Company Policy

I owe you readers an apology as I did not get this part posted in a timely manner. In my defense I had a busy weekend and Fourth of July holiday, but...nah, that's just a bunch of bad excuses. So, I'll go ahead and post Pt. 14 also so I'll be back on track!

~Pentopaper

~Part Thirteen~

The sounds of the sirens grew distant as Shelby half ran / half jogged away from the Addington building. She kept looking behind her but didn't see anyone following her. Could she actually have gotten away?

She walked until her calves and thighs and shins were aching. But eventually she made it to her trailer. She didn't have a key so she knocked frantically on the door. When nobody came, she went to her step brother's windows and knocked there. He finally came to the window looking pissed off. But his eyes grew wide when he saw her. Seconds later he opened the door and she slipped inside.

"Thank God!" She said, locking the door behind her.

"What's going on? And what are you wearing?"

"I don't...I don't even know how to tell you," she said. And she suddenly burst into tears. She half sat / half collapsed onto the couch.

Jamie stood there awkwardly for a few seconds because their relationship never included deep emotions such as these. Finally, he sat down next to her and hesitantly patted her back. "Um...hey. It's okay. Whatever's going on, it's okay."

Shelby hiccuped a few times and wiped her nose on the back of her hand.

"Ew," Jamie said, and he left and came back with a box of tissues for her.

"Thanks," Shelby said, blowing her nose several times.

Jamie waited until Shelby had calmed a little. "You've been gone for over a week. What's happened?" He asked her again.

Shelby took a deep breath and started talking.

"It was a normal enough job interview, but then they wouldn't let me leave!"

"They wouldn't let you leave? What do you mean they wouldn't let you leave?"

And she kept talking.

"There was this doctor, but I don't even know if he was a real doctor. He gave me a shot, and then -"

"He gave you a shot?!"

Shelby nodded. "Muscle relaxer or something. And then they both started touching me, and..."

And she talked some more.

"...she tied me down - well, she had the goon squad tie me down -"

"Wait, the goon squad?"

"Yeah. Two big, strong men. And then she put her mouth on my...oh, God..."

And she kept talking.

"Jamie, she did everything to me. Everything and anything you could think of -"

"The woman? You mean that plain lady from the hardware store?' Jamie asked, perplexed.

"Yes! That's what I keep telling you! Her!"

Shelby talked for what seemed like hours. Jamie listened and asked questions when something seemed too fantastical to believe. But he was rapt as she talked, emotions skittering across his face as she told him what she'd been through.

"She said she owned me. That she owned every part of my body. Made me say it back to her."

Jamie's eyes narrowed. "That's fucked up, Shelby. I mean, I don't even...I...that's just fucked up! How do they get away with it?"

She shrugged. "Money, I'll bet. I guess if you have enough money you can get away with anything," she said.

"We can't let them get away with this!" Jamie said emphatically. "Something has to be done!"

Shelby grabbed another tissue. "But what? You just don't understand. They're a company. We're just the little guy. I don't see how we can-"

"But we have to do something," Jamie said. "We'll tell Dad. He'll know what to do."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shelby and Jamie were still talking about her ordeal when Mike came home. At first he looked delighted to see Shelby. But when he saw that she was crying, he went to her.

"Baby, what's the matter?"

And so she told him the whole story.

When she was finished he leaned back on the couch and blew out a long breath.

"First off," Mike said, "we need to call the police."

Shelby nodded. Yes. Yes they did. But when Mike dialed 911, he got chastised for calling an emergency number when there was no actual 'emergency'.

"What the hell?" Mike said, shaking his head.

So, then he called the non-emergency number. Finally two policemen agreed to come out to their trailer. They listened to Shelby's story but strangely took no notes. They only asked a few questions.

"Well," one police officer said. "I don't know what we can really do right now. We'll be in touch."

The other officer nodded, and they both stood up and left.

"Did I just dream that? Are you kidding me?!" Mike said to Jamie and Shelby. So he followed the officers out to their cruiser.

"Is there something you need, sir?" Both had stopped when they'd heard Mike's footsteps coming down the trailer's front steps.

"Yeah! I need for you both to take this seriously! My step daughter was kidnapped!"

"Sir, we need to ask you not to get hysterical -"

"I am not hysterical! I just want to make sure I'm being heard!"

"Calm down, sir. We hear you. I said we would look into it. We'll interview some people, ask a few questions over there once business starts for the day, okay?"

They didn't say much more. Eventually, Mike came back into the trailer and he slammed the door.

"They didn't seem like they wanted to do too much to help," Jamie said.

Shelby felt cold. She shivered.

"We'll get a lawyer," Mike said. "We'll call the newspaper and the TV stations. Somebody is bound to pick it up and run the story. Well sue their asses off."

Daylight was breaking that Wednesday morning. Mike was making coffee and Shelby and Jamie were still awake. "You'll call around today?" Shelby asked Mike. She had a blanket wrapped around her. She was still wearing her wrap dress and ballet flats but she felt oh so cold.

He nodded. "Damn straight. Emmett Sanders is a big shot lawyer in this town. We went to school together. I don't care how busy he is, he's going to have an audience with me this morning come hell or high water!"

As the morning wore on, Shelby took a shower. She needed to wash the past week off her body. But as she scrubbed at her flesh, she was able to clean it, but she couldn't clean her mind. It was her mind that kept tormenting her.

"I own you!" She heard Nancy's voice say. "How's that little asshole doing? Here, let me put something in it."

She imagined Nancy's face just inches from hers, leaning in for a deep kiss. She imagined Nancy's face between her cheeks, and between her legs. "That beautiful pussy? That's mine. Mine to touch. Mine to lick. Mine to play with. You don't own it. I do."

She had taken a very long and hot shower but she still felt dirty. She got out of the shower and dried off. Back in her room she put on her pajamas, then came back out into the living room.

"Will you be ok here while I go talk to the lawyer?" Mike asked.

Shelby sat on the couch and wrapped back up in the blanket. She nodded. She knew she needed to let him go if things were to move forward.

"Jamie, sit here with her while I'm gone."

Jamie cringed. "I would, but I have to be at work here in a few," he said.

"Well, can't you -"

"It's okay," Shelby said. "I'll be alright. You go to work, and you go talk to the lawyer," she said to both men. "I'll probably lay down and go to sleep. I've been awake all night."

Eventually Jamie left for work. Once Shelby had fallen asleep in her bed, Mike left too.

But her exhausted sleep was a restless one, full of dreams of Nancy.

She dreamed that she was on the bed, not tied down or anything. She was willingly face down and ass up as Nancy slow fucked her with the ribbed dildo.

"Touch me," she whispered in her dream.

Nancy let her hands travel from her hips up her spine and Shelby shuddered.

"Feel good?" Nancy asked.

"Oh, it feels so good! Don't stop!" Shelby begged.

Nancy chuckled. "Baby, I have no intention of stopping."

Shelby rolled over in her sleep, her forehead creased, her eyebrows down low.

The dream continued. Shelby was now on her back on the bed in the fourth floor apartment. She was also somehow a presence hovering in the air watching Nancy and herself on the bed below.

"Take off your harness. Please. I want to taste you." Shelby said.

Nancy did, and then she climbed up Shelby's body and lowered her pussy onto Shelby's mouth. Shelby immediately opened and licked right up the middle of Nancy's pussy.

"Your mouth. It's always so good!" Nancy said.

Shelby chuckled and put her hands on Nancy's hips. She flicked Nancy's clit with her tongue, then she sucked it into her mouth.

"Fuck!" Nancy whispered. Her body trembled as it hovered over Shelby's face. Nancy looked down at Shelby. Shelby's eyes were bright and almost luminous as she licked at Nancy.

"Mmmm, get on your back," Shelby eventually said, smacking Nancy on her bottom.

Nancy did, and then Shelby slowly climbed up Nancy's trembling body. They shared a kiss that brought moans out of the both of them.

"I have to taste you again," Shelby said. She licked down Nancy's body until she reached her hairless mound. "Spread those legs. As wide as you can," Shelby whispered.

Nancy's eyes grew wide as she did. Shelby chuckled and placed her hands on the inside of Nancy's thighs. "You always say I'm beautiful. But you? God. You're so sexy. This pussy tastes so good," Shelby murmured, and she went down for another taste.

Nancy's hand flew to the back of Shelby's head and her fingers disappeared into Shelby's red hair. Nancy's back bowed as she felt Shelby's delicious mouth and pulled it closer to her body.

Shelby kissed all around her inner thighs and on Nancy's mound. "I want to make you come. You can make me come, but what about you? I never get to see you come, and I want to."

"You want to?" Nancy asked.

Shelby nodded. "Yeah. Please."

Then Shelby abruptly woke up.

Shelby was wearing the pair of shorts and T-shirt that she normally slept in. That was all normal. But what was unusual was that her hands were down the front of her shorts.

"Oh, my God. Why am I so wet?" Shelby whispered. "And why do I need to come so badly?"

She frantically rubbed her clit just the way she liked it and she immediately exploded.

"Ungh!" She grunted loudly. "Shit, shit, shit!" She whispered, her pussy rippling and throbbing inside her sleep shorts.

When she was finished, she wiped her wet fingers on her sheets. "Jesus! I've never come like that in my life..." and then she remembered what she'd been dreaming of and she frowned. Because she'd been dreaming of...

Of course.

Nancy.

What was even worse was she actually felt guilty - guilty - for orgasming alone in her bed. She felt like she now somehow needed Nancy's permission or presence to have an orgasm.

"She's fucked me up," Shelby whispered.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Later that Wednesday morning when he should have been sleeping, Mike came storming into their trailer. "Mother fuckers," he muttered. He had a legal pad and a pen that he threw down hard on the coffee table. Both slid off onto the floor.

"What's wrong?" Shelby asked, picking up the pad and pen. She had been nervously watching TV on the couch, figuring the goon squad would walk into the trailer at any moment. She was glad that Mike was back home.

Mike sank into his recliner and wiped a hand down his face. "Well, you know that lawyer who I told you about?"

Shelby nodded.

"Well, I went to see him. And do you know what he said to me?"

Shelby shook her head.

"First off he seemed very interested. Outraged, even. I was sure he was gonna take our case. But when he found out it was against the Addington Company, he immediately sat back in his chair, smiled even, and shook his head. Said he was very sorry but there was nothing he could do about them."

Shelby was speechless. "Why?"

"Said they're too powerful. That there's not enough money we could pay him to go after them. Then he said goodbye, have a nice day, and he ushered me out the door!"

Shelby looked down at her bare, red painted toes. In the back of her mind she had figured as much. Nancy had spoken to her about dark payrolls and paid-off judges. What could they - the little guys - do against an entire corrupt company?

"Next I'll call the newspaper. See what they have to say. Surely they'll want a tip for something like this."

But several minutes later, when Mike was on the line with the Stationville Times, Shelby could tell the conversation was not going well.

"What do you mean, no?! This is not hearsay! My step-daughter just escaped from them last night!"

A few minutes later Mike slammed his cell phone down. "Fuckers."

"What did they say?" Shelby asked. But she thought she probably already knew.

"Oh, they told me that even a small town newspaper couldn't print false information. Told me that the libel laws were such that they would go belly up if they got tangled up in such a situation."

"Wow. Um, sounds like the Addington Corporation is-"

"Dealing in some shady shit and everybody knows it," Mike finished for her. "But what can we do if nobody will go after them?"

Then Mike tried contacting the news stations. They were all located thirty miles away in the bigger town of Wainwright.

The two most popular TV stations said no to Mike outright. The third, smaller TV station seemed somewhat interested. "Well, we might have a bite. Channel four seemed like they'd check it out. But I felt like they just added me to a long list of other people's ideas for that segment."

Shelby sat wringing her hands in her lap. "I don't understand why absolutely nobody is willing to take a risk and go after them."

Mike sighed. "It's just that. A risk. It's a risk that people aren't willing to take. What's in it for them? If a lawyer doesn't think he can win, he won't take the case. If a newspaper is afraid of being sued so badly they'll go out of print, they won't do the story. Same thing with the TV stations."

Shelby just nodded. It wasn't surprising, really. It was disappointing and upsetting, but again, what could they do about it?

Shelby stood up and washed her hands at the kitchen sink. She didn't even know why she did it. It was something to do. "So now what?" She said from the kitchen.

Mike shrugged. "Dunno. I don't know what else can be done other than me going down to Addington Investments with a gun and demanding they tell the truth."

Shelby laughed. "You wouldn't get past the security guard," she said. "And for all we know the glass there is bulletproof."

Mike shook his head. "I wasn't serious about going in with a gun."

"I know," she said, coming back into the living room. "Thanks for trying and thanks for caring about me," she said. She hugged him and dropped a little kiss on his cheek.

He just nodded sadly but didn't reply. "Let me think about it. I'll make some more calls, maybe up in Wainwright. Maybe there's a lawyer up there that can help us."

~~~~~~~~~

Shelby spent the next hour doing some internet searching for lawyers up in Wainwright. Mike had a list but with every name he crossed off he got more and more frustrated.

"Here, Shelby. I'll call this next crack. I'll put the call on speaker. Listen to this."

He dialed the long distance number on his cellphone and put the call on speaker. A receptionist answered.

"Lee, Hunter, and Michaels. Can I help you?"

"Yeah. I'm calling because I need a lawyer."

"Well, you've called the right place, Sir. Tell me a little bit about your complaint and I'll see which lawyer to funnel the call to."

"Okay. Great. It's probably at heart a kidnapping case."

"Oh, my."

"Right? My complaint is against the Addington Company, and-"

"Sir, did you say the Addington Company? As in Addington Investments? Headquartered down in Stationville?"

"That's the one. Can-"

"Sir, that would be Mr. Lee. Let me put him on the phone immediately. One moment."

Mike's mouth was in a tight line when a man answered the call.

"Hello, this is Aaron Lee. Congratulations, you got me out of a terrible conference call. How can I help you?"

"Yes. I'd like to bring a lawsuit against the Addington Company. They-"

"Woah, hey, hang on there just a minute. I'm sorry to cut you off so rudely, Sir, but I don't want to waste your time. This law firm cannot help you."

"Huh? Why the hell not?!"

He chuckled. "I mean I can't help you unless you're a millionaire with money to throw around. They have the best legal teams down there. We'd be up against individuals infamous for dragging out lawsuits for years. If you're rich now you'd be piss poor by the end, and that's the God's honest truth."

"Well, who in the hell can help me? Nobody will even hear me out!"

"I don't know, Sir, but I wish the best of luck to you."

And he hung up.

Mike tossed the phone onto the table. "He was a little more forthcoming than the others. They just said no. I don't know what to do!"

Shelby sat there, feeling frozen. There were two more lawyers on their list of fifteen. She urged Mike to call both of them. He did, but he was met with similar results.

"Nancy told me this," Shelby finally said.

"Who? That woman told you about this?"

Shelby nodded. "She told me it would be pointless to sue them. I didn't want to believe her. Now I do. I mean short of some real big city or TV famous lawyer..."

"Wanting to work pro bono," Mike sighed.

Shelby shrugged. "I don't know what to do either."

~~~~~~~~

Mike laid down in his bedroom to get a few hours of sleep before he had to turn back around and go back into work.

Shelby was...irritated. She felt pissed off. She had energy to burn but no way to burn it. She wanted to go out for a run but honestly was afraid to go outside. So she made herself a turkey and cheese and lettuce sandwich. She got out the store-bought tub of potato salad and put a big dollop on her plate. Her leg nervously bounced the entire time she ate.

She thought about calling Michelle but her cell phone was at the Addington Company, along with her best shoes, her purse, and her interview dress. They didn't have a landline. It was a waste of money, Mike had said just before he'd cacelled it. So she sat quietly in the trailer watching bad daytime TV. She watched a judge show where the plaintiff was angry because a woman had backed out on a deal they had had together for her to buy some purebred puppies off of him.

Oh, to have such frivolous problems, Shelby thought.

She allowed her brain to wander over the past several hours. She was an arsonist now, she thought. Firemen weren't stupid. They would find out the fire had been intentionally set. And since she was gone, it wouldn't be rocket science to find out that it was she that had set it.

She wondered what Nancy was doing now? How much damage had she had caused the building? Was Nancy able to get back into her apartment? And, my God, what about Joelle and Cranston? If she had hurt them she'd never be able to forgive herself. They were innocents in this, for sure, and their apartment was much closer to the BDSM room than Nancy's.

Shelby sighed. What was done was done. There was no going back, that's for sure.

She chanced a trip out to the mailbox at the end of their short driveway, and thankfully she neither met nor saw anybody. She plopped everything down on the kitchen table when she caught the headline on the Stationville Times for the day. It said: "Fire at Addington Investments!" There was a picture taken last night of flames coming out of the side of the fourth floor of the building. It was black and white and taken far enough away and in the dark that she couldn't recognize the individuals standing outside on the sidewalk, but she assumed Nancy was one of them.

Actually...as she looked closely, she recognized the granny square afghan from the apartment's couch that a figure was wrapped up in. That had to be Nancy.

Shelby studied the picture. The photographer had taken the photo of Nancy's back, and Nancy's head was tilted back as she watched her beloved building burn.