A Captive of Fear and Desire

by Sophie Kisker

  She couldn’t—wouldn’t—accept that her future lay as a sex slave. That any future she had, any chance of getting married, having children, growing old with someone she loved, was gone. Her family would never know what happened to her. She knew Dan would look, if he could, but Laura feared by then she’d be in another part of the world, too far away to be found, too broken to ever have her life back.

  She ignored the itch and tickle of the tears running down her cheeks as she let herself cry. But she’d never been one to wallow, and it was hard to figure out how to survive if she was crying, so eventually the tears stopped and she opened her eyes again. Blinking against the bright sun, she noticed a new man had come into the corral. He was talking to Master 3 with his back to the women. She stared at him, feeling a sense of disbelief. She had just willed him to turn around when he did, his eyes focused somewhere above and behind the women. Then he finished the turn and headed back inside.

  “Oh my God,” she whispered.

  “Shhh! We can’t talk!”

  Laura ignored the admonishment. “Claire, who was the blond man who just came out?” Her voice was barely a whisper and she had to work to keep it from trembling.

  “Master 1,” came the almost silent reply.

  Master 1 was Dan.

  Her mind raced frantically to figure out what she’d just seen. Dan was here. Why? Was this what he was doing that he wouldn’t talk about? It had to be! He had been undercover, just like she figured. And then a flash of anger coursed through her like a lightning bolt. Maybe he wasn’t the bad guy—she knew he could never do something like this for real—but he’d known—he’d allowed—all this abuse and pain to occur.

  She must have been breathing fast because she heard Claire whisper, “You okay?”

  Laura took a deep breath and tried to think. He could get her out of here, right? Once he realized she was here, he’d send her home! Hope blossomed where she had thought none lay just a moment before.

  She had to see him somehow. Once she could get him alone, then…

  Then what?

  Then he’d break his cover, leaving the rest of the women behind and probably getting himself killed?

  Dread filled the pit of her stomach as she realized she might not get out of here as soon as she thought.

  Did he know she was here? No, she reasoned, because he would have made contact with her if only to warn her not to blow his cover. Some acknowledgment, even a locking of eyes, would have happened, if he knew.

  She was going to fall onto the damn mat soon, but she refused to give in.

  What were the odds that she would end up here, in the middle of his case? Astronomical. Beyond astronomical. In fact, the more she thought about it the weirder it got. All the other women she’d met had fairly boring jobs, few social or family connections, and lived by themselves. It made sense to pick them off, in a twisted kind of way. But she didn’t fit the mold. Though she did live by herself, she had a lot of family nearby who would notice her absence, and a job where her absence would be noticed five minutes after she failed to show up for a shift.

  There was only one conclusion that she could think of—that she had been chosen on purpose, because she knew Dan. Whatever the reason was, she was going to have to act like she was shocked beyond belief that he was here and in charge. And he was probably going to have to be a cold and uncaring sonofabitch who could enslave women. But if he just happened to see her as he walked by, he’d likely blow his cover without meaning to.

  She remembered what Dan had said about being close to the end of his case, and it dawned on her that he must have been talking about the auction Claire had mentioned. She just had to hold out until whenever that was and hope that he could get her out of here then.

  In the meantime, she had to find a way to let him know she was here. And she knew what she had to do. It was risky and stupid and she was in for a world of hurt no matter what happened. She prayed this was the right decision. She glanced through her hair at Masters 2 and 3, talking to each other quietly a dozen yards away, and hoped it was Master 2 who caught her, not 3.

  She took a deep breath and sprang to her feet, stumbling with stiffness before heading for the line of trees. She slowed only briefly to look directly into a camera before sprinting into the woods. There was the expected commotion behind her, but she kept running, and for one wild moment, it was so quiet around her that she thought she might have actually lost them. She had slowed to look behind her when her body suddenly hit an invisible wall and she felt like she exploded. She collapsed on the ground, curled up on her side, every muscle in her body contracting at the same time. She couldn’t even scream. Her mind was struggling to figure out what had just happened when a foot connected with her shoulder and flipped her over onto her back. Master 3 was standing over her with his fist poised to strike her face. Before the blow could land, though, his arm was wrenched backwards.

  “Marco! Dammit! Never in the face! We can’t sell women who have bruises on their face. What the hell are you thinking?” Master 2 yanked her to her unsteady feet and clicked her cuffs together behind her back, holding her up with a grip to one of her arms as she struggled to pull her mind back together.

  Master 2 looked at her in anger. “Girl, that was so stupid. Do you realize how bad you’re about to be punished?”

  She didn’t have to fake her fear. “Master, please, don’t, I’m sorry, I won’t do it again.”

  He ignored her pleading and hauled her over the rough ground back in the direction of the buildings, with a muttering Master 3 slinking along behind.

  Once back at the barn, Master 2 re-cuffed her hands in front of her and clipped them to a hook that hung from a rafter above. In a flash, her hands were over her head and she was pulled up on her tiptoes. A blindfold went over her eyes and the world went dark.

  ~ ~ ~

  Dan clicked the ‘purchase’ button on the computer one last time and sat back, rubbing his eyes with weariness. It was amazing how much bureaucracy came with running a sex trafficking ring. The men all had to be paid, and clothes and laundry had to be provided and washed. The women may have been naked but they still needed soap and shampoo and toothpaste. Everyone had to be fed. And then there were the tools of their trade: whips and floggers and collars and cuffs and rope and etc. And he needed to continue planning the auction.

  Josh knocked and came in, his face in a grim line. “We had a runner, boss.”

  “Shit. Goddammit. Someone not watching?”

  “The girls were out in the cleared area in a squat and one of them bolted. The new one. We watched her just get up and run. She had to know she’d be caught right away.”

  Dan clicked his computer on and navigated to the cameras, rewinding to a point before the girl had stood up to flee. He saw the group as it had been—still, quiet, heads bowed; he could see Josh and Marco standing right next to them. And then one figure rose up in plain sight of the men and turned and ran past the camera, looking directly into it as she passed.

  Dan felt the blood drain from his face. It couldn’t be. He backed up the footage and ran it again, stopping when the woman looked straight at him. When Laura’s face looked straight at him.

  “Oh shit. Oh fuck. Oh fuck,” he whispered. Josh gave him an alarmed look. Dan pulled out his cell phone. When they needed to talk to each other and weren’t sure of their privacy—which was almost always—they wrote text messages on their phone to read, and then erased them without sending.

  Dan typed: It’s Laura.

  Josh’s face looked at his in astonishment. He’d never met Laura, but knew who she was. WTF? Your Laura? he typed back. Dan nodded. They erased their messages and stared at each other before continuing.

  This is who Marcos took? Dan asked.

  Josh nodded. I knew her name was Laura, but never in a thousand years—He looked up at Dan.

  He knew exactly who he was taking, the motherfucker, Dan typed. He did this to get me to screw up so he could try to convince DeLeo I wa
sn’t good enough anymore.

  What are you going to do?

  Dan walked over to his chair and sat down. He put his head in his hands. Laura was the one person in his life that was untouched by this evil, who reminded him that good people did exist outside of what he was doing, and who would be there when it was all over. How many times had he wanted to take her in his arms, but didn’t, because he couldn’t afford to get involved with anyone? Except she was involved, he realized now. She’d grown to become a very important part of his world, and because of that she’d been kidnapped.

  This was his goddamn fault and he was ready to walk out the door, grab her, and turn his back on it all.

  Josh typed: I know exactly what you are thinking and you CANNOT DO IT. You wouldn’t get far and you’d have a death sentence on your head. And you’d probably be condemning all these women to death too. He erased. Why do you think she tried to bolt in full view of us? Why did she look at the camera?

  Dan looked up from the text on the phone Josh had shoved under his face. He grabbed his own phone again. She probably saw me outside a while ago and figured it all out. She needed to make sure I knew she was here.

  He erased. He and Laura needed to talk. But first, he needed to talk to someone else.

  ~ ~ ~

  There was a knock on the door a few minutes later and Dan gruffly ordered the knocker to enter. Marco walked in, unsuccessfully repressing a smile.

  Dan stood up to meet him in the middle of the room and without warning, punched him squarely in the stomach. Marco fell backwards onto the floor and curled up around himself grunting and gasping. His ever-present wad of gum went skittering off in the opposite direction.

  “Get up, you motherfucker! Or I’ll kick you in the goddamn balls!”

  Marco struggled to his feet. He looked like he might consider rushing Dan, then thought better of it.

  “What the fuck did you think you were doing?”

  “My uncle said you needed to get laid. I thought she might be a good fuck for you.”

  Dan’s fist connected with Marco’s face, and once more, the smaller man landed on the floor, this time with blood pouring from his nose.

  “Get this straight! DeLeo knows I’ve known her all my life, and he knows I see her from time to time, and you know family and friends are off limits!” He walked around Marco as the bloody man tried to use his shirt to staunch the flow. “You’ve got a sister, right? What if I decided I wanted to fuck her, huh? And then sell her? What would you have to say then?”

  Marco’s bloody face started to become purple with rage. He staggered to his feet but did nothing more than glare.

  Time to declare my priorities. “You’ve given me no choice. She can’t be let loose, so no matter how I feel, she has to disappear just like the others. Goddammit! This girl has family and friends! There are going to be people looking for her! You’ve just put everything we’re doing here at risk.”

  Marco started to protest.

  “Don’t! Just shut the fuck up and get out of my sight. Now!”

  Marco shuffled out the door, still hunched over slightly and still trying to wipe the blood off his face with his shirt. Dan slammed the door behind him. Then he walked over to the bar and poured himself another large glass of whiskey. His hand trembled so badly that it sloshed onto his impeccable shirt as he raised it to his lips, but there was enough left to make a decent swallow.

  Scratch that. There was not enough whiskey in the whole world for what he had to do next.

  Chapter 10

  Laura was beginning to realize that running had been a really stupid idea. Hanging by the arms sounded sexy in erotic novels, but it was awful in real life. She could barely put her feet flat. When she did, the weight on her wrists made them go numb, and since her shoulders were pulled up high, her collar rose up until it cut into the underside of her jaw. Her arms started to ache unbearably and there was no way to relieve them. When she rose up to the balls of her feet to take the strain off her wrists, her calf muscles started to hurt, and then cramp. She shifted her weight back and forth from one leg to another, lifting them alternately to take the pressure off.

  The sweat that ran down her body itched unbearably. She had started whimpering a long time ago.

  She had no idea if her stunt had worked. For all she knew she was about to be whipped to pieces by someone else, and Dan would never know she was here. Her fear was growing by the minute. She still struggled to accept that he probably couldn’t do anything for her, that she was going to have to stay right here among the other slaves, and that this person she cared for so much was going to have to hurt her.

  She heard footsteps coming near and despite knowing it wouldn’t help, she started begging, hoping it wasn’t Master 2 or 3. “Please, sir, I’m sorry, I’ll never try it again, I promise, just don’t hurt me anymore. I’ll be obedient, I promise—”

  A hand covered her mouth and nose, and she fell silent.

  “Don’t say anything, do you understand? Nod if you do.” The voice was barely above a whisper.

  It was Dan! She nodded once, sharply.

  “I’ll take my hand off your mouth. Stay silent with your head bowed while you listen to me. There are cameras everywhere and I never know who’s watching, but if we whisper we won’t be overheard.”

  She nodded once more, and he released his hand.

  “Laura, I am so sorry you got mixed up with this. You know I’m undercover here, right? God, please tell me you don’t think I’d actually do this kind of thing.”

  “No, I know you wouldn’t.” She heard him let his breath out, as though he’d been holding it until she gave the answer he needed to hear. “But, God, Dan, I never imagined anything like this!”

  She heard him sigh. “I’ve been on this case ever since I came back into town. And now there’s someone who wants me to screw up so he can replace me. I’m sure he grabbed you because he thinks I’ll give you special treatment, which won’t make his uncle—the head of this whole slave ring—happy. Laura, I’m so sorry for what I’m going to have to do, but I can’t let you go, and I can’t treat you any different from the others.”

  She was trembling now. “Dan, please, I’m scared. Please get me out of here!” She’d wanted to be brave for him, but her fear was rapidly overtaking her resolve.

  She heard his steps pause for a moment, then resume. “I know you’re scared. But I can’t get you out of here. This place is crawling with guards who are absolutely loyal to this guy DeLeo. They’ll shoot any and all of us if they suspect anything. However, in a little less than a month there’s going to be an auction, and this will all be over,” he said. “You’ll have to stay until then, but if you don’t ever want to see me again after that, I understand.”

  “Don’t say that! You can’t do anything that would make me hate you!”

  It was a moment before he spoke.

  “Laura, you have no idea how bad this is going to get. I’m going to have to punish you harder than I would punish the others, to prove that I’m not affected by your presence here.”

  The tangle of knots in her stomach tightened so hard they threatened to cut off her breathing. Though she’d realized before she ran that he wasn’t going to be able to help her, hearing him say the words crushed the small hope she’d still carried. He could give her no comforting answer. No solution that would see her safely at home soon. She had no choice but to remain here, and she wept silently as she struggled with the words she needed to say, that he needed to hear.

  “If I have to stay,” her voice was anguished, “then I want you—I need you—to do whatever it takes to get through this, and I don’t want you to feel guilty about it later. If you have to hurt me, do it. Just get us home safe, please.” She had to get that out, no matter how terrified she was, before the band of fear squeezing her chest prevented her from saying anything at all. She couldn’t put any more burden on him than he already bore.

  “Laura, you have no idea–”

  �
�It doesn’t matter. I’m giving you consent.”

  There was silence for so long she wondered if he’d left and she hadn’t heard him walk away.

  When he finally spoke, it was barely above a whisper. “Laura, I love you and if we get out of here, I want to spend the rest of my life showing you how precious you are.”

  The statement stunned her and suddenly everything she’d spent years refusing to think about fell into place.

  “I love you too, Dan,” she replied, her heart feeling like it was being torn in two. “I think I always have. Now please, do what you have to do.”

  She felt rather than saw his nod. She heard him turn to leave and suddenly it was too much.

  “Dan!” she cried.

  A slap landed on her face and she yelped in pain and surprise.

  “I’m Master 1 to you now. Don’t forget it. I’ll be back after breakfast to deliver your punishment.” His footsteps faded as he left her hanging and alone.

  Oh, God, help me! She wept as the fear roared up and consumed her.

  ~ ~ ~

  Time dragged on. At some point, her overstretched bladder let go and she peed right there. Occasionally she would hear the crunching of gravel as someone came near. She felt someone lift her numb fingers to examine them, and then she would be left alone again.

  The fourth or fifth time someone came close she didn’t even bother lifting her head. This time, though, the tension in her arms was loosened enough to let her feet finally stand on the ground all the way. Her arms were lowered down slowly as she groaned in pain. Eventually she stood unbound, on shaky legs. Her arms hung limply at her sides, unable to obey any commands.

  The blindfold was yanked off of her and she squeezed her eyes shut against the bright light.