Chapter 4

Purloined Prisoner

The naked girl and the one still clothed stared at each other in acute interest. Mia swung her bare legs over the side of the bed to the musical accompaniment of the chains joining them. Her visitor's eyes followed the motion with immense satisfaction. She was girl of perhaps twenty-eight as opposed to Mia's twenty-four but her assumption from the start had been of senior superiority, laughing down at a girl who should have known better.

Mia Argent's world was shattered. If this female was truly Ryan's wife it meant a complete reassessment. Mia was bitterly resentful of the male deceit. How could Ryan have been so unkind as to deceive her so! But had he deceived her? He had said nothing about his marital status nor did he have to. She had been a silly girl jumping to conclusions, falling far too easily in love. But, from the ashes of her emotional ruin, there arose fresh hope. Thankfully she exclaimed, "Thank heavens you've come. I can't possibly get out of these chains without help. There's probably keys around somewhere, but if there isn't I know for sure there's tools." Her voice trailed away invitingly but impinged without response against the stony regard of the girl who called herself Mrs. Ryan Gentry.

The older girl sneered and said, "You got yourself into the mess, get yourself out. I didn't know Ryan engaged in such fun and games, but since he does, I'll leave you to enjoy yourself."

"But you can't!" Mia was once more distraught at a vision of shattered hope. "You can't possibly go away and leave me like this. It would be too, too cruel. Can't you understand, I'm a prisoner!"

The sneer continued, "And what about those two little quails I found downstairs with a chain around their little tummies. I suppose they're prisoners too?"

"Of course, they are! You've just said yourself they're chained, they're as helpless as I am. Please, please get us free, there has to be some way you can get us loose."

The derisive regard did not abate, but the feminine voice took on fresh sympathy, "Look, honey, be reasonable, you can't possibly tell me Ryan went out and kidnapped himself three girls, a pair of twins and an older sister. He may be an artist nut but he isn't that sort of a man. I know him. He simply would not kidnap three girls. Thai means you're here by your own wish." The sneer became more pronounced. "And that means there's no way I'm going to let you loose, even if I could. I suppose this is what I've read about in books. They call it 'Bondage,' don't they! You're welcome to it."

Mia was almost in tears. She could follow her visitor's logic, it made sense. The truth was too utterly beyond any believing. She had considered unburdening herself of the entire tale of woe, but what was the use, she would not be believed. Impulsively she pleaded, "Look, on compassionate grounds alone, please set me free?"

"You hurting or something? You don't look an object of compassion to me. You look like a silly girl who's got herself in a spot." There was a short, painful pause before the inevitable question, "I suppose Ryan takes you to bed?"

Mia kept silence but the silence itself was admission. The circumstances of that too were inexplicable. She felt as does a convict before the eyes of a hanging jury. In the eyes of Mrs. Ryan Gentry she was already condemned. She tried again, "But if you won't help us what are we going to do? What will become of us?"

"I don't know and I don't care. Give me one good reason why I should?" Mrs. Gentry's eyes narrowed in a sudden thought. She demanded, "Are you really helpless?"

"Of course I am!" Mia retorted indignantly, "I would have thought you could see that. Damned it, a six year old child could handle me!"

"Hmmmmm, that gives me an idea." Mrs. Gentry's eyes were suddenly alight with interest. "If I can handle you that easy, why don't I take you home! It would be worth the trouble just to think of Ryan's face when he finds he's lost his little floozie."

Mia did a rapid calculation. If this female refused to free her now, she might easily be prevailed to do so at a later time after a more frank discussion. It might be getting out of the frying pan into the fire but to be the prisoner of another girl seemed likely to offer more possibility of freedom than the captivity she was now in. She would have nothing to loose, since being free, she could then approach Gentry on her own terms and secure the release of her captive sisters. She saw it as a case of nothing ventured, nothing gained. But, cloaking her voice in indifference, she said listlessly, "I can't stop you doing anything you want to. I'd be damned before I'll humiliate and humble myself before another girl. Do what you damned pleased."

"My, my, temper, temper!" For the first time the older girl showed pleasure. "Our mutual friend must have been mean to you, maybe he made you sleep on the floor last night, that's the reason I caught you asleep just now. Yes, I've made up my mind, I'm going to take you home with me."

Mia's heart leaped but her voice remained hostile, "You can't. You can't possibly take we away against my will. What I want is to be set free not led away to another captivity. Besides, do you want to run the risk of kidnapping?"

Mrs. Ryan Gentry became suddenly human. Without warning she leaned down, clasped Mia's face in cupped hands and kissed her passionately. The kiss was a revelation leaving it recipient uneasy. When it was over the older girl stepped back and said, "You really are helpless, aren't you. Stealing you will be so beautifully easy. Gosh, I wish I could be here to see Ryan's face!"

Mia voiced a genuine puzzlement, "I don't see how you can possibly walk me anywhere in this condition and if you certainly free me and give me clothes I won't go. Haven't you thought of that?"

"Of course I have, silly girl. We're not walking anywhere, we're going to ride, you can't imagine I came here without a car. We'll sit in the front seat and I'll cover you with a rug."

"How do you know I won't scream or struggle?"

"That's easy, darling. If you had wanted to scream and struggle and if you had truly wanted to escape as you say you want, you would have used that telephone downstairs. I tested it and it works fine. But you don't do that, you come up here and go to sleep. You couldn't care less. In other words you don't want to be involved with the police or anyone else. I'll take the gamble you'll feel the same way with me. You'll sit in my car and won't say boo to a goose."

Striving for words, Mia could think of none that did not incriminate her more. She made only a brief demand, "What's your name? I can't possibly keep calling you Mrs. Gentry."

Her companion laughed, "My name's Melody. I've always liked my name, do you?"

"Yes, it's a pretty name, it suits you." Mia ran the name over her tongue experimentally. It made Mrs. Ryan Gentry more believable. Within her sex she felt the stirrings of a fresh excitement. But duty was still duty. Without much hope she asked, "What about my twin sisters downstairs? What will you do with them? I'd be terribly grateful if you would let them free, our house isn't far from here, they could easily run home."

Melody considered the request. Her retort was, "Why should I?"

"Because they're only fourteen years old, that's why," Mia said forcefully. "Do you want your husband up in court because he's been fooling around with a couple fourteen year old teenagers? He's just kept them prisoner up to now but that's not likely to last."

Melody considered, "No, leave them as they are. I don't think Ryan's dumb enough to get himself in that deep. He'll play this bondage game and he'll paint a few pictures of them - I suspect that's his real interest - then he'll let them go. That's the best way out of this little contretemps."

"But you'll have me?" Mia said forcefully. "What are you going to do with me? What's your interest in me anyway? I'd think I'd be nothing but a bore."

It happened quickly. Melody was evidently as decisive as her husband. She grabbed a handful of Mia's hair, gave her another passionate kiss and said casually, "This is it, darling. If it's true you're as helpless as you say, you're on your way to where I live. Isn't it fun?"

With commendable forethought, Mia pleaded, "Look, I can't be released without the proper keys, they have to be around somewhere. Please try to find them or you'll have a girl on your hands that you can't do a thing with. You'll probably get bored with me and want to let me go but you'll be unable to do that."

"If those keys were kicking around you would have found them already, don't kid me."

"Oh, sure, I've tried but he's got them hidden up somewhere I can't reach. I can't do very much the way he's got me fastened, you know." Mia made it sound apologetic.

The keys were found in Ryan's bedroom. They hung tantalizing on a nail driven in the wall above the reach of captive girls. Mia could well imagine he would have taunted her with them at some later time. She would have gone crazy with longing if she had found them while looking around the house fastened as she was. Within her mind she chalked up one more little item on the credit side. Melody could free her if she wanted to. It was something to remember!

Mia was not allowed to visit the twins. Melody saw them as a disruptive influence in her plans. Instead the captive girl was taken directly to the waiting car, thankful not to be incarcerated in the trunk. She made herself tractable to feminine hands and allowed herself to be positioned besides the steering wheel and with a rug draped across bare shoulders. It was a ride she had taken before, it was nothing new. Facetiously she jibbed, "If you were any good at this job you would gag me and blindfold me so I couldn't shout for help or see where we're going."

"You won't shout for help and I don't mind your seeing where you're going," Melody assured her cheerfully. "But I've decided to institute a system of demerits. If you misbehave they can add up and on the day of reckoning, translate into pain. I want you to remember this."

Mia could see only benefit in this transfer of possession. She snuggled, helpless, in the front seat beside Melody Gentry and watched the scenery pass. It was familiar scenery but nonetheless welcome. There was an element of freedom in this ride in a car through familiar places. Her big bonus would come when Melody, tired of her company and the onerous task of tending her, would almost certainly give her back her freedom. By then they might almost be friends. With Melody there would be none of the erotism of the confinement of girls or the carnality of being taken to bed. Mia paused a moment in this thought. Melody's kiss had been more than ardent. If Melody was lesbian, she was out of one frying pan into another fire. But Mia set the thought aside and asked instead, with a trace of mischief, "What are you going to do with me when you get me home?"

"Damned if I know," her new captor admitted laughingly. "I suppose I'll have to lock you up somewhere. I'm damned if I'll ran the risk of letting you walk around the way I found you. Even if you're chained you can still walk, you can still escape. I want that SOB Ryan to sweat a little over you!"

"Look, if I gave you my parole, my promise not to even try to escape but to do exactly what you told me to, would you take off these handcuffs and leg irons?" Mia asked demurely.

"Why, they hurting? Looks like a damned good way to keep a girl against her will. The more I think of the idea of holding you the more I like it."

Mia's heart skipped a beat. She had been banking on Melody's desire to shock and startle her husband. Mia had hoped her new captor would be satisfied with this. That, having achieved her purpose of robbing Gentry of his slave girl, she would then return her to freedom. They could share a laugh over male discomfort. Now she was not sure. She knew all too well the manner in which captive girls became addictive to their owners. It was heady stuff in the nature of a drag and best left alone. But Melody was already well along the path. As usual Mia twisted and tugged at her ironed wrists. She did not bother with her steel-clad ankles. She was a prisoner to whoever held the keys and that was an end to it!

Melody's voice was thoughtful, "I grabbed you out of that house before Ryan came home, I didn't want a showdown. But I may have to keep you a long while and I'm wondering ... ?" She stole a few moments to look sideways at her prisoner, her voice was crisp, "I'm a lesbian, Mia. Are you?"

"No, I'm not. And if you think I'm going to do any of those disgusting things - no way!" Mia relapsed into angry silence.

"Oh, you'll do then, darling, don't ever have a doubt about that." Melody's voice was evenly assured: "I have ways of making unwilling girls very willing indeed."

"Such as ... ?"

Mia's question had become hostile.

"It's easy to persuade girls, darling," Melody assured earnestly. "Since I left dear Ryan I've persuaded a good many. Mostly younger but it will work the same with you. I simply whip them until they decide to behave and do whatever they are told. There simply is not a girl who won't do it if you whip her enough."

"You said you weren't kinky, that you weren't involved in bondage and things like that!" Mia was indignant at what she saw as a betrayal. "I told you the truth, sweetheart. Tying you up doesn't mean a thing to me except to make sure I keep you in one place, it has no erotic significance at all."

"And this business where you're always talking of whipping a girl," Mia demanded angrily, "That's sexual isn't it, the wish to see a girl scream and struggle beneath the power you wield? What's the difference?"

"Darling, you seem terribly naive. Darling Ryan can't have had you very long or you would have known more about these things. Didn't he ever whip you?"

"No, he most certainly did not! You're being terribly unkind about your husband. Except for keeping me a prisoner the way I still am, he was very kind."

"I just bet he was," Melody said disgustedly. "Sweetheart, it's time I stopped fooling you. Sure, I am Mrs. Ryan Gentry, but it's a legal title I inherited after the divorce. It was a mutual affair, we simply decided we'd had enough of each other. The only reason I was in his house today was because I still have a key and there was one or two personal things I wanted to pick up." Melody laughed delightfully. "Instead of gloves and a scarf, I got you!"

Mia's heart once more ascended to the clouds. Ryan was free, whatever his relations with Melody might be they were not legal or compulsive. He was, in short, an available male. Her heart sang gleefully. But that altered nothing, she reminded the prisoner of Ryan's former wife who might easily might vent upon her the spleen so common to the lonely. Cautiously Mia inquired, "Are you going to tell Ryan you've got me? I mean sort of rub it in?"

"And have him knocking at my door! No thanks! I'd sooner he thought you've been kidnapped by white slavers and were on your way to the Mid East - that is where all the pretty pussies go, isn't it?"

Melody was shrewd. Ryan would have not the faintest idea of where she was. Mia was uncertain of the place she held in his life but she was very certain indeed of his perturbation over her vanishing. But she realized the twins would give him a clue, they would describe the woman who had viewed them with so little interest or concern. He would put two and two together. That meant he would come knocking at Melody's door ... But that was only on the assumption he desired her, that he wanted her back, that he wanted to paint her at least once more.

"Darling, all real lesbians are bitches and I'm for real," Melody said thoughtfully. "You'll be hoping I'll let you loose after a couple of days but I'm not so sure. You've become sort of anonymous, Ryan and now me, we sort of dissolved you. No one would know where to look. I think I'll keep you a while. You haven't anything to say about it so don't bother. There's one thing I cannot stand and that is an impertinent female. If you value your pretty pelt, watch your words."

Mia's heart was forever rising and falling. It fell now, her dream of freedom shattered. The woman beside her intended to become her mistress and she would be forced into an obedient service she loathed. There was not a lesbian bone in Mia's body, so all she had to look forward to was punishment. Melody would be an adamant owner, she would brook no excuses or evasions. Mia had never in her life been whipped but she could feel the searing impacts now.

The journey was long, it took Mia into territory not previously explored. But she paid the scenery little heed, she was too concerned with personal things, wondering unhappily if the girl beside her had any idea how truly awful it was to be handcuffed with your hands behind your back and leg-ironed by chrome. She was positive pity would exist somewhere in Melody's makeup, her problem now was to divine and to prey upon it. What happened to her now was dependent upon the rapport she could establish with the girl at her side. Mia sighed, her life had become a series of compromises and faint hopes, the handcuffs laughed at both.

The garage door answered Melody's signal. It opened and then closed behind the car. Melody switched on a light and said cheerfully, "Welcome home, sweetheart, you may as well get used to me and I don't want any fuss and bother. Behave yourself."

Mia behaved. She followed the grip upon her bare arm to an equally bare room. "I'll try and do better than this for you Mia," Melody said apologetically. "For now you'll have to put up with an austere prison. Sorry!"

Mia looked around in askance. The room was indeed bare and without comfort. She hated the thought of being alone in it behind a locked door. Pleadingly she implored, "Melody, please, not this! Look, I'll sleep beside your bed on the floor or any other indignity, but please don't lock me in here. I'm worried enough as it is. I don't want to go crazy."

The captive had struck a cord. Once more her face was enveloped in warm hands and her lips fiercely kissed. Even though this might be no more than a lesbian manifestation, it was nonetheless welcome. Mia found herself crying in relief. Between sobs she managed to get out, "Oh, thank you, thank you. I don't care what you do with me but please keep me close to you. I can't possibly bare being alone the way things are."

But she still fled from the idea of lesbian sex. She did so in the trembling knowledge of hovering on the brink of a mistress's disapproval, but to perform the lesbian act in her present state of mind seemed impossible. Lamely she said, "I'm terribly sorry, Melody, I really am. Please try and understand. Now, do you want me to lay down on the floor?"

Mia was thrust down upon the rug. A rope encircled her neck and was attached to one leg of the bed. She had no hope of reaching it, she would be held helpless through what was left of the day and then through the night. It was far worse than what she had anticipated. But she had made her choice. Obediently she lent herself to the shameful tethering of her neck. No mention was make of freeing her hands or feet. She was in disgrace and should be grateful for what she got. Once more she wept upon being left alone.

Mia Argent spent the rest of the day and the following night upon the floor. Strive as she would there was no way she could discover freedom. Melody Gentry was evidently well versed in keeping a girl prisoner. By morning the naked captive so securely held was totally compliant to any demand. Mia knew herself defeated and was willing to capitulate. Melody was a beautiful girl. It could have been much worse!

There came from Melody an enveloping aura of possession. Having made her declaration of fealty, the captive tried only to see that which was good and lovable about the girl to whom she now belonged. Mia had no false idea of her own courage. A single thought of the bleak, bare room to which she might be consigned was enough to strike terror in her heart and obedience from her lips. Once more she was truly slave. From time to time Melody tested the handcuffs and leg irons as though in disbelief that they could so truly captivate and hold a naked girl for her delight. She said, "It's so wonderful I have the keys to these, darling. I'm not sure I'll ever use them. I could keep you like this forever and that's what I want. Do you mind?"

Mia said no, she did not mind. She deemed it best to give her owner total possession of every bit of her, she would withhold nothing. She could observe Melody glowing and happy in the prospect of the consummation of the physical act they both understood and now accepted. It had been achieved without a single stroke of the whip. Mia was remarkable and infinitely to be desired.

The time was set for mid afternoon. For Mia it was a sentence, for Melody it was simply fulfillment. Each girl in her own way set the act aside in a niche of their mind. It would come soon enough. In the meantime they had each other and there was much to learn.

It was now, at last, Mia had the opportunity to tell her story. She told it from the beginning, omitting nothing. She could hardly believe Melody could accept its incongruity but Melody did. Melody had met the twins and their behavior had made Mia's story plausible. Casually she said, "I'm going to set a camera for a series of time exposures of the two of us making love. I'm going to send prints to the bastard, Ryan. Do you mind?"

Mia discovered she did not mind. Why should she? Once more there was a single ambition in her mind. It was freedom! Somehow she must achieve freedom despite iron on wrists and ankles. Someway it had to be possible. She said and did everything she could to please her captor.

When a mid afternoon arrived and Melody was emitting vibrations in female waves which Mia could not help but absorb, that was the moment when Ryan Gentry walked back into her life.

"You silly bitch, you might have known I'd guess where you'd taken her," Ryan accused his former wife without either heat or anger. "Really, Melody, you're absolutely impossible." He turned his attention to the quivering Mia and demanded, "Has she forced you between her legs yet? That's her thing, you know. And I want the truth - the truth, remember?"

Mia had never been more thankful for the truth, "No, she has not. You got here just in time. Oh, Ryan, I'm so terribly ashamed."

Mia's shame meant little. It was incidental to the scene now developing. Melody was backed against her bed and regarding her one time husband in unfeigned dismay. But her voice was still a sneer, "All the lovely heroics, Ryan, to impress your little love bird? Hell, a good session between my legs would have done her a world of good. A man's prick does nothing for a girl except force her to take a bath. Why don't you go away?"

"I will and I'm taking Mia with me." Ryan grasped his slavegirl and turned her around to examine if she was still fastened as he himself had contrived. His voice was demanding, "Where's the keys to these things? I know you stole them, tell me."

"If I tell you, will you go away with her and leave me alone, Ryan?" Melody's voice was fragile, she was close to tears.

"No, I won't. You know damned well what I'm going to do to you, you silly bitch. I'm going to cure you once and for all from nosing around in my ho'e. Along with the keys to Mia's irons I want N'P'R'ey you used yesterday. Where are they?"

Melody had met her match. She told where the keys were and helped to retrieve them. Then, in response to male demand, she held out her hands to possibly let you loose. What I mean is I can't reach anything. I can't touch any of the knots, I'm as helpless as you are."

"That son of a bitch is going to whip me, that's what he's going to do," Melody affirmed angrily. "Oh, damned, why the hell did I ever get myself into this!"

Mia supposed it could be called a thrashing, there was no ritual, no gloating over the pain to come, no admonition about past misdeeds. There was only the act of stripping Melody as bare as Mia who watched in keen distress as flimsy stuff was torn asunder and cast aside to reveal a voluptuous female collection of curves and swellings and pubic hair which should have kept any husband attentively concerned. But evidently Melody's femininity held no magic for Ryan. He scarcely spared it a glance as he brought it into view. Melody herself said nothing. Perhaps she hoped the revelation would awaken his carnality and gain her a reprieve. When the first stroke seared her shoulders, her whole being convulsed in one agony induced reaction. She gasped, but that was all. Mia wondered if she had been thrashed previously in her married life and had built resources with which to met the ordeal. Certainly the behavior of Mrs. Melody Gentry beneath the whip was something to behold with awe and admiration. The blows fell without pause to streak the lovely skin with striations of scarlet, rapidly turning purple. The gasping breath rapidly became whimpers and the convulsive motions of the body as the lash cut at it were the only concessions Melody made to male anger.

When the punishment was over, Mia estimated it had been of no less than twenty cruel cuts upon the virgin skin of a girl who should have known better. Ryan cast aside the whip and said grimly, "I can do this again, you know, if you do any more of these tricks. Damn it, Melody, you should have more sense."

"I'm sorry, Ryan, I didn't mean any harm." It was a pale, small voice of penitence. "I didn't think you'd be so angry. I wasn't going to hurt Mia, just keep her a while."

"And we all know why you were keeping her a while, don't we?" Ryan's voice was heavily sarcastic. "That's what this thrashing was all about. You can earn yourself another any time you talk about Mia's mouth and that thing between your thighs."

The bound wife sniffed unhappily and shifted against the nylon around her wrists. "All right, Ryan, you've made your point. You've punished me. May I please get untied?"

"Hell, girl, stay as you are. Someone's bound to come along and free you."

Melody's wail of terror surpassed any she made under the whip. "Ryan, no! Don't leave me like this. I can't possibly get loose and I'll stand and stand and stand, maybe for days. Please ... ?"

"You should have thought of that before you started stealing girls, my pet. Standing there will give you a chance to think about your misdeeds. And you'd best forget your ideas about marrying me again. One time round with you was plenty, you're impossible. A man can't possibly be whipping his wife every week the way I'd have to be doing with you."

"No you wouldn't, I'd behave properly always, I promise. You'll never have to whip me again. Oh, Ryan, please don't leave me like this."

Gentry turned his attention to Mia who, in her helplessness, had been no more than a spectator throughout. His demand was abrupt, "Did you play games between this idiot's legs, Mia?"

It was Melody who answered, her denial vehement, "No, she didn't! Don't you dare punish her! She's sweet and doesn't deserve what you're doing."

Ryan Gentry surveyed his captives with calm assurance, he was in complete command. Two pairs of feminine eyes gazed upon him imploringly but neither girl dared speak. After a moment of silent contemplation, Ryan left the room. Mia's feminine response was instant, "I'm so terribly sorry, Melody, that must have hurt something awful. I don't know how you could stand it."

"He used to whip me a lot when we were married," Melody admitted unblushingly. "That's what he means when he talks about once a week, it really was almost that bad. I know I do idiotic things and I'm a scatter brain but I love him, I always did and I still do. When a man whips you it's not half as bad as you think just so long as you're in love with him. If only he'd marry me again I wouldn't mind a bit even if he did whip me once a week when I did something dumb. Mia, I wish I could persuade him to let you loose, but I don't know how. He's so ... well, so sort of implacable when he gets an idea in his head. Oh, damn ... !"

If Mia had been free she would be amused. This was a different Melody to the imperious female who had invaded Gentry's home and stolen her away. The handcuffed girl could well believe the trashing she had just witnessed could bring about the change in attitude in Melody, it must have hurt shockingly. But she was nonetheless surprised at the frank, uninhibited admission of the whipped girl. Soothingly she suggested, "Don't worry about me and the twins. He'll let us loose when he's painted our pictures. He's only talked about the whip to us, I don't think he has any intention of using it."

"Don't bet on it, sweetheart," Melody sniffed unhappily. "That beastly thing he's just used on me is the one he bought ages ago. When we got divorced he told me I could keep it as a memento. Darling, do you think there's any way you can persuade him to untie my hands before he takes you away?"

"I'll try." Mia looked around helplessly. "He can't possibility leave you like that, it's too, too cruel. But he never pays much attention to anything I say."

"Darling, would you like me to go to the police if and when I ever get free? I mean, you and those two little fillies don't want to be prisoners the rest of your lives ... ?"

"No, please don't. I feel sure Ryan will let us loose after a while. We'll become a nuisance and a bore. If the police get in the .act it will be damned embarrassing for all of us. I'd rather not have that."

"Well, OK, I can see your point, that was always the way it was with me. In a spot like this a girl has no way to turn. But how would be it if I come and visit in a couple of weeks to make sure about you. If you're still prisoners then I can do something about it?"

"And get yourself whipped again!" Mia exclaimed. "That's what would happen, you know."

"Well ... yes, I suppose." Melody was thinking hard, "But there has to be some way!"

"You'd simple end up in chains the same as the twins and me," Mia pointed out reasonably. "Best leave the thing alone. I couldn't bare to have you whipped again on our account."

"Well, there has to be something and I'll find it," Melody said slowly. "There isn't much danger of him making me prisoner along with the rest of you. I irritate him too much and he was glad to get rid of me. I'm sure he wouldn't want me around again even if I was naked and handcuffed same as you. Oh, shit, I wish I could untie this damned nylon!"

Mia kicked savagely at her chain.