by Kitty Thomas
Annette was sure she couldn’t hide the terror on her face. She didn’t trust that things would go as smoothly as her sister thought they would. And she also wasn’t convinced Anton wouldn’t make good on his threat to kill her. If it was hard for her sister to live with her own freedom at the price of Annette’s enslavement, she couldn’t imagine how Janette would cope with her death. And then there was the chance Anton would get suspicious and he or Brian would kill her sister.
But she couldn’t speak openly with Anton sitting right across from her. And he definitely wouldn’t leave her alone.
“No,” she said firmly as if she were disciplining a small child. She looked up in time to see Anton’s eyes narrow. He knew the direction their conversation had just gone down.
Anton held out his hand for the phone. Reluctantly Annette passed it to him.
“Are you about to be very stupid?” he said into the phone, his voice going to a scary calm place. He didn’t seem agitated at all. That lack of agitation scared Annette more than if he’d started yelling. She tried to focus on finishing her breakfast, but it had lost all taste suddenly.
She took a sip of coffee without adding cream or sugar, and even the bitterness didn’t register.
“Believe me when I tell you, we have the highest tech security system money can buy. We will know in advance if the feds come. And I may go down, but I will personally put the bullet through your sister’s head. Are you willing to risk that? The odds are not in your favor. You and your sister will have comfortable lives. You will talk to each other. You will see each other. IF you play my game by my rules. If you don’t, you will lose everything. I don’t care about your feelings. This is your life now. This is her life now. Accept your fate.”
He handed the phone back to Annette. When she put it to her ear, her sister was crying. “He means it. Please. This is the best outcome we have at this point. You’ll go through school debt free. All your bills are paid.”
“But what about you?” she said.
“I will be fine. I promise.”
“Has he hurt you?”
“No.” It was sort of true. He hadn’t physically hurt her himself. Then she added, “He took me to the ballet.”
This admission startled Janette enough to get her to calm down. “He what?”
“Took me to the ballet. It was very lovely, and then we went to a party. I had a really nice dinner on his jet. So see? I’m living the dream. Prince charming. Gorgeous. Rich. Taking me out to shows and parties.”
“He threatened to kill us! None of the rest matters.”
“Fucking stop it, Jan. For God’s sake. I’m the one in his house. Not you. Go the fuck to school. Live your life. We will talk and see each other. Life doesn’t always turn out how you plan. Stop worrying about what might happen and deal with what is actually happening!” Maybe it was good advice she should be taking herself.
More tears.
“Are you going to tell anyone about this?” Annette asked.
“No. But a few people have asked about you.”
“What did you tell them?”
“I told them you got a modeling job overseas.”
“Did they buy it?”
“I think so.”
“Good.”
Anton motioned for the phone again. When Annette passed it to him he said, “Would you like to see your sister?”
A pause. Then he spoke again. “I will allow you to see her soon if you keep your mouth shut.”
He handed the phone back to Annette. She took a deep breath. She had to nip this in the bud now. She knew how Jan could be. She was like a dog with a bone if she got an idea into her head. Annette had to convince her that hurting Anton would hurt her. And not just in the sense that he might shoot her before the feds could arrive. Jan would always think of some way they could do this to get her out safely. She had to lie to her sister, and she had to make her believe it.
“Jan, do you love me?”
“You know I do. That’s such a stupid question.”
“Then don’t hurt him. Please.” She glanced across the table at Anton to see an eyebrow raise.
“What do you mean don’t hurt him?”
“I mean… I have feelings.” As insane as it was, it wasn’t a complete lie. Otherwise how could she have been hurt by Anton being with Katya at the party?
“What is that supposed to mean? You just met him, and he’s a psycho!”
And here was where the acting came in. This was the moment when all the phone sex lies had to pay off because never had she needed to sell a story more than now.
“He’s not a psycho. Think about this for a minute. He didn’t even mean to kidnap you. He thought it was me. It was just a sex game gone wrong. That’s it. You have to see this from his perspective. He didn’t have to let you go at all. They could have killed you. They could have killed me. I am attracted to him. Believe me, being with him is no great trauma. Just leave this alone. Don’t destroy us all because of some weird moral code you’re following. I realize this is unconventional, but please, if you love me at all, just leave this alone. You would know if I were lying. Do you think I’m lying?”
There was a long pause. Annette thought for a second the call might have dropped but then her sister spoke. “No, I don’t think you’re lying. But I think you’re crazy.”
“What kind of future was I going to have? Do you want me to be a phone sex operator my whole life? Did you think I was going to find some better catch of a man to whisk me off and take care of me? You are getting everything with school and your bills paid. Can’t you let me have this one thing? This one fucking thing, after all I’ve done for you?”
Janette sighed, exasperated. “You know it’s not like that. I’m just scared for you. You’re a hostage.”
“That was my choice. Just wait it out. If you do anything else you are risking both our lives, and you would be taking something away from me that I want just because you’re scared.”
“Okay. I’ll wait it out. But I have to talk to you every day, or I will go to the police. I have to see you, and I have to know you’re really okay.”
“Talk to Anton about it.” Annette handed him the phone.
“Yes?” he said.
A couple of minutes of silence on Anton’s end passed.
“Done,” he said and disconnected the call. He pocketed the cell and just looked at Annette until she thought she might crawl out of her own skin.
“How much of that was lies?” he asked.
“I had to tell her what was necessary to make sure she wouldn’t go to the police.”
“Why do you care if she goes to them? What if they could safely get you out and capture me?”
Annette looked down at her plate, the remaining eggs having gone cold and inedible. She felt the tears start to slide down her cheeks. She didn’t want to be having this conversation.
“Today we start fresh. I expected too much from you without training. But I think the situation has finally sunk in with you. Yes?”
“Yes, Master,” she said quietly.
“You will see and talk to your sister, but you are never going home. You are mine. You agreed to this. There is no out with me. So you will not behave like you did last night at the party.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t help that I was hurt and scared.”
“Scared of what?”
She wiped the tears off her face with the back of her hand. “That you’d get bored with me. And how badly that could go for me and my sister.”
“If you think I get bored with absolute power, you don’t know the first thing about me.”
“Are you going to hurt her?”
“Because of her threats? No. I think I made my point. She knows it’s too big of a risk. She’s just testing boundaries. Just like you are.”
Annette let out a slow breath. She was determined to just let this play out. It was the only option.
“I have some things to do. You’re free to wander around, but I want you back here at thre
e. There are clocks all over the house, so you have no excuses.”
He put everything on the cart and rolled it back inside.
Annette took a quick shower and put on some shorts and a T-shirt from one of the guest rooms. She also found panties and some socks. What about shoes? She wanted to go outside, but all she had were heels.
She remembered again the bags on the floor of the closet. She kept forgetting about them in all the hysteria. The bags were all from trendy clothing stores, shoe stores, and lingerie stores. She didn’t open the bags with the lingerie or even the clothes. She could dig through all of that later.
She went straight for the shoes.
“AH!” she shrieked. It was the happiest moment she’d experienced in days. This must be what Janette thought she would love her for. In one of the boxes were a pair of expensive running shoes she’d had her eye on for months. She’d tried them on in a store not too long ago, back when her life had been normal, knowing she would never be able to afford them. They were the most comfortable shoes she’d ever put on her feet. They were also pretty cute.
She put them on and went outside. It was weird standing outside the front door. Her first day, she’d lounged by the pool, but she hadn’t had the nerve to explore the property. Partly she’d been afraid Brian or one of the others would think she was trying to escape, and Janette would be in danger.
But the question was, how far did the perimeter go? Brian pulled up in a black SUV as if on cue. He took a couple of black bags out of the vehicle which Annette was sure probably contained weapons. It could technically be anything, but what else would he be carrying around in reinforced nylon bags?
“S-sir?”
Brian looked surprised at being addressed. She was a little surprised, too, but Anton had been clear about forms of address and she knew Brian was the type who wouldn’t take kindly to familiarity from her.
“What?” came his gruff reply.
“How far out does the perimeter go?”
A dark smile spread across his face. “Why don’t you go find out? It won’t kill you. It’s just a little zap when you cross the line. It only gets bad enough to knock you out the farther you go outside it.”
He could be lying. But Anton said Brian was in charge of security, so he’d be the only one who knew. She couldn’t ask anything else because he’d already gone into the house.
Annette took a few tentative steps in one direction. With each step she was afraid she’d get shocked. After going a decent distance from the house in an open clearing, she started to think the perimeter was made up and didn’t really exist. Or else the bracelet didn’t do anything at all.
Until the shock came.
“Ouch!”
She jumped back and made a mental note. From there, she went around the house to see if the perimeter was equal all the way around. The pool was nestled into an alcove at the back of the house closest to the cafeteria. Behind the house, a few yards off, was a big cluster of trees that went dark and deep.
When she got closer, she found the trees were thick enough here to be considered woods, but they weren’t so thick you couldn’t easily move through them. Some areas were sparser than others. There was one spot with a break in the trees where sunlight shown through in almost magical strips of light beside a stream. She stepped over the stream and continued tentatively forward each step bracing for the shock.
Annette was sure she’d reach the end of the perimeter soon. She should have reached it already. This felt much farther out than she’d been before in any other direction. What if there was a weak spot in Brian’s security? Maybe the perimeter didn’t go through this part of the woods. But of course it would have to, wouldn’t it? If he wanted to both keep people from going out and know if others were coming in that shouldn’t.
But what about wildlife? If animals tripped the perimeter would Brian get some kind of alert? She’d walked what felt like over a mile, and she was beginning to really think there was a hole in the invisible fence. Then another shock came.
Annette leapt back. When the pain of the electric zap faded, she bent and picked up a nearby rock to make a mark in the nearest tree. She’d walked straight out from a certain line at the pool and if she came this way again, she would know how far was too far if there was a marking to warn her. She didn’t want to keep getting shocked each time she miscalculated.
She remembered smelling fresh paint inside part of the house, so there were probably paint cans inside somewhere. If she could find them, she could mark the tree more permanently.
Annette wandered back to the small clearing with the sunlight shining in and the water. She sat with her back pressed up against a large oak tree near the stream and watched the tiny fish swimming by. They seemed to be carried by the current more than actively swimming.
The birds chattered loudly in the trees, sometimes swooping in and out from tree to tree, sometimes fighting with each other. She looked up suddenly. Mere feet away stood a young deer.
She held her breath, mesmerized. After a frozen moment of fear, it scampered off, going far beyond the perimeter line into the thicker woods.
Annette was really more of a city person—or she’d thought she was. But there was something safe and calming about being out in nature where she was just another one of the animals and nothing out in the real, modern world mattered at all. When she was free to go where she wanted, she could see retreating out to this peaceful place to just be.
She wasn’t sure how long she sat out there, but as the sun’s angle shifted, she worried about what time it was. She got up and practically ran back to the house. As she crossed through the cafeteria she smelled fresh bread baking. Her heart sank into her stomach when she saw the clock on the wall. It was three fifteen.
52
“You’re late.” Anton said when she burst through the door at three twenty. “What have you been doing? You’re filthy. Did you roll in mud?”
“I was outside. I’m sorry. There wasn’t a clock out there.”
He watched her until she grew visibly uncomfortable. After a minute or so, she pulled a leaf out of her long blonde hair and laid it on a table beside the door. She wouldn’t stop fidgeting.
“I take it you want to start every day with punishment, yes?”
She looked down at the ground. “No, Master.”
He closed his laptop and laid it on the bed beside him then carefully placed his folded reading glasses on top of it.
“Hmmmm,” he said, still watching her. In truth he hadn’t minded the extra time. He’d just finished the last of his emails and had arranged things at the spa to move his appointments to other massage therapists for the week. But he’d said three.
He wanted to have plenty of time with Annette to set a routine for them. He might have made a million mistakes with her already, but he wasn’t a total amateur at this. If he treated her like just another sub and moved through his training protocol, he could salvage this wreck he’d created.
Despite the fucked-up situation, he was sure he could gain her trust if he stuck to the script and didn’t introduce her to new scenarios he wasn’t in full control of. He was sure, despite placing too many demands and stresses on her too soon that she was still attracted to him. He could use that to mold and shape her. By the time he was finished, she wouldn’t remember she was a hostage. After all, whether lying or not, it wasn’t like she hadn’t agreed with him in the club that night that she wanted to be whisked away to his castle to be his property. And that conversation had taken place well before he’d mistakenly kidnapped her sister.
Anton gestured to the bathroom. “Go take another shower. Then dry your body and your hair and put on the pineapple-flavored whipped body cream in the drawer. I like the taste of it. Then you will come out here and kneel beside me with your eyes down and your legs spread with your palms face up on your knees. Do you understand these directions?”
“Yes, Master.”
“Good. Go.”
When she’d clos
ed the bathroom door, he went down to the main floor. Besides the dungeons down below, there were several play rooms on the main level which were being set up for training. Brian and Gabe both had their hands full with this activity when Anton reached them.
Lindsay was in the city with a patient. No doubt he was interviewing her to see if he should bring her to the house to be trained and sold.
The doctor wasn’t supposed to talk about his patients, but none of them were supposed to be selling well-trained sex slaves, either. The guys—minus Anton—had poured through patient files and notes while Anton had been at the ballet and party with Annette the previous night.
They already had seven potentials to consider for training. Most of the women were isolated in the city without family or friends. It was a perfect pool to draw from. They were desperate to be taken in and taken care of, and their kinks made it easy to ply them with pleasure and pain in exchange for their absolute submission.
Several huge boxes had been delivered for the play rooms. Brian and Gabe were busy assembling a medical table with stirrups in a room where Lindsay had already set up his other medical supplies. On the far end of this room they’d set up a round bed with studio lighting and cameras.
“Are we making porn, now, too?” Anton asked, eyeing the photo shoot setup.
“Brian suggested we should take dirty pictures and video to show the buyers,” Gabe said.
“Why would we do that?” Anton asked.
Brian rolled his eyes while he struggled with some metal bolts in the table. “Because, you half-wit, we don’t want them coming to the house until money exchanges hands. We want them completely implicated. And they shouldn’t get to window shop or touch the girls if they aren’t buying. This isn’t a brothel.”
“Did everything for the other play rooms arrive?” Anton asked, deciding not to get into it with Brian right then. Annette would be out of the shower soon, and he wanted to be ready for her, not arguing with Brian over something stupid.
“It’s all still in boxes, but the dungeons are now functional if you want to use those for training. Most of the toys can be sterilized but a few I ordered in large multiples, one per girl.”