Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 101280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101280 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
“That’s not true!” I protested.
“Liar!” Ass-licks hissed and slapped me across the face, hard.
I gasped and put a hand to my mouth as the taste of blood from my split lip rolled across my tongue.
“Run quick and get this whore’s old clothes out of that bedroom,” Ass-licks commanded the chamber maid. “We don’t want to leave a single thing in the Baron’s residence that might remind him of her evil influence.”
“Oh, yes Sir. At once Sir!” The maid bobbed a curtsy and ran off.
She returned shortly with my old clothing bundled under her arm.
“Here we are,” she said and shoved the bundle at me quickly.
I took them reflexively just as the elevator dinged and the doors slid open.
“I’m not a witch,” I said desperately, spitting blood as Ass-licks shoved me into the small compartment. “And I don’t want to go! Baron Vik’tor would be really upset if he knew about this!”
“Shut your mouth, you little slut or I’ll shut it for you!” Ass-licks snarled as he pressed the button that closed the doors. “And you—go about your business,” he snapped at the maid. “Clean that room and get rid of any evidence of the whore!”
“Yes, Sir!” she said, just as the doors closed.
“There!” Ass-licks gave me a triumphant glare. “Now we’re getting you out of here and as far from the Baron as possible!”
“What are you talking about?” I demanded. “Just let me go back down to the Central Hub!”
“So close to where Baron Vik’tor lives? I don’t think so,” he snorted. “No you are going to move, whore. All the way to Gaz’snx!” he said, naming the next largest city on O’nagga Nine.
“What?” But that’s hours away, even if you can afford a ticket on a public tunnel crawler!” I protested. “It would be days of walking.”
“Exactly.” Ass-licks gave me a self-satisfied smirk. “Which means that even if you try to get back to the Central Hub, the Baron will have forgotten about you and gotten over you by the time you manage to get back. Although I very much doubt you will get back,” he added, his smirk growing into an ugly grin. “After all, what is your pimp going to think when I tell him that you’ve run off and you’re missing?”
“What?” I exclaimed. “But if you tell R’xs I’ve run away…”
I couldn’t finish the sentence. Horrible visions of Ger’tha and her ruined, raw-meat face filled my brain. If Ass-licks called R’xs and told him that I had run away from a job and was trying to go off on my own to a whole new city, the pimp would come after me and probably punish me in the worst possible way!
“You can’t tell him that!” I protested again, just as the elevator dinged.
“I can tell him whatever I want—do you understand that, you filthy whore? I control the narrative of your miserable life now,” Ass-licks snarled as he dragged me off the elevator. But we weren’t getting off at the Central Hub, I noticed. This was the second floor—the place where the walkway area led to the VIP parking cavern.
“Let me go!” I cried again, but he only grinned savagely as he tugged me along down the walkway leading to the cavern.
“I’ll let you go once I’ve gotten you safely to Gaz’snx! Now come on!”
He dragged me to the parking cavern towards a sleek yellow super-speed tunnel-crawler. He opened the passenger side door and shoved me roughly into the seat. Before I could try to escape, he pressed a button and a bunch of black straps criss-crossed my body, effectively trapping my arms at my sides as it secured me in place.
“Now!” he exclaimed, going around to the driver’s side and punching coordinates into the Auto-Drive unit. “Let’s get you to Gaz’snx. I’m fairly sure it’s a trip you’ll never forget…or recover from!”
He pressed the activate button and slammed the door behind him. The tunnel-crawler’s engine roared to life and it took off with sickening speed.
I was on my way to a distant city with no way to get back to the Central Hub or to Vik’tor. What was I going to do?
SIXTEEN
VIK’TOR
I sighed tiredly as I scrubbed a hand over my face. The negotiations with Zyr’nx, the Chief Officer of the Bros’ner Corporation, had taken fucking forever to settle. He was about a hundred solar years old and it was fucking difficult to explain things to him. But he was also the owner of the company and it was a business contact I couldn’t afford to lose.
A lot of people think I’m into some kind of organized crime, which isn’t true. I’ll be the first to admit that I take matters into my own hands at times and I’ve been known to give out some much needed retribution in the form of a fist to the face when the situation calls for it, but I’m not a fucking gangster. I’m an importer and exporter and the Bros’ner Corporation made a lot of the goods I exported, so I had to keep on their good side.