Physical Education (10 page)

Chapter Fourteen

After Amanda’s disappearance, Reed did some detective work. He’d seen the black limo pull away and part of its license plate. Although he didn’t positively identify Amanda in its backseat, with her missing from the school, he was pretty confident that she’d been kidnapped.

The following day a typed letter had arrived describing a love affair gone awry, but Reed knew better. They hadn’t even been able to consummate their relationship, let alone have a chance for it to go astray. Before he could go any further, he had to approach Ms. Lucy, and would have to ask for help.

The headmistress was less forgiving in her assessment of the situation.

“You’re telling me that you took this job under false pretenses,” she fumed. “And, even while lying about your background and position, we still managed to lose not one, but two, students.”

Although he considered himself a strong man, he felt himself flinch under Ms. Lucy’s direct and accusing gaze. “Not only is Ms. Wilkinson missing, but so is Claire, who I’ve been unable to reach at home. And, you only tell me this now… after she’s been gone a few weeks!”

She placed both hands on the desk, and stood up, peering at him. “And this comes after your sister Willow went AWOL more than a month ago?”

The fire seemed to be extinguished from under her, and Ms. Lucy slumped down in her chair, resting her head in her hands, her red flaming hair strewn out over the desk.

Reed felt like getting up to comfort her, but all his instincts told him to stay put. Finally, she looked back up.

“What do you think we should do?” she asked. “Alert the police? The media?”

“That’s the last thing that I want to happen,” he quickly said. “If you do so, they’ll move the women from wherever they’re being held to who knows where.”

And if that happened, he was afraid to say, then they’d probably be lost forever.

He’d been trying to track the several women who had gone missing from the school. So far, none of the families had heard from them, but usually there was nothing unusual in that. Somehow, each had simply vanished. There were no plane records of the women flying out of San Francisco, and a check of recently issued, official passports, didn’t match up with any of their descriptions. They couldn’t disappear into thin air. He wasn’t sure if they were being sold internationally as sex slaves, or if they were being kept within the United States.

“What can I do to help?” Lucy queried.

He’d run a chase on the partial license plate that he’d picked up on the night in question, but so far it hadn’t led to anything specific.

“Let me look at the school’s private personnel files,” he countered. “I’ve run background checks on all the employees, but you may have more information that I might have missed.”

Seeming to give up any residual fight, Ms. Lucy nodded her head. “Done. What else?”

“Keep your eyes and ears open. Anything about these women that linked them together? Any commonalities? You know them better than me.”

Ms. Lucy paused before answering, and her usually crystal clear blue eyes clouded over: “They were all extraordinary, in their own right, even your sister. So much passion, and so much sexual potential.”

Chapter Fifteen

Light fingers traveled up the side of her stomach, leaving trails of sensation along the way. As they reached her bare breasts, Amanda arched her body upward, begging for contact. A warm palm cupped the underside of her breast, bringing the yearning flesh up to a wet mouth. Tongue lapping over her areola, her nipples instantly became even harder, and warmth began to pulse between her legs. So isolated: Just that twirling tip of a tongue over one nipple was setting her off so quickly. Amanda had been feeling wound tightly, without any release of her pent-up sexual energy and frustration. In the darkness, she couldn’t see her lover’s face, but she imagined it to be Reed.

She wished for more. Yearned to be taken. Possessed. And then another mouth joined the first, suckling on her other nipple. She moaned aloud. She had dreamed of one day making love to more than one person at a time, of having her body lavished with sensual pleasure, all focus upon her, but it had never been a reality until now.

She didn’t often like to share. When it came to loving between the sheets, she usually wanted to be the center of attention. Yet, if her multiple lovers were going to play gorgeous homage to her body, well… more power to them and more pleasure for her.

A hand settled on the inside of her left thigh, and she widened her legs in order to give access to her most private parts. Then, a hand increased the pressure on her right thigh, making her open up even further. If she wanted to shut her legs, she didn’t think that she’d be able to. She was open and on display. Thankfully, the room was so dark that if she couldn’t see, they couldn’t see. All the while, the fondling and sucking of her breasts continued.

With her legs braced apart, she felt someone slightly finger her pussy, just gently teasing her outer folds, testing her wetness and readiness. She was ready enough, she thought, for whatever they wanted to give her, whatever they wanted to do with her. Just as she was about to speak those words, to beg to be taken, someone laid their mouth over hers, and the kissing started. Simultaneously, two fingers plunged into her cunt, providing an aching amount of sensation, but still not enough. She wanted to be stretched open, taken, fucked hard.

A thick tongue filled her mouth, kissing so passionately that her breath was sucked straight from her body. She gasped for her next inhalation, only to find the possessing mouth again, and her next breath came from her lover’s mouth.

The lover between her legs added a thumb slick with her own juices, rolled it coarsely over her clit and Mandi’s body lit up, creating orgasmic sparks of color behind her eyelids. She longed to reach out and touch those in bed with her… were they men, women or a mixture of both? But it was as if her body was completely restrained. She had no control of their actions and little control over her own.

Her hips lifted off the bed as the climax overtook her senses. Toes stretched out tautly, she reveled in the release.

Then, just when she thought that she was done coming, she understood that they – the mysterious nighttime lovers – were not done with her, or with her body. Wave upon wave of pleasure built within her once again, and she whimpered into the mouth of the person kissing her. From the feel of the strong lips, it had to be a male. A woman’s mouth would be softer, fuller, smaller. This kisser knew how to take her simply by the power of the kisses. She willed him to delve further, to plunge into her, for one of the lovers to give her the fulfillment she sought.

Momentarily, maddeningly, all touching, all sucking, all plunging, stopped. She felt herself being turned over onto her stomach, and a rolled up pillow being pulled underneath her pelvic area. She thought she remembered going to sleep in a simple nightshirt without any underwear on. Somehow, at some point in time, she’d lost that solo piece of clothing. Now, a slight breeze blew across her naked body, sending chills along her skin and raising goose bumps. Shivers of anticipation joined the sensation, and she lay there, waiting to feel what would happen next.

Hands pressed on each side of her ass, opening her up. She tried to clench herself shut. This wasn’t the way that she wanted to lose her bottom-cherry. The fantasy was nice enough, but she’d waited this long, and she wanted it to be special. Still, the hands persisted, and, slightly curious to see what was in store, she relaxed a bit. A wet probing sensation circled the core of her ass. The tip of a tongue rimmed her, slicking her up. The sensation was more intimate than anything she’d felt before. She’d never imagined how sensitive the nerve endings there could be.

Something larger pushed into her ass, perhaps a finger. She relaxed her muscles further, letting out a deep breath and remembering the lessons she’d read about to ready herself for anal sex.

But, they didn’t go further, simply a small pressure. She wiggled her ass against the finger, even more ready to be taken. And then it came, the glorious cock. He slid into her pussy fully in one full thrust. She grunted at the pressure, of being pressed down into the bed. Deep thrusts bounced her off the pillows, rubbing her clit into the rough material of the sheets. She’d always loved the feel of texture on her clit, masturbating over her underwear or through a silky nightgown. All the while, that finger stayed right there in her ass, reminding her that she was being possessed, taken, and what could potentially be coming. What if he thought she was ready enough, and slick enough, after the rim job, and with how soaking wet her pussy was? What if he took that thick cock out of her pussy, and placed in… just like that… in her ass?

Would she be ready? Amanda wasn’t sure of the answer. But the thought. The very idea of being taken. Being possessed. Being fucked so royally by Reed because by now, she knew that it was Reed that was in bed with her. It had to be. She’d been thinking of him, wanting him for so long now, that only he could really please her in such a way.

Somehow, everyone else who had been with them earlier had left. And, they’d left Amanda and Reed alone in this room together. He was giving her everything that she had ever wanted. He was fucking her with everything that he had. Everything that she knew he possessed. She was coming. Soaring over the sheets. Over the bed. Clit rubbing against the pillow, ass up in the air, being filled with her dream-lover: She was coming.

Amanda woke from her passion-filled dreams lying on her stomach. One hand stretched beneath her body, fingers touching her clit. Small aftershocks of pleasure traveled through her, and she smiled at the memory of it. In the darkness of the room, she had to think for a moment about where she was. In the house. That’s all she knew. She’d fallen asleep and dreamed that others had joined her in an orgy. She’d awoken alone. Still alone, she resolved herself to playing her captors’ game, but she was even more determined to escape.

Chapter Sixteen

Once Ralph and the other holders thought Amanda was appropriately drugged, they let her roam around the allowed areas of the house. On the first excursion from her “cell,” Amanda swore she saw Claire being led into another room. Over the next few days, she held vigil, keeping an eye out for her friend, but it wasn’t like she could outright ask about her. That type of behavior would let her kidnappers know that she was palming her meds rather than swallowing them.

It wasn’t as if she and the other women had complete freedom, but there were a few areas where they were allowed to comingle. One area, ironically enough, was the library, or reading room. How any of them were supposed to do any reading when they could barely concentrate, Amanda had no idea. And, she knew better than to appear too interested in a text. Heaven forbid one of the guards figured out that she wasn’t drugged out of her mind, and she’d be put under room arrest again.

As the days passed and the medication fully wore off, her boredom and panic increased. She needed out of there. Looking at women like Willow, who rocked themselves and whispered names of saviors, imaginary or not, made her feel even more trapped. She didn’t know quite how long Willow had been at the halfway house. Her loss of reality made her seem like she’d been there the longest of all of them.

This afternoon found Amanda in the library, a copy of
Vladimir Nabokov’s
“Lolita” in her hands. Many found the slow awakening in the book to be a literary masterpiece. These days, the author would be arrested as a suspected child molester, and the book was regularly listed amongst the “most challenged” by the American Library Association. Still, one could appreciate loving the innocence of Lolita, and the young vixen definitely knew how to play up her wild side. Amanda wondered if her kidnappers had ulterior motives for placing the book in the library. Surely, it was a message meant to be interpreted.

Across the room, Willow took up her regular rocking routine. She held a copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” but there would be no escaping into the imaginary world for her. Every day that Amanda saw her, Willow sat in the same spot, holding the same book, and she never saw her turn a page.

“He’ll come for me. He’ll come for me,” Willow chanted more loudly from her chair. “He’ll find me. Find me.”

Disturbed by the repetition, Amanda took in Willow. Hour by hour, day by day, she seemed more withdrawn and gaunt than when she had first seen her. Sure, she would still be described as striking with her tall, thin, runway model-like build, but these days she looked more sickly than stage-ready.

Today, Claire had once again not come out from her room. Amanda wondered where her closest friend was, and if she was all right. She couldn’t very well ask one of the so-called guards where Claire was, because that would mean that, again, she was not drugged up enough. If she’d been taking her pills, she’d be rocking herself on a chair and mumbling like Willow. Or staring out into space like the tall African beauty Shatonda, she thought, turning to take in the sight of the dark-skinned exotic woman who usually sat by the room’s main window, gazing out into the unknown. She, too, looked like she belonged on a runway in Milan, adorned with a flowing designer chemise, rather than locked up in this halfway house to hell. Sometimes, Amanda wondered what exactly Shatonda was looking at: Was it the actual scenery that lay outside in the backyard, or was it some memory from her past that held her mesmerized? Either way, one didn’t get very far talking to her. Amanda had tried.

“He’ll come. He’ll come. Reed will find me,” Willow continued to chat from her corner. The mention of “Reed” brought Mandi’s attention back to the winsome woman. Could she be talking about the very same Reed she knew? It would be a coincidence, but considering that both she and Claire had come from the university, it wouldn’t be that much of a coincidence. Maybe Willow had a connection to Reed, too.

“Reed is coming. I know him. Love will make him come. He’s coming.”

Willow’s voice grew louder, until she started screeching indecipherable syllables and vowels. The two guards standing on the outside of the library doors stepped in and, silently, mentally, Mandi willed Willow to stop, but unfortunately, she didn’t.

As they drew closer to her, Willow began to shake her head. “Don’t touch me. No, don’t touch me. He’ll come. Reed will save me.”

Each guard grabbed one of her elbows and lifted her out of the chair. As they dragged her across the room toward the hallway, Willow continued to fight them, dragging her bare feet and pulling furiously against the bonds of their strong grip.

Just when she was about to pass Mandi, she turned and looked at her, making direct eye contact. Mandi felt as if she was sending her some sort of message, but she wasn’t quite sure what it was. She wished she knew. “He’ll come… for us,” she whispered.

A chill passed down Mandi’s back. Clouds passed forebodingly outside by the window, casting a dark shadow across the room. Shatonda turned from the window and also looked at Mandi before directing her gaze to the open doorway. No one guarded it at this time. Both of the guards had escorted Willow to her quarters, which meant they were not being watched.

This moment may be it, Mandi thought, the time that I could possibly escape. She wasn’t quite sure where she would or could go, but there couldn’t be a more open invitation than now. And, once she got out, she would make sure that the other women were safe. She possessed more clear-headedness than she had in a few days, and the coast was clear. As Mandi stood up, her legs felt a bit wobbly. Why? It wasn’t like she’d been working out on a Stairmaster for two hours straight; all she’d been doing was sitting her ass on a chair. More like disuse rather than abuse, she thought. That, or nerves for what could be coming.

She neared the doorway and looked down both ways of the hallway. She knew what was located in the direction of her room… more rooms and a dead end. What she didn’t know was what lay down the opposite direction. Would it offer freedom or turn into another dead end?

* * * *

As twilight neared, Reed sat in a standard-issue beige car watching the duplex on the corner. It looked like any regular family building, a cheery spring yellow with a brilliant white trim. Lush green grass spread across the lawn, and the flower beds were filled with an assortment of colorful pansies and snapdragons. The only thing that really set it off from the rest of the upper-class neighborhood was its overly high brick fence that ran around the backyard perimeter. Usually, the average household fence was maybe six feet high, depending upon if the owners had large dogs. This house, though, looked to have an almost eight-foot fence. Inside, he knew and hoped, lurked an establishment that would make any family afraid. Inside was one of the largest sex slave rings he’d come across during his time period as a police officer. And, he hoped that inside were housed both his missing sister and his girlfriend. Even mentally, he had a hard time labeling Mandi as his girlfriend, but right now that was a better term than anything else he could come up with.

If Reed was going to be able to get them all out alive, then he was going to have to call in backup, the ol’ reinforcement troops. The police motto dictated that one never go into an unknown situation alone. Well, he may have done the entire mission on his vacation time and tracked down the kidnappers to this location, but the next step would take a combined effort. Before reaching this point, he hadn’t known what he was dealing with. Now, he knew better. If he was going to get them out, he was going to need some help.

And in order to ask for help, he was going to have to, as “I Love Lucy” would say, have some “’splaining” to do.”

He picked up his cell phone and hit the quick-dial number 6 spot. The number rang through to his direct report, Sergeant Johansen. He anticipated a few questions to start off with, like “What the hell did you think you were doing?” but eventually, Johansen would send in the cavalry. The bust would be done, all the women would be safe, and they’d all be happy.

Maybe not him, especially if Mandi hated him, but then maybe she would realize that he hadn’t planned any of these events. They were out of his control. And, maybe if she understood, she would eventually forget, and then she’d take him back again, because that is all that he could ever want.

“Johansen here,” the sergeant picked up the line.

“Sir, it’s Reed McAllister.”

“Reed, my man. How’s vacation treating you? Coming back to the office soon?”

“Well, that’s about why I’m calling you,” Reed started off, and then explained the situation. Johansen was a bit more than a little ticked off that Reed had chosen to go undercover and weed out a major sex trade operation all on his own, but he quickly agreed to send out some backup cars. Unless it looked like there was some type of imminent danger to the women that the kidnappers held, Reed wasn’t going into the house alone. Too many unknowns still lurked. He had no real idea of how many people were involved. There seemed to be some muscle-bound hired help, but he didn’t have an exact headcount.

Until the reinforcements showed up, Reed would have to sit tight. Every muscle in his body felt like it was stretched taut. As if he’d been working out for hours, pumping up the adrenaline. He tried to loosen up a bit and sent commands to his body to relax. It wouldn’t be prudent for him to be high-strung with the mission began. Ideally, he’d shut his eyes and do a few deep-breathing exercises, but right now he had to keep them wide open, focused on the house across the street. Letting out a deep sigh, Reed resigned himself to being wound up until this whole thing was over.

* * * *

Staying as close to the wall as possible, Amanda tip-toed down the hallway. She left her shoes in the library, figuring that barefoot would probably be quieter than the flip-flop of slippers. Every few steps she stopped, straining to hear if anyone was approaching. She expected the two guards to return shortly, after they had escorted Willow to wherever she was headed. If they were back at the university, then Ralph would certainly administer some sort of punishment. Here, she’d probably be drugged up even more and tossed into her room. If one of them ever got too out of hand, there was always the possibility of restraints on the bed.

One thing was certain, though: none of them had ever been touched sexually, which stood in absolute contrast to the time they’d spent at the school. There, it was all about sexuality. Here, they were being held, kept in some sort of limbo, until whatever the future held. Although they had been kidnapped and held against their will, it was as if they were prized possessions. Each one of them looked starkly different than the others. Under the influence of drugs, Amanda couldn’t really tell their various personalities, but she knew how different she and Claire were.

At the thought of Claire, Amanda stopped. She hadn’t seen her friend in a few days, and she’d never gotten to talk to her. She was starting to grow worried. She knew that she shouldn’t waste time looking for Claire or the others. Sometimes the known proved to be better than the unknown.

And, at that bit of philosophy, Amanda continued her journey into the unknown. Hopefully, the winding hallway would eventually lead to a stairwell outside and freedom.

* * * *

Reed had instructed the officers to come mainly in unmarked cars and not to roll up with flashing lights and sirens. As the last of the sun’s rays slipped away, Reed grew thankful for the cover that the night would give them. A black four-door sedan rolled up behind him with two officers in the front seat. He stepped out of his car, zipping up his black jacket, and walked back to brief them and set the stage for their rescue mission.

He approached the passenger-side window, and the officer rolled down her window. He’d worked with Officer Marge a few times. He didn’t know her all too well, but he knew that she was solid. Maybe a bit too serious, but in their line of work, who wasn’t?

“Evening Marge, thanks for coming,” he said, and ducked down to see who was driving. Nick Ramirez may be young, but from what Reed had seen, he definitely knew how to handle himself, and stay cool. “Nick…”

“We have a few unknowns this evening, one of which is how many perps are located inside the house. We need to assume that they are armed and dangerous, and they potentially have hostages,” he explained. “There should be at least three women being held.”

“Have you done a survey of the house?” Ramirez asked. “How many rooms? How big is the yard?”

“It’s hard to get an accurate reading on that,” Reed said. “From what I know, it’s two houses, on two lots, that have been connected and merged. I saw some of the original zoning plans, but who knows what happened once construction started? Plus, they have a pretty high and solid fence circling the property, so that also makes it tough.”

Marge’s face instantly foretold her emotions. Then again, she certainly wasn’t a woman to keep things held in.

“I don’t like it,” she said. “We’re basically going in blind.”

Reed could understand where they were coming from but, at the same time, they needed to move and he wasn’t going to be able to do the job himself. “If you’re not feeling comfortable Marge, then you can stay outside and watch the street. We’ll need a person to make sure that someone else doesn’t come back home at the wrong, or right, time, and interrupt us.”

Marge indicated for him to move away from the window. She opened the door and got out. Arms crossed over her chest, she leaned back against the car and gave Reed the once-over.

“There’s more than what you’re telling us,” Marge said. “I’ve worked with you before, and you’re careful, not headstrong.

“What’s at stake here?”

Reed considered what to tell her, and then settled upon the truth: “They have my sister,” he said.

With a slight widening of her eyes, Marge nodded at him in acknowledgement. “Fair enough,” she said, “let’s do this.”

She moved a bit closer to Reed, and whispered, “but I want the kid to stay outside,” indicating Ramirez.

* * * *

It felt like a long time had passed since Amanda had left the library, but she’d not heard a sound of alarm yet. Maybe the situation with Willow was more serious than she had anticipated, maybe the guards thought that Amanda had returned to her room, or just maybe they were following her right now, and she had no idea that they were behind her.