Free Dom Wars - Round Four by Lucian Bane

fucking choose that." Tara blurred before me. "She chose to be loved. Protected. I…couldn't give her what she needed." I shook my head, my chest burning. "And so she left. With that…fucking monster. I knew he was bad. I told her. He was bad news, God, I begged her. But he…" I gasped. "He lied to her. She believed him."
    Tara 's face was hard. She pointed to the house. "Then you go tell them that. Tell that family what happened. They have a right to know."
    I looked at the house and saw Steve had the girl smiling and blushing even. Tara pulled me to the house and I followed her, glad for the guidance, even if it was back to the dungeon. She was with me. On my side. I could do it.
    " Ma'am? Can we come inside for a minute?" Tara kept her arm hooked in mine, maybe to hold me there. "Lucian has answers to some questions you may have about your sister."
    The mousy looking girl eyed us and Steve put a hand on her arm and whispered something. Magic words judging by the way she opened the door and invited us in.
    We followed her into a small kitchen straight out of 1950. I had to readjust my assessment that the place was a modern replica. From the inside, it looked like the real thing, right down to the enamel single bowl sink and hulking gas cookstove.
    The house had obviously been lovingly cared for by its family and everything looked much the way it must have when they first moved in. Tara squeezed my arm, reminding me to quit trying to escape into the details around me. In that second, I hated her for it. I wanted nothing more than to fucking melt away.
    The girl indicated we should sit at the small dining table. "Let me go make sure Mee-Maw is settled." She bustled away, reminding me of her sister. She'd had that same sense of purpose, making sure everyone around her was okay.
    " Sure," Steve said with a warm smile.
    A few seconds later, I heard the TV volume increase followed by the yelled words, "I'll be in the kitchen. If you need anything, just holler."
    She returned and suddenly stood before us, looking at a loss for what to do next.
    " Would you happen to have any coffee?"
    The girl 's green eyes cleared at Steve's soft question, and she spun to the cabinet. "I can make some. What we got is old. From early this morning. Mee-Maw wakes up with the chickens even though we don't have any anymore. I think they still live in her head from when we used to have the farm. Being in the same house probably makes it worse, but we don't have a choice. Pap left a whole lot of debt when he passed, and she sold the farm off in tracts to pay it. Nearly killed her, but at least she managed to hang on to the home place." She banged around in the cabinets until there was nothing left to do but stare at each other.
    Which she did. At me. "You said you knew my sister. Had some…answers?"
    Fuck.
    "He does. Just ask him whatever you want to know and he'll answer it."
    " I'm Susan." She took jerky steps to the table and pulled out a chair. She sat and kept her gaze averted. "I just want to know how she got caught up in that life of sin." She leveled her gaze on me. "And what part you played in that?"
    The need to find blame burned in her words. But it was something I could deal with. Understood. And maybe help with. "I was a Dom in the lifestyle when I met her." Assuming she wouldn't know what that meant, I explained, "That's somebody who …" I was suddenly at a loss. What the fuck was a Dom? "It's somebody that…." I shook my head when I could only draw a blank. "I was a friend to your sister."
    " What kind of friend? The fucking kind?" Disgust hardened her jaw.
    " No, not that kind."
    " So you never fucked her?"
    " I…" Shame flooded me as I tried to find the words. "I did. And then…then I couldn't. I stopped."
    " You used her?"
    " No," I gasped at the pain behind her anger. "I didn't use her. When I saw that…that she wanted more than I could give her, I…"
    " You threw her aside." She angled her head, staring at me and I suddenly