Montana Man

            MONTANA MAN

             

                by  

              pamela

              

               ONE

     It was only men in Charley's in those days, no females allowed, but for the one exception. No women's lib then to make Charley let them in, not in Montana anyway. Not out there in that godforsaken Divot country. So Charley's was just men, and not too many of them, either. Especially in the daytime, though there was more and more coming in in the afternoons once the plant closed and the logging was down and it seemed like everybody was laying off. The bars were the only places business was getting better. Charley's was maybe not exactly a bar, but something like it. Kind of a local hangout place, like a club only it wasn't private. But if you were a stranger you usually left pretty quick after you got your drink or whatever, because Charley wasn't friendly to strangers.
         The exceptions about no women was when Ramsey Boyce brought his wife in. It only happened once in a while, and there was no way of telling when it was going to be. Those times could be a month apart, could be three or four months, could be six. No pattern to it. Nobody ever knew, if they stopped into Charley's some afternoon, if maybe that would be a day Ramsey would show up. With his wife. I guess everybody thought about it, though. Hoped a little. Or a lot. The regulars had more of   a chance. I knew two guys anyway used to hang around Charley's every single afternoon, waiting for the time.
     Ramsey hardly never came into Charley's alone. He hardly went anyplace anytime, except to work. Nobody went to his house, back in the hills. It was just how Ramsey was. Not exactly unfriendly. But inside of himself most of the time. You didn't tell Ramsey jokes or like that. You didn't mess with him either.
          But when he came into Charley's with his wife it was always the same. Charley's was a noisy place, even without a lot of guys in it. Loud. But when Ramsey came in it went quiet as a tomb. Like that,in a second. Everybody shut up. Ramsey would stand there in the door, looking around. No expression on him at all. Then he'd swing the door wider and Abby would come in. And there'd be like a kind of gasp go all around the room. That's the way it was, every time. That sudden quiet, and then that sound of guys drawing in their breath like they couldn't help it. And then dead quiet again.
          Abby was a sight to see, anytime. She was a city girl, you know. From back East. You could tell that by just looking at her. The way she looked at you, the way she stood or walked. Not snooty exactly. But real sure of herself, and not one damn bit like any of the females around here. Stood out a mile, just the way of her. Not to mention her looks. She wasn't more than twenty-three, if that, and Ramsey had to be thirty-five at least, I guess. And the prettiest face I guess I ever saw--Abby, that is. She had these eyes you could drown in, big brown eyes. And a mouth made a man want to kiss her forever and be damned with anything else. And she had this long hair, long and straight, kind of half brown and half red. And a body on her. My lord, I can't put it in words, that body. Anyway, she was a sight. Anytime. But most specially when she came into Charley's with Ramsey, because nearly always she had on this real tight, thin-looking shirt that you could tell she had nothing underneath it from the way the shapes of her nipples poked it right out at you, and she had this little short skirt that showed her legs all the way up, damn fine legs too, and usually Ramsey had her hands tied in back of her with this thick hunk of rope.
                         #
          I was there in Charley's the first time Ramsey brought her in. It wasn't the first time I'd seen her. That was when Ramsey brought her back with him from the East, after he went out there to bury his mother. It was funny to think of Ramsey's family being from back there, because if ever I saw a Montana man like he was born and bred, Ramsey was it. Anyway he came back that time with Abby and said she was his wife and he took her up to his house in the hills, and she never showed up again till about six months later when they came to Charley's. With Abby in that skimpy outfit and her hands tied. I tell you Charley's had never been so quiet.
          Ramsey's face didn't show a thing. Hell, it never did that I know of. Abby's didn't either, for that. Except--well, Ramsey's eyes were as still and hard as the rest of him, but Abby's eyes were alive. I couldn't say what was in them, but something was. She looked at us, and she stood real straight with her hands behind her, and her head was up high, and her eyes were saying a hell of a lot--but I couldn't make out a word.
          Old Charley was as stunned as the rest of us at first. But after a minute he put down the glass he was polishing and came out from behind the bar--which was an unusual happening in itself. Ramsey stood watching him. Charley stopped and leaned against the bar.
         "Ramsey," Charley said, like saying hello, you know.
         "Charley," Ramsey says back.
         Then Charley says, "Ramsey, you know there ain't no females allowed in here."
         "I know that, Charley," Ramsey says. "This is different."
         "What do you mean different?" Charley says.
`          "Well...she's not here to drink," Ramsey says.
         "Don't make no difference," Charley says. "No females. That's the rule."
         "Charley," Ramsey says. "I think why she's here might make a difference."                               "No females," Charley says.
         "She's been bad, Charley," Ramsey says.                     
         Charley frowned. "What do you mean, Ramsey?"
         "I mean she's been bad," Ramsey said. "And she's going to be punished."
         "Punished?" Charley says.
         "Right here," Ramsey says, and the quiet you could practically touch it.
         "Well now," Charley says. "I don't--how you gonna do that, Ramsey?"
         "Whup her," Ramsey says.
         Charley kind of stares at him. I was staring at Abby, just standing there with her head up and her long bare legs and her titties pushing hard at that tight blue shirt, going up and down a little fast, I thought. And those nipples were hard or I was just blind.
          "You gonna whup her here?" Charley says then.
          "Aiming to," Ramsey says. "Less you keep her out, Charley. Have to take her someplace in town then, I guess. Rather not."
     "Why you got to take her anyplace?" Charley said suspiciously.
     "Do it in public," Ramsey says. "Teach her a lesson. In front of everybody."
     There was a sound like a little mouse went around the room.
     "Never been any females in here," Charley says stubbornly.
     "Charley," Ramsey says then. "Tell you what. You tell us to leave, we'll leave. Just tell us."
     Charley started to say something, but then he looks at Abby just standing there. Just waiting that way. He looks at her a while and doesn't say a thing.
     "Any time you want," Ramsey says. "You say to leave and I'll take her someplace else." Then he goes over to a table right in the middle of the place with three guys sitting at it. "Fellas," he says, "I'll need this table if it's all right with you."
          Those guys cleared off quick enough and took their beer back to the bar. Then Ramsay says, "Abby. Over here." Abby walks over.
          "Across the table," Ramsey says.
          I guess there was twenty or thirty guys in Charley's that afternoon, but right then if you was blind you'd have thought that place was empty, that's how quiet it was. I don't think anybody was even breathing. I sure as hell wasn't.
          Abby didn't move. She stood there, straight and still. I can't tell you what just the sight of her like that could do to a man. Can't tell you why, either. But you can take my word for it.
      "Abby," Ramsey says. His voice all low and flat, and no man I ever knew had the guts to stand up to him when he used that voice. But Abby didn't move. They stood there, face to face, looking right into each other's eyes. Ramseys eyes were like always, hard and stony, nothing showing in them. Abby's, like I said before, were different. But they were steady on his.
       It seemed like forever, but I guess it wasn't maybe half a minute they stood there like that. Then Ramsey reached out, real slow and deliberate, and he took hold of Abby's nipple. They were poking that shirt out real clear, and Ramsey just took the left one between his finger and thumb and kind of squeezed it. Everybody who worked with Ramsey, like I did, knew the strength in those hands. He kept looking at Abby and tightening his fingers on that nipple, and I thought he was going to crush it to a pulp.
          Abby at first went kind of stiff, and her head went back a little, her mouth open like she was trying to get more air. But no sound came out of her. And then all at once she just seemed to melt, like all her bones had gone soft on her. She started to sort of sink down, and Ramsey let go of her nipple and took her arm, turning her and guiding her body as she lowered herself onto the table.
          That was another sight, Abby laying face down across that little table. Those gorgeous bare legs were stretched out from one end, her toes on the floor, and her head hung off the other side with that long hair dangling down. And her rump stuck up and out like--well, like sin itself. Temptation. It's pure temptation sticks out like that, every time, and it takes a special kind of man to resist it. Most of us can't, not all the time anyway, and it'll always get you in trouble. Every time. It sure did for me, eventually.
     Anyway, there it was. And then Ramsey made it worse. Or better, I guess you'd say. He took hold of the back of that little short skirt and pulled it up, right up over her ass, and he kind of tucked it under her tied hands to keep it there. And that's when the quiet broke and there was a bunch of gasping and murmuring and like that. Because Abby wasn't wearing a damn thing under that skirt, and her ass was naked.
     And I have to tell you if it wasn't the best ass I ever saw, I don't know what was. All round and curvy and soft, but not too soft, you know, and--hell, I guess you get the idea. And there it was, bare and pushing right out at us, right in the middle of Charley's.
          Like I said, there was sounds going around, but nobody yelled out or said something dirty. And nobody got up to move closer, either. I think we all knew somehow that Ramsey wouldn't take kindly to any of that. And besides that nobody cared to rile Ramsey, we didn't want him to stop whatever he was going to do.
     It got all quiet again when Ramsey took off his belt.
     It was a good thick leather belt, black, and Ramsey held it by the buckle and wound it around his hand a couple times, till he had the length he wanted. He kind of swung it back and forth once or twice, looking down at Abby stretched over the table. I couldn't see her face from where I was, but I could tell she was tensed up, and I saw her fingers twitch a little where her hands were tied, crossed at the wrists like that. But she didn't move or say a word.
          Then--and I can see it right now, right while I'm telling it, every bit of it, just like I was watching a movie, even though it was a good ways back, and even though I saw pretty much the same thing a bunch of times after that, because that first time I guess kind of burned itself into my memory, and I sure as hell hadn't seen anything like it before, not in real life. And it runs in my mind like what they call slow motion, yet it didn't take more than a couple of seconds. Ramsey took one step back, raised up that belt as high as he could, and then brought it down whistling through the air, and he didn't hold back, either. That black strap came down so fast it was just a blur, until it smacked right down on Abby's bare behind, and the sound it made was like the log jams breaking.
          Well, you'd think any woman alive would just be yelling her head off after a lick like that--hell, most men too--but not Abby. You could see her whole body sort of jerk hard when the belt hit her, but all she did was make a kind of hissing noise, real sharp. Her head raised up for a second, then hung down again. I still couldn't see her face. She twitched some, and you could see she was breathing harder. But that was all. And there was a big red stripe right across her ass where the strap had got her.
          My head felt funny, and I guess I was breathing a bit heavier myself, and I bet I wasn't the only one by a long shot. But I didn't dare look at any of the other guys, even if I could've taken my eyes off Abby and Ramsey. Ramsey's face didn't show a thing. Not a thing. He just raised that arm and did the same thing again, only this time it looked even harder, if that was possible. It sure sounded loud as hell on Abby's ass.
          Abby made a noise that time, not a yell, just a short sound like she was startled or something, and she gasped a couple of times. And her body sort of rolled a little, squirming on the table there. Then you could hear the breath going in and out of her.
          After the third time Ramsey hit her, she started to cry, just sobbing softly and her body twisting and twitching. I don't know if you can understand how a man feels, watching that. Sure, we all felt sorry for Abby, in a way--at least I did--but there wasn't nobody about to jump up and rescue her or anything. And it wasn't only that we were scared of Ramsey. There was that, but that wasn't all. That wasn't why we were all holding our breaths and forgetting our drinks and watching with our eyes wide as dinner plates.
          That wasn't why I had a hard-on.
          Anyway. I guess Ramsey used that belt maybe four or five more times before Abby yelled. When she did, it was a real scream, so loud it made my ears ring. It was like she'd been holding it back and now it all came out, and you could hear all the pain in it. I thought sure Ramsey would stop after that. But no. He gave her another one, just as hard as before, and she screamed again. Her behind was all red now, and she was squirming real hard and kind of clutching at the air with her tied hands. But she never asked him to stop. Not once.
          Ramsey gave her one more, making that strap crack like a pistol across that ass, and Abby howled louder than ever. And then finally Ramsey quit. He dropped the belt on the floor and stood there looking down at his wife, not even breathing hard.
          "Get up," Ramsey says, like he'd say it's raining out.
          Abby had some trouble getting off the table, but she managed to slide herself off and stand up, a little shaky at first. But she stood, and she held up her head, and looked at Ramsey. I could see her face now, and what I saw there about took my breath away. She looked at her husband like--well, like he was a god or something. That's what it was, it was like worship, I swear. I couldn't believe it. Her eyes were like they had melted, and her mouth was trembling, and the way she was panting you just knew it wasn't only from the pain she must still be feeling. If ever I saw a woman in heat, Abby was that woman. But it was more than that, too.
          Ramsey just stood there looking back at her, like he was waiting for something. Not showing a thing.
          And Abby went down on her knees.
          It couldn't've been easy for her with her hands behind her like that and her behind burning up, but she just went down all slow and graceful, like she was courtseying to a king on a throne. She knelt there on the floor and looked up at him, still with that melting look on her. And Ramsey spat right into her face.
          Abby made a little whimpering noise. And then she bowed down her head and just knelt there, looking at the floor.
          Ramsey looked up then, and he looked around at all of us, real slow. Then he said, "Everybody watch."
          As if there was any way we were going to stop watching.
          And Ramsey unbuttoned his jeans.
          I couldn't believe it. It came on me that all this was a dream, because it was just too unreal, and I was about to wake up in my bed, with a hard-on, cursing because I wanted the dream to go on. So I stayed real still, hoping I wouldn't wake up too quick.
          Ramsey got his fly unbuttoned and he pulled out his cock. Right there with everybody watching, and it was a big one, too, as I knew because I'd pissed beside him many a time at work, but I'd never seen it all hard like it was now. Big and thick.
          Then Ramsey says, "Abby."
          And we're all sitting there like statues. Watching. And Abby's head comes up, slow. And she kind of swallows. And then she does it. She brings her head forward to Ramsey's crotch, and she opens her mouth, and she takes Ramsey's dick inside it. All the way.
          Now I heard guys all around me suddenly take in their breath, or lean forward in their chairs. Even a couple of guys said, "Jesus," or something under their breath. But Ramsey didn't look at us again. He was looking down at Abby. And Abby had her eyes closed. Then she started to suck him.
          Now I wasn't exactly a kid or anything, and I'd seen a few stag movies in my time, and I'd had my cock sucked, too. But I hadn't never seen it done in real life to somebody else, and sure as hell not like this, not a girl like Abby, and in broad daylight, right out in public, and her with her hands tied and just been whupped to a smither. And the way she was doing it.
          You know I said how she looked at Ramsey, like she was worshipping him? That's how she sucked him, too. That's the only way I can describe it. Slow and loving, and her head moving back and forth, that hair swaying, and her mouth sliding up and down around that big old cock, taking all of it in each time. Slow and easy, and you could tell she had her tongue working too. I have to tell you I damn near shot in my pants just watching it. So did everybody else, at least that's what they said later.
          I don't know how long it went on--nobody was keeping track of the time, I'll tell you that. But it was a while. Ramsey stood there like a tree, not moving, and let her work on him. Abby never stopped. She sucked on and on, and only near the end did she start to speed up at all, twisting her head a little as she did it. Maybe she knew Ramsey was close to coming, but I don't know how, because he never once moved or showed any expression that I could see. Even when he came, his face didn't change at all. His hips just jerked a little, that's all, and Abby made a little sound around his dick, and then I saw her throat moving and I knew she was swallowing Ramsey's jism. She swallowed a whole bunch of times, kind of moaning too, and then finally Ramsey pulled out of her mouth.
          Abby opened her eyes and looked up at him, then right away bowed her head down, like she thought Ramsey might spit in her face again. And maybe he would've, I don't know. He just tucked his cock back in and buttoned up his fly, real calm. Then he said to her, "Learned your lesson?"
          Abby nodded.
          "Learn it good," Ramsey says. "Next time it'll be worse."
     Abby just nodded again.
          "Pick up the belt," Ramsey says.
          So Abby bent over to where he'd dropped the belt on the floor and she picked it up in her mouth and straightened up, holding it between her teeth. Ramsey took it from her mouth and put it on.
         "Get up," he says then. And Abby somehow got herself up on her feet and stood there. She was still panting a little, and her face was flushed. She didn't look at anybody but Ramsey.
         "We'll be going now, Charley," Ramsey says. "Thanks." Then he says to Abby, "Tell Charley thank you for letting you in here."
         She didn't move for a tiny moment, then she took a deep breath and I could tell those nipples were hard as ever. She turned to the bar and said, "Thank you, Charley." Real low, but you could hear her all right.
         "Now thank all these fellas," Ramsey said then, "for watching you get punished."
         Abby's face flushed still deeper, but she did it. She looked around at all of us and in that soft voice, and I can hear it right now, she said, "Thank you, gentlemen."
         Gentlemen.
    Well, then they left. Abby still with her hands tied. Out the door and we heard Ramsey's car start up outside and drive off.
         For a minute or so nobody said anything much. A lot of us finished our drinks pretty quick. Then somebody said, "Son of a bitch!" real loud, and that kind of broke the tension. Next thing Sam Harper, who was from down Oklahoma way and always had a mouth on him, pipes up.
         "Hey, Charley," he says. "After a show like that, I think we should get a round of drinks on the house. How about it?"
         "Fuck your mother," Charley says.

                      TWO

         I guess it was just about a year or so ago that Ramsey had his accident.
         Ramsey didn't act any different after that time in Charley's, and he never mentioned what had happened, then or any of the other times, and we sure as hell didn't either, not to him--though you can bet when he wasn't around it was about all we did talk about for a good long time. At the mill Ramsey was his old self, working hard and keeping to himself mostly. He was probably the best damn worker they had out there, and I never knew him to miss a day, either, until he hurt himself.
         How it happened was he was using the big power saw, and maybe the board he was working on had a rotten patch he didn't see or something, but the thing broke, and normally it wouldn't be any problem for Ramsey, but whether he was careless or just unlucky or whatever, his foot slipped and the saw got away from him and got him right in the leg, just above the knee.
         I wasn't far away and I saw him go down, and when I got there he was twisting on the ground and the blood was just coming out like crazy. A couple of other guys got there at the same time, and one of them ran to get the mill doctor. I yelled at somebody else to make sure they called an ambulance, and then I got down by Ramsey, but there wasn't much I could do but try to tie my belt around his leg to staunch the blood. That didn't work too good, and I got some of that blood on me and it was a mess. It seemed like forever till the doc came running up. Then I started feeling weak and had to move away for a minute.
         When I got back the doc had made some kind of tourniquet and wrapped the leg up temporarily, but blood was seeping through anyway, and Ramsey was white as a ghost. Then we heard the ambulance siren, still a ways off but coming closer. Ramsey looked around then, his eyes kind of glazed, but he saw me bending over him and started to say something. Doc told him not to talk, but you couldn't tell Ramsey anything, even then.
         "Josh," he says, and he could hardly get it out, but meanwhile he's digging into his pants pocket for something, and he pulls out a bunch of keys all tied together and holds them out to me. "Abby," he chokes out. "Get Abby."
         "Sure," I said, and I took the keys automatically. "I will, Ramsey. Don't worry."
         "Be sure," Ramsey says, and he's forcing it out now. "Abby." Then he passed out.
         Well, the ambulance came and they got Ramsey into it and the doc went along with him, but they wouldn't let any of the other guys come. I went to tell the section boss where I was going, then I went and got my car, it was a little jeep I had then, and I started out to get Abby. Because Ramsey didn't have a telephone up there. He never much wanted to talk to anybody, Ramsey, if he didn't have to.
         Ramsey's place was back in the hills, not real close to anything at all, and you had to know that area pretty well to find it. I hadn't been out there since I was a kid, but I remembered all right. Going up there I started to wonder why Ramsey'd given me his keys, since Abby was sure to be up there. But I figured probably he wasn't thinking too clear right then, and who would be?
         Took me close to an hour, I guess, and when I got there it was pretty much like I remembered, just a clearing with the old wooden house, not very big, but Ramsey had fixed it up some and the whole place looked neat and not all scraggly like it used to. I figured Abby would hear me drive up and come out to see, but there was no sign of her. So I got out and went up and knocked on the door. But nothing happened, and I couldn't hear anything inside, either.
         I knocked again, louder, and I called out, "Abby!" I still didn't hear anything for a minute, but then her voice came from inside the house. It said, "Go away!"
         Well, that set me back a little. I waited a minute, then I pounded the door again. I yelled, "Abby! It's me, Josh Hawkins. From the mill. It's about Ramsey. He's had an accident. Abby!"
         No sound.
         "Abby!" I shouted. "Open the door. Please!"
         Then her voice came again. She said, "I can't."
         I didn't understand what was going on, and I didn't know what to do for a minute there. Then I recalled Ramsey's keys, so I pulled them out. It took me a couple of tries to find the right one, but then I did and I got the door open and went in.
         She wasn't in the front room, so I called her name again. I heard her say, "Oh, god!", and she sounded real strange. It came from one of the other rooms--there was just the three rooms in the house--so I went to take a look. It was the bedroom she was in, and when I got there I stopped short right in the doorway and I daresay my mouth fell right open like a fool. I know I was so damn startled that for a minute there I just flat couldn't move.
         Abby was lying on the bed, and she was all stretched out, what they call spread-eagled, you know, and she was chained down there that way. I mean she had these handcuff things on both wrists, one end holding her wrist and the other end fastened to the corner bedpost. And she had cuff things on her legs too, only bigger, and they held her ankles to the bottom posts the same way. I want to tell you, she was stretched out pretty good, too.
         She had on a kind of a dress, but it wasn't much longer than that skirt she'd been wearing in Charley's that time, and I'm telling you those legs stretching out like that in different directions--well, it just made my mouth go all dry, once I got over the first shock of seeing her like that. Not to mention I could see she still didn't have on a brassiere or anything, and the way those round damn titties stuck up...
         Abby looked straight at me, and her face was flushed but her eyes were real steady, and it was like she was daring me to say something, but I couldn't say a word. I just stood there gaping. Then she says, "What happened to Ramsey?"
         I had to kind of pull myself together and clear my throat once or twice before I could say anything. Then I said, "He just had a little accident. He--he cut his leg pretty bad, but he'll be all right. They took him to the hospital."
         Abby just kept looking at me, so I said, "He told me to come and get you. He gave me his keys." I still had the keys in my hand and I held them up for her to see. I felt like a fool.
         "All right," Abby says then. "You'd better use them, hadn't you?"
         "Yeah," I says. I started fumbling around with the keys, looking for small ones to fit the cuffs, and I knew I should just get on with it and mind my own business, but my guts were just busting with curiosity or something, and I couldn't stop myself. So I said, "I guess maybe it's none of my business, but why does Ramsey--I mean, how can he...leave you like--like this?"
         "You're right," Abby says. "It isn't your business."
         I could feel my face get red. "Right," I said, and I was so kind of embarrassed that I dropped the damn keys and had to pick them up and start going through them again.
    Then Abby says, "It excites him."
         I didn't say a thing.
         "It turns him on," Abby says. "To see me this way. He loves to come home and find me like this, completely helpless. His for the taking."
         I was getting a little tight in the throat. I picked out the smallest key I could find and went to the bed to open one of the handcuffs.
         "It excites me, too," Abby says.
         Well, I kept my mouth shut, not that I could have gotten anything out without choking. I just got down by the bed and tried to fit the key in the cuff on her wrist, but my fingers weren't very steady.
         "You can probably see that," Abby says. "I get very aroused being kept like this. I can't help it. Ramsey and I are two of a kind, you see."
         Her voice sounded a little funny. I couldn't get the little key to fit that handcuff, so I figured I'd try the other one. The bed was next to the wall, so I couldn't go around, and I had to kind of lean over her to get to her far wrist. It didn't help any to keep my fingers from shaking, let me tell you. I tried to concentrate on fitting the key in the lock, but it wasn't easy in that position. Then, just as I was getting it, Abby sort of shifted on the bed, and I don't know how she could move much as tight as she was pulled by those cuffs, but she raised her body a little, and her breasts brushed against me. Shit, I could feel those hard poky nipples right through that dress and my shirt. I jerked back out of pure reflex.
         "Sorry," Abby says, and she sounded kind of hoarse. "I told you it excites me."
         I was still leaning over her, sort of sitting on the edge of the bed there, and I looked down at her, looked down at that mouth, those eyes, and I guess maybe I moved toward her again without even knowing it, because when she raised her body again it moved against me like before. The blood was just pounding in my head and I couldn't think worth a damn. I just looked in those damn deep eyes and she looked back at me.
         And then she whispered, "Do it."
         And I kissed her.
         Well. Maybe you think you'd of done different if it was you. And maybe you would, I don't know. But just don't be too damn sure. A man can feel pretty sure of doing right when he's sitting back thinking about it, but that's not exactly the same as being right there with temptation itself spread out underneath you. I can tell you that.
         I wasn't thinking at all once I kissed Abby. Oh, somewheres in the back of my brain I knew damn well it wasn't right. I knew she was Ramsey's wife and Ramsey was my friend. I knew it the way you know you should be going one way when a hurricane is blowing you the other.
         That mouth was as soft and sweet as it looked to be, and it knew what it was doing, too. So did her tongue. I never wanted to stop kissing her. I was bent over so the top half of my body was just about touching hers, and I felt those damn breasts against me as she breathed. Then somehow I was sort of lying on top of her, still kissing her, and I had a hard-on like a telephone pole.
         Well, finally we stopped kissing, and I raised my head up and looked down into those big brown eyes and she looked up at me. We were both kind of breathing hard. She must of been hurting in those cuffs with me on top of her like that, but she didn't look like she was suffering.
         Then, like before, she says, "Do it."
         I said, "Abby--" But I was choked up so I couldn't hardly get it out.
         Then she starts twisting underneath me. Just a little bit, which was all she could manage stretched out that way, but it was enough to drive me crazy. I had to kiss her again, and I did, and she kissed me back, kind of moaning, and her body is pushing up at me. Then she rolls her head away and says, "Now! Do it now!"
         Well, it surely wasn't what you'd call romantic. All I did was open my pants and kind of push them down, along with my shorts. Then I pulled her dress up, and sure enough there was nothing under it but her, just like in Charley's. And then I was inside her.
         It didn't take very long, that first time, but it didn't matter. We were both so worked up. Abby groaned and sort of squirmed as much as she could and made little noises in her throat, and I tried to hold back but there was no way right then. But we both finished at the same time, Abby yelling out with it just as I came inside her.
         Then after a minute I got up and pulled up my pants. I was feeling kind of strange, maybe embarrassed, I guess, and I couldn't look at her right away. I heard her breathing get back to normal, and then she says, "You'd better unlock me now."
         So I did. First I pulled her skirt back down, and then I finally managed to find the right keys and get the cuffs unlocked. Abby got up slowly. She was kind of stiff, naturally.
         Then she says, "What did you say your name was?"
         I didn't know if that was funny or sad. "Josh," I says. "Josh Hawkins."
         "Right." She walked slowly over to a kind of dressing table and sat down and started brushing her hair. "I've seen you before," she says.
         "I guess," I says.
         "You were in Charley's one time."
         I said, "Yeah. Couple times, actually."
         First she doesn't say anything, then she says, "Did you enjoy it?"
         "You mean Charley's?" I says. "Or just now?"
         She looks at me, kind of smiling a little. "Well, I'm pretty sure you enjoyed just now," she says. "I certainly did."
         I said, "We shouldn't have done it."
         She didn't say anything.
         I said, "If Ramsey ever finds out--"
         "Don't worry about it," she says. Then she says, "Ramsey's going to be all right, isn't he?"
         "I guess so," I says. "But he cut his leg pretty bad."
         Abby stood up. "Let's go," she says.
         So we left and got in the jeep and started out for the hospital. I was still feeling kind of funny about the whole thing and I couldn't think of anything to say. After a while Abby says, "How long have you known Ramsey?"
         Ever since we was kids, I told her.
         She says, "I've never been able to imagine Ramsey as a child."
         "He was a kid just like anybody else," I says. "Except more ornery than most." Then, just for something else to say, I asked her, "How did you two meet, anyway?"
         Abby didn't answer that one right away. I didn't ask her again, I just drove, figuring if she didn't want to tell me that was fine, I was just making conversation anyway. But finally she starts to talk.
         "It was back in Youngstown," she says, "where I come from. Ramsey's mother was living there, and she died, and Ramsey came east for the funeral."
         I already knew that, but I didn't say anything.
         "I was a friend of his sister's--she stayed with their mother, you know, when the family broke up and Ramsey went west with his father--so I came to the funeral. And afterwards...there was this gathering of friends and relatives at the house, and that's where I met him. His sister introduced us. And I--well. You have to understand. I was no pushover. Not that I was a virgin or anything, but I was my own woman, you know? Sure of myself. Pretty sophisticated, I thought. Able to look at men with a cool eye. So I--then I met Ramsey. I can't explain this. His sister introduced us, and I put out my hand, and he took it, and--well, I fell apart inside. That's all. He kind of looked at me and held on to my hand--not hard or anything, not at first--just stood there looking at me and holding my hand. And he knew. I think he knew even before I did, but I knew too."
     "Knew what?" I said.
     It took her a minute. "That I--that he was--that I--I belonged to him. That's all. I know it sounds crazy. It just--I couldn't believe it myself. I mean, I didn't want to believe it, for god's sake, I wasn't--like I said, I was my own woman. I thought. Up to then. But there it was, he just--And he knew it too. Oh Christ. He knew it right away."
          "What happened?"
          She gave a short little laugh. "He squeezed my hand, that's what happened. Just for a minute. Not even a minute, just a few seconds. But he squeezed it hard. And oh Jesus, I don't know how he knew things about me that I didn't even know, but I was ready to go down on my knees to him, right there. In the middle of all those people. Just like that."
          "Like at Charlie's," I said.
          She glanced over at me with a funny kind of a grin. "Yeah. Like at Charlie's. Only I didn't actually do it. Oh, I probably would have if he'd told me to. And I'm sure he could see it on my face. But him, his face never changed. All he did was let go my hand, and all he said was, 'Come.' That's all. And he walked out of the room."
          She stopped, like she was expecting me to ask her what she did, but I knew she was gonna tell me anyhow, so I just waited.
          "And I followed him," she says finally. "He went out in the hall and came to the staircase and walked upstairs, and I just walked up right after him, with all the people watching and looking at us. He went into one of the rooms up there, and I went in after him, and he closed the door." She stopped again. "And then he said his second word to me," she says. "He said, 'Strip.'"
          "So you stripped," I said.
          "Oh yes. And he stood there and watched. And then he stripped too, and then--Christ, I'd never had anything like it. None of this foreplay stuff, none of this tender lovey-dovey lovemaking like women are supposed to crave and respond to, oh I'd had my share of that, and I was just as brainwashed about it as anybody, thought that's where it was at all right. But not with Ramsey. He took what he wanted, he was direct and forceful, and he was rough too, and the rougher he was the more I liked it. The more he took the more I wanted to give him. And when he hurt me I...Oh Jesus, I...I begged him for more. And when I--"
          She suddenly stopped again, like she had to catch her breath. "Shit," she said, and that shocked me for some reason. "I'm telling you more than you want to know. Sorry."
          "No problem," I said. It wasn't really more than I wanted to know, but probably more than I should've known. I was damn interested, but also I had a hard-on again. "Anyway," I said then, "don't tell Ramsey about--you know, about what happened before."
          "Well, I'll try not to," she says. "But I can't promise he won't find out. You know Ramsey."
          That sure as hell didn't make me feel any better.

                    THREE

Some of the people at the county hospital knew me when they saw me, on account of I was kind of going around with this girl Molly, who was a nurse there. Molly was a real cute lady, blonde and kind of short--but curvy where it counted--and I guess you'd say we were more or less engaged, though it wasn't formal or anything. Anyway I used to go there sometimes to pick her up when she was getting off work, so they knew me there, like I said. When I walked in with Abby the gal at the desk looked at me funny and said, "Hi, Josh. Molly's not off yet, she's just started her shift, you want to see her?"

"No," I said. "No, I'm--we're here to see Ramsey. Ramsey Boyce? Hurt his leg up at the mill?"

"Oh," she says. "Oh, right. They brought him in earlier on. Let's see." She looks up something on the computer they got there. "He's in room 313. I guess you can go up there if you want."

"Thanks."

We found him all right, and he looked okay, maybe a little pale. They'd patched him up and sewed up his leg and given him a bunch of painkillers and stuff, so he wasn't feeling too bad. Abby rushed over to the bed and kissed him, and they whispered back and forth a little, with me standing there by the door, feeling pretty strange about the whole thing.

Finally Ramsey looks over at me and says, "Thanks." Not one to waste a lot of words, Ramsey wasn't.

"No problem," I says. Now I don't know if there was something in my face or my voice or whatever, but Ramsey's eyes didn't move away from me. He just kept looking at me till I got kind of uncomfortable, but I just tried to keep looking normal. Seemed like an hour he kept looking at me like that, but probably it was just a few moments. Then his eyes shifted to Abby. Her back was to me and I couldn't see her face. He just glanced at her and then looked back at me. I could feel the sweat starting on my neck.

"How's the leg?" I said, to distract him.

"Leg's gonna be okay," Ramsey says. "Be a big scar, they say, but it'll work good as ever. Take a little time though." He's still looking at me.

"Knew you'd be all right," I said. "Takes more than a damn saw to kill Ramsey Boyce, right?"

Ramsey doesn't answer. Then he turns to Abby again. "Ab, why don't you go to the can or something, let Josh and me talk a little."

"Sure, Ramsey," Abby says. She turns around and goes out, not even looking at me.

Ramsey motions with his head for me to come closer to him, and I do. I'm still trying to act normal, but it's not easy. I don't know what Ramsey's thinking. I mean, there was no way he could really know about what happened with me and Abby, but you could see he was sensing something. He was the damnedest guy for sensing things, Ramsey was.

I sat down in a chair close to the bed. Ramsey's still looking at me. "Guess you were kind of surprised when you found Abby the way she was," he says then.

"Yeah," I said, and sort of shrugged. "Yeah, you could say that."

"You have any problem getting her loose?"

"Nope. Just had to find the right keys."

Ramsey nodded. Then he says, "Makes a picture, don't it? Seeing Abby like that."

I shrugged. "Guess so," I says. "I was just thinking of getting her out of there so we   could--"

"Gets her kind of excited, you know? Being that way. Gets all hot and bothered."

"Is that right?" I says. "When I told her--"

"What happened up there?' Ramsey says.

"What do you mean? I just--"

"Josh." Man, I knew that voice. I was sweating again, but I wasn't about to let him see it.

"Yeah, Ramsey."

"If something happened up there I want to know," Ramsey says.

I made my own voice hard. "I told you what happened, Ramsey. I got her loose and we came down here. What the hell else?"

"You know," Ramsey says, "if anything happened I'll find out from Abby."

"Well, fine," I says. "Then you can stop this bullshit."

"She'll tell me, Josh. You know it. She'll tell me everything."

"Good," I said. "Christ, you're a suspicious bastard. Must be all those drugs they gave you."        

Ramsey just kept looking at me. "Okay, I'm going," I told him. "I'll come see you tomorrow." And I got up and left.

As I was going down the hall I saw Abby coming back from the bathroom. I stopped her.

"Listen, Randy's suspicious. It's like he knows, but he doesn't really, you know? I mean he can't. But--"

"I know," Abby says. "He saw it right away."

"He says you'll tell him. He says you'll tell him everything."

Abby closed her eyes for a minute, then opened them again, but she didn't say anything.

"Christ!" I said. "You ARE gonna tell him, aren't you?"

She wasn't looking at me. "I told you I'd try not to, Josh." Her voice was flat, kind of empty. "But I--If he really--Oh God, I can't lie to Ramsey. He can see right through me. If he wants to know, he'll find out. I can't help it, Josh. I'm sorry."

"Jesus," I said. I was feeling a little bit sick.

"I'll--If he does find out--I'll tell him it was my fault," Abby says. "I'll tell him how it was. I tempted you into it, you couldn't--"

"Won't make any difference," I said. "Ramsey'll come after me. Probably kill me. I'll have to fight him." All the years I'd known him, I never saw anybody win a fight with Ramsey. 

Then I thought of something I should have thought of before, only I was too busy worrying about my own skin. "Jesus Christ," I said. "What will he do to YOU?"

Abby didn't answer right away. Then she said, "I don't know. I don't think he'll kill me, though."

"But he'll--he could--"

"I'm sure he'll punish me," Abby said. There was only like a little tremble in her voice.

"Punish you how?" 

"I don't know," Abby says. There's a pause. Then she says, "But you know, I enjoy being punished. Especially by Ramsey. You know that, don't you, Josh?"

I knew she was thinking about the times I'd been in Charley's back when Ramsey brought her in. But whatever it was she'd done then, it couldn't have been near as bad in Ramsey's mind as this. "Yeah, but--but this is--I mean, Ramsey could  get--"

"He won't kill me," Abby said again.

"Maybe not," I said. "But he could damn well make you wish he would. Aren't you scared, at least?"

She doesn't answer right away. Then she says, "Yes. Yes, I am. I am. But...but being frightened is...the fear is part of it. You know? Being afraid is part of the excitement." She looks at me then, and I could see that kind of melted look in her eyes, that look she'd had when Ramsey whipped her in Charley's, the look I'd seen when she was shackled to Ramsey's bed. It had made me hot then. Now it just made me feel sicker.

"Not for me it ain't," I said.

                    FOUR

Molly was working the nurses' station on that floor, and I saw her on my way out. She gives me a smile and asks me how Ramsey is and I tell her he's fine. Then she wants to know just how the accident happened, and I tell her that. Molly wasn't too crazy about Ramsey, but because he was a friend of mine she didn't bad-mouth him too much in front of me, and anyway she hated to see anybody suffering or in pain. I guess that's why she wanted to be a nurse, part of it anyway. I was feeling kind of bad for what happened with Abby. Like I said, we weren't really engaged or anything, but I guess we had what they call an understanding. I knew she wasn't going around with anybody else, and neither was I, and since we'd got kind of serious I hadn't fooled around with anybody either. Until Abby. I didn't think Molly would like it too much if she knew, and I surely wasn't about to tell her, but then I felt kind of bad about not telling her too. Things can get really damn complicated when it comes to women, but I guess you probably know that.

I think Molly could tell something was wrong--not the way Ramsey could see things, with those eyes of his that probed right into you, but more like women's intuition, and because she knew me pretty good--but I guess she thought I was just upset about Ramsey's accident. She asked me if I still wanted to go to a movie in town that night, like we'd been planning to do, and I said yes. I knew that afterwards we'd probably go back to her house and do it real quiet in her little bed, with her old father sleeping in the next room. We couldn't go to my place because I was living in this boarding house, and the landlady didn't allow the men to have women in their rooms. In spite of feeling kind of guilty, like I said, I couldn't help thinking that this would be the first time I ever had two different women the same day. I knew I shouldn't be thinking that way, but there was a sneaky kind of proud feeling about that. I couldn't help it.

While I was talking to Molly, Abby came along down the hall from Ramsey's room. I couldn't remember if Molly had ever met Abby before, but I didn't think so, so I kind of introduced them. I thought Molly had a kind of funny look on her face, but I didn't think she could have suspected anything right then. I sure hoped not anyway. I had enough to worry about with Ramsey suspecting.

"Josh," Abby says to me, "Ramsey said I should ask you if you'll drive me back to the house so I can pick up some things. I'm going to be staying here for a while, until Ramsey gets better."

Well that kind of surprised me for sure, but of course I couldn't show it too much in front of Molly. "Yeah, sure," I told her. "You want to go now or what?"

"Any time you want," Abby says.

"Okay, let's do it."

Molly was definitely giving me a funny look now, but I didn't want to think about it. I told her I would be back in plenty of time to pick her up when her shift was over, and I left with Abby.

As soon as we were in my jeep and out on the road I said to her, "Did you tell him?"

"He knows," was all she said. Her voice was real flat and quiet.

"Jesus," I said. I couldn't say anything else for a while. Then I said, "Well Christ, if he knows, how come he's letting you go back there with me, all alone?"

"I have to get my things," Abby says. "And anyway, he knows it won't happen again."

Well I had never expected it to happen again, hadn't even thought about it, but when she said that I have to say I felt a real kind of disappointment, just for a minute there, down in my gut, you might say. I was kind of mad at myself for feeling that, but it was just for a minute.

We didn't say anything else all the way up there. When we got to the house, Abby says, "Just wait out here for me, okay? I won't be long."

So I waited, and I guess it wasn't more than fifteen minutes or so before she comes out. She's carrying this heavy-looking suitcase, so I jumped out and took it from her and loaded it into the car. Then we started back.

We were still quiet as we headed out. I was worrying about Ramsey, and Abby didn't seem in the mood to say much anyway. The roads up there were pretty rough, and once when I hit a bump I heard her make a kind of gasping noise. I looked over at her and she looks kind of pale, and her mouth is set tight.

I asked her if there was anything wrong, but she just shook her head. But after a minute, when I look at her again, she's got her head lying back against the seat back, with her eyes closed and her mouth open, taking long deep breaths, and her face looks like she's about to be sick any minute.

I pull the car over then and stop on the side of the road. "Abbhy, what's wrong?" I ask her again. "Are you sick or what? You want to get out?"

"No," Abby says. She opens her eyes then and looks at me. "It's all right, Josh," she says, and it's like she's forcing herself to talk. "I'm fine. Just go on, okay?"

"That's crap," I said. "Something's wrong with you. What the hell is it, Abby?"

She closed her eyes again, but just for a minute. But she wasn't looking at me when she said, still in that kind of flat voice, "I'm hurting, all right? I've got--I'm following Ramsey's orders, that's all."

"What do you mean?"

"Ramsey told me to put these things on," Abby says. "It's part of my punishment. All right? Don't worry about it. Just go on."

"What things?" I says.

She kind of sighs, but not very deeply. "Clamps," she says then. "I've got these clamps on my--on my nipples. Ramsey told me to put them on. He--he told me to put them on tight."

I couldn't help looking at her chest. She was wearing a kind of loose blouse, so I couldn't make out too much, but there did seem to be a couple of unusual little bumps around where the nipples would be, though you might not even notice if you weren't looking right there.

I didn't know what to say. I mean I had heard of things like that, but it was hard to believe people actually did that kind of stuff in real life. Not in Montana, for god's sake. "Tight?" I said finally. "How--what do you--"

She still wasn't looking at me. "They're adjustable," Abby says. She's breathing a little harder now, and her voice is still low but it sounds kind of strained. "They have--these kind--they have like little screws, you can make them as tight as you want. Or not. Ramsey told me to make them tight this time. As tight as I could stand it. Okay? Can we go on now please?"

I couldn't believe this. "God damn, Abby," I said. "That's crazy. You want to take them off? I can get out while you--"

"No," Abby says. "I can't. Ramsey would--No. It's Ramsey's orders. That's what he wants. I do what he wants, you know that. Besides I--" She stops.

"What?" I say.

She closes her eyes again, and when she answers I can barely hear her. "I like it," she says.

I can only stare at her. "Come on," I said then. "That's bullshit, Abby." I don't usually swear in front of women, I try not to, but this was too much. "I can damn well see you don't like it," I said. "You're hurting like hell, you look like you can hardly stand it. I can hardly stand it myself, just looking at you." Now this was true, in one way, it really was. But what I don't tell her--hell, I could hardly even admit it to myself--was that there was something exciting about it too. Damn if I know why, but it was like when I watched Ramsey whipping her, or like when she was all stretched out in chains on that damn bed. I couldn't help it that my dick was hard, but I didn't have to like it.

"Yes, I'm hurting," Abby says. "But it's--it's what I--it makes me--Oh Christ, Josh." Her body is kind of squirming around a little bit now on the seat. "It turns me on, you know that, you have to know that by now. I can't help it. It's awful, the pain, it is, but I--I need it. Oh god I do need it, Josh." Now she opens her eyes again and looks straight at me. "If you felt my pussy right now you'd find it was wet," she says. "If you put your hand on it. Right now."

"Jesus, Abby!" I said. I nearly did, though. Ramsey be damned. My damn hand was already moving before I stopped it. "No," I said. "Damn it, no!" And I started up the jeep and got back on the road.

We didn't say another damn word before we got to the hospital. I got out with her and carried her suitcase for her, right to Ramsey's room. I figured I might as well face him now as some other time. If he knew, he knew. Whatever was going to happen, I figured might as well get it over with. Besides, at least he couldn't do too much to me lying in a hospital bed. Not that I wasn't kind of scared anyway.

Ramsey barely looked at me when we came in, and the first thing he says to Abby is, "You got them on?"

"Yes, Ramsey," she says.

"You got them on tight?" Ramsey says.

"Yes, Ramsey."

And Ramsey says, "Make them tighter."

By now Abby is white as a sheet, and really looks like she's gonna be sick, worse than she looked in the car. And from what she told me, she'd already made them as tight as she could. I could see her swallow hard, but all she said was, "Yes, Ramsey." Her voice so low I could hardly hear her.

"Look, Ramsey--" I started to say.

"Shut up," Ramsey says. He's still not looking at me, but his voice cracks like a whip.

Abby moves slowly over to a chair and starts to sit down. "No," Ramsey says to her. "Don't sit down. Just do it. Now."

Abby starts to open her blouse, and she kind of turns a little away from me, though she's still facing Ramsey. "Don't be shy, Abby," Ramsey says then. "Josh has seen your tits already. Right, Josh?"

"Ramsey, listen. If you--"

"Save it," Ramsey says. "I'm waiting, Abby. You want me to do it?"
      Abby goes even paler, if that's possible. She kind of shakes her head, biting at her lip. She turns back the way she was before, and I'm standing there and watching as she unbuttons her blouse. I can see her hands are shaking a little. I don't know what the hell is going on in her mind. I know what she told me, but I still can't figure it out. I can damn well see that she's hurting already almost more than she can stand, and that she sure as hell isn't happy about it. And that she's scared that Ramsey will hurt her even more. Yeah, she'd told me she liked it--or at least that she needed it. That it turned her on. I remembered what she said about her pussy. Was it wet now? I couldn't believe it.

But I stood there and watched. And Abby got the blouse open, and there were her tits, only sure enough, the nipples were covered by little metal gadgets, and they were being squeezed all out of shape. I could see the little screw things on the clamps, just like she'd said. Her hands were shaking harder when she reached for them.

Ramsey was looking at me now. "Maybe I should let Josh do that," he said. His voice didn't have much expression in it now. Just like his face. "You want to tighten them for her, Josh?"

"No," I said. I think my hands were shaking a little too, but I tried not to let it show in my voice. "Ramsey, this is crazy," I said. "Look, we can settle this ourselves, okay? It wasn't--I mean, it just--Abby didn't--"

"I know what Abby did," Ramsey says. His voice still flat. "I know what you did. Abby is being punished. She'll be punished some more, but that's not your lookout. You I'll get to later."

I made myself shrug. "I'm not scared of you, Ramsey," I said, which was an out and out lie, and Ramsey damn well knew it. "Any time you want to have it out, fine. But you should let me explain to you about what happened. And this here is not right. You can beat up on me all you want, but this isn't right on Abby. She couldn't--"

"You see her leaving?" Ramsey says.

"How can she--"

"She ain't tied up," Ramsey says. "She can leave anytime she wants. You want to leave, Abby?"

Abby closes her eyes, then opens them again. "No," she says, in a whisper.

"Then do what I'm telling you."

Abby's fingers are on the little screws now. "I'm going," I said.

"Suit yourself," Ramsey says.

But the thing is I didn't. Not because of Ramsey. I just didn't, that's all.

Abby had said she'd made those things as tight as she could, and I believed her, but now she was damn well trying to do more. I saw her knuckles were white with her trying to turn those little screws even further, and she must have been doing it, because a little whining sound started coming from her throat. Her body kind of went stiff, and that sound got louder, slowly, that whining sound, it was like little whimpers at first, and then it was one continual soft moan, not loud enough for anybody outside to hear, but enough to damn well make me shiver myself. And those knuckles were still white. And then Abby gives one loud cry that sounds like some kind of animal made it, and her legs give out on her and she goes down onto her knees, all bent over and just kind of gasping really hard. Then she topples over onto her side. I don't think she's turning the screws anymore, but her hands are still on her tits, and now she's squirming around and whining again, and sort of crying.

"Looks good that way, don't she?" Ramsey says then. "You want to fuck her now, Josh?"

"Damn you, Ramsey," I said, but my voice wasn't too steady. I don't know if he could tell that my dick was hard.

"Why not?" Ramsey says. "You fucked her once, don't make any difference now. Go ahead. The way she's hurting now, she'll give you one hell of a ride, tell you that."

"You must be crazy, Ramsey," I tell him. "Or they give you too much drugs, one. How about letting her take those things off now?"

"Why don't you take them off her?" Ramsey says. "You know, that hurts like hell too, when they come off. The blood going back into those nipples. Makes her scream, every time. Right, Abby?"

Abby makes some kind of sound, I guess it means yes.

"You want to do it, Josh? Then fuck the shit out of her? What do you say?"

Well I always knew Ramsey was tough, and that he could be one mean son of a bitch when he got riled, but this was some twisted side of him I never saw before. I didn't want to think about the twisted side of me, and how much I was tempted to do just what he said. "Go to hell, Ramsey," I said. "I'm getting out of here." And I started to leave.

"Well, damn," Ramsey says. "What are you gonna do with that hard-on, Josh, go fuck that little blonde nurse instead?"

I was heading for the door, but I stopped and looked back at him.

"Molly, right?" Ramsey says. "Cute little thing." Then he says, "How do you think she'd look with those clamps on her, Josh? You think she'd like it?"

For a minute I just stood there. I felt a little dizzy. Then my throat got real tight, and maybe I would've jumped on him if it hadn't been Ramsey, or if he hadn't been lying there with his leg all tore up. But I just said, sort of squeezing it out, "You got no call to bring her into this, Ramsey."

"Why not?" Ramsey said. "You fucked my wife, right? You know what they say, Josh, turn about is--"

I went toward him then, and maybe I made some kind of noise, I don't know. Ramsey just stayed as he was, not moving an inch, just looking at me. I guess he knew I wasn't gonna hit him or anything, not with him in that bed and all. Or maybe he didn't care. Anyway I got right close to him and stood over him, and I was kind of shaking, but it wasn't from being scared, not then        . "Listen, Ramsey," I said to him, and I was breathing real hard. "You try--you do anything--you touch her--Molly--I'll kill you. I swear to god, Ramsey. I swear to god." Then I turned and got out of there.

                 # 

I had to go looking for Molly, she was working on another floor. I finally found her changing a bed in an empty room. She gives me a quick look when I come in, and goes back to what she's doing. "How's Abby?" is what she says.

"Molly, listen," I say, "I want you to keep away from Ramsey, okay?"

She looks at me then, kind of surprised. "What do you mean?" she says.

"Just keep away from him, that's all. Don't go in his room, don't have anything to do with him. All right? It's best that way."

"What are you talking about, Josh?" Molly says. "He's a patient here."

"I know, but just let the other nurses take care of him, okay? You stay away."

"I can't do that," she says. "I can't pick and choose who I nurse here, you know that, Josh. What's wrong with you?"

"I'm telling you, stay away from him," I said. "Or at least don't go in there alone. You can do that, right?"

She's staring at me. I can see she's getting a little pissed off, and it's weird, because like I said she never liked Ramsey all that much, and I was always the one kind of standing up for him. But she's standing up for herself now, which is something she always did. She was no shrinking violet, Molly.

"Don't tell me how to do my job, Josh, okay?" she says then.

"I'm not. I'm not, I'm just telling you to steer clear of Ramsey, that's all."

She's getting hot now. "What makes you think you can tell me to do anything?" she says. "Who do you think you are? Just because--"

"Molly, for god's sake. This is for your own good, I'm trying to--I'm just--"

"What is this all about?" she says then. "What's going on here, Josh. Is this about Abby?"

"No, it's--I just don't want you to--to get hurt, all right?"

"It is, isn't it," she says. "It's Abby. What went on with you and her?"

"Damn it, Molly! Just listen to me for once, okay? I'm telling you--"

"Don't tell me," Molly says. "Just don't tell me anything, Josh. And don't worry about me, I can take care of myself. Now I'm busy here, all right?"

I can see it's no good trying to talk to her now. "Okay," I say. "I'll come back when your shifts over, we'll go to the movie."

"No," Molly says shortly. "I've changed my mind. I'm too tired tonight, I'm just going home."

So I don't get to do it with two women that day after all.

                  FIVE

The next day I went to work as usual. A lot of the guys ask me about Ramsey, if he's gonna be okay and so on. There were some guys who didn't like Ramsey, and I guess there were even a few who'd had run-ins with him and really hated his guts, though they'd never have the nerve to do anything about it. And for sure nobody ever got really close to him. But mostly the guys kind of respected him, his toughness and the way he carried himself. I told them he was going to be okay, and that was that.

When I came out of the mill after my shift was over, I got a surprise. Abby was there in the parking lot, standing by my jeep, waiting for me. Some of the other guys coming out made a couple of wise-ass remarks--not so she could hear them--and they were all staring at her, but nobody went up to her or anything. A few of them hung around, just watching out of curiosity as I went to my car, but most of them just got their own cars and left, or went down the street to get a beer at Charley's.

Abby just stood there watching me as I walked up to her. When I got close I couldn't help taking a quick glance at her chest, and she smiled a little. "No, Josh, I'm not wearing them now," she says. "Ramsey took them off after you left."

I recalled what Ramsey had said about that. I tried not to show it, but it must have showed anyway, because she smiled again. "What are you doing here?" I ask her.

"Ramsey sent me," she says.

"Jesus," I said. "What for now?"

"Ramsey says my punishment isn't over," Abby says. She's looking me straight in the eye, and her voice is calm and level. "He says I need to be whipped--you know, like in Charley's--but he can't do it right with his leg hurt and all. So he wants you to do it."

I can only stare at her. I guess my mouth is open. After a minute I close it and shake my head hard. "Tell Ramsey to go to hell," I said. I pushed past her and started to get into my jeep.

"Wait," Abby says.

"Wait for what?" I say. My head is spinning around, but I get in and start the engine up. "I think Ramsey has gone crazy," I tell her. "And you're crazy too. I don't want to have any more to do with this, okay?" I put the jeep in gear and gunned it out of there.

I was a little worried about Molly though. I didn't think Ramsey would actually try anything with her, specially laid up the way he was. But with Ramsey you could never tell. I thought about going back to the hospital, but Molly being so pissed off at me, I figured that wasn't a good idea. She'd probably be off by then anyway. When I got home I tried calling her up, but all I got was her father, who told me she was out shopping. I told him to have her call me back, but she didn't.

Next day I called the hospital from work, but they told me at the switchboard that Molly hadn't come in for her shift that morning. I called her house again, but no answer. Now I was getting really worried, and when lunchtime came I drove over to the hospital. Went right up to Ramsey's room, and it was empty.

"Oh, he's gone," the nurse at the desk says. "Bulled right out of here, wouldn't listen to anybody. Nobody could stop him, even though he could hardly walk on that leg. Doctor told him he'd make it worse if he didn't stay put, but he didn't care, just grabbed his stuff and charged right out. Never saw anything like it."

"Was his wife with him?" I said.

"Oh yeah, you'd think she'd have more sense, at least, try to get him to take care of himself, but she never said a word. Just went with him."

"Okay," I says. "Listen, you seen Molly yet?"

"No, not today, Josh, but you know, she might be working on another floor."

"Yeah," I says. "Okay. Thanks."

But she wasn't there. I called her house again. No answer. It was time for me to go back to work, but I had a bad feeling now. I knew it was crazy, but maybe it wasn't. I had to know for sure. I got in my jeep and headed up to Ramsey's place.        

Soon as I pulled up at Ramsey's house, the front door opened and Ramsey came out. He had on a T-shirt and a loose pair of khaki shorts. His leg was still all wrapped up, and he was limping, but he looked as solid and as mean as ever. And he was carrying a double-barreled shotgun.

My stomach started flipping around, and I could feel myself sweating, but I just sat there in my car and tried to sound normal. "What's going on, Ramsey?"

Ramsey gave me a little grin. "Figured you'd be coming up, Josh," he says. "Got everything ready for you."

"What are you talking about, Ramsey?"

"Talking about Abby, for one thing," Ramsey says. "You remember Abby, right, Josh? My wife, who you fucked?"

"Look--"

"You didn't have any problem fucking her when I wasn't around, did you, Josh? While I was in the fuckin' ambulance, right? But when I wanted you to fuck her again, with me right there, when I said it was okay, then you wouldn't do it. What the hell kind of a friend is that?"

"Ramsey--"

"And then," Ramsey goes on, "I send Abby to tell you I want you to whip her for me. And you say no to that too. That ain't very friendly either. That's downright insulting, you know?"

"Ramsey," I said."I'm looking for Molly. Is she--"

Ramsey grins again. "Yeah, I thought you would be," he said. "And that's the other thing I've got ready for you, Josh."

"What--" I climbed out of the jeep now and started to go toward him. "What are you--if you--"

Ramsey raises the shotgun and holds it so it's pointed at my chest. I stop short.

"I told you, Josh," Ramsey says. "I told you turn about is fair play, didn't I? Isn't that what they say?"

I couldn't hardly believe Ramsey would actually shoot me, but I wasn't about to take too many chances on it. Not the way he was now. "Ramsey," I said, "Where is she? Where's Molly?"

"She's inside," Ramsey says. "Don't worry, Josh, I didn't fuck her. Not yet anyways. Thought I'd let you watch it when I do. More than you did for me with Abby, right?"

You know how people say they get so mad they see red? Well that's true, I swear to god. I saw red, and for a second I thought I was gonna jump him, shotgun or no shotgun, but I didn't. I was kind of shaking all over, and I was so choked up I couldn't even talk at first.

"God damn you, Ramsey," I says finally, and my voice is shaking too, and I didn't hardly recognize it. "I told you if you touch Molly I'll kill you. I told you that, and I will, Ramsey. I swear it. Now you--"

"How you gonna do that, Josh?" Ramsey says. "Looks like I'm the one holding the gun here."

"Let her go," I said. I was having trouble breathing. "Bring her out here, Ramsey, and I'll take her back home and we can just forget about all this crap, okay? You don't want--"

"Can't do that, Josh," Ramsey says. "Gotta even the score here. Guy fucks my wife. Won't even help me punish her. Can't just let that happen. Not do anything about it. Can't do that."

"All right," I said. "You want revenge, Ramsey, fine. Hit me, beat me up. Whup the hell out of me. You're crazy enough to shoot me, okay, shoot me. You want to punish your wife, that's your business. But Molly didn't have anything to do with it. She didn't do anything to you, don't take it out on her. That's not right. You know that, Ramsey, come on."

"Guess she's really got her hooks into you, ain't she?" Ramsey says. "That little blonde gal. Yeah, she's a cute one all right. Sexier than she looks too, once you get her clothes off. That body is--"

This time I really did jump him. I couldn't stop myself. He didn't shoot me, he just hit me with the shotgun barrel, right across the head, and I went down. Things went blurry for a minute, and it felt like my head was split open. But it wasn't.

"Dumb thing to do," Ramsey says. "Lucky for you I don't want to kill you without we first settle the score a little. Get up now, we're gonna go inside and get to it."

It took me a minute to get back up. My head hurt like hell, and I guess I was bleeding a little. But mostly I felt sick worrying about Molly. Ramsey made a movement with the gun like for me to go inside the house, and I did, with him after me.

Soon as I got in the front room I nearly fell down again, and I guess I made some kind of noise. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

They were both in there, Abby and Molly. And they were both naked. Abby was bent over a little table on one side of the room, sort of the way she'd been at Charlie's that time, only instead of her hands tied behind her they were tied to the legs of the table. Her toes touched the floor on the other side, but there were ropes around her body holding her to the table, so she couldn't move very much. It was a sight to see, just like before, but I could hardly take it in, because all I could focus on was Molly.

She was standing in the doorway between the front room and the bedroom. Her arms were stretched up over her head, and her wrists were tied together. There was a small beam running across the top of the doorway, and the other end of the rope was tied to it, the rope that held her wrists, so her arms were pulled up really tight, and so was her body. Her feet touched the floor all right, but her body was really stretched out. I could see that she'd been crying. She wasn't crying now, but her face was twisted with pain, and her eyes were all scared and crazy.

When she saw me she choked out something that might have been my name, but there was like a roaring in my ears, so I'm not sure. I turned to Ramsey and I swear I was about to jump him again, but he was ready, he was holding that shotgun right at my chest, and his finger on the trigger. I was shaking. Hard.

"Easy, Josh," Ramsey says. He's grinning a little bit, and I'm looking at his eyes, and I knew then that he really was crazy. "You don't want to get yourself killed now, or how will you be able to rescue your little sweetie here?" He moved around me then, slowly, keeping that gun pointed at my chest, till he was standing close to Molly. "I could kill her too," he says. "But not so quick. Not till I have a little fun with her, you know? Or a lot."

"Ramsey--" I said. I knew I had to do something, but I didn't know what. My head felt like it was going around, and my voice sounded far away.

"She's a sweet little piece, isn't she, Josh?" Ramsey says. "Looks real sexy all stretched out that way. Didn't know she had so many curves on her. Look at this." He swung the gun away from me and pointed it at Molly. I almost screamed. But all he did was bring the barrel up to one of her breasts and rest the tip of it against her nipple. Molly made some kind of sound and tried to pull away, but she couldn't move very much.

"Look at that," Ramsey says. "Even all pulled up tight that way, these little titties still stand out real nice, don't they, Josh?" He rubbed the barrel back and forth over her nipple. I could see her trembling. "Nipples get real hard too, see? You think she's turned on or what?"

I was still shaking, but I knew I had to stay as calm as I could. Long as Ramsey had the gun I couldn't take any chances. "No," I said, and I had to clear my throat. "No, Ramsey, I think she's scared shitless, and so am I. Is that what you want? What the hell is this all about anyway?"

"Told you what I want," Ramsey says. He moved the gun barrel over to Molly's other breast and did the same thing, rubbing it back and forth over the nipple. "Told you I wanted you to whip my wife for me, 'cause I couldn't do it right with this damn leg. Sent Abby to tell you that. You said no to her. Not very friendly, Josh, you know? Gave you the chance to fuck her too. Right in front of me, 'stead of behind my back, like you did before." I couldn't look at Molly. "Wouldn't do that either," Ramsey says. "That's a pure insult, you ask me." 

"Ramsey--"

"Think you might do it now?" Ramsey says.

I'm staring at him. He moves the gun up under Molly's chin, kind of lifts up her face with it. I can hear her panting, almost gasping. "Damn it, Ramsey!" I say. I wasn't sure just how crazy he was now, but like I said, I couldn't take any chances. I looked over at Abby, tied over her table. Her head was up, she was watching what was going on, and god knows she couldn't have been comfortable, but there wasn't any expression on her face that I could see. She was just waiting.

"Okay," I said then. "All right, Ramsey. Sure. You let Molly go, I'll do anything you want. Okay?"

"You do it first," Ramsey said. "You do it good, do it right, I'll let her go afterwards. Can't say fairer than that."

"Without hurting her?" I said. "Without...doing anything to her?"

Ramsey almost grins. "You drive a hard bargain," he says, and he runs the gun barrel down over Molly's body to her crotch. I have to hold on to myself to keep from bursting out. "But yeah," Ramsey says. "That's the deal."

"How do I know you'll do it?" I said.

Ramsey looks straight at me then. "You ever know me to go back on my word, Josh?" he says.

I thought about that, but I didn't really have to think about it. Ramsey's word was always good, everybody knew it. It was part of his code. I'd never known him not to do something he said he would do. But I'd never known him to act as crazy as he was now either. Still, it was all I had to hold on to. "No, Ramsey," I said. "I never have."

"Then do it," Ramsey says. He was still holding the shotgun pressed against Molly's crotch. I could see her trying to strain away from it. She was shaking, and little whimpering sounds were coming from her mouth when she couldn't hold them in. Her eyes were wide open, but she wasn't looking at me. I was shaking too.

"What do you want me to do, Ramsey?" I said.

"Told you that," Ramsey said. "Just what I asked you to do before. Want you to whip my wife for me."

I looked at Abby. She was still holding her head up, still watching, still without any expression that I could see. Except maybe her eyes. That look in her eyes. I couldn't hardly breathe.

"All right, Ramsey," I said. "I will do that. But take that damn gun away."

Ramsey didn't move the gun. "And fuck her too," he said.

"Damn you, Ramsey!" I said. I looked at Molly. She still didn't look at me. "Listen, Ramsey, that's crazy," I said. "How can I--"

"You done it before," Ramsey says. "Bet you can do it again."

"Not like this, for Christ sake! Not with you--not in front of--"

Ramsey kind of sighs. "Okay," he says. "Then there's no deal." He pulled the gun away from Molly and went around behind her. He held the shotgun in his right hand and brought his other hand up around to take hold of her breast. He squeezed it hard, and Molly cried out. I took a step toward him, but he brought up the gun and leveled it at me. His hand was big enough so he could hold it steady and still put his finger on the trigger. I stopped.

"Damn it, let her go!" I said.

"Nope," Ramsey said. "Fair is fair, right?" And he squeezed harder. Molly kind of screamed, and I could see her trying to double up, to ease the pain some way, but she couldn't.

"All right!" I yelled at him. "All right, damn you, stop! I'll do it!"

"Thought you might," Ramsey says. His hand was still tight on Molly's breast. She was crying now, soft little sobs, and twisting with the pain. "Coulda saved a lot of trouble, you did what I asked you in the first place."

"Let her go first," I said. I sounded like I was choking. "Untie her and let her go, and I'll do whatever you damn want."

Ramsey shook his head. He let go of Molly's breast, but he ran his hand over it, rubbing it, tweaking the nipple with his fingers. "Can't do that, Josh," he says. "Need her here to make sure you do it right. Besides, I want her to see it."

I started to curse him out, but I was afraid he would hurt Molly more, so I stopped. I wanted to say something to her, but I didn't know what to say. There wasn't anything I could say. But I swore to myself that whatever happened, I would kill Ramsey when this was over. If he didn't kill me first, I would kill him for sure.

"Go on," Ramsey said. He was kind of grinning now, but his eyes were hard as ever. Harder. "Do it. You can use your belt on her. And don't hold back, Josh. You hear me? I'll know if you hold back, okay?"

I couldn't think straight. All I knew was I had to keep him from hurting Molly. I started unbuckling my belt. My hands were shaking. I made them stop. I opened the belt and pulled it out. It was wide and thick, wider than the one Ramsey had used in Charley's place. But I hadn't never whupped anybody with it. Never wanted to. Didn't want to now.

Ramsey was waiting. Didn't say anything now. But his hand slid over to Molly's other breast. Playing with the nipple. Molly wasn't looking at anything. She still made that little sobbing sound once in a while, but you could tell she was trying not to.

Abby was just watching, holding her head up that way. But when I went around behind her she dropped her head, like she was waiting. Her hair hanging down almost to the floor. It would've made my dick hard again, like back in Charley's, seeing her that way, if it hadn't been for Molly and what Ramsey was doing.

I was holding the belt by the buckle, and I knew what I was supposed to do, what I had to do, but it was like I was paralyzed or something, my arm wouldn't move. Ramsey stood waiting. Looking with those eyes. I looked back at him. Probably not more than a few seconds, but it seemed like a hell of a long time we stood there staring at each other.

"Okay," Ramsey says then, still looking at me. "If that's how you want it, Josh." And he brings his hand down off Molly' breast and opens his shorts with it. They fall down. And Ramsey's dick is big and hard, and then he started rubbing it against Molly's ass.

"Goddam you, Ramsey!" I shouted, and it was like something exploded inside me, and I raised my arm and whipped the belt down onto Abby's backside, I guess about as hard as I could do it. I was still shouting as I did it, but not words now. Abby made a little sound, but I could hardly hear it.

"That's it," Ramsey said. "But harder. She can't hardly feel that." He wasn't rubbing against Molly any more but his cock was still right up against her rear end. "Whip her back too," he says.

Now like I said, I wasn't wanting to whip Abby or anybody else, but now I just went crazy. I guess all that hate and fury that I was feeling for Ramsey just had to come out somehow, and the frustration that I couldn't do anything to stop him, and it was like everything inside me was boiling over, and once I started doing it I couldn't control myself. I started bringing that belt down with all the strength of my arm and with strength I didn't even know I had. I could hear myself yelling as I did it, and then I could hear Abby yelling too, and I whipped her ass and her back and the backs of her legs, her kicking legs and her squirming body and I did it and did it and did it until Ramsey said, "Okay. stop." He didn't say it loud, but he said it sharp enough to penetrate even my craziness, and I stopped. I was panting like crazy and sweating, and my legs felt weak.

And my damn dick was hard as steel.

Abby was moaning and crying, but those moans were not just from the pain. She'd moaned that way when Randy had whupped her back at Charley's, and when he'd made her tighten those clamps in his hospital room. And when I'd been humping away at her stretched out body at their house, with the iron cuffs digging into her wrists and ankles. She was hurting all right, she was hurting bad, god knows I'd hit her hard enough, but just like she told me, that was what turned her on.

But what was my excuse?

I expect Ramsey could see the bulge in my pants, and I expect Molly could see it too, if she was looking. But I couldn't do anything about it.

"Knew you could do it," Ramsey says. He was still kind of grinning, but his voice was flat. "Time to fuck her now. Go on."

Well, my dick might have been ready, but the rest of me wasn't. Even with a goddam hard-on, I didn't see how I could make myself do it. Not with Ramsey right there, with his damn gun. Not in front of Molly, for Christ sake. It was impossible. I stood there, still panting, and even as I thought about it my cock started to go down.

But not Ramsey's. It was as hard as ever, and now he started rubbing it on Molly's ass again. His free hand rose to her breast, and then moved down toward her crotch.

"All right," I croaked out. "Goddamit, all right. Stop. I will." And I made myself reach for the buttons on my pants and I got them open somehow and they fell down and my cock was already sticking out of my shorts, but it was only half hard now and kind of drooping.       

Ramsey made a short sound that might've been his idea of a laugh. I had never heard Ramsey really laugh, so I wasn't sure. "Maybe you oughta whup her some more so you can get hard again, boy," Ramsey says. "But never mind. Abby can take care of that. Right, Abby? She ever use her mouth on you, Josh? It's a treat, let me tell you. She's a real fine cocksucker, Abby is."

I'd never heard him talk so much either. I knew he'd gone crazy. I was scared. For all of us.

"Go on, Josh," Ramsey says. "Go around and let her suck your dick. Go on."

I made myself move. I must've looked pretty damn silly with my pants around my ankles, but I wasn't thinking about that. I kind of shuffled around the table till I was standing in front of Abbhy's head. She lifted it up to look at me. She was still making soft little moaning sounds and kind of catching her breath quick, and there were tears on her face and in her eyes, but even so those eyes had that shiny melting look that I remembered from before. My throat got tight and I took a step closer to her.

"Okay, Ab," Ramsey said. "You know what to do."

And Abby did it. And Christ, Ramsey was right, she knew what to do all right. She started with her tongue, and then she used her lips, and finally she took me right in her mouth and used all of it, and I had to try real hard not to do some moaning myself. I didn't exactly forget about Molly and Ramsey, but damn, I think everybody in the world could've been watching right then and it wouldn't've kept me from getting hard again. Not with that mouth on me. I could still hear her making little sounds around my dick, little sobs and whimpers, but it didn't seem to interfere with anything she was doing, and pretty soon it was hard for me to keep from pushing myself at her. Not that she didn't take me in all the way, because she damn well did, but just because I wanted to fuck that mouth, and I couldn't help that. But I didn't.

Then Ramsey says, "Okay, stop." And Abby stopped. She pulled her mouth away, and I was hard all right. I don't think I was ever harder in my life. And Ramsey says, "Told you, Josh, didn't I? Okay, you can fuck her now."

I couldn't hardly see straight anymore. I sure as hell couldn't look at Molly. I just stood there for a minute, and then I started to move, shuffling around to the other end of the table with my damn pants still around my ankles. That table was just high enough for me to do what Ramsey wanted, and Abby was bent just right too. I got between her legs and I didn't let myself think about anything and I brought my dick right to her and she was wet and ready, and I pushed into her, all the way in, and she kind of tossed her head back and made a little cry, and then she lowered her head again and let it hang like before and she started gasping and groaning as I started to fuck her.

I did it hard. I was pissed off, like when I'd started whipping her, but now I guess I was mad at myself along with everything else. I kind of hated myself for enjoying Abby's mouth, and now her pussy too, and for getting hard when I whipped her. And I was scared, but all of that didn't stop me from fucking her, and from wanting to fuck her, and doing it as hard as I could. Till I heard Ramsey telling me to stop.

"Fuck her ass," Ramsey says.

I heard a sound from Abby. I couldn't tell what it meant. I still had my dick inside her but I wasn't moving now. Fact is, I hadn't never done that before. Oh, I knew about it all right, and maybe I was a little curious about what it'd be like, but I'd never actually done it. Not even with Molly.

"That wasn't in the deal, Ramsey," I said. I was breathing hard from fucking Abby.

"Oh no?" Ramsey says. "Well hey, Josh, if ass-fucking isn't part of fucking, then I guess I can fuck little Molly here up the ass without going back on my word, wouldn't you say?" And he rubbed himself against Molly's backside again.

I started to curse him, but I was so crazy mad that the words wouldn't come. And he was still holding that damn shotgun steady as a rock, pointing right at me. I made some kind of sound and I pulled out of Abby's pussy and brought my dick to her asshole. It was right there, but it was so small and tight-looking that I didn't think I could get into it. At least I was all wet and slippery from being in her cunt, so I just pressed it against her and held it steady and pushed at her until the tip went in. Abby made a noise, one of her noises, and I knew it had to be hurting her, but I kept pushing. I got a little way in and it was so tight it seemed impossible, and then I couldn't go in any more. I pushed, but I couldn't, and Abby was groaning, and then suddenly she gave a louder noise and sort of unclenched or something, and I was pushing in, going in deep, and it was still so damn tight, and she was squirming but I was pushing in and in until I was in all the way.

Abby was sobbing now and still squirming, even though she was tied and all. Her ass was clutching me so hard I didn't know if I could actually fuck her that way, but I soon found out. I could and I did. And Christ, it was like nothing I ever felt before. Again I nearly forgot about Ramsey and Molly, until Ramsey started to move. He moved away from Molly, still holding the gun, and limped around to the front of the table, where Abby's head was. His cock still sticking up, big as hell. Then he takes hold of Abby's hair with his free hand and pulls her head up that way. Abby is moaning and crying and now she gives a little scream as he pulls on her hair. I couldn't see her face, but I'm betting it's got that look on it as he looks down on her, that worshipping look. He holds her that way for a minute and then jams his cock into her open mouth.

Now I'm fucking her at one end and Ramsey is fucking her at the other. Because that's what he's doing, he's holding onto her hair to keep her head up and just fucking her mouth, moving pretty hard too. The sounds she's making are muffled now, not only by Ramsey's dick but also because there's kind of a roaring in my ears. I was close to coming and a goddam army couldn't've stopped me now. I heard myself shouting and I grabbed hold of Abby's hips and banged into her harder than ever and I just shot and shot and shot, right up her ass, and then it was over. 

Ramsey was still banging away at her face, but not for lonq. But he didn't come in her mouth, like he'd done back at Charly's. He pulled out and shot his wad all over her face, still holding her head up by her hair. I couldn't see it, but I could see the stuff shooting out of his dick, and there was a hell of a lot of it, and it must've gone all over her face and her hair and everything. Then he let her go and her head fell down again and she was making those noises. Those Abby noises.

"Okay," Ramsey says then, real quiet, and it was like something just all at once drained out of him, and not only his jism. He looked old all of a sudden. He broke open the shotgun and dumped the shells out of it, then just dropped it on the floor. He pulled up his shorts and buttoned them. Then he limped over to where Molly was, picked up a folding knife off a table and cut through the rope that ran over the ceiling beam. Molly's arms came down and then she just kind of collapsed and laid there on the floor making little whimpering sounds. Her wrists were still tied together, but Ramsey didn't bother about that. He limped over to a big chair and just fell down into it.

"Okay," Ramsey says again. His voice sounded old too. "Did what I had to do," he says. "Get out now. The two of you." Then he nods over to Abby, still tied over the table. "Take her too, you want," he says. "I'm done with her."

Abby's still making her moaning sounds, but now she gives a kind of scream and her head comes up, and now I can see her face dripping with Ramsey's come. Ramsey doesn't even look at her.

I am staring at him. My head feels like it wants to explode, and I can feel that red rage going through me again. I can't believe Ramsey has left that shotgun right there on the floor. All of a sudden without even thinking I'm lunging for it. I expect Ramsey to come out of his chair and stop me, but he doesn't even move. I pick up the gun and a shell and jam the shell in and close the gun and point it at him.

"I said I'd kill you, Ramsey," I told him. I couldn't even recognize my own voice, it was shaking so much and my hands were shaking too, but I kept the gun right on him. "I told you I'd kill you, you son of a bitch. Told you." I even brought the gun up to my shoulder, my finger on the trigger. There was like a haze in front of my eyes, but I could see him all right. All I had to do was pull the trigger.

Ramsey never moved. "You ain't gonna shoot me, Josh," he says. Then he shrugged. "You want to do it, go ahead," he says. "But you won't. You ain't got the guts."

I was standing there ready to do it. I was shaking and aiming right at him and all I had to do was pull the trigger. But I couldn't. I stood there like that and I told myself to do it, and I couldn't.

Then Molly was screaming at me. "Do it!" she yelled. Her voice was all shrill and hoarse and crazy. "Kill him! Shoot him. Do it, damn you! Do it!" She was lying there on the floor and when I looked at her her face was all twisted up, and she was screaming at me to do it.

But I couldn't.

I lowered the gun off my shoulder. I was still holding it, but I knew I wouldn't use it now, and so did Ramsey, and so did Molly. She started crying now and she tried to get up on her feet but she couldn't quite make it, so she started kind of crawling toward me, with her tied hands. "Damn you!" she says, choking and sobbing. "Damn you, kill him, kill him, do it!"

"I can't do it," I said. I still sounded strange. "I can't shoot him. We'll talk to the police, Molly. He'll go to jail. He won't--"

"You fuck!" Molly shrieks, and I swear I never heard her use that word before in all her life. But I never saw her look like that either, her eyes are all crazy and her face is twisted and she's yelling and crying at the same time. "You bastard!" she yells, and she's practically choking. "What's wrong with you! What kind of a man are you! Kill him! Kill him now!"

"Molly--" I start to say.

But now she's just shrieking, trying to say something but I couldn't make out the words anymore, and she was still crawling, on her knees and her tied-together hands, and when she got to me she raised up on her knees and made a kind of crazy try to grab the gun, but I pulled it away and she fell back down. Now she's moaning, still crying. I broke the gun open and dropped the shell out and kicked it away, and then I threw the gun to the other side of the room. Then I got down and reached for Molly to untie her wrists, but she pulled away from me.

"Don't touch me!" she shouts. "Don't touch me, damn you. Damn you!"

"Molly--"

"Fuck you!" She's really hysterical now, and I didn't know what to do. "Fuck you!" she yells again. "You're not a man, you fuck! You're a worm! A fucking worm! At least he--" She breaks off then, she's crying too hard to talk, but then she stops. Like all of a sudden. She's breathing hard, she still sobs a little, and her eyes still look funny, and  her voice sounds strange, but it's lower now. "At least he's a man," is what she says. "He's not a worm. He takes what he wants. He does what he wants. He's a man. What are you?"

"Molly--" I reached for her again, but she moved away, and then she started crawling across the room toward where Ramsey was sitting. I started to go after her, but my goddam pants were still around my ankles. I cursed and pulled them up real quick, but by the time I got them buttoned she was there in front of him. Ramsey was just looking at her. No expression on his face. Even what she said to him didn't seem to surprise him, but it damn well surprised me, I can tell you that for sure.

"You still want to fuck me, Ramsey?" she said.

I'm standing there staring at her. I'm what they call thunderstruck, and I couldn't even move. Ramsey, like I said, doesn't react at all. Just looks at her.

"You still want me, Ramsey?" Molly says again. "You're a man, you can take me if you want." She holds up her tied hands for him to see. "I'm still tied up," she says. "I can't stop you. I couldn't stop you anyway. Take me, Ramsey."

"Can't do that, Molly," Ramsey says then. "Told Josh I wouldn't."

"Screw Josh," Molly says. "Screw him, he's not a man. You're a man. You do what you want. You want me, you said you did. Take me."

"Nope," Ramsey says. "Gave my word."

"I don't care," Molly says, and now she starts scrabbling at his shorts, opening the buttons. It's not easy with her wrists tied that way, but she does it. Ramsey doesn't make a move.

"Stop it, Molly!" I said, and I started to move toward her. She turned to look at me, and damn, her face just froze me in my tracks. I can't describe it. Her eyes were still kind of wet, but they were blazing, and her mouth was open, showing her teeth, and she looked like some kind of a wild animal, I swear.

"You touch me and I'll kill you!" was what she said. I couldn't believe it. I guess I could have stopped her all right, there was not much she could do to me in that condition, and I guess I should have, but the way she was looking at me and the way she sounded just knocked everything out of me. I suddenly felt weak as a baby, and I could hardly stand up.

"Come on, Molly," I said, but I knew it wouldn't do any good. "This is crazy. Let's--"

She made a sound like a screech and kind of exploded. She reached for something on the floor--it was the other shell Ramsey had discarded from the gun--and threw it at me. Of course she couldn't throw too good with her hands like that, but she threw it pretty hard anyway, and it nearly hit my face, but I knocked it down. I didn't know what to do with her like that. I didn't even know what I wanted to do anymore. I was maybe as crazy as she was now, or as Ramsey was. I was so weak my legs were buckling, and I just sat down on the floor. Just sat there.

Molly turned back to Ramsey. His shorts were open now, and his cock was sticking up. It wasn't really hard, but it was big as ever. Molly touched it with her tied hands. She stroked it. I heard some kind of choking sound. It was me. But I didn't move. Neither did Ramsey.

Then she took his cock in her mouth.

I sat there and watched her sucking on his cock. I didn't know whether to cry or scream, but I didn't do anything. Now Ramsey looks at me. His voice is calm and even, like he's talking about the weather. "I'm not doing anything to her, Josh," he says. "Told you I wouldn't, and I'm not. She's doing it to me. Not the same thing."

"Fuck you, Ramsey," I said. Or maybe I didn't say that. I don't remember.

Molly couldn't get all of Ramsey's dick into her mouth, but the part she got she was sucking pretty good. She had sucked my cock too, though it wasn't something she did a lot, and she might not have been as expert at it as Abby was, but it had still felt damn good. Ramsey's dick was getting harder, and when she took her mouth off him it was good and stiff. But she didn't stop. She dug her face right into his crotch and she was kissing and licking the base of it, the part her mouth hadn't reached, and his balls too. And making little whimpering noises as she did it. Ramsey never moved.

Finlly she raised her head. She's looking right into his eyes. "Now," she says. She's breathing hard. And she gets up off her knees and climbs right onto his lap and reaches down for his dick and sticks it right into her pussy as she comes down on him. Her back is to me and I can't see her face, but her head goes back and she's moaning. She slides down on him slowly, and she doesn't stop till he's all the way inside her. Then she stops and she's moaning louder and she says something, I think she says something but I can't make out what it is. Then she's moving again. Up and down. Up and down. Fucking him. Up and down. Her arms come up with her wrists tied and she hooks them around his neck and she moves up and down, fucking him and moaning and whimpering and panting, and Ramsey never moves. Never touches her. He sits there and lets her fuck him. His face like stone.

I don't know how long she did that. It seemed like a long time but I don't know. After a while I could hear her sobbing, still moaning and panting, but sobbing too. But she didn't stop. She just moved harder. Ramsey never made a sound, even when he came. I wouldn't've even known he did except that Molly slowed down and then stopped moving and she sat there for a couple of minutes, breathing hard and whimpering and still sobbing, and then she unhooked her arms from around his neck and got off him and his dick was mostly soft again. She slid down and sat on the floor by his feet. She didn't look at him again. She didn't look at me either. She was crying.

Ramsey was buttoning his shorts like nothing had happened. I guess he figured he'd kept his word, and maybe he did, I don't know. After a while, I don't know how long it was, I made myself get up and I went over to Molly. She didn't try to stop me now, and I stooped down and got her hands untied. She still didn't look at me. I said, "Get dressed, Molly, I'm taking you home."

She didn't move. She just shook her head. The crying had mostly stopped now, but her breathing was kind of jerky.

"Come on," I said. "Come on, Molly. You got to get out of this place."

She looked at me then, and what I saw in her eyes just hit me like a punch in the stomach, I swear. It made me actually feel sick, not that I didn't already. "Not with you," she says. Her voice real low and strange, and the sound of it matched what was in her eyes. "I'm not going anywhere with you."

It took me a minute to be able to talk again. I had to try to be calm. "Molly, for Christ sake!" I said. "How will you get home? You can't stay here, come on."

"No," Molly says.

I look at Ramsey then. No expression on his face. He just shrugs.

I didn't know what to do. I was sick and mad and I didn't know what the hell was happening, and I guess I lost it. "Okay," I said finally, and I was panting like as if I just ran five miles. "Okay, Molly, you want to stay here with this--this crazy lunatic, that's your lookout. You want to fuck him some more, go ahead. At least till the police get here." Then, when neither of them says anything more, I turned and headed for the door.

"Josh," Ramsey says.

I stopped. "What?"

He nods his head toward Abby again. "Take her with you," he says.

I swear to god I'd practically forgotten about Abby. Still tied over that table, she raised her head and looked at me.

"The hell with all of you," I said, and I walked out and got in my jeep and went back to town.

              SIX

                

It's kind of a wonder I didn't kill myself driving down off those hills, crazy mad as I was, and I could hardly see. But somehow I made it back to town and I drove right to the police station. Old Lester was there, he's the main cop we got there, and him and two young part-time deputies are the whole police department. He needs more help, like too many drunks shooting it up or something on a Saturday night, he calls the sherrif's office over in Durston. But that doesn't happen much.

I walk in there and he's sitting there drinking coffee. He looks at me. "Hey, Josh," he says. "You look all riled up, boy. What's going on?"

"Listen, Lester," I said, and I'm breathing hard, even though all I'd been doing was driving. "You gotta get out to Ramsey Boyce's place. He's gone crazy, and he's got a girl there. Two girls, I mean one's his wife, but he's got another one too, he kidnapped her and she's--"

"Hold on," Lester says. "Just hold on there, Josh. What the hell you talking about?"

"Ramsey Boyce, damn it!" I said. "He's got Molly up there and he's gone crazy, Lester, I'm telling you. You gotta get up there and get her out. You better take your guys with you, 'cause he's--"

"Wait a second," Lester says. Lester's not real excitable, which I guess is good most of the time, but I was ready to strangle him. "Molly, you say? Molly Harling?"

"Yes, damn it! He's got her--"

"Okay," Lester says. "That solves that mystery, I guess."

"What? What do you mean?"

"Her father was in here a while ago, said she was missing," Lester says. "I got Jake and Connell keeping an eye out for her, but I figured she'd turn up all right. Shacked up with some guy, that's usually what it is. Didn't know it was Ramsey. His wife know about this?"

"Yes, but she's not shacked up with him, dammit! I'm telling you, he kidnapped her! He's got her up there and he--he had her tied up, and she's--"

"Tied up?" Lester says. "Holy shit, you mean like with that wife of his, over to Charley's? I heard about that. Molly like those kind of games too?"

I wanted to hit him. "It's not like that, damn it!" I said. "She's there against her will, Lester, and he's--he's--"

"Oh yeah?" Lester says. "How do you know that, Josh? How do you know what they're doing up there anyway?"

I had to tell him, at least part of it. "I was there," I said. "I just came from there, damn it. I couldn't--"

Lester's staring at me. "You were there? At Ramsey's?"

"Yes, and he--"

"And Molly was there?"

"She still is, and you have to--"

"Ramsey's holding her against her will, and he let you go so you could come tell me about it, or what?"

"Lester, listen, for Christ sake!"

"I'm listening, Josh. How come she didn't come with you?"

"He's--she--she--I mean, she doesn't know what she's doing, for Christ sake, and she--she just--"

"Sounds like she knows what she's doing, all right," Lester says. "Sounds like she wants to be right where she is. Women usually do, with Ramsey, you know that, Josh. Why, before he married that Eastern gal he had just about every--"

"No!" I yelled. "Damn it, Lester, you gotta listen to me! It's not like that! Ramsey's out of his head, and Molly is too, she--And Abby is tied up out there, and I don't care if she likes it, it's not--and Molly--"

"But you were there, and now you're here," Lester says.

I could have told him the whole story, but I knew he wouldn't believe it. I couldn't hardly believe it myself. "Lester, if you don't go out there and get Molly back, I'll call the goddam sherrif's office over to Durston," I told him. "I'll call the state police, I'll call the fucking FBI if I have to! I mean it, damn it!"

Lester sips his coffee. "Well, you do that, Josh," he says. "'Course, the sherrif will just call me to find out what the story is. He wants to come out here and go up against Ramsey Boyce for playing kinky games with his wife and your girlfriend, that's his lookout. I sure as hell ain't gonna. Now I'm sorry your girl is doing whatever she's doing with Ramsey, but that's women for you. I was you I'd go home and sleep it off. Lots of other girls around."

I don't even remember how I got out of there.

                 #   

I went to my place and got out my hunting rifle. I loaded it up and put it in my jeep and started back for Ramsey's place.

I wasn't thinking too straight I guess. The thing is, I wasn't thinking at all, I wouldn't let myself. If I couldn't shoot him before when I had the chance, why did I think I could do it now? But this was different. All I could see was Molly, up there naked and sucking Ramsey's dick and fucking him. Of her own free will. But it'd been Ramsey that had made her crazy like that. I was ready to kill him now, if that was what it took to get her out of there.

I was only a few minutes away from Ramsey's place when I saw somebody up ahead, walking along the road, heading down, and then I saw that it was Abby. She was walking kind of wobbly, and like she didn't know where she was going, and when I got up to her I saw she was crying. She had a coat on. She stopped when she saw me and I pulled over.

"Abby!" I said. "What the hell? Where you going? Where's Molly?"

She was crying hard. She kind of waved back in the direction of Ramsey's place.

"Get in here," I said. "What the hell's going on?"

She got in the jeep and the coat kind of pulled open at the bottom and it looked like she wasn't wearing anything under it. She was crying too hard to talk, and I had to wait till she could.

"Ramsey threw me out," she says, and she can hardly get the words out between her sobs. "He--he threw me out. He said I was a whore, and he--he said he had a--a new slave now and he--he never--"

I saw red. "Molly?" I said, and it sounded like I was croaking. "He said Molly was his slave?"

She nods. "He--he asked her," she says. "Right in front of me," she says. She's still crying, but not as hard. "The bastard," she says. "'Do you want to be my slave, Molly?' He asked her that. And she said yes." She starts crying harder again.

I felt sick. "She's crazy," I said. "She doesn't know what she's saying. He's made her crazy, tying her up that way and saying he'd kill her and--Jesus!"

Abby was shaking her head. "She's not crazy," she says when she can talk again. "She's like me. Ramsey just brought it out in her. That's what he does. That bastard. He's got to her and she's--she can't--"

"No!" I said. "That's bullshit. Molly's not like that! She just--"

Abby kind of laughs, even while she's still crying. "No?" she says. "No? You should have seen what she was doing for him before he threw me out. He made me watch. You should have seen her crawling for him. You should have seen her with her tongue up his ass. You should--"

I was really sick then. I got out of the jeep and threw up on the road, right there. I threw up until I couldn't do it anymore. I felt like I was choking. Then I got back in the jeep and started it up and drove the rest of the way to Ramsey's place. I parked a little ways away so he wouldn't hear me drive up.

"What--what are you going to do?" Abby says.

"I'm going to kill him," I said, and I picked up my rifle.

"No!" she screams out, and then she's clutching at my arm, trying to hold on to me as I'm getting out of the jeep, and yelling. "No, Josh, no! Please! Oh god no!"

She's yelling so loud I was afraid Ramsey might hear her, even though we weren't that close to his house. "Shut up!" I told her, and when she didn't I gave her a hard slap across the face. I didn't even know I was going to do it. She stopped yelling and started whimpering, and she was looking at me with those melty eyes again.

"Don't kill him," she moans. "Please, Josh. I'll do anything you want."

"You're crazy," I told her. "Just stay here and be quiet." Christ, we were all crazy. I left her there and went up the road and when I got to Ramsey's place I snuck up and looked through the front window, and what I saw almost made me scream myself.

Molly was bent over the arm of a chair and Ramsey was fucking her in the ass.

I had a sort of side view, or three-quarters view I guess you'd say, from behind them, and they were turned away from me so I couldn't really see their faces, but I could hear the sounds Molly was making even through the closed window. She was howling. I swear to god. Howling like a wolf, like a coyote, and I'll never forget that sound for as long as I live. It was like she was screaming in pain, and I knew he was hurting her, he had to be, he was pounding into her ass with his huge damn dick like a fucking piledriver, but that wasn't all it was. And she was kind of twisting like crazy and throwing her head up in a wild kind of way, but she wasn't trying to get away from him. Once when she threw her head up she kind of turned her face toward me, and I could see her mouth wide open and I could see the tears in her eyes, but what else was there made me crazier and sicker than--well, I don't know what.

I brought up my rifle and I was going to break the damn window and shoot Ramsey right there, shoot him right through the head with his dick up her ass, but right then I heard a sound behind me. I started to turn around, but before I could something crashed hard into my head, and I was gone.

                 

              SEVEN

  

First thing I felt after that, which I don't know how long it was, was that my head was throbbing like hell, and the second thing was that I couldn't move. For a couple minutes I couldn't even think, and then I opened my eyes and I got it all right away.

I was tied into a chair in Ramsey's place. My hands tied behind to the back of it, my legs tied to the rungs, and ropes around my body holding me in pretty good. Ramsey was sitting in that same chair he'd been sitting in before, looking at me. He had my rifle on the floor nearby, and his shotgun. Molly was at his feet, on her knees. And Abby was where Molly had been before, strung up in the archway with her arms over her head. All of them were naked.

"Hey, Josh," Ramsey says.

My head was just pounding. I couldn't even talk, it was hurting so bad. Anyway, what was I gonna say?

"Pretty good gash you got there, Josh," Ramsey says. "Guess Abby here really whopped you with that tire iron. Guess she saved my life, the way she tells it. Never know about women. Threw the bitch out, you'd think she'd hate me, right? Think she'd want to kill me herself. 'Stead, she keeps you from doing it. True love, I guess. Maybe I should keep her around after all. Along with this one." He nudged Molly with his foot. "What do you think?"

Out of some dumb instinct I tried to get up, pulling against the ropes, but all it did was make my head feel like it was exploding. I was in there good and tight and I wasn't going anyplace. I think I was shouting, but that hurt too, and I stopped. Ramsey just kept looking at me, like he was expecting me to answer him.

It took a while till I could talk at all. Then I had to force the words out through the pain. "You said you wouldn't--do anything to her," I croaked out. "You said you'd let her go."

"Not holding her," Ramsey said. "She wants to go she can go. Told her that. You want to go, Molly?"

"No," Molly said. She was looking right at me too.

"Didn't do nothing to her till she did it to me," Ramsey says. "Didn't do nothing to her she didn't want. Right, Molly?"

"Yes," Molly said.

"Kept my word, far as I can see," Ramsey said. "Girl wants what she wants. Can't help that."

"She doesn't want--" I was feeling sick again, but I didn't have anything more to throw up. "She's just--she's--she's not Abby, you bastard!" I felt like crying, but I wouldn't let myself do that. "She's not like Abby!"

Ramsey sort of shrugs. "Hey, all women are like that, deep down, Josh," he says. "Just takes a real man to show them, that's all."

"Molly," I said. "Molly--" I'm looking at her, and she's looking back, but her eyes are empty. "Molly, for god's sake--"

"Molly," Ramsey says then. "Suck my dick."

And Molly hardly even hesitates. She's still on her knees, and she just crawls between his legs and takes his cock in her mouth. His cock isn't hard, but she takes it in and starts to suck on it, and I can't see exactly what she's doing, but pretty soon her head starts bobbing up and down. Ramsey just sits there, like before, nothing showing on his face.

"Fucking bastard," I said. It came out like a whisper. But he heard it.

"Don't be jealous, Josh," Ramsey says. "I'll have her do it for you too. Kind of a parting gift, you could say."

"Go to hell," I said.

"Molly," Ramsey said. "Go suck him off."

This time she did hesitate. Her head came up and she looked at him. I couldn't see her face, but Ramsey just looked back at her. "Do it," he said. No expression in his voice. "Crawl over to him and suck him off. One last time."

Molly lowered her head again, then turned and got on all fours and started crawling toward me.

"No!" I shouted. "No, damn it!" I tried pulling at my ropes again. Still a bad idea.

Molly reached me. The way I was tied she couldn't get between my legs. She had to raise up on her knees and bend over to open my pants. Which she did.

"No!" I yelled again. "Molly, don't! For Christ sake, Molly!"

But she never stopped. She got my belt open and my pants unbuttoned and she pulled out my cock. She wasn't looking at me now. But she bent down and took my soft limp dick in her mouth, and I felt her lips close around it and her tongue licking at it. Even through the pain and the sickness and everything that was going on, it felt good. But I didn't get hard. There was no way. I could feel her breasts pressing down on my legs as she did what she was doing. I could see the top of her head moving slightly. I could see Ramsey sitting there watching, like it was a movie he wasn't particularly interested in. I could see Abby in the archway, with her arms stretched over her head, but her eyes were closed and she was kind of moaning to herself. I kept telling Molly to stop, but she didn't. She kept her mouth around me and she kept working her tongue all around, and any other time I would have been hard as hell and blown my stuff down her throat in a minute, but not this way. After a while I heard her making little sobbing sounds in her throat as she sucked at me, but she just kept on. Until finally Ramsey told her to stop.

She pulled her mouth off my limp dick then and looked up at me, and her eyes weren't empty now. They were hating. They were full of hate and contempt, like as if it was me who had made her do what she did.

"Christ," she said. "You're not a man at all!" And she kind of spits at me, or tries to, though nothing much comes out. Ramsey gives a little laugh.

"Don't know," Ramsey says. "Didn't have any trouble getting it up for Abby, did you, Josh? You want her to suck you off instead?"

"Go to hell, Ramsey," I said. "If you're gonna kill me, do it. You sick piece of shit," I said. "You'll burn in Hell, you son of a bitch!" I was pulling at my ropes again, I couldn't help it. Trying to shout and choking and hurting and crazy. Right then I didn't really care if he did kill me, as long as I could get to him first. But I couldn't.

Ramsey gets up then and he limps over to where Abby is half hanging in the doorway. She's still moaning, with her eyes closed, but she opens them as Ramsey stands in front of her. He reaches out with both hands and takes her nipples between his fingers. He clamps down on them and then twists them hard. Abby screams like hell and tries to bend over, but she can't. Ramsey holds her that way and she starts lifting her legs, first one then the other, bringing them up to try to stop the pain but it doesn't do any good.

"How about it, whore?" Ramsey says to her. "You want to suck off your boyfriend here? Think you can do a better job than Molly? Bet you can. You scum-sucking cunt." Then he lets go of her nipples and slaps her hard across the face. Abby is moaning and crying.

Ramsey cuts her loose then, but not like with Molly. He cuts right through the rope that ties her wrists together, like he doesn't care if he cuts her too while he's doing it, and in fact he does nick her skin and I can see a little blood, but it's not a bad cut. Abby reaches out to clutch at him as she falls against him, and he steps back so that she kind of slides down his body, trying to hold on to him but falling to the floor.

"I love you, Ramsey!" she cries out between sobs. "Please, Ramsey, please, I'm sorry, I love you, please!"

Ramsey spits on her. He does a better job than Molly did, his spittle splashing onto her face as she looks up at him. Abby doesn't even seem to notice. She's holding on to his legs, or trying to, but he pulls away and limps back to his chair and sits down.

"Got a better idea," Ramsey says. "Put on a show for him. You two girls. Always wanted to see that."

Molly looks at him kind of dazed, like she can't believe what she's hearing, or doesn't understand it. Abby is still crying, and I'm not sure she even heard him.

"You ever see that, Josh?" Ramsey says. "Two girls making it? In real life? Guess everybody oughta see that before they die, don't you think?"
        "Ramsey--" It's just a croak coming out of me, and the blood pounding in my head makes me feel like I'm gonna pass out.

"Do it," Ramsey says. "Do it good, you two. Come on, Abby. You know what to do, right?"

Abby's sobs gradually fade out. She looks over at him, and he just looks back at her hard. No expression. Then she gives a little moan and starts to crawl over to where Molly is crouching on the floor, right in front of me. I hear Molly give a little whimper as Abby comes closer.

When she reached her Abby looked over at Ramsey again. Just for a moment. Then she turned back to Molly and brought her face to hers, as if to kiss her on the mouth. Molly reflexively turned her head away.

"No," Ramsey said. That's all he said. Molly made another tiny sound. Then she turned her head back and let Abby kiss her.            Abby kissed her for what seemed like a long time. Then she put her hands on her. She rolled her over onto her back, and Molly was a little stiff at first, as though she wanted to resist, but she didn't. Then Abby started to play with her. She played with her breasts, rubbing her hands over them and tweaking the nipples. Then she moved down a little and put her mouth on them, and her hands moved down to her crotch. Molly didn't seem to react much, but her nipples were hard. Abby moved down further. She slid her mouth over Molly's stomach and stroked her thighs. Then she pulled her legs apart and put her face between them.

Molly jumped just a little bit and caught her breath. Her body kind of stiffened up, but she didn't didn't make any further sound, except for her kind of ragged breathing. Once she closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them wide, staring at the ceiling. I couldn't see what Abby's mouth was doing, all I could see was the back of her head, moving slightly, just slightly, up and down, side to side. Her hands reached up to cover Molly's breasts as she went on doing what she was doing.

Then Molly began to moan. Softly at first, just barely, but I could hear it all right. At first she put one hand over her mouth, as if to stifle the sound, but soon gave that up. In spite of herself, I guess, her moans gradually got louder and longer, and then her body started squirming a little. I heard little muffled sounds coming from Abby too, and her head kept moving. Then Molly went all stiff and pushed her body up, her lower body, and she was groaning and gasping, and then she collapsed. I thought I saw tears in her eyes, but my vision was all blurry and I couldn't be sure.

"Nice," Ramsey said. "Your turn, Molly."

Abby rolled over onto her back and lay sprawled out. She was panting a little. Molly was panting harder. She didn't move for a long minute as her breathing started to slow. She was shaking her head, I didn't know if she was saying no or if she was just still in a daze. Maybe she didn't either. But then she rolled over and crouched up over Abby's spread-out body.

I couldn't watch. When I turned my head away Ramsey told me to look at them, but I told him to go fuck himself. I could hear Abby moaning, and I could hear little whimpering sounds coming from Molly, and I thought I was going to be sick again. Abby went on moaning, and then she was kind of squealing, and it sounded like she was close to getting off. And then there was the sound of a car pulling up outside. There was a light flashing on and off through the window, one of those rotating lights. It had to be the police.

Molly's head came up. She looked bewildered and startled. Abby looked dazed, and scared. Ramsey had no expression at all. He didn't even move.

"Okay," Ramsey says. "We're just having a little fun here. That's all you girls have to say." I heard the car door opening and closing outside. "Josh, you just think about Molly, okay? If you--" But he didn't have time to say anything else before the knock came at the door.

"Molly," Ramsey says. "Get the door."

Molly got slowly up to her feet, still looking out of it. She looked around for her clothes and headed toward them.

"No," Ramsey says. "Just like you are."

She looked at him, her eyes wide. He looked back. There was another knock, louder.        

"Now," Ramsy says.

Molly made a little sound. Then she went to the door. And opened it.

It was Connell Dreyfuss, one of Lester's part-time deputies, in his cop's uniform. He was around twenty-two maybe, tall and gangly. When he saw Molly standing in front of him stark naked, it was like in a cartoon--his mouth actually fell open, and his eyes got so big it looked like they might really pop out.

"Let him in, Molly," Ramsey says.

When he came in and saw Abby, also naked, Connell nearly fell over. I thought he might actually faint. His eyes took me in too, but he was already so overwhelmed that I wasn't sure it even registered.

"Connell," Ramsey says. "How you doing?"

Connell had to take a deep breath to steady himself. "Jesus!" he said then. "Jesus, what's going on here?"

"Just having a little fun," Ramsey says. "Right, girls?"

"That's right," Abby said. She had pulled herself together, and she now got up off the floor. "Just a little fun, that's all."

Connell looked at Molly.

"Yes," Molly said, a little faintly, but she looked him right in the eye. "Just a little fun."

Connell focused on me then. "But--but what--why is--"

"What's the problem, Connell?" Ramsey said.

"Well, I--Lester told me to come out here and check things out," Connell says. "He said, he said Molly's father called him again, fussing at him about Molly being missing, and--and he said Josh had told him she was here and told him some kind of wild story, and--well, he told me to just come out and look things over, you know?"

I was thinking about what Ramsey had started to say to me. I knew he'd meant it as some kind of threat about Molly. I didn't know what else he could do to her, but I didn't want to find out. I figured Connell could see for himself that things weren't right here. That was pretty damn obvious.

"Well," Ramsey says, "you can tell Lester that everything's fine. Nothing illegal here. Just playing around. It's all a game. Molly's just fine. You can see that, right? Tell her daddy she's gonna be here for a while. But she's just fine."

Connell looked confused. "But--but why is Josh--"

"Josh got a little out of hand," Ramsey said. "He's the jealous type, you know? Came up here threatening to shoot me." He indicated the guns lying on the floor. "Had to knock him out and tie him up. You better take him away with you. Put him under arrest or something till he calms down."

I couldn't keep quiet anymore. Like I said, I didn't know what Ramsey could do to Molly that he hadn't done already, but I couldn't let her stay there. And he couldn't do anything to her if he was in jail. And I was pretty sure he would kill me now if he ever got the chance.

"That's bullshit!" I said. I was hoarse, but I tried to stay calm, not to sound too crazy. "Listen, Connell. Ramsey kidnapped Molly. He was holding her against her will. He had her tied up, and he-- Jesus, look at me! He's gonna kill me if he can. He's gone crazy, you've got to--"

Ramsey laughed. "You're the one that's crazy, Josh," he said. He looked at Connell again. "Like I said, he's crazy jealous about Molly. But nobody's holding her here. She's here 'cause she wants to be. Isn't that right, Molly?"

"Yes," Molly said. "That's right."

I felt like crying. I could see Connell looking around now, taking in the guns, the bits of rope, the clothes on the floor, but his eyes always returning to the naked women. He was shaking his head. "I dunno," he said finally. "Pretty kinky games you play, Ramsey."

"Maybe so," Ramsey says. "But nothing illegal about that, right?"

Connell still hesitated. "I dunno," he said again. "Maybe I oughta call in to Lester, see what he thinks I should do."

"No need for that," Ramsey said. "Don't want anly more trouble. You like these girls, Connell? Abby? Molly? Pretty sexy girls, right? Which one you like better? Or do you want both of them?"

Connell was staring at him.

"They'll do anything you want," Ramsey says. "Give you a good time. And then you can take Josh out of here and just tell Lester that everything's fine. Okay?"

"Jesus!" Connell said.    

"No!" I yelled.

But it was no good. Connell was a single guy, not all that bright or especially attractive, and most of the pussy he got, he got out at Anna Mae's cathouse just outside town. There was no way he was gonna turn down an offer like that, especially with Abby and Molly standing naked right there in front of him. I yelled some more, but I couldn't stop it. Connell looked like he was paralyzed at first, and Ramsey told the girls to undress him. And they did. Molly looked like she was in a trance, but she didn't hesitate anymore, she didn't protest, she just did everything Ramsey told her to do. Abby did too, like always. They got Connell naked and then Abby sucked his cock. He came really quick, and Ramsey told Molly to work on him till he was hard again, and then to fuck him, and that's what she did. Connell didn't have much staying power, but he kept coming back for more, and I'm not gonna tell you everything they did with him, but Ramsey kept them at it until he just couldn't get it up again. It took a while.

After that Ramsey told Connell what he wanted him to do and say. He said that if Connell didn't do it right he would get him in big trouble, tell Lester how Connell had attacked his girls at gunpoint, and the girls would back him up. But if he stuck to the story, Ramsey said, then Connell could come back from time to time and get a little more of what he'd just enjoyed so much.

Connell put handcuffs on me before he cut me loose from the chair. I knew nothing I said would do any good, but I tried anyway. Connell told me to shut up. He even pulled his gun. He took me out to his car and put me in the back and drove back to town.

Lester was still at the station. He didn't bother to draw his gun. He listened to me, and he listened to Connell, and Connell told him how I was crazy jealous and had gone out there to kill Ramsey. He said Molly was fine and obviously having a good time with Ramsey and Abby. He didn't say they were naked. He didn't tell what they'd done with him. I told Lester the whole story, but I knew it sounded crazy, and that I did too, and I was obviously out of my head with jealousy and hatred of Ramsey because he'd taken my girlfriend. I knew that was what Lester believed, and I knew that's what Ramsey would tell him if he bothered to ask him. And that that's what Abby would tell him. And Molly too.

Lester finally said these were serious charges, and he was gonna put me in a cell overnight to calm me down, and maybe he'd go out to talk to Ramsey in the morning. Next day he told me that Ramsey wasn't going to press charges, but he said I should keep away from Ramsey's place. He said if I went out there again he'd put me away for a lot more than a night. He said he was keeping an eye on me.

I didn't go out there again. I knew it wouldn't be any use anyway. I didn't go back to the mill either. I got myself a job in a garage out at Summerton, fixing cars. Molly quit her job at the hospital and she's still up there with Ramsey. Abby too, far as I know. I heard Molly's father went out there once, came back and never said anything to anybody about it, and he died soon after that. Nobody else ever goes out there, except I hear Connell does once in a while. Ramsey went back to work once his leg healed up. From what I hear he's the same old Ramsey, keeps to himself, does his work, goes home. Only other time he ever comes into town is when he goes to Charley's. Not very often. But now I hear it's not Abby he brings with him, most times. It's Molly. That's what they say anway. I never go there anymore.