“So, one day he comes to me, unable to pay one of his bad bets, and instead has to give me something else. A gift, you might call it. You. He brought you along in your shiny new pod. I didn’t want you. I didn’t have a need for you. But he made me see the upside. You could cook and clean for me, be my comfort woman. I never found you attractive. Far too skinny. But one day, when the bar threw me out early, I came home and realized maybe, in the right light, you weren’t as hideous as I thought.”
That was the day I escaped. When I bashed him over the head and chained him to his wall. But I was still reeling from his earlier revelation.
I was payment for a bad debt? That sure made a girl feel special.
I wondered how I’d ended up in his possession. He was not rich and I didn’t think buying an abducted woman could be cheap. He had no money, so it was always a bit of a mystery.
Sometimes mysteries are better than answers.
I put it out of my mind. It didn’t matter anymore. I no longer belonged to him and I never would. My heart, soul, and body belonged to Traes, and always would.
I dropped another figurine. I needed to be careful and ensure to space them out. I had no idea where we were heading. Asshole hadn’t indicated how far we would be going. Maybe he had a shuttlecraft stored away somewhere. I doubt he’d brought his old truck. I didn’t think it was capable of interstellar travel.
I took a step forward and bumped into Asshole.
He glared down at me with his twisted pockmarked sneer.
“I think you dropped something,” he said.
My insides turned to water and my legs felt weak.
He viciously spun me around, yanked my clenched fists open, and dug the spy figurines out of my grip. He waved them under my nose.
“What’s this, huh?” he said. “A few toys to play with between your whore clients later?”
He hurled the figurines across the space, and with one smooth motion, backhanded me across the face, knocking me to the ground.
Cleb, incensed with rage, barreled into Asshole, head-butting him in the groin and kicking him in the shin.
No!
Asshole grabbed Cleb by the scruff of the neck and hoisted him off his feet. He brought him up so he stared at him nose to nose.
“Think you’re a big man, do you?” Asshole said with a growl.
Cleb kicked and flailed with his legs but he couldn’t connect with Asshole, who screwed up his fist and would beat Cleb if I didn’t do something. He might even accidentally kill him.
Still a little groggy from his blow, I tasted a little fresh air around the gag and worked it free with my lips.
“Hurt him and you’ll never get your ransom!” I yelled.
Asshole glared. He kicked me in the gut.
I heaved and hurled over the ground.
Asshole peered closer at Cleb, who still had that angry look in his eye. He put him down on his feet.
“You’ve got heart, kid, I’ll give you that,” he said. “But you listen to me, little lord. If you make a fuss, if you make problems for me, I’m going to have to hurt your lady friend here. And you don’t want that do you?”
Cleb’s anger faded instantly. Asshole might have just poured water over a fire.
“There’s a good lad,” Asshole said. “This doesn’t need to be unpleasant. I’ll even let you have one of your toys.”
He held up the one remaining figurine in his hand. It was the main character, Captain Titan. Cleb looked at it with yearning. It wasn’t for the sake of the toy. It was because he wanted Captain Titan to rescue him, or to inhabit the role and become the great spy himself and save the day.
But he was just a little boy.
Asshole tucked it in his pocket.
“You’ll get it when we reach our destination,” he said. “Behave yourself and no one will get hurt.”
Asshole got to his feet and helped me onto mine. He would soon put the gag back in my mouth, so I needed to act fast to say something that might help.
“You don’t need to do this,” I said. “Traes has a lot of money. He’ll pay a lot for us. You don’t need to go one step further.”
“I know he’ll pay,” Asshole said. “But I need to get organized to make sure he doesn’t try to hamstring me.”
“This is between you and me,” I said. “Leave Cleb out of this.”
“Too late,” Asshole said. “You made him a part of this.”
He shoved the gag back in my mouth before I could bite back a response.
What hurt the most was I knew he was right.
Cleb struggled to catch his feet by the time we reached the tower. With my hands restrained behind my back, I couldn’t carry him, so it was left to Asshole.
He grumbled every step of the way and insisted to go to the very top of the tower. It gave good views over the surrounding area. But we had no food, no water, so I doubted we would be there for long.
I sat with my back to the wall. It felt cold, craggy, and damp but if it meant I could support and hold Cleb in my lap, so be it.
I wished there was some way I could escape, some way I could rise to the occasion, but with my hands tied behind my back and Cleb to think about, what could I do?
I had to wait for the right opportunity to present itself. In the end, it was Traes and Waev who held the advantage. They blew a hole in
