hammer. “I sure do, sucker.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“Hold her hands, baby,” Tony said to Ann. He positioned himself behind the sobbing young girl. “You “bout the same age, you two. So you tell this chick she fights me, she’s gonna get hurt. I can work it in real easy, or I can tear her cunt up. It’s all up to her.”
“Believe him,” Ann said to the naked, frightened girl. “It ain’t bad once it’s done to you two, three times. It gets to feelin” real good. Believe me. He’ll treat you real good, too. Just don’t fight him no more.”
The young girl nodded her head. “OK.” She pressed her face against the sheet on the bed. She was thin from years of extremely bad diet and from being on her own in a world rapidly filling with savagery and barbarism. Her name was Peg. She was twelve years old.
Tony ran his fingers over the girl’s buttocks. He touched her anus, then his fingers touched her center and pushed inside her. The girl moaned at the sudden intrusion.
Tony said, “I can make it good for you, baby. Or I can hurt you. It’s all up to you.” He worked his finger
in and out. Peg began weeping. “You tell me where your little buddy ran off to.”
Ann stroked the girl’s hair. “Tell him, Peg. It’s better than being out there all alone. You won’t have to fuck no one but Tony. Believe it. You’ll have plenty of good things to eat. Dolls to play with. He’ll, get you pretty things to wear and a machine that makes musical noises come out of funny little round things.”
“She ran off to our hiding place. On the waterfront. It’s an upside-down number on the front of the place.”
“What?” Tony looked confused.
“Can’t you do numbers?” Ann asked.
“No.”
Ann wrote a six on a piece of paper. She showed that to Peg.
“Yes. That’s it. What number is that?”
“Nine,” Ann told her. “Don’t you have any schooling?”
Peg shook her head.
“Who gives a shit?” Tony said. He pulled away from the child. “I got to see a man. I’ll be back later.”
He left the motel room. He really didn’t want sex now. That report he’d received from Dublin about his people there coming under attack had him a little worried. Tony stopped outside his motel room, an idea coming to him.
Who would be foolish enough to attack the army of Tony Silver?
Only one person. He had everybody else too scared of retribution.
Only one person.
Ben Raines.
Had to be.
“Well, I’ll just be goddamned!” Tony muttered. “Ben Raines, right under my fuckin’ nose all this time. Things are definitely beginning to look up for me.”
Tony began laughing.
He motioned for one of his men to come over. “Paul, get a team together. “Bout, oh, fifty guys ought to be enough to kick the ass off of Ben Raines. More than enough. A god!” Again he laughed, Paul joining in the laughter. “Goddamn joke is what Ben Raines is. I’ll show the people who is really boss around this land. Me!”
“Right, boss,” Paul agreed. “Everybody knows that. Everybody.”
“Shut up, Paul. We’ll be moving out first thing in the morning. ‘Bout nine o’clock.”
“Right, boss.” The goon turned to leave.
“Oh … Paul?”
“Yeah, boss?”
“I want you to get some boys together and go down to the waterfront. Warehouse number nine. Do it quiet like, now. There’s a young chick down there I want. Bring her back and have her cleaned up. And don’t none of you guys even think about stickin” a dick in her. That’s prime gash and it’s mine.”
“Sure, boss. Don’t worry none about that. I’ll see to it personal.”
“All right. You bring her to my room when she’s bathed. I’m gonna bust me two cherries in one night.”
The man grinned, exposing rotten teeth. “Right, boss. I gotcha.”
“Two tight pussies and Ben Raines. All within twenty-four hours of each other. Son of a bitch! My luck is on a steady roll.”
“Right, boss.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“All right, lads,” Dan Gray spoke into the mic. “Thanks and take care.” Breaking the connection, Dan smiled. Interesting, he thought. Big fire up near Blue Ridge Lake. Gunshots reported. Dan had ordered his scouts into the area at first light.
Shooting the place up and then burning it to the ground would be something the ex-Seal would do if his feathers got ruffled. Ike was as randy as they came.
“Hang on, Ike,” Dan muttered.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Ike looked at the loaded and cocked .38 in Nina’s hand. She held it like she knew what to do with it. And had done it before.
“Now what?” Ike asked.
Nina grinned and eased the hammer down. She tucked the pistol behind her belt. “We eat-what else?”
Ike stared at her in the gloom of the darkened living room. “Would you mind telling me just what in the hell that stunt was all about?”
“I just wanted to see if you were as ballsy as you appeared to be.”
“And?”
“You are.” Nina found her knapsack and lookout several cans of army rations.
Ike knew the rations well. He looked at the olive green cans. He grimaced. “You sure you ain’t got any dehyde?”
She shook her head. “Sorry, Ike. It’s this or go hungry.”
“Long as it ain’t them gawdawful green eggs. What all you got in that bag?”
She chuckled softly in the gloom of the old house.
“Bacon and eggs.”
Cussing under his breath, Ike found his little military can opener and began circling the rim of the can. “Least it’s dark in here,” he muttered. “Won’t be able to tell if they’re green or not.” The odor hit his nostrils. “They’re green,” he said glumly.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Ben’s walkie-talkie crackled softly. “Come on,” he whispered into the AN/PRC-6T.
The most forward Scout said, “They’re definitely waiting for us, General. They’ve set up an ambush on both sides of Highway 80. First big supermarket on the south side.”
“Weapons?”
“Heavy machine guns and M-16’s. That’s it, sir.”
“Hold your position and stay low. I’m sending teams to flank them.”
“Roger, sir.”
Ben gave James the coordinates. “Don’t jack around with them, James. Use mortars and rocket launchers. I don’t want any more casual ties from this operation.”
“Yes, sir. We’ll stand back and blow hell out of the bastards.”
“G.”
The paramilitary troops of Tony Silver knew the savage fury of trained and disciplined troops for only a few seconds before the M-60 machine gunfire, the mortars, and the 40mm grenades blew them into their own dubious
