“As you say,” Mary replied. “They’re a leading software development company, specialising in communications and firewall technology. In my position, I need to work with world leaders in the field.”
“Which happen to be a majority of women, which is totally bizarre, and they’re one of the youngest companies in the world, using the strict French laws of privacy to evade investigation into the people running it, yet managing to negotiate contracts with several foreign countries. As a spy boss, isn’t it your duty to know who you’re dealing with?”
“I know I’m dealing with a company fast becoming the most reputable leader in computer security. I judge them by their performance which has been faultless to date.”
Brendon laughed softly. “Yeah, maybe, and perhaps fitting for a company whose name is an anagram of Master. That’s just purely coincidental, isn’t it?”
“I believe the word ‘stream’ has at least seven anagrams, Should I be concerned about these as well?”
“No, because you only called him Master, and it’s from the time of meeting him that it all changed quite a bit for you, Mary. Within six months you were accepting a tender from this company to upgrade the whole government computer network. I don’t think that man was a fling at all.”
“Mr. North, whilst I understand your agitation, you will have to be able to put aside our past dealings to make our future arrangement work.”
Brendan didn’t reply and maintained silence as he drove. For the first time, Mary could see the flaws in her plans, not having considered the depth of resentment and bitterness he held. It was a pity that he had come to the meeting inebriated. Otherwise, the merit of her offer might have broken through some of that resentment, allowing him to recognise a brilliant opportunity.
She frowned as he turned into a dark carpark, but she didn’t comment. The significance was blaringly obvious and if he needed this ritual to get down to business, then so be it. The place did offer a secure environment to talk openly.
Brendan drove to the empty top level and pulled into a space. He switched the engine off and stared out at the night sky. “You know, Mary, I think you will always evade telling the truth, but you’ll never actually outright lie.”
She nodded. “That would be a correct assumption. I have discovered that truth…”
“Just shut the fuck up and listen.”
Mary closed her mouth and studied him, growing more uncomfortable with their situation.
“So,” Brendan continued, pulling some device from his pocket. “When you say that nobody followed you or knows anything about this meeting, I tend to believe you, and I even believe all that fluff you’re spouting about giving me my own newspaper. It’s even tempting to take you up on it… except now I’ve got something better.”
He held up the device and Mary paled to see the voice recorder. “It’s all on here, you’re confession, your guilt offering and the complete ruin of your life, which is going to be worth so much more than your fucking newspaper when I sell the exclusive to the highest bidder. Any guesses how much they would pay to find out the director of New Zealand’s spy base is a filthy slut who ruined an honest journalist’s career? Who knows what else they’ll pay to find out more about you, but I’ll bet it’ll be a lot more than what you’re offering.”
“Brendan, please, I’ve got something bigger for you, corruption at its highest levels…”
Brendan raged at her. “You’ve got nothing I fucking want, except your complete and utter demise, unless you want to start telling me names. I want to know who that arsehole was that night. I want his fucking head on a platter as well.” Reaching over, he yanked the glove box open and pulled out a switchblade, flicking the blade up, he held it under her chin. “And I want a repeat of that night, but it won’t be your fucking Master that will be pounding you. It will be me. You can cry rape, but I don’t think anyone will be listening after they learned your true nature. I don’t think anyone will believe you again.”
Mary trembled, feeling the point piercing her skin. “Please, Brendan…”
“Shut up.” He launched from the car, racing about to pull her door open. “Get out and get your clothes off, nice and slow. I want the same performance you gave him.”
Slowly edging herself out, Mary quaked as she stood up and began to undress.
Brendan stood watching her. “Has he ever fucked you over the hood of a Peugeot, Mary? Probably not. That’s too classy for a cheap slut like you. You’ll love it, me, arse fucking you and you cleaning my cock off after with your mouth. That’s about as classy as a stupid bitch like you deserves.”
For some reason, his words only angered her. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t stripped in front of people before, and even displayed herself in front of them while being spanked, whipped and fucked. The games with Master were often pure debauchery, but Master had always respected her and never told her that she was stupid.
That very afternoon, he had reminded her of just how much he had respected her, right up until she had defied him, because she thought she knew better.
“We got a long night ahead of us, Mary. Of course, you can end it by telling me the name of your Master, though I’m sure I’ll find out anyway.”
Mary finally lowered her panties only to incite more laughter from Brendan. “Bit fucking old to be lacking pubic hair, aren’t you? Actually you’re a bit fucking old full stop. Good thing I don’t have to look at you while I’m fucking you.”
She replied absently. “He always told me I was beautiful.”
“He lied,” Brendan laughed. “You’re about as beautiful as an old goat, and about as scrawny as one. Now get yourself over the hood, unless you want to tell me who ‘he’ is.”
She glared at him. “He’s the most incredible man I’ve ever known, and I was going to betray him for a piece of scum like you.”
Brendan stepped forward and backhanded her hard across the face. “Don’t you fucking dare talk to me like that.”
Mary fell and caught herself on the car. She held her face as tears rolled down her cheeks, but the terror was gone. Only anger and regret were left. Brendan didn’t have the power over her to do anything to her body that she couldn’t deal with. Only Master could make her feel weak and helpless and vulnerable, because he was smarter than her. He was brilliant and commanded respect with his presence alone.
There would never be another man like him, and for six years she had known the honour of serving him, of belonging to him. Her pride and jealousy of Tammy had taken it all away. At least it brought some comfort to know she was smart enough now to identify these annoying flaws. She laughed.
“What the fuck are you laughing about?” Brendan snarled.
“Myself,” she replied. “And you, thinking I’m scared of you. Do what you like to me, and when you’re finished, I’ll go back to my hotel, have a hot shower and not give a second thought about anything you’ve done to me. I’m too brilliant to let an idiot like you defeat me. If you couldn’t do it with a camera, you got less chance with a voice recorder.”
“Oh, yeah?” Brendan gasped, pulling out his voice recorder. “State of the fucking art, with crystal clear capture, enough to do the damage. Now shut your fat fucking mouth and get over the car.”
“Sure,” Mary smiled. “Do you need any help getting it up?”
This time she was prepared for his attack and drove her knee into his crotch, at the same time wrenching the recorder from his hand. It was enough to disable him and allow her a few seconds to flee, with Brendan yelling and limping after her. She heard the click of the switchblade, but she didn’t look back.
Getting to the barrier, she flung the recorder over it, and stayed there, watching it fall and smash to pieces on the ground far below. She heard Brendan scream, and turned back to glare at him with a smile.
His face was ferocious. “You fucking bitch, you’re going to fucking pay for that.” He came within a foot from her, trembling with fury as he raised the knife.
�
�I never doubted it,” she said, as she closed her eyes and saw Dylan’s face. “Forgive me, Master.”
CHAPTER EIGHTY-ONE
Wellington, June, 2014
Tobias Collins looked up as Cooper entered his office with a smile on her face. She tossed a file in front of him.
“Just got off the phone to Paris. The DNA is a perfect match and a witness on the bridge that night has positively identified Brendan North as the person they saw with Mary. Of course, the French authorities are taking full credit for solving a nine year old case.”
“Bastards, but don’t worry, Lizzie, you’re going to get the credit in this country.”
“For what?” she smirked. “Following up an anonymous tip? All I did was check North’s travelling history and get a DNA sample sent off. I can’t believe they didn’t go down that road nine years ago.”
“Too much scandal and unanswered questions in an election year. They wanted it buried and North was long forgotten, let alone submitted as a suspect, and he was living in Australia. Out of sight, out of mind, but you can bet it’ll be the hottest topic in the media for the next couple of months.”
“Better than Russians fighting drug wars on our soil.”
“You’ve done some bloody good work, Lizzie, and I’m not about to undermine what you’ve achieved, but are you sure you don’t want to share a little bit more with me about your anonymous snitch, strictly off the record, of course.”
Cooper smiled. “Then I’d have to kill you, Tobias, and we’d have a whole new conspiracy to deal with.”
He laughed. “Fair enough.”
“And besides, you know a lot of it has come from Adele Easton.”
“I hear Adele’s going to have a restorative justice conference with Mairead Vaughn prior to sentencing. How’s that going to go down?”
“Good, I think. Mairead wasn’t opposed to the idea at all. In fact she asked if it would be taken into consideration regarding the sentencing. I told her it would and she seemed pleased with that.”
“Still, Adele’s up for attempted murder and tax evasion.”
“Except the tax has now been paid in full.” Cooper laughed. “By an anonymous donor of course.”
“You know, Lizzie,” Collins growled. “I’ve been in this job too long not to smell a rat. All this is playing out like a fine tuned orchestra and I’d love to know who’s conducting it.”
Cooper smiled. “No, you wouldn’t, Tobias, trust me. You’re five years off retirement and you have a commendation coming your way. Take my word for it that justice has been served.”
There was a knock at the door and an officer stepped in. “Sorry, to interrupt, Sir, but we’ve just had word from the Coast Guard that a boat belonging to Bevan Miller has been found out at sea, nobody on board.”
“Is that right?” He frowned at Cooper and then waved the officer off. “Thanks. I’ll take it from here.”
When he was gone, Collins eyed Cooper suspiciously, but her eyes widened and she shrugged.
“Don’t look at me like that. I have no idea what that’s about? Would you like me to do my job and find out?”
“Yeah, but preferably in the paperwork ridden, slow and faulty procedure that we’ve always followed, up until now.”
“Is there any other way?” Cooper laughed as she walked out.
* * * * *
James opened the car door and held a hand out to help Mairead from the car. She stood up, staring at their house, shaking a little as she leant into him.
“I can’t believe we’re back here, together. It’s felt like a life-time.”
“Joanne and Mum came through it yesterday, cleaning, gardening… I think we have meals prepared for the next month.”
Mairead peered up at him. “Don’t tell me they went into our bedroom.”
“About that,” James laughed. “My parents always turned a blind eye to my position in Vanessa’s club in England. I think they hoped it might be a passing phase I was going through. As you know, they weren’t aware that you shared my interest… until now.”
“Oh, god. Now I want to shrivel up and die. What did your Mum say?”
“She said,” James chuckled. “She hoped I was on the receiving end, and she would prefer I didn’t mention it to Dad.”
Mairead laughed. “I’ll have to order you about when they’re visiting, maybe give you a few smacks just to keep your Mum happy.”
“Just try,” he grinned. “And I’ll be quickly reminding you who’s in charge, the moment they leave.”
She turned to embrace him and gaze up at him. “You’re in charge, my handsome, domineering husband, who will find any excuse to get his hands on my arse.”
“Not as much as I’ll be wanting to in the coming months, but rest assured I’ll find plenty of ways to keep you in line.”
“I’m already craving our usual ways. Are you sure we can’t indulge a little bit?”
“I couldn’t.” James smiled sadly. “I’d rather be safe than sorry. I’m still not over the fact that I spanked you that last time.”
“Neither of us knew I was pregnant.”
He peered at her. “About that… not that I’m bothered, but how…?”
“Now, before I say anything,” Mairead began. “You have to remember how excited and overjoyed we are about our baby.”
“Of course. We are very happy, but keep talking.”
“Well, you know how busy we were the week before our wedding, I kind of cancelled my appointment for my jab, and then we had our honeymoon and I remembered it then, and fully intended to do something about it that first week we went back to work, and then…”
“The dates suggest you became pregnant during our honeymoon, so any future intentions were already redundant.”
“And that is absolutely unheard of. Like, it’s supposed to take months before you can fall pregnant after missing a jab, and I really thought I was safe and…”
“So what I’m hearing,” James remarked. “Is that if I don’t want to end up with twenty kids in the next twenty years, I’ll take a more proactive involvement in our family planning, instead of leaving it up to you.”
“Exactly,” Mairead giggled. “It’s all your fault.”
“It’s going to be a long few months.” He shook his head, glaring playfully at her. “The time can’t come soon enough to get you back in your proper place, young lady, which is over my knee with your bottom bared.”
She sighed long and deep. “Stop it. You’re making me horny.”
A lustful grin spread on his face as he slid his hands down to cup her buttocks, squeezing them gently. “Just think, baby, my hand spanking these plump, little cheeks cherry red, warming them up for a good long hard session with my belt.”
“If you don’t stop, I’m going to call your mother and tell her what you’re saying to me.”
His eyes narrowed in on her. “Are you threatening me, little girl?”
“Well, the way I see it,” Mairead shrugged. “Being pregnant is practically a licence for me to do whatever I want. No nasty paddles to make me quake in my boots. No embarrassing red bottom on display while I sniff and bawl in the corner, like an over-sized three year old. Just the occasional telling off, that I usually switch off in my head anyway.”
James narrowed his eyes. “Is that right? You really don’t believe I can effectively discipline you, because you’re pregnant?”
“Now, James,” she smiled sweetly. “You mustn’t think of it as a lack in your manliness or a blemish on your performance or anything. It is what it is.”
With that, Mairead turned and sauntered towards the front door, trying to keep herself from giggling, and feeling his gaze penetrating her. As he came up behind her, to unlock the front door, she glanced up at his face and was surprised to see him calm, with just the thinnest of smiles on his face.
As always, he allowed her to enter first as he opened the door, but he suddenly had a firm grip on her hand as he stopped to disarm the alarm. As it switched off,
his attention turned to her, Mairead went to walk on, only to have his other arm appear in her way with his hand on the wall.
“There’s no hurry,” he told her. “I want to hear more of your thoughts on my lack of performance.”
Mairead backed against the wall, delighting in him looming over her. “Well, not lack, but more… reserved, careful, safe and…”
“And?”
“And just what I need in my condition.”
“That’s right,” James nodded, straightening up and his hands going to the zipper on her jacket. “It’s about your needs, and it’s much too warm in here for all these clothes. Can’t have you overheating.”
He slowly unzipped her jacket and glided it off of her, letting it fall to the floor. “Now, what was it that you were going to tell my mother?”
“I wanted to thank her.” Mairead bit her lip. “For all her hard work.”
“Really?” James crouched down and began to untie her shoelaces. “It sounded more like you want to tell tales on me and imply that I’m some kind of deviant who gets his kicks out of doing perverted things to his wife.”
Mairead giggled. “Oh, not you, James. No perversions in this household.”
With her shoes and socks removed, he grabbed the waistband of her track pants and pulled the front of them down to sit under her swollen belly. She watched him smile as he softly ran his hands over her taut skin.
“Just sleep, little one, while Daddy deals with your very naughty Mummy.” He brought her pants down and gently extracted them from her feet. Grasping her hips, he turned her to face the wall, so that her panty clad bottom was directly in front of his face. Mairead gasped as her panties were taken down to her ankles and slipped from her feet.
“Lean on the wall and back up, legs wide apart.” James stood up as she complied. “Now, would you like me to get you the phone?”
“It can wait,” Mairead gasped.
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