Deliver Us (44 page)

Handing over the beverage, Darrek sees the phone.

“What are you doing?”

“Calling Micah. I have to talk to him before he talks to Trace or Ben. They should still be in session with the client, so hopefully I’m not too late.”

“Wait, what?” Darrek squints, sitting next to Gabriel but giving him space.

“I need to tell him not to say anything to the others,” Gabriel says, dialing.

Darrek reaches over and closes the phone with a scowl.

“What the hell are you doing? Why would you tell him that?”

“Because if Trace or Ben thinks Micah hurt me, it’ll fuck everything up. They’d overreact and bad, bad stuff would happen. Micah doesn’t deserve that. He was just doing his job and being a good Dom. He shouldn’t be punished for that. Not when it’s me being so fucked up that’s the real problem. Look,” he says when it seems like Darrek is going to interject his opinion again, “let me do this and then I’ll explain everything. Promise. You trust me?”

“Of course I trust you! I
love
you,” Darrek insists, laying one of his hands on one of Gabriel’s.

Sierra, who has been busy first sniffing them, then going to her water dish, before returning to the couch, sits curled up near Gabriel. She rests her chin on his knee and whines. Pulling his hand away from Darrek, Gabriel reaches to scratch behind her ears, murmuring lovingly to her. The tenderness in Gabriel, and Sierra’s evident concern for her new master, breaks Darrek’s heart.

A few clicks of the phone buttons later, Gabriel says into the cell phone, “It’s Gabriel. Look, I have a history that I should have made you aware of. I was abused for a long time, and it fucks with my head. The reason I’m calling, though, is because I need to ask you to not tell anyone else—Trace, Ben, Sam,
anyone
—what happened between us today. Let me handle it.”

There’s a pause as Micah responds, and Darrek watches Gabriel’s face, unable to hear the other side of the conversation.

“Yeah. And I don’t blame you. You did your job. You’re going to be an awesome Dom, and I don’t want to screw things up for you with Diadem, or with Trace and Ben.”

Licking his lips, and scratching at his chin absently, Gabriel mutters, “Okay. Thanks. Later.”

He hangs up the phone only to dial it again immediately, holding a finger up to Darrek and asking him silently to wait just a little longer.

“Hey Sam, it’s Gabriel. I know you’re not in right now but I’m calling to let you know that I quit. As of today, I won’t be coming in anymore, and I won’t be able to help you with the video or online facets of the company. I’m sorry for leaving you without any notice. You’ve always been a good friend to me. Give me a call when you get this. Bye.”

Hanging up, he turns the phone off and tosses it away.

There had been a hold up after their lunch break. A plumbing issue had to be resolved before Darrek, Kyle and another of their buddies could go back to work on laying the trim and framing out a half-wall in the restaurant downtown. That left Darrek time to find a quiet corner of the room to check in on Gabriel. Wincing at the grip of the metal of the cock cage he has been wearing since the morning, Darrek pulls out the iPhone Gabriel had given him the previous week. Darrek popped in his earbuds and tried to see if he could figure out how to access the secure server per Gabriel’s instructions. He had almost accomplished it when Kyle appeared at his side.

Darrek had noticed over the course of the day that Kyle had been hanging back from the other men on their crew in favor of sticking with him when possible. Still wearing the leather collar that marks him as Ben’s submissive, just as Darrek was still wearing his chain, it could possibly have been chalked up to self-consciousness. Darrek, however, tended to think it was Kyle realizing how different his life was to most of the other people around them. He was finding comfort in the company of another submissive, specifically
Darrek
, instead.

Kyle observes Darrek’s efforts with the phone, and doesn’t say anything, at first.

Once he sees the web address, he makes a curious grunt and asks only, “Training? Or the archives?”

“Hmm? Oh. Well, training, I guess. ’Cause, you know, since you’re back to work here, and can’t help with Micah...” Darrek says, letting the suggestion hang in the air between them.

“Oh damn. Gabe’s subbing, isn’t he? ’Cause I know Ben said that him and Trace were out in the barn today, and Gabe and Micah were gonna be at the main building.”

He can see from the look on Darrek’s face that he’s right, but holds his tongue, not saying more.

“Um... might as well ask, since you figured it out,” Darrek says. “What’s Micah like? As a Dom? Gabe will be okay, right? He said it was just positioning and technique but I’m not really sure what that means.”

When Kyle lowers his eyes and considers his response, Darrek adds, “Gabe is going to set up a camera feed for me to watch the whole thing, so I feel more comfortable with it.”

“Dare, the thing about Micah is that he kind of gets in your head, and I’ve never had him
not
do that to me when I’ve helped him in training. It’s not
what
he does to you specifically, as much as what he figures out about what really
gets
to you. And it’s unnerving because, though I do trust Micah in the sense that I allow him to Dominate me with Ben present, I don’t trust him like I trust Ben. Or you. Or even Gabriel, for that matter.”

“Should I be worried?” Darrek frowns. He finally gets hooked into the feed, and he sees Gabriel sitting on a table in his underwear. Micah moves into frame with a rope and Darrek feels a chill race up his spine.

“Tell you what, I’ll try to reach Ben on his cell and see if he can check on Gabe. Sometimes he forgets to turn the volume off and he knows I’d only call if it was an emergency.”

“Thanks,” he says with quiet distraction, watching the tiny screen in his hands.

Sitting in their living room in the dying light of the day, Gabriel describes for Darrek what happened in the dungeon, not omitting any detail. When he finishes, and Gabriel is quiet, Darrek moves to kneel at Gabriel’s feet in front of the couch. They sit like that for a long while.

“I didn’t expect him to go there, and turn it into... what it was,” Gabriel says vaguely. “I thought we’d just practice the binding techniques, but I guess that was naïve of me. It’s his
job
to go there. It’s what we pay him to do. But, truthfully, that isn’t what freaked me out.”

“I know,” Darrek assures him. “You don’t need to explain that to me.”

“No, I do. I need to say it out loud. He didn’t rape me or do anything against my will. That’s the real reason why I didn’t say the safeword. I just didn’t want to think about it until now. I fucking
enjoyed it
. It felt like when Harry used to rape me. It felt exactly like that, and I
liked
it, and I felt so...
disgusting
. I couldn’t move. He had all of the power over me. He knew I was getting off on it, and he showed me that. Micah made me recognize that, and see myself as I am. And I’m fucked up.”

“Gabe, we’re all fucked up. But at least you’re able to look at your issues and work through them. That means you’re strong. You’re
so strong
, Gabe. You’ll be okay. But I think it’s good for you to take a break from Diadem.”

“It’s not a break. I’m done. Completely.”

“Okay,” Darrek nods, “But... there’s something you need to know.”

Gabriel’s head snaps up, eyes wide and nervous. “What?”

“Kyle knows. And Ben knows too. Or at least he will once he gets his voicemail or talks to Kyle.” He adds, “I’m sorry.”

Darrek explains what happened with Kyle while they were at work. Darrek explains how Kyle tried to call Ben. And, once Darrek saw the tears on Gabriel’s face, with the view of what was happening mostly blocked, he asked Kyle to cover for him and took off, driving over to Diadem. The iPhone continued to play on the passenger seat, with the audio playing through the speakers. Darrek heard everything.

“And Kyle kind of figured out on his own about Harry from what he’s overheard from all of us. I swear I didn’t tell him about that,” Darrek says.

His phone rings on the table behind him.

They both see Ben’s name on the caller ID. Darrek answers it as Gabriel groans, slumping back against the couch with tired dread.

“Let me talk to Gabriel,” Ben demands before Darrek can even say a word.

“I don’t want to talk to you!” Gabriel yells at the phone.

“Ben, he’s fine, he’s just freaked.”

“Why did you hit Micah then, if Gabe is ‘fine’?”

“Because I overreacted. I didn’t know what happened and I overreacted. That’s all.”

“Gimme the phone,” Gabriel says, grabbing for it. He says into it, “They shouldn’t have called you. I’m fine. See? Fine. Don’t worry about it.”

“What did Micah do to you, Gabriel?” Ben demands. “What did he do?!”

He opens his mouth to reply, but then he remembers. He feels the ropes biting into his skin, feels fingers inside him and on his body. He remembers what he said, the dark place in his head it sent him to, and sputters.

Dropping the phone, he pulls his knees up to his chin with a vacant stare.

Darrek picks the phone up and tells Ben, “Look, this really isn’t a good time. He’ll call you later.”

Hanging up and turning the phone off, Darrek sits beside Gabriel, wanting to hold and comfort him, frozen by uncertainty, afraid of making things worse. Gabriel hugs his legs to his chest more tightly. Sierra whines and lays her head on her paws at Gabriel’s feet.

Over at Diadem, Ben stares off at a spot on the wall, hearing the phone click off as Darrek hangs up on him.

“Oh fuck
that
,” he says, quickly dialing Kyle’s number.

“Hey, you almost done over there? Yeah? Good. I’m picking you up. We’re going over to Gabe and Dare’s place. Be ready in fifteen.”

Tucking the phone away, he glances around, wanting to get his hands on Micah, and ask him more questions. Micah has gone, though, along with his car. Ben storms out of the main building, cursing colorfully. He leaves Trace, who is still back at the barn finishing up, without warning or an explanation.

Gunning the engine, he tears out of the lot, onto the road. Confused, with only the vaguest of ideas of what could have occurred, Ben runs things through his head. He is glad that Darrek stood up for Gabriel to Micah, even if it was uncalled for, and especially if it
was
called for. Ben also knows that the details of Gabriel’s sexual life are not technically his or Kyle’s business, but the fact that something clearly happened
at work
, during the training of an employee, makes it his business. He knows Gabriel well enough to know that he will not get the police involved, no matter what. So, if something needs to be done, even something as trivial as a verbal reprimand, Ben needs to be aware of it. Considering Trace’s current sexual involvement with Micah, and Sam’s absence, he puts himself in charge of handling it.

Ben’s personal history of talking Gabriel down from panic attacks compels him to get over there and assist Darrek in any way that he can. Darrek might be Gabriel’s partner, but he
is
still new to the psychodrama that has filled their lives for years.