Woman In Chains (35 page)

Rebekah snatched her hand out of Dak’s grip and ran to the door. Dak started after her, but both Blade and Gordon held him back.

“Let her be, man,” Gordon said. “She wasn’t yours to begin with.”

Dak pushed Gordon back. “She’s mine now.” He yanked his other arm out of Blade’s grip. “I love her.” He ran out of the door and looked around in the darkness. He saw nothing.

He ran to his truck and looked inside but didn’t find her.

“Rebekah!” Dak looked down the street both ways and saw and heard nothing.

He couldn’t lose her, not now. He had to find her. If it took all night, he would find her.

****

When Rebekah ran from the house, she knew she couldn’t go far in her skyscraper heels. She started to hide behind the row of cars parked on the front lawn when she saw a new truck with a license plate that said “Blade” on it. She climbed into the back and hid under a tarp.

She heard Dak calling for her and cursing as he looked around for her. At one point she thought he would find her. She heard him stomping back and forth by the vehicles. She felt the tarp move like he started to look under it, then Master Blade screamed at him.

“Get away from my truck!” Master Blade had said. “If you can’t keep up with your new submissive, that’s your fault. I told you that she needed a firm hand.”

Rebekah deserved some honesty. Did Dak save her because he wanted to get back at Master Blade for taking Dak’s last submissive? He didn’t care about Rebekah at all. He wanted to even the score.

Rebekah had a score to even herself. Blade had made it seem like he had no fault in the whole thing between Lil’ Mary and her. Blade had promised to keep that story a secret. Now everyone knew. They all had looked at her like a monster. No more. She would show Master Blade the true monster.

Master Blade drove home with his newest slave in tow. As soon as she heard him get out of the truck, Rebekah made her move. She crept from under the tarp and slunk through his backyard to his back door, which she knew he kept unlocked.

Rebekah walked into the kitchen and went through the house, looking for Master Blade and his new submissive. She found the duo in his bedroom. The drawer, the one she remembered so vividly, had been open and made ready for its newest occupant. His new submissive, a chunky, young white woman with brown hair, had been on her knees in front of Blade, probably jerking him off or giving him a blowjob.

“It’s not going to get hard, no matter what you do,” Rebekah said from behind Master Blade.

He spun around while his submissive screamed.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Master Blade tried pulling up his pants to hide his limp dick.

“Straightening out a few facts.” She wouldn’t leave until she exposed the truth.

****

Dak had to stop running around like a child in need of Ritalin and start thinking like Rebekah. She probably felt scared, angry, alone, and betrayed. Where would someone like that go?

He first went home, even though he lived pretty far away from the party location. Although Rebekah didn’t have any money, she proved she could be resourceful. She could always find a way.

Then he went to the place he knew she would never return, her father’s house. He had to check it out. For whatever reason, he gathered that she felt the need to punish herself for situations that weren’t her fault. Maybe she would feel that she deserved to be abused.

He banged on the door until her father turned on the porch light and looked out of the front window.

“Mr. Oliphant, did Brea come back home tonight?”

Instead of answering him, the old man turned off the light and went back to bed.

Oh, hell no. Dak wouldn’t be dismissed and discounted. “You fucking bastard! Since you can’t control Brea, you don’t care what happens to her now, is that it?”

Nothing. No response.

He continued screaming outside of Brea’s father’s front door. “Brea is a wonderful woman. Smart, funny, talented. You won’t know any of that for the rest of your wretched, sorry life because you abused her. For that, I hope the rest of your sorry days are spent in misery.”

And he meant every word. By not telling Rebekah the truth, he’d hurt her even more than her father had done to her in the past. This would be his way to correct his mistake.

The front door whipped open. Mr. Oliphant held a twelve-gauge shotgun in Dak’s face.

“Get off my fucking property or I’ll call the cops.” The elderly man had to lean against the doorjamb to stand, but he needed no assistance in holding his weapon.

“I love Brea.” Dak shook his head. “I won’t let anyone hurt her again.”

“Get out!” Her father waved his gun to shoo Dak from his porch.

He marched back to his truck. He’d wasted too much time trying to convert a monster. He had bigger fish to fry, mainly finding Rebekah and apologizing his heart out to her.

“Come on, Dak. Think. This is a woman who has been beaten down. She has a lot to prove. Who would she hit first?” He thought about it, and it struck him.

He put his truck in gear and raced to Blade’s house. Blade had just announced that Rebekah had been violent. Of course, she probably planned to confront him to either settle the score or beg for forgiveness. Dak just hoped the answer existed somewhere in between those two extremes.

He screeched to a halt in front of Blade’s house. He ran to the front door and pounded on it when it wouldn’t open. As soon as he heard the screams from inside, he ran around to the back where he had gotten in before.

Just like last time, the back door had been left unlocked. He bolted through and raced to the bedroom, where he found the oddest scene. Dak saw a naked woman kneeling on the floor who covered her head with her arms. Then Blade fisted his pants in one hand as he held the other hand up to Rebekah to keep her back.

“What’s going on here?” Dak asked.

Rebekah turned to him. He had expected to find her with fiery rage in her eyes. Instead, Rebekah looked very calm and serene.

“I’m not a violent person, Dak.” Rebekah’s voice remained smooth and even.

Rebekah using his real name instead of calling him Master Dak let him know the situation had shifted. She no longer saw him as her Dom. He had to change that. “I know.” He approached her slowly. “Now I know what you meant when you said that we are a lot alike.”

“And you two are. You’re both crazy!” Blade said from the safety of his corner.

Rebekah turned to her former Dom. “I’m not crazy. I didn’t do any of those things to Lil’ Mary. Did you ever notice that the bite marks were in places that she, herself, could reach? On her arms, her hands, her knee. Never on her back or the backs of her legs. That’s because she did it herself.” She brought her attention to Dak. “Had I known your last submissive was Lil’ Mary, I would have said something to you about her. She was in a lot of pain. I know the feeling. After I left my father, after seeing what he did to my mother, I was determined not to be a victim. I just knew that all men were abusing bastards. So I thought that instead of waiting for the abuse to come out of nowhere, I would control it. I would provoke it and take it to show my strength. My mother always looked so surprised whenever my father slapped her or called her names. I didn’t want to be that way. I wanted to see it coming. I now understand that I don’t need to be treated badly to repair the sins of the past or to get noticed. I know now that I deserve happiness in whatever way gives me pleasure.”

“You don’t. You deserve a straightjacket.” Blade pointed to her again.

“I didn’t hurt Lil’ Mary. The day of the incident, she approached me. She said she’d heard you talking about getting rid of one of us. She assumed you would keep me since I was younger and newer. She wrote those horrible words over her body, not me. She started hitting me. I put my hands up to protect myself. When she wouldn’t stop, I ran to a room and tried shutting myself behind a door. She grabbed the door and kept me from closing it. The knob slipped out of my hand. The door hit her face, and that’s how she got the black eye and broke her teeth. When you came home and saw the scene, you assumed that I had done it. When you vowed to fix me, I thought it was what I deserved. I saw Lil’ Mary hurting herself in the same way I had hurt myself for years, and I didn’t stop her or offer to help her.”

“You? Help her? You’re weak. You’re nothing. You couldn’t change anyone.”

“Shut up, Blade.” Dak approached Rebekah. “The old me would have thought what Blade thought, which is that you hurt Lil’ Mary. But I believe you. I trust you. You know that, right?”

Rebekah nodded. “Right.”

“She hasn’t changed. I bet you with one slap, she’ll be that same crazy bitch she was before.” Blade raised his hand to Rebekah.

Before Dak could stop him, Rebekah grabbed Blade’s hand in the air and held his fingers apart just like Dak had showed her. As expected, Blade dropped down to the floor and whined like a baby.

“You are not going to hit me.” She glanced at the submissive. “If I were you and you plan on staying with him, learn some self-defense moves.” Rebekah took a step back before letting him go.

“See, I told you she was crazy.” Blade cradled his injured hand on his lap.

“If she’s crazy, then I must be crazy.” Dak reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a long, black velvet box. “I wanted to do this at the party, but things got a little hectic there. Yes, I did initially save you to get back at Blade. But I never planned on training you. When I started training you, and you and I bonded, I couldn’t deny that we were meant to be together.” Dak cracked open the box and showed off a diamond choker. “I’d like for us to start off fresh. I love you.”

Rebekah shook her head. “No, you can’t.” She tried getting away from him, but he stopped her.

“I can and I do. I love you.” He took the choker out of the box. “Will you be mine?”

“Nothing about our relationship now feels honest. You didn’t keep me because you wanted to help. You just wanted to hurt Blade.” Rebekah wiped a tear away from her cheek. “You told me that I mattered. I don’t feel that way.”

“You do matter. You have to believe me.”

She shook her head. “No!” Then, with all of her might, she shoved him back. “I can’t believe the only reason you saved me was to get back at Blade.”

“That’s Master Blade.”

Rebekah glared at him, and it made her former Dom scurry back on his knees.

“Here I thought you had a good heart. It makes me wonder if you did all of the other saves for reasons other than the right ones, because someone needed help.”

Dak approached her. “Rebekah, I—”

“No. The one good thing you taught me in the time we were together was that, as a submissive, I need to know what it is I want.” She pivoted her gaze between Dak and Blade. “I know I want a relationship based on truth.” She pushed Dak’s collar away from her. “I can’t accept this. And I don’t want to be here.” Rebekah started to walk away, but Dak held her hand.

“I love you. Let’s talk about this.”

She turned her head away for a moment before directing her attention back to him. “I love you, too. But I have to love myself more before I can be any good to anyone.” She stared pointedly at Blade. “If I allow myself to be stuck in a relationship where I’m not heard”—then she brought her attention to Dak—“or I fall for a man with so much to hide, I won’t be the type of submissive I want to be.”

“Do you want to be a submissive still?” Every muscle in Dak’s body tightened as he awaited her answer.

After a beat, Rebekah hunched her shoulders. “I don’t know.” Then she walked away.

“Where are you going?” Dak started after her.

“I need to figure out what it is I want. I can’t do that living with you.”

“Your stuff—”

She shook her head. “None of it is mine. You keep it.”

“And your paintings?”

She didn’t acknowledge them. “I’ll be fine. Please don’t follow me or try to find me. You did your job. You saved me from a negative situation, and you retrained me perfectly.”

When she walked away from him, Dak felt like the biggest failure. For the second time, he’d lost a submissive he truly cared about because he lacked the ability to listen and address her needs.

“Damn.” Dak closed the jewelry box and shoved it back into his pocket.

“Not that I actually give a shit, but she’s not the only submissive out there.” Blade fastened his pants. “You can find another one.”

To Dak, there were no other submissives or women who could capture his attention, his mind, his senses, and his heart like Rebekah. Without her, he felt lost and alone.

Chapter Twenty-One

“And after you take these courses and get certified, we can work on some of your clearances. You still have your license to carry firearms, right?”

Dak heard his friend McCreevey talking, and he had heard every word he said, but Dak’s mind remained elsewhere, mainly on Rebekah’s whereabouts. She’d been gone for over two weeks, the longest fourteen days of his life. How could he just let her go? Would she ever come back?

“Hello?” McCreevey waved his hand in front of Dak’s face.

Dak blinked a few times before fully focusing on his new boss. “What?”

“I just asked you for a million dollars, and you wanted to know if I wanted it in tens and twenties.”

Dak furrowed his eyebrows.

McCreevey chuckled. “I’m kidding. I was going over what you needed to be a PI, and you looked spaced out. What’s going on with you, man?”

“Nothing.”

“Now, even if I wasn’t a private eye, I know that that’s a bald-face lie. So break it down to a brotha. You still having them nightmares?”

Dak shook his head. “I haven’t had dreams about the war in a while.” No, something else consumed Dak’s thoughts and dreams, mainly Rebekah.

Although he only wanted to dream about the good times, the incredible sex and the intimate moments they’d shared, the only images that haunted him had been the ones where she’d looked so disappointed and hurt.

“Is it family?” McCreevey asked.