Entangled

About a week later, things started to really come into focus.

Cherie called. "I know who it is. I'm sending you the video file from the café. It really is that greasy fucker Chris, like you thought."

Kasey's voice was almost dead. "He said it was over. That we'd never talk again."

"You know I never liked him. The only reason I tolerated him is because he brought you into our group. Fucking slicky boy."

Kasey stared at her phone for a second. "Shit. That is him in the video. He's gained a lot of weight."

"I hijacked the webcam on the girl's computer with her back to him and split it into the security video so you can see what he is doing." I really needed to be careful, Cherie obviously knew what she was doing.

I heard Kasey crying after midnight. The next day, I pulled all the ammunition out of the guns and locked it up in my tool chest. I also made sure that the strong painkiller medicines disappeared from the cabinets. As angry and hurt as I felt, I didn't want to have a suicide I could prevent on my conscience. I sure as hell didn't want to be explaining that to the kids. I had pretty much made up my mind to tell her that evening, but there was another audio file late in the day. I wasn't busy and listened to it just after the call.

Kasey picked up the phone with a half-mumbled hello.

"Hi Kasey, this is Chris, we need to talk."

I could hear her shock and resignation. "Why are you doing this? We had a deal..."

"Just work with me and everything will be fine."

Kasey's voice was wooden, almost dead. "What do you want?"

"Meet me on the Saturday after next at the Rivera Hotel down in Jamesville. I'll text you a room number."

"I can't. I don't have any money that I can get to you without Carl finding out."

"You'll find something, or Carl will find out. We'll talk about how much on Saturday. Don't bother wearing panties."

Kasey almost growled. "You fucker. You said it was over."

Chris chuckled. "I kept my end of the bargain, I destroyed that evidence. But now it's a new bargain. You play along with me and it'll all go fine. This time, I'm not risking prison for accessory after the fact."

"You bastard. I... I... I'll explain it, he'll understand..."

"Sure he will. One look at that gangbang video and it's all over. Nobody can help you; just do what I tell you to. We'll fuck when I feel like it, you get me some cash or jewelry or something and we'll get along just fine."

"How... How... long?"

"As long as I feel like it."

Chris hung up. I'd pretty much been ready to jettison Kasey, but it sounded like she'd been blackmailed into this shit in the first place. He'd just managed to give her an extension. I immediately called the house, making up an excuse that I needed to talk about dinner. I told Kasey I felt like going out for some steak.

Taking her out seemed to snap her out a little bit. I just didn't want her doing anything rash. She was pale and sickly, but bore up a bit. I managed to get her to fall asleep with her head on my shoulder. The next day she seemed a bit better, so I headed off to work.

Once I was there, though, I picked up the phone and dialed Cherie.

She answered. "Hello?"

"Cherie, this is Carl. Kasey's husband. We need to talk."

"About what?"

"Look, I know about your little sex club and the blackmail that's happening now. I know about Chris. We can talk about long term shit later. I don't know how this is all going to work out, but she's the mother of my children; I have a basic responsibility to protect them from the fallout from this bullshit, so I have to protect her from the consequences of her own actions. I'm pretty sure you have feelings for Kasey, so here's your chance to help. You're a programmer, you might have the technical skills to help me do something about this." I didn't tell her I was sure of her skills from spying on Kasey.

She sounded cautious, for obvious reasons. "Depends on what you need."

"She's in trouble. Chris is putting lot of leverage on her for sex and money. He demanded to meet her the weekend after next."

Cherie sighed. "Chris seems to have some kind of hold on her... she wasn't the type to join up." She paused. "Usually the members were married couples, but single women like me could join. The rule was that if a man joined, he had to have a female partner with him. Otherwise, it'd have turned into a sausage fest. She told everyone you guys had an open marriage until you got back."

"From the videos, she became the type, but I think you're right. She said something about a deal. It sounded like some kind of blackmail."

"If she slipped up and he was blackmailing her then..."

"Then nothing, she should have trusted me and let me know what was going on. We could have worked something out, but this shit? Jesus."

"Not very forgiving, huh?" The tone in her voice was oddly sad rather than judgmental.

"You try watching hours of your supposedly faithful wife fucking the greater metro area without you knowing it and see how you feel about it."

She didn't say anything, realizing, no doubt, that I knew she was part of the greater metro area.

I drove on. "She doesn't know that I know, and I think if I told her, it would be too much. I don't like the way she's sounding, she sounds kind of like she is going to... give up. Just call her. Find something out about Chris and call her about it. Try to keep her from doing anything stupid. Anything else stupid, that is."

I could almost hear Cherie relax. "I'll talk to her."

"I do have a question. Why the hell would all of you let someone video your little parties? Doesn't seem very smart."

"Fifteen years ago the internet wasn't like it is now; nobody saw it developing this way. Everyone thought it was a good idea to have insurance to show everything was consensual and everyone was of legal age because there'd been an issue in a swingers club in the area. The tapes were supposed to be destroyed years ago."

"Obviously that didn't happen."

"I trusted the person who was supposed to do it. Everybody did."

"Michelle?"

She went silent for a few seconds, so I continued. "I've looked over about 30 hours of video, so I know quite a bit."

"So you're done with her?"

"Probably. Almost certainly. But I'll deal with that after we fix this shit with this asshole."

"We?"

"You say you love her?"

"I do."

"Then 'we' fix it."

She sighed. "I'm flying out. Tomorrow. Meet me at the Sunrise Inn in Iverson. What time do you get off work?

"4:30."

"Meet me at 5, and don't be stupid."

"You either."

Cherie's call to Kasey was well planned and well thought out. She told Kasey she had gotten some info on him and that she might be able to get some leverage on him. Cherie advised her to stay home and let her try to change Chris's mind.

Kasey looked much calmer when I got home, and we had a pretty quiet evening. She even smiled, albeit a bit wanly, when we were at dinner.

The next day after work, I went straight to the room that Cherie had texted me. A slender, attractive black woman opened the door, backed away, and eyed me critically.

"Come in."

I walked in very slowly and held my hands up, so she could see I was unarmed. She wasn't, a small automatic pointed at me in her right hand. I gently tugged my shirt up and rotated so she could see I didn't have a gun.

I walked to the chair by the bed and sat down. The desk had a high tech laptop set up on it running several windows of code at once.

I leaned back. "So."

"So."

"Simply put. I don't know what the future is for me and Kasey, probably none, but we can work that out later. This thing with Chris though, it has to stop for good. Even if it can't be used to blackmail her with me, he could release the videos to all her friends, family and the kids. There are other people involved as well. Some of them probably don't deserve the fallout from this."

She looked at me thoughtfully. "You throw her out, I'm taking her in."

I shrugged. "We'll figure it out. I'm not sure how I feel about her. I keep telling myself it doesn't matter how this started, but I think it may be important. I really don't want her killing herself. That would seriously fuck up the kids. I don't want her making even more mistakes with Chris. Particularly since those mistakes would involve getting him money."

"You have a plan?"

"Sort of, but we have to trust each other or it won't work."

She eyed me for a second, then put the gun on safe and set it on the desk. I relaxed.

"What I have in mind involves several felony counts, just short of murder. And that's only true if he manages to survive, which isn't guaranteed."

"I'm in. She's my girl." She didn't hesitate, didn't bat an eye. Amazing loyalty.

"Maybe we should make sure he gets what he wants."

"I kind of thought you were trying to avoid that. You know he wants sex and money."

"You ever hear the phrase 'be careful what you wish for'?"

She raised an eyebrow and I saw a hint of a smile.

I explained the plan, and Cherie's part in it.

She smiled, "Vicious. You have a nasty sense of humor. I like it. I can do the computer end of it. I want in on the other stuff, too. And I get to go first. I worked in England for four years; I can do a good lower class London accent."

I nodded. "Good. We're going to need help, but they have to be all in or not at all. I'll let you know if and when Kasey comes in on it. I don't want her caught up in everything if something goes wrong. I don't need my kids getting spattered with this shit."

Between us, we shaped and significantly expanded the plan. We talked for a good hour, and I decided if I couldn't bring myself to reconcile with Kasey, she'd probably be okay with Cherie. Despite everything, Cherie and I seemed to work well together and it was impossible not to like her a little bit. I didn't really like how many more people she wanted to bring into it, but she didn't want any loose ends that could trip us up later. Besides, by bringing them in, they would know the consequences for any bright ideas they might get about the videos, themselves. We laid out the arrangements we would have to make, and set up a schedule of the time in which we had to do it.

Before I left, she stopped me. "Kasey said you and her had a kind of open marriage. I didn't know you didn't until right before the end. I thought she trusted me until then."

"Me, too. Part of the reason she isn't already out the door is because this whole thing is so unlike her. It just doesn't make any fucking sense."

Cherie looked down. "I'm sorry about it, though. I just didn't know."

"This is on Kasey. I don't know what the hell she was thinking. Some kind of temporary insanity, but that's no excuse for this."

Cherie kept calling Kasey and encouraged her to relax, telling Kasey that she would make the meeting and find out what he really wanted.

She also tracked Chris' movements, so when he arrived late Friday night we were prepared for him. She tracked his call for pizza, so I caught the pizza guy in the parking lot and paid for it in cash.

I pulled on a ball cap and walked up to his door, checking carefully for witnesses.

He was probably a 100 pounds heavier than he'd been 15 years ago, bloated and awkward looking. No wonder he thought blackmailing someone for sex might be a good idea. I held up the pizza bag. "That'll be 19.95."

He started to rummage through his wallet. As soon as he dropped his eyes, I slammed the flashlight Taser under his ear and pressed the button, keeping it jammed in and sparking as he folded to the ground with an odd series of squeaking groans. I quickly grabbed his hair and dragged him inside as Cherie slipped in behind me. Damn he was heavy.

I gave him another shot from the Taser, telling myself it was to keep him down, but not really believing it, before I zip stripped his arms and legs.

Cherie handed me a needleless syringe and I squirted horse tranquilizer down his throat. We sat back and waited for it to kick in.

Cherie called the others and let them in quietly. Together, we dragged him down to the parking lot in a laundry cart and loaded him up for a long drive. We needed a place with more than a little privacy.

Once we were there, I babysat the shithead while they set up everything.

As he came to Saturday morning, Cherie was sitting in front of him. He looked around uneasily, realizing he was now in an abandoned industrial building. Although he didn't know it, we were in the vehicle storage building of an abandoned gravel quarry.

Cherie leaned forward. "Hi, Chris, been a long time. You shouldn't have messed with my girl. You know how I feel about her."

Chris couldn't talk, the ball gag in his mouth prevented that. It had been bought for cash at a sex shop 100 miles away. He was also stripped and tied onto a complicated "bondage system" that could be adjusted to any number of vulnerable and humiliating positions. We'd replaced the Velcro cuffs with rigid leather buckle cuffs that appeared to be designed to resist a bull ape. For added humiliation, we'd dressed him in a XXXL Sexy Schoolgirl outfit, put loads of tacky blue eye shadow, a bright red pigtail wig and neon pink lipstick on him and put in scads of pink plastic hairclips. Cherie had even painted his finger and toe nails.

Cherie walked over behind him. I walked around in front of him.

"Hi Chris. I never liked you, but know I at least know why."

He really started to struggle. I shrugged.

"That's all water under the bridge - or it would have been, if you had been smart enough to leave well enough alone. I probably would have never known. I had honestly had suspicions something had been going on, but not enough to make me want to dig into it. If I had found out, I might or might not have divorced her, but I'd almost certainly have given you no thought. But here we are, you had to go and poke a hornet nest with a stick. You now have my full, undivided, attention."

I unbuckled the gag for a minute and let it hang while I forced a turkey baster into his mouth and shot a mix of tequila, Ecstasy, Fentanyl and Viagra down his throat. After making sure he had swallowed all the mix, I forced the gag back in and arranged the bondage chair so he was essentially posed as if bent over a chair.

Cherie unzipped her duffel and began to undress.

I eyed her. Chris couldn't see behind him and I could tell he was freaking out, as well he should. If he could see what I was saw behind him along the wall, he would have been even more freaked out.

Cherie stripped down completely, then caught my eye with a wicked smile, winked, and pirouetted slowly. She'd gained a little weight over the intervening years, but just enough to move her from an AA cup to a B cup and put a little bit of curve where there had previously been none. She actually had an ass now, where before she'd been straight as a board. She was also shaved completely smooth.

She then slowly dressed in a porn version of a black PVC Catwoman outfit, complete with mask and thigh high boots, but open cup and completely crotchless. She had a large temporary manacles and skull tattoo on her right ass cheek.

As she handed me a high end video camera over him, he got a glimpse of her black gloved hand, which made him struggle very hard for a minute.

I checked the camera and stood slightly to the side of him and in front. Cherie pulled a riding crop out of and looked over at me, and at Michelle, who had a similar camera.

I nodded. "Whenever you're ready." I started recording.

She stalked around him with an exaggerated strut.

"Oooh, look 'oose our li'l bitch today." Her accents was nearly perfect, at least as far as I was concerned. "You paid tops for this, so let me start this right."

She walked right to him, ground her left spike heel on his shoulder, pushed her pussy to a couple inches from his face, and promptly let loose with a stream of piss all over his face. I zoomed in to catch the details.

"Bloody 'ell, that's the ticket. Been holding that for you for hours."

He started to struggle, which promptly brought her crop down on his back, hard, even as she continued to relieve herself. Damn girl must have an iron bladder.

"That's enough, you. Take it like the little bitch you are. "

When she finished, she slipped her long leg over his neck so she was facing forward and used his hair to dry herself. She slipped off him and strutted around to his side. With a flourish, she brought her crop down across his butt, then again and again, until I was worried she might get too carried away - some of the welts were filling with blood before she caught herself. She made a cut sign with her hand and I shut off the camera and walked over while she looked down, breathing heavily.

"You okay?"

She looked away and stood mutely for a second, then tore her mask off and looked at me with her eyes welling with tears.

"I just... hate that he did this to Kasey."

I caught her hand before she brought the crop down again, then put my arm around her shoulder. "Relax, stick to the plan. It will make him a lot more miserable for a lot longer."

She slumped against me for a minute, then worked her mask back on.

"I can do this."

She signaled me to record again, as she strutted to the black duffel and pulled out a strap-on set with a large black dildo. She walked back in front of him, dangling the obscenely large device from one finger.

"Look wot I gots for you, Sweetie. It's your favorite big black stud, Kong." I cringed; the damn thing looked like an elephant trunk. She began rubbing it on his face.

"E's going to hurt soooo good."

She strapped it on in front of him, slapping his face with it several times, then walked around to his butt, pulling a large bottle of oil out her bag on the way and lubing the monster up with a lot of oil. I saw his eyes widen when he felt it against his butthole. She'd used red chili oil as the lube. This was REALLY going to hurt. She drove in slowly, but with almost no finesse. Tears were streaming from his eyes as the violation turned to painful burning. She rocked in and out a few times to make sure the lube was working, then drove in and out with no restraint, clearly relishing it. She began to blast him with a stream of obscenities, the kindest of which was "donkey-sucking Sissy-slut." She pumped him for at least 30 minutes on and off, occasionally pulling out and re-lubing to keep the pain fresh and to allow her time to take a riding crop to his exposed balls. Despite the pain, the Viagra in the drug cocktail had the desired impact, which Michelle made sure was clearly visible on video. He was crying incoherently and making pleading noises when she finally pulled out.

She pulled a huge butt plug out of her bag of tricks and forced it into him with little effort. He could have probably parked an SUV up his butt after that reaming. She walked in front of him, yanked the ball gag off and stuffed the hot-pepper oil coated dong as deep into his mouth as she could. She could only fit the head of the monstrous tool into his mouth while she forced him to clean it, but it would do for the video. Michelle made sure to get really good shots of the process, and especially made sure his raging Viagra-induced erection was clearly visible.

We shut the cameras off and returned him to upright. He closed his eyes weeping silently. I used the turkey baster to give him Gatorade. I wasn't going to be heartbroken if he died, but if I'd wanted to just kill him, I'd have simply shot him in the head.

We changed him into a Sailor Moon outfit, complete with a blond wig with blue hair bows, then put him back in position. We put down a mat of green outdoor carpet, set up a sky blue backdrop and added little flowers.

Cherie quietly moved back as another figure detached from the wall. A very short woman, not fat, but a little stocky, walked up in a kind of pornographic stuffed teddy bear costume carry a little wicker picnic basket. The outfit consisted of furry paw boots and gloves, a sort of open cup fur corset, a pink bow tie and a smiling teddy bear headpiece. Her tuft of pubic hair was dyed light pink to match the bow tie, with a little dark pink ribbon. I pondered that for a moment, wondering where the hell people come up with this stuff. I decided I had no idea and was pretty sure I didn't want to know.