Free The Lonely Lady by Harold Robbins Page B

I’m goin’ to belt her.”
    Walt came up. He still had a glass in his hand and was weaving. “Come on, JeriLee,” he said in a placating voice. “We just want to have a little fun. Take a drink of this. It’ll make you feel better.”
    “No.”
    There was a sound from the other side of the pool. Joe turned around. “Well lookee over there.” He laughed.
    She looked across the pool. Marian and his brother were coupled on the ground. She could see the frenzied movements of the boy, and the moaning sounds they made echoed in the night.
    “Ain’t that pretty?” Joe asked. “They’re makin’ it. How about comin’ off your high horse and we can have a real party?”
    She didn’t answer.
    Joe got angry. “Then what the hell did you come out here for, you fucking cockteaser?” he shouted.
    “I didn’t!” she cried, suddenly realizing that Walt had not told them she was going home, that he never intended to take her home. She turned to Walt. “Tell them, please. I didn’t—”
    Joe knelt by her side and grabbed her hair. He forced her head back. “Gimme the drink,” he snapped. He took the drink from Walt and, forcing her mouth open by bending her head back, poured the drink down her throat.
    She began to choke and gasp. The sticky sweet liquid ran down her cheeks, spilling across her shoulders and breasts. He didn’t stop until the glass was empty. Then he threw it away. JeriLee heard it breaking against the concrete.
    He put his face close to her. “Now, you goin’ to cooperate an’ be nice or am I goin’ to have to get rough with you?”
    Her eyes widened. She tried to hold her breath. “Please, let me go. Please.”
    He moved suddenly, throwing his weight against her, pushing her flat on the ground with his body. His fingers sank into her breasts as he tried to kiss her.
    She thrashed wildly, trying to turn her face to avoid him. Involuntarily she brought her knee up to his groin.
    A grunt of pain escaped him. “Bitch!” he yelled. Angrily he slapped her face with his open palm. “You hold her,” he shouted up at Walt. “No bitch is gonna try to knee my balls an’ get away with it.”
    Walt stood there indecisively.
    “Hold her!” Joe snarled. “Time she got what’s comin’ to her.”
    Walt dropped to one knee, pinning her arms to the ground. Suddenly she felt a sharp pain on her breast. She cried out.
    Joe raised the lighted cigarette. He was smiling. “You didn’t like that, did you?”
    She stared back at him, unable to speak. He moved swiftly. The scorching pain burned into her other breast. She screamed.
    “Yell your head off. Ain’t nobody to hear you.” Joe held the cigarette to his mouth and dragged on it.
    “Walt, please, make him stop!” she implored.
    “Maybe, we better—” he began.
    Joe cut him off. “You stay out of it! This is between me an’ her. When I get through she ain’t gonna cocktease nobody.” He straddled her legs with his knees and brutally put his hand on her pubis. With his fingers he spread her open. A strange smile came to his face. “Now, ain’t that pretty pink little pussy?”
    He bent his face forward and bit her mound. She tried to move but couldn’t. He straightened up and laughed. “Not bad. A little pissy, but not bad.” Slowly he brought the cigarette down toward her. “Now you’ll get a taste of something real hot.”
    Fascinated, as if she were watching a snake, she stared, her eyes following the glowing tip of the cigarette as it came toward her. Suddenly she felt its approaching heat and she shut her eyes tightly.
    ***
    They heard her scream as their car stopped in the driveway and were out of the car running through the house almost before the engine had stopped.
    Bernie was the first one through the sliding doors. He froze for a moment at the horror of what he saw—the two boys holding JeriLee down and her mouth still open in a scream. His mouth opened. “What—?”
    Fred reacted with the reflexes of one used to street