Chapter 9
If ever Adrian wanted to die, it was when she awoke laying on her back, squinting through swollen eye lids and feeling every muscle in her body throb with savage pain . . . especially her vagina and anus. The mental pain came next, matching the physical aches throb for throb. On top of that, self loathing washed in a guilt-capped tidal wave. She slept through that day and night, not waking until early Sunday morning when a sliver of stabbing light illuminated the master bedroom where she slept, her arms entwined around Carmen's.
She felt as if a sledge hammer had cleaved it in two, and with difficulty she raised it to glance down to Carmen's sleeping body. She looked horrible, like a fifty year old menopausal whore. Their eyes didn't meet until Perry brought in a silver tray with a pot of coffee, buttered toast and alka seltzer. Adrian sat up in bed, moaning, and grabbed for one of the kimonos someone had brought in for them.
"Do you take cream and sugar?" Pain stabbed through Adrian's buttocks as she staggered to her feet and limped over to the coffee table to prepare the coffee, tying her robe as she walked.
"Sugar . . . " Carmen rustled into the other kimono and tied it around her waist, her soft white breasts fairly bursting through the silk. The sound of a spoon measuring sugar and stirring it tinkled from the other side of the room.
"I'm sorry about this mess I got you into, Adrian. Damn, it sounds stupid, but.. . " Carmen sucked in her breath and sighed. "Oh, thanks . . . " she reached out for the coffee and held it to her lips, blowing away the steam, cooling it.
"That's all right." Adrian maintained a respectable distance.
"No, kiddo, it's not. It's my fault." Carmen's reddened nose dribbled and her lips started to quiver. "Every time I wake up after one of those damned parties, I swear it's gonna be the last . . . but I give in, you know? It's like junk, you can't live with it and you can't live without it. I know.. . I was on the stuff for years. That's the way I feel about Wade. I hate him for he's done to me, but damn it, I love what he makes me do."
With reticent reserve, Adrian listened, careful of her words. She didn't want to incriminate herself . . . she wanted to get back to Miami. "Yes . . . I understand."
"I hope I haven't messed things up between you and Jack," she said, taking a tentative, wincing sip.
"No . . . I'm sure you haven't, Carmen." Adrian sipped at her coffee, her eyes searching the room for her discarded clothes and her handbag.
Carmen didn't stop apologizing. "Listen, Adrian . . . I'm crazy about you, you're all woman . . . if you ever happen through Phoenix and want to do it again . . . well. . . ? " She shrugged and smiled lopsidedly. "Please don't think I'm an old hag for acting this way."
"Hey, Carmen, come on." Knowing she was headed East for Miami, Adrian felt less emotionally trapped. "I hate to admit it, but I enjoyed it too."
"Yeah. . . ? " Carmen's eyes brightened and she patted Adrian's hand. "Guess we've all got a little of it in us, huh?"
Adrian felt a peculiar peace and inward calmness as they sat conversing like two war veterans reminiscing on how awful it was, feeling strangely immune to evil. Was that because she'd experienced it all.. . was there nothing left to fear?
Patting Carmen on the knee, Adrian rose to phone Perry in another part of the house, asking for the departure schedule back to Miami."
"Boss'll have you flown back . . . but he don't want you to go no where until he talks to you." Perry was his normal cantankerous self.
"Where is Wade?" Adrian grew nervous, absent-mindedly ripping at a chipped fingernail.
"He's off with Sadara and his friends."
Adrian looked grim. "Tell him I want to see him immediately, do you hear?"
"Yes, ma'am!"
Adrian soaked in the hot tub and sipped from her coffee cup perched on the tub rim. With the musky scent of foreign cum cleansed from her bruised body, she felt more human, more deserving of life . . . and Jack.
Wade, looking starched as ever, stood in the master bedroom waiting for her. "Nice show, Adrian . . . very nice indeed. You're an integral asset to my business and success." Somehow the compliment didn't make her smile. He stood by the bed and rubbed his hands together as if dwelling on something out of sight.
Adrian busied herself, gathering up her clothes and stacked them on a chair. "I'm ready to go back to Miami . . . for good."
"You seem to have a way with people, Adrian . . . very good for my business."
"Wade, you promised this would be the last. . . "
"Sets me to wondering . . . "
"Stop it! When do I go back to Miami!? " She threw her hair back over her shoulder, her cheeks flushing with rage.
Wade cast her a puzzled glance. "Miami?" He tutted three times. "We have plenty of time. Sadara won't be leaving for awhile."
"I want to go back to Miami.. . I want to see Jack. Where is he?" Adrian's eyes flashed down on her stack of clothes, her heavy satin evening bag tucked beneath her dress. She clenched her teeth and closed her eyes, seeing Wade's dead body with a bullet hole in his head.
"Not so fast, my dear. Last night was for our guest, and tonight I am the guest," he said, rubbing his hands and glancing first at Carmen and then Adrian. He put his hand to his mouth to control his giggling and that horrifying psychotic look came back to his gleaming eyes. "Chet. . . you can come in now!" he called out and turned gleefully to watch Adrian's response.
Chet shuffled into the bedroom leading a German shepherd. "It's time animals mated with animals, my dears." Both Adrian and Carmen reacted, pulling back, gasping.
"You're insane, Wade! You're sick!" screamed Adrian.
He smiled through tight lips and wagged a finger at her. "I'm going to have to teach you a lesson, you little bitch. Jack will never want you again after he sees you with a dog's cock in your pretty little mouth! Chet . . . get the camera." He snapped his fingers dogmatically. His hand snatched out like a predatory bird and ripped her kimono open, her voluptuously full breasts spilling out and her naked body shivered as she struggled to keep the kimono around her. "Goddamn you, you fucking bastard!" she screeched, jumping for her handbag. "Carmen, my handbag!" Wade had hold "of her now.
She clawed her way free and leaped for the door. Wade caught her by the hair, knotted his fingers in it and lowered her down to the floor, her mouth gaping open in pain, her eyes wide and unseeing. Chet tied the dog's leash to the door knob and helped drag Adrian screaming toward the bed, her robe gaping open. "Let me out of here!" Carmen jumped on Wade's back, but Chet punched her square in the face, sending her flying across the room to land in a heap.
"Bitch! You'll be next, just for that!" They ripped the robe from Adrian's naked body and forced her down onto the bed. "Tie her up!" shrilled Wade. "Tie her hands to the bed posts!" Perry entered the fracas and ripped the robe into strips and used it to tie her slender wrists above her head while Adrian kicked and flailed and swore, trying to bite. Next to her the German shepherd growled deep in his throat.
"You son of a bitch, let me go! Let me goooo!" The gun. . . I've got to get the gun! Her eyes fell on the heap of clothes sitting on the chair, her black satin handbag amongst them.
Wade gloated as he stepped back and looked at Adrian; he licked his tight lips, watching her turn and toss and twist and kick her legs and spit and scream at him while her breasts bounced and tossed balloonishly.
Carmen lay on the floor softly crying, pulling her way towards the chair stacked with Adrian's clothing. Her blurry eyes caught her friend's frantic glance that went from her handbag to Carmen and back again. Chet, Perry and Wade were all hands above Adrian's naked body, tying her up, slapping her around, sticking their fingers in her vagina, pinching her nipples. No one noticed Carmen creep to the chair and pick up the lead-weighted evening bag. Cautiously, she twisted open the latch and delved within, her shaky fingers enclosing around the handle. She bit her lip and squinted. Beads of perspiration pearled on her forehead and she felt nauseated and dizzy at once as she supported her trigger arm with her left hand. Footsteps behind her halted her action.
"That's enough!" a voice cut through the air and froze all motion. All eyes turned toward the door where stood Joe Granger. He glared at Wade. "Let her up!"
"Chet!" Wade squealed, backing away, turning pale. "Perry!"
Perry held his stance, his mouth open while Chet took a leap towards Joe, coming at him in a crouch, his broken fighter's face cruel, his eyes glittering like a cornered animal. Chet was moving with his fists low, bobbing and weaving. Joe moved with surprisingly agility and ease, circling away from Chet. Like a serpent's tongue, his left flicked out and twice there sounded a sickening crunch as Joe trip-hammered his fist into Chefs face and his head snapped back, his nose bleeding.
That was a mistake. Perry clenched his fists and stepped into the foray, going at Joe like a punching bag. Carmen's heart hammered in her chest and closing one eye, she aimed, the tip of her tongue sticking out between her teeth. Her index finger eased back the trigger as far as it would go and a shot rang through the air in an ultrasonic whistle. Something thudded to the floor in a cry of pain. When Carmen opened one dizzied eye, she saw Wade sinking to the floor, crying, sobbing. She'd nicked him in the arm.
Adrian craned her head and shrieked as Carmen weaved in the air, then fainted, the gun dropping to the floor. A mad scramble ensued as three bodies lunged for the weapon. Joe, the smallest and most agile, grabbed it first.
"Okay, you bastards, get your asses over there by your chicken shit boss!" He brandished the gun in the air and wiped his bloody nose on his town shirt sleeve, his chest heaving for breath. "Now untie Adrian." He cocked the gun and Chet and Perry quickly worked at the ropes.
Wade staggered to his knees, crying pathetically. "Jesus, she shot me! I'm bleeding! I'll die!" he sobbed hysterically, then seeing the blood, crashed to the floor in a faint.
Adrian held a cold washcloth to Carmen's forehead, easing her back to consciousness as Joe held the gun on Wade and his guards.
"Oh, God.. . I killed him . . . " sobbed Carmen in a soft weak voice. "I killed him . . . but no . . . I couldn't see him treat you like that, Adrian. He's a dirty bastard . . . you're too good for him . . . and for me," she choked out the words.
Adrian's mind was reeling; everything was coming together too fast.
"Your husband is Jack Parmenter, right?" inquired Joe.
Adrian nodded.
"And he was going into business with Wade, right?" Again a nod.
"I see now.. . Wade's been tracking you down for years. He finally got at you through your husband whom he was going to form a partnership with, right?" Joe snickered. "The dirty bastard. I think somebody owes you an explanation, Adrian. You see Wade and his Arabian friends were planning on buying up Indian reservation property through one of the local politicians who controls Indian property rights. Seems Wade was moving into the Mafia."
Adrian quivered, feeling strangely distant to all that was going on, as if looking at life through a glass wall. "And Sadara.. . ? "
"Arab money . . . oil money was going to buy it."
Carmen sat up, looking feeble.
"And you.. . ? " Adrian noticed with a sudden flash of timidity that she was stark naked. He'd seen her that way before, but now it hardly seemed proper. "Who are you, really?"
"Joe Granger. . . FBI undercover agent. I've been working with these scummy bastards for years, trying to catch them in the act. Forced copulation with an animal isn't much of a charge, but it's a starter." He grinned sheepishly at Adrian. "I couldn't get you off of my mind and I hated like hell to see you dragged in their filth. That's when I came back."