chrissakes.'
'I wanna see what they're doin',' said Henry. 'I wanna know what's in that suitcase. And I wanna make sure we don't have any surprises. Like somebody up a tree.' He put the car in gear and started driving around to the side of the property.
Leonard sighed. 'We don't shoot somebody soon,' he said, 'I'm gonna forget how.'
The first person Matt saw, when he reached the foyer, was Arthur Herk, standing in the doorway. Matt was going to say hello, but the look on Arthur's face—a very unpleasant look, even for Arthur—stopped him.
'Who is it, Matt?' It was Anna's voice, from the living room.
Matt started to answer, but stopped, because he had just noticed, behind Arthur, a short, wide, bearded man lugging a suitcase. Behind him was ... ohmigod ...
'Who is it?' came Anna's voice again, now rising.
Matt backed around the corner, followed by Arthur and Puggy. Anna, seeing them, said, 'Arthur! Who's ... ' She caught her breath, and Jenny screamed, as the panty hose-distorted face of Snake came into view.
'SHUDDUP, 'less you wanna get shot,' said Snake, brandishing the gun at Anna and Jenny. They quieted, both staring, horrified, at the hole in the end of the gun. Snake liked that. He liked holding a gun, having this magical thing in his hand that he could just point at people, like a wand, and they did whatever he said.
He studied the two women on the sofa, the kingpin's women. He was pretty sure he'd seen the older one somewhere around the Grove ... Yeah, that was her; she'd walked past him like he was a piece of shit. Tonight would be different.
Snake moved closer to Anna and Jenny; they shrank back on the sofa.
'Lessee what we got here,' said Snake. 'Mmm-mmm. These are some fine-lookin' women, here. Fme-lookin'.' He glanced back at Arthur. 'Just like you promised.'
Anna looked at Arthur. He would not meet her eyes.
Snake said to Anna, 'We gonna have some fun tonight.' With his non-gun hand, he reached down and slowly, deliberately, stroked his crotch.
'If you touch my daughter,' said Anna, 'I swear to God I'll cut your balls off.'
'Your daughter, huh?' said Snake, looking at Jenny, his hand still rubbing between his legs. 'That right? She's a young thing? Can't leave her momma?' He raised the gun and aimed it right at Anna's face, and he could see in the way she looked at it that, despite her tough talk, he owned her. As long as he had the magic wand, he owned everything.
'I touch what I wanna touch,' he said. He took his hand from his crotch and reached it toward Jenny, who whimpered and shrank back.
Matt said, 'Drop the gun right now or I'll shoot you.'
Snake, still aiming at Anna, turned his head and saw the boy aiming a gun at him. It was the JetBlast Junior squirt gun, but it looked real to Snake.
'Don't fuck with me, kid,' he said.
'I swear I'll shoot you, mister,' said Matt.
'You shoot me,' said Snake, 'I shoot your girlfriend.' He moved his gun slightly, so it was pointing at Jenny. He was not letting go of his wand.
They stood that way for five seconds, Matt aiming at Snake, Snake aiming at Jenny, nobody with a clue what to do next. The silence ended with a crash from the foyer, which was the sound of Eddie, blinded by his panty hose, falling over an umbrella stand. The sound startled everybody, especially Matt, who squeezed the trigger of his JetBlast Junior, squirting a stream of water onto Snake.
'Whoops,' said Matt.
Snake, in two steps, was next to Matt, slashing sideways with his gun barrel.
'Unnnh,' said Matt, going down, his hands grabbing his face. Snake knelt and pressed the gun barrel against Mart's ear.
'You fuckin' punk' he said. 'Before I kill you, I'm gonna let you watch what I do to your girlfriend, you hear me? You hear me?' He forced the gun barrel hard into Mart's ear.
'Yes!' said Matt. 'OW YES!'
'You better hear me, punk,' said Snake. 'Eddie! Get in here!'
'Dammit, Snake,' said Eddie, from the foyer, 'you keep sayin' my name!'
'Never mind that,' said Snake. 'Get in here and take that thing off your head.'
'They'll see us,' said Eddie, feeling his way into the living room.
'Don't matter anymore,' said Snake, ripping the panty hose off his head. He was thinking like a kingpin now; he had a plan.
Eddie took off his panty hose, brushed some greasy strands of hair out of his eyes, and blinked at the scene in the living room. On the sofa were two women, one he'd hassled for money earlier that day in the Grove, the other very young, both way out of
Eddie's league. In the corner were the two guys they had brought from the bar, the kingpin and the little strong guy that Snake had kicked. On the floor was some kid, holding his face.
Eddie went over to Snake and whispered, 'Snake, what the fuck're you doin'?'
'What we're doin',' Snake whispered back, 'is we're gonna tie up these assholes'—he nodded toward Arthur, Puggy, and Matt—'and then we're gonna have us some pussy'—he nodded toward Anna and Jenny—'and then
