Many things happened all at once. The moment that doorbell rang, Swathi wanted to scream. Instinctively, she did. Or tried to.
But two things made it futile: Danny's hand had suddenly clamped itself over her mouth, and even it hadn't, the loud Latin music would have drowned out her cry. The naked Indian woman felt the cold flat of a blade across her clit and Danny's breath warm against her ear.
"Listen up, Swathi, if you make so much as a SOUND without my permission, I'll cut your pussy." Swathi was trembling now. "Are you going to cooperate?"
The doorbell rang again. Swathi nodded with terror in her eyes.
Tommy, MJ, and Zack had come over and were now looking to their leader for direction. Danny nodded at Tommy. "Go check on Kip's progress and make sure Sanjay and this cunt's girlfriend upstairs are behaving." Now Danny returned his attention to Swathi as Tommy rushed past him.
"Are you expecting anyone? Who's at the door?" He eased his hand off of Swathi's mouth just enough to let her speak while keeping it close enough in case she tried to scream again.
"Yes. It-It's Elena. S-she's our cleaning girl."
"You've got a maid? Ha. Of course you do," Danny snorted. "Listen up. I want you to get rid of her. Think you can handle that?"
Swathi nodded carefully.
"Good." He jerked his chin toward Zack. "Get this bitch a T-shirt." Within moments, Zack was handing Swathi an oversized T-shirt. It was one of Sanjay's. It smelled like him, which comforted Swathi despite this never-ending nightmare. The doorbell now rang a third time with a clear note of impatience.
"Hurry up, slave."
Swathi hurried toward the door.
~ ~ * * ~ ~
Elena Sanchez stood at the front door, impatient and annoyed.
'Did I get my days confused?' But no, Elena thought, it was definitely Friday and this was definitely her week to clean. Elena was an 18-year-old senior in high school. The beautiful Latina was short, at about 5'1, and exceedingly petite, with long and lustrous silky hair the color of a raven's wing. She wore a pair of pink butterfly earrings that complemented the delicate angles of her face. Now she rang the doorbell a fourth time with a sigh. The girl needed this money. Elena was trying to save up for college and the tips she got from Swathi and Sanjay Kapoor and her other clients were nothing to sneeze at.
Finally, after what seemed like ages, the door opened just a crack.
"Miss Kapoor?"
"Hello, Elena. We don't need your services today, thank you." Swathi tried to shut the door, but Elena was faster than a frightened bunny rabbit. She inserted her fingers between the door and the frame.
"Please, Miss Kapoor, you know how much I need this money," she protested.
"Look, Elena, now isn't a good time. Please come back-"
But Elena could be headstrong when she wanted to be. She shoved her way forward. "Look, Miss Kapoor, it won't take me that long. You'll hardly know I'm here, and--"
She was babbling on as she all but forced her way inside, hoping she wasn't coming across as too pushy or aggressive but really feeling desperate about needing the work. And that's when everything began to fall apart.
The door slammed shut behind her and Elena noticed something strange.
Miss Kapoor wasn't wearing anything but a T-shirt! At first Elena thought that she must have interrupted Miss Kapoor and her husband having sex, but a split second later two men leapt out at her. The first, Zack, pinned her arms behind her back, while the second, MJ, clamped a hand over her mouth. Meanwhile, Danny locked the front door with awful finality.
"UUUU!!!! UUUUHHH!" Elena's stifled pleas rang out in the sudden stillness. Her eyes widened when she saw Danny wave his knife in front of her face.
"Listen carefully, you cute cunt - if you want to LIVE, you'll do exactly what we say. Is that understood?"
Elena tried to slow her pounding heart. She nodded. A strange calm settled over her then, though. Sometimes, in crisis, the urge is to panic, but Elena suddenly went into a kind of survival mode. Her body responded differently than most.
"Scream and you die, bitch. Got it?"
Elena nodded again.
MJ slowly slid his hand away from her mouth. Zack moved away to go turn down the music while MJ hovered close by in case she tried to make a run for it.
Danny shook his head with a tsk-tsk of displeasure.
"Well, you fucked that one up, Swathi. Couldn't even follow simple directions," he growled. "And now your cute little fuck-able maid is going to pay the price." He nodded at Elena. "Strip. Now."