Page 28 of Truth or Dare

She removed her heels. I put those, the bag, and her collar all in a plastic trash bag and tied the bag to the arm of a lounge chair out on the terrace. I’d get her other things brought up in the morning after Zack had properly swept for bugs. I had a good idea of what to look for, but wasn’t taking any chances. I closed the sliding glass door and came back to the sofa, opened my bottle of water, took a swig, and then spoke.

“My father died right after he bought you for me. My brother and I were loyal to him, loyal to a fault, and we did a lot of his dirty work. A lot. But we did not know even half of who he really was. He did some bad shit. We thought we knew what that bad shit was, but turned out we had no fucking clue. I had zero knowledge of Kruna prior to last week. I had zero knowledge that he purchased you for me before he died. As a gift. A surprise birthday gift.”

She jolted.

I continued. “My brother and I are gonna determine an exit plan for selling our shares. We want nothing to do with a business like that. Due to the fact that the resort is run by some very dangerous people we cannot do this hastily. When I was told my father purchased you for me as a gift my first instinct was to tell them to cancel the order.”

She had a full-on body shudder but was staring blankly at me.

“But I realized that it would be unsafe to do that. I needed to go there and play along. This benefited you because that gave you an opportunity to get outta there. I know they struck the fear of the devil into you to ensure that you coming to me, a perceived important man to them, was risk-free because you had an impeccable record at that hellhole. I don’t know how you came to become an asset or a…uh…slave or whatever they call you, but we’ll get to that part later. For now, for starters, I need you to know that I am not your Master. I do not intend to keep you as a slave. I want sweet-fuck-all to do with Kruna but as it’s run by extremely dangerous people, you and I need to handle things very delicately. I would have liked nothing better than to free every single person enslaved there, but that was not an option for me so because you were sold to my father for me I had an obligation to fulfil that transaction with those men. I did the only logical thing I could do under those circumstances. I went there, met them, let them think I was on board with their lifestyle, and I collected you. I will not hurt you. I aim to hurt no one who isn’t a danger to me or the people I care about. I can help you get your life back. Maybe not your old life, exactly, but we’ll see what we can do. It may take time and we may have to be creative about it so I gotta ask you to be patient to protect both of us while I figure all this out. No calls whatsoever and no leaving the apartment alone – for now at least.”

She was sitting still, staring at me, but it was as if she was vacant. Like the lights were on but no one was home. Maybe she was in shock absorbing the news. I could only imagine how big this must be for her.

“We have to play things extremely carefully for damage control, so I’m gonna ask you to stay here while I figure things out. Help you figure out what’s next. Yeah?”

She said nothing.

“Felicia?”

Her eyes snapped to my face.

“You have questions?”

She rubbed her hand along her throat where the collar had been, a look on her face like she couldn’t get enough air. She swallowed slowly and as if she was having trouble doing it. And then she took a big breath as she stared at the ceiling. She started to shake her head in disbelief. She just sat there shaking her head. Her eyes got confused, then they looked angry, she narrowed them at me while still shaking her head. The anger tweaked me for a split second, made my scalp prickle, making me wonder if she was gonna have an issue with my being against them. Then her eyes got distraught-looking. She shook her head some more and then she covered both of her eyes with her palms and began to shake like a leaf in the wind.

I was sitting opposite her, on the other sofa. I got to my feet.

“Need something stronger than water?”

She didn’t answer me. She just kept shaking her head, her whole body trembling. Her teeth started to chatter. She was in shock.

I reached for a throw on the arm of the sofa I was on and moved toward her, sat beside her and put the blanket over her shoulders. “Hey?” I reached over and smoothed a lock of her hair away from her face. “It’s gonna be okay.” I put a hand on her back.

She grabbed me. She grabbed me and, in a flash, she climbed me, the blanket falling off her. She was on my lap, her arms around my neck, and she started wailing, sobbing so loud while clutching me that I could do nothing but hang onto her. So I did.

She was plastered against me, wailing into my chest and hanging on for dear life.

And she cried so hard and so long, with her body trembling hard, that she tuckered herself out and eventually the sobs stopped, then the shudders stopped, and then her breathing went soft, and she fell asleep on me.

She was curled up in a ball with her head on my chest, her knees pulled up against her own chest, her dress up around her waist, but she hadn’t even noticed. One arm was wedged between my back and the sofa and the other hand had been holding tight to my shirt at my shoulder.

I had both arms around her, one hand on the back of her head and the other at the small of her back and my head tilted back on the sofa, eyes on the ceiling. Wow. That was fucking rough.

A few minutes after she went limp, I cradled her tighter into my arms, lifting her and taking her to my bedroom. I yanked the comforter back and then put her in the bed and covered her up. She didn’t wake. She snuggled into the pillow and then in her sleep muttered, “Master.”

I felt a muscle jump in my cheek. I shook my head and then reached in between my mattress and box spring, grabbed my gun and backed out of the room, shutting the door behind me.

I re-set the security system. I really didn’t think she’d try to take off but who knew what’d happen when she opened her eyes. Maybe she’d be unstable. I checked my gun, finished my water, and then stripped down to boxers and headed to the linen closet for bedding and walked to the den to make up the futon. I tucked the gun between the mattress and the wooden frame.

I’d get her chilled out and get things safe and try to help her move on while I sorted out the craziness that was my life. I needed to sort out the business and then find a way to get my life moving in a better direction. No more scumbags. No more shady shit.

Fuck, after this trip to Thailand, more than ever I was so done. But because of this shit it might be a while before I could walk away. A long while. It was a complication… to put it mildly.

Something tickled my face. I was flat out, crashed on the futon. It wasn’t comfortable by any stretch of the imagination, but I wasn’t alone. It was still dark and she was leaning over me and her hair was tickling my chin. I snapped up to sitting. Her shoulders were in my hands

“Sorry, Master,” she whispered in the dark. “I had a nightmare. I got scared. May I sleep beside you?”

“Felicia,” I let go of her and shook the sleep off, “I’m not your Master.”

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