"Well, hello, ladies." Four pairs of eyes bulged over gagged mouths, as Roz, Lauren, Rachel, and Linda saw David Fong enter the room. His face was not dirty, there were no bruises. A bandage on his forehead was the only evidence of any of the "abuse" that had been seen on the video.
"David, your timing is impeccable." With no hint of embarrassment, Antonia got up off the back of David's wife, and tossed her hair back behind her shoulders. "Michelle just finished the inventory."
"Nice stuff," Michelle nodded.
Even without the gag, Linda would have been speechless. What the hell kind of a scam had David and these damn women cooked up? If he thought that everyone was now just going to be untied, and have a good laugh about putting one over on the insurance company, then he could just-
"You OK, Roz?"
Linda's analysis of the situation suddenly broke off, and she realized that she was dangerously wrong about what was going on. Instead of having Antonia free the captives, David had walked to the chair where Roz was bound, and had removed her gag.
"Yeah, David, though I'm damn stiff and sore." He untied her wrists, and bent down to undo her ankles as Roz chafed her wrists.
"The girls weren't too hard on you, were they?"
"No, I guess they had to make it look good. Actually, Linda did a lot of it."
It was the first time anyone had acknowledged that David's wife was in the room, a bound and gagged captive. He strode over to where she lay on the carpet. "Really?" He bent down close to her face. "Wow, a hidden talent. Too bad we never had a chance to explore your 'kinkier' side," his face darkened, "but then, you really never did like to try exploring much of anything, did you?" Strangled, slobbering sounds escaped from under Linda's gag. David cocked an ear in mock attention, then passed his fingers over the ball protruding from his wife's mouth, smiled, and stood up again.
"Here she is, David." David went to join Roz, who was standing over the naked form of Rachel Edison, who looked fearfully up at her two employees.
"Well, hi, 'Boss'." laughed David. "Stiff anyone for a promotion today? Or, should I say, did somebody slip you something stiff so THEY could get a promotion? A promotion that someone ELSE should have had?" Rachel let her head fall back against the side of the table, moaning into her gag, when she felt David seize a fistful of her hair, and yank her head back up. He was holding her face in front of Roz'.
"You goddamned BITCH!" Roz was making up for having been gagged all afternoon. She spat in Rachel's face.
"What's she chewing on?"
"Her panties," Antonia answered David. "That was your wife's idea, too. She's actually pretty good at this sort of thing." Antonia bent down to Linda, who writhed furiously and uselessly on the floor. She took Linda's face in her hands. "Linda, Linda. You're a smart girl. Didn't you see that there was more to this than just a jewel robbery?" Linda stared wildly over her gag. "When David came to me with the idea, I was undecided. We knew we could get Rachel to fall for it, and let her think that inviting me was her own idea, but I still didn't know if I wanted to do it. And, then, I saw you." She sighed. "I saw the proud way you carried yourself, and I knew I had to have you." Her voice grew harder. "From that first moment, I wanted to break you, to humiliate you. I could see that you were a strong enough woman to recover after that, so that I could do it again and again. And I will," she concluded, giving Linda a kiss on the forehead. "So, David, are we about ready?"
While Antonia spoke to Linda, Roz and David had been untying Rachel from the table. Roz worked cautiously, but there was no fight left in the beautiful redhead. Still gagged with her own bra and panties, Rachel offered no resistance as Roz pulled her wrists behind her, and tied them with cord from Antonia's bag.
"Gimme some of that. A long piece." Antonia handed David a length of cord, and he smiled at Rachel. For a moment, he just looked at her, savoring the miserable whimpers coming from behind her gag. When he snugged the first loop of the cord under her breasts, Rachel gasped into her gag. Tying it twice around her body, David ran the next loops above, pulling it tightly enough to bite into her soft skin. More cord was looped around and between her breasts, causing them to swell beyond their already-impressive dimensions. He paused, then, and smiled into her eyes, as if to say, "And we all know what comes next." David took a pen from his pocket, opened the clip wide, and clamped it down over Rachel's left breast. Rachel nearly swallowed her panties as she gasped. It took several seconds before she had enough breath to begin screaming into her gag; in that time, David had found a paper clip in his pocket, and applied it to her other breast. Now, Rachel's muffled screams became a prolonged, gurgling wail.
"Hang on to her, Roz. I got one more little treat for the 'Boss'." Reaching once more into his pocket, David held an object up to Rachel's face.
"I bought this special for you," he said, as he dangled a dog collar in front of the captive's tear-filled eyes. Now, Rachel seemed to find some last reserve of strength, and began to fight to keep the collar from going around her neck. Roz, though, had no trouble holding her still from behind, and David slid the clammy leather around Rachel's neck, pulling the buckle around to the front, and fastening it.
"Your turn, Roz." David handed Roz a leather leash, and Roz beamed hugely.
"I guess that when you have a BITCH around the house--" Roz clipped the leash to the front of the collar, "she needs to be kept on a leash!" Roz tugged hard at the leash, and Rachel stumbled forward, with no hands to break her fall, and landed painfully on her knees.
"She sure looks good that way," Roz smiled. She patted the top of Rachel's head.
"Keep her still," David said. "I'm not quite done here." Roz threw Rachel to the floor, pulled her legs over her back, and tied the leash around her ankles. Rachel struggled painfully before finding a position that would keep the leash from choking her.
"So, is everyone satisfied with the arrangement? You take the jewels, the insurance company pays me a couple hundred grand. My wife and the blonde are yours to keep, and Roz and I have a new pet to take home."
Michelle had finished repacking the jewels in their cases. She nodded, and Antonia said, "Michelle, why don't you get the car ready? I told David I'd help him with something before we leave." Michelle stashed the jewelry cases in the satchel, and bent down to where Lauren was bound. From the pocket of her track suit, she drew a switchblade, which opened with a nasty "snick", and held it over Lauren.
"NNNNNNGGGGGHHHHHH!" Linda' s attempt to shout "No" nearly dislocated her jaw, and she squirmed desperately in her bonds, trying to come to her friend's aid.
Michelle looked over her shoulder, and laughed at the pathetically flopping Linda.
"Don' worry. Y'friend's not gonna be hurt. Not by me, leastways." Michelle used the knife to saw through the rope binding Lauren's wrists and ankles together. Lauren moaned into her gag as her legs were finally able to straighten themselves again, but after stretching them out on the floor, she made no further effort to resist as Michelle lifted her up and threw her over her shoulder. Lauren's head hung down behind Michelle's back, her long braid nearly brushing the floor. As Michelle went out the door with her prize, Antonia knelt down and smiled at Linda.
"I promise that Michelle will be VERY careful with your friend. You see, she's planning to sell her to some white slavers, and they'll pay top dollar if the 'merchandise' is in prime condition." Tears that Linda didn't dream she still had in her flowed now. She lowered her head to the floor, but Antonia took her chin and pulled her face up.
"You know, while we were planning this caper, we tried real hard to come up with an appropriate way for you and David to say 'goodbye' to each other, one that reflects the relationship you two enjoy." Behind Antonia, Linda could see Roz giggling. "One thing David told me was that, where sex is concerned, you've always been a sort of Little Miss Priss with your mouth; not willing to…um…'give him what he wants' in that area." Linda's exhausted brain didn't grasp what Antonia was saying, at first. The horror sank in when a sound came from behind her: the sound of David unzipping his pants. She twisted her head to look, but Antonia's blond head came into her field of vision, as the thief reached to undo the buckle of Linda's gag. Antonia had to tug hard to pry the gag free, and Linda looked with morbid fascination at the spit-slick rubber ball that came from her mouth.
"There. I bet that feels lots better." Antonia stifled Linda's feeble protests with a kiss. "You know, with a mouth as fine as yours, I don't know how David didn't go nuts when you wouldn't let him use it." Taking Linda's shoulders, Antonia pulled her back up to her knees.
And, now, David was there, standing over her. He still wore his sport shirt, but was naked from the waist down, and already nearly fully erect. Antonia's fingers slid into Linda's hair again, this time firmly grasping the tresses on either side of her head.
"Time for me to play the loving husband one last time, Linda," David gloated over the bound woman kneeling before him. Antonia yanked hard on Linda's hair, and her mouth opened as she gasped in pain. David thrust forward, and filled her mouth.
Linda choked and gagged. Antonia pulled her head back from David's penis, and let her take a breath.
"Oh, God, David, please, please…uummmffff!" Antonia had shoved Linda's mouth back onto David's cock. She changed her grip, holding Linda's hair now with one hand at the back of her head; her other hand gently stroked the front of Linda's throat.
"You'll find this a lot easier if you just relax."
And now, David was inside her again. Not where she had always wanted him, needed him, but it was still David, and as her lips and tongue tasted him, Linda closed her eyes, shutting out the pain from Antonia's grip in her hair. It was all a mad nightmare. This is what David had wanted, all along, and all Linda needed to do was give it to him, and all would be well. None of this would have happened, nothing would matter except that she and David were good again, and together again. As Antonia moved her mouth along David's shaft, Linda did her best to lick and suck, and do the things she had always heard women did with their mouths. She could feel him respond, and opened her eyes to see his face.
It wasn't David's face that she saw. With her nose jammed into her husband's pubic hair, Linda couldn't move her eyes far enough to see her him. She could see Roz, though. The busty brunette was standing just to the side of David, arms folded over her chest, laughing out loud; and her laugh brought Linda's world crashing down for the last time.
It was over. Linda had been in competition for David's love without even knowing it, and she had lost to this grinning harpy. The battle for her husband had raged all around her, and she had remained ignorant. She had been defeated, and was now paying the price, debasing herself for her conqueror's amusement. At that moment, David gave one last, powerful thrust, and came in her mouth.
Linda felt as though someone had blasted a hoseful of warm bleach into her mouth. She gulped, swallowed, did anything she could to keep from choking, and still it kept coming. Semen spewed from her mouth, spattering across David's pubic region and dribbling down her chin. It went on forever. David pumped, screaming at the top of his lungs, drowning out Roz' giggles. She felt Antonia release her hair, and then David's large hands were at the back of her head, flattening her face against him as he shoved his softening cock as far into her mouth as he could.
"Drink it, honey!" He screamed. "Aaahhhh, God! Drink it down!" And drink Linda did, bucking with nausea. Eternity came, and went, and David's pumping finally stopped. He let out a tremendous moan, and his hands slipped from Linda's head. David sank to his knees on the floor, grinning foolishly, and Roz stood over Linda, now.
"How 'bout that, honey? Have a good time with David's cock in your mouth? I know I will-- too damn bad for you that you didn't do it before," she gloated. Through her semen-clogged mouth, Linda tried to curse the woman, but before she could form a coherent word, Antonia had stuffed some cloth into her mouth; one piece, two pieces, three.
"These gauze pads will keep David's taste fresh in your mouth a lot longer than the ballgag would," she observed brightly, as she began winding an elastic bandage between Linda's teeth, and around her head. When she finished, she released Linda's head, and the humiliated woman slumped to the floor.
Now it was quiet. David was half-asleep, his head resting in Roz' lap. Antonia was lost in daydreams of the torments she would inflict on her new toy. It was actually Linda who first saw the back door open, and Michelle stagger in. Blood poured down her face from a gash in her forehead. Linda let out a startled grunt through her gag, but it was the sound of Michelle stumbling into a chair that caught the others' attention.
"What the hell?" Antonia was pulled abruptly from a reverie involving Linda and a black rubber dildo.
"Bitch hit me," moaned Michelle.
"How did she get untied?" For the first time all day, Antonia's voice had lost its air of dry composure.
"I dunno. Guess y'new girlfriend ain't as good with the ropes as y'all seemed t' think." Hard on the heels of Michelle's last words came the sound of police sirens, distant but getting closer.
"Shit!!!" Antonia glared at Michelle, then realized it wasn't her fault, and addressed David over her shoulder. "Now what?"
Instead of David's voice, Antonia's answer came as a whirring, mechanical sound. She spun around, to see that David had removed the tape from the VCR, and jammed it into the pocket of the pants he had hurriedly donned. As Antonia took a step toward him, he gave her a vicious backhanded slap that sent her reeling across the room. David knelt down beside Linda, and began fumbling with the knots at her wrists.
"Oh, my God, Linda, what have they done to you?" Through her pain and misery, Linda decided that David had finally gone insane. Did he honestly believe that he could somehow get away with this? "Are you OK? I'll get you out of here, and we'll be OK, just you and me. The police will handle these criminals!" Shaking from fear, David's fingers had made no progress with the knots, when Linda heard a shriek, followed by the nasty crack of an explosion
"YOU BASTARD!" Roz' scream was punctuated by a shot from the gun she had grabbed from Antonia's bag. Linda felt a crushing pain in her ribs as David's knee dug into her side, and he collapsed beside her. "BASTARD! BASTARD! BASTARD!" Each repetition was accompanied by the report of a gunshot, and Linda shrieked hysterically into her gag as David's body shook with the impact of the shots. After a moment, Roz' voice trailed off to a whimper, and the gun was only making a useless clicking noise. Linda lay frozen with fear, when a pair of booted feet came into view. Antonia pushed David's body aside, and delivered a ferocious kick into Linda's aching ribs. She bent over the bound woman, blond hair falling across Linda's face.
"Sorry, Linda, looks like I have to say 'goodbye', too." The woman yanked Linda's face around by the chin, her eyes boring deep into her captive's, and hissed, "It's only for a while, though. I will be back for you, I promise you that. And I know that Michelle has some unfinished business with your friend Lauren." She released Linda's head, and took hold of both her breasts, twisting the nipples. "To remember me by." She smiled at the sound of Linda's gagged moan. "See you soon, sweetie!" Linda felt the cruel fingers leave her breasts, she fell forward onto her face, and from behind, heard the sound of the two thieves racing for their car. With her last ounce of strength, Linda rolled over and lay herself, for the last time, against the bleeding body of her husband.
The sirens drew closer, their whine gradually drowning the other sounds in the room: Roz' hysterical weeping, Rachel's dazed whimpering through her gag, and the thudding of Linda's body against David's as great sobs shook her from head to toe. The siren sound spiralled to a halt, and then voices filled the house. Linda didn't even try to sort them out. It was only when she felt herself being propped gently against the wall that she even opened her eyes, to see Lauren's sweat-stained face smiling down at her.
"Hangin' in there, kid?" She briskly wiped tears from Linda's cheeks, and then set about undoing the bandage tied around her head. When it was loose, Lauren reached into Linda's mouth and removed the gauze packing. If anything about it gave her a hint of what had happened, she said nothing, but set about untying Linda's hands. Once she was freed, Linda simply buried her head in Lauren's chest, closed her eyes, and fell asleep.
EPILOG
"So, no charges, then?" Lauren poured coffee as the two friends sat in Lauren's kitchen. Linda's interview with the District Attorney had gone much more smoothly than she'd feared.
"No, Rachel's so shattered by the whole thing that she just wants to forget it all-- she just told them that I was forced to tie her up at gunpoint, and left it at that."
"Man, I'll bet the cops used up a whole roll of crime scene film when they saw her nude like that. What about Roz?"
Linda sighed. "Some kind of plea bargain. No death penalty. You know, for all that she did to me, I just feel sorry for her. David screwed up her life even worse than he did mine." She paused and looked at her friend closely. "How about you? Did you really come through this as easily as you made it look?"
"Well, I won't pretend I wasn't scared, but as soon as you finished tying me, I could tell that I'd be able to get some slack out of the ropes. Antonia might be a good teacher, but she'd certainly have done a better job on me if she'd done it herself. After that, it was just a matter of waiting for an opportunity."
The two women sipped their coffee in silence, and then Linda spoke.
"Lauren… Lauren, did it feel, well… odd to you, that I was the one tying you up, and not one of them?"
Lauren thought for a moment. "I'm not sure how you mean. I don't really know how it would have 'felt' to have Antonia tie me up, but I do know that I actually felt completely safe while you tied me. I wasn't crazy about the gag," they both laughed, "but since it might have kept me from doing something foolish, and spoiling my chance to escape, I guess I don't feel too bad about it. And you…?"
Linda sat quietly. She remembered the strange feelings: she had found a certain satisfaction in tying Roz; she had gone nearly insane when she tied Rachel, loving it. And, of course, something inside her had responded to Antonia's caresses of her bound body. The sheer helplessness had brought out something in her. Was it love? Sex? She prayed that she would never have to find out.
Finally, she said, "Lauren, that was easily the worst experience of my life, and I'm going to try to forget all about it. But there was that one moment, when I saw my best friend, helplessly bound and gagged at my feet, and I felt that it was my responsibility to take care of her. Of course, it didn't work out that way, quite the reverse, but that's the one part of that day that I want always to remember."
"And Antonia. And Michelle? Think they're gonna forget?"
"No, I suppose not. But, you know, I can't spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder. Neither can you. If we have to deal with them again, we'll worry about it then."
She hoped it would be that easy. She wished she could be sure.