Page 26 of Truth or Dare

“What’d you get for us?” I asked, tying my tie.

She looked up at me, panicked.

“I-I’m sorry, Master. I didn’t know what to get.” She looked on the verge of a meltdown.

I looked at the menu and it was large, plenty of breakfast choices. But was it really that difficult?

This girl had obviously had everything decided for her for the past two years. I had to cut her some slack. I needed her to cool it and stay cool. We were almost out of here.

I took a deep breath. “Okay, what about French toast and bacon?” I caressed her cheekbone with my thumb. Her eyes lit up and she settled at my touch.

“Order us French toast and bacon. Only if it’s real maple syrup. If not, I dunno, Denver omelets. Orange juice and coffee. Okay?”

She nodded and had an expression of wonder on her face. Wow. Fucking wow. I slipped out for a smoke.

As soon as we were finishing up breakfast there was a rap on the door and I let Ruiz and that woman in.

“Mr. Ferrano, do you need us to see to Felicia before you depart?” the woman asked.

He clipped, “Cleo!” He gave her a dirty look like he’d already warned her against asking that.

“No,” I answered without looking at her and looked over the documents. It said her name was Felicia Andrews. I knew that wasn’t true. Later on, I’d find out her real name, figure out the rest.

“Mr. Ferrano, we appreciate your patronage and your partnership. We hope you’ll be pleased with your Felicia but if anything is amiss, when you and your brother hopefully visit in October if there needs any adjustments you can feel free to leave Felicia with us for training for your stay and beyond, if necessary. We want you satisfied. Mr. Chen asked me to send his apologies. He had something arise this morning and was unable to see you off.”

“Thanks, no worries. I’m sure I will be.”

He nodded and then told me he’d arrange for his driver to take us to the airport.

The Asian woman perked up. “Mr. Ferrano, may I please have just a moment with Felicia before you depart?”

“No,” I said simply and gave her a dirty look.

She looked taken aback. She glanced at Felicia over my shoulder and then looked resigned.

Ruiz gave me an apologetic look, then reached over and took her by the arm and pulled her out of the room with carefully controlled anger. “Bon Voyage, Mr. Ferrano. See you soon,” he said.

After I shut the door, I turned on my heel and I looked at Felicia, who was sitting on the bed, dressed to go in a pretty cream-colored dress with ruffled short sleeves and a square neckline, her hair loose and wavy, wild in a gorgeous way, the collar still around her throat. She was staring at me with shock on her face.

I was getting out of here. I was getting to Point C.

Dare had my passport. I was wearing his collar. I didn’t belong to these people any longer. I was his. I didn’t know yet what that meant and I didn’t dare listen to the little voice in my head trying to whisper to me that maybe it was all going to be okay.

But when he didn’t allow anyone here to fuck with me and when he blocked Cleo and didn’t let her sink her claws into me and poison me with her venom one last time before we left, I think I fell in love with him a little.

3

I was not relaxing until I had us on that plane. No, scratch that; I was not relaxing until we were on home soil and even then, I’d only relax marginally. I didn’t have a clue when I’d have some actual peace again. After the car brought us to the airport and the chauffeur helped us get our luggage checked I took my carry-on and took her by the hand and headed to where we needed to go. I glanced at her for the first time since leaving once we got to the counter for the airline and immediately took in that her face was ghostly. She was freaked right the fuck out. I guess I’d been stuck in my own head for the drive to the airport.

“Hey?”

She didn’t notice.

“Felicia?”

Her attention snapped to me and it dawned then that this was the first time she’d left that hellhole in two years. She probably wasn’t used to a moving car. She probably wasn’t used to the people everywhere in the busy airport. She was also likely deathly afraid she’d wake up back in that prison finding out that getting outta there was just a dream. She was probably afraid of me, too, afraid that I was just another abuser in a long line of people who’d mistreated her in the past two years.

“It’s okay. You okay?” I touched her face and she leaned into my palm, closed her eyes, and slowly nodded. She seemed a bit wobbly so I got her to a chair and sat beside her, holding her hand in mine and rhythmically stroking it.

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