Page 10 of Captive Heart

Micah rose and dragged his fingers through his hair. When he took a long look at the girl on the couch, he couldn't help wondering what the hell they had gotten themselves into.

Before he followed Xavi's instructions, he fired off a message to Logan, encouraging him to get over here as soon as possible. An unconscious, abused girl found outside a BDSM club had all the connotations of a nightmare scenario.

This was all panning out to be a potential shit storm. He could feel it in his gut.

An hour later, Logan, Joel, Jake and Connor had all arrived and the full extent of the situation had been uncovered.

For all that Micah was a Master Dom who loved nothing more than to tie up and spank or flog a willing submissive and see the reddening of welts and handprints cover her skin while she was bound and defenceless, this was an altogether conflicting representation.

The very significant difference was consent.

That small but crucially important distinction which marked the profound divergence between BDSM and abuse.

It all came down to the matter of choice.

Micah had seen a lot of things in his years as a Dom. The psyche of a masochist had been one of the things that had led him into the lifestyle when he had explored the phenomenon as part of his doctoral thesis for his psychology degree.

Masochism could be a way for someone to completely let go by way of a mutual power exchange. There were people who needed that in order to feel liberated, wanting to completely give over their free will to another person, in order to allow themselves to let go of all the stresses and responsibilities in their lives.

It was a way to calm the mind and no longer considered, in psychological circles, to be a symptom of mental illness.

But most consenting masochists, even the more extreme, stopped short of accepting the permanent or long-term damage that was demonstrated here.

The girl's entire body showed evidence of both fresh whip and burn marks, many breaking the skin, as well as old scars.

Her wrists and ankles showed the kind of damage that could only come from prolonged and aggressive shackling.

At least one of her fingers pointed to a suspicion of broken bones, left unhealed, just like the toe on her injured foot.

And now that her face was washed, what they had initially mistaken for mud and dirt, proved, instead, to be bruises from a black eye and a bruised cheek, in keeping with being punched.

Plus, it was obvious that, although partially disguised by dryness and chapping from the elements, she was also sporting a badly split lip.

As well as the lacerations, she was covered in bruises. The fingertip ones on her buttocks and upper thighs disturbed Micah the most, and he found he didn't want to contemplate how she had come by them.

Jesus! She was a mess! And so thin, she was almost skeletal, another sure sign of abuse.

He paced back and forth across the room while Xavier finished up his examination and pulled a blanket over the girl while Logan spoke in low, strained tones to Jake.

Finally, Micah came to a standstill and asked what surely must be on everyone's mind.

"So, what do we do now?"

"Do we need to get her to a hospital, Xavier?" Connor asked. He'd been quiet up till now, contemplating and taking everything in.

"I can guarantee she’ll be discharged sooner than would be ideal, given the kind of on-going care she needs. Hospital beds are always in short supply, so like it or not, they won't keep her any longer than absolutely necessary.”

The men nodded while the doctor continued.

“There's nothing critically wrong with her. She needs to be warmed, fed, rehydrated, and rested, but those are all things that could be undertaken at home if she had one. Since we don't know if she does, or at least a safe one, then the hospital admin would likely call social services to aid her and she may be found a place in a women's shelter, but she is unlikely to get the care she needs in a place like that. She really needs to stay off her feet for at least a week so that frostbite can heal. Refuges don't offer that kind of care."

"So what should we do, Doc?" Jake asked, jamming his hands into his pockets as he gazed worriedly at the battered woman.

“We need to do whatever is best for this girl”, Joel agreed, nodding his head.

Xavier stood to his full height and looked the owners, and Micah, straight in the eye. "Given the state she's in, a hospital would most certainly call the police to investigate the obvious signs of abuse. There's clearly the potential for repercussions there. I'm sure you've all considered the implications of having an abused woman found on the grounds of a club such as this one. It will certainly shine an unwanted spotlight onto both Club Risqué and its members. Inevitably, this is the first place the police are going to look for her tormentor."

"She's not a member," Micah stated with certainty.

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