And I was suddenly embarrassed to be watching this with Lee sitting beside me. And glad that Slim had decided against coming.
Chester’s groin area was just about level with Valeria’s face.
She stepped up to him and opened her mouth.
Some people screamed. Including Chester. Others cried out
I figured the five minutes must be running out. Valeria had better do something fast or Chester would win the five hundred bucks.
She slowly leaned closer, her mouth wide open as if ready to take him in....
He squealed
Huffing for breath, he stared down at her. He was standing at her feet. Her legs were parted, her knees up. Chester seemed to be staring up her short leather skirt.
He swung around and looked toward the open door of the cage.
Thinking about it.
Wondering how much time he had left?
Or maybe no longer caring about the time or about the five hundred dollars or about anything other than what was sprawled on the ground behind him.
Pulling the polo shirt over his head, he whirled around. He flung the shirt away. Naked down to his knee socks, he dived for Valeria, arms extended, hands all set to grab her breasts. He would’ve landed between her knees in perfect position for thrusting into her body, but one of her feet shot up.
In an instant of silence, I heard the jingle of a spur.
Then Chester squealed. Braced up by Valeria’s right leg, he was thrown over her body. He flipped over in midair and landed on his back across her open casket.
He’d been split open from navel to sternum.
“Holy shit,” Rusty muttered.
Lee blinked, shook her head and said, “Maybe he’s not a ringer” as Valeria, down in the cage, buried her face in Chester’s bloody abdomen.
Chapter Fifty-four
The black-shirted crew hustled into the cage and lifted Chester onto the gurney. As they rolled him away, Valeria took a wet towel from one of the helpers and started to wipe the blood off her body. Stryker spoke into the microphone. “LET’S HEAR IT FOR CHESTER, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! A REAL SCRAPPER!
Down beside him in the cage, Valeria raised her right leg and propped her boot on an edge of the coffin.
Bending down, she used the towel to wipe the blood off her spur. As she did that, I stared at the red mark across her back... the wound inflicted by Stryker’s spur.
Hers was just a scratch.
She’d really opened up Chester.
“AND HOW ABOUT THAT PHYSIQUE!” Stryker went on. “IF ANY OF YOU LADIES ARE INTERESTED, I’M SURE YOU’LL HAVE NO TROUBLE FINDING CHESTER LATER AT THE LOCAL EMERGENCY ROOM.”
Here and there, people were making their way down the bleachers. Mostly women. Several towed men along behind them.
Apparently, they’d had enough.
Ignoring the exodus, Stryker studied his stopwatch. “CHESTER LASTED A GRAND TOTAL OF FOUR MINUTES AND FORTY-THREE SECONDS. CAME UP ONLY SEVENTEEN SECONDS SHORT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN.”
Vivian hurried over to Stryker and leaned in close to his side. As she started speaking into his ear, he lowered the microphone. Whatever she was telling him, we couldn’t hear it.
“Maybe we should be going, too,” Lee said.
Rusty blurted, “No! We can’t!”
“This is worse than I thought it’d be. You boys shouldn’t be seeing this sort of thing.
She shook her head. “I don’t know what I was thinking, bringing you boys to a show like...”
“It’s not so bad,” Rusty said.
“That man was naked.”
“So? It was just a guy. I mean, maybe
I just shrugged.
“You don’t see guys get ripped open,” Lee said.
“It’s just a show, Mrs. Thompson. You said so yourself. I’ll bet Chester didn’t even get a scratch on him. It was probably all a big fake-out. They can do that sorta stuff, magicians and people like that. It’s easy.”
