Lay Ladies Lay...

One quick movement and the strip of tape that was dangling on the blonde’s left cheek now covered her lips. She smothered the edge of the tape over her third captive’s right cheek and stood up, the angry mewls coming from behind her made her take another look at the lesbian couple she was expecting to be the only ones present in the room.

Sheriff ‘Princeton’ McCabe was quite passive, if compared to her wife that is.

But both women had been subjected to her over three decades long ‘expertise’ in knots and ropes, and weren’t going anywhere but a few inches from where each woman had been ‘anchored’ to over their king size bed. Not that they didn’t tried to change their helpless situation… so she slapped each woman’s exposed behind before she went to search that album where the blonde told her to moments before.

Lay, lady, lay, lay across my big brass bed

Lay, lady, lay, lay across my big brass bed…

She chuckled, one of her trademarks was that she always left a song playing over and over again to make ‘company’ for her victims, and the funny thing was that both (lady) cops were lying across their own big brass bed indeed! But she wasn’t there for the thrill of robbing (and tying and gagging) the policewomen…

it’s been years since she had been so brazen and immodest! She wasn’t like that anymore…

But the idea of leaving the couple as she had left that crooked cop and the male stripper she had hired with the money she had stolen from a few of her friends… tempting!

This was better to be good… and she had a hunch that it was.

Whatever colors you have in your mind
I'll show them to you and you'll see them shine…

As soon as she started to threaten the trio of lesbian women with public humiliation (she was either going to find the ‘mementos’ of their ‘sessions’ together or make a few of them in the next minutes… either way she would soon have a lot of very compromising pictures that none of them three would want to be made public, so they would have to do her biding or else…), the youngest of them and the only blonde woman in the room, obviously the couple’s bondage slave, had started to make too much noise under her gag, but while the other two were obviously cursing her or making their own threats, she was more like she wanted to talk with their captor.

Well, she wasn’t as well gagged as the other two, so her ‘gaggish’ (as she used to call it) was way more understandable… only a single and wide strip of tape wasn’t as effective as old movies and TV episodes had once made her believe (once, and just once!)…

And because of her talk there she was, looking for an album of pictures in a big square red box over three bigger (and yellow) ones. OK, this was the album where the sheriff (that she knew was famous for her devotion to old western TV shows and movies) kept her mementos of all the conventions she had ever attended…

James Arness, Richard Boone (?) (but the guy had died in 198… something!, well, the sheriff was in her pre-teens in that picture), Lee Majors, Roy Rogers… She should go straight to the last picture but now she was enjoying a trip down memory lane… and the trio of captives was right in front of her and in spite of the cops’ efforts (the blonde was passive) she knew that they had no chance of freeing themselves.

The before the last picture showed the sheriff and… what was her name again? A B-movie dame that had worked on many movie serials and even some 3 Stooges flicks… It was a recent one (less than two years, tops!). She turned the page and there it was… a group shot of one man right in the middle of a row of six women.

There was the blonde lawyer, the sheriff, her second-in-command (and wife) and the guy, then Mrs. B-Movie and two extremely beautiful unknown girls (both ‘dressed’ as conservatively as possible for two blue/beige pin-up cowgirls). And the guy was none other than Jeb Norbertson… which meant that the blonde lawyer was… Oh… NO!!!!

‘Dayna K. Green?’ – and, to her stupefaction and slight terror, the kneeling blonde just nodded! – ‘Oh *****!!!! This place is wired, right?’

But to the amazement of the cops, who had started to nod, Dayna shook her head!

‘This place is not wired? There’s no one coming to…’ – Dayna shook her head more vehemently as the anguish and disbelief in the other captives grew exponentially.

‘Then why did you…?’ – But Dayna’s only reaction was to look down, as if she could see her own tape gag, and then up, straight to her eyes, in defiance…

‘Is she always like that?’ – She asked to the two cops, the younger one nodded and was scolded and shoulder-butted by her wife. She clicked the sound system shut and walked the short distance between her and Dayna still holding the album in her left hand, and with a quick motion of her right one the strip of tape was now being smashed up by her fingers… Dayna worked her jaw a little before speaking.

‘Thank you…’ – She turned her attention to the other captives first – ‘Please!!! Let me handle this!!’ – And then she turned to their captor – ‘Look, you ARE the real ‘Feline’, right? And you claim that all those burglaries that we had the past three weeks were NOT your job, YOU are NOT back in the business…, right?’ – and again she nodded to the blonde woman in front of her – ‘Well, you managed to invade the house where the two best cops in a twenty miles radius live together, you managed to be quick and sneaky enough to overpower them both and tie them as they are now…’

‘And you.’

‘I am but a dead weight, madam, no matter how many classes I take in self-defense I would never ever be a challenge or a risk to anyone, much less you…’

‘So…?’

‘I could have pretended that you are in trouble now and that Jeb’s famous ‘commandos’ are zeroing in this place as we speak, but what could that possibly give me and them but a short relief? Sure, you would leave this house faster than I can say ‘Now!’, but you would still be with that ‘insult’ to yourself guiding your next moves…’

‘It’s not a matter of pride…’

‘Whatever… You are determined to find out WHO posed as yourself and committed those burglaries, and you won’t gonna stop until you get her name… right?’

‘Yes… so?’

‘You just found out that I am the protégée (and former lawyer and friend-for-life) of one of California’s most infamous billionaires, so you won’t gonna even try to mess with me or my mistresses as you were about to… right?’

All three women could see where she was heading, and that she was right…

‘So WHO are you going to go after to in order to fulfill this need of yours if you can’t touch me or my mistresses’ reputation as you were planning? Not even YOU know that yet, but tomorrow you probably would have a list of names… right?’

Right. She needed to clear her name if she wanted her daughter to allow her to see her grandson again, plain and simple like that. Due to her... former line of work, as if her current one wasn’t troublesome enough!, they had never been in good terms… but after many years of such a ‘clean’ (as kinky as it was) income she had managed to destroy any objections that Bellamy (that good-for-nothing son-in-law of hers) had against close contacts between her and Timothy, only to have whoever was the ********* behind the newest ‘Feline Felon’’s (WHERE was her common sense when she had adopted such ridiculous nickname? What was she trying to be then, a Catwoman wannabe?) crime-spree reestablish those walls back in place again! She needed to clear her name!

‘And you don’t want it to happen… So what are you proposing?’

‘First thing first, you obviously saw the boxes where they keep the stuff we use in our ‘sessions’ together, right?’ – As if the fact that the tape she had used on the blonde wasn’t too ‘psychedelic’ (she had been gagged with a more common color, moss green), that both cops ‘wore’ blue and red rope and bright shiny red ballgags, and that there was a lot of kinky stuff sprawled over the bed around and in between the two older women wasn’t a giveaway! – ‘There is a medium sized pot in one of them with some earplugs. Pick two for each one of them, and a pair of blindfold with locks and…’

Moments later the two cops’ impotent fury was fairly obvious as Dayna was hopping her way to another room with the retired cat burglar in tow. The no longer retired criminal was feeling eerie about the whole situation, and the fact that the busty and naked gal in front of her seemed to be, even as helpless as she was, in charge of it was really getting into her nerves! So she grabbed the blonde’s right shoulder, spun her around and threw her over her own right shoulder and carried her to the kitchen...

She was still recovering from that stupid ‘act of reaffirmation of power towards her bound and gagged captive’ (or whatever) when she removed the tape over Dayna’s lips, she had never seen a captive so cooperative in her life (now that she stopped to think about she could list four or five windows she opened to any act from Dayna’s part)…

Dayna had a proposition to make, one that would solve a lot of issues including the ones that her captor was having with her double/copycat or whatever, but she had to be sure that her mistresses (and much more) would not be aware of it in any circumstance.

Meanwhile Ilena and Princeton did their best to worm their way across and over the myriad of BDSM related stuff they were feeling that had been dumped over and around their bodies, so they could have at least a tiny little chance to free each other. But the anchor ties (that kept Ilena linked to the back posts of the bed and Princeton to the front ones) were there to stay, and their fingers were useless under all that tape and…

What the ******* was Dayna (that wonderfully mad toy that fate, and very dangerous criminals, had brought to their lives) planning to do this time?

Twenty minutes later she finished the simple bonds she had placed over the couple after she had sprayed Quick Nap straight to their faces. If, after they woke up that is, it took more than five minutes for them to free each other… she had to admit that officer Ilena (the youngest woman in that house at the moment) had quite a beautiful body, and that if she was into women she might be tempted to…, but she wasn’t. Her current line of work was both profitable and enjoyable, but did not reflect her own sexuality… Sheriff Princeton (why did the locals call her that?) for her side was in a very good shape for a woman in her late forties, she probably had had those muscles all her life, she struck as the kind of people that did a hundred push-ups after waking up, and as a former military lady (most likely Army…). Both were now naked and with a quite minimal amount of rope over their bodies, and Dayna, free of any kind of bondage, kissed both women over their tape covered lips before she stood up… and activated the sound system.

Stay, lady, stay…

Stay while the night is still ahead…

‘Now what?’

‘You came into the house through…?’

‘I still know how to deal with an alarm as pitiful as the one they have here, but how did you enter this house…?’ – ‘…naked as you are’ she tried to complete, but Dayna just smiled and indicated (with her right index) her that she was to be followed.

They went straight to the basement of the one story house, and there it was… a door?

‘This particular house is quite old, as are the ones in this lane too. Back when they build it the Cuban Crisis was very fresh in everybody’s mind, so they sold this lane’s houses as the ones that had their own collective fallout shelter. Which it’s mostly in ruins now, decades without being used and such, and forgotten by pretty much everybody in town. But the tunnels connecting my house and theirs, and the one connecting the numbers 12, 14 and 16 of the other side of the street, are in good shape… and they make me clean it once a week all alone! Can you believe it?… So…’ – and she entered it.

It wasn’t lit in any way inside the twenty yards tunnel, but there was light coming from beyond the door where they were heading to.

Forty-six minutes later she finally finished to trash Dayna’s private office as the now apparently ‘impotent’ and ‘furious’ blonde woman had told her to.

Dayna was lying on the floor behind her, tautly hogtied in the buff and trashing her bonds as if she had any chance of getting herself free (or wish to do so), while she ‘apparently’ was looking for something hidden in the office.

Then she found it, there was indeed something inside that small elephant statue, and (as Dayna had told her to, while her captive pretended to get really desperate as she did so) she threw the statue against the wall and grabbed the pen-drive hidden in it.

The hardest thing in their performances for the hidden cameras was that she was posing as a bearded man, and had to squash her own breasts (far from being big but still…) with a belt in order to complete her disguise… but she was managing…

The camera recorded when she undid the ropes connecting Dayna’s ankles and wrists and freed her legs, then she spun the blonde around (making her face the camera lens) and tied more rope over her torso and breasts, finally she dragged the struggling captive away (to her garage and onto her own car’s trunk!) from the room…

For a few hours, the whole wide world believed that Sheriff ‘Princeton’ McCabe and her wife, officer Ilena DelRios, were only guilty of having slept while their next-door-neighbor (and big friend) Dayna Green was being kidnapped under their noses…

But as for the woman who had spent the past month living in the fallout shelter...

THE FIRST DAY OF DAYNA’S KIDNAPPING – MORNING

The news couldn’t be worst for her and the Bratva. Months of careful planning and data gathering down the drain, flushed by a (still) unknown party. And that wasn’t even the worst of it! Whoever he or she or they were...

Blood was going to flow rather freely.

Then came the phone call that even she was dreading to answer. Vadim Korlinev was a just superior, too firm and sometimes too demanding… but more just than half the other big names among the vor v zakone, but how could he be pleased with the news?

‘<Explain yourself.>’

‘<After we learned about the kidnapping I ordered that agents 1 and 2 stayed in place, but agent 3 was to move out. When our ‘cleaning crew’ showed up at his house two hours later they found hidden microphones and cameras all over the place. We sent the cleaning crew to agents 1 and 2 houses as well, and they found more of it...>’

‘<The whole operation was already compromised?>’

‘<For the past three months, at least, according to them...>’

‘<We have a mole among our ranks?>’

‘<Or a leak, that’s for sure.>’

And came the silence. Kornilev became really quiet when he pondered about the next movements his men and women would do, she could stand up there with a phone in her hand for ten minutes or ten hours for all he cared, and she would do it anyway.

She was ‘Dead Eyes’ Illyana, but HE scared her sometimes...

Then something in one of the screens in front of her got her attention...

‘<Sir?>’ – It was part of the unwritten rules between her and her superior that she should never interrupt his considerations, unless something urgent made her do so.

‘<Yes? What is it?>’

‘<There has been an unexpected development... Could you excuse me for a moment?>’

‘<Of course...>’

The image was very clear; somebody (a man, not a very athletic one) was trying (hard) to remove something from the ground next to the house of agent 2. What was he trying to pry from the ground and who was he? She now demanded (to herself) that she got the answers to those questions… and whoever was this deluded masked man…

THE FIRST DAY OF DAYNA’S KIDNAPPING – NOON

‘What do we know so far?’

They all knew that peculiar tone of voice, she was holding on her fury but the slightest mistake of anyone would send the perpetrator, whoever he/she was, to the hellishest five to fifty minutes of his/her life! So all knew that their best (both in the individual and collective cases) hope was to pray and act as perfectly as possible...

‘They’ve found all our mikes and cameras... Their ‘cleaning crew’ is really good!’

‘Any indication of the identity of the woman who kidnapped Dayna?’

‘None so far... We have her height, the fact that she’s ambidextrous and little else...’

‘No idea at all about her face?’

‘N-no...’

‘Then keep looking!!!’ – She took another look at the vigilance camera feed. It didn’t showed much actually, Dayna struggling like hell yet very uselessly as she was forced by a ‘man’ to enter her own garage. The ‘man’ saying something harsh (probably) to ‘his’ pinioned captive as she was forced to lie against the back of her own car...

At that moment her surveillance team (already surprised with the kidnapping they were seeing in their monitors) had feared that they would record a rape...

But instead of dropping ‘his’ pants or opening ‘his’ fly, she opened her leather jacket and removed it revealing (to the amazement of her captive, and the surveillance team) a pair of breasts being squashed by a belt which was strapped over her white T-shirt.

The woman moved as if she was sighing quite audibly as the belt was unbuckled, and then she had the ‘beard’ in her left hand and was removing the moustache with the other one. But, alas!, she turned her back to the camera when they were about to get a good image of her face! And unlike in TV series and movies there wasn’t anything that could produce a reflection of her face, even a heavily distorted one, to the camera’s lens...

And they had only managed to install ONE camera in her whole house because, thanks to a still suspicious flaw in the ‘gadget detector’ (whatever was its real name it did not mattered to her) that Jeb had given to Dayna two years earlier, the western wall of the garage was the ONLY spot in her house where one could be hidden and activated...

All their attempts, and also all of the Russians’ ones, to install anything in the sheriff’s house (six in total) had ‘forced’ Jeb to give a more potent ‘gadget’ to the sheriff. And when Dayna moved to her own house, when the sheriff’s next-door-neighbor moved to Florida after selling his house to her, she had demanded that the ‘better one’ stayed at Princeton’s house, since it was there where she enjoyed her sexual fantasies with the couple, and had practically pried the ‘flawed one’ from Jeb’s hands...

That there was a tunnel (of a fallout shelter... those 50’s and 60’s really messed up with people’s fears!) connecting both houses was something that she, and the Russians, knew very well. But the conditions of the place were atrocious, and they simply failed all the times they tried to install a working camera inside it (or in the shelter itself... damn lead filled walls!). So all they had of the kidnapping, besides that video that their mole in the local police department was supposed to provide for them today, were those almost useless five minutes! Wait a moment...

‘You and you! Come here...’

Puzzled the two assistants obeyed her orders, dropped whatever they were doing and were now in front of her and had the right height. She grabbed the smaller girl and spun her around, ziptying her wrists behind her back as she feebly tried to protest...

‘Shut up! Or I’ll have you exactly as Dayna was faring in the video...’ – the girl gulped and looked at the other who was as scared as she was – ‘Now both of you... put the feed of the camera on the principal screen now!... I want you to pay attention to their movements... keep looking at it and memorize them, in a few minutes I will want you both to repeat them perfectly... DON’T LOOK AT ME! Look at the screen!’

A desk was provided and played the ‘role’ of Dayna’s car, and after five attempts from their part Euboea was sure that she was right. She gave both girls the day off and a huge compensation for their ‘ordeal’, but left the act of freeing the ‘captive’ to somebody else as she instantly focussed on proving her reasoning ASAP, and she decided to have a real reenactment of the feed of the kidnapping. Her hunch was correct (it had to be!), the kidnapper knew about the camera!, but she had to prove it to the other counselors!

She immediately called the local manager of her ‘Rascals’...

‘I want a car of the exact same model and color of Dayna’s and an acceptable copy of her garage in three hours! Call anyone you need but....’

THE FIRST DAY OF DAYNA’S KIDNAPPING – NOON

‘Let me look at your wrists!!!’

‘What?’

But Jeb was very fast for an obese man, and before she could react he had grabbed her wrists and was rolling her sleeve upwards, the rope marks were very obvious…

‘If you show us your wrists, sheriff, will we…’

And, showing all her contempt with that part of Dayna’s plan, Princeton rolled up her left sleeve and exhibited her wrist to all the men and women in the mayor’s office.

Her rope marks were also obvious…

‘And when you woke up, obviously bound and gagged, this morning… were you both feeling a weird taste in your mouths… something spicy and disorientating perhaps?’

Ilena mouthed ‘how did you know?’ as she just nodded.

Jeb then turned around, said a very foul word and composed himself.

‘They both were drugged, before being bound and gagged, with a chemical whose name is way too big and complicated for me to remember. It’s called ‘Quick Nap’ for it is quickly absorbed by the skin and puts anyone that is subjected to it into a deep sleep situation, although it’s not likable to last long… which means that you both were probably injected with something after you were down, I’d look for needle marks if I were you. Sometimes it can cause partial amnesia of the moments before it was used…’

The mayor, that ******* councilman Rimisi and few others only looked at them.

‘All I remember is that it was my turn to use the shower…’ – said Ilena.

‘I had just finished my bath when I entered our room and there she was, Ilena, bound and gagged in the buff over our bed, then I felt something at my right and… when I awoke it was already morning, and Ilena was almost managing to free herself…’

‘That doesn’t change…’ – started Rimisi but Jeb cut him short by placing himself in front of the bible-thumper faster than anyone could think and saying…

‘Listen up you less-than-nothing! My best friend was kidnapped by pros, more than pros actually, and very dangerous ones at that and I won’t spend any second listening to whatever babble YOU think you can say about it. Dayna’s well-being and safe return is the only thing that matters to me, especially because the ******* that took her wanted HER as leverage as well as the pen-drive I asked her to guard somewhere in her house! I am the reason why she was kidnapped, so don’t you dare to think that I have time to listen to your ‘considerations’ about the sheriff, her wife or my big-time lesbian friend!’

Rimisi still wanted to say something, but the mayor quickly found a way to have him removed of his office with a suitable excuse. He could deal with Rimisi, and his anti-LGBT’s rights supporters, any day of the week. Someone as powerful as Norbertson was a totally different matter! After an awkward silence the sheriff spoke.

‘So you know who took her?’

‘I have my suspects; ‘Quick Nap’ is not your easy-to-find harmless drug to easy your way in common crimes. It’s a bit pricey and relatively rare, so common industrial spies and the likes are out of the picture… The Duchess… No… nope.’

‘Because of your ‘deal’ with her?’

The newcomers, who had unceremoniously entered the room moments before without anyone else noticing it, were obviously FBI agents, and their mid-forties and slightly obese leader was instantaneously recognized by Jeb.

‘Exactly Agent Thaddeus, I know that she still wants part of my operations for her own purposes, and she knows that I know so we struck a deal that I can reveal as easily as I do that…’ – and he snapped his fingers inches away from the federal agent’s face – ‘…but I won’t do it until I have positive proof that she or any of her muscles are into this situation. She has much more to lose than I do and she knows it!’

‘And… yet, Dayna was kidnapped because of her previous connections to you…’

If it wasn’t for Dayna’s ‘replacement’ in Norbertson’s business life it was most likely that he would have punched the agent! Violetta Arroyos, the Ice Queen (a well-fitting nickname, especially when her attitude was compared with the one of her predecessor on the job), suddenly was in between the two men and looking at her boss with a very disapproving look in her face, and Jeb recoiled the punch he was about to deliver. She then turned around and looked Special Agent Kevin Thaddeus straight in the eye.

‘Agent Thaddeus, do you have any proof that, whatever is the nature of the secret deal between my client and that criminal, it involves the commitment of a crime (or a series of crimes) on US soil, in international waters or in any other country in the world?’

‘No.’

‘Do you have ANY proof that my client might be able to get in touch with the Duchess if he’s willing to, in the past or present or foreseeable future?’

‘No, but this is going to happen, isn’t?’

‘Of course it is! Right about now one of the thousands of employees of Mr. Norbertson in California is receiving a very unwelcome ‘visit’. Said ‘visit’ will leave him or her with a lot of threats, some money and a prepaid cellphone to which the Duchess will call to in a predetermined hour to talk about Day… Ms. Green’s kidnapping. And THAT is how the two of them will get in touch tomorrow, if not today!’

She almost had let it slip, Violetta was beyond professional with pretty much everybody in the world, including Jeb, but when it came to Dayna, Fei Lai or Julie Crassberg…

The three women she loved more than anything else in her life, and to/with whom she was but a very meek, humble and human girl… not the ‘Ice Queen’…

But she quickly composed herself and was back at her ‘Ice Queen’ persona. She talked with the federal agents, received his threats and returned with a few of his own and handled the situation better than everybody, especially Dayna, expected her to.

A bunch of federal agents would be present when the Duchess got in touch with Jeb, the details were to be worked out in the next minutes, while he stayed at his home in Los Angeles for the rest of the week as he was planning to do.

The mayor (and his cousin and main assistant/secretary) then dealt with the federal agents, who were granted a base and all their other demands, for twenty three minutes before he could get his attention back at Norbertson and Violetta.

She told him that she (Liar! And a great one at that) had envisioned the best way to deal with the issues of Dayna’s security in the little town she had decided to live her life. The mayor’s, and many councilmen/women’s, eyes gleamed absurdly with her propositions, and the deal was settled in less than thirty minutes.

From them on the mayor and practically all the councilmen/women of the town only hoped that, whoever was holding up Dayna wherever she was being held against her will, he/she/them didn’t gave her that much of a devastating experience that she would end up deciding to move away to part unknown after she was released…

THE FIRST DAY OF DAYNA’S KIDNAPPING – MORNING

They were the three best security/bouncers of her club, and the petite Thai woman had pounded them all in less than two minutes. Who was she?

‘Ms. Carlyle?’

The woman on the screen of her tablet was one of her best clients; and supposedly the one that just at this day’s cockcrow had dispatched Dayna (that she only identified as ‘client 93’) through herself to the club, and the other two blonde women (also in their mid-thirties, submissive and busty) and this Thai Demoness a few hours later; Ms. ‘Demir’ (the youngest daughter of one of Thailand’s most powerful men).

‘Ms. Carlyle? I believe that my enforcer proved her worth to you?’

Go back to the script!

‘Yes, yes indeed she did so… quite admirable are her skills in Muay Thai…’

‘Muay boran.’

‘Excuse me?’

‘She is skilled in muay boran, not Muay Thai, one of the last masters in those arts…’

‘Alright, she can stay as the guard of your three…’

‘Servants.’

‘Servants’, never ‘slaves’, that was part of the deal with Ms. ‘Demir’. She could, and most likely would, bring some of the most beautiful girls she had ever had under her care, but they could never be called or referred to as ‘slaves’… or Ms. ‘Demir’ would find another place where her ‘servants’ would be ‘accommodated and rested’ during her usual business trips to California to represent her father’s interests. And it wouldn’t be the first time she had brought more than one to her ‘humble’ establishment…

How could they know all of that? And how could they have managed so quickly to get Ms. Demir’s participation in the whole scam? Did she really want to know the answers to these questions? As much as she wanted to get shot in the face…

‘Robert? Patricka?’

The two scantily leather clad employees slightly bowed to her and grabbed each one a blonde by the arm. The leather blindfolded and heavily ballgagged nude women made no objections (barely reacting at all) as they were made to stand up with some pressure and help over their padlocked armbinders and, guided by a strong hand each over their leashes, were taken out of the ‘cargo bay’ of her club.

‘They are to be identified as Client 93-B (the taller one) and Client 93-C (the last one), the one I brought myself will be addressed as Client 93-A from now on, see that they are treated according to Ms. ‘Demir’s wishes. Kyle, please provide quarters to miss…?’

‘Kaakong Bpi-saat…’

Only much later she would learn that the Thai woman had just nicknamed herself ‘Leg of the Devil’, and even more later she would learn that that was the alias of one of Thailand’s most wanted women, and more dangerous than it looked at first…

AT THE SAME TIME – AT A FIVE STARS HOTEL LUXURY SUITE

So it was Chatichai Kosum after all!

She closed the link with Ms. Carlyle sighing quite audibly…

Just another in a series of mysteries that this ‘ordinary’ trip had been filled with since she arrived in San Francisco hours before. She had dispatched her newest ‘servant’ in a nondescript armored car to Ms. Carlyle as soon as possible, but before she reached her hotel room she received an e-mail with a picture of the driver, the two handlers and her precious Ekhaterina (!) side by side somewhere dark and dirty, bound and gagged on swivel chairs. The message was simple: ‘When ‘Ms. X’ arrives you will meet her’.

‘Ms. X’ was none other than that dreadful Deborah… she still couldn’t believe in her naiveté even after seven years!... with a ‘different business proposition’ that was really interesting to her, after all it could made her finally be seen with a better light by her father. The only problem was that she would be unable to see or hear from Ekhaterina for a few days… The other servants were quickly freed by the people under her orders, but Ekhaterina… Oh sweet Ekhaterina! Could she ever forgive her?

‘Ms. ‘Demir’?’

Hum? Who? Oh yes, the girl that was supposed to be Immoden’s eyes and ears around her. What was her name again? Sylvie something…

‘Please Ms. ‘Demir’, I am sure that… whoever you care for that it is under my mistress’ power, she… she?’ – And, after a nod from her part, the young brunette resumed – ‘She is most likely being pampered as she never was before in her life!’

‘And how do you know that?’

‘Simple… I once was in her place… and I know that this is sort of a standard procedure in such cases from my mistress’ part… Never punish those who don’t deserve it.’

Now that was interesting…

‘Could you please elaborate about your personal experience a little more?’

And, over the course of a frugal lunch, that Ms. ‘Demir’ wasn’t sure she could eat minutes before, Sylvie told her about her bad experience with a disgrace of a mistress (that practically and literally expected her to be thrown to the sharks!) and how she was well cared by her handlers before and after she learned of her then mistress’ betrayal.

She had ‘helped’ her new mistress in many similar cases to the one she had endured…

The story about the bratty mid-twenties red haired youngest daughter of that South African millionaire (and her equally surly, obnoxious and leggy Ecuadorian best friend) brought her genuine laughter (which surprised her a lot)! But it was only after dinner that Sylvie gave her the most unexpected and cherished surprise of the day.

True, there was no way that she could get in touch with Ekhaterina… too much danger of ruining Deborah’s plans with it. But Sylvie could receive, in her own e-mail account, a few pictures and a small video of the Polish girl day after day, couldn’t she?

It was true that ‘Demir’ could have Sylvie overpowered with a snap of her fingers, and that she could (with tons of luck in her side) trace the origin of the e-mails she received with a little help of her father’s most ‘unorthodox’ servants, whom also could ‘extract’ any tidbit of useful information from this Sylvie gal in such scenario, especially those two or three that had accounts to settle with the dreaded Chatichai Kosum…

But what would this get her except NO Ekhaterina ever again, a corpse to deal with and the obvious fatal rage of one of the most dangerous persons her father had ever known?

And he was dealing with those Hong Kong ‘tongs’ since he was younger than herself!

So she spent her two week long business trip the way her father had told her to, and instead of sneaking out every two or three nights to visit Ms. Carlyle’s club (as she was used to) and meet the ‘servant’ that Ms. Carlyle was taking care of for her… she just had to go down a couple of floors in that hotel, check on the smartphone left by the door with a new video and a new set of pictures with her servant’s beauty displayed in sexy bikinis (and after a few complaints of her part, with rope and scarves adorning her as well), and then see how her other servants had ‘prepared’ Sylvie (always a surprise for her as she had ordered them so) for her whims of that night… night after night!

Sylvie was by far no Ekhaterina, but was a good replacement nonetheless…

And one night, after all the contacts and contracts had been done and signed, she went there to see Sylvie… and found instead a deliciously roped up (and very well-tanned!) Ekhaterina… She never saw the spunky brunette ever again…

And, somehow, she missed her more than she did miss Ekhaterina while she was ‘away’ (especially because, as usual, after more five months she got tired of Ekhaterina and had her replaced with a new Eastern European beauty, Lenka…)…

THE FIRST DAY OF DAYNA’S KIDNAPPING – NIGHT

Reynard had been a cop for three years, so far there wasn’t any real complaint against him (at most he sometimes arrived late for work…), but now he was packing his stuff under the supervision of Ilena. He was in the process of making a copy of the security video that showed Dayna’s kidnapping when he was busted…

And had had the gall to try to defend himself and his behavior with lame excuses!

Some of the other cops were aiming their scorn at her (the ‘outsider’ that had taken a position they were expecting to attain just because she slept with the boss), and she knew that two or three would return their badges and guns before the week was over.

Elections were coming the next year, and the veiled ‘threat’ of a new sheriff in town was crystallizing sooner than she (and Princeton) were expecting to…

But not Dayna.

Could she have envisioned that as well? All three of them knew about the resentment towards Ilena among some members of the police force, and she remembered the looks of disdain that just a week before were still there... But now, with this situation that this leering idiot had just caused the chips would be down, finally!, and no more hypocrisy in her workplace. Those who accepted her and Princeton, and those who didn’t but would not let their personal prejudices interfere in their jobs, would stay as cops… those who would rather follow Rimisi and his ‘crusade’ on the other hand…

And she and Princeton doubted that that particular ‘shot’ was authentic (Dayna’s still spectacular body, in its birthday suit!, being bound so fetishistically by her ‘unknown’ kidnapper right in front of a HD camera that had been ‘secretly’ activated by Dayna as she was being ‘harshly’ threatened by her male assailant? She had a few ‘realistic’ bondage videos that showed exactly the same situation, some with victims that had even more bosomy ‘attributes’, that they ‘shook’ sometimes at the cameraman’s request, realism was not an issue with them…!) The vixen had planned it all!

She went to the room where everything related to the last ‘Feline Felon’ (what a very ridiculous name!) crime spree was displayed.

It all had started 23 days earlier, when Maggie Jillard was found by her neighbor Chrissy Scott bound and gagged in her undies inside a closet in her own bedroom, with only a CD player (?) as company deadlocked in playing a Duran Duran song. Two days later it was Patty Cole’s turn (This time she had chosen a Roy Orbinson’ song), four more days and Teesha Washington was found by her sister inside her bathtub while a Jay-Z rap was being heard. Next, three days later, it was Chrissy’s turn to be found by Maggie (this time the ‘soundtrack’ was provided by the FYC). A whole week of calm ensued, in which the only thing that happened was the public beating (that took her and other three cops’ efforts to stop) of that weirdo Kit Arnold when the rumors that he was a peeping tom were proven true… and Charlene Tyrell was just 14 years old!... and the nerves of Albert Mathison (that were famous for being thin and explosive) made he go complain to his next-door neighbor after twenty to thirty minutes of repetition of a song called ‘Repetition’ (what a lame pun from the Feline’s part!) and he found the door ajar, and Robyn King writhing over the table of her dining room.

By then the fact that all victims were female, of various ages and races, that had been forced at gunpoint to strip to their bra and panties, plus the fact that a 80’s or 90’s pop/rock song was left playing over and over again next to the struggling victim, made the identification of the ‘mysterious masked woman clad in grey’ fairly easy…

The ‘Feline Felon’ was back after a hiatus of over ten years!

And just three days before it was Lisa Nelson’s turn to be found by her hubby over their bed, nude (a first ever in the ‘Feline Felon’’s career), tautly bound and with ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’ playing over and over in their TV, the DVD with the audio could not be traced to any store and… What was that? There was someone at the door?

‘What’s going on?’ – She asked to Harvey as he entered the room with a shocked expression in his face. The news he brought could not be worst!

The ‘Feline’ had just made a new victim, and of all the women in the county that could have been targeted by that imposter… She had to choose that one?

THE SECOND DAY OF DAYNA’S KIDNAPPING – MORNING

The image was perfect. Another murder committed by that dreadful woman that they had managed to catch on video… if at least they could snatch her as well!

Probably they wouldn’t be able to grab as many secrets from her than the Duchess had a few years back, but at least they would milk her dry of all that they could find useful… and then deliver her to the nearest FBI building with all their records of her crimes as a bonus… Let them and their superiors figure out how to turn those poisonous fruits into something more edible for the judicial system...

At least, and that was something, their mole in Vadim’s organization had managed to make them believe that the leak, responsible for the compromising of their now aborted plans of kidnapping Dayna Green, was the now deceased Petrovich…

So their mole’s cover was thin, for the moment, but it was still there…

Which reminded her…

‘And what of Petrovich’s girlfriend?’

The image in front of her still showed the aftermath of the ‘traitor’’s execution, but a small window appeared at the left bottom of it showing a naked blonde woman in her mid-thirties. She was over a mattress inside a van with a pair of masked bulky women finishing the very stringent hogtie… wait a moment… finishing??!!!

‘Is this an archived footage?’

‘Ehrrr… no. She actually did somehow manage to escape from the previous tie-up, pass unobserved through a window and run to the forest behind the isolated house used as the first hideout. They had to recapture her, which took a while... forty-two minutes apparently. Even… naked as she is, she did manage to put quite a distance between her and the Samoan twins before they realized that she was gone.’

‘And it was Manamea who personally did tie her up in the first place?’

‘Hmmm, yes?’ – Damn! Sometimes she overdid her creepy persona! This wasn’t some kid with braces, and yet she was in the verge of collapsing just because she... was so good in being frightening... Yet... That was unusual....

A woman escaping Manamea’s ‘impossible knots’ on her own? And quick enough to have a window of chance to escape? Now that was something…

‘What is that woman’s name again?’

‘Nadiya Koval…’

Euboea thought for a moment.

There were tons of things she needed to do right now, and she would to them before she could even bother to think about the now overly tapegagged crop haired blonde. But after all the orders and commands were giving she was supposed to be allowed to relax, right? Nadiya Koval, Ukrainian immigrant of 33 years of age, she looked much older than she actually was (but dating a guy like Kazimir Petrovich could easily explain that…), and no indication whatsoever that she wasn’t who she claimed to be.

‘Call them and tell them to send her to…’

Twenty seconds later her full attention was back at the aftermath of Dead Eyes Illyana’s latest crime... and how she could make things a bit harder for her this time.

OUTSIDE SAN FRANCISCO

‘And who are you?’

‘Do you honestly want to hear the factual answer to that question?’

June Carlyle saw with horror the petite Thai woman bring forth her hands (that she was keeping behind her and)… it had a DVD in one and a pile of portfolios in the other.

Kosum ignored her daughter’s presence and placed the portfolios over her desk, and then the DVD on top of it. And then her daughter opened her mouth again and…

Kosum’s iron grip was now over her lips, and the stare she gave her daughter…

‘Stay put Ms. Carlyle!’ – She said without breaking eye contact with her daughter – ‘As for you. YOU are the reason why I am here. You are blaming YOUR mother because somebody, wearing a ‘uniform’ apparently similar to the one that brought her fame, is committing a series of crimes in that city in Napa Valley. That DVD over there? It shows exactly WHAT your mother was doing, with and to whom, at the time of those crimes. The portfolios? A provisory back-up of all the victims of that imposter…’

And she let her daughter’s lower face go with a quick movement.

‘Did you…?’ – She started to ask to Kosum before Monique could say anything..

‘Forty three persons that appear in the footage of your club’ security cameras while you were filmed by then were identified, including six of those who directly interacted with you. If she needs further proof that you were HERE in San Francisco while those crimes were happening… we might and will be able to record many testimonies from those who we managed to identify. As for the ‘victims’ we found something interesting…’

Each portfolio was identified with the name of a burgled woman.

‘Which one?’

‘Lisa Nelson.’

She grabbed the portfolio, passed her eyes through the pictures of that woman and personal data and found… printed pages of online chats with some of the dialogues highlighted? Dating back seven years?

‘She is ‘909kitten’?’

‘And her husband, at the time an online friend, is ‘Bruteforce35’…’

The dialogues between those two… she was depicting her force fantasies to him… now wait a moment… ‘To be found by you wearing nothing but harsh hemp rope and dirty rags as a gag’?… And the way she described the whole fantasy…

‘The ‘crime’ that she was victim of…?’

‘It’s almost a word by word recreation of that fantasy of hers, save for the… hot sexual intercourse that followed her being ‘discovered’. The female masked burglar, the cruel taunts and tight ropes… and him as the one that ‘rescues’ her… all fit.’

At this point Monique decided to make her presence known once more.

‘Mom!!! Who is this woman?’

‘Someone I hired to discover who is framing me for her crimes.’

‘A P.I.?’ – Monique said with incredulity.

The Thai woman chuckled in a most disturbing way.

‘Naïve little one, I could ate female P.I.s for breakfast, after I’ve enjoyed once more the payment, paid up front, for my services… which reminds me… where are they now?’

’93-B is at the gym, 93-C is being removed from the mummy state you placed her last night, and 93-A is being prepared for you as you required…’

The Thai woman just smiled and bowed to her, and left the room in a well-disguised hurry. Both mother and daughter sighed with relief when she was gone.

‘You are paying her with women?’

‘No, I just gave the opportunity… to three very beautiful and sexually submissive mid-to-late thirties blonde women that I happen to know very well… to be dominated and owned, as much as they want to be and will allow her to act accordingly, by the skilled hands of the delegate of the persons I contacted when I needed to prove my innocence to you. And before you ask: they don’t operate within the boundaries of the law and I honestly don’t care to know how they will do it as long as it’s done… They owed me one and they’ll pay their debt by ‘clearing’ my name.’

Good ***, what was she thinking when she allowed her mother to take care of her little girl so many years before? That little girl had grown up to be a second version, and a poor one at that, of her mother! But at least she was directing her usual holier-than-thou attitude against the Thai (she was going to find a way to thank her for that!), and wasn’t as highly impervious to logic as usual and… was it possible that the ‘excuse’ of her having to ask the help of such shady persons, that could have the Thai woman as their delegate, to prove her innocence to her daughter could actually work?

After thirty or more minutes of a long talk-talk about the whole situation, during which Monique agreed to watch part of the footage (just to see how many persons could vouch for her presence near San Francisco at the time of the burglaries in Napa Valley), they changed their subject to Timothy and Bellamy.

She escorted her daughter to the door of her private house (located in the back of her club), and before Monique’s car could find its way back to the highway she just had to extend her right hand. Patricka, temporarily dressed way much more conservatively than her usual, and looking incredibly cute because of that, handed her a tablet.

She accessed the security cameras and checked her four ‘special guests’.

93-B was still doing her daily two-hour long routine of exercises at the gym (along with many of the slaves she had to take care of as of now), 93-C was starting her own series and 93-A and the Thai woman… The Thai woman’s head was resting over the kneeling blonde’s lap, who seemed to be comforting her?

Now she realized how wise had been her decision to not provide microphones with the cameras she kept hidden in the ‘undesirable guests’ rooms’ of her manor.

She would have been really tempted to hear that conversation!

And probably would have signed her death sentence with it!

By the time lunch was served the Thai woman resumed her creepy persona, which was starting to attract too many attentions from her employees… (especially the submissive ones!), while the other three followed the demands of their handlers to the letter.

Nothing much actually happened in the following two days, but Jeb Norbertson seemed to be dealing with the kidnappers rather personally. Surveillance on his (and his closest aides and entourage’s) acts, made by both sides of the law, showed clear indications that he believed that Dayna was being held somewhere in the San Francisco City area.

He hired equally famous and infamous men and women for the job of finding Dayna and had to answer, judicially speaking, for some abuses from their part.

The Bratva, other criminal organizations, The Friendship, the federal law enforcement agencies (and some local police departments), everybody was looking for her...

Including ‘Double Deal’ Deborah, who also considered Dayna her protégé, and had not been debriefed of the real status of the ‘missing’ woman...

In the meantime Dayna, and the other two blonde ‘charges’ of Kosum, quickly blended among the other women and men under the care of the ‘hostel’ part of Carlyle’s SM Club. As such they were rarely seen by those who weren’t employees of the club (and used to see other people in their condition), and only one employee (a mid-twenties long-haired brunette dominatrix that used the nickname ‘Poisonous Blue’) did start to see the resemblances between ‘93-A’ and the missing ‘Dayna K. Green’.

That night she told her suspicions to her mother and in the following morning she was gone from the range of anybody’s eyes and ears… and actually enjoyed the ‘hospitality’ of the nearest ‘Damsels Storage Facility’ for nearly a month.

When she reemerged she had good reasons to never ever tell the world the truth about her disappearance, and they were more related to the large sum of money she now had in her bank account than with threats of any kind…

THE FIFTH DAY OF DAYNA’S KIDNAPPING – MORNING

‘What do you mean?’

‘Exactly what I said.’

‘But the list of stolen items is…’

‘Not remarkable in any aspect. There is no reason that the jewels or other items taken, at least of the first cases, had not been already pushed forward by the thief, and yet there is no evidence, in any receiver of stolen goods in the whole State of California, that any item stole by this fake ‘Feline’ was commercialized. We are checking with the nearby states but more and more it looks like an insurance fraud scam…’

But Dayna, who had kept the passive attitude she presented when Kosum had entered June’s private studio minutes before (and thus hadn’t been ungagged), started to make some noise as she shook her head with intensity. June looked at Kosum, who nodded, and she knelt at the side of the heavily leather strapped nude and kneeling captive. That particular harness gag had lots of buckles to be undone before she could talk again, so it took a while before the lawyer could explain her disbelief for Kosum’s idea.

‘Of all the women that were robbed so far by the faker, have you traced a common line between them yet? Besides being all 49’ers fans there is but one…’

‘Pretty girl, we are NOT in the mood for games…’ – But Kosum’s stare was ineffective with Dayna, so the Thai woman sighed and – ‘…alright! Olga will visit them tonight!’

She had realized that they were having a disagreement over the course of the past two days, but what did this ‘Olga’ have to do with it?

‘Ms. Carlyle, I will be in need of one of your employees, I will need that Dayna looks simply divine, more than the usual that is, for a video we will be recording in one or…’

‘A video? But for what and to whom?’

‘She has been demanding that a message of her, stating that she is being well cared for by you, is sent to her two mistresses ASAP…’

She simply could NOT believe in it!

‘You DO realize that she is, technically at least, a captive here, right?’

‘Of course we do realize that she is a guest of one of your clients, and what happen when an outside situation threatens to interfere with the stay of a guest?’

Sigh… Of course they would know about the videos! She kept many conservative suits (for men and women) and more day-to-day ones ready to be used for such occasions, and she lost count of how many reputations, marriages and business lives she had saved with them. In thirty minutes tops Dayna would be ready to shoot her own…

‘But how do you expect to deliver it to them? Since the wife of their political rival was the last woman to be robbed the lane where their house is located…’

The look in both women’s eyes was of pure dismissal! Dayna spoke.

‘I told you that the fallout shelter is unsuitable to be used… but it doesn’t mean that someone cannot pass through it coming from its ‘backdoor entrance’…’

‘I knew it! I just knew it! Olga DID visit you five months ago!’

Dayna’s answer was a knowing smile… and then the petite Thai woman was at her side holding her chin in a firm grip and wearing a mockery of a smile in her face…

‘I know someone who’s going to be only fed with small portions of baby food from now on, who’s going to endure one more hour of workout in her daily stay at the gym, at the very least!, and who’s going to be submitted every single contorting, exhausting and joint demanding position our hostess knows…’ – She looked at her with a determined expression in her eyes – ‘I’ll pay whatever you want to submit her to each and every strenuous bondage position you know of!’

‘To do that I’m usually paid…’

‘Deal!’ – answered the Thai woman before returning her gaze to her naked prey.

‘But there’s a problem…’

Both women walked a few feet away from the woman anchored in her place thanks to a web-like pattern of rope around three poles with hooks, with Dayna in the center of them three, and spent a few moments discussing/whispering the matter among them, they reached a deal and shook their right hands while looking at the blonde woman with very wolf-like expressions… and Dayna gulped visibly when she saw it.

Fifteen minutes later Dayna, bound (still naked) on and to a stool and with an obviously fake stone wall as her background, recorded the message to her mistresses. Three hours later a tall Russian woman appeared at the club, a former military that hadn’t bothered to lose her mannerism (and wasn’t pretending to have them as so many fakers she knew of or about). She quickly met an obviously angered Thai woman, they exchanged a few (very harsh) words in a foreign language, in which it became obvious that the newcomer had gloated about something (or someone) and the Thai swore a vengeance after a few curses and unpublishable words, and then the Thai handed her the DVD.

THE FIFTH DAY OF DAYNA’S KIDNAPPING – AFTERNOON

Deborah Immoden was a great liar, even better as a poker player and it was a common thought among those who knew her that she really was a gigantic loss for Broadway and Hollywood... Still, once a year (at least), for some good reason she might have at the moment, her boss didn’t believed in her ‘acting’ skills and had her royally fooled.

Of course, it didn’t took long for Deborah find it out, and the results were always the same, she ‘visited’ her boss’ current safe house, ignored any sense of hierarchy and was always more than just threatening as she pressed the smaller woman against a wall.

And, like always, again the Duchess was but mildly annoyed with Deborah’s behavior...

‘Why didn’t you tell me?!!!’ – was asked more like an order than a question.

‘I couldn’t, simple like that...’

‘WHY???!!!!’

‘Where were you when Dayna was kidnapped?’

‘Whaaa...(...)? I was… visiting a friend in Oregon...’

The Duchess looked past the woman holding her against the wall, and ruining her suit!, and nodded at one of her secretaries. Louella’s monotonic voice answered her order.

‘Judge Alberta James...’

‘Stop it!’ – Deborah did move her head towards Louella but didn’t broke eye contact with the Duchess – ‘So yeah, she’s a judge... a very honest one mind you, but we have this deal... we meet to play games with our slaves and just that. No ‘business deal’, no nothing can change the reason of our meetings, I am just a woman who shows up with one or two slaves that wants to play with her (and her slave), so what?’

‘Her... ‘slave’... is a black girl?’

‘You already know everything about... her...(?)...’

As the reason dawned in Deborah’s mind Louella’s voice was heard again.

‘Her real name is Princess Edmonds, although she goes by under the alias of ‘Pretty Peaches’. She contacted a friend after she recognized you from a previous visit, past August before the Adam Llywelyn Affair. This friend, Jerome ‘Thin Jerry’ Malone, is an informant of the Friendship, although she only knows him as a guy that could pay her well (as he has ever since) to keep her eyes and ears wide open at the judge’s house from then on... They are, apparently, still unsure of what should they do with this info. Looks like after those five attempts they learned their lesson...’

She was no longer pressing her boss against the wall behind her desk, they just stood in front of each other, and the twinkle in the Italian’s eyes made her know that she was going to pay for her past five minutes of insubordination... or was she?

‘What, exactly, happened in Polly’s house?’

‘Polly?’

‘‘Princeton’ is but a nickname, she wanted really badly to study there, she went there after four attempts and something... that is none of your concern... happened and she was back in less than a month... And why am I telling you that? Answer my question!’

‘Can we do it in a more civilized way?’

Moments later they were sitting side by side on a sofa in the library, Deborah’s favorite tea was being provided and she was really feeling uneasy with her boss’ revelations...

How could they have left her so much time, and so deep, in the dark? How could she dare to make Sylvie, Petunia and Cherry believe that they were following her orders?

Boss or no boss, she had gone too far!

THE FIFTH DAY OF DAYNA’S KIDNAPPING – NIGHT

The lecture was lasting more than twenty minutes now, and neither she nor Princeton could do a thing but wait for her tedious babble to end. And the fact that Olga couldn’t care less that they were not interested of listening to her words was just another insult to their current situation. Here they were… helpless prisoners over their own bed… again!

For the second time in less than a week!

This time they weren’t having (or going to have) their bath, during the preparations for another night ‘playing’ with Dayna, when they had been overpowered. Princeton had stayed behind to do some paperwork and talk to some reporters when she had returned to their home, over two hours before. She took her uniform off, opened the closet to pick up clean underwear to use after the bath… and in the next moment Olga was over her, jamming a ball inside her mouth and making her spin around in between her legs.

She was taped into a tight kneeling hogtie in less than two minutes, and the look of disapproval in Olga’s face puzzled her more than anything (How she had managed to enter her house unobserved with all those reporters, good for nothing idiots that thought that Dayna’s ordeal was but a different kind of entertainment exclusively for them and those Rimisi’ supporters that had started a ‘picket’ – in the street where they lived! – in order to demand Princeton’s resignation!... all of them! …lurking around?), but the Russian stayed mute until they both heard the front door opening…

Olga turned the sound system on… and it had to be that accursed song (!) (only Dayna was a fan of Bob Dylan among them three) to be the one ready to play…?

Lay, lady, lay, lay across my big brass bed

Stay, lady, stay… stay while the night is still ahead…

Princeton entered their room complaining about her ‘poor choice’ of a soundtrack to whatever was the ‘surprise’ she had planned for her tonight…

She did try to fight the mysterious hooded woman, but she soon found out that she had no chance at all in winning the fight, and she gave self-defense classes for the women of the county!, and as soon as the woman (after removing her hood) started to tape her she recognized her as that ‘Olga’ that Dayna had talked so much about.

Olga saw that Princeton knew who she was and made a few questions, which the sheriff could only answers shaking or nodding her head, and after a few considerations on the naiveté of her (come again?) big mouthed Dayna, Olga started the lecture.

And now both women stood passive (as if they had any chance to do otherwise…), Ilena in her birthday suit and Princeton still wearing her uniform (minus the shoes) and both tightly tape-hogtied side by side, while Olga seemed to be finally finishing her lecture. True, Dayna was starting to put on weight, as Ilena was by the way, but did she had to waste… thirty-four minutes of their time to tell why they shouldn’t allow it to happen? Or what would happen to them if they allowed Dayna to keep on ruining her divine frame? Obviously Olga did thought that the answer was yes to both questions.

Next she picked the DVD case, which had stayed all the while in her hands, and opened it and turned on the TV and DVD player. And in a few moments…

‘Hello girls…’

Dayna!!! She looked fine… no… she looked wonderful!!! She was being well cared for, that’s for sure! The skin, hair and eyes… had she undergo some make up?

‘As you both can see, I hope, I am fine and the persons taking care of me do care about my health and such… And although I cannot say where I am or when I will return to you, Ilena, and you, Princeton, I can only hope that my next words help our reunion to happen sooner than we all are expecting… First…’

And for the next fifteen minutes Dayna told them all the news that ‘they’ had managed to collect about the whole ‘Fake Feline Case’, including her opinions about it and why it looked more than just a simple case of ‘insurance fraud’ to her…

It all made sense, and Princeton had had for a while the same suspicions that Dayna was sharing with them, but how to prove it? Olga then ungagged Princeton and they talked and discussed, and it was no surprise for the two captive women that Olga already knew about Princeton’s moral & ethic code… but she did present ‘alternatives’ for the ways they could drag ‘Bruteforce35’ and ‘909kitten’ into the investigation.

Princeton rejected them all as soon as they were proposed, so Olga held her aloft (by the armpits) as easily as if she was a toddler, commended her for her strong principles (albeit saying that they were ‘more than extremely unnecessary’ for the moment), kissed her reinforced tape gagged lips (as soon as she finished wrapping the tape) with some fierce and sprayed something in her face and in Ilena’s and both women fell asleep, Olga then freed both women of their bonds and left the house.

A little after seven hours later a phone ring awoke both women and they learned about Olga’s ‘last resource’, and after a very quick personal hygiene they went to act as they knew she (and Dayna, who at least was going to pay for it!) was expecting them to…

FORTY TWO MINUTES AFTER OLGA LEFT

‘Hnnnffff!’

‘Oh shut up! And babe... blame it on the sheriff!’

The woman lying on the bed under her turned the right side of her gagged face to her with an obvious expression of curiosity splashed in it. Even without the night vision goggles she would be able to see it! She had chosen a good ‘assistant’…

‘Five months ago she could have nailed a ************ if she believed that him being guilty was good enough for her and her cops to lie on the stand, the she could accept ‘proofs’ whose origins she couldn’t explain and so on… but she’s honest… so… it took more time for her to nail him ‘properly’... and I don’t have time to wait!’

‘Hmmmpppphhhh? Hnnnfff!’

She cinched that knot very tightly and took a good look at her handiwork, a great job!, perhaps even a 7 (which was very good for a common tie-up on a vanilla lady’s body)! Almost as good as the ones on those three... Stop stargazing!

‘I know who kidnapped Dayna Keith Green, and I want to see those ********** get royally ************** by Norbertson, but this ridiculous ‘crime-spree’ in this little town is making him lose focus… I want him to use ALL his resources to find her, and he’s thinking about ‘giving a hand’ to the sheriff! So as soon as this case is over, with YOUR help, he’ll be able to devote his full attention to Dayna’s kidnappers…’

She was swallowing it! Oh man, she was as naive as Harper had told her! She knelt over her curvy and bound body and approximated her mouth to the girl’s right ear.

‘Now pay attention… I chose you because you ******* up, big time, with that story two months ago. THIS is your chance to get back to prime time, so listen up! You will not tell anyone HOW you got the data I left in the pen drive inside your purse, you will NOT tell anyone about the reason why I am helping you and for all that’s worth you were just burgled tonight. Fail to obey these rules and we will meet again…’

The look of defiance in the pretty gagged face… Of course she wasn’t going to obey her rules! Of ALL the reporters covering the ‘Feline Felon’s Return’ (and the political side of the events that had appeared with her latest victim), Deborah had chosen this girl due to her defiance and stubbornness that were bordering the unbelievable! Only golden age comic book or strips’ heroines had such a manipulable and inflated ego!!!

Oh, sure, she was smart, cunning and bright… but two months earlier Harper and that thin eerie guy, Harvey Felman, had fooled her (and caused her downfall) by doing the very same thing that she was doing with her now; telling her to not do something while expecting that she did the opposite of her orders (and being ready for when she acted accordingly). Olivia Biggelow, apparently, hadn’t learned her lesson…

She checked the scene one last time; one half-naked and bound leggy brunette over her motel’s bed, interesting evidences related to the current major crime being dealt with within this county’s limits inside her purse by the bed, two to three hours (maybe more) before the drug she had sprayed on those cops’ faces lost its effect…

Yup, she was done… as soon as she finished the text message ‘Olivia’ was going to send to her friend, and cameraman (and occasional bodyguard), in… now!

By the time Zeke (intrigued with such a demanding text message and with hopes that Olivia had finally forgotten him after two months…) dared to open the unlocked door, and rescued his boss/friend, Olga was crossing the Golden Gate…

Two feverish hours later, after checking and doublechecking all the data with the help of the TV channel’s HQ data gathering crew, and preparing a suitable excuse as how she got hold of that data, Olivia started broadcasting her scoop.

THE SIXTH DAY OF DAYNA’S KIDNAPPING – AFTERNOON

Many years before, when her aunt was still alive and she was but a child, she had found funny when her aunt had first told her about the Friendship, she also thought that they earned their name because they were all so great friends of each other...

THAT made her aunt laugh quite hysterically!

And now..., there she was, back at the same spot that her aunt had found herself so many times decades ago! As the mediator in another fight among those ‘Friends’!

‘ENOUGH!’

Her late aunt had her name, unquestionable tone of voice and natural authority pose to make her be obeyed when it was her turn to calm them down. She only had her eerie looks and long list of accomplishments to back her orders... Good enough, since all the men and women in the screens shut up and now were waiting for her next words.

‘Counselors One, Seven and Twelve... do you have any indication that the whole affair with Dayna Green is another elaborated charade of the Duchess?’

The two men and one woman shook their head or said no.

‘Any lead or proof that Jeb Norbertson is somehow in league with her, at least now?’

Again, the three counselors had to admit that the answer was ‘no’.

‘We are sure that they got in touch thanks to a...’ – Counselor Seven reviewed her notes for a moment – ‘...cleaning lady called Roberta P. Nunez, she delivered a cellphone to Norbertson in the same night he returned from Napa Valley, and that after she talked to him she is doing her own searches. They have so far uncovered the bases of the would-be-kidnappers of Dayna, but did not manage to capture anyone for interrogation. Not that they did not tried... the shootout in downtown Solano was their doing. Deborah Immoden seems to be working on overpower ever since... but nothing but dead ends, some that we were about to follow as well, is what she ‘achieved’...’

‘As for this recent development... Counselor Eleven, what can you tell us about this... Olivia Biggelow and how she acquired the data we won’t be able to stop from hear of for the next days... Is her story any credible?’

The newest member of the High Council shook his head and spoke.

‘Hogwash, that’s what I call it. She never had any phone calls in pre-paid cell phones between her and her source, and no ‘meeting behind an alley past midnight’ between them either... she was attacked in her motel room by an unknown woman who left her tied up almost in the buff and with all the evidences in her purse.’

‘Any description of her attacker?’

‘Just that it was a tall and strong woman wearing infrared goggles and into bondage, about 6’ 3” or more and with a Slavic accent... not very pronounced but...’

Olga?... she thought to herself, but that was but one of many possibilities.

‘Counselor Three, for how long were the Russians planning to kidnap Dayna?’

‘That we know of... three months, it was supposed to take place three weeks from now, right on time to force Norbertson to do their biding on the issue of those...’

They all had great plans for Dayna’s kidnapping... or rather her rescue by their hands.

Great plans that could finally open a dent in Norbertson’s incredible stubbornness... if they could have him on their side... It was a common belief among the Counselors that he was somehow in league with the Duchess, and that the famous ‘Final Showdown’ hadn’t been but another elaborate charade of that devious Italian noblewoman, and even if he wasn’t he would be a great addition to the Friendship’s ranks.

But all their clumsy attempts to find any way to ‘force’ him to join the Friendship were met with failure after failure, most of them quite costly! Counselor Seven was in for three to five years of penance, ulcers and the rebuild of his public reputation thanks to his extremely criminal ‘attempt’ of eight months ago!

‘Counselor Twelve... How are your business relationships with Norbertson faring?’

‘Better than I hoped they would, why?’ – It was a very sensitive matter for him that his business deals, that were at first intended to be but a way to get closer to Norbertson, were giving him so much profit as they were...

‘And what about your relationships with the media conglomerate that owns the channel where this... Olivia (?)... works… are they that good as well?’

‘Well, yes...’

THE SEVENTH DAY OF DAYNA’S KIDNAPPING – AFTERNOON

She knocked at the door and was immediately admitted along with Harvey.

‘So?’ – asked her wife without taking her eyes from a picture from the summer of three years before, they and Dayna enjoying a beach in that ridiculously small island paradise in the middle of the Pacific, that was in the middle of the other pictures over her desk.

‘We showed the pictures of that traffic camera...’ – started Harvey.

‘And they all confessed right away...’ – Ilena completed.

‘Insurance fraud?’

‘With a big ‘F’...’ – said Harvey.

Princeton stood up, walked to the wall where she had improvised a signboard (after the federal agents practically excluded them from the investigation) with the pictures of the victims of the ‘Feline’ and removed both Maggie and Chrissy’s from the roll of ‘victims’, and placed them under the adjacent roll of ‘copycats’ which made them make company to Lisa Nelson (who had been arrested five hours before).

‘Who tied them up? Royce Gillard?’

‘Yes, on both cases. He promised a sizeable part of the insurance money to Lewis Trayvon in exchange of his testimony granting him an alibi for both crimes, snuck out of the shop and went to their houses, that they had already messed up as to look like they have been ransacked (and had the ‘stolen goods’ ready for him in plastic bags in both cases). So all he had to do was tie them up, put the music on and leave...’

‘And just to avoid any suspicion from our part, or anybody else in town, they chose as soundtrack for their performances songs that everybody that knows them knows also how much they hate each one... Nice and smart from their part...’

That had been her first clue that there was something wrong with Maggie and Chrissy’s cases. The ‘Feline’ was known for letting songs playing over and over again next to her victims, but not a single time the song was one of the less liked (or openly despised) by her victim of that time... Sure, sometimes she ‘managed’ to select the less favored band or singer by her victim, but her most despised song (by the victim)?

Both lifelong friends had believed in an unproven rumor about the ‘Feline’...

Patricia, Teesha and Robyn’s cases on the other hand seemed genuine. This was a small town, true, but that did not mean that those three knew each other. They were doing a lot of research and so far the only thing that they had found was that Teesha’s mother had once worked for Robyn’s father, the only known link between all three women.

And yet their stories were remarkably similar, including the fact that the burglar (that she was sure that actually existed) had used the same kind of multilayered knots in their lime green cleave gags (not that the ‘Feline’ had such a trademark, she was known to use anything to gag her victims, but while this copycat apparently also could tie them up in any way that she saw fit and with whatever material she came up with, the gag had to be lime green), and had ‘fake breasts’ according to all three women.

They were sure that the ‘Feline’ was a real she, who wasn’t nowhere near as buxom as she wanted them to believe! That reduced the number of possibilities to so few names...

Sarcasm wasn’t going to take her nowhere...

‘Any news on Rimisi’s wife?’

‘Nope, she disappeared. He claims that she is visiting relatives in Nebraska, to recover from the ordeal that she experienced at the hands of ‘that woman’...’

‘But she hasn’t a single relative outside West Virginia, right?’

‘Right... you okay?’

But instead of answering the question, Princeton turned her back to her wife. Sometimes she did almost open herself in public like that, and Ilena knew very well what to do.

She nodded to Harvey who closed the blinds of the whole room before leaving.

When they reemerged from her office, less than five minutes later, Princeton was back to her usual ‘too tough to crack’ persona.

THE SEVENTH DAY OF DAYNA’S KIDNAPPING – NIGHT

The ropes weren’t hurting her, it was the chill of the wind that was her main concern as of now. The weird gal that had tied her up was really good with her knots, and the fact that her mouth was now parched diminished significantly her chances of attracting any attention of the other people in the hotel. The masked ***** could have left through the door, but she had chosen the window (and her room was located on the third and last floor!) instead and now the room was really giving her goose-bumps!

If she at least had decided on something less... provocative... but as part of her failed strategy to have sex with that guy from Los Angeles she had put on the see-through blue set of lingerie, those embroideries barely covered anything!, which had earned her a ‘Slut!’ from the burglar’s part as soon as the revealing night dress fell around her legs on the floor. In fact, the ‘Slut!’ had come out very weirdly... she wasn’t really sure but it seemed that the burglar gal said it to herself, not to her...

That lady (she was sure that the burglar was older than herself) was really something!

In any case there she was, over the bed (and over the sheets), bound in a way that she never had heard that a burglar had actually bound a victim before... aside the obvious ‘crossed ankles’ and ‘palm-to-palm’ ones, there was an absurd amount of ties and knots (had the burglar actually done some sick macramé work with her body in the middle of it?) over her legs and arms, she had been anchored to one of the bed’s feet and...

What was that? Somebody was knocking at the door!

‘Miss Damian? Are you there?’

She did her best to produce any sound, but to no avail. But as soon as she heard the cop’s voice her hopes were renewed. And then the hotel manager opened the door...

THE EIGHTH DAY OF DAYNA’S KIDNAPPING – MORNING

The image was in fast-forward, they were not there to watch a mildly obese late teens girl taking her clothes off, until the image switched suddenly. They put the velocity back to normal and the complains of a young male voice were heard perfectly.

‘Come on man! She’s about to take her bra off!’

But the image was now showing that the cameraman was adjusting the focus and zoom. And it showed a woman all dressed in black and grey on the rooftop of a building.

‘Come on... Oh shit! She closed the window!”

‘Shut up Jay!’

The woman was carefully running from the opposite side of the rooftop, due to the distance between wherever the camera was located and that building the image wasn’t good enough to get too many details of her body, and then she started to climb down the building with incredible precision for somebody not wearing any special equipment, at night and in a rush. At some point, when she finally reached the ground, the image froze and (as the camera’s owner finally grabbed it back) now showed the 14 years old kid who had recorded the ‘Feline’ for the first time ever...

‘Newton Morris, and his equally perv friend (and the owner of the camera) is...’

‘Who cares about two teens in heat? The stuff is real?’

‘All four ‘real’ victims of the ‘Feline’, including the one attacked at the hotel last night, were interrogated this morning and insist that she’s the real deal...’

The seven Counselors, who had used an obscure political summit in XX as an excuse to meet face to face, considered the situation in Dayna’s city for a while more, and then focused solely on her kidnapping and its consequences so far.

It turns out that even the Chinese tong that had made Jeb so famous years before had plans that involved using her as a leverage against him, their many reports showed how much his plans could affect major economic (and/or criminal) players in both sides of the Pacific (and a good part of the Indian) Ocean, thus making his relatively ‘helpless’ best friend and former lawyer a viable target for dozens of inexcusable interests...

Including theirs. So they discussed how they could use, for personal and collective profit, all the info they had gathered. It went on for hours. Counselor Twelve finished the meeting stating to Ebby that ‘the arrangements had been made satisfactorily’...

THE EIGHTH DAY OF DAYNA’S KIDNAPPING – NOON

‘Bugs’ Kremp’s house was a small one, perfectly forgettable and unable to attract any interest from anyone that passed through that very isolated spot of Palmdale. But today there were four black cars parked besides Kremp’s Toyota.

And inside the house Bugs was being interrogated by Deborah Immoden in person.

It all had started a couple of hours before, when Bugs managed to finally be awake and turned on the TV, fifteen minutes later he was on the phone. Forty minutes later the first car arrived, three men turned his place upside down searching for mikes and cameras that weren’t there and gave the OK to their boss. She arrived twenty minutes later.

‘...And when they put the pictures of the ‘real’ victims one after another and then made them four pictures occupy the whole screen it dawned on me... Juliana Calleros!’

‘Because of the hair color of the last one?’

‘Yes! You see, for whatever reason that she might have, Juliana Calleros always steals a blonde first, then a woman with black hair, next a brunette and lastly a redhead...’

‘That’s a bit vague...’

‘Which is why she’s been able to pull this for over thirty years! She started back in 1982 in Arizona, moved to New York in ’86 after an unsuccessful attempt to establish herself in Massachussets the year before, in ’92 she was acting in the Great Lakes area and was finally identified by a local cop called Remy... Remy...’

Louella stepped in and gave the rest of the report in four minutes, which included her other trademark (the triple knotted lime green cleave-gag, replaced on three occasions with lime green tape, probably due to some injury in her hands since she had used tape, of a different color, to restrain her victims on those occasions), while everything that he had on the unknown ‘serial burglar’ was sprawled over the table in between them.

Over eighty victims! Some people really managed to avoid primetime!

‘And this is the only known picture of her?’

Bugs nodded and she looked at it. Great, a bad picture (slightly out of focus and taken from a distance) of over twenty years! But that’s what she had for a start...

‘Send the picture to Frisco, I want the image treated the best way possible to make it usable, I want the best ‘current possible looks’ of her in my tablet at sunset and...’

She turned to him, whose legs started to shake slightly right away...

‘You don’t want any money for your help, is that correct?’

‘Hum, no... I mean yes(!), that’s correct, I just want two favors...’

‘Name them.’

THE EIGHTH DAY OF DAYNA’S KIDNAPPING – NIGHT

‘But how could she pass unobserved for so long?’

‘She never targets anyone who’s going to be news for a while, (...) let’s be honest... if this ‘fake return’ of that famous burglar wasn’t happening and she still have targeted the very same women... what would be the chances that I would hear about it in Minnesota? Or Ohio? Or Delaware? Or... Four women, burgled with an irregular interval in between each crime and who didn’t lose any family heirloom, a pricey jewelry or the likes... just some money, maybe a couple of earrings and part of their pride. Not exactly what journalists would call ‘nationwide news material’, right?’

All the policemen and women available, the federal agents and even police officers from other cities were gathered in that room. Ohioan retired detective Remy Montblanc had arrived in town and went straight to the police headquarters and quickly managed to convince both Princeton and the FBI agent in charge of the investigation of his theory.

The fact that he knew that all four women had been gagged with an elaborate triple knot made his story more viable, and all the details that he had gathered about this ‘Juliana Calleros’ (a stolen identity as Remy had found in 1998, he was sure that she was of Mexican/Central American ancestry but had little to go further on that part) had been checked and confirmed by the feds, which made him the specialist he claimed to be.

‘But now that she robbed her last victim in this town... do you think she’ll disappear?’

‘No. She should do just that, vanish in thin air. But as far as I can tell she never waited less than a week to move to her next stop... There was a time...’

The whole room waited for him to finish the phrase.

‘Yes?’

‘Nothing, I can’t prove it and I need to check a few facts before I can tell you about it. I am not even sure that this situation that just passed through my mind actually applies itself to now. It’s more like less than a hunch...’

He apologized and resumed his explanation of who was (most likely) the last copycat of that retired burglar still at large in that city. The other people in the room did take notes and made questions, and after twenty or so minutes he was off the building.

The next morning he made a few calls and, apparently, left town.

THE NINTH DAY OF DAYNA’S KIDNAPPING – MORNING

‘Take the gag and blindfold off.’

Olivia Biggelow blinked twice before looking at the woman in front of her, she blinked once more, finally admitted that she being towered by whom she was and gulped. And the man behind her immediately clamped his big left (and gloved) hand over her lips.

‘There are two things that can happen in the next hour. In the first you will have the planned live interview with our host, after YOU answer some of MY questions about the woman who gave you the scoop that turned upside down that investigation... or our host can call the police and report your disappearance, after a suitable excuse (complete with feed from his security cameras) about how you were ‘kidnapped’ from this very place by person or persons unknown... and you will answer MY questions in the end... although it might take a little more time than what I had originally planned...’

She was as tall as people said that she was, and (at least) twice as creepy!

‘And if your waiting for your regular ‘knight in shinning armor’ to rescue you...’

Someone produced out of thin air a tablet next to the right side of her face, the image in the screen showed Zeke and a blonde girl wearing a white micro bikini kissing as she dragged him backwards to a bed, and he was taking his clothes off...

‘Should we see the rest of it?’ – Ebby asked with a mocking smile in her face.

OK, she had told him to get lost... about just one hour before as they got informed that ****** ********* would arrive two hours late for their scheduled interview. She was still covering the whole weird incident, that her scoop had turned even weirder, a few dozen miles in the West when the news about the sudden ‘indisposition’ of the reporter that had been assigned to it. Now ****** ********* was one of the most influent men in the West Coast, and she was starting to shine again after her scoop so....

But as they were informed that the interview would happen later than expected... Zeke went to the pool to enjoy the sight of whoever were those two or three skinny girls while she went to the library, was ambushed inside it by at least four people (all with more muscles in one leg than she had in all her body) and taken (heavily bound, gagged and blindfolded with rope and tape) to some place at the basement’s level.

Now the woman nicknamed as the ‘Eerie Heiress’ was in front of her...

‘Pay attention, our host is a very powerful man that is doing a favor to a friend that wants to know who might have been so... handy to his wishes of seeing Dayna alive once more. He knows that this ‘help’ she gave you was but a way to shine a light as if saying: ‘Hey! I am here! I want to help you Mr. Norbertson!’... And he wants to know who wants to help his business buddy. Which is why he called me and... Here we...’

There was a huge commotion outside the room, a fight (a big one). She was regagged with more and more strips of tape being applied to the lower half of her face while Euboea Bortroff went to check on the commotion. For about four or five minutes the only persons in the room were she and the still unseen man holding her still (as if it was needed thanks to all that rope) and sat in that chair.

Then the door opened and Euboea, six masked men and women and Zeke...? What was he doing with them? He had been roughed up a little but looked fine... but he tablet was in her lap and even with the image upside down she could see that it was Zeke with the nude blonde babe, and they were obviously about to have sex! He was being held by the two bulkiest men she had ever seen, and Ebby walked to her and grabbed the tablet, after fidgeting with it for a while she showed her the screen once more.

The naked blonde was writhing over the bed, the bottom of her bikini had been used to tie her ankles together and lash them to her waist while the top was responsible for the simple yet effective ties in her wrists and elbows, not exactly what was called ‘hogtie’ (if she wasn’t mistaken) but close enough to one. As for gag he had used his tie and, apparently, a white hankie. Weirdly, she somehow seemed amused...

‘You have a problem with libraries?’

Of course! She could stand closed and windowless places, but for some reason if she was inside a library she always chose the closest spot next to an open window, there had to be an open window in the library or she wouldn’t be seen inside one!, although she could never explain the reason of that nervous tic of hers it was something that all the people who knew her knew about, like Zeke. She nodded and Euboea turned to Zeke.

‘You had no way of knowing that we would play some archived footage for her...’

‘I didn’t even knew that there was a camera in the room! Just that all of a sudden this incredibly gorgeous and busty girl was hitting on me, almost assaulting me!, and my friend, who would never be inside a library with all its windows closed, was supposedly locked inside one taking some notes... something that she rarely does by the way...’

Euboea just stood quiet for a moment, and then she ordered that both she and Zeke were freed as she explained a few things to them, as the two soon stayed side by side, Zeke trying to ‘protect’ her from Euboea (as if he actually could do it..., but the feeling that his attempt caused on her was nice). They were most explanations on how the whole incident would be covered up by her and ********* than actual treats.

Fact was that in the night before the day Jeb Norbertson was about to split his ‘forces’ in order to find out who was the ‘Feline Felon’ (she didn’t elaborate much in that part), because he suddenly started to believe that the crime spree and Dayna’s kidnapping were two incidents somehow connected, a fell from grace (so thunderously!) reporter shows up with some (illegal) evidence that start to uncover the fact that the ‘spree’ was actually the work of a group of friends plotting insurance fraud (and apparently also politically motivated) and the work of a copycat...

So there was a leak around Jeb’s security, beside the one that answered to Euboea herself, and she needed to find who the leak was, hence the fact that they could be cruel or extremely generous with them... After the deal was done a battalion of maids took care of Olivia and prepped her for the interview, that was to be recorded and not live just in case Olivia had second ideas, while Zeke was ordered to go free the blonde and apologize to her. It took him a while to return....

For the next half a year Olivia Biggelow seemed to be at the right places like 70% of the time (some mistake were purposely made in order to don’t attract too much attention from the other reporters and law enforcer agencies), and she revealed seven different major scandals that cost many jobs and a few political terms, giving her the reputation of one of the best investigative reporters of the West Coast. But she always thought that Euboea passed straight to Jeb everything she could recall about that night.

What little she could give about her attacker to her hostess was more than enough to make Euboea identify the woman, and puzzle her as few facts had done in the past.

THE NINTH DAY OF DAYNA’S KIDNAPPING – NOON

Instead of a big limousine or a convoy of three or four black SUVs, Ms. ‘Demir’ had sent three armored cars (of the same type, yet of different colors) in random intervals. The first one took ‘93-A’ with it at around 10:15, the second left the club with ‘93-B’ at 11:04, and now it was time for her to bid adieu to ‘93-C’.

As the others she had been allowed to wear something for the first time since she had arrived at the club, in her case it was a white business suit that probably had been taken from her own wardrobe for it fit her very well. As for restraints she was handcuffed (hands in front) and there was a hook in the floor to which her ankles would be tied to by her companion in the back seat. All in all, the two men wearing simple navy blue business suits made it look like she was their boss and one was the driver and the other a secretary. As the other two she thanked her and her ‘wonderful crew’ for all the memories she had got while in her club, and then she was off.

By the time she arrived at the marina she had been informed of the whole truth, cried due her naivete (but was consoled, by phone, by her mistress who swore to avenge her) and (now free of the handcuffs, blindfolds and rope on her ankles) walked to the pier alone. She was the last one admitted on board before the yacht left.

Carlyle dealt with other clients for a couple of hours and then ordered that her dinner was served in her office, and locked herself inside it with Kosum and Dayna.

‘Was it all necessary? A fake ‘93-A’, smuggled inside I do want to know how and when and everything else about this stunt of yours... and all that?’

‘Maybe not, but it’s better be safe than sorry as you Americans say...’

‘And what about the secret arrival of that blonde?’

Kosum handed her a few sheets of paper, her handwriting wasn’t beautiful but was legible and there were schematics of the 15(!!!) flaws Kosum had identified in her club’ security system during her stay... But before she could say anything...

‘Do not worry about anything; from the moment she was here to the moment she won’t be anymore the security of this place was reinforced...’

‘And when will she will really be...’

‘Sometime tonight...’ – was the short and dry answer by the older woman.

As if trying to say ‘I am right here you know’ Dayna mumbled something through her gag, and the two turned their attention to her, Kosum crouched by her side and spun the heavily mummified bound body so it now rested on its left side. Long gone was the outrage for having been neglected in favor of the former Russian bouncer, but the spark in her eyes made Dayna realize that Kosum was actually enjoying the 24/7 treatment she had been subjected to the past week. And wasn’t making any secret of it!

‘Oh, just for you to know... I talked with her a few minutes ago through a phone one of the drivers brought me. She knows that most of this plan was YOUR idea, including the use of HER slaves in this little ruse... and she wanted me to tell you...’

The Thai woman whispered something in the overly taped blonde’s ear, and the reaction on the youngest woman in the room was of pure incredulity and impotent fury, which earned her some spanking afterward before her very frugal dinner was served to her.

As Kosum had hired her to change Dayna’s bonds after two/three hours of endurance of each strenuous bondage position, she spent the next eight hours doing so in between her regular participation in the house’s activities.

Around midnight a nondescript black car showed up, Dayna was quickly balled up and put inside a large case, and Carlyle’s participation in the whole affair ended up with the largest credit card charge she had ever typed in her life.

Or so she thought...

(The next day, when the latest development on the ‘Fake Feline’ case appeared on TV she, for the very first time in her dominatrix career, lost her composure in front of a client but credited it to once have been, herself, a victim of the real ‘Feline’!)

THE TENTH DAY OF DAYNA’S KIDNAPPING – NIGHT

22 years old Jenna Stern just wanted to have a good night of sleep after the flight, the ride from San Francisco and all that... drain that the last week had been.

But it was finally over, her mother was at peace at last and if her brother came up with any more bull... about the house and everything else she would never ever talk to him again! Tomorrow she would return to her job at Robyn’s store...

She still could not believe that the Rimisis would come up with such a crooked plan to demoralize the sheriff in front of everybody, she surely hoped that they arrested that self-sanctimonious ********! wherever she had run to hide, along with that wacko that posed as a burglar and had used their scam to target her friend and employer as one of her latest batch of victims! But for now...

She emerged from the shower feeling almost human, put on pink underwear and, on a whim, decided to take a good look at herself on the full body mirror of her closet. She looked good! But then so did the other woman in the reflection...

While Jenna was standing in front of the closet’s door (to which the mirror had been nailed to), she was like eight feet behind her, dressed from head to toe in formfitting black fashion (it almost looked like it was painted on her!), and holding a mean looking gun in her left hand. Wait a moment... she knew her?

‘I mean you no harm, just lie down on the floor with your wrists crossed behind your back and you’ll be fine... Are you listening to me?’

She was trying to disguise her voice... Now she knew that she knew her!

But she obeyed (stuttering a little as she begged and complained as she was being tied up), and in less than ten minutes she was the latest tight ‘package’ made by this lunatic!

Three strands of rope kept her thighs and calves together, her arms fared no better (but she had not forced her elbows to touch when she complained that she wasn’t that flexible) and now that green gag was being knotted at the base of her skull...

The masked woman then grabbed her body, rolled it so she now was belly up and lifted her from the floor, carrying her to her own bed and panting afterwards as she sat beside her captive... and then somebody harrumphed!

He was an old guy, 50/60 years, and was dressed as inconspicuously as possible for a warm night, and was carrying two things in his hands, a cellphone (with a camera aimed at the burglar) and a gun. And his voice was calm.

‘Missed me Juliana? Stand up and take five steps away from the bed please...’

Her small gun was tucked in the back of pants, but he couldn’t see it standing by the door of her bedroom, so she stood up as Jenna tried frantically to warn him about the gun. It didn’t took him too long to realize what she was doing, since he wasn’t seeing her Beretta Cheetah anywhere it could only meant that she had it with... tucked on her pants, waist level, in the front or in the back or...

Then something caught his attention and he turned his head to his right, and then put his gun on the floor and reached high. Both women heard the sound of a tazer being charged and saw the wires striking him on the chest; he twitched for a moment and fell face first on the floor. But before the burglar could even sigh for relief (as much as Jenna mewled in despair), the sound was heard once more...

THE ELEVENTH DAY OF DAYNA’S KIDNAPPING – MORNING

‘...And the guy that entered the room didn’t said a thing, bam!, she was down on the floor, out cold and totally at his mercy. He taped her up first, then Mr...?’

‘Montblanc.’

‘Then he taped Mr. Montblanc and then he looked at me.’

‘And he tried to bribe you?’

‘Yeah... he came and said... ‘Be smart and don’t tell the cops about me and you can keep these...’, and he opened the bills as if they were a royal flush in front of my eyes, then he hid the notes in one of my drawers and blindfolded me. As soon as my eyes were covered he crouched down and said ‘...but if you tell them about me I will be back one day!’. I heard him picking her up and leaving. Not five minutes later...’

Sheriff Princeton made a few more questions and was politely expelled from Jenna’s room by the hospital’s dean, right on time for Jenna’s friends (including Robyn? She probably gave the day off to Kim...) storm the room and attract the attention of Dr. Miller and the orderlies, and then she turned her attention to Remy.

‘Give me one good reason as to why I should let you walk after you forgot to tell us about your suspicions.’ – she asked cutting him short of any excuse he had prepared.

‘Newark, 1999. Natural redheads are only 1% of the world’s population, and she took too long to find one in that city. So one night... a girl called Samantha Allenberg was found by her roommate like one minute after she was gone. And Samantha had red hair and actually hadn’t. She had changed her hair color just a few days before... nothing out of the ordinary though. So I thought that she had finished her ‘set’ for that town... until Peggy Jean Bristol found her sister Ruth bound on the sofa in front of the TV of their condo. Unlike Samantha, Ruth was a natural red...’

‘And you didn’t told me that because?’

‘Cleveland, 1997, and Louisville, 2005, are two examples when the fact that the last girl wasn’t a ‘natural’ redhead wasn’t something that mattered for her... Only once it did matter that the girl had to be a natural red, while in seven or eight it didn’t, plus do you know how many blondes that she attacked weren’t actually ‘blondes’?’

‘Six.’

Oh great, the feds! But it seemed that they had considered that possibility also, and had kept her in the dark!, so their approach was more friendly towards Remy than hers.

They discussed the unexpected development from the corridors of the hospital to the room assigned to the FBI in the Police Station for hours, and had no clue whatsoever as to who was Juliana’s rescuer/kidnapper and what were his reasons.

Meanwhile, after she finally managed to convince her friends that she was OK, and Dr. Miller had them expelled and practically locked her room from any more visitors for that day, Jenna could finally stop and think (for the last time) about her lies...

She didn’t needed the money that much. The 500 were but a decoy, and the promised 5K might never be delivered anyway... But if they were...

And what about the phone number? Was it added to her list in her cellphone?

The only that she knew was that the most imposing, domineering and... what else? What else could she call that woman? All that she knew was that she would have obeyed her ‘suggestion’ with a smile in her face! As she almost had actually...

One week later, as she was getting ready for her bath after a hard day’s work (the second after she had been discharged from the hospital and after Robyn had finally allowed her to return to work), Jenna found a bulky envelope with 50 non-sequential bills of one hundred dollars in one of her drawers...

THE ELEVENTH DAY OF DAYNA’S KIDNAPPING – NIGHT

Why wait any longer for the one you love
When he's standing in front of you

OK... they were definitely NOT in the mood for that! They had a very strenuous couple of days, and were expecting to find some relief from it in their own home, and not having to deal with another invader that had the gall to announce her (most likely) or his presence with a song! And especially that one!

Dayna, when she finally returned from wherever she was hiding, would be prohibited for life to play it again!!! Or any other Bob Dylan song!

But the voice didn’t sounded like Dylan’s... nor the arrangement sounded his... and then the unmistakable voice of Simon Le Bon filled the garage as soon as Ilena opened the door connecting it to the kitchen, she turned to Princeton...

‘Duran Duran made a cover of it?’

‘Focus, Ilena, focus!’ – answered her wife slightly enraged...

They found her in the living room; she had brought a DVD with Duran Duran songs and was playing it on the TV. She was a black woman, a bit tall and all dressed in black.

Ilena and Princeton’s guns were aimed at her as she nonchalantly turned off the TV.

‘Hello, we finally meet...’

‘Finally?’ – asked Princeton.

‘I was her guardian angel for over a month...’ – she said holding a picture with two fingers of her left hand, she handed the picture to Ilena after she stood up from the sofa.

It was Dayna, naked and bound over a mattress somewhere.

‘Who are you?’

‘I can’t tell you my name, and if you keep pointing those things at me I might get mad enough to strip you both, tie you up in the buff on this cold floor and then do what I am supposed to do tonight. And I meant it.’

‘And what are you supposed to do tonight?’

‘Give you some answers and a script to follow...’

‘Excuse me?’

Princeton took a good look at the woman. She was calm and confidant, slightly amused and at the same totally on alert. It was a clear standoff... that she broke by putting the safety back on and her gun back in its holster, that she then unbuckled, and then sitting on the large sofa on the other edge that the woman was one moment before.

‘Look, whatever you have to say, say it. I don’t want nor need to know how good you are with kung-fu and all that, do your bit and get out. But first...’

Ilena had unbuckled her holster and put it, with Princeton’s, over the coffee table in front of the sofa. Then she sat on the pouffe that she had placed by Princeton side.

‘...what do you mean with ‘guardian angel’?’

‘About five or six months ago Jeb Norbertson discovered a plan, to be put in motion in a couple of weeks, to kidnap Dayna. He’s about to strike the greatest business deal that he has ever made, and if it bears fruits as he expects to he’ll be two or three times what he is today in a matter of years. Of course, many others have interests in that business deal... and Dayna is, and always will be, his Achilles heel...’

‘So...?’

‘What do you know about the deal between Jeb and the Duchess?’

‘Just what everybody knows... he keeps the small villa where she was born afloat with ‘clean’ money invested in it, and she provides him whatever ‘help’ he needs when he... gets to deal with tongs, Russian mobs and whatever kind of...’

The realization came halfway through as she was answering the question. She looked at Ilena who looked back at her with the same quizzing look, and then back at the intruder.

‘We started to look around and found not one, nor two, but nine different plots to have Dayna turned into the reason behind whatever ‘incredibly stupid and dumb’ idea Jeb might have during or after he closed the deal... I might admit that some were incredibly elaborated, after all Jeb Norbertson having a slight case of ‘business dementia’ and Dayna Green missing... Two plus two equals..., in order to disguise the whole thing. To put it simple, Jeb broke the bank and everybody that didn’t saw what he was doing before he did it all wanted to have a share... by getting Dayna in his/her/their power...’

‘And the Duchess... she doesn’t want that ‘share’?’

‘Two guys didn’t believe in it either... and decided that if their ‘so-called’ boss didn’t wanted it, they would get it for themselves. Do you wanna know...?’

‘No thanks... so she honored her word and you...’

‘The whole idea was that exactly today, two weeks before the day in which the Russians would do it, Dayna would invite you for dinner. You would arrive to find her writhing on the kitchen floor and would be overpowered...’

‘By whom??!!’ – Ilena asked raising from the pouffe suddenly.

‘Yours truly, I lived a whole month in the fallout shelter below our feet...’

Both Ilena and Princeton’s incredulity made her remember of the awful place... Not her greatest assignment ever! But the Duchess had promised a very suitable compensation.

‘It wasn’t a great experience, it was very boring actually. But I was there in case anyone decided to preempt his/hers strike, and my orders was to avoid Dayna’s capture at any cost, at least while my backup wasn’t around... Oh yes, I had a back-up in town... as had the Russians and a few others. In any case... the involvement of that burglar made us put our plans in motion earlier than we thought of...’

‘And Dayna... did she knew about all those plans...’ – started Ilena.

‘...Or did she take part in their elaboration?’ – completed Princeton.

The black woman’s smirk was all that they need as answer. Both swore to the other that ‘she’ would be the one that was going to kill Dayna, and Ilena was really serious about disobeying Princeton!, but stopped their argument when the black ninja harrumphed.

‘According to her... BOTH of you are among the worst actresses she has ever seen...’

And it was true apparently, Ilena sat back on the pouffe while Princeton returned to the sofa in a more contrite manner. Ok, apparently the whole thing depended on the ability to fool as many unpleasant people as possible at once (along with the good folks), and they were both conscious of how little were their skills in that area...

‘The whole idea was to create a general ‘wild goose chase’ in the... underworld (if that word still exists), while Jeb completed his deals and Dayna was kept safe... somewhere. If you’re interested... the death toll is, up to this day, around fifteen in three different countries... no innocent lives taken and no violent acts happened in this county...’

‘There’s a few people missing...’ – started Ilena.

‘The Carsons and the Perdues never existed in the first place, Allannah Tracy (as you might be already thinking) is Juliana’s last fake ID and as of Robert Uhlman... we don’t know why he’s missing. He’s your only real case that we know of.’

She gave them more details over the next hour, that only increased the weird sensation that they were starting to feel about Dayna (they quickly understood her reasons but were still unsure as to how deal with her actions), until she threw the bomb.

A second picture of Dayna. Still bound the very same way of the first one (a modified hogtied, with the ankles connected to the elbows and the wrists rope-cuffed in the front) but the angle of the picture was different. Instead of a close-up of the nude body it clearly showed where the mattress was located, the tunnel leading to the fallout shelter!

‘DON’T!!!!’ – The black woman said as both stood up instantaneously.

‘She wants to see you both as badly as you want to see her, but she also wants to talk about everything she hid from you two and all her actions... basically she’s feeling really guilty about having to deceive you and you...’

‘We know it...’ – Ilena started to grit her teeth, but with the curiosity she saw in the black woman’s face she relaxed – ‘Because she’s Dayna! Crazy and genius and... and I so want to kill her! After I kiss her of course...’

‘Get in the line girl... look, we’re mad at her as much as we are relieved that she’s fine and we’re... oh what the hell... we’re grateful that she did what she did. Not that she’s not going to receive the mother of all spankings when I get my hands on her! But unless you are twice as good as you think you are... get out of our way!’

Princeton and Ilena went straight to the basement as Felicia sat back on the sofa.

She chuckled as she phoned her boss. By the time Ilena and Princeton returned to the house she was long gone, and they knew that whatever Dayna had meant with ‘Jeb’s surprise to you both’ it was going to be embarrassing for them...

THE TIRTEENTH DAY OF DAYNA’S KIDNAPPING – MORNING

‘The mother of all spankings’ was an apt name for whatever she had endured at the hands of her mistresses, prior to be delivered to them that is, as she very obviously was having trouble to sit on that chair! Oh well, she had had her fun...

‘Ok, you may lie on your belly over that towel...’

Sighing with relief Dayna took her place in between Petunia and Cherry, who then knelt and started to pass the suntan lotion all over her naked body.

‘Hmm, guys, weren’t you supposed to be punishing her?’ – Debra asked.

‘Shut up!’ – Both older women said at the same time. Petunia looked at Cherry who nodded and did all the job as she stood up and went inside the boat, among Cherry’s many mail courses was the professional masseuse and, in spit of her lack of talent to almost all the other courses she got, she had proved to be a diligent student in that one.

‘In the case you are wondering, me and Petunia (and Sylvie when she shows up) will be punishing this angelic blonde here as much as our mistress want us to do so... But only after Deborah is here with us. She gave us the order to treat her as we wished to, but that no real harm was to befell upon this flesh... until she’s here...’

‘No real harm?’ – asked Dayna opening her eyes, right on time to see Petunia, the oldest one among the three ‘Client 93’, returning with rolls of white tape and pre-cuts coils of rope dangling in her arms, which lead to the obvious... – ‘The ‘funny tan’ punishment?’

‘What else? It’s a hot day, no clouds on sight, NO ONE to come to your rescue...’

Yeah, they were now over a hundred miles away from the Costa Rican coast, with no other vessel for company in any direction they turned the eyes on. She was at the mercy of the two women whose names she had ‘suggested’ to the Duchess months before, two of the very few with whom Debs had not parted ways in a good manner (without any of them to blame for it), and the crew of slightly sadistic turnkeys that she had expected to meet when she got out of that seaplane hours before. Well, the two (and Sylvie) would finally meet Deborah thanks to her ruse, but because of that ruse she wouldn’t dare to leave her cabin if she had any say in the matter for a week or two!

And what else those two, and Sylvie, and Debs..., had in store for her?

‘Ehrr... girls?’ – But the crew’s only answer to her plea was a collective pure delight with her ordeal! And they cheered the duo that was cornering her!

‘Hey, come on Dayna, you know the drill... Don’t resist and obey our orders... Hands in front, cross them please, and say ‘Aaah’...’ – Petunia said.

‘Hold on a second, why does she need a packing in her gag?’ – asked Cherry.

‘Good question... ok, just come to our parley... you adorable fly...’

THE DAY THE ‘HOAX’ WAS REVEALED – MORNING

‘Have you seen the news?’

‘No, wha...’

But instead of answering her question Donna Mannx merely grabbed the remote control from her hands, aimed it at the TV and changed the channel.

It was in all news channels. Jeb Norbertson, dressed as if he was going to another of his meetings with a few entourage (including that icy 'dead' girl), a few reporters and the sheriff she had seen so much in the news over the past two weeks.

They all seemed to be in a basement of sorts. Jeb walked towards a wall, then he crouched and checked the bricks one by one, until he found one and removed it from the wall, next he pushed a button and part of the wall opened as if it was a door.

‘What?’ – she said looking over her shoulder back at Donna, who raised the volume.

‘This whole lane has three collective fallout shelters built with the houses, whoever was behind Dayna’s kidnapping was apparently the only person in the world that still knew about them... I checked, there’s no record anywhere of them...’

She turned once more to Donna and mouthed ‘was?’. Donna told her to keep her eyes in the screen, and to get ready to get flabbergasted.

‘Was?’ – asked the sheriff.

‘Dayna’s kidnappers and I reached an agreement in the fourth day of her kidnapping, and she was freed and is under my protection ever since the fifth day...’

What happened next was a small confusion as the sheriff moved to where Jeb was as his bodyguards (and three cops) kept the reporters in their place. Due to the commotion the reporters made the heated argument between the sheriff and Jeb was barely heard, but as soon as his secretary opened a folder and showed her something the sheriff stopped.

The video went on with the sheriff expelling all the reporters from her house and then sort of forcing Jeb to get into her car. Ebby was already on the phone ordering that they had access to as much original and full records of the whole footage, from as many TV channels as possible, and that a full scan on it was to be made.

Only after twenty minutes she finished her calls and turned to Donna.

‘What do we know so far?’

‘Apparently, whoever kidnapped was after a ransom and just that. He emptied two vaults that he had in two banks in Jamaica and had its content flied over the US, and by then he knew that many organizations, ours included, had their interests linked to Dayna and her whereabouts... yes, he knows about us...’

Which explained why he sent his Russian commando after Olivia...

‘Are you alright Ebby?’

‘Of course not! You do realize how much he fooled us?’

‘More than enough... So what will you do now?’

‘First thing is to find out exactly what happened during Dayna’s kidnaping, who was the person or persons responsible for it and what did he paid to have her freed; then we need to find out how much he learned of our intentions and plans (and of the Russians and other parts involved in this...), and then...’

‘Yes?’

THE DAY THE ‘HOAX’ WAS REVEALED – NIGHT

‘...and I have no regrets, no regrets at all. The list of people and organizations interested in explore my feelings towards the little sister I never had just got bigger as days passed. This folder that I am giving, to Special Agent Kevin Thaddeus here, contains everything I managed to learn from day one to day five about the many (thwarted) plots to kidnap Dayna in order to slash me a few billions...’ – and he avowedly gave the folder to the federal agent at his right, then Jeb picked the second (even more packed) folder from the hands of his lawyer who was sitting at his left at the desk filled with microphones – ‘...while this one contains what I managed to collect during this past week. I made many copies that I intend to use on any trial my actions, of which I take full responsibility for, cause me to endure.’ – And he then gave the second folder to the federal agent.

Of course the real documents, pictures and everything else had been given to the FBI over two hours before after the deal had been struck. He would have to pay all the bills and overtime all the law enforcement agencies involved in the case, from day one, plus a few fees and such. Plus, this time, he wasn’t going to be able to avoid jail time (or a reduced sentence) but thanks to it all info and data that could be traced back to illegal sources would be acceptable in court (because they were now the proofs of a crime for which the major culprit took alone full responsibility for).

Back to the stage act, Jeb and the others at the table (which also included Princeton, the mayor, a representative from the governor and a few others) answered many questions (Jeb’s lawyer only stepped in when the legal implications of his actions came into the field) and finished with a video of Dayna, dressed casually with a large pink T-shirt and white trousers, inside a soon-to-be-identified car.

She declared that she was fine, that her kidnappers had been professional enough to not cause any sort of serious trauma in her and they, apparently, had done her and Jeb a big favor and that she had no way of knowing where she was being headed to or how she would be doing the travel. It was fairly obvious that Jeb had provided a place for her to stay as long as the ‘unknown backdoor’ (as she referred to the entrance to the fallout shelter and the shelter itself) was being taken care of, and that said place was not on US soil or jurisdiction. But she didn’t know if she was going to be there through air or sea, or any combination of both, and hadn’t been told where it was located. She finished the video sending a kiss to Jeb and begging him to not go ‘too far this time’ (which earned Jeb a lot of questions in the weeks that followed) in his haste to protect her.

The meeting ended with Jeb declaring that all the people that lived on that lane would be, temporarily, reallocated in the town’s hotel’s best rooms until a proper provisory home was provided, while all three fallout shelters (whose documentation about had but simply vanished from all official records) were checked and analyzed by experts.

Jeb Norbertson didn’t manage to avoid one year and a half behind bars, plus a few years on probation, for the way he handled Dayna’s kidnapping.

But since he did so in order to avoid illegal outside interference in his conglomerate’s businesses (and most importantly, profits) the board of said conglomerate had no reason to try to force him out of his position as the CEO. Plus many of his Asiatic business partners liked the fact that he would protect his deals (and their profit) with such vigor without backing away any responsibility for acting the way he d-id.

Two of the fallout shelter were sealed after having some sustentation columns added in a few of their sections, the one ‘belonging’ to the group of houses of which Dayna’s and her friend’s houses belonged to supposedly got the same fate.

In reality it was cleaned up and had a few rooms turned livable once more (so anyone sent there to protect Dayna wouldn’t risk dying of boredom or tetanus like Felicia felt she would). Their houses also got a state of the art security system.

Dayna ‘disappeared’ for nearly two months, although she managed to be interviewed by a Japanese reporter (that had no way of knowing how she got ‘there’) in the beginning of the second one (which gave the world the impression that she was hiding somewhere in Eastern Asia), and by the time she returned (looking way more as someone who had enjoyed a stay at a spa than a victim of a crime) to her house all the ‘compensations’ (a long list of investments) Jeb provided for the county, in order to counteract for the huge ‘threat’ anyone could (with reason) imagine that she posed for the city, were beginning to bear fruits already. She managed to keep the low profile she enjoyed so much after a couple of months of interviews and many participations in talk shows...

Pollyanna ‘Princeton’ McCabe had no problems with Rimisi’s followers, especially after he and all the people involved in his plan to discredit her (and get a little personal profit through insurance fraud) were convicted for it, until his buddy James Armstrong ‘took the reins’ of the local anti-LGBT rights movement...

By the deal he struck with the authorities, Jeb got nearly a month to prepare himself, and all his enterprises, for the moment he would be behind bars. He did it in three weeks, and spend the rest of the time enjoying some luxuries ‘for the last in a while’...

Like the ‘Farewell for Myself Party’ he gave two days before he showed up on court.

AT THE ‘FAREWELL FOR MYSELF’ PARTY

Euboea was told that Jeb wanted to talk to her before he made his speech, and was guided by a waitress through the infamous ‘maze of corridors’ that were the top floors of his manor until they reached a spot a bit detached from the action.

The girl, that weirdly looked divine in that male XVIII Century noblesse’ servant black and white costume (with a wig to match), smiled as she opened a door for her... and tried to lock the door (while staying outside) as soon as she entered the room, but Ebby was faster and on alert, and soon the bosomy brunette was being pressed against the door of the room (while both of them were still outside it) by her but the girl was very calm. But before she could ask anything a voice came from inside the room...

‘Please Ms. Bortroff, could you come in?’

For a moment she wasn’t sure that the voice belonged to who she thought that it did, but the brunette smiled and nodded. ‘It’s really her, can you believe in it?’ she said with a very excited voice, and Ebby stopped pressing her that hard against the wood.

‘Oh, and Ms. Andrews? Go to the third room at your left...’

Now the brunette wasn’t expecting it, but she showed nothing besides surprise and a little excitement as she ran to the door in question, she knocked and was immediately admitted as a ripping sound was clearly heard by Ebby.

‘Don’t worry about her, by the time she’s freed from her bonds I’ll be long gone and even if she tries to tell anyone there won’t gonna one single evidence that her claims are true. And I’m sure that Deborah is making sure that she will never tell the world about how you and I met, face to face. Now could you please come in?’

Deborah Immoden was there as well? Composing herself Ebby entered the ample and poorly furnished room (just a table and two chairs) and there she was, the Duchess!

She seemed busy with her tablet, all that Ebby could see was a game of solitaire in it, as Ebby took the place across the table and prepared herself to wait for her to finish her game. Instead, the Duchess (who was wearing an elegant black dress and embroidered gloves) handed her the tablet and told her to finish it. It was almost over, only a couple of cards to be stacked left but, as nonchalantly as possible, Ebby did it.

As soon as the game ended the image in the screen changed...

Erika, still wearing her blue evening dress, was writhing over the backseat of a car (a limo, which was in motion), hogtied with padded cuffs and gagged with a wide strip of microfoam tape. Patsy and Oprah (her bodyguards) were sitting back-to-back on a quite darkly lit room; each woman’s elbows was intertwining the other’s ones and thus their hands were tied in front with a quite sturdy rope-cuff, both had been ballgagged and wore their underwear. Next it was the turn of Micky’s fate, her driver was lying against a pole and tied and taped up rather simply to it; her ankles and waist were roped to it (and the waist tie also helped to anchor her crossed wrists in place) and here and there were a few turns of black electrician tape to enforce her immobility, plus a thick cloth to gag and blindfold her. For last it was Hortense and Yvonne’s (the two highly trained and competent French girls that she had hired to be her trump cards in case anything went wrong at the party) time to appear in the screen; both girls were wearing but their panties and a very large amount of rope over their bodies!

While Hortense was (sort of) hogtied (there was a long piece of rope connecting her ankles to her wrists, elbows and hair), Yvonne wrists had been tied behind her knees and her ankles were lashed to something (off-screen) way above her head, forcing her to stay with her back on the ground/floor. Next the image split in four parts, each one showing one of the previous scenes, and there was a twinkling white ‘megaphone’ at the top right corner of the screen. She looked at the Duchess, who nodded, and pressed the megaphone.

‘Girls?’

All six women showed clearly that they could hear her.

‘Everything is fine, don’t worry about a thing please. Jeb’s ‘protector’ seems to want to have a word with me and you are the reason as to why I am not calling the cops, nor will I. Patsy, Oprah, Micky, Hortense and Yvonne... ‘Dr. Richard Chamberlain’... I am ordering to each one of you to not try anything for as long as your respective captivity last. Erika... my love... please bear with it for a while more ok? Nothing is going to happen, and I promise I will compensate you... As for the others, save Micky who just got a substantial raise in her already enormous salary, I will triple the accorded fee for your services my dears, as long as you all behave... Will you all behave?’

All women did their best to nod, even Erika, and the screen went black.

‘So I take that Jeb has also a few friends and ‘friends’ of his under your power as of now?’ – The Duchess shook her head slightly – ‘Then how...? Are you admitting that you and he have some sort of agreement that is bigger than the one I know?’

‘Please... let’s stop the games shall we? They are no longer necessary. Jeb Norbertson is, as you must have been suspecting for years now, my most successful frontmen... And you guys blew the only chance he had to actually stop being it...’

‘How so?’

‘Twenty years ago, when I decided to help his enterprises for my own reasons, he was an almost nobody. In two years, or less, when he leaves Tehachapi he will be way too big for me to have a strong grip over his businesses if he wants to be ‘free’ then... and, to be really honest with you, he did wanted for it to happen... until he learned that a certain group of friends were okay with the woman he actually loves, not as a little sister but as a woman, being kidnapped by Russians just so they could step in and play the ‘heroes’... He is VERY disappointed with you Ms. Bortroff...’

‘Nothing would have happened to...’

‘You were going to let her be their ‘possession’ for three full days before you showed up and rescued her! You knew WHERE she would be sent to and under WHOSE care she would stay while there, and you were going to allow it to happen! And all because... you wanted him as one of your ‘Friends’...’

‘And he was...’

‘Right now I am but a burden to him, the criminal mastermind that can drag away his reputation and freedom and businesses (well, these ones just maybe), and he wanted to start anew, as ‘clean’ as possible. I allow people to get out of my organization on a semi-regular basis, just as long as they can’t be somehow coerced to use any dangerous knowledge they might have against me or my friends or my businesses... I am okay with it. And he wanted out. It would be very troublesome, too much work to do but... I would know that he would not be able to use any useful information left with him...’

‘And all that it was needed was that we warned him about the Russians’ plans...’

‘...and you would have him as one of your ‘friends’ by this time already...’

She started to lose control, she could feel the tremble in her left hand coming up at top speed (so she discretely placed her right one over it), and fought with herself for a while before she managed to return her gaze to the Italian woman.

She had no one but herself to blame for her decisions, and she had agreed with the plan from the very start! It wasn’t her idea, it was Counselor Eight’s, but so what?

She had agreed with it!

‘So what happens now?’

‘Right now Jeb is starting his speech thanking everybody for being here, after that he will circle around thanking personally many Hollywood stars and starlets, sports stars as well and politicians, it will take him a while to be at the library where he expects to have a talk with you. I calculate that we have about one hour and a half to reach a deal.’

‘About?’

‘Let’s not make any mistake, I intend to keep doing whatever I damn need to (within my usual limits) to achieve any goals I set myself to reach. You, and your organization of vigilantes, will keep on trying to have me arrested or removed from the ‘game’ as well as any other that actually threatens one of you or your whole gang. We will not change WHO we are, that’s for sure, but...’

‘But?’

‘I like to think that, while I can have your current lover and anyone else of your (or her) entourage under my power any time I need to, and believe me that if I need to you will know about it one hour too late!, if I ever heard that Dead Eyes Illyana or Los Atalantes or Xu Wei or... any other highly unpleasant... human being is planning to have Erika or any past or future lover of yours, plus anyone else related to you or her or your friends, for any conceivable reason that might occur... I would be able to warn you somehow...’

‘As long as I return the favor?’

‘Even if you don’t, but let’s face it... It would be so much easier for me to sell that to my friends if I could include some reciprocity from your side...’

Ebby thought about it for a moment. There was so much to consider about the whole proposition! She thought about the last time she had tried to strike hard at the woman in front of her. Less than a month before ‘Pretty Peaches’ had sent a message detailing a ciphered conversation she had heard Deborah have on the phone.

Her techs had analyzed it and had found out that it alluded to a meeting (in two days) between the Duchess and one entertainment businessman she, and the other Counselors, believed that it was one of her most successful frontmen. A team was sent to record the meeting in any way possible, and they had returned with ‘Pretty Peaches’...

The meeting had never happened, at the deserted spot of that back road a stolen car had appeared and two masked men had removed a large luggage bag from the trunk, that they left by the roadside, before disappearing. After about one hour the techs operating the cameras saw that the luggage had some movement of its own...

‘Pretty Peaches’ was found inside it, stark naked and heavily taped into a ball (with the wrists tied above the ankles) and gagged with a jawbreaking ballgag. A note (‘You can keep her for all I care!’) with Judge Alberta’s handwriting was taped to the inside of the luggage (that had being holed up real bad to give her room to breathe)...

That had been their (her) latest attempt to have one top member of the Duchess’ group in their power. Could it be possible that, even with that sword dangling over her head (or Deborah’s, Cinnamon’s or anyone else’s), she would still be true to her word?

Well, so far she had. They had tried to use her honor code against her more than once...

And to think that once, so many years in the past, they had had the perfect chance to capture her! But instead Counselor Six had convinced the other Counselors to show her how powerful they were, tell her to behave or else!

How could they have listened to such a blatant fool?

‘Any plan of ours that involves your capture or any of your tenants...?’

‘You’re still welcome to try, as I am welcome to achieve any goal that involves...’

As if on cue the screen of the tablet lit once more, and now the four images showed all six women being transported; Erika now had the ‘company’ of another girl.. wait a moment... it was the servant girl... Andrews!... who had been stripped completely of any clothing she was wearing, tied the very same way Erika had been and was lying on the floor of the limo, right in front of Erika. Patsy and Oprah were now sitting (with a masked woman in between them) in the backseat of a car with their wrists tied to above their knees, their gags had been changed to see-through tape (with packing) and both were blindfolded. Micky was alone in the backseat of another car, her uniform was gone and she had been handcuffed though (apparently) neither her gag nor her blindfold had been changed. Lastly Hortense and Yvonne had been cramped together inside a trunk; she couldn’t see what had been done with their legs, but it surely was something as overkill as the treatment their torsos and arms were suffering!

‘They are well known by my friends and operatives in Europe as being extremely good in escapology... Ask them about last May in Cannes if you want to hear a story about an impossible escape from a perfectly laid death trap... if I hadn’t checked the official files about it myself I wouldn’t believe in it. But here they are...’

‘I heard about it, which is why I hired them in the first place... but it did actually...’

‘...happened as they claim it did? Yes... So you can understand the extra precautions taken with them. As for to where they are being taken, Jeb will give you the address...’

‘And the Andrews girl? Why is she...?’

‘That can only mean that Deborah herself is taking care of their transportation, and that Andrews is the newest addition to her private (and gigantic) harem of course, and what will happen afterward to them all when they reach ‘there’. At that moment I believe that she’ll be placed in whatever vehicle Deborah is using tonight and...’

Their conversation went on for one hour, and by the time it was over a deal was reached and a safe place, a local where the Duchess and Ebby could be able to meet if the need arose, was established. Next Ebby went downstairs to the library and saw whatever bond of friendship she was trying to create with Jeb be buried in a very cold way.

But nothing could have prepared her to what happened next. The address Jeb gave her was none other than the one of her own manor in LA!

She went there without caring about traps and such and found the place overtaken, all her security men and women drugged and locked in a room, and her maids and servants and ‘friends’ sprawled around among the many rooms of the place.

Nadiya, as all were expecting, had managed to free herself from whatever tie-up she had been subjected to by Deborah’s commandos (actually Deborah herself), but she had also been locked inside a closet and barred the door of it with a heavy piece of mahogany, so she was trapped for good inside it. Hortense and Yvonne fared similar fates (and had also managed to free themselves from their bonds at least).

Not a single china or silverware was missing.

She found Erika, and the others, bound in the buff in different positions in her own room... and there was a note taped to Erika’s belly: ‘Next time you do a stunt like that again we will clean this place of ANY valuable we find... Deborah’, that she torn into tiny little pieces before she freed Erika (Nadiya and the maids tended the others)...

The incident was treated as a warning from the Duchess’ side, that any plan in which they purposely allow anyone directly or indirectly linked her to suffer any form of ordeal was to be canceled, for now. Strategies would have to be reviewed and resources redirected, and after she told them about how they had slumped their act with Jeb the other Counselors agreed that they would have to change their ways.

Three Counselors swore to try to prick Jeb’s (and the Duchess’) business from his fingers while he was behind bars, but from the start even them knew it was a vain hope.

It was a very long year for the Friendship, in which Ebby’s influence over her peers only grew with her mediations and other demonstrations of her natural leadership.

But she never told them about her deal with the Duchess.

AFTER THE ‘FAREWELL FOR MYSELF’ PARTY

They were her subordinates, but they were also her friends. And after she had used their ordeals as an excuse for a ‘Comanche Strike’ years before they had imposed that deal on her. If she ever messed really bad with them, even if there was no other way to help or save them or their families/harem members, she would have to pay... with sweat.

Cinnamon was entitled to put her through a hellish ‘one-week special training’ ordeal in which she was the recruit that had just fell from the graces of the ********** of all drill sergeants (Cinnamon)!!! While Deborah was more direct...

They would have to fight.

Since she wasn’t nowhere near as good as Deborah in martial arts they had settled for good ole fashioned boxing, with all the apparatus of amateur boxing... that never stopped her from taking a beating... But what the hell? She had improved her boxing quite a number of times thanks to all the preparations and training she had for those matches... And honestly? Sometimes she did go too far.

‘That’s insane, you know?’

Louella’s monotonal voice was the only flaw that the mid-thirties black woman had, but it had hampered her career for way too long, until she had met Deborah in unsavory conditions, and was offered a job shortly afterward.

She had soon arose to the spot of being the Duchess’ personal secretary, who couldn’t mind less about the result of that weird genetic condition of hers, and had long become another friend of the Italian noblewoman in this side of the Atlantic.

‘Be honest with me Louella, if had allowed it to happen with you, and your sons were involved in it, wouldn’t you punch me in the face as soon as you learned about it?’

‘Of course! But...’

As if on cue the sound of the gong was heard by them all, Jeb was so posey as the man with the hammer by it!, and Dayna was also holding her own hammer (as she would be the one in charge of signaling the end of each round) in a most ridiculous fake fashion (But at least they had buried or burned that politically incorrect and stereotyped Chinese uniform that they had used last time).

Besides them the only attendance of the bout was sitting in a stool a few feet from the ring, not that she had any chance to do otherwise.

Mia Andrews, a 19 years old Californian semiprofessional photographer (and model), and Deborah’s latest addition to her harem, couldn’t care less about the ropes holding her to the stool or almost completely immobile.

She wasn’t into bondage, but if her mistress had told her that if she wanted to watch her fight the Duchess (as all bouts between them had as part of the attendance one, two or even more of Deborah’s girls), and how could she not want it unless she wasn’t in her right mind?, she would have to finally submit herself to ‘the ropes’ (among a few other things like take that useless ride on that limo with another girl as helpless as herself, but who had been allowed to wear clothes! Well, the ride back had been… interesting).

So there she was, arms and legs roped and melted together, and her arms had next been lashed to her torso (did her mistress had to squash her breasts for that?), a folded hankie lying on top of her tongue and six or more strips of white tape holding it inside her mouth. A good price to be the only person in the world that would watch a fight among those two... Besides Jeb, Dayna and the referee (a black lady) that is...

And the fight was on!

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