Chapter 25

We drove in silence for a long time. I have a million questions for the three women in the backseat. But it’s too soon. They need time. I know, because they’ve suffered much more than I have and I need time. There’s no way I can tell anyone about what happened to me today. Not now. Maybe not ever.

I haven’t known what time it was since before Delon kidnapped me from my office. We were halfway home before I noticed the clock on the dash. It’s almost three o’clock. But when I tried to remember what time Delon carried me out of my office I couldn’t remember anything at first. The morning was pretty fuzzy. It was several minutes before I remembered that Helen went to pick up her husband at the hospital just after nine this morning. Delon came bursting in shortly after she left.

I have to wonder what’s going to happen now. The odds are that Delon or one of the others will end up telling the police who beat them up so badly. Those men are all going to require hospitalization. Most of them have been pretty seriously injured.

I’m afraid that my story will have to come out now, too. But I’m even more worried that Doug and the others will get in trouble. I can only hope that the men laid out back there in the barn will keep their mouths shut in order to keep from getting in even more trouble. If the entire story comes out they’ll be in a lot of trouble. They’re guilty of kidnapping and rape at the very least. There must be a whole bunch of other things they can be charged with.

I was so busy thinking about possible consequences that the long ride home seemed to take no time at all. We all gathered in the driveway and I invited everyone inside. Nathan and Mel insisted that they had to get back to work. They’ve been away from the plant most of the day looking for me. They have to get back and make sure everything is in order. They drove away in the company van. The rest of us went inside.

I called Cindy to make certain that the report went out. She was almost hysterical and she didn’t calm down when she heard my voice. Helen finally took the phone away from her. I repeatedly insisted that I’m alright. She wants to come right over but we already have a pretty full house. I suggested tomorrow would be better. She assured me that the report went out on time and everyone was paid despite all the confusion.

We got all the women settled in with a drink in their hand. I went up and took a long shower. I put on some comfortable clothes and headed back downstairs. My curiosity got the best of me when I was walking by the computer room. I went in and checked the website where Delon has been posting my pictures. It has finally been taken down. I can only hope that it’s down permanently. I resolved to keep checking.

We didn’t have enough of any one thing on hand to feed this many people so Doug ordered a bunch of pizza.

He made me a stiff drink and I rejoined the eight women in the living room. We finally got around to introductions. The women are all from different cities in this state and several surrounding states but they know each other. They don’t know each other well. They seldom had an opportunity to talk freely. The men who controlled them gathered once or twice a month for photo sessions involving the women and large groups of men and/or animals. Apparently the live internet broadcasts were a new idea that started with me.

They all have different stories of how they came to be in that situation. They were most often lured into a compromising situation and then blackmailed into committing more and more perverse acts. Most of them had marriages that were destroyed by the things they did, the things they were forced to do. Now they can’t face their families. The men who controlled them had seen to that in order to cement their control over the women.

The youngest girl, the one I recognized from her photographs on the website, was a different matter. Her drunken father sold her to a man last year when she was fifteen. She was quickly broken just like all the others.

Carol came home just about the time we finished sharing our stories. She looked around the room at the eight pretty women in slutty clothes and exclaimed, “I hope I didn’t miss the party!”

I replied, “You got here just in time to pay for the pizza.”

But Doug paid for the pizza. Cindy arrived just as the pizza guy was leaving. She apologized for coming over without calling but she had to see for herself that I’m alright. She hugged me so hard I had to bite my lip to keep from crying out. My entire body is sore. But my nipples! Jesus! They feel like they’re on fire!

I finally pried Cindy off of me and introduced her to the women. I saw the look on her face. She recognized some of them. But after saying hello to them she turned back to me and apologized over and over as if she could have somehow stopped Delon this morning.

I finally told her if she didn’t stop apologizing I was going to spank her.

After we ate the pizza I found out how Doug and the others were finally able to locate me. After Delon carried me away, Cindy ran screaming through the plant until she found Doug. He was all the way down at the other end in shipping. He knew that Delon was planning on taking me to a farm belonging to Darnell’s cousin before Cory took away his hold on me. He figured that was still the plan.

He called Cory and told him what happened. Cory didn’t know who the cousin was and had only the vaguest notion of where the farm was located. They tried to contact Darnell’s mother but couldn’t locate her. She cleans houses for a living but she has her own clients. She doesn’t work for a service. There was no way to find her.

Cory wanted to call the police but Doug knew that if they did the story of the hit and run would come out. He knew I wouldn’t want that. They agreed to try to find me on their own first. Nathan and Mel insisted on helping. They split up and drove through the farmland outside of town in three vehicles. They knew that the farm was on the west side of town but that’s all they knew and there are a lot of farms out there.

Cory finally spotted the large collection of cars in front of the barn and deduced that it was where I had been taken. He drove by the place earlier but it was so far from the road he missed the vehicles. He only caught a glimpse of them when he drove back down the road in the other direction. He called Doug and told him what he’d found. Then he called Nathan. The five of them went charging in, even knowing how outnumbered they were.

After they finished telling me what happened, Cory exclaimed, “Man! You should have seen the karate kid in action! Doug went charging through that door and crippled three of those suckers before anyone else could get through the door. He went kung fu all over their asses! I’m going to have to learn how to do that!”

We turned on the local news at six. We watched one channel and recorded the other two with the DVR. I didn’t know whether to be relieved or not when nothing was said on any of the news shows about a large number of severely injured men found on a farm outside of town. There’s no way those men could just get up and leave. Every one of them must be in the hospital now.

We turned the television off after the news. Doug made a quick trip to the store for more beer and booze. Since none of the women are from around here, none of them have any money and they don’t have anywhere safe they can go we discussed where best to put them up for the night.

Carol sighed and said, “I guess it’s time to have a talk with Bob. I’ve been putting it off. Maybe I can get him to go to a motel for the next few nights.”

I offered to go with her. She said, “I appreciate that. But I guess it’s time for me to grow up and handle my problems.”

I said, “If I come with you and keep my mouth shut he can’t lie about what happened.”

She thought about that for a moment and said, “You’re right. If you don’t mind wading through one more drama for the day, that’s a pretty good suggestion.”

I slipped my sandals on and we walked down the sidewalk to her house. When we got to the door she stood there for a minute before whispering, “Should I knock?”

I had to stifle a laugh. Then I quickly said, “I’m sorry. It isn’t funny. But it kind of is.”

She smiled and said, “Thanks for your support, bitch!”

She shook her head and laughed quietly. But it was a nervous laugh. She tried the door. It wasn’t locked. We went inside and suddenly it wasn’t so funny. The house looks like a tornado had just passed through the living room and kitchen. Bob is lying on the sofa surrounded by empty dishes, pizza boxes and beer bottles.

He looked up at Carol and for just a second it looked like he was going to say something ugly. But then he looked at me and the starch went out of him. He sighed and said, “It doesn’t look like you’ve changed your mind. What do you want?”

She looked around at the mess and I could feel her anger rising even standing behind her. She no longer sounded nervous or tentative when she said, “I need the house. I need you to take what you need for now and go to a motel or go stay with someone for a while. But I need the house.”

“Tonight?!”

“Yes. Tonight. Something came up and I need the house.”

He shot her an accusing look and snarled, “You got a fucking boyfriend already?!”

She didn’t even hesitate. She shot back, “You have a lot of damn nerve! You rape my best friend and worry about me having a boyfriend!? You fucking worm! There isn’t a shred of decency in you. Get the hell out! Now!”

I thought she was pushing it. I was afraid he was going get stubborn and make trouble. But after a long pause he sighed and stood up. He went upstairs and we started cleaning up his mess.

He came back down five minutes later with an overnight bag. He said, “I’ll be back this weekend for my clothes.”

He watched us clean up the living room and kitchen for a moment. He turned to leave but stopped. He turned back to me and said, “Brooke, I’m sorry for what I did. I didn’t know you were doing those things against your will at first. I should have. And it wasn’t long before I realized it. But by then I guess I had slipped into the pack mentality. I’m ashamed of myself. I thought I was a better person than that. I really do regret it, and not just because it has cost me everything.”

I nodded. The truth is that I’ve seen a lot of that kind of behavior lately. I do understand how people, especially men, can do things they wouldn’t normally do under the right set of circumstances. But it’s too soon to even think about forgiving him, if I ever can. Instead I just nodded.

He turned and left without another word.

We went back to work. Once the trash was taken out and the dishwasher was running we made the bed upstairs and cleaned up the bathrooms. We were about halfway through when Doug called to find out if we were alright. I apologized for not calling. I told him what we were doing and that we would be back in about fifteen minutes.

We finished up and stood just inside her front door looking around to see what we missed. Before we went out I said, “Carol, he really is sorry. Guys are like that sometimes. He went along. But he didn’t instigate it. And he didn’t go back for more like some of the others.”

She looked at me, startled that I was defending what he did. I shrugged and said, “You’ve known since you were a little girl that guys do dumb shit. It’s in their DNA. You loved him once, didn’t you?”

“Yes. I did once. I honestly don’t know how I feel now. Sometimes I think I might still. But then I think about what he did to a friend and I’m not so sure. Doug wouldn’t have done that.”

I shrugged as if I wasn’t sure. But I knew she was right.

She exclaimed, “Bullshit! You know damned well Doug would have gone over there that day and started kicking ass.”

I turned and took her in my arms. I said, “Okay. I know it. But most men aren’t Doug. You aren’t in love with Doug. You may or may not be in love with Bob but you seemed pretty happy until a few days ago.”

She smiled and said, “Who said I’m not in love with Doug?”

I laughed and said, “It’s a good thing I don’t mind sharing.”

We left then and walked back to my house in the dark. As we walked I thought about what those women had to live through and said, “I can’t imagine how those poor women survived what they did for months and months. And that young girl! I only had two weeks of Delon and I nearly lost my mind.”

She put her arm around my shoulder and said, “And they had no one. Not to minimize what you went through, but you had Doug and Helen and Cindy and me. And you can’t deny that you had some fun, too.”

I laughed and agreed. “I won’t even try. I did have a lot of fun. I still am. And I’m not perfect yet, but I’m a better person for what I went through. Everyone knows it. Maybe we’re both finally growing up.”

We found that the crowd had thinned out slightly when we got back to my house. Cory and Otis went home. I was sorry they didn’t wait. I couldn’t thank them enough for what they did for me today.

We told everyone that we now have room for them if they don’t mind doubling up at night.