Carnal Vengeance Read online

  April frowned, Bobbi blushed and Erica rolled her eyes. Holly wondered if this was some sort of test and opted for the truth. "I think what I've seen on television the last two days was the most disgusting display of male power I have ever witnessed."

  "Bravo!" Rachel said and toasted her with her empty glass. "I especially liked the part where Ziegler made it sound like Cheryl regularly consented to gang-bangs when she was intoxicated."

  Shaking her head, Holly admitted, "The worst part of it is, although I have no doubt it happened exactly like Cheryl said, he came off much more believably than she did."

  "The fact that he performs in front of the public for a living and she's practically a hermit should have been taken into account in advance," Rachel said. "Slight miscalculation there, wouldn't you agree, Doctor?"

  Holly noted the way April's cheeks flushed at Rachel's snide words, but she made no retort.

  As though she were unaware that her glass was empty, Rachel tipped it to her mouth then stared at it suspiciously when no liquid poured forth. "You don't mind if I help myself, do you, Erica?"

  As Rachel headed for the bar, April said gently. "Rachel, why don't you have a cup of coffee instead? Lunch will be served in a few minutes."

  Rachel laughed as she splashed whiskey into her glass. "You know better than to try mothering me, April. I need alcohol, not caffeine."

  "But you were doing so well," April continued in a nonpressuring voice. "It's been months—"

  "Eight months and two weeks to be exact. Since the last bastard got—" She glanced at Holly and changed whatever she had been about to say. "Since the last time I got shitfaced. The only thing between me and Tim Ziegler's balls right now is this." She held up the refilled glass. "And as long as you panty-waists are still voting against violence, I'm going to stay drunk."

  With eyes closed, Rachel savored a long swallow then turned her attention to Holly. "You're our special guest today. Would you care to tell us what brings you here?"

  Holly's uncertainty made her pause and Rachel spoke again before she could reply.

  "I've got a better idea. I'll go first. The good doctor always tells us talking about our problems with others who can empathize is the best medicine for what ails us." She came out from behind the bar, but rather than sitting back down, she paced as she prepared to relate her personal nightmare.

  "You heard Cheryl's accusation against Ziegler and his buddies. Well, there's a little more to the bedtime story that she didn't tell to spare the rest of us. Like Cheryl, the four of us were freshman at Dominion, but only Bobbi and I knew each other at first. I'm sure you remember the fraternity Ziegler belonged to was mainly for jocks, but their competitive spirit took on a new dimension that year."

  "They made up a game in which each brother had a 'dance card' with one hundred lines on it. Every time they could prove they danced with a different girl they wrote her name on the card. Freshmen were the easiest prey, so we received the most aggressive attention. Once her name was on three cards, a girl was said to be a member of the Little Sister Society, and the boys made such a membership sound very elite. Understand, there were some girls who joined the Society knowingly, but too often that wasn't the case. What happened to Cheryl was no isolated incident."

  Holly turned in her seat to follow Rachel's progress around the room. Part of her was hanging on every word; the other part wanted to run before she heard more than she had bargained for.

  "Each of the fifteen brothers competing in the dance contest put one dollar in a glass jar in the fraternity game room for every line he filled in. The one who filled up his dance card first won the jar. Rumor had it that the King Stud walked off with over a thousand dollars."

  "Dear god," Holly whispered, and before she thought better of it, she asked, "What was the winner's name?"

  Rachel took another swallow of her drink then said, "Jerry Frampton."

  Chapter 2

  "Holly?" April said softly. "Are you all right? You've gotten very pale."

  A musical chime sounded and Rachel went to the intercom on the wall by the elevator. A moment later, she returned to the group and announced, "Lunch is on its way up now, so I'll be considerate of our guest's delicate sensibilities and save my story until after she's eaten."

  Rachel's consideration came too late for Holly. Her stomach was already twisted into such a tight knot that all she could eat of the elegantly served luncheon was the lobster bisque and a slice of sourdough bread. As soon as the others had progressed to their brandy snifters of chocolate hazelnut mousse and cappuccino, Rachel picked up the thread of her account right where she had left off.

  "The one thing both Cheryl and Tim have agreed on so far is that a lot of young people get a little wild when they go off to college. I knew quite a few girls who did the kind of nonstop partying that Cheryl did. Unfortunately for them, they let their hair down in a year when that was all the encouragement the boys needed to take advantage of their disoriented condition."

  Rachel absently stroked the grip of her gun as she continued. "I was different. Getting drunk or stoned held no fascination for me... in spite of the evidence before you," she added with a crooked grin. "I was at school to study, not blow off steam, but one night, a friend talked me into going to a fraternity party. You can guess which fraternity. As usual, I turned down offers of beer or drugs, although there was enough marijuana smoke in the game room to give anyone a buzz." She took a sip of the coffee April had poured for her then made a face as she set the cup back on its saucer.

  "The music was ear-splitting and I was embarrassed by what some of the couples were doing right in front of everyone else. I was about to leave when a boy I knew from one of my classes asked me to dance. His name was Billy O'Day and I had always thought he was kind of nice for a big, empty-headed jock. After a few dances, he yelled in my ear that he wanted to talk and motioned for me to follow him upstairs, away from the stereo speakers. It never occurred to me to be wary.

  "He led me to his room, but I still didn't worry. Billy seemed like a gentleman to me."

  Rachel's gaze was fixed on the cup in front of her, but Holly was certain she was seeing something else entirely. No one else spoke, so Holly remained quiet as well, and waited until Rachel was ready to finish her account.

  "Three of his brothers were waiting for us there. My mistake was that I fought them. They hadn't expected that and it really pissed them off. I've always been tall and strong, and I had taken some judo classes. They managed to rip my clothes off, but I got in a few good licks while they were doing it. Unfortunately, so did they. The harder I fought, the rougher they got. I don't remember being raped, because a couple hard kicks to my head knocked me out before they got what they wanted.

  "I regained consciousness in the college infirmary eight hours later. A nurse told me that sometime during the night, I had been dumped in front of the door, naked and bloody. Written across my stomach were the Greek letters of another fraternity and a happy face. I had stopped hemorrhaging, but I had sustained internal injuries and was warned to take it easy because of the concussion. The only thing that wouldn't heal was the membrane one of the bastards had broken when he took my virginity."

  Holly's shock held her immobilized. She had had her virginity stolen as well, but at least she knew the name of the thief.

  "The nurse was sympathetic and called the police for me. They gave her the same runaround Cheryl got."

  "But you had visible injuries," Holly protested.

  Rachel snorted. "Sure, but how did I get them? It was the precious football players' words against mine. No one at the party heard any screams, and no one remembered seeing me go upstairs with Billy. When it got around campus that I was trying to file assault charges, my fellow students harassed me until I gave it up. You see, I was there on scholarship and couldn't afford the luxury of transferring to another school or taking a year off until my attackers graduated."

  Holly always knew how fortunate she had been to have that optio
n. She steeled herself to ask, "Will you tell me who the others were?"

  "Of course. One thing you'll discover is that our fearless leader doesn't permit any secrets. Do you, April?"

  April's expression was a mixture of concern and mild rebuke. "No one in this group is ever forced or coerced to tell more than they need to."

  "Aah, but there's the rub. You always manage to convince us that we need to bare our souls... for our own good." She stopped and massaged her temples. "Sorry. My mouth seems to be on overdrive today." Rising, her body swayed for a second before she found her equilibrium. "If you'll excuse me, I need to wash my hands."

  As soon as she had walked into the bedroom and closed the door, Erica Donner sighed aloud. "Gawd! If Ah'd known she was drinkin' again, Ah would never have told her we were meetin'."

  Her melodious accent so contradicted her continental appearance, Holly wondered if her ears had played a trick on her.

  "That's not fair," Bobbi said in a confident, husky voice that was just as wrong for her image. She removed her wire-rimmed glasses and leaned forward. "We've all had to deal with addictions of some sort. What about you, Holly? Any problems with alcohol or drugs?"

  Holly was caught off guard by the swift change in Bobbi's demeanor from painfully shy to aggressive. She shook her head. "No, I've never liked the feeling of being out of control."

  Bobbi's soft gaze became a narrow-eyed stare that seemed to pin Holly in place for her inspection. "What about food? Or sex?"

  The question disturbed her as much as Bobbi's superior attitude. "Food. For a while... it wasn't like I was truly bulimic, but..." She couldn't finish.

  "Relax, Holly," April said softly. "You don't have to share until you're ready."

  Bobbi replaced her glasses and leaned back into the cushioned chair, resuming her timid pose, but Holly had already gotten a glimpse of the woman beneath the disguise. She took a deep breath to recover her own usual façade of calm. "That must be very effective in getting dishonest taxpayers to come clean."

  All three of the women laughed aloud.

  "Very astute, Holly," Erica said. "Bobbi is the chameleon of our group. Like Superman, she can slip into a phonebooth in her bookkeeper persona and pop out seconds later as whoever she chooses to be. Bobbi never suffered any addictions in the usual sense. She just developed a few... personality problems."

  Bobbi folded her arms and frowned at Erica. Her tone was now higher-pitched and defensive. "If we're going to tell Holly all our little secrets, I think the Black Widow should go next. How many husbands have you killed off now—seven? Eight?"

  Erica arched one perfect eyebrow then shrugged indifferently. "The police and insurance files say Ah'm innocent of any wrongdoin' an' those are the only opinions that matter." She looked at Holly and said coolly, "Ah was married three times after college. The first was an addict who accidentally got hold of a bad batch of heroine, the second committed a very messy suicide in our bathroom rather than face bankruptcy, but the third, George Donner, Ah was truly sorry about. He was the first man Ah'd ever known who could keep up with me mentally and physically. Ah almost miss him at times."

  Holly suddenly remembered reading about the millionaire businessman's accidental death during a mountain-climbing vacation with his much younger wife. She hadn't connected Erica's name with the incident until Bobbi called her the Black Widow.

  "At any rate," Erica continued, "your question to Rachel was never answered. The names of her other assailants were Kenneth Viello, Ike Brown and Jerry Frampton." She smirked at Holly. "Ah do hope y'all don't play much poker, because your expression is a dead giveaway. Obviously, Jerry Frampton was responsible for whatever happened to you, but don't let it make you feel special. As Rachel said, he was King Stud, so he had every one of our names on his dance card. He just acquired them in different ways. Just so you understand, we all have one or more names overlappin' on our personal hit lists."

  * * *

  David glanced at his watch, then returned his attention to the express elevator. A brief conversation with Suzanne had confirmed that there was a luncheon for five being served in Mrs. Donner's suite, but the names of her guests were unknown.

  David couldn't help but wonder if the odd gathering had something to do with the information Tim Ziegler had given him. Although Donner could very logically be having a business meeting, his reporter's nose told him it was something else. Even without the incentive of having a legitimate reason for meeting that last blonde, his curiosity demanded he find out who the four women were, what sort of relationship they had with Erica Donner and whether that connection extended to Cheryl Wallace.

  He tossed out his plan to use the room-service waiter routine and decided to go for a sneak attack through one of her guests. He could always return to the hotel later for another try at Donner. All he had to do was pick a woman and follow her. He smiled to himself. There wasn't much deliberation as to which one he would choose.

  * * *

  "Hit lists?" Holly asked, looking from one woman to another. She noticed how April stopped Erica from answering with nothing more than a slight twitch of her index finger then spoke for all of them.

  "Before we explain that expression, I'd like you to hear about the rest of our experiences and how we got together."

  Bobbi's assault was similar to Cheryl's in that she had been extremely inebriated and had knowingly had sex with one of the boys before the others joined them. Though she was a friend of Rachel's and knew about what had happened to her, the fraternity brother she had been dating wasn't involved in Rachel's attack, so Bobbi hadn't thought anything like that could happen to her.

  Bobbi had the unique distinction, however, of having been raped by all fifteen of the brothers involved in the dance contest.

  Erica's case was more like Rachel's. She had gone to a fraternity party with other girls and was singled out by one of the brothers. She had only had two beers when he suggested they go upstairs. The alcohol had been just enough to blur her usual good sense, but it hadn't been nearly enough to keep her from realizing she had walked into a trap the minute they entered his room and he locked the door.

  Two of the four boys who greeted them were Billy O'Day and Jerry Frampton. Like Rachel, her first reaction had been to struggle. Unlike Rachel, she could see there was no hope of escaping what they had planned for her. She had avoided serious injury by lying perfectly still until they wore themselves out.

  "You've heard the worst," April said. "Compared to the others, my story sounds like a fairy tale, but nevertheless, I was inducted into the Little Sister Society without my knowledge. Some people would call me promiscuous because I had sexual relations with quite a few boys in my teens. But I only had one partner at a time, always thought I was in love, and considered myself going steady with him before getting intimate. If someone else interested me, I broke up with the one I had been with before going on to the next one.

  "So, I didn't think anything was peculiar when, after Tim Ziegler and I had dated a while, he lost interest. At the same time, Adam Frankowicz, another one of his brothers, started flirting with me. Rather than moaning over a broken heart, I moved on. I felt a little funny when it happened again, mainly because the timing and circumstances were so much like the first change of partners."

  "Both Tim and Adam had romanced me until I agreed to have sex. The next date was spent making love in their rooms then within a few days, they each drifted away. Jerry Frampton was the one that followed Adam, but he lacked the patience the other two had had. On our first date, he took me to his room and pressured me until I gave in. Immediately after he was done, he went to his closet and opened the louvered door. Standing inside was Adam. He had been watching... and masturbating. Jerry encouraged him to use me to finish himself off, but Adam was so embarrassed at being unexpectedly exposed that he lost his erection.

  "Jerry thoroughly enjoyed himself as he told me how he had watched Tim and me, then Adam and me, and since each fornication had been properly witn
essed, I was now officially a member of the Little Sister Society. I remember how stunned he was that I wasn't delighted with that news."

  Holly had been so caught up in their stories, she had forgotten about Rachel until she came out of the bedroom and headed straight for the bar. All eyes watched her pour an inch of vodka into a tall glass then fill it with Bloody Mary mix and an extra dash of Tabasco. "Did someone die while I was out?" she asked in a hoarse voice as she carried her drink back to the seat she had vacated earlier.

  April visibly gathered her patience before speaking. "We've filled Holly in on our personal experiences, and I was about to tell her how we got together."

  "Oh, please, Doctor, let me," Rachel begged with a slight slur. "You never give yourself enough credit when you tell this part. See, Holly, April was the one who figured out what had been going on and managed to steal one of the boys' dance cards. She contacted each girl on the card, even tracking down some of those that had left school. She managed to get thirty-five of them to meet to compare notes and talk. Some of them knew of others who had been taken advantage of, and eventually the Little Sister Society boasted over fifty members. We thought it was appropriate to retain the name. By spreading the word around campus, handing out flyers and posting notices in the public restrooms, we put an end to the fraternity's reign of terror."

  Erica added, "April was one of those fortunate people who knew what she wanted to be when she grew up and had a natural talent for her goal. The first point we all agreed on was that goin' to the police or college administration was a complete waste of time. The only thing that had accomplished was more humiliation for the victims and only an occasional verbal reprimand for the naughty boys. Some of the girls were helped just by bein' able to talk to someone else about what they'd gone through and how they felt. And then there were those of us who wanted revenge."

  Rachel retrieved control of the narration the moment Erica paused for effect. "April weeded out the ones who just needed a hug and some encouraging words to get on with their lives. The rest of us, those who wanted blood, formed the inner circle of the Little Sister Society. Over the years, a number of the women in that circle dropped out, some because they had seen their personal attackers get punished and that was enough for them, others because their careers or families took precedence over their need for revenge. The four of us, Cheryl, and two others who couldn't make it this week, are still active."