Maniacs! Ch. 09

I wished Hugo would make the next leap and tell him to stop fucking his sister so that she could grow up, too. Was the man in denial or didn't it bother him? It's hard for me not to like someone when they're being nice to me, but I also knew that this side of Hugo was not all that he is. Psychopaths like Master aren't just born that way. Only part of it is genetic. Most of the time a parent completes the job.

When we left, Hollis knew better than to offer the girl a ride home, even with me in the truck. She was so frightened of him it was hard to believe they were brother and sister, too. Well, "half," as he always corrected me. Reyna and I agreed to talk soon to plan the baby supply shopping trip in the big city, as she called SLC. We were both looking forward to it.

That evening, Master and I took a hot bath together. It was something I did frequently to soothe my back pain and he'd begun to see the benefit as well. Really, I think he just liked the feel of me naked and slippery in his arms. I'd add some bath oil so that his hands glided over my wet skin; I'd feel him hard against the small of my back and he liked that frictionless slide, too. Other than his roughened hands, his skin is velvet so I like to take care of it, even if he doesn't know that.

I asked him about Reyna.

"I don't think she wants to be with him anymore. Not the way they are now. She told me she wants to have kids and she knows she can't with him."

"She said all that in one trip to the bathroom?" he asked.

"How long does it take to say it? I think she doesn't have anyone else she can talk to and she needs help."

"Well, what can you do about it?"

"I don't know yet. Nothing, if you don't want me to. What do you think about it? The situation, I mean?"

He sighed. "Wouldn't I be a hypocrite to think anything 'bout it? Didn't I do the same thing to her?"

"No. Not over and over. I see the way she looks at you. She's scared to death of you. But the way she looks at him, when she does at all, is just sad. Her eyes are full of sadness from her life now. You hurt her, but you don't get up every day and decide to do it again."

"I can't kill him." Master always had a way with direct communication. I do like how he can cut to the heart of the matter. "I mean, I get that you want to help her. And maybe I should make it up to her, make it right if I can, but Kevin will never let her go. He's obsessed with her. Almost as much as I am with you," he added. It took my breath away.

"Could you talk to your father about it? Doesn't he know?"

"Yeah. He knows. It seems all right to him because he don't see Rey as his daughter, in a way. She looks just like her mother, who was the great love of his life. I think when he sees her, it's more like lookin' at an old photo than a girl who's his kid. And he loves Kevin, always had a weakness where he's concerned for the same reason--their mother."

"Do you think he likes that Kevin keeps her here... for him, too?"

"Yeah, probably. He's good at gettin' his sons to do his dirty work. I think that he knows if she got away, he'd never see her again. Their mother's dead. Havin' her daughter here, it's like she ain't."

"I wish there was a way she could still be in his life, but have her own life, too. She's the type, I can tell, to have a husband and kids, the white picket fence, as they say," I said, snuggling back to rest my head on his broad, lean chest.

"What about you? Ain't that kinda what we're doin?" he asked.

"Yeah, and I like it. But we aren't the types for it like she is--this happened to us by accident. Us together, I mean, not the baby! We made him on purpose. I remember it well."

Master drew me tighter into his arms. "What's with this 'him' stuff? First my father, now you're callin' the baby 'him.' How d'ya know it's a boy?"

"It's just a feeling I have. I'll be happy either way. I just think it's a boy," I said. Then we were quiet for a while. The water got cold and we reluctantly untangled ourselves to dry off.

"Ya know, maybe Reyna could help ya with the baby sometimes. Not alone--she's too spacey for that--but it might cheer her up or somethin' to hold him an' stuff."

"That's sweet, Holly. Or it could make her more miserable about her own situation," I said.

"Ya sure she's miserable?" he asked as if he'd never considered her feelings before, either. It seemed no one in her life saw her as a real person at all.

"I know I don't really understand your family. I shouldn't barge in and tell you what to do. But I know misery when I see it. If someone doesn't help her, she'll probably find a way out." I didn't mean to be dramatic, but I could see that as a probable outcome and felt my partner deserved to know. I told him as much.

"Let me think about what to say to Hugo. I can't touch Kevin--even if that little fucker had an accident, my father would know. He'd blame me and then that kid wouldn't have a daddy," he said, pressing his hand to my flat belly. "But I don't want you to think I'm the kind of guy who can't do what it takes to make ya happy. If you need me to try an' find a way to get Kevin offa her, I'll figure somethin' out, okay?"

"Thank you. It would make me happy to know we tried. I love you."

"Ya got a soft heart, Puppy."

He went to bed. "Don't stay up too late," he said in his bossy way.

"Okay, Daddy. I'll be along soon."

I was hungry again, so I ate an entire box of crackers with a pint of milk as I considered what the hell we could do about Reyna. Hollis did owe her. Not his life, though. That would be a tragic outcome and I had the eerie sense I'd remember this night as the one I'd set something terrible in motion. When I got into bed, I held my love so tight he told me to ease up.

I hated the way it felt to cling to him for dear life--it just reinforced the sense of impending doom. I allowed my hand to migrate lower to molest his naked body and stroked him lightly until his cock sprang to life. I wrapped my hand assertively around his thick, heavy erection and pumped him with a loose snap in the wrist. I always just imagined it was my body and that I was jerking off--whenever I held this thought in my mind my man responded right away.

"Ohh. Fuck. Thought I was supposed to get more sleep, woman."

"We can sleep when we're dead," I replied.

Master snarled and twisted to pin me into the mattress. We only got a little sleep that night.