Read Online The Woman They Kept by Andrew Krause - Free Book Online

a woman's scream rang out,
along with the general busy sounds of a commotion. The quick sharp
staccato of gunfire rang out and more screams accompanied it.
Through the open doorway Gideon saw guests rushing out the front
door. The mountain pushed Daniel aside and ran out into the hallway
as the noise grew louder, reaching into his coat pocket and pulling
out a pistol.
    Gideon backed himself into a
corner. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he was sure that he
had seen enough death for the day, and didn't care to be a party to
more. This was clearly none of his business, he had what he needed
and now just wanted a way out.
    Daniel was standing at the
doorway, listening, when it burst inward, knocking him back into the
room.
    A woman strode in, clad in black
leather motorcycle armor from her boots to her neck. She moved with
a cat-like grace, powerful yet fluid. Her face was beautiful but
sharp, set into a scowl that hardened every part of her. In her
arms she cradled a large automatic rifle with a whiff of smoke
trailing from the barrel.
    “ Hello Daniel,” she
said, leaping over the dead girl's body just as he was picking
himself up. She drove her boot into his chest hard, keeping him on
the ground. “Do you remember me?” She placed her boot
on the man's groin, grinding down hard with her heel.
    Daniel gasped in pain. “No!
Why the fuck should I remember you?”
    The woman slung the rifle onto
her back and pulled out a knife, pointing the blade to a jagged scar
across her eye. “You gave me this, you and that little pig
sticker you keep under the couch for when the girls get out of hand.
Do you remember me now?”
    Daniel shook his head again.
“Did I own you? There's been so many...”
    The woman's mouth twisted in a
snarl. “Not me. Her name was Jenny, and I tried to buy her
off you. You left me with this,” she pointed to her eye
again, “and then sold her to someone else. I swore I'd come
back for you, do you remember me now?”
    Again, Daniel shook his head,
though clearly it was the wrong answer. The woman grabbed him by
the hair and cut a long line across his face to match her own. “You
fucking little pig, you grunt and squeal in your own filthy little
pleasures and imagine yourself king of this shit heap. Well there
aren't any kings when it's just you and me.” She slashed the
man across the throat and his blood came spurting out of him in
waves. Kneeling on his chest, she brought his face close, spitting
in his eye as he died.
    The house was silent after that,
the woman standing as still as a statue, breathing slowly, her eyes
half closed. The knife that had killed Daniel still sat in her
hand, blood dripping from the end of it, providing the only audible
sound for a few moments. All the guests from the party had left.
    Finally the woman turned to
Gideon. “Were you buying or selling?” she asked, her
voice sharp as the blade in her hand.
    Gideon was in the corner, down
on his knees, all the blood drained from his face. His legs shook
and his heart pounded. “It wasn't like that, I swear.”
    She came and kneeled over him,
breathing hot in his face. Her short black hair fell across her
brow as she looked down on him. “This way of making money,
this buying and selling of people, it's a cancer.” She
stroked the side of Gideon's face with the knife, leaving Daniel's
blood in streaks. “And with cancer, the first thing you have
to do is cut it off, then the healing can begin.”
    “ I'm trying to find the
woman I love!” he shouted. Sweat was beginning to pour in his
eyes. “Please, I'm just trying to find the woman I love.”
    Her eyebrow raised. “Bullshit,
you're trying to save your skin. I've heard it before.”
    “ We were engaged to be
married. She got taken one night while I was there, a whole group
of them came, they killed her parents and buried me alive, please,
you have to believe me.”
    “ What was her name?”
    “ Rolanda,” Gideon
said. Slowly, he reached for the