That was it. With a dead end looming ahead, she had nowhere else to run. She was trapped.
"Looks like your time's up, missy," Roy smirked as he grabbed Sydney firmly by the arm and spun her around to face him.
She tried to resist him, but she was no match for Roy's strength — not that it mattered. Willis was close behind his comrade.
"Yeah, you're cornered," Willis chuckled, grabbing Sydney's other arm, finalizing her detainment. "You're not getting away again."
"Let go of me!" Sydney screamed, but it was futile. The boys wouldn't listen, and the nearest pedestrian was miles away. All there was left to do was wait for what came next, and he came just as expected.
Out of the night rolled a black sedan, windows tinted the same color as its menacing paint scheme. Unfortunately, Sydney knew the person inside was even more sinister than the sedan's presentation.
"Now, now, darling, don't struggle. You'll only make it harder on yourself," Bauer's gruff voice pierced the night air as he climbed out of the car.
Sydney could see his silhouette take shape as he stepped out of the shadows and into the industrial lighting from the lamps suspended high above. As usual, his dark trimmed beard covered most of his face. He wore his signature leather jacket, and he had a long army-green-colored cloth draped across one shoulder.
She hadn't seen him since the last time she'd escaped his captivity. It was ages ago. She wasn't particularly happy to see him now, either.
"How long did you think you could evade me, sweetheart?" Bauer asked, stopping just feet away from Sydney, Roy and Willis. "There are a lot of important people looking for you."
"You can't do this," was the only thing Sydney could think of at short notice.
"Nay, we can, Love," Roy grinned fiendishly, his warm breath beating against Sydney's neck. "We're gonna put chains on you when you're sleeping."
"And when you're not sleeping," Willis chimed in.
"Enough, boys," Bauer said cooly. "Let's wrap this up, hmmm? We're lucky we found her before the FEDs did."
Sydney made another attempt to struggle out of Roy and Willis' grip, but it was futile. She was now at the whim of these men.
Bauer removed the cloth from his shoulder and sat it on the ground. With the light shining down, Sydney could finally get a good look at what he had brought with him: a large sack, roughly 6 feet long and 3 feet wide, made of soft ribbed cotton. Spanning halfway down the front of the bag was a lighter army-green placket adorned with ten matching buttons, all evenly spaced, holding the bag closed. Judging by the way the sack laid on the ground, there was something small at the bottom of it.
"You've made quite the fools of us, you know that?" Bauer began to methodically unfasten the buttons, one by one. "Chasing you all over this city. We thought we'd lost you."
"You're a sick son of a bitch!" Sydney snapped back as she eyed Bauer carefully.
The opening of the sack became wider and wider with each button that came undone.
"You're worth a lot to me — to everyone. And now that I have you back, I can protect you." Bauer continued. "Feed you. Clothe you."
"Bathe you," Willis howled.
"We will take good care of you."
Once each button had been loosened, Bauer reached deep into the bag, pulling out a coil of brown rope.
Her heart sank. What on earth was he going to do with that? Sadly, she couldn't anticipate what would come next.
"Well, Sydney, now you're never going to get away again," Bauer proclaimed as he threw the rope to Willis. "Boys, strip her."
And they did. Roy and Willis quickly pulled Sydney's clothes off of her protesting body one by one, leaving nothing but her bare skin and pink, puffy nipples erect in the chilly night breeze.
"No! Stop it!"
"Now tie her up."
"You can't!" Sydney struggled, but there was not much she could do as Roy and Willis began to bind her arms to her sides with the rope Bauer had brought.
