Destined for Algeria Ch. 08

He agreed with her and left the spa to get some sleep for himself.

Entering the massage parlour, Sofia found Tess lying on her side with her eyes open.

The pile of clothes, in plain view of Tess had been laundered and dried, ready to wear.

"Hey princess." Sofia said.

"Hey." She replied.

"Look what I've got." Sofia said, holding the square box in front of Tess's eyes.

The picture in front of her and the English word HANDCUFFS written on the cardboard, confused Tess.

"What are those for?" She asked now wide awake.

Sofia laughed. "No silly. Look." Her fingers extracted the keys from inside the box once more and held them for Tess to see. "Lay on your front." She said, touching Tess's hip to encourage her to roll towards her slightly.

Sofia folded the robe down on Tess's back to reveal the pair of hinged cuffs still in place over the tennis sweat bands she'd given her. With the keys in hand Sofia used one of them to release the ratchet and open the clasp from around her wrist.

This simple act had an immediate impact on Tess's state of mind. After only removing one cuff, Sofia gently assisted each arm down to the side of Tess, so that she could regain control of her shoulders in her own time.

She groaned as she rolled over and sat up on the edge of the table, looking at her wrists in front of her for the first time in hours.

"Thank you." She said holding the cuffs out for Sofia to remove the remaining bracelet.

Sofia stood at the edge of the table in front of Tess's right arm and attempted to insert the key into the tiny hole, without success. Tess watched and frowned at Sofia's failing attempts to remove the cuff. Sofia tried again with the second key but hit the same problem.

Where Musser had snapped the key off, he'd left the broken end, buckled and wedged inside the lock.

"Here, let me try." Tess suggested, taking possession of the two little keys from Sofia.

After many failed attempts Tess began to panic.

"How do you get it off?" she said with desperation in her voice.

"Let me have another try." Sofia asked.

Again having no luck, Sofia peered into the tiny hole and found the problem. She highlighted to Tess the foreign body inside the lock.

"GET IT OFF ME!" Tess shouted.

"I'll have to take you to see our boss when he wakes up. He'll be able to get maintenance to remove it for you." Sofia reassured her. "But I must warn you, he's not going to be happy about being confronted with you, instead of that bitch Ingrid."

"I don't care. I've done nothing wrong." Tess pointed out. "As long as he can get these things off me, that's all that matters."

Sofia stood in front of Tess wearing her works dress, looking at the semi naked girl panicking in front of her.

"Here." Sofia said reaching for Tess's clothes. "Your clothes are ready."

Tess huffed. "They're actually Ingrid's clothes. She stole mine."

"How did you come to be wearing Ingrid's clothes?" Sofia asked.

"She stole mine." Tess replied.

Shit, she thought. If I tell the truth then I'll be admitting to helping her escape. Tess had to make something up, quickly.

"This is all that she left behind and obviously I had to wear something." She lied.

Ingrid had deliberately switched clothes to fool the ship's crew, as planned with Tess and it had worked. However, Ingrid had taken advantage and stolen Tess's identity too, double-crossing her at the last minute, leaving Tess in this situation.

"Better than nothing I suppose. You might as well put them on." Sofia said handing over the white sun top and light blue, cut-off jean shorts.

The un-recommended temperature of the laundering, coupled with the intense efficiency of drying, had served to contract the cotton fibres in the denim, creating a shorter structure, shrinking them slightly. This resulted in the ability of the cloth to be reshaped, according to the requirements of any curves which may push out against them.

"These things are far too tight." Tess said, struggling to fasten the top button.

"They look ok." Sofia reassured her. "Ingrid didn't have much of a figure though, did she? Come to think of it, she didn't have a figure at all. Not like you have."

Sofia admired Tess's shape now that she'd finished dressing.

"No. You're right. Ingrid was a bit thin wasn't she." Tess agreed.

"Your body is perfect." Sofia told Tess. "Look how well those peaches of your bum fill those things."

Tess turned to her side so that she could see herself in the wall mirror. Sofia wasn't wrong. Tess had the perfect arse to model Ingrid's shorts, hugging her curves tightly like a second skin. Turning back, she could see how her narrow waist complimented the width of her hips, almost requiring a redefinition of the word 'Proportion'.

"The tightness of those show of the gap between your legs." Sofia pointed out.

"How do you mean?" Tess enquired.

Sofia picked up a hand held mirror and twisted it towards the opposite wall mirror to show Tess.

"Here. Look." Sofia said shining the mirror from behind, through the separation she'd begun describing. "The cloth being stretched to its limit, pulls the tops of your thighs out of the way and exposes your crotch, creating this perfect little void here at the top of your legs, where, and if I were a man, with a cock, that's where I'd be tempted to put it."

Sofia reached her hand around to the front of Tess and gently pressed her fingers against the uppermost part of the said gap between her legs.

Her sensitive flesh tickled under the gently vibrating caress created by the scraping of Sofia's manicured nails, rasping over the texture of the tough shrunken cloth which bulged slightly from either side of taut seam dividing her labia. The sensation made Tess long for the touch of Ally and sent a pang of infidelity guilt through her loins

"No normal man in this world will be able to resist the lure of where I'm touching you right now." Sofia whispered into Tess's ear. "The mere sight of this partition will be so tempting that your boyfriend will want to fuck you here without even removing your clothes."

"Do you think so?" Tess intriguingly laughed, now paralysed by the feel of Sofia's fingers but loving the lecture on attractiveness.

She continued with her compliments. "And look how slim your waist is. I'll bet you and me measure the same around here." Sofia said, touching her own waistline with her hands. "But you're luckier than me." She continued. "I wish I was as tall as you and not to mention your curves."

Sofia's words made her feel really good about herself. Tess stood on her toes and arched her back, turning to admire herself in the mirror as she felt her own arse cheeks.

"Nice try." Tess smiled, now standing over by the wall mirror. "But you win the body of the year award."

Sofia approached Tess and stared into eyes like she wanted to kiss her. Tess froze and stared back, not encouraging but secretly willing a kiss to happen.

Sofia quickly reached for the open handcuff hanging from Tess's arm and snapped it closed around her own wrist.

"I'm keeping you for myself." Sofia joked, looking down at the manacles holding the two girls together.

Startled, Tess called out "What the hell are you doing?"

"Relax. I'm only playing" She replied. "We have the keys don't we? So what's the problem?"

Tess shook her head in disbelief. She dragged Sofia over to the massage table where the keys lay and released the cuff from Sofia's wrist. Tess then closed the cuff around her own wrist next to its twin on her right arm so that she now wore both cuffs together on one wrist.

"There." Tess said before sticking her tongue out at Sofia in a playful manner.

Sofia responded with a comic head forward, tongue out and eyes crossed expression, making Tess laugh for the first time in ages.

"What do they call you boyfriend?" Sofia asked.

"He's called Ally and he's gorgeous."

"I'm not surprised." Sofia replied "He's lucky. You're both lucky. We're not allowed relationships working here. Not with men anyway. We're only allowed to fuck them whenever they want us to. Which is fine I suppose."

Tess somehow knew this to be the case but the realisation of Sofia's confirmation still shocked her. "What about relationships with other women?" Tess asked.

"Oh that's fine." She replied. "In fact, me and Ingrid had a little going on, until she did the dirty on all of us."

Tess raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"What about you?" Sofia asked. "Do you and Ally have much sex?"

"Yes." Tess laughed. "I like the fact that he's a little bit kinky."

"Go on!" Sofia pried.

"Well he'd probably liked to have seen me wearing these." Tess said holding up her right wrist. "He likes to tie me up you see."

"Oh. Wow." Sofia said. "And do you let him?"

"Yes, of course. I think I might actually encourage it sometimes." Tess confessed.

Sofia grinned at Tess and picked up the two little keys from the massage table. She placed them back in the cardboard box and closed the flap.

"Give him these, with love, from me." Sofia said.

Instead of handing the box to Tess, with a little struggling she squashed the box into the back pocket of Tess's shorts.

"He sounds exciting." Sofia said in a deep voice. "Where is he?"

This posed a very real question for Tess. Where would she go once she'd convinced Gus of her innocence and he'd kicked her out?

"Erm." She began. "I think he's in Algiers. He was supposed to pick me up from the boat in Morocco but that never happened. Ingrid stole my phone as well as my clothes so I have no way of contacting him. We're in the process of moving over here to Algiers and I'm kind of doing it without the authorities knowing, so hence the covert entry via the same route as Ingrid. Thinking about it, if Ingrid walked off the boat instead of swimming, then Ally might have seen which way she went. It might be beneficial for Gus to help me find him because he may also be able to track my phone that she stole if she still has it switched on."

"You know you're in Marrakesh in Morocco don't you?" Sofia announced.

"Shit. Am I?" Tess huffed. "How the hell am I going to get in touch with Ally?"

"Our boss is quite a powerful man. He may want to help you find your boyfriend to track down Ingrid." Sofia reassured her. "Why are the British authorities coming after you?"

"They're not chasing me but they think I'm dead, so if my name shows up anywhere in the world then they will know where I am." Tess explained.

Sofia smiled and nodded her head in understanding.

"We'll see him later in the morning." Sofia said. "You can continue sleeping here. I'll get you some blankets and pillows.

It wasn't Sofia who woke Tess, it was the girl who'd served her sandwiches the night before, bearing the gift of food once again.

Before Tess had finished breakfast, Omar, the bald headed man entered the room "Good morning." He said holding out one hand to shake hers. "I'm Omar by the way."

"Morning. Tess." She replied without offering her arm to return the handshake. "Where's Sofia?"

"She's sleeping. She told me that we may need maintenance to remove one of those." He said pointing to her wrist.

"Yes, one has something stuck in the lock and it won't come off." She explained.

He took her hand and inspected the faulty lock. "Let me see."

The crushed cardboard box with the keys in, that he'd moved mountains for in the early hours of last night, now lay on the massage table where she'd pulled it from her back pocket so that she could sleep.

With a somewhat sexist attitude towards women and machinery, Omar opened the box, took out the keys and began a frustrating succession of unsuccessful attempts at opening the jammed lock.

A small part of Tess's pride wanted him to fail as she sat next to him watching him fumble with the keys, playing the big man, whilst looking down on the useless, good for nothing girl, just the way her abusive ex-boyfriend would do to her.

"I'll get maintenance." He said putting the keys back in the box, conceding defeat and walking away without further comment.

In the time it had taken for Tess to freshen up, Omar had returned.

"Maintenance are away this morning so we'll have to wait till later." He took out his phone and began making calls.

Tess didn't wish to step outside of the spa into the heat of the morning sun, as she wanted to remain within earshot of Omar because of not wanting to be left alone again. When he eventually finished, the time had passed 10 o'clock. Tess longed for information about what the day would hold in store and became restless.

"Sofia is coming." He said to Tess.

Her face nearly smiled at the thought of being in Sofia's company again. "When are we meeting Gus?" she asked.

"You don't ever call him that!" Omar insisted. "Women refer to him as Sir and us men refer to him as Boss. Do you understand?"

"Ok. No problem." She replied. "Sir it is."

Within minutes Sofia arrived and the three of them headed out along the pavement of the complex up towards Gus's mansion.

Omar pushed the doorbell and responded to the voice from the intercom on the wall by pushing one of the large oak doors open, stepping aside and allowing the two girls to enter ahead of him.

Although Tess had done nothing wrong, the vibes that Omar and Sofia radiated, produced an atmosphere of uncertainty, making Tess feel a little on edge.

Passing many ornate reception rooms on the ground floor, they headed through a door, leading to a large, high ceilinged plush office, where a well built African man sat at a desk, facing the three of them with his back to a huge glass window.

In English, Sofia spoke first "Morning Sir."

Followed by Omar "Morning Boss."

Gus sat forward in his chair with his forearms on the desk, staring at Tess, awaiting an equally respectful greeting from her.

"Morning Sir." She said, acknowledging his prompt.

Gus sat back in his chair. "What's happened to the handcuffs?" he asked pointing to Tess's right wrist where both cuffs were locked next to each other, fixed together by the folded interconnecting hinge.

Omar began ranting nervously "The key got broken in one of the locks on the boat and so I had to buy another set of cuffs just to get some keys but we can only get one of them off because part of the broken key is still in the other lock and so I've arranged for maintenance to come and cut the other one off boss."

Slowly and calmly leaning back in his chair Gus frowned "I meant, why is she not wearing both of them?"

Sofia had a go at explaining "Sir, like us she is another victim of Ingrid's deception. Ingrid over powered this poor girl and stole her clothes and identity, walking away from our captivity, mainly due to the boat people's incompetence. She has a boyfriend Ally who may have seen Ingrid or have information about where she was heading, so it may be in our own interests to help find him and track Ingrid down. There's a slim possibility that Ingrid is carrying a phone which Ally has the number for."

"Who is this boyfriend of yours Ally? And where is he?" Gus asked.

"We're moving over to Algiers to get married." Tess began. "He was supposed to pick me up from the boat but this happened instead. I don't know exactly where he is right now, so I'm going to need your help finding him."

Gus laughed dismissively, with one short blast of breath through his nose. "Why were you on the boat?"

"I'm running from my old life and starting a fresh." She replied. "Ally arranged the boat so that the British authorities wouldn't be able to see where I am."

"So who knows you're here?" Gus asked.

"Nobody." Tess admitted.

"She needs our help." Sofia intervened.

Gus leaned forward and shouted at Sofia in Arabic, something obviously aggressive, which Tess couldn't understand.

Sofia continued "But sir, we have to help her. None of this is her fault."

Gus stood from behind his desk, becoming more intimidating and increased his aggression by shouting at Sofia, before turning his rage towards Tess.

"Don't you expect me to believe that cunning bitch didn't convince you to help her get away!" he shouted. "You're wearing her clothes for fuck sake! Did she dress you?"

Tess considered answering but Gus beat her to it.

"No she didn't. You dressed yourself didn't you. You meaningfully helped her?" he ranted on.

Tess remained silent as Gus delivered more evidence against her.

"I have spoken to the captain of the boat who interrupted your little game of trading places where you failed to protest your innocence when he found you with a fucking bag over your head!"

Gus raised an eyebrow in acknowledgement of the shocked look on Tess's face. "That's right. You could have raised the alarm there and then but you didn't. I know she's a conniving little slut who's clearly talked you into this and didn't force you because I don't see any injuries from your struggle against her."

Absolutely busted, Tess thought. She attempted a pathetic lie by speaking up "That's not true."

Gus didn't even acknowledge Tess's words.

He raised his hand to Sofia and shouted something, making her cower down and turn away as though she knew what would come next if she didn't take evasive action.

Sofia responded in her own language, hurrying towards the door as she spoke.

"I'm sorry my dear." She shouted back to Tess as she exited the room.

Gus turned back to Tess. "You have made a fool out of me, you have stolen from me and you are standing in the way of my revenge for that bitch."

"I'm sorry." She replied with her head lowered in front of her.

It was this, unintentional admission of guilt, that sealed her fate.

Gus said something calmly and quietly to Omar in Arabic.

Omar took the keys from the box in his pocket, approached Tess and unlocked the working cuff from her right wrist, leaving the broken cuff still in place.

"I'm sorry too." He said. "The boss just wants to ask you a few more questions before we let you go."

Tess suddenly felt the urge to piss due to the shock of the change in situation.

"Wait. Let me help you." she protested, pulling against the damaged handcuff, still attached to her wrist. "I didn't mean for this to happen."

Unfortunately for Tess, Omar wasn't quite telling the truth about 'just a few more questions'. His choice of words were supposed to reduce her panic and minimise her resistance, so he could easily guide her wrists down to the familiar position behind her back.

The rigidity of the hinged cuffs helped him forcefully twist her arm into position and effortlessly close the cuff around her reluctant but expectant wrist once more, inducing a sigh of disapproval from Tess.

As Gus lead the way from the office into the hallway the grand architecture of the building emphasised how wealthy and powerful this man must be.

Even though Tess didn't need any encouragement to follow her captor, Gus took the initiative of holding on to her elbow and dragging her forcefully in a sideways motion along the corridor.