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“You hungry?”
“I don’t want any more of your jellies.” I looked away from him and his blown pupils to the new teddy bear, which was actually an elephant with a pink bow on its head, and looked nothing at all like my childhood comforter.
“I meant these.” He pulled a bag of potato chips from his pocket, and my mouth watered as he popped the bag open, releasing a salty scent into the air.
I licked my lips, still tasting something salty there, too.
The door was still off the wall but propped in place, leaning into its hinges, preventing Cedric from seeing in if he was lurking out there as I accepted the bag, devouring the first chip.
“I’ll get you some water.”
He returned from the bathroom with the glass that lived there, full to the top. I sipped from the rim, not wanting anything else spilled on my sheets.
I trembled in my towel. Remi took my drink from me, placing it on the table near the note I hadn’t responded to. Two roses, one yellow, one red, sat at the side.
“You were here last night?” another chip dissolved on my tongue.
“I was.”
“You brought me back here. Why? I was almost free.”
“He was chasing you with a shotgun, and you have a tracking device in your neck. You were nowhere near free. Besides, where would you go? They’d find you.”
“To the police!”
“You’re at least ten miles from the nearest station, and there are shady bastards in every town. You’d never make it.”
“But—”
“But...you’re safe here, for the time being. Your master is relatively mild compared to what I’ve heard of others. You got lucky.”
“Lucky!” I batted his hand away as it stroked my bare thigh. “I got sold on what I thought was the most special night of my life! I got parts of me violated that I never wanted touched! Gang raped by monsters who were preparing me for my future. They beat me until I bruised because I fought to keep the right to my own body. I wouldn’t call that lucky.” I had more to say, but I stopped talking. My voice, altered by sadness and tears, wasn’t showing my strength and determination.
I pushed the chips away, no longer hungry.
“Get out,” I mouthed silently, closing my eyes so I would not have to watch him leave me behind again.
“I’m not going anywhere. I paid ten thousand dollars to see you tonight.”
“You did what? Are you on dru—” I stopped myself. “You gave Cedric ten thousand dollars to see me? Why? For sex?”
“We never finished what we started. I want you.”
“Then buy me. You have enough money. And take me away from here.”
He didn’t say anything, staring at me with contemplating eyes.
“Would you lose your career? Is that it?”
He nodded.
“Better than your whole life, right?”
“It is my whole life, Cat.”
What was I even supposed to say to that. He was putting a job on the same level as my existence.
“If you touch me tonight, that’s rape. I’ll say it now. I’ll scream it later. I’m saying no.” My confidence to talk back to Remi was higher than it was with Cedric, and I couldn’t explain that. “And you might be able to keep it out of the papers, but you won’t keep it off your conscience.” I struggled with that word, always saying it slightly wrong.
