Note: This is a seven part story... I wrote this years ago, and it took me a week to finish... I had a good rhythm going, and finished it in relative good time... I did some re-writes on this, and it's finally ready to publish... Enjoy!
-one-
"Beautiful, huh, Miss Tyler?"
Linda Tyler looked up from the display case of rare coins with words of polite agreement on her lips--words which died unspoken when she discovered that's Johnny Walker's doe-like brown eyes were focused not on the exhibit in front of him, but on the generous mounds of her sweater-covered breasts.
Johnny was a troublemaker. A disruptive influence. She wasn't at all clear as to why he stayed on at school past the minimum required age. Certainly he was in no way a good student, and spent most of his time, in her classes anyway, staring at the ceiling or murmuring wisecracks--or fixing her with an unblinking gaze while patently paying no mind to what she was saying.
Now his eyes met hers insolently, then they flickered away over the coins.
"That right, Miss Tyler--worth a cool million?" he asked. "That's what the guys say."
"I believe so," she responded, tight-lipped, and started to walk away.
He was at her side.
"Uh--Miss Tyler..."
"Yes?"
"I-uh--seem to be having some kind of trouble with that last assignment--you guess I could talk to you about it? I can't seem to-uh--"
"Well?" she asked mistrustfully.
"Uh--could we go back to the classroom so I can show where I seem to--uh--"
Duty struggled with inclination, and won.
"Well, I suppose so," she conceded. "Just for a few minutes, though--I have an appointment very soon."
"Oh, sure, Miss Tyler," he reassured her eagerly. "1t won't take that long. It's just a...uh..."
They left the assembly hall, Sally nodding politely to the guard who stood by the doorway watching over the extremely valuable display of rare coins and stamps that William had lent to enhance the hobbies and handcraft exhibition. She couldn't smother a tiny private smile at the thought of William's impetuous, tender marriage proposal last night, his strong hands tilting her face up to his to kiss her soft, wide mouth while he stroked the silky tresses of her shoulder-length blonde hair. Dear William!
She had been thinking about it every spare moment since. Or not so much thinking about it as unable to keep it away from her mind. William was so handsome, so capable and intelligent. She knew that he was a notorious seducer of willing women--yet when she had been true to the principles of her rather rigid up-bringing, instead of breaking off the relationship, he had asked her to marry him. Moreover, he claimed that he was delighted by the idea of having a bride who had never slept with any other man--who would still be a virgin on the night of their wedding.
Her happiness was slightly clouded lust now, though, by the presence of Johnny beside her. His athletic, muscular, nineteen-year-old body seemed just a little too close, radiating a kind of animalistic warmth, a primitive emanation of sensuality that encroached on her space uncomfortably. She wondered fleetingly if she could convincingly find a reason to cancel the few minutes she had promised him--but then she pulled herself together. After all, there would be people around the school for a long time yet, especially with the exhibition attracting various visitors.
"Well, now," she said briskly as they arrived in the classroom, "why don't you bring--"
"Hold it right there," said a flat-toned voice, and she turned toward the windows. The fire-escape door was open and a short, stocky man stood there.
He had a gun in his hand.
Aimed directly at her chest.
"Shut your mouth and keep It that way," the man went on. His eyes were a cold, unwavering grayness like an arctic sea. "One peep out of you and them pretty tits going get a couple spare holes in them."
She started to turn to Johnny for help, but froze when his snicker sounded through the humming of blood in her ears.
"Okay," the man commanded, "just come over here--nobody's going hurt you long as you just keep quiet and do like I tell you."
She stood paralyzed with fear, unable to move, until Johnny goosed her with a blunt forefinger, when she gasped in outrage and stumbled forward suddenly, her eyes fixed upon the barrel of the gun like a mesmerized rabbit's.
"Right down the fire escape. That's it."
The gun was pressed against her back, and he was clutching her upper arm in a grip that was just short of downright painful. They descended to the ground and he guided her toward the main gates, where a large car stood with doors open, engine running, a man poised in readiness behind the wheel.
Slowly the man with the icy gray eyes raised the gun, and the chilly metal pressed against her temple.
She fainted.
*****
She heard a voice through the swirling darkness that enfolded her.
"Easy as falling off a log."
Her eyelids felt as though they had been glued shut.
"One look at Tom with that gun against her head and they just opened up them glass cases and handed over all them coins without a peep," the voice went on exultantly.
"But what you have to go bringing her along for?" grumbled another voice. "That's a fucking kidnapping rap."
"Look, I told you, if the cops find us while we're waiting for Miles to show, we're going need a hostage to bargain. They ain't going to risk getting her killed. Don't be so fucking dumb, Larry. Shit, they'd be chasing us right now if we didn't have her along with us."
They were talking about her, she realized incredulously. They had kidnapped her; they had stolen William's coins and stamps and they were holding her as a hostage--
No, oh, no! This was ridiculous! It was like one of those idiotic television shows! Things like this didn't happen in real life! She would just open her eyes ... she would wake up from this absurd, uncomfortable dream at once.
She tried to move, but there was no strength in her body. Her arms were tucked uncomfortably behind her, but when she tried to move them, they refused to obey.
With great difficulty, she forced her eyelids apart, and was suddenly aware that she was in a fast-moving car. There was somebody on either side of her, and cord was bound around her wrists behind her and around her ankles, too.
She made an inarticulate sound, and the men turned to look at her. One was Johnny Walker, the other was the stocky, gray-eyed gunman--Tom, she though, recalling the earlier conversation.
"Hey, welcome back, teach," Johnny grinned triumphantly, baring his healthy white teeth. "Bit of a change from teaching history, huh?"
His brown eyes were malicious, lecherous, traveling over her face and then downward. Once again his gaze was fixed upon her breasts, and the tip of his broad pink tongue passed slowly and deliberately over his lower lip.
She shuddered very slightly, and his grin turned into a positive leer.
"What's the matter, Miss Tyler? Feeling' the cold?"
"Ah, knock it off," Tom muttered impatiently. His eyes also appraised her, and somehow his evident lack of interest was even more scary than Johnny's lustful scrutiny.