Chapter 1

At a little after noon, the engine of the Miata began to sputter alarmingly. Suddenly, smoke began to billow from beneath the hood, and Nikki let out a high shriek. Something had happened! Maybe the radiator hose had broken. And here she was in the middle of West Texas, with nothing but desert for hundreds of miles!

Through the smoke, Nikki’s panicked gaze suddenly fixed on something about a hundred yards or so down the highway. It was a rest stop! Saying a quick prayer of thanks, she applied just the slightest pressure to the gas pedal, praying again the coughing little car would make it just the extra distance. “Come on, baby,” she shouted over the sputtering of the engine.

Roughly twenty yards from the rest stop the Miata gave up the ghost. Nikki had already eased the little car onto the shoulder of the highway, and now there was nothing she could do but let the car roll to a sad stop.

Nikki sighed, and brushed a lock of her fine hair out of her eyes. Oh well, she was going to think positively on this trip if it killed her. At least she didn’t have far to walk to the rest stop. She could see her car from there easily–hell, she could see for a hundred miles in this country–and could flag down anyone who might come along.

It was a Sunday afternoon, which meant traffic would be light, and it was punishingly hot, nearly 100. But she had dressed for the weather, in a thin white cotton t-shirt and pink shorts, and she had a couple of bottles of Evian in a Playmate cooler. She could sit under one of the covered tables and just wait it out for a highway patrolman if she had to.

So, throwing her purse in the trunk, she locked the car and, carrying the cooler and a dog-eared paperback her roommate had loaned her, she made her way to the rest stop to await her saviors, whomever they might be.

She didn’t have long to wait.

—

About fifteen minutes later, Nikki looked up from her novel to the sound of an engine. Walking to the shoulder of the highway, she saw what appeared to be a pickup truck coming her way. A few more minutes of waiting and squinting at the approaching vehicle confirmed the truth. It was indeed a pickup, old-looking and kind of beat-up, but with two passengers. Nikki immediately began waving both her long, tanned arms over her head. “HEEYYY! HEEEEEYYYY!”

The truck pulled into the rest stop with a crunching of gravel and two men got out of the cab. One was tall with shoulder length hair, and well muscled, and wearing an old baseball cap, jeans and a t-shirt with some heavy metal logo on them. His unlikely companion was black, about the other man’s height but extremely beefy. Nikki thought of Earl Campbell. His t-shirt was black, with the Public Enemy logo standing out in bright relief.

A quick tinge of nervousness–that quick fluttering of the heart–raced through Nikki at the sight of these two men, but she repressed it. Clearly the assholes at work were making her jumpy around anyone male. And she needed help, pure and simple.

“Something wrong, miss?” said the guy in the cap.

His companion said nothing, but there was something in his eyes she didn’t trust. She had seen that look at work. Oh well, the hell with it. She refused to notice it and answered.

“Yeah, my car overheated. I think it might be something with the radiator.” “Hell of a place to break down,” the man said, his eyes dropping to Nikki’s legs, now deeply tanned under the sunlight.

“Really,” she said, “do you think there’s anything you can do?”

“Hmm. Well, we can have a look at it, I suppose. Could just be a busted hose. You got your keys?”

Nikki dug in her shorts pocket for the keys. In doing so she didn’t notice the grin the two men exchanged.

“Here you go,” she said, and smiled her biggest smile, what her roommate called the “cover girl” smile. Couldn’t hurt to try to be nice, she figured.

“Well, this might take a sec, miss. You might as well get comfortable,” said Baseball Cap, taking the keys. As they walked over to the Miata, Nikki returned to her bench and cracked open the novel. She looked up briefly when she heard the hood open and Baseball Cap say “Whoa!” as a cloud of smoke rose to the blue desert sky. Then she sat and read while the sounds of tinkering commenced.

After about five minutes she looked up and noticed the two men bent over the open hood. They appeared to be talking to each other. The both cast a glance her way, and she managed a smile. They smiled too, but more at each other than back at her. She went back to reading.

She was really getting into the story of the novel, and was therefore jolted back to reality by the voice of Baseball Cap. Jumping, she looked up to see both men standing right in front of her where she sat.

“Y-you startled me!” Nikki exclaimed, trying to sound calm. The butterflies were back.

“Hmm. Well, miss, your car’s a real mess, but it shouldn’t be too much trouble to fix. Tank and I can do it right here, in fact.”

“Oh,” she said, surprised, “but…that’s wonderful! Th-thank you!”

“Thing is,” said Baseball Cap, “there IS the matter of, shall we say, compensation…” He let his voice trai off. His big black friend smiled again, showing a gold incisor. “Well, of c-course,” Nikki said. Why was she stammering, she wondered. “I’ve brought plenty of money. Just tell me wh-what you need and…”

She stopped, confused. The two men were laughing out loud.

“Wh-what!?” she blurted, confused. “What!?”

“That ain’t the compensation we had in mind, honey.”

At the sound of the name, and the clear implications of the statement, Nikki suddenly felt the butterflies in her stomach turn into a whole wasps’ nest! She felt her heartbeat quicken. This wasn’t real, she thought hurriedly, maybe they’re kidding! Her eyes darted quickly back to the road. No vehicles. No one for miles. No one at all.

“I-I-I d-don’t know wh-what you mean, I-I…” she managed. Fear was enveloping her like a shround. The looks on the men’s faces turned deeply sinister.

“Sure you do,” said Baseball Cap calmly. “Purty lady all alone, needs the help of two young studs like us”–the other man laughed again while Nikki’s gorgeous eyes grew huge–“I think there’s much more suitable compensation than money to be had. Right, Tank?”

She stood and clumsily began backing up. “I-I don’t think s-s-so…” she said, trying to sound unafriad, knowing she was failing. The men moved towards her, slowly, like predators.

Tears began to form in Nikki’s big blue eyes. “P-p-please, wait,” she heard herself stammering. It was hopeless. As her mind raced, she assessed her situation as best she could in her confusion. No one for miles. If she ran into the rest stop’s ladies room they’d simply follow her. And surrounding them all, the endless unforgiving desert. She simply had nowhere to run, and if she did, the big black guy looked as if he could tackle her in less than five paces.

It was a nightmare. A pure nightmare, all her worst sexual harassment nightmares rolled into one inconceivably horrific reality. How could it be happening? “D-don’t,” her soft voice began pleading. She continued to back up, shaking her head pleadingly as the men kept moving forward, slowly and deliberately.

“TAKE THEM SHORTS OFF, BITCH! NOW!”

It was the first time the black man had spoken, and his booming voice sent a shock wave of fear through Nikki’s jackhammering heart like a gunshot! Reason simply vanished. “AAAAAAAIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAA,” she screamed, and took off at a run in the direction of the highway, tears now streaming down her perfect unblemished cheeks.

Surprisingly, the men simply watched her run off, laughing raucously. Of course, she realized as she was several yards down the road, they knew she had nowhere to go.