Chapter 3

Odette

Odette has some strange dreams of being attacked, then injured by people with ill intentions, and of being utterly helpless. She fidgeted in her sleep, trying to shake off the random images of violence and the bizarre thoughts of strangers infiltrating her workplace. She winced under the harsh fluorescent lights when she could blink her eyes open. She had no idea where she was, and then suddenly, a nurse was leaning over her. It seemed that she was in a hospital or somewhere like that.

“Welcome back,” the nurse said. “You’ve been out all day.”

Odette tried to move slowly, but her head ached. 

“Out?” she mumbled.

“Unconscious. Relax, you’ve been through quite the experience.”

“What happened to me?” Odette asked. 

“Your store got robbed. Don’t you remember?” the nurse asked as she checked Odette’s blood pressure. 

“N-no…” 

The last thing that she remembered was looking through Ken’s office. Oh! The safe! She hoped that she’d closed it properly.

“Your bosses were worried about you. They’re covering the hospital stay,” the nurse said as she attached a new IV bag.

“Ohh…Right…” Odette murmured, thinking that, of course, she couldn’t afford the hospital. “That’s lucky.”

“It is. We’ve scanned your brain, and there are no injuries or bleeding there. There are no broken bones. So you’re doing well.”

“O-oh, that’s good,” Odette replied.

She closed her eyes briefly as the nurse adjusted her various tubes and the drip in her arm before leaving her alone.

Robbery, huh? Did that mean someone w****** her over the head? How brutal, she thought. She looked up as Clint and Sam strode into the private hospital room, not sure whether they would find her conscious or not. 

“Odette!” Clint said with relief. “You’re alright.”

“Yes. I’m afraid I don’t remember a thing, though.”

“You have a head wound, so it’s no surprise. It’s superficial, thankfully.”

“Is the store okay?” Odette asked.

“Yes, Clint dropped in to get some papers, found you shortly after, and called an ambulance,” Sam said. “They’d probably only just left when he got there.”

“Did they steal much? I’m so sorry,” Odette said.

“It’s not your fault,” Clint said with a sympathetic smile. “You were rostered on alone.”

“We’ll stay in touch with the doctors,” Sam said. “Don’t worry about anything. We’ll get you back to your place and then wait for you to be able to return to work.”

“I’m so sorry about all the trouble,” Odette said sadly. 

“No, it’s alright,” Clint said. “Well, we’ll leave you to recover. If you need us, or anything, just ask the nurses.”

“Thanks for being such nice bosses,” Odette said. 

“Not a problem,” the Beaufort brothers said as they left her to rest.

***

Three days later, Odette was approved to return home. Her head felt fine, her mind was clear, and she felt fresh from all the rest and eager to get out into the real world again. When it was time to leave the hospital, Clint and Sam arrived to drive her home. They signed her out and then dropped her at her boarding house, where her friends were just pulling up in the driveway. 

“Odette!” Christian said with relief. “We’ve been wondering where you were.”

“We’ll leave you to your friends,” Sam said as he stepped back into the SUV. 

“Thank you!” Odette said as she waved to them. 

“We’ll keep in touch to see when you can return to work,” Clint said through the window.

“Thanks!”

Odette watched the car pull away, then turned to her friends with relief. Genna lifted a case of beer and said, “Cheers to your return.”

“I could definitely use a beer after all that!” Odette said with a laugh, feeling safe and carefree.

***

Odette woke up in the middle of the night to find out that her friends had left. She didn’t even remember going to sleep! The room was littered with empty beer cans, and she noticed they’d left the door to her room ajar when they left the boarding house. How unsafe! The other residents were dodgy people with questionable morals, no one ever shut the main entrance to the building, and she could have easily been robbed or raped!

Cursing, she sat up to lock the door. She heard a creak behind her as she tossed off the sheets. She turned to see what the problem was and found a man dressed all in black in a ski mask beside the bed, reaching toward her.  Before she could let out a scream, he had a hand clamped tightly over her mouth. She huffed into his hand, but his leather gloves muffled her cries. Then, as she twisted to try to struggle out of his grip on her wrists, she noticed another shadow near the front of the room.

A second disguised man crept silently towards the bed through her open door. Odette began to tremble with fear, then regrouped herself enough to renew her struggles against the first man. If she could break free, she might be able to make a run for the open door and sidestep the man approaching. But it was no use; the more she struggled, the tighter the hold on her became. She was painfully aware of just how much physically weaker she was than her attacker, and aware of the threat of violence.

Help! She tried to scream. Somebody help me!

As the second man gripped her arm closest to him she felt fear and panic rise in her throat. Her body chilled with dread when she felt his iron hold on her body—she couldn't move her arms at all; she was utterly trapped! Whatever these men wanted with her body, she was completely powerless to stop them.

Within seconds, they had bound her hands behind her with rough rope. They worked quickly, and she couldn't bite or shake off the hand covering her mouth. The leather was slippery with saliva, but the man's hand was hard as a rock over her delicate mouth. He moved his hand away for a split second, and she took a quick inhale to scream. But before any sound could escape, he had crammed a scrap of fabric in her mouth-dirty panties, she realized. She retched at the material filling her oral cavity as the man tied some of her used pantyhose around her head so that her mouth was bound with the soaked fabric inside. 

That only left her legs free. She kicked them up but had thought too late as the second man dropped his body across her then and grabbed both her calves. As she wriggled angrily on the bed, she felt the first man move down to bind her knees and ankles together. Suddenly, she was completely immobilized. Weeping tears of fear and desperation, she trembled angrily in her bonds. 

What were they planning to do with her? She was entirely at their mercy and had just been through a traumatic experience several days before…she didn't deserve this! She saw the first man haul out a large bag—large enough to fit a woman's body—and she jostled as hard as she could as they dumped her in it. When the zip was closed, she was relieved that she could still breathe but she was plunged into complete darkness. 

The bag swung as they carried her, presumably out of the boarding house to who knows where. She heard the slam of a car door and then felt herself dumped in what was probably the boot. Her bones ached when they hit the hard floor with a thump. The car door was closed, and then she was all alone. 

***

The ride was bumpy, and Odette’s body rolled back and forth on the flat floor. She grunted in pain as her head hit the spare tire stored in the back. She listened for voices in the central part of the vehicle but couldn’t hear anything over the engine noise and the sound of city traffic. At least she knew she wasn’t being taken to the border and sold for her organs or something else in some remote place where no one could save her.

Who would do this to her? She considered whether gangs in her run-down suburb would get involved in this sort of thing…kidnapping girls from their homes. She couldn’t think of any, and she wasn’t in touch with her family to pay any ransoms anyway. So perhaps this was just a case of sexual violence or the murder of an anonymous citizen, which chilled her right down to her bones. But, on the other hand, maybe Tom had ordered it, the asshole. But Tom was about as broke as she was, so that it couldn’t be him. And there was only so much getting back at your ex that you could do.

The car suddenly came to a halt, causing Odette to crash into one of the boot’s walls. She winced, hissing through her gag in pain. A few moments later, she heard the trunk door open, and then she was swinging through the air again as whoever the captors were carried the bag towards their destination. She tested her wrist bindings to find that they were still tight. Finally, the electronic beep of a door gave way, and then she was carried a little further until she was dropped on a bench. As the bag was unzipped, a hood was quickly thrown over her head so she couldn’t see where she was. She was arranged to lie down on the bench and then was simply left there in her darkness. Time passed, and she realized that she was alone. Eventually, she passed out due to all the exhaustion from the high levels of distress and panic that she had just experienced.

***

Odette woke up to the smell of freshly brewed coffee; it smelt delicious. Her stomach cramped in desire as she longed for a sip of water or anything to cleanse her mouth of the saliva in the gag. Her jaw ached from being bound for who knew how long, and her muscles everywhere felt sore. She gradually noticed the murmuring of male voices, muffled through the hood she wore. She shook her head, trying to knock it off, when suddenly it was ripped from her head and not gently either. The sudden incidence of light almost blinded her. When she could finally focus her eyes, she looked around to see that she was in some kind of basement. 

She was lying on gym equipment—a bench press bed. Surrounding her were various other gym machines, stacked weights, and fitness mats, and in the mirror directly opposite her, she saw the reflection of her captors. She gasped in a fury—it was the Beaufort brothers!

She could see Clint and Sam, chatting while sipping from mugs of steaming coffee. They were dressed for work, which suggested to her that it was the morning. Standing beside them, grinning at her, was a third man, a blonde, also holding a mug of coffee. He was holding the hood in his hand and seemed highly amused by the situation.

Odette jerked angrily on the bench, twisting and writhing until she accidentally rolled herself off it. She landed on the ground with a painful thud that got Clint’s attention. The three men came to stand over Odette’s sore body.

“Glad you could join us, Odette,” Clint said with a sneer as he raised his mug of coffee in a form of greeting.

“Morning, Odette,” Sam said with a scowl.

The third man was still grinning.

“This is Jake,” Sam said. “Our other brother.”

Odette looked over and did see some resemblance between the three of them. Jake was obviously the youngest and also so damned good-looking. She winced at the thought that all three of them could look this good in the morning when they had, for some reason, kidnapped her and left her tied up in their basement overnight. She tried to talk, making muffled noises of anger and outrage that were unintelligible.

Why am I here? She meant to say. Let me go. This isn’t funny.

“I know you’re looking for an explanation, Odette, but just take it easy. We’ve got somewhere to be. We’ll be back later tonight. Jake, can you put her somewhere for the day? Somewhere where she won’t be found.”

Jake grinned. “I certainly can!” he said with a smile.

Odette whimpered as Jake picked up the hood he had removed earlier. She shook her head desperately, but Jake simply grinned at her and said, “Let me take care of it.”

Odette was plunged back into darkness again as the hood was replaced and she shrieked as she felt Jake lift her body over his shoulder. Were they going to put her somewhere for the day? What the hell was wrong with these men?! What were they doing, treating her like their prisoner or, worse, some meaningless object?! She shrieked as she realized that she had no idea who these handsome brothers were; other than that she’d already found them highly unlikeable, and now they were possibly psychotic as well.