Grimly, Ryan worked the bolt on the Steyr, slamming in a fresh rotary clip. “Mebbe,” he admitted. “But I’ll need to see their dead bodies before leaving.”
There was a small explosion near the double doors, and through the swirling gray smoke charged a swarm of men who began to climb over the smashed barricade with sharp knives held in their teeth.
“Let’s go,” Ryan ordered, and walked from the armory firing at every step.
Chapter Seven
A chill took Krysty, and she instantly awoke to find herself stark naked and strapped spread-eagled on a hard bed.
The room was large and well lit, golden sunlight streaming in through the open windows. Old faded decorative paper with flowers and grapes covered the walls, the ceiling a rough stucco popular with rich civvies for some unknown reason. Nude centerfolds from girlie mags had been pasted into picture frames here and there. A large armoire with hinged doors stood near a small table with a wash basin, a stoppered jug of water and several bottles of homemade shine. The only door in sight was closed and bolted shut.
Krysty tested the ropes holding her to the posts of the canopied bed and found them much too strong to break. Sniffing, the woman realized the sheets were old and used, reeking faintly of rancid sweat.
Across the room, Mildred was also stripped naked, and tied up in a heavy wooden chair. The physician seemed unharmed.
“Awake, at last,” a silky voice purred. “Good. I much prefer it when my sluts know what’s happening to them.”
In a shadowy corner of the bedroom, a short woman rose from a wingback chair and padded over to the companions. The newcomer was beautiful; there was no denying that. Wavy ebony hair hung down to her trim waist, and firm breasts pushed against the front of her flower-print dress, making the fabric gape between the taut buttons. Her face was oval, with a pointed chin, her arms and long legs smooth and evenly tanned.
“Where are we?” Krysty asked softly, glancing at the closed door. “No, tell me later. Cut us free and we’ll help you escape.”
The young woman laughed in an easy manner.
“I don’t want to escape,” she said, going over to the bed and sitting on the mattress. “I’m the madam here and run this gaudy house, and you’re my new sluts.”
“Never,” Mildred spit, straggling against her bounds, but the ropes were good, and the chair seemed to be nailed to the floor. Almost as if it were built in place for just the purpose of holding an unwilling woman helpless.
“I will attend to you later,” the madam said in a voice of stone.
Turning back to Krysty, the woman reached out to cup the redhead’s left breast and gently squeeze, savoring the delicious flesh. Krysty recoiled from the unnatural contact, which only made the madam chuckle.
“Don’t like it, eh?” the madam purred. “Get used to it, bitch. We service both men and women here. A lot of men will ride your peach before the fuzz wears off. An’ I will earn a lot of gold and blasters before I toss you to the drunken sailors on a ship to be their barrel girl. Know what that is, red? Let me tell you.”
Crawling over the naked woman, the madam whispered horrid and obscene things into her ear.
Suddenly, there came the sound of water hitting the floor, and the madam looked over a shoulder and smiled at Mildred, strapped to her chair in a puddle of urine.
“Wet yourself in fear?” The madam chuckled, climbing off Krysty onto the floor, not caring where her knees stabbed into the prisoner. “And we haven’t even kissed hello.”
“Fucking psycho!” Mildred spit. “Perverted freak!”
“You may call me Sophie,” the mutie said, grinning and walking closer. “And soon that mouth will be pleasuring me, one way or the other.”
Sophie grabbed Mildred by the hair and pulled her head back. The physician grunted from the pain, but still managed to spit at the woman.
“Fight, yes, that’s good. Struggle all you want,” Sophie said, licking the bound woman along her cheek, then stepping back and brutally slapping her face with two resounding cracks.