Chapter 58: Chapter 58

Richard The emergency past, police officers take away the remaining henchmen. White overalled forensics sweep the room. Medics carry out the injured and the unconscious.

James, as slit-eyed and blank-faced as I have ever seen him….

.... He’s fucking furious….

…. watches Klempner get stretchered away then nods acknowledgement to me and Michael before turning his attention to Charlotte.

She’s standing in her shredded rags of clothes and as James swings on her, there is no trace of the bright pleased smile she first gave him….

He’s going to roast her….

…. And she knows it….

A nod to Michael and he stalks to the far end of the room.

“Charlotte! Here. Right now!”

She rolls appealing eyes at Michael who scowls in return, shrugging and muttering something, then jerks his head towards James.

Head low, she slumps across the room, then stands, fingernails biting into her palms I have known James as a Dom who, for the most part, has been forgiving of the antics of his sub. Even when there was strain between them, it unravelled itself fairly quickly.

There is nothing of that casual dominance about him now. His face apocalyptic, Charlotte is about to get it, both barrels. And I see that Michael, for all that he has apparently tossed Charlotte to her Wolf, is nonetheless watching closely.

White-faced and furious, he towers over her. Speaking through clenched teeth, “What the hell do you think you were playing at there, Charlotte? What does it take to get you to behave in reasonable fashion?”

Elizabeth shivers in my arms. “Master, she….”

“Shhh…. This is between them.”

But nonetheless, I listen in too.

Charlotte, for a change, appears truly submissive. “I’m sorry,” she says quietly, staring at the floor.

“Are you?” hisses James. “What exactly are you sorry for?”

“For what happened outside. I knew you wouldn’t like it, but there was no time…”

He stares down at her, eyes hard. “You say you’re sorry, but would you do it again? Running off like that?”

Even from here I can see her licking dry lips, the movement of her throat as she swallows….

Wondering if he’s going to knock the living daylights out of her….

What would I do? If Elizabeth behaved like that? Even for good cause?

My beautiful Elizabeth, my wife, my sub, trembles in my embrace….

It’s not a meaningful question….

She’s not got it in her to behave like that….

…. and if she had, I could never have married her….

I’m pulled from my reverie by Charlotte’s reply. “Yes, I would do that again. I couldn’t leave Beth in here by herself. And I had to stop them realising that you were here.”

James' eyes soften, losing a little of their slit-eyed savagery. He glances across to Elizabeth, then back at Charlotte. “Beth is not your responsibility….”

“But she is,” insists Charlotte. “She’s my friend. It matters what happens to her. If you’re going to punish me, then get on with it. I’d rather not wait, and I’m sorry for upsetting you, but I’m not sorry for what I did.”

His head tilts back, his gaze heading ceilingward for a few seconds, but the first blast of his rage is ebbing away. When he turns back to her, his voice is milder, although still with an edge.

“I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to punish you. Astonishingly, I’d like to hear what you have to say.”

She looks up to him, meets his eye, then away again, blinking fast. “I didn’t want Beth to get hurt.”

James’ eyes flash to me and Elizabeth. So do Michael’s, before both look away again.

“And what about you?” he asks. “What about you getting hurt? Michael was beside himself when he saw what you were doing…”

Her voice is close to a whisper. “They were going to gang-rape her.”

James holds his hands up helplessly, the rage rising again. “And what about you?” he snaps. “Your solution is to goad them into gang-raping you instead?”

Again, her eyes meet his, but now she holds his gaze. “I’m tougher than Beth. And it doesn’t matter for me the same way.”

What the hell…?

In my arms, Elizabeth stirs. Michael jolts to attention. James looks bewildered. “Doesn’t matter?” he says. “Doesn’t matter? Charlotte, we’re not talking about fun and frolics at the clubs, with Michael and I close by, watching to make sure things don’t get out of hand. It would have been violent assault, and there’s a fighting chance you wouldn’t have survived it. Have you no idea…?” His face is pale, almost bloodless.

She interrupts, her voice snapping. “No idea? Of course, I’ve an idea... You know how I grew up. I know exactly what could have happened.”

He calms but does not look pacified. “Yes, of course you do.…. But, I can’t believe you could be so unthinking.”

“I wasn’t unthinking.…” she insists.

No…. She never is….

So, what the hell is going through her head?

Michael steps forward, holding out a pacifying hand. “James, let me…. Charlotte, tell me exactly what was in your mind when you did…. what you just did. And what do you mean? It doesn’t matter the same way for you?”

It seems to be the right question. She hesitates, choosing her words I think, then, “I was thinking that I didn’t want them to touch Beth. For me, it would be just.… just, one more thing that’s happened. You two, it wouldn’t upset you that there’s been other men…. But it’s not like that for Beth. You’ve seen her friends. They’re all polished nails, expensive hairstyles and gossip. If it got out that something like that had happened to her, she’d be humiliated. And there’s Richard too….”

Michael’s voice is arctic. “Richard? Charlotte, I know you felt you had a debt to him….”

Oh, Christ….

She did it for me….

Not for Elizabeth….

For me.

Elizabeth takes my hand, squeezes the fingers, but Michael is still speaking. “…. but that debt is paid.

And more than paid. Do you understand me?”

She’s resistant, unrepentant. Looking down, “He had to have her back unhurt…. Caesar’s wife.…”

“…. must be above reproach?” Michael finishes her sentence, iced anger welling. “But you count for something too, Charlotte.”

Stubbornly, she doesn’t reply, still staring at the floor.

James glares, the angry Dom now fully to the fore once more. He jabs a finger at her. “This discussion isn’t finished.…”

*****

James She stands, somehow meek and defiant at the same time. Dishevelled and dirty, her clothes in tatters, bruises rising on her face….

…. and the eyes of a sea-goddess….

Safe now, her abductors taken away, the area saturated with police, I can talk to her freely, for all the good it does.

Eyes downcast, she almost invites me to punish her.

Is it an act?

It hardly matters….

…. It wouldn’t make the slightest difference to her behaviour.

And I stand here, wondering what to say, caught between rage and pride….

…. My Jade….

What the fuck do I do with you?

There’s a yell, Michael’s voice. A cry of warning, of fury and desperation. My attention ripped from Charlotte, I turn to see what has so alarmed him.

Beth is screaming. Michael is running…. leaping….

A slow-winding eternity, a split-second stretches out to take the events it contains.

A man stands at the far end of the hall, framed in the doorway, his gun trained on Charlotte….

…. The blood slams my fingertips in a single bursting pulse, and my heart bangs with a shock of recognition….

Corby….

His face is dispassionate, cold….

…. The professional gunman….

Michael is hurling himself at Corby, in a desperate tackle, trying to take him down, trying to prevent the shot….

I look one way and the other. There’s nowhere to hide. Nowhere to run….

…. and Charlotte…. Her eyes are like great green moons in her white face as she looks hopelessly first one way then the other, her long hair swinging as she seeks refuge….

…. and finds none….

Then she turns to stare Death in the face….

I seize, her, my Jade-Eyes….

…. My Love….

…. and wrapping her in my arms I swing, spinning us both, shielding her with my body….

Michael makes contact, his full body-weight powering into the assassin, but the gun fires, a single shot….

Pain….

Blinding, shrieking, unholy agony….

I think I cry out….

Or perhaps it is my Green-Eyes screaming….

Jade….

*****

Richard James falls, his blood spurting and at that moment, gunfire blazes from all directions. Bullets hammering into Corby, his body jumps and jerks under the hail of fire before he lies there, still, save for a spreading pool of blood.

The light flashes amber and blue in the night casting outlandish shadows on the walls. Michael lies panting, his eyes wide with shock. Elizabeth shakes and weeps in my arms. Police gather around Corby’s corpse, guns still raised, but the man is quite dead.

And the only sound is that of Charlotte, dropped to her knees beside her fallen Master, clawing at his fallen body and shrieking through the tears and blood which drip from her face.

*****

‘Mastering the Virgin’

This Part of the Story of Charlotte, James and Michael Will Conclude In ‘Family’

‘Mastering the Virgin’