Page 48 of Married to My Master

“Still think this is a bad idea,” Emily said, as he finished duct taping her into the chair he'd previously used for the punitive timeout sessions.

He stood up in front of her, tape in hand. “And I still think is the best idea we've got,” he replied, as he stretched out a strip of duct tape, producing that weird tape-tearing noise only duct tape can make.

“Are you putting that on my mouth, sir?”

“I am. We need to make it look authentic.”

She sighed.

He leaned down and sealed her mouth shut with the long, silvered strip of tape. He sealed down the edges and brushed his hands down her fingers. “Perfect,” he purred.

She mumbled her thanks as he turned around and grabbed his cell phone. He brought up the video recorder and looked to Emily. “You don't need to do anything. Don't worry about having to struggle or anything like that, okay?”

She nodded, and he hit record with the camera trained back on him, like he was taking a selfie.

“Charlene Padilla, my name is Dane Bishop. My brother is Benton Bishop, who is on death row for murdering his wife and children while in the midst of a psychotic break caused by years of service in the United States Army. This is a matter of public record. What is not a matter of public record is that Benton was taking a medication named Hymalete, manufactured by BioSphere. It clearly didn't work, and may have made his symptoms even worse. Hymalete is currently being marketed to first responders and service members suffering the same symptoms Benton had, with the promise of helping them to get back to normal mental health.

“What is also not a matter of public record is that BioSphere has proof on its servers, showing that their medicine doesn't work, proof that they were able to fake their data, and to push the approval process through federal oversight.” He paused, licked his lips, then stuck the barrel of the pistol against the side of his love's head.

Emily flinched as the cold steel touched her temple, her eyes frantically flickering up to the gun. It was perfect enough that Dane was pretty sure she wasn't faking as he moved the camera around to capture her. “I have Emily West, CEO of BioSphere in my custody. If my demands are not met within twenty-four hours, I'll begin cutting pieces off of her, one piece for each hour, so she can understand what losing a piece of yourself to psychosis and insanity feels like.”

He hit the stop button, then switched over to text messaging and sent a copy of the file to Charlene Padilla's cell phone number. He let loose a deep breath, grateful he'd been able to do it in one take.

A moment later, his phone began to ring. Charlene Padilla, already. Perfect timing.

“Dane? Is that you?” Charlene said, almost desperately, into the phone. “Dane, what the fuck are you doing?”

“You got my recording, I take it?”

“Of course, I got your recording! What are you thinking?”

“I'm thinking I'm getting you to run the story,” Dane said. “And getting the story the exposure it needs.”

# # #

Emily

Emily squeezed her eyes shut, her breath coming hard and fast as Dane answered the phone. Just listening to his words and hearing the tone of his voice almost made her believe it was possible he'd do that to her—that he'd willingly cut her apart bit-by-bit. She knew, of course, he'd never do that. He'd never seriously hurt her. But, if even she thought he sounded sincere in his promise, what would the world think?

Dane took the phone from his ear and put the call with Charlene on speaker phone. “Charlene?” he asked gruffly. “Can you hear me?”

“Yes,” Charlene said, her voice tinny and hollow in its digitization, “I can hear you, Dane.”

“Do you have a pen handy? I have a list of my demands.”

“Yes,” she said. “I'm ready.”

“Thirty million dollars deposited for my brother, for payment of his defense fund. Admittance by BioSphere that Hymalete is a failure. Publication of the true documentation on their experiments. And an exclusive interview with you, Charlene. I want a chance to tell my side of the story.”

Charlene sighed into the phone. “Dane, do you know how crazy all this is?”

“I don't care, Charlene,” he growled. “This is my brother's, and now Ms. West', life on the line. If BioSphere won't deliver, I'll start putting pieces of Emily aside for safe keeping. Maybe they'll be able to explain to their shareholders why their CEO was cut to pieces, but I doubt it.”

“Okay, Dane, okay. I'll see what I can do.”

Dane hit the end button and hung up. He immediately began to help Emily out of her bonds, taking the tape from her mouth and cutting bindings on her wrists and ankles. “You all right?” he asked, soothing her hair with his hand and kissing her.

She leaned her forehead against his. “You're sure about this, right?”

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