Then, against her anguished protests, they pulled her backwards to the side of the road, pinning their arms tightly against her back so if she struggled more they could clench her elbows up to her shoulder blades and reduce her to a writhing mass of agonizing pain.

But it was fear that now raced through her as the two heavily breathing men dragged her back down the highway. Up ahead she recognized the hulking: shape of a pick-up truck that she had passed unnoticed only a few minutes before. Ellen made one last attempt to break loose, kicking at the taller man who stood next to her on the soft shoulder at the edge of the road. Then she felt her arm wrench up once more, and she bent down, groaning, more in fear now, and hoping desperately that she could distract her abductors for at least a moment until she could regain her strength. But they pulled her up from her half-kneeling position and dragged her on until she was facing the rear end of the truck.

"Oh God. Please no! Let me go!" she muttered under the tightly clenching hand over her mouth.

They hoisted her wrenching body ahead of them onto the floor of the open pick-up, and she felt her stomach strike painfully against cold metal. The image of a third man sitting on the floor of the truck bed swept past her widening, horror-stricken eyes as he grabbed for her shoulders and dragged her into the interior until her face fell hard onto his lap. Then Billy's heavy weight landed in a thud on her back, and a sharp stab of pain shot through her belly. Behind her, she heard Cash race along the dirt shoulder of the road to the front of the truck where he jumped onto the seat beside the driver. Then the truck roared off with a squeal of tires against the pavement.

"You got her, boys?" the rasping voice of the driver grunted excitedly.

"We ain't only got her, Pop. Wait till you see what she's got," Billy shouted jubilantly to the front of the truck. His stomach lay flat over her outstretched form and his free hand squeezed more tightly at the curve of her small waist. "Yeah, he ain't seen what we got," he repeated in a lewd whisper to Ellen, dropping his wet mouth to her ear.