Continues from chapter thirteen
Chapter 14: The Passing of the Torch
Rest peacefully Roy.
You chose a good successor
that honors your name.
Duke laid his mentor’s hand at his side, kissed him on the forehead and walked out of the hospital into a waiting limo. Six other full grooms and seven rifles were already in the vehicle and as they drove to the private air terminal, they said very little to one another. Duke checked his custom Remington M24E1/XM2010 ESR, chambered in .300 Winchester Magnum, that had been suppressed by an in-house gunsmith and was accurate, in Duke’s hands, out to a mile. Duke wanted to make an immediate statement about the events of three nights ago. The CFO had no way of knowing that he wasn’t the target, that the women were, so Roy’s plan to undermine the executives was still intact. Duke wanted to send them a harsh message and mislead them at the same time. There had been planning and preparations made by the other grooms while Roy slept, before he passed.
Duke and his fellow snipers would fly out to a city close to the CFO’s compound. From there they would be ferried out to a few clicks away from the target area by a silent chopper borrowed from the agency. They would rappel out of the helicopter and infiltrate the hills surrounding the private residences of the executives from TTI and take their readings. Getting into position throughout the night and with the morning sun at their backs they would wait for the CFO and his entourage of bodyguards to come out to go to their cars. The plan was to take out all of the bodyguards in one fusillade while Duke crippled the CFO with a knee shot. Then all seven would fire another two rounds each, all around the wounded executive, relaying the message to him that if they wanted his life, they could’ve easily taken it. Then, as per the pre-planned exit, Duke would drive them out in an emergency vehicle past all the cops rushing to the aftermath.
Everything worked according to plan until the first shot went phffft-splat into the first bodyguard. Duke shot to maim the CFO, but the movement of the other bodyguards attempting to cover the CFO left him gut shot instead of shot in the knee where Duke had aimed. You can’t control where a bullet goes once it’s left the barrel. They were all shooting from well over 1,600 yards away. During the remaining seconds of hellfire, considering the bodyguards were piling on the CFO, a total of ten men, including the CFO died, each riddled with bullets. By the time other bodyguards from the neighboring compounds ran across the large lawns and checked the scene, there was nothing to do but wave their guns around and wait for the emergency sirens to arrive. Duke and his other grooms were already falling back to their rendezvous point for their egress.
May felt the all too familiar firecracker go off and sting her leather-covered butt. Johan’s whip didn’t hurt too badly but it was the noise that always made her cringe. Luckily, she was wearing one of her short, tight, leather miniskirts, and Johan was only targeting her butt.
“Let’s try it again, only this time concentrate on where the placement of the silverware goes in relation to the dishes. Use the side of the table to square up your utensils with the edge of the dishes. Now remove everything back to your serving tray, get up, walk to the other side of the table and try it at the number two setting.”
May was getting very frustrated with Johan’s way of teaching. He was so by the book. She thought about it and missed Duke’s ways of giving her a little positive feedback when she accomplished something or his gentler chastisement when she was just a little off. Duke had the patience of Job compared to Johan. In all fairness Johan was making positive progress with teaching her how to serve in the dark, but he was no Duke. She missed her Duke and wondered all the time what he and Roy were doing together. And especially when they were coming back.
“Alright, that was better. Now pick everything up, put it on your tray and move from the kitchen area to the refresher. Set everything up on the folding table in facing placements and then take your position at the foot of the table.”
And she was so horny! May had gone from uncontrollable multiple orgasms with the man she loved, to nothing in the blink of an unseeing eye. This groom had told her at the beginning that he didn’t have any privileges, but he didn’t have to cut into her privilege.
That first night, she was missing Duke and so terribly lonely that after this groom had chained her to her cage/bed she’d tried to masturbate. She was just getting into the groove when he came in and crossed and tied her wrists behind her back and anchored her tied wrists with a waist wrap that wouldn’t allow her to reach anything. He also popped a large ball-gag in her mouth and buckled it closed behind her head. May had a very restless night.
The second night he tied her arms in a box tie, with her forearms parallel and in the small of her back with wraps going horizontally around her arms to hold them in place. This bondage was more comfortable to sleep in and May had time to think things through. Duke had suggested that she use the bondage and her mind to start enhancing her sexual awareness, so she started to concentrate on the positive things about being comfortably tied up. May thought about what bondage had gotten her, from the first time her Duke had tied her up to kidnap her, to all the times she had been tied and used by him. She especially loved it when he had tied her up like a living statue, imitating the print from John Willie. She concentrated on how she felt now, being tied up for sleep and how she felt when her Duke tied her like the living sculpture. After a while she turned her frustrations into excitement and just thinking about how bondage reminded her that she had been kidnapped because she was wanted and desired. Building on this, she felt the ropes holding her, and how they felt like a hug from her beloved. Her excitement built until she popped a small but satisfying orgasm all on her own. This allowed her to get some sleep and more importantly, some rest.
The afternoon of the shooting, Duke walked into a warehouse in the port. He brushed his way past some toughs and went up to a short but stocky, clean-shaven man in his 40’s with a cigar in his mouth. He was chewing on it as he asked, “Didja brings da money?”
“Yea, what do you have for me?”
“You’re in luck. I got a tai pan, a boomslang, a cobra, a black mamba and a timber rattler. Whadda ya want ‘em for?”
“For the money I’m paying you, you don’t need to know or want to know. Are they alive and well?”
“They’ll do whatcha need ‘em to do.”
“Can you get more? Different kinds? Remember though, only the most deadly and venomous ones.”
“Is the money good?”
“Same unmarked bills, same cash on the barrelhead.”
“I’ll see what I can do. Call me in three weeks. Let’s make this exchange. Those things make me a liddle noivous.”
“You know what will happen if I’m not satisfied, right?”
“Yea, yea, sure, sure.”
Thirty minutes later Duke loaded five large, locked, plastic tool boxes into the back of a van, secured them so they wouldn’t bounce around and smiled. Just the smell of these snakes made the cage full of rats he’d bought at the pet store nervous and very scared. He covered all of them with a tarp and drove off.
May thought she heard a gong sound from behind the door of her cell. This was the beginning of the sixth day since Duke had gone away and she ached because she missed him so much. She’d actually spent more time with Johan than she had with Duke, but with Duke, the time flew by. Being trained by Johan the days seemed long and dreadfully dull.
At the moment she was still bound hand and foot and chained by the collar around her neck to her cage/bed. She was a bit surprised because either her internal clock was off, or Johan was late this morning in releasing her for her training. Not wanting to waste her time on idle thought and speculation, she fought against her bonds for just a few moments, just so she could get the feel of the ropes. Then May started to meditate on the ropes. Her mind took her back to the loving way her Duke used to tie her and what his hands felt like wrapping rope around her and then snuggly knotting it. He had big hands, but they could be so gentle. Her breathing began to quicken and take on a hoarser quality. May rubbed her legs together while trying to tighten and compress her thighs against one another and worked herself up to a high state of arousal. Again, she managed a small but necessary orgasm. Panting around the smaller ball-gag in her mouth, May heard the door open.
“It smells like May in here.”
May just started to cry. It was her Duke, come back to her. Hearing his deep masculine voice just fired up every nerve in her body. He unfastened the chain from her cage/bed to her collar and then took her collar off. For some reason he immediately fastened a thinner metal collar around her neck, and she heard a distinctive snap when the catch caught. She couldn’t quite distinguish what she was hearing, but it sounded like Duke was cutting something up. She could hear the cutting and the pieces hitting the floor, but she still couldn’t fully understand what he was doing. Finished for the moment, he just sat down on her cage/bed, pulled her into his arms and crushed her bound and gagged body against his chest. After what seemed like a glorious eternity to May, Duke started to speak.
“May, things have changed around here.”
She wanted to ask how and what and give voice to a hundred other questions but the ball-gag in her mouth reminded her that if Duke had wanted her to speak, he would have removed it. She controlled her urges and stayed quiet while he continued.
“May, Roy is dead,” and his voice cracked. While he fought to control it, May’s mind raced.
O – M – G, what’s going to happen to me? Am I going to be farmed out to another man, or woman? Am I going to become a bald chattel? Doesn’t Duke want me? Am I good enough for him? What do I have to do to be with him? Oh, why didn’t I work harder? Is there a slave’s court to appeal my sentence? The man I belonged to is dead, and Duke doesn’t have time for me, and he acts like he wants me, but he said it would be unfair, and they really haven’t even made him a full groom yet, and if he can’t have me, what will I do?
Duke answered all those questions with a simple statement.
“You belong to me now May. I am your new master.”
May just started trembling and sobbing.
“This is an odd response. I thought you liked me?”
May turned her head in and buried her nose in his chest so hard it stunned the both of them. Then she started nodding and whimpering and trying to talk but it was so hard to inhale because she’d been crying that finally she just started rubbing her head against his chest like a cat.
“That’s better,” and Duke removed the gag from her mouth and then with his handkerchief helped her blow her nose. Petting her until she calmed down, Duke continued.
“On his mission Roy was shot and then poisoned.”
“OH god Duke! That’s horrible.”
“Shhh, for now, we’ll discuss that aspect a bit later. When they got him to the hospital he called back here and wanted me to join him. That’s when I left, and Johan filled in for me. As soon as I got there, in front of Jackson McMal and several other reliable witnesses, he offered me the chance to be his heir. I shouldered the responsibility and I inherited you along with everything else he owned. Poor Roy lasted for another day and a half before his body and mind started to fail from the poison that was introduced into his system. We talked of many things during that last day. I sat with him until there was no breath left in him, and then went out to make arrangements for his last wishes.”
“I’m so sorry Duke.”
“Thank you. So, we have some talking to do, you and I. Put on some pantyhose when I release you, and I’ll bring in the rest of what I want to see you wearing.”
He untied her and went around to her side closet that was actually the next cell down the hall. By the time he got back she was sitting with her legs crossed waiting for him. He handed her an under-wired teddy, a pair of T-strapped wet-heels with a five-inch arch and some long satin gloves that went to just under her armpits. Once she was dressed, he tied her wrists behind her but this time he tied them so that the backs of her hands were touching. He had to tie thinner cord around her palms so that they were more secure. Then with more of the thin cord, he tied her thumbs and each set of her fingers together. Finally, he wrapped a long rope around both of her upper thighs many times and cinched it just under her pussy, tightly. His fingers teased her as he cinched the wraps and she just tried her best to wriggle onto them.
Duke pinged the refresher and as she got up to walk there, he caught up to her. Grabbing her and spinning her around he threw her over his shoulder and swatted her butt. May was giggling like a schoolgirl when he tossed her into the jacuzzi. Spitting and sputtering she righted herself by the time it took Duke to pull his clothes off and join her. She always liked it when he was naked and she was wearing something sexy, for him. He jumped in, and they finally got seated, with him against the wall and her on his lap.
“Okay May, you have no say in the fact that I own you now, and, …”
“But Duke, I do have something to say, and that’s ‘Goody, Goody, Goody!” and she laughed as she leaned in and gave him a quick smooch.
“Okay then, I’m glad we’re on the same page, but this is the reality. I do not have time to train you?”
“Is this a race? Is there a time limit on this training? Why can’t you train me when you do have the time, and in the meantime, I’ll work on improving what you’ve trained me to do?”
“You don’t want to perfect what I train you to do?”
“You’re the one that said practice doesn’t make perfection, but practice does make improvement.”
“True, and no this is not a race, nor is there a time limit on when you have to be fully trained.”
“Then my Duke, you’re already a rule breaker and a trend setter, and no one trains like you do. M’Lord Groom Johan told me so on several occasions. High Lord McMal said he enjoys the company of the slave you trained for him and wants two more. High Lady Vinzini wants one too, and I’m sure as soon as they see the ones you’ve trained, then others will want one too. Beginner grooms are lining up to train under you. M’Lord Groom Johan told me so. I’ve already said I’ll do whatever I have to do to be the best slave for you. Give me a chance to prove to you, and to those that matter to you, that I’ll be every bit as good and most likely better than those automatons that are trained up under the high and low protocols. I can do this for you. I won’t bargain, or carp about any of the training; I’ll just do it. And I’ll do it with pride because I’m the slave of the best trainer and the man I love.”
A bit angry and hurt, Duke said, “You’re not the least bit sad that Roy’s dead! He did more for you than you can imagine. He kept you from being one of the chattel and you’re only thinking about yourself.”
“Duke, please, I only knew Master Roy for a half a day, and I was so new that everything he did was scaring me. I thought that he had blinded me, and I hadn’t even had time to adjust before he left and turned me over to you. You were the one that kidnapped me and trained me. You are the one I imprinted on and the man I fell in love with.”
Duke thought about it for a moment and then just nodded. She couldn’t see the nod, but instinctively knew that he understood her side of this. May knew he was grieving and decided to tone her elation down a bit.
“Duke, let’s examine the alternatives. If you maintain my part-time training, and if I am even remotely successful, --- Oh god I love it when you touch me there, --- well, if I’m successful, then you and your casual method will be considered a success. If people like Johan train me, then,” and May switched to a monotone voice like an old mechanical voice synthesizer, “I will be just another one of the many that got to you enough to change your whole training method,” and May went back to her normal voice. “Duke I did learn things from M’Lord Groom Johan, and he is proficient, especially with that single-tail of his, but the man is dull and narrow. He may be your friend, and I will apologize now if I’ve offended you, but he is not a quarter of the man you are. When he was training me, I was not learning to make him proud of me; I was learning simply to keep that single-tail off my butt. When you teach me, I want to learn from you and when I have learned something, I want to learn more from you. I want to please you because you appreciate the effort, not just punish the mistakes. You could beat me senseless and it would not hurt as much as one of those firecracker pops from M’Lord Groom Johan’s whip. I want you to, ---, no need you to train me. I’ll work very hard for you Duke, and it doesn’t matter if you aren’t with me all the time, I’ll still be working to please you and make you happy with me. I want you to be proud of me like I’m proud of you.”
“I won’t be with you much at all, especially for the next couple of months. I figure I’ve got a week or maybe up to ten days before the shit hits the fan, and when it does, I may have to be gone for up to a week at a time. Even for this week I’ll have high level meetings with people at odd times during the day and those meetings are important enough to take me away from you. I want to continue your training, but I can’t at the moment think of how I’m going to do that. Any ideas?”
“Would a blow-job help clear your mind?”
“Oh, it would clear my mind alright, and put me into the coma that I need just to catch up on my sleep. Maybe later May.”
“Can’t blame a girl for trying.”
“I have one idea that might help your training. What if I let you see again?”
“O – M – G, I’d give anything to see your face right now!”
“It’s a bit haggard right now.”
“Oh Duke, your voice is music to me, your scent is delicious, your hands are magic, especially there, and so, all your face could be to me is beautiful. Please, may I see your face? I’ll be a good girl anyway, but you could not give me a better treat than to see the man I love. I can work with the darkness discipline, but if I could see you, I’d work extra hard to learn how to do things blindfolded, or back in the dark where there’s no chance of cheating or peeking. I just love you so much and seeing you would be so special.”
“OK, but to avoid eye injury there’s a computer program I’ll start that gradually ups the wavelengths of the light that’s been shining in here all the time, until it starts to edge into the range of visible human sight. It’ll actually take a couple of hours before the lights become visible, and even then, the luminosity will be low for a couple of days to give your optic nerve a chance to rebuild your input pathways. Wait here, this has to be done from the computer in Roy’s,” --- (long pause and a deep sigh) --- “I guess it’s my office now. This is gonna be rough.”
“Anything I can do to help?”
“No, it just takes some getting used to. I’ll be right back.”
New territory
is how they will describe this.
She will make it work.
Continues in chapter fifteen