Explicit Instruction (14 page)

John got in next to the driver who got the car moving before all of the doors were properly closed. Brin
ging her attention to the man at her side Flick gasped; it was Skeeve.

‘Hey little girl
,’ he drooled, grabbing for her thigh.

In an odd reflex, her fist came up and she punched him full force in the nose
, sending blood flying everywhere. Commotion in the front joined Skeeve’s cursing.

‘You fucking bitch!’ he roared
, bringing his own fist up to her jaw but Flick managed to duck sideways so the blow only glanced her.

‘Ca
lm down!’ John shouted.

‘This little bitch has been asking for it since I met her!’
Skeeve shoved his pelvis forward and grabbed for her hair.

‘You think about putting anything anywhere nea
r my mouth and I’ll bite it off. I swear to it, Skeeve.’

John and the driver laughed
, but Skeeve fumed. ‘You’ve got nothing to worry about,’ John said. ‘Victor’s orders are that you be untouched... sexually anyway. We all know what Skeeve can be like.’

‘You smug sonofabitch,’
Skeeve sneered.

‘Do your job,’ John snapped.

Rushe apparently wasn’t the only one to have short patience with Skeeve.

‘Here for the scut work,’ Flick
muttered while turning her eyes to the side window.

‘We get her to the boss,’ John said. ‘Y
ou know what you’ve got to do.’

Skeeve
’s hands swooped around her and fabric was pulled over her eyes. After tightening the blindfold, another length of the thick material came over her mouth. Being blindfolded and gagged evidently wasn’t enough, because next he stole her hands and tied her wrists. Fighting the bonds would get her nowhere, but she resented Skeeve’s silent victory.

Now Flick
was unable to ask questions, though she doubted her abductors would pay much heed to them anyway. Certainly, the length of the journey didn’t matter because they wouldn’t tell her where they were going, so all she could do was wait.

Whatever was going on it was clear they used her feeli
ngs for Rushe to coerce her, but the reasons why mystified her. Yes, Flick believed that Rushe cared for her, but that care wouldn’t sway him. Whatever he was, or wasn’t, doing wouldn’t change by her mere presence.

The
trip was mostly quiet. The men jeered each other and the radio was switched on and off a few times. But after listening without contributing for a number of hours, Flick rested her head against the window and tried to sleep.

By now Flick knew she
’d have lost her job for good. But with no idea what was ahead, or when she’d get the chance to relax again, employment was the least of her worries.

John had laughed
when she refused to sleep with Victor. But his reaction didn’t rule out the alternative, the trafficking option. This was a lot of effort to go to just to sell her on.

All Flick
could assume was that Rushe had refused to do something. Speculation got her nowhere, so while the men argued about sports teams she started to count her breaths, like counting sheep. Flick would have to be at her best for what was to come, though she had no idea what that would be.

When the vehicle stopped
, the doors opened then shut. The activity made her sit upright, but still without her senses Flick couldn’t anticipate what was coming. Her own car door was opened and she was hauled out onto gravel. Footsteps surrounded her, which only served to increase her disorientation as she was pulled along.

A smell of smoke filled the air
, and when the crunch of gravel beneath them ceased Flick was led up some heavy stone steps. After more than a dozen stairs, they eventually got to the top, and all of the voices hushed.

For a f
ew seconds there was no activity, then a rush of warm air accompanied the sound of a door opening. They were moving again, and the hot structure they had entered reeked of expensive perfume.

Carpet came under Flick
’s feet when she was dragged up more stairs, then with a short walk another door was opened.

‘This is you,’ John said and her blindfold was removed.

Against the far wall was a four-poster bed, and flanking it were two large sets of drawers. The bed was dressed in peach colours that matched the carpet. In one corner was another doorway. But the conspicuous characteristic of this room was alarming.

John removed the
gag. ‘There are no windows,’ Flick said.

‘That’s right,’ he said pushing her toward a wall.

Flick didn’t have time to ask what he was doing when he forced her bound hands to the wall to frisk her.

‘You don’t think that if I had a weapon I’d
have used it by now?’

Once John satisfied himself that she had nothing to wreak havoc
with, he untied her wrists.

‘You’
ve got some time in here. That’s the bathroom... the other door will be locked,’ he said in reference to the door they’d entered through.

‘So I’m supposed to just sit here? Where’s Rushe?’

‘I have no idea,’ John said. ‘But a word to the wise – I wouldn’t be so eager to shorten your wait. As long as you’re in here you’re safe... you’re lucky that you were brought up the stairs. Women who go down the stairs leave by the back door – dead or alive.’

‘Are you trying to scare me?’

‘No,’ he said smiling again. ‘I don’t need to try. When you realise what goes on in this building you’ll need a whole new word to describe fear... settle in.’

John didn’t say anything else. H
e left the room, and the snick of the lock echoed through the cavernous space. Flick couldn’t get out of here. She didn’t even know where she was, or what they wanted, and she hadn’t seen Rushe.

Suddenly a thought struck her –
Rushe might not be here at all. But that option made no sense. These people could have no use for her except to manipulate Rushe. When the timing for maximum impact arrived they would parade her out, of that she was sure.

Once again, Flick
was a captive. If Rushe was here he’d be mad at her, but if he wasn’t... Flick sighed and took her feet from her shoes. For the moment, she would follow John’s instructions and settle in – this could take a while.

Her two experiences of being a prisoner were polar opposites. The ten by ten foot cell she and Rushe had shared
in the shack quadrupled in size at this new location. But with so little furniture in the room most of it was just space.

T
he disgusting, mouldy, and mildew saturated bathroom from the shack was now a gleaming fully kitted out en-suite with a double shower and a Jacuzzi tub. Flick had ample towels and toiletries. On investigation of the drawers she’d found clothes, and underwear, all new and in her sizes. Whatever her reason for being here, Flick took their thorough preparation to mean she was expected to be here for quite a spell.

Until she saw Rushe she would be uneasy
. Though Flick knew on seeing him she could end up with a whole new set of problems.

No one had come to her and she heard no sounds outside her room. Either they’d barricaded her and then abandoned her here
, or this room was completely soundproofed. That in itself was worrying because it meant either they didn’t want her to hear them on the outside, or that something would happen in this room that the bad guys didn’t want anyone else to hear.

After ki
cking around for a few hours, Flick took a shower but chose to put her own clothes back on. Until she knew what was going on she was taking no chances. The shower was needed because being so close to Skeeve made her feel dirty.

She drank water from the bathroom sink and explored every corner for anything that could be used
as a weapon. It became clear to her that these people were well-prepared and didn’t want her defending herself. Flick just hoped she wouldn’t need to.

No one came so she ended up
falling asleep, then sometime later she woke up. Without windows, or food, Flick’s body clock couldn’t regulate itself. She didn’t know what time of the day it was, so all she could do was wait.

When the lock snicked again Flick
leapt to her feet. John came in with a striking blonde who looked like she’d just walked off the pages of Vogue.

‘This is her?’ the blonde asked John a
s though Flick wasn’t even present. ‘She’s a hideous thing.’

‘
You think?’ John said to the woman who had a European accent. ‘Get saddled up for it.’

‘No,’ the woman shook her head
.

‘
You can’t refuse, Simone,’ John said. ‘You have time.’

‘Hmm,’ Simone pouted. ‘I’ll see what I can do.’

‘You’re a master; you haven’t let him down yet.’

‘This is very inconvenient.’

‘But necessary,’ John said to Simone, then he came to Flick’s side. ‘Come on.’

‘Whe
re are we going?’

John took hold of Flick
and pulled her out of the room. Two bulky men walked in front of them down a golden-carpeted hallway lined with thick white and gold pinstripe wallpaper. Other doors in the corridor were ignored in deference to the dominating double doors at the end. Opened in ceremony by the men preceding them, Flick was led inside by John with Simone somewhere in their wake.

This
chamber had to be twice the size of Flick’s enclosure. A large desk stood on the back wall, and on one side of the room there was an oblong table with fifteen chairs around it.

At the other side were leather couches arranged in a square around a fireplace.
On that side of the room was another door that Flick assumed was a bathroom. This space had windows, or she assumed that it did. Flanking the wall behind the desk were heavy drapes that reached the floor. The curtains were closed so she couldn’t see light, and Flick began to wonder if “Victor” was a vampire.

John took
Flick toward the bathroom behind the couches while Simone draped herself over one of them. When they entered the adjoining room, John didn’t close the door, but they had to move through black velvet drapes.

Flick immediately realised her miscalculation and dug her heels in. Absorbing the features of this room horrified her. Wall to wall bed dominated in here,
fifteen feet of beds with cuffs lining the head wall. Two poles were in another corner on separate podiums with cove lighting all around the room.

This was a space
designed for one thing, and with one thing in mind. Flick dragged in breath to scream, but John forced her forward.

‘This isn’t for you,’ he said. ‘Not yet.’

Flick tried to wrestle free, but John was far stronger so he jostled her onto the bed. ‘No!’

‘Out of interest what would you do if you got past me?’

Darting her gaze around the room from its black painted walls and ceiling, to the wipe clean floor, Flick sought escape. She caught sight of a black door on the same wall as the curtains that blended with the paintwork. Flick tried to decipher her options.

‘You don’t want to go through that door,’ he said
, cuffing her hands together. ‘That’s spiral stairs right down to the basement... I told you that you didn’t want a piece of that.’

‘Are you being nice to me?’

‘I’m nice to everyone.’

Having an ally might be useful
, but John reeked of indifference. Whatever was going on Flick didn’t imagine the outcome would be positive for her; that suspicion was confirmed when John pulled a length of duct tape from a drawer under the bed and stuck it over her mouth.

‘You’re going to meet
Victor today,’ John said, pushing her hair away from the adhesive. ‘You’re lucky; most of the girls never see him. You’re different I suppose.’

John
took a seat at her side. Flick wasn’t exactly sure what they were waiting for. One minute passed and then another two. They sat here idly together like strangers next to each other at a bus stop. With the tape over her mouth, Flick couldn’t ask any questions.

All became clear when noise from the main room drifted through. The
double doors were opened, and the sound of a gaggle of voices carried through to her and John still sitting here on the bed.

‘Yeah, enough,’ came a strong male voice
with a vaguely Spanish accent, then an impatient huff. ‘Where are we?’

‘Ten,’ someone said.

‘Closer to fifteen.’

‘Right, I’ve got this to do.’

‘That’s Victor,’ John said with a brow wiggle when he got to his feet.

‘It’s ridiculous!’ Simone proclaimed.

‘Yeah, you’re never happy,’ Victor said. ‘You guys get working on the next shipment, and I want that pajero, Jansen over here tonight.’

‘Yes
, boss.’