The Older Brother Pt. 01

"William Prince, you're under arrest for kidnapping and false enslavement."

Billy was still in shock as they cuffed him, patted him down for weapons, and locked him into one of the Longhorn's holding cages, pending disposition. He had no idea what had happened.

His downfall had actually begun three hours earlier, when the slave merchants inspected the naked women on display for grading. One of those merchants was Lester Simmons, the gaunt, middle-aged ex-slave wrangler who usually handled acquisitions for the Prince Pony Ranch. They weren't a HUGE customer, but in an average year, Lester purchased at least half a dozen long-legged, juicy young women and one muscular, well-hung young man for that ranch. Mr. Prince was a good, steady customer who usually paid Lester $5,000, sometimes more, for every pony he found.

Which meant that he had spent a fair amount of time talking with Jim Prince who, like most parents, was very proud of his children--especially his smart, beautiful eldest girl, Maria. Lester had seen photos of Maria half a dozen times and had even met her when he'd been invited to several barbeques at the ranch. While there, someone had pointed Billy out to him, and Lester remembered thinking what a sullen, angry young man that guy was. What's HIS problem, Lester wondered?

He recognized Maria when he was grading the sluts on display that day but didn't think much of it--most young adult women in Texas seemed to get a thrill out of stripping down and being slave graded, even though those women had no intention of ever wearing a collar for real. Still, Lester prided himself on being a judge of what made for juicy fuckable slaves of any type and especially the kind of well-built, corn-fed just-turned-age-18 cowgirls who had the strength and endurance to be championship ponies. So this gorgeous black-haired, big-titted young woman stuck in his mind. Of course, he wouldn't dream of embarrassing her by telling her that he's finger-fucked her while she was bound and naked, but he couldn't help thinking what a shame it was that she wasn't REALLY up for sale. Hell, he thought, if Mr. Prince weren't her father the Prince Ranch would probably have tried to buy her service for a few years of racing, or perhaps even as a pleasure slave.

And then Lester noticed Billy Prince, the young guy who always seemed to have a grudge against the world, smirking and grinning like a fool, headed for the auction hall. Lester smelled a rat, although the idea at first seemed unbelievable. But he had that slut's Slave Identification Number and photo in his I-pad, and when the same SIN came up on the display of those being auctioned today, he whipped out his cellphone and hit Mr. Prince's number on his list of favorites.

"Mr. Prince, this here's Lester Simmons--you know, your agent at the Longhorn? I know this sounds crazy, and I hope to heck that I'm wrong! 'Scuz me for asking a delicate question, but do you know where your daughter Maria is at today? Cuz a filly who looks JEST like her is up for auction down here at the Long Horn today, and I think your son Billy is hanging around as well. Do you know what that's about?"

(We'll skip the frantic denials and arguments for the next few minutes; suffice it to say that Jim Prince put two and two together. He told Lester to go bid whatever it took to purchase that girl. Meanwhile, having received the SIN from Lester, Jim decided to go straight to the top in another telephone conversation):

"Mister Foster, there's a Jim Prince calling for you on line 22."

"Thanks, Lila. [click] Jim? This is Jessie Foster. What can I do for you?"

[Again, let's skip the misunderstandings and disconnects. In two minutes, Jessie had called up the digitized copy of the power of attorney, and he noticed immediately that the middle pages of the document were missing any initials at the bottom--there was no proof that the woman had seen those pages when she signed the document surrendering herself. Crap! How many times had he told his wranglers to check such things?]

"OK, Jim, I see the problem. Somebody--heck, it looks like your son William--has tampered with the power of attorney that she submitted to get slave graded." (Jim didn't want to tell the loving father that his own son had inserted permission not only to enslave Maria but to ring her nipples and brand her butt. Instead, he told Jim the good news:) "That'll probably void the auction, but we're going to take it in the shorts over this screw-up. I'm not sure whoever bought her will forgive me for voiding this after they bid 130 K for her."

Jim: "I'll be happy to reimburse you for any financial losses; I just want to save my daughter. I'm on my way down there, now." Jessie could hear a truck motor whining into top gear as they hung up.

"Lily! Get hold of whoever's here today from the Livestock Authority and tell him I think we've got a case of false enslavement. I'm on my way to the branding room; hope I'm in time!" All she heard after that was the slamming of doors and frantic footsteps on the steps.

*****

When Maria regained consciousness, she felt herself wrapped in a blanket while her Momma rocked her gently, repeating over and over that "It's all right, Baby, just a misunderstanding, you're not going to be a slave," and so on.

After she stopped crying for a moment, Maria asked her mother, "Why did Billy do that to me?"

That's precisely what Jim Prince wanted to know. The Livestock Authority needed Jim or Maria to press charges, but first, the agents understood, he wanted to figure out why the hell his son had done such a thing?

The answer was unsatisfactory, of course, but father and son went around and around in that cage for what seemed like hours. Jim ended up paying Lester the $130,000 it had cost to purchase her, although Jessie waived the Longhorn's commission because they had made a mistake. Once HE was the owner (of his own daughter, for Chrissake!), Jim Prince knew he could free her, although it would take several days to get the paperwork straight.

Meanwhile, Billy Prince was charged with false enslavement and incidentally defrauding the state of Texas by falsely registering a slave; because Maria had gone with him willingly to the market, the charge of kidnapping wouldn't work. But, the penalty for the other two offenses was bad enough--the perpetrator would be imprisoned for life.

To prove even THAT charge, though, Maria would probably have to testify about the traumatic events of that day, and she was already a basket case. To save her from that, Jim offered Billy a stark alternative:

"As far as I'm concerned, you're not my son anymore. You owe your EX-sister anything she needs to make up for your crime. So you have a choice: go to trial and get life imprisonment OR voluntarily become a family slave, a pony boy, for the next 16 years. After that, you'll be free to leave without a criminal record."

Billy finally agreed. "I'll self-indenture so that nobody has to testify. I don't deserve any leniency, but I DO ask you to do one favor for me."

Tired and skeptical, his outraged father stared hard at him: "Why would I do a favor for you after what you pulled?"

"Because two innocent lives are at stake."

Slowly at first, and then more and more articulately, the story poured out of Billy: Seven years earlier, he had met the only girl who ever respected him and cared about him--Rose. She was smart, patient, and (in Billy's eyes at least) pretty. Unfortunately, he'd gotten Rose pregnant, probably the very first time either of them had sex. Now, every dollar he could scrap up went to support Rose and their six-year-old daughter, Christine, who were living in a rundown trailer on the edge of their town.

"That was the main reason I needed the money--to make sure that Rose and Christine are taken care of. If you want to avoid a trial by having me self-indenture, OK, but somebody needs to take care of them."

(To be continued)