Okay, responses to feedback coming now! Thanks again to all who have commented. Authors often get a contact high from reading the reader responses to their humble offerings.
Marcus, I don't know how much experience or knowledge you have of battered spouses, but all too often they have the will to actively resist beaten out of them. It's one of the reasons the police hate responding to domestic calls - even if they find the wife or girlfriend bleeding and limping and the boyfriend or husband with scraped knuckles or bruised toes, the woman will often refuse to sign a complaint and put the *censored noun* in jail. Lex was counting on both that mindset and his delusion that she actually loves him. We'll learn a bit more about that later.
Artemis, glad you liked the Mayson imagery. And as far as what's waiting for them in Denver, we'll have to read and find out.
Groobie, I'm glad that Lois' internal conflicts about Clark are ringing true. Since she's one of the central characters of the tale, she really needs to be sympathetic to the reader, even if she's kinda messed up emotionally right now. And Henderson is one of my favorite supporting characters, so getting to use him as the Voice of Truth to Mayson was fun. We'll see about Denver before the story ends.
Next chapter up in moments!
