Chapter 6

As Iris turned to follow Susanne’s car onto what was clearly a ranch driveway, Matt was pleased to note that the house was not visible from the road due to heavy brush and bushes along the road. This continued to around 50 feet in along the driveway where the driveway took a turn to the left, so that the house wasn’t even visible from the end of the driveway.

As they pulled up to the house itself, Matt saw that there was a professionally dressed gentleman and an older couple, likely in their early 60s, waiting for them at the house.

As they got out of the minivan, Matt looked around. The house had a brick exterior. It was sprawling, not quite two stories high, with an attached 2 car garage. Matt surmised that since basements were uncommon in Texas, that the house likely had a full attic. He could also see that there were three barns on the property, with two of them having attached paddocks. He loved the look of the house and the barns.

Susanne got Matt’s attention and led him over to the seller’s agent.

“Brent, this is Matthew Murphy,” she said, “who’s interested in this property.”

“Brent Walker,” Brent introduced himself and his clients, “and these are the owners, George and Lydia Hall.”

“Call me Matt,” Matt said. He noticed that the Halls looked a bit sad. “Do you mind me asking why you would be selling such a nice place?” he asked.

“It’s a bit tragic.” George started. “My grandfather bought this place and bred horses here. I was forced to shut the breeding operation down, because I had health issues and our son wasn’t interested in taking over. Lydia and I had difficulty conceiving and as a result had our only son, Frank, late in life.
Due to my health issues, Lydia and I were forced to move into Houston to be closer to medical care. Frank got engaged last year, and he and his fiancee, Sara, both expressed a desire for a large family; so we had the house rebuilt and expanded as a wedding present. However, earlier this year, Frank and Sara were killed in an accident on their honeymoon.”

“Lydia and I are also both only children,” George continued, “so there is no one left to leave the ranch to.”

“My condolences for your loss.” Matt said.

“Well, we should show Matt around the house and the property.” Brent interjected.

They toured the interior of the house first. The house was set up in a split plan, with a great room, formal dining room, kitchen, a smaller family room and a mud/laundry room in the central area; the master suite, one other bed room and an office on one side; and the 6 remaining bedrooms on the other side. The master bedroom and the other bedroom on that side had private bathrooms and the remaining 6 bedrooms on the other side had connecting bathrooms between each pair of rooms.

The common areas of the house were fully equipped / furnished; but of the bedrooms, only the master bedroom had been furnished.

There were 4 additional buildings on the property. Two of the buildings were post and beam horse barns, one with 10 stalls and one with 6 stalls. The third building was a post and beam equipment barn and the fourth was a metal machine shed.

When the tour was finished, Matt took Susanne aside. “Tell them I will offer an even $2 million if we can close before Thanksgiving.” he told her.

Susanne was shocked that Matt was suggesting an offer above asking price. “That is very short notice, what if they can’t close that quickly?” she asked instinctively, even though she thought the sellers would jump at the offer.

Matt replied, “Then offer $1.9 million. Now, go do your job.”

Susanne went and spoke with Brent, who spoke with the owners.

Susanne, Brent and the Halls came over to Matt.

“Your offer is very generous,” Brent said, “We shouldn’t have any trouble with closing before Thanksgiving.”.

They said their goodbyes and the Murphy family and friends got back into the minivan and left.

As Iris turned onto the main road, Matt called Deputy Director Erickson and asked him to meet in around an hour and a half and gave him the address for Ben Scott’s sex shop.

When the Murphy family pulled into the parking lot at Ben Scott’s sex shop, Deputy Directory Erickson was waiting for them by his car; Jade was standing next to him, unbound and wearing only a large man’s t-shirt. Iris parked in an open space next to the Deputy Director’s car.

Matt, and the rest of the Murphy family and their slaves, got out of the Mini-van. “Hello Deputy Director,” Matt said, “I hope you got everything you needed from Jade and that she didn’t give you any trouble.”

“Yes, I got the information I needed.” Erickson replied. “She wasn’t any trouble, though not for lack of trying. Be careful; from what she told me, the group she was working with, which calls itself the Matriarchy, is larger and better organized than we expected. I need to get going, see you later.” With that the Deputy Directory got back into his car. Jade stepped over to Matt, looking very nervous and they both stepped back letting the Deputy Director pull out and leave.

Matt turned to Jade. “What trouble did you try to cause Mr. Erickson?” he asked.

Jade looked down at the ground, “I, I thought I found a loophole in the commands you forced on me. You let me see the full script, I know about the release trigger. I thought that if I overpowered him, I could force him to say the release trigger, setting me free.”

“I convinced him to release me from my bonds so I could use the bathroom. He didn’t stay outside the bathroom and I crept out and snuck back to the room where he had been interrogating me. He was standing looking out a window with his back to the room. I snuck up behind him, intending to put him into a choke hold to force him to say the release trigger, but I found I couldn’t act on that thought due to the no escape command. I was overcome by frustration and anger, I wanted to hurt something, anything. I snapped a powerful kick at the middle of his back. If he had been normal, that kick should have broken his spine, but he didn’t even flinch. I fell backward from the force of the impact recoiling up my leg.”

“I was stupid. I should have realized it was a setup, that he was deliberately giving me the opportunity to attack him. Had my plan worked, there was likely some kind of ambush waiting had I gotten out of the house without him. But my plan was doomed from the start. I couldn’t make him say the release trigger, and if I had managed to overpower him without doing so, and survived whatever trap waited outside, I would have been forced by the no escape clause to come running back to you.”

Matt laughed. “I am going to call the crushing of any hope you had of escape punishment enough for your attempt.”

Jade looked up in surprise. “Thank you master.” she said, suddenly feeling free of the anxiety and guilt.

He led Jade over to where the rest of the group had gathered. “Jade, this is my family. You will not attempt to harm any of them.” he said. He pointed out his younger sister. “This is my sister Megan, she is a free woman and a dominant. If she is present and I am not, she is in charge and you will obey her as you would obey me.”

Megan stepped up to Jade. “Remember one thing, if you are ever under my care, I am not nearly as forgiving as my brother.” Megan said sternly.

Jade shivered in fear. Never had she felt such a commanding presence. It dwarfed even her master’s, hell it was stronger even then the command presence of the Matriarch herself. “Yes, Mistress.” Jade responded.

“You already know Molly,” Matt said as he passed her and pointed to his mother and older sister, “This is my mother, Iris, and my older sister, Ruth. They are also both my slaves; and like with Molly, in the absence of either me or Megan, are to be obeyed as if they speak with my voice.”

Matt moved over to Megan’s twin toys and introduced them to her, “These two are my sister Megan’s toys, Brad and Brandi. They are neither above you nor beneath you. You may not command them and they may not command you.”

Matt said “Come on, time to go shopping.” He turned and led the group into the shop.

Ben met the group just inside the door. “Matt, good to see you again.” Ben shook Matt’s hand then moved on to his mother. “Iris, I haven’t seen you in ages. Wait, you are wearing your collar again. So, you finally came out to Matt.”

Iris blushed and whispered, “Yes.”

Ben moved to Ruth. “Ruth, god I haven’t seen you since your college graduation. I am a little surprised to see you here. Dominant or submissive?”

“Hi Uncle Ben. I’m submissive.” Ruth said, blushing.

“Really?” Ben asked leering at her. “I don’t see a collar, are you available?”

Ruth’s blush deepened, this was her first time coming out to anyone outside the family about her feelings for her brother. “I belong to Matt.” she managed to say clearly.

Ben looked over at Matt. “Lucky bastard.” he muttered.

“I heard that.” Matt replied.

Ben walked over to Megan. “Megan, you’ve never been to the shop before. The day before he died your father mentioned that he planned to bring you here.” he said. “Tell you what, I’ll show you around personally, and you can introduce me to your toys along the way.”

“Don’t let her buy anything that can do permanent damage.” Matt said as Ben, Megan, Brad and Brandi walked off into the shop.

Matt led his slaves to the body modification parlor. He talked to both the piercer and one of the tattoo artists. He ordered piercings for Ruth, Iris, and Jade identical to Molly’s; except Ruth would get diamonds, Iris sapphires, and Jade would get emeralds. For tattoos, Ruth and Iris would get the Time Lord pocket watch tattoo like Molly’s; and Jade was to get three lines of text as a tramp stamp, Slave/Slut/Fuck Toy.

While their tattoos and piercings were being done, Matt went and selected a chain-mail collar like Molly’s for Ruth and a plain 1.5” wide aluminum collar that closed with a pad-lock for Jade. He picked out tags similar to Molly’s for Ruth and Iris. He then selected three sets of leather wrist and ankle cuffs and pad locks for all of the cuffs and Jade’s collar.

Matt paid for his selections then took them back to the body mod shop. He found all three ladies laid out and being tattooed by three different tattoo artists. The tattoo artist he originally spoke to looked up and saw Matt.

“You got lucky today.” the tattoo artist said. “It would have been a good 7 hours if I had to do all three tattoos in sequence. There are six of us in total and we stagger our schedules so that there is always someone here, but usually only one of us at a time unless there are advanced appointments. Fortunately the other two just finished up with appointments before you arrived, so we can get your ladies out in around 2 hours.”

Matt put Ruth’s collar on her. “You are getting a regular clasp for your collar for now, rather than a lock, so you can remove it if needed at the hospital.” he told her.

“Thanks, Master.” Ruth replied.

Matt went to Iris and put her tag on her collar. Iris was smiling broadly as she endured the application of the tattoo. “Thank you for marking your slave, Master.”

Matt heard Jade sobbing. He looked up at her. The woman who was doing her tattoo stopped working and said. “Are you okay? Do you want me to call the cops for you?”

That startled Jade. “No, no police. They couldn’t help me anyway, and neither can you. Just finish your work as quickly as you can, the more you stretch it out, the harder you make this for me.”

The woman realized that Matt was standing over her. She glared angrily at Matt and said, “This woman isn’t willing.”

“No,” Matt replied, “no she is not.”

“Care to give me a good reason why I shouldn’t call the cops?” the woman asked.

“Have you heard of the Jade Dragon?” Matt asked.

“I have.” the woman said. “My Dad works for the DOJ. That bitch is a piece of work, she’s wanted on more than a dozen murders in at least 4 states. What does she have to do with this?”

“Take a close look at the tattoo on my slave’s right arm.” Matt said.

The woman looked at her subject’s right arm. A Chinese dragon coiled around Jade’s arm, done almost entirely in a Jade green. The woman looked from her subject to Matt, back to her subject and then at Matt again. “She is the Jade Dragon?”

“She used to be.” Matt corrected. “The Jade Dragon no longer exists. She came after me and I had the choice of letting her kill me, killing her, or making her my slave.”

The woman went back to work on the tattoo, muttering under her breath.

Matt lifted Jade’s head and locked the aluminum collar around her neck.

Matt went back out into the main shop to wait. He found Megan checking out with collar’s, a number of different types of restraints, a leather crop and a leather flogger. Matt smiled, the flogger and crop could be very painful, but had a low probability of doing serious damage.

Megan noticed Matt and asked, “Hey, where are your slaves at?”

“They are in the body modification parlor, getting tattoos.” Matt answered. “I would prefer if you didn’t do anything to permanently mark your slaves until you are legally an adult.” he said.

“Okay.” Megan replied.

When the tattoos were done and they were loading up into the mini-van, Jade asked, “Why didn’t I get the pocket watch tattoo?”

Matt looked at Jade sternly and said, “That is my personal slave mark for my personal harem. I am looking at going into business selling mind controlled slaves. If I do, you are inventory, not part of my harem, is that clear?”

“Yes, Master.” Jade sobbed.

Monday morning, Matt checked his Time Lord email account. Ms Rohn’s email from Sunday night was there, her score still just 24. No problem, she might be able to hide on the weekend, but the commands he gave her won’t allow her to hide during the week.

Monday after Matt’s last class a fellow student approached him. “My name is Jeremy Hunt, Molly said you might be able to help me.”

Matt looked at Jeremy. From his statement, he deduced that Jeremy was the student Molly said could use his help with revenge on / punishment of a girlfriend. “I might. What is the problem you need help with?”

“I think my fiancee is just after me for my family’s money.” Jeremy said.

Matt looked around, “Why don’t we go somewhere we can discuss the details with a little privacy?”

“Yes, I have an apartment off campus, why don’t we go there.” Jeremy suggested.

Once they were at Jeremy’s apartment, Matt asked, “Why do you think your fiancee is after your money and what would you like me to do about it?”

Jeremy answered, “My parents are worth billions, I have over $100 million in a trust fund in my name. My fiancee was staying overnight here last month. A call came in on my land line and she took the call. Her behavior changed after the call, but she wouldn’t talk about it. After she left, I checked my account with the phone company on-line and got the number the call came from. I did a reverse lookup on the phone number and the call came from a Florida state prison.”

“I called a private investigator and had a background check done on my fiancee. She had told me that she had no living family. The private investigator told me her mother is serving a life sentence in Florida, in the very prison the call came from, for killing three former husbands for their money. She also has a sister who is currently on trial in Virginia for the same thing, marrying and then killing a wealthy man.”

“As for what I want you to do, Molly suggested that you could verify my fiancee’s intentions; and then somehow punish her while either changing her intentions or making her go away quietly.”

Matt smiled, “This I can do, but it will cost you. How much can you spend on short notice, without any questions?”

Jeremy said, “I can cut a check for 10 or 20 grand out of my personal checking account, more and I am going to have to explain to my father what it was for. I get a monthly stipend out of the trust fund, but under the rules of the trust, my father gets to monitor my spending until my 25^th birthday.”

“Tell you what,” Matt said. “This is a trial run for me at offering this kind of service. Pay me $1,000 up front to verify your fiancee’s intentions. We can discuss further payment later, depending on what her intentions are and what you decide to do about it.”

“I like that deal,” Jeremy said, “$1000, is nothing to me if you can’t deliver and more than worth it if you can.” He pulled out his checkbook and started writing out a check as he continued speaking, “When can we do this?”

“How soon can you get your fiancee here?” Matt asked.

Jeremy called his fiancee and asked her to come over as soon as she could. After he hung up he turned to Matt and said, “She will be here in 30 minutes. What’s the plan?” He handed over the check for $1,000.

“When she gets here, I will do something so that she must answer our questions truthfully and she will not be able to leave until we dismiss her.” Matt explained.

Julie Kennedy arrived at her fiancee’s apartment. When she rang the bell, her fiancee Jeremy opened the door and led her into his dining room. There was another man sitting at his dining table. Jeremy had her sit opposite the strange man, then sat next to him.

“Are you going to do it?” Jeremy asked Matt.

“It’s already done.” Matt replied.

“What’s going on here?” Julie asked, “Jeremy, who is that man?”

“My name is Matthew Murphy, and what’s going on here is that we are going to ask you some questions which you are going to answer truthfully.” Matt said.

“What?” Julie squeaked in surprise.

“Why did you lie to me about your family? Why didn’t you tell me the truth about your mother and sister?” Jeremy asked.

“I am both ashamed of and scared of my mother.” Julie replied. “She is a black widow psychopath and my sister was eager to follow in mama’s footsteps. mama was convicted and put away for life just before my 14^th birthday. My sister was already 18, so she was on her own, while I got sent to live with an aunt, who was my mother’s only living relative, in Oklahoma. I haven’t seen either of them since and I hadn’t spoken to either of them until that call from my mother. My Aunt died just after I graduated from high school. None of my former stepfathers’ families will have anything to do with me and I thought my mother and sister were out of my life for good. Why does she always have to ruin everything good in my life?”

“Do you love me or my money?” Jeremy asked.

“I...” Julie began, “It’s not that simple.”

Julie paused to take a breath and Jeremy interrupted, “What the hell does that mean?”

Matt put a hand on Jeremy’s shoulder and said. “She can not lie. If she says it isn’t simple then it isn’t simple. You need to have patience and listen to the long answer.” To Julie he said, “Answer the question, no mater how long or complicated the answer is.”

Julie started to tell her story. “To understand the answer to your question, you have to understand my childhood. mama loved money more than she loved anything else, even her own daughters. I am not my mother, but it would have been impossible for me to be unaffected by the way she raised me.”

“She had 7 husbands all told. My sister’s father was number 2, mine was number three. They were only able to prove she killed 5, 6 and 7, but all of them died under suspicious circumstances. I am convinced she killed them all. I barely remember my real father, I was only 2 when I believe she killed him, but the memories I do have were of a father that adored me. Of my four stepfathers, I loved three of them, but mama killed them anyway, because there was always a bigger fish with a fatter wallet just around the corner. Divorce was time consuming, messy, and would leave her with less money; and money was more important to her than anything else, more important to her than I was.”

“mama was a predator, and she tried to raise my sister and me to be predators. It worked on my sister, but something went wrong with me. I am not like my mother, I am broken, I am prey. What went wrong was that I ended up submissive.”

“I am submissive, but my mama raised me to value money above all else. That twisted my submissive nature. I am sexually attracted to men with money and to the power that comes from money. However, I don’t desire these things for myself. I have told you before, that my finances are a mess. I want, I need, a man with wealth, a man who knows the power wealth brings and knows how to use it. I need such a man to take control of my life, because I can’t control it myself.”

“Jeremy, you have all of those things. And that is what attracted me to you and it is part of why I love you. I want you to be the one to take control of me, but as I got to know you, I fell in love with all of you, the engineer, the musician, the poet. I love you for who you are, but your wealth and the power that comes from it are part of who you are.”

“I had no idea.” Jeremy said. “Finding out about your mother scared me, I was terrified that you were out to do the same to me. I was foolish. Looking back I am surprised I missed the signs that you were submissive. However, even now, knowing who your mother is, and what she did to you, I still love you, I still want you. At the same time, I am still afraid that you will desert me if someone wealthier comes along.”

Julie replied, “Then keep me on a leash, keep me in a cage if you need to. Own me, make me your property.”

“I think we are done here. No additional charge over the $1,000 you gave me upfront” Matt said and he left, but on the way out, he gave a few commands to Julie to make sure she would live up to any bargain she made with Jeremy.

Somewhere in Virginia was a nondescript commercial/industrial complex. The complex was teeming with security. This in itself was not particularly noteworthy in a state known for having a lot of military contractors, however if an observer were to look closely they would notice that all of the guards were women.

In one part of the building, several women were fielding calls coming in from Texas. One of them stood up. “We need to report this immediately.” she declared. “Keep tracking the situation in Texas, I will be back as soon as possible.”

The woman walked out of the room, striding purposely towards another part of the building. No men are in evidence anywhere in the building. She arrived at a security/reception station outside a suite of executive offices. “I have urgent news that must be reported to the Matriarch.” she declared.

The woman behind the reception desk replied, “The Matriarch is meeting with her council at the moment. What is the nature of the news you have?”

“Our Texas operation has been compromised.” the first woman answered.

“Shit!” the receptionist exclaimed. “That is urgent.” She turned to one of the security guards flanking the room. “Escort her to the board room and see that she is admitted.”

The woman was escorted to a heavy steel door flanked by two armed guards. Her escort exchanged words with the two guards. One of the guards entered a code on a keypad next to the door and the other opened the door just enough to admit one person to the room.

The woman entered what would be a fairly typical corporate board room, if not for the heavy security. Eight women, all of whom appeared to be in the mid 60’s, lined either side of the conference table and a ninth sat at it’s head.

The woman at the head of the table stood and demanded, “What is the meaning of this interruption?”

The woman who’d just entered the room responded, “Forgive me Matriarch, I have urgent news. Our Texas operation has been compromised. Federal agents and Texas Rangers are purging our agents and officials, who were under the influence of the Jade Dragon, from the Texas government. The Jade Dragon herself has disappeared. We are unable to contact her at this time and logs show her last contact was last week on Thursday. What contacts we still have active in the Texas government and our mole in the FBI indicate that the Jade Dragon is not in government custody.”

The Matriarch considered this news. “This is very grave. Send agents to investigate all of the Jade Dragon’s known safe houses. I want to know who had the last contact with her and when. You are dismissed.”

“Yes Matriarch, it will be done as you have commanded.” the woman said and retreated from the room.

The Matriarch turned to the woman on her left. “Contact all of our meta-human agents. Make sure none of the others have been compromised. Any not on active missions are to report here; any on active missions are to remain on their current mission for now, but are to stand by for new orders. This is priority one.”

“Yes Matriarch.” the woman replied. Then she stood and left the room.

Matt woke Tuesday morning, tangled in bed with Molly at her off-campus apartment. Jade was tied up at the foot of the bed. Matt’s phone was buzzing. He checked his phone and there was a text message indicating email waiting on the Time Lord account.

He woke Molly and sent her off to make breakfast. Then he got up himself and checked the Time Lord email account. Ms Rohn’s crack count was up to 36.

Matt had managed to track down current contact information on the former dean, John Sanders, who Ms Rohn got fired. Mr. Sanders, was forced completely out of academia, but he was currently making a modest living writing historical fiction. He composed an email to the former dean. It read:

Valarie Rohn has finally pissed off the wrong person. I know what she did to you and I know how she did it. I am arranging for you to have your personal vengeance against her. Stand by, you will be given further instructions when the time is right.

The Time Lord.

After sending the email from the Time Lord account, he untied Jade and woke her up.

Matt checked the time, it was 10:00, time to get ready for the lunch meeting at Caligula’s Kitchen.

“Molly, put on your leather outfit.” he ordered, “Jade, put on a thong bikini and your highest heels.”

Matt himself dressed in slacks, dress shirt, tie and suit jacket, and leather dress shoes.

Molly came up to him and said, “Oh, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in business attire before.”

“Well this will be a business meeting for me.” Matt said. “On the other hand, I am taking you and Jade along as product samples.”

They arrived at Caligula’s Kitchen and Matt parked his car. “Jade, take your top off and leave it in the car.” he ordered.

“Yes, master.” Jade replied as she took her bikini top off.

Ben Scott was waiting for them at the entrance to the restaurant. “You’re just in time.” he said to Matt. “The others are already here, though I should warn you that one of them brought two bodyguards.”

“I don’t have a problem with that.” Matt said. “Let’s go in and you can introduce us.”

Ben led them in and towards a table away from the stage/dance floor. The table was large enough for a party of ten. Four people sat against the wall at the far side of the table. Two men sitting at the corners of the table. The bodyguards. The one on Matt’s right was shaved bald, and Matt was sure he was an ex-Marine. The one to Matt’s left had brown hair cut short and Matt wasn’t sure how, but he could tell that the man was a Spark of some kind. Seated in the middle of the far side of the table were a man and a woman. The woman was to Matt’s left, she was older, 50s, 60s on the outside, with black hair, and slender. It was hard to tell for sure with her seated behind a table, but she didn’t seem to have much of a figure. The man was older, mid fifties to mid sixties, gray hair. He looked to be Russian and from his bearing, probably some kind of mob boss, but then Matt knew from the start that he wasn’t coming to meet with boy scouts.

Matt approached the chair across from the boss and Jade and Molly moved to sit on either side of him, Jade to his left.

The guard to Matt’s right yelled “Jade Dragon.” He started to draw a gun without getting up from his seat, so did the mob boss. The other security guard stood and drew a foot long Damascus blade Bowie knife.

Time stopped. Matt sighed. He took the gun from the guard on the left, removed the magazine, cleared the chamber. He field striped the weapon laying out the pieces on the table in front of the guard. He repeated the procedure with the boss.

The guard to his left had moved inhumanly fast, and was almost clear of this side of the table. He was fast, but slow enough that Matt was sure speed was not his primary power. Matt took the knife out of his hand, laid it on the table in front of where he had been sitting and turned him around so he would run into the wall. While he had time stopped, he used the loyalty script on all four of them.

He restarted time. The boss and the Marine brought their hands up not realizing they were empty until they tried to pull the triggers that were no longer there. Matt was impressed that the other guard managed to stop without slamming his face against the wall.