Right.
Which left me only one last bit of hard evidence to cover. I had to be thorough. The camera footage. I connected the camera and started it going. There was only half an hour or so with Jodie in it. The rest was Leon and Melissa having sex, and Melissa dying while he slept. Fuck. When it was done, I swore a while and sat trying to get that out of my head. That was goddamn-awful. It hadn’t been fast. You didn’t strangle fast. But the other footage, of Jodie and Steph…I stared out the window at the cloud-swept sky. I needed to do something about that.
She’d fucked us over royally. Not strictly a lie, perhaps, but she’d evaded the truth and I’d not an inkling of that until now. I’d been clueless. Not good.
She’d just torn our trust to shreds. No use repeating what we’d done before. I needed to try something new, maybe something a tad more startling. More vicious. My balls tightened.
Jodie returned from her jog and I made her sit on the lounge, all sweaty in her shorts and t-shirt, then I went down to the room to retrieve our toy.
I looked about the room. Staying down here had been rare during the week. Jodie and I got along fine; it was only Klaus who scared me. Jodie was possessive and ever so kinky, but I knew her, and in some odd way, I trusted her. Her man however, every so often his eyes filled up with
mean
and he reminded me of a wild animal about to bite. I’d figured out that it happened when he wanted to cause someone pain. Thank God that was Jodie, nine times out of ten. She liked it. They suited each other to a
t
. Me, I doubted I’d ever be comfortable around Klaus. Not after what I’d seen him do to her. Not after what he’d done to me when he lost his temper in the bedroom.
How did you ever trust a man who liked hurting women?
I sucked in a breath and looked about again. Door. Blinking camera. Window.
I was dreaming if I thought I could be safe here with him. Jodie caved if he crooked his little finger. But, I had ideas. From the moment they’d mentioned doing research for others my brain cells had swarmed around in my head muttering an idea to me.
I climbed to my feet and went to the small head-height window. Darkest tint ever. Thick glass with a security screen screwed onto the inside. A louvered metal shutter on the outside that slanted upward from the outside and from the glimpses of plants this window must be just above ground level. I hadn’t a hope of getting out through that unless I smuggled in a fucking crowbar or a rocket launcher. As if.
But if someone went past and if I scratched or tapped on the screen, I could make a loud noise, and then…then I needed a way to show there was
me
trapped inside this room. Even if they had their head down this low all they’d see would be the ceiling in here, and a blurry view of it too. How could I show I was here?
My first idea resurfaced. I couldn’t fire off an email. The PC I had to use for research only received copies via USB of articles that Jodie found on websites. No internet connection. My job was to read through tons of those and distill out the info and links so that another person could use it in their book or whatever. But I also had access to flash drives so Jodie could take the data back to her internet-linked PC.
If I could put the story of my kidnapping on a document and transfer it to a flash drive, I then had something easily hidden. Get that into a stranger’s hands and someone else would know where I was, as long as they read it.
Flash drives were so craptastically tiny they often got lost at the back of drawers. I’d already stolen one and hidden it near the PC I used. I’d get another if I could. It might be safer to store it in here on the window shelf. There was only one dim light at night. I could do it then. Perhaps I could get the window open? What were the chances someone would find the flash drive if I pushed it through a gap to the outside? One in a trillion?
But surely Jodie and Klaus had visitors? They had to. Had to. And what visitors would read a random flash drive? None. I’d need to label it with something like,
please read this as its got stuff on it about a kidnapped woman
. And that would be
so
well received if Klaus or Jodie found it.
Things were settling into place here. With Jodie being, in a way, a barrier between me and Klaus, I could just take my time and eventually, they’d either let me go, or I’d escape, or I’d let
someone
know that I was here.
I went back to the mattress, sat, and chewed off a few fingernails.
It was nice having a plan, made me less a victim, and more like me instead of their…toy. Though sometimes being that made me feel, I swallowed and stared into space, strangely good.
Sex had that effect though, didn’t it? Orgasms did. Especially, maybe, ones like these. Klaus fucking me while Jodie went down on me…
Shiver.
I needed to get that in the real world. Earth-shaking orgasms. Only minus the abduction, caning and general all-round sadism. Minus the fire in Klaus’s eyes that made me want to hug the ground or hide in a corner where he couldn’t find me, ever.
Not that I had much experience with good sex. Most of my boyfriends, even the ones who said they loved me, had turned out to be shitheads looking for a lay and not a relationship. Either I had poor taste, or my shithead detector needed fixing, or both.
The door made the clicking sound that meant it was being unlocked. It swung open and Klaus entered. No matter how many kindnesses he did me, no matter how normal he seemed, I could never seem to forget how, in Leon’s garage, he’d casually stepped up and assaulted me then tied me up like it was something he did every day while out for a stroll.
Wariness and a smidge of fear surfaced whenever he arrived. I was used to being on edge.
My eyes seemed glued open.
This time, something about his silent step, from door to me, hypnotized me and conjured up some nameless dread. No sound except the brush of the cloth of his pants as he came closer and his soft breathing. No words. I shuffled backward on the mattress, just a few inches, afraid to move too fast in case it attracted retaliation. The black leather leash swung from his hand.
“Come.” He opened the clasp at the end then beckoned.
There was nowhere to go. He seemed calm. Whereas I was frantic, cowering in my mind, as if a monster waited before me, the brittle bones of victims snapping under his feet, and I was his next meal.
Christ. I had to stop watching horror movies. Sleeping at the bottom of their bed hadn’t been the best for getting a great night’s rest.
I crawled forward and let him leash me and lead me upstairs with my hands clipped together at my front. Nothing unusual in any of this. Standard procedure 101 for my kidnappers. In the living room, Jodie waited in a cute pair of black running shorts and clingy blue t-shirt. When he made me sit in front of her in the spot usually occupied by the square coffee table, she smiled.
In her company my heart rate descended from that blackthinglurkingunderthestairs level to watchingchickflicks-with-my-girlfriend level.
Everything was brilliant. Until he started the recording and I found myself watching a home video featuring myself and Leon and Jodie. I hadn’t known ears could actually ring but they did as the room grew hollow and distant and the TV screen seemed both a million miles away in another universe and yet also right there, in my head, in my past, when I did something to Jodie while she was unconscious. It sickened me to know that she too was watching.
Behind me, they spoke.
“This is from the camera in Leon’s bedroom. You don’t have to watch if you don’t want to.”
“What’s on it?”
“Bad things. But if you watch, remember, this is done. Over with. The past.”
“Okay. It won’t bother me.”
I thought I’d lost this, forgotten it, buried it, but that bastard Klaus had dug it up like an undertaker resurrecting a corpse. There was Leon urging me on, and Jodie, half asleep it seemed, and I knew what I was going to do next. I hated myself in that moment. I looked so bright and happy but I knew how stupid with drugs I’d been inside my head. How stupid, full stop.
What had I told them I’d done? Helped hold her down? I should have said it all, even if they didn’t ask me. I couldn’t turn around and look at her. Because maybe if I didn’t this would be all imaginary and she wouldn’t be there.
“What?” I heard, and it was her voice, incredulous and already angry.
Oh no. Please no. Why was he letting her see? I bit my lip, staring down at my toes.
Fingers clawed into my hair, dragging my head back at an angle, and Klaus said in a harsh whisper, “I hope you’re watching this. Because this is the start of your lesson.”
She’d told us she’d helped Leon hold me down. I was sure that was all. Yet there she was on-screen, giggling, biting me, tonguing, and going down on me. I was completely out of it and unaware. So odd seeing myself like that. I wasn’t sure what I felt. Numb…betrayed…sick.
Klaus paused the playback then clicked off the TV. He sat back and hugged me to his side, kissed above my ear, and smoothed my hair.
This was where it all began. With their drug-taking and the deaths and their little orgy, none of which I’d willingly taken part in. So stupid. So awful. I didn’t really know either Leon or Melissa, but they’d died. They’d fucking
died
. I rocked the base of my palm against my forehead. How could you ever understand that? I could recall her laughter, her smile. The sunshine at the jetty…
She must have known what they were going to do. Melissa must have known.
How could Steph have participated in that?
“You okay?”
I nodded, glancing down at Steph who seemed to have discovered something fascinating on the floor. She didn’t want to face me. Well, right now, I didn’t want to face her.
“It’s not that bad…” I started. It was and it wasn’t. Why was I so knotted up? If this had been a stranger it would have been simpler to brush off. But Steph had become my lover during these past few days. We had that rapport Klaus aimed for, only it had come naturally. I’d not have hurt her emotionally for a million dollars.
“Why didn’t you tell me? Steph?”
She shook her head. “I’m sorry. I was scared and it seemed easier at the time. People had
died
. We were all upset. Would you have told me? If that was you?” She peeked back at me then looked away again.
“I’d never have done that to you.” Anger flared. “Not while you were damn unconscious!”
“It was the drug,” she said quietly. “I swear.”
She hadn’t looked drugged. Did people take it just to get high? Why wasn’t she knocked out like I was? I shook my head. “I don’t know if I believe you.”
“You’ve done worse to me while Klaus held me down.” Her clogged voice told me she struggled not to cry and I also found myself tearing up.
Damn her. “And you didn’t enjoy that? You didn’t sit there in his lap moaning and carrying on? You didn’t want what I did, deep down inside you? If you’d screamed, I would have stopped. And that, girl, is the dead set truth. Which is more than you gave me.”
Klaus rested his hand on my thigh, squeezed. “Stay there. I’ll be back. I’ll put her in the room.”
“Okay.” I rested my forehead in my palm. “Okay.” I needed time to think. I’d lost track of where Steph and I connected. If we did at all anymore, it was so in danger of snapping. I half wanted to slap her. “You do that.”
She went quietly.
When he came back upstairs, he kissed me and made me lie down on the couch with him then he caressed my side and breathed with me in the way he knew calmed me. His warm body against mine was as good as being in a boat rocking on a warm sea.
“You’re too good to me,” I murmured.
“Hmm. You deserve it.”
“What are we going to do? I think I was growing to love her, almost? Was I stupid?” I frowned.
“No. Never. Never stupid.” He stroked me some more, and his fingers rested on my hip, tightening as he went on. “I’m going to punish her. You said she couldn’t lie but now I don’t know. Even if you get close again, love alone isn’t enough. Jodie, before I can trust her, I need her bonded to me.
“I’m going to punish her, and you are not going near her again until I say so.”
Oh my. I rolled over and turned to him, finding him studying me with those gray-green eyes. After a moment, I dared to ask a question. “You will be careful?” I realized I feared for Stephanie, because she wasn’t me. “I mean…what she did to me, it really
hurt
, but I do still care for her.”
“I guessed you would. And I will be.” He kissed me. “However, I need to break her to my will. I’m done with pussy-footing around.”
His face held that feral hardness. When it occurred while he was beating me, my breath caught in my throat. All stiff lines, all ungiving. Yes, he’d bleed if you cut him but he’d cut you back, deeper, and watch every drop of blood as it dripped to the floor.
“You understand?” Gently he cleared some strands of hair from my face, drawing his fingers down my jawline.
“Break is a violent word.”
“It is. I’ll only do what I have to, you know that. I’m an accountant. I measure everything, including the pain I give. I will do whatever I have to.” In his eyes, and in the quiet pause he gave me, dwelled a question.
Whatever?
But he was actually asking me, even if the alternative was unclear. I inhaled and held it a moment, thinking, then exhaled. The room focused in, sharp. “Okay. Just remember to let me in too, after. Because, fuck her, I care.” With my forefinger, I touched his lips. “I know you, Sir. Be good.”
There was a restrained satisfaction in his returning smile.
“Is she…is she your new playground?” I watched his face for shifts of mood but he gave me nothing. “Sir?”
“Yes, she is, and when I say, you’re going to help me play.”
His
whatever
could mean so many things. Funny. This excited me. I knew the journey she was about to make because I’d been there. Klaus could be one evil bastard.
“Good.” I nodded. “I like that idea.”