Inner Circle (6 page)

“It looks like Jane and Willy have been availing themselves of your services, Mrs. Ryan.” He put an arm around Willy’s shoulder, “How was she, my boy? Did she suck you off or did she take your cock up her ass?”

“Both,” Willy laughed.

“And what about you, Jane? Did the aristocratic Mrs. Ryan go down on you? Did she make you cum?”

“Yes, sir. She do me and Willy at the same time. I cum good.”

“Better you and Willy than the rats I suppose. Unless she’s occupied with me or my friends, you can have her whenever you wish. In fact, when I’m not using her, you have permission to invite some of your friends to be serviced by my little bitch.” He leaned over the bed and roughly rolled Kathy on her back. She looked up into his pig face. “Ahh, Mrs. Ryan,” he nodded, “Your days here will be long and your nights even longer. Your mouth and your ass are going to be well used and often abused.” He reached down and viciously twisted her nipple. Kathy cried out. Ruben smiled across at Jane and her son. “Imagine, my friends, the noise she would make if the rats were to get a chance to suck on those long nipples.” Kathy groaned inwardly and tried to turn away, but he forced her to keep looking at him. “Unless you obey without complaint I will give you to them,” he said. “You can be certain of it.”

“I’ll obey,” she whispered, “Please…please believe me.”

Ruben waved at Jane and Willy, “You can go now. Come back in ten minutes with Mrs. Ryan’s clothes.” When they had gone, he pulled two wooden chairs up beside the rat cage. He motioned for Kathy to take one while he sat in the other facing her. Kathy was still naked except for the collar and leash. Her make-up was gone and her face streaked with tears. She sat across from him, her knees together. He pointed at them. She parted her legs. The rats sensed her presence and scurried around in their cage squeaking. “I’m going to send you home for the night. You will receive instructions in the morning. You’re to follow them without question.”

Kathy, sick with fear answered, “Yes, Master Ruben. I understand and will do everything you wish. I..I…thank you for not…not…”

“Not feeding your tits to our little friends,” he chuckled. “Well, your lovely tits have been spared, at least for now.” He sat back in his chair and nodded his head, “Your time at the Facility will seem like a holiday compared with what you are going to endure here.”

Jane knocked at the door just once then entered. She placed on the bed the dress and shoes Kathy had worn when she arrived. “Get dressed, Mrs. Ryan,” Ruben ordered. “I’ve ordered your cab to stop at the Country Club. Go into the bar and order a gin and tonic. Be sure to tell whoever is there that you’ve spent the afternoon with me and that you’ve discovered you like what I give you and want more.” He paused and smiled to himself. “If any of your friends are there, make it a point to let them know your husband seduced my young niece and that you and he lied about it last year when you attempted to have me disbarred from the club.”

“Oh, please,” Kathy pleaded, “won’t you reconsider? Isn’t there some other...”

“No,” he cut her off. “Say it, ‘my husband, Jeff, seduced Sheila when she was only seventeen. They had an affair that lasted until his death. Both he and I lied to everyone about it. Simon Ruben and his niece have been kind enough to forgive what we tried to do to them.’”

Tearfully, Kathy repeated his words.

He reached across and grabbed her chin, forcing her to look directly at him. “You, Mrs. Ryan, are now my personal whore. Do you object or do you feel honored to have become Simon Ruben’s personal whore?”

Tears trickled down her cheeks. “I’ll feel honored,” she said, “honored to be the personal whore of Simon Ruben.”

He sat for several moments staring at her. “Even without make-up, even looking frightened and exhausted, you are a beautiful woman, Mrs. Ryan. And now you belong to me. I own you. I’m going to do things to you: to your reputation, to your mind, to your lovely body, to your sense of self, that you cannot begin to imagine.” He reached across and placed his fat wet hand on her thigh. Kathy flinched. “You must learn very quickly to welcome my touch and respond warmly to it…I mean learn now, this minute.”

Kathy hesitated then took his hand between both of hers. She lifted his hand to her breast, which still bore the angry red marks left by the cage. Ruben pinched her nipple, “Tell me, Mrs. Ryan, what are the things about me you find so appealing? Tell me why you wish to live with me as my personal whore. That is your wish now, is it not?”

Kathy was on the verge of complete exhaustion and felt she might start screaming hysterically. She glanced at the squealing rats. “Yes, that’s my wish. I…I…admire your…your cleverness, your intelligence.” She noticed he’d begun to frown. “I mean the way you get what you want; your power to have others follow you; your power over me.” He still wasn’t satisfied. Kathy pulled her chair closer and took his other hand, which she lifted to her lips and kissed. “You must have paid a great deal to purchase half of my contract. For the next six months I do belong to you. I’m now your woman. I take some perverse pleasure in knowing you own me and in knowing I will do whatever you order me to do.” She thought to herself,
‘if only I can say the right words I may soon be out of this dreadful room and away from this monster.’
She looked directly at him, “I wish to become Simon Ruben’s personal whore. I wish to serve his niece Sheila in whatever ways I can.” She leaned forward and licked her lips, “I…I would like very much to be permitted to kiss you, Simon Ruben.”

Roughly, he grabbed her wrists and pulled her forward so that she was kneeling between his legs. He took her face between his meaty hands and tilted it up. He pressed his mouth hard against her parted lips and slid his thick tongue between them. He held her like that so long she thought she might faint. He withdrew his tongue but did not let go. She knew what he wanted. Hesitantly, she slipped her tongue into his mouth. It tasted sour and old…the way, she thought, decay would taste. He held her face to his even more forcefully until she felt her lips were bruised. It was not a kiss. It was a violent rape of her mouth. At his worst, Abul had never been this angry, this cruel. Kathy realized in that moment that Simon Ruben would kill her before the half year was over.

Finally, he let her go and flung her to the floor. She lay there trembling, afraid he would tie her over the cage again. “Get dressed, bitch. I’ll be given a report from the Club so you damn well better say what I told you to say. And you better follow the instructions that will be given to you tomorrow.”

Chapter Three

Kathy was permitted to shower. Jane brought the same clothes Kathy had worn on her arrival: a short black skirt and jacket, a white nylon blouse, and the black leather stilettos. On the bed were her purse and make-up case. She looked in the mirror imagining what her life would be like with Simon Ruben. With sickening dread she once more felt certain he intended to abuse her terribly until near the end of her contract, then he would find a way to have her killed. She applied the lipstick and gloss over her bruised and swollen lips. How had it come to this? she wondered. And why had Satomi sold her contract to Simon Ruben?

She slipped her bare feet into the spike heels then looked up at Jane. “I’m ready,” she said. Without speaking, Jane led her to the front door where a cab was waiting. For a moment she thought of telling the driver to take her straight home, but fear of Ruben made her say, “The Country Club, please.”

“I know,” the driver replied.

Ten minutes later the cab stopped in front of the Country Club Dining Room. Kathy took a deep breath, reminding herself of the hungry rats. Every part of her body ached. Her head throbbed. She longed for her own bed and sleep. Rudy was tending the bar that, except for two men she recognized, was empty. They were Tom Dolan, the president of Westen Bank and Herb Bennett, the local district attorney. They were close friends of Simon Ruben and, like him, had the reputation of being lecherous old men, but rich and powerful. She was sure Simon had sent them here.

Washing the large expanse of window that looked out on the first hole, was a huge, sullen black man she’d never seen before.

As she started toward the end of the bar, Dolan grabbed her arm, “Why it’s Kathy Ryan!” he exclaimed. He rose and indicated his bar stool, “Can’t let the town beauty sit alone, can we, Herb?”

“That wouldn’t do at all,” his chubby companion said, his tiny eyes appraising Kathy from head to toe. Kathy was about to object, but Dolan’s grip tightened on her arm forcing her to take the stool between them. They would never have behaved this way unless they’d been told of her situation. Rudy approached trying not to meet her eyes. He placed a small tape recorder on the bar in front of her and covered it with a napkin. Not looking at her, he muttered, “Sorry Mrs. Ryan. I got kids, you know, and need to work.”

Kathy nodded. “I’ll have a gin and tonic,” she said. The men on either side of her were in their late fifties. She had seen them around town since she was a little girl. She and Jeff, after they were married, sometimes joked about Ruben and his gang of political thieves. These two men were prominent members of “the gang.” When she’d sat, her skirt had ridden up on her thighs. She started to tug it down.

Dolan touched her arm, “No need to do that, Mrs. Ryan.” He placed her hand on the bar. “I mean you’re wearing such a short skirt and with those heels…well, you must enjoy having men admire your splendid legs. Isn’t that right?” He glanced at the hidden recorder then back at her.

It was clear now that Ruben had called them and sent them here. “Yes,” she said as the color rose to her cheeks. “Yes, I do…like it; like to be admired.”

Herb Bennett placed a fat hand on her bare knee, causing her to flinch, “I must say, Mrs. Ryan, I’ve been admiring those legs and that tight little body of yours ever since you were about sixteen. Like a lot of other men in our town, I’m a long time admirer.” He leaned close, his fetid breath in her face, “I’d watch you at the Country Club Pool here and have myself a world-class hard on in a couple of minutes.”

Dolan chuckled and placed his sweaty hand on her thigh. Pressure from both men forced her legs apart. “That’s true,” Dolan said, “As a young piece of jailbait you were hot. We called you our little Lolita” He put his mouth close to her ear. “At our poker games we often said that of all the young cunt in town, we’d most like to fuck yours.” He sipped his drink, never taking his eyes from her. “You naked under that blouse and skirt, Mrs. Ryan?” He’d spoken loud enough for Rudy to hear. Rudy, embarrassed for her, busied himself washing glasses.

“Yes,” Kathy said.

“No bra, not even any panties?”

Kathy’s face reddened, “No… there’s nothing.”

“Where you coming from so late in the afternoon?” He rubbed her thigh.

“A visit,” she said.

Bennett squeezed her knee, “You can do better than that. Who was it had the pleasure of your company today?”

Kathy glanced toward the window where the angry looking black man continued to work. He was clearly within hearing range. She then turned back, “I was at Mr. Ruben’s. I was invited by Simon Ruben to…to…spend the afternoon at his house.”

“Old Simon Ruben!” Dolan shouted in mock surprise. “Didn’t you and your husband try to have him barred from this very club a little over a year ago?”

Kathy nodded, “Yes, yes we did.”

“Then why would Jeff Ryan’s young widow be spending an afternoon with Simon Ruben?” He tapped the recorder. Before Kathy could answer, the door swung open admitting Billy and Ann Hastings, two of her best friends. Billy had been Jeff’s best man at their wedding.

“Kathy!” Ann shouted. “My God, what a happy surprise.” Quickly Dolan and Bennett put their hands up on the bar and Kathy drew her knees together. Ann and Bill stood before her beaming, obviously glad to see her. Kathy had always been very fond of both of them. Like she and Jeff, they seemed to have the perfect marriage. She was struck now, once again, of their sweet innocence. This was especially obvious in Ann. Her merry blue eyes sparkled. She had flawless skin, very pale. Her natural blonde hair hung almost to her tiny waist. She was not over five feet tall even in heels. Kathy remembered how Ann’s breasts had developed early and were the envy of all the girls during and after their high school years. She didn’t look any older now than she did then, nor did Billy. She noticed the way Billy and Ann still held hands as if they were newly in love.

“We heard you were back,” Billy said. “How long has it been? Two months?”

“More like three,” Kathy said with a thin smile.

“You must come over and tell us all about your world tour,” Ann said. She leaned closer and spoke softly. “Did it help? I mean everyone said when you left so soon after…after Jeff passed on that you were trying to…to.. come to terms with…”

“Yes,” Kathy interrupted quickly, the tears welling up in her eyes. “Yes, Ann it helped. It helped but still…”

Ann patted her friend’s hand, “Oh, it’s so good to have you back.” She smiled and winked at her husband, “And just in time.”

Billy nodded, “We’re having a sort of reunion dance right here tomorrow night. It will be the old gang, some from high school, some from college. Please say you’ll come. You can sit with us.”

Dolan and Bennett exchanged a quick glance. Then Dolan swung around to face the newcomers, “Mrs. Ryan was just telling us about another party she’s attending Friday night, weren’t you?”

Kathy felt her cheeks burning, “Uh…yes, another party,” she said.