The Virgin Master (29 page)

Chapter
Eighteen

Evan hung up and went to look for Jeremy. The clinic
gave him a
weird
vibe
. It was as if a regular hospital floor had the walls stripped out, except for load bearing walls, and replaced with wire mesh. Jeremy’s “cage” was locked on the outside and Evan fidgeted nervously while a young veterinary intern fumbled with the lock. Finally, Evan could get to him. Then it struck him that everybody on the whole floor could watch him. His rush to take Jeremy in his arms slowed and he contented himself with sitting by his bed and holding his hand. He needed to ask
Tom if that was going too far.

He suspected that even showing up to visit might be going too far, even though Tom promised that no one here would report him. He was cynical enough to believe that Owens’ money might change someone’s mind.

Jeremy lay on his stomach, IV’s still running; Evan winced as he saw blood seep
ing
through the dressing on his back. He felt two separate buzzes in his
datapad
as Mark sent the files through. He saw Tom making rounds at the end of the hall and tried to be patient. He didn’t want to wake Jeremy up, but he wanted him to know he was there. He held Jeremy’s hand and lightly stroked his thumb over the pulse point in his wrist. He saw Jeremy’s eye open a crack. Tears oozed out and Evan nearly lost it. Answering tears flooded his eyes and a lump rose up
in his throat. Jeremy groaned his voice unrecognizable and cracked.

“Evan?” He whispered.

“
I’m here, Jer. Tom is on his way.”

“Am I ruined?”

Evan felt tears trickling down his cheeks at that. ‘No baby, what do you mean, ruined? Scars are kind of sexy. Don’t you know I love
you
?
N
ot the skin on your back?”

Jeremy’s lips turned up slightly. “What?”

E
van bent forward and put his lips next to Jeremy’s ear. “I love you. I’m a stubborn, stupid, selfish, frightened man. I love you and I’ve been in love with you for a while now. I should have told you. It just felt like
…
jumping off a cliff or something.”

Jeremy tried to turn his head to see Evan more clearly, but the effort
apparently
caused him to tighten muscles in his
back and he hissed. Evan put his head down against Jeremy’s. “I’m going to make that stupid fucking bitch pay, Jeremy. I wish I could do to her what she did to you, but I don’t think that’s an option. I wanted to crush her skull or tear her arm off and beat her to death with it. God, Jeremy, I’m so fucking sorry.”

“You…didn’t do anything.”

“I guess I’m trying to
apologize to you for the whole
fucking system. Are you thirsty? They put a cup with one of those bendy straws here, but I don’t see how in the world they thought you could reach it,” Evan grumbled, pouring water into the cup and holding it down so that Jeremy could get the straw in his mouth. Jeremy shut his eyes
blissfully
as the cool water soothed his aching throat.

“How long do I have to be here?”

“Don’t know. Tom will tell us in a minute, I guess.”

“Are you going to keep me?”

“What part of ‘I love you’ don’t you understand?” Evan nuzzled Jeremy’s ear. “I never want to lose you, Jeremy.”

“I heard some of the nurses talking. They said that
m
asters never keep slaves as banged up as me.”

“Well, I’m going to be the exception. And, I’m sure that wouldn’t be the case for Jeff, if Moira got hurt, do you think?”

“Moira is his slave? I thought she was his wife!”

“She would be if he could free her.”

Tom skipped several patients and came on up to Jeremy’s cage when he finally realized that Evan was there.

“How’s my boy doing, doc?”

Tom smiled at Evan. “I didn’t know if you would actually show up. Good to see you. I want to watch him for at least a day. I had to stitch up several of the deeper cuts; I’ve contacted the skin bank for matching donor skin and they have some; I can avoid the deeper cuts and do the first skin grafts in the morning. We need to be very careful about infection. But I don’t need to worry about you making sure he has what he needs, do I?”

“No. Whatever he needs.” Tom and Evan smiled at each other.

“Tom, what can I get away with in here?”

“Not much. I’d say you’re going about as far as you can just being in the cage with him. Hell most
m
asters don’t even bother to visit at all.”

“The nurses told Jeremy that I likely wouldn’t keep him because he’s going to have scars.
"

Tom’s face grew dark. “They know better than that. Even if it might be true they don’t need to give seriously injured people something else to worry about. He’s not thinking too clearly right now; I anesthetized him to stitch him up and get the field ready for grafts and then he’s had some more morphine. So, he’s not tracking too well
.
”

“
I kind of got that. I can’t seem to make him understand that I’m not going to sell him.”

Tom grimaced. “He’ll be more clear-headed in the morning.” He watched Evan’s face fall. “You didn’t think you’d get to stay here with him, did you? Evan, that’s just begging for trouble. You have to leave. You can come back whenever it’s time to pick him up.”

Evan smothered a sob. Tom moved to obstruct the sight line to the nurse’s desk. “Get it together. I know you’ve had a really, really bad day.”

“Jeremy’s had a worse one.” Evan’s voice wavered all over the place.

Tom sighed. “No question, but I don’t discount how
you
must feel right now. Go home and break down there. Call a sympathetic friend. If everything goes well he might be good to go by five o’clock tomorrow evening. Okay?”

“No. But, I’ll leave. You would think I could do whatever the hell I want, he’s mine.”

“You would think that. But, Evan, what you don’t want people to realize is that you are just as much his. Here,” Tom handed Evan a tissue, surreptitiously. Evan fought to keep control. It seemed that all he did these days was fight not to show his true feelings.
I’m just as much his? Yes. That’s definitely true.

“Thanks, Tom.” Evan stood. He leaned down to Jeremy’s ear and told him one more time. “Try to remember this, sweetheart. I love you. I’ll be back tomorrow to take you home. Do
you hear me?”

“Yes,” Jeremy whispered as he drifted back to sleep.

*****

Jeremy woke up back at the auction house, disoriented and alone. Where was Evan? Why was he here? The door to his small cell banged open and Roy Cavenaugh strode in, backed by four burly handlers. He had shackles and chains, as well as a collar and leash. A crop tucked under his right armpit completed the look.

Ashamed but unable to control his body, Jeremy trembled uncontrollably
and
scooted as far away as he could
. He
cowered in the corner of the room, arms wrapped over his head. The handlers unceremoniously hauled him to his feet and Cavenaugh licked his lips as he eyed Jeremy.

“Turn him around, boys. I understand his back is badly marked up.” The handlers picked him up and spun him around.

Cavenaugh laughed; the sound of it cold and greasy in Jeremy’s head. “Well, his pretty ass is still untouched---I don’t mind a few scars, but it
will get me a discount. What do you think, Jeremy? The last time you sold for $900,000. The auctioneer just told me I could have you for $50,000. James lost interest in you and it hasn’t ev
en been a year yet.” Cavenaugh clucked
in faux sympathy. “Get him ready to go boys.”

The handlers stripped Jeremy and shackled him. Cavenaugh came over to him and rolled Jeremy’s balls in the palm of his left hand. Jeremy couldn’t look up. He didn’t want to look up. He wondered if he could saw through an artery with the edge of his shackles. He was interrupted from his plans of sharpening the edges of the shackles by rubbing them against concrete when Cavenaugh suddenly thrust two large dry fingers up his ass. The sudden sharp burning pain caused him to double over.

W
here was Evan? Why had he sold Jeremy, when he promised that the scars would make no difference? Was he just saying that? The pain of losing Evan outweighed the pain Cavenaugh inflicted on his body. But then, Cavenaugh spun him around and penetrated him with one hard sharp thrust, tearing his way inside Jeremy’s body. Jeremy wailed and sobbed and….

Woke up. Tom Hatcher’s concerned face the first thing
             
he saw.

“Jeremy?”

“Where’s Evan?”

“He wasn’t allowed to stay with you, but I assure you he had no desire to leave. I sent him home. What’s going on with you? Pain?”

Jeremy became suddenly aware of the burning throbbing in his back. “Some. Bad dream.”

“Okay. Well, I need to change the dressings. I did more skin grafts this morning. If they look all right, Evan can take you home in a couple of hours. I’m going to give you some more pain medication now, hold on.”

Jeremy felt the morphine run through his body, putting out the fire in his back and soothing away tension. Evan was coming to take him home. He vaguely remembered that Evan had said something important to him…what was it? Jeremy strained after the memory,
but sleep claimed him before he could get a grasp on it. Something really important.

*****

Evan paced the waiting room at the clinic. He needed to actually see Jeremy. He craved the sight of him, like he craved oxygen. The receptionist kept giving him the evil eye, but he ignored her. If he sat down, he would break down. When he had gotten to his lonely apartment he realized that today was the last day of his probationary period. When the sun came up in the morning Slave Regulation would no longer have the right to make surprise inspections or demand any more receipts or reports from him. He and Jeremy could live in peace, if Frank Owens would just leave them alone. He briefly thought about calling Chris, but just the thought of ge
tting any sympathy from anybody,
made his heart seize up in his chest. If he broke down, he might not be able to stop. Ever.

He remembered how he had been right after Justin’s death. The pain he felt about not being able to do one god damned
thing to spare Jeremy from his needless agony rolled up and down his spine, recalling the helplessness he felt when Justin’s pain could not be relieved by any means. He needed to sleep but every time he closed his eyes he heard that last series
of wavering screams Jeremy uttered and saw the blood spatter the floor of the mall. He remembered the little pill Tom had
given him and took it. Shortly he fell into a dreamless deep sleep.

When he woke up he felt physically strengthened from the rest. He remembered Jeremy suddenly and the whole flogging incident
ran through his mind again, robbing him of any
a
ppetite and offsetting the benefit of his sleep.

Sean had already instituted
legal proceedings; a civil suit
against Lillian for excessive force and damages and a summons had issued for Owens for trying to destroy evidence and for terroristic threatening. He wouldn’t be arrested, but Sean felt reasonably certain that the State’s Attorney, Jennifer
Anglese
, would at least submit the evidence to the Grand Jury to try to get an indictment. Since they had Frank on audio tape, it shouldn’t be too hard. It
would be different if someone of lesser stature had been the victim; neither man had any illusions about that.

Since
Evan was the offended party,
Anglese
was caught between two possibly equal forces. Sean told
the prosecutor
that Frank would probably attempt a bribe
but
Sean had private monitoring on Frank’s communications.
So far Frank hadn’t offered;
but hopefully the
fact that Sean would know if he did might
keep
Anglese
honest. All they could do now was wait.