It was thirty minutes at least before Max thought back to the incident in the barn and realized that the Bradford dame had saved his ass.
From the kitchen he went into the living room and checked on her husband. The man was sitting against the wall, just where they'd left him, and he was still tied tightly. That was one thing about Pete. He did his work well. Even if he was being stupid about killing that little twat. That kind of thinking could well make for their end. Still, Max didn't think it was worthwhile arguing about it with him right at this time. Maybe he could bring him around a little later.
He went down on his haunches and looked at the farmer's wrists to see if they were still tied tightly. He pulled the man a little away from the wall to get a good look. Then he decided to take the gag out of the guy's mouth just for the hell of it.
"How you feelin', buddy?" he asked.
The farmer looked at him coldly. "How would you feel if you'd had your wrists and ankles tied for this long?"
"I don't know. That's why I'm asking you. And I'll ask you one more question: do you think I could afford to let you go?"
"I wouldn't keep a man tied up like this for anything, myself."
"Sure you wouldn't. Not even if your ass depended on it, eh? In a pig's eye you wouldn't. Besides, you know fucking well that if I turned you loose you'd make your try the first chance you got."
"What happened in the kitchen? The shot?"
"We had a little trouble. The visitor, Connie or whatever her name is, shot Butch. Killed him."
"Glad to hear that."
Max smiled. "Yes, I thought you would be. But don't let it swell your head, friend. It isn't going to make much difference. Two of us can handle three women, and you aren't going to be worth a fart in hell, tied up like that. And that's just the way you're going to stay, no matter how sad a song you sing about it."
"You'd better hope I stay tied up," Bradford said. "If I get loose, you're the first one I'm going to head for."
"Really? Well, then, I guess I'd better do my best to keep you trussed."
"I guess you'd better. But you can't keep me this way forever. Sooner or later you're going to make a screwup, mister. And that's going to he your last screwup."
"Maybe I ought to kill you."
Bradford looked at him thoughtfully. "You know, I really can't figure out why you haven't done that already."
"Because we don't have anything to lose? I said why I was against the idea in the kitchen, earlier. Your wife might not be so cooperative if you weren't here as a hostage. And she certainly has been cooperative." Max grinned. Bradford's face turned white with anger.
"Shut up," he rasped.
"You know, I can see why you married her. She's a good piece. I can't remember when I've ever had a better one."
"Goddamn you, shut up!"
"Fucks like a trooper. You're a lucky guy. Or you were. We're the lucky ones now."
"I'll kill you, you son of a bitch!" Bradford shouted suddenly. "Let me loose and I'll break your fucking neck!"
"Sure, but you aren't going to get loose. You're going to sit there and think about your wife and me, and your wife and Pete, and whenever we feel like it one of us is going to pat her on the ass, and she'll just trot along to the bedroom with us, obedient as a trained dog. A trained bitch, eh?"
Bradford opened his mouth to say something else, but he shut it again, so hard it made a clicking noise when his teeth came together. Max laughed. "You remember how she practically dragged Pete into the bedroom back there? Man, I thought she was going to fuck him right there on the kitchen floor." Bradford didn't even look at Max. He had gotten hold of himself, Max thought, and he was keeping it in. He was a man who knew how to use his emotions instead of wasting them. And that was a dangerous kind of man. Max decided to give him one last jab before he left.
"She not only fucks like a trooper, friend, she sucks like one, too. She ever suck your cock for you?" Bradford looked at him, and there was a kind of hooded, cobra look in his eyes that sent a chill down Max's spine.
"You just keep it up, friend. You just keep going. When I get my hands on you, finally. You're going to eat each one of these words separately."
Max managed to laugh again, although he didn't really feel much like it. "Don't go talking like a hero, buddy. We're not only going to fuck your wife all we want. We're also going to be the last men who ever fuck her. We'll be staying here a little longer. And when the heat lets tip enough, we'll be moving on. And when we do that, we're not going to leave anything alive on this farm except maybe a few chickens. Butch's corpse will be here, of course. And yours. And the corpses of maybe three pregnant women." Max gave him another grin. He pulled up the gag and stuffed it into Bradford's mouth again, then tied it up tight. He stood and looked down and winked. "I think maybe I'll give her a little reaming now. She got cut off in the middle of a good fucking when Connie shot Butch. He was in her then, from what I gather. She must feel frustrated. And her regular boy friend, Pete, is in the bedroom with Connie right now, having a ball. So I don't think he'll mind if I stick my prick in Julie-baby. Do you?"
Max grinned broadly and walked out of the room without looking back.
He got the feeling that the women had been talking about something. When he walked in, there was one of those sudden silences that you can feel. They didn't look at each other, or at him. Max walked over to Sally and pinched one of her breasts. She looked up at him sullenly, and there was pain in her eyes, but she didn't say anything, and she wasn't in any position to offer any direct resistance.
"Nice and comfy?" Max asked. She still didn't say anything. Max reached down and took a pinch of pussy hair between his thumb and forefinger. He gave it a little yank, and she made a small, grunting sound of pain and surprise. "Well, now, you can still talk, can't you?" He laughed and pulled the hair again. This time she didn't make any sound, or give any reaction at all. She looked like she was trying to decide whether to spit in his face or not. "Go ahead," Max grinned, "Go ahead and try it. It might be very satisfying, and the most it can cost you is an extra eight or nine hours tied to the sink."
She looked down at the floor, and Max laughed again. He couldn't remember when he'd enjoyed himself more. The little twat had some spirit, but she had too much sense to get herself tied up in this position for any longer than necessary just for whatever satisfaction she could glean from a moment's show of defiance.
Max roughed her hair with his hand and pinched her cheek hard enough to bring tears to her eyes. "That's a smart girl," he said. "I thought you'd turn out to have more brains than to pull something really dumb like that. Now I'm going to go have a little fun with your big sister. Don't you go away."
He walked over to the chair in which Julie was tied. She looked up at him with a strange expression, and he couldn't decide whether she was scared shitless of him or just trying to be placating. He had tied her with one ankle lashed to each of the chair's front legs, and she was spraddled open, with her slit winking at him from between her thighs. The robe, with nothing to hold it closed, had fallen completely away from the front of her body, and with her hands tied behind her she had no way to pull it closed even a little bit.
"I think you and I ought to go get acquainted again, sweetheart. What do you think of that idea?"
She didn't look at him, and she flushed deeply. It tickled the hell out of Max. "I-I don't suppose it really matters what I think of it, does it?"
"No, I don't suppose it does, really. Now that you mention it." He walked around behind her and untied her wrists. She started to pull her robe closed around her. "Leave it alone," Max ordered. "I like it open in the front. I think that's very becoming, Julie." Her fingers flexed nervously, as though they ached to pull the robe about her, but she left it alone. Max went around in front and squatted down right in front of her. From his position he could see her slit, on a level with his face, and he looked at it directly for several seconds before raising his face to grin at her. Julie was looking back at him, and when he caught her gaze she flushed deeply and looked away. Max chuckled and untied one ankle. The instant it was free she started to move the leg against the other, to close herself off from his gaze. Max put a hand lightly on her knee, exerting a pressure outward. "Now, now, you don't want to cover up all the goodies, do you? You wouldn't want to cheat old Max of his fun, would you, honey?" She held her legs open with the same obvious effort it had taken her to keep from pulling the robe closed. Max stood up and pulled a chair over. He sat down on it, in front of her and a little to one side, giving Sally a good shot of her sister.
Julie fidgeted with the desire to close her legs or pull the robe about her, but she sat there, spraddled and open, afraid to do anything that might make him mad at her.
Max ran a hand up over her left thigh. The flesh was delightfully soft and firm, and the skin was very smooth. He pulled his hand down the length of it again, then ran it back up. He could feel the heat of her open crotch with his fingertips.
"Pete and Connie are using our bedroom," he said. "I don't think Pete would mind, though, if you and I headed off to the other one for a little fucking. Do you?" He looked at her hard, obviously demanding an answer, and she managed to choke one out.
"No, sir, I don't – I don't suppose – he would."
"Of course not. And you could even suck me off. What do you think?"
"Whatever…" She choked into silence. "What-whatever you want, Max."
"That's the girl. You're a very smart girl, Julie. The only smart girl in this place. And just because you're so smart, I'm going to let you suck me off while your little sister over there stands in the corner, so to speak. Of course if you'd rather trade places with her, I'll be glad to let you. Just say the word."
Julie looked at him, and then at her sister. Max glanced back and saw Sally studiedly looking away from both of them.
"No," Julie said. "I don't think I want to trade places with her."
"Okay, then, you can stand up now."
She came to her feet and hugged the robe about her body. Max took her hands in his and pulled them away. The robe fell open again.
"I'll tell you when it's all right to hold it closed again, Julie," he said. "Right now, why not just let it drape that way? I like it."
"A-all right." She held her arms at her side, stiff and trembling. She was as red as a stop light. Max slipped his arm under her robe and put it around her waist. He pulled her close beside him. The smell of her perfume was in his nostrils, mixed with the shampoo she had used recently and the natural smell of clean woman. Max led her past Sally, who was beginning to make little gasping sounds with every breath. The discomfort of her position had turned to actual pain now, Max guessed. He reached out and ruffled her hair again.
"You just stand there and think things over until your sis and I get back, honey," he said. "Then maybe you'll have a nice little apology thought up for all the nasty things you've been thinking about me, eh?"
The hand under the robe gave Julie a squeeze and she got the message. She moved off toward the door beside Max. When they were in the hall, Max turned and looked in through the living room door at the guy tied up in there. He was leaning against the wall, his eyes closed. Max stood there for a while, waiting for Bradford to open his eyes and see them. Julie tried to move on, no doubt wishing to spare her husband the sight of the two of them, but Max held her there. Finally, Bradford's eyes opened, and he looked around him, as though he had been dozing. When his eyes passed over the door in which Max and Julie were standing, they slid by and then darted back quickly. It seemed to take him a moment to make out what he was looking at. His eyes focused slowly on the scene, and even then it took a noticeable amount of time for him to react to the picture. Max gave him a casual wave, but Bradford didn't even seem to notice that. His eyes were fastened on his wife, her body naked down the front, her pussy out in the open, and her breasts jutting before her, young and firm and superb. Max still had his hand under her robe, on her waist. He grinned as Bradford's gaze finally moved to him. "I just thought we'd stop by and see how you feel. Your wife and I are on our way to the small bedroom to do a little fucking. Isn't that right, honey?"
When she didn't answer right away, Max gave Julie's flesh a little pinch. Bradford couldn't see it, of course, because the hand doing the pinching was hidden under the robe.
"Yes, sir," she said quickly.
"And then maybe I'll have you suck me off, too. Isn't that right?"
"Yes."
"You hear that, Bradford? Your wife thinks that's nice."
Bradford looked up at Max with something not quite human in his expression. Max felt an urge to check the man's bonds again, although he had checked them just minutes before. He was seeking reassurance, evidence that Bradford wouldn't be able to get loose and get his hands on Max. Max had never seen anything quite like that expression before, and he decided that he would not like to fuck with this man. When the time came to leave the farm, he would make very, very sure that Bradford was dead. Because this looked like the kind of man who would hunt him down if it took a lifetime. This man, he thought, would very definitely have to be dead in order to be stopped. Keep him tied, Max thought. And then give him a bullet right through the brain, front to back. Open his skull wide and let the wind whistle thought it.
"Well, we just stopped in to say hello," Max said. "Now we're going to go on into the bedroom. You just sit here and think about us in there having a good time, boy. I don't know whether I ever did thank you for being so thoughtful about marrying a beautiful wife with a beautiful sister and all that. This hiding out could be a real drag if it weren't for your thoughtfulness."
Bradford looked it Max with the same expression, and Max had to tighten his muscles to keep from shivering. He felt a flash of anger at Bradford for being able to scare him like that. But Max choked down the anger and managed to keep his grin. He gave another little wave and ushered Julie out into the hall again.
When they were in the bedroom Julie turned to him with a look of mild disapproval. Max supposed that was the most guts she could work tip.
"Why did you have to taunt him that way?" she asked. "He already knows what you and I are doing, and what Pete and I have been doing. Anyway, you're having the fun of taking me to bed. Why do you have to torment my husband, too?"
Max walked over to her, moving casualty, with no evidence of his intentions until he was within reach of her. Then he lashed out with his right hand, and his palm made a high, cracking sound against her cheek. She stumbled backward with a little whimper, and when he started toward her again, she stepped back, raising her hands to guard her face against another blow.
"You don't question my actions, Julie," Max said. "You just keep your mouth shut and do what you're told. You understand?"
"Yes, sir. I'm sorry. I didn't think."
"Well, from now on you'd better think before you open that pretty little mouth of yours. The only reasons you have to open it as far as I'm concerned, is kissing and sucking cocks. You got that?"
"Yes, yes, of course. I'm sorry, Max. Please." She backed away from him another step.
"You stay where you are, bitch. One more step and I'll kick your ass up between your shoulder blades." She made herself stop and stand in one spot while he came forward. Max stood close in front of her, and she cowered away on the verge of flight, just managing to obey him by the sheer force of will. "I rubbed it into your hubby out there because I thought it was fun. I liked doing it. And I do what I want here. As long as I have the guns, I do what I want. And you do what I tell you. You got that?"
"Yes, yes, of course. I said I understood. I said I was sorry. Please, Max, I just didn't think. Please overlook it."
Max took one nipple between thumb and forefinger and pinched it until she cried out with pain. Her hands rose as though to try to push him away, but she held back, and he laughed in her face. She knew better than to offer him any resistance. He had taught her that much.
"Kneel down," he ordered. "I'm going to let you suck my cock right now. What about that?"
"Sure honey," she said tightly. "Only, I can't kneel down while you're – while you're holding onto my nipple that way."
Max released the nipple and gestured her down. She dropped to her knees instantly. "Now unzip my fly," Max said. She hesitated for an instant, then her hands were at the front of his pants. She pulled the zipper down and looked at the flash of white there, as though she didn't know what a pair of shorts was, or what to do about it. "Just reach right in and help yourself to a mouthful of prick," Max said. He felt slim fingers delve into his shorts and take his cock. A delicious shiver passed over his entire body. Then he felt the cool air on his prick, and he saw her pulling it out. The sight and the feeling combined to excite him, and the organ began to stiffen right away. He was a little sorry about that, a little sorry that it was going to be that easy for her.
It took her another moment to work up the will to touch the head of the cock with her lips. It was a fleeting touch, as though she couldn't bring herself to stay in contact with the prick for more than a split second. She leaned forward again and touched the prick with her lips. She stayed that way for a second or so, holding her closed mouth to the prick as though she couldn't decide to open up and take it inside. Max stood patiently, waiting to see if she would require a little more ramrodding before she would actually begin to French him. She didn't. He had put the fear of God into her, all right. She managed, finally, to open her lips just a little and take the cock inside. Max felt the moistness of her lips, the ridges of her teeth, and the warmth of the inside of her mouth. She took it in just a little at first, and then she moved her tongue across the tip of the cock, another quick, fleeting contact. Then the tongue crept back again, darting out to touch the head of the cock, here and there, and she opened her mouth a little more to take in the cock.
Max stood stiffly, his body rigid with the sensations she was bringing him. His prick was stiff now, as stiff as it had ever been. It was almost throbbing with strength and readiness. He could feel her breathing as she heaved air in and out through her mouth.
He reached down and took her head between his hands, holding it lightly, just steadying it. He sensed that she wished him to pull her forward, to ram his prick into her mouth. But that would make it too easy on her, that was exactly what she wanted. She was going to do it all herself, with no help from him. She was going to take that cock into her month and lick it and suck it, and he wasn't going to force her at all. She would do it simply because she was afraid not to. And she would learn something about herself in doing it. There wouldn't be any wondering later, on her part, whether she would have been able to go through with it if he hadn't done this or that. She would have nothing to remember but her own actions, and the way she had gone down on him without any help at all. He massaged her temples with his thumbs and then removed his hands from the sides of her head. Let her do it all, he thought again.
Julie took a little more of his cock into her month, and he could feel the head of it resting on her tongue. At that moment he heard a sound from the next room, moaning of pleasure that was obviously Connie's voice. She sounded like she was reaching her climax and trying not to give any sign of it. The sound of the moan excited Max all the more, and he had to control himself to keep from spurting his come into Julie's mouth prematurely.
Julie seemed to sense his excitement, and it was obvious that she didn't want to disappoint him because she took the rest of his cock's head into her month all at once. She slid her lips up the shaft until he could feel the head of his prick nudge the roof of her mouth. A little gag passed over her but she managed to hold it down. She moved her tongue over his prick, and he could feel her start to gag again. Her hands were pressing against the fronts of his thighs to steady her body, and now she moved them closer together until he could feel her fingers around his cock, just around the root of it, on his abdomen. A garbled sound escaped her throat, almost as though she were trying to talk with his prick in her mouth, and then she pulled back a little to give her tongue free play. She ran it over the cock, back and forth, up and down the length of it until he felt the come welling up in him, welling up and getting ready to spurt out into her mouth.
Then it did spurt, filling her month and choking her, gagging her with its volume and its force. She choked down the gag and swallowed the cream quickly. Max felt the tremor of disgust pass over her body, and it excited him all the more, wringing another shot of come from him.
His cock went soft in her mouth and she started to withdraw from him. Max took her head in his hands and pulled her forward again, pushing his cock into her mouth as far as it would go. It lay limp in her mouth while she knelt there, very still, apparently waiting to see what he wanted of her. Max ran his right hand through her hair. It was a pleasant feeling even now, with all the power gone out of his cock, just to have it in her mouth like that. Finally, he pulled it out.
"That was nice," he said. "That was a good blow job, honey. You're a good girl." He walked over to the bed and sat on the edge of it. Julie remained kneeling there, her head lowered, watching him. Max patted the bed, and she rose gracefully and walked over and sat next to him. The robe was still on her body, still hanging open. Max reached up and pulled it off her shoulders. She let it fall down her arms and lie in a heap on the bed.
"You know, you're the easiest one of this whole crew to control," Max said. He paused a moment, to see if she would answer him. She hung her head and said nothing. "If I'd been asked to pick the three of you, I'd have thought the little cunt in there," he said, indicating Connie in the next bedroom, "would be the easiest one to cow. And I'd have picked you for the hardest one. But you do everything you're told, and you don't give me any shit at all. How come?"
"I-I just don't see any reason to put up a useless fight," she said. "I think it's better to stay alive. Everything else is secondary to that. You can't do anything else if you don't do that much. And right now the easiest and surest way of staying alive is to do what you say."
Max mussed her hair playfully, as though she were a bright child of whom he was fond. "That's good thinking, Julie. You just keep thinking that way, and you'll come through this all right."
"Will I?" She looked directly at him, and there was a seeking, beseeching look in her eyes. "Will you let me live? And my husband and child?"
"Why not? We can see to it that you're out like a light for a couple of days after we leave. And after that you won't be able to tell the heat anything that would help them get at us. You won't know any more about where we are than they will."
"I hope you mean that. Because I don't want to tell them anything at all. I don't care whether they ever catch you, and I really don't care about anyone else you might hurt after you leave here. I just want to stay alive, and keep my husband and daughter alive. I mean that, Max. That's all I care about."
"I believe you." Max laid a hand on her thigh, and she didn't react at all. She seemed not to notice the contact. "I believe you're no threat to us. I'm not so sure about hubby in there. When we leave I'll have to trust you to keep him tied up for a day or two. How will that be?"
"That's fine, yes. I'll do that, Max. You can trust me to do anything like that you say."
"Fine. Fine. I'm glad to see you're so cooperative." Max looked at her for a moment, and he remembered something he had wanted to ask her. "How come you warned me out there? If you hadn't said anything your sister would probably have parted my brain with that scythe."
"But she might not have. And then we'd all have been worse off. I don't want you to think you can't trust me, Max. I want you to know that I'm not going to take part in any attempt to harm you. Not even passively."
"But the chances were in her favor. In fact it was practically a sure thing."
"And what then? We'd have been trapped out there, while my husband and baby were in the house, and Pete was standing outside with two guns."
"You could have picked him off from the barn. I have the rifle. All he had were a shotgun and a pistol."
"Oh, hell, I don't know anything about shotguns and pistols and rifles. And I couldn't have hit Pete with your gun. And I doubt that Sally would have been able to, either. It would just have made things worse. Worse for Jim and Diane, especially, and no one means more to me than they do."
"Except maybe yourself?"
She looked at him for a moment, then lowered her eyes. "Maybe. I'm not brave. You know that."
"I sure do. And that's a good thing for you, honey. A brave woman would have been killed by now. Your sister and her little girl friend would be dead right now if it weren't that Pete wants to keep them around. When we leave I'm going to kill them. Do you have any objections to that?"
She stared at him for a while, and he could see that she was really searching into herself. "No," she said. "I'm not in any position to object. And I'm only interested in saving the three of us. Naturally, I don't like the thought of the others being killed, but I don't see that it's my job to stop it, or try to."
Max laughed. "You're really gutless, aren't you?" She didn't answer that. "I don't want you to tell them what I said. In fact, you might make it a point to tell them, the next time you're alone with them, if ever, that I told you that I didn't give a shit about Butch, and I've decided it isn't necessary to kill them after all. Not even Connie. You tell them that, honey. It'll make them a lot more likely to do as they're told. And they can still give us a lot of entertainment before we decide to leave this place."
"All right. I'll tell them whenever I get the chance."
"I know you will." Max laughed again. He reached up and took one of her breasts in his hand and cupped it. She shuddered. He wasn't sure whether it was a shudder of pleasure of disgust. Maybe a combination of the two. He pressed her back until she was lying on the bed, her feet and calves dangling over the side. Her thighs were slightly parted, and he could see the slit between them, barely. He ran his hand down from her tit over her ribcage and belly to her pussy. The mat of fur felt bristly under his palm. She looked up at him passively, as though waiting for him to go on with it. But her breathing was quicker and shallower, and he could tell that she had become excited against her will.
He slipped his thigh between hers and put his weight on her. Her breathing became more quick and shallow, and it wasn't all from the difficulty of breathing against his weight. She looked up at him with glazed eyes, and her hands moved over his arms, sending tingling pleasure through him.
Max raised his hips and unbuckled his belt. He pulled his pants open at the top and shoved them down. The fly had already been opened by Julie while she was getting ready to suck him off. He pushed his shorts down too, and his cock stuck out, stiff and ready. Julie looked down at it for a moment before he lowered his hips again, and he could see the brightness of sexual excitement in her eyes. She was ready, as ready as he was, and maybe a little more so.
He moved to cover her completely, and her hands cupped around her pussy to guide him in. She was eager, and he knew that she was desperate for it now. Max felt a weird sensation at seeing her turn on like this. He supposed it was a reaction against the threat of death. She was probably proving to herself, unconsciously, that she was still alive, still vital and able to feel and to desire.
He held his hips up a little teasing her, and she moaned and reached up with one hand to take his prick. She yanked it down to her snatch so hard, and so quickly, that he cried out in pain and surprise. But she centered him exactly and lay under him, her body heaving with desire. Then he came down onto her, and into her, his prick slipping in between her labia and deep into her belly. She let out a cry of pleasure and her hands flew away from her cunt and up to his shoulders. She circled his neck with her arms and held him close to her, embracing him with more fire than he could ever remember in a woman. She held to him, gripped him to her until he thought she was going to break his neck.
At the same time her hips were beginning to move. They struck their own rhythm, driving her belly against his, and pulling away and driving up again. The pleasure in his cock mounted swiftly, and he felt his body slick over with sweat. His hands slipped under her body and he embraced her, held her close to him with some of the fire she was showing. He felt the desire grow in him even as her pleasure fed it. His hips were matching her rhythm now, driving into her quickly and receding, to drive in again. The pleasure was more and more intense, and he realized that she had been crying out for some time, her voice escaping in little yips of pleasure. His own sensations had been too strong, too intense, and he had been out of things for a moment. The yelps of joy egged him on, made the drive in him all the stronger, and he jogged and rammed her, driving into her and pulling back and jamming in again, and then she was really yelling, almost screaming with pleasure, and the thought skittered across Max's mind: her husband can hear her now. That thought excited him even more, and he wrung fresh cries from her even as his own grunts joined her in a duct of pleasure that could be heard from the living room by a deaf man. It gave Max a sense of satisfaction to think of Bradford in there, bound and gagged, with every muscle and joint in his body screaming at him with agony, listening to his wife share an orgasm with another man.
Then the climax hit, and it hit them both at the same time. It was great. They stiffened and clutched at each other in the throes of a pleasure too great to be contained, they called out together again, and then the lights went off in Max's head, and he felt his brain burn with the pleasure of their bodies, and then it was over.
He sat up and then stood. He shoved his pants and shorts the rest of the way down and let them drop to the floor, then noticed that his shirt had become a tattered mess. Julie had torn it apart while she was hitting her peak. He grinned down at her and pulled the pieces away.
"Your hubby must have some extra shirts around the place," he said. "Why don't you run and get me one? And some clean pants and underwear, too. The stuff here is pretty raunchy now."
"All right." She rose, then stopped. "My husband's clothes are all in the other bedroom. Pete and Connie are in there."
Max cocked his head in a mock imitation of a dog. "I don't hear them doing any moaning or thrashing around, baby. I guess they're through with what they were doing. So why don't you just go on in and get me some clothes, huh? You can knock before you go in."
"Yes, sir." She went into the hall and turned toward the bedroom. Max sat on the edge of the bed and took a pack of cigarettes that rested on the bedside table. He pulled one out and lit it, then blew a billow of smoke at the ceiling.
So the little gal was a real chickenshit. That was handy. All he had to do was play on that, and she wouldn't be any trouble. Not that he had any intentions of relaxing his vigil on her or any of the others. But it was comforting to know that she was that gutless. She was a regular little Judas goat. He could use her against the others. She'd carry tales about their plans and she'd tell them whatever he wanted them to believe. All he had to do was keep her convinced that her life and the lives of her husband and daughter would be spared. That was bullshit. Even if he believed her about keeping her mouth shut after they had left, which he didn't, he knew that her hubby could be trusted to do only one thing. He could be trusted to do whatever he could to get Max and Pete caught. So he would have to die, and it would be just plain good sense to kill his wife, too. As for the baby, well, that was tough. She'd probably just lie here and starve before anyone came along. He sure didn't plan to take her along, and he wasn't stupid enough to stop somewhere and make a call to somebody about her. She'd just have to take her chances. Maybe someone would come along and find her there. And maybe not. It was a matter of complete indifference to Max.