Miami Bound

by Henry Morgan

  Her pleading expression had no effect on David whatsoever as he bent over to secure her ankles.

  ‘Don’t worry about her mouth,’ the driver said, ‘this wagon’s soundproof.’ He grabbed Minnie by the waist and hoisted her up. A hook caught the flexi grips around her wrists, and when he let go of her she was left suspended from it just like a freshly skinned carcass. Only she was still very much alive, and her fear was expressed by the faint white clouds of her shallow, panting breaths.

  ‘Please, David,’ she begged, ‘I’ve done everything you said. Please, I’m so cold...’ Her body was stretched taut. Her ribs showed through her fine skin, and her belly was a sunken valley beneath the snowy mounds of her breasts and above her shaved mound, which shone like polished marble in the frosty air.

  Her plea fell on deaf ears, however, as the two men removed their belts, at which point she whimpered in terror. She knew the intense cold would make every stroke of the leather across her strained flesh ten times more painful. The icy temperatures also intensified the painful heat in her shoulder blades caused by hanging suspended from her wrists. She knew each and every stroke of the leather would hurt like nothing else ever had. They would feel like being cut by a knife over and over again, and she was terrified.

  ‘Oh, please don’t do this,’ she begged as the men took up their positions, and her scream as the first blows fell threatened to shatter every inch of ice off the sides of the truck, and she kept on screaming as they took turns whipping her firm back and quivering buttocks.

  ‘Scream all you like, baby,’ the trucker taunted her, clearly deriving much more pleasure from beating her than he had from merely fucking her. David found his enthusiasm contagious, and he laid into the poor girl’s bottom with a vengeance he had never displayed before. The other man’s cruel laughter, and her desperate cries of pain, lifted him to a heightened, almost trancelike, state. Even after her head fell forward and she stopped begging for mercy, he kept on flogging her relentlessly. He was no longer bothering to wait his turn; both men were hitting her at the same time, wherever the mood struck them, and more than once their belts intersected to forge a burning red cross in her white skin.

  At last, strangely exhausted by his efforts, David paused between strokes, and abruptly realised Minnie was as limp and motionless as the skinned carcasses hanging around her. ‘Stop!’ he yelled.

  The trucker’s arm froze in mid-flight, and David saw the mad gleam in his eyes. He was a man who would give Minnie exactly what she wanted. She would become the centre of his universe. Unfortunately, it would probably kill her.

  ‘That’s enough,’ David said quietly but firmly.

  The man lowered the belt. ‘That was fucking great,’ he gasped. ‘I’ve never beaten a girl that hard. Hey, baby, did you enjoy that?’

  There was no response from Minnie, whose flesh bore a sinister resemblance to the garish neon sign outside. It was tinged with blue, while the back of her body was striped with red welts.

  ‘Fucking hell,’ the trucker whispered in terrified awe, ‘I think we - ’

  ‘No, we didn’t,’ David cut him off before he could say the unthinkable. He was angry with himself for losing control and joining in this man’s cruel and mindless frenzy. He quickly reached up and undid the clips around her wrist. ‘Grab hold of her,’ he ordered, ‘and help me get her back to the RV.’

  The man did as he was told, and between them they carried the limp and silent girl back to the camper, and laid her gently across the couch.

  ‘What you gonna do now, man?’ the trucker asked David in a hushed voice, still obviously believing they had gone too far.

  David, however, knew Minnie was perfectly all right. Her breathing had slowed because of the cold temperatures, and the multiple orgasms she had suffered while they beat her had completely exhausted her mind and body, which were already worn out by drinking too much earlier, not to mention being gangbanged. He knew some warm towels and a few shots of vodka would set her right in no time.

  ‘What you gonna do?’ the anxious man repeated, staring down at Minnie’s peacefully smiling face.

  ‘I’ll take care of it,’ David told him sombrely, enjoying his discomfort. ‘No need for the two of us to get dragged in on this thing.’

  The driver quickly started backing away towards the door. ‘You’re right,’ he agreed, and turned on his heels.

  Less than a minute later there was the sound of an engine starting up, followed by the roar as a truck sped out of the parking lot.

  David smiled to himself, and quickly began attending to Minnie.

  First he turned her gently over onto her stomach, and then he pulled some ice from the freezer and wrapped it up in a towel to rest it across her striped bottom. That would take the sting out of her welts and reduce any swelling. He would worry about the marks on her back later. Right now the important thing was to cover her with several layers of blankets, and supplement their warmth with a couple of hot water bottles tucked in between her body and the back of the sofa. Finally, he turned up the battery heater.

  She was still very cold, but as he sat down beside her he could detect some warmth returning to her body and he knew it would not be long before she came round. He caressed her hair, and tucked it behind one of her ears the way she always did, thinking about what a completely different girl she was now than when he met her in Seattle only a few days before. She had been a street waif then, unsure of herself and of her sexuality, unaware of everything she was capable of.

  She moaned, and turned her face towards him. There was still the trace of smile on her lips, and David responded to the sight with a smile of his own. She was asleep and safe, and everything was all right with the world. He felt like getting some sleep himself, but first it would be wiser to get as far away from Gangbang Ranch as possible. The bikers probably would not bother to come looking for her, but it was best not to take any chances. He imagined they would spend the next few months shooting pool and drinking beer and talking about the night that girl came in with the Englishman who looked old enough to be her father, and about how they gangbanged her until she passed out.

  David stood up, and lifted the sheets covering her to have a final look at her body. Her bottom and her back were marked from the beating she had suffered in the meatpacking truck. He would have to buy some ointment and massage it soothingly into her skin later. But for now the most important thing was for her to sleep and recover the energy her body needed.

  He slipped into the driver’s seat, turned the radio on at a volume that would help keep him awake but not disturb Minnie, drove out of the parking lot, and headed south. The highway was deserted; it was just him and the sleeping girl and Van Morrison on a lovely night for a dance under the stars.

  Chapter 5

  Minnie slept straight through the next day.

  When it was late enough for the stores to be open, David pulled into a sparsely populated town with no name - at least he could not find it on the map - and bought himself a laptop computer after telephoning his friend, Justin, in England to find out his e-mail address. The time for their rendezvous in Miami was approaching.

  He also bought a few other supplies at a supermarket, and when he returned to the RV with his purchases, Minnie was still asleep. He left her that way and continued driving south. It was a glorious morning, and he resisted his need for sleep until he came across a lonely cove with just enough room for one vehicle. He’d had enough company for a while and was craving solitude, and found it between two large rocks hidden from the road at the edge of a line of trees.

  He parked, and then pulled two chairs outside along with his folding table. While Minnie continued sleeping, he laid some food out and then uncorked a bottle of Chablis. He poured himself a glass and sliced into the Brie he had bought earlier. Happy with his light lunch, he settled comfortably in his chair facing the sun and opened u
p the manual for his new laptop. Within seconds, he was asleep.

  The caress of a cool breeze, and the sound of water lapping softly on the shore, woke him. The sun had set. It was the mystical touch of moonlight on his eyelids that penetrated his dreams and helped the elements rouse him. Then he became aware of a soft red flickering light, and turned his head to discover that Minnie was awake, and had started a fire. They had learned early in their partnership that they both enjoyed the natural warmth of burning wood, and he saw her striding along the beach carrying several branches the sea had washed up.

  ‘You’re awake,’ she observed soberly.

  ‘Yes...’ He yawned and stretched, a little stiff from sleeping in a chair but feeling refreshed nonetheless. ‘Thanks for not waking me.’

  She dropped the branches beside the fire, and began feeding them one by one into the crackling flames. ‘I could say the same to you,’ she pointed out, an odd tone in her voice. She was wearing one of his button-down shirts with the sleeves rolled up, and it was so big on her that the front tails hung down almost to her knees. Her hair was down and several strands were wafting up in the chilly breeze. She looked as young and beautiful as ever, but her large eyes seemed darker, with a hint of a very adult sadness in them.

  David studied the fire, and then the additional food she had laid out on the table beside him. ‘You’ve been busy,’ he said. ‘Good girl.’

  ‘Supper,’ she said listlessly.

  ‘How did you know?’ he asked ambiguously.

  ‘You told me that when it felt right, I would know,’ she answered, and sat down opposite him. She looked down at the food as if thinking about eating, but she did not touch it. ‘It’s funny,’ she went on quietly, ‘I know I had a reason for running away from home, but deep down I think I was also looking for something... something I could only find by getting as far away from my life as possible.’

  David poured himself another glass of the Chablis he had enjoyed earlier, laid a smoked oyster on top of a cracker, and popped them both in his mouth. ‘Mm,’ he said as he chewed. ‘Travel does broaden the mind. The trouble is, some people go around the world and see less than a mole wearing a blindfold, whereas others can see the whole universe from a wheelchair in a basement.’

  ‘That’s what you were talking about the night you took me into the woods and tied me between those two trees, wasn’t it?’ she asked seriously. ‘That’s what you meant when you were talking about the brain being different from the mind, and how different minds work differently.’

  ‘You could have found yourself on that little farm you grew up on, Minnie.’ He poured her some wine. ‘You just didn’t know where to look.’

  She took a quick sip, not really tasting it as she pursued her thoughts. ‘I would have missed out on a lot of fun,’ she concluded.

  ‘On a lot of pleasure,’ David corrected her. ‘Fun was being buck naked on the beach with your mother when you were a little girl. Pleasure is being fucked naked on the beach by four young bucks.’

  She laughed at his play on words. ‘It’s another mind thing, isn’t it?’

  He nodded, intent on finishing the Brie he had started on earlier.

  ‘What’s that quote about “when I was a child”?’ she asked him.

  ‘It’s from Corinthians,’ he replied, after washing down the cheese with another mouthful of wine. ‘“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things”.’

  ‘That’s the one. I never really understood it before, but I do now. It’s about knowing, isn’t it? I ran laughing down the beach with my mother, but I didn’t know why. Yet now that I’m older, I can walk along the same stretch of sand and take so much more from it. I can take pleasure, not just a fleeting moment’s pleasure, but a real, deep pleasure that in some way helps define me.’

  David concealed how impressed he was by her insight because he did not want his praise to distract her from her thoughts, which he was very interested in hearing.

  ‘You’re old,’ she stated abruptly.

  ‘Thanks for the compliment.’ He laughed to cover up the fact that she had succeeded in hurting his feelings, at least for an instant.

  ‘Oh, not in that way,’ she said dismissively. ‘I mean in your mind. You knew I could find myself without travelling the world, didn’t you?’

  ‘Well, sort of,’ he said, his pride somewhat assuaged. ‘But travel is a wonderful thing, too.’ He looked out across the ocean, enjoying the breeze caressing his face and his hair. ‘You just have to collect the right postcards.’

  She gave him a puzzled look, cocking her head in that adorable way of hers.

  ‘There are people who travel a thousand miles to see a place,’ he went on, ‘and then spend the rest of their time in shops buying postcards to prove they’ve been there, and yet they weren’t, not really. They travelled thousands of miles just to go shopping just like they do at home. The leaning tower of Pisa could fall down right behind them and they wouldn’t even know it until they saw it on the evening news.’

  Minnie’s head was still cocked to one side, her eyes as wide as the proverbial puppy’s as she struggled to understand him.

  ‘Sorry.’ He smiled ruefully. ‘Like you said, I’m old - an old cynic who thinks he knows it all.’

  ‘That doesn’t make you wrong,’ she pointed out sagely.

  David decided that after spending the last couple of nights watching her being fucked and punished by other men it was time to enjoy her again himself. He would kiss and suckle her breasts until she moaned. He would caress her nubile legs and her smooth, warm pussy, and then he would slide his erection into her and fuck her harder than he ever had. And then he would come so deep inside her she would never be able to forget him.

  The sun was just rising above the horizon when they awoke, lying together on the beach. Some seagulls taking advantage of the early light were already fishing and arguing over their catch.

  David leaned over Minnie and planted a kiss on her forehead to wish her a silent good morning. He sat up, rested his elbows on his knees, and gazed down at her. He would miss looking at her like this. With her face relaxed in sleep, she looked even younger than her nineteen years. He could not resist taking a peek between her legs, and he saw that her pussy lips showed just how much she had been used lately, including by himself only a few hours before. Her labia was fuller than usual, and had been beaten and stroked to a lovely rose colour. She looked absolutely delicious; he had to resist the urge to sink his teeth into her.

  She opened her eyes, and caught him staring down at her.

  ‘Big day,’ he said.

  ‘Big day,’ she echoed, sitting up.

  They sat watching the ocean for a while in silence. It was low tide and the water was calm. There were two boats visible on the horizon, gliding in opposite directions, and David did not fail to notice the symbolism.

  ‘Feel like a morning swim?’ he asked her.

  ‘Sure,’ she said, ‘why not?’

  ‘Why not, indeed.’

  They walked over to the water hand-in-hand and waded in up to their waists before diving headfirst into the gentle waves. The water was refreshingly cool, not shockingly cold, and they swam in opposite directions for a while. David was enjoying the exercise, and the lovely feeling of having a beach all to himself.

  It was Minnie who started heading towards shore first. He followed her, and took hold of her on the firm sand where the water licked around their ankles. He made love to her there, with the edges of the waves caressing them in rhythm with their own undulating motions. Then, afterwards, they moved up the beach onto their towel and lay side-by-side on their backs soaking up the morning sun’s relaxing heat.

  ‘I won’t ever forget you,’ she said after a while, ‘or this moment. I’ll a
lways think about you.’

  They turned their heads to look at each other. Their eyes met, and they smiled.

  ‘I’ll never forget you either, Minnie,’ he said truthfully. Yet how often he would actually think about her was another story.

  At the bus station in Fort Bragg a handful of travellers were waiting for their ride, some of them sitting beside veritable mountains of luggage.

  Minnie returned to the platform from using the phone inside the small building where she had purchased her ticket home. She was wearing a new pair of tight jeans and a short-sleeved shirt that ended just below her breasts in the latest fashion. Her hair was down, as usual, and she looked radiantly beautiful. They had stopped at a shopping centre along the way to buy her some badly needed clothes.

  ‘How is she?’ David asked her, referring to Minnie’s mother, whom she had just called to inform her that her daughter was safe and sound, and coming home.

  ‘Overjoyed,’ Minnie said, feeling relieved. ‘She said she was afraid I was never coming back.’

  ‘What did you tell her?’

  ‘I told her I’d seen all I wanted to see, and that now it was time to come home and start doing something with my life. When she asked me why I ran away, I told her we’d talk about that when I got back.’

  David handed her the small bag containing her scant possessions. Her bus was pulling up, and he walked her over to it. ‘It’s a shame you never made it to San Francisco,’ he heard himself say, and realised he was reluctant to let her go now the time had come.

  ‘I don’t need those postcards any more,’ she replied, and then reached up and planted a soft kiss on his lips while tucking her hair neatly behind her ear. ‘And every time I travel, it’ll be for real, just like you said.’ She turned, and started up the steps into the bus. ‘I might even go back to school,’ she called back to him over her shoulder, ‘and study medicine.’