by Loki Renard
Resting her forehead against the corners of the walls before her, Zora sent a silent prayer to whatever deities might be lurking above to give her the strength to resist the temptation lingering behind her. Maybe Savage had abandoned her, maybe he would never come back, but she couldn't let herself get involved with a man like Tex, not for a second. She told herself she never would, but she knew that it was his restraint that was keeping their relationship entirely platonic, not hers. In the heat of the moment with his hands slipping cool lotion over her bottom, she could have easily arched herself for him simply to feel a strong man's hands on her body again.
A hot tear ran from her eye down the side of her nose. Loneliness and longing were sweeping through her, she wanted to be held and cuddled and told that it was okay, that everything was going to be alright. But nothing was okay, and nothing was alright. She was entirely at Tex's mercy and a sore bottom was nothing compared to the threat of his masculinity.
Chapter Seven
Stuffed in the corner like an abandoned soft toy, Zora slowly managed to get a grip on herself. Tex was just a man and she was just a woman who hadn't gotten laid in months. That was the only reason she was feeling all slick and sensual. It had nothing to do with the man himself, why, she'd probably get wet over seeing a larger than normal sized carrot in her current state of sexual deprivation.
The thought made her giggle, which earned her a disapproving noise from Tex. “You're not supposed to be enjoying it.”
“Hey man, you can cage me, but you can't cage my mind,” Zora drawled in a mock hippy voice.
“Oh for crying out loud, come out of there before you get yourself into trouble again.” She turned and saw that he was smiling in a helpless sort of way. “What am I going to do with you?”
“Use me as a pawn for your own ends?”
His smile faded. “You have a lot of attitude for a woman with a bright red bottom.”
She blushed and looked away from him. Damn him for putting her in her place so quickly. Her backside did still hurt quite a bit, she'd just started getting used to the hot, tight feeling, that was all. That was the thing about getting spanked all the time, the more you got spanked, the more you got used to it. She'd only known Tex a few days and he'd already spanked her on several occasions. If he didn't watch out, he was going to give her a serious case of leather rear.
He came toward her, reached out and turned her chin up so she was forced to look at him. “I told you yesterday, your stay here will be as pleasant as you allow it to be. Throwing tantrums will make it very unpleasant. If you cooperate and answer the questions I have for you, things will go well.”
Zora rolled her eyes. Tex didn't understand, he couldn't understand the weight of the secret she was holding. If she cooperated with him, she'd give herself away. “Just leave me alone,” she said tiredly. “I can't tell you anything.”
“You mean you won't tell me anything,” he corrected her. “Even with a very sore backside. Which means you think you know something important. Which makes me very interested indeed.”
Zora shrugged. She'd given up trying to outsmart Tex, he was always two jumps ahead, or at least he always thought he was. “Fine, yeah, whatever.”
“I'm beginning to think it was a very, very good idea to pick you up, Zora Matthews,” Tex smiled in a way that did not reassure her at all.
“Trust me, it wasn't,” she said. “You'll regret it eventually.”
He cocked his head to the side. “Was that a threat?”
“Nope, just the truth,” she said, wiping her eyes. She was tired, so tired. Fighting Tex had worn her out and the soporific after effects of a hard spanking were kicking in. But her interrogator had scented blood and he wasn't ready to let her rest just yet.
“Now let's see, what could you possibly know that's so important? More to the point, what skills do you have that Savage would have put to use on one of his teams?” He was thinking out loud, which gave Zora the feeling of being a mouse with a cat stalking towards it through a maze.
“You're never going to work it out,” she said, walking around him to the bed. “And I'm never going to tell you, so you may as well wait for Savage to show up, if he bothers to, which I doubt he will.” She laid down on her side and wrapped the coverlet over her, wishing that Tex would just go away.
He didn't go away of course, he sat back down on the bed and kept pressing her for information. “Tell me what you did for him.”
“Why? What do I get for telling you that?”
“You'll be closer to freedom.”
She snorted. “Pull the other one.”
“I am a man of my word, Miss Matthews,” Tex said, sounding slightly offended.
“I'm sure you are, but you wouldn't let me go,” she said, covering her mouth as she yawned.
“Why not?” His eyes were keen with interest.
“Because....” Panic once more gripped her stomach as she realized she'd said too much again. “Because I'm a super important person.”
“And why is that?” Tex leaned in, intently listening to her every word.
“I was the second shooter on the grassy knoll,” Zora finished her revelation with an unrepentant grin. His growl made the whole thing all the more amusing. She might be spanked, but she wasn't beaten, not by a long shot.
Tex's brow furrowed deeply. “Zora, I am going to spank you again if you don't tell me what I want to know.”
“You're going to spank me again anyway,” she said. “I can't win. This is lose lose lose for me.”
He sighed and gave her a pitying look. “You really think that don't you? Which means you think your role was so important that we'd keep you.” He chuckled and shook his head, patting her hand patronizingly. “Trust me Miss Matthews, as talented as you probably are, we have plenty of good people. There's nothing you can tell me that will make me keep you here forever.”
If only he knew, seethed Zora internally. If only he knew that she was the one he was looking for. But no, he couldn't even conceive of such a thing, couldn't conceive of a woman being the one who disarmed the nuke. In Tex's world women wore skirts, answered phones and swooned obediently when he cast an eye in their direction. She could probably tell him the truth and he still wouldn't believe her. She didn't bother to reply, there wasn't anything she could say that wouldn't get her into more trouble.
Tex waited patiently as the minutes ticked by and her eyes began to close. She'd started to drift off before he gave up. “Okay then, get some sleep, little girl,” he said, checking his watch. “It's not even morning tea time and you've already had a big day.”
She was asleep before the door closed behind him, completely worn out from her spanking and the struggle of keeping a secret from a man whose only purpose was to uncover it.
Several more days passed in a similar fashion. Tex would try and coax the truth out of her, she'd give him silly replies and avoid a straight answer at all costs. A lesser man might have grown terribly impatient and done something regrettable, but Tex seemed to be enjoying the process in a strange, perverse sort of way.
Zora on the other hand, wasn't enjoying herself at all. She was on Tex's turf and completely under his control. That meant she never relaxed properly. She was sure she was always watched, just in case she let something slip. There were other people in the center, but she wasn't allowed to speak to them and they didn't speak to her when she tried. It was as if Tex had made her a ghost, cutting her off from all other human contact. Her world had grown incredibly small, there was only the little room in which she slept and time with him.
She felt herself beginning to crack. The truth was starting to become a tangible thing, something that wanted to press itself out of her mouth and display itself before the man who was so very interested in it. With every passing hour, Tex grew stronger and she grew weaker. Her only respite was sleep, but she'd started having dreams with Tex in them too. It was as if the slim, strong man pervaded every facet of her existence, even her mind wasn't safe
from him.
Laying awake in bed one night and on the verge of tears of silent frustration after a dream in which Tex had discovered the truth after she'd written it down inside an ice cream wrapper, Zora heard a sound in the distance. It sounded like a car drawing to a very quick halt. She pricked her ears for any more sounds, something intangible telling her that the noise was important. She didn't have to strain for very long, in a minute or two there was a massive commotion going on outside.
She stood up at the head of the bed and peered out the window. There was lots of shouting and a bright spotlight was fixed on a figured in the car park. Her heart skipped a beat as her eyes adjusted. The figure was tall and broad with a squarish head and muscular build. Was it him? It had to be him. She could see Tex standing in front of him and there were other shadowy figures ranged around him dressed in dark fatigues and carrying the sort of large and unpleasant looking guns that put nasty holes in things. She let out a squeal of joy and bounced up and down on her pillow. He'd come, he'd really come!
Excitement crackled in the air, Zora was not alone in her anticipation of Savage's arrival. Yet in spite of the general celebration, he was hardly being greeted with balloons and streamers and big hugs. They were treating him like some sort of dangerous criminal, a fact that made her hackles rise.
She watched as Savage was herded towards the entrance of the building and as he drew closer she strained to get a better look. She'd forgotten how big he was. Tex was not precisely a small man, but next to Brett Savage's powerful frame he looked almost boyish. To her extreme relief, Savage seemed to be in one piece. As he passed under the light at the entrance she thought she saw a small cut over his brow, but it had sealed itself and the remnant blood trickle down the left side of his face only served to make him look more rugged and dangerous than ever. She yelled his name, but he didn't turn his head, didn't hear her.
Suddenly she was nervous. Her memories of Savage had been faded by time and addled by alcohol. Seeing him again was a little like seeing a ghost. Still, she would have broken through the window to get to him if she could. As it was, she had to stand and watch whilst they walked inside and were lost from view.
There was no chance of sleep now, she was wide awake. She leaped off the bed, pulled on the nearest piece of clothing, ignoring the fact that it was a baby blue skirt with frills around the lower edge and began pacing back and forth in front of the door.
When pacing failed to work, she tried banging on the door a bit, but nobody came for her. She banged harder on the door, then on the wall for good measure. A lucky bang with her foot put a sudden and unexpected hole in the wall. A curse rose to her lips, not because she'd broken the wall, but because she hadn't even thought to notice that her 'cell' was little more than a simple room lined with standard wooden sheet board and plaster. Having made the discovery, it didn't take more than a couple of minutes to kick and push her way through the lower part of the wall. She sustained a few scrapes and grazes in the process, but she'd have danced over broken glass to get to the man who was walking into the lion's den for her.
She crawled out into the hallway, half expecting someone to be there, but nobody was. They were probably all too busy worrying about Savage. It would have been the perfect chance to stage an escape, but escape was the furthest thing from her mind. Having laid eyes on him, she had but one thought – to get to him.
There were noises down the halls, men's voices, heavy scuffing boots. She moved towards them, pushing her way through swinging doors every now and then. When she caught up with the party she saw that the contingent of armed guards had been reduced to just two men following Savage and Tex down the hall. She sneaked forwards on tiptoes until she was right behind them, then, being unable to wait any longer, made a mad dash through the armed men and wrapped her arms around Savage's waist.
Her dashing movement caused consternation amongst the guards. Both Savage and Tex whirled and she whirled too, her motion caught short by the two guards who grabbed her away from Savage and hurled her quite roughly to the floor where she was treated to the gut emptying sight of two high powered barrels pointed directly at her.
“Stop!” Tex's voice boomed before she could get stomped on or worse.
Laying on the floor in a tangle of blood smeared limbs wasn't exactly the reunion she'd imagined having with Savage, but she didn't care. She gazed up at him, wanting nothing more than to meet his eyes, but the man who turned his head to look at her didn't have deep dark eyes that soothed her to her core. He had glittering blue eyes and his expression was not one adoration but one of blank surprise. It wasn't Savage.
She attempted a smile, but it came out as a sickly grin. “Oops.”
Tex glared at one of the guards. “Get her out of here.”
She was hauled up from the ground almost as quickly as she'd fallen. There was nothing gentle about the way the guard dragged her away. It wasn't remotely necessary, she would have quite happily scurried away herself. She was humiliated and hurt. Of course it wasn't Savage. That would have required him to actually show up and do something to help her.
The guard didn't take her back to her room, he took her down a level to a cinder block cell with bars across the front. Before she really knew what was happening she was back underground and locked up like a common criminal.
She sat down on the concrete block that served as a bed and put her head in her hands. 'Way to make a total fucking fool of yourself,' she lectured herself harshly. So this was what she'd come to, a pathetic woman so desperate for a man that she'd allow herself to be kidnapped and held prisoner simply for a chance to see him. Her love for Savage was a weakness, a weakness she had to purge. She had to harden her heart and forget about him. It was all about her now.
She stayed awake for the rest of the night, but there was no change in her situation until mid-morning. She'd been dozing a little against the wall when the sound of a door opening brought her out of her reverie. Slow footsteps approached her cell and she knew who it was even before he got there.
“Well that was interesting,” Tex said mildly. He looked stupidly handsome standing outside the bars with his hands in his suit pockets. The man spent every day dressed like he might at any moment be called to an Italian runway.
She made no reply.
“Kicked through a wall to get to a man you thought was Savage,” he said. “You must be very eager to see him.”
Zora made a hissing noise of annoyance, but otherwise said nothing at all.
“I apologize for the rough treatment, the fellow you hugged isn't the sort of man one wants to be distracted by a woman.” He didn't offer any further distraction and she didn't ask for one.
“He's not coming,” she said, wiping a hand over her eyes. “Just let me go.”
“I'm sorry, but I can't do that,” he said, pressing digits into the keypad that controlled the door to her cell. There was a dull buzz and the door swung open. “It's unfortunate this has dragged on so long.”
“It's unfortunate you wouldn't listen to me in the first place.”
Tex crooked his finger at her. “Come on out.”
She was more than glad to comply with that request. Cells were unpleasant places at the best of times, and times were never at their best when she was locked away. She came out warily, glancing at the locking mechanism as she went past. It was all shiny and high tech, looked a little bit like the number menu on a microwave.
They went to the usual spot for breakfast, but in spite of her hunger, Zora didn't eat. She had thought about many things during her brief nocturnal incarceration, once she'd cleared her mind of Savage and his coming or lack thereof, she'd had time to allow some common sense into her thought processes. When Tex pushed a cup of tea in her direction she picked the cup up and tossed the liquid contents onto the lawn.
“Don't be petulant,” he scolded her.
She put the tea cup back on the table carefully. “I'm not being petulant. You're drugging me.”
“I am not.�
��
“Yes you are. I haven't had a cigarette or a drink almost since I met you and I haven't wanted either. I should be curled up in a corner screaming now, but I'm not. Ergo,” she said, pointing a finger at him. “You're drugging me.”
Tex's thin lips curled into a smirk. “Good detective work, but that's only to make your life easier.”
“How about you worry less about making my life easy with drugs and more about making it easy by letting me go,” she suggested.
“Why were you in Iron Horse?”
“Oh for god's sakes,” she rolled her eyes as they returned to the question he'd asked her dozens and dozens of times before. “I liked the climate.”
“You were in hiding. Why?”
“Because I'd been a bad girl,” she admitted. She was fast approaching the limit of giving any form of a fuck anymore. Maybe she'd just tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may. Maybe it didn't much matter what she did. Maybe that old bitch fate already had planned her life for her regardless.
“Do tell,” he smirked.
She opened her mouth and the words just fell out. “I used codes I found in the course of my work for the military and I used them to rob a private bank.”
He spluttered into his coffee. “You did not.”
“I did. You have very poor researchers,” Zora noted, picking up a piece of toast and nibbling at it. She didn't like the fact that it was probably laced with drugs, but she was actually quite hungry.
“No, you were very well hidden,” he explained. “Someone went to a lot of trouble to erase your records.”