Jimmy had not heard a word from Christine the whole next day and she wasn't at the house when he went looking for her and no one seemed too anxious to volunteer any information, so he went back to his hotel room and waited for George to come by to pick him up for the evening's job.
The palms of his hands were damp when George finally called upstairs on the house phone for him to come down, that they were ready to go. He remembered Chris' apprehension the previous day and he wondered if maybe she had been right. He knew that she should have contacted him that afternoon and he was certain that something had happened to her.
When the car finally pulled into the hideout, he asked Price where Chris had gone.
"She is taking a little rest in the country. She decided that she needed a vacation in order to do some serious thinking, maybe about your relationship. You know that you have been occupying a lot of her time and she hasn't had much time to work… for me! And, I don't like that," he growled at him.
Jimmy was still uncertain about what he was supposed to do when they got to the docks, nobody had briefed him like they had the last time and he didn't like it. He wondered if maybe Price had found out that he and Christine had planned to get away. Maybe that was why she was unavailable and he had a queasy feeling in his stomach. They wouldn't try to get rid of him, would they? A myriad of thoughts ran through his mind and he became more uneasy as each new and sordid idea raced through his worried mind. He followed the van in front of him just like the last time and pulled up behind it when they reached the dark warehouse.
"We're all going in this time," he shouted to him. "It's heavy work and we need every hand we can get!"
This was unusual because someone had to be there to get the car and the loot out of danger in case someone came. It didn't make any sense that they would leave the car and the van unattended.
He climbed out of the car, his knees were shaking, but he hoped that no one else could see his fear. He couldn't let his fears, which may be imagined, get the best of him. In any case, he decided to keep a very close watch on Price and not get left alone with him.
George was picking the lock on the warehouse and within a few minutes the heavy steel doors swung open.
"Quick, everyone inside," Price ordered.
As the gang moved through the door, he saw Price's hand move to his pocket and his heart felt like it was down in his stomach.
The men had just begun to move the crates out of the door into the van when all of a sudden the lights went on all over the warehouse and a voice shouted, "Okay, everyone stay right where they are. You're all under arrest!"
Price's hand came out of his pocket and there was a glint of steel and he heard a gasp coming from somewhere behind one of the lights. He jumped forward in an effort to see what had happened, but the night watchman that had surprised them was already lying dead on the cement floor of the warehouse, a knife sticking out of his chest.
It had all happened so quickly that Jimmy hardly realized what was going on, and as he looked around the group he could see that he was not the only one that was visibly shaken. The group began to break and hide behind various crates around the warehouse and waited there for several minutes. When no one else came to bother them Price ordered the men to continue their work.
Jimmy could not help but wonder whether that knife had been meant for him, and as he moved to help one of the men with a heavy crate, he asked, "Is he dead?"
"Never mind about that, it's too late now anyway. Let's just get this stuff loaded and get out of here," Price shouted.
The men loaded the van and the car and everyone hopped in to take off and go back to the hideout. When they reached the gate where they had come in, all of a sudden lights went on all over the place and Price yelled, "Narks! Christ, we're surrounded!" Jimmy floored the accelerator and headed straight for the gate while Price drew out a gun from another pocket and began to shoot.
"Run them over if you have to," he commanded. "Just get us out of here or we'll all burn!"
He hesitated for just a second and then raced the engine and the car shot through the gate, and he could feel a thud as he passed by and he knew that he had probably hit one of the policemen. The lights were blazing throughout the dock yard, but the car now sped down the dark street and turned down a narrow alleyway that Price directed him to.
"I'm sure I hit one of them," he stammered as he spoke to Price.
"Well, what did you expect, they wouldn't get out of the way. We couldn't exactly stop and ask them to move! Don't worry about it, kid, we're in deep enough without sweating something like that!"
He couldn't believe that Price could be so callused, and his hands were still shaking on the wheel. They were winding dangerously through the narrow streets when suddenly Price turned to him and put a gun at the side of his neck.
"What's this?" he asked shakily, because he was sure that he already knew what it meant.
"It's just a little reminder that we have Christine and if you ever say anything about our operation or try to leave town, she won't be treated exactly with kid gloves. You get what I mean," he barked.
It was all he could do to keep his hands on the wheel, they were shaking so badly, but he knew that if he didn't get them away from there he would be killed, or worse yet, they would torture or kill Chris.
The car tore down another alleyway and finally pulled up in front of the hideout and the men piled out and ran in.
"Put the car in the garage," he ordered Jimmy.
He was tempted to take the car and make a run for it, but he realized that it would be entirely too easy to trace him and then what would happen to him and to Chris. His thoughts drifted to Chris and he wondered what she was going through right now. He knew that she would be worried and he wished that he could call her and let her know that he had gotten back all right. At least up to this point, it looked as if everything was going to be all right.
Christine was being held in the house in Connecticut with one bruiser of a body guard. She had wanted to call the police and tell them about the raid on the dock, but her guard's eyes never left her for a second. She was wearing a rather tight fitting summer dress which did nothing to conceal her full, round bosom and shapely legs and buttocks.
She glared at the man who was guarding her and asked, "What is your name, anyway. I hate to keep saying, hey you?"
"Robert," the ox of a man replied and it was obvious that he was rather dull-minded, and she felt uneasy at the way he was staring at her.
"You Price's girl?" he asked in the thick guttural accent of the Eastside.
"No," she replied hesitantly.
"Then why does he want to keep you here all by yourself, anyway," he inquired.
"He wants me to earn money for him… by sleeping with men," she answered. She couldn't force herself to say the word prostitute, it grated her.
Robert grinned his idiot grin and said, "Well, then maybe I can be the first one today! Let me see your legs, pull up your skirt!"
She could feel the blood rush to her head and she reluctantly lifted her skirt up a little way.
"Higher," he ordered and hesitantly she raised the hem of her skirt until it was even with the lace at the bottom of her silk panties.
He looked at her lustfully, imagining what was inside those silk briefs, and wondered what it would be like to run his hand over her full, soft breasts, over her smooth rounded buttocks and between her thighs until he could feel the opening of her vagina.
Christine dropped her skirt and turned away from him, but he walked over to her and turned her around. She noticed that his penis was beginning to bulge in his pants and she felt disgusted.
"You're not so bad," he told her, his breath coming heavily.
"Really," she answered rather sarcastically, but she could tell that she would not have a chance against his brute strength if he decided he wanted to play games with her, so she changed her tone.
"Sit on that chair," he commanded her. "And spread your legs, I wanna see your pussy."
Reluctantly she obeyed him and pulled her legs wide apart as she sat down on the over stuffed easy chair so that he could have a good view between her legs. She could see that he was getting very excited and the bulge in his pants was beginning to jerk against the tightness of the material.
Maybe, she thought desperately, if I can get him excited enough I'll be able to get out of here. I may be able to catch him at a disadvantage and make a run for it. The thought of this beastly man touching her made her skin crawl, but it didn't look as if she had any choice.
"Take off your panties," he told her, watching her every move as she stood up slowly and let her hands fumble hesitantly over the tight elastic of her silk briefs. She slowly pulled them away from her hips and let them fall down around her ankles, her body trembling with fear.
His breathing was almost a pant now and he pushed her back into the chair and grabbing her knees, he forced her thighs wide apart, completely exposing the vulnerable, pink vagina. He let his eyes feast for a moment on her tight, unwanting orifice. Then, when he could no longer stand the temptation, he let one finger slowly tickle the naked opening, working his finger round and round the soft hair-covered vaginal lips until she began to squirm from the pressure of his touch.
Slowly he stepped back and began to unbutton his pants and unzip the fly until he could easily pull out his giant, throbbing organ. He stood in front of her, with his penis jerking up and walked back and forth in front of her like he was on parade.
"It's nice, isn't it?" he asked her, although it was more of a statement.
She was trying to fight back her revulsion, but managed a weak, "Yes, yes, it's very nice!"
"It'll go into you nice like, and you'll love it." As he spoke he moved towards her, but she moved from the chair and went slowly to him. She couldn't let him take her on the chair and besides she had to be within reach of something to hit him with if she had the opportunity. But, she knew she had to play the part well.
She reached out and softly touched his penis and began to stroke it up and down. Her cool fingers felt good to him and he reached behind her and cupped the supple, rounded mounds of her buttocks in his hands and rocked her towards him. She was cringing under his sickening touch, but he was too involved in his own passion to notice that her other hand had reached out and grabbed a pewter ornament that was standing on one of the tables. In one terrible moment she brought it crashing down on his head and he fell back, wavering for just a moment, and then fell heavily to the floor.
She grabbed her pocketbook and raced out into the dimly lit street and searched for the nearest telephone booth.
Her fingers shaking she dialed the operator and said, "Get me the police, please. And hurry, this is an emergency."
After detailing the plan of the robbery to the police sergeant who answered, she walked up and down the streets of the neighborhood until a car finally pulled up and answered her wave. "Can we drive you somewhere?" She looked inside the car and saw that it was a young couple, and answered, "Yes, oh yes, please. Take me to the train station. It's awfully important!"
She spent the hour on the train to New York wondering whether or not the police had arrived in time and if they did, what had happened. She had no way of knowing that the raid was already over and the men were at the hideout. She was afraid what would happen when Robert came to and what he would tell Price about the events of their evening. She rationalized that she could always tell Price, if she ever saw him again, that he had tried to rape her and she was only trying to protect herself, because she didn't think that he would like it. She could appeal to his male ego and he was just enough of an egomaniac to believe her and be flattered. She was more concerned about what had happened to Jimmy. She wished that she were with him right now and he was holding her, telling her that everything would be all right.
Finally the train pulled into Grand Central Station and she made her way up the long steps to the 42nd Street Exit and hailed a cab and gave him the directions to Jimmy's hotel.
The night manager finally let her into his room after she slipped him a five dollar bribe and she lay back on the bed and tried to doze. She had bolted the door from the inside, but she knew that the hotel man would tell Jimmy that she was there when he arrived.
It seemed like hours but finally there was a knock on the door.
"Who is it," she asked.
"Jimmy," a muffled voice answered.
She jumped out of bed and ran to the door and opened it quickly. The man standing outside her door was not Jimmy! It was Price! She wanted to scream, but it froze in her throat. The man came in and closed the door behind him.
"You didn't expect to see me, did you?" She had never heard such a cruel, menacing tone in Price's voice before.
She just stood there glued to the spot, not knowing what to do. She couldn't scream, because she was sure that Price had taken very good care of the man at the desk and he would just ignore anything that would happen.
She felt a fist hit her in the stomach and she doubled up and fell to the floor. Price grabbed her up by the shoulders and threw her savagely onto the bed and began to slap her face until she was swollen and tears were streaming uncontrollably down her face.
"So, you little bitch," he screamed, "you thought you could get away with it. Well, I've got news for you, the only people that the police got was your boyfriend. We set him up beautifully and I don't think that he will ever get out of that jail. Don't think that he'll squeal either, we made sure he understood us before we made him the pigeon!"
She was trembling as she watched Price's face contorted with rage and he could hardly speak because of his anger. His knuckles were white as he clenched his fists and raised his arm to strike her again, but she put her arms in front of her face and warded off the powerful blow.
He dragged her up from the bed and pushed her out the door in front of him.
"I'm taking you back to the house and keep you under lock and key. You are going to be the evening's entertainment for the boys for a good long time. I'll break your proud bitchy spirit yet and have you groveling on the floor begging me to stop the indecencies and humiliations that you're going to experience. You're going to be bent like a human pretzel until you decide to stop playing around with me and start shaping up." He reached over and squeezed her breast cruelly, pinching the nipple until she cried out in pain. He just laughed and hit her soundly on the buttocks and then led her down the steps and into the street.
He escorted her to her room at the house and threw her on the bed, but this time she could feel her feet and hands being chained to the bed posts and a group of men were standing in one corner, leering down at her, each one naked and fully erect from the sight of the young spread-eagled girl. She felt the crack of a light buggy whip as it sounded in the air and finally connected across the tender flesh of her breasts. Price left the room and the last thing he heard was a piercing scream break from her lips as the footsteps of the men walked towards the bed where she was shackled, each one with his own special perversion, each one she would know and have indelibly imprinted on her mind before the end of the night.
He walked down the steps, laughing sadistically and wondering how long it would take them to completely break her spirit. He delighted in this special kind of torture. He wanted to stay to watch some of the fun, but he had other things to prepare for her and he walked to the kitchen and got out a spoon, a long cord of rubber and began to mix a dose of heroin. Chuckling, he thought, if they don't break her, just wait 'til it's my turn. I'll have her in my power for life. No one… no one can escape from the big "H".