One of them was missing. All of them were there except Carrie. Did that mean that she had already been collected by her buyer or did that mean that she refused to verify information and was on her way to Bangkok? There was no way to ask. They were each effectively silenced by their gags.
She looked back at each one of them and again lamented what she had apparently gotten them into. They were all so loving and so kind and so beautiful. None of them deserved this. She winced as she noticed that each of them had been struck with the cane to demonstrate how she marked.
Elke had marks identical to her own with welts across the tops of her breasts. Kim bore her stripes perfectly through the middle of her breasts, across the nipples. That must have really hurt, thought Tempest. Alaine received her stripes to the undersides of her breasts and Tempest winced at the thought of that. She knew how sensitive that flesh was.
Connie's stripes were across her thighs. To Tempest, that seemed more humane, although she knew that it must have hurt terribly. But poor Tammy was the one she felt sorry for. Her stripe stretched right across her pregnant belly. Not only was she punished but so was her unborn child!
Tempest was miserable. She could clearly see that her friends were miserable. None of them deserved anything remotely like this. It wasn't fair at all. And Tempest was now convinced that she had been the cause.
Based on what she had learned tonight during the ordeal, she wondered if she would ever see any of her friends again. She doubted it.
Chapter 4
They just looked at one another as they stood in the circle. None of them could speak because of their identical gags but their eyes spoke volumes. Each of them let the others know how much they loved them and how scared they were.
After the five of them had been reunited for about ten minutes, the door opened. It was just a single male who entered this time. He walked to Kim and detached her from her pole. Then he led her out of the room. Not a single sound was uttered.
It was almost another thirty minutes before the door opened again. Tempest glanced at the door and saw the same male. She turned her head and closed her eyes, not wanting to witness another one of her friends being led away into slavery. She reluctantly opened her eyes after awhile to see which of her friends had been taken away.
Her eyes opened wide in surprise at what she saw. She closed them again and shook her head before slowly opening, thinking that she had been hallucinating. But when she opened them again, she saw the same thing. Kate Winthrop was standing in front of her and smiling at her.
"Hello, Tempest dear," Kate said. "This is quite a fix you have gotten yourself into."
The expression on Tempest's face went from disbelief to confusion to relief. With Kate here, she realized that her ordeal was over. She was going home after all.
Kate Winthrop was a senior partner at Seymour, Allen and Pease. At thirty nine, she was the youngest senior partner by over a decade. She had been the youngest person ever to become partner in the firm and widely viewed as a brilliant and highly driven attorney.
Tempest nodded her head quickly in response to Kate's words and tried to reply verbally but was frustrated by the gag. Kate smiled as she saw the captive woman's response and reached out to stroke her fingers over the girl's cheek.
"Tempest, dear," she continued, "I am not here to rescue you. You have been sold. You are owned. What's done is done."
Tempest's expression changed back to confusion as she listened. Why was she here then? How did she know how to find her? Kate answered those questions when she next spoke, being able to anticipate the swirl of questions that must be going through the young attorney's mind.
"When I heard two days ago about six new girls being offered for sale in the Caribbean office, I thought it might be you and your friends. I remembered that you were going on a cruise with five college friends."
Tempest noticed that Kim had been brought back into the room. She furrowed her brow as Kate's words sank in and new questions formed in her brain. Two days ago? They were only kidnapped last night. Or had they been kidnapped earlier and kept sedated? And how would Kate have heard about that anyways? It wasn't the kind of thing that you would advertise in a newspaper.
"So I came as quickly as I could," Kate continued. "I did not want you to fall into the wrong hands. I tried to get them to release you but they refused. You were prime quality merchandise in their eyes. All six of you were prime as far as they were concerned but you were the pick of the litter.
"I am not here to rescue you," she repeated. "I bought you. You are my property now."
Tempest sucked in her breath as she heard the words. Kate bought her? Kate paid 600,000 pounds for her? What did all of this mean?
"Are these other girls your college friends?" Kate asked as she glanced around the room. Tempest nodded in response. Kate then took a tour of the other bound and naked girls as Tempest watched.
Kate started with Kim. Tempest watched in disbelief as Kate traced a finger across the angry red welts across the center of Kim's breasts, causing the girl to wince as her nipples were touched. Kate placed her palms over the breasts and squeezed, eliciting a groan from Kim. Then, to Tempest's horror, Kate slid a hand down Kim's taut belly and insinuated a finger into the girl's sex. She left it in there and wiggled it around until Kim started moaning. Then she withdrew it and popped it into her mouth, closing her eyes as if savoring the taste.
"Delicious, girl," she pronounced. "You will be making someone very happy."
Tempest had heard the rumors back in the office but had dismissed them as just slurs propagated by jealous colleagues. During Kate's meteoric rise in the firm, she had passed more tenured lawyers on her way to senior partner. Tempest always attributed the rumors to those who had been passed over in favor of the beautiful, young, blonde attorney.
The rumors were basically all variations on the same theme. It was whispered that Kate Winthrop had exotic sexual interests. In some of the rumors, she was lesbian. In others, she was into domination and submission with her being the mistress. In still others, she was said to have owned slaves.
Tempest did know that Kate had twice defended people who were accused of participating in white slavery. Both times, her clients had been acquitted. Tempest assumed that the rumor about her owning slaves came from the two successful outcomes being twisted by jealous competitors.
Kate moved on to Alaine. Again, she started by tracing the angry red lines on the lower swells of the girl's breasts. Then Tempest watched as Kate bounced the beautiful breasts in her palms, eliciting a grimace each time the welts came in contact with the hands.
Tempest looked closer at Kate to determine whether or not the rumors could be true. The senior partner was certainly dressed as if she could be a dominant. The black leather pants hugged her hips tightly, showing off the feminine curves of the woman. The long-sleeved black leather top laced together in the front, leaving a stripe of bare flesh from neck to navel and revealing the inner swells of two sizeable and obviously firm breasts. The black stiletto boots completed the outfit and made Kate look truly dominant.
Kate inserted a finger into Alaine, causing the girl to blush. Again, she left it in there and played with the girl until she started to moan. She tasted the girl before moving on to Tammy.
Kate traced the welt across the bulging belly and then placed her palms on each side of the belly, caressing slowly up and down. "You went for a pretty penny today, girl. And now I can see why. You are beautiful."