Chapter 5

When Vivienne came downstairs, her step had a little spring in it. She felt fantastic, but those feelings went away the moment she saw Daniel and Cecilia in the dimly-lit office playing with guns, and she remembered that, at that very moment, a civil war was erupting all across the nation and armed thugs were currently gathered outside her gate, preparing to assault her home as soon as darkness fell.

“That’s it,” Daniel said, holding up Vivienne’s Smith & Wesson in a pose mirroring Cecilia’s, who held his smaller black pistol in front of her face. “Now, pull back the slide all the way and press up on the slide stop to hold it open. You’re not pulling it back far enough. There you go. Perfect! Now, you can inspect the breach.”

“I hope that’s not loaded,” Vivienne said, unable to control her naturally assertive bossiness, especially when it came to her daughter.

Without turning, Daniel scoffed and said, “First of all, I’m not an idiot like you, you stupid fucking bitch, and second of all, she’s already better,” he turned to give her the full force of his disdain but his face went slack, “than ... better than...”

He’d apparently lost his train of thought. Vivienne was curious why his eyes were suddenly moving over her body.

“What?”

He shook his head as if to clear it. “Never mind. What are you wearing?”

She looked down at herself. After struggling to find something athletic that still fit her, Vivienne stumbled upon a pair of stretchy, silver, white, and pink yoga pants that she could just about squeeze into and a matching, scoop-neck crop tank that was a little too tight and showed a lot of cleavage, but provided ample support for her small girls. It definitely didn’t leave much to the imagination, though.

“My yoga outfit,” she said. “Why? Is this no good?”

“No, it’s fine. You look ... fine.”

Was he flustered? Vivienne looked down at herself again. She definitely didn’t have anything worth ogling, in her opinion. Not nearly enough up top, and way too much below, especially in the rear, with an unfortunate squishy middle joining it all together. Even Cecilia gave her a once over, and she would swear that a look of disapproval flashed across her daughter’s face.

“My turn,” Cecilia said, getting off the floor in a low stoop. She lifted the shoulder strap of her mangled tank top and gave Daniel a reproachful look that was tempered by a little smirk. “Thanks a lot, by the way. This was my favorite top.”

Daniel shrugged. “Heat of the moment. I’ll give you the same advice I gave your mom. Put on something you can move around in. We might see some action later.”

“I think I have just the outfit,” Cecilia said in a way that filled Vivienne with alarm. “Be right back.”

“Leave the gun,” he told her, and she turned back to set it on the chair. “And keep the lights off.”

She waved him off over her shoulder. His gaze lingered on her as she went, then he turned to Vivienne, once again sliding his eyes up and down her body. He snapped his finger and pointed to the ground.

“Sit.” When she did, he handed her the surveillance laptop and got up in a low crouch. “Keep an eye on those assholes for a minute. I’ll be right back.”

“Where are you going?” she asked, suddenly worried that he was about to head upstairs to lend Cecilia a helping hand.

“Not that it’s any of your fucking business, but I have to take a piss. Now, just sit there and do what the fuck you’re told, or you’re going to get another rap on the mouth. Got me?”

Why did he have to talk to her like that? What had she done to piss him off so much? Oh, right, she tried to kill him. She exhaled a sigh. Fine, maybe she deserved to have a little vitriol thrown her way. She responded with a shallow nod and a soft, “Yes, sir.”

He paused to regard her for another moment before leaving her to her task. The sun had long since disappeared over the mountaintops, casting the cloud-strewn sky in a deep, fiery glow. Just then, the dusk-to-dawn exterior lights came on. The camera on top of the stone pillar by the gate only captured the lead truck and the hood of the one behind it, but she watched several heads turn at once to look at the house.

Vivienne studied the user interface and saw that there were some rudimentary controls like pan and zoom. She zoomed in on the driver of the big dually pickup. He leaned against the side of his truck and talked to a few of the others, his mouth moving wordlessly. He had a scary-looking rifle slung over his shoulder and a can of beer in his hand. The dark hair under his straw cowboy hat and large mustache gave him a distinctly Hispanic appearance. Probably a Mexican. She frowned. Figures.

She found she could only pan while the camera was zoomed in, but she studied the other men within the camera’s field of view. Other than one string-bean of a good old boy and one black guy, they all looked Hispanic. Vivienne considered herself fairly liberal about most things, but illegal immigration was not one of them. Border-hopping, job-stealing, welfare-getting, anchor-baby-having parasites. Not all of them, of course. There were a few good ones. Her maid in Denver, Beatrice, was one of those. These men, however, were obviously part of the bad majority.

“Don’t zoom in like that,” Daniel said as he stretched out over the desk and put his eye to the rifle scope. “You might miss something.”

Shit. Vivienne zoomed out, but everyone was still in their same spot. “What the hell are they waiting for?” she asked under her breath.

“Cover of darkness.”

“Why don’t you just shoot them now?”

The look he gave her said she’d asked a really stupid question. “They haven’t done anything illegal yet,” he said. “In fact, you’re lucky you don’t know shit about guns, because if you’d shot at them earlier, they’d have been well within their rights to fire back. You could have gotten us all killed.”

“They’re trespassing!”

“Maybe, but only barely, and they’re outside the gate and not trying to get inside. At least, not yet. You can’t just shoot someone who walks onto your fucking property.” He shook his head at her and scoffed. “Jesus, you fucking people.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” she snapped.

“All you rich assholes think you can just go around killing anyone who looks at you funny. Or slaps your face, you crazy fucking bitch.”

Vivienne moved her eyes away. “I guess I deserve that.”

“You deserve a hell of a lot worse, and not just for trying to shoot me either.” He waited for her to look at him again. “Don’t forget, I’ve got that video. I still haven’t decided what yet, but you’re going to get yours before this is done. Believe that.”

Her face fell. “What are you going to do to me?”

His eyebrows drew together and his mouth fell open, the corner of his lip curling up in an expression of disdain and disbelief. “Does everything I say to you go in one ear and out the other? I literally just said that I haven’t decided yet.” He scoffed. “I should slap the taste out of your mouth just for asking such dumb fucking questions.”

She cast her eyes down. “Please don’t hurt me, Daniel. I’m sorry for trying to shoot you, okay?”

“S-sorry? You’re fucking sorry?” He hyperventilated an incredulous laugh. “The only reason I’m still alive right now is because you’re an incompetent fucking moron! Shit, you’re fucking sorry. I’m the one who should be sorry. Sorry I ever agreed to work for a greedy, selfish cunt like you!”

Vivienne had been in situations like this one before, where the person on the other side of the table was so pissed off that anything she said only fueled their rage. She’d learned that the best thing to do was keep quiet and let the fire burn itself out, so that’s what she did. She looked down into her lap and waited until he turned back to the scope, but she could tell by the way his back and arm muscles flexed that he was still angry with her. Then he gritted his teeth.

Daniel rolled off the desk and in a swift movement grabbed her by the throat again and cocked back his arm. He was enraged. She flinched, turning her head away and squeezing her eyes shut, expecting to feel her nose crunch any moment now when he plowed his fist into her face. When it didn’t come, she opened her eyes. His nostrils flared and he breathed heavily, staring at her with dark chips of anger, caught in apparent indecision about whether to hit her or not. He did neither. Instead, he slapped her face, but hardly put anything behind it. Almost a swipe across her cheek.

“Eh, fuck you, bitch,” he said, pushing her backward. He fell onto his ass and rested his forearms on his knees, glaring at her. He squeezed his hands into tight shaking fists, biting his bottom lip. “Urgh! I just want to ... fucking...”

Without even understanding why she did it, other than a compulsion that originated in her tingling loins, Vivienne leaned forward and took hold of his wrist, bringing his hand back to her throat. “Squeeze it,” she said.

The move, and the request, snapped Daniel out of his rage, but he did as she asked. He squeezed her neck until she felt her face tighten and warm.

“Harder.”

“What the fuck are you doing?” he asked, even as he tightened his strong grip until she could no longer breathe.

“Slap me,” she wheezed. He stared at her incredulously, but she nodded. “Do it.” He did. He slapped her hard across the face. Far harder than before. The lingering sting on her cheek made her pussy throb. She stared into his eyes. “Again.”

He slapped her again, and then a third time without any prompting. “You’re fucking nuts, you know that?” he asked, and slapped her again.

Vivienne wanted nothing more than to shove her hand down the front of her yoga pants and rub her pussy while he repeatedly slapped her face. Instead, she grabbed his shirt and pulled him closer, until they were eye to eye and she felt his breath on her face. The lack of oxygen was making her euphoric. Her heart hammered in her chest. She’d never experienced anything so exhilarating before.

“I deserve it,” she gasped.

“Yeah, you do,” he croaked, and slapped her again, but he was so close now that he couldn’t hit her as hard. “Fucking psycho bitch.”

“Call me a cunt.”

His shocked expression was almost funny to her. “Y-you are. You are a fucking cunt.” He slapped her again and she arched her back to clench her vaginal muscles. The reaction didn’t go unnoticed by Daniel. “Are you getting off on this or something?”