mavericka

this ones short

Part 3 In Bloom

Secrets





Fetch got her chair and seconds later Reap pushed her into it. The chair squeaked as she landed in it hard.

"Now stay there," Reap instructed. He pulled a cell phone out of his pocket. As she glared at him he aimed it at her and took a picture, the phone making a clicking noise as it completed the task. Reap looked at the picture he'd just taken and he frowned with displeasure.

"You look pissed, could you try to look scared?" he asked. She moaned twice to indicate she wouldn't. Her eyes would have burned holes through him if they could.

Reap gave the cell phone to Fetch and then pulled a black handled silver hunting knife out of his boot. One edge held the blade, even in the dim yellow light of the kitchen it seemed to sparkle it was so shiny, the other edge was jagged. He turned the blade in his hand and showed it to her. The closer the blade came to her, the bigger her eyes got. Reap then grabbed a fistful of her hair with his other hand and pulled back, making her strain her neck and lean back in the chair. Not knowing what was to come she trembled and gave a high pitched squeal. She felt a sharp tug, and then she saw a chunk of her hair falling to the floor. She now had a few locks of hair about four inches long falling over her forehead. He knotted his hand further into her hair and used it to tilt her head back even more.

"Be very still," Reap said in a raspy whisper, and brought the knife down in front of her face, and then to her neck, where he let her feel one of the flat sides of the blade, it was warm from being in his tight boot.

Leetha swallowed hard and whimpered. She had to strain to sit up very straight at a weird angle in the chair because of Reap pulling her hair. Her heart was hammering in her chest and he slid the blade towards it. Resting the knife between her breasts.

"Much better, now you look scared," Reap his voice low. Then in two swift movements he changed his grip on the knife and plunged it blade down between her legs, embedding it in the wood of her chair between the gap in her thighs.

Leetha shrieked through the gag and tried to scoot her ass back in the chair, but she could go no further, the sharp blade of the knife pressed against the crotch of her jeans, and any movement caused it to cut through the material. She tried to rise from the chair but Reap put his hands on her shoulder and held her down.

"Look over here,"said Fetch, and when she looked at him, she did indeed look scared. Her eyes showed her fright, and there was also a kind of wildness to them, fear and rage swirling in their depths.

The phone clicked, and Fetch said "There, that's really all we need."

"Show me," insisted Reap, and Fetch turned the phone around to let him see. Reap grunted his approval, and then reached down and pulled the knife out of the chair. Leetha whimpered in relief and found herself blinking fast to halt the tears that wanted to come.

Fetch gave the phone to Reap after he'd finished putting away his knife, and then moved to take Leetha's gag off.

"Now untie me."she insisted, struggling against the ropes and working her tongue in her mouth to get it moist again.

"Hold still,"said Fetch as he set about working on the knots holding her wrists together.

Lacey gave Leetha another glass of juice, seeing that she was having problems with her mouth being dry and then said to the men,"Send it around 9:30 tonight, he'll be alone in his office then for sure."

Leetha's hands were finally free and she flexed her fingers to stop them from tingling.

"Whats this about?," Leetha asked. "Are you going to rob Alan's bank? He won't help you, he lives for that job," she sipped some juice.

"He is married to his job, almost," Reap said and smiled. "But he's a boyscout, he won't let you get hurt. There are many secrets in Swan United Bank, some of them worth much more than money. And that's what we're after, a secret, that's a secret." Reap nodded his head and felt very proud for being so clever. Leetha shot him a dirty look.

"Whats the secret?" she asked, between drinks of juice.
"You don't need to know, and if you did it wouldn't be a secret. Once we have that disk, we'll be playing in the big leagues. We could cash it in, or change the world with it. Either way, we'll have the power."

Leetha was unimpressed, "I need to wash up, please." She forced herself to be polite about asking. She was burning with disgust for these people that would risk her life to get what they wanted. And God help a world in which Reap has power.

"Come with me," said Lacey, "I'll make sure the bathrooms safe."she led her to the hallway off the kitchen, and then to the bathroom. Lacey went inside the small green and white tiled room and picked up razors and prescription bottles, so that Leetha wouldn't hurt herself or anyone else. This seemed to be the one room in the house with good lighting. She opened the cupboard above the toilet to show her where the towels were. Lacey stopped to reapply her lipstick in the mirror and fluff her hair and then she left Leetha alone.

Leetha put her hands over her face and let the tears come. She wouldn't cry in front of the others. She wouldn't give them that. They had taken too much already.





9:09 pm. Swan United Bank



Alan rubbed his face with both hands and groaned. Staying awake at this point was actually painful. Old man Swan had practically run his little bank all by himself, (the united in the title was pretty much a joke), as he got older and that wasn't possible anymore he had turned over most of the work to Alan, slowly bit by bit. Now when the old man was in his 80's it was pretty much all up to Alan, and he didn't know how the old man had lived as long as he had with these hours, or had any kind of a family.

The Swan had basically adopted him. He had been friends with Alan's father, and had made sure Alan finished college after his father had died. Alan worked hard and never said no to the old man, and The Swan had come to trust him with everything. Even his only daughter, Ruth.

At 9:13 Baby Ruth Swan breezed into his office and Alan wished for the millionth time that old man Swan hadn't given her a key. Ruth actually looked a bit like a swan, or some long legged bird with an long grace full Aubrey Hepburn-like neck. In these ways she was very feminine, but there were few other ways she could be called that. Her hair was short and black, it was cut in a wedge shape that had gone out in the eighty's, she never wore make-up, and Alan would be surprised to hear if she had ever worn a dress in her life. In a stereotypical way it wasn't hard to guess she was a lesbian, or at least Alan didn't think so. But the Swan never caught on. Swan had hinted and pushed for Alan to date his daughter, until Ruth had finally convinced Alan that they might as well humor him. This had worked out great for Ruth but it seemed to be a never ending nightmare for Alan.

Ruth was free to date, The Swan never questioning her endless stream of "girlfriends." Alan however couldn't date. The situation worked so well for Ruth she was willing to go along with a fake engagement, which is what old man Swan was now hinting about.

"He can't live that much longer." she would always say, coldly. Alan had begun to find it hard to say no to her as well. She was as insistent and stubborn as the old man, and God help him she was young and very healthy at 27, there would always a Swan in his life. Ruth would eventually get the bank, and he knew she would have no problem working him to death like the old man did. Old Swan always had good intentions, or that's what Alan always told himself, but Baby Ruth, she lived by a no mercy policy, that no one was excluded from.

"Another red head," Ruth announced. "She was covered in tattoos and had all this shit in her face but she does this amazing thing with her..."

"Ruth, please, I can't hear it right now." Alan felt like banging his head on his desk.

"Would you rather hear about the one with the mullet?" Ruth raised one eyebrow at Alan and smiled.

"I was at the police station all last night." Alan was hoping that would take the wind from her sails.

"Oh yes I heard,"not skipping a beat she replied,"The princess was stolen from her tower."

A spark of fear woke Alan up significantly.

"You heard? Does the old man know?"

"Someone called him before you even got to the station. I told him she was just the sister of your old college roommate that you've been looking in on. A poor little dear who's been touched by the angels and needs help. Which is probably not far from the truth,"Ruth pointed a long finger at Alan. "Remember that story, he's going to ask you, I'm surprised he hasn't already."

Alan's cell phone chimed like an ice cream truck and Ruth reached over and grabbed it off of his desk.

"Who's this? Pops?" she looked for the number then looked confused.

"Someones sending a picture."

"Give that to me," Alan said in a rush, his hands balling into fists and then opening to reach for the phone. Ruth moved around the desk and leaned next to Alan, holding the phone so they could both see it.

"Fuck!" Alan hollered, rising out of his chair after see what picture was sent to the phone.

"Such a mousy little thing,"said Ruth, shaking her head.

Alan frowned and the phone chimed again. "Call 911, now!" His hands were shaking.

"No wait,"Ruth opened the new message."Yeah...they say they'll kill her if you do that. What's the Katrina disk?"

"It mentions that?"Alan took the phone from her and read for himself.

TALK TO THE COPS SHE DIES. WE WILL CONTACT YOU TOMORROW.YOU WILL DELIVER KATRINA DISK.

"Fuck!" Alan collapsed into his chair and put the phone down so he could rub his face.

"What's the Katrina disk Alan." Ruth said again patiently.

"It's...its something in the vault. I had a feeling something like this would happen." Alan sighed and stood to walk out of the room, Ruth followed.

"I tried so hard to keep her out of the chaos that is my life, now she could die, and it will all be my fault."

Alan reached the vault door and was quiet as he had to concentrate to get it opened. Ruth was always quiet. As a child she had always held her breath as the massive door opened and the cavern of wealth and secrets was opened. The moment had always felt sacred, it effected her the same even as an adult. Then they stepped inside and Alan purposely strode towards a small drawer on the left side near the back of perfectly square room.

Ruth was quick to speak up when he took two keys off the key ring in his pocket.

"You have both keys?"she was very surprised.

"Malone wanted me to be able to get to it, if anything happened to him." Alan opened the drawer and pulled out a plastic case holding a disk that looked just like any movie or music disk. He showed it to her. It had "Katrina" written on it in black marker, along with a drawing that looked like a pinwheel.

"You don't want to know what this is."

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several friends helped with brainstorming but wish to go unknown. sry it took so long my birthday is cursed i swear.