CHAPTER SIXTEEN – RETALIATION

Gywn hurried to her office with the day's agenda flooding her mind. She opened her door and froze mid-motion. Her brain, so full of ideas just seconds before, was completely emptied of all cognizant thoughts. What replaced them was blind fear. Sitting in his chair of choice was Kane, and displayed on her computer screen was the covert video she had made of Kane's 'selection' process.

"Come in, my dear, and sit," Kane said, bitterly sweet. The tone of his voice was in sharp contrast to the cold and vicious threat projected from his eyes. "We need to discuss your private business practices."

Her first reaction was to run. Run to where? Kane was bigger, stronger and faster. He would overtake her in seconds. She opted instead to call for help from her trusted staff. "Rafiq! Victoria! Andrew!" she yelled sharply into the hall behind her.

"They won't be answering. They have been…how shall I say this? They have been…reassigned. It is just you and me. Shut the door. You had better sit down before your legs completely cease keeping you upright." Kane pointed to the couch as he rose to his feet. There was no threat in his voice but she knew to obey.

"Please, let me explain…" she started, but Kane cut her off in mid-sentence.

"No, you will not explain. I will explain. And after I finish, you will find that I have no tolerance for disloyalty either to the business world or to an ancient and honorable lifestyle. You, Mistress Gwyneth Morgan, are now mine. Mine to use. Mine to abuse. And mine to judge. Judgment is at hand and it is absolute."

The bitter taste of bile rose in her throat. If she were of a frailer constitution, she would have fainted right there. Instead she sat up straighter, and managed a defiant glare. "How dare you? You cannot speak to me that way. This is my establishment. These are my employees. Who do you think you are?"

"I know who you are Miss Morgan. You are a conniving businesswoman with no principles, who cheated her business partners and blackmailed her customers. You are also a weak and masochistic individual who doesn't deserve the title of Mistress. You have misused and abused fine people who offered you their trust and their bodies. Your business partners were not pleased to learn of your skimming of profits; nor were they happy to hear that you jeopardized their operation by blackmailing and thereby alienating customers. I am here at their request. And in answer to your final question, I know who I am. I am your judge and jury…and I have found you guilty. I am here today to pronounce sentence."

Gwyn's bladder failed her at that moment. She sat stained in her own urine, knowing that her last moments on earth would be spent in humiliation and derogation. Gone were her pride and her hope. Kane's mind had been set before she had even entered the room. Pleading and begging would only protract the inevitable. He was going to kill her and there was nothing she could do to stop him.

Kane rose from his chair and stood looming over her. "Get up." Gwyn wanted to comply, but her muscles wouldn't respond. "Get up," Kane grabbed her by her hair and pulled her to her feet. "Now strip to your panties." The order was given with a smirk. There was no lust in his eyes, only anger. She would give one last try at changing his mind.

Gwyn stripped and immediately knelt at Kane's feet. "Please, Sir…allow me to be your slave. I will honor and obey you, and I know many ways to please you."

"You have no honor to give. You obey only your own selfish needs. You will please me most when you are no longer in my sight," Kane spat out the words. Then he opened the office door and called gently, "Miss Vicky, we are ready."

Vicky entered the office with a smirk directed at Gwyn. She quickly remembered her role and with down-cast eyes and a humbled demeanor handed Kane a bundle of clothing. "As you requested, Master." As she backed out of the room, Kane smiled at her and in a gentle voice reassured her, "Thank you, Miss Vicky. You have done well." Gwyn stood with her mouth agape. She understood that she was alone with no allies. Her loyal staff had abandoned her after all she had done for them. Ungrateful bitch, her only thought.

The outfit chosen for Gwyn was harlot red and consisted of a cheap bustier and a hooker-short skirt. The shoes were three-inch stilettos with ankle-wrap straps. Gwyn felt like the $20 whore she was dressed as. So, Kane was going to humiliate her before killing her. At that moment she hated no one more than him. But her journey into the depths had just begun.

"Ah, your true worth is beginning to show, Lady Gwyn!" Kane laughed as he took her by the arm and marched her out of the office, through the main lobby and out the back door towards the barn for all the staff and exiting guests to see.

#########

The barn was empty of all staff except for two men in black tees and black cargo pants. They nodded at Kane and led him to the cage where the Plum woman had been kept. Gwyn was pushed inside and her arm was forced between the bars of the door. Kane held her wrist tightly in his hand. In his other hand was a hypodermic needle. "It will be my pleasure to start you on your journey into hell, Gwyneth Morgan. Soon you won't even remember your name or where you were from. You will crawl in your own filth to get your next fix and won't care who sees you. You have no more friends or allies here and will have none at your destination. Your days as Mistress are over and your days as slave to your own blood have begun. Good bye, Miss Gwyneth." With that parting address, Kane injected the first of many heroine doses she would receive on her trip to the mid-East and her new life as an owned whore.

#########

Ranger wondered if he should have felt some remorse or guilt for the life to which he had condemned Gwyn, but he didn't. The years of contact with decent people had mellowed his gut instinct to simply kill first and regret later. He wanted justice for all those people that Gwyn had permanently damaged and condemned to a similar fate in her lust for money and power. They would not know of her fate, but he would sleep like a baby knowing that every day she managed to live would be in payment for their suffering.

As he drove back to the cabin, he wrapped up the mission in his mind. The Hermitage was no more. It would be purchased by an organization that ran treatment centers for abused women and would be turned into a safe house. The FBI was rounding up the operators of the clubs run by Gwyn's organization and prosecuting them through the RICO act. Hopefully, they would turn on their financiers and more would find themselves guests of the government in permanent housing. The New Jersey Attorney General's office planned to charge the employees of Hermitage with as many crimes as would stick. And he had his Babe back.

Babe, where do I begin? How do I explain myself to you? My life is empty without you. There is so much I want to share with you. There is so much I need to know about you. Please, Babe be there when I get back. Give us one more chance.

Ranger drove alone back to the cabin and any future he still had left.