True Meaning of Sacrifice

Author's Note: Thanks again to the people who helped me on this. Their help was invaluable. Special thanks to Wetapap and my volunteer editor Angel Love.

Mike drove for hours, finally stopping at a bar he used to frequent in the old days. He didn't recognize anyone there, but stayed anyway and drank until Midnight. On the way out, his cell phone rang. He saw their home number on the caller id. He smashed the phone to the ground as he got in his car, wondering where he was supposed to go.

Michelle was going out of her mind with worry. It had been a very bad night. With all three of the men together, they had decided it would be fun to humiliate her. It seemed almost like they were competing to outdo each other. When they were finished fucking her every way they could think of, they took her to the bathtub where they made her lay down and they pissed on her...another first. Sadly she wondered if there was anything left she hadn't been subjected to and again was afraid of the answer.

She showered, had a couple of drinks at the bar for strength, then went home to face Mike's anger. She would have given anything if he would hold her like before, just for tonight. When she reached their house, she opened the garage door to find his car was gone. She rushed into the house to see if he left a message.

He hadn't. It looked like nothing had been disturbed since she left that morning and she didn't know if she was more afraid that he had left her, or that something may have happened to him. She couldn't call her parents and had spurned most of her friends during the last few months, so again she leaned on Stacy.

After talking with Michelle, Stacy dressed immediately and began driving over, very concerned. She knew that there were only two possibilities. Either something had happened to him, or he must have found out somehow. Knowing Mike, there was no other reason he wouldn't be home.

She was waiting to turn left at a light when she saw Mike's car fly past. She floored it and followed. He was weaving badly and she wondered if he was hurt or drunk (or both). He finally stopped at a roadside motel and she pulled into a space away from him as she saw him enter the lobby.

He soon came back out, went to a room on the first floor and let himself in. Seconds later she was banging on the door, ready to tear his head off for worrying them so much. When he opened the door, all those thoughts evaporated.

He looked terrible. His clothes were a mess, he smelled like beer and he had a wild look in his eyes like he was on the edge of a breakdown. He saw her and waved his hand dismissively, "Go away Stacy, I don't have anything to say to you."

She braced herself; "Michelle is worried out of her mind. What the hell is going on?"

He looked at her with contempt, "I don't think she's that upset. If she is, she can go back and fuck her three new friends."

Stacy looked down in shame and couldn't meet his glare.

She flinched as he began yelling,

"You knew, you fucking bitch!"

He tried to slam the door but she got her foot in the way. It hurt like hell but she wasn't going to let this go on.

She pushed past him into the room. "You need to know what's really going on Michael, right now!" He didn't want to listen, but knew that nothing short of physically moving her was going to make her leave and he had never harmed a woman; it wasn't in his nature. He sighed as she continued. "Mike, are you in any shape to listen to me or do you need coffee."

He responded mockingly. "I need about two days of sleep and a bottle of JD."

Stacy started to get angry. "Well guess again, because that's not going to happen. When you find out the truth, it's going to be hard enough, don't make this worse."

Mike looked at her skeptically, "Fine, go ahead and talk. I'm not stupid enough to get hammered and then get behind the wheel. I'd rather go to sleep but if you think there's something I should know about, then start talking ."

"In a minute," Stacy muttered. "I need to let Mikki know you're OK." She used her cell and made a quick call. "Michelle, I found him, he's OK."

Mike could hear the explosion of yelling from four feet away. "Let me talk to him...Is everything alright...Please tell him I'm sorry...."

"Don't worry," Stacy tried to calm her. "He got mad, went to a bar and got shit-faced. You can't blame him. Things have been rough between you two and he doesn't know what to think."

Mike was about to enter the conversation when a very angry gesture from Stacy abruptly shut him up. "No, I promise I won't." He heard her say. "He's sleeping it off at a motel, I'll make sure he gets his stupid ass home in the morning. You just take care of yourself. I love you too...bye."

"Alright, what's going on and why did you tell her that?" Mike demanded.

"First you need coffee. Even if you don't feel as bad as you look, this is a long story, trust me, you want to be clear-headed. Go straighten yourself out, I'll run across to the breakfast place, get a couple and be right back." Mike went into the bathroom wondering if it was possible for things to be worse than he already thought.

When Stacy got back, they sat on the edge of the bed and she began. "OK, this is going to be very hard to hear, so you need to prepare yourself," she warned.

"Harder than seeing my wife be a slut with three strangers?" he asked sarcastically.

"Yes. Much harder," she said sadly. Stacy then laid out everything she knew about the situation including his accident, Michelle's decision, finding her on the couch and her behavior since that night.

Mike was furious. "And that's supposed to make me feel better! She stupidly agreed to fuck every guy that asks because she doesn't want me to get hurt." His voice rose as each word was filled with more disdain than the last.

"They threatened her with jail and put you in the hospital. I'd say that's serious."

Mike had been suspicious for a month now; he wasn't going to back down. "Well she should know I'd rather die than see her like that. What's she accomplishing by using me as an excuse to act out all her slut fantasies?"

Stacy seethed, "Don't you ever let me hear you say something like that about her again! She is dying on the inside. I hate what is happening to her, but she's doing it because she'd rather sacrifice herself than see anything happen to you. She's doing it even though she knows you probably won't be able to forgive her. She doesn't think she has any choice." Stacy looked down at the end, finding it hard to defend what Michelle was doing. She also knew she had to do her best before Mike gave up on his wife.

"Give me a break Stacy, do you really think this will ever be finished? She's a beautiful girl, she's servicing their clients, she's having a great time, why the hell would they let her go?"

He ignored Stacy's glare and continued angrily. "I saw her with them and heard her. It was a woman that I don't know and she looked like she loved every second of it."

"She has to act like she's having the time of her life, or they'll give her back to that bastard. You don't know how much he hurt her. It was horrible..." She trailed off and looked down. Despite Michelle's unwavering belief that this would be over soon, Stacy agreed with Mike's assessment that they'd never let her go. She also harbored a darker fear that an accident like Mike's might be waiting for her friend someday.

Mike still looked like he wasn't buying what she was saying. Stacy stepped back and took a deep breath. This was going to be harder than she thought. She knew how angry he would be, but she thought when he found out what Michelle had been through and that Ryan was responsible for his accident, Michael would be more sympathetic or at least angry enough at Ryan to step in. She had to try something different.

"Mike," she started slowly, "Do you remember the night you met her." He turned away from her.

"Yes," he said quietly.

"Did she ever tell you how it happened?" She saw his confused look and continued. "I mean, did she ever tell you why we were there?"

Mike scratched his chin and thought for a second. "No, I never thought to ask. Why?"

Stacy softly made him sit next to her and took his hand, "I think you should know, it might make a difference."

"She only slept with two other men before she met you. The second one she met six months out of college and she gave up her first real job to be with him. He seemed like this great guy, but after being with him for almost a year, she found out he was cheating on her. When she confronted him, he blamed her. He said she was lousy in bed so he had no choice."

"It caused a big rift between Michelle and her folks because they warned her about him and she didn't listen. It took a long time to get over the hurt and she was humiliated by what he said."

"The night you met, we were out celebrating her getting a promotion at her old job. We went to this popular bar and walked right into him with his new girlfriend. He said something awful to her about Michelle and just laughed as they walked inside. It upset her so much that it ruined everything. We insisted on her coming with us to a second bar so she wouldn't be alone. We saw that a live band was playing, so thought it would be a lot of fun and would cheer her up."

"After we found a table, I noticed her staring at the stage. We could all tell by her attitude that she was smitten with you immediately. All of us were so happy to see her cheer up; we teased her about it hoping she'd get up the courage to talk to you. We were so happy when you came up to our table. It was easy to see you liked her too."

"After you went back to play, guys kept asking her to dance, but she turned them all down. I asked her if she was still upset but she said no. She didn't want you to think anything bad about her."

Mike was surprised. He had always assumed he won her over. Was that really why she sat by herself, so he wouldn't be disappointed? "I would never have guessed that. I was afraid there was someone else."

"Well there wasn't. I've known her since High School and she had never acted that way around a guy before. Once you got up the nerve to ask her out, we made sure she'd say yes. We all knew she felt something special for you from the beginning."

Stacy took another deep breath and continued. "Did you know why she waited so long to sleep with you?"

Mike looked confused, "She said it was the way she was raised."

"It was," Stacy continued. "She wouldn't sleep with someone until she loved him, but she knew she loved you by the end of the first night."

Mike thought back to that wonderful memory. "I guess I did too. So then why did she insist we wait so long?"

"Because she was so hurt by what happened before. No matter how much we told her it was crazy, she was afraid that you'd be disappointed. She wanted to make sure you would accept her the way she was and that you wouldn't hurt her too."

Mike angrily snapped, "I would never hurt her."

"Well, I think it probably would have hurt her to know you called her a whore!"

Mike stopped for a moment, caught between anger and embarrassment. "The way she was acting...so out of control...it was like a different person."

Stacy voice softened, "I can't imagine how hard this is for you to deal with, Mike. You have to believe me, I'm just trying to help before you say or do something you can't take back. No matter what you're thinking about her, I'm just asking you to give me a chance. Now what did she say about being so wild when you first slept together?"

Mike was beginning to understand where Stacy was going. "She said you had shown her some pointers."

"Yes and why do you suppose she asked me to do that?"

He struggled to say the words, "Because she was afraid of letting me down. She knew I had a lot of experience with women and she was afraid she wouldn't measure up somehow."

Stacy put her hand on his arm. "Finally, the first thing you've said that sounds like the man my best friend loves. What happened after she followed my 'pointers'?"

Mike looked away, "I can't describe it. I never felt like that with anyone before. When we were done, she cried for a minute. She told me it was because she was happy. I never even thought about it after that night, but I guess it makes sense now that I know the rest of it."

Stacy pressed him, "Has anything from that night on given you the impression that she has 'slut fantasies' or would want any of this to be happening?"

Mike struggled to answer her. "No, she's never given me a reason to doubt anything." He wondered if it was possible that she was really an unwilling victim like Stacy claimed. "At the time, she wouldn't talk about it, any of it, I...I"

"You what?" Stacy scolded lovingly. "It sounds like you did everything perfectly without even knowing why. You two are made for each other, we've all known it. What you've never understood was that she always felt like she was the lucky one, not you."

Mike struggled to process everything. "Even if what you are saying is true, why didn't she go to the police. Even if she felt like she couldn't put this on me while I was in the hospital, how could she keep me in the dark for this long?"

Stacy thought Mike seemed to be softening a little and hoped it might give her a chance. "She knows that if she goes to the police, they probably won't believe her and it could put you both in danger. I told you what Tony did to her just because she didn't do a good enough job for them. I understand you can take care of yourself, but what do you think they might do to her if she tried to turn them in? How hard do you think it is on her knowing that if she tries to protect herself, something could happen to you?"

"I wish she would have told you the truth, but she knew you might get so angry that you would just leave her with no way to deal with this nightmare. Worse than that, you might storm off after Ryan and wind up dead or in jail. We've both tried but haven't been able to dig up much on him. I don't know how he's pulling this off or why the others are going along with it, but they haven't made any mistakes. I swear to you, if I thought she would be safe, I'd go to the fucking police myself." She paused to let him absorb everything, hoping she had finally reached him.

"Mike, I'm not saying you need to agree with what she has done or even that you have to decide what to do about it tonight. I'm just begging you not to decide anything until you've had time to think about it. She's been through so much. She needs you right now. She's been hurt worse than I can imagine and I don't know if she can get through this without you."

Mike finally looked up at her. "No matter what I decide, the one thing I know is that this ends now. If she wants to go back to them, I'm through."

"She can't walk away," Stacy sobbed, grateful that he seemed to finally to be willing to give ground. "We're not sure about who's involved, so if you went after Ryan how do you know they won't retaliate against her? Michelle thinks it was Tony that ran you off the road, but she doesn't have any proof. If you do the wrong thing, both of you could get hurt."

Mike drifted into thought again. There had to be a way out of this. Something that would happen quickly, taking her out of danger. He shook his head, trying to shake the fatigue and frustration, trying to find something that everyone else had missed. He knew that Ryan had time to set this up, and had done it anticipating anything they might do...or had he? Slowly he brought his eyes up to meet Stacy's and he said, "I know what I have to do..."

~~~~~

Michelle had finally cried herself to sleep when she felt the bed shift. She opened her eyes and saw her husband looking at her with concern that she hadn't seen in a long time. He pulled her up and held her tightly until she was having trouble catching her breath. "Oh Mike, I'm so sorry I didn't come home."

He stopped her with one finger on her lips. "No, I'm sorry for what I said. Stacy was right. I was being an ass. Please forgive me."

Michelle felt an unbelievable sense of relief, cradled in his arms until she fell asleep. She hadn't felt that safe in a long time.

Mike never went to sleep. When Michelle drifted off, he held her for a while, thinking about the details of what they had put her through and felt his rage building. He eventually put her down softly and began making his plans on his laptop. He needed to work out every detail, every variable, so there was no chance for error. He wasn't sure what would happen between them, but he made a promise to protect her no matter what and he intended to keep it. He also had to deal with the men who had fucked up his life.

He stayed with her the rest of the weekend, then told her he had to go out of town for a couple days during the week. She was so happy to have him treating her warmly again that she didn't ask questions and told him she'd be waiting when he got back.

When he got back Thursday, he opened the door calling for her. "In here, sweetheart," she responded.

He walked into the kitchen, only to find Michelle waiting for him wearing a silk robe, with candles lighting the table. He was caught off guard for a moment, then asked, "What's this for?"

"This is for you. I know that the way things have been lately has been hard on you, even though none of it is your fault." Mike winced, knowing what she really meant by that. "I wanted to give you a special night. The kind you deserve from me."

Mike looked at her in wonder. She had to be in a living hell over what was happening. "I admit that it's been frustrating, but you know that I love you, right?"

She smiled sadly, "I know that you love me more than I deserve. Now no more talking, come eat with me, please."

They sat at the table quietly, eating a wonderful meal. She asked about his trip, but found his answers strangely evasive. Michelle just chalked it up to her being too suspicious because of everything that had been happening. She tried to ignore it and enjoy his company as much as possible, knowing it would probably be the last time.

When they were finished with dinner, she led him up the stairs. Although Mike had tried to prepare himself for what he might feel the first time he had to be intimate with her, he was still nervous. He knew that he still loved her, but she had been lying to him for almost two months. He also knew that no matter what her intentions were, the fact that she chose to cooperate with the blackmailers was a direct implication that she didn't think he could protect her. That hurt more than anything else.

Once in the bedroom, Michelle pulled him to her. She kissed him deeply, trying to find a way to let him know without words how much she loved him. She undressed him slowly, working her mouth down his chest until she reached his belt. She hurriedly unbuckled it and pulled down his pants, anxious to bring him pleasure.

Mike gasped as he felt her mouth engulf his penis. She seemed more eager than usual, which seemed confusing under the circumstances, but he tried to shut out any doubts about her. Michelle worked her tongue around his cock, then began bobbing her head up and down, taking at least half of it into her mouth.

He felt his knees buckle and sat down hard on the bed. Michelle followed, licking his shaft and even moving down to take his balls into her mouth, one at a time. Mike felt a jolt of electricity at the erotic manipulations. She ran her hand up his chest, as she took his cock into her mouth again.

She used her free hand to stroke him as she sucked, making moaning sounds. His hips began moving, indicating he was almost to the point of no return, so she began moving her hand faster and sucked as hard as she could. Mike didn't have a chance to warn her as he came harder than he could remember. She swallowed fast, trying not to miss a drop as he unloaded blast after blast in her mouth.