Savages

door and the guy is on her like that, one hand over her mouth, the other behind her neck pushing her back down and onto the sofa. She hears the door shut and sees a second guy come in and he puts a gun to the side of her head.
    She shakes her head, like, take anything you want,
do
anything you want. Thank God the guy puts the gun back in his belt, but then he has a syringe and he grabs her arm, rolls up the sleeve of her black silk blouse, and jabs the needle in her vein.
    Then she’s out.

257
     
    Lado pulls up outside the house and gets out.
    Esteban opens the door.
    The
mierdita
looks like he’s been crying.
    Lado moves past him into the room where they keep the little blonde
puta.
She sees his face and knows. Knows and starts to run but he cuffs her across the face, grabs her by the wrist, and pulls her into the other room. Shoves her little ass down into the chair, takes off his belt, and straps her hands behind it.
    She’s kicking her feet and screaming.
    Lado yells, “Help me,
pendejo.
Hold her fucking legs.”
    Esteban keeps crying but he does what he’s told. He grabs her by the feet and holds on while Lado gets the duct tape and forces it onto her mouth. Then he squats down and wraps a length around her ankles and the chair legs.
    “Don’t worry,
chucha
,” he says. “Your legs will be wide open later. You can count on that.”
    He goes to straighten up and Esteban has a gun out, pointed at him.

258
     
    When Magda comes to, still groggy, they have her strapped up with duct tape.
    She’s in some kind of cheap motel room.
    A laptop computer is set on the coffee table in front of her, the little camera eye red and blinking, and she thinks this is some kind of twisted Internet porno rape and if it is she wants them to just get it over with and not kill her.
    But neither of the men takes his clothes off or even unzips his jeans.
    One starts typing on the keyboard, the other
    Pulls the gun out again and jacks a round into the chamber.

259
     
    “What are you going to do with that?” Lado asks.
    Esteban, the little ball of shit, his hands are shaking. Reminds Lado of the old car they had out back as a kid. When you started the engine the whole car would quiver and rattle and that’s what Esteban’s hands look like now.
    “Let her go,” Esteban says
    and then Lado knows he’s in no danger because this kid didn’t listen to him when he told him you pull a gun you pull the trigger you don’t threaten or talk you
    pull the trigger

260
     
    “Log on,” Ben says.
    Log the fuck on, Lado.

261
     
    The bullet misses.
    Not by much, but life, like baseball, is a game of inches.
    Lado steps in, knocks the pistol from the boy’s hand, grabs him by the head, and twists.
    Esteban’s neck snaps.
    Like kindling.
    Lado turns on the camera and aims it at the girl. Then he turns on the computer and types in the address.
    Then he picks up the chain saw.

262
     
    Skype.
    Ben and Chon see
    A rerun
    O strapped to the chair
    Lado standing with the chain saw.
    O’s eyes wide with terror.
    Fresh dialogue, though.
    “Maybe I fuck her before I kill her,” Lado says. He turns toward O. “You like that, little whore? One last dick?”

263
     
    Elena forces herself to sit down at the computer.
    She logs on and sees

264
     
    Magda
    With a gun to her head.
    Fuck you.

265
     
    Love makes you strong.
    Love makes you weak.
    Elena asks, “What do you want?”
    CUT TO:

266
     
    INT. SPLIT SCREEN – MOTEL ROOM/ELENA’S COMPOUND/DESERT SAFE HOUSE
     
    BEN
You know what we want.
    ELENA
Don’t do this. I’m begging you.
    BEN
We want the girl back. Unharmed.
    ELENA
Do what they say, Lado.
    LADO
Of course. (To Ben) Take it easy.
    BEN
We will kill her. We’ll do it.
    ELENA
I believe you. We can work this out. We’ll set a time and place for the exchange. Please don’t do anything rash.

267
     
    Lado sets the time and place.

268
     
    Because why the fuck not? Lado thinks.
    Why the fuck not.
    Lado is a cake-and-eat-it-too kind of guy.
    So maybe he doesn’t cut the
puta
’s head off. No big loss. He will kill her, only a little later, and he’ll kill them, too.
    As for Elena’s stuck-up bitch of a daughter
    Who gives a fuck?

269
     
    “You know what’s going to happen,” Chon says.
    Ben knows.
    They’ll go to exchange their hostages—
    —
fuck
Ben hates that word,
hates
that he has a hostage—
    Elena will show up with an army.
    Their chances of getting out alive are
    How many ways are there to say