Guadalupe's Tears Read Free Page B

me, are you?” she asked, smiling, her eerie eyes never leaving his.
    That smile. Lee was lost in that smile. Lost and bewildered as a man could get. He was vaguely aware of her taking his gun, the pistol sliding out of the holster as slowly as a death march. And Bruce, the ever present and ever frightened bartender, took the Colt .45 from her.
    “Come on,” Phaedra coaxed. “I won’t hurt you. How could I? I’m just a woman after all. I’m just a sad and lonely woman stranded in a mediocre town with no real intellectual stimulation. It gets so lonely out here, seeing the same people day after day, doing the same things, day after day. I just want a little conversation.” She smiled, her lips pallid in the kerosene glow, her eyes shining as if they had been polished with silver cleaner. Behind the bar, Bruce the bartender whispered the 23 rd Psalm in Spanish.
    “Come,” Phaedra coaxed, taking Lee’s hand and giving it a gentle tug. Lee found he couldn’t resist as she pulled him closer. His mind became a thin and faraway thing that Phaedra blew away with the touch of her lips.
    He allowed her to lead him up the stairs, around the landing and down to the last door on the right. She opened it and he, feeling as if he were sleepwalking, went inside.

 
     
    Chapter Three
     
     
    Lee woke up under water. Astonished, he flailed about, his hands slipping along the sides of something slick, hard and metallic. The water was murky brown and contained the coppery taste of blood and sex. He could hear the rumbling roll of what could have been boots clomping nearby. As Lee’s mind cleared, he realized he was in a tub. His fingers explored the edges until he found the rim.
    Lee gripped the rim and tried to pull himself up but he was too weak. His grip failed him and his hands slid back down into the water. Before he could consider the concept of being under water and not dead, a hand plunged in beside him. It searched for a few moments, then it grabbed Lee by the hair and yanked him up out of the tub. The heavy copper bathtub overbalanced and fell with him and he landed with a slick thump onto the floor in a violent gush of blood and water. Most of the blood he noted as his eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness of the room was his own.
    Lee expected a strong burning sensation in his nose and throat as he expelled the water, but found there was no pain at all. In fact, there was no breath at all. Before he had a chance to contemplate this new and even more disturbing dilemma, someone grabbed his legs and dragged him across the water soaked rough hewn floor and dumped him against the far wall. He groaned as something hard and cold as death was clamped on one ankle. He struggled to sit up as he heard the disquieting rattle of uncoiling chains. A man’s boot appeared in Lee’s field of vision. He watched, helpless, as the boots’ owner planted it on his chest and shoved. Lee uttered a waterlogged groan as he slid down the wall and landed with a pronounced thump onto his side. He felt the heavy heel of the boot against the back of his neck. “Tie it down fast, Joe,” said a voice above him. “You know how tricky these bastards can get, especially if they ain’t et yet.”
    There was considerable rattling and hammering. Lee tried to push the boot on his neck away, but he was as weak as an old woman with consumption. After what seemed like an eternity, Lee’s mind came into focus; sharp and frighteningly clear. He was being shackled to the floor. The man still had his foot on Lee’s neck, and another man working just past Lee’s peripheral vision was making sure the chain was held fast by a plate currently being screwed to the floor next to the wall.
    “I’m going to kill you all,” he whispered.
    The man with the foot on his neck grounded it down harder. “You ain’t up to killing nothing, except maybe a roach or two if you get hungry that is. And if you’re a good boy we’ll bring you a nice juicy rat in a