'Well, I am sure. So sure I'm not even going to threaten you. I'm not going to tell you that if you don't come alive pretty soon I'll turn your brat over to Butch. I'm not going to tell you that hubby out there, all tied up and very handy, could end up hanging in his own smokehouse. I'm not going to tell you that because I don't think I have to. You see, you're just a naturally good fuck. A man who's been around a little bit learns to spot them. Don't get me wrong. I don't mean you're a tramp or anything like that. You're not a woman who'd let a man fuck her if she didn't care about him, unless she didn't have anything to say about it, of course. But when the fucking is taking place, you're going to put out because you just can't help it. That's a fact about you. Maybe you never learned it because you've never crawled into the feathers with anyone but Farmer Brown out there, but now you're going to learn it.'
She looked at him for a moment without speaking, then returned her gaze to the ceiling. Max stood and walked to the window. He looked at the opaqueness of it for a while, then pulled down the shade. That had been a stupid stunt, he thought. Leaving the shade up. What if someone had come by?
'Just the two of you live here?' he asked, and turned to face her. She was still lying on her back, her legs spread as he had left them. She turned her face to him and looked as though she were considering her reply. 'Don't lie to me… Say, what the fuck is your name, anyway?'
'Julie. Julie Bradford. Mrs. James Bradford.'
Max grinned. 'Well, don't ever lie to me, Julie, unless you're certain I'm not going to find out. And don't hold any information back, either, because that kind of thing pisses me off royally. If you try to shaft me, I'm going to shaft your family, husband and baby.'
'We live here alone,' she said. 'Just the three of us. But someone is coming here tomorrow.'
Max was suddenly alert. 'Who?'
'My sister. School is out, and she's coming to spend the summer with us.'
'Sister? How old is she?'
'Sixteen.'
'Oh, well, that's all right. We can always use some extra poontang around the hacienda.'
Julie sat up suddenly. 'Please don't hurt her. She's under my care. My parents have sent her here under my care.'
'Shit, I'm not going to hurt her. As long as she cooperates.'
'Oh, God! Please.' She got up and came to him. If it was possible to grovel in a standing position, Max thought, she was doing it now. He liked the feeling it gave him. 'Aren't I enough?' she asked. 'I'll do anything you want, only please don't hurt Sally.'
'You're going to do anything I want anyway, aren't you?' he asked casually, and then, when she didn't reply, he repeated, 'Aren't you?'
'Yes, yes, of course. Only…'
'Only shit. I don't have to make any extra promises, sweets. I'm already giving you your husband and your baby, and that's all you get for your ass. I'm in the bargaining position here. Is your sister coming alone?'
She nodded.
'Speak up, Goddamn it.'
'Yes, she's coming alone.'
'What time?'
'On the one o'clock train tomorrow.'
'How will she get here from town?'
'We're supposed to pick her up. She's going to phone from the station.'
'Okay. When she calls tomorrow you tell her the car's fucked up. You tell her to take a cab. And that's all you tell her. I'll be there, and you'd better keep to the script or I'll make you sorry.'
'Why don't you let me send her away? She'll just be another person to cope with while you're here.'
'Two reasons, baby. First, there isn't any way you could send her away without arousing her suspicion. And secondly, there are three of us here and only one woman. We've been cooped up a long time, Julie, and we need recreation. Your sister can provide it.'
He waited for further objections from her, but she didn't say anything.
'Now I want you to get your ass in the kitchen and fix us something to eat.'
Julie turned and plodded to where her clothes lay. 'Don't bother with that.' Max ordered. 'Just put on a robe.' She walked to a narrow closet and took out a thin cotton robe. It looked cheap. He wondered again how such a woman had come to settle for a husband like that asshole in the living room. He'd have to ask her about that sometime.
She shrugged into the robe and started to tie the sash. Max walked over to her and pulled the sash out of the loops. He dropped it on the floor.
'That'll give you something to do with your hands,' he said. 'It ought to help keep you out of mischief.'
'But if I'm going to cook for you…'
'You'll have to let it hang open, won't you? And won't that be too had?'
'Please, I can't go out there in front of those other men like this. And my husband.'
'I'll bet you can if you try real hard.' She started to say something more, but Max laid a finger softly across her lips and shook his head. She pulled the robe tightly about her body and walked out the door. Max saw her turn sharply toward the kitchen, trying to keep the men in the living room from seeing her. He laughed. She was going to be a lot of fun. And this sister of hers was something else. He hoped she was just half as pretty as Julie, just half. It made him feel all hot and tight inside…
Chapter Two
There had been a few times when she thought she was going to pass out. Wondering whether she could really stand it. Wondering whether she could survive it as the same person. Julie still wondered about that. Had she remained the same person? She seemed to be. Things were a little out of focus right now, and she supposed she was in shock to some degree. Still, she seemed to be the same Julie who had walked into that bedroom a while ago.
So she had been raped. She had been possessed by an ape of a man who cared nothing about her except as a piece of flesh, an organism he presumably found attractive. It wasn't the kind of experience she would have chosen for herself, and it wasn't something she would recommend to other women, but she had lived through it. And her husband and baby were still alive. That had been her choice: whether to hold onto her honor, to use an old-fashioned term, or to let her family hold onto life. There hadn't been any contest. They were all in for a rough time, of course. And maybe this crew intended to kill them no matter what they did. At any rate, every extra moment they stayed alive was worth something. And those moments might lead to something.
They might lead to escape, or rescue. It was their job to stay alive, now, for as long as possible. And to help each other stay alive. If that meant that Julie had to go to bed with that slimy bastard then she'd have to find some way to live with herself afterwards. And with her husband, of course.
She found some bacon and eggs in the refrigerator and put on a pot of coffee. The man who had just raped her, Max, sat in the kitchen with the rifle across his lap, watching her with a smile. The others remained in the living room, standing guard over Jim.
It was awkward, trying to work with one hand, while she held the robe closed with the other. Max sat and grinned at her attempt, and finally said, 'I just fucked you, honey. And I'm going to fuck you again. Isn't it a little silly to be coy with me?'
He was right, of course. It was silly. But it was a link with decency, something that allowed her to hold on with her fingernails to the woman she had always been.
While the bacon was frying in its own fat, she thought about Jim. It had been rougher on him than on her, probably. No, she told herself. That was maudlin sentimentality. It hadn't been rougher on him than on her. But she had no doubt that it had been rougher than hell for all that. A man like Jim wasn't built for this kind of thing, this helplessness.
He was built for action. And right now action wasn't called for. That was why she had helped them, telling
