Wrangled (21 page)

Russ came into the barn late one afternoon
and said,
“Cody, can you spare a minute?” I still
wasn’t used to bein’ treated like a partner instead of an employee, in spite of
the fact that we hadn’t started the business yet. I guess Russ wanted to get me
thinkin’ like a boss before I hired me any hands for the trainin’ business.

“Sure, Russ. Be right there.” I finished
inspectin’ the brood mare I’d been lookin’ at, and told Bill to make a note to
call the vet to confirm she was pregnant. “What’s up?” I said to Russ when I
met him outside the barn.

“Couple of things. First, I think Annalee
has found us what we need. I’d like you to ride over there with me and look at
it, see what you think. Second, I need to know, and I’m sorry if you think it’s
none of my business, but do you still have feelings for Annalee?”

“Hell, Boss, you know I do,” I said,
forgetting to call him Russ. “Why?”

“Charity’s told me some disturbing things
about Jason Clark. I’m going to check them out, and I wondered if you want to
be involved,” he said.

“You bet your ass I want to be involved!
What kind of disturbin’ things?” I asked.

“He’s been treating her badly, nothing
anyone would be able to see, but she’s scared. He doesn’t seem as concerned as
he should be with the children’s safety, and he’s made some remarks that didn’t
sit right with her about his parents’ death.” Russ hesitated then, like there
was more but he wasn’t sure he should share it with me.

“What about his parents?” I asked.

“Word in town was it was a strange
accident, a few years back. He inherited their business when he wasn’t any
older than you.”

“Accident?”

“Logging truck hit them. Funny thing was,
it was a clear day, no ice on the road, and that truck came from a side road
without stopping. Driver claimed his brakes wouldn’t work, he couldn’t stop, so
the logging company got fined for having faulty equipment, but the driver
wasn’t charged.”

“That sounds legit to me, Russ.”

“I thought so too, until I had my
investigator try to locate the driver. He’s dropped off the face of the earth.
I’d like to know why.”

“What can I do?”

“Keep an eye on Annalee, kid. Hang out in
town, make up to her sisters, be there if she needs you. I’m not sure I should
tell you this, but…”

“What?”

“Charity says there’s been some sex stuff
that Annalee doesn’t like. She puts up with it because she thinks she needs to
marry the bastard. But I don’t think any woman should have to do anything she
doesn’t want to.”

I didn’t know whether to holler or just go
kill Jason Clark. My head felt hot, and my ears was buzzin’, just thinkin’
about him touchin’ my girl at all, much less doin’ stuff she didn’t like. I
narrowed my eyes and snarled, “I’m gonna kill him.”

Russ got a worried look on his face and put
his hand on my arm. “Don’t go off half-cocked, son. We’ll straighten him out,
don’t worry. But I would like you to keep an eye on Annalee.”

“Russ, she won’t like it.” I was torn. I
wanted, no needed to make sure she was safe, but what if she never forgave me
for it? No, that was selfish thinkin’. By the time Russ answered, I knew he was
right.

“Doesn’t matter. She needs to be safe.”

I knew I shouldn
’t
have told Charity about the way Jason was treating me sexually. After all, he
wasn’t hurting me, just humiliating me. I got it. He was punishing me for
hesitating to have a baby with him. I thought it would get better after we were
married. In the meanwhile, I could endure it. I’d endured a two-year marriage
with Jed, after all. A couple of weeks was nothing compared to that.

Still, I dreaded going with Jason every
night. My reluctance soon became noticeable to Celeste and Ciara. Ciara was
younger and sympathized with me, but Celeste took it as a big joke.

“What’s the matter, isn’t his dick big
enough? Or is it too big? I swear, Annalee, you act like he’s takin’ you out to
kill you instead of just having sex. If you hate it this much, what’s it going
to be like when you get married?” She’d hit too close to home with the ‘kill
you’ remark. He didn’t hurt me, didn’t even threaten me, but somehow I knew he
was capable of killing me if he got angry enough. And for some reason, he
wasn’t getting less angry, he was getting more so.

After the carnival incident, I kept the
kids out of his way. But he kept on coming every night to take me to his house
and put me through his humiliating routine, after taking me to dinner and showing
me off like a prize horse, of course. No one would have believed the change in
him. Witty, soft-spoken, charming Jason wined and dined me, pulled out my chair
for me, opened doors for me and gave every evidence of cherishing me in public.

In private, his sexual desires kept getting
more and more bizarre. In only a couple of weeks, he’d gone from wanting to
make love to me to wanting to punish me in any way he could that wouldn’t leave
evidence. I wondered if it would stop escalating before it finally did leave
evidence. That very night after showing Russ and Charity the property, he
escalated again. He stripped me as usual, and loosened my hair from the braid
he’d insisted I wear it in instead of my bun, then he used cords to bind my
ankles to a bar that kept my feet and legs spread far apart. That surprised me,
but it wasn’t all that uncomfortable, until he also cuffed my hands behind my
back again.

I couldn’t see what he was doing, but I
could feel him threading something like a clothesline through the cuffs. Then
sharp pain seized my shoulders as he drew it tight, raising my cuffed hands
behind me. I was forced to bend forward to keep the excruciating pain from
making me cry out. When he had me pulled as tight as I could stand it, I was
facing the floor with my hair trailing down around my feet, tears dripping from
my eyes from the pain and fear.

It wasn’t long before the fear was
justified. A sudden agony seized my left nipple as he clamped it with something
rigid and tight, followed shortly by the same agony being visited on the right.
I couldn’t suppress the scream this time, and Jason quickly covered my mouth
with his hand.

“Don’t scream,” he whispered. “It won’t go
well for you if you scream.”

I whimpered with the pain and the effort
not to scream, but forced my eyes open to see if I could tell what was
happening to my nipples. Two plain wooden clothespins dangled from my breasts,
shaking slightly from my tremors as I fought the pain.

“Jason, please, take those off, I can’t
stand it,” I whined, but softly.

“Sure you can,” he said cheerfully.
“They’ll go numb in a minute. I’ve got a treat for you today.”

My mind came near to shattering when I
realized he was oblivious to my pain. The contrast between his menacing whisper
of only a moment ago, and his cheerful declaration that he had a treat for me
settled it in my mind…he was insane. I began to pray, for surely he wouldn’t
let me go after this. The only thing that comforted me was knowing that Charity
or one of my sisters would take the kids when I was dead, and they’d keep them
together. I really hoped it would be Russ and Charity. Only they could
comfortably deal with that hospital bill.

My thoughts made me cry harder, but I
didn’t dare make a sound. Jason had gone somewhere I couldn’t see him, and I
would have been glad, except that I felt my nipples were going to be pinched
right off if he didn’t get those clothespins off of me.

Jason was coming back, I could feel his
deliberate tread through the floorboards.

“Jason, please, please. This hurts so bad,”
I said. By now my hands and arms were tingling, the blood unable to travel
uphill from the shoulders where he had me tied up. 

“You’re okay. Here’s your treat,” he said
from somewhere behind me. With no further warning, he shoved something big and
rigid into me from behind. It was such a shock, and so painful since I wasn’t
lubricated, that I tried to stand. Immediately my arms were jerked upwards with
an electric shock that sent me quickly back to my forward-bending position. I
managed to close my mouth against the scream that bubbled up, but the violent
movement agitated the clothespins, which shook all the more as I gasped and
twitched, mindlessly trying to get away from the pain.

With indifference to all of it, Jason
pulled the object out and rammed it back in, several times, before he grew
tired of the sport. I was sobbing uncontrollably now, unable to summon words to
beg him to stop. When he finally withdrew it for the last time and showed me
what he’d used, I saw a grotesquely large flesh-colored replica of a penis,
with streaks of blood on it.

“Look at that,” he said. “Are you on your
period?”

“I don’t think so,” I rasped out, still
crying.

“Well, you got my dildo dirty. You’ll have
to clean it.” With that, he seized my jaws and squeezed, forcing my teeth open
before ramming the nasty thing into my mouth far enough to gag me. “Suck,” he
commanded. I drew my lips back and clamped down on it with my teeth, trying to
keep him from ramming it into the back of my throat again.

“Suck, or you’ll get your wish.”

That made no sense, and I thought I was
hearing things wrong. I was still puzzling about it when he yanked one
clothespin off without opening it. That ripped a scream out of me that I was
helpless to control. It was the last straw for Jason. With a snarl of rage, he
yanked the other clothespin off. I truly didn’t know whether my nipples were
still attached to my body, but the excruciating firing of the nerve endings
pierced me either way. I screamed again. That’s when he lost it.

I was helpless to fight back or even dodge,
as Jason first slapped me with a ringing blow to my ear, and then began to
whale on me with the dildo, which was surprisingly painful for all that it
wasn’t really hard. I stopped screaming, hoping that would make him stop
beating me, but he just kept on hitting, now with his fists. Though I twisted
and turned my head, he rained blows on my face, shoulders, back and torso,
while kicking at my legs with his fortunately unshod feet.

The torture ended for me when one of his
kicks knocked my legs out from under me, and I screamed one last time before
losing consciousness when my right shoulder gave way.

“I’m takin’ the pickup,” I threw at Russ as
I realized it was gettin’ on for dark. Before anything else happened, I needed
to get to Rawlins fast. Russ hadn’t shared details, and I didn’t even know if
he knew ‘em. But, I could imagine, and each mental picture made me want to
punch something, anything, but preferably that asshole Jason. I tore out down
the ranch road burnin’ rubber, makin’ the highway in record time and riskin’ a
ticket after that by pushin’ that pickup to near a hundred.

When I reached the city limits I only
slowed down so I could make the corners without rollin’ the truck. I barely
took the time to turn the ignition off and put the pickup in Park before I
threw myself out of the cab and ran up on the porch. In a state of desperation
and rage that I’d worked myself into on the drive, I pounded on the door until
Celeste yanked it open and stared at me.

“Cody Wayne, what the fuck has gotten into
you?” she demanded.

“Nice language. Pick that up at the truck
stop? I’m here to see Annalee.” I snapped.

“She isn’t here, shithead. My language is
none of your business, and neither is Annalee.” Celeste stood there with one
hand on the door and the other in a fist resting at her waist. She looked like
a spoiled brat, but I had no time to straighten her out.

“Where is she?” I asked urgently.

“If you must know, she went to dinner with
her
fiancé
. I don’t know where. Now get off my porch before I call the
police. You scared the shit out of the kids pounding on the door like that.”

In despair, I turned from the door,
wondering if I could search every eatin’ place in town. I turned back to ask
when they left, but Celeste had already slammed the door. I didn’t think she’d
open it again, no matter how hard I pounded. Shit, I was just gonna have to go
lookin’.

There was thirty or forty places to eat in
Rawlins, to my knowledge, but I could probably skip the fast food joints, ice
cream and frozen yogurt parlors, and coffee houses. Most of the coffee places
wouldn’t be open this time of night anyway. It was time to use my noggin for
somethin’ besides landin’ on in the rodeo ring. Where would he take her?

I started with the steak houses, thinkin’
he’d want to take her somewhere she’d feel comfortable. From her background, I
didn’t think Asian restaurants would fill that bill, and maybe not the sports
bar/grill combinations because she didn’t drink. Everybody knew everybody in a
town the size of Rawlins, under ten thousand people. All I had to do was ask
the hostess or the first waitress I saw if they’d seen Jason Clark, and I’d
have my answer. Since most of the places I was lookin’ was within a four-block
area, I parked the pickup and walked from restaurant to restaurant, only movin’
the pickup when the group I was workin’ was more than a couple of blocks from
the next one.

I hit paydirt at Rose’s Lariat way up on
the east end of Cedar. It was the last good restaurant before Cedar hit US
Highway 286 and petered out. It was a long shot, because I knew Rose’s was only
open ‘til seven, and it was gettin’ close to that by the time I got there, but
I had to check anyway. Rose’s son Bob ran the place now, and I think it was one
of his daughters that was a year or two ahead of me back in high school who
told me Jason had been there with a girl she didn’t know.

“Blonde, blue eyes? Slender, with her hair
all put up in a bun and pushed up in front?” I asked, though I knew if Jason
was with a woman, it had to be Annalee.

“That’s pretty much right, except she had
her hair braided down the back instead of in a bun. Man, that hair must go most
of the way to the floor, long as that braid was,” she answered.

“That’s her. Thanks, Rita,” I said. She
waved me off, turning to the next person that was waitin’ for a seat and told
him it’d have to be take-out ‘cause they was closin’. For a little diner in the
middle of nowhere, that place sure did some business! I still thought it was a
funny place to take a date to show off. But that didn’t concern me now as much
as where they could’ve got to. Middle of the week in Rawlins wasn’t exactly
rockin’ entertainment. There was a few bars, but nothin’ goin’ on there, and
somehow a movie didn’t sound right. They had to have gone to his house. And I
didn’t know where that was.

Back I went to Annalee’s house, but this
time I managed to knock politely. Ciara opened the door this time, and said,
“Cody! I’m surprised you’re back here.”

“Ciara, can I talk to you? About Annalee?
Russ says she may be in trouble.” My chest was tight, and I was sweatin’ even
though it was a cool evenin’, but I had to get someone’s help and Ciara was
someone else that loved Annalee. “Please,” I added.

“Sure, Cody. Just a second.” Ciara closed
the door, leavin’ me on the porch while she fetched a sweater. She was back in
a minute, pullin’ on the sweater as she came through the door.

“What kind of trouble, Cody?” she said, as
if the minute’s interruption hadn’t happened.

“You tell me. Russ said she told Charity
some stuff about sex with him that she didn’t like. I wanta know what he’s
forcin’ her to do.” My lips felt twisted, as the word sex crawled out of my
mouth like a dirty snake.

Ciara’s eyes widened, and her hand went to
her mouth as she said, “So that’s what…”

“What what?” I demanded, unable to wait for
her to finish the sentence. Ciara’s lips firmed.

“She hasn’t wanted to go with him the last
couple of days. Ever since he almost got the kids hurt at the carnival, she’s
been funny about it. But when we tell her she doesn’t have to go, she just
hangs her head down and says she does, too. And then she goes, and comes back
lookin’ like she’s been drug through a knothole backwards hours later.”

The more she said, the madder I got, ‘til I
coulda spit nails. “Where does he live?” I demanded.

“Oh, lord, Cody, I don’t know the address.
I could take you there.”

“Jump in the truck, we’ve gotta go right
now. They was at Rose’s and they left at least an hour ago.”

“Let me just tell Celeste. Can we be back
here by eight-forty-five? She needs to go to work, and I have to be here for
the kids.” Poor Ciara was torn right in half, not knowing where her duty was. I
told her we’d be back as soon as we could. She went in the house to tell
Celeste she was goin’, and in a minute both of ‘em was back.

“Cody Wayne, I wish you’d mind your own
business,” Celeste said to me. I told her Russ had made it my business when he
told me to keep an eye on her.

“We ain’t gonna go bustin in and break up
anything, Celeste. I just need to see if she’s all right. Then I’ll bring Ciara
back here so’s you can get to work.”

“I’ll hold you to that. I can’t afford to
lose any hours, since Ciara’s not working yet and Annalee’s moving out at the
end of the month.”

~~~

Ciara climbed up into the truck and I
closed the door behind her before trottin’ around to the driver’s side.

“Buckle up,” I reminded her. “Now, which
way do I go?”

“Let me think,” she said. “I’ve only been
there once, but it’s north and west of here. I think on one of the numbered
streets off Walnut.”

I turned right at their corner to get to
Walnut, and we started cruisin’ so she could look down each side street and
say, “No, that’s not it.”  The houses was gettin’ bigger and newer, when we got
almost to the end, where Walnut curves around and becomes Mountain View.

“Where is it, Ciara?” I asked

“I don’t know! I was sure we came out
Walnut. I think we went around a big curve, and turned left.”

Then I knew. He must live on Park Drive,
the most exclusive subdivision in town. Figured. I wondered just how much money
the bastard had. “Ok, I think I know the area. Will you recognize the house?”

“I think so.”

I sped up a bit as we rounded the curve,
but not much because that left turn was comin’ up and the street lighting out
here wasn’t good. There, just ahead, was the turn onto Park Drive, which went
straight for a ways, jogged a bit to the left and then went straight for about
twice the length of the first part. Then it curved back in a big circle, to
join the straight part again right at the jog. Ciara couldn’t remember whether
they turned left again or not, so I took the straight part, figurin’ we’d come up
on it sooner or later. Just as we got to the part where it curved to the left,
Ciara hollered, “That’s it!”  She was pointin’ to a house on the right that was
set facin’ right down the road where we was comin’ from. 

 I cut my lights and drifted to the curb.
The front of the house was dark, didn’t look like anyone was home, and there
was no way to see around back. I was gonna have to get around behind there
somehow. “Wait here,” I told Ciara.

The second house behind us was still under
construction, no one livin’ there. I jogged back and then headed for the back
of the lot, thinkin’ I could get around behind the others somehow, since there
wasn’t no development back there. Just had to be careful not to break my ankle
on a rock or a hole or somethin’ in the dark. It was a relief when my eyes
adjusted to the darkness and I could see a faint trail leadin’ around the back
of the next lot. The one after should be Clark’s.

It seemed like a long way around, and there
was thick bushes in the landscapin’ all the way. I couldn’t see through to the
house, but I remembered seein’ trees behind Jason’s house when we drove up.
When I come to a lot that was clear of landscape and I could see straight
through the back to the light-colored house, I knew I’d gone too far. I turned
around, walked thirty foot or so, and ducked in through the bushes.

When I come out, I was right up near the
back of the house, and there was one corner room that had a dim light showin’
through the cracks in the blinds. That had to be where they was, but I needed
to be sure. Hopin’ nobody would see me lookin’ in the window like a Peepin’
Tom, I crept up closer and looked around for a way to climb up where I could
see. I hadn’t found it yet when there come a scream from inside the house,
choked off sudden-like.

It sounded like a woman, but no matter who
or what it was, someone was in trouble in there, and I was the only one who
knew it. I ran to the back door, a slidin’ glass thing that opened on the
patio. It was locked, and wouldn’t budge. I couldn’t find nothin’ to break it
with, neither, so I went runnin’ through the yard to the pickup and yanked open
the door. “Ciara, get help, someone just screamed in there. Go bang on the
neighbors’ doors and get someone to call the police. Then you get back in here
and lock the doors.”

She jumped out and started to run to the
nearest neighbor’s, then turned and said, “What are you going do?”

“I’m gonna get the tire iron and break down
the back door. Hurry, Ciara.”

She was gone in a flash, and I got the jack
kit out from behind the driver’s side door of the F250. I dumped the contents
out of the pouch, and grabbed the tire iron, then ran to the back of the house
again. I couldn’t hear nothin’ in the house now, but I had to get in there, no
matter what happened after that. With all my might, I swung that tire iron like
a bat, right in the middle of the slidin’ glass door.  The crash was loud in my
ears when the tire iron hit, and the glass shattered into a million pebbles
rainin’ down and bein’ flung inwards from the iron. Without waitin’ for it to
stop, I lowered my head and led with my shoulder to crash through the weakened
glass, stumblin’ into a family room and fallin’ over the arm of a sofa on my
way down.

It took me a minute to get my bearin’s
after I stood up, my heart racin’ and hands fisted for a fight. Soon as I’d
spotted the hallway that led off in the direction where I’d seen the light, I
crouched to confuse anybody that might be comin’ down that hall with a gun. I
knew as well as anybody that breakin’ into a house in Wyomin’ was as like to
get you shot as anything else. After a minute when nobody come, I figured
either everyone was unconscious, or this was a rare weaponless household. I
hugged the wall as I crept around the furniture and down the hall, openin’
doors and checkin’ inside each room as I went. I didn’t want to get caught with
no ambush behind me, but I just knew the scream had come from that corner room.
Finally, I was at the door. Twistin’ the knob real slow, I hoped it wouldn’t
make no sound.

When the door opened, I found the room
pitch dark, though it’d been lit before. I needed some kinda light, but I
didn’t want to flip a switch in case someone was waitin’ to jump me. Instead, I
made my way around the wall toward what I thought was the back of the house. My
plan was to open them blinds and get some moonlight inside, what little there
was, so I could see some. Before I got there, I bumped into a tall chest and
had to feel my way around that. Then a gap in the wall that musta led to a
bathroom or closet. I was real nervous after I crossed that gap. What if
someone was behind me now? Someone who knew what-all was in that room real
good.

By the time I found the corner and turned
it, feelin’ along the wall for the window and the sash for the blinds, I was
shakin’ and sweatin’ like a kid that seen a ghost. The complete silence spooked
me like nothin’ else. I found the sash and yanked it, flippin’ the slats of the
blinds open and lettin’ the moonlight in. Then I looked around the room as best
I could.