Maria thought she was dreaming when she felt something enter her mouth, but the bitter taste of rubber was far too real to be a dream.
Alarmed, she opened her eyes and attempted to reach her mouth to pull out the offending object. She found she couldn't do so, her hands were trapped behind her.
She struggled to sit up, only to see Cynthia crouched just a few feet away, gathering up what appeared to be straps and rope into a leather bag.
Maria tried to ask what was going on, but of course nothing got past her gag. She looked over at her bedmate. Lisa was also half-awake, although her eyes were still closed. She wasn't gagged, but her arms were held over her head to the headboard with handcuffs.
She opened her eyes and stared into Maria's face, before tugging uselessly at her bonds.
"What the..." she said, pulling and jerking at the cuffs. Then she saw Cynthia, who had by now stood up again, bag in hand.
"What are you doing?" Lisa asked her, echoing Maria's muffled attempt.
"Shut up girl. I've no time for you," Cynthia replied. She reached out to Maria, who drew back. "Come with me, now!"
Maria shook her head, and pulled at her own bondage. Her hands had been locked behind her with the leather cuffs Cynthia had locked on her earlier, but otherwise she was unbound.
"CAN ANYONE HEAR ME!" Lisa yelled, still trying to get away from the bed.
"Shut up! There's no one here to rescue you, they've gone to the river. Well, most of them," she said with a smile.
Maria was scared, and she wasn't sure what to do. She didn't really want to go with the Woman, but she still needed to keep Cynthia occupied so that she wouldn't find out what Joseph was doing.
"HELP US!" Lisa yelled.
Cynthia reached into the bag and pulled out her riding crop. Lisa's eyes were drawn right to it. Maria swore she heard Lisa's mouth snap shut.
"I see you remember our friend," purred Cynthia. She brought it down swiftly, catching Lisa on the sole of her bare foot.
Lisa stifled a yell, but the tears in her eyes and the expression on her face showed that it took a great deal of effort not to yell out.
"You remembered our little lesson. That's good. Now be a good girl for a little while and shut up, I don't want to waste a good gag on you."
Maria was amazed to see Lisa nod, and wondered just what horrors Cynthia had introduced her too to solicit such obedience. She tried to catch her friend's eye, but Lisa only stared at the crop.
"Good. Now, Maria, either you get off the bed and come with me, or I continue the wonderful lesson I was having with your friend here."
Maria was shocked, then anger flooded her system. Was there nothing this woman wouldn't do? She glanced one more time at Lisa who had turned to look at her with pleading eyes, and slowly got off the bed and stood naked beside it.
Cynthia took a leash from the bag and clipped it once again to Maria's clit chain.
"That should prevent any more rebellious notions on your part," Cynthia said, making Maria wish she hadn't been so stupid as to get the chain in the first place.
Without another word, Cynthia tugged on the leash, forcing Maria to follow her as she went out the door.
Maria managed a last look at Lisa, bound to the head of the bed and too frightened to help anyway.
Cynthia headed for the front door, with Maria hurrying to keep up. She knew that Robert and Peter both left the house shortly after she went to bed, but the Japanese Inspector should still have been around. He was. She caught a glance of him as they passed the door to the living room. He was lying on the floor in a heap, blood on the back of his head.
Maria gasped and almost stopped walking, but a painful tug kept her moving.
Without a backward glance Cynthia took her out into the night.
***
It was about an hour later, as dawns light brightened the eastern sky, that Robert's truck came down the driveway and stopped in front of the house.
Out of the driver's seat jumped Peter Brown who ran quickly into the house.
"Inspector?" he said quietly, not wanting to wake the women he thought were sleeping nearby. He got no answer. "Hello?" he called out, a little louder.
"Peter!" he heard from the bedroom. It didn't sound good to him. He went to the door and knocked.
"Peter, is that you? Please say it is!" he heard Lisa shout.
"It's me," he replied.
"Help me!"
He opened the door and saw Lisa lying nude on the bed, her hands cuffed to the headboard. For once it didn't look like a game.
"I think Cynthia took off with Maria somewhere," Lisa said, "Did you see her anywhere?"
Peter shook his head. "What do you mean, took off?"
"She chained me to the bed and took Maria out of the house, I think I heard her car start. Can you get me free?"
"Sure. Where's Melissa?" he said, pulling a set of his own keys out of his pocket. The cuffs were regulation, he had a key from the set he used to carry as a deputy.
"She hasn't gotten back yet. I don't know what's keeping her. Where's that Japanese guy?"
"Beat's me." He unlocked the cuffs and with a sigh Lisa pulled her arms down and rubbed her wrists.
Although Peter was no stranger to Lisa's naked body, he found it difficult to look at her with all the bright red whip marks she now had. He got up and made for the door.
"I'll go look for him," he said, leaving.
Lisa didn't answer, she slid off the bed and pulled on a shirt to wear, she'd had enough of being naked for a while. She was in too much pain to enjoy it. She left the room in search of a bathroom when she heard Peter call out to her.
"Lisa, I need you!"
His voice came from the living room and when she went in she saw him kneeling beside someone on the floor. She recognized her rescuer of the night before.
Hasumara lay groaning on the floor, one hand on the back of his head.
"He's been hit on the back of the head. He may have a concussion. You had better dial 911," Peter said to her.
"No...no hospital," Hasumara said, his voice rough and obviously pained.
"You need attention, that is a pretty hard blow by the look of it," Peter warned him.
"No hospital. I cannot take the time."
Peter rolled his eyes. "What is it about people and hospitals?" he asked no one.
"What do you mean?" Lisa asked him.
"I've got Rob out in his truck, passed out. He took a bad hit when the dam collapsed, fell in the river. The paramedics wanted to look at him, but he said he was fine. He didn't last the drive out of the valley."
Lisa looked toward the door, then up the stairs. "I'll help you bring him in in just a few minutes, but I have to use the little girls room first."
"Fine. I can help our stubborn friend here get off the floor."
Lisa left and Peter half lifted the smaller man to his feet. Hasumara pushed him away with one hand until he was standing rather unsteadily on his own. Then he nodded, wincing at the movement.
"Hai! I will be good. Thank you my young friend. Where is Maria?" said Hasumara.
"Gone. Lisa said Cynthia took her. Her car isn't outside."
"I suspected so. It was the Booth-Parker woman who hit me. I should have seen it coming." He shook his head and began to walk carefully toward the kitchen.
Peter was torn between helping this man and the one in his truck. He didn't know anything about the Japanese except that he was a Cop, and that for some reason Maria trusted him.
Hasumara noticed his hesitation. "Go tend to your friend, I will be good," he said.
Peter nodded and left the house.
***
Maria lay bound in a very tight hog-tie on the back seat of Cynthia's car. Not only were the cuffs she wore being used, but Cynthia had also used a roll of duct tape to tape Maria up into a cocoon. Only her nose was uncovered, for Cynthia took the time to do a rushed, but thorough job of covering her completely in tape.
Maria was uncomfortable, her skin itched from the pulling of the tape. Because of the gag her mouth was dry which made her thirsty, and her bladder was killing her.
She eventually just went where she lay, taking comfort in the thought of pissing all over Cynthia's back seat, but then grew frightened at what Cynthia would do to her when she found out.
She had no idea how long they had been traveling, and would have been surprised if she had been told that it had only been an hour.
Cynthia wasn't going to tell her anything however. She knew that she would never be able to get Maria on a plane back to New York, so she decided to drive. She suspected that Joseph was up to something, and keeping his love slut seemed to her to be good insurance.
She glanced in the mirror at the silver lump in the back seat and wrinkled her nose. Just another reason to hate you, she thought.
***
Hasumara was standing at the kitchen sink when Peter and Lisa entered the room. Both looked tired although Lisa had taken the time to pull more clothes on. Despite the pain in his own head, the Inspector noticed how carefully she moved around.
"We put him in Maria's room," Peter said, wondering if there was any coffee to be had. He was beat. He had been up for a day and a half himself.
Lisa went over to Hasumara and examined the back of his head. The Japanese had been dunking it in the sink, it was full of cold water, and had succeeded in washing away most of the blood. The cut that Lisa saw was small.
"You look better," she said to him.
"I am," he replied without moving.
"Take these," she said, holding out a hand on which were a couple of pills. Hasumara looked hesitant. "It's just aspirin. Your head must hurt," she said.
Hasumara gave a slight bow and took the pills, dry swallowing them. Giving up on coffee, Peter had dug a Pepsi out of the fridge and collapsed in a chair.
"You need to rest," Lisa said.
"I can't, we have to find Maria," Peter replied, rolling the cold can across his forehead before opening it.
"They could be anywhere!"
"Doing anything!" Peter replied, hoping that Lisa got the implication. She did.
"Shit!" she said, sitting down.
"Where will the Booth-Parker woman take her?" Hasumara asked.
The others shook their heads. "We don't know that much about her," Peter added, "but then we don't know much about you either."
"That's true," Lisa said, looking at Hasumara as if for the first time.
"Why are you here?" Peter asked him.
"Perhaps there will be time to explain once we have rescued Maria," Hasumara hedged.
Peter stared at him for the moment, then nodded. "He's right. Maria first."
"I'd like to know," Lisa protested.
"It will have to wait. I had better call the Sheriff and ask him to put out an APB on Cynthia's car. With luck they will spot her and pick her up for us."
"No," said Hasumara firmly.
The others turned to look at him.
"We cannot involve your police, when there may be another way."
"What way. Do you realize what that bitch might be doing to Maria right now?" Lisa said angrily.
"I do not believe she is doing anything, except running. I have met her kind before. They prefer their own land, familiar surroundings. She has been ill at ease since she out here, I know, I have seen. She will be heading to what is familiar to her."
"You mean she's going home?" Lisa asked.
"Oh boy," Peter said, putting his head in his hands.
"We need to call Maria's...Dominant...to ascertain the woman's destination," Hasumara said.
"Yes," Lisa agreed, rather glumly. "We need to tell him what has been going on anyway, but none of us has his number, unless it's among their stuff."
They heard the front door open, and for a second Lisa thought it might be Cynthia with Maria in tow.
It was Melissa.
"Don't ask me about my trip!" she said coming into the kitchen. "I never want to drive in the rain again!"
She made it to the fridge and frowned when she saw that the last can of pop was gone. She grabbed some juice instead.
"What the hell is the mess outside, it looks like someone painted mud all over everything." She turned and was surprised to see three dispirited faces, one of whom she didn't recognize.
"And you are?" she asked, her eyes narrowing.
Without his jacket, Hasumara had no ID on him, so he merely bowed and said who he was. Melissa looked at the others who nodded in confirmation.
That prompted Melissa's second obvious question. "Where IS Maria?" With a sigh, Lisa began to explain all they knew about what had happened since she had left.
***
"Well," Melissa said after hearing the story of the flood, Maria's escape from drowning, Lisa's whipping (at that point in the story, Melissa took Lisa aside and the men watched the women take a moment to really make sure Lisa was okay), Robert's near drowning due to his Herculean effort to bring the mud slide dam down, and Maria's subsequent kidnapping, "Now what?"
"I still say we should call the police in," Peter said.
"I do not believe that to be wise. It might even turn out to be useless," said Hasumara.
"How do you figure that?"
"I have observed Maria following the orders of the Booth-Parker woman ever since she came here. It is possible that she is STILL following orders. If the police stop them and Maria does not try to get away from the woman, than we will have wasted a needed resource."
"But we could easily drum something up for the police to hold them on. Hell, I can talk to the Sheriff and he'll be glad to help out," Peter insisted.
"No!" said both the women. "We'd rather keep the Sheriff out of it," Melissa went on. She and Lisa were anxious to keep the Sheriff as far away as possible for there were too many skeletons in their closets for comfort.
Peter stared at them open mouthed.
"I would prefer to wait until they have gone to ground before calling in your police."
"Fine, fine...but we still don't know where she's being taken."
"Joseph would know," Melissa said.
"Yeah, but we don't have his number," Lisa added.
"I do. He gave it to me on the drive out to the city."
Peter looked up, a smile flickering on his weary features. "Give it to me, I'll call him."
Melissa stood up and got her purse, digging inside for the number. She pulled out a scrap of paper and handed it to Peter who left the room in search of a phone.
"There is one thing I still don't understand," Melissa said, looking directly at Hasumara, "What are YOU doing here?"
***
You are aware of what transpired a month ago in the Caribbean? (Hasumara said) Good. Then you are aware that the one called Hiro Atamo escaped being caught by the local police. Due to the seriousness of the charges against him being brought by the American justice department, he is now a wanted man all over the world. But his wealth allows him certain privileges that would be unobtainable by others in his position. There are many places a wealthy man can hide from the law, and we think we know where he is hiding now, but we need proof. My country has been investigating Hiro Atamo for sometime now due to stories about the way he treats women. A small task force, of which I am a part has been slowly putting together a case against him for sexual abuse and unlawful restraint. But, we have had to move carefully. You don't accuse a man of Atamo's stature without considerable proof. He can easily hire the best lawyers to crush any kind of case except a solid one. So, we have just been able to watch and wait.
Until now.
Atamo is a man driven by possession. An obsession that seems to propelled him into taking more risks with more serious crimes. His women, those who go to him voluntarily, number close to a hundred, yet his obsession now has him taking women as he pleases.
We felt, after hearing about the escape of the three Americans, that Atamo would not stand by for long enduring the humiliation of this failure to control, what he thinks of as his property. There was a good possibility in our minds that he would make some attempt to retrieve these women and bring them back under his influence. If he does try, his agents might then lead us to Atamo himself, allowing us a chance to capture him and bring him to trial.
Unfortunately, your FBI feels differently. We asked them to place all three women in protective custody until Atamo was caught. But they told us it was unnecessary. They had no objections, however, to our coming over and conducting surveillance, as long as we did it unarmed. They said we could call on them in the event something DID happen.
***
Hasumara was looking at the floor, and the women could see that Atamo wasn't the only one bothered by failure at the moment.
"It was my duty to watch and protect Maria, but instead I let my wits dull and loose her."
"That was hardly your fault," Lisa said, "You were on the look out for Atamo, not a crazed woman."
"No. My duty was to protect her. It does not matter who bested me."
"Is that why you want to keep the police out of it?" Melissa asked him.
Hasumara looked up. "Maria's safety comes before honor," he said stiffly.
Peter came back into the kitchen. "I got her address, she has a couple of places. A brownstone in Manhattan and a house on Long Island. Joseph thought the house was the better option."
"How did he take it?" Lisa asked.
"He...er...well, he said it wasn't out of character for Cynthia to do something like this. He said to wait and hopefully he can talk Cynthia into giving Maria up on her own."
"I wouldn't trust her to do that," Lisa said angrily. Melissa put her hand on top of the other woman's to calm her down.
"I feel we must move as soon as they arrive at their destination, but we will wait for now and give Booth the chance to fix things without violence," Hasumara said quietly.
The others nodded slowly in reluctant agreement.
End of Part 12
Copyright (c) by Leviticus 1999