"Look, I have to keep going or I won't."

Lucas shook his head in disbelief "I can't believe there's more. Fuck."

"What else?" Damon asked wearily.

" This... these... actions... continued until a few weeks before Anna turned sixteen. A new kid at school liked her and Anna liked him. For the first time Anna defied Gregory. She refused to go to his house and started to have lunch with the new guy Tom and Red. We even started to think she may be becoming the Anna we knew before. I'd already finished highschool but Red was watching everything. She saw how Gregory stood nearby whenever Tom and Anna were talking. They laughed a lot and within a few days Tom was putting his arm around Anna's shoulder as they walked around the school. Then on a Friday they organised to go to a movie. Well, needless to say, Gregory didn't like that. He gave Anna no choice but to go to his house that afternoon. He kept her. For weeks we searched, the fucker even joined in. Michael was a wreck and fucking useless. It was Red who cracked it. Because of what she'd seen before she kept a close eye on Gregory." He paused. "There were kids talking about Anna at school, I mean, kids are kids and this was news. Lots of stories were made up but the main one was drugs and suicide. Everyone saw how Anna looked and behaved. It was a natural conclusion to many. Red saw through it though. She watched him constantly and after the third time of him smiling to himself when people were talking she messaged me while in class. I called her back and she made up some excuse to leave... I think she said it was a family emergency. We broke into his house."

Tears fell from Ben's face. He never expected to be crying in front of these men and felt embarrassed. They all ignored his tears not want to make him feel worse. They waited.

"We found Anna" he choked "she was tied and gagged on her knees. Even when he wasn't there he still controlled what she fucking did! How the fuck can anyone do that?" He got up and helped himself to a large drink of scotch and looked out the window while Damon flinched at his own memory of Anna doing what Ben had just said. "She refused to move. Actually, no, no matter what we did, she didn't acknowledge our existence. We tried everything. I even tried pulling her along and she pulled away and went back to where she was kneeling. Red called the police and they went after Gregory while another group came to his house. None of them could get Anna to move either." He turned and looked straight at Damon "In the end I shouted at her to get the fuck up... and she did. We were never as relieved as we were right then. It didn't last though" he chuckled darkly "I was the only one that Anna would listen to. She'd transferred her submissive responses to Gregory over to me. I was fucking not quite nineteen... my birthday's a month after theirs... I had no idea what to do so... with the help of a psychiatrist we gradually deprogrammed Anna. He said that if I did what I wanted and told Anna to be herself and not a sub then she'd probably end up killing herself because she didn't know how to make decisions for herself. He said... he said that I was her dom and that I was the only one with the power to bring her out of it. Fuck it was hard. She needed permission for everything, fucking everything. I couldn't have done it without Red." He shook his head again and looked back out the window.

"She expected to be beaten... I never did that" he shuddered "it took months of me telling her she had a choice before she actually chose something... a goddamned fucking apple instead of an orange. We thought we'd won the lottery. It was gradual but she started to pick up from there. There's always going to be a sub underneath the surface for Anna but... to be blunt..." again he looked at Damon "if you push her too hard then she'll revert back faster than he trained her. Don't do that to her. Talk to her. Don't let him win."

"I promise you Ben, I won't lose Anna to him or anyone else. As for my lifestyle... that depends on what Anna chooses. I'm willing to give it up for her if that's what she wants."

Ben nodded thankfully while Maxon and Lucas both looked at him in shock. They both knew what that decision would cost him personally and the fact that he was willing to let it go for her showed them both that he really did love the girl.

"HOLY SHIT!" Ben shouted.

"What?!" All three men shouted back.

"Anna knows where he is!"