CHAPTER 4
“Calling Hummingbird. Calling Hummingbird. This is Car 4 calling, Sky. Over.”
Deputy Amy Cole let her thumb come off the microphone button to wait for a reply. She was aware of the three men watching her as she stood at the open door of her patrol car and gave them a quick smile.
The three men were not watching Amy in eager anticipation of their boss’s answer, but were simply enjoying the view of the lovely deputy. The expressions of the two older men indicated blissful reverie; that of the younger man, open but frustrated longing.
Fred Merrill, Sky’s foreman, was in his early forties, tall and husky, with a bit of gray in the hair showing from beneath his wide-brimmed hat. Merrill stood closest to the patrol car; feet planted rather wide and arms folded across his chest. His eyes were pleasantly dreamy and the smile on his face was not quite enough to show any teeth.
The other men stood back near the wire fence where their horses were tethered. Joe Bailey was nearing sixty, medium height, whippet thin, with close-cropped gray hair. He raised a callused hand to pull the brim of his straw hat lower over his eyes as he watched Amy. If he was smiling, it was inwardly, but in a man made hard by years of hard work in the open, the softness in his eyes was apparent.
Amy shifted a bit as she waited, putting a foot up on the rocker panel under the open door of the car. The resulting slight twist of her body shifted her breasts against the fabric of her khaki uniform shirt. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the youngest man elbow the oldest. She pretended not to notice.
The youngest man was not yet out of his teens. Wade Norman had been a star halfback on the county high school football team, as was obvious from his short, muscular build. Unlike the other men, he wore a Kansas City Athletics baseball cap over his crewcut, indicating that he was a temporary ranch hand. When Bailey did not respond to the elbow and the leer he gave, Wade looked back at the deputy. Though obviously smitten by the vision, a twenty-five year old beauty was far beyond the reach of an eighteen-year-old. When the leering smile faded, it was replaced by hopeless longing.
“Calling Car 4. Car 4, this is Sky, Amy. Over.”
The sound of the voice on the radio jolted the men from their reverie.
“I found Merrill and your men, Sky,” Amy announced. “They say they haven’t seen Copper all morning. Over”
“I’m a bit worried, Amy. Would you mind stopping by the house and checking on things there? Over.”
“No trouble at all, Sky. I’ll let you know what I find out. Over.”
“Check back with Fred when you leave. Tell him that if he hasn’t heard from you by noon, I want them to head for the house with their rifles ready. Over.”
Amy looked at Merrill.
“Get that, Fred?”
Merrill now smiled enough to show his teeth.
“It’d be pleasure, Deputy.”
Amy smiled back. She raised the microphone again.
“We understand, Sky. Car 4, out.”
She slid back into the cruiser’s seat and closed the door. Merrill took a few steps toward the car.
“If you run into any trouble, we’ll be glad to help out.”
Amy rested her arm on the edge of the open window.
“Thanks, but I doubt there’ll be any trouble.”
She started the car and pulled out onto the road. The three men watched her until she was almost out of sight.
It was no use struggling with the ropes. There was just no slack or give. Copper was just taking another look around the room, hoping to find something to help free herself, when Starr Bell reappeared.
“All right, Kid,” the outlaw announced. “It’s your turn. On your feet.”
Taking her by one arm, though her arms were tightly bound against her back and sides, Starr pulled Copper to her feet and gave the younger woman a loud but good-natured slap on her rear end. The sound of the blow startled Copper more than the mild force.
“Come on, Honey. You know the drill.”
With a short glare at her captor, Copper awkwardly hopped toward the hallway. Starr continued to support her, holding her on one side.
“You’re doin’ fine, Kid. Just keep goin’.”
Inside Sky’s bedroom, Copper found Summer kneeling on one side of the bed, facing its long axis and the doorway. The girl noticed that Starr had added a double strand of rope from the lines about Summer’s waist down through her panty-covered crotch. Copper was helped to the opposite side of the mattress and allowed to sit and rest for a moment.
“Now,” said the fugitive with a smirk, “I want you on your knees and facing her. Move.”
She raised the girl’s legs to the surface of the bed and helped push and pull her to a kneeling position. Aided by one more whack on Copper’s thinly covered backside, she maneuvered her to face Summer. She then reached behind Summer and gave her a light swat on her bottom.
“Let’s get real close together, you two,” she said in a soft, mockingly husky voice. “Get your boobs right up against each other.”
Anxious to avoid any more spanks, painless though they were, the two women pressed against one another. Starr had several more long ropes laid out and ready, as well as two of Sky’s large, brightly colored bandanas. She loosely wrapped one of the ropes five or six times around her two captives’ waists, tied a tight knot on one side, then ran the rest between the two women and around the loops. The resulting seize took all the slack out of the loops and pressed the two even closer together. Both grunted into their gags as Starr tied the final knot.
“Nice and close, aren’t ya?” Starr mocked with a leer. “Well, you two ain’t even begun t’ get close yet.”
Another rope went around the captives’ thighs just above their knees, was looped several times and cinched just as the other had been. A third wrap was made just below their shoulders, pressing their upper torsos together, though this loop could not be cinched as the other two were.
“What a coosome twosome!” cried a gleeful Starr, as she strolled to the foot of the bed and ogled her two prisoners.
So closely and tightly tied were they, that Summer and Copper had difficulty in turning their heads to watch her.
“Aw, how cute!” continued Starr. “Cheek-to-cheek and boob-to-boob. And just to make sure that you can’t get into any mischief…”
Starr returned to the head of the bed and knelt beside her prisoners. She pulled them over and lowered them to the mattress. Now they were lying on their sides, still face-to-face.
“Now don’t be impatient, girls,” she whispered. “Just a few more touches.”
Taking a fairly short cord, she looped it around Copper’s ankle bonds and pulled on the free ends, forcing the girl’s legs to bend back until her feet were within a foot or so of her bound wrists. Starr tied the ends to the loops around Copper’s body, leaving the girl hogtied and immobile. She did the same to Summer, then leaned over the two women, stroking their shoulders, sides, and hips as she leered at them.
“It’s just too bad that I can’t stay here and play with the two of you right now,” she breathed. “But I wouldn’t dream of spoiling any fun ya wanna to have with each other.”
She tweaked a nipple of both women. Her voice dropped to a purr.
“ ‘Cause I can see you both love it.”
She stood up and raised her index finger.
“Just one more detail.”
She took the bandanas from Sky’s dresser and folded them into bands. When they were ready, she used them to blindfold both women.
“You’ll have a better time like this,” she explained as she worked. “If you two can’t see how much you’re enjoyin’ it, you’ll have even more fun.”
Summer mewed indignantly into her gag.
Starr continued to stroke both women.
“I told you two that bein’ tied up was the worst that was gonna happen to ya. What I didn’t tell ya was that bein’ tied up was also the best thing that was gonna happen, too. I’d just love to be in one of your places.”
She stood up. They heard her walk to the door.
“And while I’m havin’ somethin’ to eat, you can think about who I’m gonna have fun with first. Ta-ta.”
The door closed and Copper Ryder pondered her plight. She was sightless, mute, and inescapably bound, her nearly nude body bound against the equally helpless, naked, and voluptuous body of a beautiful woman. The situation was hopeless.
And terribly exciting.
The Flying Coronet ranch house was easy to see from quite a distance in either direction from the county road that ran past it, and Deputy Amy Cole was approaching it at an unhurried pace. The roomy one story house, garage, barn, corral with saddle horses, storage shed, and, of course, the hangar for the Hummingbird were all easily identifiable. What puzzled Deputy Cole was the station wagon parked near the front gate. She slowed a bit as she neared the house.
The car was not one of Sky’s. Though he also had a station wagon, this one did not have the Flying Coronet logo on the front doors of both sides. She noted the license plate number and tried to check the garage as she passed, but the doors were closed. There was no activity anywhere aside from the movement of the unattended horses in the corral.
Amy decided not to stop and approach the house directly. She accelerated as she passed the house, and reached for her radio microphone.
“Sheriff’s Car 4 calling Hummingbird. Car 4 calling Hummingbird. Are you there, Sky?”
The response was almost immediate.
“I’m here, Amy. What’s going on at the ranch? Over.”
“I can’t tell, Sky. Everything’s quiet right now. It looks like Copper’s got company. You may know who it is.”
She picked up the clipboard where she had written the license number and read it to Sky, giving him a brief description of the car.
“Why that’s Summer Smith’s car,” said Sky, genuinely puzzled. “She was headed for Kermit to get some parts for one of her waterline pumps. She couldn’t have made it to town and back so quickly. I wonder what happened.”
Amy Cole thought for a moment.
“Maybe she had car trouble and decided to head back for your place,” she suggested. “I think I’ll stop by and see. Over.”
“You’d better be careful, Amy,” warned Sky. “It may be nothing serious, but under the circumstances it’s better to be cautious. I’ll wait to hear from you. Over.”
“I’ll check it out and let you know, Sky. Car 4 out.”
Deputy Cole made a U-turn and headed back toward the ranch. A half-mile or so from the front gate a number of fair sized trees lined the road. They would provide perfect cover for her patrol car, so she pulled off onto the shoulder and stopped the engine. Before getting out to approach the ranch on foot, she drew out her service revolver and made sure it was loaded.
Starr Bell munched alternately on a ham sandwich and an apple as she stood at the kitchen counter. She had seen the Sheriff’s patrol car slow as it neared the ranch house then accelerate after passing. The incident had made her wary enough to keep her from opening one of the bottles of beer she had seen in the refrigerator. There were two windows in the kitchen: one above the sink on the front wall facing the gate and the road, and the other on the side wall ninety degrees from the other. Since there were no ranch buildings in the way, this window gave a good view of the road in the direction the Sheriff’s car had gone. As Starr chewed on the apple, she drew Summer’s pistol from her belt and placed it on the table nearby.
She saw movement in the trees a few hundred yards away. A figure in a khaki uniform was approaching; darting from tree to bush to fence pole, using whatever cover was available the stealthy visitor came nearer.
“Well, waddaya know,” Starr said to herself. “We got company.”
She looked closely at the small, slender figure. She began to smile.
“A lady cop. This’ll be fun.”
Taking a last bite of apple, she picked up the pistol and slipped out the front door.
Copper Ryder stopped struggling for a moment to catch her breath. In her sightless, wordless, and immobile world, her senses were reduced mainly to feeling. And she could certainly feel a good deal: the constriction of the ropes binding her, the pull of various lines and seizes whenever she or Summer tried to move, and the warm, soft flesh of her fellow captive.
Especially noticeable was the sensation of Summer’s hardened nipples against the skin above Copper’s own breasts (Copper wondered how her nipples felt to Summer) and the peculiar and exciting way Summer was pressing against her pubic bone. It had been more than three years since Henry Smith had died. What had Summer been doing all that time?
Then there were the little groans, grunts, and mewing sounds as they struggled. Many of them were probably just from the effort and discomfort of trying to free herself, but they also might have been some form of attempted communication. But what was she trying to communicate? Some plan of concerted action? Sensual excitement?
Suddenly there was a louder groan from Summer and she arched herself hard at the younger woman’s body. Copper could feel her neighbor’s tape covered mouth press against her own. The girl excitedly strained closer. This was nothing like the clumsy groping Copper had experienced at the hands of local boys.
Summer was now thrusting her pelvis against Copper. Did that rope Starr had added between the rancher’s legs have something to do with it? The girl wondered why Starr had not done the same to her.
The two women pressed closer to each other.
Her revolver drawn, Amy Cole flattened herself against the back wall of the ranch house. With a quick glance in both directions, she slid along the wall to one of the windows. She knew it would be a bedroom window, but she had no idea which one. Cautiously, she peeked in. It was a neat, well-kept, empty, and obviously feminine room: Copper’s. Checking in both directions again, the deputy moved to the next one. This one was an empty guest bedroom. The third window was to the laundry/utility room. What she saw at the fourth stopped the young deputy cold.
Two women lay upon a bed. They were nearly naked and tied together. Amy knew now why Copper had not answered the radio. Before she could male a move to act, something hard was pushed into her lower back.
“Ya know what this is, don’tcha, Deputy?”
Amy nodded slowly. Her revolver was taken from her.
“Put your hands on your head,” the voice continued.
Amy did as she had been ordered.
“All right, I’m doing it,” Amy said carefully. “But you know that there are a lot of people out looking for you. It'd be better if you just—“
“Save it, Deputy!” the woman snarled.
Amy felt her handcuffs being removed from the case on the left side of her belt.
“You just do everything I tell ya, Deputy, and ya might live to have grandchildren.”
Amy, her fingers laced together on top of her head, nodded.
One cuff was snapped over her left wrist and her arm was pulled down behind her back. After the cuff was tightened, her captor transferred the gun to her left hand, which was also holding Amy’s cuffed wrist. Amy’s right wrist was grabbed and brought down to join her left, and also cuffed. A hand on her shoulder spun the deputy around. There was no mistaking Starr Bell.
“Well, well,” drawled Starr with a sardonic smile as she regarded Amy. “What a cute little deputy! I’ll bet you can really keep the local boys in line. But I wonder what you like to use more. This?”
She patted Amy’s revolver, now safely in her belt.
“Or these?”
She grabbed Amy’s left breast with her right hand and squeezed. The deputy’s knees buckled. Starr laughed.
Amy ignored the insult.
“What’ve you done to them?” she asked, gesturing with her head toward the window.
“Looks like fun, don’t it?” Starr said gleefully. “Well, don’t you worry. We’ll go right inside and join ‘em. ‘Course it’s a lot harder to arrange for three to have as much fun as those two are. But I’ll try to do somethin’ real special for ya, Deputy. I’ve never had a lady cop t’ play with. Now move.”
Starr gave Amy a shove toward the front door.
Chapter Five