lot. In a few minutes, Tommy and two men, roughly the same size as Texaco Phillips, got out. They dwarfed the five-foot eight-inch Tommy. … The three of them moved over to the railing and looked down at the marina. She took a few pictures, being sure that the newspaper lay open on the dash in front of her and was included in the shot. Then she watched as they walked down the gangplank to the wooden dock below. She crouched low inside the motor home, the lens of the camera pointing out of the window just under the shade. Again, she could feel the excitement bubbling. Beano had been right so far. He had gotten Tommy to do exactly what he had planned. They had controlled his movements. She wondered if Dakota was in the black Lincoln thirty yards away, as Beano had predicted.
The back seat of the Lincoln was stuffy, and Dakota felt awful. She had begun to suspect she had some bad internal bleeding. One of Tommy’s body blows must have ruptured something. The pain in her abdomen and stomach had become intense. It was hard for her to concentrate as the big enforcer in the front seat kept talking.
“I got lotsa stamina, I can stay hard for hours,” Keith Summerland was bragging. He had turned around and was looking at Dakota in the back seat, a big wide leer on his flat, uninteresting features. “Soon as Tommy gets through with you, I’ll take you someplace and give you a demonstration. Some guys don’t like going down, but my tongue can do magic tricks. You’re gonna beg me for more. Then you get to sit on Mr. Buffy. You’re gonna get a ride you won’t forget.”
Dakota couldn’t believe this piece of shit. The minute Tommy got out of the car, he’d started up with this. Dakota could barely talk because of the pain and he was up there bragging about his Johnson, which he’d named Mr. Buffy. She tried to get more comfortable.
“Right now, you’re probably thinkin’ you’re gonna find a way to get out of it, but Tommy’s nuts. He’s not like other guys. I ask him if he’s through with ya, he’ll give ya to me.” He grinned at her; he was twisted around in the front seat and eyed her hungrily like she had just been served to him, fully garnished, at a steak-house. “You’re gonna see a lot of me for a while.”
Changing conversational topics, but not anatomical subjects, “Look, I didn’t get a chance t’take a leak back at the airport,” he said. “‘Gonna go over t’that stand a’trees over there, and tap a kidney. I should tell you when I played football I did a four-six in full pads, in the forty, so don’t try an’ take off on me. You ain’t gonna make it,” he bragged.
“I’ll be right here,” she said softly.
He got out of the car and moved away from the limousine. As soon as he was gone, Dakota struggled up, grimacing in pain. She reached over the front seat, grabbed the cellphone, and dialed a number.
In the motor home, Victoria was startled to hear a phone ringing somewhere. She had to go searching for it. It was on a table in the bedroom.
“Hello?” she answered.
“It’s Dakota …” But Victoria thought she sounded funny. Her voice was deeper and without the “fuck you” lilt it had before.
“Where are you?” Victoria asked.
“Parked in the marina parking lot … probably about twenty yards from you. Look, I don’t have much time. Tell Beano I can’t control this guy. I’ve lost him.”
“Are you okay?”
“Tell him I need to get out of here. I’m trashed. I think I’m hurt real bad. Something inside is leaking. … The pain’s getting worse. I don’t have much left. …”
“He’s in the houseboat. They’re in there with him.” And then Victoria could see the big bodyguard coming back from the trees, zipping his fly. “Listen, Dakota, your guard’s coming back. I’ll find a way to get you out of there. I promise. Hang tough,” Victoria said, not at all sure how she was going to accomplish that feat, and then, just as the bodyguard approached the car, she heard two shots ring out. They actually sounded like dry limbs snapping off some distant tree. It took her several seconds to identify them as gunfire.
“You hear that?” Dakota asked. “Shots. This guy Tommy is nuts.”
“I’ll get you outta there but the other guy is right outside your car.