"Fuck Billy!" Sylvia turned away from the badly frightened little convict, ignoring his shouts and continued swishing the blade through mid-air, moving it closer and closer to the screaming, cowering Ellen who pathetically cringed against the wall, looking like a bird at the approach of a cat.
Behind the woman Ellen could see Vito approach closer, his hands opening and closing in nervous protesting gesticulations. His hands clenched into tight fists and the muscles of his forearms stood out demonstrating a strength Ellen had not thought the thin man capable of. At least, she had someone on her side, even if he did want to kill her – just as Sylvia – but wanted to make her death look like an accident.
Suddenly there was a wild movement of flailing limbs in front of her as Vito had leapt up behind Sylvia, grappling with her arms, but the lithe gang girl spun around and made a vicious slash against the criminal's chest. In the midst of the scuffle the German Shepherd rose and sank his teeth into Sylvia's ankle, instinctively attacking the suddenly insane gang girl. The pain of the dog's bite only drove her to further madness and she thrust the long switchblade knife in an upward curve from her hips. The blade made a loud "thunk" as it sank into Vito's chest.
Sylvia smiled again across the width of the bed.
"Ya thought ya almost had it made, didn't ya?" she snarled. "But now you're gonna get it, and I'm gonna be slow and easy about cuttin' ya up. I'll make it hurt… I promise ya…"
The German Shepherd cowered away from the standing woman, his tail curled between his legs. He knew who was master now, the long bloody knife glinting in his master's former girlfriend's hand clearly demonstrated this.
Ellen felt her last hope dwindle away when she saw that the animal who had been her lover only moments before was incapable of acting as her protector. Now it was only a matter of waiting, since she would be unable to avoid the pendulum swing of the razor-like blade. She closed her eyes, trying to blot out the vision of the glistening blade of steel now running with blood, held in the hand of the stealthily approaching gang girl. "Let it be fast and not hurt too much," she prayed silently. "Please let it be fast." She had no hope of living.
"Now let me get that tit in my hand," Ellen heard through her fogged mind. "Just poke it out so I can start cutting."
Sylvia reached down toward Ellen's breast, and the terror-paralyzed young girl was incapable of movement. The tall brunette's hand darted out and clenched one nipple tight, squeezing the roseate tipped breast in a scissor-like grip that sent a shriek of excruciating agony screaming up from the depths of Ellen's being. The knife flashed in the air and made a downward movement…
Suddenly the entire world seemed to blow up in an ear-splitting explosion – one second the hand was there and then it wasn't.
Ellen watched the crazed sadistic look on Sylvia's face change to one of frozen horror, shock, then agony. The gang girl fell away from the bed, and Ellen saw the form of Billy standing at the door, a pistol smoking in his hand. Out of the corner of her eye, Ellen saw the dog cringe away from the scene, disappearing down the stairway away from his master. Ellen wobbled to her feet, then stood up in front of him.
"Well, well, look at what's been goin' on in here," he said with a strange sense of ease in his voice. "The killing's off." He grinned, shaking his head in disbelief. "Would you believe… would you believe…" he began laughing so hard that he was forced to sit on the bed and tears streamed down his darkly handsome face, "would you believe… the senator's plane was hijacked… to Cuba!"
Ellen turned her face away from the two outstretched bodies on the floor. She had been through too much in the past few days to be able to regain her thoughts; the room was swirling around and around. All she wanted now was to go home and sleep and sleep until the pain of the experience softened to the point where she could begin living her life again.
Cash appeared from behind Billy and shook his head on witnessing the bloody scene in front of him. "Jesus! What we gonna do about this, Billy?" Cash asked quietly, obviously concerned.
The gang leader took out his gun and dropped it on the floor beside Vito. "They killed each other," he said quietly. "Both of them were psychos – only a matter of time, anyway." He paused, "We'll torch the building."
"And the girl?" Cash jerked his head toward Ellen who stared unseeing at a blank wall.
"What do you think we should do to her?" Billy asked quietly, and Pop who had just entered the room was included in the question.
"She can pin this on you," the old man said thoughtfully. He glanced down at Vito lying lifelessly in a puddle of blood and over to Sylvia, still brandishing her knife in death. "It's up to you, Billy," he said, "It's up to you…"
CHAPTER SEVEN
Ellen sat in front of the television set on the sun porch of her mother's home a few miles outside the city. She relaxed with a glass of lemonade in her hand, letting her thoughts go back for the first time to the violent experiences that had transpired only a few days before. She recalled with a strange sense of gratefulness how Billy, Cash and Pop had driven her to the outskirts of the suburban village where she lived and remembered the last look of almost gentle affection Billy had given her before the truck had disappeared forever – traveling the entire length of the Florida Peninsula before inevitably approaching their capture that she had read about briefly in the newspaper that morning.
She heard her older sister's voice coming from the living room behind her, and smiled as Jennifer entered the sun porch and embraced her warmly. Ellen had made up a few excuses to her family about staying with a friend in Tampa for a few days and that had satisfied her mother somewhat; and now the young girl felt she could continue her life without having to bare the sordid details of her kidnapping to anyone. It just wouldn't help things, she thought, and she felt she could be closer to her sister by not mentioning the lewd spectacle of Jennifer fucking two men at the same time that had sent her off onto the lonely road that night and resulted in her kidnap-rape.
"Well," Jennifer said, smiling and sitting down on the divan in front of Ellen. "Don't we look rested now?"
Ellen shrugged and sat down next to her sister, offering her a sip of lemonade. "I really feel fine. You know, a little vacation really does a person a world of good."
"I've got a date with Phil tonight," Jennifer said. "What do you think I should wear?"
Ellen smiled to herself, knowing that her sister had no idea what she had seen from the sand dune a few days before. She thought for a moment and then said, "Something light and comfortable. It's warm out and maybe a mini would be nice."
Jennifer nodded and trotted off the porch, leaving Ellen alone with her thoughts again. The young girl leaned forward and turned on the color television once more. The news was on and she watched film clips of an earthquake disaster flash onto the screen.
A moment later the picture of three handcuffed men being led up a stairway to a courthouse appeared before her, and Ellen felt an electric shock run down the length of her spine when she recognized the figures of Billy, Cash and Pop, although all three of them tried to cover their heads.
For a brief instant Billy turned his face toward the camera, and Ellen thought she could make out a searching look in his eyes that reminded her of the last tender glance he had given her before the pickup truck had dissolved into the semi-tropical darkness of the Florida night.
And suddenly she was weeping again – crying for him and what he might have been… and what he would mean to her through the long sunny days ahead.