Her eyes eased shut despite her best efforts at staying awake. The pavement buzzed beneath the floorboards of the car and she felt her body relaxing as it hurtled twelve inches above the road. She began to drop off to sleep and that was when she felt his hands on her body.
At first she thought she was dreaming it. His touch was light and feathery, a barely perceptible pressure on her breasts, fingers grazing first one nipple then the other over her blouse. For maybe half a second, the touch was nothing more than a dream, a half-waking fantasy to be savored.
Then she was jolted back to reality, the dreamy suspension between sleep and wakefulness gone as her brain kicked back into gear and she remembered her situation. Her eyes flashed open and they blurred and cleared and he was crouched above her, knees straddling her hips on the seat, his hands plastered to her tits like he was tuning a fucking radio or something.
He was leering. He looked like some demented TV director’s vision of a cautionary warning to young women everywhere about the dangers of date-rape. Don’t let this happen to you! Research your date before you invite him into your back seat!
And just like that her lethargy was gone. She raised her hands reflexively, catching the insides of his wrists with her forearms and driving them up and away from her chest, although when she thought about it, it hadn’t felt all that bad. “What the fuck!” she grunted, and his eyes darkened and his face instantly took on the cast of the late-afternoon sky just before a thunderstorm and Janelle knew things were about to go straight to hell.
* * *
But things didn’t go straight to hell, not yet, at least not in the way Janelle had expected them to, although they did get a whole lot more interesting. No sooner had Janelle batted Gary’s hands away from her chest and spat out her curse than the little car swerved sharply left, angling across the highway. Tires squealed as Audrey fought to regain control and Janelle wondered in that split-second whether Audrey had fallen asleep or maybe been startled by the sudden commotion in the back seat.
Then she forgot all about it as both she and Gary were thrown around like two sacks of potatoes. The sudden shift in the car’s momentum tossed her body up against the right rear door and in her mind she could see the door flying open and her helpless body tumbling onto the dark highway, where she would miraculously survive for a second or two, only to be crushed like a bug by an onrushing eighteen-wheeler. Then Gary crashed down on top of her, squealing like a little girl and elbowing her in the gut as he flailed his arms in a futile attempt at maintaining balance.
A half-second later Audrey overcorrected to the right and everything shifted and they hurtled across the back seat, smashing into the other door as the car came screaming back into its original lane. This time Janelle landed on top of Gary, but only for a split-second, as Audrey’s next move was to stand on the brakes, crushing the two of them up against her seat-back until the vehicle finally shuddered to a stop in a cloud of blackish-blue tire smoke.
For a moment no one said a word. The car rocked back and forth on its frame, creaking and groaning as if registering a complaint, before finally surrendering to inertia and becoming still. “Sorry about that,” Audrey said in a small voice. “Are you okay back there?”
“Depends,” Janelle answered. Gary still had not spoken during the entire incident, except to scream while they were being tossed around the back seat like stuffed animals.
“On what?”
“On what the cop who just pulled up behind us has to say.”
* * *
The hazard lights from the Ohio State Police cruiser splashed through the rear window, illuminating the Saturn’s interior in alternating flashes of blue and red. Janelle wanted to tell the trooper to shut the damned things off, that they were making her rapidly building headache even worse, but she knew that would be absolutely the wrong thing to do. The trooper stood quietly at the driver’s side window, examining the scene inside the car, taking his time and focusing on each of their faces in turn.
Finally he said, “May I see your license and registration please, miss?”
Audrey unbuckled her seat belt and lifted her hips, reaching into the right front pocket of her tight jeans shorts to remove her driver’s license. She moved slowly and took longer than necessary, allowing plenty of time for the officer’s roving eyes to check out her long bare legs and her tits straining against the thin material of her T-shirt. Then she eased back down, passing the document through the open window to the officer and bending across the front seat to the empty passenger side. She flipped open the glove compartment to retrieve the vehicle’s registration, again taking her time, offering the cop a nice, up-close view of her ass. Janelle watched from the back seat and smiled.
“You say the wrong thing to this guy,” Gary whispered in her ear, “and you’re dead. Just one wrong word. Do you understand me? You’re fucking dead.”
Janelle giggled. She didn’t want to, but she just couldn’t help it. This moron still thought he was in charge? It was hilarious. She and Audrey could have leapt out of the car the moment the cop appeared at their window, screaming and shouting about being kidnapped, assaulted at knifepoint, and that would have been the end for Gary Newton. Maybe he would have tried to use the blade he seemed so proud of to attack the cop and gotten gunned down for his trouble, or maybe he would simply have sat in the back seat, defeated, waiting to be cuffed and taken away, but one way or the other, it would all have been over.
She wondered if he even found it at all strange that they hadn’t screamed for the cop’s help. Hell, if she hadn’t known Audrey for as long as she had, her first thought would have been that Audrey had seen the cruiser as she drove past, maybe parked off the side of the highway trolling for speeding truckers, and gone into the crazed vehicular gyrations intentionally, just to get his attention. It would have made sense, and Gary should have recognized that fact.
But did he? It seemed unlikely, especially given his fierce whispered warning just now. That didn’t surprise Janelle. It had been her experience over the course of many years of manipulating men that most guys just weren’t all that bright, especially around good-looking girls. They preened and postured and acted all tough and hard-ass, but they were completely at the mercy of women who knew how to use the assets at their disposal. Women like Audrey and Janelle.
Gary seemed surprised that she would laugh at him. He glared at her and appeared to be preparing to say something else—what that might be, Janelle could not guess, since the Ohio State Highway Patrol dude was still standing next to the car, just scant inches away—but before he could, the officer handed the license and registration back through the window to Audrey and said, “You all been drinking tonight?”
He said it with the faint trace of a Southern accent and Janelle wondered what a good ol’ boy was doing in Ohio. “No, sir,” Audrey answered, lifting her hips again to replace her license in her front pocket and giving the trooper another free show. He seemed to appreciate it.
“What about you two lovebirds?” He shifted his gaze to the back seat and Janelle almost giggled again. It probably looked like they had been going at it good back here, with their hair messed up and their limbs tangled and their clothes all wrinkled from the impromptu roller coaster ride they had just enjoyed.
She had to bite back the response that tried to leap out of her mouth of its own accord. What difference does it make if we’ve been drinking? she wanted to say. We’re not driving back here; at least not driving a car. But she didn’t say it. “No, sir,” was all she said, exactly as Audrey had done, and she was joined by Gary, who had dropped the scowl and replaced it with his bright, phony All-American grin as he added, “Of course not.”
The cop stared for a moment longer. It was obvious he recognized something was wrong but could not put his finger on what it might be. If he only knew, Janelle thought, but kept her smile sweetly in place.
Finally he turned his attention back to Audrey, who had returned the car’s registration to the gl
ove box in a matter of seconds; taking longer was pointless since the cop hadn’t been watching her. She seemed a little affronted that he would divert his attention from her performance before it had ended. “So, what happened on the highway back there?”
Janelle wanted to say, “Sorry, Officer Gomer, things got a little out of control for a second when this gorilla back here tried to rape me, but we’re good to go now, yes sirree,” but of course she didn’t say that. She didn’t say anything and neither did Audrey, and Janelle began to feel a little uncomfortable, and then the cop—who was turning out to be as stupid as Gary, big surprise there—helped them out. “You got a little drowsy, didn’t you?”
“Yes, that’s it,” Audrey agreed. “Yes. Drowsy. Exactly.”
“Well, y’all be careful, now,” he said, speaking gravely, as if imparting some weighty philosophical truth. Moses bringing the Ten Commandments down from the Mount. “Maybe you ought to think about finding a motel for the night and getting a fresh start in the morning.”
“Yes, that’s a great idea,” Audrey agreed, smiling now at the officer. “That’s what we’ll do. Thanks so much for all your help.” She was laying it on kind of thick, Janelle thought, considering the pig hadn’t done anything except harass them and feast his eyes on their scantily-clad bodies, but he didn’t seem to notice. Men typically turned into drooling idiots when the little bombshell in the front seat turned on her charm, something she rarely chose to do but was quite skilled at accomplishing when motivated.
They never seemed to notice the lack of warmth—of any emotion at all—behind the smile.
The cop hesitated as if preparing to add something to his little speech, then apparently thought better of it. He touched the bill of his cap in salute and said, “Y’all have a nice evening, folks.” Then he turned on the heel of his boot and strode back to his cruiser.
Finally the goddamned flashing blue and red hazard lights flicked off and Janelle sighed in appreciation. Only a couple of vehicles had passed them on the empty highway the entire time the cop had been standing there, so all those colorful lights seemed to her like nothing more than dramatic overkill, but what did she know? At least now they were gone. The darkness was soothing, like blessed silence following a victim’s agonized screams.
The State Police cruiser edged past them on the left and then rocketed away, the cop accelerating down the highway in some macho display of engine size. Janelle watched as the vehicle’s red taillights grew smaller, eventually disappearing entirely. No one moved and no one spoke. She could feel Gary’s sense of relief at having somehow escaped capture when he must have been thinking he was about to spend the rest of his miserable little cockroach life behind bars; it was rolling off him in waves. Audrey sat quietly in the driver’s seat, waiting for whatever was going to happen next.
Soon it became clear nothing was going to happen next unless Janelle made it happen. Their idiot kidnapper obviously had no plan, unless it was to sit here on the side of the highway and wait for the State Police dude to come driving by again. The cop had already been suspicious of them and uneasy about the situation he had stumbled upon. He may not have been terribly bright and he may have been captivated by Audrey’s beauty, but he still possessed that unerring cop instinct for sniffing out trouble.
If he drove past, say, after turning around at the next exit and backtracking in the eastbound lane—which was exactly what she suspected he would do—and their Saturn was still sitting in the breakdown lane, they would have big problems. Problems of the kind that even Audrey would be unable to solve by shaking her tits and showing her legs.
And since Janelle hadn’t been paying attention to their location while falling asleep and then nearly getting raped by their fearless kidnapper, she had no idea how far away the next exit was. Maybe the big dumb cop was even now gliding off the highway, turn signal flashing, preparing to reverse direction. She sighed and spoke. “Listen, I realize I’m nothing more than a helpless female victim, but don’t you think maybe we should get the hell outta here before that dummy comes back?”
Gary glared at her. “Shut up.” Then he shifted in his seat and spoke to Audrey, who was still facing forward, eyes on the empty road, hands resting on the wheel. “Get moving,” he said, and Janelle snorted quietly. Audrey shifted the car into gear and eased onto the empty highway.
Gary turned back toward her. “You got something to say?”
“I’m just wondering how long you would have sat there pissing yourself, waiting around for that cop to come back and take you away.”
“Yeah? Well, I’m wondering something, too.” Janelle knew what was coming but said nothing. “I’m wondering what we’re all still doing here. I’m wondering why you didn’t jump out of the car the minute that pig walked up beside us. You would have been rescued and I’d be on my way to jail right now.”
Janelle chuckled. “Rescued,” she repeated under her breath, knowing it would get under their kidnapper’s skin. Before he had a chance to respond, though, Audrey interrupted from the front seat and asked, “Where am I supposed to be going?”
“I don’t know, just fucking drive,” he told her. “We’ll get off the highway in a couple of exits. I’m kind of busy right now.” She shrugged and kept going.
“Well?” he said to Janelle, exasperated. “Why are we all still here? I don’t believe you’re so stupid you would just allow your rescuer to drive away. What the hell’s going on?”
Janelle thought she noticed a slight quaver in his voice as he spoke, but whether it was from anger or fear she couldn’t be sure. She stared back at him and couldn’t resist flashing the tiny smile that seemed to upset him so much. “Isn’t it becoming obvious, even to someone as dim as you?”
His face flushed red and he fumbled for the utility knife, swearing as it snagged on something in his pocket, before pulling it free and snapping it open. The blade popped out and he held it in front of her eyes. “Watch your fucking mouth, bitch. Or are you forgetting who’s in charge here?”
Her smile widened. “Oh, it’s very clear who’s in charge.”
“Then answer the fucking question. What was that little game with the cop all about back there?”
Janelle sighed. It was obvious he just wasn’t going to get it without an explanation. Doing it this way would undoubtedly be fun, but still, the average young American male’s dim-wittedness never failed to disappoint her. “We didn’t beg for rescue because we didn’t want to be rescued. We’re exactly where we want to be.”
Gary knitted his brows in concentration, lowering the utility knife a few inches as he tried to decipher what the hell she was talking about.
From the front seat, Audrey said, “Look, there’s the cop. Should we wave?” She pointed across the median strip to a grove of trees abutting the eastbound lane of the interstate where the State Police cruiser sat, lights off, idling on the grass next to a sign advertising a truck stop where weary travelers could refuel their gas tanks and their stomachs.
Startled, now nervous as well as confused, Gary swung his head to the left and peered intently toward the police cruiser, as if concerned the cop might see them driving past and gun his engine, hurtling across the median and chasing them down again. Janelle blew out a breath of air forcefully and shook her head in frustration. This idiot was even stupider than most. She decided the time for verbal explanations were past. He obviously wouldn’t understand, anyway.
She reached down, her right hand disappearing for a fraction of a second into the plastic storage bin built into the rear door of the Saturn. In a flash she withdrew it, clutching a large hunting knife with a six-inch curved blade and black matte handle. Her movement was lightning-quick and sure-handed. The razor-sharp blade glowed dully in the ambient light provided by the moon in the nighttime sky as she pressed the tip into the soft skin just under Gary Newton’s right ear.
He jerked his head forward and to the left and Janelle pivoted her wrist, forcing the blade smoothly down the side of his nec
k and he drew in a short gasp of surprise. A smooth line of blood, black in the darkness of the car’s interior, sprang from the cut and seeped down Gary’s neck and he dropped his knife, instinctively slapping his right hand over the wound.
He sank to his knees behind Audrey’s seat and Janelle smoothly scooped up Gary’s utility knife, handing it to Audrey, who accepted it without a word. Unlike a few minutes ago, when the little Saturn veered dangerously across the road during the scuffle between Gary and Janelle, this time the car continued smoothly down the middle of the travel lane. She glanced at the knife and then tossed it to the empty floor on the front passenger side of the vehicle.
Gary twisted to the right, looking up at Janelle with bulging eyes. “What the fuck? What did you just do, you stupid bitch? You cut me!”
Janelle cocked an eyebrow. “If you knew, why did you bother asking?”
He lifted his hand off his neck and examined the palm, now slick with his blood. More surged out of the incision the moment he did, and he choked out a gurgle that sounded to Janelle like equal parts anger and fear as he quickly replaced his hand over the wound. Blood oozed between his fingers and over his knuckles. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” he whispered.
“What’s wrong with me? You’re asking what’s wrong with me?” Janelle chuckled, the sound throaty, almost sensual, even to her. “You kidnapped us, you were going to rape and then probably murder us, and you’re asking what’s wrong with me? That’s a good one.”
She leaned to the left, slithering behind Gary’s kneeling body, rubbing her breasts against his back just for fun, and reached into the plastic storage pouch built into the door next to him with her left hand as she held the knife steadily against the back of his neck with her right. She plucked an identical hunting knife out of that pouch and then straightened up and tossed it onto the front floor next to Gary’s knife. The blades clattered together.
Heartless (Delirium Novella Series) Page 4