A Captive of Fear and Desire

by Sophie Kisker

  Marco cursed again as he realized Josh would probably come down the hall outside Dan’s door. He pulled the door open, dug the wad of gum out of the recessed hole as he went out into the hall, and shut the door. As Josh turned the corner and came upon him, Marco turned and pounded on the same door he’d just come out of.

  “I know you’re in there!” he shouted.

  “You’re an idiot,” Josh stated. “He left an hour ago. He told you and everyone else he’d be back this afternoon.”

  “Oh. Yeah. Forgot.” Marco dropped his head and shuffled off. Josh stared at him and shook his head, then tested the door. The knob didn’t budge.

  ~ ~ ~

  Marco eased the door to his room shut and picked up his phone. He dialed a number by heart and his uncle picked up. It only took a moment to fill the old man in.

  “Really?” DeLeo said. “Now that’s unfortunate. Dan doesn’t seem to have as tight a hold on his men as I thought he did. This could cause some complications during the auction. Let me think about this. I’ll be in touch.”

  Marco hung up the phone, already planning his first moves after he took over the running of The Farm.

  Chapter 25

  The day of the auction dawned just like any other. The women had slept better than many nights previously, and no nightmares had pierced the silence. The crushing despair seemed just a little less. No one thought to question why, but Laura, who had only pretended to drink her glass of water at dinner and then again at breakfast, relaxed just a little for the first time in days.

  After the usual morning enemas, they were instructed to shower and shave thoroughly. To their surprise, a box of hair dryers, hair clips, pins, headbands, and hair spray, along with another box of makeup, was dumped onto one of the beds. Though they went about the drying and styling silently, there were small smiles in the mirror at their changed appearances.

  Laura felt bad for not confiding in Claire about the sedative, but Dan forbade it. Claire must have suspected, though, because when Laura left most of her water glass full yet again at breakfast, Claire did as well. Neither said anything to the other when they both turned on the tap in the bathroom and drank from their hands afterwards.

  The two friends moved among the others, offering support and encouragement when worry broke through the light haze that the women drifted in, until they relaxed again. The knowledge that they would be free by nightfall chewed at Laura’s stomach. But if anything gave away the plan, these men would keep doing what they’d been doing to more women. So she kept her mouth shut and felt a little piece of her soul cracking off as she let them think they were about to be sold into life-long bondage, even if they seemed untroubled by it at the moment.

  ~ ~ ~

  Dan was swamped with auction details. He and Josh were using their phones with earpieces to talk back and forth about details while they were separated. The earpieces were tweaked so that law enforcement could listen in on every conversation, and Dan and Josh could hear them talking back.

  It was just after breakfast when Dan’s cell phone rang and he saw with surprise that it was DeLeo. “Yes, sir!” he said with feigned brightness.

  “Dan! I’ve just landed and wanted to check up on everything with you.” DeLeo had kept the location of the airport from Dan, who suspected it lay at least several hours away.

  “Everything is going fine, sir. All the pieces are in place. Security is so tight not even God himself could get in.”

  “Well, God wouldn’t know what to do with a slave girl anyway. Say, Dan, there’s one small change to the plans I’m going to make.”

  Dan felt his stomach drop. DeLeo’s ‘small changes’ were usually anything but. “Yes?”

  “I have had a very lucrative offer from an old and dear friend for that girl who plays the piano—Claire? It’s enough that I’m pulling her out of the auction. Have her wait with Laura and I’ll pick them both up as soon as the auction is over.”

  Dan’s mind scrambled to see if that would upset any of the plans.

  “Dan? Anything wrong?”

  “No, sir,” he hastened to reassure DeLeo. “Just thinking through everything and making sure there isn’t anything we have to rearrange if Claire is out. We’re good. I’ll have her waiting with Laura.”

  “Very good. I’ll see you this afternoon.”

  Dan hung up, not sure why he felt that things weren’t quite right.

  ~ ~ ~

  Master 2 appeared at the cell door after all the women had finished getting ready. They were sitting silently with their arms around each other. He motioned to Laura and Claire, who separated themselves from the group and walked over to him.

  “Follow me,” he said without explanation. He led them out the door and across the dirt corral to the barn. Inside, it had been transformed. The large center space had been set up with dozens of plush red chairs that faced a stage at the very back. Each of the stalls that ran along the side had been carpeted and held more plush chairs and a table with beverages. And dangling from the ceiling in the back of each stall was a set of manacles. Laura had a strange twisting in her stomach when she realized they were for securing a newly-purchased slave. She didn’t fear them as she would have if she didn’t know the truth; instead she almost wished she could have experienced them. She shook the feeling off. Here, and now, they were evil.

  Josh led them past all the stalls, around the back of the stage, and to a small room in the back. It was empty save for two bottles of water on the floor and a pile of fabric. There was one window high up and barred, and another door on the opposite wall. Josh shut the door they’d come through and turned to them.

  “We can talk quietly,” he said. “This room doesn’t have any surveillance equipment in it. Claire, DeLeo decided for some reason that you wouldn’t be part of the auction. He says he’s sold you to a friend of his. He wants you to wait with Laura until the auction is over and then he plans to take both of you with him. That’s not going to happen, okay?”

  Claire’s face paled, but she nodded.

  “I’m sorry we had to remove you both so early from the group, but I can only imagine how unbelievably hard it is for you to not say anything to them, and we can’t let that happen. So we’re keeping you away from temptation. The raid is supposed to happen before the auction even starts. When it happens,” his voice dropped to a whisper, “there will be a lot of commotion and shouting. I hope to God there’s no gunfire. This door is going to be locked. You girls just wait, and we or other agents will come get you. You’ll be safe here until then.” He locked eyes with Claire for a long moment, then pointed to the fabric on the floor. “I thought you might appreciate something to wear.” He pivoted and left. They heard the sound of the key turning.

  Claire picked up the fabric and discovered it was two sets of scrubs. With squeals of delight, they both donned the shapeless top and bottoms.

  “This feels really, really strange,” she observed.

  Laura nodded in agreement. “Shall we sit? We might be here for a while.” They made themselves comfortable on the bare floor and each reached for a bottle of water, their stomachs once again in tight knots.

  ~ ~ ~

  “Situation report!” Pearson’s voice crackled loudly in Dan’s ear, causing him to mutter a curse under his breath. One of the guests he was making polite conversation with gave him a strange look. He made his excuses and walked outside.

  “DeLeo isn’t here yet.” All the other expected guests were in place and eager to begin the auction, which was now fifteen minutes late. “We have to delay.”

  “Negative. We can’t risk it. Start the auction.”

  Dan stifled the urge to scream. “Sir,” he whispered urgently, “that will traumatize the women even further, and it also mixes them in among the bad guys. It’s too risky!”

  “If we delay any more, it’ll start to make them twitch. We have to catch them when they’re relaxed. If it takes getting their hands on some pussy to do that, then that’s what we have to
do.”

  Dan took a deep breath before he spoke. “You are a god-damned bastard and my resignation from the Agency will be on your desk tomorrow morning.” He cut the connection. It took a moment before he could turn around and walk back inside.

  He found Josh leaning against the stage, observing the guests. At Dan’s approach, he turned his head with a questioning look.

  “Go get the girls,” was all Dan said.

  Goddammit! It seemed they were going to have to go ahead and do the worst thing they’d done to these women since they’d arrived. Josh nodded and disappeared.

  ~ ~ ~

  The inevitable came all too quickly. The women were sitting together, arms around each other, on the beds in their cell, talking quietly. Anxiety was taking the edge off of the sedative and without Laura and Claire there they had a sense of foreboding that none of them could shake. Master 5 was sitting a vigil across from them.

  When Master 2 appeared at the door to unlock it, a wave of fear pierced their calm.

  “Up, ladies. Let’s get this done.”

  They stood up slowly. The sound of soft crying was the only sound to be heard in the otherwise silent room. He called out their names and they lined up obediently. Master 2 locked a chain to the right wrist cuff of the first woman, and then passed it through the rings on the wrist of each woman behind her until the last, where he locked the end. He took the arm of the first woman, more gently than she expected, and tugged. Her feet were rooted to the floor and she couldn’t move.

  Josh’s resolve to keep silent was wavering. The fear among them was rapidly becoming so thick it was choking the very oxygen out of the air.

  “Harry!” he called. “Go on ahead and let Master 1 know we’re coming!”

  Harry looked skeptically at him. “You gonna handle twelve women all by yourself?”

  Josh looked at him and raised an eyebrow, then pulled back his suit jacket to reveal a revolver, strapped to his chest. The women gasped and pulled back. Harry just laughed.

  “Okay, boss. See you in a minute.” He ambled down the hall and out the door.

  The women were staring at him with more fear than he’d seen in all his time here. Up to this point, none of them had seen a single gun.

  “Ladies, I need you to listen to me. Please, trust me. Trust Master 1. I can’t say any more right now. Just…trust us.” He didn’t wait for an answer, but pulled the first woman along, and this time her feet came loose. The other women followed, confused looks on their faces as they walked out the door. They hesitated at the sight of the driveway and dirt road filled with vehicles. Large men leaned against SUVs and limousines, eyeing each other warily. As the group being led across the dirt caught their attention, they stopped staring at each other and turned to stare at the string of naked women. It was almost too much for Maia. She was in the middle of the group, and stopped cold, causing the rest of the line to back up and stumble against her. Josh moved in her direction, but Shannon leaned over and whispered encouragement in her ear. Maia nodded and resumed walking.

  The group made the rest of the journey without incident. They entered the renovated barn through a side door and paused behind a curtain that separated the group from the crowd on the other side.

  Dan met them there. Josh looked at him with a raised eyebrow, and Dan shook his head imperceptibly. DeLeo hadn’t shown yet.

  Where was he?

  ~ ~ ~

  Laura and Claire weren’t sure how long they’d sat in the stifling room. They could hear some of the activity outside the door. There had been an occasional voice, along with some scuffling as heavy objects were dragged across the floor. The voices started getting more numerous, and now they could sense that the whole building was filling up. They held each other’s hands tight, sure that the raid was going to start any moment.

  Instead, they suddenly heard the voices quiet down, and then they heard Dan start to speak. They couldn’t make out his words but it seemed as if he’d started the auction. They looked at each other, unsure what it meant.

  Suddenly, they heard a key in the lock of the other door, the one that opened to the outside. It sprang open. Marco stood in the doorway, grinning his gap-toothed grin, and worst of all, holding a gun pointed straight at them.

  ~ ~ ~

  “On your feet. NOW!”

  Laura and Claire scrambled to obey.

  “We’re going to take a short walk back to the other building. There’s someone who wants to meet you two.” He slid into the room and motioned for them to precede him out the door. They grabbed hands and stumbled out into the bright sunshine. The door they’d just come through was on the backside of the barn and was just a few feet from the rear door to the main building, so they were back inside within seconds. Marco came after them, taking a brief look around outside before shutting the door.

  He waved them down the hall and directed them into the room with the bondage equipment. Claire tried to bolt, shoving Marco, who punched her so hard in the stomach she fell to her hands and knees, gasping. Laura dropped down next to her, glaring hatred at the man standing over them.

  “Next time you try anything, I’ll shoot you,” he warned. “Now get up.” As Laura helped Claire stand up on shaky legs, the door opened again. A large weathered man in a white linen suit and a panama hat with a gaudy striped ribbon walked in, followed by two even bigger men dressed in dark suits. He walked over to the two trembling women and stood still, gazing at Laura, then flicked his eyes to one of the bodyguards.

  “Strip them.”

  Laura was unresisting as the guard yanked up her newly-acquired shirt and pulled it over her head. He shoved the bottoms down into a puddle at her feet and left them there as he moved to Claire. In less than a minute, both women stood bare before him. Though she’d been naked for weeks, somehow this stripping felt to Laura more of a violation than if she’d been without clothes when they walked in.

  DeLeo’s gaze traveled from her face down, lingering on her breasts, then down more, stopping again, this time to fixate on her bare mound. He smiled a predatory smile.

  “Oh, yes. A worthy trophy, indeed.”

  His gaze shifted to Claire’s frightened eyes. He gave her the same all-over assessment and shrugged dismissively. “Nice.”

  He cleared his throat. “Pardon me for my lack of manners. I’m Victor DeLeo. I am the man who owns all of this–” he swept his hands around the room “–and who will be leaving a little early from this lovely gathering, with the two of you.”

  Laura stumbled backwards. “No,” she said. “Please, no, please, let us go…” her voice trailed off.

  “From what my dear nephew Marco has recently found out there seems to be some games going on here. I’m not exactly sure what kind, but I no longer trust the man I have in charge, and I have no intention of waiting around to find out. The time for games is done. Don’t worry; I’m not going to kill you. You’re both going to come with me, just as I’d planned, and I’m going to keep you–” he smirked at Laura “–locked up and available for my use whenever I please, for the rest of your life. And I might just share you with a few business associates from time to time.” He nodded in the direction of Marco, who leered at her.

  “And you–” he now addressed Claire “–I’ll sell to someone very discreet and very isolated, for a lot of money. What happens to you after that, I don’t really care.”

  Claire’s legs gave out and Laura scrambled to support her. “Leave her, please. She’s not part of this. Just leave her out of this.”

  He threw his head back and laughed. “She is so much a part of this! It was sweet, watching that man pull you into his arms and hold you tight on the camera, just like little lovebirds!” His voice dripped sarcasm. “I couldn’t possibly let that go unaddressed. That’s why I’m taking both of you. But I decided to stay away from the little party that’s being thrown today, just in case. I only risked coming here through the escape tunnel to pick you both up. And take care of one thing before we leave.�
�

  He turned to Laura. “Did Dan tell you the good news? Every slave I own has my initials branded into her before she arrives at my home.”

  Chapter 26

  Josh knew the room he’d left the girls in was going to be hot since the window wouldn’t open, so he snagged more cold bottled water and headed for the locked door. He slipped the ill-fitting bluetooth headpiece out of his aching ear for just a minute and flicked the mute switch on as he shoved it into his pocket. He didn’t want to clutter the channel with any conversation he might have with the two women.

  When he saw the empty room, he staggered and dropped the bottles. He strode over to the other door and pushed, and to his surprise, it opened. Why would they leave? Didn’t they understand this was the safest place for them? He needed to find them, now. He made his way across the brief open area and quietly opened the door to the main building. He had just started down the cool hall when he heard Laura’s voice. She was crying. The gun he had hoped not to use was pulled from his holster.

  The door was closed, which meant he couldn’t tell who was in there, and more importantly, who was armed and who wasn’t. He listened to the conversation with growing alarm and his eyes squeezed shut in agony as he realized how his carelessness had ruined the entire plan. His training told him to stop, to assess the situation, to listen, and to identify how many people were in the room and where they stood. But his nerves had been stretched too thin for too long. When he heard Laura’s cry of fear, he acted.

  ~ ~ ~