Conviction (4 page)

“Please, close the door, Kelly.” He immediately noticed her breathing increase and the deep breath she took before the door closed. Her hands were also gently shaking. When she noticed him looking at her hands, she gripped the sides of her skirt to hide the shake. “Are you scared of me, Kelly?”

Kelly’s mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water but no words would come out. Her enticing blush rising from her visible cleavage and quickly engulfing her face. He’d never seen Kelly stuck for words and, he had to admit, he found it more than a little amusing.

"Kelly, please sit down, I am not going to hurt you." He waited until she had sat down in the chair opposite him taking note of how she turned the chair slightly so that it was turned towards the door more than the desk. This girl knew how to plan ahead. She had strategically placed her chair so that she could get the door faster than he could get to her. She had even manoeuvred it so that it would be an obstacle for him to get around. “Master James came to see me.”

“Oh.”

“Oh? Is that all you want to say?”

“Fine. He was being an ass, purposely delaying me when it was busy," the words began to tumble out of her mouth, her anger at Master James for dobbing her in fuelling her tirade. "Being one of the owners, he should know that the rest of the members in the club weren’t very happy about their orders being delayed.”

“Still, he is a Master and, owner or not, you knew about club protocols on respect when you signed your contract. Granted, purposely delaying you wasn’t the nicest thing he could have done, but have you considered that he was testing you?” Xander sat back in his seat and let her ponder his idea.

“I’m not a
submissive
, Master Xander," Kelly spat the word, "there is no reason for him to test me. Whilst I normally show him the respect he...” Kelly swallowed noisily her throat suddenly devoid of any moisture, “
deserves
, the club busy, short staffed and Kai was under the pump. I
needed
to get moving and he was purposely delaying me to get a reaction!”

“Do you need a review of Momentum’s staff policies and procedures?” Xander lifted an eyebrow as Kelly dropped her gaze to the floor. It was such a natural reaction for her, he found it amusing that she found submission so repulsive despite her natural pull towards it. “No, Sir. I do not.”

“Then you know that there is a punishment for being bratty to a Master, do you not.”

Kelly’s voice wavered despite her clenched fist and rapidly rising anger. “I do.”

“I will give you a choice, because I know of your aversion to some of our activities here. Although you still have not told me why you feel the way you do. Normally I do not give concessions, so consider yourself lucky. You can choose to be spanked ten times by Master James over a spanking bench in the public area,
or
you can be an inanimate object for an hour. Specifically, a coffee table.”

“I…you...
that’s
a concession?” Kelly couldn’t hold back her anger and jumped up from her chair. Only when she felt another presence in the room did she spin around, coming face to face with Mr Annoying himself. “You! All you want is to spank me! You did this on purpose!” Not being able to hold in the tears any longer she let them fall freely as she started to punch him in his chest with every ounce of strength she had, not registering his grunts from the impact of her blows. “You did this! You! How dare you treat me like this! I am
not
one of
those
submissives! I will
not
give myself to you freely. If you want to spank me you’re going to have to do it by force!”

Kelly raged and yelled and continued to pummel into his chest. To his credit, Master James stood and let her yell and scream and punch him for a few seconds he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to his chest, leaving her no room to punch or pull away. At some point she started to slump as the fight left her and he gently lowered them both to the floor. She didn’t know how long she lay there sobbing and heaving in noisy breaths. She had never cried like this in her life. Never. Not even after… As her flashbacks returned in full force she started to try and hit him again, but he held her firm, constantly whispering in her ear that she was safe. That she was okay. Eventually she fell asleep in his tight embrace, feeling safe instead of scared for the first time since she was fifteen.

James stared at Xander in confusion, shocked at Kelly's reaction to a fairly harmless punishment, her attack on James and her desolate sobbing that had lasted for over an hour before she had succumbed to exhaustion and had fallen asleep.

* * * * *

“Kelly?” She groaned as she opened her eyes and soft light filtered in. Strong arms held her and instinctively started to fight and scream. “Kelly, you’re okay! It’s James, just James. Shhh, honey, you’re okay.”

Eventually his voice soothed her and she stilled in his arms as a wave of fresh tears erupted from her eyes. Embarrassment and horror at her distressing behaviour in front of her bosses had her anger flaring up momentarily as she recalled what had happened and what had set her off.

“Let go. Please…please…James, let me go.” Her voice was low and it wavered with each word as she fought for control of her emotions.

“Okay, Little One, just breathe first okay?” James waited for her to nod her head and take in a couple of deep breathes before he loosened his arms and watched her scoot backwards across the floor until her back was up against Xander’s couch and she was hugging her legs. “Kelly? Do you want to talk about it?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t know what came over me. I…I’m sorry!” Again tears cascaded down over her beautifully freckled face and James moved to sit closer to her before stopping when she cowered at his approach.

“You don’t have anything to be sorry about. Apparently I do though. Can you look at me?” Kelly raised her head and looked at James for the first time since she had woken in his arms and observed the forlorn expression on his face. He looked distraught, his usual controlled mask missing completely.

“I’m sorry, Kelly. I did purposely bait you. I wanted you to react to me. I know you’re not a sub and I pushed my control too far. I’m sorry that I’ve put you through this tonight, I really am. I honestly would never have done it had I known what the outcome would be.”  His voice was honest and apologetic, his eyes pleading desperately for her to accept his apology.

“That's just it, you can never
truly
know how anyone will react in a given situation. I know you’re a Dom and you
are
a good one, but everybody reacts differently. Unless you know absolutely everything about someone how can you claim to know how a person will react? It’s not all about body language, an increase in heart rate or even pupil dilation. You Doms think that you know it all, but you don’t. You just
don’t
.” Kelly let her voice trail off and lowered her eyes from his again. James looked at her like he was seeing her for the first time.

“What happened to you, Kelly? Who hurt you?” he asked quietly.

“James, I think that’s enough. Go and check the club and make sure that Cindy arrived to take over Kelly’s shift. I will see her home myself tonight.” Xander's presence made her jump, she had been so focused on James that she hadn't realised he was still in the room, sitting silently behind his imposing desk.

“No! I can work. I need to work.” Kelly argued.

“Not tonight, Little One, not tonight.” Xander responded firmly yet soothingly, Kelly gave up, she no longer had the energy to argue with either man.

“Kelly, I am truly sorry. You’ll never know how much.” James left the room and quietly shut the door behind him. She heard him yell out a swear word as he walked away.

“I didn’t even know you were here, Master Xander.” Kelly whispered as she stared into nothing and rocked herself whilst she hugged her knees.

“Kelly, I need you to listen to me very carefully. Can you do that?” Xander walked slowly but purposely across the room before he knelt down in front of the broken woman before him, a small part of him breaking right along with her. He grabbed a blanket off the back of the couch and wrapped it around her shaking body. Wrapped tightly in the plush blanket Kelly nodded for him to continue. He sighed and knew it was time to tell her what he knew. About her past, about everything he knew. He picked up the sports drink he had on the desk and took the lid off. “First drink this, it will help you feel better.” He watched as she took a sip from the bottle her eyes unfocused as she allowed him to pour the sweet liquid into her mouth. Slowly she drank until she tilted her head back and removed her lips from the bottle. “Damn, Kelly. You need to come back to us now.”

“I’m here, Master Xander, mostly.” She whispered, mostly truthfully. Only part of her mind still locked in the painful memories of her past.

“I have a few things to tell you, things I should have told you a long time ago. I’m just not sure that in the state that you are in, I should be telling you.” For a moment Xander lost his usually controlled facade, his voice was unsure and conflicting emotions streamed across his features. Kelly had never this side to Xander and it made her nervous.

Kelly looked into his face, confusion etched on her own. Forcing herself to her feet she picked up the drink and skulled the remained before curling up in the corner of the couch with a cushion in her lap.

“I’m not going to like this am I?” she whispered.

“No, Little One, you are not. But I promise you I am not here to hurt you, I only mean to keep you safe.”

“You better started talking, Master Xander, I’m worried now.”

Kelly watched her boss take in a deep lungful of air and sit in the opposite corner of the couch. He sat facing her although he was careful not to touch her. His shoulders had slumped slightly and that more than anything told her this was bad news. Master Xander had perfect posture. Always. Kelly had been jealous of his natural posture because she always had to consciously remind herself to stand up straight.

“I know what happened to you when you were sixteen.”

Of all the things he could have said. He could have told her to strip naked and do a pirouette and she wouldn't have batted an eyelash. Her eyes snapped to man that stood before her and in his eyes she saw only anguish and regret, and a rawness that she felt mirrored in her own soul.

“I was a cop then. Fairly new to the force.” He smiled when he saw the surprise on her face. “I know, definitely a bit different to now huh? Don’t forget I’m a little older than you, I’ve had other jobs in my life as well, including in the military."

“James…that’s how you know him?” Kelly asked as she started to put various pieces of information together.

“Yes, we served together, both on the force and in the same unit.”

“It doesn’t explain how you knew about my…kidnapping.”

“You know it wasn’t just a kidnapping, Kelly. I know
everything
.”

“So...you were a cop. Did they seriously have no leads? I smacked a man in the head with a
baseball
bat. There would have been DNA, blood and hair samples, why couldn’t you find him! You could have found me!"

“At the same time that you were taken, four women in every state across the country disappeared in the exact same circumstances. Mostly from their homes, you being taken from your school camp was out of character. But you were unique, Kelly, a
special
order.”

“You make me sound like a dinner order.”

“Technically that’s exactly what you were.” Xander stood, unable to contain his nervousness nor the disdain for the memories of his inability to help Kelly when she'd been taken. “I wasn’t assigned to your case at first, it went to the more experienced officers, until the FBI stepped in and took control. Girls were being taken all over the country so none of us held jurisdiction. Each geographical location investigated their own cases, but ultimately the FBI had complete control.”

“I’m starting to think I don’t want to hear anything else you have to say.” Kelly whispered, more to herself than to Xander.

“You
need
to know the rest of the story. The other half to yours.” Xander paused, letting Kelly contemplate her options in a silent internal battle.

“Fine, keep going.” Kelly hugged a cushion to her chest as she prepared herself for what Xander had to tell her.

“As I said, I wasn’t part of the initial team, I was brought in later because of my technical skills. I was an information tracker. I could find information anywhere, no matter how many layers of encryption or cyber dust had been laid over the top. I discovered on my own that these guys had been using school photos to select their victims. All the girls came from schools where their class photos were listed on their website. Complete with names of each of the students. It didn’t take much from there to work out where they lived. It was easy online shopping for these assholes. They could pick out who they wanted
by name
and simply ordered in.” Xander bent over his desk, leaning on his hands, his body rigid as old anger resurfaced. “Eventually I found their online group and hacked my way in. That’s when the FBI tracked me down. I could have been wiped off the force for investigating the case when it wasn’t my job. Instead they offered me a promotion and suddenly I was on the team. At first I only loitered in the online group, hiding, they literally couldn’t see that I was there. Once I'd worked out how the group functioned and interacted, and who appeared to be the major players I created a handle and started to join in. The things they discussed, as if they were talking about groceries...utter filth, all of it." Xander took a couple of much needed calming breaths before continuing. "I managed to get a couple of dates for the exchange of product, that’s what they called the girls,
product
. Once we had those dates the raids were organised and orchestrated. We saved ten girls. Just ten. We missed your handover because apparently one of the men who took you decided to beat the shit out of you and they had to take you…”