Zeke (35 page)

“Would you mind if I take a look
around?” Will kept his tone polite.

“You’re a pushy piece of work,
ain’t you?” The farmer shook his gun in Will’s direction. “Didn’t I just tell
you ain’t nothing to see in there? Didn’t I tell you I already looked?”

“Yes sir, you did, and I believe
you. I just wanted to see for myself. Sometimes a person can miss things, small
details...”

“The hell you beller! Just what are
you suggesting, city boy? You saying I’m too stupid to know how to check a damn
building? You big shots really get under my hide. You just come onto a man’s
private property and throw your weight around, think I have to bend over and
kiss your ass. I don’t need no damn fancy detective license to look in a damn
building and tell there ain’t a damn thing to see.” He turned the gun around
until the barrels pointed at Will. “Get the hell out of here before I lose my
kindly disposition.”

“Look, I didn’t mean any offense.”
Will raised both hands in the air and backed up slowly. “I’m just doing my job.
I’m trying to save a girl’s life.”

“Sounds like a bullshit story to
me. I ain’t buying. For all I know, it was YOU that was here earlier, tramping
around my land, humping some cheap little tart on my property. Maybe you
dropped your prissy-ass
cellular phone
or something and come back to get
it. Pisses me off. In fact, I’m going to count to three and when I get there,
I’m pulling the trigger. Man’s got a right to protect his property, you know.”

“It wasn’t me. Please listen. The
girl who wore this skirt is most likely in grave danger. I need to find her
before its too late.” Will felt a bump against his thigh. He had backed into
his car.

The farmer’s face was set in stony
lines as he regarded Will. “I’m a-countin’,” he said. “One...”

Will hopped into his car and laid
the skirt on the rear floorboard with plans to bag it for possible evidence
when he reached the motel. His heart raced as he backed down the short drive.
He pulled onto the road and drove away, his eyes glued to the rearview mirror.
The farmer didn’t move.

As Will put distance between
himself and the shotgun-wielding sourpuss, he wiped sweat from his brow. The
farmer’s rudeness had not only intimidated him, but angered him as well.
“Touchy redneck bastard!” he grumbled. “Crazy old crank.”

He pulled over to the side of the
road, called Roxie, and told her about the experience, still steaming from the
ill treatment. “I want to get inside that barn in the worst way. I might go
back after dark and do some snooping.”

“Oh, Will! Please don’t. Not on
your own.”

Will sighed. “Okay. I won’t. I was
just spouting off. What I’m really doing is going back to that motel to see if
our boy shows up. In fact, I’m staying there tonight. If nothing happens to
change my mind, I’m getting back on the highway tomorrow and heading south
again. I don’t know where else to go.”

Roxie reluctantly agreed. “Call me
when you get your room and we can go over Melvin’s list. I already emailed it
to you.”

“Alright, hon.” Will said, and then
harrumphed self-consciously. “I mean, Roxie.”

She laughed softly before hanging
up.

ATM Dream

Zeke kept the speedometer hovering
four miles above the speed limit as they cruised down the highway.

“I’m hungry,” Sue ventured to say.

“Yeah. Well so am I, but you don’t
hear me whining about it.” Zeke stared straight ahead.

“I wasn’t whining,” Sue mumbled
under her breath.

“What the hell did you say?” Zeke
now shifted his eyes between her and the road.

“Nothing. I didn’t say anything.”

Zeke stared daggers for a moment
before barking, “You’d better not say anything either. I’m not taking any shit
from you today.” He started nervously rapping on the steering wheel, beating
out an unknown tune.

The miles rolled by below the van’s
tires before Zeke spoke again, calmer now. “Hey, bunny. Why don’t you lift your
skirt and let me get at that cute little snatch of yours?”

Sue trembled with revulsion but
complied with his wish, sliding her skirt up to her upper thighs and turning
slightly toward Zeke.

“Where’s your string?” he asked.

“I’m done with my period. It was
just a short one.”

“Good. Finally you did something
right.” He groped beneath the material and poked roughly at her private parts.

“Ouch!” Sue gasped.

“Does that hurt?” Zeke asked, and
jabbed a little harder.

“Damn it, Zeke. Stop!” Sue shoved
his hand away.

Zeke immediately pulled the van to
the side of the road. He twisted in his seat and thrust his face in front of
hers. “Did. You. Just. Tell. Me. To. Stop.” Spittle dotted her face as he spat
the words.

Sue knew instantly that she’d
better make amends or Zeke might kill her right here and now. “Oh, Zeke. I’m
sorry, honey. You just hurt me a little, that’s all. I want you to keep
touching me.” Sue grabbed Zeke’s hand and tried to slip it back between her legs.

Zeke resisted for a full minute,
remaining face-to-face with her as she tried not to visibly shake. Finally, he
slid his hand up her leg and resumed fiddling with her, his touch much gentler
than before. He removed his hand and pulled his pants down. “You do me,” he
said as he reentered traffic.

Sue took Zeke’s penis into her
mouth and struggled not to gag on the salty tang. Smells she used to find
stimulating and arousing now left her nauseous. Luckily, Zeke didn’t take long
and Sue was soon able to sit back up in her own seat. She wiped the corner of
her mouth and forced back her tears.

Zeke remained with his pants down,
lightly fondling himself. “You know what I need?”

When Sue didn’t answer, he looked
her way. “Well? Do you?”

“No, Zeke. What do you need?”

“I need a woman I can play with.”

“Play with?” Sue looked confused.
“You just did that with me.”

“Not like that, doofus,” Zeke said,
stroking himself a little faster as he once more firmed up. “You know! Like I
played with Daisy.”

Sue was speechless for a minute,
then out of self-preservation, she asked, “Where do we get someone like that?”

Zeke smiled when Sue included
herself in his plans. “There’s a decent-sized town coming up. Surely we can
pick someone up there.” He groaned and pulled Sue’s head back into his lap.
“Just thinking about it gets me all fired up.” When finished, he swerved a bit
as he yanked up his jeans and slid the zipper home, satisfied for the moment.

“Will I have to be with her, too?
Like I was with Dilly?” Sue prayed he’d say no, and was surprised by his
answer.

“No, Sue. You
don’t
want to
be part of this. Trust me.”

Heart racing, Sue envisioned
escaping. “Where will I be? At a motel? Waiting for you to finish?”

“That’s right,” Zeke replied. At
Sue’s look of hope, he burst into laughter. “Get real. You’ll be with me; you
just won’t be participating.”

Sue’s face fell and she turned to
watch the boring winter scenery roll past. Zeke remained quiet.

The sign at the edge of town read Four
Falls. Sue was dreaming of food when Zeke abruptly turned onto a side road. He
drove a short distance and pulled into a drive leading to a couple of abandoned
steel buildings. Sue stared at the structures. A broad expanse separated the
two, and what appeared to be tiny buildings sat scattered here and there on the
rooftops. A large opening with the door slid to the side gaped like a toothless
mouth.

The buildings were several stories
high and when Zeke drove directly into one of them, Sue saw the interior was
open the complete height. Hoists hung from rusted rails, their hooks long past
the capability of lifting a load. Several gargantuan pieces of machinery sat
scattered about the floor. Little else occupied the space: a few broken chairs,
a couple of metal desks, and an accumulation of debris that had blown inside.
Zeke drove straight through to the second building, made a wide semi-circle
around the interior, the whole time scanning the contents, before returning to
the first building. He turned off the motor, pocketed the keys, and hopped
eagerly from the vehicle. “Come on, get your ass out and over here,” he
directed Sue over his shoulder.

She quickly complied, slightly
apprehensive over the eerie quiet and the lurking shadows. In this environment,
Sue actually felt safer beside Zeke than away from him. She stayed close as he
moved deeper into the interior.

Behind one of the pieces of
machinery that sat near a wall, Zeke smiled broadly. “There’s plenty of room
here to hide the van from the road or from anyone who drives inside, for that
matter.”

“Is this where we’re going to spend
the night?”

“We’ll probably park here later,
but we won’t be sleeping.”

A sense of dread enveloped Sue as
Zeke grabbed her hand and stepped through the open doorway of a small building
within the larger structure. The only light came from the open, windowless door
they’d just passed through. With no windows in the walls, there was nothing to
ease the gloom. Another door, just inside the first room gave entry to a second
windowless room. Neither had second entrances. Zeke turned his full attention
to the outer office and surveyed it closely. “Hell, yeah!” He thrust a fist
skywards after checking out the ancient, dust-covered, wooden desk against the
wall. “Help me move this to the center of the room, Susie.”

Straining, Sue pulled. She didn’t
accomplish much except to break a fingernail, but the desk finally sat in the
middle of the floor.

“This’ll be perfect for tonight’s
party.” Zeke’s gaze lingered on Sue. “Pull that skirt up and bend over.” He
pointed at the desk.

Sue looked from Zeke to the filthy
desk. Surely he wasn’t ready
again
. But then she noticed the bulge in
his pants and hurried to obey, anything to keep him mollified.

Zeke grabbed Sue’s hips and moved
into the best position to mount her. He grunted and moaned while Sue faked some
happy sounds to appease him. Thrusting forward, Zeke buried himself deeper and
ejaculated. He pulled out, slapped Sue on the butt, and said, “Let’s go get
something to eat.” He paused a moment. “That reminds me. We need more cash.
We’ll have to find an ATM so you can make a withdrawal.”

Hiding her elation, Sue followed
him to the van.
He’s going to let me use my debit card!
This could
possibly be a signal, if anyone were looking for her. The thrill of
anticipation died as quickly as it had kindled. Everyone probably thought she
wanted to be where she was. They most likely believed the note she’d left
before running off with Zeke. Plus, she’d told them she was happy when she
called home. In spite of indications to the contrary, Sue clung to her dream of
rescue, needing something positive to hold onto. She hid her bit of optimism as
she climbed into the vehicle.

Zeke left the way they had come.

Honky-Tonk

Zeke and Sue stopped at the Pump
& Save. He filled up with gas and Sue trailed behind him as they went
inside to pay. “Hey, man,” Zeke said to the young man working the counter. “Do
you have an ATM here?”

Handing Zeke the change, the guy
pointed at the door. “Outside to your right.” He was brusque, seemed to want to
distance himself from the couple.

“Yeah? Well up yours too,” Zeke
muttered as he and Sue left the counter.

At the ATM, Sue dug her billfold
from her bag and slid the card into the slot. She entered her information and
requested her balance per Zeke’s instructions. When the display screen showed
only five hundred dollars, Sue was stunned and Zeke went dead silent.

Finally, he spoke, his voice low
and menacing. “That’s all there is? I thought you had thousands! I thought this
was your college fund.”

“It was,” Sue said, trying to
reconcile this balance with the last one she’d seen; the one that had shown her
having close to forty-thousand dollars. After a few seconds, she fell on the
only explanation that made sense. “My mom and dad must have moved the money
when I left.”

“And why the hell would they do
that?” Zeke gritted his teeth.

“I don’t know. They probably didn’t
want me to have it anymore. Since they matched everything I put in, they most
likely thought the rest belonged to them.”

“Bullshit!”

“No, Zeke. It’s the only thing that
makes sense. They wouldn’t leave me out here completely broke, so they left a
small sum available. Do you want me to take the rest out?”

“This sucks. This really sucks.”
Zeke looked off in space, trying to decide if this was a set-up. But, since
they’d already accessed the account, if someone
was
watching it, the
damage was already done. Eventually, Zeke decided Sue was right; her parents
were mad at her for running off like she had, so they’d taken her money. He
used the opportunity to lecture her. “See what I mean, Sue? This just proves
what I’ve been telling you all along. They don’t care one bit about you; they
never did. Take it all out. We need it.”

Sue made the transaction and
reached for the bills. Zeke slapped her hand aside and slipped the money into
his pocket without counting it. “The card.”

“What?” She stared at Zeke’s
outstretched hand.

“Give me the fucking card.”

Sue passed it over and Zeke folded
it into fourths. He threw it at her. It hit her in the face before falling to
the sidewalk.

“Get it. Now!” Zeke growled.

Sue picked the card up. “What do
you want me to do with it?”

“You can stick it up your ass, for
all I care. Now get in the damn van.”

Sue slipped the useless piece of
plastic into her coat pocket and followed Zeke.