"Now… will you let me go?"

Jack grunted, wiping his lips with the back of one hand. He looked sneeringly down at the young girl. Marcie drew back, never before feeling this low, this insignificant before.

"Wanna know why you're here, huh? We've been watchin' you, you and your fuckin' old lady for a long time," Jack said. He was enjoying this, watching the shock and horror register on her face as his words sank in.

"What?"

"You don't remember me, do you? At the hospital? I'm Jack… used to deliver laundry up to your mother's floor?"

Marcie felt her mind whirling around and around. She found herself holding onto a table leg as if to steady her thoughts. Laundry? Her mother's floor? Wait, wait a minute! She leaned forward a little, narrowing her eyes and studying the big man standing before her. She couldn't be sure. But… yes, yes, he looked familiar!

"I… I think so. But what does that…"

"Me and my brother wanted to have a good time with your old lady… maybe even with you," Jack started, his smile fading. "One night in the elevator I made a pass at your mother – nothin' big, just a little pass. And man, did she get bent!"

The big stud rolled his eyes, his hands on his thighs. He snorted out a laugh, his smile completely fading.

"She called the hospital security. Security!" Jack repeated, his bushy black eyebrows knitted together in anger. Marcie trembled for her life. For a second she thought the was going to kill her. Jack calmed himself down, smoothing his palms over his Levi's.

"She lives alone… alone with me. She's afraid of… men," Marcie whispered.

"Don't matter. They came runnin' up and took me away. Shit, I was lucky they didn't throw me in the slammer. They just threw me out of the hospital. Man, that was all I had to live on."