Chapter 9

I WAS STILL SCREAMING WHEN STRONG HANDS tore Todd away from me.

I gasped, struggling up into a sitting position. My blouse was torn open, my breasts exposed and bruised with the savage young mouth that had sucked at them. My skirt was hiked up to my thighs, my panties ripped down around my knees. I hastily hid my nakedness as best I could while Todd and Joe fought in the middle of the room.

I had been saved at the eleventh hour, but my nerves were shattered.

I breathed life-giving gulps of air as the sound of fists and strangled curses rocked the room.

Thank God Joe was larger than Todd-and stronger. He landed a few blows on Todd's luckless chin and Todd crumbled, his throat letting forth a stream of vileness. Joe stood over him, fists clenched, eyes flashing with hatred and anger.

"You touch her again, you bastard, and I'll castrate you!" Joe shouted. like a wounded animal, Todd crawled a few feet away, nursing his shattered lips and his damaged jaw.

Joe turned, helping me to my feet. "Are you okay, Mary? I'll kick his damned head off if...."

"No ... no," I breathed, shaking my head. "I'm all right. You came just in time."

Joe threw an angry glance around the room. "Where the hell is King?" he demanded. "Why didn't he stop this!"

I motioned weakly toward the bedroom. "He and

Rita...." I whispered. "That slut!"

Joe strode quickly to the bedroom door and kicked it open. "Dammit, King," he shouted. "Can't you quit pawing that whore long enough to stop a rape!"

King appeared at the door in his shorts, his face smeared with Rita's cheap lipstick.

"Huh?" he mumbled. "What is it?"

"Todd was out here attacking Mary. She was screaming bloody murder when I came in. Why didn't you...."

"Why don't you stick around and protect her yourself?" Rita hissed, appearing beside King and sliding a long, limp arm around his waist. She was naked except for a pair of frilly black panties. Her breasts, swollen and taut, jiggled obscenely. She glared at Joe with contempt. "Todd was only giving her what she wanted, if you ask me," Rita finished, hoarsely.

"Nobody asked you," Joe spat.

"Man, you're gonna have the whole damned neighborhood in here if you don't cool it," King pleaded. "Okay, so Rita and me got carried away. Todd wasn't gonna do anything to your girl except...."

"like hell he wasn't. He was trying to rape her!"

King shrugged. "Well, you oughta know how that is, buddy. They didn't put you behind bars for picking flowers in a park,"

"You're a bastard, too!" Joe snarled.

I sank on the sofa again, too limp and too disgusted to stand.

"Sure, sure," King husked. "I'm a bastard; Todd's a bastard; and you're a bastard. We're all bastards. Satisfied?" He ran his good hand over Rita's jiggling breasts, touching the hardened nipples with his thumb. "But we're in this damned mess together, and if we go around losing our heads over nothing...."

"I don't call my girl's body nothing," Joe insisted, his voice dropping a little. "While I'm out trying to rake up the money to get us out of this goddamned hole, you screw your piece and Todd here feels up my girl."

"Forget it, man. Todd's just horny, like the rest of us. You can't blame him for wanting...."

"I'll murder the rat if he tries it again."

Joe turned and stared hard at Todd who had by now pulled himself backup in the chair and was pouring himself another strong drink.

"You got that, Todd," Joe threatened. "I said you so much as look at my girl's ankles and I'll kick your head into shit."

"Yeah," Todd muttered, his mouth pulled down into a grimace of loathing. "Sure, you keep your virgin cunt all to yourself."

Later, when Rita and King were back in the living room, making love again on the sofa, I lay down in the bedroom in the darkness. I didn't remove my clothes this time. I felt filthy and defiled. I hated myself and everything I had done in the past months to get myself into his position.

When Joe came to bed, his arms snaked around me but I pushed him away.

"Mary," he moaned. "C'mon, let's forget Todd. I need you again, baby...."

I couldn't forget how he had left me alone; how it had really been his fault that Todd and I were thrown together; putting Todd into a position of being tempted; being driven to fire up his sleeping, youthful lust.

"Don't touch me, Joe," I breathed, pulling farther away from him. "Don't touch me now or I'll ... I'll never forgive you."

We both lay in silence, breathing separately, as if the thing that had so long held us together had suddenly broken in mid-air ... like a crippled bird, and was dropping quickly down through endless space ... darkness ...

The next morning at the small breakfast table, Todd stared sullenly at me and looked away in elaborate disgust. King and Rita were still playing the great lovers. She sat on King's lap and fed him bits of toast and sips of coffee while his good hand was planted firmly on her bulging breasts. The radio blared continuously in the living room with no sign yet that anything at all had happened at Mason Reformatory.

"There's something funny about that," Joe said, pulling worriedly at his cigarette. "They have to know by now. Why don't they say something?"

King shrugged, nibbling a bit of toast Rita was coyly proffering to his coarse lips. "Maybe you tied them ropes too good," King said. "Maybe...."

"A third grader could have worked free of those ropes by now," Joe snapped. "The warden's no fool. My hunch is he's keeping our break under wraps for a reason-maybe to fool us."

"The law don't play that way," King insisted. "They don't keep anything from the press. After all, we're dangerous characters. The public needs to be warned about us." King laughed throatily and Rita joined him with a sputter of senseless giggles.

"I've got to locate George today," Joe breathed, thickly. "If I don't, then I smell a double cross."

King scoffed. "George wouldn't cross us," he argued. "He knows we'd tear out his guts. My hunch is you didn't look in the right places."

"I looked where we told him we'd look," Joe insisted. "It's dangerous enough for me to get out there-to show myself-and George knows it. Why the hell didn't we tell him to come to us?"

"You know George-the mastermind," King grunted. "He figured if anybody is gonna get caught, let it be us. He doesn't want to be trailed here. like the man said, George don't want to get involved."

"Well, he is involved-right up to his throat. He's got our money."

"You worry too much," King advised, nibbling now at Rita's ear. "You'll find him right where he's supposed to be today. I got a feeling."

"Joe," I said, quietly. "If you're going outlet me go with you."

"Can't, Mary. It's dangerous enough for one. I can't take the chance."

Rita smiled scornfully. "What he means is, honey, he doesn't trust you. After all, it wasn't your idea to come on this little hayride, was it?"

"Shut up, Rita," King said.

Rita grinned again and ran her fingers through King's hair, kissing him heavily on the mouth. "Sure, honey," she gurgled. "Sure, I'll shut up both of us." She smeared her lips over his mouth again.

Joe pushed his chair away from the table. "I'm going out," he muttered. "I'll find that creep George if I have to go on television."

Joe disappeared into the bathroom for a few minutes then reappeared with his hair combed in a funny way. He had a hat in his hand and a pair of dark glasses. He looked at me and tried a quick smile. I lowered my eyes.

"I'll be back," he said. He turned to King. "You remember what I said about Todd," he warned. "I expect you to make sure he keeps his damned hands to himself."

"Does that include me, Joe?" Rita teased. She slid a wary look toward Todd. "I might just get a yen for something new and different later in the day."

King slapped her thigh and she squealed with laughter.

"I don't give a damn what you do," Joe said. "But if he so much as puts his pinkie on Mary, I'll slit his belly right down to his...."

"Oh, my," Rita tittered. "Then he wouldn't be good for what I have in mind-not that way."

Joe slammed out of the door, and King locked it behind him. Rita stood with her hands on her sleazy hips, watching me. I could read unbridled jealousy and contempt mixed in her eyes.

"I tell you what, honey," she purred at me, cattily. "Why don't you do the dishes, since you don't plan to do anything else? King and me have got some unfinished business to attend to in the bedroom."

"Why don't you take Todd along with you," I suggested, disgustedly. "I'm sure you're big enough for two."

Her eyes flashed, claws coming up. "What the hell kind of a crack is that?"

"It's your crack, Rita," I purred, "not mine."

"Goddamn you, you still think you're better than me, don'tcha? Why, you mealy mouthed little bitch...."

She came swiftly at me around the table. King grabbed her and pulled her back, wrenching her arm. "Rita, dammit, leave Joe's girl alone. Can't you see she ain't used to this kind of setup."

"She's a two-bit phony," Rita spat. "She makes me want to vomit!"

"So can it! We got better things to do ... in the bedroom."

Rita's eyes flashed with a sudden, twisted pride. "No ... I don't feel like it. I don't want to."

"What the hell do you want then."

"I want to drink. I want to get so goddamn drunk

I'll forget she's around!"

"Sure," King husked. "Sure, so have a drink. Then we'll go play house. We'll play better after a few drinks, eh?"

They wandered off into the living room where Todd had already opened the first morning's bottle of whiskey.

I stacked the dishes slowly in the sink and turned on the hot water. I intended to stay in the kitchen as long as I could.

The only thing I regretted was that King had the key to the kitchen door in his pocket.

By mid-afternoon all three were drunk. Very drunk.

I still sat at the kitchen table. Only this time I was prepared for anything that might happen. In the drawer with the silverware I had found a butcher knife. I had it now in my hand, upside down, with the long sharp blade under the sleeve of my uniform.

If Todd attempted to rape me again, he would get something for his trouble. The thought that I was actually sitting in a strange house contemplating the possibility of murdering somebody filled me with a deep sickness-a self-disgust.

And yet I had come to realize that when one is suddenly thrust into a jungle, one has to live like the other wild animals; one has to survive or perish.

If that was the rule, then I could at least acknowledge it. Perhaps, if I had to live in this house much longer, I would become an animal myself.

I'm not quite sure when it began to happen, but I was suddenly aware that Todd and Rita were kissing. My senses became alert and my heart jumped in my breast. If King saw them ...

And then I realized that King wasn't capable of seeing anything. He was out cold, snoring soundly in a drunken stupor, an empty fifth of whiskey cradled in his arm.

I knew, with an icy awareness, that Todd had deliberately got King drunk. And doubtlessly Rita had been more than willing to hurry the process along. I could remember now that she had been feeding King drinks all afternoon. Their plan had worked. And now, without shame, they were pawing each other, eager to satiate some burning, hellish lust that permeated the very core of their beings.

I sat very still, watching them. I had little choice. The kitchen had no door and the living room was too small not to be able to see every foot of it. I viewed them with disgusted fascination, the way one watches snakes in a glass case, writhing and twisting their bodies over one another.

They kissed without restraint, their mouths crushed together like damp rags; tongues working, probing, sucking. Their hands roamed over each other's bodies in greedy abandonment. When Todd's fingers laced inside her dressing robe and found the eager melons of her breasts, she tossed her head back and gurgled with animal passion, mouth open, eyes smoldering with desire.

And then she saw me looking at them.

At first a frown smothered the leer on her face, and then a smile came limping back-but a dark smile, twisted, mean.

"Go ahead," she whispered at me, hoarsely. "Watch how a real woman treats a man. I'm going to show you the tricks, Miss Lilly-ass-gonna show you what you passed up last night ... gonna...." Her voice slurred off into a monotone.

I knew she was thoroughly drunk-sot drunk. Both of them were drunk-so numbed with alcohol that their brutal lust-was like hot tar.

She couldn't resist one last taunting hiss in my direction.

"This is a real stud boy, missy," she slurred. "He's got what it takes ... young ... young and hot and that's the way a real woman--likes it! He's more man than you ever had...."

I couldn't resist a mirthless smile deep inside myself. It was almost the same sentiment she had expressed about King the night before. The truth was that a whore can always rationalize the need to satisfy her jaded lusts. Man or boy, it doesn't matter. A whore will rut with anything male.

Todd had worked the front of her robe open now, and her lush tits, bruised from a night of sexual orgy with King, popped out. The ripe nipples strained upward, topping the puffy fullness of her flesh like scarlet thumbs.

"Suck 'em," she moaned, pulling Todd's eager mouth forward and down. "I like' em sucked hard, eat like hell...."

His tongue slathered over the jutting breasts; licking and biting the torrid peaks until she shuddered with pleasure. She squealed in frank delight, urging him on to wilder ways of amusing her. His hands played with the spongy fullness, squeezing and massaging and sucking frantically.

In one violent movement Rita tore open her robe and revealed her naked body. She had wantonly planned all of this, I realized-deliberately not dressing so that when the opportunity came, she could be free to let Todd have his way with her.

He was more than willing to play her game. His hands roamed shamelessly over the burning flesh. Not an inch was left untouched, unfondled. She laughed throatily as his fingers violated the froth of curling hair between her legs. She arched her back, spreading her thighs wide for him, urging him to sink his marauding fingers deeper into the crimson cleft that gaped open, demanding the basest kind of satisfaction.

His mouth was like some kind of monstrous insect, licking over the curves of her body, leaving wet trails of saliva as it traveled downward. She squirmed and laughed, and dug her fingers into his neck, pushing him toward the ultimate seat of his perverting pleasure.

He hovered for a moment over her frothing cunt, his tongue hanging out of his mouth like a rabid dog's. Then he sank his head between her legs and began to gnaw the throbbing flesh of her most private parts. She moaned, grinding her thighs upward to meet his plowing tongue. I felt a swirl of nausea sweep over me.

I staggered up from my chair and stumbled to the sink. I bent over it, very sick, feeling I would faint from the ghastly display of obscene sexuality I had been witness to.

I was just retching when deep cursing howls brought me back into a standing position, rigid with a new fear.

King's drunken voice roared in the next room. I stood clutching the knife as I heard bodies tumbling together and Rita's sharp screams punctuating the sound of flesh smashing against flesh.

I didn't dare move, or breathe.

The battle continued for several minutes-a drunken, murderous brawl with all the furious ac-compliment of crashing wood and shattering glass.

If only I had the key to the door, I thought, blindly.

I glanced at the kitchen table, at the strong chairs that stood there. Perhaps if I broke the door-if I could somehow smash one of the chairs against the door ...

I had the thought-but not the chance.

All my chances ended with the staccato roar of a gun. It petrified me, splintering my eardrums with it thunder.

The thunder came again, and again.

I waited, blood icing now in my veins.

Silence, total, menacing ... then, in a moment, I heard slow footsteps coming toward the kitchen. I turned, holding the knife behind me, ready to kill if I had too.

Todd appeared in the doorway from the living room, his face red with blood, his blond hair twisted and matted on his forehead. He stared at me, holding the gun lowered at his side.

Rita staggered up to him, her face blanched, her lips drawn back in a thin line of horror.

"Dead...." she gasped, hoarsely. "King is dead!"