“In ways you wouldn’t believe, lady,” Jack said.
“You say you have your standards?” she said, her gaze not meeting his.
“I don’t take sloppy seconds.”
“Stand up for me,” she said. “Both of you.”
“That may not be easy to do at the moment,” Jim said, grinning.
“I have my standards, too. Let’s have a look at you.”
“What’s the joke?” Jim asked.
“I just want to see if your expectations are rising. It’s a vanity of mine. You’re sure you’re not going to tell Arnold about this?”
“You got our word,” Jim said.
“Come on, big boy. Stand up.”
They rose from their chairs, hunched slightly forward, waiting, their fingers touching the tabletop. She brought the revolver from behind her hip and pointed it at them.
“Now get your worthless asses out of here,” she said.
Both men averted their eyes from the muzzle.
“You’re gonna regret this,” Jim said, breathing heavily.
Maggie lowered the pistol barrel slightly. “Say one more word and I’ll shoot your dick off.”
They edged through the living room, their hands in front of them, as though pushing back the air. Then they skittered sideways like crabs out the door and ran for their motorcar. She locked the door after them and went back into the bedroom and called Arnold Beckman’s office, still in the nude. She heard the motorcar drive away.
Beckman picked up the telephone. “Beatrice?”
“No, it’s Maggie, you bastard. You’re dealing with Beatrice DeMolay?”
“She’s putting together a big shipment of Mausers for some friends in South America.”
“I give a fuck about your business deals after you sent these two animals to rape me?”
“Sent whom to rape you?”
“Jim and Jack. They didn’t give their last names. They were too busy tearing off my clothes.”
“Are you crazy?”
“I just chased them out the door at gunpoint. If I hadn’t gotten to my pistol, I would have been raped. Why would you do such a thing to me, Arnold? I can’t believe you’d do that.” She began to cry into the receiver.
“I don’t know what’s going on here. They wouldn’t dare. They know I’d have them ripped apart. With machines and chains, joint and seam.”
“You think I made it up. They were going to sodomize me. They were describing what they were going to do to me. In detail.”
“Stop crying. I know you, Maggie. You could lie the paint off a battleship.”
“Why would I lie? The thought of them touching me makes me sick to my stomach.”
“You’re up to something.”
“You cheap motherfucker. I hate you. I know we’ve both done loathsome things in our lives, but I didn’t believe you were capable of this.”