Never Be Safe: A Suspense Thriller

by Ray Backley

  “Okay,” she said. “I accept.” She put the ring on her finger and lifted her hand, parading her new possession in front of his eyes.

  He showed her a lop-sided smile of distaste.

  “What?” she said.

  “It doesn’t look right.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Do you think you could . . . I mean, could you take off your wedding ring?”

  “My wedding ring?”

  That was a step too far. She trembled, trying so hard not to simply get up, run out the door, and take her chances that he might shoot her. No, it was too much.

  “Would you mind? If you’re gonna divorce Dan, it hardly matters, does it?”

  Dan.

  Dan and Phoebe and Benjie.

  It boiled down to whether she wanted to see them all again. Dan might never find out about what she was now doing, but none of it would matter unless this whole mess got sorted out. She took a few deep breaths, clamped down on her disgust, then twisted off both rings and put the engagement ring back on.

  Vinnie pointed to her wedding ring. “Could I take that one?”

  She slid it into her pocket, saying, “I’ll give it back to Dan.”

  “Okay.” Vinnie sat back down on the armchair.

  “I did what you wanted, Vinnie. I have the ring on my finger.”

  He nodded. “And as you’ve accepted, do you think you could tell me that you love me?”

  She hesitated, the words gripping onto her throat, not wanting to emerge. “I . . . I love you.”

  “Sounds good. Would sound better if you said it with my name.”

  “Okay. I love you, Vinnie.”

  “That’s a good girl.” He pointed at her head. “And would you grow your hair long again, like you used to wear it back in the day, just for me?”

  “I . . . I guess I could.”

  He pulled his head to the left, looking her torso up and down, then switched to eye her up from the other side.

  “Just one more tiny thing I’d like, lollipop.”

  “Of course, Vinnie.”

  “You, uh . . . you’ve put on a little weight since you were fourteen. More than a little, I’d say.”

  “I’ve had two babies.”

  “But you’re not carrying them now, are you? I’ll bet you’ve also had one or two pizzas. Probably a load of burgers and fries too.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “Only that you could do with losing a few pounds. I just want you to promise me you’ll lose weight, that’s all. Is that too much to ask?”

  She glanced at her belly, gulped painfully, then said, “Okay, I promise.”

  “Good. Now say you love me again, and don’t forget to use my name.”

  “I love you, Vinnie.”

  “And say you’re looking forward to marrying me. Don’t forget my name.”

  “Okay. I’m looking forward to marrying you, Vinnie.”

  He smiled. It was a wide, pleasant smile, and was frozen onto his face for twenty seconds or so. Cath thought she could make out his eyebrows twitching up, as if prompting her to react. But she was confused and didn’t know what to do or say.

  Then his browning teeth broke through his lips, his jaw fell open, he threw his head back, and a cackle of coarse laughter echoed around the room. He stopped, stared at her with wild, globular eyes that leaked a cruel tear or two, and laughed again.

  “What’s so funny?” Cath said, now on the verge of crying.

  “Is that a serious question, lollipop? Jesus, you really are some totally dumb fuck. You got donuts for brains or what? You really, really think I might even consider hitching up with you? You think I could lower myself to love someone who took away the best years of my life? I don’t love you; I hate you. I want to slice your fucking head off, put it on a long pole, and dance around with it singing Yankee Doodle. Didn’t you get the message when I kidnapped your dumb husband and two rats? Didn’t you get an inkling of my true feelings when I pulled a gun on you and threw you into the trunk of my car? Are you really that stupid? I wouldn’t marry you even if you were a . . . a supermodel billionairess who only did sex, beer and baseball.”

  Cath glanced at the pistol he still held in his hand, remembering when it had been in her hands. He noticed her glance, and she silently cursed at herself for giving away her thoughts.

  “Oh, this?” He held the pistol up, pointed it at her forehead, pulled the trigger six times, and laughed. Then he stopped and lowered his voice. “I took the bullets out while I was in the kitchen. Spur of the moment thing. I was pretty pleased with how it went. And just in case you were wondering, that ring on your finger, I ran next door and got it from my mom’s jewelry box.”

  She pulled it off and threw it at him, then threw a few punches in his direction. He blocked the blows, laughing all the while. Then one strike caught him square in the jaw. He stopped laughing and stood over her, holding her by the throat at arm’s length, telling her to calm down. When the blows kept coming his way, he cracked the handle of the pistol on the side of her head. She yelped and covered the wound with her hand, wiping the blood off her ear.

  Vinnie sat back down, pulled some bullets from his pocket, and fed the pistol.

  “What about my husband and children?”

  “They can fuckin’ whistle. I’m not lifting a finger to help them. They’re screwed, just like I was thirteen years ago.”

  “But . . . they’re alive, aren’t they?”

  Vinnie shrugged, sneered. “Yes. No. Don’t know. Whatever. Who cares? Pick whatever answer you want. I could tell you they’re alive and well and living it up at Caesar’s Palace, I could tell you they’ve all had their throats slit and lie at the bottom of some shit-infested lake. I could tell you anything and you wouldn’t know the truth. And you’re not gonna know the truth, lollipop, not for a long time.”

  “A long time? How long?”

  “Let’s see. You took thirteen years of my life, and I’m just taking ’em back. Just think what you might look like in thirteen years; not one square inch of your skin is clear and taut, everything sags, those wrinkles are crawling all over you. You think Dan will still want you by then? And will you want him, all paunchy and balding? And what about your kids? Hah! You think they’ll even recognize you by then? What do you think of all that?”

  Cath simply stared, mouth open. There wasn’t much she could say.

  “Still, you got thirteen years to consider all those questions. Time enough, I’d say.”

  “You can’t keep them locked up for thirteen years.”

  “You just watch me, lollipop. Sure, you and me can keep in touch. Let me know where you are once a year, and in thirteen years I’ll tell you where they are. I’ll keep ’em safe for you. Won’t be able to say how healthy they’ll be after all those years of being tied up, but I’ll do my best to make sure they survive.”

  “That won’t work, Vinnie. It’s unrealistic, someone will find out and talk, something will happen to them.”

  “No, it won’t. Nothing will happen except that you’ll all suffer the way I suffered. And I can wait all that time. You have no idea how much anger I have over what you did to me.”

  “Oh, I do, Vinnie. I really do. Your life’s a sad tale, but you need to move on, you need to leave us alone and get on with the rest if your life.”

  “Hey! Don’t you dare tell me what I need. You hear me?”

  Cath cowered a little and wiped his mad spittle from her face. He turned to the side, but still glared at her from the corner of his eyes. She sensed a dangerous uncertainty in him. He got to his feet so quickly it almost made her jump out of her seat. He started pacing the room, mumbling to himself.

  Chapter 33

  Vinnie was still pacing the room, walking around the bed to the door and back, only taking his eyes off the floor beneath him to occasionally glare at Cath, but keeping the pistol in his hand, regularly waving it in her direction.

  After a few minutes, he came back ove
r and dropped onto the seat, facing her. She tried to distance herself even more, pressing her spine firmly against the armchair.

  “You wanna hear the new deal, lollipop?”

  “Uh . . . what do you mean?”

  “I mean let’s cut the crap. You’re right. I don’t want to waste the next thirteen years even thinking about you and your shitty family, let alone playing jailer. So let’s deal again.”

  “Okay.”

  “I’m gonna kill them, and you’re gonna watch. How’s that sound?” He rested the pistol on the floor between his feet and pulled a zip tie from his pocket. “Hold out your hands.”

  But Cath stayed still. What she’d just heard wasn’t exactly the dictionary definition of a deal. She’d come here hoping to save her family, but she’d only made things worse. Her mind whirred, desperately trying to think of a way out of this mess. She looked up at him, her eyelids slowly clicking open and shut like a robot about to shut down. And that reflected how she felt; she just wanted to switch off, in the back of her mind thinking perhaps that it might switch off this whole hopeless scenario.

  Vinnie huffed a laugh. “I guess my girl’s still a little shell-shocked, huh?”

  Another long silence crawled by, and although Cath knew she should be arguing with him, perhaps trying to counteroffer his deal, the words just wouldn’t come. Vinnie broke the silence.

  “I’m screwing you the way you screwed me, that’s all. Only natural for you to be upset. I can get that. Doesn’t change things, though. Now hold out your hands.”

  Cath knew his words were a veneer of sympathy over solid cold bitterness. So no, a counteroffer wasn’t appropriate here. That would be good for a business deal, but this was pure white-knuckle gambling. And Cath had only one more roll of the dice left. She took a few moments to call on her resolve. She would need every last ounce of her mental strength to make the play here.

  “It’s . . .” she tried to clear her throat, but found only a coarse dryness there. “It’s not that,” she said, threading the sentence in her mind word by word.

  “What? What is it?”

  “I just thought . . . oh, it’s nothing. You’re right. I am dumb. Forget it.”

  “No. Go on, lollipop. What is it? Try me.”

  “You know, not all marriages are perfect, Vinnie.”

  “Meaning?”

  “What you were saying to me just then. It was nice, sweet. I mean, I realize now that you were jerking me around, but what you said to me was nice. It felt good for someone to give me a little attention for a change.”

  “You mean, you and dumb Dan, you don’t, like, hit it off these days?”

  “Not lately. Not like we used to.”

  “Isn’t that a shame.”

  “You fooled me, Vinnie. You got me good when you were saying those things. I genuinely felt something for us.”

  “Hey, c’mon, hands out.”

  She put her hands forward, and then, just as he reached out with the zip tie, she let her hands fall onto his knees.

  “I’m serious, Vinnie. You sure you don’t wanna fool around with me one last time?”

  Her hands crawled up to his groin, and she drew her face up to meet his, keeping her head bowed, looking up to him so her eyes looked bigger, so she looked younger.

  “Vinnie, you might have been lying when you said you loved me, but I really felt something for you. I’m confused because you stirred something in me that I didn’t realize was there. And I know what I’m thinking is wrong, but I can’t help it.”

  He didn’t move a muscle, but she noticed his nostrils twitch wider, his Adams apple bounce. His foot kicked the pistol and it scuttled across the bare wooden floor. She pressed her lips against his while she gently, slowly, caressed his erection through his jeans.

  Now he responded, letting go of the zip tie and clutching the back of her head, holding her there. She heard a deep growl, then they kissed hard, rough, almost violent, his teeth hurting her. She didn’t care. She could taste his beer mixed with her own desperation. He pulled her off the armchair and onto the bed. Two pairs of shoes clunked onto the floor.

  While their eyes were still locked, Vinnie started kneading her breasts, thumbs across nipples. She groaned loudly, unbuttoned his shirt, reached for his belt buckle. A few seconds later he was shirtless, belt unbuckled, jeans unzipped. She drew herself further down his body, still staring him in the eyes, pasting a dirty grin on her face as she tugged his jeans down, letting his dick spring up.

  He grabbed her wrists. “Yours,” he hissed. “Take yours off.”

  She stood and wriggled her jeans and panties off, then knelt on the bed next to him. She pulled his jeans down further, all the way to his ankles, then kissed him again, pressing her open mouth against his, pumping her hand up and down where it counted. “Relax,” she whispered, spreading his arms out wide while she kissed his chest.

  She fell onto his right arm – his stronger arm – and let out a girly giggle.

  “Oops, tripped there,” she whispered, sounding as playful as she could, then transferred the bunch of zip ties she’d just taken from his jeans pocket to her mouth – all of them except one.

  Now she let her whole bodyweight lay on his right arm, reached out and whipped the zip tie around both his wrist and the bed frame, quickly feeding the pointed end through the eye and pulling tight. Then she jumped back onto his torso.

  “Shit!” she heard him holler as he started bucking, hitting her on the side of the chest with his left fist. He drew it back to hit her again but before he could give the fist any momentum she pounced on his arm, landing a knee on his elbow, making him yelp in pain. She placed her other knee onto his forearm and pulled another zip tie from the bunch in her mouth. It was more difficult now he was aware, now he was trying to bring his legs up to kick her, wriggling his hand around as best he could. But by now she had just about all her weight on his forearm, balancing on the bucking bronco, and managed to feed the zip tie around his wrist and the bed frame. This time it took four or five attempts before she got the thing threaded, and she pulled it tight.

  Perhaps all those pizzas and burgers and fries she’d eaten had helped tip the balance in her favor.

  She turned just as his bare knees swung up. One hit her clean on the nose, knocking her off the bed. She landed in a heap on the floor, clutching her face. It felt like a poisonous spider had crawled up her nose and bitten her. Her whole face stung, her vision was starry, blood streamed from her nose.

  And she could hear grunting and hollering.

  She looked up to see Vinnie bucking his legs and hips up and down, desperately trying to free his ankles from his jeans, then wrenching his arms every which way to try to free his wrists.

  “Fucking untie me, you bitch. Untie me or I swear I’ll come after you with a broken bottle or broom stick and I’ll split you in two.”

  She didn’t reply, even considered just running despite being half naked. Her heavy breathing subsided, she wiped more blood from her mouth. Yes, she could run. But then she wouldn’t know where they were. This might be her one and only chance.

  She jumped onto his spread-eagled form, lying with her thigh on his knees, facing his feet. Again, he screamed in pain. He had no choice but to keep his knees still; it occurred to her that being on a mattress, if she put more pressure on them she might even break both joints backwards. But no, she had something better in mind now. She used two zip ties to tie his ankles together, then two more to tie them to the end of the bed frame.

  Now gasping for breath again, she jumped off and took a moment to gather herself. She was gasping because she couldn’t breathe through her nose; it was bunged up with half-congealed blood and probably fragments of bone too. She felt it between finger and thumb and winced at the pain.

  Vinnie was still shouting and grunting, struggling to break the plastic ties, telling her he really would kill her if she didn’t let him go.

  It sounded like the king of empty threats.

&nbs
p; She put her panties, jeans, and shoes back on, then got on all fours and checked the room for that pistol. It was loaded, and she would feel one hell of a lot safer with it in her hands.

  She pressed the side of her head against the floorboards and scanned the room, but couldn’t see it. She tried to remember the direction he’d kicked it in, and then her eyes met that huge wooden closet on the opposite wall. She crawled closer, temple skimming the floorboards. Yes, it was there, under the behemoth. The gap at the front was only a few inches, so she got up and pushed on the thing with her shoulder. It wasn’t budging. She thought for a moment, then raced out into the kitchen, looking for something long and thin to poke under the closet.

  That was when she came across the retractable craft knife Vinnie had taken from her earlier.

  And it gave her an idea.

  Chapter 34

  Cath stood in the kitchen, the craft knife in her hand, listening to Vinnie struggling to escape from the bed in the other room. It sounded as if the whole bedframe was bouncing up and down. He really was trying. It felt good that someone else was desperate for a change.

  She would let his fears fester for just a little while longer. She took a moment to pull her wedding ring from her pocket and put it back where it belonged. Then she poured out a cup of water.

  By the time she returned to the room, Vinnie had started to settle down. He looked pathetic, naked apart from the jeans trapped around his ankles, his whole body sheened in sweat from his struggle.

  She offered the cup to his mouth.

  “What’s this?”

  “I thought you said you trusted me?” She tried her best to lace the words with humor, then positioned her face a few inches from his and took a sip from the cup. “See? Just water. You’ve worked up quite a sweat there with all your struggling, haven’t you?”