Pop, who had been driving the truck when they abducted her, was a heavy set middle-aged man with rough looking skin and bulging red eyes. Of the four men he appeared the most inhuman and depraved. Years of prison confinement had transformed his every movement into a gesture of animal cunning that Ellen could sense now as he shifted his eyes from his plate of food to her body. There was an innate cold cruelty in Pop's eyes that she couldn't really explain, but she knew that his easy-going attitude was just a front hiding a bestial inner-self that needed only a nod from Billy to be released. Pop had been trained to obey the commands of any one man, but at the same time he seemed to harbor a deep resentment against that authority. Like an old dog who had stored up years of hate against an unjust master, he only waited for a moment of faltering when he might spring and destroy…
Billy was a tall, sandy-haired young man who carried himself with an arrogant confidence befitting his position as gang chief. He had well formed features and a square strong looking chin that revealed a strong willed character that Ellen had already learned to fear and respect. His arms were large and well muscled and sloped down to powerful hands that Ellen remembered had held her so brutally in the car. She winced when she recalled the movement of his wrenching fingers across her buttocks: she could still feel the painful marks he had made on her sides as he had plunged into her and ravished her so viciously. Although Billy was quite handsome in an obscene animal like way, there was something about him that repulsed her. He was colder and more aloof than the other men, and he seemed to lack a warmth of feeling that could lead him to commit acts of violence without having a second thought about it.
Vito, on the other hand, was bony and skinny with a shock of black greasy hair falling across his forehead. A long scar was slashed across his cheek that emphasized the paleness of his face and brought out the shiftiness of his character. If Pop appeared to be the most inhuman and depraved of the group of criminals, Vito was the most conniving and jealous. His dark darting eyes and his constantly tensed thin mouth suggested the born criminal personality who would have entered the world of crime even if the circumstances of his life had not sent him in that direction.
Earlier Ellen had feared an inevitable clash between Vito and Billy over leadership of the gang, and now as she watched the two men finish their sandwiches, she knew her fears had not been unjustified. Although they were completely opposite physically and mentally, both men had the driving desire to dominate and master the weaker human beings who crossed their path.
"Hey, little girl, what you lookin' at," Billy said, staring up at her from his empty plate. "Get into that kitchen and make us some more sandwiches."
Ellen darted back into the next room and began looking for some more food to fix the four voraciously hungry men. The sardines were all gone, but she found some cold cuts in the bottom of the grocery sack and quickly placed the slabs of meat on slices of bread and returned to the living room to set the full plate on the table.
The men dug into the sandwiches again and continued consuming their food in silence. As they ate they cast their gaze up from the table to her face and then dropped their eyes slowly in a lewd movement down to her half-exposed breasts and legs. There could be no doubt about what they were thinking about, and she kept her eyes on Billy as she cowered back from the table.
He was her only hope now, and as much as she was afraid of him, she feared the others more. She had been forced into a dilemma where she had to choose from one of four evils, and she truly felt that he would be her best bet if she hoped to survive the next few days without suffering a fate far worse than losing her virginity. Yes, she had come a long way from the innocent young thing she had been a few short hours before. She had believed in the absolute preciousness of her female dignity, and had thought the preservation of that purity should be striven for at all costs. But now she realized there were far greater indignities to be suffered – humiliations that in her virginal innocence she had never even thought of, never in her wildest dreams. So she, as though she were living in some primitive, war-like tribe, was forced to choose Billy as the strongest of the group for mere survival sake, and she hoped ultimately she would be accepted by him.
But she wasn't too sure.
Billy's actions were confusing. His strong assertive confidence appeared almost businesslike at times, and watching him eating now, she noticed that he didn't seem as concerned or even aware of her presence as the others. She was just there, a mere object to be toyed with at will; yet he knew she was his by virtue of his leadership of the gang.
"That was real good," Pop said, licking his lips in satisfaction. "I could use a couple shots to polish it all off."
"That sounds like a great idea, Pop," Billy said, yawning and stretching backwards on his chair. "Now you trot your sweet little ass into the kitchen, honey, and get a bottle of booze for us fellas."
Ellen went into the kitchen and found a bottle of whiskey wrapped in a paper sack at the bottom of the grocery bag. She brought the bottle back with some glasses and watched silently by his side as he poured a drink out for all of them.
"You only brought four glasses," Billy said, winking up at her. "We want five. You gonna drink with us, don't you understand?"
Ellen winced and began to turn back to the kitchen. "Here, save yourself some trouble, baby, and drink out of mine," Billy said, a note of disarming tenderness in his voice.
He poured his glass completely full and handed it to Ellen, who in an unconscious gesture of revulsion pushed the glass away from her face.
"Goddamn it, I said drink it you little bitch," he commanded, smiling broadly at the three men who sat with their eyes glued on Ellen.
The young girl slowly moved the glass of amber colored liquid toward her lips. It smelled bitter and strong, and she flinched involuntarily as she took a small sip and felt the hot liquid burn all the way down. This was the first time she had drank any liquor straight, and she felt momentarily sick as the whiskey began burning the walls of her stomach. She choked as Billy thrust his hand around her wrist and forced her to drink the rest in one gulp.
"Damn, she drunk all of that stuff," Vito laughed. "She's a regular pro at it."
"She's comin' along real well," Billy smiled. "And with me teachin' her the ropes she'll be a professional in no time."
"We's gonna get some of that too, ain't we, Billy?" Pop gloated. "We can't just sit here and watch. I mean, hell, I ain't had no woman for nearly fifteen years."
"Ya waited that long, another couple weeks ain't gonna hurt ya," Billy laughed.
"But that ain't fair, Chief. She's just as much ours as your own," Cash shouted. "We's the ones who helped you grab her up off that beach road. I say she's everybody's property."
"I say she's mine," Billy said sternly, rising up to his full height. "Anybody messes with this little pussy, and he's gotta answer to me. Remember, she's here because we need a hostage, not to knock off a piece of ass whenever we feel like it."
"Look, Billy," Vito said, speaking up for the first time in awhile. "You already fucked the stuck-up little bitch. You can't change the facts."
Ellen listened in astonishment at the vile exchange of words, pulling instinctively closer to Billy as the argument continued. She knew that her fate would be sealed with the outcome of the discussion, and she hoped somehow that Billy would be able to keep the three men off her.