The Pickett Family Holiday, Part 01

In the midst of a slow moving crowd of travelers, Stephanie Pickett stepped onto the escalator. As the metal steps moved her closer to the ground floor her eyes scanned the waiting crowd of greeters below, hoping to catch a glimpse of her father. With her visit only being four days long, she knew the ride home would likely be the highlight of her trip. She looked forward to seeing her sisters, Nicole and Amanda, but dealing with their mother after three months away left a pit of apprehension growing in Stephanie’s stomach. Halfway to the bottom, Stephanie spotted her older sister, Nicole and Nicole’s husband Todd, waiting toward the back of the crowd. Her father was notably missing and his absence left two conflicting worries rolling through Stephanie’s thoughts; What happened? Did he know what she had done?

Todd and Nicole waved as Stephanie reached the bottom of the escalator. They met halfway into the midst of the crowd and Todd immediately took control of Stephanie’s single roller bag. He paused briefly, pressing his cheek against hers before turning and attempting to navigate the way out. Nicole gave less attention to the crowd than her husband and wrapped her arms around Stephanie, capturing her in a warm hug and planting a kiss on her cheek. Stephanie returned the hug without the kiss as fellow travelers and their greeters pushed past them like they were an annoying pebble splitting the natural flow of a stream.

Stephanie pulled back from the embrace and asked, “Where’s Dad?”

Nicole smiled and glanced at her watch. “I would imagine he’s either out at the shed oiling up the strap or heading there to do it.”

Stephanie’s face blanched. Nicole laughed.

Todd stopped his forward momentum and turned toward the sisters. “Are you two coming or do you like standing in every one’s way?”

Stephanie’s heart started pumping again at the glint of mischievous in her sister’s eyes. She shook her head, bouncing her neat ponytail from shoulder to shoulder and doing her best to laugh at herself so that Nicole wouldn’t think too hard on the worry that had crossed her face. Stephanie started walking toward Todd and Nicole kept pace beside her, still smiling.

“Nice one,” Stephanie said, placing her hand on the back of Nicole’s neck and squeezing with mock anger.

Nicole laughed a little harder, dipping her head forward and ducking away from Stephanie’s hold. “Actually, I was serious.”

Stephanie faked calmness and said, “Oh really? Is somebody in trouble?”

Todd nodded as they joined him. “You could definitely say that.”

Looking at Stephanie, Nicole said, “In fact, I think it’s safe to say you know more about this trouble than anyone.”

Stephanie’s hands grew clammy. She took all the precautions she could imagine. The evidence would have only been visible with the most scrutinous of examinations. She sighed. No matter what she did, no matter how hard she tried to hide it, they always found out the things she didn’t want them to know. Even in the worst case scenario though, she just hadn’t thought they could figure it out until after the semester was over. She should have been safe for Thanksgiving, but whatever mistake she had made to give herself away, there would be plenty of time to think about it while she was recovering from the strap, bare bottom in a corner. This was definitely not the holiday at home she’d been expecting.

Todd said, “I thought your mom was going to blow a gasket when she found it. She came running down the stairs like a rhino on a rampage and with a face as red as a fire engine. I swear I could see the steam pouring out of her ears.”

Stephanie took short quick breaths to steady the butterflies swarming in her stomach. She nodded her head and kept her gaze focused on the floor as they continued walking toward the parking garage. It sounded about right for Mom’s reaction, but the reaction she really wanted to know about was her father’s. The image of his face floated behind her eyes and it wasn’t anger he was conveying with his eyes, it was disappointment and so much of it as to make her wish for an early grave.

Nicole said, “I know it’s probably not what you wanted to come home to, but before you even think of asking, we don’t have any room at our place.”

Todd chuckled agreement. “That’s right, one naughty Pickett girl is more than enough for any man.”

“Hey!” Nicole said and slapped his upper arm. “I haven’t had a spanking in almost two years.”

“That doesn’t mean you aren’t naughty,” Todd said smiling at his wife, “and I seem to recall—

Nicole started to blush and slapped his arm again, a little harder. “That doesn’t count and we’re not talking about it in front of my little sister.”

Todd face turned a little more serious. “Hit me again and I’ll give your little sister a demonstration in the parking lot. And it will count.”

Nicole laughed, still blushing. “Stephanie is very familiar with spankings, but if you want to give her one in the parking lot, I won’t stop you.”

The laughter and casual teasing pushed Stephanie to the point she no longer cared if she made things worse. Enough was enough. “A spanking with Dad’s strap is no laughing matter,” she said and looked straight at her sister. “You know that just as well as I do and I don’t think it’s been so long you should be acting like you don’t remember.”

Nicole stopped laughing and nodded her head. “You’re right,” she said. “It’s just Amanda has always gotten away with way more than either of us and I was enjoying her finally getting some just desserts. Probably a little too much.”

Stephanie turned away from her sister and blinked at the concrete under her feet. Dad oiling the strap, Mom raging down the stairs, it was all about Amanda? That meant they didn’t know. The butterflies started to settle down in her stomach. She was safe. It might even be a nice quiet holiday at home. The kind of trip she had hoped for and needed after how wrong things had been going at school. She raised her head and looked at Nicole again. “What did she do to make Mom that mad?”

Todd chuckled.

Nicole said, “I thought you would have guessed by now.”

Stephanie raised a quizzical eyebrow.

“She left a wet bath towel on her bedroom floor for half the day,” Nicole said.

Stephanie nodded her head with new understanding. The bath towel thing was one of Mom’s crazy rules. Stephanie had a long standing habit of ignoring Mom’s crazy rules. Most of the time she got away with it too because Mom often never found out. That’s part of why Stephanie considered the rules crazy; If Mom didn’t directly witness it being broken, she would never know if it had or hadn’t been. Obviously, Stephanie didn’t always get away with it though and the bath towel issue had landed her in more hot water over the years than a cupboard full of bath towels could absorb.

“Dad agreed to the strap over that?” Stephanie asked. It didn’t seem like him to be so harsh over something so stupid.

Nicole shook her head. “Apparently Amanda has been taking lessons from you, only she must have been taking it farther.”

“You mean she’s been doing this a lot since I went back to school?” Stephanie asked.

Todd chuckled. “You could say that. It’s the first she’d been caught, but when your Mom picked up the towel she found a big spot of black mold on the carpet.”

Stephanie shrugged. “So, maybe the towel was molding.”

Nicole nearly choked on her tongue from laughing. “That’s exactly what Amanda said. I swear sometimes the two of you share a brain.”

“I guess Dad wasn’t happy then,” Stephanie said. He was normally the voice of reason when Mom’s crazy rules got broken.

“You could say that,” Nicole said. “Mom finally got the last word on changing out the carpet in the house and now she has proof that’s she’s been right about the towel’s on the floor being a mold hazard. Dad is probably hoping he goes deaf soon cause you know Mom is going to be gloating about this for the next twenty years.”

Todd glanced over his shoulder as he led them through the parking lot. “Just a word to the wise, Steph, you probably don’t want to tempt fate with your own bath towel anytime in the next decade.”

Nicole nodded. “Dad sure won’t be backing you up or going easy anytime soon.”

“So he really took her out to the shed and strapped her?” Stephanie asked. Amanda could probably count on her fingers the number of times she’d been sent to the shed in her 19 years of life. On the other hand, Stephanie had lost count at how many times she’d gone in just the last two years. For some reason Stephanie couldn’t quite explain, being away at college seemed to have her landing in more trouble at home than when she had lived with her parents full time.

“Actually,” Nicole said, “He strapped her right in the living room cause Mom wanted to watch to make sure Dad did a thorough enough job.”

Todd whistled. “The fire in the fireplace had nothing on your poor sister’s posterior.”

“You saw?” Stephanie asked. Getting spanked around family was bad enough, but knowing that extended family like Todd, or worse, friends and or neighbors who happened by, would see and hear the spanking was the sort of thing to leave Stephanie blushing scarlet for days and sometimes weeks after the incident. There was nothing like that knowing twinkle in some one’s eye to make her feel all of two years old and stark naked despite being modestly dressed and a grown woman.

Todd shook his head. “Sadly I missed the main event. Your Mom’s got her cleaning all the floors in the house with a toothbrush while keeping her bare bottom visible to anyone who looks.”

Nicole shook her finger at Todd. “You shouldn’t be looking. She’s my baby sister.”

Todd shook his head with a grin on his face. “Guess what? You married a guy and if a 19 year old cutie is going to walk around bare butt, a guy is going to look. Even if it is your sister.”

They reached the car and Todd opened the trunk, tossing Stephanie’s roller bag inside. He opened the doors on the passenger side one at time, seating Stephanie in the back and Nicole in the front and closing their doors for them. He sat in the driver’s seat, turned on the ignition and fastened his seat belt in place while Nicole and Stephanie did the same.

Stephanie asked, “So is she grounded?”

Nicole turned around to look at Stephanie. “Nope. Mom thought that would be too mean since she’s got her new boyfriend coming over tomorrow. It would be pretty awkward having to explain why Amanda was bare butt in the corner while the rest of us were enjoying dinner.”

Stephanie shook her head. “Mom’s gone soft.”

Todd chuckled. Nicole laughed.

“I doubt you’ll be saying that if you step out of line while your back,” Nicole said.

Stephanie rolled her eyes and nodded agreement. “Fortunately, I’m only back for four days. I have to be back at school on Monday.”

Todd said, “And then you’ll be back in another three weeks for about six weeks if I recall correctly. Sounds like plenty of time to get yourself in trouble or to continue any punishment you earn in the next few days.”

Nicole nodded. “And Todd will be sure to look if you do.”

Stephanie laughed. “I’m sure he would like to, but I’m not planning on giving him the chance.”

The Jade Runner, Part 24

Quinn released his hold on Tara. She pushed herself up until she could wrap her arms around his neck. She buried her face into his shoulder and the tears on her cheeks soaked into the cloth of his shirt.

“I’m so sorry,” she said.

He wrapped his arms around her back and squeezed her shaking, naked body to him. His fingers found their way up her back and into her hair. “I know,” he said. Her eyes sparkled beneath him and his lips quivered anticipating the kiss demanded by the intimacy of the moment.

A clanking on the bars of their cell interrupted the tenderness leaving an unfulfilled void of tension in its wake. Together they twisted toward the source of the interruption and boiled with a mix of embarrassment and anger upon seeing Rex. His face openly displayed the pride he felt in himself and the amusement their predicament provided him.

“How touching,” Rex said, punctuating his words with a chortle.

Quinn stood placing his body in the path of Rex’s view of Tara. She rose to her feet and pressed her body to Quinn’s back, gazing over his shoulder at Rex with a disgusted frown on her lips.

“What do you want?” Quinn asked.

Rex grinned and tipped his hat away from his forehead. “Kit has a stash of money aboard. Tell me where it is.”

“What have you done to her?” Tara demanded.

“Nothing at all,” Rex said, “but if I don’t find her money and bring a replacement load of the drugs you dumped, she’ll be dead.”

Quinn said, “Now why would you use that money to bring a replacement load back here when you could just take it and run?”

“That’s not good business, especially in my line of work,” Rex said.

Tara said, “And betraying your shipmates is?”

Rex shrugged. “We all do what we have to do. I wanted my ship back and I’m not going to apologize for doing what was necessary to get it.”

“So how do you see this playing out?” Quinn asked. “We help you find Kit’s stash and we all go our separate ways, no hard feelings?”

“I could live with that,” Rex said. “I not opposed to the Doc sticking around. Her skills could come in handy and she’s kind of cute being all embarrassed about not having her clothes on.”

“If you expect our help,” Quinn said, reaching a protective hand back to rest on the side of Tara’s naked upper thigh, “you’ll have to make room for both of us aboard and I’m afraid the Doc is going to be wearing clothes too.”

“You’re not in a position to be making demands,” Rex said.

“If you’re serious about using the money to buy the stuff you owe these people and getting Kit out of the trouble you’ve put her in, I’ll tell you where the money is,” Quinn said.

Tara took a step back from Quinn. “You can’t trust him,” she said.

Quinn looked at her over his shoulder. “We don’t have much of a choice, but I’m not going to just trust him,” he said and looked back toward Rex. “We stay on board with you and when it’s time to pay for the cargo, I’ll deliver the money myself.”

Rex shook his head. “And how do I know the two of you won’t just turn on me? Neither of you has shown much loyalty to Kit as it is and I’m sure you won’t show any to me.”

“What choice do you have?” Quinn asked. “I’m betting without out that money you’re as dead as we are.”

“I’ll find the money with or without your help,” Rex said.

“If you were so certain of that, you wouldn’t be here asking for our help,” Tara said.

Quinn nodded. “You need us and that means you are taking us with you.”

Rex smiled. “I have a better idea. I’ll take the Doc with me and you’ll wait here with Kit until we get back.”

“I’m not leaving her alone with you,” Quinn said.

Tara said, “I don’t even know where the stash is anyway.”

Rex shook his head. “Well then I guess the Doc stays behind and you come with me. You’re obviously protective of her so her well being should be enough insurance for me to trust you to do the right thing.”

“She comes with us or I’m not helping,” Quinn said, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

Rex shrugged. “Then you’ll both stay and I’ll take my chances of finding the money on the way.”

Tara rested a hand on Quinn’s shoulder. “Go with him. I’ll be fine as long as you promise to come back for me and Kit.”

Rex rolled his eyes. “How sweet. Do we have a deal or not?”

Quinn looked over his shoulder at Tara. Their eyes shared a moment of mutual understanding and commitment before he turned back to Rex. “Fine, but if I even get the hint of betrayal from you, it’ll be the last thing you ever do.”

Rex turned toward the exit and the guards. “You can take her with you, but leave him in the cell.”

The guards moved to the cell door with their weapons drawn. Tara leaned down collecting her clothing with the obvious intention getting dressed. Quinn raised his arms and kept his body between the guards and Tara. The guards opened the door.

The guard on the left said, “Drop the clothes, turn around with your hands behind your back and walk back to us slowly.”

“At least let her get dressed,” Quinn said.

The guard chuckled. “She won’t be needing clothes where she’s going.”

Tara did as instructed and when she reached the guards the attached shackles to her wrists, binding her arms behind her back. The silent guard grabbed her forcibly by the arms and pulled her from the cell while his partner secured the cell door. They led Tara past a grinning Rex who clearly enjoyed the unobstructed view of Tara’s nudity. She blushed long after his leering expression was nothing more than memory. The ship left the hangar with a thunderous and roar and she was all alone with the guards walking the dirt path toward an uncertain future.

The Jade Runner, Part 23

Two guards grabbed Kit by the shoulder, holding her in place despite her best intention to follow Wudwerth. Zeller pulled a knife from a sheath on his belt and stepped up, directly behind Kit. He pulled the collar of her top and jacket away from her neck and slipped the knife inside. The cold metal sent a chill down her spine. Zeller slashed the knife downward, cutting open Kit’s clothing from behind.

Zeller walked around to the front of Kit and slipped his knife down the front collar of her top. He sliced downward again, opening her top in front. The guards on either side of her pulled the tattered remains of her top and jacket down her arms until only the restraints keeping her hands bound behind her, kept the clothing on any part of her body. The white lace of her bra kept Kit’s breast covered until Zeller reached out and sliced it in half as well. He stared into her eyes enjoying the blush on her cheeks as he reached out with his free hand and pinched her pink nipples until they stood pointed and hard.

Kit spit in his face.

He didn’t bother to wipe it way. Zeller walked around behind her again. He unbound her hands and yanked her upper body’s clothing free, leaving it lay useless on the ground. Kit struggled to break free of the guards grasped, but the three men pushed her forward and bent her over the wooden contraption. Zeller used the leather restraints to fasten her wrists and upper body to the device. The guards removed her pants, panties, boots and socks, leaving her completely naked. Zeller finished fastening the restraints to her knees and ankles. Kit strained against the leather to no avail. She was exposed to their mercy and Zeller had none.

Zeller walked to the wall and lifted a paddle off its hook. He carried it over to Kit and held it in front of her forward staring face. “Do you know what this is?” he asked.

Kit smiled at him. “A replacement for your dick?”

He shook his head. “You are feisty.”

“And you’re a dick-less coward,” Kit said.

Zeller laughed and brushed the strands of Kit’s hair out of her eyes. “You do know I’m going to spank you with this?”

She spat in his face. “Right and I’m not dumb enough to think you’ll not if I’m all sweet and sugary.”

He wiped the saliva off his cheek and stood up straight. With his thumb, he pressed a button on the handle of the paddle and a sound like running water filled the room. The surface of the paddle glistened in the torchlight and ripples appeared as he moved it through the air in Kit’s view.

“The surface of the paddle is kept continually wet,” Zeller said, “which improves the surface contact between the paddle and your flesh. I’m told it has a fierce sting. The effect gets worse the longer the spanking because the cold of the water cause skin contraction while the heat of the spanking causes skin expansion immediately after impact.”

Kit said, “If you let me up, I promise to give you some firsthand experience so you can know for yourself.”

Zeller laughed. “Slaves receive punishment. They do not dish it out.”

“I’m no slave,” Kit said.

He moved around behind her with the paddle. “Oh, but you are,” he said and slapped the paddle hard against her jutting buttocks.

Kit grunted and strained against the restraints holding her down. Zeller swung the paddle another four times. Each time the impact wobbled her buttocks with a muffled crack. Kit fought to move, to free herself, but the leather and wood held her tight. Her butt turned pink. The sting stung from her bottom to her eyes.

Zeller said, “As a slave to Count Wudwerth, you’ll be expected to perform tasks without hesitation or question. Failure will result in a spanking.”

The paddle cracked down ten more times. Kit vocalized her discomfort with noise of pain. She continued to struggle against her restraints to no avail. On the last two swats her legs tried to kick. The guards laughed at her display. A single tear dripped from Kit’s eye and splashed onto the hay covered floor.

“Slaves,” Zeller said, “have no possessions, no property of any kind and most importantly, no clothing. If you attempt to cover yourself in anyway, you will be punished.”

He swung the paddle, reddening her buttocks another twenty times. The fiery pain consumed Kit. She tried to kick and wiggle free. The wood and leather kept her in place. She howled in response to each of the last ten swats. Tears ran freely down her cheeks. Her butt glowed red with warmth and glistened with water droplets the paddle left behind.

Zeller scratched his fingers over her jutting, red buttocks. “If you’d like to serve my guards their evening meal say, Thank you Master Zeller. If you’d like to be spanked more, say anything you like or nothing at all.”

Jade’s voice echoed in Kit head, You can’t fight a storm, you either ride it or get buried by it. Don’t get buried by it.

Kit swallowed her tears and cleared her throat while blinking back the tears still threatening to fall. Her butt burned as hot as the torches lighting the room. She hated Zeller and his guards. Serving them was unthinkable, but Jade was right; There was no true option.

“Thank you, Master Zeller,” she said and closed her eyes.

The Jade Runner, Part 22

Tara paced the small room along the bars holding them inside. Quinn sat on the small white bench at the back of the room.  Outside the cell, the guards stood with their backs to them. They knew Kit and Rex had left the ship and that Rex was in the process of executing a plan that would likely have dire consequences for Kit as well as themselves. From the Griffinscape’s brig, they also knew there was nothing they could do about it.

Tara wrung her hands together , purposefully not looking at Quinn. “This is all my fault.”

“There’s enough blame to go around,” Quinn said.

“If only I hadn’t dumped the cargo,” Tara said, still pacing.

Quinn shook his head. “We’d still have problems, maybe more than we have now and we’d be directly responsible for everything that happened to the people who ended up taking those drugs.”

“I didn’t trust her,” Tara said. “She’s barely more than a kid and it just made sense that she’d be taken in by the lure of fast, easy money.”

“Trust comes with time,” Quinn said. “You haven’t known her or me for very long.”

Tara stopped pacing and faced Quinn. “All the more reason not to rush to judgment. I should have known better than to trust a man like Rex.”

Quinn looked up at her. “He’s a master manipulator. You did what you thought was right.”

“I didn’t think things through,” Tara said.

Quinn said, “There would have been consequences for inaction as well.”

Tara’s hands landed on her hips. “Are you saying I was right to betray Kit?”

Quinn studied her face. He recognized the torment of guilt straining her eyes and cheeks. “No,” he said. “What I’m saying is everybody makes mistakes. It is what we do to correct them that matters.”

Tara nodded. “Spank me.”

Quinn raised an eyebrow at her.

“If not for Kit,” Tara said, “I’d be naked and on the streets of Centora City. A spanking is the least of what I deserve for betray the person who saved me from that.”

Quinn said, “A spanking won’t fix anything right now.”

Tara said, “Perhaps not, but it will ease my conscience long enough that we might find a way to help her.”

Quinn nodded. “Alright, I’ll spank you, but it will be done my way.”

Tara dropped her hands from her waist to dangle free at her side. “Deal.”

He sat up straight, pushing his back against the wall. “I want you to get undressed and lay yourself over my lap.”

“Undressed?” Tara bit at her lip, eyes flickering between the floor and Quinn’s face.

Quinn nodded. “Undressed,” he said. “You said it yourself, without Kit you’d be naked and so it’s only fitting that you be naked when punished for betraying her.”

Tara didn’t bother responding. Instead, she shed her clothes into a pile on the floor. There was no pause or hesitation in her fingers and she did not bother trying to hide her nakedness from Quinn’s piercing gaze. If he hadn’t seen her naked in the square on Centora, enough others had that the embarrassment of being naked no longer even colored her cheeks red. But Tara knew he’d seen her. She remembered his face, on the other side of the door leading into the casino. He had looked away when he noticed she was looking at him.

Not this time. He looked and made no attempt to hide his wandering eyes. She walked the short distance between them, keeping her hands out of the way and leaving herself open to his inspection. His expression yielded no signs of appreciation or lack of it. Only a faint twinkle in his blue eyes suggested he enjoyed the view and the moment. She laid herself over his lap, resting her upper half on the bench beside him and keeping her toes on the ground.

Quinn touched her buttocks with his right hand and wrapped her body to his with his left arm. She offered no resistance at all, not even tensing her muscles. The ointment he’d previously applied to her buttocks had done its job. The bruising and redness from her time in the pillory were all but gone. Only the faintest of tinge of a pink blush remained. He slipped his fingers in the tight space between her thighs and she responded by moving her legs apart.

Patting the center of her bottom, he said, “That’s a good girl. Now, stay in position.”

Tara held her breath and closed her eyes. Quinn raised his open palm, high above her buttocks. He waited, hand hovering in the air and then, without warning, he brought it crashing down into the center of her naked cheeks. Her butt bounced beneath his hand. She snapped her eyes open and let out her held breath in an explosive puff. Quinn allowed his hand to bounce up off her buttocks only to bring it back down again and again. Her bottom turned pink decorated with the fading white prints of his hand.

He continued the spanking until Tara cried freely without restraint. Her buttocks felt warm beneath his hand and they glowed a soft, vibrant red. Through it all she kept herself still and avoided the clenching, squirming, and kicking that the rising sting in her posterior demanded. Over and over, she told herself she deserved nothing more, and certainly nothing less, than she was getting. The spanking bared no comparison to the spanking she received in the pillory. This one had been deserved and despite its clearly lesser severity, it affected her much more deeply.

The Jade Runner, Part 21

A pair of guards led Quinn and Tara away from Kit and the conference room. They were confined together in a small cell in the Griffinscape’s brig under the watchful eyes of their guards. The man in the red trimmed helmet bound Kit’s hands behind her back and prodded her into the elevator with the remainder of his guards and Rex accompanying them.

Kit led the way on the dirt road leading to the castle seen in the distance. They kept a quick pace. The air hung heavy with humidity and dark clouds closed in overhead. On the horizon above the treetops of surrounding forest, lightning scorched across the sky followed by rolling thunder that shook the dirt beneath Kit’s feet. She kept moving forward, annoyed by the bonds keeping her arms from moving freely at her sides.

At the castle gates, Kit stopped. The man in the red trimmed helmet conferred quietly with a man in a blue trimmed helmet. When their conversation ended, the gate was raised and Kit was prodded forward. They passed through the interior courtyard and entered a building on the west side through a large wooden door. Inside, a wide staircase led them down into the underground depths, lit by torches flickering on the walls. The putrid aroma of wet hay and human sweat wafted its way up and tickled Kit’s nose.

A pair of wooden doors, double the thickness and weight of those above, awaited them at the bottom. Kit stepped through the doors and stopped near the center of the large open room. At its center was a wooden contraption with conspicuously placed leather restraints. She didn’t fancy the idea, but there existed little doubt to its purpose; Punishment, torture, or both.

From a concealed passage on the far side of the room, a man entered and stopped on the opposite side of the wooden contraption. He wore wealthier clothing than his guards. His trousers were black silk and his shirt was a scarlet variation of the same. Jewelry adorned his fingers and a medallion hung around his neck. The black of his hair seemed almost blue in the torchlight.

He stared into Kit’s eyes. “We had a deal.”

“I don’t even know you,” Kit said, meeting his gaze.

“I’m Count Wudwerth,” he said.

“I still don’t know you,” Kit said.

Wudwerth nodded. “And yet you came all this way to deliver me you.”

Kit twisted to look back at Rex. He appeared just as confused. Kit turned back to Wudwerth and said, “What are you talking about?”

Wudwerth took a step closer to her, smiling. “Yes, I was hoping to get my medical shipment as well, but Captain Rex will be correcting that situation for us,” Wudwerth said and looked past Kit to Rex, “won’t you?”

Rex cleared his throat and said, “It’ll just take three days and you’ll have double what you ordered.”

Wudwerth kept smiling at Rex. “You have two.”

Turning his attention back to Kit, Wudwerth reached inside Kit’s jacket. His fingers probed against her body giving no heed to her private space. He found what he was looking for in her jacket pocket and pulled it out. The remote for the Griffinscape passed from Wudwerth to man with red trimmed helmet and he in turned pressed the panel against Kit’s still bound thumb before handing it over to Rex.

“You’ve got your ship back as promised,” Wudwerth said. “Now I suggest you get going because if you aren’t back with my shipment in two days, you’ll lose a lot more than your ship.”

“No worries,” Rex said and left the room with an escort of guards.

Kit stared into the black of Wudwerth’s eyes. Jade’s voice echoed in her head, cautioning her, Don’t be reckless.

“You’re feisty,” Wudwerth said, “but I was expecting that.”

“What do you want from me?” Kit asked.

Wudwerth reached out toward her again. This time his fingers snatched the thin chain around her neck and pulled the jade stone from its hiding place beneath her top. He studies the green jewel in his open palm and then closed his fist around it, yanking the necklace free from Kit.

Rage boiled behind Kit’s eyes. “Give it back!”

He ticked his index finger in the space between them. “I own you and that means everything that was yours is now mine. Get used to it.”

“The stone is mine,” Kit said. Her defiant stare said even more; She belonged to no one.

Wudwerth merely smiled wider before turning his gaze to the man in the red trimmed helmet. “Commander Zeller,” he said, “strip her and teach the Jade Princess what it means to be a slave.”

“With pleasure,” Zeller said.

Wudwerth turned and left the room the way he had entered, taking with him Kit’s necklace.