Abduction (21 page)

I wasn't processing. All I got was a taste of hope from her last comment.

"They won't hurt her? You swear they won't hurt her?"

"Hurt her? No. Now, whether or not they strip her naked and fuck her senseless, well, that depends on you."

She shut up for a second to let it all sink in. Then she started up again. That voice, that fucking, awful, smoke and whiskey voice.

"Now, you haven't taken off your shirt yet, so technically, I should call Graham, and tell him he can take off Edi's shirt. Is she wearing a bra, do you think?"

I wanted so, so badly for there to be something I could do. A way to stop it. Oh god, even now, I feel that wanting, that need. To turn back. To undo.

"I guess she'll be a lot more nervous, sitting on that bed, three men staring at her, if she's topless, eh?"

She pulled a cell phone out of her pocket and started dialing.

"Don't!"

"Stand up and take off your shirt, puppy, and I'll stop dialing."

Nauseous with fear, I stood. I was still trying to think, to come up with some way out of it. I unbuttoned my shirt, pulled it off, and tossed it aside.

“My goodness, Miranda, look at those arms! You’re little puppy has been working out, hasn’t he?”

Miranda smiled, eating me with her eyes.

“Now the t-shirt.”

Somehow, through my fear and confusion, some little part of my brain felt an almost amusing sense of irony, like this was a cheesy Chippendale’s show, or some weird Candid Camera bachelorette party, and I was the awkward stripper they’d hired. I pulled off my t-shirt.

“My, my, my!” Taser Girl exclaimed, almost sarcastically. “Aren’t you yummy? So muscular!"

The way she was taunting me reminded me of the movies, of the way men lewdly comment on women, and I pictured Edi, sitting in her hotel room, surrounded by strange men. I tried to think of her sitting calmly, to believe they hadn't hurt her, touched her.

"Now it's my turn to choose something," Taser Girl said. "Sit back down, puppy."

I sat.

"Miranda, wouldn't you like a nice, romantic kiss from your rock star?"

Miranda giggled like a child and nodded her head. Taser Girl plopped down on the couch next to me, then slapped my thigh a couple times. Miranda heeded the call, bouncing forward and straddling my legs. Taser Girl leaned in close and whispered in my ear.

"Give our sweet Miranda a deep, hot kiss. She's been looking forward to this for a long, long time."

Mirada leaned in, pressed herself to me with a look of child-like anticipation. Her body was gushing heat. A weird thing to remember. She pressed her lips to my mouth and kissed me. I let her. I didn't pull back. I didn’t push her away. Her lips were soft and it was a soft, lingering kiss.

"I wonder, Vaughn," Taser Girl sighed into my ear as Miranda pulled back, "if Edi's feeling bored in that hotel room." She was running her red nails up my arm.

"Maybe she'd like a kiss. Not an innocent little kiss like the one you just gave Miranda. I can just imagine Graham taking that ball gag from her mouth, pressing his mouth to her 184

open lips, thrusting his tongue against hers. He's a very good kisser, I'm sure she'll like it. And of course the other boys will want their turn, too."

The thought of a bunch of thugs descending on Edi, her bound and scared, I thought my heart would explode with the fear.

"Should I give Graham a call? Or would you like to give Miranda a real kiss?"

"Don't call, don't call."

I pulled Miranda to me and kissed her with terrified urgency, so hard and for so long that she finally pushed herself back from me, gasping and panting. She looked a little startled and for a second I was terrified I'd fucked up.

"That's better, puppy. Now it's my turn. Up, Miranda."

Miranda got kind of a pouty look on her face, but she yielded her spot and Taser Girl slid onto my lap, sliding her ass up my thighs, pressing her groin to mine, slowly pushing her soft breasts against my bare chest.

"Look at me."

I forced myself to meet her eyes. Pale green, made to seem even more pale by heavy black eyeliner and thick mascara. I guess she was doing her tempting seductress thing, gazing into my eyes as she moved in for the kiss.

What did I feel as her face came closer and closer? My fingers curled into fists, I wanted to throw her to the floor and beat the shit out of her—the leader, I was sure, the one who'd orchestrated the whole monstrous plan. I wanted to see that red lipstick smeared over her mouth and my fist, darken, thicken, until I knew it was blood distorting her mouth, staining her skin, warming my hand.

But I couldn't. They'd hurt Edi. And this girl's breath was warm on my lips, her ass on my lap, her tits, barely concealed in a flimsy tube top, pressing against my chest. Her lips parted, beyond the waxy red of her lipstick I saw the wet pink of her lips as they curved into her mouth.

She kissed me. Her lips brushed over mine. Slow. Soft. Lewd. Her eyes were open, watching me as her warm, wet tongue licked between my lips, licked my tongue. I forced myself to kiss her back, scared to resist her, scared she'd hurt Edi. I dutifully slid my tongue against hers, into her mouth, thinking of Edi, frightened, thinking how much scarier it would be for her. I could get through this. I promised myself I could get through anything to spare Edi the fucking awful stuff I was picturing that would happen to her if I didn't play it right on my end.

But then she got up. And what she said next, I didn't think I could get through it anymore.

"Now, once Jimmy gets his kiss we'll all be properly introduced and we can get on with the real fun."

I don't remember if I said anything. I was just…I couldn't believe, accept that this was happening, that there wasn't something I could do to change it, to make it all stop and go away. Jimmy stepped forward and gave a slimy smirk.

"What do you say, Vaughn? You and me? Or Graham and Edi?"

He stepped up close. He put one knee on the sofa by my leg. Then he put the other one up and his legs bridged over my lap. Up close he kind of looked like a tall, skinny, masculine version of Taser Girl. I kept thinking it was a bluff, that they were just trying to rile me. I wanted to think that. He lowered his ass onto my thighs and put his 186

hands on my shoulders. Without thinking, without meaning to I braced my arms against his chest, held him away from me.

"Don't be like that, Vaughn."

He took my wrists and coaxed my hands down to my sides. Then he put his hands back on my shoulders and leaned in. My heart and stomach seized when I thought he'd kiss me, but his face moved past. His mouth was by my ear.

"Ever kissed a boy before, Vaughn Doe?"

When I didn't answer he asked me again, and I said 'no.'

"Well then, I'll be real gentle with you, just like I would with a sweet young girl who's never been kissed."

I couldn't believe what the fucker did next. If he was going to kiss me, I thought he'd basically rape my mouth with his tongue. But what he did was worse. Harder to take. He did it like a goddamn seduction. He sort of mouthed my ear for a second, then starting making his way toward my mouth with soft little kisses across my cheek. I wanted to tune him out, pretend it was someone else—Taser Girl, Miranda, anyone.

Any woman. But he didn't smell like a woman. And I could feel his rough stubble on my face. Then his lips were on my mouth. He put them there softly and left them there a long time before he pulled back.

"I'm not hurting you, am I?" he asked in a mocking voice, the way children taunt each other about being babies. Then he came back in to give me another revoltingly gentle kiss.

"Don’t forget to kiss him back, Vaughn, or Edi's mouth gets tongue-fucked by her three visitors," Taser Girl reminded me.

So when Jimmy's tongue brushed over my lips I forced myself to respond. To kiss him back. Jimmy really took his damn time about it. Just like his tauntingly gentle prelude, he was tormenting me, fucking with me, making the kiss long and sensual, and not the, I don't know, the macho pillage I'd expected. Finally he wrapped it up, got to his feet, and wiped our drool from his smirking mouth.

I didn't…well…I almost took courage from that. Because, before he did it, I thought it would kill me or something. I was sure, at the very least, that I'd throw up. But I didn't die, and I didn't puke. I was still scared to think what would happen next, but after that kiss, I thought, if Jimmy would stay out of it, I could get through the rest.

"Now, Miranda, what next?” Taser Girl asked as she stared at me, maybe assessing the limits of my endurance.

The revoltingly cute little blonde struck a hackneyed pose she’d seen in a movie or something, one arm crossed over her stomach, the other bent, her index finger pressed to her lips. Another guileless smile, another secretive whisper to Taser Girl.

"Don't tell me, silly," Taser Girl chided her, "tell him."

Miranda was about to balk but Taser Girl reprimanded her with her eyes. Miranda looked at me, smiled and blushed. Her girlishness was infuriating. So painfully, stupidly incongruent with the situation, with what she was taking part in.

"Vaughn," she said, then she giggled like saying my name was somehow funny,

"please stand up and take off your shoes."

I bent down and unlaced my boots. My hands were shaking. They were making me strip. They'd get me naked, and then…It wasn't like Austin. It was a different kind of torture. I was choosing. I was doing what they wanted me to do. I pulled my boots off.

“And the socks, hmmm Miranda?”

Miranda nodded her approval.

“And the socks, Mr. Doe. Men look so ridiculous when they’re naked except for their socks.”

I peeled off my socks and laid them on top of my boots.

“Is it time for the pants, Miranda?”

“I’ll do it!” Miranda chirped as if she were about to unwrap a birthday present rather than strip a prisoner.

Miranda excitedly began to come toward me, seeming at once innocently girlish and slightly insane. She came up very close to me, and looked at my face for a long time. Then she reached up with both hands, and softly laid her palms on my temples.

Then in one long, slow caress she drew her hands down the sides of my face, my neck, over my chest and down my stomach, her fingertips coming to rest on the waistband of my jeans. Her fingers had grazed my nipples, and I felt a charge of resentment at the sensation her touch had produced.

This whole time I was wondering if I could grab her, get her in a choke hold or something, threaten to kill her if they didn't make the call and make those men let Edi go. I could crush that little thing's windpipe in one quick blow, I was sure. But I couldn't gamble Edi's safety. Even if no one really had her—and I wasn't totally convinced they did—the mere possibility that they did, that they could hurt her, meant that I had to do everything they wanted.

Miranda slowly began to unbuckle my belt, sliding the leather through the metal, pulling the leather back against the prong, releasing it. Then she pulled it off, the belt 189

kind of whistling out of its loops. Miranda breathed out a dirty little giggle that was both tantalizing and revolting. She undid the button, unzipped the fly.

Instinctively, I wanted to reach down, grab the waistband of my jeans, hold them up. Taser Girl saw me twitch and uttered an admonitory, “uh, uh, uh.” I forced myself to be still as Miranda tugged my jeans and shorts down over my butt, down my legs until they were bunched around my ankles. Miranda stood up and took a couple steps back to admire her work.

“Well, it appears to be a complete package,” Taser Girl taunted.” Very nice. Now step out of them, slowly.”

One foot at a time I stepped out of the clothes that had been stripped off me.

“Shall we have a look at his ass?” Taser Girl asked.

Miranda gleefully nodded her assent, and Taser Girl made a whirling motion with her finger, giving me the order to turn. I turned around once, quickly, scared to turn my back on the three of them.

“You’ve got a very nice rear, Mr. Doe. Tell me, have you ever taken it up the ass?”

This question, and the mean little grin that came over Jimmy’s face when she asked it, sent a shockwave of panic through me. I was beginning to sweat. I was breathing hard.

“I asked you a simple question, Mr. Doe. Has a man ever fucked you up the ass?”

“No.”

I hated that my voice gave away that I was close to crying.

“I see. And have you ever fucked a guy up the ass?”

“No.”

“How about a woman? Have you ever fucked a woman up the ass?”

“None of your fucking business.”

“I’m going to take that as a yes. Now I’d like to hear you say it. Tell me you’ve fucked a woman up the ass, Mr. Doe.”

“I’ve fucked a woman up the ass.”

I told myself I was revealing nothing, that I was just repeating a line that had been fed to me. At this point Miranda whispered something to Taser Girl.

“Oh, all right, all right. Enough chatter. Miranda's right, after all—it's much more fun to do the naughty things than it is to talk about them. And lord knows," she went on in her low, sultry tone, "I do love making men like you submit to me.” I didn’t know what she meant by ‘men like me.’ I was praying someone would come to the door, that the intrusion would scare these three off.

Tell me, Mr. Doe, have you ever sucked cock?”

I shook my head no, feeling a fist of nausea clamping my stomach.

“But you’ve eaten pussy, haven’t you?”

I think I nodded.

“Well, puppy, I’ll give you a choice. You can either suck Jimmy’s dick, or eat Miranda’s pussy. Which would you prefer?”

As a pathetic act of defiance I refused to answer.

"Or, if you'd prefer, I'll give Graham a call. How's Edi at sucking cock? I'm sure she's a talented girl—she'd have to be to hang on to a guy like you, huh? But even so, it 191

takes a lot out of a girl, sucking off three guys in one go. That's a lot of come to swallow."