A Willow in Summer Ch. 03

She turned to glare at Christine.

"You used to be a friend to me. For a long time, you were the only person I could trust. You protected me from the people who bullied me. You were someone I could come to when I was struggling, when my condition made me nervous or anxious. I would have gone to Hell and back for you if you'd needed me to. And yet you betrayed me. You conspired with the worst person in school to start forcing me to obey your every whim. You..." she closed her eyes and clenched her teeth. But she was going to say it anyway. "You raped me. Both of you raped me."

She turned to look at the silent woman, and then at the French woman, before turning and glaring at both girls.

"So, to answer your question, yes. I do agree. I don't know what you have planned for them. But I hope it hurts them."

The two girls were weeping at her feet. But the woman looked quite proud.

"Oh, you can be sure of that, my dear!" She wrote a brief text on her phone and sent it. Sure enough, a few seconds later, the back door to the car outside opened, and another masked figure got out. They entered through the front door, and had a much larger, burlier physique. Willow could see almost immediately that this was a man. She wondered why the girls hadn't seen him - maybe he'd been hiding on the back seat.

He turned and winked at the silent woman, who winked back, before addressing the French woman.

"So, what's the plan?" His accent was distinctly Irish.

"Put those two little bitches over there into the car the rich one came in, and take them to the meeting point. But make sure to load all of their toys into it first - make sure that that big cage is the first one in..." she nodded at the cage. "We're going to need it later."

"All right, then," the man grabbed Rosie's car keys and got to work. The two girls were still sobbing silently on the floor as he did so. The French woman went and got some water for everybody else, and they just sat and drank it in silence. Eventually, the man had finished, and had loaded both Rosie and Christine into the back seat of Rosie's car, before covering them with a blanket that matched the colour of the seats. Nobody would be able to see them in the dark, and certainly not with the tinted windows.

Then the man got in the driver's seat and drove off.

This left Willow alone with the two women.

The French woman breathed a sigh of relief and pulled the balaclava over her head, revealing herself to be in her mid-thirties, with blonde hair. The other woman did the same, and revealed herself to be in her late forties to early fifties, with fiery red hair that glowed far brighter than Willow's. Both women had far friendlier, warmer faces than Willow had been expecting, especially when the French woman smiled, baring her bright, shining white teeth as she did so.

"I think you have someone you need to speak to..." she said. "Your guardian angel, if you want to call them."

She FaceTimed a number on the phone, which rang for a few seconds. Then a masked figure answered. It was the hacker. And it looked exactly the same as when Willow had first gotten in touch with them.

"So it worked, did it?" the figure said.

"Oui, it did indeed!" the French woman said.

"They were just carted off now," Willow said. She felt overwhelmed, almost tearful as she said what she had to say next. "Thank you so much. For everything. I seriously didn't ever think that I would escape them."

"You don't have to thank me, Willow," the figure said. "I simply told Marie over here what was going on, got paid £50,000 for the tip-off, and she planned the rest," the figure paused for a moment. Then they addressed Willow directly. "I hope that your life improves after this. I sincerely do. Everything you told me made me want to get those girls. But I'm afraid I can't help you again. I don't want to risk being traced again. So I'll be deleting the link and cleaning my fingerprints from your computer in the next couple of weeks. Don't worry, I'll do it remotely, so you won't notice a thing." The figure raised a hand and saluted her. "Have a nice life, Willow. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I need a G&T."

The figure hung up.

Handing the phone back to the French woman, Willow's questions began to flow.

"Who's Marie?" She asked.

"I'm Marie," the French woman replied. "I met our mutual friend while working for the government. Let's just say that they convinced me that it would be more profitable to work in the... let's call it the private sector."

That raised a lot more questions than it answered, but Willow's next question was more pressing.

"What are you going to do to them?"

Marie smiled again, her teeth shining in the light. "Well, in a couple of days' time, you'll get to see for yourself," her smile broadened. "In the meantime, we have a little surprise planned for you as well!"

This caught Willow off guard, and before she could say anything, she felt a hand on her shoulder, and spun round to find the most horrifying sight she could imagine.

The red-headed woman was holding a Smith & Wesson revolver to her head.

Willow froze in terror. Her world was falling apart once again. Her eyes filled with tears. But then she became confused when the woman wiped them away with her other hand, and smiled at her. Then she spoke the first words that she had spoken all night.

"Don't worry. It's a nice surprise. I promise. But from now until we get there, you're in my custody." Without taking the gun off her head, the woman leaned forward and kissed her cheek.

"By the way, the name's Elizabeth Barley. It's good to finally put a face to a name," she said with a slight laugh. Then she looked up at Marie. "You strip her naked and I'll get her tied up. It's a long drive to London from here, and we're going to have to hurry if we want to get back in time!"