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I forced another step, gritting my teeth until my jaw ached. I reached for the door and pulled down the handle. It rattled, but the door stayed closed, even when I tugged it harder.
“No.” The tiny word slipped out with a painful breath. I tried again, pushing all my depleting strength down on it, refusing to believe we were trapped here.
Fear had a dark cape wrapped around me like a blanket, but it didn’t keep me warm. The dark cape evolved into the shadow of a monster, and I watched it stretch, a claw reaching into the air.
I turned to see it settle on Remi’s shoulder. He didn’t flinch. But I didn’t want the man’s dirty touch on him, staining his clean T-shirt.
I pulled Remi close. “Just let us go,” I begged. “Please…”
Gold teeth flashed again. “Ma chérié…” His accent dwelled thickly in the air. He was French. French, and yet there was nothing romantic or beautiful about him. “That isn’t how this will work.”
The smile on his face grew, making him look like a nightmare brought to life, and his eyes narrowed as his round cheeks pushed them into a squint.
“I’ll say it again. You can go, Remington.” Gold Teeth rubbed his eye, exasperated by what he thought was some kind of unamusing charade. He flicked the goop on his fingertip to the ground, and the vomit swirling in my stomach almost followed it. “I do not believe it’s necessary to have you removed. I’m sure we can come to some kind of arrangement without Alerion getting involved?”
The monster with gold teeth pulled a bag from his inside pocket. The clear plastic allowed me to see grams of white powder inside. He waved it in front of Remi’s face, taunting the addict.
I knew now he didn’t take drugs to release pre-show nerves. He was dependent. I could see it in his dilated pupils as his gaze followed the bag moving in front of his face.
“Am I right?”
“Don’t,” I pleaded, shaking my head. I tucked into Remi, my fingers on his face, trying to invade his gaze. “Don’t leave me here. I’m worth more than a bag of that stuff. I promise. Please, I’m begging you.”
But he couldn’t even hear me, too focused on what was in the bag.
“You know it’s yours if you leave your little friend here.”
Remi visually swallowed, and he pulled his hand from mine. He stepped around me and reached for the bag, but the creep holding it removed it from his reach. He positioned himself between us, and I moved farther away, slinking against the wall I needed to hold me up.
“One question…is she still a virgin?”
How did Gold Teeth know? Daniel. Awful Daniel, who had Rhylie.
Remi didn’t look at me, but he talked. “She is. You can’t count what we did as losing her virginity.”
“Good. Alerion will be pleased. Here’s your compensation. Take a line and go whack one out in your trailer.” I didn’t know what Gold Teeth meant by whack one out, but his next words pushed through the confusion. “Wouldn’t want your blue balls to bring you back here and interrupt. I can see this one has quite the hold on you.”
“No hold.” A shrug followed Remi’s words, proving them to be true.
My heart fell to the floor, thrown away with the eye goop.
He pulled a candy from the bag wedged in his pocket and took it to his mouth. It was one of those bland-tasting rice powder things. His tongue came out, but he paused before placing down the candy. I stared at the cartoon bunny stamped on the top. He placed it on his tongue and moved to me. Two fingers tipped my chin, and he bent to kiss me, his tongue managing to force its way inside my mouth as I fought against him.
I broke away, and a loud slap echoed through the hall, assaulting my ear drums. A pink handprint stained Remi’s cheek, and I didn’t feel guilty for delivering it. He didn’t look at me for a moment, keeping his head twisted.
A clapping came from down the hall as another person approached us—a man, no, a boy, around my age. He smelled better, presented himself better, in his fancy blue suit, which was probably designer, and he was too good-looking to be Gold Teeth’s son.
Blue Suit whistled, and it pierced through my ear drums.
Everything felt too loud. My head pounded, and my heart raced, hurting again. All the sounds in the room collided into one loud noise, and when Remi’s lips moved in front of my eyes, I had to squint to see his words, and they weren’t colorful. They were dark and sinister.
“Apologies. But I told you they help with the nerves.”
They help with the nerves? What the hell did that mean? What had he put in my mouth?
A drug.
But that realization hit too late.
