Dillon hotwired a car in the bus station parking lot and sped towards his house.
First, he called Viktor from his pre-paid cell phone, and then he grabbed the box of bogus invoices and any other information leading back to Viktor.
The Russian made quick notes of the information left on the semi, and he sent for Mikhail and began to get busy covering his tracks.
Dillon laid a box of illegal paperwork, bogus magnetic signs, his laptop and his cell phone, in the center of the living room floor.
He dashed to the garage for a spare tank of gas, and the old wooden house was in flames within minutes.
Dillon climbed back into the car and only glanced once at the remnants of his life going up in smoke.
He left the vehicle in a mall parking lot just as Viktor’s bodyguard coasted to a stop next to him.
Dillon settled into the plush seat and the man spoke to him for the first time since they had met in Mexico.
“Hello again, my friend.”
Dillon knew that someone was supposed to meet him, but Viktor’s personal assistant was a surprise, and he wondered if he was going to be killed to alleviate them of loose ends.
“Did the boots fit?”
Mikhail lifted his pant leg, proudly displaying the black leather cowboy boots.
“The hat was a little small, but I still wear it to impress my friends back home.”
He looked at Dillon and smiled.
“Viktor has a plane waiting in Arizona.
I hope you like Russia,” he chuckled.
The man noticed Dillon’s wary expression.
“Ah… you thought you were to be killed.
Makes sense, but Viktor thinks you are more valuable than the girls you supply.
He will figure out what to do with you.
He appreciates loyalty, my friend.”
CHAPTER IV
Tiana and Audrey were in their secured positions, waiting for hours in the darkness.
It was Audrey who finally risked it, and she wailed a mournful sound as she spat out the feeding tube.
“They caught him.”
Tiana moved the tube out of her mouth with her tongue, looking towards Audrey’s voice in the pitch black interior of their cage.
“I don’t think so, Audrey.
I think he’s too smart to have let that happen.”
Tiana was experiencing a hollow, fearful loss.
She sensed Audrey was right.
“Do you think they shot him?”
Audrey cried.
“No.
I know we can’t hear from inside, but I think they would have waited until they found us and they were sure it was him,” Tiana reasoned.
Audrey began to cry.
“I’m sorry.
I’m sorry I’ve been so horrible to you.”
“It’s all of… this.
I think it might be something he uses to get us to do what he wants.
He’s smart, Audrey.
I know you feel an ache that it’s over, just like I do; even though it makes no sense after all that he did to us.”
“God, I can’t go back to Sandersville.
Everyone in town is going to know what happened to me,” Audrey cried.
Tiana thought about the few people she knew on campus, and she decided that she might have to change schools.
Their thoughts were interrupted when the heavy clang of what turned out to be bolt cutters banged against the back doors of the rig.
As the fluorescent lamps in the parking lot lit the space, Tiana and Audrey cried silently at the five patrolmen staring at them with gaping mouths.
Other than Dillon’s description, and an even vaguer remembrance of the Russian, the girls had very little information to give the police.
The description of the garage was ambiguous and held no information as to a possible location.
By the time the authorities had learned Dillon’s address, the old house had been reduced to ashes.
There was no evidence to help lead them to a likely location the Highway Slasher might have run to.
There was almost a relieved glance that passed between the young women when they learned that Dillon had escaped.
As months passed by, everyone assumed that he was cruising the highways again, and the police waited on edge for the news of another abduction.
Audrey had been right about the reaction of people in her small hometown.
Her parents seemed almost embarrassed that she had survived the ordeal, and her friends kept on pressing for the lurid details of her captivity.
She escaped her notoriety by moving to LA, where she quickly became lost in a city of people as fucked up as her experience with Dillon had left her.
Audrey took a job at a dress shop in a mall within walking distance of her small apartment.
She kept to herself and did not bother to learn her neighbors’ names.
Tiana had only spoken to her once after they were released from the hospital, and Audrey made it clear she did not want to be reminded of the incident that had stolen two months of her life.
Tiana transferred to a northern college, and eventually hid behind her studies.
The few dates she tried had ended in disaster, as she would either flash back to her experiences with Dillon or picture his handsome face when she closed her eyes on her date.
Now, she stayed in her apartment alone, and at night she would stroke her bald pussy, envisioning the cowboy as she orgasmed.
The holidays were approaching and most of the kids had gone home, but Tiana stayed behind in the deserted building, promising to water the plants in the empty apartment beside hers.
Jenna said she would be back a few days after New Year’s, and she was pissed off at her neighbor when she returned to withered dead stalks.
It was three days until Christmas, and Tiana did not bother with a tree.
She had no gifts to exchange, and she curled up on the sofa in her flannel pajamas, reading a book after watching the falling snow coat the parking lot for a while.
She finished her eggnog and yawned, marked her page, and turned out the light before shuffling towards her bedroom.
Mikhail had spiked the carton earlier with enough sedative to knock the girl out.
He patiently waited, hidden behind clothes in her closet until he heard the bed creak and the even breathing of the girl.
The former secret service officer was well used to covert operations such as this, and although he did not understand why Viktor wanted the girls, he did not question his orders.
Audrey had been collected and shipped to Russia two days ago.
He unfurled the duffle bag, and after injecting the girl he gagged and bound her and wrestled her inside the thickly padded canvas.
The extra material altered the appearance of a body, and he checked to make sure she could get enough air through the hole at the top of the bag.
He could take her out when they got to the airstrip, ten miles away.
Mikhail was told to keep the girl drugged until she was delivered to Viktor.
She slept peacefully, unaware of her circumstances, and merely sighed when the plane’s tires bumped onto the runway in Russia.
Viktor looked at the sleeping young woman, curled up in warm flannel pajamas on his bed.
He stripped her and retrieved a box from his closet.
Securing black leather restraints onto her limbs and around her neck, he stood back to admire the craftsmanship.
His family crest was on all of the bands, with ‘Dillon’ embroidered in gold thread on the collar.
Dillon had acclimated well to the facilities on the estate, and getting a supply of untrained women had been relatively easy.
Mikhail now tutored under the cowboy, and the slaves they produced were almost equal in quality to the stock Dillon had provided through his mobile training on his rig.
Still, Viktor had sensed a lingering haunting in the man’s dark eyes, and he thought this little slave might be the reason.
She would make an excellent Christmas gift… and ensure Viktor the loyalty he craved.
Tiana came to with a slight headache, which she quickly dismissed when she realized her circumstances.
She was naked and chained to a heavy bedpost by a collar, with her hands latched together behind her.
As she struggled to her knees on the mattress, a man chuckled off to the side.
Tiana stared at the man in shocked recognition, and she began to tremble and cry.
“I see you remember me.”
The thick deep accent sounded amused.
The horror she had managed to push to the back of her mind… only allowed to be thought of when she wanted to arouse herself… resurfaced fully as she looked silently into the man’s eyes.
Oh, god.
Oh, god… no.
How could the Russian have found me?
The thought that she was to be sold to Viktor had been the only part of her dreams about Dillon that Tiana had refused to think about.
“I have a difficult friend to arrange a gift for this season, and you are the only thing that I can think of to give him.”
Tiana stared at him in mute terror.
“Ah, I’m sure you agree that the cowboy’s unique tastes make him a difficult man to appease.”
Tiana looked around nervously.
Dillon?
Is he saying Dillon is here?
The big man continued, “And so, I send Mikhail to get you.
He tells me you were living in an apartment not as big as my chambers.
You will like living on a big Russian estate, I think.”
“I’m in Russia?” Tiana quivered.
“Do not forget your acknowledgements, slave.
I am Master Viktor, and yes, you have the good fortune to be in my country.”
Viktor knew Tiana had been enjoying her freedom for several months, and that she had only a month of Dillon’s training before her rescue.
He described to her how he expected her to comport herself that evening.
Tiana was too terrified to disobey, and she found herself actually looking forward to Dillon taking her away from the man.
When Mikhail came for her, she was bathed and wearing her hair loose down her back, with the leather restraints polished to a glossy finish.
The man led her to a room where she heard the Russian speaking, and several men’s voices joined into the conversation.
Viktor saw Mikhail standing at the door to the parlor, with a glimpse of the girl behind him.
“Dillon, I have not given you your gift yet.”
“Viktor, allowing me to use your home and getting me out of that mess in the States is certainly more than enough.”
Tiana’s pussy clenched and moistened when she heard his voice, and Mikhail noticed the anticipation in her eyes.
“Nonsense.
It would merely be inconvenient to me, should you be interrupted from our business interests by incarceration.”
The men laughed, but they all knew that for the most part Viktor was serious.
He nodded towards Mikhail, and the men turned in their chairs to see what he was bringing.
Dillon’s mouth dropped open when he saw Tiana, beautiful blue eyes filling, cheeks covered with the red rose of humiliation at being displayed in front of all the men, and bound in Viktor’s estate restraints with Dillon’s ownership marked on the collar.
She knelt at his feet, and he managed to say, “Ya’ll shouldn’t of done all that.”
The drawl let Viktor know how pleased the cowboy was.
“You weren’t finished training her, so it seemed unfair to leave her behind.”
Dillon looked down at his little slave.
“You belong to me?”
“Yes, Master Dillon,” Tiana trembled.
Still, there was the unmistakable feeling of an aching void being filled within her.
“I took the liberty of having the cage in your room cleaned out,” Viktor said.
He merely had Mikhail move the girl quivering inside it to the cage in his own room.
“You can, of course, put your slave in general quarters, but I thought it might be intriguing to see the results of a companion slave you trained for your specific desires.”
“It seems your generosity has no limits,” Dillon toasted him.
“Thank you, Viktor.”
Tiana remained kneeling for the rest of the hour it took the men to finish their discussions.
She thought she had detected a note of impatience in Dillon’s answers as Viktor’s questions became mundane and were an obvious an attempt to keep Dillon from dragging Tiana to his room.
Tiana was shuffling slightly in nervous anticipation, and Viktor enjoyed the battle between panic and arousal behind her frightened blue eyes.
As generous as Viktor could be, his sadistic streak was his most outstanding attribute.
At last the final toast was made, and Dillon had Tiana rise and follow him downstairs.
Dillon’s quarters were in the lower level, but they were as opulent as the guest quarters off the upstairs hall.
Mikhail had quarters on the opposite end of the basement.
Tiana began to shake as they neared the door, and the instinct to flee was causing her legs to quiver.
She felt Dillon’s hand on the small of her back and the odd, almost forgotten sensation of his calming touch worked to still her trembling.
“Come, sweetheart.”
Tiana followed him into the large room.
There was a minor assortment of the erotic devices she remembered from the trailer, spread throughout the room.
Dillon sent her to use the restroom while he picked up the phone.
Tiana was kneeling by a chair while Dillon pulled off his boots.
There was a knock on the door, and he returned with a small tray.
He smiled… the first real smile Tiana had ever seen on his face… as he lifted the lid to a dinner of a small steak, potato and salad.
“Your stomach was rumbling upstairs, so I figured that Viktor and Mikhail did not think to feed you.”
“Thank you, Master Dillon,” Tiana answered nervously.
She was, in fact, starving.
Dillon let her use her hands, even allowing her use of the fork and steak knife.
The thought of using the blade as a weapon never crossed her mind.
The meal was delicious, but it worked to make her tired.
The drug-induced sleep had not relieved her exhaustion.
Dillon stripped and climbed into bed.
“Come here, Tiana.”
He pulled her up onto his chest, and Tiana thought she would be too frightened to sleep.
His steady breathing and warmth, the familiar smell and strong arm embracing her and holding her close, served to ensure she was sleeping within minutes.
Meanwhile, Dillon lay staring into the darkness and wondering why he did not put her into the cage, which had been his original intention.
Tiana was dreaming of her time in the rig, with the cowboy’s dark eyes flashing intently while he nipped across her body with the whip.
She flinched when it kissed her with precision, leaving small red marks wherever it lashed.
It was one of her most erotic scenarios, because it was the first time that she had understood Dillon was as aroused with the torment in her eyes as she was when she felt the pain of the leather.
She had begun to understand it was not the inflicting of the tortures that excited him… it was her reaction to his methods.