris, Mark and Jan were still there. The Harrison daughters and the DeRizzo women were there as well. So was Carol.

He smiled at them all.

“My mother is doing surprisingly well. She’s a strong woman. She’d like you all to visit her in her room. Just don’t make a big ruckus. The nurses will be scandalized if they find her not behaving like a victim.”

When they started moving toward Ellen’s room, Jake pulled Boris and Mark to the side.

“I need a place to take my father, someplace out of the way where loud noises won’t bring people asking questions. Do either of you have any idea?”

“You’re not using my basement for a torture chamber, Jake,” Mark said.

“I’m not asking you for that. I couldn’t with your kids around anyway. What I need is someplace that’s as isolated as your house. But I’ll interrogate him at my apartment if I have to. I’d rather have him someplace that’s out of the way where I can take my time with him. There are things he and I have to talk about.”

Mark looked over at Boris for support, but Boris did not say anything. Mark sighed.

“There are lots of places that will meet your needs, Jake. Any rental agent will have any number of rural homes that he will be glad to lease to you. If you are sufficiently motivated, you can be in one tomorrow. The only problem will be his reluctance to rent to a minor.”

Jake looked at Boris.

“I live in the city, Jake. I only know about places that have lots of people around.”

“Will you help me interrogate him, Boris?”

“I won’t help you kill him or torture him.”

“I don’t need help with that. Any torturing I do will be for my own satisfaction, and I’ll be glad to do it myself. What I need from you is help making sure I have all the information that there is to get.”

Boris nodded. “I owe it to Ellen.”

Mark was staring incredulously. “You’re not going to be a part of this, are you?” he asked.

“Mr. Harrison, with all due respect, you don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t know how many people that man has hurt. I suspect that he’s raped and beaten hundreds of women, most of them even worse than he did to Ellen today. He’s a master criminal. His methods are so sophisticated that he is virtually immune to prosecution.

“I said that I wouldn’t kill him or torture him. It’s not that he doesn’t deserve it, because manifestly he does. The only reason I won’t is that I don’t want to scar my soul by being the one who gives him what he deserves.” He looked over at Jake. “And that’s something you should keep in mind, my young friend.”

Jake nodded. “I’ll think about it.” He turned to Mark. “I don’t ask you to participate. But can I count on you to keep quiet about what I’m doing with Harris?”

“Yes, Jake, but I worry that you’re making a big mistake.”

“Understood. Thank you, Mark.”

Jake called his grandparent’s house. His grandfather answered and they spoke for a couple of minutes, mostly about baseball and the disintegration of the Episcopal Church. A typical conversation. Then Jake asked to talk to his grandmother.

“Gramma, I want you to go someplace where we can talk without Granddad listening in.”

“We can talk freely. Your grandfather went to his study.”

“I’m going to tell you something, and I want you to not tell him.”

“What, Jake?”

“I’m at the hospital with Momma. My father attacked her again.”

“Oh, God. How is she?”

“No serious injuries. I believe that she’s handling it well emotionally. My father was caught.”

“Thank God for that. Did he rape her again?”

“Yes, Gramma.”

“Where are you at?”

“She’s been admitted at University Medical Center. She’s in room 331.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to tell your grandfather?”

“I wish we could tell him. It’s just that I don’t want him coming in and upsetting Momma. You know how he is about what happened between Mom and my father before.”

“I’ll lay down the law. He’ll know how to behave by the time we get there.”

“That would take a load off my mind if you did, Gramma.”

“We’ll be there in half an hour.”

Jake returned to Ellen’s room. He hung back and watched the interaction. The visitors were still a little stiff but they were starting to loosen up. Ellen was happy to see them. She was unselfconscious about her appearance. She was pretty graphic in describing her injuries and the attack.

Jake noted that Shannon and Christine were both titillated by Ellen’s account. Jan began to get a bit aroused, too, Jake noted with some interest. Maybe there would be a little role-playing in her future, too.