"Perhaps you're hungry after a long day's walk," said Vulpes with a smile. He gestured toward a fine china place with a half-finished meal. "Sweet veal, far out of your price range at the Ulta-Luxe. Go on, have some."
Red shook her head silently. Somehow, seeing the face of her wolf man had drained her of all appetite.
"Ah, well. Let it not be said that I didn't try diplomacy." Vulpes' smile had only grown wider, the smile of a predator with more than food on its mind. "I would like to know where the chip is. You can make this easy on yourself."
So it was a chip she was meant to deliver- presumably a computer chip, rather than one for gambling. Red would have gladly told him she didn't have it, didn't even know what he was talking about, but it occurred to her that seeming to possess something valuable might be the only thing keeping her alive.
"I won't tell you."
"I was afraid you'd say that." The way Vulpes said it, though, Red was sure he hadn't been 'afraid'- her refusal had been something he was looking forward to. "In that case, I'll have to search you."
"Search me?"
"You will undress for me, and I will examine each item of your clothing for the chip. Do this, or I will rip your clothes off bodily. I assure you, I can make the latter very painful."
Trying not to tremble, Red began to do as she was told. She unbuttoned her coat and let it fall to the floor, making Vulpes have to reach for it. Once he'd satisfied himself that the pockets were empty, he nodded for her to proceed.
Red hesitated before removing her coarse overshirt. She still had a filmy undershirt beneath it, but every item of clothing she removed made it harder to hide her shivering. Vulpes snatched the shirt from her hands, though his eyes weren't on it; he seemed less interested in examining her clothes than in examining her barely clothed body.
"Why are you stopping, my dear?"
"I've just got the shirt and pants. You can see they don't have pockets. There's nowhere I could be hiding the chip."
"I'll be the judge of that."
He was really going to make her do this. Red was sure it wasn't her first time undressing her in front of a man (the doctor back in Goodsprings had surely seen more of her than a husband had the right to expect on his wedding night,) but the hungry look in Vulpes' eyes mixed with the gentle tone of his voice made her feel like a helpless virgin. Red had to bight her tongue to keep from saying no; she believed him when he said he could make ripping off her clothes deeply uncomfortable.
Silently, Red pulled her undershirt over her head and tossed it aside. Her breasts were bare for him now, and the look of hunger in his eyes had changed to satisfaction, as if inspecting her for purchase. The longer she hesitated, the worse his look became. Wanting to get it over with, Red roughly kicked off her boots and pulled off her pants, tossing her white panties beside them on the floor.
Vulpes looked her up and down appreciatively; if he really were a wolf, he'd have been licking his lips. Red realized she was still wearing her hat, the red one Boone had let her keep. She could have been hiding a chip under that, but Vulpes seemed entirely uninterested.
"Come here, dear. Join me on the bed."
Red didn't think she could make it three steps without falling down, but she somehow managed it. The bed was indeed as soft as she'd imagined, but she wouldn't have noticed if it had been hard as a rock. Still pointing his gun at her, Vulpes ran a hand over her bare thigh.
"Are you afraid of me? Afraid I'll kill you after you tell me what I want to know?"
Ever so gently, Vulpes pushed her back down to the mattress, situating himself so he was straddling her.
"You shouldn't be afraid. I have no intention of...wasting such valuable material."
Vulpes leaned down and kissed her neck, softly, as if he was a schoolboy rather than a wolf. Red closed her eyes and let out a whimper, preparing herself for what she could tell was about to come.
Vulpes was interrupted, however, by the blaring of an alarm.
"I should have known that woman's devices wouldn't keep the security down forever," he growled. He didn't sound so gentle when he was angry, but that was almost a relief. "You'll be going for a trip with me, now. We'll see what Caesar wants done with you, or whether he cares what I do."
Red tried to stand up, but he pushed her back down again.
"No need for you to try to move. You'll be travelling like Cleopatra."
He tossed something over her, a carpet or a blanket perhaps. Red just had time to realize it was a wolf pelt when she felt his hands through it, pressing on her neck and making the world go black.