We crisscross the city for what seems like hours. Lenny’s paranoid about being followed. I guess Vince probably beat the nerves into him.

“Where are we going?” I ask for the thousandth time. There’s only so long you can spend with the barrel of the pistol pressed against your temple without beginning to crack. I’m at that point. Right now I don’t think I’d care if Lenny put a bullet through my skull. I just want it to be over.

Lenny’s filled with an upbeat, nervous energy. He grabs my hair, stroking it, and pulls me toward him. “You can’t wait, can you, baby?” He whispers, bringing his face right up against my air.

“For what?”, I ask ,recoiling to find fresher air to suck into my lungs.

“You know, baby: for when Vince gives you to me. We’re going to have fun, you and I.”

“Time, boss?” The driver asks from the front. I don’t know how he can act so normal, when there’s a man like Lenny behind him. If it was me, I’d be freaking out.

There’s something wrong with this man beside me. Not the way he looks, but the way he acts. Something must have happened to him as a child. Out of anything else that I’ve thought, that makes the most sense.

“Fuck it, whatever,” then he grunts, letting go of me.

“Sure thing, boss.”

It doesn’t take long before the black SUV starts to slow. We head off the main streets into a suburban neighborhood that looks like it was hit hard by the Great Recession. Vacant, overgrown lots and rows of foreclosed houses line the streets. It’s an empty, deserted place.

The SUV pulls to a halt outside an abandoned house, and Lenny forces me out with a pistol in my back and a handful of my hair. My eyes water and blur. As he drags me through the metal gate and onto the path, I see a sign.

“Property Foreclosed,” it reads. “By order of the Court.” I don’t know why, but the sight fills me with a wave of foreboding.

“See this, bitch?” He growls. “This is the place where I’m going to get to know you; you and that tasty pussy of yours.”

I struggle, looking over my shoulder for the other man in the car. I feel like he was the only thing holding Lenny back from the brink of madness; but now that he’s gone, I’m at the mercy of the man with the pockmarked face …

“What makes you think I’ll fuck you?” I ask Lenny. I know it’s the kind of question that’s going to make him angry. I don’t care. I know where this path leads: rape and murder.

My only hope is that I get to skip the first bit. Somehow, I don’t care if I die; not anymore. I just can’t bear the thought of Vince and Lenny getting their filthy hands on me.

He doesn’t answer, not until he’s unlocked the front door and pushes me inside.

“What makes you think you’ll get a fucking choice?” He growls.

He pushes me to the ground, and his eyes roam my body. “Strip!” He barks.

“Wha-?”

He stands over me, eyes boring down on my skull. They are black, dark pits: mirrors to a twisted soul. I don’t know how deep they go, and I don’t want to find out.

“Jesus, bitch,” he hisses, pulling me up by my jacket. “Do I have to do everything for you?”

“Please,” I whimper, trying to buy time. “I’ll do what you want –”

He crouches down next to me, and begins to stroke my hair. What the hell’s going on?

“Hush, baby; it’ll be okay.” He whispers, running his short, stumpy fingers through my hair. “Lenny’s here for you …”

I suppress a shudder. I start to realize that this guy has got some kind of – I don’t know – obsession with me; and that maybe … just maybe, I can use it to my advantage.

Lenny’s fingers climb the front of my jacket and start to unbutton it. He undresses me, piece by piece, until the unheated house’s cold chill bites against my skin, and I’m left only in a set of plain black underwear. He pulls me gently to my feet, and I start to shiver.

“Come with Uncle Lenny, baby,” he says in a singsong voice

Uncle Lenny?

He leads me to a long, wooden, dining room table. “Lie down.”

I do as I’m told, and clench my jaw as my back freezes against the cold wood. I’m paralyzed by fear and indecision. I don’t know if I should try to fight, or else use Lenny’s strange interest in me to my advantage. I know the answer immediately. It has to be the latter. Lenny’s got a hundred pounds on me. He’d crush me like a bug. Besides, I know what Declan would say. “Don’t fight stupid, fight smart.”

“Do you like me, Lenny?” I whisper. I close my eyes, because I feel dirty just asking it. The last thing I want to see is the look on Lenny’s face as he hears it.

He strokes my cheek, and I hear the clink of metal. “You know I do, baby,” he whispers. “Give me your hand.”

I shudder and hold it out, eyes still clenched firmly shut. “Why –?” I ask.

I soon find out. The metal claws of a set of handcuffs close around my wrist for the second time this week, and by the time I open my eyes, I’m chained to the table.

“What are you doing?” I gasped, tugging my hand back, to no avail.

Lenny shrugs. “Vince’s orders,” he grunts. “But don’t worry, baby,” he says, moving around the table. “I get you once he’s done.” He pulls another set of handcuffs from a row he’s stuffed into his belt, grabs my ankle and straps it tight.

“Please –,” I whimper. “Please…” But Lenny’s only response is to clamp handcuffs tight against my free arm and leg, until I’m chained, spread-eagle and half-naked on the wooden table.

My mind is racing. I try to think of what Declan would tell me to do, but I come up with nothing. I’m going to have to do it my way.

Maybe that’s exactly what he’d say?

Unfortunately, the only card I’ve got in my locker is Lenny. I’m going to have to go all in and take my chances.

“Will you kiss me, Lenny?” I whimper, improvising, “on my cheek.”

He fondles my breasts roughly, dragging his callous palm across my chest. “I’ve wanted to fuck you since the moment I met you,” he growls.

It’s not exactly the response I had in mind, but I go with it, blocking out the shudders of disgust rippling through my mind.

“You don’t have to do this, you know,” I say, locking eyes with him. “We could have a life together, you and I. Without Vince…”

My eyes flicker lower, and I see a bulge growing at Lenny’s crotch. I swallow, biting back a wave of nausea rising from my stomach.

“I could take you right now, bitch,” he barks. “Use a condom, and who’s the wiser?”

“You could…” I whisper, “… take me, like you say. But I’m a … a good fuck, Lenny; when I want to be. And … maybe I want to be with you; but not with Vince; never, never with him.”

I see Lenny’s expression flicker, and the longing grow in his eyes –

– But, it’s too late.

An engine grumbles outside, and the vehicle pulls to a halt. A door slams, and with it the door to my freedom.

“Well, well, well,” Vince Amari says slowly, his heavy boots knocking against the floor. “Lookee, look what we have here.”

He walks up to me, and it’s all I can do to stare up at him with defiance. He strokes my leg and lowers his head between my thighs. “Smells like dead pussy,” he laughs. But I’m not fussy.”

I glance at Lenny, who’s staring at Vince with an unknowable expression on his face.

“Did Lenny show you the empty lots outside? Plenty of space to bury you when I’m done…”

“Boss! You said I could have the bitch when you were finished with her.”

“There’s plenty more pussy in this city, Lenny. But this one’s mine.”