TouchNode | Complete

19 | Favors and Flavors

My help is offered minimally. You could even say rarely.

"I heard about what happened."

My head lifted to see Dante's frame leaning against a nearby tree. Dressed in loose-fitting grey sweatpants and a white tank, he looked relaxed and cool under the brutal sun's rays. The fallen leaves crunched under his heavy steps as he made his way to my side.

Sitting down next to me on the cement bench, Dante pulled a thick envelope from inside his sweats. Curious, I pressed my knuckle to the edges, readjusting the envelope to lay flatly on the seat. He tore open the lip and pushed a small stack of documents out.

"Ophelia Jackson?" I asked, staring at the smiling picture on the driver's license. A woman who was not me, but strangely similar stared back. "What are these?"

"Liam O'Donnell kidnapped you." His voice was hushed. "I want you to have the means to escape. You may never need them, but you'll have them just the same."

A half-smile tugged at my lips as I waved the driver's license, passport and credit cards in his face. "I thought you didn't do this anymore."

"I don't." His eyes left mine to stare into the clear lake water. "But I knew something had to be done once I realized that Ballarina had lied to you again."

"Lied to me about what?"

"Honestly?" He shrugged, "take your pick. That woman has no limits."

"Funny, everyone keeps saying that, but no one is offering any answers."

"When was the last time you read your contract?"

I debated on speaking the truth to him. Dante is still a stranger to me. Despite his offer to provide papers for me to escape this life, if need be, I still knew almost nothing about him. He watched me, assessing my reaction to the question.

"Not too long ago." My answer offered a half-truth. After all, I had recently reviewed the contract, but I did not owe him that information. "Why?"

"There are tons of unnecessary legalese dumped at the beginning of the contract. The first few pages speak to the reason of your confinement, while also detailing the possible modes of recourse that MPD could take against you, should you choose to escape."

"Your point being?"

He chuckled darkly, "my point being that you should take a gander at pages 26 through 29." Standing he motioned towards the items still spread across the bench. "And find a safe place to hide those. It'll be hell to pay, for both of us, if Carter finds them."

What felt like hours after his retreat, I gathered up the remaining documents on the bench and followed Dante's path back to the mansion. The sun was streaming through the trees from the west, lining my eyesight with shadowed trees and the smell of warm earth. Kardena was waiting at the rear of the dining hall when I stepped inside.

Dressed in a glittery blue ombre halter dress and sandals, she looked young but sensual. A smile raised across her lips as our eyes met and she waved me over to her table. Clumsily I sat down across from her, surreptitiously adjusting the documents pressed into the back lip of my jeans.

"I have been looking all over for you!"

Laughing nervously, I crossed my arms and leaned onto to table. "What for?"

"This." She handed me a folded piece of paper. "I wasn't sure what to make of it."

"Please be aware the party at Declan Haversham is a Ribbon Consortium." I read aloud. "All TouchNodes are required to wear ribbon-based lingerie with matching cuffs. Trysts are to be dressed in two-piece outfits, ribbon-laced bralettes, and crotchless boy shorts." My stomach knotted as I continued to read. "Guzzles will be stationed at entrances and exits, nude, with only a colored ribbon around their wrists as adornment."