Hi Honey, How Was Your Day?

Another oddball tale. I got this from watching an old Kevin Bacon film, where he researched the finances of a couple, then kidnapped the child and extorted it all, usually raping the wife. There was a scene where he appears, tells the wife he has her child, and she runs to the bedroom to get a handgun, only to turn it over to him and suffer humiliation. I thought to myself that not one woman in my collection of friends would have given up that weapon, especially my wife. Enjoy.

..................................................

Melinda woke late. She lay there a second smiling, remembering the night before.

Ken, her husband, had just got home from a two week trip, the longest he had been away from her son in their nine year marriage. He played and tussled with their seven year old son until his manic joy of his dad being home faded. Then a simple dinner and off to bed.

Later, as quiet descended on the house, she snuggled gently with him on the sofa.

"I hope you left a little energy for us" she whispered as she stroked his cheek.

"Two weeks worth, my love. I swear, if this trip hadn't worked out, I was ready to give up. We don't need the money that bad for me to ever be away from you and Kenny that long ever again."

She smiled in the muted light, wondering how many CEO husbands would have made that statement. And she knew he meant every word.

When they went to bed, each thought to constrain their passion, but it was a lost cause. They mated like tigers, hard, fast, giving in to the primal urges they felt.

Later, they explored each others' bodies like they were trying to reclaim their territory, moving languidly over ever square inch.

Waking again later, they made love with passion and joy. She didn't see how he made it into work that morning.

"Just an update, honey. Then I intend to take four days off, and spend every minute loving on you and Kenny." His kiss held a lot of promise.

..................................................

She rose, bathed, slipped into his favorite sundress. The housekeeper was to get Kenny off to school, to give her a chance to sleep in.

She heard the soft bong repeat three times and stop, then repeat as she brushed her hair.. It was a state of the art system. That pattern meant an intruder was in the house.

At first she thought Mrs. Miller had forgot to reset it when she took Kenny to school, it was a bad habit she had. But she remembered the repeated admonitions from her husband about never taking anything for granted, so she went to check.

There was a man in her kitchen, with his head in the fridge. A man she didn't recognize.

"Who are you? What do you want?"

The man turned around with a bottle of orange juice and poured a glass before he spoke.

"May I pour you a glass? No? All right then, you can call me...Dave. Yes Dave, I've always liked that name. And I'm the man who kidnapped your son. Sure you don't want some juice?"

It took a second for his words to register.

"What?"

He smirked.

"I've kidnapped your son. Well not me, physically, my partner did the actual deed. It's my responsibility to handle negotiations. You know, arrange payments, the return of your son, that sort of thing."

He was surprised at her calm.

"How do I know you aren't just bluffing?"

He sighed and handed her his phone. There was a picture of Kenny, bound and gagged , on what looked like the floor of a van. She paled a little.

"What do you want?" she asked in a shaky voice.

The man smiled widely.

"Not much, really. Just all your liquid assets. I've done my research, here's a list."

He slid the paper. It was pretty accurate, bank balances, stock portfolios, safety deposit boxes. It also had the instructions of where to send the money.

"Isn't technology grand?" he said, openly grinning.

"We'll go to the bank first, for the deposit boxes, then we'll come back here for the transfers. While we're waiting, you and I will have a little fun. My own personal bonus, so to speak. If you fight me, or refuse, my partner will get a call. He'll curt his thumb off. Do we understand each other?"

Cold fury blazed from her eyes, but she nodded.

"Let me get my purse."

He smiled and held the juice glass up.

Melinda came back ant they walked out on her deck.

Dave looked at her car.

"Wow, a CTS-V Cadillac. I always wanted to drive one of those. You don't mind, do you?"

She reached into her purse, but instead of keys came out with a Ruger .22 target pistol. Dave jumped back, waving his arms.

"Now lady, don't do anything foolish. It's just money."

She leveled the pistol and fired off a round, shooting his little toe on his right foot off He was screaming, rolling across the deck. He rolled close to her and she raked the pistol across his cheek, opening up a pretty deep gash. She walked over to the hot tub and got some towels, tossing them to him.

"It's not just money, it's my child, you asshole. Now, wrap these towels around it to stop the bleeding. And stop crying like a little bitch."

He managed to get into a chair and started ranting about what was going to happen to her son. She aimed the pistol right between his eyes.

"Whoa lady, stop! We can work something out."

She smiled, and with her pale skin and the white sundress, he thought she looked like the angel of death.

"Here's what's going to happen. You're going to pull your phone out, call your partner, and deliver my soon back to me. If he's over fifteen minutes away, I shoot you again. You have three minutes."

Dave ranted, he cursed. He stalled. When the three minutes were up, she shot him in the top of his wounded foot. He screamed and cried. She tossed him more towels.

"Three minutes, then it's through the ankle. Next three minutes, the kneecap. Three minutes later, I blow off one of you balls. Three minute later, the other ball. After that, I'll consider you a lost cause and watch you bleed out."

He looked at her with sheer hatred, but dialed the phone.

"We're done here. Bring him back and dump him at end of the drive. I'll meet you there. Be gentle."

She was standing beside him, listening because she made him put it on speaker. She jammed the barrel in his ear.

"If be gentle is code for come in with guns blazing or hurt my son, and you won't live past noon. You understand?"

"Fuck you! I'm gonna call the cops."

Her smile got bigger.

"Do you know who my husband is? He's retired army. Intelligence branch. His company has only one customer, the U.S. government. Threatening me and kidnapping my son will be considered terrorism. I hope you like tropical climates. You and your buddy will most likely end up in Gitmo, never to be seen again. I'll ask a favor and put you in with the real terrorists. That should be a lot of fun for you."

Dave sneered through his pain.

"It'll be your word against mine. I disabled your security system."

She laughed again.

"You mean that bundle of wires we have for show? The real system is wireless state of the art with a satellite feed. I press one button on my phone, and it streams instantly to my husband and the military."

She kept her cell on, and soon saw the van pull up to the front and stop. A man got out without her child, holding a shotgun. She showed Dave.

"Call him and tell him to drop any weapons he has. If you don't, and I shoot him, my son better be in that van. If he isn't, you're about to live a very painful existence."

Dave believed her. He called, telling his partner to stow the weapons and bring the child.

The other man was huge, burly with muscles. He was smiling until he saw Dave with bloody towels over his foot and the woman holding the pistol.

"That's right, sugar, just send him on up to me and everything will be fine."

Damn, she thought. She had tried for years to erase her southern accent, and it still popped out when she was really stressed.

He hesitated until Dave warned him.

"Don't do anything dumb, man. She'll kill you."

She looked at her son lying in his arms. Anger threatened to consume her.

"What's wrong with him?"

"Relax lady, we knocked him out, with gas. He'll wake up in about an hour with a little headache. We've never hurt one yet."

She realized she was grinding her teeth, something she hadn't done since she was in her teens. Forcing herself to center, she turned to Dave.

"You don't mind waiting on us for just a bit, do you Dave? I waited until we were outside before I shot you. Do you know how expensive Brazilian hardwood floors are? I'm not gonna clean blood off them. We'll be right back."

She marched the big man into her sons' room, and had him lay him on the bed. While he was bent over she put the pistol up against his asshole.

"Where's my housekeeper?"

The thought of getting shot in the ass scared the guy half to death.

"She's not hurt! She got a text from your number telling her to take the day off, you wanted some time with your husband."

She filed that away in her memory. This seemed to well planned to be the idea of the two she was dealing with.

Dave had to be helped back to the van. He was groaning in pain. The big man looked at her with sheer hatred. She surprised him by shooting him in his thigh. He screamed.

"Oh, shut up. I didn't hit an artery. You won't bleed out, but it'll be awhile before you can run again. Too bad, too. In roughly three hours, when my husband gets home, I'm gonna tell him all about my interesting day, and show him the video. There will be no place you can hide, no rock big enough to crawl under. He'll find you, and when he does, what I did to you will look like a walk in the park. He'll never forgive you for touching his son. So shoo, try to hide. If I know my husband and his team, they'll start a pool on how many hours it takes to find you, and how many hours it'll take before he decides to put you out of you misery."

She made a little dismissive wave of her hand.

"Go on, now, shoo. Every minute you waste will bring him one more minute closer to you. Thanks for the entertaining morning.

She watched them pull out, then walked back up on her deck, stopping to look at the bloodstained boards. She went inside and called a 'company' construction business, they assured her the boards would be replaced by the next afternoon.

She checked on her son, making sure he was all right. His regular breathing reassured her, and she went into the kitchen to call her husband.

"You saw?"

Her husband tried to stifle his laughter. When their alarm went off, it automatically notified his computer and started streaming. He had watched the whole thing unfold.

"Well played, lt. There was a team there in twenty minutes. I sure you saw the laser light on his chest once or twice. They had orders to stay out of it unless you gave the signal."

"You shouldn't have promised the time, the team is on them now. They went to a vet, obviously someone they knew. He refused them until the guns came out."

She kept her tone neutral.

"I thought it would give you a little diversion, major."

She could hear the anger vibrating through the phone.

"They kidnapped my son and had every intention of raping my wife! Do you think I feel sporting?"

She had seen him in this state twice. She knew no argument in the world would stay him.

"No honey, I didn't. Will you be home for dinner?"

"Six on the dot."

"I love you honey."

"And I you, more than I can express."

She went to check on her child. He was awake.

"What happened Mom? I was waiting for Mrs. James to take me to school, and some guy came to the door. Then I wake up here."

"You got sick, honey.Must be that virus going around. The man was here to upgrade our cable, and he helped get me get you into bed. How do you feel?"

He rubbed his head, saying it hurt. She gave him some child grade tylenol and fussed over him all day.

When his father got home he hugged them both a little harder than normal.

..................................................

The man known as Dave sat in a pain induced fog, listening to his wife rant.

"One little woman and you let her get away with shooting you? You're a pussy Dave, a real man would have shoved that pistol up her ass. Didn't want to do that, did you? You were thinking about shoving something else up there, weren't you? I know you play with them. It didn't matter as long as you bring the money home."

She was throwing things into suitcases, packing away her computers. It was time to move. They usually came into town, hit two scores, and got out. This had been their first in the area, and it hadn't turned out well. This had been the first failure in the nine times they had tried it.

She had a goal. Four million. That would have let her retire to some island, preferably one without an extradition treaty, and live well. She had no intention of sharing it with Dave or his friend. She gave them a few thousand here and there, just enough to keep them motivated. She was sure once she left they would try it again, and fail. Jail was most likely their future.

They left the van, it was stolen anyway. She had no idea there was already a GPS and listening devices installed.

It took a month for Dave and his buddy to heal enough to try another score, and they were still moving slow.

When they tried to snatch the child, five men in tactical gear surrounded them. No identification was offered. Three more grabbed the woman.

................................................

Ken looked into the cell. It was in a basement. The woman sat up when the lights came on. She had been there five days, and was allowed two hours of light, when she was fed. The rest of the time was spent in total darkness. She was naked, and the temperature was set at a steady fifty eight degrees. She shivered for two days before she acclimated. She was fed fifteen hundred calories a day, and had already lost six pounds.

No one had spoken a word to her the whole time, they just shoved the trays through the door and picked up the empty trays later.

He had her brought to an interrogation room, still naked. He looked at her critically. Thirties, probably pretty if she was dressed well and had a little makeup.

She sat there, chained, as he looked at her. The silence lasted five minutes before she spoke.

"Please."

He sat for another few minutes before she said it again.

"Please what?"

"Please help me. Get me some clothes, let me talk to a lawyer. I'll plead guilty. Please."

He looked at her a second, then unlocked one hand. He gave her a bottle of water and an apple. She surprised him by eating the apple slowly, with obvious relish.

"Do you know who I am?"

"No sir."

"I'm the husband of the woman who shot your cohorts. The father of the boy you kidnapped."

She paled.

"Please, we never hurt anybody. It was just for the money."

He shuffled through some papers on the table.

"Let's see. You stole a little over three million from eight families. Two lost their businesses. One woman committed suicide. We recovered all their money, but it didn't really matter by then. Eight women were raped. There were three divorces. Still think you didn't hurt anybody?"

She slumped down in defeat.

"What are you going to do with me?"

"I don't know yet. You're probably going to get your wish. It'll be warm and tropical. You'll even have a view of the beach. Unfortunately it'll be through a chain link fence. You'll be very popular as the only woman there."

She paled.

"Please, don't. I'll do anything."

He smiled.

"Be careful, anything encompasses a lot. There are other agencies that might be interested in you. It won't be a pleasant life, and it may take years, but you might eventually be able to live another life."

"I'll take it." She sobbed. "Please don't put me back in the dark."

She looked up as she was led away.

"I'm sorry."

He nodded, thinking. "You will be, bitch, for years to come."

..............................................

Dave looked up, blinking in the sunshine.

"Where are we?"

The guard laughed.

"Beautiful Cuba. Enjoy your stay."

He curled up in a ball on his bunk that night, worrying. Soon he was surrounded.

"Look, Faisal, a present. Shall we show her our favorite positions?"

He opened his mouth to scream when something was stuffed in his mouth.

"No teeth" a voice hissed.

.................................................

Ken snuggled into Melinda, enjoying the fire, watching it snow. Kenny almost couldn't sleep, thinking about sledding with his friends the next day.

He was stroking her cheek gently.

"What did they say when the got the money back?"

"Most of them were happy. A few were so destroyed that it didn't matter. They were all pleased that they were caught."

"Where are they now?"

He grinned, glad she couldn't see his expression.

"The big one was dumb enough to fight. He had eight wounds, anyone of them would have been fatal. I don't know which agency took the woman, don't care. Dave went to Gitmo. I'm pretty sure both of them will be spending quite a bit of time on their knees in the near future."

"Good."

She reached up and kissed him.

Then she did something that was almost impossible to do. She surprised her husband.

"Honey, I went to the doctor today. It's a girl."