[sarahsarah]

Chapter 7

Alex entered her apartment after the slightly longer than planned shopping trip and to her surprise was greeted by a faint whimper; at first it confused her; the slave knew to be silent in his cage at all times but she decided to follow the sound. It was coming from the bathroom. She knocked gently on the door with faint crying sounds coming from within and immediately knew it was Sophia. “Soph… honey… please open the door and talk to me.” Alex waited patiently and a few sobs later the door opened and Sophia hobbled out.
“What do you want Alex?” She asked keeping her head low.
“I want to know you’re alright, I want to know what has happened, and you’re never like this.” Alex replied calmingly as she took hold of Sophia and brought her into her arms. Soph, whatever it is don’t worry about a thing. I just want to help and support you” Alex stroked Sophia’s hair gently as Sophia sniffled.
“I don’t think I can say” Sophia sniffled. “It was so scary.”
Alex rested her arms on Sophia’s shoulders “Come to the sofas, I’ll mix up an Irish coffee and then when you’ve settled down a bit, we’ll sort this whole thing out.” Alex smiled then left to make the drinks.

“OK, now are you going to tell me what happened, you know you can say anything and I’ll stand by your side.” Alex sat next to Sophia and rested her hand on her knee.
Sophia shuddered a little as she whispered “They said they’d hurt me badly if I said anything.”
“Nobody will hurt you, not with me around. You’re 100 percent safe. Now tell me what is going on, you’re worrying me a little. Who are they?”
“It was in the loading bay…………… after work…………..” She sniffled “……………the missing stock…………… the three of them……………they, they, they……………”
“Stop there Soph. You’ve said enough. If it’s OK with you I can access the CCTV from my laptop here, I can see for myself what happened and then we can work out what to do. Is that OK?”
Sophia nodded. “But don’t make me watch, I can’t face it.”
Alex set up the laptop and rewound the CCTV to the exact point of the attack on Sophia. What she saw maintained her attention. The four figures on screen transfixed her. There was no sound but the newly installed surveillance cameras were showing a lot. She had no idea what had just happened, but the final result was terrifying.

Alex immediately put her arm around Sophia “Is your ankle OK?” Alex asked. She knew it sounded lame but it was all she could think to say.
“Its fine, I just twisted it slightly.”
“That’s good.” Alex mulled over what to do and exactly what she’d just seen; she could get them all arrested right now, call the police, there was enough evidence to easily convict the three of them. Not just the assault but the theft which had been ongoing could send them all down for years. “So what do you want to do?”
“What do you mean what I want to do? What can I do? They threatened me, threatened to find me, hurt me, they were serious.” Sophia pulled away slightly and looked up into Alex’s eyes and was met by a comforting determined look.
“An empty threat dear; but to be safe, you’ll be staying at mine tonight and for the foreseeable future. I will get someone to pick up your stuff. My slave will be silent I’ll ensure and you can have all the comforts you want. As for what you can do, there are a few things. Firstly you can call the police obviously. I have enough evidence that there is no doubt what happened and all three will probably face long jail sentences. However this puts me down three members of a department with only 5 people. It also lets them off easy in my opinion after hurting someone I care about so much.” Alex looked down to Sophia and smiled. “There is another option but this is your decision not mine.”
“And what would that be Alex?” Sophia enquired clearly curious.

The next day Sophia arrived at the company determined but still slightly worried. Alex had explained everything and made it sound so easy, but Sophia was not convinced entirely. She trusted Alex to the end of the world but this seemed insane and not even possible, but if anyone, then Alex.
She walked into the department where Alex had been the last two hours working out some finer details and to ensure she had sorted out the missing stock, the new orders and morning emails before she faced everyone.
Sophia was nervous as she walked past Ken, Tina and Sue’s stations. Ken shot her the darkest look ever, almost a warning that yesterday was serious. Tina and Sue stopped mid conversation to glare at her menacingly. Sophia hurried away. How could they have done this to her, made her feel scared. Especially Sue, she always thought they got along but yesterday had shown her otherwise. Sophia almost ran up to her office to the satisfaction of the other three; they’d clearly gotten to her. She walked straight past her own desk and into Alex’s office. “Is everything ready?”
“Of course darling. Now, are you sure about this, we can still forget it all and call the police. It is entirely your decision. I’ll support you whatever you choose.”
“I trust you Alex. If you say this will work, it will work, and we can always turn to plan B later if we must.” Sophia forced a smile. “So what do we do?”
Alex stood up, “you are going to ask Tina, Sue and Ken to me office as you would do as part of the job for the meeting with me as was already planned and scheduled with the team. After the five of us are in the office, you leave it to me unless you absolutely feel you must interfere. After that we wait. Now ask them to come up to the meeting with me.”
Sophia nodded, stood up and walked out.
Alex prepared herself for what comes next; she loved these moments but was always anxious in case it didn’t go to plan. She’d thought it all out last night, now it was up to fate.

Sophia walked back to the floor and approached Tina and Sue, she put on a shaky voice as she talked to them. “Girls…. Alex would like you to go up for the scheduled meeting…. If that’s OK.” She lowered her head and backed a couple of paces away. Tina sniggered in slight joy at Sophia’s tension.
“Thanks for the message; we’ll be up in a few moments.” Sue replied hopeful that yesterday’s madness would disappear and all would go as she hoped. She struggled to get any sleep, scared of what Sophia would do. Sue knew the threat was empty, or at least it was to her, all she wanted was for the last day to disappear.
“OK, I’ll tell Ken and then the three of you can head up.” Sophia scurried away towards ken’s small office. Once there the smell of sweat hit her harder than ever. It was clear Ken was nervous, scared even about the coming meeting.
“Ken.” He quickly turned around in shock at the intrusion but quickly gained his composure. “Alex would like to see you for the scheduled meeting in her office.”
“Oh…. Thanks…. I’ll be there shortly.” Ken had been racking his head around what would happen today, his job, his home life, his everything seemed to be hanging by threads.
Sophia quickly hurried back to Alex and took the seat to her left, three seats sat opposite.

The three employees entered together with Sue and Tina clearly trying to hide their disgust with Ken’s appearance and hygiene.
“Please take a seat.” Alex gestured to the three seats opposite and all three quickly sat down. “I have a few things I need to talk to you all about and I expect silence throughout until I finish. You may then quickly ask any questions before being dismissed. Understand?” Alex finished and all three nodded giving Alex queue to continue.
“Firstly after a discussion with the board your roles are going to be changed. Firstly Sue will now take on the role of shipping manager, Ken you will be demoted into her role.” Alex said sharply as Sue smiled. Everything must be going as planned.
Ken seethed in anger “WAIT…. WHAT!!!...HER!?”
“Silence!” Alex responded firmly and sharply. “I don’t want another word til I have finished.” The authority in her voice hushed the room and Sophia smiled as she saw the domineering personality awake in her girlfriend. “This was the case even before some recent events.” With that she spun the monitor in front of her around to show a still frame of the loading bay from the evening before. “Before I happened to see this on my recently installed surveillance.”
The three employees gasped in unison unsure what to do, what to say, there was nothing. Silence lingered in the room for a good minute before Alex continued.
“As you can all see this occurrence was highly discomforting to I and of course to my trusted employee next to me. You are all extremely fortunate that we haven’t gone straight to the police.”
“You wouldn’t dream of it” Ken stammered at Alex struggling to catch his breath but trying to force some control back. The evidence was clear, they were caught red handed.
“Wouldn’t I Mr Adams, right now I don’t think you are in any position to say what I will and won’t do. Now I suggest you be quiet as the next time you speak without me asking and I won’t think twice. That goes for you two as well.” Alex indicated to all of them. Sue and Tina were too dumbstruck for words.
“As you can see though we haven’t yet called the police and I do hope that I won’t have to, however if this is to be the case then so be it.”
“Please….Please don’t.” Tina whimpered in a desperate plea. Alex chose to ignore the interruption.
“I do have an offer for you though, a way of redeeming yourselves and I take it all of you are interested.” Alex looked quickly at the three nodding heads before continuing. “Call it a change of contract. Firstly you will all take a 30% pay cut, a small amount towards what you have robbed from my company in the last few months. Secondly you may not leave the company on any grounds until I say you may leave. You will continue to do your jobs completely to my satisfaction.
“Thirdly and finally you will do absolutely anything and everything that I, or Sophia here, ask of you at any point without hesitation no matter what, when or where it is.”
“And if we don’t?” asked Sue rather calmly but angered inside.
“Well that’s obvious, I ring the police, you go to prison and see how that affects everything else.” The three gasped again and tears formed in Tina’s eyes. Sophia smiled, she knew everything was going to plan and Alex had delivered her speech to perfection with no wiggle room.
“I will say that this is an all or nothing deal though, the three of you must all agree to these demands or we call the police. You have until the end of your shift to talk it over, and decide between you. If you all agree you will return together to this office at 5pm and sign your new contracts. Any questions before you leave?”