Page 74 of Slave

I hadn’t missed her hesitation or the fact that she’d stumbled as she’d forced that last word out of her mouth. Leaning in, I once again pressed my lips close to her ear. “Where is your father now, Brianna?”

And then I heard a whimper escape her throat. “I don’t know, Master. Please don’t . . . I want to stay with you. I . . .” When I came back around to her front, the tears were streaming down her face.

I tossed the stick aside, pulled her into my arms, and lowered us to the soft ground. With her tucked into my chest, I reached up and removed the covering from her eyes.

She blinked several times, but instead of calming she cried harder and clung to my shirt. I wrapped my arms around her and just let her have a moment to release what had been building inside. Although I didn’t have all the answers yet, I did know one thing. Brianna had no desire to see her father.

We sat for a long time before her tears began to ebb. “Are you ready to talk to me?”

She nodded and burrowed her face even deeper in my chest.

I let a little chuckle escape me at that. “Love, I think it will work better if you talk to me rather than my shirt.”

She stiffened a little, but I rubbed her arm in reassurance. I wasn’t upset with her, and I could only imagine how difficult this was for her.

Brianna shifted slightly in my arms so that her cheek was resting against my shoulder. I brushed her hair back from her forehead and placed a soft kiss there, letting my lips linger. “Tell me how you came to be with Ian,” I said softly.

Again she nodded. “It was a Saturday. I was home . . . alone.” She swallowed and readjusted her grip on my shirt. “J . . . John.” I felt her lean into me when she said his name. “He’d gone to Minneapolis for . . .”

She paused. I felt a drop of moisture land on my hand and knew she was crying again. I held her tighter. It was all I could do at the moment. “He said he was going for . . . work.”

I had her folded against me with my arms around her waist. Her right hand wiggled its way out of its place between our bodies and gripped my hand. I gladly laced my fingers with hers.

After taking another deep breath, she continued. “I’d just finished cleaning up after lunch when the phone rang. It was . . . John. He told me that he wanted me to join him for dinner at a friend’s house in Minneapolis. That a car was on its way to pick me up. To be ready by three o’clock. To . . . dress nice.”

She held my hand tighter. “At three, a black car pulled up to the house. A man got out and opened the door for me.”

Brianna stopped for a minute, but not like before. This time, she appeared to be thinking, considering her next words. With more caution, she continued. “John was a simple man and . . .” She paused. “I don’t know much about cars, but I knew this one was expensive.”

And then, as if she was talking to herself, she quietly added, “Maybe if I’d . . .”

“No second guessing yourself,” I said. “Just tell me what happened next.”

She seemed a bit startled at my response to a comment she’d obviously not meant me to hear. But after a minute she continued her story. “He never spoke to me. Even after I asked him how much farther it was.”

“I didn’t start to get nervous, though, until I looked out the windows and realized we were heading back out of Minneapolis. When I tried the doors, they were locked. I . . . started to . . . panic, but I knew . . . I knew it wouldn’t do any good,” she said as the tears starting flowing fresh. “There was nothing in the car or my purse I could use to get out, even if I thought I could.”

I felt her breathing begin to pick up and knew we must be nearing the part in her story where things went horribly wrong for her. My thumb rubbed softly over her knuckles trying to offer her what comfort I could.

“Then the car . . . stopped. The man, he opened my door and told me to get out.”

“I was so scared,” she whispered, her whole body trembling. “I moved as far away from him as I could. My back hit the other door . . . Then I was falling.”

She paused again, but this time she looked up at me. The look on her face was a strange one. “That was when I met Ian,” she whispered.

I was so very proud of her. She’d made it through the entire story without having a panic attack. A first.

My hands came up and cupped her face. “Brianna, you did so well today. I know it was difficult, but you stayed focused and didn’t let the panic overwhelm you. Next time it will be easier.”

Her eyes held mine with a look of pride. “Yes, Master.”

With a swift kiss to the top of her head, I asked, “Are you getting hungry?”

“Yes.”

I stood and offered her my hand. “Let’s get back into town and see what we can find, shall we?”

It took us a while to make our way back to the scooter I’d rented. The return trip was filled with just as much peril as going in. I’d had to hold onto her every second in fear of her falling.

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