Female Prey & the Elusive Prey (33 page)

“Ah…excuse me for staring,” Kimberley said after a moment.

The waitress smiled. “It’s all right,” she replied. “Customers are supposed to stare…but they’re usually men here. What would you like, Miss?”

Kimberley was halfway through her breakfast…two eggs, over easy, a short stack of pancakes, a slice of ham and some delicious link sausages…when the first two customers trickled in. She stiffened in her seat as she realized they were Jack and Ralphie, two of the four men who had caught Barbara last night. What were they doing here? She fought down a brief surge of panic. They couldn’t possibly have followed her here, and anyway, this was a safe zone. Jack and Ralphie took a table near the door and kept looking her way even while they were eating their meals. At first, the attention made Kimberley uncomfortable, but she managed not to show it. Things were different here, and anyway, Elf-Girl would not mind those stares.

A few other men wandered in, noticed her, and took seats facing towards her. None of them sat near her. It struck Kimberley as funny after a while. They were all sitting facing towards her, staring at her, but the closest one was at least ten feet away and none of them seemed inclined to come any closer. Out in the woods they’d be all over her, so what was holding them back here? She signaled the waitress for another cup of coffee. She didn’t really want more coffee, but she needed an excuse to stay a little while longer. This was interesting. She began meeting the gazes of each man in turn, smiling pleasantly. None of them got up to approach her. She nursed her coffee, waiting to see what would happen. She hoped that if anything did happen it would happen soon. After three cups of coffee she wouldn’t be able to just sit here for much longer.

It was a bit disappointing when Ralphie was the one who finally pushed back his chair, stood up, and came over to her. He had a nasty smile on his face, and Kimberley decided that she didn’t like him.

“So…” Ralphie stopped about five feet away and folded his arms. He still wore that nasty grin. “Whose little girl are you?”

“Not yours, anyway.” Kimberley smiled sweetly up at him.

“Not anybody’s…yet.” Ralphie’s grin grew wider and less pleasant. “How ‘bout I just make you my little girl right now?” He took a half-step forward, trying to seem menacing. It didn’t suit him.

Out of the corner of her eye, Kimberley noticed the bartender watching the scene intently. His posture suggested that he was going to move in quickly if Ralphie actually tried anything. Well, he was certainly big and burly enough to be a bouncer, but Kimberley wanted to handle this herself, as Elf-Girl would. She leaned back in her chair. Her hand dropped casually to the hilt of her survival knife. Ralphie noticed.

“Try it,” Kimberley replied sweetly, in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear. “And I’ll make you MY little girl.”

Ralphie hesitated, looked around towards Jack, who only smiled and shook his head. One of the other men began laughing and the others joined in, including the bartender. Red-faced, Ralphie shot Kimberley a last, venomous look before turning on his heel and stalking out of the saloon. Jack followed him after settling the bill and giving Kimberley a big smile and a good-bye wave.

Now she could leave. Kimberley retrieved her pack and started up the stairs to her room. She stopped halfway up to turn, smile and wink at the men below. She was feeling very good now. The Legend of Elf-Girl was off to an interesting start.

She felt even better after a shower. Wrapped in one of the big towels she’d found in the bathroom, she padded around the small room, inspecting it. The bed was a single with a solid metal frame. There were eyebolts secured to the frame at regular intervals. Their purpose seemed obvious and Kimberley wondered if the waitress here had ever spent some time secured to this particular bed by ropes, chains, or anything else. It was possible, at least. The mattress was a little soft for her liking, but she wasn’t planning on spending a lot of time here. The only other furniture was a small and battered chest of drawers and a similarly battered but still serviceable wooden chair. The floor was wooden planking, no rug. She went over to the window, raised the roll-up window shade, and looked out.

There was about thirty feet of cleared space between the back of the building and the edge of the woods. There was an old shed backed up against the trees with small double doors facing towards the building. Just under the window was some sort of sloping porch roof. She smiled. That made some things much easier for her. She lowered the shade carefully and got dressed.

When she came back downstairs there were only two men in the main room; the bartender and another man, heads close together in quiet conversation across the bar. They moved apart as she approached, the bartender going back to polishing glasses while the other man leaned against the bar and smiled pleasantly at her.

“Mornin’, Miss,” he nodded towards her, briefly touching the brim of his cowboy hat with his fingers. “I’m sorry I missed your performance earlier. I really would have liked to see it.”

Kimberley eyed him up and down, hands on her hips. He was six feet tall, or very near it, lean and browned. He was wearing faded jeans, boots and a blue work shirt. Was that some kind of uniform here?

“So…” she observed. “You’re a cowboy of some kind?”

He laughed. “Well,” he shrugged, “I’ve broken a few fillies.”

“Well, then, what are you doing here?” Kimberley asked. She couldn’t quite figure out how old he was. Thirty? Thirty-five?

His fingers brushed the brim of his hat again. “Hunting, Miss.” He had very intense blue eyes.

“Call me Elf-Girl.” Kimberley smiled. She held out her hand. “And you are?”

He took her hand and shook it once, then let go. “You can call me Greg…for now,” he replied.

“Okay, Greg.” Kimberley nodded. “See you around.” She walked past him and out of the saloon. She didn’t look back, but she was fairly certain his eyes were following her.

She went across the street and into the general store. There were some things she wanted to get. It wasn’t a long shopping list, but she figured she could kill some time that way and let herself be seen. She wondered where Ralphie and Jack had gotten to. For that matter, if they were in town now, where were their two buddies and Barbara?

The general store didn’t have everything she was looking for, but it was interesting to see what they carried there: Clothes, camping gear, kerosene lanterns, flashlights, batteries, sleeping bags, boxes of cereal, freeze-dried food pouches, trail mix, beer, liquor, rope, chain, binoculars, fresh milk, powdered milk, aluminum pots and pans, mirrors, leather collars, handcuffs…she lingered a bit at the small wooden bin full of tent stakes.

She took her purchases to the rear of the store. There was a long glass counter there, and an old man sitting behind it. She plopped everything down next to an antique-looking cash register. Under the glass was an assortment of knives: sheath knives, pocketknives, large knives and small. There were also half a dozen things that looked like bulkier versions of the ear-chip readers she’d seen. She bent over for a closer look.

No…they weren’t chip-readers. They were tasers. She straightened up with a shudder. She had no doubt that some of the hunters would use them; Ralphie, for example. She had another sudden pang of conscience about Barbara, but it passed.

“Will this be all, Miss?” the old shopkeeper asked.

“What?” Kimberley turned towards him. She hadn’t heard the old register being used. Apparently it was just there for decoration, because he was holding one of those scanners in his hand. “Oh…yes, that’s all.”

He nodded, smiling, and held up the scanner. “If you could just…yes, thank you, Miss.” Kimberley held still as he scanned the chip in her ear.

As a final touch, he wrapped everything up in heavy brown paper and tied the package securely with twine. Kimberley shook her head. This seemed to be carrying the western-town motif a little too far. Everything she’d bought had been scanned. Hell, she had been scanned in order to pay for it. Couldn’t they have thrown in a shopping bag? Even a cheap plastic one? Well, at least it wasn’t too big or heavy a parcel. She hooked her fingers under the twine and carried it that way.

Once outside the store, she debated going to the barn at the end of the town next, but she really didn’t want to carry this brown-paper thing all around with her. She headed back into the rooming house-saloon and went up to her room. She tossed the package onto the bed, unopened, and sat down on the chair. There were some parts of her plan that she hadn’t thought out very thoroughly. For example, she planned to spend the day here, but aside from going to see what was in the barn there didn’t seem to be a whole lot else to do. Somehow the idea of just walking up and down the street all day so men would notice she was there didn’t appeal to her. She had to think…

After a few minutes she stood up and began pacing the small room. Whether this helped her to think or not, it at least answered her urge to do something. And, maybe it did help her thinking after all. Pretty soon, she had a plan. She stopped to think it over one last time and grinned. Yes, it was a good plan. Or, at least, good enough.

A short time later, she went back downstairs. She’d changed into snug-fitting jeans and a loose-fitting, long-sleeved white shirt, both purchased at the general store. She wasn’t wearing a bra, and she’d left the top three buttons of the shirt undone. This suggested more than it actually showed, but she knew the effect would be much like waving fresh meat under the noses of hungry lions…which was exactly what she intended to do. As long as she was in this safe zone, those hungry lions were behind bars, but for insurance she still wore her knife in its sheath on her belt.

The only other person there at the moment was the bartender, still behind the bar, still polishing glasses. He watched her as she came towards him, and she noticed that his eyes kept straying to some location below her chin.

“Hi,” she smiled brightly as she reached the bar. “Is there some place around here where I can get some laundry done?” She plopped her clothes from last night, now wrapped in the brown paper from the general store, onto the bar. She leaned forward a little.

The bartender returned his gaze to her face with a bit of effort. He smiled in return. “We can do that for you here, Miss. It’s part of the service. How soon do you want it back?”

“Oh. Really?” Kimberley pretended to think for a moment. “Can I get it back early tomorrow morning?”

“Sure.” The bartender nodded and took one more quick, wistful look at that spot south of her chin. “You want it brought up to your room when it’s ready?”

“No. I’ll just pick it up when I check out, okay?”

“That’s fine. I’ll have it here for you.”

“Thanks.” Kimberley stepped back from the bar and stretched a little. The bartender was almost certainly an employee of this place, which meant that he couldn’t really make a play for her. But if this bar was anything like other bars she’d seen, there was nothing to stop him from talking about her to others. Bars were a great place to pick up news, gossip, and interesting little bits of information. Anyway, she was a bit rusty on flirting and drawing attention to herself, and it couldn’t hurt to practice and get a little feedback. “I’m going to check out the rest of this place. I’ll be back later.” She pushed the swinging doors apart and stepped outside.

The sun was high in the sky now. Kimberley pulled her tan baseball cap from the hip pocket of her jeans and put it on to shield her eyes. There really wasn’t much to see at all here, except for that barn. She began walking towards it, wondering what she would do or say if Barbara happened to be there.

There were a few men out and about. Every one of them stopped to take a long look at her as she went by. Kimberley gave no outward sign that she noticed their stares, but inwardly, she was smiling. Elf-Girl was certainly attracting attention in these here parts.

“Elf-Girl! So good to see you again!”

Kimberley whirled around, startled. It was Greg, still wearing his Stetson and smiling. After a moment, she returned his smile. “Why, Greg…” she eyed him closely. “Are you stalking me?”

“Of course I am,” he replied. He looked around once. “But I’m afraid that’s all I can do here.”

“Oh?” Kimberley felt an urge to tease him a little. “You have other things in mind, then?”

“Yes, I do,” he nodded. “But for now I’d be happy just to talk with you a bit. Can I buy you a drink?”

She cast one look back over her shoulder at the barn. Barbara might be in there and she might not. Other women might be in there and they might not. She’d seen plenty of naked captives already and Greg’s invitation offered her a new experience. “Sure,” she grinned up at him. “Why not?”

Back in the saloon, Kimberley settled into the same chair in the corner that she’d occupied that morning while Greg got them each a beer from the bar. She noticed that he had to use actual money to make the purchase.

“You said a bottle was okay, right?” he asked as he sat down opposite her.

“I did,” Kimberley replied, picking up the bottle and taking a long swig from it. It wasn’t what she called “diet beer”, but it was cold, and good, and she didn’t think she’d have to worry too much about counting calories for a while.

“I heard that you just walked in this morning,” Greg said, taking his own long pull at his bottle. “What are you doing out here?”

“What do you mean?” Kimberley frowned. “Isn’t it kind of obvious?”

“Not to me.” Greg shook his head. “You seem to be trying to make a big splash here and so far you have. But…what next?”

“Ah.” Kimberley smiled. “Now, why would I tell you that?”

“Okay,” he shrugged. “Ordinarily I’d just let that go, but this ain’t ordinary. You’ve got a lot of the men here wondering about you.”

“You’re the only one who’s said anything about it to me so far.”

Greg gave a short laugh. “Maybe I’m just a little bit more curious than most.” He leaned forward, elbows on the table. “Just what ARE you trying to do? And what you call yourself…Elf-Girl…it fits you, I gotta admit, but I wonder about that too. What’s your real name?”