“Your decision. But it might help you relax. Think about it.” DeLeo clicked off.
Dan put the phone down. He was not looking forward to the smirk on Marcos’ face when he found out his assignment.
Chapter 2
“So, her Amp and Gent are both due at two. Did I forget anything?” Laura rubbed her dry, scratchy eyes. It was a good thing she’d turned her patient over to the ICU staff; she wasn’t a very good nurse anymore, not after fourteen straight hours. “Oh, and the dad is with the baby right now. Mom hasn’t seen her yet.”
“I’ll call the nursery after I get things settled and see if they can come down.” The ICU nurse bent over the computer and finished ordering the lab work due in the morning.
“Thanks.” Laura returned to the small room one more time, to let the woman on the narrow bed know that she had to leave now. It was tough to let go of a patient when they’d shared the last fourteen hours, first as nurse and laboring mother, and then as Laura and the team worked to save her life.
The young woman—Cora—had come in with her husband, excited and nervous as all first-time parents-to-be are. And then one after another, problems started. Cora developed a fever, the baby’s heart rate began to rise, and when Cora’s water broke, it was dark. It was an ominous sign, and the baby needed to get out, soon. Laura walked Cora up and down the halls, helped her sit on an exercise ball, and got down on the floor with her as the panting woman knelt on her hands and knees, trying to get the baby to turn and descend. And slowly but surely, the baby moved down. The midwife stopped staring at the surgeon’s phone number and started breathing again. Laura finally pulled out the delivery equipment table, and shortly before her shift was over at eleven pm, Cora pushed out a healthy seven pound, eight ounce baby girl. Everyone stood back to breathe a sigh of relief.
Until she started hemorrhaging. From there, it had gone downhill fast. She needed a transfusion. Then another. The midwife called the surgeon after all, and they took her back to the operating room to look for the reason for the bleeding. They found nothing. Then she developed DIC, her platelets no longer clumping to stop the bleeding. Laura had stayed way past quitting time, feverishly working with the night nurse, the midwife, the surgeon, and the rest of the team, until at last the bleeding slowed and Cora’s blood pressure came back up. They’d finally been able to transfer her to the ICU where she’d probably spend just two days before going home.
The ability of the human body and mind to recover from almost any trauma always amazed Laura.
She sneaked back into the room, weaving around the ICU staff and ducking under the lines attached to Cora. The new mother smiled a tired smile at the familiar face.
“I have to go now,” Laura informed her as she took her hand and squeezed it gently. “They’ll take good care of you here.”
The woman nodded, the action seeming to take all her strength. “Is the baby all right?” she whispered.
“She’s perfectly fine. She’s with Dad in the nursery, and they’ll come down as soon as you’re settled.”
“Does she have any hair? I didn’t even really get to see her before everything happened.” Her eyes were closed now, and her voice was sleepy.
“Yes.” Laura smiled. “She’s got a head full of golden brown hair. The most I’ve seen on a baby for a while, actually.”
“Thank you.”
“I’ll look in on you guys tomorrow.”
Cora nodded and then one of the nurses interrupted to attach a blood pressure cuff to her arm. With a final squeeze of her hand, Laura turned and left, making her bleary way back towards Labor and Delivery.
She stopped in the nursery. The dad was sitting in a rocking chair, holding his newborn daughter while she slept, the little girl thankfully oblivious to how close her mother had come to dying. He looked up at Laura’s approach.
“She’s getting settled in the room.” Laura smiled reassuringly. The poor guy was exhausted. “You can go down in a few minutes, and probably bring the baby with you.” Laura reached out to touch the tiny hand and smiled when the baby reflexively grabbed her finger.
He reached out to take her other hand. “Thanks,” he said simply as he squeezed it tight. She leaned over to give him a hug. It always struck her how couples could walk in here as complete strangers to her, but end up with a bond of shared experience that was unlike any she’d ever known. They’d met only fourteen hours ago, but they would remember each other for the rest of their lives.
She made her way to the break room hoping there was something to eat. Finding only a half a blueberry donut left from the evening shift, she ate it in three bites while she finished her charting on the computer. She desperately hoped there was something in her refrigerator at home. Or maybe she’d just go to bed. That sounded even better.
“You meeting your guy for coffee tonight?” Melissa, one of the night nurses, leaned over the counter in front of Laura.
“He’s not my guy. He’s just a friend. And no, I’m not, which is good, ‘cause I’m getting out two hours late.”
Melissa cocked a skeptical eyebrow. “Mmm hmm. I bet he’d wait. I’ve seen you dump every boyfriend you ever had, but this guy seems to always be there in the background. Maybe it’s time you looked a little closer to home for what you want.”
“Oh, God, Mel, please stop. I’m just too tired to come up with witty counter-arguments tonight.”
“Okay, but you just think about how nice it would be to go home tonight to a steady, reliable man who’d have dinner made and probably give you a foot rub.”
“Yeah. Don’t exist. Now please let me finish so I can go home to my cold, dark apartment, which might or might not have leftovers in the refrigerator.”
The older nurse reached over the counter to give Laura’s shoulder an affectionate squeeze before she vanished into a patient room. Laura put her face in her hands for just a moment as Melissa’s words sparked a fantasy in her mind. The front door would open as she arrived home, and silhouetted against the light would be a figure she couldn’t see clearly. He’d pull her inside and kiss her hard, causing her to drop her purse and everything else on the floor. Then he’d pick her up in his arms and carry her to the bedroom, where he’d efficiently remove every piece of clothing despite her feeble protests that she was too tired for sex. And then he’d carry her to the shower where he would wash and massage her from head to toe before tucking her in bed with a promise that he’d claim her in the morning after she slept.
Laura woke with a start, her dream gone. She sighed and clicked on the last item to fill out. ‘All belongings placed on stretcher and transported with patient. Taken to ICU room 3. Report given to oncoming nurse.’ Done.
She drove home through the empty and silent streets, her thoughts drifting to what Mel had said. The nurse was right—Laura’s relationships never lasted. She would date one guy for a while, then get tired of him and gradually stop answering the phone. A few just drifted away; one or two begged and pleaded to know what they’d done wrong, but she just couldn’t tell them because she didn’t know herself. She longed for someone—just once—to fight back, to make it clear to her that she meant enough to him that he wouldn’t let her push him away.
She thought about Dan. Memories floated through her mind of spending long summer days in each other’s adjoining back yards. He’d been fun to play with. He always had the best ideas and she’d eagerly gone along with whatever he had in mind.
She colored as she remembered that once they’d played cops and robbers. She’d been caught ‘stealing’ and he was the cop who ‘arrested’ her. He tied her up and she was having a grand time until her mother came out and demanded with horror that Dan let her go immediately. Laura remembered being really mad that the game had been interrupted.
They remained close during high school but went their separate ways for college—he to study business, and she to study nursing. Both moved to other states for a while, and both came back home after a few years to rekindle their friendship.
&n
bsp; Dan had looked older, much older than he was, like he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. They started meeting for coffee every other week after her Saturday evening shift was done. She got the idea that he wasn’t exactly in business anymore, but some kind of clandestine law enforcement that he refused to talk about. He never said anything, but she knew him well enough to know what he wasn’t saying. The only reference he ever made to what he was doing was that he needed to talk to her because she reminded him of what was normal. He never elaborated. Sometimes they just sat in comfortable, tired, silence until he’d look at his watch and announce he had to go.
She shook herself out of the reverie she’d fallen into on the quiet and familiar trip home. The peace flew away as she pulled into the parking lot behind her building and noticed that the damn security light was out again. She’d nagged maintenance to fix it for over a month, and it was finally working again yesterday. Mindful of Dan’s cautions, she looked around before she got out of the car, then held her keys sticking through her fist as she walked briskly to the security door. As she paused to unlock it, a shadow rose from the bushes next to her. Instinct made her turn to flee but a hand grabbed her hair and yanked her backwards. She tried to scream but another hand went over her mouth and something sickly sweet filled her nostrils. In her panic, she breathed hard and a moment later, everything went dark…
~ ~ ~
For a while, there was a shadowy confusion of darkness, a splitting headache, a feeling of not being able to move her arms or legs, and a sensation of traveling. She tried to think hard about what was happening, but then the sickly sweet smell returned and the world faded away again.
At last, consciousness seeped back into her. Pain danced around inside her head like exploding fireworks, and nausea swelled like an ocean tide, but the hard floor she lay on was cool and soothing. She blinked and opened her eyes against the light. Her breath quickened as she realized she was in a small concrete room. The only interruption in the solid gray walls was a door across from where she lay.
Her arms were bound behind her and attached to her ankles, and the pain of her cramped limbs was becoming intense. There was a band of something stiff around her throat.
It began to dawn on her that she was in big trouble. She’d been kidnapped. Oh god oh god oh god her brain began to chant as she slipped into a panic. She heard someone whimpering and realized it was her. She tried to calm her breathing but was losing that fight rapidly.
“Help me,” she whispered. “Someone help me, please…” It was more of a prayer than a cry for help. She was afraid that calling any louder might attract the attention of whomever had brought her here.
Her headache was growing worse, so she closed her eyes against the light and tried to pull herself together. Losing her shit wasn’t going to help. With her eyes closed, she tested the strength of her bonds and found no give.
The time wore on—five minutes or five hours—she had nothing to tell her how long she had laid there except that her headache had lessened and the pain in her arms and back had increased. Suddenly, the heavy door burst open and she shrieked and shrank back as much as her bonds allowed. A man entered with some kind of equipment that he began to set up. He was followed by another man who advanced on her with a smile that reminded her of a jackal about to take down its prey. She tried to wiggle away as he bent over her, his foul breath bringing her nausea back, but the wall behind her prevented any escape. Suddenly, the tension on her wrists and ankles was released and she cried out in pain. A thought went through her that she really should fight back while she was unrestrained, but she had no control over her stiff limbs, so she merely followed his movements with wide eyes.
He motioned to the other guy who came over, and the two of them hauled her to her feet. Now she started struggling, her attempts pitifully weak. She heard herself begging. “Please, let me go, please, don’t hurt me, please, please, don’t hurt me…” Tears of fear gathered in the corners of her eyes and ran down her face.
They ignored her entreaties as they backed her against the wall. Her legs refused to hold her steady so bad breath man pressed himself against her to hold her upright. She tried to bite him, but his large hand covered her throat and pushed her head back into the wall. The other man raised her left arm, now adorned with a black cuff, and clipped it to a hook on the wall above and to the side. She struggled as her right arm was fastened the same way. They stood back and looked at her. Then the equipment guy moved to grab her ankle and without thought, she lashed out at him with her foot, catching him in the balls and dropping him to the ground in pain. To her utter surprise, Bad Breath started laughing.
“That’s what you get for letting your guard down. Next time you’ll remember. Never go at ‘em by yourself and straight on. Now get up off your sorry ass so we can finish this.” The guy on the floor struggled to his feet, looking daggers at Laura, who was beginning to regret what she’d done. The two of them pounced simultaneously, each grabbing an ankle, and she lost her balance to hang from her arms as they spread her legs wide and fastened them to hooks protruding from the floor. She managed to get her weight on her feet again, but now she was really stretched tight. In an odd moment, she realized she still had her pink scrubs from work on.
Bad Breath turned to her. “I’m Master 3. And though what happened to Master 5 was actually pretty funny, you are going to be punished for that.”
A wave of fear rose and threatened to cut off her breathing. This was more than just a run-of-the-mill kidnapping, if there were such a thing. “Why are you doing this?” she asked, her voice tremulous and little louder than a whisper.
He ignored her question. “Master 5 is going to get the camera going. In the meantime, do you have any health problems or allergies?”
She stared at him, unwilling to answer his question. He slapped her face, whipping it to the side. Her head exploded with fresh pain.
“Do you have any health problems or allergies?” he repeated, his tone menacing. “The last girl who didn’t tell me wound up dead because we didn’t know something.”
Last girl?
Dead?
She shook her head frantically.
“Any medications?”
She shook her head again.
“Thank you.”
He looked over at Master 5, who nodded. She heard the beep of a recording camera. Master 3 produced a pair of bandage scissors, the kind with the blunt ends to prevent them from stabbing into the skin by accident, and sliced up the middle of her scrub shirt, right through the center of her bra. He spread the fabric to reveal her breasts. “Nice.” He nodded approvingly. He ran a hand across her nipples and she caught her breath.
“No, please don’t,” she said reflexively, trying to pull away. He ignored her as he continued cutting until the shirt and bra were nothing more than pink and tan shreds that he yanked away from her body. He leaned down and sliced her pants legs from the bottom up, catching her underwear as he went, and with another yank, the last shreds of clothing fell away. She was chanting a continuous litany of “please stop, please stop, please stop” with her eyes closed, though the logical part of her brain told her he wasn’t going to stop, and this was just the beginning of things she couldn’t imagine.
A sharp pain in her nipple made her eyes and mouth fly open at the same time. In an instant, something was shoved between her teeth, and she tasted the bare metal of a ring gag, something she’d seen before but never had any desire to experience. He fastened it behind her head despite her best efforts to pull away. When he stepped back, she strained to dislodge it from between her teeth but it held fast.
He turned to the camera and began to talk.
“Good evening, sir. This is subject 184. Her name is Laura. She was a nurse. She is 150lbs, healthy, and taken just a few hours ago. She doesn’t know why she’s here yet.”
She barely wondered at the use of past tense with her occupation as he turned to her. “We’ll start the exam now.”
&nbs
p; He ran his hands over her body. She keened a low cry as he stroked and teased her nipples, tugging on one and then the other. He pinched them until she yelped in pain. Master 5 moved the camera around the room, capturing everything from different angles.
With wide eyes, she saw Master 3 put on a pair of gloves, and her heart sank. He moved in between her legs as the camera jockeyed to get the best angle, and slipped his fingers between her folds. She screeched and writhed but only succeeded in flinging drool off her chin and down her stomach. He pulled her labia apart, revealing the pink flesh inside to the camera lens.
“She’s shaved.”
Without warning, he shoved two fingers up inside all the way to his knuckle. She screamed in pain, her body going up on tiptoes as high as possible, but his hand just followed her movement up and there was no relief. She felt the fingers move around inside before he pulled them out.
“Moderately tight.”
She squealed again as the same fingers sought and breached her back entrance. This time it was a burning that she fought to expel but couldn’t. Fear gave way to anger at the violations and she strained frantically in her bonds as she screamed indecipherable hate at him, her mind lost to reason.
Master 3 made no reaction except to stand back out of the way of the camera with his arms crossed while she raged. Eventually her screams turned back to quiet crying as she realized she had gained nothing except chafed wrists and a sore throat. She closed her eyes and hung her head, her breath coming in quiet jerky sobs.
And then she heard something turn on and she looked up. No, No, please… She shook her head frantically back and forth as he placed a vibrator between her legs. The shock of it made her arch up onto her toes again, but like his fingers, the device followed her up. She was helpless to escape the buzzing and vibrating centered directly on her clit. She’d never felt so out of control in her life as her body responded to the sensation she didn’t want and would do anything to get away from. Wave after wave of unwanted pleasure rose up in her until she exploded in front of them, shaking, moaning, and crying all at once.
A Captive of Fear and Desire Page 2