The Woman They Kept Read Online Free PDF

and
sending him to the street again. The ground rose up to meet Gideon
hard, chipping his tooth and sending blood down the back of his
throat. “I think she asks for it. She thinks, 'Good old
Paul, he'll protect me so I can say any old bitchy thing I want.'
Maybe someday I'll let one of you sickos just have her, do whatever
you like to her and as much as she cries out for me I'll just ignore
her. But for now, a manager's got to do what a manager's got to
do.”
    The girl stepped back into the
room and Paul rolled Gideon over onto his side. “I don't hold
it against you,” Paul said, patting Gideon lightly on the
shoulder. “Women,” he said with a shrug. Paul went
back through the window to the back room and the woman came out to
spit on Gideon before closing the window. The spit dribbled down
his face and he drifted off into unconsciousness.

    ...

    Rolanda was standing above
Gideon, looking down on him, wearing a neon bra and panties. Her
face was painted garishly, her lips too red and blue eyeshadow
coloring above her eyes. He called out her name and she bent over
to kiss him, the smell of her, like lilacs, filling him with
longing. Her body was full against his and he wanted nothing more
than to crawl inside her heart and remain there forever. Like a
child, she cradled him against her breast, he nuzzled into her, but
then she pushed his head away with her other hand.
    “ You have to pay for that,
Gideon,” she said. She kissed him hard on the lips but
something gave away, her mouth caved, rotting, her teeth falling
out, her skin peeling and flaking away at the slightest touch. He
pulled back and her whole face fell apart, her eyes ran like cracked
eggs down her skeletal cheeks, leaving gaping black holes of
nothingness behind.
    Gideon woke to Sammy poking him
with his crutches, and an older, nearly naked woman standing over
him with a hand on his shoulder.

Chapter Three

    The woman let him lean on her as
she guided him to a small apartment, introducing herself as Ilsa,
Sammy's mother. She said it exactly like that, Ilsa, Sammy's
mother. It was as though being Sammy's mother was her rank or title
in the world. The apartment building was a cookie cutter of all the
ones down the street, but soon he was inside a small room lying on a
couch as his entire body throbbed. The room he was in was decorated
with pictures of Sammy and Ilsa, not another person in any of them.
    Ilsa untied Gideon's shoes as
though he were a child. She was older than Gideon, maybe forty or
so, and every time Gideon tried to sit up she pushed him back down
to the couch with a hush and an offer to get whatever he was looking
for. She still wore her work outfit, the same skimpy underthings
that all the rest wore, but she had a bathrobe thrown over herself.
Sammy was sitting opposite them in a large and well worn recliner.
    “ Someone worked you over,
dear,” Ilsa said. “What did you do?”
    Gideon's speech was distorted
coming through the fat lip he had. “I hit a woman. She said
some terrible things and it just happened. Her manager beat the
hell out of me for it.”
    Ilsa placed an icepack on
Gideon's face, he gasped with the pleasant shock of it and then
sighed as the throbbing slowly receded. “I want you to know
that if you hit me you'll be leaving with a knife in the belly.
Sammy said you were nice to him, and I believe him, but don't you
try that shit with me.”
    He pulled the photograph out of
his pocket and handed it to Ilsa. “There's a woman I'm trying
to find, I was asking around in the red light district. The woman
told me some very unpleasant possibilities. It just hit too close
to home.” Gideon frowned as a thought crossed his mind.
“Ilsa, do you know what 'seasoning' is?”
    A string of Ilsa's hair dangled
in front of her face and she brushed it behind her ear, pulling a
cigarette out and offering Gideon one. “You mean like spices?
I'm not much on cooking.”
    A groan escaped Gideon's lips as
he shifted. “I don't