The man was obviously thinking furiously. “Where did you say you lived?” he asked. His voice could certainly be called gravely. There seemed to be a scar at his throat but from an operation or injury, Donna could not tell.
“Well, actually, I live in LA. I was just hitch-hiking around when I met Bob. He was nice at first. But then he turned out to be a cad, just like all men.”
“So you don’t live around here. Was there anyone else hitch-hiking with you?”
“No. I can always get a ride faster when I’m alone.”
“I’ll bet. Well, I don’t think I can work those knots loose so we’ll have to go get a knife. Come this way.” He put a fatherly hand on her bare arm and directed her out of the front room towards the back of the cabin.
The walk was short. He opened a door and practically pushed Donna inside. Then he slammed the door behind them. Donna saw exactly what she had expected to see. Pip was hanging from wrists tied to an overhead bar, her toes only just touching the floor. She was naked and her back, bottom and the backs of her thighs were marked up with multi-colored hues of reds and purples. Donna was glad that the teenager was facing away from her, and that she could see a gag in the youngster’s mouth. She had to buy time and Pip’s immediate recognition of her would put this man on alert that something was wrong.
“OH! What’s this?” She turned to the man standing with his back against the wall. “So you like kinky games, too! I don’t suppose this is your daughter and you’re just punishing her for denting the fender on your car?”
He shook his head slowly.
“Well, that’s out. I don’t suppose this girl likes being whipped and you’re just accommodating her? No. Well, does this mean I’m in trouble?” .
“Let’s just say that it would have been better for you if you had knocked on some other door.”
“Oh, mister, please don’t hurt me!” She tried to put some fear in her voice, which wasn’t too hard after she’d see what he did to Pip’s back side. “I’ll just leave now, if you don’t mind. You don’t have to bother untying my arms, I’ll just go the way I came.”
“I don’t think so.” Donna was trying frantically to find things to say that would stall this man. She looked back at Pip to see the teenage girl looking over her shoulder. She must have recognized Donna’s voice. Quickly Donna changed tactics.
“Look, mister,” she said, taking a couple of steps towards him and putting a lot of sway in her hips, “I wouldn’t mind if you wanted to tie me up. I kinda like that. And I get so sexy feeling when I’m tied up. Know what I mean? But please don’t whip me. I’m sure that hurts horribly.” She was glad she still had her jeans on or he would have seem the fading marks put there by Margaret. “Is there any way you would like to tie me up? We could have some fun, then you could let me go. I won’t say a thing about what you’re doing here. Honest, I won’t.” She hoped her deception was coming off well. Especially since she didn’t know how long she had to stall him.
“He seemed to be considering her words. Donna had no illusions about what he was thinking. There was no way he would let this beautiful woman go free, even with her promises. Donna could almost see the gears turning in his head, gears that meant he was planning to own two slavegirls now.
Picking up a short whip, he motioned her towards a wall equipped with some rings and hanging torture equipment, mostly whips and ropes. She felt the hard wall against her back. With taps of the whip, he ordered her to move to one side until she was standing under a ring. Suddenly he froze, a puzzled frown on his face.
“What’s that collar?” Donna’s heart skipped a beat. She had forgotten about the slender metal collar locked around her neck. She was so used to it, so were Nigel and Jan or they would have seen the danger it presented to her story. “Ah... Just a piece of jewelry I picked up in Seattle.”
“I don’t think so, girlie. Where did you get it?”
“Don gave it to me last night. Said I looked good in it.”
“I thought your boyfriend was named Bob?”
“Bob Don... Donovan. That’s his full name, Bob Don Donovan.” She cringed at her corny story. “For a while he had me chained to his bed but he took off the chain when we came up to the forest this morning.”
A sudden pain in her breasts was his answer. The end of the whip had cut across both nipples with a stinging shock to the tender flesh. Donna gasped. She’d had much worse but knew that this was only the opening shot in a war she couldn’t win.
Before either of them could utter another word, the door burst inwards and in jumped Nigel, a Llama 9mm parabellum automatic pointed at the man before her. “I would suggest you drop that whip,” he said calmly. Donna sucked in air gratefully. Jan slid into the room behind Nigel.
“What are you doing in my lodge?” Edward Kroff demanded. “You will leave here immediately or...”
“Hush.” Nigel’s single word stopped the man in mid-sentence. That, and the small round hole, nine millimeters across pointing directly between his eyes.
For a few seconds the scene was frozen, Nigel because he wanted to make sure that this man was not going to try something stupid, and Kroff thinking furiously of his options. But before he could implement any options, there was a noise at the door. Donna heard Jan gasp and then saw what she had, a man standing in the door holding a shotgun leveled at Nigel. “Drop it,” the stranger growled.
“Hunting lodges always have a guide,” said Kroff, regaining his wits and the initiative. “In this case, he is also the keeper of my current slavegirl. Only it looks like he’s going to have to take care of three slavegirls. And this new one is as lovely as the others.”
The large, rough looking man waved the shot gun threateningly towards the wall next to Donna, and Nigel and Jan obeyed by backing up. The man walked over to stand beside Kroff, keeping the gun leveled at Nigel and Jan. He seemed to consider the bound Donna as no threat. Kroff, meantime, was reaching towards the automatic in Nigel’s hand.
Donna, with only a quick, wild thought that this was probably the stupidest thing she’d ever done, kicked upward as fast and hard as she could, connecting with the shotgun where the man was holding the front grip. The shotgun jerked upward and went off. A lot of things happened in the next second. Nigel dove for the floor as Kroff, impelled by the full blast of shot hitting the back of his head, fell forward and over Nigel. The man with the shotgun had let go with his injured fingers after Donna’s hiking boot connected with them, but quickly recovered and re-gripped the gun. The barrel was swinging down to point at Nigel when the automatic in Nigel’s hand barked twice. The man swung around, the end of the shotgun hitting Donna in the side, then slumped to the floor. There were two holes in his chest, one near his right shoulder, one directly over the heart.
It took only two seconds and the little drama was over. Jan was looking a little hysterical, Nigel was crawling out from under the bloody remains of Edward Kroff, and Donna was panting from the surge of adrenaline. Her heart was pounding.
Nigel came over to her and embraced her. “Good work, girl.” Donna didn’t even mind the blood transferring from his shirt to her breasts. She was just glad to have his strong arms around her.
Jan recovered slowly but regained her old form when she saw Pip hanging in her bonds. She ran over to untie her daughter. “That bastard,” she cursed when she saw the crisscrossed whip marks covering her back from shoulders to knees. “He deserved it.”
“Is he... dead,” Donna asked, nodded towards the second man at her feet.
Nigel looked down then back into Donna’s eyes. “He was dead before he hit the floor. A bullet through the heart does that.” He held her as she began to tremble. “Does it bother you to know you helped kill two men?”