Passion's Hope (The Doms of Passion Lake Book 3)

by Julie Shelton

  “So lovely to meet you,” she murmured. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your help. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to pay you.”

  “Oh, sweetie, there’s no charge,” Sarah assured her. “We never charge one of our own. And even if there were a charge, you wouldn’t’ be paying it. Nik and Jay have publicly claimed you. In our world that means they have assumed all responsibility for you and your well-being. Besides, I’m always happy to put an abuser behind bars, and this guy needs to be behind bars in the worst possible way. Now, quickly, before all the other attorneys get here, I want you to answer the questions Bradford’s defense attorney asks you, and only the questions he asks you. Don’t volunteer anything extra. He will badger you and try to confuse you, so if I see that happening, I’ll object. Since these proceedings don’t really allow for objections, I’ll be doing so merely to give you a few seconds to gather your thoughts. Don’t let him intimidate you. Just keep an image in your head of his tiny little dick and you’ll do fine.”

  Charlie smothered a laugh as Sarah turned her head slightly, watching three men and a middle-aged black woman walk into the lobby, led by Jesse Colter. “And here they come now.”

  Jesse brushed his lips over Sarah’s cheek, shook hands with Charlie, Nik, and Jay, then introduced the small group. Mike Conover, Richmond Police Chief; Raymond Baines, Richmond City Attorney; Harmon Pierce, Attorney for Perry Bradford; and Mildred Lawrence, the court reporter who was going to record the entire proceedings.

  Mike Conover was tall, nearly Jay’s height, slim and fit in his black uniform, black hair, light blue eyes and a ready smile. Yet another handsome, macho, bad-ass SEAL—geez, what do they put in the water out there in Coronado? He greeted Nik and Jay with the man-hugs and back slaps usually reserved for long-lost friends. Then he turned to Charlotte, holding out his hand. “And you must be Charlie. Jesse told me all about you. Thank you for agreeing to do this.”

  Raymond Baines was average in both height and looks. He wore a charcoal gray suit, a crisp white shirt, and a burgundy striped tie. He was nearly bald and wore rimless glasses. His left arm was in a sling. When Charlie asked what happened, he said he’d broken his wrist in a fall during a tennis match.

  Harmon Pierce was a tall, slim, very distinguished-looking man with thin lips, steel-gray hair and piercing gray eyes. He was wearing a dark gray, hand-tailored, silk suit that had to have cost thousands of dollars, with a lighter gray silk shirt, and a darker gray silk tie. He took one look at Sarah and said, “Counselor, what are you doing here? The alleged events in this case happened in Richmond, which is way out of your jurisdiction.”

  “I’ve taken a leave of absence from my job as the Marshall County Attorney,” Sarah said pleasantly. “For the sole purpose of this case, I am representing Ms. Fielding’s interests.”

  He moved his gaze to Charlie, regarding her with cold disdain, as if she were something that had crawled out from under a rock. Her gaze nearly faltered, until Sarah’s hand brushed against the back of hers and she made it a point to maintain eye contact with the odious man until he finally relinquished her gaze to shake hands with Nik and Jay. His gaze rested pointedly on Nik’s left hand resting on Charlie’s shoulder, before giving Nik an appraising look. “And just what is your interest in this case, Rostov?”

  Before Nik could growl at the man, Sarah stepped forward. “Mr. Rostov is my associate, as is Mr. Gillespie,” she answered coolly, clearly not allowing Harmon Pierce to rattle her. “And their interest is the same as yours, of course. To see justice done. That is why you’re here, isn’t it, Mr. Pierce?” Sarah stepped closer to Charlie as Nik folded his arms across his chest and looked down his nose at the much shorter defense attorney, a look that normally had most men quaking in their boots.

  But Harmon Pierce was not most men. He was made of sterner stuff. Running his gaze up and down Nik’s jeans, T-shirt, and scuffed biker boots, he murmured with a supercilious sneer, “Obviously this is casual Saturday at your law office, Counselor.”

  “Obviously our staff isn’t required to work on Saturdays, Counselor,” Sarah retorted. “They are giving up their precious leisure time, without pay, to see to it that your client gets everything that’s coming to him.” She turned to address the gathered group. “All right, everyone, if you would come this way, please,” she said, indicating the wide, sweeping staircase in the center of the lobby. “I’ve reserved one of the second floor conference rooms. It will be quieter up there.”

  They climbed the stairs in silence and followed Sarah into a mahogany-paneled conference room with an enormous U-shaped oak table in the center, surrounded by comfortable chairs upholstered in rich brown leather. A tray full of heavy crystal glasses and a matching carafe of ice water was on a serving table just inside the door. Each person filled a glass with water and carried it over to a place at the massive table. The chairs were all on large casters, which made maneuvering them on the thick, beige carpet relatively easy. Sarah led Nik, Jay, and Charlie to the head of the table. Baines and Conover took one side, leaving the third side for Harmon Pierce. The court stenographer sat at her own table off to one side.

  Pierce made a great show of opening his briefcase and withdrawing several file folders. He opened the top one and flipped through the top two or three pages. Raymond Baines stood up and addressed the group. “Thank you all for coming this morning. We are here to take the deposition of Miss Charlotte Fielding regarding a complaint she filed on August nineteenth with the Richmond Police Department against one Perry Bradford of the city of Richmond, Virginia. Miss Fielding, would you please be so good as to tell us in your own words the events that transpired between you and Mr. Bradford that led to this complaint?” He sat back down.

  Charlotte nodded, licking her lips in an attempt to moisten them. When that didn’t work, she took a sip of water from the glass Jay handed her.

  “I met Perry Bradford on July sixteenth at a Munch in Richmond.”

  “And what, exactly, is a Munch, Miss Fielding?” Harmon Pierce didn’t even bother to look up to ask his question. He just kept scribbling in the margins of the paper in front of him.

  “It’s a get-together of people interested in the-the BDSM lifestyle.”

  Pierce looked up sharply. “BDSM, Ms. Fielding? You mean… dungeons and torture chambers? Masters and slaves? Whips and chains? You’re into that? And don’t the last two letters stand for sadism? And masochism? Which one are you, Ms. Fielding? A sadist or a masochist?”

  “Mr. Pierce,” Raymond Baines said, “Please save your comments and questions until after Miss Fielding has made her statement. Otherwise we’ll be here all day.”

  Pierce just grunted and made a shooing motion with his hand.

  Charlotte started again, explaining what a Munch was and her concept of BDSM and what she’d been looking for in the lifestyle. Safe, Sane and Consensual. The three basic tenets of ethical lifestylers. Which is what she thought she’d found with Perry Bradford. She told them in great detail of how he had dated her for over two weeks, taking her to plays and concerts and fine restaurants and how charming he had been. She told them about their first sexual encounter, that night on her dining room table, and how it had been more of an assault than a liaison. She didn’t tell them how excited Perry’s actions had made her and how humiliated she’d been by his cold disregard of her afterward. She told them about their visit to a private club in Richmond where he had tied her to a punishment bench and spanked her before taking her to a private room for more spanking and rough sex. And she told them about his invitation to a “Wild, Wicked, Wonderful Week-End” at his house.

  She paused, nearly choking on the tears thickening in her throat, forming a lump the size of a boulder. It took several slow sips of water to dissolve enough of it to allow her to continue.

  Starting with being forced to strip and go down on him the minute she’d entered his front door, she described in a halting but determined voice, all the horrors she had been forced to endure d
uring her three weeks of captivity and utter sexual servitude. Being tied to the chair all day to be raped over and over at his whim. The forced enemas and having to scrub out the wash tub afterwards, naked and tied to a post in his back yard. Being forced to sleep in a locked coffin under his bed and how terrified she’d been that if something had happened to him, she would have died there.

  She described being shackled by the neck, on her hands and knees in a cage, utterly helpless, her mouth and ass positioned for him to fuck her between the bars. Of being forced to crawl around his back yard, naked, and having to pee in the grass like a dog.

  She told them about all the beatings he’d given to her with his belt and his single-tail. About how the last beating was so severe that when she’d tried to get away from him, he’d backhanded her so hard she’d fallen and hit her head on a granite countertop. About her narrow escape from the hospital and how she’d been on the run ever since. She didn’t leave out a single detail, and when she was done a hush hung over the entire room. A hush no one seemed willing to break.

  Until Raymond Baines, clearly uncomfortable with all the things she’d just described cleared his throat, tugged at his collar, shot his cuffs and said, “Thank you, Ms. Fielding. Is there anything else you’d like to add?”

  “No,” she said in a wry voice, “I think I’ve covered all the salient points.”

  Harmon Pierce tossed his pen to the table and threw up his hands. “Ms. Fielding. Surely you don’t expect any of us to believe this preposterous story, do you?”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  “Yes. Because that is exactly what happened. Perry Bradford did all of those things and more to me for three solid weeks.”

  Harmon Pierce stood up and said, “Ms. Fielding, there were no witnesses to any of these alleged assaults, were there?”

  “No,” she admitted reluctantly.

  “So there is no one who can corroborate this…outlandish tale, is there?”

  “No one. Except the nurse and the ER doctor at VCU Hospital who witnessed all the injuries your client inflicted on me. They have photos.”

  “Move to strike.”

  “This isn’t a trial, Counselor,” Baines reminded him dryly. “You’re stuck with the answer she gives you.”

  Pierce started walking toward her. “My client didn’t kidnap you, did he? He didn’t put a knife to your throat or a gun to your head and drag you into his car and forcibly take you to his house, did he? You went willingly, didn’t you?” He jabbed his index finger into the tabletop. “You walked into his house of your own free will. Didn’t you, Miss Fielding? Because you wanted the things he did to you! You asked for them. Didn’t you?”

  “Counselor,” Baines said with sighing impatience, “please sit down and save your theatrics for the trial. There’s no jury here for you to play to and I will not have you badgering the witness.”

  Pierce just grunted and went back to his seat. He fiddled with his notes for a moment, then aimed his glowering gaze directly at Charlie, who returned it steadily.

  “Ms. Fielding, how many boyfriends have you had?”

  “Objection,” Sarah said. “Irrelevant to these proceedings.”

  “This is not a trial, Counselor,” Harmon Pierce said snidely. “You’re not allowed to object. Please answer the question Ms. Fielding.”

  “I’ve had three fairly long-term relationships.”

  “Was one of them with Cameron Neeley?”

  “Objection Counselor,” Sarah said again, “What does this have to do with anything in the witness’s statement?”

  “Just answer the question, Ms. Fielding.”

  “Yes, Cam and I had a brief relationship.”

  “And didn’t he break off that relationship because you wanted him to do vile and filthy things to you—”

  “Absolutely not!” Charlie started to jump up, but Sarah’s hand on her thigh stopped her.

  “Didn’t you ask him to tie you up and beat you and rape you—?”

  “I never asked him for anything like that!”

  Pierce waved a piece of paper. “I have his deposition right here.”

  “Cam would never say anything like that!”

  “Why not? Because you threatened to ruin him if he did?”

  “No. Because it never happened!” God, this was so much worse than she could ever have imagined.

  “He will tell the jury otherwise.”

  “Then he will be lying!” Charlie spat out. Suddenly she was having trouble breathing. Nik took hold of her hand under the table. “I never asked him to do any of that to me! Nor did I ask your client to do them to me either!”

  “Of course you did. Why else would you say he did them? Why would anyone do the things you say he did to you unless you asked him for it! Begged him for it!”

  Sarah jumped up. “Counselor, that’s enough! You have the witness’s statement. If your questions are merely to browbeat her, then save it for the trial.”

  “I only have one more question, Counselor.” Gathering his papers, he tapped them on the table several times before shoving them back into the file folder. He just stood looking down at them before raising his head and looking at her once again. “Isn’t it true, Ms. Fielding, that you are only bringing these specious charges against my client because you want money?”

  “No, that is not true.”

  “Didn’t you threaten to take him to court unless he paid you an exorbitant amount of hush money?”

  “Absolutely not! How dare you!”

  “Didn’t you ask for everything he did to you, Ms. Fielding?”

  “You think I asked to be held against my will? Do you think I liked being tied up, raped, tortured and beaten so badly I ended up in the hospital?”

  “Didn’t you?”

  “No, of course not! That’s insane!”

  “Isn’t this just a case of ‘buyer’s remorse’? You got in a little over your head? And now, in order to make yourself feel less guilty and ashamed, you’ve come up with this scam?”

  “It’s not a scam!”

  Sarah stood up. “That’s enough, Mr. Pierce. This deposition is over. We’ll see you in court.”

  They all stood and watched Harmon Pierce gather his files, shove them in his briefcase and get up. “Ladies.” A curt nod toward Charlie and Sarah, “Gentlemen.” Another toward the rest of the room in general and he was gone.

  The entire room seemed to deflate. Mildred Lawrence began packing up her machine.

  Raymond Baines rose from his seat. “Thank you, Mrs. Lawrence, for coming all this way. How soon can I expect your transcript?”

  “I’ll have it for you first thing Monday morning, Mr. Baines.” She stood, draped her jacket over her arm, picked up her case and her purse.

  Sarah stepped forward to shake the woman’s hand. “Thank you, Mrs. Lawrence. We appreciate your service.”

  Mike Conover looked over at Charlie. She was slumped against Nik. He had his arm around her, his hand patting her shoulder. His head was bent low next to hers.

  “You did great, baby girl,” Nik said.

  “You did better than great,” Jay added. “You were magnificent. You didn’t let him rattle you.”

  She gave a shaky laugh, holding up a visibly trembling hand. “Oh, yeah? You call this unrattled?”

  “Ms. Fielding,” Conover stopped in front of them, his hands clasped in front of him, holding his cap. “I am so sorry for the ordeal Perry Bradford put you through.”

  She just gave him a world-weary look. “Thank you, Chief. Please call me Charlie. And please tell me you have enough to bring him to trial.”

  “Well, we certainly have enough to file charges. In the meantime, my detectives are out interviewing the owners and other patrons of the BDSM clubs Bradford frequented. Others are questioning some of the women he was photographed with at various charity events. I’m sure you’re not the first woman he’s done this to. If there are others out there, we’ll find them and we’ll do our best to persuade them to
add their testimony to yours. Sarah will let you know when we present to the Grand Jury—probably next week. You’ll have to testify, of course. But neither Harmon Pierce nor Perry Bradford will be there.”

  “Thank God. Perry Bradford is a predator and the sooner he’s behind bars, the better. And if I can help put him there, so much the better.”

  “Thanks, Charlie. Looking forward to seeing you again.” Chief Conover shook hands all around and started to leave, but paused and turned back to Charlie. “”By the way, the officer who took your complaint—”

  “Sergeant Sanchez?” she supplied.

  “I just wanted you to know he’s been placed on leave without pay until he’s successfully completed a month-long sensitivity training class. He has been demoted from Sergeant to patrol officer and when he gets back, he’ll be walking a beat. He will also have a black mark on his record.”

  “Thank you for following up on that,” Charlie said. “I really appreciate it. The way he treated me was—”She shuddered. “He was very condescending and kept calling me sweetheart in that sneering tone of voice that told me that for him ‘sweetheart’ was a substitute for ‘bitch’.”

  “His behavior was completely unacceptable and he now knows that.”

  “Thank you.”

  He clapped Nik and Jay on the shoulder. “Guys, great seeing you again. I’ll let you know when I need her for the Grand Jury. In the meantime, take good care of your girl.”

  “Not a problem,” Nik grinned.

  “You couldn’t be in better hands, Ms. Fielding,” Conover said.

  “Charlie,” she reminded. “I’m definitely beginning to realize that and am supremely grateful for it, believe me.”

  Charlie, Jay, and Nik were the last ones to leave the conference room. They stopped to thank Jesse and Sarah. Sarah hugged Charlie good-bye and Jesse walked them out of the courthouse. They paused on the top step at the edge of the portico while Jay unhooked his sunglasses from the neckline of his shirt and put them on.