Dirty Little Secret Pt. 08 - Finale

Nicole had turned 19 by the time Warren came through with the documents and Jack was able to set her up with an online GED class. He found one where there wasn't a live component, where she wouldn't have to be on camera in real-time. Assignments were posted alongside documents to read and pre-recorded videos to watch and she had to submit them by various deadlines. The interactive component of the class required her to read discussion board posts and participate by posting and replying to her classmates.

Jack was hyper-vigilant about what Nicole was doing on the old laptop he had allowed her to use. He had her sit next to him in his office while she worked on the class, constantly checking over her shoulder at what sites she was accessing and what exactly she was posting. He didn't let her use the laptop without his supervision, more worried about what she would come across on the internet than her actually trying to contact someone.

He found it fascinating what she remembered and what she did not. He found himself taking notes some days, adding to his research on the serum and targeted memory repression. The elementary functions in math seemed to be at the tip of her fingers, but fractions and decimals she appeared to be learning as if for the first time. Sometimes it seemed like something would trigger her memory and a flood would come bursting through, and other times it didn't happen. When she was reading about ecosystems, she stopped, her eyes going wide, the cursor paused where she was using it to follow her progress, and she reported to him that she remembered all this, going over a bunch of facts and details that swam up to the surface. But when she read about symbiosis, her brow furrowed as she frowned, reporting that it makes sense, but she had no recollection of knowing this before. It was entirely perplexing.

It was a terrible distraction having her there so much of the time. She was usually quiet, trying to concentrate and be as unobtrusive as possible, but she also had questions about how to do things on the computer and what was meant by certain statements. And yet Jack would rather be distracted by her than to let her go off alone somewhere to work. Sometimes, he would print out the longer documents for her and send her upstairs to read them, to allow himself to focus on his work. When she had been in another part of the house, he'd frequently get so caught up with work that he'd forget the temptation to touch her or be touched by her. But with her there, it was too easy to succumb to temptation.

He stood behind her chair, his hands on her shoulders, kneading them while explaining to her something about DNA that had been extremely poorly worded in the text that she was reading.

"I would never have arrived at that on my own," she frowned, shaking her head.

"It's not you, it's that article," he assured her, his hands longing to reach down towards her breasts.

"Are you a scientist?" She looked up at him, her face was unsure whether this was something she was allowed to ask. He sighed, considering whether it mattered if she knew; wondering whether she'd remember that he'd told her this before.

"Not quite. I'm a chemical engineer," he paused, watching her face for some kind of a lightbulb to go off. Her expression was unresponsive. "But I have taken a lot of science classes in my life," he allowed his hands to reach lower, gently massaging her breasts over her shirt. She didn't have a bra underneath and her nipples immediately pebbled at his touch. He reached for the computer mouse, scrolling to see how much she had left in that article. "Finish this up and let's go upstairs."

He led her upstairs, to the bedroom, by the hand when she was done and she knew immediately to get undressed. Jack undressed too, then got a large bath sheet out of the closet, placing it on the bed. Nicole watched him, her eyebrows coming together. He hasn't done this with her before.

"Lay down on the towel, on your stomach," he told her, going to his nightstand for the oil. He brushed her ponytail out of the way, over her shoulder, and put a bit of the oil in his hand, kneeling next to her.

He rubbed his hands together before bringing them to her shoulders and starting to knead them. She seemed to relax under his touch as he worked the muscles in her shoulders and back, moving down towards her ass, unhurriedly. He made his way to her lower back, rubbing firmly, before moving onto the firm, round globes of her ass.

"Does this feel good?" He watched her face for indication.

"Yeah," she nodded, her eyes closed. "It feels great, thank you," she told him.

He massaged her ass down to her thighs, giving each one individual attention, and then continued down to her calves as well. She seemed entirely relaxed now, her body loose, as though she were about to fall asleep. He moved back up her legs and thighs towards her bottom, firmly massaging the fleshy parts again. This wasn't an entirely selfless venture, although he enjoyed making Nicole feel good. He liked seeing her relaxed and he loved hearing her moan and whimper with pleasure. But in this case, he also enjoyed touching her body, everywhere. He already had a full-blown erection, but continued with the massage that he was giving her.

He spread her butt cheeks apart, kneading them in his hands, letting his thumbs glide in between them over her tightly puckered hole. He massaged there for a moment as well but didn't attempt to penetrate, choosing to move his fingers lower, between her thighs, to her soft, warm pussy. Her folds were already wet on his first pass, gliding his fingers through the slit and back up to her ass. He spread her thighs apart, positioning himself between them, repeating the slide of his fingers through her seam and up to her behind. And there was that soft moan he had been waiting for with anticipation. On the next pass, he let two fingers slide inside her channel, going as deep as he could get them, before coming back out, and thrusting in again.

"I can see you are really enjoying this, Nicole," he pushed her legs further apart, lowering his head to look at her glistening slit, watching his fingers come out slick with her juices. "God, you're just flowing for me." He moved his fingers further underneath her to massage her clit. She flinched then let out a prolonged whimper as he rubbed her sensitive little nub. He used both hands on her, circling her clit, thrusting fingers inside her, pressing against her back hole. "Come for me, Nicole, nice and hard, all over my fingers," he encouraged her. She did, as soon as the words were out of his mouth she was wriggling and clenching in his hands as her orgasm rocketed through her. "There's my obedient little girl," he let up on the intensity of his touch but continued to massage her between her legs. "You even come for me on command now, you're so good," he praised her. "You're so nice and juicy for my cock now, lift up your ass for me a bit," he gave her a light slap on the ass and she lifted it up for him. "Good girl."

He positioned himself behind her, giving his hardon a few pumps with his hand before lining it up with her glistening pussy and sliding it in. She whimpered, pressing her ass back against him, clearly glad to feel him inside. He took long, deep strokes, not rushing anywhere. Nicole met him on each one, sliding herself up his cock as he slid in. He held onto her ass, gripping it firmly with his fingers, pulling it apart, occasionally giving her ass cheeks a slap. She moaned in enjoyment of everything he was doing.

"Roll over, I haven't had a chance to massage the front of you yet." He pulled out and Nicole immediately rolled herself over.

Jack took the time to rub the fronts and insides of her thighs, returning his fingers to her pussy again, making her back arch up off the bed. He plunged his cock back inside her before he began massaging her breasts, kneading them in his hands, twisting the nipples between his fingers. His thrusts continued to be slow and deep.

"Look at me," he told her, his voice soft, more of a request than a command. She opened her eyes, meeting his, He kneeled in front of her, raising her legs up over his shoulders, driving in with a bit more force and speed, watching her reaction intently. Her breathing got faster and she pulled in her bottom lip between her teeth. "Do you like this?" She nodded.

His fingers went to her clit again, massaging the swollen bud between his fingers while he continued thrusting. Nicole's arms shifted up above her head as her back arched up and whimpers escaped her. He couldn't help but admire how beautiful she was laying there with her hair splayed out in an auburn halo around her. Her breasts stood out, round and pale with their hard, pink nipples. Her skin was perfect now, completely unblemished by scars or bruises and it felt like he really succeeded, like he was actually able to erase that part of her life for her, not just from her memory, but from her body too.

She came, again, pulsing around his cock, shuddering. Her eyes flew closed, her head tipping back. Jack plowed through her orgasm until her tremors sent him over the edge as well and he erupted inside her. He didn't get right out of bed immediately afterward, laying down next to Nicole and cradling her into his chest, the way he frequently did when they were going to sleep. It was still early afternoon and they would get up again, make dinner, watch Jeopardy on TV, but right then, he just wanted to hold her in easy silence. She didn't argue or pull away. Her head rested in the crook of his shoulder, her hand splayed out over his chest.

She was his and she didn't want to be anywhere else but with him. He trusted that and he didn't need affirmations of it. He experimented with leaving his office door unlocked when he went into the lab one day and returned to find that she hadn't even noticed. She never even attempted to go in there without him. She was anxious about missing work on the rare days when he wasn't home, since he didn't want her to be using the laptop unsupervised. She appealed to him about it, gently, saying she wouldn't dare do anything other than her classwork on it and that if he found out she did, he could punish her. He smirked at that, wondering for a moment how she expected him to punish her. She wore him down, eventually, and he set her up in the living room at a tray table before leaving for work, explaining to her that he'd be able to know exactly what she was doing on the laptop and it should not be anything other than her school work. She hugged him tightly in gratitude, something he couldn't remember her doing ever before.

****

Nicole was near tears. She downloaded the file with the reading twice now and she couldn't find where it went. She desperately searched the computer, clicking through mazes of folders, but it was nowhere to be found. She should just wait for Jack to get home, she thought to herself, but at the same time, she couldn't concede to the fact that she'd be missing valuable time studying. He wouldn't be home for another couple of hours, at least. What was she going to do with that time? A part of her also hated to admit, to Jack, that she couldn't do this without him. That she needed help.

She wasn't sure exactly where she clicked, but suddenly there were a lot more files and folders. She stared at them. In the menu on the left-hand side, she was in 'Network' and then under it a little computer icon that had a bunch of different letters and numbers next to it. She was about to click away from it when she saw the folder labeled 'Nicole.' Did Jack make up a destination specifically for her files to go to? To keep them organized? She clicked on the folder.

There were some documents and PDF files that didn't look like anything that she would have downloaded for her class and there was a video file there too, with what looked like her face in the thumbnail. She didn't remember Jack ever recording her on video. She hesitated for just a moment before clicking on it, wondering whether she should or not, but the curiosity got the better of her.

It was her, but a very different version of her that she barely remembered. Her hair looked messy, her face gaunt and tear-streaked, and there were those cuts on her lip and her head that she had mostly forgotten having at the very beginning when she first remembered waking up in Jack's bed. She wore an oversized t-shirt, probably Jack's, and sat on his couch in the office, her shoulders hunched forward, her arms crossed in front of her chest. Nicole couldn't remember doing this.

"We're just going to talk," Jack's voice said from the screen. He must have been sitting behind the camera because he wasn't in the shot. Her eyes came up to look at him, wary. "Start with your name. Your actual name, not whatever crap they called you at the place," Jack's tone was derisive.

"Lina," she heard herself say quietly on the screen in a voice she barely recognized as her own.

"Full name, Lina," Jack prompted.

"Angelina Tomasso," she told him. Nicole's eyes widened at the name. It sounded right, just as it felt when Jack told her that she was eighteen.

"How old are you?"

"Eighteen," her hand came up to her mouth as she started chewing on her nails.

"When's your birthday?"

"December 8th, 1996." That was the same date that Jack had told her when they went to the eye doctor. A couple of months ago, on that date, he had given her a pretty necklace with a blue stone in it.

"Ok, Lina, I want you to work backward, from right now, just recalling things that happened," Jack told her.

"Why?" There seemed to be a note of stubbornness in her voice, something that she didn't really recognize as her own.

"Well," Jack's voice was calm and even, "I want to have a record about you, about your life, the things that you remember." Nicole felt her heart jump up into her throat, racing there.

"Why?" The on-screen version of her asked again.

"What would have happened back at... you know, the place, if you were asking all these questions?" There was a smirk in his voice, Nicole could hear it.

"Are you gonna beat me?" Lina's voice sounded tired, her mouth was a flat line.

"No, I'm not going to beat you. I think you've had enough of that," he told her.

"Are you gonna let me go?" Her thumbnail was in her mouth again, looking at Jack with narrowed eyes.

"No," Jack chuckled, "You heard the amount of money I just paid for you! I'm not just gonna let you walk out of here!" Nicole blinked. He paid money for her? What did that mean? Was she a... prostitute?

"Why do you want to know about me?"

"You're mine. I own you. I want to know what I have here," Jack told her confidently. "Also, I want to try out this serum on you that's going to wipe out all the crap parts of your life and I want to record them for posterity."

Nicole was nonplussed. Her heart still thumped in her throat, making it hard to breathe. She paused the video staring at her own face on the screen, trying to process the information. Jack owned her, he paid for her, and he was going to erase the crap parts of her memory. But she ended up remembering nothing! What did that mean? Did it not work? She sat there for ages trying to calm her brain, her heart, and her breathing, wondering whether she should stop now or keep going. She wanted to know. Her fingers clicked to unpause.

"You're going to inject me with drugs?" Lina's eyes narrowed.

"You know a little bit about that, don't you?"

"I'm clean now," Lina shifted to cover the marks on her arms with her hands.

"They dried you out real fast there, huh? Just cold turkey? Just puked up and sweated it all out?" Jack asked. None of this sounded familiar, she had absolutely no memory of any of it. Lina barely nodded, hanging her head, her thumbnail going back between her teeth. "How long have you been using?"

"I don't know," she shrugged. "Not that long."

"Heroin?"

"What does it matter? I am fucking clean now. I don't need any of it."

Jack sighed. There was a long pause during which Lina had her head down, chewing her nails.

"Ok, let's go backward from right now. What happened before we got here, to my place?" Nicole found herself holding her breath in anticipation of Lina's answer.

"You fucked me in the car twice on the way up here," she looked up at him, her expression challenging.

"Right," Jack confirmed. "It was a long drive up. Keep going back. Tell me about the place you were in before that." Lina lifted up her face, rolling her eyes at Jack, then suddenly flinched, sitting up straighter, closing her eyes and shaking her head.

"I'm sorry," the words tumbled out of her mouth. "I can't stop doing the thing with my eyes."

"I'm not gonna hit you, Lina," Jack told her calmly.

"They said that you're my master and you are going to beat me if I disrespect you in any way. They said that I'm not even supposed to look at your face unless you specifically ordered me to and that I'm to stay silent and on my knees and that it was going to be so much worse if I didn't behave because THEY were being gentle cause they couldn't damage the merchandise, but once you pay, you can do whatever you want to me and that it will be even worse than what they did." The words gushed out of her mouth in a bout of verbal diarrhea while tears rolled down her face, her eyes wide and unblinking. Nicole felt tears well up in her own eyes watching this.

"Lina, look at me," Jack commanded and her eyes went to the right of the camera, "I'm not gonna hit you." The version of her on screen sobbed. "Tell me more about that place, where you stayed, and what you did there."

Nicole listened in horror as Lina described it all. The tears that had collected in her eyes finally escaped, making their way down her face, dripping off the edge of her chin onto her shirt. She didn't remember any of it and none of it was coming back to her now. It sounded like a horror movie which she would be far too scared to even watch. At one point, Jack had Lina stand up, turn her back to the camera and lift up her shirt. Her back was crisscrossed with red marks where she had been whipped. Nicole clapped her hand over her mouth at the site, but it still felt so removed from her, so distant and dissociated.

"Do you remember when they picked you up?" Jack asked her.

"Yeah. I was pretty blitzed though," she wiped her face with her hands.

"What did they tell you?"

"Umm..." she squinted, remembering. "Something about how they could get me clean and off the street," she rolled her eyes again. "I was kinda lost that night cause Ricky had just ODed and I was freaking out." She bit her nails again.

"Who was Ricky?" Jack asked from behind the camera.

"My boyfriend," tears slid out of Lina's eyes again. "I... umm... I didn't know anyone else there, but Ricky and I, we had been together since like... Tennessee."

"You guys traveled across the country together?" Lina nodded, wiping her face. "And with him gone, you thought that this offer, to get clean and off the street was a good one?" She nodded again. "They didn't tell you anything else about what it would entail?"

"I don't know, maybe, I don't remember. But I didn't know how to be on my own, without him, and I just..." Lina sobbed. "I was scared to be all alone."

"Did you run away from home with your boyfriend?" Jack asked and Nicole felt a lump in her throat at the word 'home.' For a brief moment, before Lina's answer came, Nicole felt some sort of anger rise up inside her towards Jack for telling her that she had no family.

"No," Lina shook her head. "I met him a few days later. I ran away by myself. It was a foster home, I wasn't even there that long. I just couldn't stay there."

"What happened at the foster home?" Nicole listened with her mouth hanging open and fresh tears running down her face. How was this possible?! How had all these terrible things happened to her and she remembered nothing about them?! She felt like her own thoughts drowned out what the other version of her, on the screen, was saying and she snapped back to the recording when Jack said "I'm not going to beat you, I have no interest in that."