Yes, Billy was strong and she was going to humble herself, no matter how distasteful it might be, to the more powerful of her abductors. Only then – as the chief's woman – would she be protected. It was as simple as that, and yet the young girl still was deeply shaken at how the comparatively serene course of her life had been dramatically altered within a period of only a few hours.

Now she would do anything to please Billy, and she was aware that he needed her silent encouragement if he were to remain gang leader. It was strange how most of life's choices were made by outside circumstances alone. She wondered how much her choice of Bob as her fiance had to do with their first accidental meeting at a dance, and the fact that his mother and father were close friends of her parents. Now she had a choice between four escaped convicts, all of whom, except Vito, had ravished her against her will, but she still had to make a choice between them for her protector.

She knew it wouldn't take much to get any one of these men to act as a shield against the others, but the question was whether her own choice would hold in good stead. Despite her own deep-seated feelings of revulsion and fear of Billy, she knew through a second sense that he had a soft spot in his heart for her. She could tell by the way he had acted, almost tenderly, after he had raped her in the back of the truck, and she had become aware of his feelings again after he had lost the crap game. The look of sad relinquishment of her beautiful young body to Cash and Pop last night had sent a shock of momentary understanding through her tortured mind – but that had been quickly blotted out by the brutal ravishment of her tender young body that had followed.

Whatever warmth and compassion Billy might show toward her would, of course, be bestowed at no expense to the gang leader's pride and sovereignty over the others.