A little after 4am the night sky finally gives way to the breaking glow of the morning as I drive through terraced streets heavily lined with parked cars.
The night has been uneventful in the main, the usual human detritus who have over consumed alcohol on a Saturday night driven home to all points across the city.
I spot her from a distance, even in the pale breaking daylight and even from several hundred yards she looks appealing.
I slow the cab, watching her as I approach at a steady pace.
Dressed in a short black fitted leather jacket, and a short dark, possibly black, skirt that covers her legs to her mid thighs. She walks barefoot all be it with dark denier tights that cling to her legs, a pair of little black ankle boots are held in her left hand.
As I approach she looks back at me over her left shoulder, her dark auburn hair sits pulled back into a loosely tied ponytail.
Recognising me, or more so recognising the Taxi plates on the front of the Mercedes she frantically waves her right hand for my attention as she steps towards the road between a parked black VW Golf and a beaten up looking white Renault Clio. Anticipating her reaction, I slip on the right-side indicator and pull up parallel to the two cars she stands between as I drop the driver side window.
"Oh my god you're a life saver," she offers her over exaggerated words spoken on a soft Scottish accent.
"I do my best..." I offer, "...but I'm off duty."
"Oh, you can't be," she offers frustratedly.
The smirk across my face gives away my ruse immediately. As I unlock the doors, there is no way I am not picking up this beautiful creature, despite her slightly bedraggled appearance in closer quarter.
"Got myself a wee joker have I?" she chuckles as she steps towards the back passenger door behind me, opening the door and slipping into the seat immediately behind me.
Pulling away from the kerb back onto the right side of the street as she settles herself down setting her boots on the seat beside her, which annoys me slightly.
"Where we headed?" I enquire.
"Grafton Close up near the Hillcliffe," she offers on a slightly weary tired voice.
The address does not fill me with dread, but I generally avoid the area, her address being located on a housing estate, which backs on to the City's most notorious of addresses.
As I pick my way through deserted streets I figure the address about fifteen miles from where I have picked her up offers a reasonable final fair for the nights work.
"Be about twenty" I offer glancing back a little miffed that I cannot see her in the rear-view mirror as she settles into the seat directly behind me.
"That's fine," she replies plucking a mobile from her jacket pocket and speedily tapping out a message onto the handheld device.
"Good night?" I speculatively enquire, fully aware there will be a reason she walks alone through deserted streets in the early hours of the morning.
"You could say I've had an interesting night," she softly offers.
Moments later driving down a tree lined avenue I hear the phone ring briefly.
"Hey you," I hear her answer her tone a little sheepish.
I can only hear one side of the conversation as I carry on driving concentrating on the road ahead but unable not to eavesdrop on what is being said.
"Yeah, I can talk... I'm in a taxi now I'll be home in about fifteen.... They live fucking miles away... fortunately they live far enough away," She softly chuckles.
"Alex... and Sam... No no Alex and Sam... yeah both... yeah... yeah ...I know filthy... hey don't you judge me you little slag..." she chuckles softly despite her insult.
Hearing only fifty percent of the conversation my mind whirs on the snippets of details she openly discusses as though I am not even in the vehicle.
"I'm fucking exhausted... youthful fucking energy... I struggled to keep up..." she offers further on a loaded tone, "... Well, I don't think there's any rule on fucking ex pupils... uh yeah... and the randy little bastards only tried to fucking video me... nah I put a stop that.... One wee souvenir I don't need... Again, not a fucking word from you Missy I've seen your wee sex tape."
My mind does not need to veer to far off centre, to appreciate what has seemingly played out. Mentally noting the lurid highlights of her promiscuity.
"Just well... mainly in doggie ...even when I got spit roasted..." her dark little chuckle at whatever is said on the other end of the conversation is laced with suggestion, "...He ...Alex ...He tried to putt it in my ass ...Hell no bitch, you know full well I don't give that up ....at least not on a first date."
She throws her head back on a deep laugh.
Turning the Mercedes onto a roundabout that leads to a dual carriageway I hear her closing off the call with a request of a promise from her friend that she will still be up when she gets home.
The sordid little red head seems, unperturbed that I have been party to the conversation she has just held. At least now I can get a grip on what context the description 'interesting night' portrays in relation to her night out.
"Hey mister?" She enquires tapping on the Perspex security shield that separates us. "Are these bottles of water for me?"
"Yeah..." I immediately offer, knowing she refers to the two bottles of water slipped in the pouches behind both the driver and the passenger seats. Such cost neutral little items a private hire driver now utilises to differentiate from the cheap and readily available Uber style cabs available at the click of an App. "...I've got one in a cool bag if you want... those might be a bit tepid."
"You're going to save my life twice" she purred, I can see her now in the rear-view mirror.
As we pull up at a set of traffic lights on red I reach over and unzip the little black cool bag in the front passenger footwell. Dropping the hinged hatch set in the Perspex the lights have turned green by time she takes the bottle of liquid from me.
Pulling away from the lights, driving on, she does not even notice that the seal of the plastic bottle has been tampered with as she cracks open the lid and drinks to quench a thirst.
Three minutes later, my course is already altered as we head towards a new destination as I watch her slump across the black leather back seat of the Taxi.
Hitting speed dial on a familiar number, the short grunt of a response I receive is to be expected given the time.
"What?" he enquires.
"Set us up remotely..." I request, "...I've secured us an impromptu little starlet."
**********
She stirs.
Rose Redmond stirs as I watch her knelt before me.
I now know her name from the contents of her wallet; a wallet containing a strawberry flavoured ribbed condom, a bank card, a driver's licence, twenty pounds worth of cash, and a Staff ID Photo-card.
Rose pulls at her wrists, wrists that sit extended to her sides to meet the steel restraints that tether both her slender wrists to two thick beams that are bolted to the floor to both her left and her right. Her toned legs unrestrained bend at the knee as she kneels atop a wooden pallet wedged between the two pillars.
"Wh... what... where am I?" she understandably panics as she slowly emerges from the debilitating effect of the vast quantity of sedative she unwittingly consumed. Roses senses further hindered by the thick, heavy, dirty hessian sack that sits over her head and meets her shoulders.
Shorn of her leather jacket she kneels now dressed in a black dark denier tights, a black leather mini skirt and a tight-fitting red vest top that reveals black bra straps.
"Welcome back Rose" I offer as I step around her admiring my capture acutely aware that her restraint is incomplete but also aware at the theatre fully restraining her will now provide, if only for myself.
"Where... where am I?" Rose offers clearly distressed, "Who are you?"
"Think of it as a correctional facility..." I state placing my right hand on her right shoulder from behind, feeling her tense. "...and I'm the facilitator of your punishment."
"A what?" she offers uncertainly while pulling her wrists at the harsh restraints that clamp over them, restraints that are hold in place by little brass padlocks that rattle as she struggles.
"I thought St Luke's was as prestigious education an establishment as money could buy for the elite around here?" I offer, fully aware of the reputation that the private boys only school holds, a reputation upheld by the thousands of pounds a year parents pay for their privileged Sons to attend.
"What... what are you?" Rose offers, as I scan the details of her Staff ID Card and check her date of birth on her driver's licence, placing her at twenty-seven years of age.
"Seems that the teachers at St Luke's... well this particular member of Staff at least ...are nothing more than a wanton fucking whores" I sneer as I pull the hessian sack up from her head to meet her wide green eyes which blink against exposure even to the dimmed lights of the room.
She is still confused by her predicament even as she looks up at me from her enforced knelt position.
"You..." she offers, "You're the fucking Taxi Driver."
"Fucking former pupils isn't against the rules you said..." I ignore her stating the obvious on my identity as I reference her early phone call, "...it's a little morally Fucking corrupt though Rose surely... I'd hazard a guess it wouldn't be fucking encouraged."
"How... how do you know?"
"I might be many things.... But hard of hearing ain't one of them" reaching out I clutch her jaw firmly as I speak "...you didn't leave much to the imagination in your call earlier."
Rose swallows hard as I tilt her head back further, her eyes fall closed on realisation.
"It's a wonder to me how regularly and how openly many people talk in front of me... as though I'm anonymous ...as though I don't exist ...they talk freely..." I press her face away to the left as I take steps back around her once more. "...it's not without irony now then that we'll discuss the price of your freedom."
As I detail what I expect of her she kneels there shaking her head, incredulous at my request not realising how she holds no power under the circumstances in which she finds herself.
"Oral and Full penetration," I reiterate my request, "Then you go free, and I don't mention your impropriety."
"You wouldn't dare," Rose offers but her words lack a conviction.
"I've brought down cunts like you for far less immorality my dear," I coldly state on a patronising tone.