In a way, Ice's muffled, unintelligible speech was more pleasing than if she was able to properly phonate. There was something about the heavily filtered nonsense that was coming past the cheesecloth and copious amounts of tape, that fueled Patrick. There would be time for two-way conversations later. For now, Patrick enjoyed taking Ice's speech away. All it would do was get in the way. She'd beg and plead and jabber at him about how he didn't know what love is, blah, blah, blah. Who needs all that noise. The cheesecloth wad and tape seal would stay, probably until well into the next day.<br/><br/>He looked down at her bare feet, pedicured and cute. They tapped harmlessly against the floor. Her toes wiggled uselessly. But it was adorable.<br/><br/>Patrick stood back and looked at her. His prize.<br/><br/>"I must admit, that went a lot smoother than I had planned it," he said of her abduction. "Good thing you have a job where hardly anyone is around when you get off work."<br/><br/>Patrick tested the chains and made sure they were well secured in their rings in the floor.<br/><br/>"Your co-worker there....what's his name? I know sometimes he escorts you to your car. But I was ready for him. If he tried to get between us, I would have hurt him bad. I'm not afraid of a man escorting you to your car, Ice. They say they do it to make you feel safe, but they never expect anything to happen. By the time he realized that shit was going down, he wouldn't have a chance to do anything to protect you."<br/><br/>Patrick said all this so matter-of-factly. It was like time had slowed down for him. All his preparation and planning had paid off. So by the time it came to kidnap Ice, everything slowed down so he could deal with things properly and with a level head.<br/><br/>"Now let's show you the new wardrobe I bought, Ice," he said, unzipping a large canvas bag that was in the corner. "Some of this stuff might be wrinkled but I can throw it in the dryer to fluff it up."