6 .
Yeona couldn’t shake the feeling of eyes on her body as she strolled out of the yacht club. Being watched by men was a feeling that she was used to, especially at the club, but this time it felt different. This time she felt like she was being… hunted…
She stopped by her car and turned to survey the parking lot, but all she saw was dozens of empty cars, the sounds of laughter and music drifting through the night in the distance.
Normally that sound made her feel less alone, but now there was something haunting about it.
Yeona waited another moment, looking around for if anyone would make their presence known.
The Captain had declared her off limits to the men and clients of the club, and the Captain’s word was law, but she also knew that many of the male clients at the club didn’t like hearing the word “no.”
It’s just your imagination, just go home.
Still, she reached into her purse and clutched a can of pepper spray as she unlocked her car, making sure to check the backseat before she locked her doors and took off for home.
Once the club was safely behind her, she let herself breathe a sigh of relief.
It must have just been the events of the evening that had her on edge, nothing more.
Then again, seeing her mother like that always put her on edge. The Captain had assured her that her mother was being well cared for and out of the way from most of the clients, and so far he seemed to be a man of his word, but how much longer could she stay like that?
How much longer could they both stay in bondage? Yeona wasn’t spending all of her days tied and gagged like her mother, but it was a different kind of bondage for her.
She had been born in Japan, and spent most of her life living a life of wealth and privilege. Her father saw to it that she wanted for nothing, but was rarely around. Her mother tended to her needs, while he gave them financial support and comfort.
Then one day, he never came home.
Her mother was frantic, calling his office, calling the police, friends, family, anyone, but none of them had any information as to his whereabouts.
After a few weeks, her mother calmed down slightly.
He set up trusts in both of their names so they would be cared for if he had been met with misfortune.
As it turns out, he had, and that very misfortune was coming for her and her mother now.
Rough looking men in suits showed up to their home one day, and Yeona didn’t have to ask who they were.
She knew Yakuza when she saw them. The men explained that her father had been deeply in debt to them, but they didn’t know where he had disappeared to either.
It seemed that her father had taken his own life, or fled the country, but either way had left his wife and daughter to bear the burden of his poor choices.
Yeona was twenty one then, and her mother, Jin, was still as beautiful as ever.
The men put the women to work in their “establishments,” keeping both Yeona and Jin bound and gagged for the enjoyment of their clients.
She wasn’t sure how long this servitude lasted, but it felt like an eternity, her own personal hell, damned to pay for the sins of her father.
Then one day the yakuza brought them into an office where a man was waiting. He was clad in a blue coat, trousers, and had his black hair slicked straight back.
The Captain.
They told Yeona and Jin that they would be going with him, that he had taken care of the rest of the debt they owed, but he owned them now. Still bound and gagged, both of them were packed onto his luxury yacht and onto their new life.
When they made port in Florida, The Captain made her an offer: she could work for him, eventually earning her freedom and her mother’s, or continue to live a life like she had under the Yakuza.
With no choice, she accepted. The Captain would keep her mother as collateral, but would sent her out as one of his “fishers” to bring him girls.
The Captain directed her on how to build a cover, a life for herself to help rope in unsuspecting women, and how to find a man desperate enough to finance her life since The Captain wasn’t paying her.
Then she found Sean, a seemingly harmless, lonely divorcee living in Florida with his son. Sean seemed all too happy to throw his money at Yeona at first, but she knew it couldn’t last, he was starting to ask for more and expect more in exchange for financing her lifestyle.
The Captain’s plan wasn’t sitting well with Yeona either. She had heard the name Ace whispered many times, often with fear, and now the Captain was planning on going to war with this person? Yes, Ace had apparently fallen on hard times, but a wounded animal was the most dangerous kind.
Then there was the revelation of Tanya, it just seemed so… wrong somehow.
Sean had spoken of his ex-wife, but never said much beyond that their marriage dissolved, but now for her to show up in their lives, and to find out that she had apparently crossed Ace? Was there something Sean wasn’t telling her?
At first she pitied her boyfriend, and felt guilt for playing him, but over these past few weeks, things had been…
different. Yeona had never liked the way he looked at the women she brought home, it was always like he was undressing them with his eyes, and she could tell it made them uncomfortable too.
Sean being a boring, unassuming suburban boyfriend was supposed to put the women at ease, let their guard down, but the way he leered did just the opposite.
As time went, Yeona changed her approach to play the annoyed girlfriend with the deadbeat boyfriend, which would draw sympathy from the marks she would bring home.
Earlier today had thrown Yeona off though when he walked in with the obvious erection, and it wasn’t the first time that had happened. Something was up with him.
The Captain had mentioned using Tanya to control Sean, and that was a possibility, but would it be enough?
When she told The Captain about Sean’s son being a problem, the Captain referred her to a friend of his known as The Colonel, who recruited the boy for the military.
Now The Captain was talking about the boy proving useful in some way?
What had she gotten herself into? More so, what had she gotten Sean and his son into?
Worse off, maybe Sean and Ian hadn’t been so innocent themselves. Or maybe she had unlocked something that had been inside of them the whole time.
As she pulled up outside of Sean’s house, her feeling of uneasiness hadn’t gone away, in fact, it became all the worse when she noticed Sean’s car wasn’t in the driveway.
Yeona frowned, it wasn’t like him to be out this late.
Sean rarely went out, which was the first sign that something wasn’t right.
She sat there in her car in the driveway, as if waiting for something to happen, but the night was still around her.
Still, the feeling of uneasiness had followed her from the club to home.
She took a deep breath, and then pressed the automatic garage door opener on her visor. Usually Yeona parked in the driveway and walked inside, but she couldn’t shake that feeling of being watched or followed. Going directly into the house was the best option.
But the garage door didn’t budge. She hit the button a few more times but nothing happened, then she remembered Sean saying something about it malfunctioning.
With a sigh, she reached into her purse to grip the can of pepper spray and stepped out into the warm evening.
Everything seemed still and quiet, but still she bolted across the driveway to the front door, unlocked it, and slipped inside like she was being chased by something.
Once in the house, she closed and locked the door, then peeked out the window but there was no sign of anyone out there.
Yeona took a long sigh of relief, then walked into the kitchen and set her keys and purse down on the island, and reached for the fridge to grab a drink when she heard Sean’s car pull into the driveway.
She stiffened for a minute, and then heard his key in the lock and a moment later Sean stepped in.
The way he glared at her when he saw her made her skin crawl, but Yeona decided to combat it by giving him the sassy girlfriend energy that she always did.
“Look what the cat dragged in.” She sighed.
“I could say the same about you.” His tone was cold, icy.
“Well, I think it’s bed time for me.” She began to saunter towards the stairs when she noticed something.
A stain on the front of his shorts.
Yeona stopped, her eyes shifting from the stain to Sean’s face, which shifted from cold and icy, to embarrassment, and then to anger. She sighed, then laughed.
“Really Sean?” She chuckled.
They hadn’t been intimate in a long time, but when they did, he had a problem with blowing his load too early.
She suspected it was a problem for him all his life, and while their sex life definitely suffered from her just not finding him appealing, part of it also definitely stemmed from Sean’s shame over his little problem too.
“What, it’s nothing.” He shrank back.
Yeona smiled and advanced on him.
“First you come and greet me and my friends with your little flag there on full salute, and what? You just couldn’t hold it anymore, went out and found someone else?”
Sean backed into the wall, shrinking somewhat before finding his back bone and glaring at her.
“This isn’t about that and you know it.” He hissed.
“Oh, and what is it?”
“Don’t think I haven’t noticed how you never bring the same girls home twice, or that you go out every night!” He advanced on her.
“So what? It’s my life and I’ll live it as I should.” She laughed and stepped back.
“I know what you do with those girls.” He blurted.
Yeona’s jaw dropped, but then she stood tall and tossed her hair back.
“What I do with them is none of your business.”
“I followed you tonight.” Sean puffed out his chest.
Yeona stumbled back, taken off guard by the comment.
“Y-you followed me?” She stammered.
“Yes, I saw where you went.” Sean stepped towards her, and she felt herself backing away.
“You… you had no right!” She shouted.
“You lied to me, you led me on…” Sean went on.
“First of all,” She stepped forward and jammed a finger at his chest. “Where do you get off! Second, I was just going to a party! Nothing more!”
Yeona hoped to shut this argument down quickly, deny it all, say she was at a party with friend, but as she shouted at him, it all made sense. That’s why she felt watched in the parking lot, Sean was there, watching her!
But at least he hadn’t gone inside. There was no way he could have gotten in.
“You weren’t at a party, I went inside, I saw it all! I heard it all!” Sean bellowed, seemingly growing larger with every word spoken.
Yeona stepped back, taken off guard by his statement.
He got in? How? What did he see?
“Sean, you… you don’t understand.” Her voice trembled.
“I understand enough.” His voice was cold, hard.
“No, my mother, they…” She stammered.
“I can’t believe it, first I get played by Tanya, then you… every women in my life…” He grumbled.
Yeona looked at him, and then the door just beyond him. She didn’t know what else to do, where else to go…
She bolted for the door, not even sure where she would go or what she would do. Maybe run for The Captain, tell him what had happened, hope he would be merciful…
But Sean caught her, wrapping a hand around her waist. Yeona opened her mouth to cry out but he clamped a hand over it.
“Mmmph! Ummmph! Hlllp!” She cried as Sean dragged her away from the door.
“Oh no, you aren’t going anywhere!” He dragged her, kicking and struggling into the kitchen.
“Hrrrmmph! Mmmmph! Nnnmmo!” Yeona grabbed onto anything she could as he brought her over to the basement door…
And down…
Her hands grasped at the railings, the door, and she tried to kick free from his grasp, to pull his hand from her mouth, but it was no use.
“Mmmphh! Mmmmm! Hllllp!” She moaned as they reached the basement and Sean flicked on the light.
“Mmmph! Ummm ggmmph!”
Then he dragged her over to a pole in the middle of the room, stopping to grab some tape from a shelf as he did. Sean pressed her against the pole, keeping one hand over her mouth and using his teeth to peel a strip from the roll of duct tape.
“Heeelp! Heee-mmmph!” She was cut off by the tape being pressed over her lips, and then wrapped around her mouth, then the pole, and back over her mouth.
Sean didn’t bother breaking off the tape, and instead just went down, wrapping more and more of the tape around her body and securing her to the pole.
“Mmmph! Hlllmmph! Mmmph!” Yeona struggled, trying to get free as layer after layer of tape secured her in place.
Once he reached her ankles he stopped and stepped back to admire his girlfriend, cocooned to the pole.
“There, that should hold you.” Sean gasped, exhausted from securing her.
“Mmmmmppph hmmph! Nnmmph!” She moaned, barely able to move under the cocooned of tape.
“I’ll leave you down here to think about what you’ve done.” Sean turned and headed towards the stairs.
“Mmmmph! Nnnnmmmp! Nnnoh! Ummm mmph!” She called after him as he stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked at her.
“And don’t worry, you’ll have a friend.” With that he switched off the light, plunging her into darkness.
“Nnnnnpph! Nnnnoooh! Hhlllp!” She called, listening as he climbed the stairs and closed the door behind him.
A friend? What did he mean by that?
Whatever it was, she felt a cold chill run down her spine.