“Not so fast, little girl.”
Darr’s too quick. He slaps the knife out of my hand, and it clatters onto the cobblestones, where another man grabs it. I have no idea who he is, and he disappears into the marketplace before I can see his face.
I feel another knife against my leg. It presses against my flesh, and I know Darr’s has found my artery. He’s a cunning bastard, and I know one flick of his wrist will sink that blade into my thigh and have me bleeding out within seconds.
I freeze – raising my eyes to meet his.
How did he find me? Why is he here?
Darr growls at me. He’s sweating, his eyes wild.
As I sat frozen on the chair, Darr sinks into a seat across from me. Now, we’re both sitting on the thin chairs of an outdoor terrace, next to the market stalls.
He finally lets go of my wrist, but the knife he holds in his other hand is still pressed against my thigh, and I don’t dare move an inch for fear of what he could do to me.
I stare into the beast-like man’s beady eyes. His thick brows are drawn down into an angry ‘v’ shape, and sweat dribbles down the crevices of his furrowed brow and drip down his thick neck.
“Well, well, well,” Darr growls. “What do we have here? A little bird, trying to fly out of her cage and into the big, bad world?”
I gasp, as I feel that knife press against my thigh.
“That little bird seems to have forgotten that the cage keeps her safe. There are bad things out there, birdie – bad things.”
I haven’t forgotten. In fact, I’m sitting across from the worst of them.
Darr sits there dressed in a linen suit, but even in the fine clothes he doesn’t quite blend into the casual elegance of the Sector 2 merchants and businessmen. He’s too big, and burly. The stench of brutish violence hangs off him like bad cologne.
A red-cloaked guard seems to sense that Darr doesn’t belong here, and turns to look at our interaction suspiciously. I know don’t look like I belong either, in my scuffed, patched, long sleeve shirt and pants.
The guard approaches.
“Is everything okay here?”
The knife presses harder against my artery. Darr stares into my eyes, silently warning me not to try anything. I’m too terrified to defy him.
“Everything’s fine, officer,” I say, lifting my eyes to the Officer of the Royal Guard. My voice is level. You can hardly hear it crack in fear. My life depends on it, I know – because if Darr thinks I’m trying to subtlety convey that I’m in danger, he won’t hesitate to plunge that life into my thigh, and in the chaos that follows, he’ll make his escape – leaving the Royal Guard dealing with a mortally-wounded thief spurting her life blood across the cobblestones.
I’ve seen Darr kill a man before, so I know he won’t hesitate. He got into a brawl with a man once – a cocky bastard who was new to town and didn’t know who you could fuck with and who you had to avoid. Darr was definitely the latter, and by the time this new arrival and realized he’d fucked with the wrong man, it was too late.
Darr knocked him out, and instead of letting the poor bastard learn his lesson, waking up with a bruised jaw and an aching head…
…Darr had calmly walked to the comatose man, pulled his knife out, and slit the poor son of a bitch’s throat.
The man woke from the sharp pain, but by then it was too late. His last sight was watching his blood soaking the dirt beneath him.
I’ll never forget the blank horror in that man’s eyes as his blood flooded the sand, soaking into the grit and dirt as if the sand was sucking up his lifeforce.
So, I know he can do it – and if Darr flicks his wrist, I’ll experience the same fate. I’ll have just seconds before my lifeblood escapes my body and spills across the cobblestones.
The guard stars at us, still suspicious. He doesn’t focus on me. He’s looking at Darr, and though his instincts seem to tell him something’s off, to his eyes we are just two people enjoying the marketplace.
“Very well. Enjoy the day.”
A moment later, he’s walking away. I take a gasp of air. I’m still alive. I’m still breathing.
For now.
Darr leans in closer, never relinquishing the pressure of that knife against my thigh.
“You think I’m a fucking fool?” Darr growls. “You think I don’t know about your little stash of riches under your floorboard?” He snorts contemptuously. “You should have been like the other thieves, Mia. They spend their money. They’re always eager for new jobs because they blow their money on liquor, and drugs, and whores. Spend more, earn more – that’s the way to live.”
He shakes his head.
“But not you. Not oh-so-fucking-smart Mia, right? You just kept squirreling your money away, like a womp hiding it’s cactus meat.”
“I… I have it all on me, Darr. You can have it – all of it. Every last credit.”
His lips curl back, and I realize that was the wrong thing to say. It only makes him angrier.
“I don’t want your money, Mia. I want what I’m owed.”
He snarls: “I made you, you ungrateful little bitch. I took you from a street urchin and I built you into the fucking magnificence you are – the best fucking thief on this planet. You stole from Aurelians, Mia! Fucking Aurelians! No one has dared to do that before! Even I was too fucking scared to, until I met you.”
His eyes flash.
“Don’t you see that this is just the beginning? Don’t you know why I invested so much time into you, you little brat?”
I shake my head slowly. “Darr, I don’t want to do this anymore.”
“You don’t get to decide! I’m taking you back, you little bitch. Then, I’m putting a fucking implant collar around your fucking neck. If you
