Held & Pushed (2 book bundle) (41 page)

When he swallowed, I asked if he wanted some more.

He didn’t answer.

“I think you do.” I filled the spoon again and
dumped it into his mouth.

Watching as he chewed, I said, “You should be
thankful.”

After he swallowed, he said, “For what?”

“Well when you shoved dog
food
down
my throat—nearly choking me to death in the process, by the way—it
contained maggots. Do you remember that?
Because I sure do.
Lots and lots of fat, wiggling maggots.”

I fed him another spoonful.

“So you should be thankful that there are no maggots
in this because there could be, you know. I could’ve done it. I could’ve made
you eat maggots. But I didn’t, and for that, you’re welcome.”

After the fourth mouthful of food was down, Ron
said, “Fuck you.”

“What’s that? You want some more? Okay.”

I fed him three more spoonfuls before becoming
bored with him. I’d fed him enough to keep him alive, which was all I wanted. I
didn’t want him to die until I said so.

As I laid the hammer and spoon on the work table,
Ron spoke.

“That tasted like shit.” He spat, probably trying
to get rid of the tiny, gritty pieces that lingered between his teeth.

I turned to face him.
“Really?
You mean it didn’t taste like piss?”

“No. Why would it taste like piss?”

“Because I peed in the bag and shook it all up.
Sort of the way you mix salt into a bag of popcorn.”

“You’re disgusting.”

“Really?
You think my
piss is worse than maggots?”

He said nothing.

“That’s what I thought.” I turned to leave.

“Wait,” he said.

I glanced at him over my shoulder. “What? Not full
yet?”

“I’m thirsty.”

“Well that’s going to be a problem for you then,
isn’t it?”

I walked away, taking my time going up the steps
so he could feel the effect of being left behind. After turning off the lights,
I shut the door and left Ron alone in the dark basement to digest the
piss-soaked dog food.

20

I
n
the darkness, Ron laid thinking of all the things he’d like to do to Nicole. He
wanted to hit her until the imprint of his hand was permanently embedded upon
her flesh. He wanted to cut her throat and watch as the blood gushed from her
in rhythmic spurts. He wanted to stomp on her neck until the bones crushed her
trachea. He wanted to glue her eyelids open so she would be forced to watch as
he stripped the skin from her bones, one layer at a time.

She had a lot of nerve treating him this way. He
could have overlooked her tying him up and keeping him in the basement. He
could’ve even overlooked what she’d done to his feet. After all, with love
comes pain. But there was no way in hell he was going to overlook her forcing
him to eat dog food that had been saturated with piss. It was simply
unforgivable.

To pass the time and relieve his frustration, he
pulled at his restraints, jerking with all the strength he could muster, which
at this point wasn’t much.

The only feeling he had in his hands was the
prickly pins and needles sensation he got whenever he wiggled his fingers. The
bitch had tightened the straps too much and they were cutting off his
circulation.

She would pay for this.
For this
and so much more.

He’d been reduced to pissing himself, and if she
didn’t let him go soon, he’d be forced to shit himself as well. Such things
were suited for animals and filthy whores. Not him.

She had cut away his underwear and left him
exposed. She’d even threatened to mutilate his genitalia. He’d been nothing but
nice to her and this was how she repaid him. She had one hell of a payback
coming her way, and she was going to get it.

Just as soon as he got off the
table.

Tired of tugging fruitlessly on the leather
shackles that bound him, Ron relaxed and tried to think of another way off the
table. There was little he could do as it were. Without the use of his hands or
even his feet, his chance of escaping was virtually nonexistent.

This left him with only his voice.

Screaming for help would do nothing. If it was
possible to summon the attention of a neighbor or passerby simply by screaming,
he would’ve been arrested a long time ago, his fate sealed by the ceaseless
screams of the many women who’d passed through his home. The basement was too
well insulated and the house was too isolated for yelling to be of any use.

No, he would have to use his voice to talk and
reason with Nicole. She had recently proven herself to be an arrogant and
selfish bitch, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t intelligent. She was a smart
woman with good sense about her, and he felt confident that he could use his
charm to control her and manipulate her into letting him go.

For the next several hours, he thought of things
he could say to her, things that might warm her to him.

He spent another hour looking back on their
relationship, searching for any moment during their time together that he’d
treated her badly, trying to find any reason she might possibly have to turn
against him.

He could think of none, which was good. If she
didn’t have a reason to turn against him, she couldn’t hate him, couldn’t
loathe him and wish him harm. And that meant it was possible to get her to let
him go.

By the time Nicole came down the stairs, Ron was
ready.

He smiled at her as she approached the table,
stopping at the side and folding her arms over her chest. Patiently, he waited
for her to speak.

“Miss me?” she asked.

“Of course I did. I always miss you, Nicole.”

She rolled her eyes, but he pretended not to notice.

“If you wouldn’t mind,” he continued. “I’m still
quite parched and would love it if you could give me a drink. Preferably water,
if that’s okay.”

Without speaking, she walked around the embalming
table and got the water hose. He’d hoped that by being so polite to her, she’d
bring him a glass or bottle of water from the kitchen and hold it softly to his
mouth while he drank. When he saw her pick up the hose, he thought perhaps she
planned to allow a stream of water to gently wash over his mouth, giving him
the opportunity to drink at his leisure. He would’ve been happy with either of
those scenarios.

Instead, she blasted it at his face, the forceful
stream of the cold water stinging his skin and eyes, filling his nostrils and
choking him.

He spat and coughed, turned his head and jerked it
back, waiting for the brutal stream to stop beating down on his face. When he
realized it wasn’t going to stop and this was how she planned to give him
water, he fought to find a position in which he could drink without drowning.

Gulping down the water, which tasted far too much
of rubber and chemicals, he stared at her. The water splashed against his face
and rolled down it in streams, falling from his eyelashes onto his cheeks, but
he continued to stare at her without blinking, showing her that he was tougher
than she thought.

She turned off the water before he’d had his fill,
but he’d had enough. At least he wouldn’t die of dehydration.

“Thank you,” he said, hiding the hate he felt for
her at that moment.

She didn’t respond to him, so he continued.

“I just want you to know that I appreciate all
you’ve done for me.”

With confusion written on her face, Nicole looked
at Ron. She stood beside the table, arms folded across her chest. Adjusting her
weight to her left leg, she cocked the right one out slightly, settling into
this stance to listen to anything else he might have to say.

“I’m serious. You’ve been more than kind to me.
You’ve been a very gracious hostess.” He smiled. “Should I call you the
hostess? I mean it’s my house, so I’m not sure how that would work. But anyway,
before I digress too much, I just wanted you to know that I appreciate you and
all that you’ve done.”

“Really?
Like what?”

“Like feeding me.
Giving me water when I asked.”
He refrained from screaming
at her and calling her a stupid cunt for not giving him water the first time
he’d asked for it, and for making him drink from the hose like an animal when
she finally did. “Cleaning the mess I made on myself.” A mess that wouldn’t
have been made if not for her, but he didn’t say that aloud. “These are all
things you didn’t have to do. But you did them, and for that I’m grateful.”

“Is that so?”

“It certainly is. To show my appreciation, I’d
like to cook for you.
Dinner tonight, perhaps?”

“You want to cook dinner for me?”

“Certainly.
I believe
you’ll agree that I’m a fantastic cook. I’ll whip you up anything you want.
Anything at all.”

“And then what?”

“What do you mean?”

“In order for you to cook for me, I’d have to
unfasten those straps and let you off the table. I imagine the first thing
you’d do is attack me.”

“I most certainly would not.”

“How do I know that for sure?”

“I give you my word.”

“Okay. Let’s say I take you for your word. I let
you up, you don’t attack me, we go upstairs together, and you cook the dinner.
We eat. Then what? You just come back down here, get up on that table, and let
me put the straps back on you?”

“If that’s what you would want me to do, then yes.
That’s what I would do.
For you.”

“Right.”

“I’m being honest here, Nicole. If you wanted me
to come back down here, I would. But I would hope that after seeing what a
pleasant time we can have together, you’d change your mind about it.
About me.”

“All right.
So let’s say
we have a nice evening and I change my mind about you. I suddenly decide you’re
a great guy. Then what happens? Are we supposed to just go on our merry way,
living our separate lives as if none of this has ever happened?”

“That’s one possibility.”

“Is there another?”

“Of course.
It’s possible
that we would have such a good time together you’d want to stay. The both of us
could live here, together. We can be happy, Nicole. I’ve known this from the
moment I saw you. You can make me every bit as happy as I can make you. We can
love each other as no two people have ever loved each other before. What do you
say?”

For a moment, she was silent, hopefully mulling
over his words and considering his proposal.

“I say you’re crazier than half the people in
Alpine Grove.”

“Maybe I am.
But what about
you?”

“What about me?” She unfolded her arms and placed
her hands on her bony hips.

“You’re just as crazy as I am.
If
not as much, then at least half as much.
I mean, you’re here, in my
house, doing the same thing to me that I did to others.
Which,
by the way, is exactly why you say you’re upset with me.
Does this make
any sense to you, Nicole?”

“It makes perfect sense, asshole. I don’t enjoy
hurting other people. You do. I don’t enjoy watching others bleed. You do. I’m
only here to show you how it feels and to serve justice.”

He chuckled. “What gives you the right to dole out
justice? Who gave you the authority to deliver a punishment unto me or anyone
else?”

She stepped closer to him. “You did. On a Tuesday
afternoon, you wrapped your arm around my shoulder, pressed the barrel of a gun
against my ribs, and forced me into my own car, where you drove me to your
house and locked me away from the world, away from my family. I don’t have to
tell you what happened inside that house. You were there. You know. It’s not my
right to give you a punishment. It’s my duty. I’m the only one who got away.
The only one you didn’t kill. I have to do this.
Not only for
myself, but for all the others who weren’t so lucky.”

So that was it. That’s what all this was about.
She felt obligated to be here, torturing him, making him remember things he’d
done. Well the joke was on her because he loved remembering those things. He
purposefully thought back to all those days and nights, hurting each and every
one of those dirty whores. He liked it. It made him happy. Everyone had a
‘happy place’ that they’d go to in their mind when times were tough. For some,
it was a beach.
For others, their grandmother’s house.
But for Ron, it was a dank basement with a naked bitch tied up and bleeding,
her screams echoing all around him.

“If you start a life with me, Nicole, all that is
over. Never again will I even look at another woman. I’ll seal up the basement,
if you like. Block it off. Nail the door shut. Better yet, we can move. We’ll
get a house that doesn’t even have a basement. We’ll leave the past in the
past, where it belongs, and we’ll start fresh. We can begin a whole new life
together.”

He still hoped to sway Nicole, to change her mind
and convince her to let him up from the table. However, the steely look on her
face told him he wasn’t getting anywhere with her.

“I am going to start a new life, Ron. I have to
because you ruined the one I had. You have no idea the trouble you’ve caused
me, the damage you’ve done. And you don’t care. I could tell you about the
nightmares. The panic attacks.
The endless string of
sleepless nights.
The agony of losing my family.
But it wouldn’t do me any good. You’re a heartless prick who would only find
pleasure in my pain.”

“Nicole—”

“Shut up. There’s nothing you can say. You can’t
change who you are any more than I can change you. My only option is to do the
world a favor and see that you can never, ever hurt anyone again.”