Mae awoke in a daze, not at all sure where she was. The last thing she remembered was opening the door to a pair of strangers, of being grabbed and forced back against the wall, and just starting a scream when a wad of very pungent cotton was forcibly held over her mouth and nose. “Ether, it must have been ether,” she thought as she fought to clear the cobwebs from her head.
Where was she now? Out of her haze Mae recognized the crack in the ceiling overhead. She must be on her back in her own bed. She tried to swing her legs over the bed side and sit up. No way! Her ankles were tied together and then tethered to the foot board. Her wrists were likewise bound with her hands useless on her abdomen.
She was able to lift her head, however, and across the room she found her husband Jack, and her eighteen year old daughter Cindy, tied and gagged in a pair straight back chairs. Cindy was sobbing quietly. Jack was staring at her wide eyed, as if trying to tell her something, but all Mae could make out were indecipherable muffled grunts.
Mae could turn her head far enough to see the bedroom door over her left shoulder. The door opened just as she looked, and a man she had never seen before came in from the hall.
"What are you doing here? What do you want? LET US GO!"
Mae struggled against ropes that held her captive even as she screamed at the stranger. The knots were tight, and her effort was as futile as the questions she fired at the stranger.
The man brushed aside her questioning with a taunting sarcasm. "Well, good afternoon Mrs. Anderson. Did you have a nice nap? Its not polite for the hostess to fall asleep like that when she has guests."
He walked toward her as he spoke, and two other men followed him into the room. Despite her confusion, Mae was focused enough to concentrate on a description of these people. Later on that could be important.
Mae began with a head count of her enemy. There were three of them in the room, and from down the hall, she could hear other voices, and the TV. More of these people were certainly elsewhere in the house. Two of the three she could see were dressed in nondescript white T-shirts, and well worn, not very clean, denim pants.
The third man, the one who spoke to her, also wore a T-shirt and blue denim pants, but he also had on a denim jacket. Unlike his companions, however, his pants, like his jacket, were new, clean and neat, and the fade in the fabric was from the factory rather than from washing and hard wear.
Of the other two, one was very big and very black with fat Negroid lips and a thin mustache. Nothing else stood out about him as far as Mae could see, and anyway, all black men looked pretty much alike to Mae. The last man to enter the room was sandy haired, of medium height and build, undistinguished in any significant way except for the tattoo of a globe and anchor on the back of his right hand. An ex-marine, Mae wondered, or had he merely stolen the symbol to brag about his macho?
"We're going to be your guests for a while, Ms Anderson. I know we showed up on short notice. I only hope you don't mind."
Mr. denim jacket was talking again now, interrupting Mae’s inventory of her captors. Denim Jacket snickered at his sarcasm as if he had said something that was truly funny. There was not, however, anything merry in his cold ice blue eyes. In her desperation Mae lifted her head again to look to look around her. Her husband, however, could only stare back at his wife with eyes filled with desperation.
The man in the jacket was big, easily six foot four or five inches tall, maybe 260 pounds, and very muscular. Standing by her bed, he loomed over Mae the way a cruise liner would dwarf a fishing trawler. Probably a weight lifter, Mae guessed. He had a well trimmed beard, and he wore his blond hair long, just touching his shoulders. Both his beard and his heavy mane of hair were clean and neatly brushed. Altogether Mae decided his appearance was too perfect, too carefully tailored, for any reason other than to flatter his ego.
Mae could smell the heavy musky odor of a strong after shave. Why would a man with a beard use an after shave Mae wondered, and as warm as it was, why was he wearing a jacket? The perfume, and the neat clothes, the form fitting jacket despite the hot weather, and stylish hair, everything suggested to Mae that this was a man who was probably quite vain about his macho good looks. Most likely, he fancied himself a lady killer. Mae’s guess at his personality almost brought a wry smile to her lips. ‘Lady killer,’ was he? Considering the circumstances, Mae wondered at her unfortunate description.
Mae wiggled frantically on the bed trying to slide away from the reach of Mr. denim Jacket. It was fruitless. With her feet tied to the foot board, her freedom of movement was limited to her upper body only. With one hand Mr. jacket grabbed her by an upper arm, and jerked her shoulders abruptly back toward him. With the other he took a cruel hold across her cheeks, pinching them together, forcing her mouth into an unnatural pout. Mae let out a squeal through tortured lips, and tried to pull away, but it was no use. The man was bending over her now, his beard right in her face, nose to nose, as it were.
His voice had a sharp commanding edge to it as spoke.
"Listen to me lady, and listen good! You might as well get used to me because my friends and I are going to lay low here for a day or two. Your quiet little ranch will do as well as any for a hideout. Just remember that while we’re here, I’m the boss. Do as I say and you and I will get along. Getting along is important. You stay alive that way. You got that?"
He laughed at her evilly as he threw her head back onto the bed, and stood up without moving away, however.
Mae’s confusion and curiosity was greater than her fear. She wanted to know so much more than he had told her. She was crying a little now, but through the tears, she was able to fire questions at her captor.
"Who are you? What are you doing here, and why do you have us all tied up? What are you going to do with us?"
Apparently she had asked for more information than was welcome. Angrily the stranger slammed his open hand viciously against the headboard, narrowly missing her head. His other hand snaked out and grabbed her by her arm once more, but harder this time, digging his fingers through the robe into flesh and muscle. With a yank he snatched her upper body to a sitting position on the bed.
He glared fiercely at her as he shouted, "Shut the fuck up, bitch! We not playing twenty questions here. Your life depends on making me happy, and that’s all you need to know. Kapeesh? When things settle down, we’ll be moving on. Keep your mouth shut, do as you’re told, and you may even live to see us leave."