Heartfield Ranch (Communities of Discipline Book 2) (15 page)

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It was Clay’s good fortune that he was holding the phone when it rang, and he knew as soon as he brought it to his ear that there was trouble on the other end of the line. He could hear a woman’s voice, the shrill tone familiar but one he could not place, and he refrained from calling out as he listened. It only took a minute for him to piece together that Karen and Ann Marie were not at the conference.

Running from the tractor shed, he sprinted across the yard to where he’d last seen Jake. He was still there at the Wickhams, helping Randy install new cabinets in the kitchen. Lynette was at the table, pounding dough down for a loaf of bread. Everyone looked up when Clay came running in.

“Jake,” he said. “You need to get out here, fast.”

Jake Markum stood. “Why, what’s wrong?” he asked.

“It’s the women. They’re in trouble.”

“Where?” Jake looked confused. “They’re still at the conference, aren’t they?”

“I don’t think so,” Clay said. “I’m not sure where they are, but Karen hit the send button on her phone and I heard voices. It sounds like Ann Marie and Karen were in some sort of distress.”

“But where are they?” Jake’s face was a mask of worry. “How will we find them?”

“I know where they are.”

All turned to see the ashen face of Lynette, who stood with her hand still in the center of the doughy mass.

“They went to see Ann Marie’s parents. This afternoon. They made plans to go during a break between workshops.”

Randy turned to his wife. “You knew this?”

She nodded and swallowed.

“Did you know that I didn’t want Ann Marie to go?” Jake asked.

Again Lynette nodded. “Yes. She told me. I’m sorry. I didn’t think..”

“Apparently not, Lynette,” Clay snapped. “After what happened, if the women are planning to go behind our backs and visit the woman who tried to destroy Heartfield, that’s the kind of thing we need to know.”

He turned to Jake. “Let’s go.” Then to Randy. “You want to come with us?”

But Randy was already rolling up his sleeves. “No,” he said. “I’ve got something to take care of right here.”

The two other men were already down the steps when Randy Wickham pulled out the kitchen chair, sat down and pulled Lynette over his lap. She did not fight as he pulled her skirt up and jerked her panties down to mid-thigh, and she braced herself as he picked up the small breadboard from the table and slammed it down hard onto her bottom. Within moments she was sobbing uncontrollably, her bottom was burning worse than it had during any previous spanking. The heat built to a nearly unbearable level, and Lynette kicked frantically as her husband’s unflagging arm rose and fell over and over.

Randy did not lecture. He knew he did not need to. Secrets were frowned on in Heartfield, and between husband and wives they were forbidden. Lynette’s secret had done more than cause marital discord, however; it had put two women and perhaps the entire community at risk. Again. And Randy was determined to make sure his wife knew just how displeased he was with her behavior. She was trying to scoot off his lap now from the pain, but he hauled her back up and trapped both her legs with his before continuing his blistering assault on her tortured bottom.

She was sobbing now, and begging for mercy as he concentrated his efforts on the lower part of her buttocks and tops of her thighs. Randy Wickham had faith that the other women would come home safely, but he wanted to make sure when they did they realized that bringing his wife into their plan had cost her dearly. And he knew she wouldn’t be the only one to pay. If Ann Marie and Karen got out of this current predicament unscathed, their worries wouldn’t be over. Randy didn’t have to ask to know that those two were in for the spankings of their lives.

“You won’t get away with this,” Karen said. “And I’m not going to sign anything, so get that out of your head right now.”

“No?” Jarret Miller smirked. “You’d be wise to reconsider, especially given that the – how shall I put this – well-being of your cute little friend in there wholly depends on your cooperation, just as she realizes your well-being depends on hers.”

They were alone in the drawing room, and Karen was still reeling from the situation, and wishing she’d listened to Clay in the first place. There was no way to know whether he’d gotten her call.

“You can’t force Ann Marie to live here,” Karen said. “She’s a grown woman and an investigation has cleared Heartfield of any wrongdoing. She can live there if she wants.”

Miller laughed deeply. “You’re quite right, but we’re not planning to make her live here. In an hour, some of my men will be here to escort Miss Fales..”

“She’s married,” Karen hissed. “Her last name is Markum.”

“She won’t be after it’s annulled, Sweet Cheeks,” Miller replied, and flicked the blade against Karen’s face. “Don’t you interrupt me again, or you’ll regret it. Hear?”

Karen nodded but kept her eyes on him.

“As I said, in an hour or so, my associates will take Miss Fales to the airport, where a private plane will take her out of the country.”

“To where?” Karen demanded to know.

“Like I’d tell you,” Miller laughed. “Let’s just say where she’s going has another compound, this one owned by a man experienced in deprogramming or, as I like to think of it, convincing people that the decisions of association weren’t right for them after all. By the time she returns, she’ll be prepared to back up what you’re about to write in a statement.”

Miller pulled out a piece of paper and a pen. “Start writing.”

“Fuck off,” Karen said.

Miller stood, cracked his knuckles, turned to the window as if thinking, and then rounded on her. Karen, whose hands were bound behind her back, was helpless to stop him and felt herself being lifted up and shoved facedown on the desk.

Miller’s hands began to roam her body. “My sources tell me that you’ve hooked up with that cult leader,” he said, his hand sliding up her legs and across her bottom. “I can see why he likes you. He’s an upstanding guy, right? Do you think he’d still want you if he found out you’d had sex with another man?”

Karen felt a knot of fear coil in her stomach. This man was crazy, and she had no doubt that he would follow through with his threat if she did not cooperate.

“All right,” she said, her voice shaky. “I’ll do what you say, OK? Just don’t hurt me.”

“I don’t want to hurt you, sweetie,” Miller said in a mocking tone. “But mark my words, if just one pretty toe gets out of line you’ll be sorry. I gave my word to Mrs. Fales, and she can afford to pay me for taking however long it needs to put you in line.”

He pushed Karen back down into the chair. “Now,” he said, undoing the cuffs that held her hands together. “Are we ready to start writing?”

Karen picked up the pen. “If I do this, what guarantee do I have that you won’t hurt Ann Marie?” she asked.

“You don’t,” he said, laughing again. “You just have the guarantee that I won’t hurt her in front of you.”

“Her mother wouldn’t let you do that,” Karen said.

“Shows what you know,” Miller said. “That woman has a heart as hard as the diamonds in her rings.”

The comment made Karen sad, especially when she recalled how hopeful Ann Marie had been about a possible reunion with her mother.

“So what do you want me to write?” she asked.

Miller began to recite to her as he paced back and forth across the room. “I, Karen Patterson, being of sound mind and body, do attest that I entered Heartfield as an investigator and fell victim to the culture of drugs and physical intimidation pervasive at the group’s compound. I personally witnessed the daily degradation of women, particularly as regards Ann Marie Fales, who was forced into marriage with cult member Jake Markum. I personally engaged in the obstruction and cover-up of the investigation I was charged with conducting, and did lie to and hide evidence from my superiors regarding Heartfield members’ trade in illegal drugs and guns. I now come forward from not only the guilt I feel, but from a deep conviction to help my friend Ann Marie Fales, who is seeking outside help from a psychologist with the aid of a generous and loving mother.”

Miller laughed again, as if amused by the last line.

“Do you have that?” he asked, turning to her.

“I wrote what you said,” she said.

“Good.” Miller walked over. “Let me see it.”

Karen didn’t look at his face when he picked up the paper. She just braced herself so she’d be ready when she was grabbed. And he did, violently pulling her from the chair as he dropped the paper where she’d written “bullshit” to the floor. The paper was covered in one word written over and over: Bullshit.

“You fucking little bitch,” he said. “You’re going to be sorry you came here today.”

“I already am,” Karen said before delivering her second surprise as she drove the pen into Miller’s upper arm.

Miller screamed and spun around, his hand clutching the pen sticking out of the bloody wound in his arm. Karen took advantage of his being diverted to burst from the room and return to the last place she’d seen Ann Marie. She ran into the drawing room to find her friend sitting in the chair, crying, her mother standing over her.

Melissa Fales’ face registered instant shock when she saw her daughter’s friend. “What are you..? How…?”

Karen wasn’t about to answer. Besides, she knew herself well enough to know that if she were forced to remain in that beastly woman’s company one second longer she’d probably break her nose just as Ann Marie had done more than a month earlier on the compound.

“Come on.” Karen took Ann Marie’s hand and pulled her from the chair, ignoring the angry cries of Melissa Fales as she watched them go. As they ran past the drawing room, Ann Marie screamed as Miller barreled out, hot on their heels.

“Hurry!” Karen yelled, and they burst from the door and were almost to the truck when Ann Marie slipped and fell. Karen turned in time to see Miller rush to tackle her, but he didn’t get the chance. A figure emerged from behind the bushes and tackled Miller from the side. It took Karen a moment to realize it was Jake, who was rolling around now with the man as Clay emerged to pull Karen and Ann Marie to safety. For a moment, Karen worried that Miller would hurt Jake, or that he might have a gun, but if he did Jake Markum wasn’t allowing him to reach it.

Miller was on his back now, his face slammed from side to side by Jake’s fist.

“I think he’s had enough, ladies, don’t you?” Clay rushed over and pulled his friend off Miller who lay bleeding and moaning on the gravel.

“I’m calling the police!” Melissa Fales was screaming from the doorway.

“Don’t bother,” Clay said. “I already have.”

Ann Marie’s mother grew quiet, and her face grew pale as she looked down at Jarret Miller, whom she instantly claimed not to know when the police arrived. Only later would Karen, Ann Marie, Clay and Jake learn the truth – which was that Melissa Fales’ associate was wanted on multiple warrants that would put him back in jail. And this time, he would have company when, months later, Ann Marie’s mother was also convicted for kidnapping.

It would be a hard road for Ann Marie, but it gave her the closure she needed. And neither she nor Karen would ever forget the lesson their men taught them once they arrived back at the compound.

Punishment for their deception took place in the barn, and the men decided that women who disobeyed together shouldn’t mind being spanked together.

“So who’s first?” Clay asked, his brawny arms crossed across his chest. Both Karen and Ann Marie looked furtively at one another, neither wanting to be first but both equally reluctant to be the first to witness the other’s chastisement.

“Clay,” Karen said, “is this really necessary?” Never before had she felt so small or so scared. Or so deserving of what was about to happen. She should have known how wrong things could go at the Fales’ house. She should have listened.

“Since we don’t have a volunteer, I’m going to pull one from the audience.” Jake stepped forward now and drug a struggling, whimpering Ann Marie across the floor to a stack of hay bales. Sitting down, he pulled her across his lap, ignoring her protests as he lifted the hem of her skirt. Ann Marie wore pink panties that hugged her shapely bottom. Karen felt deep sympathy for her friend, knowing full well that Ann Marie’s bottom would likely be several shades pinker within the next few minutes.

Ann Marie was still whimpering and already begging for mercy as her much larger and stronger husband restrained her in preparation for the spanking. For Karen, this represented one of the worst parts of being punished. The anticipation of what was coming was nearly as terrible as the chastisement itself, and she knew on this night for both of them the ordeal would be far worse due to the added humiliation the men were forcing them to endure.

With Ann Marie over his knee, Jake began to lecture. “Ann Marie Markum,” he began, “did I or did I not forbid you from taking that trip to your parents’ house?”

“You told me not to go!” she answered pitifully.

“Did you go anyway?” His big hand roamed her bottom as he asked, and Karen shuddered at how her friend flinched in dread anticipation at his touch.

“I did, Jake. But I’m sorry. You know I am!”

“Not as sorry as your going to be,” Jake replied, and raised his hand high before bringing it down in a stinging blow onto Ann Marie’s bottom.

Karen flinched as if she were the one who’d been hit and tried to look away, but Clay would not let her.

“Oh no you don’t,” he said, reaching down to grab her bottom in a hard squeeze. “You’re going to watch every moment of this, Karen, because you could have stopped it.”

Karen glanced up at him, her eyes filling with tears, and then forced herself to continue watching her friend’s chastisement. Ann Marie was crying in earnest now as Jake’s large hand leveled alternating spanks between the left and right buttock, working first on the highest part of the curve, down to the top of her thighs and up again on the other side.

Karen gasped when Jake pulled Ann Marie’s panties down, and looked up at Clay, her eyes imploring as she silently begged to be excused from watching. But Clay’s stern gaze made her realize that he would not relent in his decision.

Jake leaned down now and picked up a leather strap by his feet. Ann Marie, who had seen the strap from the corner of her eye, began to wail and beg, but Jake ignored her and began to stripe her backside with the implement as his wife’s cries turned to deep-throated sobs.

“Please, please, please ..,” Ann Marie wailed as Jake continued to apply the strap with devastating accuracy.

“Are you going to lie to me again?” he asked sternly.

Ann Marie’s cries of “no” were barely discernable through her cries, but Jake heard them and finally decided she’d learned her lesson.

“Stand up,” he said, hauling Ann Marie to her feet. When she tried to rub her searing bottom with her hands, Jake stopped her and marched her to the corner of the barn, where he forced her to stand in the corner, her welted, red backside on display.

Karen looked frantically at Clay. Would he make her do that, too? Her eyes were desperate with an unspoken plea for mercy. Never had she been so afraid of anyone, not even when she’d been in danger during her work on the police force. There was something worse about this situation; perhaps it was the fact that she knew she was wrong, and that – having submitted to Clay’s authority – she would have to accept whatever punishment he deemed necessary.

He’d asked her before taking her to the barn if she was prepared to accept his decision to spank her, telling her then that he and Jake had decided that both she and Ann Marie would be spanked together. And Karen, who felt terrible for putting herself and Ann Marie in danger, had replied that she was prepared, although she also admitted to being afraid. Now, as she stood before Clay, she realized just how much more afraid she could be. Clay lectured her before he put her over his knee, telling her how as a former cop, she should have known better, and how disappointed he was that she’d chosen to start their life together with lies and deceit.

As he spoke, Jake pulled Ann Marie from the corner and forced her to stand where Karen had stood moments earlier. Karen looked over at Ann Marie and realized when she did that her friend felt the same way she had when she’d realized she’d have to witness her punishment.

Closing her eyes, Karen answered, “Yes, sir,” softly to Clay as he asked her if she was prepared to take responsibility for her actions. But as he went to pull her over his knee, she felt her resolve give way.

“Please, Clay,” she began to cry. “Can’t we please do this privately?”

“No, Karen,” he said. “You know it has to be done this way. And you know why.”

Karen began to whimper in fear as Clay unbuttoned her jeans and pulled them down to her knees. Her face reddened with the knowledge that Jake could see her panty-clad bottom, and when Clay began to pull her panties down she began to pull at his hands, desperate to keep them up.

“Hands down!” he barked, and Karen felt a stinging sensation on the back of her thighs that made her shriek. Turning, she caught sight of the switch but had no time to react before she felt the bite of it penetrate the skin of her right buttock.

“No!” she cried. “No, please Clay. No more!!”

Clay’s response was to target a dozen fiery snaps of the switch across Karen’s bottom, leaving red lines to bloom where the implement landed.  Karen rocked back and forth and shrieked in pain as she desperately tried to put her hands behind her and shield her bottom. Within moments her cries had filled the barn, and Jake was having to hold his wife’s hands to keep her from covering her eyes and ears. When Karen’s bottom was covered with thin red weals, he dropped the switch and – borrowing a leaf from his friend’s book – continued to spank her with his hand. The individual lines screamed under the broad assault, and Karen bucked under this renewed pain.

She began to spew a litany of promises and pleas, vowing never to disobey again and swearing never to give Clay any reason to even scold her. But still Clay continued, tipping her forward on his lap now until the skin of her lower buttocks was stretched and vulnerable.

He focused his last dozen spanks on this most sensitive skin, delivering the smacks hard enough to leave the red imprints of his fingers on the sit spot,”where she’d be sure to feel it for days.

When he’d finished, Clay put Karen in the corner, where she cried out in genuine regret for what she’d done. But as always, she knew her fiancé only spanked her if she deserved it. She’d survived it. It was over. And she vowed as she stood there never, ever to give him a reason to punish her like that again.