“Goddam, you’re fun, Mrs. Danvers. We’re just going to have to keep you around.” Hugo again, while the snaps of his whip stung her everywhere: thighs and ass, shoulders, back, and then as he moved around to her front, her belly and breasts as well. Then others right across her pubic mound left stinging wounds that throbbed much deeper than the punished skin. “Yeah, boys, we have a live one here. Let the little slut dance.”
She saw his grin and turned away, too humiliated to look him in the eyes.
“I’m going to have to give Lydia a raise for bringing this little gem on board.”
***
On the street outside, two unmarked cars were parked, their occupants staring at the building, waiting, watching for Meredith Danvers and Lydia Morrow to emerge. Ten, fifteen minutes went by, Joe finally called the station again and spoke with his boss.
“Nothing happening, Captain Danvers. Should we go inside?”
“Yes, goddammit, get my wife out of there!”
At the station, Alain had slammed down the phone and grabbed for his coat on the way out.
***
Meri’s nipples were clamped behind the piercings where the flesh was especially tender. The pain was real and hard to take. What was worse was how it shot through her body, infecting places that came alive with the biting stimulation. Even this was not enough for these sadists. Her nipples rings were threaded with narrow rope, which was strung high above her head, forcing her breasts up, and her feet onto her tiptoes. The ropes’ ends were dropped over a dangling hook and weighted down with lead weights, creating an enormous tension through her breasts and pain that fed her crotch.
With their victim hardly able to gasp for breath, the beating began again with Meri’s tortured body dancing before their hungering eyes. It was clear that the men were becoming aroused, and within minutes she’d be giving up her crotch for them to fuck. That was their plan. Even the naïve Meri knew that. Between rounds of punishing blows, they took turns pushing aside her panties and shoving their fingers into her nether holes. She was made to lick one man’s juicy digits as a reminder of how turned on she had become. Her body refused to lie. But what if she’d been dry as a bone? Would it have mattered?
The torture seemed endless…she feared letting go and allowing the sensations to take their natural erotic course. Hold on, Meri, hold on! a beleaguered voice inside her mind screamed commands to keep her sane, but the delirious feel of so much stimulation began to wear her down and her conscious mind began to drift as the physical sensations grew increasingly more sexual.
Into the confusion of pain and arousal, Meri found her mind keying on some new and startling stimulus: the sound of loud shouting voices from somewhere outside the office, growing louder by the second. The mood in the room shifted suddenly and the attack on her body abruptly ceased. She was no longer the center of attention, and when the commotion finally died down, she found herself alone in the room, as if her attackers had vanished into thin air.
All was dead quiet for several seconds, then the whole house seemed to explode. Other hands were on her, releasing her from the bondage and throwing a thin blanket around her nearly naked body. She looked up, seeing Robbie Carvello.
“Oh, my god!” Never had she been so happy to see the familiar face. Collapsing into his arms, she buried her face in his chest and let him carry her from the building. She knew she’d been rescued and yet for the next several minutes, her world was off its axis. The sounds of men barking orders, of Lydia’s high-pitched voice, and squealing brakes. The bizarre minutes passed as quickly as they began. Then her mind woke up to find herself huddled alone in the back of a police squad car that was zooming out of the neighborhood and into the night. The last thing she heard Robbie say was that she was all right…‘You’re going to be just fine, Meri. You’re going home.’
***
Rather then take the two rescued women to the police station, they went directly to Captain Danvers’ house, were the interrogations began, first Lydia Morrow, who was questioned for over an hour while Meri waited in the living room, watched over by a female officer from the station. Meri had been allowed to grab some clothes to wear, but the instructions from Det. Carvello were specific: she was to remain in the living room until it was her turn.
She’d seen Alain only briefly when she first arrived at the house. He embraced her, holding her close and stroking her head with his strong, sure hands. “Thank God, you’re all right.” As much as he was comforting Meri, he was reassuring himself.
She wanted to stay inside his arms all night and never leave. She wanted him whispering assurances to her until she finally feel asleep. She wanted to understand deep in her heart that she was safe, and this was not just a dream from which she’d awakened only to find herself in Hugo’s hands again.
But as much as this was a heartening reunion, there was also important police business that drew Alain from his wife’s fierce grasp.
“You wait in the living room, darling. We’re going to speak with Lydia first.”
“Can’t I just watch from the corner. I swear I won’t say a thing.”
“No,” he answered. “Go on,” he nodded toward the living room, then turned and disappeared into his den.
Meri could hear very little from where she sat, but there were voices raised, Lydia’s and Robbie Carvello’s, Joe Wilkes as well. She heard nothing from her husband.
An hour later when the den door finally opened, Meri looked out to see Lydia being hustled into another part of the house. Her friend briefly glanced into the living room, but her face gave away very little – except for the puffy eyes and the grim set of her jaw.
“Meri,” Robbie came to the living room door. “May I see you now?”
She scooted quickly from the room and across the hall where the somber scene before her eyes made her want to flee the scene. Of course that was impossible, and at Robbie’s direction, she sat trembling on the couch. While he sat in her husband’s reading chair, Joe Wilkes, her husband’s aide paced the room and Alain stoically watched from behind his desk.
The emotional energy in the den seemed to be banging off the walls. Questions came at her from right and left, from Robbie Carvello and Joe Wilkes. Her mind was a bewildered blur.
The interrogation seemed to last forever, every detail of the entire incident probed with the practiced delicacy of Det. Wilkes questions, Robbie Carvello’s cutting commentary and Alain’s immovable silence.
Meri’s every glance at her husband was filled with remorse, her heart waiting hopefully for some sign that the nightmare would be over soon and she could race back into Alain’s arms and stay locked inside his embrace until this horrible night had turned to day.
What had she done wrong? she wanted to scream at them all. She remembered so little from that miserable scene in the low lit office. Nothing that seemed useful to their investigation. She tried to think and her mind would wander.
Every time, Robbie brought her back with a curt, ‘Meri, let’s focus.’
He asked the questions now, a steady stream of them leaping out at her, attacking her like the cuts of a whip attacking raw flesh. Her mind was raw like that; it had been wounded too. He wanted names and places, information that Meri didn’t have. The only facts she could share were the things they did to her body. He made her repeat the details of the sadistic nightmare, not like he was getting off on what so closely approximated an S&M scene. Even so, the effect of her admissions was profound. From a corner of her mind that was locked in on her husband’s guarded emotions, she could feel every word she spoke register in his body, and register badly.
Not that she was physically hurt. Far worse things had happened to her in the name of pleasure – or punishment. Even now, her body was feeling a strong erotic pulse she could not shake. She knew that Alain was feeling it too, despite the way he so remotely observed the proceedings.
Finally, they gave up their attempts to pry loose her memories. She obviously had no more to say.
/> It was nearly eleven when Robbie and his small team of detectives quietly left the house. Just Meredith and Alain remained in the den; Alain behind his desk, he hadn’t moved in nearly two hours. Meri was curled up in his leather chair.
Before Meri could leap on him, Alain called for Mrs. Langshire.
“Yes, sir?” Like a stalwart matriarch she’d become, her strong spirit seemed to hold the fragile moment together. Certainly she must have had a zillion questions about the frenetic scene in Alain Danvers’ normally serene household, but even under these strange circumstances, she met the mood with tenacious composure.
“I’d like you to get Lydia for me. She is still here?”
“Oh yes, sir. Det. Carvello said that I’m to make sure she stays. Of course, with policemen stationed outside the house, I don’t think she’ll be going anywhere tonight.”
Alain nodded, agreeing.
A subdued Lydia arrived moments later looking much less rattled than when Meri saw her last. Standing in front of Alain’s desk, she was the first to speak. “Hey, Cap’n,” she started in typical Lydia form, though she was much more subdued than Meri had seen her in a long while. “I didn’t get to tell you how sorry I am about all this. I really am. This was not supposed to happen.” Then she turned to Meri, “Hey, girl I never should have…” Her face was filled with remorse. And even Alain with all his subdued emotion could feel the sincerity of her small speech.
“I suspect you are sorry,” Alain answered. He remained closed and guarded, unwilling, or maybe just unable to let out the emotion that had been roiling inside him since the messy hours of the night began.
“So, anyway, sir, if you don’t mind…I mean I really appreciate the hospitality, but I really think it’s time I spilt. I mean after tonight. I guess I’m supposed to stay here till morning.”
“There’s no use leaving at this late hour. But yes, after tonight, I think it would be a good idea to find someplace else to stay.” He paused, giving her an astute once over. “And where do you plan to go, Ms. Morrow?”
“I’ve got a really straight friend here. Sarah. Meri knows her. She’s that ‘heart of gold’ type. She’ll let me crash with her for a few weeks. I hope.”
“You know, you’re still very much in danger?”
She shrugged it off. “I’m always in danger. That’s how I’ve lived the last two years.”
“Well, unless you have a death wish I’d recommend that you watch your step, stay clear of your old haunts and find some new friends. You have no idea…”
“Oh, I do, sir.” Lydia jumped in. “I know Hugo. I know his friends. I know what they can do.” She wasn’t sassing now.
“That’s good.”
The tension was so thick it could have been cut with a knife. Even Meri’s bones were shaking. Fear tasting bitter on her tongue. Fear, disbelief and a thousand questions. She still didn’t know exactly what had happened, what Lydia’s role had been or how she’d been rescued. Since she hadn’t been allowed in the room when Robbie was interrogating Lydia, she had no idea what was said and no one was talking. Now this guarded conversation only alarmed her more.
“Listen…” Lydia looked sheepish and very young, the years she’d piled on seemed to have peeled from her face. She nervously thrust her weight from one hip to the next, looking as if she was fishing for the right words.
“Is there something else?” Alain finally had to ask.
“Yeah, there is,” she laughed nervously. “You don’t…you don’t suppose you could just go ahead and…and beat my ass, like you threatened to do?”
For the first time in what seemed like hours there seemed to be a shift in Alain’s expression. If anything, the mood in the room lightened, if ever so slightly. “Feeling guilty now?” he wondered aloud.
“You don’t know how much,” Lydia sighed heavily. “I mean I brought this on Meri,” she glanced at her friend, “I swear, I never wanted that. I was just so desperate…”
From where Meri sat, she thought Lydia might actually cry, but Meri had no intention of saying anything that would make the woman feel any better.
“So, what’s your poison, crop or cane?” Alain asked.
“Dang. I don’t know. Whichever hurts the most, I guess.”
“You looking for a catharsis or absolution?”
She thought a moment. “Both I guess.”
“Well then, bend over, Ms. Morrow. And Meri, you leave the room.”
“Leave the room?” Meri blurted out. This was not fair. She’d waited so long to understand what was going on, now she’d have to wait again. “But—”
“I said leave the room,” he refused her attempt to argue.
Feeling rudely dismissed, Meri swiftly fled into the hallway, though she immediately stopped there. When she turned around, she saw Alain at the door, pushing it closed.
With not an ounce of strength left, she plunked her ass down in the middle of the foyer, facing the den with its brutally closed door. Her husband might as well have slapped her face.
And why not wait there? She had no where else to go. No where better than right there, to wait for whatever happened inside the den to be over.
***
Lydia’s legs were spread, her ass was bared. She was bending over the desk as ordered, with her skirt raised.
It takes a lot not to admire an ass and body as taut and beautiful as Lydia Morrow’s, but Alain had not a single aroused thought go through his brain on seeing the sight laid out before him. Not even that little tickle of dominant excitement when he picked up the cane. He swished the rattan through the air, hearing the subtle noise, and that gave him some satisfaction. But it was all business, all punishment, all with the snap of his wrist, followed by the sharp attacks on the penitent Lydia’s proffered ass. He marched the cuts down her rounded derriere, directly over wounds already healing there. She’d said she’d been worked over by Hugo and the boys before Meri showed up; that she’d only given the men ammunition for going after Meri – when at their insistence she’d called Meri on her cell and practically ordered her into the building. She regretted ever involving Meri in her tainted life.
Twenty cuts. A pretty hefty number considering how hard Alain was striking his victim’s rump. Lydia was good. Stoic. Immovable. Not a sound crossed her lips but maybe a low grunt.
She might have been stoic on the outside, but on the inside it was another matter entirely. Alain could feel the woman sobbing internally, waves of emotion starting to pour from her hurting body as the punishment went on. He gave her an additional four or five cuts after the initial twenty – he’d actually lost count. But even Lydia seemed to want more and he wanted to give them to her. He wanted whatever load of emotion buried inside the brazen woman to work itself free. She might stop acting so recklessly. She might curb her rash impulses after this incident…she might. Although he held out little hope that would happen. Women like Lydia seemed to be attracted to bad boys and bad men and the thrill of beating them at their game. But too many women failed in this. Too many ended up dead, or in the streets broken.
He had no connection to this woman other than her connection to his wife, but he still cared about what would happen in her sorry life. Maybe this was because of Meri…maybe he saw Meri in the same down and out place this girl was in, if he and Meri hadn’t found each other. His wife would have never survived a Hugo and his boys…or Jimmy Peralta and all the worthless swine that used women the way they’d used Lydia. Lydia herself was just barely hanging on. Maybe one caring man, one punishment would change her. He could only hope.
With the punishment over, Lydia’s emotion seemed to let loose. Alain could hear her crying softly as she remained draped over the side of his desk.
He let her cry for a time, then finally said, “You can go now,” bringing the girl back to her senses. Lydia hesitated for a moment, collecting herself enough so she could face him, then she pulled up straight, managing a weak smile.
“Thank you, sir.”
�
�You’re welcome, Lydia.”
“That was a nice touch,” she tried to laugh. “Having Meri leave the room, so it’s just the two of us?”
“Still trying to make light of a serious business?”
“No, no. It’s not that.” She shook her head.
“It needed to be just you and me,” he said, unruffled by the veiled allusion to impropriety.
“I didn’t mean anything by it. I guess I’m just not used to decent men. Maybe you are one, maybe you aren’t, but you’re the closest thing I know to a man I can trust.” She wiped tears from her eyes. “Thank you, Captain Danvers. I feel much better, I really do.”
“Then I’m glad it’s worked. Go on, up to your room. Get some rest. You have some decisions to make in the morning.”
“Yes, sir.” Lydia started to leave then turned back smiling. “And hey, don’t be too hard on Meri. It wasn’t her fault.”
“What happened here was between you and me. What’s going to happen next will be between Meri and me. You can be sure that she’ll get exactly what she needs and wants. I know my wife.”
“Cocky bitch that I am, I wouldn’t have said this before I got here. But seeing you two together, I’d have to say you’re right. She certainly deserves better than me, and she got that in you.” She shrugged, as if a little sad for herself. “Good night.”
Lydia opened the door and immediately shrank back.
“Damn, girl! What the hell are you doing sitting there?”
Meri looked up from the floor “Where else was I supposed to go?”
Chapter Eleven
Twisted Logic
She wanted to break down in tears. She wanted to fall into his arms. She wanted him to beat all the nastiness from her. All that those men had done to her…she wanted her husband to do more and reclaim his territory. She was only mad that he had waited so fucking long to act.
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