She assured me she would not. I told her where to meet me. When Maria got into my car I showed her my pistol and she reached for the door handle. I ...unched her in the head and knocked her out cold, then handcuffed her hands behind her back. I used a strip of tape to gag her. She came around as I drove into my garage. I dragged her out of the car and shoved her toward my game room. She quickly turned and kicked at me, but I grabbed her foot and raised it. She landed flat on her back, knocking. Thomas never knew that there weresecret doors and walls in this plantation, and he didn't want to bepresent to find out who or what could be coming from this particularwall. Immediately spotting the partially open closet door, he quietlysprinted over to the closet entrance and closed the door, but leaving asmall gap so he could at least see what was going on.An elegant cloaked figure soon emerged from the wall, holding hands withwhat appeared to be Thomas's master, Oliver Walters. Judging by. Apparently they feel safe in letting you leave without a room check when they have your credit card info to bill any surprises to. I left the key card in the room, went down the back stairs to my bike and got my gear stashed for the long ride out to the house and then did a quick trip over to the IHOP for one last breakfast.Smiling Mila was my waitress this morning, and the smile was wide the entire time. I'm not sure I saw her actually wait on anyone else while I was there either, though I. Damn! It wasn't even 7:30 yet!After a nice hot shower and a change of clothes, I decided I was hungry. I hadn't heard any sounds of mom stirring upstairs yet, but I figured she'd stir plenty quick if she smelled breakfast cooking.I had another of those 'pause and think' moments while I tried to rebuild for myself some memory of what I knew how to cook at this age the first time around. I'd been a bachelor most of my life, and was a decent cook, but as I remembered it, at fourteen I had mastered.