toward him. “I’ll cut you loose and you can go back to eating rats in the sewer with that nigger bitch. You have no part in this.”
“ I’m afraid I do.” Myron spit at Chambers, saliva spraying the front of his suit.
Chambers turned his back on Myron and began walking toward the other side of the room.
“ Steiner!” Chambers shouted. One of the younger men snapped to attention. “Take these certificates and feed them to this stupid fuck.”
“ But what if he tries to bite me, sir?”
Chambers drew back the lower leg and smacked Steiner on the shoulder. “You want to join him?”
Steiner took the stock certificates and approached Myron. He struggled against his bonds. He wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of screaming. He made eye contact with Steiner.
“ Listen to me,” Steiner said. “I’m going to shove these into your mouth and if you make one attempt to bite me you’re going out the window. Understand?”
Myron shook his head.
“ He’s going to bite me! I know it! I can see it in his eyes!”
“ If he bites you, we’ll break out his teeth and shove them up his prick.”
“ Open up,” Steiner said.
Myron opened his mouth. As Steiner crumpled up the first certificate and pressed it against Myron’s lips, Myron gnashed his teeth. Steiner drew back his fist and punched him in the mouth. Myron felt teeth shatter. Steiner shook his hand with pain, dropping the certificate to the floor. It was probably the first time he’d ever hit anyone.
“ Lora! Front and center,” Chambers barked.
The blond woman approached Chambers. The other man stood to his left, beside a thick-looking door. Myron wondered if it was some kind of safe. It looked like it was made from wood but it could have been lined with steel, for all Myron knew.
Steiner took the first certificate and shoved it into Myron’s mouth. Myron gagged and spit the crumpled certificate and some blood back into Steiner’s face.
“ Little fucker,” Steiner said. He bent down and removed a very expensive brown leather shoe.
From the other side of the office, Chambers said, “I need servicing.”
He unzipped his trousers and let them drop to the floor. His erection was enormous.
“ No,” Lora said.
“ What do you mean, ‘No’?”
“ I won’t do it.”
“ Think about what you’re saying. Out there,” he gestured to the windows with the leg, “people are going out of their heads because they’ve lost everything they had. Now I’m offering you whatever it takes to get you down on your knees. How much?”
Steiner balled up another certificate and shoved it into Myron’s mouth. This time he took his shoe and crammed the paper to the back of Myron’s throat. Myron gagged but the shoe forced his gorge back down and then he had to fight to swallow the paper so he wouldn’t choke on it. The aged paper worked its way down his throat. He coughed. Steiner had another certificate ready, shoving it in. It seemed like he’d hit some sort of groove. Myron tasted the old water flavor of the paper, blood, bile, street grime and shoe polish.
“ This much?” Chambers produced a stack of bills from the inside pocket of his blazer. He peeled off a couple and threw them in Lora’s face.
“ I won’t.”
“ This much?” He threw a couple more bills at her.
“ This much?” He ground a wad into her face.
Myron wondered why she stood there and took this. Why didn’t she turn and run? Why hadn’t she run a while ago when Chambers had undoubtedly blown some kind of gasket? Maybe this wasn’t abnormal. Maybe he always acted like this.
He dropped the entire stack on the floor in front of her.
“ Still no?”
“ Never.”
“ Fuck it. Money’s worthless anyway.”
Chambers kicked the stack away and it exploded in a greenish flutter. He sat the severed leg onto the floor. He ripped off his jacket and his shirt, finished stripping off his pants, standing stocky and naked. Through Myron’s watery eyes, he