Bound by Consent (7 page)

“Where to now?”

Sasha shrugged. “That’s it, there isn’t anywhere else except…” She frowned and shook her head. “No.”

“Except where?” I grabbed her by the arms and shook her. “You’re wasting valuable time. If you know something, anything, you must tell me.”

“In the basement dungeon there’s a secret door. A casual observer wouldn’t even know it was there; it doesn’t lead anywhere except a disused storeroom but, rumor has it, there also used to be a tunnel out to the Heath.”

“Come on.” I took off at speed leaving Sasha to follow. Back in the basement dungeon, I found things hotting up with quite a few more people either using the equipment or just watching. I masqueraded as a casual observer while I got my breath back and scanned the walls frustrated by the lack of any door. The red spotlights, arranged to play upon the equipment, also cast deep shadows and changed perceptions of space. Sasha eventually reached my side and steered me toward a dimly lit area next to the wheel. Not until I was right up to the wall did I see a faint crack between the stones. I pushed hard but nothing happened. I turned to Sasha and growled angrily, “How does it open?”

Sasha reached around me and pressed a small stone some eight inches from the crack. The door opened inward with barely a sound, to reveal a large space cluttered with broken equipment and discarded furniture. She pushed me inside and flicked a light switch. “Go and search for her,” she whispered. “Good luck. I have to return to work now. I’ll try to come back for you later.”

The door closed and I was on my own. I took my time, moving things, making sure I didn’t miss her and I was glad that I did. Bryana was in the far corner, hidden behind a long velvet curtain, both blindfolded and gagged with all four limbs tied to a discarded cross.

“Oh, Bryana, honey. You’re safe now.” I quickly tore the gag from her mouth and then removed the blindfold. Tears overflowed from her eyes and ran down her cheeks. She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue but clearly couldn’t speak, yet. Then I concentrated on the bindings at her wrists and ankles. It pained me to see how the rough packing twine was cutting into her flesh but I couldn’t hurry the process as the knots were really tight and complicated – not the quick release twist knots I used in rope play. Whoever had tied Bryana up didn’t mean her to escape. Once Bryana was free, I picked her up, carried her to a long couch and held her tight. “Who did this to you?” I already had a pretty good idea.

Bryana shook her head. “I’m not sure. I didn’t actually see them.” She shuddered and snuggled closer. “It was over before I had time to blink. One minute, I was standing talking with you and Sasha then the next I was whisked away…there were two of them, both female, I think. The blindfold and gag were simultaneous. Then they dragged me in here and...” Her hand went to her neck. “They took my collar.” Her voice broke.

“It doesn’t matter, we can get another one made up.” I soothed her sobs and cursed the bitches.

“But it won’t be the same.”

She had a point. The significance of her acceptance had been lost. However, I wasn’t going to agree with her. “Yes it will. The new one will be identical. We will have a little collaring ceremony and make it special.”

“I’d like that.” Bryana gave a ragged sigh then glanced at the jumbled mess surrounding us. “Where are we?”

“In a storeroom just off the dungeon. Sasha helped me to get in here through a secret door. She put herself on the line helping me to find you but she had to get back to work before she was missed.”

“Sasha is a good friend.” Bryana’s lips twitched in a weak smile. “I want to go home.”

I stroked her hair. “And so you shall, my sweet, as soon as I can get us both safely out of here.”

“What do you mean?” Bryana jerked away from me, her question uttered as a shrill squeak of alarm.

I took a deep breath before committing myself. “I’m not sure how the door opens from this side. Sasha did say she’d come back for us later, when she could, but I have another idea…” I sent up a silent prayer that it wasn’t a wild goose chase. “Sasha also mentioned that there may be another exit, one that leads out onto the Heath. Are you game to give it a try?”

Bryana nodded. “Yes, anything to get away from here without... I never want to set foot inside that dungeon again.”

“Right.” I stood and offered her my arm. “Let’s see if we can find a way out of here and defy your abductors.”

Meeting of Minds

~

Cassie

Can Cassie find a way forward or is this the end for her and Bryana?

B
ryana clung onto my arm like a limpet to a rock. “Cassie, are you sure there is another way out of here?” Her brow creased in frown as she surveyed the almost impossible task ahead of us.

After her recent ordeal, I wasn’t surprised that she seemed unwilling to lose contact with me even for a second. On top of being tied up, blindfold, and gagged, all without her consent, she’d suffered the indignity of being dumped like a piece of trash in this claustrophobic basement.

I understood her concern and, to be absolutely honest, I also shared her doubts – although I wasn’t about to voice them. One of us had to remain strong, and positive. We’d already spent nearly half an hour searching for a way out of this hell-hole – a viable alternative to using the more conventional exit through the club on the other side of the wall.

The vast underground complex was hot, airless, and incredibly cluttered with the detritus of many years scattered everywhere one looked. The vaulted ceiling and supporting foundation walls created a series of arched recesses the size of small rooms that divided the perimeter into separate sections. I recognized the arrangement as similar to the cellars at Auchtercairn which had originally been intended to store wines, spirits, and other essential supplies to provide for the occupants above. Although every one of these bays was now crammed with discarded furniture and broken equipment from the dungeon whilst the central area seemed to have become a dumping ground for cartons and packaging material. It wasn’t easy to see any of the walls or work out where an exit might be hidden.

So far, we’d drawn a blank with the sections on one long wall – to the right of the door – and the second set of bays to the left side didn’t appear very promising either.

“Sasha was pretty confident there was.” I gave Bryana an encouraging smile and we moved on a few paces, checking every foot of wall for anything that looked like a way out. “Apparently this old mansion has been a venue for all kinds of vice since early Victorian times. She told me that the hidden exit has been in use since then to enable guests to evade the frequent vice squad raids, as well as irate fathers searching for their wayward daughters.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that...” Bryana sighed and tightened her grip on my arm. I could feel the tension in her fingers where they dug into my flesh. Her gaze flitted around the area where we now stood surrounded by piles of discarded divans and drapes before returning to me. “Please tell me we’ll find the way out soon, I’m scared...scared that they’ll come back and carry out their threats to...” Her voice tailed off as if she couldn’t bring herself to say what was uppermost in her mind. She shuddered. The action brought her closer to me and I wrapped my arms around her.

“I know... Don’t fret, you’re safe with me. Those women won’t stand a chance if they come back.” I held her tight, fitting her curves against my body, and kissed her forehead. “You need to be brave for just a little longer. I’ll get us out of here in no time.” My promise carried more faith than hope. I hated to admit defeat in anything, and especially in this instance, since I wanted to prove my invincibility in Bryana’s eyes. Defeat also meant going back through the club, and neither of us wanted to do that. Bryana, because she was scared witless after being snatched from under my nose, stripped of her collar, and imprisoned in this shit hole. Although she hadn’t identified the women involved I’d be willing to bet my entire fortune that the culprits were those sick bitches Esmée Vincent and, her poisonous sidekick, Marisa. Whilst I, based on Sasha’s information which I had no reason to doubt, couldn’t afford to lay myself open to blackmail by the criminals who now apparently controlled Out of Bounds. Thankfully Bryana had signed me in as her guest, so my name wasn’t in the book, but my face was too well known for comfort, and my family connections put me in a very vulnerable position. I’d be in deep shit if the press got hold of my name and forged a link between this club and my activities at Auchtercairn.

Besides all of the above, however, I desperately wanted, needed, Bryana to acknowledge my strength and regard me as her knight in shining armor. To have her turn automatically to me in times of stress and look on me as protector, lover, and Mistress. It was a big ask. To achieve all of the above, I must first demonstrate my ability to solve our current dilemma and prove that I was the ultimate safe haven.

More determined than ever to find a way out of this crap hole, I released Bryana from my embrace, took her by the hand, and pressed on with the search. A couple of flickering strip lights provided barely enough illumination to penetrate the gloom behind a row of cartons lined up close to the third wall. I’d almost given up the hunt when I came across an anomaly.

Had I been a casual observer I probably wouldn’t have noticed how what looked like a haphazard jumble of larger cartons had been cleverly arranged so they formed a ragged barrier blocking off the view of one complete bay. I pushed into a narrow gap between two of the taller cartons, dragging Bryana in my wake, and discovered an L-shaped passage at the end of which, hung a large curtain, similar to the one used to cover Bryana. The dark velvet drape reached from the ceiling to floor and spanned an entire arched section.

What purpose would a curtain serve in a windowless cellar?

The answer was self-evident when I pulled the heavy fabric aside to reveal a hidden area almost a small room in size and completely empty of clutter. Somebody had taken a lot of trouble to keep this space hidden from general view. I estimated that twenty or thirty people could hide in here and nobody would be the wiser.

“Oh!” Bryana voiced her surprise at first sight of the solid looking door set in the back wall.

I had to admit the door looked promising but knew I mustn’t get my hopes up too soon; it could just as easily lead nowhere. Although why anybody would want to disguise the entrance to a cupboard, or even another room was beyond me. I shrugged off a wave of negative thoughts, refusing to consider defeat or even having to repeat the search process elsewhere. I stepped forward and tried the handle. The door opened smoothly on well oiled hinges to reveal a narrow passage. I peered into the gloom. Elation and fear in equal measure clenched my stomach into a tight knot.

Light! We needed light to navigate our way out of here. My heart beat a rapid paradiddle of frustration laced with anticipation as I felt around the entrance for a switch. Eventually I found a time delay push-button, like the ones you get on staircases. A trial depression produced a series of dim globes that snaked away into the distance and provided a feeble but adequate illumination.

“Yes!” Bryana surged forward almost taking me with her. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Wait! We can’t go yet.” I dug my heels in, halting her over eager charge for freedom, and wedged the door open with my hip. I wasn’t prepared to risk the unknown until I figured out how much time we had before the lights went out. Getting stuck in an unlit passage that led nowhere spelt disaster in my book.

The passage was suddenly plunged into darkness again.

“Oh!” Bryana gave an audible gasp and sought closer contact with my body. I wrapped my arms around her waist, drawing her against me for a moment.

It had taken a bare ninety seconds, by my reckoning, which meant we didn’t have much time to reach, find, and depress, the next switch assuming there was one.

I steered Bryana back into the storeroom and the door, obviously controlled by a strong spring, closed with a soft clunk. There were a couple more things I needed to do before we took our chance on the passage. I turned my attention to Bryana. “Have you got a lipstick?”

She nodded, frowning, no doubt puzzled by my strange request, although she unhooked her purse from her belt and passed it over without question. As a fully paid-up femme, I imagine, Bryana never went anywhere without lipstick. I extracted the gilt tube then tore a flap of cardboard from one of the large cartons that made up the wall, scrawled a brief message in bold, bright red, lettering “
B safe. Will call U later. C.”
I didn’t want Sasha to worry if she managed to come back to look for us when she got her break. There was no guarantee she would get the chance, it depended on how busy the dungeon became or even who was manning the CCTV covering that area. From what she’d said, and subtly hinted too, I gathered a close watch was kept on activities both upstairs, in the private cells as well as the public areas, and down in the communal dungeon.

Bryana gave me a weak smile when I handed back her purse. She hung onto my sleeve, keeping close, as I made my way back to the main area and propped the message up facing the other entrance.

On our way back to the hidden passage, I collected a couple of metal struts from a pile of trashed dungeon equipment. One to wedge the door ajar in case we needed to retrace our steps – since from what I’d seen it didn’t have a handle on the inside – and the other to carry as insurance. I believed in being prepared for any eventuality, however bizarre the idea may be.

“Right, are you ready?” I opened the door and set one metal strut on the floor to stop it from closing completely then waited for Bryana’s nod of assent before I hit the timer button, but it didn’t come.

Bryana shook her head and even in the half light I read a look of deep anxiety in her eyes. “No, I just thought of something. What...” Her voice cracked. “What if we meet somebody coming the other way?”