Cindy Malone in BOUND FOR MARKET

"MMMPPPHH!!!" Mary groaned loudly. Her head was pounding like a couple of kettle drums. The young woman tried to raise one hand to her head. To her surprise, her arm refused to move.

As Mary's head began to clear a bit and she came to, she suddenly realized it was because her hand had been tightly bound to the arm rest of a chair with what felt like rope. All her limbs were tied down. More rope circled her chest, pinning the young woman to the back of the chair.

"Auugghht!?!" Mary grunted in surprise. She'd been gagged with a strip of cloth tied tightly between her teeth. A cloth blindfold kept Mary in total darkness.

"EEEEELLLPP!!!" Mary cried out. Her gag reduced her screams to a soft whimper.
With mounting horror, the young woman suddenly realized she had no idea how she'd got here, where "here" even was, how she'd ended up tied up like this.

The last thing Mary remembered was closing up the small shop where she worked for the night and walking out into the dark parking lot with the two other girls who worked there with her. Then nothing, and now she was here; a tightly bound and gagged captive, being held, god knew where, for what reason she didn't know.
"EEEEEEEEELLLLLLPPPPPP!!!" Mary yelled, her screams of fright getting louder and more desperate as the rising panic within the young woman threatened to overwhelm her. She'd been kidnapped!!! "EEEELLLLPPPPP!!!"

Suddenly, Mary heard a man enter the room, chuckling. Mary froze. Was this the man who'd kidnapped her? She trembled nervously as she heard the unseen man approach her.

"I see you've finally come to." The man said. "I hope you're accommodations are fine.  You'll probably be here a while. I bet you have no idea where you are or how you got here, right? Don't worry, my dear. I'm told some short term memory loss is one of the side effects of the drugs."

Drugs! She'd been drugged! Mary moaned in fright. Who knew what they'd done to her while she was unconscious. She had no clue where they'd taken her, no idea what had happened to her coworkers, her friends; if they were captives to, or if she was the only one who'd been taken.

The frightened woman struggled desperately against her bonds, trying to get free. After a few minutes efforts though, Mary had no choice but to give up. The young woman slumped down in her bonds, defeated. She panted for breath, sucking in much needed air around the cloth of her gag and through her nose.

"Are you done?" Mary's captor taunted her with a soft chuckle. "I hope by now you've come to the conclusion that escape is impossible for you, my dear, and will conduct yourself in the future accordingly. I've had quite a bit of experience with this sort of thing. When I tie my girls up, they stay tied up!"

The man's words chilled Mary. He'd openly admitted that he'd kidnapped other people before her. But what had happened to them? Did he ransom them? Did he murder them? Mary flinched at the thought.

Suddenly a second man spoke up. "Quit toying with the merchandise. We've got work to do!" He growled.

"Merchandise"!?! Mary thought fearfully. What could he mean by that? "Nothing good…" she thought to herself. The second man walked around behind Mary and untied her blindfold, letting it fall off her face.

Mary squinted as she found herself staring into the harsh glare of a bright spot light. A shadow stepped into the light. It held up something that glinted. A lens?"

"Smile for the camera, my dear!..."

***

"MMMPPPHHH!!!" Cindy Malone groaned into her gag. The young woman sat on the ground with her back to the wall of, what looked like in the gloom, a supply shed. She couldn't say where said supply shed was with any precision beyond "an hour's drive out of town." She'd been blindfolded when she was brought in here, and had spent the previous hour or so, bouncing around locked in the trunk of her own car.

The 22-year old science major struggled against her bonds in vain. The previous hours' struggles hadn't gotten her any closer to freedom, and this latest exertion only served to tire her out and set her skin on fire where the rope cut into her bare wrists and ankles.

"Of course, what should I expect from someone who makes a living kidnapping young women…" Cindy thought to herself, bitterly.

She'd figured out who was kidnapping the University Coeds, filming their bound struggles and selling the videos over the internet. Unfortunately, the Cyber-Phantom had also found her, and here she was now.

A video camera was set up in front of her, filming the captive girl's every movement. "Smile for all the nice viewers!" Cindy's captor had told her as he started the camera that would stream her predicament live onto the internet. It didn't help that the Phantom had taken the opportunity to hike up Cindy's shirt, and pull down her jeans and panties  as far as her bound knees would let it, leaving her exposed to the thousands of people doubtlessly watching right now.

"Hgggghhhppphh!" Cindy groaned in despair. Her captor had secured the camera well. Despite her best efforts, she'd been unable to knock it down or turn it away from her, and Cindy's bonds prevented her from squirming away from the camera's relentless gaze…

Suddenly, the door of the shed burst open. Cindy looked up to see a red haired, female, police officer rush in. After quickly scanning the small space and seeing that Cindy was alone, she turned to the captive woman. "Cindy, are you all right?" Lieutenant Shannon Forrester asked.

A few minutes, with the camera off and Cindy's clothes set to rights, the two women exited the shed, a supply shed for the gardeners of a small park not far from Cindy's apartment where she'd been kidnapped. Her kidnapper must have doubled back, or driven in circles.

"We'll have to dust for prints." Shannon said, shutting the door as best she could with the latch broken in. "Not that it matters. There's no doubt about it, Smith's the phantom. " She turned to Cindy. "We got your message. Davis and some of the other guys raided his house and found everything, the tapes, the computer. Heard it on the radio on my way over head."

"And Smith?" Cindy asked.

"Gone. He'd obviously done some planning in case something like this happened. Made a clean getaway. We've put out the word, though. We'll catch him sooner or later."

Shannon turned to Cindy, grinning. "I know you're probably not too thrilled about becoming an internet sensation, but look on the bright side, if he hadn't broadcast it, live, we'd have had a hard time finding you. You might have been there for hours, maybe even days."

"I'd have gotten free, sooner or later…" Cindy grunted. "Oh, thanks for saving me, by the way." She added.

"No problem" Shannon replied. "Like you haven't saved my ass before, too."
Cindy had been the one to encourage Shannon to become the town's first female police officer, and had later rescued her when it turned out her partner had been working for a pair of drug dealers who didn't like the energetic young policewoman's attempts to put them out of business.      

Shannon had repaid the favor a couple months later, saving Cindy from a serial kidnapper who'd tried to add the young coed to his 'harem' of abducted women. Since then, the two had saved the other enough times they'd stopped keeping track of who owed whom.

"So now what?" Shannon asked. "What are you going to do now that the phantom is behind bars, or at least he will be soon."

"Eh…schoolwork." Cindy replied. "I don't even want to think about how far behind I am with all this. Just boring old schoolwork and boring old lectures for me till the end of the semester." She bemoaned sarcastically.  

"Well, look on the bright side," Shannon said with a grin. "The semesters just starting. Something might come up…"

***

Mary screamed into her gag, a mixture of fear and anger as hands roughly groped her nude breasts. She couldn't see her molester, her kidnappers and captors for the last two weeks, had secured a thick leather blindfold over her eyes, leaving the poor girl blind.

A large rubber ballgag was wedged between her teeth. The leather straps circled the young woman's head, cinched to crushing tightness around her skull. The gag stifled Mary's cry of pain as the unseen man pinched one nipple, to little more than a soft whimper.

The helpless prisoner stood on the tips of her toes. Her hands had been shackled in front of her, then raised on a chain over her head, until she all but hung from her wrists. She strained, stretching out as far as she could with her toes to try and take some of the pressure off her wrists.

A spreader bar had been cuffed to Mary's legs, forcing her legs wide apart. While one unseen hand continued to grope Mary's right breast, the other moved down the naked girl's side, slipping between her legs…

"NOOOOOO!!!" Mary thought to herself as she was so casually violated. She moaned into her gag, a mixture of embarrassment, fear, and impotent fury at the casual abuse of her body. Despite that, Mary could feel her body beginning to respond to the relentless stimulus of the man's hands…

"She'll do. She'll do fine." The man said, calling to Mary's kidnappers, watching somewhere in the unnatural darkness of the girl's blindfold. "How much do you want for her?"

"We were thinking something along the lines of $120K." One of the kidnappers said.

"That's a bit steep…" The buyer replied, still feeling up the helpless girl. Mary could feel his hot breath on her naked skin. She shivered and shook with fright, quivering like a leaf.

"Well, if you don't want her at that price, we were thinking of showing her and the others to Adam…" the second kidnapper said. "He's been interested in getting some fresh meat for that club of his in Russia. We heard Jones sold him three girls last month."

"Adam can't afford $120K and you know it." The buyer said, ignoring Mary's fearful cries as the three men calmly discussed selling her like a piece of meat. The three men haggled a little longer, eventually settling on $105K "Worth every penny." The buyer said. "I expect you'll transport her the usual way?"

"Yeah. Where do you want us to send her?"

"Istanbul. Once she's had a little training, I can put her to work in my new resort there. She ought to turn at least $3,000 a day." He laughed and slapped Mary's naked butt, leaving the poor girl with no illusions how she'd be earning that money for her new owner.

"Oh, by the way," Mary's owner said, as the two slavers lowered Mary's arms to put her back into the cage that had been her home the last two weeks, while they made arrangements that would end with her on a one way ticket to Mary's new home for the rest of her life. "Let me know when you get some new stock."  

"Sure thing." One of the slavers replied. "Shouldn't be too long from now…"    

***

Cindy was out jogging in the early morning light through a neighborhood of small, cookie-cutter houses near her apartment. It was one of her daily rituals, something to help wake her up before she had to go to class.

The young woman's breath smoked in front of her as she ran, it was still very cold out. Despite that, and Cindy's jogging shorts and t-shirt, she was warm enough, at least so long as she kept running.

For a while, there'd been the usual media feeding frenzy over the unmasking of the Cyber-Phantom, only made worse by the phantoms disappearance and the ongoing manhunt. The police had worked to remove as many copies of Smith's videos from the web as they could, but Cindy knew there were probably hundreds, if not thousands of copies still online.

Personally, Cindy hated the idea that somewhere, right now, there was probably someone watching her nude struggles right now. As things were, though, there was nothing she could do about it, so she did her best not to think about it.

Luckily, once she'd managed to work up the courage to actually look at the horrid video Smith had made of her, Cindy had been somewhat relieved. Her gag had covered the lower half of her face, and the hair dye she'd put on the day before as part of her plan to uncover the Phantom, and the poor quality of the video itself, meant it was difficult, if not impossible to tell who she was from the video. Shannon had helped, hiding her identity from the press, which meant Cindy had been spared the reporters this time at least.

Since then, the number of reporters bombarding the police station and trying to discover the identity of the "mystery girl" had dwindled as they moved on the fresher stories and new celebrity scandals. The ongoing search for the Phantom had been banished from the front page to an ever shrinking column. It was beginning to look like Cindy could close the books on another case solved.

As Cindy ran, she had to dodge around a white van that had been parked halfway into the driveway, cutting across the sidewalk. A sign painted on the side of the vehicle said it had been rented from "Tom's Rent-a-Van" and that it was van 017.

Someone must be moving some things. Cindy thought to herself. She didn't see any For Sale signs in the front yard, so they weren't moving into or out of the house… She swung out into the street to circle around behind the white van before getting back on the sidewalk to continue jogging.

She put the van out of her mind as she ran. She had other things to think about, her classes that day, the papers she needed to write… by the time she'd finished her jog and was heading back to her apartment to change for class, she'd forgotten all about strange van…

***

Holly screamed into her gag in pain as the leather belt smacked into her backside. The teenage girl's backside glowed a bright red, testament to the punishment she'd already suffered. The young woman had been bent over the dining room table, her chest pressed flat against the stained wood surface. Her legs had been tied to opposite legs, forcing her to spread them apart. Her hands were cross behind her back and bound tightly with cord.

Holly's captor had hiked up her skirt and pulled down her tights, leaving her backside naked and vulnerable for the spanking. Her captor brought the belt down on her abused backside again, eliciting another grunt of pain. Holly was sobbing now. Her rear end was on fire. The teenage girl's tears were running freely down her face, smearing her eye make-up and leaving black streaks down her pale cheeks.

"What's the matter?" the man said, slapping the belt across his captive again. "I thought you Goths liked pain? Well you better get used to it, because you get plenty of it." He'd been assigned to guard the captives while his partner finished looting the house.

On the other side of the room, Holly's mother and sister sat on a pair of chairs, tightly bound and gagged. Holly's mother was sobbing as well, her face turned away so she wouldn't have to see her daughter tortured. Her younger daughter, Holly's sister, sat beside her. The teenage girl was close to tears, but was fighting back tears.

Holly winced as another lash sent another stab of pain lancing through her. She'd come home from school to find the back door forced open and two masked intruders busy tying up her mother and sister. Before she could run, one of them had grabbed his gun and pointed it at Holly. At gunpoint, she'd had no choice but to let the men tie her up and gag her.

Just then, the second intruder entered. In one hand, he held a small cloth sack containing the three women's money and jewelry. In the other, he held a cellphone which he was speaking into. "…you like the pictures I sent of them?" he asked. "The sisters, I can let you have for $100K apiece if you buy both of them. The mother you can have for a song. She's too old to sell on her own. If you don't want her, I'll have to waste her…fine, too bad for her. You want us to take care of it, or do you want to do it? She might be useful to encourage the other two… and yes, you can look them over in person before you pay a single cent. I know a place we can meet. Yes, it's isolated, no one will notice us. Say, tomorrow morning. Right."

Holly was too preoccupied with her torment to pay any attention to her captor's conversation as the man hung up and put his phone away. He turned to his partner. "It's taken care of." He said. "Get everything ready to move out."

The three women calmed down, somewhat, hearing that their tormentors were about to leave, thinking their trials were almost over. At least until one of the burglars began untying them from the chairs and they realized that they were coming along for the ride too.

Holly's mother struggled for all she was worth, screaming into her gag. Being robbed and left behind, bound and gagged waiting to be found was bad, but being kidnapped was a thousand times worse. Without warning, the kidnapper punched the older woman in the stomach. She crumpled up, unable to resist as he untied her legs and slipped a choke-cord around her neck.

Holly felt one of the kidnappers untying her ankles. A choke-leash was slipped around her neck as well. A short tug was all that was needed to convince the teenage girl she'd better behave. The three women were sobbing as they were marched by the captors to the waiting van…

***

"Oh my God, Cindy!" Cindy Malone looked up from her breakfast as her roommate, a 21-year old pre-med major named Lauren entered.

"What is it?" Cindy asked.

"I was checking the news on my computer. There's been a robbery in town. Over on Birch Street. The woman and her two daughters who lived there were missing. That's only a few blocks away from us!" Lauren said nervously, as if she expected the crooks to burst into the room at that very moment.

"I know, I was jogging over there just yesterday." Cindy said. Suddenly realization hit her. "Lauren, did the article have the address of the house?" she asked hurriedly.

Ten minutes later, Cindy was walking across the campus to her first class. As she walked, she pulled out her cellphone. "I think I can guess what you're calling about…" Shannon said when she picked up. Her voice had more than a hint of amusement to it.

Cindy told Shannon about the van she'd seen on Birch Street the previous morning while jogging. "I'm not sure it was that house, I don't remember the address, but it was certainly on the same street. There's…umm…something else about the van. A mark or something I saw…I…umm…can't remember." Cindy muttered thinking hard back to yesterday morning.

"That's ok. Hopefully, it'll give us something to go on." Shannon replied. "We haven't found much over here at the house. Whoever did this, they're professionals. No prints, nothing left behind. Also, the place has been ransacked, but it looks too deliberate, like they went back later and made it look like they trashed the place…"

"By the way, do you think you could give me a description of the missing women?" Cindy asked.

"I thought you might ask that." Shannon said. "You just can't resist poking your nose in can you."

"Guilty as charged." Cindy replied sheepishly.

"Well ok. The mother is named Beth Thompson, aged 42. She's a math teacher at a local elementary school. Blonde, 'bout 5'3". Her eldest daughter is named Holly, age 19. She's a brunette, but according to her friends, her hair's dyed blue. She's about 5'4". Her sister is named Sarah, aged 17. Blonde hair like her mother's, about 4'10". And I know you're not going to listen to me," Shannon said with mild reproof. "But please be careful, Cindy. Whoever kidnapped these women are professionals, which means they didn't just take them along for kicks, they wanted the three for a reason. I don't want to see you get raped or murdered. Promise me you'll be careful. Please?'

"I will." Cindy said, before hanging up.

Cindy did her best to concentrate on taking notes in her English Class, but her thoughts kept drifting back to the missing women and the van she'd seen yesterday morning. She knew there was something about the van she was forgetting…a logo…a sign…

That was it! Cindy sat up suddenly with realization. 'Tom's Rent-a-Van'! Cindy waited in uncomfortable impatience until class ended. Deciding to skip her next class, she hurried back to her empty apartment and found the phonebook.

A couple minutes searching proved fruitless, so Cindy booted up her laptop and turned to the internet. To her surprise she found a rental service with that name located in a nearby town a couple hours' drive north. Scanning the company's webpage Cindy found a number and called it.

"Tom's Rent-A-Van! How can I help you?" A man said after the phone had rung a couple times.

"Yes, Hello!" Cindy said. "One of your vans backed into my car yesterday and the driver drove off before I could get his insurance information."

"I'm sorry Ma'am, but we're not liable for damages caused by someone using one of our vehicles that they've rented." The man replied.

"That's fine. I was just wondering if you could give me the name of whoever rented the van, ummm… number 17 I think it was, and I'll call him." Cindy said.

"Certainly Ma'am." Tom said. Cindy heard papers shuffling over the phone and a second later, he spoke up again. "I believe that van was rented out to a Mr. John Griffin. His phone number is 972-989-3190."

"Thank you!" Cindy said, before hanging up the phone. Then she sat back and thought for a moment. The name was probably a fake name. One the other hand, maybe the kidnappers would be careless and use the same fake name twice.

The rent-a-van company was far enough away, Cindy doubted the kidnappers could drive here, plan and stage a robbery/kidnapping, and then drive back in one day. That meant a hotel or something. On a hunch, Cindy pulled out the phone book again and flipped open to the list of local motels.

Cindy picked up her phone again called the front desk of the first one on the list and asked the woman who answered if a Mr. Griffin was checked in. The clerk flipped through the registry for a moment before informing Cindy there was no one with the name there.

Cindy thanked her and hung up, moving on to call the next on listed. After a couple of busts, Cindy was beginning to think her hunch had been wrong, when she got a match.

"A Mr. Griffin?" The desk clerk asked. "Yes, he and another gentleman rented a room a couple days ago. I'm afraid if you want to see them, you'll have to hurry. I believe they were planning on checking out this afternoon."

"Thank you." Cindy said. "What room are they staying in?" she asked.

"Room 117"

Cindy thanked the man and hung up. She found the address for the motel. It wasn't very far from the Thompson's house. She grabbed her keys and went to her car…

Meanwhile, someone else, a few hours' drive away was making a phone call as well…

"Yes, who is it?" A voice asked.

"Henry, its Tom." Tom said. While he waited for the other man's reply, he thought he could hear someone crying and what sounded like a muffled cry for help.

Tom ignored it. He did his best not to think about what his employers did for a living. Which was fairly easy, since they'd paid him enough money over the years to no inquire into their business, among other things.

"Was the policewoman asking questions again?" Henry asked. There was a sound, like a belt hitting flesh and the pleas for help stopped abruptly with in a muffled cry of pain.   

"No, it was someone different this time." Tom replied. "Someone new. A young woman, maybe in her twenties, I'd guess. She said you'd backed into her car and wanted to talk to you. I got her phone number off the caller ID…"

After a couple more questions, the two were done talking. Just before Henry hung up, Tom heard him say, "Ok, get those bitches ready to move. We've just got a couple loose ends to wrap up…"

Cindy arrived at the hotel to find "Griffin's" room empty. The light was off and no one answered when she knocked on the door. She glanced around. The motel she was at was one of the cheap ones. It had the run down look that said they didn't particularly care what one did in their rooms so long as they'd paid for it. Just the sort of place Cindy expected to find her kidnappers staying at.

More importantly, there was no one around at the moment. Luckily, the motel was cheap enough to still use old bolt-locks. A couple minutes alone with her lock picks, and Cindy was inside.

To her disappointment, the kidnappers were gone, if they'd ever been there in the first place. They'd cleaned out the place as well. There was no sign, save for the crumpled sheets on the bed, that the room had been inhabited only a couple hours ago. They'd even emptied the wastebaskets.

After some searching, though, Cindy was rewarded with a wadded up ball of silvery duct tape that had rolled under a cabinet and been forgotten. Stuck to the tape were a half a dozen strands of blue-dyed hair. Didn't one of the missing girls have blue hair? Cindy thought to herself. Holly, wasn't it? She nodded. Wherever they were now, the kidnappers and their captives had been here.   

After a few more, fruitless minutes searching, Cindy gave up. She hadn't found anything that might have said where the kidnappers were going, but at the very least, she had proof that they'd been here. Now, she could give the information to Lieutenant Forrester and see what she made of it.

Cindy left the room, making sure to lock the door behind her. She got in her car and drove back to her apartment. To her surprise, Shannon's car was parked in front of the building. She must have stopped by to share some information with her.

Cindy parked the car and went inside. To her surprise, it was dark inside. All the lights were off and the window blinds had been shut, blocking out nearly all the light. "Lauren? Are you there?" Cindy called out, stepping further into the apartment. There was no reply.

"Something's wrong…" Cindy thought to herself. She turned and headed for the door. As she took a step though, she suddenly heard someone coming up behind her! Cindy started to twist around but she wasn't fast enough! A gloved hand clamped down over Cindy's mouth, cutting off the young woman's fearful cry. She began to struggle, but a second later, Cindy felt the sharp prick of a needle in the side of her neck. She swooned…


Sometime later, Cindy came to. "UUUGGGGHHHHPPHH…" she moaned into her gag. Her head was on fire. Consciousness returned quickly, though Cindy quickly decided she preferred being unconscious. The young woman lay on the floor of her apartment, trussed up like a hog. Every knot had been jerked tight and from the soreness in her limbs, Cindy guessed she'd been like this for some time.

She also quickly realized she'd been stripped naked by her mysterious attacker.
From the wadding pressing down on her tongue, Cindy quickly solved the mystery of where her panties had gone. A strip of duct, no several strips of duct tape had been plastered over the young woman's mouth, sealing the disgusting packing in.

Suddenly, a large leather boot stepped in front of Cindy's face, filling her vision. A second later, her captor knelt, and reached down to roughly yanked Cindy's head up by her hair to look at him. "Are you Cindy Malone?" he asked sharply. After a second's hesitation, Cindy nodded. There was no use in lying, all he had to do was pick up her purse from where she dropped it and check her driver's license.

"Good." The man said. He was wearing a black ski mask over otherwise casual clothes. Leather gloved covered the man's hands. "We were somewhat disappointed when we grabbed your roommate only to find out she wasn't you. We were even more disappointed when the police officer showed up looking for you as well." Beneath his mask, the intruder grinned.

A soft "mmmppphhh…" drew Cindy's attention. She squirmed around to glance over at the corner of the room. Lauren and Shannon sat back to back, tightly bound and gagged. Like Cindy they'd been stripped naked. Their cheeks bulged from the packing their captor had stuffed in the women's mouths to keep them quiet.

"Though not too disappointed, mind you. I think they'll fetch us a fair bit of money, maybe even as much as the Thompson sisters. You too." He added, grinning at Cindy. Cindy flinched. This man was a slaver! She glanced back at Shannon and Lauren. Shannon glanced back at Cindy, resolute. Though a captive, she hadn't given in to their captor yet.

Lauren, on the other hand, was shaking like a leaf with fright. She had only an inkling of what was in store for the three of them, should these men succeed in their evil designs, but the little she did know of the fate of women who fell into the hands of slavers was enough to put her in danger of wetting her panties, were she wearing any.

Cindy felt sorry for the young woman. It was all Cindy's fault she was in this mess. Cindy made a silent vow that somehow, she had no idea how at the moment, but somehow she was going to get Lauren out of this mess. Her and Shannon as well.

"You caused us some worry, snooping around. We don't like people snooping around are business, as you can imagine." The slaver said, sitting down in front of his hogtied prisoner. "Of course, seeing as how I've got nothing better to do while my partner finishes cleaning the place out, I might as well explains things for you, answer any questions you might have."

The slaver grinned and continued. "As you might have guessed, me and my partner are what you might call white slavers." there was a whimper of fear from Lauren. Cindy and Shannon merely glared at him. "Most of our customers own, shall we say, "exclusive" resorts for the rich and evil of the world. These are men with the money to expect the best from their women but a certain cruel streak that makes conventional high-class brothels ban them. Thus, they need women of a finer breed then the usual drug addicts and runaways, but unlike the professional mistress' don't really have a say in things. That's where you three will probably be working, once we can line up a buyer for you." There was another squeal of fear from Lauren.

"Shouldn't take more than a couple weeks." The slaver continued, obviously enjoying the signs of distress in his captive audience. "Plenty of time to teach you a little obedience and get you used to what you three will be doing the rest of your lives."

"Now," he said, shifting. "I bet you and the cop over there are wondering where the Thompson's are, aren't you? Seems a bit of a shame to spend so much time looking for them and never find them. They're on their way to their new home with their new owner, in beautiful, sunny Turkey, though I doubt they'll be able to see much of the sights inside their cages."

"In case you were wondering, we made the exchange this morning at the hotel room. Me and my partner must have left just before you got there. We'd have accompanied them ourselves, but we had some loose ends to wrap up." The slaver said with a chuckle, grinning at the angry grunts of frustration from his captives.

Just then, a second slaver, dressed like the first in casual clothes with a black ski mask, entered the room, carrying a large cloth sack. "Story time is over. I think I've cleared everything out, jewelry, cash and…" he held up a small, silver vibrator. "…this. Found it under one of the ladies beds." He glanced over at Lauren, whose face blushed a bright crimson, embarrassment temporarily overcoming fear.

"Looks like someone will have something to keep her company when we're not around to do the job." The slaver said, stuffing the toy in the sack of loot. "Now, why don't we get the ladies ready to travel, so we can show them their new home for the time being…"

The first slaver got up and drew a small knife. He quickly cut the ropes circling Shannon and Lauren's chests, leaving their hands and feet bound. Bending over, the slaver easily picked up both squirming struggling women over either shoulder. Meanwhile, his partner carrying the sack of stolen valuables knelt and picked up Cindy.

As the three helpless captives were carried to the front door, Cindy glanced over at Shannon. Shannon glanced back and "mmmppphhh'ed" to her friend. Behind the policewoman's outer bravado, Cindy could detect a trace of fear in her eyes. Cindy grunted back, trying not to show how scared she was as well. How were they going to get out of this one?