Six Masters Island - The Cinderella Syndrome Page 4

  “Thought you wanted to be alone,” she muttered. Peggy was not having a very good night, even though this guy had bought her a beer earlier. Losing Reggie to Patsy an hour ago had pretty much assured Peggy that tonight was going to be a bust for her… and she needed twenty dollars more for rent.

  Sloan smiled and said, “I guess I need some company, after all.”

  Peggy shrugged and sat down with an awkward thump that caused her beer bottle to slam on the table. “Damn heels,” she cursed, and reached down to rub her ankle. She looked back at the man and felt pleased that he had come to his senses and finally singled her out. He was maybe even richer than the usual fare that came into the bar in the middle of the week… and he had no pale indication of a wedding ring he had taken off and hidden in a pocket. With the black shirt and day old groomed whiskers of his dark beard shadowing a strong jaw and handsome features. Peggy thought he looked sexy and mysterious. His eyes were pitch black in the dim light, but Peggy imagined she saw desire lurking in their depths.

  Peggy was a rough looking forty, but the alcohol convinced her that she still had the appeal she did in her twenties… like Jenna, Patsy’s daughter, who was trying to interrupt her mother’s try with the impotent insurance representative that came in at least once a week. Reggie was a loser, but he always paid for their drinks and gave them a good tip for an evening of company. On a Wednesday night, he usually got lucky with the slim competition. Peggy noticed the man across from her glance at the young girl. “The kid’s only twenty, so Patsy’s going to have to get her out of here.”

  Sloan controlled a wince. He did not mean to get caught looking at the girl. “I was thinking she didn’t look old enough to be in here,” he said disapprovingly.

  Peggy was relieved that she was not going to have to fight for his attention. “Nope.” She watched the bartender make her way towards the girl, and she smiled.

  “Hi, Jenna.”

  “I’m not staying, Ronnie,” Jenna assured her. “I just wanted to ask mom for a ride.”

  Patsy grabbed five dollars of the insurance man’s money from the bar. “Wait across the street and get yourself a burger. I’ll be over in a while.”

  Jenna said, almost too softly for Sloan to hear, “Don’t be too long, mom. Okay?”

  “I’ll be as long as I damn sure want to be,” her mother snapped. She was losing her rhythm in coercing her target.

  Jenna walked out of the bar, and Sloan saw her enter the small diner across the street. He waited a few minutes and asked Peggy, “Do you want to go someplace for a private drink?”

  “Sure,” Peggy smiled.

  “I’ve had a few,” Sloan slurred. “Is there a place we can walk to?”

  “My apartment is just up the block,” Peggy offered. This was perfect. She hated to be driven off to some hotel near the highway, only to waste money for a cab home in the morning.

  “That sounds good.” Sloan stood and held down his hand for her, making sure he wavered just the slightest amount. He also made sure that the bartender noticed them leaving together.

  The couple walked out arm and arm, with Patsy looking up once in annoyance. Peggy was leaving with the handsome guy who had blown her off earlier. Shit. He said he wanted to drink alone. She considered Peggy competition, and she had been feeling smug and cocky about scooping Reggie. She shrugged and continued flirting, forgetting all about Peggy… and Jenna waiting across the street.

  Sloan left his black truck hidden in the shadows of the lot beside the bar. He glanced across the street to see the girl ordering from a menu, and continued up the sidewalk with the drunken woman hanging onto him. When they got to her apartment, she fixed them each a drink. His glass remained on the table while she finished half of hers in a gulp. She fell against his chest while they sat on the couch, and her hand rubbed his crotch in a crude act of foreplay. Sloan carefully reached into the pocket of his jacket and flipped the cap off one needle. He circled her in an embrace, and slid the injection into the back of her shoulder.

  “Ouch.” Peggy jerked back.

  Sloan looked surprised while he slid the needle back into his pocket and recapped it. “What happened?”

  “Felt like a bee stung me.” Peggy searched the room, and her eyes began to droop. Sloan left her lying on the sofa sleeping, and he wrapped his hand around a dishtowel before emptying half his drink down the sink and replacing the glass on the table. He carried Peggy into her bedroom and stripped her, noting the sad, sagging body once it was released from the confines of her tight clothing. He punched the pillow beside her and messed up the blankets. Tomorrow she would wake up with a headache, and only a vague remembrance of the man who apparently had spent the night and left in the morning.

  Sloan left the apartment, walked back to his truck, and stood in the shadows watching the diner. Eventually, the young woman would get tired of waiting for her mother. It took another thirty minutes and Jenna looked irritated as she made her way across the street.

  “Excuse me… can you tell me how to get back to I-4? I think I got twisted around,” Sloan said.

  Jenna looked over and recognized the good looking man from the bar. He was better dressed than those who usually showed up at the dumpy place. She walked in his direction saying, “It’s all these stupid one-way streets. Look, you gotta’ go up two blocks and head south.” She was almost in front of him, and she turned to point. “Then, go left one block and you’ll see the sign for the ramp. You have to go under the over-pass if you want to head west.”

  Sloan had the rag with the ether out of the baggie in his pocket, with an empty and full syringe underneath it. Just as the girl turned, he wrapped his arm under her breasts, pulling her back into his chest while his hand covered her mouth.

  It took Jenna a moment to realize what was happening. When the man had pulled her against him, her first thought was that he was just another jerk. When the horrible smelling cloth covered her mouth, she began kicking and grabbing at the arm holding the rag. “Hush, girl,” Sloane whispered calmly. “Just breath and lean back. I won’t let you fall.” He felt his cock thickening while it pressed into her bottom, and he let his thumb reach up and brush across her nipple.

  Jenna had already inhaled two deep breaths of the chemical and her head was getting woozy. It burned her eyes, causing them to fill and mix with the tears of her terror. She felt her body going slack and black shadows mixed with her fear, stalling and confusing her attempts to escape him. Just before she passed out, she felt his warm lips kiss her temple.

  Sloan dragged the unconscious girl to the back of his truck and lifted her into the bed. He opened up the silver toolbox that ran the width of the truck behind the cab and placed her on the blankets. Sloan reached for the other needle and slid it into her arm. It would keep her unconscious for several hours… more than enough time to get back to his apartment and secure her.

  Sloan was back at the widow’s place within an hour, and he noted that all of the houses on the street were dark. He parked in his spot on the side of the garage and jumped into the back of the truck. The girl was quickly blindfolded and gagged, with her arms bound underneath her and her ankles tied together and wrapped in a thick quilt. The toolbox had been padded on all sides, and no one would hear her when she awoke. With the restraints and the confining cage, her struggles would be minimal.

  Sloan quietly climbed the steps and grabbed his suitcase. He left the keys in the outside door lock, climbed back into his truck and headed north. He crossed the state line before dawn.

  Jenna awoke in darkness with her head aching so badly she was afraid she had been hit. She became slowly aware that she was in the back of some swiftly moving vehicle… and that she was tied up and gagged. There was a blindfold over her eyes and she tried to rub her head against padding to get it off. The blankets around her had been stuffed so tightly she could barely move, and if it were not for the sound of the road beneath her, she would have been petrified with the belief that she had been buried alive.<
br />
  The guy… the one who asked how to get back to the highway. Jenna was slowly remembering the stranger. Oh, god. How long have I been here? Mom could still be drinking with that insurance guy and she might not even know that I’m gone yet. God, she’ll think I got tired of waiting and walked back to Nancy’s. Jenna began to cry when she realized that no one would be looking for her.

  Nancy had not really left on a date. The two girls had gotten into an argument when Jenna had told her that she was leaving town. She had enough of her mother’s drunken escapades and had managed to save two hundred dollars. It was in her pocket, and when her mother finally sobered up enough to call Nancy, she would figure that Jenna had finally made good on her threat to leave. Jenna cried in dismay, remembering that her last plan… when the stranger had called her over… was to leave her mother in the bar. She had been hoping that the man would give her a ride, far away from the shack she had lived in with her mom for the past ten years.

  After several hours of travel, Jenna’s bladder finally let go and the remnants from the three cups of coffee drenched her jeans and the blankets underneath her. Soon after that, she felt the truck slowing and following the curve of an exit. She heard the muffled metal sound of the gas cap and she tried to scream and bang her feet. She cried softly in frustration when she realized that she could barely hear the noise she was making. There were two loud bangs on the lid of her tomb that made her jump. The man was letting her know he was aware that she was awake.

  The truck sped up onto the highway again, and Jenna drifted to sleep. She awoke to the sound of gravel under the tires and she panicked with the realization that they must be at their destination. Please don’t let him kill me. Mama… oh, please. Jenna began her useless struggles again and crying muffled wails behind the gag. When the truck stopped and the engine shut off, she heard the bang of the door and she screamed.

  She felt the cool air when the lid of the box was opened, but she had no idea if it was day or night. The blindfold sealed her vision completely. Jenna was terrified, and she felt hands reach under her bound arms and lift her up. “Damn, mother hates when you sluts piss yourselves,” the man growled. She felt his hands untying her ankles and she tried to kick out with her cramped limbs.

  The man ignored her, and Jenna arched her back when he gripped her arms to lift her out of the box. She twisted and tried to pull away in the darkness behind the blindfold. Jenna was terrified and she had no idea where she was. She fought to keep the man from dragging her sliding sneakered feet down the bed of the truck and she stumbled when he jumped down off of the tailgate, pulling her with him.

  Jenna felt herself being pushed and tugged along a gravel surface, and she shook her head wildly, screaming and wailing behind the gag. The man kept leading her forward while her feet slid and her knees buckled in fear. His mother? His mother is here? Somehow, Jenna realized that his reference to the woman was ominous, and without even meeting her Jenna knew that she would find no help from her. He called me a slut. Does he think I’m like the women in the bar? Maybe if he finds out I’m not like them… Jenna felt a ray of hope, until she thought about the kidnapping. Maybe, he’ll kill me. Jenna was yanked up some steps and she heard a door open.

  “Sloan, you’re the first one back,” a woman purred. While Jenna continued to struggle, she heard the woman kiss the man’s cheek.

  Even in her blindfolded state, Jenna sensed that the woman was tall and she had a commanding tone to her voice. Worst of all, she did not seem the least bit surprised that the man had shown up with a bound woman in his grip.

  “I got lucky and had a good opportunity to pick this little flower for you. I think you’ll be quite pleased with her, mother,” the man replied.

  “Oh for goodness sakes, Sloan. The poor thing is scared to death. She wet herself,” the woman said. The tone of her voice belied the sincerity of her words, and Jenna continued to battle and trying to scream. “Bring her downstairs and we’ll get her cleaned up. I’ll send for your father.”

  Oh god. There’s a father in on this? Jenna was completely confused. She was a nobody from a nothing part of town. The man had to know that no one in that area would be able to afford some kind of ransom. He had seen her mother… unless he thought the insurance guy was her dad.

  “Marigold, please find the Master and tell him that Master Sloan has returned,” the woman said.

  “Yes, stepmother.”

  Jenna heard footsteps patter away. A hand clasped her other bound arm and she felt nails digging into her. This gave her a truer sensation of the woman’s size and strength, and the pair continued to lead her across the floor. She felt a hand reach behind her head, and Jenna blinked when the blindfold came free. Their procession stopped and the woman walked in front of her and gripped her chin.

  “Oh yes, Sloan… remarkable depth and such a deep blue.” Jenna looked up into a delighted green gaze, and she felt as though the woman was sucking something out of her soul. She tried to turn her head away while she screamed. “What’s her background?” the woman asked, and they resumed walking and pulling Jenna across a huge marble foyer.

  “Not much,” Sloan replied. “Her mother’s a barfly and this one is in her way.”

  Jenna realized that the man did understand there was no money, and that meant she was not taken for ransom. They came to a heavy wooden door and Jenna was pulled down a frightening dark stone staircase. “The only room occupied is Aster’s. We were bringing her upstairs to finish training tomorrow.”

  Jenna looked down an eerie stone hallway with frightening shadows. There was a cold feeling of terror and despair that was causing her stomach to seize. She heard heavy footsteps behind them and a deep voice bellowed, “Welcome home, Sloan.”

  “Thank you, father. As soon as we get her rigged up, I’m heading upstairs. I’m beat. I’ve been driving since last night.”

  “No problem. We’ll get the new flower planted,” the woman replied, and she smiled up at him. “Would you like Pansy brought to your room?”

  Sloan’s mind flashed on the violet eyed girl and he felt his cock jerk. “I’ll call for her after I get upstairs,” he answered. The thought of the lilac eyed girl bathing him sounded arousing, and a perfect ending to his long, successful trip.

  Jenna tried to jerk away from the woman when Sloan released her arm. “Calm, little flower.” She gazed deep into Jenna’s frightened stare. “Uprooting can be quite traumatic, no matter how barren the former garden has been.” Cynthia ran a sharp nail down the side of Jenna’s face, tucking a loose hair behind her ear.

  The woman’s voice and eyes were mesmerizing, and Jenna had not realized that she had stopped struggling until a man’s hand gripped her free arm again. “She soiled herself,” the man spat out.

  Jenna sobbed in humiliation. Please, please. This can’t be happening to me. No one knows. No one is going to know that I’ve been kidnapped. They’re just going to think I ran away. The realization was more frightening than depressing.

  “The truck will be cleaned in the morning, Alexander,” the woman replied. “Let’s get this poor flower cleaned up and acclimated to her new garden.”

  Jenna had the idea that, though the man’s grip was strong, it was the woman in control. The nonsense about a garden made no sense to her, and her terrified mind was too confused to give it much consideration. Obviously, she had been abducted by a family of psychopaths, and Jenna’s mind traveled back to the woman’s comment. Sloan was the first to be back… that means there must be others.

  She was pulled down the hall to a room on the far end with a heavy wooden door standing open. The woman flipped a switch, and when Jenna’s eyes adjusted to the bright lights she screamed and tried to push backwards. The man held her arms tightly behind her while the woman walked in front of her. She looked down and smiled. “You will refer to me as ‘stepmother’, and whenever I enter the room, you will ask if you may attend me. Those are the first words I expect to hear when I remove this gag.” A finger tr
aveled over Jenna’s gagged lips, and the woman added in whispered anticipation, “or you will be punished.”

  Jenna had no idea what the terrifying woman meant, and when the gag was removed she cried, “Please… I don’t have any money… only two hundred dollars in my pocket, that’s all. You can have it, and I won’t tell anybody.” She began sobbing and pleading, “Please let me go.”

  The woman shook her head slowly and smiled with an insane light behind her emerald eyes. She squeezed Jenna’s jaws in an extremely tight grip, digging her nails deep into her cheeks. “You are to ask your stepmother how you can attend me,” her calm voice repeated.

  “You’re crazy. You’re all crazy,” Jenna screamed.

  “Alexander?” Cynthia queried.

  Jenna was pulled over to a stone wall while the woman walked to a cabinet. She held up two collars with jewels inset into black leather. “This one, I think.” Cynthia had one collar named Blue-belle and one Belladonna. There were no ‘true’ blue flowers, but the darker delphinium in her garden seemed to be the closest match.

  Cynthia retrieved the four matching cuffs and she secured the collar to the thrashing girl’s neck. “Belladonna, stop this nonsense,” she threatened. “I’ve already informed you that you would be punished.”

  The collar was a frightening restraint that Jenna did not understand and she continued to struggle. She kicked out at the woman, thinking they had made a mistake and picked up the wrong young woman. “I’m not Belladonna,” she cried. “I’m Jennifer Tremont.”

  Cynthia ignored the denial and held out her hand to her husband. Alexander reached into a deep pocket and removed a black plug in the shape of a short, thick penis with leather straps attached to it. Cynthia squeezed Jenna’s jaw again and her nails dug into the skin just under her high cheekbones. Jenna expected to feel blood from the piercing claws as her jaws were forced open, and she continued to wail and scream until Cynthia pushed the plug into her mouth and the wide flanged edge was against her lips.