The Chef
Copyright© 2025 by R. E. Bounds
Chapter 22: Even the Hurtful Stuff
Sophie stayed with us last night because Becca wouldn’t let her go home, and Sophie didn’t want to leave. Becca dressed her in a baby doll and gartered stockings, and they experimented a bit, finally choosing the pet play mittens. And with the hinged handcuffs locked over them, Sophie’s hands were kept close together and unusable. Sophie was happy with this arrangement, as it allowed her some freedom while respecting our boundaries.
The girls also experimented with the strap-on more, with Becca gently inside Sophie for most of the night. It was intimate and loving. But I knew eventually Sophie would want more, and my hesitation about being inside of her would become an issue between us.
The next morning, I woke up, and Sophie stirred shortly after, followed by Becca. I left Sophie with her, who removed Sophie’s restraints, and I began making breakfast as the girls prepared for work. Sophie slipped into the business attire she had brought for the trip, enhancing her look with the garter and stockings from the night before. While they weren’t seamed, they had a luxurious appeal, especially paired with her four-inch patent stiletto heels.
After getting ready, Sophie playfully secured Becca in her transport restraints, tugging gently on the chain to draw her closer.
“Looks like I’m completely responsible for you until tonight,” she whispered. “Let’s hope you don’t give me a reason to use this chain today.”
She then gently pulled Becca’s connecting chain.
With a spark in her eyes, Becca replied, “We’ll see if anyone comes in nervous about being around me. Guess you’ll have to lead me away if they do.”
She added with a grin, “Maybe you should keep me in the shorter-chained ones today.”
Sophie smiled back and disappeared into our bedroom, reemerging with the short-chained leg cuffs dangling from her finger.
“Are you sure? You really want to be in a hobble all day?”
As I watched Sophie replace Becca’s leg cuffs, I smiled, knowing both girls would handle themselves professionally at work. If Sophie needed to use the chain, it would be for a good reason. I handed Sophie their lunches, and with kisses, they were both on their way.
Not long after that, I received another text from Lisa. When I called her back, she jumped straight into the conversation, as she often did.
“They want to present Rebecca with a package—they want to buy her out,” she said.
“I thought that was happening anyway,” I replied. “Wouldn’t we all have to sell once our stocks are converted?”
Yes,” Lisa said. “But Rebecca owns so much stock that she has crossed the threshold to become a significant shareholder. She’s the smallest of the major shareholders, but she still holds influence—and, most importantly, power.
“What does that mean?” I asked, still not fully understanding.
“Remember how I mentioned that Rebecca might have enough stock to have a say in the company? Well, she does. And because of that, they can’t force her to sell her shares. It’s voluntary for her. They can force us—me, you, and others—because we don’t own enough. But not Rebecca.”
“So, they can’t make her sell her stock?” I asked, surprised.
“Exactly. Which means she has an impact on ownership. Suppose other shareholders participate in the buyback, and the rest of us are forced to sell. In that case, her ownership percentage will only increase. She’ll have a larger portion of the remaining shares.”
I could hear Lisa adjusting in her seat and mumbling something about the boot she was wearing. Then she added, “This means Rebecca has a say in what happens next and in the company’s decisions.”
“So, the package?” I asked.
“It’s an incentive for Rebecca to sell all her shares. It’s an all-or-nothing deal,” Lisa said.
“So, we’re talking about a lot of money?” I asked, still trying to follow the details.
“Yes,” Lisa replied. “A lot of it.”
Then she added, “I’ll let you know when they want to meet with Rebecca.”
“But if she turns down the package, she remains a shareholder and still has a say in what the company does,” I repeated to make sure I understood.
“Exactly,” Lisa confirmed. “So, it’s a win-win—if she sells, you both make a lot of money. If she doesn’t, you’re safe.”
“Why would I need to be safe?” I asked.
“Because the buyback is happening for a reason,” Lisa explained. “The company wants to make drastic changes. They’ve bought a lot of dud companies that aren’t producing—they’re dead weight, which means massive layoffs are coming.”
She paused and then added, “And just because you’re ‘The—Analyst’ doesn’t mean your job is safe. Even with me now considered one of the executives.”
I could tell she was smiling on the phone. “But if Rebecca sells, you won’t need to worry about your job anymore.”
We wrapped up the discussion, knowing there would be more to talk about once the package was ready to be presented to Becca. For now, I decided, with Lisa’s suggestion, to keep the information to myself and not mention anything to Becca just yet. But what she had said lingered in my mind. She was right. It was a win-win for us.
The rest of the day was quiet. I worked on a report that was due for Lisa in a few weeks. However, I started to doubt whether it would even be delivered, given the uncertainty she mentioned during our earlier call. Still, I pushed through until I could sign off and begin preparing dinner. I wanted to make something nice for Sophie; she was tired of eating out and deserved a home-cooked meal.
As I set the table, the girls walked in. A few moments later, Becca was out of the restraints and helping Sophie into them. They didn’t need to communicate; it was just part of their routine. Becca assisted Sophie as I served dinner, and Sophie began sharing details about their day. And Becca filled in the gaps while feeding Sophie.
Aside from the elevators being out yet again and Sophie having to remove Becca’s leg cuffs to navigate the stairs, their conversation centered on the discussion they had with Eleanor and Veronica regarding the article.
“So, Eleanor knew about it?” I asked, repeating what I had just heard.
“Yeah,” Becca said. “The magazine reached out to Eleanor, and she agreed, thinking it would benefit everyone—the foundation, the museum, Veronica, Sophie, and me.”
Becca added, “Eleanor read it before it was published. She’s the one who approved it. She thought it was well written and conveyed the importance of the work.”
“What did you say?” I asked.
“What could I say?” Becca replied, then sighed. “She was right. The problem is the unwanted publicity that it brings to us. Not the article itself.”
As we continued to talk, there was a knock at the front door. I grabbed the hinged handcuffs from the laundry room and secured them on Becca behind her back. When I moved towards Sophie, gesturing that I wanted to remove her restraints, she waved me off and said she would be fine like that.
“Just answer the door. I can stay at the table or hobble into one of the rooms if needed,” she insisted.
Hesitantly, I agreed, and Becca and I walked to the front of the house. Since we had installed cameras, I glanced at my phone to see who it was. I showed the screen to Becca, who looked puzzled and shrugged her shoulders. But I could see in her eyes that she understood they were here because of the article. She sensed it was all connected somehow.
We opened the door, and there stood Agents Reinhardt and Myers.
“May we come in?” Agent Myers asked.
“Um—this is an unexpected surprise,” I replied.
She tilted her head, a subtle smile on her face.
“Is it?”
She then looked at Becca and said, “You seem to have gotten yourself into an interesting situation.”
We stepped back to let them in. As Agent Myers glanced into the rest of our home, she saw Sophie sitting at the table in full transport restraints. She then realized that Becca was in hinged handcuffs behind her back.
Then she remarked, “And it gets even more interesting.”
Turning to Agent Reinhardt, she finally asked, “Did you know about this?”
The agent sighed and, maintaining her usual demeanor, said, “I told you what transpired. These details are outside of my understanding.”
Sophie, realizing they were law enforcement—her eyes catching the badges on their belts and the guns at their waists—smiled and waved in her cuffs. She understood there wasn’t much she could do now, and the opportunity to retreat to one of the bedrooms, the laundry room, or even the bathroom was gone.
“May we sit down?” Agent Myers asked. “I’m sorry to interrupt your dinner, but there are some matters we need to discuss.”
Becca and I nodded, leading the agents to our dining table. I quickly pulled an office chair from the bedroom where Becca and Sophie worked. As the agents took their seats, I offered them something to eat.
“Would you like some dinner?” I asked.
“As wonderful as it smells, no,” Agent Myers replied. “I’m afraid there’s a bit to discuss.” She added with a smile, “But perhaps we can get dessert to go.”
She may have said this jokingly, but I nodded, noting that wouldn’t be an issue, and let her continue.
“Do you know why we’re here?” Agent Myers asked.
Becca, with her hands locked behind her back and Sophie in the full transport restraints—complete with the short-chain leg cuffs—remained silent.
After a moment, Becca hesitantly moved her cuffed hands to the side and asked, “These?”
Agent Myers kept her gaze fixed on Becca. “Yes, Ms. Bounds. Those.”
She continued, “One of our analysts was looking into your transport from New York to Philadelphia some time ago. And because of his inquiry and the fact that your case had nothing to do with his line of analyses, your case file was flagged by an internal audit.”
Pausing for a moment, she continued, “And because your case was flagged, Agent Reinhardt and I were notified. We’re the agents assigned to your case. Curious about why an analyst was reviewing your file, I decided to investigate.”
Agent Myers leaned in slightly. “When I reached out to that analyst about why he was looking into you, he told me he was responding to an inquiry from a local law enforcement office a few weeks back regarding you—specifically, your transport.”
She then asked Becca, “Do you know what else he told me?”
Becca nodded, upset but doing her best to hide it.
“No,” she replied quietly.
“That he had just found an article about you, showing you in restraints. He found your case interesting because it was out of place compared to other prisoner transports, so he continued to investigate, hoping to find information he could pass on to the sheriff who had called him,” she explained.
Leaning back in her chair, she said, “When the analyst forwarded me the article, and I saw the images of you, I noticed that the restraints looked just like the ones we use. Being the curious person I am, I sent the photo to our IT team to see if they could read the serial numbers on the cuffs.”
She then asked Becca, “Do you know what we found?”
Becca shook her head.
“No,” she replied.
But deep down, she knew. We both knew.
“Not only could we read the serial numbers on one of the cuffs, but they also belonged to us,” Agent Myers said, amused.
She then added, “So, logically, I next reached out to Agent Reinhardt, who mentioned that she might have left the restraints with you—inadvertently, of course.”
She leaned forward in her seat, looking directly at Becca. “When I called the sheriff’s office that the analyst mentioned, a deputy confirmed that the inquiry came from a Sheriff Collins. He wanted to know why you’re always in the transport restraints.”
Sighing, the agent then said, “And here you are. Although I must admit, I wasn’t expecting to find Ms. Barnes this way.”
Becca looked at the agent, then asked, “What do you want exactly?”
Looking at Becca with a softer tone, the agent recalled their interview in Philadelphia. “It seems you may have left out details. About how the experience has affected you.”
“I think we can help one another.” She added, “You seemed to have gotten yourself into a predicament.”
Agent Myers explained the situation to Becca. “I called the sheriff’s office again today, hoping to reach Sheriff Collins. He was eager to speak with me after his deputy mentioned that someone from the FBI had inquired about you.”
She continued, “He told me that based on information from the analyst—who, by the way, has been transferred to another role due to his interest in matters outside his purview—he requires you to wear those restraints whenever you go out.”
She pointed at Sophie as she spoke. “He believes the only reason you’d be in them is that the FBI has a good reason to consider you dangerous around others. You’ll have to wear them until he receives something from us stating otherwise.”
Leaning closer to Becca, she added, “That must be tough—being in those all the time in public. Unless, of course, you want to be in them, which might explain why you’ve been wearing them in the first place.”
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