She pushed past the doctor.
“Are you going to tell him about this?” he asked, his voice low.
“I haven’t decided.” Maybe it wasn’t just the scars that formed the kinship between Mina and Brian. With the smallest glimpse of power, she already saw how she might seek to abuse it. Had she been in Brian’s position, she couldn’t guarantee she wouldn’t seek retribution in the way he had, and that thought scared her.
Mina managed to cover her distress and passed through the veil of whispers to get to the cafeteria line.
“Five minutes later, and you’d be going to bed without supper,” an older woman said from behind the food counter.
Mina wondered how she’d come to be here and was convinced she was must be just as much a prisoner as Mina. Surely she’d tell someone what went on here if she were ever allowed to leave the premises.
“Everything?” the woman asked.
“Yes, please.”
The woman behind the counter loaded roast, potatoes, and green beans onto the plate, and salad on another plate, then slid it to her. Mina took her tray to get some pie and a drink. Normally she wouldn’t eat all this, but this was her only real meal today. She’d better make it count. And with the counter closing in a few minutes, she wouldn’t be able to return for seconds.
A strange shift had happened. Before, she’d been taunted by the mean girls table, now they looked on curiously as if they were in the market for a new leader—or more likely, in the market to use somebody who might put in a good word of protection for them should Brian ever get them in his dungeon.
Annette sat across from her. “Is your hand okay?”
It still stung, but the skin wasn’t broken. She’d probably done more damage to her own hand than she had to the doctor’s jaw, but it felt liberating to fight back for the first time in perhaps ever.
Hitting the doctor, forcing him to back off—even if it had been the threat of who she belonged to and not any physical stopping power she had on her own—had accomplished what six months of therapy failed to. Maybe she should have taken up boxing instead.
Talking never had the hope of healing her. The only thing that would get her there was having control over her own life and having some power back. But that ship had sailed. If only she’d figured this out before she’d fallen for Lindsay’s smooth talk and lies about only wanting what was best for her. Lindsay wanted what was best for Lindsay’s bank account.
“Mina?”
“Sorry. Yeah, it’s fine, I think. It might bruise. I don’t know.”
“Well, he deserved it. I still can’t believe he sold you to Brian. Of all the sadistic shitheads to hand you over to.”
Mina bristled at the insult to her master but didn’t say anything. She wasn’t prepared to admit that any part of her was already willing to defend him. The moment in the bathroom had shifted something inside her the tiniest amount.
She tried to ignore Anton’s slave as she dug into her dinner. She’d been famished and was surprised she hadn’t passed out.
“Are you okay? Has he hurt you?” Annette asked, echoing Lindsay’s earlier pretend concern. From her the concern sounded convincing.
“I’m fine.” For now.
Annette’s eyes widened and Mina turned to see what had caught her attention. Brian stood in the middle of the cafeteria, watching her. Everyone else on the main level had given him a wide berth. He crossed the floor to Mina’s table with a tray in his hands.
Annette got up as if her chair had been lit on fire and fled the area. Brian sat in the chair she’d vacated and started to eat his own dinner.
“I woke to find you gone,” he said between bites. There was no inflection. No anger. Everything came out flat. The lack of emotion was perhaps more frightening than if there had been any.
“I’m sorry, Master.”
“I haven’t eaten much today, either.”
Mina just stared at him. Never would she have expected someone with Brian’s reputation to take anything she’d done calmly and rationally.
When he looked up, she switched her focus to her own food. She winced when he laid his hand over hers.
“What happened to your hand?”
Mina jerked it back. “N-nothing.”
“Nothing, Master,” he corrected. But he wasn’t angry. Who was this guy? What had he done with the psycho?
“Nothing, Master,” she repeated. But it didn’t end the inquisition.
Instead, he grabbed her hand to inspect it. She didn’t see any broken skin or enough redness to call attention to. He must have noticed her wince.
Brian pressed against the knuckles and watched her expression closely. “Does this hurt?”
“No, Master.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
“A little.”
“How did it happen?”
“She punched the doctor in the jaw!” one of the girls nearby, said.
Mina was sure the girl tattled on her because she thought Brian would hurt her. Information about her contract terms had leaked, and many in the house had decided she needed to be taken down a peg.
Lindsay seemed to appear out of a mist to stand beside the table. “Yes, she punched me in the jaw.”
She couldn’t determine if the doctor was trying to get her in trouble, too.
“I’m sure she had a good reason,” Brian said.
He surely hadn’t expected that response. Neither had Mina.
“Finish your dinner, and we’ll go back downstairs,” Brian said.
The two of them continued to eat in silence. After a few moments of being ignored, Lindsay wandered off.
When Mina finished, she picked up her tray to take it to the counter.
“Leave it. We have people for that.”
He led her past the nosy bystanders and back down the stairs to their room. It was strange to hold Brian’s hand like that, as if they were some young ordinary couple. Inside, he didn’t immediately let go of her hand. Instead, he pulled her closer and held her against him. His warmth pushed through her clothes, through her skin, into her bones.
Finally he released her and sat in a chair across the room. “Undress.”
Mina shivered.
“Are you cold?”
She nodded.
He flicked on the gas fireplace. It only took a few minutes for the room to turn toasty warm, warm enough that she wanted to take clothes off. He smirked from the chair as if he knew exactly what she was thinking.
“Strip,” he said. “You have no more excuses.”
He’d seen her already… kind of. This was no different. But it was. It was so different. For a moment she was back with Jason being passed around like some whore. Then she was in the medical room at the house, freezing up, unable to do what was asked of her because she’d just… hit the wall.
Now the wall rose again. What if she couldn’t? What if she said no? What would he do to her? She’d seen what he could do. He could make whatever promises he wanted—like the others had—but she’d seen his eyes through the cell window when he’d been fucking that girl he’d just beaten. Mina’s breathing went shallow again, and the room started to spin.
“Mina.” His voice rolled over her like thunder in the distance.