Tony looked at her and smiled and then turned back to Rudy. He flexed his finger and the hammer clicked on an empty chamber.
Rudy turned his head back toward Tony and blew out a forceful sigh.
Natalie wasn’t sure if this was good news or not. If the gun had gone off and only one bullet did remain, this would have brought her to a more equal footing in Tony’s game. But when no explosion erupted, it had to continue.
“Damn, nothing there. Must be your lucky day. Now it’s your turn lover boy.”
Tony pointed the gun at Natalie.
“But I’d aim the gun at you,” Rudy said.
“Of course you would, cocksucker. But as I said, I’m taking your turn and I choose the whore.”
Natalie’s heart had begun to crawl up her throat. At the very least, if the gun fired it would be over quickly and she wouldn’t have to be subjected any more to the threat of rape or brutality. She wanted it to be over but she didn’t want to die. She recognized the look in Tony’s eyes. She had seen it in the motel room. His soul had vanished and his hazel eyes had turned cold with the vacant look of a murderer—a psychopath.
“On your knees. Plead for your life.”
“Damn it Tony, leave her alone,” Rudy screamed.
Tony turned the gun back toward Rudy and squeezed the trigger once again. Click. The hammer fell on another empty chamber.
Rudy gasped.
“Shut the hell up or I’ll do it for you.”
He aimed the gun at Natalie again. “On your knees.”
“I’m not giving you the satisfaction. If I die, I’ll die standing not begging.”
“Have it your way then. Let’s see, I’ve pulled the trigger twice and haven’t found the slug. That means you have a three out of four chance of living through this. Not bad odds, but you know what they say, the house always wins.”
He stepped toward Natalie and put the muzzle of the gun between her blond eyebrows.
She could feel the steel against her flesh and remembered how hard and cold it had felt when he thrust it inside her in the warehouse. Against her will, her eyes closed.
“Can’t watch this, huh? So, you’re just another damn sniveling coward after all.”
She forced her eyes open again and looked straight into his. The fear that had arisen, she fed to rage. “That better?” she screamed.
“You have no idea what it’s like to watch the light go out in someone’s eyes. There’s no feeling like it.”
“I’ve seen the light go out in yours more than once, but somehow you keep drawing breath.”
She looked at his forefinger as it slipped over the trigger and then turned her eyes back to his. “I hate you,” she continued, yet her tone remained as matter-of-fact as if she was reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
“I know. That’s what makes this so damn much fun.”
She sensed the contraction of his finger but continued to look into his eyes. To run away wouldn’t improve her chances as he would still have the gun with the one bullet left he had promised for her brain. She decided to stand her ground. If she survived the next few seconds, it would be her turn.
The hammer moved and the cylinders rotated as she saw Tony squeeze the trigger. When she heard the metallic click, her heart slid into her stomach and she exhaled the bitter taste of tension.
“Damn, your still here.”
“Stop this shit,” Rudy yelled.
“Why? Now it’s the whore’s turn and there’s a one in three chance she’ll take me out.
Tony looked at Natalie. Her face still revealed no fear and yet the hatred he had seen before had been eclipsed by something unexpected—something disappointing. He had driven her over the last three days to the brink of Hell’s shore and tormented her far beyond anyone he had faced down before. Now her time to settle the debt, to give recompense for his brutality, was at hand. Yet the look on her countenance showed hesitation.
“You can’t do this can you?” he asked. “You can’t pull the trigger on this jackal after all I’ve done to you. You wanted the gun before, now I’m ready to hand it to you, yet you don’t think you can do it.”
Natalie wasn’t sure she could. It had been easier with Hank. It had been self-defense. He came at her with assault and rape in his eye. This was different, though. To take the life of an unarmed man no matter how repulsive or threatening he had been would feel like murder. At that moment he would pose no threat to her, but yet this was the way out. If she could kill him, it would be over.
“Why don’t you give me the gun and let’s find out,” she said.
“Damn Rudy, she just grew a set of titanium balls.” He turned the gun, grabbed the nickel-plated barrel and held the handle out to her. “Like I said, we all get a turn.”
Natalie took the Python. It was heavy and she remembered when she first grabbed the pistol just before she shot Hank that it filled her hands. After it had exploded, the force of the blast had knocked her backward into the bumper of the old sedan. Stunned at that moment as the bumper crashed into the swollen knot on the back of her head, she had lost control of the revolver.
Not this time. She rested the muzzle on his tweed jacket right over Tony’s stone heart.
She looked into the gargoyle face in front of her and without hesitation pulled the trigger.
_____
©
Jearl Rugh 2012
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