Once more, Antonia accompanied Linda to the door, to greet the last of Linda's three "friends."
"Friends." In the case of Roz, the word had certainly been an overstatement; in the case of Rachel, it was a joke. Rachel Edison was a senior VP with David's firm; she had, in fact, been the one who had blocked Roz' promotion. The idea that she had "slept her way to the top" was such an obvious cliché that no one even bothered bringing it up. On the other hand, Linda had to acknowledge that your average CEO would have given up half his company for just one night with her.
Rachel Edison was not merely beautiful: she was stunning. If Roz was curvaceous, Rachel was voluptuous, but with such perfect proportions that her breasts never seemed to dominate her appearance. Where Lauren's legs were long, tan, and athletic, Rachel's seemed to almost to be made of a creamy marble, crying out to be touched. Linda had always been proud of the burnished highlights in her own glossy dark-brown hair, but Rachel's hair was a deep auburn that seemed to gleam with its own light, and flowed about her face and shoulders as though it were alive. Rachel's face, with its penetrating green eyes, had a porcelain beauty and bee-stung lips could take a man's breath away on its own. Combined with her other attributes, the mere sight of her rendered most men helpless. Of course, her effect on most women was somewhat different.
"How long was I supposed to stand out here, waiting?" Linda didn't bother answering, because she knew Rachel would have a comeback she didn't need to hear. The redhead pushed past her, and surveyed the living room. "I thought, after the last time I was here, you said something about getting a decorator. I did try to recommend a good one, you know." As Linda stuttered a response, Rachel caught site of Linda's companion.
"Antonia! Darling! So David did call you, after all."
Linda was so stunned that she wasn't sure she'd heard correctly. "You… you two know each other?"
"Of course, " Rachel said dismissively. "When your husband mentioned to me that he wanted your jewelry appraised, I told him that he wouldn't know a good appraiser from a vacuum cleaner salesman, and that I would never dream of having mine appraised by anyone less skilled than my dear Antonia. Naturally," she sniffed, "your standards for such things may be different. Then, of course, I called Antonia and told her that she would have the chance to appraise some of my newer items. To be honest, I didn't know if she'd be interested in what you had, but she certainly seemed enthusiastic." She and Antonia moved to the couch, with the jewel case she had brought.
Linda stared. Rachel was the reason for all of this? This red-haired witch had advised David to employ these sadistic thieves; had put David's life in danger, and hers and Lauren's and Roz', just so she could show off her "good taste"? Linda's eyes began to smart again, and she realized that Rachel was now speaking to Antonia as though Linda wasn't even in the room.
"Mind you, where her husband's concerned, nothing would surprise me-- always cutting some corner or other. I shouldn't be at all surprised if her things turn out to be costume pieces," Rachel concluded with a sniff. Antonia just nodded, but she looked up, and her eyes met Linda's. A thin smile played over her lips, and then she returned her attention to Rachel. The conversation droned on, and Linda found the terrible fear in her stomach turning to a boiling anger. David might be killed at any moment, and all this horrible woman could do was criticize him. As Rachel continued to dismiss and denigrate Roz, David, Linda, Linda's taste, Antonia once more looked up, and, to Linda's astonishment, gave her a wink.
"Well, now, Rachel," Antonia stood up, " what do you say we join the others? I'm sure they're just dying to see what you've brought." Rachel glanced at their hostess, as if to say that Linda could not possibly have anything that Rachel wanted to see, and walked in the direction Antonia had pointed. As she went past, Antonia raised an eyebrow at Linda, indicating that she, too, should walk ahead of her, but acting more like Linda's accomplice than like her captor. As they entered the room, Rachel stopped dead in her tracks. Her green eyes goggled at the sight of one of her junior executives trussed to a chair, with a huge wad of cloth jammed into her mouth. Linda couldn't tell whether she had registered the sight of the additional blonde hogtied and tape-gagged on the floor, but she certainly saw Michelle, smiling at her in a thoroughly nasty way, and even Rachel's self-absorbed brain could see what the situation was. Rachel spun on her heel, and her eyes glared at Linda with a sort of madness.
"You. YOU! It was you and your fathead of a husband that got me here! God, you're as worthless as he is! And you--" she turned on the helpless Roz, "you--you--you're fired!! So is that moron David! And I will--" but a voice came from behind her.
"Rachel. For once in your worthless life, shut your stupid mouth." It didn't seem possible that Rachel's eyes could have got any bigger, but the sight of Antonia holding her at gunpoint did the trick.
Rachel's mouth opened and closed, and she sputtered, "I'm not with these people, Antonia. Do what you need to with them, but---"
"Shut up! Shut up!!!" Linda's voice was now less a shriek of fear than a roar of rage. "You stupid whore! Can't you see that we're all in danger?!?! My husband will DIE if you don't do as you're told. Oh, God, I wish I could…" Linda gritted her teeth to bite back the rest of what she wanted to say, and stole a fearful glance at Antonia, to see if her outburst had angered the woman. To her surprise, Antonia's smile was bigger than ever.
"Well, Rachel, it certainly seems that you haven't made any friends for yourself here today. You know, Linda's right." Antonia's eyes narrowed. "We could just kill all of you and take your jewels. Don't make me start thinking that would be the easier way." Rachel just stared at the gun. At a nod from Antonia, Michelle came to stand blocking the door back to the living room. The blond thief then turned to Linda.
"Boy, those were some pretty harsh things she had to say about poor David. Think she needs to be taught a lesson?" Speechless, Linda nodded slowly. Antonia turned back to Rachel. "OK, Rachel…let's see. How about we begin by getting a look at what all the guys go mad for. Take off those designer duds and give us a show." Rachel stared, uncomprehendingly. "Your clothes, dufus. Take 'em off. All of 'em. Strip." Rachel hesitated, but Antonia gestured with the gun, and the frightened woman began to undress.
She started with the jade-green jacket of her designer suit. Rachel looked around for someplace to hang the jacket, and Antonia burst out laughing.
"Just throw it on the floor. Trust me, a few wrinkles are the least of your worries." Prodded by the gun, Rachel had soon deposited a very expensive set of slacks, shoes, stockings, and a blouse on the floor in front of her. Dressed now only in her Victoria's Secret lingerie, Rachel stopped undressing and glared at Antonia. The blond thief simply said, "C'mon, now. We're all girls together, here. Pretend we're in the changing room at Nordstrom's." Now, Rachel's fingers trembled with rage as a lacy bra and silk panties joined the other items on the floor in front of her. By now, Lauren had rolled painfully to her other side to see what was happening.
"Whaddya think, Roz?" Antonia leered at the chair-bound captive. "Boss is lookin' pretty good, isn't she?" There was no question that Rachel Edison was now displaying a form that cried out for a Michaelangelo to immortalize. Any sculptor, though, would have had to ask her to hold still, because now her whole body was shaking: possibly with fear, maybe with the cold, but certainly with rage. Antonia turned again to Linda.
"OK, Linda, you've done a pretty good job today. Why don't I let you take it from here?"
"What?"
"I mean, go ahead and tie her up. Show us what you've all learned." Antonia exchanged a smile with Michelle, and nodded toward the two captives Linda had already assisted in binding and gagging. Linda blushed, sure that Antonia was simply mocking her, and she had begun to stammer a refusal, when Rachel spoke.
"Don't you dare come near me, you slant-eyed bitch! God, I hope they kill you and gut your worthless husband like the pig he is!"
Something inside Linda snapped. The racist insult, the threat to her husband, the sheer terror that had ruled her since Antonia first showed her the video tape: all of it just boiled over. With a shriek, she lunged forward at Rachel. The naked woman tried to avoid her, but Linda seized a fistful of Rachel's thick, coppery tresses, and yanked as hard as she could. Up to that moment, Linda didn't know if she had ever really hated anyone, not even the thieves who had invaded her home. Now, though, she decided that she truly hated Rachel Edison. She couldn't remember the last time anything had felt as good as it felt to use her fist in the woman's hair to force her to her knees.
"Don't you dare mention David again, you rotten cunt!" Lauren's eyes opened wide at this-- she hadn't been sure Linda even knew that word. Linda bent to the pile of clothes on the floor, pulling Rachel's head down painfully by the hair. Linda then forced Rachel's head backwards, bending the woman back over one knee. Upside down, Rachel could see a flash of white fabric in Linda's hand, and then her panties were being thrust deep into her mouth.
"Here, bitch!" Linda's voice had risen to a pitch of hysteria. "Chew on this!" Linda's fingers were working the silk as far into Rachel's mouth as she could manage, stuffing and prodding until there didn't seem to be an inch of empty space left in Rachel's mouth. Linda then used her grip in Rachel's hair to bring the woman's face to within an inch of her own.
"How's it taste?" Linda's voice was a breathless hiss. "Do you taste hypocrisy? Betrayal? Guilt? Do you taste your own lousy, conniving---DON'T TOUCH THAT!" Linda's voice rose to a shout as Rachel tried to reach for the panties in her mouth. "You leave those panties right where they are!" Linda shook Rachel's head fiercely to drive the command home, then grabbed more clothes from Rachel's pile, and dragged the terrified woman to kneel in front of Roz, who was cringing in her bonds.
"Here she is, Roz. Here's the piece of trash you're so damn afraid of." Another painful shake of her head brought tears to Rachel's eyes, but she made no move to reach for the cloth in her mouth. "Not so much, if you ask me. Just a body to be fucked by old men who won't remember her ten minutes later. It's not FAIR!!!! This stupid pair of tits made David's job a living hell, and that's why he…he…" Linda's voice broke off into a choking sob. Lauren was desperately trying to shout through her gag, to tell Linda to get hold of herself, but if Linda heard the muffled "mmmppphh's", she gave no indication. Instead, she let out a wail of despair, and yanked her captive back to her feet.
"Here. Let's make sure you show everyone EVERYTHING you've got!" Linda's voice was hoarse and raspy, now; her eyes red. With a strength she had not imagined she possessed, she threw Rachel ahead of her; the terrified woman crashed her shins into a a cocktail table, and as she screeched into her gag, Linda was right on top of her. She spun Rachel around, so the two women were staring into each others' faces; then, with a sneer of contempt, she pushed hard against Rachel's chest, and the redhead stumbled back and fell with a heavy crash on the cocktail table.
Linda gave her no chance to get to her feet. With frenzied speed, she knelt down beside her, using one of Rachel's stockings to tie her right wrist to the base of the heavy table. Rachel was taller than the table was long, and with her head hanging off the end of the table, she found her body stretched painfully as Linda had to pull her arm backwards to tie it. Rachel flailed her free arm, but Linda seized it and used the other stocking to bind it in place. With her head dangling backwards, auburn hair pooling on the carpet, Rachel was unable to see what Linda was doing with her blouse: Lauren, though, thought her friend had snapped altogether when she saw Linda seize the blouse in her mouth. With a grunt, though, Linda used her teeth to tear the blouse, and then pulled with both hands, ripping it in half. Linda caught a glimpse of Rachel struggling to get up from the table, and delivered a vicious kick to the bound woman's legs.
"Stay still, goddamn you," she gritted as she tore the blouse into more strips. Finally, she knelt down beside the table, took Rachel's left leg, and pulled it as far to one side as she could, using strips from the blouse to tie Rachel's ankle to the base of the table. Though Rachel knew it was coming, she still screamed into the panties in her mouth when Linda grabbed her right leg and pulled it as far to the other side as it would go, tying it as she had the left.
To finish, Linda grabbed up the lacy bra from the floor, and jammed it between Rachel's teeth, stuffing the panties even farther into her mouth. With Rachel dangling helplessly off the edge of the table, Linda was able to easily wrap the bra around her head, and use it to tie the gag in place.
Linda stood up. Rachel was now helplessly spreadeagled on the table before her. Though it hurt to hold her head up, Rachel gazed fearfully at the tear-streaked face of the madwoman who had tied her.
"God, I hate you." Linda's voice was a harsh, sobbing whisper now. "You're such a worthless… CUNT!" Linda punctuated the word with a painful slap between Rachel's open legs. "You know, if David were here, I'd tell him to go ahead and take you like the tramp you are." She knelt down and hissed into Rachel's face, "I'd tell him to FUCK your brains out, if you had any, and FUCK you to death! And if David were here, I'd… I'd…David…David…" Linda's voice broke up into racking sobs, and she sagged against Rachel's bound form, her body shaking. After a moment, she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Linda…"