Alex wrapped her arm around his shoulders. “We have to try to get away. We can’t let them sell us like cattle.”
“From what Nicholas told me, they already did. We’re lucky. We’ve been paid for. I can’t imagine what those women are going through down in the hold.”
“We have to save them, Lyle. We can’t let them be put on the auction block. It’s inhumane, like we’re back in the dark ages.”
“We’ll be lucky to get out of this alive. I don’t see how we can save them, too.”
“If there is any way, we must. I couldn’t live with myself if we didn’t make an effort. I mean, I want to get back to Ollie in the worst way. What must he be thinking? And Jerry, he can’t take care of a child. He can barely take care of himself.”
“Well, girlfriend, I know if I get the chance to run, I might stop to find you, but those girls in the hold are on their own.”
“How can you be so cruel, Lyle? Mina told me the crew members use them for sex. Every time I piss her off, she threatens to send me down there, though I know she won’t. I’m not supposed to sleep with any men. It will void the sales agreement. They sold me to some dyke princess. I’m going to be dining at the Y for the rest of my life.”
“Dear one, you know what’s going to happen to me. It’s one thing to choose to be gay, but quite another to be some fat pervert’s personal pincushion.”
“Oh, is your new owner fat?”
“I don’t know, Alex. I’m just doing worse-case scenario here. And, darling, this is the worst scenario I could ever imagine, so why would I expect any less? Of course he’s fat, old, greasy, smelly, and thoroughly disgusting.”
Alex got up and paced back and forth across the small room. They could hear screaming, yelling and thumps from next door.
“Sounds like the triplets are giving Mina and the men a hard time.”
“They might as well give up. Otherwise Nicholas told me they’ll throw them in the hold. He told me I was going to the hold if I didn’t do what he said.”
“Yeah, I got that, too. It’s really quiet out there now. Do you think they all went below?”
“Probably, but the door’s always locked, anyway.”
“Did you see Nicholas lock it, because I know Mina didn’t.”
“No.”
Alex walked to the door, held her breath and tried the knob. It opened. She looked down the gangway. It was empty. “Let’s run,” she hissed.
Lyle got up, and the two of them shot out of the room and down the open hallway. When they came to the end, there were two sets of steel steps. One went up, and the other set went down. She looked at Lyle and lifted her shoulders. He pointed up.
They scampered up the one set of stairs and emerged on an open deck with a railing. They could see the heaving water below and the cargo deck. Above, they saw the bridge with a big attached cabin. Rows of lifeboats covered with tarps hung from the rails.
“We could hide in a lifeboat,” Lyle whispered.
“First place they’d look.”
They slowed to a walk, heading into a corridor with doors on both sides. They saw one for the kitchen. It had a window. When Alex looked inside, she saw busy cooks. They all looked Malaysian. There was a sign on the next door that said “Storage”, probably for food. Alex opened it and looked inside.
It was dark. She slipped into the storeroom, followed by Lyle. They quietly shut the door. Steel and wire storage shelves rose to the ceiling on both sides of the room. Giant cans of vegetables sat on the shelves, along with tubs of mayonnaise, pickle jars, and cans of beans and fish. Napkins, paper towels and clean storage containers sat on others. Boxes of potatoes and sacks of onions were shoved under the shelves.
Lyle pulled boxes of spuds out from under one, slid into the vacant space and pulled the boxes back. He beckoned to her, and Alex slid under another shelf, pulling sacks of onions and rice after her.
They hid there, shivering, not speaking, terrified of what they had done, terrified of getting caught.
* * * *
Mina dragged Sugar Sweet up the steps by her leash. Since Sugar was the one with the black eye, Mina figured she’d better take her topside to get some medical assistance.
The ship’s doctor was a drunk who’d lost his license to practice in the states. When she opened the door and dragged Sugar in, his eyes lit up.
“You brought me a gift.”
“No, Dr. Bush. She’s special merchandise, part of an identical set of three not to be used by you or anyone. I just need something to help heal this bruise on her cheek and eye.”
The doctor was tall and thin, with long bony fingers. His three strands of remaining hair were carefully arranged across a freckled skull. With a tiny, cute little nose, long jowls and enormous ears, he was grotesque, to say the least. Mina despised him.
When she shoved Sugar onto the table, Bush immediately pushed her legs open and stood between them to examine her eye. Sugar rolled her eyes and lifted her eyebrows in a gesture that plainly said, “Help.”
Bush moved in close and began grinding his bulge against Sugar’s naked sex.
Mina grabbed Bush’s shoulder and jerked him around. He spun, a look of surprise on his slack features, and Mina got a whiff of his breath. “Been drinking on the job again, Bush?”
“Who’re you, Mother Cabrini? I mighta had a sip.”
“Smells like more than a sip. Just give me something to put on her eye, and then I’m out of here.”
Bush leered at her and grabbed himself. Mina heard from other crew members that he was hung like a horse. “If she’s already bought, maybe you’d like to give ole Dr. Bush a ride.”
“I’d love to give you a ride, right overboard and straight to the bottom of the ocean,” Mina sneered.
His expression turned ugly. “Fucking dyke.”
Mina lost control of her temper. She stepped back, lined up her shot and kicked Bush in his enormous dong. All the air went out of his lungs in a foul-smelling gasp. When he bent over to grab his injured parts, she closed in and hit him with a knife-hand to the back of the neck. He dropped to the floor and lay on his back with his legs spread, cupping his genitals.
Mina walked around him, admiring her handiwork. She pulled her pants down, squatted over him, pissed on his chest and stomach, wiped herself with a tissue and dropped it into the puddle.
“Wow!” Sugar said. “That was awesome.”
“He’s a piece of shit.” Mina opened a drawer, took out two chemical icepacks and grabbed Sugar’s leash. “Come on.”
Back in the triplets’ room, she shoved the girl on the bed, cracked the pack activating the chemical, and told her to put it on her eye. Sugar obediently slapped the ice to her swollen face. “Thanks for not making me stay down there in that stinking, horrible place. Will my sisters have to be there long?”
“I need to be able to manage them. You seem like the nicest one. I’m sure Drakor feels different. But you haven’t given me any trouble.”
“Sticky has always been a bitch. I don’t know what gets into her. Me, I just don’t like men. I don’t like them touching me, and I’ve never slept with one.”
“You’re a virgin?”
“I am, but my sisters aren’t.”
Mina’s sex pounded like a drum in her pants. She moved closer to Sugar. “Do you prefer women?”
Sugar removed the pack and turned to stare into Mina’s eyes. “Yes,” she whispered.
Mina reached out and touched one of those magnificent breasts. She rolled the puffy nipple in her fingers until it lengthened and hardened into a coral-pink point. Then she took Sugar’s face in her hands and tenderly kissed her. Sugar opened her mouth and sighed. Mina thrust her tongue into the moist depths, and their tongues touched.
Mina tore off her clothes. Naked, she stood in front of Sugar, rubbing her aching sex. Sugar pulled her close and licked her. Then she kissed her mound, tracing the cleft with her tongue and thrusting it between the swelling lips. Mina moaned and allowed her
legs to relax and open. Sugar sucked her clit into her mouth, grabbed Mina’s butt and pulled her hard against her face.
Sugar was insatiable, devouring Mina’s sex, licking, sucking and feasting on the flesh while she shoved a finger deep into Mina’s asshole. When Mina climaxed, she cried out in little cat-like mews.
Still wildly aroused, she pushed Sugar back on the bed, rubbing the woman’s beautiful nipples. She kissed the tight abdomen as she made her way to the juncture of Sugar’s golden thighs. She reached into a drawer under the bed and pulled out a huge, rubber plug. Pushing Sugar’s legs up, she opened the cheeks of her ass and buried the plug in her pink anus. Sugar groaned and pulled Mina’s head to her sex.
The smell of Sugar’s arousal was like heady perfume. Mina opened the blonde’s legs wide and stared for a minute at the pink flesh, swollen and dripping wet.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“I want you to eat my pussy,” Sugar replied.
“Are you hot?”
Sugar stroked her breasts, pinching her own nipples. “I’m on fire.”
“Slaves aren’t allowed orgasms, only masters. You’ll have to beg.”
Sugar squirmed, moving her butt around on the bed, opening and closing her legs. “Please, make me come.”
“Call me ‘master.’”
“Please make me come, master.”
Reaching back in the drawer, Mina pulled out a small vibrator. She flicked it on and shoved it against Sugar’s clit. Sugar screamed, thrusting her hips against the vibrating dildo. Mina knew when she climaxed because Sugar grabbed Mina’s hand and made her stop.
“Too sensitive,” she gasped.
Mina laughed and tossed the ice pack at her. “Put this on your eye. I need to go check on my other slave.”
Chapter 15
Cars zipped past them in the tiny rental Fiat.
“I told you not to rent a car,” Antonio said as Baine, hands clenched on the steering wheel, tried to negotiate a traffic circle successfully. They’d been in the inner lane for ten minutes going around and around.
“I’ve had enough,” Baine snapped, yanked the wheel hard and pulled in front of a Cairo taxi cab. The cab’s tires screeched as the driver stomped on the brakes and blasted them with a tinny horn. Baine ignored it and pulled in front of a bus to access the outer lane and get out of this nightmare.
When he finally had them on the Cairo to Suez road, he breathed a sigh of relief. Antonio was right; they should have taken a cab or hired a van with a driver. When they got to the first canal checkpoint, Baine stopped and rolled down his window. He and Antonio presented their travel papers while Antonio casually conversed with an armed member of the Egyptian military in Arabic.
The road to Suez followed the canal. Antonio used a set of binoculars to check out each ship while Baine drove. There was nothing on either side of the road here but sand. The heat was intense with the midday sun beating down on the top of their red Fiat. Antonio had to run with the window down to watch the canal, so they were forced to suffer in the stifling air. The tiny air conditioner blew cool air into the car, but it was quickly sucked out, replaced by scorching, brain-frying temperatures.
They found a spot beside the road, pulled off and parked. The ships looked close enough to touch.
“If they haven’t passed yet, we’ll catch them,” Baine said.
“Have you heard from your Interpol friend lately?”
Both men climbed out of the car. Parked, with the sun beating down, it had turned into a tiny inferno. “No. I’ll check and see if I have any service out here. If I do, I’ll call him.”
As they walked across the sand toward the canal, a huge tanker passed through. It lumbered slowly along. About a mile behind, Baine saw another ship. Visibility here was well over ten miles, the arid land flat. The blue-gray canal water shimmered with reflected sunlight, the sky a bright blue and the sand bordering the water the color of a camel.
“Nope,” he said. “No service out here at all.”
They sat down on the sandy bank to watch for the Russian ship. Ten minutes later, they’d seen two ships pass and a third was inching closer. A truck with a 50-caliber machine gun mounted in the bed pulled in behind their car, and two uniformed members of the Egyptian military climbed out.
“Fuck,” Baine said. “Antonio, glamour them or something. Get rid of them.”
Antonio walked out to meet the two with a broad smile on his face.
Using the binoculars, Baine spotted a cargo ship getting closer. It could be the Volodarskiy. As it grew closer, his hopes rose. He heard noises behind him, looked, and saw Antonio in trouble. Two more trucks had pulled in. One of them carried a unit of heavily-armed soldiers who scrambled out of the back of the truck to surround Antonio.
Shaking his head, Baine returned to watching the canal. The Volodarskiy might be coming through, and Antonio should be able to handle himself. He was a vampire, after all.
He jumped when someone tapped him on the shoulder.
“Please come with me, sir,” a soldier said, speaking in heavily-accented English.
Baine leaped to his feet. “What the hell?”
“Please do not curse. Those of our faith do not appreciate foul language.”
Antonio stood in the middle of the soldiers with a strange expression on his face. When Baine made it across the sand to him, he lifted his eyebrows.
Antonio shrugged. “I guess I had a little too much sex with Afrikaisi. I’m weak. I lost a lot of blood.”
Baine’s mouth fell open. “You lost blood? What did you two do?”
Antonio grimaced. “What can I say? We like to suck.”
“What seems to be the problem?” Baine asked the soldier with the most metal on his uniform and the biggest attitude.
“You are not allowed to monitor the ships in the canal. It is our job to keep this area free of terrorists. I am afraid you will have to come with us. There are people who wish to ask you some questions.”
They were hustled into the back of the biggest truck. Baine sat on one bench staring at Antonio. He couldn’t believe the vampire had wasted himself to the point where he couldn’t even cast a simple glamour spell.
The ride to Suez passed quickly. They were frog-marched off the truck and into a squat concrete building. Two men hustled them down a flight of stairs into a prison. It was dark and smelled like shit, ancient urine and body odor.
The soldiers tossed them into a cell and slammed the door on them.
Baine ran to the bars. “Hey, how long are we gonna be here?”
All he heard was laughter from the two soldiers.
Baine glanced at his watch. Tonight was the first night of the full moon. When the moon rose, whether he wanted to or not, he’d turn into a mountain lion. If they had to stay in here very long, things in this cell were going to get a little intense. Antonio would surely get hungry and, Baine, the only item on the menu, was due to turn into a mountain lion. Sometimes he could control his alter ego and sometimes he could not.
“Antonio, how long until you get your strength back?”
“I need to feed.” He lifted his eyebrows.
“No fucking way you’re feeding off me.”
“Then we sit. I may never regain enough strength without feeding to get us out of here.”
“In five hours, I turn into a lion.”
“Interesting problem, is it not? And, in the meantime, dearest Alexandra may be passing through the canal, and we, her rescuers, sit helplessly incarcerated in an Egyptian prison.”
“Maybe when they come get us for our interrogation, you can dine on a guard.”
“Of course. That should help our situation immensely.”
Baine began to pace. If he’d had a tail, it would be thrashing back and forth. Antonio eyed the bench, brushed off some rat feces and sat down. He crossed one leg and closed his eyes. “Maybe if I rest, I’ll grow stronger.”
Bain took his cell phone out and glanced at the screen. “Hey,
I have full bars.”
Antonio leaped to his feet. “Call your friend and get us out of here.”
Inspector Lefevre answered after the first ring. The man must walk around with the phone in his hand.
“Hey Inspector, it’s Baine Tenbrook. How’s the search for the Volodarskiy going?”
Antonio lifted his hands and his eyebrows and mouthed, “What about us?”
“We were late getting to it in Singapore. As far as I know it’s approaching the Gulf of Aden. We have a ship on the way to intercept them before they get into the canal.”
Antonio nodded, eyes urging Baine on.
“Uh, Inspector, Antonio and I are in a situation.”
“What kind of situation, mon ami?”
“The kind where you get arrested as terrorists for watching ships go through the canal.”
The Inspector laughed. “Egyptian soldiers or police?”
“Soldiers.”
“Then, mon ami, you are well and truly screwed. I could work out something with Egyptian police, but the army is another matter. Are you in a prison?”
“Yeah, I think in Suez.”
“I am so very sorry. I will make a few calls, talk to some people in Cairo, but I do not think it will accomplish anything.”
“Thanks, Inspector. Will your people be able to stop the ship before it gets to Istanbul?”
“Oui. Of that, you can be sure.”
“Good deal. Thanks, Inspector. I’ll call you again in a couple of days.”
“Bon.”
“I take it he can’t do anything either?” Antonio said.
“You got that right. Can you call anyone?”
“I can try Africaisi. She may be able to get us out. The Daughters are very powerful.”
Baine handed him the phone. “Tell her to hurry, or she’ll be rescuing a mountain lion.”
* * * *
Mina inserted her key in the lock of the neighboring room. The door swung open without turning the key. The room was unlocked. Mina’s heart sank. Either she or Nicholas had left this room open.
The Secret, the Shifter and the Sex- Slave Shanghai Page 10