“If you change your mind...”
“I’ll let you know.”
37
Many weeks of this strange, casual dating passed and Julie found something inside her opening up to Gabe. With each dinner and long quiet talk and each innocent kiss that passed between them, she found herself letting go bit by bit of some of the Dmitri stuff. It wasn’t as though she could ever erase it or like she didn’t still bolt awake in the middle of the night afraid she was still back there about to be passed to one of his clients. You couldn’t erase that stuff, but she was beginning to believe it could be possible that she could trust someone. Even a male someone.
Gabe had allowed her to get used to the house for a few days, then he’d taken her to a medical room where he drew blood and did some other gynecological medical stuff. He said the therapist, Lindsay, had access to a lab so they could test for STDs as well as pregnancy. It had been a subconscious background worry she hadn’t wanted to think or talk about. What if one of those slimy men had given her something awful or gotten her pregnant?
She was glad Gabe seemed to know how to do all the stuff that needed to be done to test everything so that she wouldn’t have to be naked in front of someone else. He’d chatted with her while he collected samples and explained that when girls came to the house they were tested and quarantined from training until everything came back clear to keep all the girls in the house safe.
Julie was grateful when two weeks later all her tests came back clean and no pregnancy. Though she’d thought she might want kids someday and knew it wouldn’t happen with Gabe, she didn’t want a child this way—a product of her enslavement at Dmitri’s house.
Everything here with Gabe was such a contrast from the life she’d known at Dmitri’s. Aside from that one day in the dungeon, Gabe had been nothing but kind and patient and caring with her. She wanted to be with him more than anything, and every time he kissed her she wanted things to go further. But there was always a block, a wall she bumped up against. She’d thought about and dissected that day in the dungeon hundreds of times now. She’d thought about how she couldn’t seem to resist doing what he told her to do.
He was constantly giving orders that weren’t dirty or kinky, but still, it felt as though he were taking ownership of her in segments. Bits of her will she wouldn’t notice missing. He’d bought her gifts. He’d watched movies with her like some normal boyfriend. He’d gone swimming with her at midnight when all the other girls were in bed. And a part of her desperately wanted to truly be his. But still, the idea of what he wanted from her was too much. How could she call him master? How could she go along with any kind of depraved thing he wanted from her?
But would his personality really change? If she were his? Wouldn’t he still be Gabe? Wouldn’t he still care for her?
She had gone as far as she could on her own and now she stood at the edge of a great cliff. Maybe a mile off in the distance was the other side where Gabe stood waiting for her. But there was no bridge or magic wings or any special ability that could get her from the edge she perched upon to where Gabe stood waiting for her.
Every day that passed she feared he would lose patience and either force the decision from her or push her away. She couldn’t stand either thought. He was at least discreet with the other girls. She knew he was training them, but he kept it out of her line of sight. As the weeks wore on, the idea of him with others bothered her less than she’d thought it would. Maybe it was because she knew he needed these things and she wasn’t prepared to give them. She thought though, that she might feel differently about it if she gave in to his demands.
As he’d suggested, she’d spoken with Mina. Julie was surprised to learn the abuse she’d suffered at the hands of her previous boyfriends in supposedly consensual situations. In a way, Jason, the last one, had prostituted her out, not completely unlike Dmitri. He’d shared her at least. And she hadn’t seemed that into it.
Seeing how together Mina seemed now, and hearing about how broken she’d been when she’d arrived at the house seemed to lend some credence to the idea that it wasn’t crazy to think that she could be okay in a relationship like this with Gabe. After all, look at Mina. Nevertheless, Mina had known she was kinky and had sought such relationships out. This wasn’t the same thing at all. When she’d tried explaining that to Mina, the other woman didn’t seem to get it. So they stopped talking about it.
One afternoon, Julie found Gabe waiting for her in the large foyer, standing in front of a shiny black baby grand piano with a red bow on it.
“Are you kidding?” she asked when she saw it.
“Why would I be kidding? This was the only place there was room for it where it wouldn’t be in the way, but it’s yours.”
She’d mentioned playing the piano on their first date. She couldn’t believe he’d remembered. Or that he’d bought her one. She’d gotten used to gifts like jewelry and clothing, but this was on a whole other scale.
“Thank you. I don’t know what to say.”
He pressed a kiss against her forehead. “You don’t have to say anything, sweetheart. I’ve got to leave for a little while. Some business for the house.”
Immediately, Julie’s mind went to Dmitri. Nothing more had been said of killing him and the other men at the house, but she was sure Gabe hadn’t forgotten it or changed his mind. “Don’t do it,” she said.
His brow furrowed. “Don’t do what?”
“Dmitri. Don’t go kill them. What if you get hurt or worse?” She couldn’t believe she was saying it. If they killed Dmitri and his guys then the other girls at the house could be freed. For weeks Julie had been safe and protected and pampered and they were all still living in hell. And here she was worried Gabe could get hurt going back in there. She’d barely thought about the other girls lately. She was a horrible person.
“It’s already been taken care of. Everyone that was a threat inside Dmitri’s house is dead, including Dmitri. Brian handled it.”
Julie let out a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. Relief, and the weight of guilt lifting off her. She wanted to ask when it had been done, but she couldn’t bring herself to. Just how long had they been trapped in the house while she’d had no larger issues to worry about than whether or not she could bring herself to call the man who saved her life, master?
Her brain chose to fixate on the Brian part of “Brian handled it.”
Julie had been given a crash course on Brian. It wasn’t just the first time she’d run into him or the vague ways others spoke about him, or the general danger he exuded that made him terrifying. Julie had seen him taking girls from the house down to the dungeon. When they came back, they seemed broken. And Brian got off on it. There was something very wrong with that man, and yet, for this one moment she could feel only gratitude that he’d killed the people who hurt her. Maybe as a favor to Gabe or maybe because he liked to kill, but either way the end result was the same.
“W-what about my friends?”
“They were left unharmed. Mina called in an anonymous tip to the police and hung back in the woods to wait for them to be rescued. The authorities would know how to help them.”