Held & Pushed (2 book bundle) (10 page)

Hungry and
hopeful, I nodded.

“Good. I
knew you would. I see you haven’t eaten. Is there a reason?”

“Yeah.
It’s
rotten dog food.”

“So you’d
rather starve than eat old dog food?
Interesting.
Are
you often stubborn, or is it just when it comes to what you eat?”

“I’m not
picky. I just won’t eat rotten food. Would you please bring me a sandwich or something?”

He
considered this for a moment and said, “No. Girls in the basement eat basement
food. If you want a sandwich, then you must learn your lesson.”

“I have,”
I said quickly.

“Oh have
you?” he asked suspiciously. “What lesson have you learned?”

Shit.

“Well,
I’ve learned that I shouldn’t make you angry.”

He nodded.

“And I
shouldn’t talk back to you.”

He shook
his head. “I’m afraid you’re wrong. It seems you haven’t learned your lesson
yet. But don’t worry.” He kissed the top of my head and stood. “You will. Until
then, I’m afraid this is your dinner,” he said, nudging the bowl with his foot.
“It won’t be so bad. Remember, it could always be worse.”

That was
no lie.

It wasn’t
until Ron was gone that I noticed the woman. Had she not moaned, I may not have
noticed her.

She was
chained where Stephanie had been. She was taller than Stephanie and had more
meat on her bones. Her hair was light brown and curly. She was also naked, just
as Stephanie had been, and just as I was now.

“Hey,” I
said. “Hey, are you awake? Can you hear me?”

Her eyes
fluttered and she looked at me. She struggled against her restraints, but she
could’ve struggled till the end of time and it wouldn’t have done any good.

“Where am
I?” she asked. She had a raspy voice, the kind women have when they’ve spent
their lives smoking. She looked to be in her fifties, so she must’ve gotten an
early start.

“You’re in
the basement of a psychopathic asshole.”

“How’d I
get here?”

“I don’t
know.”

“I was in
a bar.
Dancing on a table.
Some guy helped me down. He
held out his hand. I thought that was so sweet. I sat with him and had some
drinks. He flirted with me. I decided to go home with him. I don’t even
remember leaving the bar.”

“What’s
your name?”

“Melinda.”

“I’m
Nicole. Are you married?”

“Yes. When
he finds out this john kidnapped me, he’ll kill him,” she said angrily.

“John?
You’re a prostitute?”

“Yeah.”

“And your
husband knows?”

“It was
his idea. We needed money and that’s a sure, quick way to get some.”

“It’s also
a sure, quick way to end up restrained in a basement.”

“Honey, I
wish you’d have told me that yesterday.” She pulled against the chains again,
but still no results. “How long have you been here?”

“I’m not
sure. More than a month, I know.”

“Shit. I
better not be here that long.”

“There was
a woman before you. She’d been here a long time.”

“Where’s
she now?”

How could
I tell her? To tell her what had happened to Stephanie would be to tell her
what was going to happen to her.

“She didn’t
make it,” I said simply.

“The son
of a bitch killed her, didn’t he?” she asked.

It
surprised me that she would ask such a question so bluntly. But judging by the
way she looked and talked, and by her line of work, I was sure she’d seen a lot
of stuff. There was no sense in sugar-coating the situation.

“Yes. And
he wasn’t nice about it.”

“Of course
he wasn’t. Assholes like him are never nice about nothing. I had a feeling he
was
gonna
want some of that kinky stuff. For the
right price, I’m up for anything, though.
Anything except
this.”
A few minutes later, she asked, “When he does you, how bad is
it?”

“What do
you mean?”

“I mean,
how rough is he? Does he like it in the backdoor? How big is he?”

Wow. She
didn’t mess around. “I don’t know.”

“What do
you mean you don’t know? You’ve been here over a month and he hasn’t done you
yet?”

“He’s
tried.”

“How’d you
stop him? How could a little thing like you fight him off?”

Fortunately,
the door opened at the top of the steps and Ron appeared. I was glad. I had no
idea how to tell her the reason he hadn’t had sex with me yet. I wasn’t even
sure of the reason myself.

Ron came
down the stairs smiling. Stepping off the bottom step, he looked at us and
asked, “How’s my girls?”

Neither of
us spoke.

“Come on,
ladies. Don’t be so glum. It can’t be all that bad, can it?”

“Let me go,
you prick, and I’ll tell my husband not to kill you.”

“Do you
think your husband plans to kill me?” he asked, walking toward her. “Or do you
think he’s happy that I’ve taken such a foul-mouthed burden off his shoulders?
After all, you’re just a whore. No one cares what happens to you.”

“My
husband does,” she yelled.

“Does he?
Then why does he sit idly by while you let any man that comes along have his
way with you? In fact, why does he offer you to these men, recruiting them, so
to speak?”

She said
nothing.

“I’ll tell
you why,” Ron said calmly. He knelt down beside her head and leaned over her. “Because
he doesn’t care about you,” he yelled. “He cares less about you than any other
whore on the street. You’re a worthless bag of spent sperm and deserve nothing
more than for me to kill you right now.”

He slapped
her across the face. The loud, sudden smack made me jump.

She didn’t
cry, though. In her line of work, she’d probably had more than her fair share
of getting slapped around by some dickhead.

He smiled.
Then, he stood and came over to me. Kneeling beside my mattress, he stroked my
hair.

“And you.
How are you?”

“I’m
okay,” I whispered.

“Are you?”
he asked as he kissed my forehead. “You’re just as beautiful as you were when I
left you.
Although you seem to have lost a bit of weight.
I don’t like that, Nicole. I don’t want to see you looking like Stephanie.
That’s very unattractive on a woman, don’t you think?”

I nodded.

“You need
to eat, don’t you agree?”

I nodded.

“I’ll tell
you what. You eat what’s in that bowl, and I’ll make you something nice for
dinner. Okay?”

Again, I
nodded. What else could I do?

He kissed
my forehead. “That’s my girl. I’ll come down later and check on you.” He
glanced back over his shoulder, then whispered, “Don’t let that one rub off on
you. She’s a hard pill to swallow.”

He stood and
walked out of the basement, leaving me to eat the contents of the bowl.

Chapter
15

I sat with
my back against the wall. In my lap was the bowl of rotten dog food. Even from
this distance, the smell was horrible. I stared at it, listening to my stomach
rumble, and tried to talk myself into eating it. I reminded myself that if I
ate it, I would have a nice meal for dinner.

Using my
left hand, I picked up a piece and brought it to my lips. I opened my mouth and
slowly put the piece in, holding it above my tongue. Just before I dropped it
onto my tongue, I had a better idea.

Lifting up
the edge of the mattress on my right side, the side against the wall, I dumped
the dog food on the floor and covered it with the mattress. Now Ron would think
I ate it and make some real food. I didn’t like to think of myself as a genius,
but it was starting to look I just might be.

I set the
bowl back on the floor and waited for his return. But then I got to thinking. Ron
was a tricky devil. He surely wouldn’t be fooled so easily. What if he didn’t
believe me? What if he looked around to see if I’d dumped it? Worse still, what
if he smelled my breath and didn’t detect the stench of the dog food?

Working
myself into a near panic, I reached under the mattress and pulled out a piece.
I quickly ate it. Holding my breath, I chomped it a couple of times and quickly
swallowed it. I waited a while before I breathed through my nose to avoid
tasting it.

I did all
this with my back to Melinda. I didn’t trust her. What if she told on me to win
Ron’s favor and try to save herself? I wouldn’t throw her under the bus like
that, but she seemed just the type to do it to me.

Eventually,
Ron came back. I waited as patiently as I could while he cleaned up my pile of
excrement. When he’d picked it up and sprayed the floor with cleaner, he
finally asked me about it.

“I see we
ate our food.”

Behind
him, Melinda struggled against her restraints and cursed aloud.

“Yeah.
It was disgusting.
But at least I had something to eat.” It was weak and I was sure he’d see
through it, but I wanted more than just something good to eat. I wanted out of
this basement. And if I had to make him think I’d learned a lesson, then so be
it.

He smiled
at me. “I knew you’d learn, Nicole. I had a feeling about you as soon as I put
my arm around you in the parking lot of the mall. I could just tell you were
special.”

As he
scrubbed the floor beside the mattress, I considered kicking him in the face. I
didn’t of course. That would’ve been stupid. I’d never get out of the basement
doing things like that. Instead, I sat there silently and watched him until he
was finished.

“Do you
feel that you’ve learned something down here?”

“Yes, I
do.”

“And what
have you learned?”

“I’ve
learned to appreciate not only you, but the things you do for me. I’ve also
learned that it’s never as bad as it could be.” I threw that last part in for
good measure. After all, those were his words. That should show him that I
listen to him and agree with him.

He nodded
and smiled. Then, he leaned toward me.

“Are you
ready to have me yet?”

“Not
exactly,” I said slowly. When I saw the look on his face, I quickly added, “I
still haven’t got to know you that well. I mean, I’ve been down here and you’ve
been so busy, we haven’t spent a lot of time together.”

I watched
as the smile that had nearly faded when I started talking reappeared.

“You’re
right.” He opened his mouth to say more, but Melinda began to scream at him.

He quickly
stood and walked across the room. From a cabinet hanging over the utility sink,
he produced a skinny pole-type object with two prongs sticking out the end. I
wasn’t sure exactly what it was. I wasn’t sure until I saw him use it.

With this
object in his hand, he walked to Melinda and stood over her. “Do you like
screaming?” he asked.

“Yes,” she
screamed up at him.

He leaned
down and touched the prong end to her bare belly. Oh, how she screamed then. In
fact, each time he touched it to her skin, she screamed and thrashed and howled
in pain. That’s when I figured out the device was an electric cattle prod. I’d
seen them used before, but never on a human.

“Do you
like screaming now?” he asked, as his eyes took on a crazed look.

Through
her screams and clenched teeth, I heard her try to say no to him. Either he
didn’t hear
her
or he chose to ignore her, and he stuck
the prongs to her skin a few more times.

Finally,
he stopped sending the volts through her body and left her writhing on the
floor. He returned the cattle prod to the cabinet and came to me. Squatted
beside me, the crazy look that I’d seen in his eyes as he shocked her was gone,
replaced by the affectionate look he always gave me. The one that made my skin
crawl.

“Do you
feel that you should be allowed back upstairs?”

I nodded.

“Can I
trust you to have dinner with me at the table and act civilized?”

Pushing my
luck, I asked, “Haven’t I always been civilized?”

“Indeed
you have, Nicole.
Most civilized.”

Then, he
leaned in and kissed me on the mouth. It shocked me because he’d never kissed
my mouth before, but it absolutely startled me when I felt his tongue slide in
between my lips and swirl around in my mouth. The urge to bite him was
powerful, but I managed to fight it. A few seconds later, he withdrew his
tongue and leaned back. I watched as he licked his lips, clearly tasting me. He
smiled and nodded, and I was certain then that he’d been checking for traces of
dog food.